City of Scranton Council Responses | February 24, 2026

Council President Tom Schuster asked the following questions:

• Mr. Schuster thanked the administration for the response regarding Engine 10 in the attached February 17^th memo and respectfully asked when the grant process is closing and please advise the Council when the grant is awarded and received?
  • To date, the City has not been awarded a grant for the Engine 10 project. We will continue to look for opportunities to apply.
• Mr. Schuster asked if Pennoni Associates, Inc., city pave cut inspection company, may attend a future City Council caucus regarding the many pave cuts throughout the city?
  • The administration will reach out to Pennoni for availability.
• Regarding Item 5B on the evening meeting agenda, Councilman Schuster asked that the city project manager and administration coordinate and communicate with all affected residents in the project area.
  • The administration continues to communicate with residents in the project area.

Councilman Sean McAndrew asked the following:

• Regarding security at city hall, including door security, may the city administration advise if a safety security assessment was conducted previously for the building and, if not, may one be performed?
  • As part of our emergency preparedness, a confidential threat and hazard identification and risk assessment of City Hall was completed.
• Mr. McAndrew advised that he is now receiving his city emails from the Scranton School District after working with the city IT department. Mr. McAndrew asked if city had and continues to have any administrative access oversight or basic safeguards in place that would affect email directed to the council or city hall from certain entities?
  • Council is being provided with two documents related to oversight and other safeguards.
    • 2026-01-23 T19:22 – email received from SSD that tripped threat protocols. This blocks all mail to all scrantonpa.gov users due to the nature of the threat.
    • 148 were sent to the City and 146 were blocked/failed. The two that passed were manually passed through by the IT Director from SSD employee – kevin.kearney@ssdedu.org on 2-10-26. At that time a manual review was implemented and a monitored release on the SSD domain to ensure there were no  further malicious emails received from the sender. The attached PDF has the recipient_status column which you can note one of the following scenarios:
      • – email@address##Recieve,Fail
        • this means that the email was not delivered it was blocked
      • – email@address##Recieve,Deliver
        • this means that the email was delivered
    • To be clear ALL email was blocked with the exception of the above 2 messages from Kevin Kearney as explained above. Scranton City Council, City of Scranton employees, SFD, and SPD all operate on the same protocols without special exceptions. The guidance on email usage by City email can be reviewed in the supplied handbook beginning on page 75. The email communications listed in this document should be considered confidential and privileged. This would include the email subject lines as well as the recipients. It has been provided to Council to ensure they have all of the information available with reference to the nature of the SSD email domain exclusion which originated on 1-23-26 due to the malicious email sent from SSD domain to a Scranton Police Officer.
• For Code Enforcement management regarding city Quality of Life enforcement and fines, from warning notice to citation to appeals; what is the appeal process and, if a party chooses not to appeal, is there any increase in fines at the magisterial hearing, excluding court costs.
  • Please see the current workflow / chain of escalation for Code Enforcement issues.
    • Complaint received – 311 phone call or email
    • 311 forwards complaint to Code Enforcement supervisor and it is assigned to a housing inspector.
    • Housing inspector evaluates property to determine if the complaint is valid, documents the issue with photos, leaves a door tag or depending on the situation a notice of violation latter (certified and regular mail) if it is a valid complaint.
    • Housing inspector rechecks the property and, if not resolved, issues a Quality of Life (QOL) ticket. Fines vary.
    • Housing inspector reevaluates property to determine if it is resolved. Inspector files a citation with the magistrate if necessary, with up to a $1,000 fine.
    • Magistrate hearing is schedule according to the magistrate’s schedule.
  • If a resident wishes to appeal, a written appeal needs to be sent to Code Enforcement office within seven (7) days of receiving the QOL ticket.
    The Scranton Board of Appeals hears appeals regarding Code Enforcement decisions. They meet the third Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. on the second floor of City Hall.
• Mr. McAndrew asked that the DPW Director and Supervisor team may visit City Council caucus in March to discuss DPW related issues with Council members.
  • Request Received.

Council Vice President Patrick Flynn asked the following question:

• May the city administration and pave cut project manager please address the ongoing pave cut issues and advise next steps with the utility for the 1600/1700 Blocks of Wyoming Avenue and 1100 Block of Electric Street. The majority of the many pave cuts on the blocks are continually deteriorated and sunken, causing difficulty and hazards to residents and motorists in the area.
  • These cuts are being addressed. Pennoni has been sent out, and they have contacted the respective utilities. UGI also notified the City last week stating the conditions in their section were below standard and would be addressing with hot-mix-asphalt as soon as possible, and adding safety warnings/ signs where applicable

Council member Dr. Jessica Rothchild asked the following question:

• Dr. Jessica Rothchild asked for a timeline on the Green Ridge Bridge project.
  • Currently, the schedule shows sidewalks on both sides opening in mid-June. From there, we will be completing final pavement using daytime traffic control patterns. The contractor would demobilize from the site by mid-September. There is a possibility this could push later as the contractor has some float in their schedule until the required completion on November 3.

From February 3 meeting:

• Regarding the emergency declarations under Item 3A & 3C on the evening agenda. May he have a list of all purchases, leases, rentals, properties and services that the city has used or rendered under the two emergency declarations?
  • Please see the attached summary report.

City of Scranton Council Responses – February 24, 2026 | PDF

After Action Report: Winter Storm – January 25, 2026 through February 1, 2026 | PDF

Last modified: February 24, 2026