[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[3:00] OK. Can you say hi, Joanna?
[3:11] Hey, everybody.
[3:15] All right. Then you can just mute and...
[3:18] Yeah, we'll do.
[3:20] I can't see my phone when you're here, so maybe text gen or something if you want to say something.
[3:27] OK, we'll do. Thanks.
[3:29] Yep.
[3:59] OK.
[4:16] I'm just going to turn everybody on.
[4:19] Yes.
[4:21] That's you.
[4:23] I didn't ask you.
[4:25] You just do the electives first?
[4:31] I didn't have any, so just my regular whip.
[4:49] OK. We're going to get started.
[4:51] I'm going to call the meeting in order.
[4:53] Pledge of Allegiance.
[4:57] Pledge of Allegiance.
[5:14] I'm going to call roll.
[5:16] Councilwoman Misako.
[5:18] Here.
[5:19] Councilwoman Bolden.
[5:21] Here.
[5:23] Councilman Leaman.
[5:25] Here.
[5:26] Councilman Fabis.
[5:27] Here.
[5:28] Councilman Maggio.
[5:29] Here.
[5:30] I am also here.
[5:31] We have the Mayor and the Fire Chief and the Burner Manager and our Junior Councilperson, Ian Spoboswood.
[5:40] Welcome, everybody.
[5:42] We have registered comments from the public tonight.
[5:44] Yes, we do.
[5:46] of Marcy and Caleb Sturgis, wish to speak about air quality.
[5:55] I'll tell you, I grabbed one of those sheets ahead of time stillers.
[5:59] Five minutes, I'll give you one minute notice if you need it.
[6:04] I assume so, just have to say it.
[6:07] We are Caleb and Marcy Sturgis, 3253 Wayne Bell Avenue,
[6:11] and our comments are related to air quality.
[6:14] First, I just wanted to say we addressed you guys a few months ago
[6:17] about the ventilation noise for the Jean-Louis restaurant,
[6:20] and Ben, I wanted to thank you publicly.
[6:22] They built a plywood structure around it,
[6:25] and the noise is a lot less than it used to be.
[6:28] Now, granted, we still have ACs going and stuff,
[6:30] so we'll see what happens this fall,
[6:32] but I just wanted to publicly thank you for taking our concern seriously.
[6:36] I appreciate it.
[6:37] My pleasure now.
[6:38] What we want to do is talk about air quality right now.
[6:41] I think everybody here knows that Allegheny County
[6:44] has some of the poorest air quality in the nation, actually.
[6:48] One of the things that I've noticed in and around Dormont in the past few years
[6:53] is how many fire pits are in people's backyards.
[6:57] It's fun, it's relaxing,
[6:59] it's not when you have houses that are as close together as we do here in Dormont.
[7:04] When you burn firewood,
[7:06] Allegheny County stipulates that you can only burn dry, seasoned firewood.
[7:11] There are people that are burning greenwood and wetwood and plywood.
[7:17] We actually had a neighbor through the alley
[7:20] that they were burning old paper files in their fire pit.
[7:25] There's a bunch of neighbors out.
[7:27] We thought some of these houses was on fire.
[7:29] This was just a few weeks ago.
[7:31] I mean, I see fire pits all over the place
[7:34] that are feet away from property lines,
[7:36] which is completely against code.
[7:38] I see people burning all sorts of things
[7:40] that they shouldn't be burning, Matt.
[7:42] You probably get a bunch of calls about this.
[7:44] I really don't see anybody regulating this.
[7:46] I don't see anybody enforcing this.
[7:49] We have these older houses that don't have central AC.
[7:53] You can't open your windows when you have people at the fire pit.
[7:56] It's not like the smoke stays in property lines.
[7:59] You know, with the elderly, with children,
[8:02] people with respiratory issues,
[8:04] everybody is affected by these fire pits.
[8:08] I am actually one of the people with respiratory issues myself.
[8:11] I'm an asthmatic, and it's not just the smoke.
[8:16] It's the particulates that you get from these things.
[8:18] The way the houses are built in this area,
[8:20] they're still meant to breathe.
[8:22] They were some of the definitely early age construction.
[8:26] It doesn't matter where you are.
[8:29] The materials definitely get inside your house.
[8:33] Some of the issues that we keep on coming back to
[8:36] is just air pollution in general,
[8:39] that we have failing grades across the board
[8:43] inside the county for our air pollution and air quality.
[8:47] The main thing that we keep on to deal with
[8:51] is the smoke coming across property lines.
[8:54] Most people inside this borough
[8:57] are on a tenth of an acre or less.
[9:00] The topography of the area does not permit for smoke
[9:04] just to rise directly above the property.
[9:08] Any sort of a prevailing...
[9:10] Two minutes more.
[9:12] This smoke does not rise straight up
[9:14] as any sort of prevailing breeze
[9:16] will cause it to definitely just drift
[9:18] in other people's properties or windows
[9:20] on a nice night like tonight.
[9:22] We're literally just waiting for somebody
[9:24] to start burning something and to fill a browse.
[9:27] Just so you know, the clearance that you have to have
[9:30] from the outside of a fire pit
[9:32] is 15 feet to any structure, any property line,
[9:35] or any public access way, including roads, streets,
[9:39] sidewalks, and alleys.
[9:41] Any lot that is under 35 feet wide
[9:43] does not meet this clearance.
[9:45] You are literally...
[9:47] In order to enforce this, which you have to do,
[9:50] you're going to have neighbors
[9:52] on fire pit and we can't.
[9:54] My suggestion would be to do
[9:56] what the City of Ambridge has done.
[9:58] They have houses very similar to ours
[10:00] without the topography, however,
[10:02] and they had a complete ban of fire pits
[10:04] within their city limits.
[10:06] Everybody's happy, their air quality's better,
[10:08] and it's a lot safer of an environment.
[10:11] Thanks for listening.
[10:13] Thank you.
[10:15] It's a health issue, it's a nuisance,
[10:17] but it's also a safety issue.
[10:19] The proximity to property lines,
[10:21] does permit sparks to go
[10:23] across other property lines
[10:25] and potentially create a fire word,
[10:27] which is going to be a lot more disastrous
[10:29] than just a normal nuisance.
[10:31] Good job.
[10:33] Thank you.
[10:35] Thank you.
[10:37] Any other registered comments?
[10:41] No further registered comments.
[10:43] Okay.
[10:51] Test, test.
[10:53] Is it working?
[10:55] Can you hear this okay?
[10:57] Okay.
[10:59] Sorry about that.
[11:01] Okay.
[11:03] Let's go over the consent agenda.
[11:05] We have a change order for motion A.
[11:09] Do you want to talk about that a little bit, Ben?
[11:11] Yes, so the change order
[11:13] for our road and construction alley project,
[11:17] the number looks much higher
[11:19] than what our actual number is.
[11:21] So while it's 152,483,
[11:25] this includes the sidewalk work
[11:27] that we are doing
[11:29] in conjunction with residents.
[11:31] So we've tested this
[11:33] on a smaller scale last year
[11:35] and expanded quite a bit this year.
[11:39] And I've spoken to Mr Favis' committee
[11:41] about this.
[11:43] A lot of people saw
[11:45] the program that Brentwood started
[11:47] to fix sidewalks
[11:49] throughout the community.
[11:51] We started in a
[11:55] less controversial way
[11:57] or a little easier way
[11:59] where where we had a construction zone
[12:01] that was going to be
[12:03] happening for the year,
[12:05] code enforcement staff
[12:07] went through and assessed all the sidewalks
[12:09] in that area.
[12:11] And then we provided notice
[12:13] to those residents
[12:15] with the contract price
[12:17] that we had through our contractor
[12:19] saying we can replace
[12:21] all of your bad sidewalk
[12:23] at this price.
[12:25] You're going to have to replace it one way or another.
[12:27] This is the best time to do it
[12:29] because we can get you a much better rate.
[12:31] And a lot of people jumped on board with that.
[12:33] But then we took it
[12:35] a step further and we sent letters
[12:37] to everyone else in that area
[12:39] whether even if their sidewalks were not
[12:41] bad enough to require
[12:43] code enforcement action.
[12:45] And basically stated
[12:47] we know that it's not that bad.
[12:49] However, this is one of the best opportunities
[12:51] you will have to get nice new sidewalks
[12:53] put in at a decent price.
[12:55] And a lot of people took us up on that.
[12:57] One gentleman
[12:59] around Glenmore I think replaced like
[13:01] everything in front of his house as well as
[13:03] the sidewalk going up to the front door.
[13:05] Dr. Schneider is a property
[13:07] property place.
[13:09] The place everything along
[13:11] Glenmore.
[13:13] Great.
[13:15] So,
[13:17] and it's not just in this area.
[13:19] We also have this over on ordinance
[13:21] in a variety
[13:23] of places that we've been doing this
[13:25] kind of work.
[13:27] So a large section
[13:29] of this number is that and will be
[13:31] recouped from people paying
[13:33] their bills back to us.
[13:35] In general, we're
[13:37] trying to keep people to one year
[13:39] payments to pay back these.
[13:41] There are some cases though that we've talked about
[13:43] going as far as two years out
[13:45] just to help
[13:47] with some of the payments that people need to make.
[13:49] Trying to keep it as fair as possible
[13:51] while improving the borough.
[13:53] So
[13:55] that inflates our number for our change order
[13:57] because anything that is not in the
[13:59] actual contract, the original
[14:01] contract itself has to show up
[14:03] in that change order.
[14:05] The largest
[14:07] cycle piece to this is
[14:09] the
[14:11] expected work at the
[14:13] end of Dwight Avenue
[14:15] that I've been telling council about in my
[14:17] weekly reports.
[14:19] Once you get down
[14:21] to the end of Dwight which is
[14:23] scheduled for total reconstruction
[14:25] there is nothing
[14:27] to hold the road up
[14:29] and water is running
[14:31] off of our roadway down the hill
[14:33] which was not a problem before
[14:35] under normal rains
[14:37] but with the
[14:39] changes to the types of weather
[14:41] and with the severe weather that we keep getting
[14:43] it has become an issue
[14:45] such that there is a lot more water
[14:47] which is starting to cause erosion
[14:49] at the end of the roadway and we have to be able to support the road
[14:51] and take care of that water.
[14:53] So
[14:55] we've worked with
[14:57] the construction company to create a plan
[14:59] to put in
[15:00] And a catch basin at the end and then create a channel system that will take the water down
[15:06] to the creek that it ends up in. But that project alone will cost around $60,000, but it is really
[15:14] a necessity at this point. I said this was not an issue before, but this year has really
[15:20] shown us some extreme weather more frequently than what we have had in the past. Hence,
[15:27] the amount of the change order for that project. Any questions? Other questions on that item?
[15:38] The next item, which I just had received that morning, the morning that I put this together
[15:46] so I did not have an opportunity to retype the state's contract, but this is a five-year
[15:55] agreement that we put together with PennDOT. This is for the winter maintenance along West
[16:04] Liberty Avenue and McFarland. The borough does the winter maintenance and PennDOT compensates
[16:11] us for the work that we do. They do an annual calculation. Our roads, I believe, are what
[16:18] they consider Class B, which, I think, pays out $1938 per mile, something along those lines.
[16:35] So it's not a huge amount of money that this brings in for it, but PennDOT does compensate
[16:42] us for the work that we do plowing, insulting those areas. However, our agreement has
[16:48] expired, so this is to renew with another five-year agreement.
[16:52] Is this $1938 per episode or per season? No, no, no, per season.
[16:58] Okay. Is that this is not? It's not a lot of money, but it's this or we wait for
[17:09] PennDOT to show up to clear. Right, and it's our street anyway, so even if it
[17:14] wasn't a state road, we'd be clearing it. So this is... It's nice to get something.
[17:20] Yeah, great. Okay, fair enough. That makes a lot of sense.
[17:26] Hey, Ben. Well, can I interrupt? Joanna said the video is not working on the
[17:31] broadcast. Just FYI. I don't know if there's anything. Can you see if the camera's on?
[17:36] Is the light on? Oh, it's not on.
[17:44] You can go look at my computer. It should still be up, but...
[17:47] Just wanted to let you know in case you were concerned. Thank you.
[17:51] Okay, moving on to action items. That's public comment time.
[17:56] Does anybody have public comment on the consent agenda motions?
[18:01] Okay, action items. So under the action items, we have a motion to approve a memorandum of
[18:09] understanding with the Dormant Police Association for the promotion of Clark
[18:12] Wataki to Sergeant. We have discussed this item in the past or at the point that
[18:19] we need to approve this. So what we have talked about is that we have...
[18:31] Don't worry. Two sergeants who could go anytime they want at this point.
[18:41] And we have an existing promotional list. However, there's no guarantee that one of
[18:49] them will leave before that list expires. So rather than having to go through the entire
[18:56] testing process all over again, the union has worked with us and what we'd like to do
[19:04] is promote Clark Wataki to Sergeant now with the understanding that he will still be paid
[19:11] at his patrolman's rate while he continues to work in that role. However,
[19:19] as soon as one of those retirements happen, we will have somebody already
[19:22] to fill in to that position without the needs to wait to go through the entire retesting process,
[19:29] which is that we've experienced can take some time. Especially for these promotional exams,
[19:36] they have to be given several months just of study time before you can even test.
[19:46] Mr. Rushford has reviewed the agreement. The union is in favor of this
[19:51] Chief Physignani and I are both in favor of this as well.
[19:58] When are the dates for the two sergeants who are retiring?
[20:00] What are the like the very last dates that they can go to?
[20:05] Who are they?
[20:06] Officer Zewisha has 17 months left. So whatever 17 months today is.
[20:11] And Officer Kelly has 22 months, 21 months.
[20:16] Okay, but they could go at any time.
[20:18] Those are, well Kelly is a separate issue. Sergeant Briglia is the other one who is not
[20:25] in the drop plan, but he does not have to enter it. I believe he's eligible this year.
[20:31] Oh, to ask you what time he is, but he's eligible, yes.
[20:37] His plans are more up in the air still. He could go at any time, but
[20:44] the drop plan means they have to go by that certain date,
[20:50] but they can leave before then if they want to.
[20:54] So if the right position were to come up elsewhere,
[20:58] they could give us a couple of weeks notice and be gone.
[21:03] Okay, thank you.
[21:07] Okay, any other questions from Council?
[21:11] Okay, public comment?
[21:14] Okay, do we have any discussion items?
[21:23] Anybody?
[21:26] We'll use time to announce our
[21:33] budget meetings. Let me give you one second to get the right format here.
[21:37] So the first budget meeting will be held on September 24th at 6 p.m.
[21:46] here in Council Chambers. We will follow the same basic format for the meetings that we did last
[21:52] year, so that is essentially pitch night. The department heads will come in for the meeting
[22:00] to discuss any requests that they have for their departments.
[22:10] We can go over any of those issues. You should have all of the information before then on the
[22:16] SharePoint site, but that night they will be here to answer questions and to go over their requests.
[22:25] And then I believe we are then at Tuesday the 22nd.
[22:31] What about Tuesday, October 1st?
[22:32] I'm sorry.
[22:34] The 24th. What time is that again?
[22:37] 6 p.m.
[22:38] 6 p.m.
[22:38] Great.
[22:40] Yeah.
[22:42] Sorry, yes.
[22:42] And then
[22:43] yeah, Tuesday the 1st is the next session, so that's following last year's model will be when the
[22:56] primary decisions are made. And then we will meet again on the 22nd in order to just review
[23:08] after everyone has had time to think about the decisions that they have made to see if they
[23:11] have second thoughts on anything.
[23:14] What's the third date?
[23:15] The 22nd.
[23:18] All meetings at 6 p.m. I will have food for each of those.
[23:29] With that I was, what's that?
[23:35] Six o'clock of course.
[23:37] Yeah, correct.
[23:40] And I was going to make the recommendation that we consider canceling the next agenda meeting
[23:49] rather than trying to meet two nights in a row for lengthy periods of time because
[23:55] you'll have September the 30th for the agenda meeting, then we would be right back on October
[24:00] 1st. It's another thing that we did last year. We canceled one of those agenda meetings
[24:06] because it was so close in with our budget schedule.
[24:10] So that would be the September 30th meeting.
[24:12] Yeah, that's just recommendation. We can still meet then if you want, but
[24:18] considering the extra load of the budget schedule, it's just an option.
[24:26] Hey Ben, I'm sorry if I missed something in one of your emails. I read the two proposals
[24:30] you sent for the zoning rewrite. Are we going to have a chance to talk about those
[24:34] before we would need to talk about them for the budget? It looks like we're going to skip
[24:39] an agenda meeting that would maybe be the time.
[24:42] Council is not the first review of the zoning proposals. That will go through the Planning
[24:50] Commission next, and the Planning Commission should be making a recommendation to the Council.
[24:57] However, I wanted to make sure that all of Council had that as early as possible.
[25:00] Sorry, I might have read it quickly and missed that. I'm sorry.
[25:03] No, I may not have had it in there because since I was off at the end of last week,
[25:08] I had to rush to get everything out on time. Dover Cole just got me their updated proposal
[25:16] that morning as well. Yeah, I saw that, yeah. Okay.
[25:22] Does anybody have an issue with canceling the September 30th agenda meeting?
[25:28] I say we go ahead and do it.
[25:30] I'm sorry, Danielle. I couldn't hear what you said.
[25:32] I was just asking if anybody has an issue with canceling the September 30th agenda meeting
[25:37] since we're having the October 1st budget meeting the next day.
[25:42] I'm cool.
[25:47] It's my anniversary, so I'll take that day.
[25:51] Okay, so we're going to cancel that meeting.
[25:53] That worked out well.
[25:55] Not because it's my anniversary, though.
[25:57] Yeah, I was unaware of the anniversary before the recommendation.
[26:02] I kept a lid on that just because I was waiting to see.
[26:07] Okay, so we have all the budget meetings. Any other discussion items at this point?
[26:15] Okay.
[26:18] Ian, do you have anything that you'd like to say today?
[26:20] Well, I'll go back to school.
[26:24] Oh, yeah, Danielle. I'm going to start at school again today.
[26:27] Start here.
[26:28] Hit your button.
[26:28] No, he was on.