oops we ain't going to see so where you headed uh out of government office yeah there you go there you go he knows what it's worth i'm here for a while got that message
this was from last week i sent you a photograph of it i emailed him saying I ended up with that coming home with it yeah and I was like "Oh so I I took a photo and I emailed." But I guess
ready Emily if you get disconnected it's because I pulled I would like to advise all those present that notice of this meeting has been provided to the public in accordance with the provisions of the Open Public Meeting Act and that notice was published in the city website copies were provided to the Bergen record elp
special the northstar ledger jersey journal also placed on a bulletin board in the lobby of city hall written objections if any should be made to the city clerk flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all mr con Miss Fiser Mrs jabore
mr presidento present mr cano present mr ramos Mr russo present president Doyle present form present all right okay council President I just want to make
mention if we have a moment of silence for Cosmo Santilio who passed who worked for the city for 19 years and Joe Shine's brother all right thank you Mr lore amen amen amen
fisher is present yeah all right okay sorry it's not so out of the five ordinances that are on tonight four of them are going to be carried uh till May 7th and then the one ordinance is going to be carried to the
special meeting on April 24th that's resol that's ordinance number five so B 751 is the only one that we'll be acting upon this evening which is the second one and then uh if you're looking at an
agenda other than one provided tonight um we have a number of things that are being carried or removed um and I'm going to Jerry are you going to help me with this uh yeah well
ordinance in ordinance for first reading number five is is been removed and the accompanying resolution CD6 to send it to the planning board is also removed all right and I think that's it
for changes from what you may have seen over the weekend all right we have a hearing on an ordinance amending chapter 192 parking for persons with disabilities B751 okay and uh Miss Waiters I see that
you've signed up did you sign up for the one ordinance that Yes well there's only one so but yes then that's the handicap that's correct hi Pat waiters 12 I mean 15 church towers um people keep calling me
requiring about the handicap committee and they will say it's no committee could you clarify that tonight somebody talking sorry oh he's just acknowledging Councilman Ramos coming you still in trouble already
I'm sorry council president I'm I just rushed it let me just take it down a notch Um please clarify that you know I'm no longer on the committee i told the individuals that's coming to me thank you to Mr ramos for clarifying it to one of the persons I sent directly to
you we need to know is it a handicap committee how is it being ran and so on and so forth and I'm quite sure you guys got the email if you didn't I'll give it to you after the meeting thank you okay thank you councilman Cohen present no more members of the public have
signed up to speak on B751 motion to close second all those in favor i councilman and women mr pina call the vote on B751 mr con i miss fischer yes
mrs jabore yes mr presidento hi mr cano hi mr ramos i Mr russo I President Doyle I uh public portion on agenda item and
resolution okay okay so this is for publics wishing to speak on resolutions that we will be acting upon tonight uh Corey Davis U on CL4 there right hello um I'm here to talk
about the uh I'm sorry there there is no CL4 no it's the helicopter resolution good business i apologize all right hey guys uh so I'm here to talk about the helicopter problem that we've got in Hoboken that's caused by the Kernney airport um so after the crash on Monday
we had 319 flights in the New York City area out of the three New York City airports 68 of those came from Kernney yesterday we had 333 flights 71 were from Kernney today they shut down the tour traffic out of Kernney and it was only only commuter flights so obviously
the FAA is looking into the safety aspects of these and the tours are not operating as they normally were the the amount of traffic there's around 27,000 flights a year out of the Kernney airport all of them coming towards the New York City area and flying directly
over Hoboken and Jersey City uh when the Newark airport uses their runway 29 which they have to do anytime the wind blows from the west and right now during their construction they're using it exclusively for arrivals all of those helicopters have to fly at 2 to 300 ft over Jersey City and Hoboken so as to
avoid the commercial air traffic to avoid a situation like what happened in DC it puts a huge strain on you know disrupting our lives and then after this crash this is their you know second strike in six years where we've seen helicopters based out of the Kernney
airport crashing into the river so I I wanted to speak with my support of our resolution and really ask all of you to reach out to our federal representatives whether that's Congressman Nendez Andy Kim Corey Booker and the uh Secret uh
the Secretary of Transportation Sea Duffy and FAA administrator Chris Roshelo to highlight this problem that the the helicopter traffic has gotten out of control it's unsafe and the residents are sick and tired of it and we want these helicopters off of our
roofs thanks thank you good it's actually really good okay um Manuel Rivera Good evening Council President uh Council Vice President Council and members of the public uh thankful that you're all here and uh you made uh the
effort and made quorum i appreciate that and members of the public do uh in consent agenda here Council President uh there's not too much you you mentioned one that you um removed you said C6 did
you mean CA6 cd6 which is on page five it's just sending the first reading ordinance to the planning board but since that's removed we don't need to send it thank you i I appreciate the clarification uh consent agenda A1 if
someone could help members of the public with a little more information bless you uh climate action innovation uh there's a lot happening in climate action innovation it's almost hard to um make notes and try to follow
all of the uh whereases but um I'm going to wait quiet down in the back i'm I'm sorry Manny thank you thank you to members of the public
um CA4 CA5 and CA6 um CA 4 and CA5 I know that they're already being funded by the Hoboken Water Utilities but how do they
connect other than being um in the same place and we also know um or if you can make note um of these amounts um that are being put on these resolutions uh CA9 uh CA9 I also um am in favor of and I
hope that the application gets its due um merit and people who are working on it we can get that uh grant for the Tom Oliviveri Park uh that is a a community center that is uh community
park pardon that is u uh very close and dear to the neighborhood um in community development D3 and in that one council president um if members in the public could just have a little more um can you elaborate a
little more as to why and what um the resolution is not for but what is being made this uh area for redevelopment uh especially in the neighborhood where you're speaking of is something being
taken out what is the specific reason it's being uh changed in some way also uh I move on to clerk uh number two again council president
um I just don't know how many times do members of the public have to come and ask uh where's the budget uh we appreciate it that somebody is is doing something about it but um you know we need the budget i hope
that you uh are sending your memos and the members of the public can finally see the budget before December 2025 i'm just trying to be helpful here there's not that many members of the public but anyway I'll try to continue and make it short uh
again you took away um I believe you removed um introduction was it five right not four for first reading yes first reading it was five yes was five okay then that uh I'll get that one later and
uh I also want to in the new business um also want to unite my voice to the member of the public that spoke um before me it is very important that we do have some type of uni unifying factor in this um resolution if we can get
other municipalities um I don't know if you have already but it's not in in in the note if we could get other municipalities to unite with this resolution in concurrence with their own resolution of course um so that we can get more eyes on this situation and not
wait for there to be a horrific tragic accident um on our shores um regardless um we need action and we need uh the community we need the council we need the mayor we need everyone that was mentioned before in in our government to
work on this and do it quickly because due to the the atmosphere that we have in the federal government it might be hard but we need to work on it even regardless if it's hard or not and with that Council President I will yield back the rest of my time and I thank you for your attention
thanks M thank you Mr river you yield back seven seconds i do unless you want to give me more okay um as far as CD3 Manny about the redevelopment it's it's just the portion
uh on Marshall Street which used to be the PSEG facility that was consolidated uptown near 12th Street and it this is city-owned land and it's immediately adjacent to the HHA and this parcel is
being included in the HHA the housing authority redevelopment area since it's contiguous and it will help facilitate the first phase so that residents won't have to move more than once and the project will move more quickly so that's
what that is um and the budget has been announced that it has been announced that the budget will be introduced on April 24th at our special meeting next uh next Thursday thank you
okay all right anyway um no it's a virtual meeting it's a Zoom virtual meeting it is not in person it's an introduction so there would be there's no comment on it it's
it's a first reading so there will be a hearing there subsequently at some point but there's a presentation on it there's a Yes and there is a public portion at the end of the meeting that people can speak on anything they'd like
so um Patricia Waiters uh Pat Waiters 12 uh 15 church towers i'm still looking for the um the BA i just got here you got to give me one quick second the BA position i seen it online but it's not on this agenda why not the
new business administrator appointee oh I don't think it's It should have been on here it It's online i didn't come to the meeting for nothing and this is with respect to Jason as much as I hate to see him leave I'm looking it says the is you appointed
a new business administrator and an assistant business administrator unless I'm reading false information online all I'm saying is I don't see it on the agenda it's not on the agenda so peekaboo thank you doesn't need to be on the agenda because they're both interim
we're not voting i don't know what she saw yeah we don't get a vote on that so it's not it is not there yeah yeah yeah okay all right so that's it for public speakers on resolutions motion to close
public portion all those in favor i so the consent agenda C6 A3 A3 in allbody
we It's new business okay so you're right cd4 what was it cd4 okay uh hold on
all right so Mr one second okay that's it that's it okay so that Mr fina everything but CA3 excuse me A3 CA6 and CD4 fina call the vote on the consent mr
con I m fischer yes mrs jabbor yes president Zano uh because I don't have a budget I'm voting no on claims actually I'm going to tell you what I'm voting yes on how about that i'm voting yes on payroll i'm voting yes on CA1 CA2
CA4 CA5 CA6 CA8 CA9 CD2 CD3 CD5 CL1 CL2 and note of the rest uh one point of
order on one quick thing on the tax collector um I wanted to ask the resolution authorizing assignment of certificate for block 16537 there's no address i think we passed an or um rules to put Yeah to put down the council can you write those
sure yeah well you heard the the request from the Yes I'll take care you can write that but on the tax collector one at TX1 I believe it's 215 Park was it uh I asked somebody in the administration about this this is the tax certificate
from years ago two things one I think the rule is based on redevelopment projects that's one but two I can get you the address of your application okay thank you it's uh Mr cano it's not a complete a slice mr ramos hi Mr russo hi
President Doyle no on CA3 and four yes on the rest okay what What's up first a3 a3 that's me a3 it's
uh resolution awarding a 2-year contract to GRM in the not to exceed amount of $33,894 that's not A3 that's not A3 that's okay just getting warmed up um a resolution authorizing the city to
enter into an MOA with the PSA OA regarding outside employment that's A3 thank you Council Vice President thank you you're earning your money tonight the Councilman Fischer yeah um we we
don't have to vote on this tonight um we what this is for the public uh we voted the council voted 562 to approve a contract with our PBA
our PBA is the rank and file police officers the majority of the police officers aboutund and uh our table of organization allows for 110 we're probably close to 100 and and we're hiring more um we voted on that on March
3rd and um and it has a number of provisions in it that uh some of us feel are financially damaging to the cities in the future um but one of the provisions in that is
this outside employment rate so historically we've paid you know when you see police officers will wear wearing yellow vests out there um when they're working at like construction sites and road closures um not navigating traffic but the ones where they're they're almost they're they're
just ensuring no one like goes into an unsafe area with with a road closed um the rate for that has been for a long time has been $80 an hour and who pays that is depends on what the project is if it's a big you know private developer
you know big construction where they have to close the road the private developer pays that if it is a water mane project that's the city the city of Hoboken pays that which means taxpayers pay that and if they go beyond 8 hours
um they get time and a half so it's $120 an hour they're really big numbers that's what we've had for you know a long time what was negotiated into that contract um is increasing that number from $80 an
hour to $100 an hour and the time and a half would go from $100 to $150 an hour and for non city property projects that actually goes to $145 an hour as a starting rate $145 an hour so if there's
a neighbor that you know has to replace their sewer Phil I think you Councilwoman Cohen I think you had to do a sewer replacement at some point or a water replacement when when a you have to have a street closed for that you have to have a police officer be there
the entire time the roads closed at $145 an hour and if it goes beyond eight hours it's time and a half the rates are eyepopping unconscionable um and we counciling uh President Z I don't know if he's going to speak or not depending on what I say but you know we looked at
all of the surrounding towns New York City and they pay $75 an hour $80 an hour i mean literally almost half of what we've put in here so that's the contract we approved in March what this is now is our superior officers and the
concern about the contract in March that we approved for the rank and file was that all of the the increases that were approved there now ha are having our lower ranking um police officers making more money than our superiors now we're
going to see a superiors contract come in and ask to level up right they're going to want to see the same increases they need to be paid more they should be paid more they're superiors versus our rank and file because we approved this very expensive contract without any
input no financial analysis from the city um we now this is the first time we're seeing a leveling up and this is for the superiors now to be paid the same amount um for their their overtime
pay no one wants to not pay our police a fair wage but we don't have to approve this tonight i personally believe we should reopen the the contract for the rank and file and change this and go back to the rate that it was there's literally no reason to pay more um but
we don't have to approve this tonight because we haven't seen the entire superior contract which is going to come before us and because we haven't changed our ordinance which we have to do the rates don't apply yet anyway so I'm going to vote literally I'm not
abstaining tonight i'm I'm I abstained last time because we didn't know enough but now we know enough now I'm just voting no and I would hope that we could just vote no and we could look at the entire superior contract which should be coming for you know in front of us in the next you know couple meetings after
we get the budget it sounds like we're officially getting the budget on the 24th so let's look at the budget let's look at the spirit contract let's not do this leveling up peace meal let's be responsible for the residents of Hoboken so I would ask my colleagues to consider
either voting no or abstaining just not supporting this tonight yes please um I think the devil's in the details a lot of times up here and and I like to I take this very seriously when I look at the agenda and I read through everything that's in the
ordinances and I do my research and well I trust the internet however sometimes I know that dates can be off and numbers can be off but I got a variety of numbers when I looked at this and just in Jersey City the numbers are
substantially lower and it's not doubting on the job that our our officers can do i know we uh well some of you passed that i abstained on the uh the contract um but the devil's in the details and some of the concerns I have is listening to
Mayor Bala he said "We're on a hiring freeze i'm taking a 10% cut in my salary we're losing we're getting COVID money clawed back i don't see a budget in front of me it's kind of put me in a tough
position i'm not seeing everything at once." And uh I don't want to take the words out of Councilwoman Fischer's mouth however when we vote on something we should look at it all together the contract's going to come from the PSOA I believe in in the coming weeks because
that's that's due or that's being negotiated but when I take and look at some of these times and try to compare some of it's very fuzzy in certain counties or certain towns in in Hudson County it's just you have to dig and you'd have to probably opra a lot of it
um so at this point I'm going to know uh on this um and I'd like to see the budget listening to exactly what the mayor told us in a letter that he sent to us that said we're going to have I'm going to have to revisit the budget so that's costs and we need to look at this
but ultimately this is something that for non city business it's hitting our residents uh so that's something I'd like to we should be discussing as well it's hitting us too fitting us in all of the all the city projects that require um the secure the
police officers taxpayers pay for it so all right Mr fina call the vote mr con hi mr fischer no mr jabore yes president Xano no mr cano hi mr mr
ramos hi Mr russo hi President Doyle i uh CA6 CA6 resolution awarding a contract to Murray Paving in the amount of $530,430 for the installation of a press
box at Mama Johnson Field funded by CDBG glen Ramos councilman Ramos yeah just a qu this was on the agenda la actually passed last year on the agenda but the project wasn't done last year i think it was the bidding process do we have a
timeline uh for when the construction will begin on this i don't know which director is here to answer that question when when it'll start we anticipate it ending sure so the the press box itself is pre prefabricated so there's actually a long
lead time so if we passed the resolution tonight and we purchased it it would about a 15 to 22 weeks before that would be delivered and so we're looking at installation most likely this fall okay okay and and we're the bids are good this time as opposed to last year because last year we had the same
conversation last year it's coming in and it didn't so hopefully as Yeah so the la last year we bid it um to project to convert the mail room into the restroom and so those bids came in at 1.5 and 1 million which substantially exceeded our budget for the project um
and so we paired it back just to the press box to be able to fund just this portion to get that done as soon as we could okay thank you Council President thank you director yes just quickly you know I have the privilege of of serving on this council and on the housing authority as well so understanding the
need for uh these renovations the original intent was to not only do this press box but as as uh the director stated to also do the bathrooms converting the mail room to the bathrooms so because of that differential we knew we just didn't have
enough money to do both uh and this fell into a category where we had enough money allocated to complete a project that was already approved so that's why we're moving forward today but it's something that is sorely needed uh for our housing authority residents and for
all the residents of the city of Hoboken because we have that shared services agreement with the housing authority so uh it's something that I think we should all be in support of and I hope that everyone votes for it here tonight so thanks thank you Councilman
mr fina call a vote on Mr con i miss Fischer yes mrs jabore yes president Zano yes mr cano hi Mr ramos hi Mr russo hi President Doyle hi
thank you everyone cd4 cd4 is resolution awarding a professional service contract to Atio Group Inc in the amount of $6,500 to prepare a new appraisal for the properties located at 328 Clinton
Street block 52 lots 1801 i who uh Paul in Pres's honor okay thank you appraisal oh yeah can I can somebody explain that one to me is this the one we brought back or is this this is a
different one no this is just an appraisal of the municipal garage Midtown garage property so that we will know what it is valued at should in the future we be engaged in so
question on that need to know what it's we have work being done there right on it right we're going to well we're well it was halted due to the hospital evidently um my question is the 40 million that was bonded for
that was for 916 and stuff in the garage correct and I did see it's the garage no it was just 30 of it was the garage I haven't been bonded for 916 so if we have to mon I don't know if we're bonding 30 or $40 million whatever it was I think it was 30 correct me if
wrong 10 for I think it was 33 was the cost of the work but now it's probably 35 yeah so question here is don't we have a value right there it cost us to fix it I mean like you're saying the property is worth I don't know but I mean didn't we do anything to say
whether it's easier to knock it down and rebuild it versus like that's my question here like why are we getting an appraisal on it well because I think oh this is related to the hospital We got to get an appraisal so we can sell it to the hospital or whatever if we were to
sell it trade it you know have a value yeah I'm a no on this one yeah I council president we didn't even vote on the the study yet and we're already going for appraisals absolutely not well I think it's absolutely not okay thank you
Council President um so for everyone's benefit what we're talking about this is the municipal garage in Midtown um the we are the new owners of the hospital are
interested in redeveloping the area uh potentially including our where our Midtown garage is um there is a lot of that has to go into this there's a lot of
um a lot of headlines that you're seeing every wants a shiny new um uh hospital i think we all want a nice hospital um there are some of us that are concerned that in this process we'll actually lose the hospital so
we're trying to figure out how to move forward involve the right stakeholders the county uh the state to make sure we have a hospital we don't lose a really important asset um that the city owns um
but where we are now we've had basically one conversation and no information provided to us so the fact that we're considering doing starting an appraisal now to me just seems a little early and it seems like we should just carry it
until you know we've met with them uh they've not put anything on writing they don't want to put anything on writing at all oops sorry uh their words they don't want to be held to anything and it just really feels like we need to have a little bit more bean on the bone before the city even is looking at anything
other than fixing the garage that 850 cars rely on so I know that there's no time sensitive to this at all other than uh some people are more eager to strike a deal and have a great headline but I would like to see the brakes put
on this until we have just more information so we're making the right decision and we are not doing anything that is um im impeding our ability to uh have the right outcome for Hoboken residents so I I'm hopefully we just can delay it
but I'm a no on this as well council President Councilman Russo thank you Council President i I I just don't want to gloss over some of the statements of of everybody wants a shiny new hospital and
and we might be rushing this to like I understand your positions however if we're going to pursue not just a shiny new hospital but actually a hospital where the dignity of
those patients and those employees would be elevated the ability to have a worldclass health system within our own borders those are the things that I think are really important for us to consider and
to go into that conversation whether we own the land sell the land uh lease the land whatever that is i think knowing what the value of that land is absolutely important to those negotiations and those
conversations for me I I don't ever remember anybody saying we were selling the land i remember people talking about building a new hospital and a new municipal parking garage in addition to that hospital on this site that we're
talking about having appraised i think it's really important for us not to lose sight of the massive concerns our residents have when it comes to our health care system we've all heard it i know everyone in this room has heard it
before don't go to St mary's don't go to Care Point don't go to Hoboken University Medical Center because I know too many people that went and never came out we've all heard those comments and we've all heard those comments because
of the actual facility and the age of that facility so we have an opportunity now to solve a problem that the city has when it comes to our parking garage and a problem that the city of Hoboken has when it comes to our health care system
it's not just a hospital believe me for many in this city that emergency room is their only access to health care they don't have the privilege that others have to go to a doctor when their
children are sick those are the things that we need to explore if we want to be a worldclass city we need to have worldclass health care for our residents and our
employees so getting information from an appraisal is not a bad thing and when we talk about the cost for that appraisal we're not talking about percentages of our budget we're talking about a drop in the bucket
i think it is absolutely imperative for every one of us to support this tonight so we have the information going into those conversations we may turn around and say we don't want to do it it's not the right thing for the
city or structure it a different way but if we don't have that information we're flying blind and I think it's really important that we don't fly blind on this so I'm supportive of it tonight i hope both of you would change your position on that again because we're not
talking about 10% of our budget talking about a small dollar amount in comparison and I think it's really important for us to have that information so I hope you would change your mind thank you Council President council President Councilman Cano Councilman Cohen uh thank you Council President um I think it's important not
to over complicate this issue and go too far down the road uh yeah information is key we sit on a lot of assets in the city some we acquired recently so we h may know how much they cost and some we've been sitting on for a long time
and we're not sure opportunities arise whether it be to build something new or or or trade land or or whatever uh and it's difficult for us to go into those informed decisions without uh the data uh in front of us we've been sitting on
this garage for a really long time uh and there could be an opportunity here to to do something interesting we don't know we're not going to speculate on that but before we go into those conversations we should have as much information as to what is the value of the thing that we're sitting on so we can go in eyes wide open i think we had
an opportunity a uh uh a couple of months ago to uh do an appraisal on some land we acquired next to the fire department um and we turned that down for similar reasons why are we doing this now there's a deal already etc et etc in that instance it was because we
acquired two separate parcels and we knew what they were reversed individually but we didn't know what it was uh uh as a whole and we wanted to have that information so that we could then make decisions down the road as as those opportunities arose and so that's what we're doing here again hopefully uh
is is going and and grabbing uh engaging in an exercise so that somebody can evaluate what it is this thing that we have is worth so that we can make an informed decision on that in the next steps so I will be supportive and I hope others support as well councilman Cohen
thank you house President uh you know I've heard people at this day say that the cities going into transactions and making excuse me uh that I've heard that there were transactions the city was going into where the city didn't really understand what the business interests
were hadn't done adequate proformas hadn't done adequate assessments to understand what it is we're negotiating to be to to put a a a point on what Councilman Russo said this is a $6,500
appraisal that we're voting on $6,500 and with that we'll have an important piece of information that will allow us to enter into a possible decisionmaking process uh which seems to be coming sooner rather than later and not only are we talking about getting a
new garage where we have significant structural issues that this council has already authorized spending money on a bond and it may be that this uh transaction that's being discussed might be an alternative way of funding that we don't know uh but that's something that that was one of the reasons we hit the
pause button on it but there's also discussions going on right now uh about possible uh new school facility that's being discussed as part of this transaction as well so it's off that's off well on it's off possible is it
possible yes so there there are possible discussions at that as well in any case these are all issues that are coming at the council uh and the administration and there are active discussions about these issues going on in real time and
we're all learning about them i I learned the status of the school situation which was moving last week may not be this week but you know we don't know maybe next week it'll be different I don't know but one thing we do know is that the piece of land that we're talking about in the middle of all this
is our garage and that garage is not going anywhere uh so it is valuable information for us to know what is the value of that so that the city can in intelligently negotiate a deal that protects the interests of the taxpayers
and I also want to emphasize with respect to the hospital the reference to a shiny new hospital there are a lot of a lot of councils a lot of mayors have worked really hard uh to keep that hospital open mayor Roberts Mayor Russo
Mayor Zimmer Mayor Bala and many many councils here Ruben and and Michael have been on a number of them have gone through many long hard nights trying to figure out a way to keep that hospital open and it's not just about having an emergency room which saved the the life
of one of my colleagues sons just a few uh weeks ago who told me about how his his throat seized up an allergic reaction he was administered to steroids and was uh spent the night and was back in school the next day doing fine i don't know what would have happened if we didn't have an emergency room to save
my colleague's son that night but it's not just the primary care it's the jobs for people who live in this city people who are dedicated health care professionals who serve our community every day people who served our community through the pandemic the
people when we were banging our pots and pans at 5:00 every day for months thanking our first responders and healthcare workers so this is important and we shouldn't uh we we shouldn't underestimate the importance of keeping
a viable medical facility in our city a lot of people worked hard and long on it and if this is a piece of information that will help us intelligently approach this negotiation I think we all should support it thank you Council President councilman Ramos thank you Council President i'll be
brief we had a meeting with the representatives of the hospital four council members Councilman Fischer Councilman Jabbor Council Cano myself representatives from the hospital representatives from the administration and in that conversation we re we
requested uh a number of items from the hospital representatives the counciloman Fischer alluded to that earlier they and they were not comfortable putting things in writing because things in things change may change throughout the process which is somewhat understandable but as
we if we're going to continue that process leaving that meeting was another meeting was going to happen uh tomorrow but maybe we should pause that one actually is is is I would like to go on that meeting armed a little more information from our end of it and
seeing that whatever conversations we do have we're getting the true value uh of what we're discussing the conversations we're having whatever is being negotiated to do in the future what type of hospital uh they're looking at was one of the things we requested from them
uh what what type of care they want to provide in that hospital rather uh was being requested so this is one thing that when we're having those conversations and the value may being switched not being switched I want to make sure that we're uh armed with that information as we have that conversation
not voting yes to do everything but if we're going to have conversations we should have the proper information to make sure that we're saying the right things and doing the right things from financial perspective as we move this process forward or the conversations forward not even the process thank you
Council President thank you Councilman c council President um this is your world um so just run through the process if somebody potentially we're going to do a redevelopment zone we first we first vote on a study correct this has nothing
to do with No no I got that i'm just asking the question yeah we first vote on a study to look at the area to see if there's a change to see whether it can be should be designated correct so how long does that usually take month and a half two months okay and we're that is
potentially May 7th maybe it gets on an agenda it sounds like I don't know so I I don't I You're asking me no no I'm just asking it may never happen or it may start on the 7th thank you for saying it may never happen not going to take what you said but however if it may
not ever happen um and we don't know if this is going to happen why are you authorizing to spend money when we haven't even got to the point where we voted on whether there is going to be a study if I'm just finding
out the cost of or the value of our lands Mayor Bala said I'm going to cut 10% of my salary that's $10,000 or roughly 12 but at the same point if saying that $6,500 is not important the mayor's asking us to take cuts of our
salary 10% which is $3,500 so every penny counts here i want to make sure that we're not putting the cart before the horse here that's all I'm bringing in it's nothing about a a hospital or whether I want it or we don't want it or we need it in the community this is about just going through the process
i've said this from day one since I sat in the seat it's the process and we're going at a line on the process that's that's my only point that I'm bringing up here all right thank you do you want to rebut or No I could I I I could just give a similar process uh
like the housing authority tonight for example right uh tonight we're incorporating it to a redevelopment plan where we started that process was appraising the property having conversations with the housing authority if if if it would speed up their plan moving
forward so that's how we started that process okay if we're going to negotiate this what is the the value that we have here on second and Harrison Street so that's how we started that process and ending it uh and seeing it to the next step tonight including it in the redevelopment plan so that's how we started that so this may be similar to that but we say "Hey we're not doing
anything." In this case we want to see go work with the housing authority and then we may say the house people say "You know what we're walking away from this." Not having but at least we had that information for those conversations and that and that's that's it council President all right thank you Council President
i get a second chance no you don't but you I think Robert's rules says after everyone talks I get I get to go ahead all right what i don't think Councilman Go ahead if other No if everyone I thought everyone was done if I'll wait yeah i I just want to add you know he gets to go
second did you want to let him go first and you said yes got it sorry you know to to Councilman President the the process is newer right you're it's you're a newly elected council person but if you
look at this in totality I've had the privilege of serving on the hospital authority and we had conversations about appraising all these properties for a long time because we thought at some point we might have to do something
before Care Point did something other than what they're doing now right so this has been not just a few months not just a few years this has been a very long time when it comes to making sure
that our hospital is a viable hospital in the city of Hoboken i mean we actually purchased the property we created a municipal hospital authority years ago we ran the day-to-day operations as a as a municipality right
right we had an executive director that the municipal hospital authority hired to manage the hospital we then sold it to Careoint and Care Point got into a situation that they're in we were worried about are they the right manager for that hospital the hospital authority
was recreated and we talked about this for a long time so I understand your point from your perspective and and each of our own perspectives is our reality but from your perspective it's it's a fairly new process from some of our perspectives this has been an ongoing
saga for years trying to protect hundreds of workers that live in the city of Hobok and trying to protect hundreds if not thousands of residents that rely on that hospital daily for their health care needs so it's not just it's not just $6,500 for an
appraisal there's a bigger picture here and I think that's why you get this differential in how people are approaching it so I just wanted to add that to your give you a little color on that thank you Councilman councilwoman so uh I'll I'll add the ending or more
to um Councilman Rouso's narrative uh for the last year I'm the uh I'm on the board of the Hoboken Hospital jim uh Council President Doyle was on it for a few years um before that and um for the last year before they went into
bankruptcy uh it's been harrowing and it's not because it it's I'm as concerned um as Councilman Russo with all of the workers that are there um I'm as concerned about um you know the the
service and care that they desperately want to provide to Hoboken um and to the surrounding area it's not really a Hoboken hospital it sits in Hoboken but 25% of the patients that go there are from Hoboken the other 75% are from Union City Jersey City etc so it's
really a a county um safety net hospital they uh uh they and Christ um they're critically important to our region um I've had uh conversations with Governor Murphy i've had conversations with our
county executive a dozen with our state senator uh with the state senator and mayor of Union City on how we make sure we save this hospital so the the first thing is we need to feel like we are
doing everything we can and we have all of the safeguards to make sure that the end result is there's a hospital there and and I've worked really hard and it's been very frustrating because there's a
lot of politics around this um continuing though the the chronological history you know over the last 20 years to where we are now you know Care Point got into trouble because it was run as a um uh for-profit hospital system and the
prior owners just sucked all of the value out they took all of the profits out they didn't invest in the hospital they sold off the land and they've left this incredibly large liability with this hospital system the new hospital owners are forprofit they're going to
run it for profit as well uh a number of the senior executives actually worked at Care Point at the time so they have muscle memory for what was done wrong last time and they've successfully turned around a hospital in Sakus but
they're developers part of what we're talking about here that no one's mentioning is in this is redeveloping the hospital with I don't know 10 20 25 story residential development in the middle of Hoboken and they need to do that and monetize that first in order to
pay for the new hospital so when we met with them and we talked about this my background is in real estate finance you know they didn't put forward any plausible deliverable ability even a framework that was viable
in order to successfully raise the money without taking the hospital down first so they can build the new hospital they just didn't they didn't put anything on paper now they may be able to get there they absolutely and I want them to get there for all the reasons that everyone is talking about right now because right
now there's no plan B this is the only plan we have so for me my concern is before we jump into this and race we should have all of the stakeholders we should have lawyers i've asked colleagues why don't we have an experience land use all the lawyers that
we need so we can understand this why aren't we meeting with the county it's a county hospital why aren't we talking with the department of health to say what are we doing to make sure that to make sure these hospitals do not close for a minute because if they close they can't reopen and to what councilman
Cohen just said we desperately need to keep a hospital in Hoboken and even if people don't want to use it for you know they don't want to get their knee scoped there they want to go to you know a different location when you have an
emergency like your colleague's son do you want to in an ambulance and and go for an hour to on a Friday night going through Lincoln Tunnel traffic Holland Tunnel traffic getting to Jersey City Medical getting to Palisades no you want to be able to go to a hospital in your
town that's 5 minutes away and the other thing I would say is this hospital and I'm going to look at Councilman Russo and Councilman Ramos this hospital serves our housing authority it serves people that have maybe less less options for medical care and we have a real risk
if we don't do our due diligence if we don't put know exactly what we need to do and demand to keep these hospitals open we have an owner that is financially incentivized not to keep it open it's
just that simple they want to be in the hospital business for a long time they've told us that i want to believe them but you don't structure deals around hopes you structure deals around you know making sure that you have everything in place for your downside we
need to structure for the downside here not structure for the upside so to me you know it's interesting we met with them and they have a lot of great ideas and we'd love to do what we can to understand it all we ask for them is to put things in writing and even if it
changes let it change who cares say this is what it was today and if a month later it changes then come back and say it's changing so they won't give us anything in writing yet we're going to do an appraisal you know what's in an appraisal even if it's only $6,000 but you know what's in an appraisal a
valuation for our property that is luxury residential with assumptions around what those rents are etc suddenly there are things in writing that we can't take back we have an idea we can come up with an idea of the value of this property and it's just an order of
magnitude this is a billion dollars that we're talking about this property is probably 20 million and if we're off two or three right now doesn't matter it's an order of magnitude we don't need to do this tonight what we need to do is make sure we're doing everything we can
to ensure that we have a hospital for jobs for everything that everyone said tonight so I'm still a no i would love to just wait on this let's have the meeting tomorrow let's get more information let's feel like we're on more better firm ground and go from
there this is only an appraisal mr fina please call the vote mr con I miss Fischer no mrs jabbor yes president no mr cano I Mr ramos hi
mr russo I President Doyle I ordinances for introduction excuse me hm an ordinance amending chapter 192 parking for persons with disabilities i didn't pull it to test we just voted on it
mr con i'm sorry m I thought there was more to it please call the vote mr con i miss fisher yes mrs jabore yes president mr canero hi mr ramos hi mr russo hi
president Doyle mr fina oh I'm sorry i Oh did I pass you up i don't during his vote i Thank you introduction and ordinance amending chapter 190-11 entitled loading
zones designated to extend hours of loading zones on Hudson Street between 14th Street and 15th Street mr con vote mr con i m fischer yes mr
jabore yes Mr president hi Mr cano hi Mr ramos hi Mr russo hi President Doyle i order for introduction or amending supplementing an ordinance establishing
a schedule classifications and allocations for the hearing mentioned positions for the city of Hobok mr brina please call the vote mr con I miss Fiser no Mrs w no no
mrs jabbor yes president no mr cano hi mr ramos no mr russo hi president Doyle hi
ordinance for introduction and ordinance amending chapter 144 land use procedures mr fina please call the vote mr con hi Miss Fischer yes Mr jabore
yes President hi Mr cano hi Mr ramos hi Mr russo hi President Doyle i uh resolution CD7 uh yeah CD7 with regard to uh
referring the ordinance chapter 44 to the planning board for review and recommendation please call a vote mr con i mr fischer yes mr jabore
yes president Jano hi mr cano I Mr ramos hi mr russo hi president Doyle I uh signup sheet new business well are we going to do public portion and then Thank you
uh Manuel Rivera I'll be right back my wife stayed home from work four of us in Manuel Rivera Soler thank you council president once again uh for the opportunity to speak um I just want to do two clarifications that I missed when
we were talking um I would like to say CA6 the Mama Johnson field that that would is the proper use for the C DBG grants and I follow I followed uh the procedure there i I was at those
meetings and it it is very important as well as including the bathrooms as council member Russo mentioned those those are the things when I come up and ask for grants and stuff where is the money where does it go it's because I want to follow the projects but this one was meritorious um also I would like to
um ask council president and council and um the administration to please um straighten out whatever was missing from B747 and
B752 um these are our public servants these are the people who um protect us and serve uh our community we need to straighten out as council members were speaking whether it's salaries whether it's uh rank whatever it is it needs to come back it needs to
be fixed it needs to be voted on and the um public safety community deserves our respect and any attention we could give them um with that have been said Council President I'll proceed
to my uh personal remarks here um again in regards to the rabbit hole we were going in regards to the hospital hospital is very important i was born in the hospital uh I'm not going to say the years but it was many many many years
ago it wasn't uh the present location that it is now so that'll tell you a little bit how old I am but the hospital is important i as a a member of the public as an advocate will advocate for it to stay in whatever form it is it's going to be replaced
it's going to be re re-vamped but we will not as a community relinquish the hospital we deserve a hospital we're developing all around it and yet we cannot as was mentioned have a state-of-the-art hospital which by the
way does serve the seniors again personal experience if my brother would not have gone to that hospital he would have passed sooner even though he did pass nonetheless but he was maybe four blocks away uh so that's why that's
important just to put it into a personal perspective people could see how important that is again appraisal no appraisal we need to know that our hospital is going to be protected by all of you by the mayor who's present in the office now by the incoming mayor whoever
he or she may be know that it is a priority for members of the public and council president my time is ticking so I will say um uh this and um I will also be saying some words in espanol but I will try to um summarize
it but I'm going to start off by saying last week there was a tragic um uh event catastrophic for the um city of Sto domingo in the Dominican Republic i would hope that we as a
community could um be be solidarious with them and send our condolences sincerely um and to the Dominican uh community of Hoboken um who may have been affected by the collapse of a disco
that happened i don't know if council president is aware um but I hope that we we can send collectively our thoughts and prayers to them and to the families who were affected um as well as the family who was
affected from the again horrific helicopter crash who were visiting from Espa we also would hope that their families can know that we though we are not in the in the city but we we feel and send again our condolences
republican Dominic so council president uh to summarize it was what I said in English and as well I was speaking of the helicopter crash in Spanish um and also mentioned the the
pilot and I see my time is up uh so anyway council president I thank you for listening thank you all um Slava Ukraine Heroam Slava and God bless you and God bless you hope thank you thank you Manny
uh Patricia Pat Waiters was I next i'm not cutting from the You are next yep thank you council president for recognizing me well mine's bittersweet number one uh you forgot to mention when Councilman uh Cwin mentioned all the other mayors that was
here fighting for this hospital i'm not going to keep standing up here every day I come to the meeting to tell you 27 years with me and Mo Diro sitting at this front seat and me and Michelle Russo sitting at the back seat every any tragedy anything that took place in
Hoboken I was here so even if you don't include me or recognize me I do what I do for a reason that's why I'm still here i don't have to grandstand i don't have to sweat votes i don't have to fight for who is doing this and then
every day we come into these meetings up to the next 6 months we got to watch a debate everybody that's running for mayor again I'm going to tell you people are watching don't do it here on our time it's very disrespectful y'all should bring back a caucus too because there's a lot of issues that we want to
cover too and Paul Council President my heart go out to you now i would never be mean to you again cuz to see you on every board when I go to the zone and when I go to the plan and you're there to serve us the community you do it in a professional manner i wanted to put that on the record too since y'all always
think that I'm up here to say negative with that being said with an election approaching $6,500 is a lot of money i'm watching every contract every penny what go into whose campaign so this is why we puzzled we not saying we don't need a hospital
yes we do need a hospital and I took that a little offensive when Miss Fcher said "Oh because the people in the HHA use it." Again y'all please stop doing that on the backs of the vulnerable people that's the forgotten people that every time a issue come up y'all say the
HHA now if you watched the last board of education meeting the young president council uh trustee said the same thing to me oh you should be happy people like you that's getting this grant money or from a non for profofit stop singling black people out in Hoboken stop
singling a HHA out for everything the last victim I known that got shot went to medical center since you want to say HHA is five blocks away they went to medical center so be careful what you say people vote all of y'all acting like y'all so concerned it just seems so
disingenuine to me it take every ounce of my being to sit on that front row and everybody acting like they care all of a sudden now back to the business administrator i hope that's what you mean i circled this CD3 about jobs cuz it didn't mention the job so I just
circled it right here for appointed jobs positions you see it number three is that the business administration job you don't be specific what job it is it just says job number three paul CD3 is that
what you're No number three number three second read and final reading ordinances number three i put three question marks first reading yes first reading please because from what I'm hearing the business that it is that it is not okay so can we still talk about that because
the business administrator position is a very serious position that conduct and run all the business in our city so we got to stop playing who's friend to who and who's not each and every one of you you know who you are i'm not going to say no names to embarrass you supported
Mayor Bala it's not time to blame Mayor Bala for nothing cuz it happened we got six more months to tolerate it stop playing these dirty little games cuz the residents is the one being impacted now with that being said the business administrator simply just mysteriously
leaving jason my heart go out to you i don't know if you're doing this on your own free will but I know we need a business administrator to conduct the business in this city a young man walked up here tonight and and if the council president identify him as the director I'm like who is that where he come from
i know I'll be here at every meeting straight for 27 years the way you running our city is not fair to the residents like me that live here and I'm being stopped everywhere pat what are we going to do i'm trying everything in my being to support somebody instead of me running myself it's sitting up here and
it's getting nerve-wracking respect us respect the taxpayer no it's not Donald Trump's legislation what it is is y'all took advantage of the COVID money like I've been saying took advantage of all of those grants taking advantage still having virtual meetings and blame place
to blame please stop take us into consideration now I want to know who do we go to if we not comfortable with the mayor's legislation it's right here the government body why y'all not speaking up i'm blaming each and every one of you to hold Ravi
accountable please we only got 6 months to go you pushing all kinds of contracts and legislation and pushing people out of their jobs and cutting back door deals which is unethical and illegal please somebody answer me and I'm serious cuz I'm not impressed with
none of y'all with none of your speeches none of your experiences we don't care take care of us now and stop seeking power think about the people this going to be my last time again saying it i'm not missing another meeting and I'm going to be right here and be involved
and then I'mma put on my vote for Patricia Waiter shirt because I'm here to serve the people thank you thank you Miss Waiters kevin Davis so I came tonight to speak about
my concerns with uh the proposal to increase the amount of police officers in town uh so the good news is for the council is I have fewer biting remarks about it uh but it's going to come up again in the future um so I was thinking
is and it's nothing against the police department i had a situation where I was a victim of a crime and I had to go to the police department and they were really good i think the issue is that we need to take a zerobased view and look at the structure and I think what we
need is a police efficiency study where we get somebody who's an independent expert who's not tied to the city to look at our police department and how many officers we have and how they're deployed to determine what the right number is and where to put them now it
got me thinking because one year ago at this very podium a wise person went up here and said "Just because you're loud doesn't mean you're right." And that made me think well just because you're quiet doesn't mean you're
effective and you know we need to rethink what we're doing and where we're going because we're about to make a major decision on the city budget and the city budget isn't even out yet so we
don't even I mean thankfully it got um I don't know the word it wasn't tabled it carried but just like a groundhog it could come up from the ground again and maybe we should we should take a new
look because right now under the Ball administration the city is a sinking ship so the chief of staff is gone the business administrator is leaving the transportation director is gone well sort of he came back with the homeboy hookup as a consultant um those weren't my words
those were Councilman Ramos cuz normally I come up with the most clever stuff but he beat me to the punch and I remember when we were here pushing for the city to adopt an ordinance to um require licensing for delivery bikers
take a test wear a vest and in my opinion the response was take a nap ignore the crap and there's only two times yes take a nap ignore the crap and there's only two times where people wake up from the nap the first is when people
are angry at a CAPS meeting about ebikes on sidewalks running red lights the city the police department will come out in full force and start giving tickets and then people go into city hall and they get the vests and then when people quiet down it goes back to the Mishagas from
before so that's the first time after the caps forum second time is right before an election so the good news is this year we have three elections so that means a lot of mudslinging that's the bad part but the good part is maybe we'll get some more enforcement on the
the issues with ebikes not complying with the rules of the road so the first one is going to be we're gonna have a June primary uh and because the mayor is running for assembly he doesn't want the city to look bad in the leadup to it so I'm going to predict that after um
Memorial Day uh we're going to see more police tent set up and bikers running red lights being pulled over and that's going to go on until June 10th then people are going to forget about it cuz
the election's over and then Labor Day is going to come up sep September 2025 i brought this up in December that in September 2025 we're going to see more enforcement so then we're going to see a pick up in September leading up until
election day candidates running for office say "Don't worry things are changing look at this latest thing I'm attacking look at my fancy flyer." Then we're going to have the run off in December it's going to happen again and then we're going to go back to
take a nap ignore the crap unless we look at a police efficiency study to see what the right structure is the reason I bring this up is because the police said you know what we can't do this without 20 30 more officers and what do we see now 28 officers being
proposed so to me it doesn't even matter if you have a thousand officers the National Guard Jake Gyllenhaal you can have it all but if it the city doesn't make it a priority it's not going to happen so it's time to stop
it's time to stop with take a nap ignore the crap thank you Mr davis enrique Herrera how's How's it going guys um I just wanted to dedicate this specific public
portions to um psychological operations and how it's conducted um it's unconstitutional and it goes against the Smith Month Act of 1945 i believe it's very very old but it involves psychological operations on a local
state and federal level that are violations of an American citizen's right to fair trial figure it out technology whatever internal external technology utilized to gather any int intel with the intent to
shift opinion of any known individual or any minority group or anything is is not cool it's also against the law which is something I was able to figure out and actually put into words it leads to domestic scout failure and casualties
follow effective prosecution of this behavior involves Um it it requires navigation of complex evidence uh jurisdictional boundaries and constitutional safeguards
uh that type of we have you know working around it it does take a lot of time a lot of effort but if it's discreet with haste or it's like conducted properly in a group setting we can eliminate that type of behavior and save people from the cause or like the victims of that which involve people in psychiatric
wards who are depressed who become crazy because they realize they're like walking in streets of people who are just monitoring their behavior with any intent good bad evil whatever uh I I started really looking into that cuz I myself on a work environment scale
and while I was under secret service watch I experienced that type of behavior and that is regulated when I started looking at that behavior um amongst the locals and how it's like conducted it is it does leave room for error you end up entering a world of
people who are waiting for you just to judge you for any which reason if I have been estranged from anyone it was deliberate with the effect of deliberate net i don't know what you're talking about we just go back to living our lives in a circle around you and you're
just that one guy walking around so it it is safe to say that um to utilize that act and say if there is a if there was a violation it would be present around us if any civilians are engaged on a local level um if it's not
conducted with military service members you are in effect using this type of education and curriculum as a crime it's illegal it's like really screwed up um I Let me see i have some more sign up
and um again that just goes into my uh public on social media citizens warrant arrest involving that numbered neural link human enforced behavior of whether or not you're a friend or not you know that stuff but I'm just going to cut it short that was pretty much what I wanted to talk about today just get in and out
of this one so you guys have a great day and uh I'll see you in the next one thank you Mr herrera no more members of the public have signed up to speak motion to close public portion second all those in favor i
new business new business we have two items in new business yes cl3 a resolution of the city council of city of Hobok and authorizing the urgent item to be included on the agenda after
deadlines set forth in the city council rules procedures sponsored by uh this pertains to CL4 so Mr fina call the vote uh would you like to discuss it yeah yeah just briefly
um uh one of the first speakers came up and spoke about the tragedy uh of the helicopter accident that happened last Thursday and and this is an emergency that we're presenting to the council councilman President Zano and I worked
on this uh calling on the FAA and other relevant federal agencies to immediately prohibit helicopter traffic over and near residential areas of Hoboken and Jersey City uh uh before I say anything more I would just ask that we have a
moment of silence for the passengers and the pilot on that pl on that plane shawn Johnson 36 was a Navy Sealed veteran august Escobar 49 years old Mercy Montal his wife 40 and their three children
August 10 Mercedes 8 and Victor 4 friday would have been Mercedes's ninth birthday i'd ask for have a moment of silence for this family and this pilot thank you thank you Councilman what's particularly upsetting about this is that this is not
a new issue this is something that I've brought before this council this council has unanimously asked for uh the FAA to act on this mayor Bal and I have written the FAA uh and got no response when they talked about changing flight paths near the Statue of Liberty to protect
remember this that the FAA proposed changing routes so that visitors to the Statue of Liberty would not be disturbed by overhead helicopters and they were going to route them closer to our communities uh we and and I mean that
was gling uh got no response from the FAA on that uh Congressman Menendez has entered into legislation congressman Cirrus before him Congressman Nadler in New York Congressman Accaziocortez Congressman
Velasquez uh uh been working with Gail Brewer who was a former Manhattan bureau president uh who was on the phone with me the afternoon that that they were trying to get the bodies out of the water she was calling me from New York to talk about this issue the flight that
crashed tragically and they still don't know why they're they're investigating the causes of it uh one of the theories has been mentioned is that it might have hit a drone or something that was flying there's so many objects in the air and these are lowflying vehicles uh I've I
had a resident I know Paul has it well sent me videos of images from his living room where he feels like 50 flights a day are coming to his house and he's actively considering moving out of Hoboken because he cannot take the anxiety of having these planes come
through our community at low-level uh heights i've had meetings with Jeff Heman who is the operator of the Carneport there were some references to the Carne court about possibly changing routes but basically when you change a route you're just moving a flight path
from one neighborhood to another uh whatever representations that have been made about the fact that these flights could be put over highways or over waterways uh inevitably uh the pilots will take shortcuts and cut the angle in a way that's quickest and right now it
seems to be going over Sixth Street and Six and Hudson i mean that that seems to be the place that's where we're hearing but it hasn't always been Six and Hudson it's been other neighborhoods as well uh these these are low-flying vehicles uh low they they belch diesel uh they they
make windows vibrate in people's homes they they are an absolute menace after 9/11 the FAA decided that they would ban helicopter traffic over Disneyland for fear of terrorism and to this day you
cannot fly helicopters over Disneyland ladies and gentlemen this is not a tourist attraction i know that tourists come here and they want to see the skyline and and and one of the things that have been advertised by Flying Nion is doors uh door no doors shoes off
selfies okay you can so when you fly you can lean out for your selfie and there's no helicopter door to impede your great selfie picture we are not a tourist attraction this is where we live this is where we raise our families we have our conference calls with work when we're from home and
people are saying that they're being disturbed by them it is time and one other thing and it's in this resolution when the tragedy happened in January when the helicopter at National Airport struck the passenger uh
commercial airliner and I believe over 60 people were killed that immediately the FAA shut down helicopter traffic in that area while they investigated the source that hasn't happened here helicopter traffic continues to
happen this resolution calls for the FAA and other and and we also call on New York City has two helports one New York City helport has 30,000 uh tourist helicopters every year from one helport operated by New York City if
the FAA doesn't act we ask that Mayor Adams and the New York Economic Development Corporation take action and do that uh there's also a heliport in New York that's operated uh by a uh riverfront trust we ask that trust to immediately suspend non-essential for
journalism it's fine for police it's fine we're not We don't have a problem with that but for non-essential tourist traffic for people who are commuting into New York and don't want to sit in the Lincoln Tunnel and they want to take a flight from Newark airport to a
helport or they're going out to the Hamptons and and and they don't want to sit in the traffic like everybody else taking these commuter flights are a menace to our community they absolutely are the economic impact of these flights is dimminimous and there millions of
people whose lives are being adversely affected so I want to uh I want to thank Councilman President Zano who uh contacted me on Friday and we and uh we worked to worked on this together uh and it's never been a controversial issue in this council whenever this issue's come
up we've we've we've gotten unanimous support uh a similar uh resolution that we introduced was almost verbatim adopted by the Hudson County Board of Commissioners they've been supportive craig Guy they Tom G's before him it's
never been a problem but but and and even when and there and one of the things we asked for is that there's legislation that is in Trenton right now there's an assembly bill A1371 that would restrict sightseeing helicopters from using New Jersey helports that's pending we urge that
committee and one of the things to act and we will be sending this resolution to that committee uh but one of the things that we've heard is that even if well-intended legislation goes through Trenton that this is preempted because these are federal skyways and even
though these are New Jerseyowned helports that that the state even if it passes legislation like this it will inevitably be challenged in court and we don't know how successful you we talked about passing well-intended legislation but being preempted well that can happen
at the state level as well so ultimately it's up to the FAA to act uh and it seems like New York helicopter the operator of this helport has been put out of business it's not clear there was a statement made on X yesterday it's unclear whether it's permanently out of
business temporarily out of business but they're they're not operating right now we don't know what's going to happen it's I think it was a two tweet uh statement that was issued on X so there's not a lot of clarity or insight as to what they're doing maybe they maybe they've been unimpressed with with
the investigation up to this point but the but the emphasis here is on the FAA uh so we we I think that New York City should do what it can do the the New York the state of New Jersey Governor Murphy the legislature should do what it can do uh but this is a matter of life
and death and it's a matter of quality of life we talk about quality of life on this council a lot but for people who we represent people and and Jersey City is also mentioned here people who live in the Heights people who live in Newport our neighbors uh you know they're that
much closer to the to the helicopters because of the elevation of their homes this is for them too this is for them too so Hobok New Jersey City are featured in this we're calling on the FA to act immediately i thank you for your time thank you Council President mr president before you do I just want to
make clear when I was calling the vote I was calling it on the emergency resolution i wasn't meaning to rush through this um but maybe we can together at this point but um do you know what like in all the and you've been advocating for this for
years um like what what is the obstacle i know it's broadly the FAA but is it like lobbyists like do you have a sense of like what you're fighting against it's lobbyist it's lobbyist the most connected most powerful lobbyists work for I'll give you an example there was
similar legislation that was pending in front of the Senate Transportation Committee hearing was scheduled i was in touch with um the leaders of uh friends of uh Liberty State Park they were ready to testify and ready to go and the day
before the hearing it was cancelled uh and and the answer was clear that the lobbyists had basically shut down the vote so it so they're connected they're active uh you know I don't I don't know
whether it's the tourist operators or whether it's the captains of industry who don't want to you know lose their commuting helicopters i bet you it's that it's more likely the latter it's more likely the commuting when you when you said like shutting those down like I can only imagine the calls that they'll
make it could be but but in any event the the the few people who benefit from these flights are absolutely abusing Yeah millions and millions of people who live below them well one of one of the examples that I hear about a lot in New
York City is of people who go to Shakespeare in the Park and Central Park and you get the helicopters that like to hover over Central Park as part of the route before they go back to their spot and the people can't even listen to the show all of our waterfront parks that we work so hard to preserve the one we just
bonded for that we're going to fix and we want is the you know the pride of our community uh the presence of helicopters is just part of you you can't have a conversation uh with someone when they're there our 911 ceremony was disrupted when you're uh I remember
we're sitting down there when the helicopters came by so low we couldn't even hear the ceremony so we can't even So I mean the one thing that you didn't spend as much time on is you know the accident that happened that was so tragic happened over water and it easily could have happened over land especially
you know if it if it broke apart or if it hit a drone and then you're then you're talking about you know not only the tragedy of the passengers but the tragedy of potentially people that live in the community and they are unnecessary and even if you drew the line and said maybe those individual
wealthy commutes you can save you don't need the tourist ones right you just don't need people that want to go up and take a selfie over New York City you just don't need those and the flight path of the of the helicopter that broke up actually did go
over earlier in the day uh and it went over uh daycare centers it went over schools it went over apartment buildings so it's not it does not take a lot of imagination to say and it is in one of the whereas which I'll just read whereas the catastrophic helicopter crash last
Thursday could have been even more tragic if this helicopter had flown above and crashed into densely populated areas in Hoboken and Jersey City including schools and daycare centers uh and since 1970 30 separate helicopters have plunged from the skies in New York metropolitan area the owner of New York
helicopter made a comment to the media that things break things break when airplanes break we we wouldn't accept this 30 airplanes crashed in our community we wouldn't accept this helicopters seem to
be literally under the radar in this kind of thing and it's wrong so y I think anyone else we Yeah for both of them both resolutions yes
please call the vote mr con i miss Fischer yes mr jabore yeah President Zano hi Mr canero hi Mr ramos hi Mr russo hi President
Doyle i motion to close second all those in favor i thank you met thank you all we got that in together yeah you you met once