435 Hamilton Street

Allentown, Pa. 18101

Allentown

Minutes - Final

Community and Economic Development Committee

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

5:30 PM

Council Chambers

Roll Call: Chair Mota, Napoli, Hendricks

15-7446

Bill 9

Amending the 2025 General Fund budget by transferring $150,000.00 from

the Health Bureau, Administration program to a new Health Bureau,

Unsheltered Coordination Services program to fund the Unsheltered

Services Coordinator position (11N), with a total annual salary of $68,987.

Attachments: Bill 9 Unsheltered Services Coordinator.doc

Unhoused_Services_Coordinator_Job_Description_FT.docx

Homeless Services Coordinator Job Description.pdf

Ordinance #16102.pdf

Dr. Cynthia Mota asked do they have the administration there to speak.

Mr. Michael Hanlon stated that they have the Health Director and the CD

Director.

Ms. Vicky Kistler stated yes, Ms. Mota we are here.

Dr. Cynthia Mota stated hi, Ms. Kistler.

Ms. Vicky Kistler stated that she brought Dave Synnamon with her today

stating that he has the job description that has been provided to Council.

This position was put in the 2025 Budget at the request of both the

administration and Council. She stated that they are both here to to answer

any questions you may have about the addition of this position.

Dr. Cynthia Mota asked if there were any comments from Council, from the

dais.

Mr. Santo Napoli stated yes, first, he wants to speak to and discussed this

briefly a couple or a month ago. He thinks it is a tremendous opportunity to

have someone in place that can help coordinate and really maximize the

resources that are out there for this community. He stated that currently,

what they learned and what he has learned is that it tends to be duplication,

missed opportunities and having someone that can help manage not just

what the city is doing, but also the nonprofits and everyone in the

community that is working towards the same goal. They will only again,

maximize their resources and hopefully maximize the results. He stated

that he thinks this is great and definitely in favor of it.

Dr. Cynthia Mota thanked Mr. Napoli and asked is there any other

comments from the dais.

Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach stated Dr. Mota I am not on the committee so she will

wait to see anyone else.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated no one else on the committee has any

comments.

Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach stated ok and said definitely great to see this position

get fleshed out and the job description is definitely an improvement from

last time so that whoever does get this position are clear and direct of what

they are to do. It is much more than an overhead versus like micro, in the

weeds with everything. She stated a couple of questions, on the

description, Letter D states that one of the duties and responsibilities is to

maintain a consensus of all unhoused persons. She asked would the

administration and/or whoever else be open to making a change or

acknowledging that some folks that are unhoused do not want to be on the

census nor should they be forced to encompass that so like maybe it could

say all unhoused who choose to participate in a census or whatever term

and then also for the person themselves who gets this job is impossible for

there to be a census of all unhoused. She stated maybe it could be the

majority. She stated that she just want to see feedback on that.

Ms. Vicky Kistler asked if she could respond to that and Dave can also add

in. She stated that she thinks the intent behind this was to work with those

programs that are tracking folks within their census, but obviously there is a

count that is done every year that is not a by name count, but that is a head

count. Certainly she can't imagine that they would encourage anyone to be

turned away from services because they wouldn't be named or be counted.

She asked Dave to add to that.

Mr. David Synnamon stated that he ha no problem doing those verbiage

changes. He stated that the intent behind that wording was once he

touched before making this job description he touched basis with

community partners. He stated that the data piece that was discussed

when it was approved by Council as well as talking to their community

partners is a huge deal, not so much is individual names, but getting more

data about what our unhoused population looks like. He stated that they

have the point in time count. There was another issue, but they have

people in this community that are unhoused or have unstable housing that

aren't collected in the total picture of what they should be looking at. He

stated when they want to argue for more funding, more programming for

this community, they need to make sure that they are capturing all these

individuals no matter if they are what you say are typically with someone

that is unhoused or other. A big part of that is their unhoused or

underhoused population in the school district. He stated that is the intent

behind that. He stated that he has no problem making those changes. He

stated that he noted them.

Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach stated ok, alright great. She stated that she thinks

even just saying instead of all, just majority. She stated that would account

for those who don't want to quite participate with the system. She stated

that the last time, there was a member of the community who was

concerned about the pay and she then at least one member of the

Commission of Homelessness also expressed that concern. She stated

that the pay this go around is less than the pay last time.

Ms. Vicky Kistler stated that the position last time was a totally different

position and that position was graded at an 9N. This position is more of a

working among agencies data collection, data analysis, networking. She

stated that so this is two grades above what the position was the last time.

This position was graded evenly with other managers in the city system

with similar responsibilities.

Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach stated ok. She stated that she guesses there are to

more things and said she believes that they are going to have to vote on

this tonight. She stated that it would be great, if in the future that members

of the Commission on Homelessness got to review the job description and

everything before it gets this far. She stated that she knows that the

chairperson did, but that doesn't always means that it gets disseminated

amongst the members. She stated for the future and is there a way to add

an element of lived experience as a factor in the hiring.

Ms. Vicky Kistler stated that she thinks that they have to run that by the

Human Resources Department. This job description was approved to

meet the qualifications and match that as approved by the Human

Resources. She stated that they can certainly ask that question if, they

could add that stating she doesn't know if lived experience could be

defined a number of ways. She stated that she would think that they would

need their input as to how they would measure that lived experience.

Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach stated yes, she was at a conference and wishes she

remembers the state, they essentially just said lived experience with

housing instability or being unhoused. She stated that they factored that in.

Ms. Vicky Kistler asked how do you verify that.

Ms. Ce Ce Gerlach stated that she doesn't know if you do, but she means it

is something that they put in. She stated that she guesses people can lie,

but people can lie about a lot of things. She stated that would be great

because far too often, the people that are making the decisions have never

actually experienced the situation that they making decisions about. She

stated that she thinks that's it. Thank you.

Dr. Cynthia Mota thanked Ms. Gerlach and asked anybody else from the

dais. She asked anybody from the public on this Bill.

Ms. Vicky Kistler stated that both she and Mr. Synnamon will be on Teams

if there are questions during the General Council Meeting regarding the

position.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated ok, thank you.

A motion was made by Santo Napoli, seconded by Cynthia Mota, that this Bill be

forwarded to the full Council Meeting.

3 - Cynthia Mota, Santo Napoli and Daryl Hendricks

Enactment No: 16102

Yes:

15-7410

R233

Denial of a Certificate of Appropriateness – 523.5 N 6th Street

Administration

Sponsors:

Attachments: R233 Denial - 523.5 N 6th St

FINAL Pre-Review 523.5 N 6th Street Facade Alterations

523.5 N 6th St-WITHDRAWN PHONE NOTICE

Adjournment: 5:41 PM