READING., Pa. – After hearing strong criticism from a downtown business owner Monday night, city council members pledged to form a stronger partnership with small businessowners.

Tyler Simmons, owner of The Plug, a shoe store at 547 Penn Street, said after starting his business seven years ago in the 200 block of Penn Street, he became dismayed with the city after his recent move to the 500 block.

“I must say it wasn’t what I expected,” Simmons said. “I was thinking moving into a bigger location would be better for business and what I’m seeing now is a big issue with parking.”

Simmons said he hears Mayor Eddie Moran wants to drive business to the downtown, but in reality, Simons said he believes the parking authority is driving business and potential customers from the downtown.

“We have to address something,” Simmons continued. “I see West Reading thriving, I see Lancaster thriving, but I look across the street and be honest, it still looks like 1994. There’s no Initiative.”

“There’s a lot of talk going on, and there’s a lot of people promising things, but I really don’t see them,” he added. “If you want people and you want the city to grow, small businesses are a key factor in doing so.”

Simmons related a story from last year when he found a dead homeless man in front of his store.

“Now, do you think anybody from out of town would want to come and see that visual,” he asked. “It’s really a laughing stock, to be honest.”

Simmons also was critical of the city owned buildings near 5th and Penn Streets.

“Those buildings are beautiful architecture, but the majority of them are condemned and the majority of them are owned by the city,” he said. “So honestly, I don’t know what we’re doing. Right now, it’s the the definition of insanity. I feel like we have a lot of meetings that go on and it’s just talk, talk, talk, and there’s no solution. There’s no action. I’m at the point right now, do I even go on?”

All city council members said they agreed with Simmons and want to see action from the city.

Council president Donna Reed called for the city administration to organize a downtown summit in the spring for an open town hall meeting to get input from business owners, resident and other stakeholders.

“I’m not casting aspersions, but under this form of government, (strong-mayor form) we take our direction from the administration in terms of dealing with requests for proposals and issues like that,” Reed said. “So we are hopeful that something will be happening on those buildings soon because the way they sit there, it contributes to the lack of vibrancy downtown, which contributes to what you’re putting up with at this point in time.”

Reed agreed that strategies and studies put forth up until now have offered very little solace to business owners.

“We as a Council do have power over ordinances, so perhaps there’s a way we can sit down and work with the small business owners on ordinances that will help, not only just the turnover of vehicles so more customers can come in, but some degree of leniency in terms of meter usage.”

Councilwoman Melissa Ventura called on the administration to begin working to amend the parking ordinance to allow for twenty-minutes to one-hour of free parking before the meter is enforced.

Reed suggested the administration contact the merchant associations in Allentown, Bethlehem and Lancaster to find out what sort of parking those cities offer for the patrons of small businesses.

Simmons also questioned the status of American Rescue Plan Funding for small businesses.

Finance Director Jamar Kelly said the administration will have a draft plan for small business funding for council to review by the end of March

Earlier Monday, during a committee-of-the-whole meeting, Reed criticized the administration for holding a meeting on the matter last week, but only invited two council members and selected business owners.

“My understanding is that was supposed to have been a meeting to discuss (funding) internally,” Reed said. “Can you tell me the rationale behind the people invited? I think there were people who felt very left out in the city as well as counselors who were unaware of the meeting. That’s unfortunate.”

Kelly said the meeting was originally planned as an internal meeting with the community development director and the chief of staff but grew to include members of the business community.

Ventura said that after receiving an invitation, she took it upon herself to invite small business owners to the table.

“I asked a couple of owners and I told them to invite other small businesses,” Ventura said. “What small businesses would you have liked to have been there?”

“Again, the rest of council wasn’t aware of this meeting, and shame on me for just seeing our two names and not realizing the rest of council wasn’t made aware of it,” Reed said. “I personally would not have invited anyone else to an internal meeting. I would have looked to the administration for guidance on that in terms of inviting people. This to me really felt like a pick and choose kind of thing.”

Moran reminded Reed that city hall is open to everyone, and that all people are welcome to come and dialogue.

“There’s no such thing as pick and choose; it’s about who is willing to come ,” Moran said. “We continue to dialogue with everyone that has a stake in the City of Reading. This was not a meeting exclusively involving city council. This is administration business.”

But Moran added that he believes in synergy and having council and the administration work together.

Reed asked for details on follow-up meetings, but Moran said he did not have a schedule available.

“Well, as council president I would ask that in the future, I don’t want to see anybody on council not included,” Reed directed.

Ventura added that small businesses are tired of talking.

“We know what the needs are for downtown and it’s time to put stuff in motion, meaning we can have a million meetings, but we’re not doing anything in those streets,” Ventura said. “Small businesses do not feel appreciated. They are not recognized. They want to know what’s going on downtown.”

Other council members said they hope to see more progress when a downtown coordinator is hired by the administration.

The topic was discussed in a closed-door executive sessions after the committee-of-the-whole.