Reading Council's Posted Minutes Record the Wrong Meeting

Reading City Council was scheduled on Oct. 12 to take a final vote on an ordinance tied to the $4.5 million a year the city moves from its sewer funds into its general fund, and to introduce the 2027 trash fee increase we previewed. The minutes the city posted for that meeting record neither.

The page is titled "Regular Council Meeting 10/12/26," and its opening lines fit that date: the header, a Hispanic Heritage Month honoree who appears only on the Oct. 12 agenda, and the solicitor's note that no executive sessions were held between Oct. 5 and Oct. 12. Everything after them matches the Sept. 28 agenda item for item: five consent items, two grant bills passed, five ordinances introduced, two resolutions adopted. Council approved the Sept. 14 minutes, as that agenda listed; the Oct. 12 agenda called for the Sept. 28 and Oct. 5 minutes. The page's "Download PDF" link opens a file named for Sept. 28, and the agendas page lists no separate Sept. 28 minutes.

The simplest reading is that the Sept. 28 minutes were posted under the Oct. 12 label with a new opening; minutes of the Oct. 12 meeting would not normally come before council for approval until Oct. 26, as the Oct. 12 agenda did for the Sept. 28 minutes. No Oct. 12 action appears in any posted minutes, so this story reads the posted record as the Sept. 28 meeting. The Oct. 12 meeting can be viewed on BCTV; we have not reviewed the recording.

The $4.5 million sewer transfer

The ordinance, Bill 82-2026 on the Oct. 12 agenda, was introduced Sept. 28 "to transfer $4.5M to the General Fund due to the Fourth Modification of the Consent Decree in January 2024." A consent decree is a settlement enforced by a court. The memo from Utilities Manager Deborah Hoag says that January 2024 agreement with the United States and the state Department of Environmental Protection raised the amount the city may move each year from the sewer fund to the general fund to $4.5 million from $3.0 million, "among other things." The memo does not say what else it requires.

The ordinance adds no money to the general fund. The $4.5 million was already in the 2026 budget; the ordinance shifts $1.5 million of it from the regional sewer fund to the retail (stormwater) sewer fund, which the memo says "should" pay that share. The net change is zero. Whether council passed it Oct. 12 is not in any posted record. The same gap covers the four other ordinances introduced Sept. 28, on one-way traffic on Eckert Street, parking on West Windsor Street, short-term spaces at 1007 and 401 Penn St., and a police pension repayment.

An outside firm will act as zoning officer

By consent, council authorized Hailstone Economic LLC, including Shannon Calluori and Matt Lubitz, to serve as an assistant zoning officer "effective immediately to assist with the delay in the issuance of zoning permits, notices of violation, and other duties" only a zoning officer may perform. Managing Director Jack Gombach's memo says the firm already holds a city planning contract, the zoning office is "at times" short-staffed, and the appointment costs nothing extra. It does not say how many permits are waiting.

Also approved Sept. 28

• Auditor: council accepted the retirement of elected City Auditor Maria Rodriguez, effective Sept. 21. The minutes number the resolution "134-20" and do not say how the post will be filled.
• 450 Penn Street: Resolution 137-2026 re-submits a state Main Street Matters request for $1,277,878 for phase two of construction at 450 Penn St., with a $638,939 general-fund match, replacing an Aug. 4 version at the funding office's request.
• Grants: Bill 78-2026, a $242,596 state grant for a pedestrian trail to the shopping center at 733 Lancaster Ave., and Bill 79-2026, $21,000 from the Fish and Boat Commission for trail work at Confluence Park, both passed 6-0. The Bill 78 roll call lists six names without Councilor Vanessa Campos; the Bill 79 roll call lists seven, including Campos, but totals six; and the attendance list at the top of the minutes includes her. The Sept. 28 committee summary says Campos was excused from that evening's meetings.
• Cornerstone at 6th and Chestnut: Resolution 138-2026, 6-0, grants Growing Lebanon a certificate of appropriateness, the historic-district sign-off, to demolish and rebuild at 201-225 S. 6th St., the former Berks Engineering Company site. Council itself heard the application Sept. 17 because the historic review board has no members. The owner intends affordable housing for seniors, according to council's findings.
• Tax forgiveness: Resolution 139-2026, 6-0, exonerates $14,408.05 in 2024 city property tax, penalties and interest for the Buddhist temple at 139 S. 5th St.

Memorial bricks at Pendora Park

Councilor Chris Miller read a letter signed by a list of residents and volunteers as "Concerned Mothers, Grieving Families, and Residents of the City of Reading." The writers say they have spent years on the Neighborhood Change Makers Healing Garden at Pendora Park, which honors victims of gun violence, and learned only afterward that another group was allowed to install permanent memorial bricks for four families with no public application or criteria. They ask how those families were chosen, for a chance for others to submit names, for a timeline on the delayed garden benches and signage, and for an open process for future memorials on city property. The minutes record no response.

What the posted minutes leave out

Besides the sewer ordinance and the trash fee, the Oct. 12 agenda listed the $972,500 ladder-truck payment to Glick Fire Equipment, the $86,755 heating-and-cooling contract at the Public Safety Building, a project the city's memo says is not expected to be completed in a timely manner, the $75,000 January Advisors violence-prevention contract, a police hiring ordinance, four board appointments, and a resolution extending for a year the "transitory" process that lets staff and council issue historic-district approvals while the review board sits vacant. The Reading Eagle reported Oct. 14 that council voted unanimously to extend that process for six months rather than a year. The posted minutes record none of it. If the trash fee was introduced as scheduled, its earliest final vote is Oct. 26. See our report on the draft 2027 budget.

What happens next

Council's event list shows budget-review sessions Oct. 19 and Oct. 21 at 5 p.m., the regular meeting Oct. 26 at 7 p.m., and a public hearing on the general fund and capital budgets Oct. 28 at 5 p.m. To comment Oct. 26, register with the City Clerk's office by 4 p.m. that day at 610-655-6205 or council@readingpa.gov, per the agenda.