The Reader Beat: City Council Notes from June 3, 2026

Program Managers at the reinstated county-run ECRSSA presented data on the program during the meeting on June 3. Previous employees and stakeholders shared differing statements on the program's effectiveness.

A City Council meeting held on June 3 at 9 a.m. included a presentation by ECRSSA Program Managers Sheila Silman and Bob Hess and on the new Erie County Re-entry Services and Support Alliance (ECRSSA) that was reinstated under the Erie County Probation Department on May 8. Among other reasons for the shift in management, the presenters claimed that data had not been recorded since 2023 under the YMCA's management. Hess stated that the program is now fully up and running under the county, with three case workers and a client advocate. Hess also mentioned that the program will maintain the privacy of their clients and will not share information with probation officers unless the client requests it. "The ECRSSA is not being run by Adult Probation. We are completely separate entities and have different purposes and completely separate staff," he said. One case worker described her reason for joining the program, saying that her father and uncle were incarcerated for most of her life. "They were good people who were very institutionalized and didn't know how to reenter society and live." 

Constituent Michelle Dovashaw said the information presented about the ECRSSA program under the YMCA was inaccurate, as the data was from when the program began in 2016. "In a decade a program changes," she said. Michael Keys expressed concerns about the county program's ability to support BIPOC clients. "It's not just about the program, it's whether the people you have hired are culturally competent to manage the people that they're supposed to manage," he said. "We know representation matters." Executive Director of Erie Together Mary Bula stated that ECRSSA under the YMCA focused primarily on job placement and it was difficult to quantify the impact of the program due to lack of data. "We knew where there were job placements but what about the rest of it? It is a holistic approach that we needed to be following and we weren't seeing that," Bula said. Consistent Erin Mizner highlighted issues she has with the new ECRSSA and the claim that focusing on job placement is not enough. "If you have a job, all of the other stuff falls into place. Everything else is better if you can afford to live," Mizner exclaimed. Director at PA Department of Corrections Ebony Frith disagreed about job placement being enough to keep recidivism rate low. "What we were looking for is maybe services that can help with the transition, not just getting a job that a lot of people can't necessarily keep. There's drug and alcohol and mental health issues and if those things aren't addressed, you don't maintain a job," Frith said. Previous Senior Case Manager Allen Brown remarked that no one on council reached out to him about the status of re-entry. "This wasn't some useless agency," he said. "We didn't send people to BPS Staffing where they get an eight or nine dollar hourly wage. We got them sustainable wages at every place we sent them and it was always Erie's biggest industries that accepted them." 

The meeting addressed the following ordinances: 

• An ordinance amending Ordinance 26-1958, the Traffic Code of the City of Erie by the installation of stop signs at three intersections passed unanimously. The intersections include:

  1.) McCarter Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue – stopping at McCarter Avenue. 

2.) Atkins Street and Birch Court – stopping at Birch Court. 

3.) West 39th Street and Fruit Street – stopping at Fruit Street.

• An ordinance that the city incur lease rental debt of $2,784,063 to be authorized and issued by Erie City Water Authority in connection with the construction, alteration and improvements to the public water distribution facilities, including the customer side galvanized service line replacement project passed unanimously. 
• An ordinance that the city incur lease rental debt of $8,000,000 to be authorized and issued by Erie City Water Authority in connection with the construction, alteration and improvements to the public water distribution facilities, including the West 12th St. maintenance facility renovation passed unanimously. 
• An ordinance appropriating $254,061 to be received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for listed Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG26) projects had its first reading. 
• An ordinance appropriating $797,014.86 to be received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for listed HOME (M26) projects had its first reading. 
• An ordinance appropriating $2,909,512 to be received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and $5,000.00 program income for a total of $2,914,512.00 for listed Community Development Block Grant (CD26) projects had its first reading. 
• An ordinance amending the City of Erie Zoning Ordinance to designate the Former Erie Labor Temple as a Historic Site had its first reading.
• An ordinance amending the City of Erie Zoning Ordinance to designate the Erie Maennerchor Club as a Historic Site had its first reading. 
• An ordinance amending the City of Erie Zoning Ordinance to designate the South Erie Iron Works Company Building as a Historic Site had its first reading.