Chief of Police Charles Palmer spoke at the Emmaus Borough Council meeting via Zoom June 15 regarding the current situation on racism and the police force in the nation.

Palmer wanted to emphasize the Emmaus Police Department strictly follows all applicable laws and practices - a strict no discrimination policy.

“What got us here, is the act of a crazed, piece of human garbage wearing a police uniform in Minneapolis, and committed a murder on video and killed George Floyd, and literally lit the world on fire,” Palmer said in regard to accused former police officer Derek Chauvin. “And now the career I’ve been working in for 33 years has to answer.”

Palmer said the police department has been accredited since 2006 through the Pennsylvania Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission.

“There are 140 standards we have to [adhere to], with another 100 subsections of those 140 standards,” he stated. “300 agencies in Pennsylvania have applied since 2001, and only 120 are currently accredited.”

Palmer said he found the narrative of police reform and the “8 Can’t Wait” rules as “kind of laughable” because of where the police department currently is, and the standards they have set as a department for years.

Palmer proceeded to go through the “8 Can’t Wait” list, and describe, “without giving up their whole rule book” how the department has always followed these guidelines and specific rules they personally follow with each point.

He said de-escalation has been a departmental standard for many years and they exhaust all alternatives before using chokeholds and shooting at suspects or moving vehicles.

“We don’t go into a situation saying this is the amount of force I’m going to use.”

Palmer said when he was hired, he took an oath to promise fair and equitable treatment for all people; the department as a whole has delivered on that promise. He then shared statistics regarding the number and frequency of tickets issued by his officers and where they fall pertaining to race and nationality.

Several council members spoke up to say how proud they were to live in a town where they feel the police department has always followed the above guidelines and have worked as a public service for the citizens and made them feel safe.

Councilman John Hart said he believes the Emmaus Police Department is a “gold standard” of what should be followed. Councilwoman Shana Baumgartner said she has lived in eight different cities and this is the only place she’s actually felt safe in.

In other business, council voted 6-0 in favor of putting the former Rodale buildings at 10 and 33 E. Minor streets out for bid, which is currently rented by Seven Generations Charter School.

Borough Manager Shane Pepe said the reason this is going out for bid is because of the Pennsylvania Borough Code. According to this code, “from the time that you accept the bid, to the time the property is completely closed and you receive payment is 60 days.”

Seven Generations was unable to meet the 60-day requirement due to various circumstances, including a banking issue due to COVID-19. They have been renting the building during the entire duration the borough has owned the property.

“Despite the attempt to try to extend the deadline, our borough solicitor and their solicitors both felt that that was in violation of Pennsylvania borough code and we couldn’t extend the deadline,” Pepe stated.

Resolution 2020-20, which details the need to rebid the property, states the borough will not accept any bid lower than $3.4 million as that was the bid Seven Generations put in last time. The school has indicated “very clearly” they are going to rebid. The school’s idea was to get out of their other current leases and buy the entire building thus moving all of the operations over.

Pepe said there are, however, several other potential buyers looking into the property as well.

In other business, Pepe said they have started to put together a financial analysis of the impact COVID-19 has had on the borough. He said at “a very far level” the borough has made roughly $1 million in cuts and savings.

“We’ve hit deep into our departments, we’ve hit deep into our budgets and to date I want to say that our negative financial impact is approximately $400,000 and climbing from the pandemic,” Pepe said. “The wage taxes, they are expecting about a 20 percent hit for the year on $1.75 million, which is $300,000 just in itself.”

The ambulance call volume has been down 60 percent, which to date, has a financial impact of $128,000. There’s also been a loss in revenue from collecting fees, permits and many other items.

Pepe noted that while those numbers are deep, he does feel like they’ve done enough.

“I think our departments have done enough, I think that our staff has done enough, I think that council has done enough to, I don’t want to say be comfortable, but I do want to say to get us through the year, at least at this point.”

The conversation has now gone toward the recovery opening. The public works department is back to full staff and when Lehigh Valley turns to the green phase per orders from Gov. Tom Wolf, town hall and other buildings will open back up to the public.

That being said, Pepe said there are still things that will not happen this year and other things the borough will still try to accomplish which will be discussed on a committee level.

Pepe noted the one thing that should be appreciated throughout this entire ordeal is the transparency the borough has shown. He said they’ve been as open as they possibly could be through this process with trying to share with the community what’s really going on.

“I think most of the people in the community understand it, and I think people understand that we’re doing what we fiscally need to do … we got out in front of this,” he said. “We’re going to keep doing our due diligence, we’re going to keep paying attention, and if we have to cut more, you know we’re gonna [sic] look at it.”

Ambulance Chief Jeffrey Hoffman sent in a letter of resignation June 9. Council unanimously voted to advertise the job position of ambulance chief.