Residents nearly excluded from Allentown’s first 2024 budget review meetings

• Allentown City Council on Wednesday held its first meetings about the mayor's proposed 2024 budget
• Council members heard from city officials for more than an hour before eventually opening the floor to residents in the room
• Council President Daryl Hendricks said residents will only get an opportunity to speak on the budget proposal on Nov. 4 — a Saturday morning when the council plans to pass the budget

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown City Council started its review of Mayor Matt Tuerk’s 2024 budget proposal Wednesday and nearly kept residents out of the process.

Officials from Tuerk’s administration spoke for more than an hour about their budget requests across three committee meetings. Council members did not ask for any input from residents during the first two meetings.

Council member Ce-Ce Gerlach, who chaired the second meeting, said she was not allowed to ask residents to speak on the budget proposal.

“For anybody that did show up to speak, the way they want this thing to roll is no public comment,” Gerlach said.

Chairing the final committee meeting of the night, council member Cynthia Mota acknowledged residents who showed up in support of two proposed projects by Ripple Community Incorporated and Community Action Lehigh Valley.

But she said they would not be allowed to speak until the council meets at 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4 to pass the budget.

“It’s sad to say, but (residents) are not allowed to speak at this point,” Mota said.

'Who notified these people to come in?'

Several members later indicated rules on public comment are set by “council leadership.”

Council President Daryl Hendricks denied he set those rules, saying the council typically only asks for residents’ input before voting on a measure. Wednesday night’s meeting was “strictly a meeting between council members and department heads,” he said.

“They’re certainly allowed to come into any of our meetings, but it wasn’t set up; it wasn’t advertised to have comments taken,” Hendricks said.

Member Candida Affa seemed somewhat bemused that any residents showed up to the council’s first meeting on the mayor’s $229 million budget proposal for next year.

“Who notified these people to come in?” Affa said. “I’m wondering why they were invited here. Obviously somewhere, somehow, somebody invited them to come in here, not knowing that this was just a budget review.”

Gerlach later offered a motion, which Hendricks seconded, to allow advocates for Ripple and CALV to speak Wednesday night.

“We’re here (now),” Gerlach said. “I don’t feel comfortable asking people to come in at 9 a.m. on a Saturday, and then we have to immediately make a decision that same day … that seems ridiculous.”

Ripple Executive Director Sherri Binder urged council members to use $1.5 million of the city’s remaining pandemic-relief funds to support its project to convert Emmanuel United Church of Christ into a dozen “deeply affordable” apartments.

CALV’s executive director, Dawn Godshall, asked the board to also financially support her organization’s plans to demolish the former Cleveland School at 424 N. Ninth St. and turn it into a $20 million youth center.

Residents can speak at Saturday morning meeting: President

Hendricks said after the meeting that residents were allowed to speak when the budget was introduced to the council two weeks ago.

They will also get time when the council looks to pass the budget on a Saturday morning next month, he said.

Hendricks’ comments appear to indicate residents will again be blocked from speaking at the council’s budget meetings Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

It’s unclear whether council members would again break from the rules to open the floor to residents during those meetings.

The meeting schedule projects council will pass the 2024 budget at its meeting on Nov. 4, which starts at 9 a.m. It was the mayor's idea to try to pass the budget on a Saturday morning, according to City Council Clerk Mike Hanlon.