435 Hamilton Street

Allentown, Pa. 18101

Allentown

Minutes - Final

City Council

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

5:45 PM

Council Chambers

Special Meeting to Appoint a Human Resource Director

Roll Call

7 -

Present:

Cynthia Mota, Daryl Hendricks, Ed Zucal, Natalie Santos, Ce-Ce Gerlach, Candida

Affa, and Santo Napoli

15-7462

R 5

HR Director Appointment - Marty Velazquez

Affa, Hendricks, Mota, Napoli and Santos

Sponsors:

Attachments: R5 HR Director Appointment

General HR Charter and Code Provisions.docx

Marty Velazquez Resume.pdf

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated thank you and at this time he is going to turn it

over to the mayor.

Mr. Michael Hanlon asked should he read Resolution R5 for the record.

Mayor Matt Tuerk stated yes, that will be awesome, thank you.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks thanked Mike and stated now.

Mayor Matt Tuerk stated yes, thank you Council President Hendricks and

all members of City Council for holding this Confirmation Hearing tonight.

He stated that he will be brief. He is just beyond thrived to present Martin

Velazquez as Marty Velazquez as his nominee for Director of Human

Resources for the City of Allentown. He stated that he thinks some of them

had an opportunity to meet Marty, some of you know Marty from his 12

years of distinguished service on this very City Council. The dais didn't

look exactly like that when you were serving, but he has demonstrated over

these 12 years deep commitment to the city of Allentown and its people.

While he served on City Council, he was at the same time building an

extensive career at Wells Fargo where he developed extensive experience

in Human Resources Management and very important, organizational

leadership and Marty is bringing that incredible combination of the private

sector HR experience and intimate knowledge of our city government to

this work. He understands Allentown's challenges and the opportunities

and he combines that understanding with a professional background in

Human Resources making him, in his opinion ideally suited to lead the HR

department at the city of Allentown at this critical time. He stated that his

leadership skills and professional experience and strong dedication to the

city of Allentown will help them building a stronger and more affective

workforce that ultimately serves or community. He stated that he

respectfully request Council's support for his confirmation and will turn it

over to Marty for remarks he would like to make before you will ask him

some questions.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks thanked the mayor and stated good evening Mr.

Velazquez. He stated welcome.

Mr. Marty Velazquez stated that he is a sound tech and he didn't know to

turn it on. He stated good evening Council President, members of Council

and stated that it is actually kind of strange to be here because it looks so

different, but there are some similarities. He stated he just wanted to share

a brief summary of the background in general. He stated if they have any

questions he will be happy to answer them. He spent 42 years, beginning

with First National Bank of Allentown as an employer interviewer. He has

extensive background and experience in employment. That includes from

recruiting, to change management, to training and development, all the way

through doing investigations in employee relations. Employee relations

may mean different things to different people, but employee relations in the

world that he comes from involves looking into all kinds of things. He has

done Title Seven Investigations. He investigated complaints from all kinds

of allegations. Making recommendations that responded to Pennsylvania

Human Relations Charges. He had to do position papers supporting the

banks position. On most particular situations, he represented the bank at

various hearings and the like. After he left Council, he went into

management. He managed the team doing very similar things including

and he didn't mention the fact that he also supported managers in tough

decisions on how to handle performance issues. Concerns that they are

having Conflict Resolution between individuals and try to get people to play

well together and maybe you could say and had hands on with those things.

His management included any number of ER Consultants doing very

similar things. Ensuring that we did things the right way. Some of the

fundamental things that they will get when they were considering those

kinds of cases are: what does policy say? what does the law say with

respect to the policy and the issue that has been brought to their attention?

What kind of risk could there be associated with that? Fact finding

associated with looking into those cases and supporting decisions that

made sense while mitigating risks for the organization and even

employees. He stated that he feels like he had quite an extensive

experience doing those kinds of things. He stated that on a personal note

that he really feels that and some of them know he is a man of faith and he

feels that God put him in a position like that so he could do the right thing

for people. He can be in a position that he can ensure that the issues were

handled in a fair an equitable way so the outcome was the best overall not

only for the organization, but also the employee. He stated there are lots of

other things he has accomplished. He was the Affirmative Action and EEO

Officer. He stated that he had to reply to audits. He had two successful

audits during his time. He stated that he is very strong and a big believer in

analytics. He think they should have the data. Data helps them determine

what they are seeing, what's going on and then also making sure they

communicate to leadership with changes need to happen. We need to

understand what we are seeing that is going on in those areas. He is also

a big supporter and done a lot of training: sexual harassment,

discrimination. The whole gamut of training to ensure they do he right thing

in situations. He is a big supporter of making sure that employees know

what he expected of them so that they can move in the right direction that

managers also know and supported properly with training as well. At the

same time he was considering running for for City Council, he was on the

Human Relations Commission in the city of Allentown at the time that he

decided to run, he was actually the Chair of that Commission. He was

involved in a number of diversity related groups like the NCBI (National

Coalition Building Institute) that Phyllis Alexander introduced them to way

back then and got involved with training there. He stated that they

supported Latinos in the community and especially and he doesn't know if

he can say, but, they actually helped ensure that they were educated around

electoral process, had access to and actually registered and helped folks

who couldn't make it to the polls and got them to the polls. He stated again,

a number of other thing that he was involved in.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks thanked Mr. Velazquez and stated that at this time he

will open it up to anybody on the dais that has any questions or comments.

Mr. Ed Zucal stated that he will not be voting for him. He stated that he will

be recusing himself. He stated as you know he ran for mayor a long time

ago and stated that he worked the polls for him. He stated to be honest, he

is straight up when it comes to that stuff. He stated that at some point in

time he would like to have a nice conversation with him.

Mr. Marty Velazquez stated he would love to and stated thank you.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks thanked Mr. Zucal and stated Ms. Affa.

Ms. Candida Affa stated that she remembers when he was on City Council.

She stated that he served with integrity and stated that she is thrilled to

have him on board as the HR Director. She stated God knows, the city

needs one. She stated please don't let us chase you away. She stated

congratulations, she hopes he makes it.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks stated Ms. Mota.

Dr. Cynthia Mota stated welcome and finally she got to meet him. She

would see his pictures on the 5th floor. She stated that always hear a lot of

positive things about him when he was serving here on City Council. She

stated especially she heard a lot of great things about you with Julio Guridy.

She stated to Mr. Velazquez that he is always mentioning you. She stated

thank you for being here because we really do need someone in HR.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks asked if there was anybody else.

Mayor Matt Tuerk stated if he could add to it. He stated before Council

votes, he wants to make sure that they understand that Mr. Velazquez will

be a key member of this administration, will have the responsibility for

delivering quite a few things that you all be looking for, including an

upgrade to our Personnel Manual that was last updated in 2009 and is a

matter of Ordinance so you will need to vote on that. He will be working to

complete extensions to our contracts for SEIU and for the FOP. Hugely

important issues for him and also be working to establish a culture here of

excellence. The culture will be driven by example and be driven by

activities. He stated that he is incredibly hopefully that they will support his

candidacy as our HR Director.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks thanked Mayor Tuerk. He stated that he would like to

add that Mr. Velazquez is like a breathe of fresh air coming into this

building. He stated that they have gone a long time without a Director. It is

a sorely needed position. He stated that he has known Mr. Velazquez for a

long time and in addition to your professional resume, he would say

probably the most important part of your life is his coaching career at Union

Terrace where he had the opportunity and the pleasure to coach with you. It

is nothing more important than helping our youth in developing them into the

adults they turn out to be today and tomorrow.

Mr. Marty Velazquez stated that you know he agrees and thanked Mr.

Hendricks.

Mr. Daryl Hendricks thanked Mr. Velazquez for his willingness to join them.

He sated that it is much appreciated. He stated that he will open it up to

the public. He asked if there are any comments from the public.

Mr. Nelson Quinones stated thank you for the opportunity. He stated that he

thinks that Marty Velazquez certainly is certainly is a great candidate as you

already know and certainly some of you had experience in speaking with

him at all. He stated that he grew up in this city in Allentown. He is the

Lehigh Mission District Dean for the Lutheran Church. He thinks that having

and welcoming back Mr. Velazquez certainly would emphasize the

welcoming of the city itself too. He stated that he certainly encourage a

positive vote for Mr. Velazquez. He stated actually he is being bias

because Mr. Velazquez hired him when he was a student as a bank teller

from Meridian Bank, but had great experiences with him. He wished him