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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=OPKEodK7SOw

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You make changes. You're just That's what I think we're doing if we don't change. >> Listen, you know, you got a good case. >> Yeah, we would be starting from the first one again. >> You think you'll get paid more money? >> Yeah, yeah. >> Well, it sounds like they're ready to

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pack the council chambers with crystal ball people. He's basically told us to brace for It's the whole narrative. He's saying, you know, they're threatening to pack council chambers >> You know what? >> I would read that contract back to them. >> Jared, come on. You ready?

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Give me. Give me. Jared, I'll read it. >> Can't discuss it. >> I would like to advise all those present that notice this meeting has been provided to the public in accordance with the provisions of the Open Public Meetings Act. That notice was published on the city website. Copies were provided in the Bergen Record and also placed on the bulletin board in the

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lobby of City Hall. Written objections, if any, shall be made to the city clerk. Please rise to salute the flag. >> to the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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>> Call the roll, please, Mr. Clerk. >> Mr. Kohn. >> Here. >> Vice Mayor >> Here. >> [clears throat] >> Ms. Fischer >> Yes, here. >> Mrs. Ianniciello >> Here. >> Mrs. Layson >> Here. >> President Arano, Mr. Geterow >> I I hear. >> Mr. Russo >> Present. >> President Ramos

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>> Present. >> I'm present, too. >> Yes, you are. >> Yeah, you missed Councilman What's What's What's his name tonight? >> You missed me. it? Present. >> Yeah, but I didn't get to say present. >> Hello. That's pretty good. >> I'm here. >> We we are going to start our

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our meeting with the proclamation uh presented by Councilman Cohen and Fisher who also served as zoning board as well. >> Yes. [snorts] >> To uh Ms. Carcone, please come up. >> And planning board. >> Yep. >> I'm planning board, too, right? >> Sure. As council, yeah. Oh.

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There she is. >> Congratulations, Pat. >> Thank you. >> So, um oh, that's So, Pat Carcone is retiring. And for those of us who served on the planning board, served on the zoning

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board, spent many an evening alongside you, Pat, uh working quite hard, taking care of us, and also so much you did unseen upstairs with the files on so many applications. We have uh our former

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zoning board chair Firestone's laughing loudly. The the quantity of files that Pat Carcone managed on a daily basis is extraordinary. If you think Hoboken has grown a lot in the last 13 years, Pat can tell you exactly how much it's grown because she's seen every single zoning

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and planning application and dealt with every lawyer, every professional, every architect, every engineer to make sure that every file was complete working with the directors of development, with the planners, with the zoning officers on countless countless ways. And if you

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think that it's easy to grow the city the way it's grown in the last few years, it's not. The administration, the work that goes into is extraordinary, and no one has been a steadier hand than Pat Carcone. So, I have some limericks that were presented by our former council colleague Jim

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Doyle. >> that. >> And I've been asked to present them again. So, I would like to present some of Jim Doyle's author and we all know what a good author Jim Doyle is. >> He read this at the planning board the other night. >> And I'm going to share it with the community. >> it's in two transparencies. Much bigger

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audience now. >> We know planning board secretary Karkoun who leaves neither applicant nor commissioner alone. The vagaries of land use she knew better than anyone else, it's true. And that left her with no choice but to moan.

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That is the first. The second limerick. There once was a planning board secretary named Pat who suffered cats and fools like gnats. She'd dutifully call the vote with fantasies of drifting in her boat wishing retirement would come soon for that.

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And the third and final part of Jim Doyle limerick. We love planning board secretary Karkoun who served like none other we've known. With meetings like a zoo parties threatening to sue, she'd

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mutter, "You reap what you've sown." Congratulations. >> [applause] >> So, my entry into I guess public service in Hoboken is I was on the zoning board for 2 years with that with Phil and with Pat. And

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I I can't stress enough how chaotic or not how chaotic, just how much details, how many moving parts, and how passionate our community is coming in asking questions about applications. And Pat is just as has been this incredibly helpful and

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reliable person along the way both officially and a few unofficial conversations. But one thing I do want to highlight and correct me if I'm wrong here, but Pat has been in this role at a time when we went from paper to digital.

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And boxes and boxes I wasn't even on the city council. I think I was still working at I was on the condo board asking information on the Hudson T and shipyard and everything. I would come and sit in her office and there were boxes of historic documents and she managed to get all of those documents

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online while at the same time, you know, being the the secretary for the zoning and planning boards and it's big giant shoes to fill. I don't know who they're thinking. Have they decided yet? Who's taking your role? Not yet? Yeah. I don't I think I think everyone's just I

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talked to Emily or the mayor and she's just like I don't exactly know what to do. So she leaves big shoes but importantly she leaves a bigger hole. We've just loved her to death since she's been here since I've known her. So thank you very much, Pat.

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>> [applause] >> Here, take this. Okay. Well, thank you very much for the proclamation and I'm truly honored and grateful for the recognition. Um it's been a privilege to serve the city and to work with so many uh dedicated colleagues and contribute to

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our community over the years. I appreciate everyone's support, friendship, and the experiences that we've shared together. And um thank you again for this meaningful acknowledgement. >> [applause] [laughter] >> Uh this is my son, Eddie.

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>> [applause] >> Okay. >> [applause] >> Oh, cheers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone. All right. Yeah. >> We're not done. We're only congratulations. >> Thank you so much. Thank you.

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Okay. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, now we'll have a Council President >> Yeah, uh just Phil, what you did forget to mention is the two lesser boards that Pat dealt with was the Cannabis Review Board and the Hospital Authority Board.

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So, just imagine dealing with everybody who's really fighting to get high and everybody who's dealing with the hospital as well. So, she's done a lot in the city and it's amazing. >> Well-deserved retirement. Now we'll have a pre- Now we'll have a presentation

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and public hearing >> [cough and clears throat] >> for the Hoboken Business Alliance annual budget. >> Good evening. Um got you I got you. >> Here you go. We'll move it up. We'll move it up. >> [snorts] >> Oh, now it's >> Yeah, it's >> I mean >> Sorry. Move back to the middle, Mike.

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>> Is it plugged in? >> Oh, [laughter] yeah, that's right. >> Oh, hold on. Hold on. Now, there's no light. >> No, AI's in charge now. >> Wait. Get nothing. No light. >> Is it plugged in, Jeff? >> No, wait. Hold on.

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It's >> Hold on. >> Just reset it. >> I'm just going to unplug >> There we go. There we go. >> What would we do? >> IT department in a nutshell. Very nice. George, do I need to be sworn in? >> No. >> No, we're good. Okay.

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>> Say your name, title, promise. >> Good evening, everybody. Council President, members of Council, um uh my name is Chris Bernardo. I am the Executive Director of the Hoboken Business Alliance. Uh we are the designated District Management Corporation of the Hoboken Special

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Improvement District. Uh before you tonight is our FY '27 budget for review uh and for your consideration. Uh we have a brief presentation, which I'd like to take you through. Um I'm going to operate off of this right here. >> Do you want me to just

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>> Well, you know, I have a clicker. Hang on. >> Oh, sure. >> You want One of you guys have Yep, we're good. >> We're good. >> Okay. Uh so uh this evening, we are presenting a budget uh in the total amount of 2.6

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million. The uh screen that you see there is our city assessment. Those are the uh the revenue that we are going to draw from the stakeholders. Uh this year, it is uh 2,550,000. That represents a 12% decrease uh from

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last year, and I'll take you through some of the details of that shortly, but I do want to highlight that uh the result of that decrease in our total budget is also going to impact our subdistricts. Uh the percentages that you see there is how they will be

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impacted. Um each district uh has a certain uh percentage that is applied to it for the total budget, and so um the resulting factor here is uh some of the areas are going to have larger percent decreases, some will have smaller, but I

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think um the important point here is that uh this is probably the first year of what will be a two-to-three year cycle in right-sizing the district and lowering the budget and making sure that we are delivering services that are

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critical to our business owners. The biggest piece of this change that we've seen is the administration. This year we are proposing a administration budget of $437,000. That is 17% of our total budget. By way

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of contrast to last year, last year's budget had the same amount exceeding 40% of the total budget. We were able to achieve these decreases through the elimination of salaries, benefits, and services that were really

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a duplication. I think another important number here is the total impact that the staff compensation has had. With this year's budget, we have reduced staff

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compensation by 66% and that equals a 51% reduction in the total administration of the organization, which is what it takes to to run things. Our current administration reflects contracted support that can be adjusted

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based on need, which is consistent with our goal of getting more done with less. I do want to highlight that notwithstanding the reduction in the budget, our goal is to deliver more than what's been delivered before and obviously we're looking to do that with

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a much more efficient staffing model. Just to give some more context here and what this looks like, in 2025, the staffing model, which included salaries, taxes, and benefits totaled $915,000.

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After our reductions and a change in the model, we have reduced that down to $302,000. A pretty significant change, but once again, I do want to highlight that even though we are clearly contracting, our goal is to deliver a higher level of

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service. Marketing and communications this year reflects a 15% reduction from last year. The professional services that we utilize to market the district and to provide communications is currently under review and we are looking at ways

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to deliver those services with greater efficiency. Retail advertising, which is something that we've prioritized this year, reflects a significant shift toward direct retail support. We're increasing our investment in advertising from

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$80,000 to $210,000. Quick highlight there, one of our local partners, the Hoboken Girl, is a piece of our plan this year. We're looking to leverage organizations like that and others to make sure that our business owners

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have as many opportunities as possible to advertise locally, but also to advertise within the region. Special events is also within this category. We are moving away from the grants giving system that had been previously

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done in the district. Our idea here is to do more deliberate planning with our municipal partners and to deliver on programming that meets the need. That includes greater waterfront activations and cultural activities that can be enjoyed

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and valued by those who live here in town, but also can serve as a an attractor to those around the region. One of the one of the I think important examples would be the most recent way parade that was an opportunity that we took advantage of to work with the

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Hoboken Museum and some of our other partners to really highlight the 250th, but also bring us back to the type of community programming that we think is important. And parades and those types of visible activities we think are critical to

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town. Quality of life and public safety is $600,000 this year. That's a slight increase from last year. Our real focus there is the 7-day a week cleaning program that we have on the street. We're also prioritizing pressure washing.

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And this year we are including an onsite manager Tuesday through Saturday that is going to pay closer attention to the at-risk population and give us the ability to move those in need closer to supportive services and

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also make sure that we are paying attention to code management so that nobody is misusing our public amenities and so that they're also not interfering with business operations. This will be done through communications and engagement on the street. And

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where necessary, we will partner with our local police department. We've already developed a good relationship locally with with those that that serve and we're looking to grow this partnership. Visual and capital improvements is a big

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piece to our plan. We are increasing our investment or at least our we are budgeting for an increase of 23% over last year. This includes all of the major physical amenities that you see on the street, especially the the assets around our tree wells, the streetscape,

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and all of the other infrastructure. We are currently collecting quotes on upgrading our tree wells. We're looking at opportunities to do streetscape improvements. Our hope long term is to work with the city on planning out larger streetscape

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improvements and really leveraging the SID mechanism to build the environment around the real estate assets. This also includes our bioswales, which was a fantastic investment that's that the city made a decade ago. Those bioswales need some

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additional attention and support. Our plan is to help preserve those bioswales and really make sure that they are up to par. Seasonal banners and decorations also is a big piece to our plan. We're looking to utilize and leverage our

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our pole infrastructure for more banners and then of course our holiday decorations and ornaments. I think the the important piece to the to visual and capital improvements this year is really our sign and facade grant program. We are looking to set aside $100,000 to be

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put toward improvements to storefronts. That includes signage, it can include lighting, it can also include public seating or supplemental seating in front of restaurants. We're making all of those options available through this grant program.

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Our 12-month goals and objectives really is to collaborate with our municipal partners. We are looking to enhance Washington Street the Washington Street streetscape. We are looking to plan and execute special events that attract visitors and provide community value for

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residents. As I had said earlier, we're also looking to identify shared service opportunities to improve efficiencies and operations within sanitation, parking, and permitting. Retail recruitment vacancies, that is

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another priority that we have this year. We have already started taking a look at local zoning regulations to see where we can make improvements to make it easier to open a business in Hoboken. We're looking to continue that study in partnership with the administration.

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We're also looking to engage a retail recruitment specialist to evaluate market voids or opportunities that we might be missing out on and we can use that information to help inform our real estate community. Small business investment and support. Some of you may

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have seen recently we did a walk through with the NJEDA and also the Hudson County Economic Development Corporation. We are looking to be an aggregator of these programs. We want our businesses to have access to funding, to grants, to technical

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support and we're looking to partner more with state and local resources. That is the conclusion of our presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions that the council may have. >> Councilwoman Fisher? >> Thank you for that. I think at a time

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when all we're seeing is increases, I think there's a lot of appreciation for trying to right-size this budget and get to um something that feels more sustainable and maybe a little bit more cohesive within the community.

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The one one kind of a very specific question. You were talking about like storefronts and I know you're just my history in the past is is uh looking more at um you know, the signage and the lighting

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and all of that. But one of the things that we hear all the time is the empty storefronts whether they're in in most cases they're empty awaiting the next tenant to open and we know that, but one of the things that we've talked about and never done anything about is

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what what can we do to come up with something that that puts like murals or you know, like those graphics in the empty storefronts while they're empty so they don't look empty anymore. Is that something that we can do or we

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can ordain it? Maybe it's a program. Is it something that you think are we too late for it to be, you know, something that potentially could fit into this year's budget? Um >> Yeah, I think activating storefronts is definitely something that we can do as part of our retail recruitment.

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There are nuances associated with each space, right? Some spaces look like they're vacant, but actually something else is going on behind the scenes. One of the things that I think that we can do better is finding out sooner what's actually happening in those spaces. And in fact,

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that is part of our plan to inventory these spaces and get a better sense of where the opportunities might be to one get in There could be zoning issue that we're I spoke to our city looking to update there. Right? We want to make it easier to for instance for a change of use. A change of use can cost 20 to

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25,000 dollars and take 6 months to a year to get. That's just not sustainable for our business community. But in terms of leveraging our local artists and leveraging other resources to fill those spaces, that's definitely I think an opportunity that we can pursue.

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>> I I guess I'm thinking more of the filling in all of the windows with some sort of like graphic of Hoboken or something. So, it's not just hanging some art where you're still looking into an empty storefront. It's more covering the empty storefront so they they don't jump out at you. They don't have those

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big for rent signs that sit there for 8 months. Yeah, exactly. >> Yeah, we can certainly look into that. I'm not 100% sure whether there's any code that would prevent us from from doing that in terms of filling the whole window, but

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if it's something that we think has value, we can certainly look at upgrading >> I think we want to talk about creating code that requires it. So, that that's the the conver- conversation. And then the second piece, you and I had a recent

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conversation about a new store opening. We were talking about Bodega cards and you weren't yet aware of them. And so, and I think they've been open for 8 months or something, 6 6 months. Yeah. Um how how do we what do we have to do

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in the city to notify you that a new business is opening so you are aware of it and you like is there is that connection there or do we you know, do we need to do something different where we have better kind of technology and data connection

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between the Hoboken Business Alliance and the people it serves? >> Yeah, I think um we've looked at a number of different uh options for for doing that and probably the the best option would be just a simple quarterly update that

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comes from licensing to our office and then we can upgrade our records. Yeah. >> Did you hear that? The licensing? Yeah, it was um for >> sharing the records. >> Just just like the example I gave was the the um the Bodega cards is like

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whatever we get as a city when we know they're going to open it, we just give them immediately so they know there's a new business cuz this business happens to be very successful and Chris wasn't yet aware of it and I feel like we have the ability to close that gap. >> And I also still meet businesses that don't know you exist. So I think that

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will help bridge that gap. >> And Councilwoman, just so you're aware, my sense is is that once we complete the study that we're doing >> Yeah. >> that will if unless we do it you know, unless we do it before the completion of the study, that would likely be one of the recommendations that would be part of that.

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>> Great. Thanks. >> Councilman Zanet and Councilman Russo. >> Um sitting on the HBAs a representative for the council, uh I'm pleased that they took a different structure where

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salaries were reduced and services were that money that was saved on salaries and staff went is going now towards more programming. And they're also changing their programming from a little bit of a different model of kind of piecemeal. I'm not saying piecemeal, but

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every little event to kind of looking at something where it has a massive impact in the town. Um the conversations at the meeting at least with me is a lot of I give a lot of pushback on certain things. So, I'm fighting from that perspective. Um there are some

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things that you know, I wish the city would be doing and not the HBA because they're taking over some city functions uh that I feel should not be taken care of, but that's a personal opinion and I voiced that at every meeting. Um there is one problem with wrapping windows. You're not allowed to cover it

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because Anne Holtzman will come after you and get you for >> Until we change the law. >> Unless you change the law, but then >> retiring. >> But then you're going to have every single business in town want the same thing. So, I'm just giving you a heads-up opening a can of worms. And that fly doesn't like me, either. Um

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but from that perspective, but I I think they under new leadership here that's a step in the right direction and that I think we'll see some benefits uh going forward. So, um I'm supportive of this budget tonight. >> Councilman Fires on the Councilman Cohen.

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>> Thank thank you, Council President, and thank you, Chris, for this presentation. Um I found it tremendously helpful and I agree with Councilman Presenzano that this is definitely going in the right direction. Uh just as a new council member, I was hoping that you could educate me a little bit more though on

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different components of your budget because what I'm looking at is the largest component is marketing and communications of your budget. But then when I see the detail of it, it's dealt out by location, not necessarily by function.

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And your budget's by function, and then you're showing expenses or or or changes to the SID related to specific areas. So, I was hoping that you could give me a better sense for what that number of marketing and communication represents,

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what the highest drivers are of it, and how you see it potentially being reduced over the next few years. >> Yeah, Councilman, I'd be happy to give you sort of the the broad strokes right here, and then I can go into greater detail separately on some of the some of the

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items, but I think >> some of the documents we've already received, fantastic. Just point me to >> It's a meeting up you guys can >> Got it. >> Councilman Cohen >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you, Council President. Um First, a basic question. I I I asked you

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this I think at the Taste of Hoboken, Mr. Engler, I'm sorry. Thanks. Uh at the Taste of Hoboken for your email address because there's a local business I wanted to put but I didn't write it down. So, if you could tell me if people want to get in touch with you as the director, what is a good email for

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>> Uh best email for me is chris@publicspaces.com. >> Public spaces plural? >> publicspaces.com >> Got it. >> Yep. And um I think it would be a good time for me also just to highlight we have local staff members that are residents here of

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Hoboken. Um they are here tonight, Tory Moreno and Natalia Tom Muzak from my firm. >> Yeah. >> Um just so you're aware, we we manage and support multiple special improvement

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districts, and so we have a very flexible staffing model, and we can you know >> Well, if whomever can be of assistance to this individual She had told me that she had tried to reach out to get assistance and did not get a response. So, uh when you're when you get back to your seat, you'll get an email from me. It's

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all right. I just hit the send button now. So, you'll have that. Um I know that there's been a change of leadership in in the role of executive director, and you're serving in that capacity at this time. My understanding is that you it's not a full-time position for you that you that

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is there a plan to have a full-time executive director is there any kind of transition plan in place or is this the is this the leadership model that's intended >> this is the leadership model for this year and we're looking to you know obviously

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advance a number of these programs. Down the road the flexibility allows us to have someone who let's say is more full-time and we'll we'll cross that bridge when we get to it but I think for right now we're looking to really kind of

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right-size the budget right-size the program and not pay for more than what we actually need. >> And let me be clear I'm very happy with the with the reduction in the numbers it's great that you can deliver the same services for less that's what we're asking from all of our city agencies. I

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was just curious because that was not something that was addressed in your presentation as to what So so the structure that's in place right now that is the board is looking to maintain that for the indefinite future at this point. >> Correct yes. >> Okay that's all thank you. >> Councilor Russo. >> Council president thank you. Chris

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[clears throat] first off thank you so much. I don't know if they warned you Chris but I'm probably the biggest critic of the special improvement district here. >> I've heard. >> In the city. Uh two two my gripes two of my biggest gripes since its inception. One was I always

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thought that we were bloated and we were spending way too much money. We were assessing our residents way too much money to perform the duties of what the improvement district was doing throughout the city and a lot of that evidence is now starting to come through right? So last year alone we overcharged

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our residents by $600,000 because of a bloated administration side of this special improvement district. And it's something that I've been talking about since its inception. So I'm glad that we're going in the direction. But, the other part that always

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was always an issue for me was the third largest subdistrict of contributions is that hybrid district, which in essence is the property owners. They're not the storefronts. They're not the brick-and-mortar businesses in

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Hoboken. So, I've asked this probably every year since we started in the city of Hoboken, but what exactly >> Yeah. >> in everything that you presented here tonight, are they getting Are they eligible for the $100,000 worth of grants?

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>> Yes. >> Can So, so uh a property owner could apply for that grant for beautification of their stoop or their facade. They're still eligible. >> Absolutely. >> Good. Um what as far as those

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relationships when it comes to uh building new relationships with new storefronts or new businesses coming into town, how does that affect those property owners? What in that is a benefit to them? >> Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> Right? That that's something that I've

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been asking for years. And And the answer I always get is, "Well, you know, all ships rise with the tide." And quite honestly, that's BS to me, right? Those Those property owners are paying a hefty portion of what's going into this, and they really get no benefit of it. So, please enlighten me.

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>> Yeah. Yeah, Councilman, I think um first, I think you make a great point. Um and the idea that a rising tide floats all boats is certainly um something that has been used over the years in in many districts. But, in Hoboken, um we

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purposely in 2019 set out to create a um a town-wide special improvement district. And the nature of those districts, not just here, but in other places in New Jersey, is to create a tiered system uh that can um accommodate

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flexibility with the idea that um the major commercial corridors will receive more services and some of the periphery areas will receive less and uh that is how we we will fund economic development in our town. Uh I am not a big proponent

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of that model. Um my sense is is that the hybrid district that you're referring to is something that we should be reviewing this year and taking a very close look at. Um I'm happy to do that with you and with and with the council and see

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whether or not there are changes that are warranted because they very well very well may be. Um and that would be consistent with our um our goal to right-size the dis right-size the district to make sure that we're focusing on the most critical

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areas, the commercial areas, and delivering those services in an efficient way because I would also highlight that the average uh payer within the hybrid pays about $600 a year, which honestly um may not really be the the best value for

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us when you take into account the geographic size of the district. So, if we were going to do a financial analysis of the district and we were going to compare it against the geography, we may find that um that it doesn't actually make economic sense uh for the district as a whole to

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include it. That's a a review that I would be happy to do in partnership with you. >> Great. I appreciate that. Couple of the points. Um knowing this year's been a rough year, right? We we're looking at a 24% tax increase at the school board, a 12% tax roughly, right? 12% tax increase in the

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city, 5% tax tax increase at the county. We have our residents are being assessed for uh art, for housing, for the special improvement district, water and sewage is going up, utilities are going up. I

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mean, it's just a it it is uh everything is hitting at once. All right. So, are we looking at some of the things that the Improvement District is going to try to take on as services? Are we coordinating that with the city so that

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the city is no longer performing those services so that now we're not getting hit with that expense on the city side and then we're also getting hit with the assessment through the special Improvement District. Is that coordination happening and what are the results of that to today?

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>> Yeah, so regardless of whether we're looking at a town wide bid or a bid that is focused on just one singular commercial district, part of our charge is to strengthen and augment municipal services and finding opportunities to do that. And I think

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there's plenty of opportunities to do that here in Hoboken and I referenced a few of those in my presentation. We are working closely with the administration and as as far as the governing body is concerned, I think that you should your directive to us should be to work with

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the administration and make sure that we have a productive partnership. That's how we can leverage the value of the SID mechanism to its highest level and I think we are positioned to do that very well and I would absolutely

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want to look at those services that are currently being performed wholly by the municipality, taking a fresh look at some of those to see where we can take on some or all of those services. >> Love it. Love love love that. And my

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goal is here to eliminate any of the redundancy, right, between the city [clears throat] and and SID. And then the last point is as far as any contracts, any businesses that city is employing. Are they all Hoboken businesses? Are we contracting out

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outside of the city of Hoboken? And if we are, why are we? Why are we not promoting those businesses here, local businesses in the city? >> Yeah. I'm currently doing a review of that right now, and we are going to prioritize Hoboken staffing and Hoboken

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businesses. I very purposely during the transition made my board aware that I wasn't going to be looking for outside of Hoboken for staff support. I have brought in Hoboken residents, one

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of which is a lifelong resident here in Hoboken, and our goal is to identify as many local vendors as we can to serve the district. With that said, it's not always easy because sometimes, you know, you're dealing with a small geographic region, and or to get an

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appropriate service, sometimes you have to look elsewhere, but you can rest assured my commitment to this governing body and to this administration is to look within Hoboken, and if not Hoboken, certainly within Hudson County to provide

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services. My firm is based in Jersey City on Newark Avenue right at the border of the Heights and Journal Square. And so, you know, I'm invested in Hudson County. I'm also prepared to make an investment in Hoboken if it's necessary in terms of

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local local office, but I think the highlight here is that we can do without it for now, which is something that keeps our overhead low and allows us to put more more of these stakeholder dollars on the street. >> The talent pool in Hoboken is

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extraordinary. It may be small in in geography, >> Yeah. >> but it is vast. >> Tell me about it. I've got some some great staff that I'm very proud of. Yeah. >> So, I appreciate all your comments. I appreciate you kind of digging into that, and I'm looking forward to sitting with you. I don't know if you got me to vote for it this year, but I can tell

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you this, you got me at least moving in the right direction. >> That's good enough for me, Councilman. >> Appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Motion to close the >> No. >> Can I Can I just one quick follow-up if you don't mind something that councilman Russo raised? One of the things that um

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I I feel like hasn't been addressed is we know that probably 40% of the payments that you receive the assessment comes from residential investment, right? So,

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when we first set up the HBA, the you know, it was work, shop, stay, and live here. That live was a huge component and and it was hard, you know, it it we had to think proactively. What can we do for the residential buildings that are

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they're considered commercial investments, but they're all residential, right? And they range from, you know, I know Rose Markel's here, very vocal. She has a rent-controlled building, 10 units, but we also have market, you know, applied is has I think 26, 27% of the total

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assessment. And so, some of the things that we did a while ago was, you know, doing the the dog pick-up baskets, trying to think like what to do in the hybrid area. And so, what what How are you thinking about that? And you know,

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are there ideas that you could have I mean, some of the ideas we had, for example, is putting benches throughout the city. People want to walk through the city and they can't because there's not enough places to just stop and rest. But but how are you thinking about how to serve

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the live part of it, not just our, you know, our more obvious retail owners? >> Yeah, the 4C properties are always going to be an important piece, not just to the business district, but also to the community. One of the things that I like to focus

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on is building the physical environment around those real estate assets to preserve their value, and obviously to make them more productive for the property owner. Looking forward, you know, we can look at ways that we can partner with the city to do larger

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infrastructure projects within those areas, but even with that, we also have to look at the economics of it to see whether or not it makes sense given the the large geographic area. I'd be happy to explore that with the administration. I think we might be able to find some opportunities and in partnership with

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Councilwoman Russo, I think with this year we can take a a close look at the Hybrid area, which is primarily comprised of 4C properties, and see what makes sense. Going backwards to the formation of the SID, one of the things that might be might

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might have been good was to start smaller and focus on incremental improvements. One of the things that I've found over the years is it's a much better situation to have stakeholders asking for the services

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once you've demonstrated that there's value up to those services, and that might be something that we want to explore here. >> I What I What I would recommend, and I've recommended this in the past, is to just especially now, I think the total amount from the Hybrid is 15% of the

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total budget, is just cut it in half. Is just reduce the amount the literally just reduce the amount. Like you reduce the total budget by 12%. You could have taken all of it out of the Hybrid. It's the one area that it has the most numbers in it, but it's it's a a bigger struggle to get money

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to there. I I can tell you when we originally started it, you you couldn't There were two main things. One, you couldn't necessarily generate enough just using like the commercial area by the path to do anything. And two, you know, how do you tell We We always said out of strata cuz

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it's just like at 8th and Park, right? Like how do you tell a a great restaurant in the the of Hoboken that they don't get to be part of a, you know, Hoboken Restaurant Week, right? There we we the group of business owners really struggled with how do you carve

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out a piece and say, "I'm sorry, you businesses in this area aren't included." So, that's really what drove the original doing the whole city. But but I would think about just cutting um cutting the hybrid and and reallocating to Main Street and putting

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it back in the north um etc. and reducing that rate. >> Yeah, well, Councilwoman, I think you make a great point and I think we are seeing proof of concept in that to the in in that when you look at for instance um Hudson um uh Hudson Place Plaza, um

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that uh area is going to require a significant amount of investment, uh monies and resources that the city just doesn't have to support it. And the special improvement district is in a great position to be able to do that, to be able to support the infrastructure,

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uh the plantings, uh the regular maintenance and upkeep. Those are going to be expensive items that we're going to need to invest in. And so, I think a strong case could be made to um move more of our budget toward that that area

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and reduce the other areas. The um the hybrid this year in this year's budget that's being proposed uh is only $330,000. And so, we could very easily move that into the other areas. >> Thank you. >> Good. All right, motion to close? >> Motion. >> All in favor? >> Aye.

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>> Aye. >> All right, let's go to >> All right, hearing on an ordinance amending chapter 179, special improvement districts of Hoboken Hoboken City Code. >> Patricia Waiters? >> Um And what?

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>> Wall of Den I am. >> What? >> No, she's just >> I just didn't know what you said. I couldn't hear you. >> Patricia Waiters, could we start with page one? >> Uh >> But we just speak speak about justice. >> Just J-44? That's the presentation he just gave?

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>> Yes. >> I agree with Mike. When he first stood up here, he thought it was comical, but I didn't laugh when he said, "I heard about you, Mike." Good good job and keep your eyes open is all I can say cuz that's horrible. We've seen so many businesses old old from

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Don's Bakery. I could get emotional and stand here and say everyone that suffer the impact behind this same business alliance while the top heavy's pockets is getting full and they don't care about us that live here. It's horrible. It's a disgrace. Thanks, Mike. >> Amen.

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Uh [clears throat] any other speakers on J-44? >> Motion close public portion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Aye. >> Now [clears throat] is the council? All right, call the vote. Mr. Calhoun. >> Aye. >> Mr. Firestone. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer. >> Yes.

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>> Mrs. Imesh. >> Yes. >> Mr. Layson. >> Yes. >> President Cano. >> Aye. >> Mr. Cordero. >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo. >> Aye. >> President Ramos. >> Aye. >> Hearing on an ordinance amending redevelopment plan for the Southwest

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rehabilitation area. >> Pat Waiters. >> Ruben, is this your community development block grants? Or you talking about 13th Street redevelopment project? >> is a project uh 9 Patterson Avenue. >> That ain't the housing authority four

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project. Thank you. I'll be back up for that. >> Thank you. >> Motion close public portion. >> Manny Vera Soler. >> This guy wants >> Thank you. >> Ruben. >> Ruben. Ruben, looks like we have another >> Sorry. >> This is about the increased height?

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Of 9 Patterson? >> Patterson. >> Yeah. >> Gaff, yeah. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, I'm not speaking for the 20 people on the email chain, but ultimately we all agreed previously to a specific height. The city agreed to it. The developers agreed to it. I don't

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understand how this city is now pointing to the developers telling us that because they can't make money the height needs to be increased. We had an agreement. Not certain why it's being broken or modified now, but ultimately

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you know, you guys have to do what you guys got to do, but oh I've voiced my concerns, my opinion. So, ultimately at this point I'm standing here just going the extra [snorts] 10 ft really doesn't bother me too much, but at the end of

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the day it's ridiculous the fact that we had an agreement and the fact that you guys are changing that agreement all for the developer's purpose. And I don't know who the developer is, but if it's Anastasi, then I don't know. It's ridiculous [snorts] cuz it's

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Anastasi. Guys, please. Stop. >> You're the developer? >> Kyle, stop. >> me to talk to you? Cuz I'll talk to you. >> Kyle, stop. >> Don't you try to start that. >> Hey, over here, buddy. Thank you. Thank you. >> Who do you think you're talking to? >> Hey. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, you're the developer. You want some more money? Go Go build it better.

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Go Go make more space. >> All right, buddy. We're over here. We're good. >> Don't look at me like that. >> I have no idea. >> Sorry. Guess what? >> Sorry. Sorry, you're doing good. >> I'm okay. >> Over here. >> They shut his mouth. You didn't >> You don't have to say anything. >> You You should not have been interrupted. You're right. You should

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not have been interrupted. So, ultimately [ __ ] that guy. And at the end of the day, I don't really care. >> Don't say that either. >> I'm going to say exactly what I wanted to say there. Cuz ultimately I have this floor, I have the 5 minutes. I could stand here and say nothing, but ultimately we've sat here and done

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everything right from a community perspective, from the fourth ward. We've We've talked to you. We've had emails with you guys. And ultimately you've now changed everything that you guys previously said you would do and agreed to. All on the benefit of that guy

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who just broke in here into my conversation when I had to say cuz he had he had to get in here. So, I'm done. I don't want to say anymore, but at this point, I'm furious, and so are a lot of our neighbors, and we're going to remember that in the Fourth Ward, okay?

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>> Appreciate it. Thank you. Antonio Grana. Thank you, Council President. I'm here to speak about Nine Patterson, and hope I'm in the right place at the right time. Okay, great. So, let me just begin a few things. I just want to say I'm speaking exclusively tonight as a private citizen and a Hoboken resident.

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I have no professional or financial relationship to this project or to the developer. And I also want to acknowledge all of you for the long-standing redevelopment process that we've embarked upon in the Fourth Ward. Our collective effort has been making a difference, and these

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things don't happen by accident. I do want to give some historical patterns, you know, context to Nine Patterson, which is you know, remember this area was industrial, disconnected, underutilized, traffic-heavy, lacking any kind of neighborhood center with thriving

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activities. We collectively invested in the Southwest Park, the expansion of that park, pedestrian improvements, and importantly, redevelopment improvements that are improving our neighborhood. They're bringing things to the neighborhood that people have been wanting and asking for.

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So, I want to say something about um this this project, and the thing that I liked about it. It was pretty simple. The developer arrived without a fixed concept, didn't demand acceptance, came in, the neighborhood was engaged, concerns were raised, we gave feedback, they evolved the project,

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and I think this is really important because what the neighborhood has been talking about for years is we need two things. We need open space. Thank you all. And [snorts] we need the activation of the space as part of our community center. This project is kind of like for

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us the final piece in this pie. We got 38 Jackson which is a wonderful addition to the neighborhood. It brings all kinds of services that didn't exist. And we really worked with this, you know, giving feedback to this developer that not only a beautiful building there but the activation of that ground commercial

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space was so important to us which this project brings. It's open. It's it's inviting. It's about bringing life to this um to this corner. So, I really think that as this project moves forward in a way it all of these projects should move in a way that's consistent with our

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goals as a as a city and our goals as a neighborhood. And I think considering how long and how complicated this process can be as you all know, I think it's worth you know, acknowledging that the applicant has stayed with us, has been open to revision as we've gone on.

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And I just want to say as a citizen of this neighborhood um and a resident of this neighborhood, I wholeheartedly support the approval of my Patterson. I thank you for your time. Thank you. Uh Motion to close the public hearing? >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye.

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>> Members of the council? Call the vote. >> Mr. Cohen. >> Aye. >> Firestone. >> Yes. >> Fisher. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Imah. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Laishan. >> Yes. >> President Zanow. >> Aye. >> Mr. Quintero. >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo. >> Aye. >> President Ramos.

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>> Aye. >> Babe 47's been carried to the July 8th council meeting. Hearing on an ordinance amending the effective date of an ordinance amending chapter 110-17 of the Hoboken City Code requirement waste containerization for

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large multi-family buildings. >> Uh Pat Waters? >> Waters. >> Go to the next one, Room. >> Manny Rivera Soler? >> Uh yeah. I'll get it. Come, Manny. >> Thank you, Council President. Manuel Rivera Soler, uh Hoboken 6th Ward

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resident. Council President, I was going to yield again, but uh I know that uh hearing the sound of my voice makes it all better. >> Everyday. >> Right? Okay, never mind. But anyway, good evening, Council President. Good evening, Council members, members of the public. Council President, I was at the

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caucus meeting, obviously. Um and there were questions, again, like I always say, there were questions um presented and concerns by members of the council. Some of them got their um their information from it from their questions, but members of the

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public are still waiting for some questions that weren't um completely de- um spoken on at the council caucus meeting. So, can you give more light um and more details in regards to is this just particularly for the multi-family

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buildings, as it says, and it says large, but what what do you consider being the large? Is it four four four stories, or what? And how does the having this ordinance today, is it just

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to, as was [snorts] mentioned in the caucus meeting, to extend time for more input for the ordinance, or just to give time for the um I would say the landlords, for for

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lack of a better word, um to comply with the ordinance, or to give further details. If you can provide uh that bit of um additional details, Council President, members of the public would greatly appreciate it. And uh with that, Council President, I thank you for your

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attention and I yield back. >> Record. >> Just can I just for 1 second? Um I'll answer and also for everyone watching, we've extended the date on this. This is This is an ordinance to work with all of

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the large buildings greater than 50 units to containerize their garbage, which is a goal of the city. Um it's been very problematic for many of the buildings that weren't built for what um is being conceived. So all this

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does is extends the date 6 months to December to give more time to understand what what what what can be done and get and collect more input from large buildings. So if there are large buildings, Maxwell, I know um

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uh Councilman Cohen, uh Councilman Russo, myself, we've been hearing from large building owners and condo boards really struggling with this. And so we're letting them know they have an extra 6 months and we're going to work with them to figure out what this

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ordinance should actually be. So it's kind of just kicking the can a little bit. >> Yep. >> We'll vote. >> Close the hearing. >> Uh motion to close public hearing, I apologize. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Aye. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Cohen. >> Aye. >> Mr. Firestone. >> Yes. >> Ms. Fisher. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iannucci.

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>> Yes. >> Mrs. Leysen. >> Yes. >> President Zano. >> Aye. >> Mr. Guterro. >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo. >> Aye. >> President Ramos. >> Aye. >> You got your public portion on resolutions. We have Rose Marco.

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>> Thank you. I'll try to be quick. Um I'm going to start with the claims. I see that there's two job postings, so I guess the hiring freeze just went out the window. A little bit of smoke and mirrors. Um seven lawsuits against the city. And that's just what I'm reading on this

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uh claims for this week. So, I'm not sure if they're higher or not. But, maybe if the city did right, we could be saving a whole lot of money here and wouldn't have these personal lawsuits. 12 lawsuits against property owners. I'm not sure if they're all on behalf of tenants, but I'm sure some are. Still not sure how that's legal,

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but, you know, it is what it is. All we keep doing is paying lawyers. There's a check given to the St. Mary's Advocates. It's a thrift store in town. So, over $6,000. So, I Googled what that would be, and it's the CDBG funds that are highly

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flexible and generally used to achieve one of three national objectives. To benefit low-moderate income persons, to prevent or eliminate slums and blight, or to meet urgent health and welfare needs. Common activities include housing rehabilitation, public facilities, infrastructure, economic development,

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providing loans or grants to small businesses and micro enterprises to create jobs. Maybe someone can clear this up for me because I'm I'm not sure how a thrift store that's run on volunteers and charges for the clothing is given this grant money. And it's from

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2024, the invoice. Oh, my favorite, the Cultural Affairs Office. They bought supplies for the Spring Fest in ShopRite. Are we now supplying lunch for employees? Recreation. What happened to sponsors paying for the uniforms? I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, Councilman

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Russo. Uh, all of a sudden it seems the taxpayers are footing the bill for all sorts of uniforms. When my son played, taxpayers didn't pay. Whoever sponsored them did. Why do all the parking enforcement agents ride around in leased vehicles?

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They used to walk the streets and hand out tickets and you collected lots more money. Imagine the money we could save if they were back on the streets and weren't leasing all these vehicles. Morris County Public Safety. It says students to be determined. Will this be run here in Hoboken, or will we be

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paying to send them to Morris County? $700 for a street name sign. Can someone tell us where the sign is and who it is named after? Parking utility, $3,200 for 200 blank aluminum signs. Are these the new stop signs that are being placed all around Hoboken?

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>> Yes. >> A1, my favorite, business alliance. I've been here since the beginning, 7 years, telling you what a scam this is against small landlords. And not all 4C properties are given this tax. Just the small just some of us would have

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cherry-picked and we're forced to pay this. And just as an FYI, I haven't ate family not 10. >> What did you say? >> Eight family, not 10. >> Oh, sorry. >> Our fee has been decreased, which I'm grateful for, but it shouldn't be there at all. A component of this new plan

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is um that they're going to take care of the risk population. Really? Should the city be taking care of this? Not sure. I paid taxes that take care of this. Shouldn't be part of the budget, but you know, hey, I didn't write this budget. The city needs to re- regroup. We have all these social workers and it's just

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not working. Problems still exist. How is the HBA going to fix it? They also want to take care of trees on Washington Street. That's the That's the problem of the landlord. What do you say to the landlords that don't live on Washington Street? They have to take care of their trees, but we're going to

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take care of the ones up there? Not really fair, especially in this economy right now. CD1, here's a really good one. The South End Lofts, we're giving them the budget luxury building affordable housing funds to cover HOA fees

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and part of the rents. What is the cost of an affordable unit in this building? I really can't wrap my head around this. The cheapest unit I found in there was $875,000. How do they even apply for affordable housing funds? CD2, portion of this grant is going to

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homeless shelters to pay for salaries. 10,000 for Alzheimer's Care Project. I guess that's the least you can do since you completely cut out the adult daycare for dementia Alzheimer's patients. When is the Boys & Girls Club used for the general public? Last I know, it's just a a school. 30,000 towards AC.

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How can public see the results of this grant money? How many kids actually attend the camp? Hoboken Education Foundation is getting money. I don't really understand that when we just got a 24% increase in taxes for the schools. How many low-income students get this

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actual resource? One item I can say I am actually happy about is the new AC for the Multi Service Center. Although you had to go and ruin it by adding in $27,000 for staff and consultants. When I replaced my AC unit, called a man, got a price, and he installed it. Didn't have to have planners and somebody say, "Oh, we need

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it here, there, or everywhere." This total grant is almost a million dollars and within that, 97,000 is for admin and planning. Go figure. CC, the whole bunch of them. Increase, increase, increase on legal fees. Can't imagine you will stay within the budget

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that's put forth in our new tax increase. F1, 50,000 from FIFA. Uh the backup says you're putting it into the budget, but they say it must be used for community engagement. So, how does that relate? I need someone to explain that to me. Was this part of

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the 2026 budget because it's a one-time deal? I5, [snorts] so far $175,000 for plumbing issues issues, sorry. Where exactly are these issues and are they for new projects? And if they are, maybe we should hold the contractor, planner, and engineer responsible.

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TX1 and TX2, my other favorites. $110,000 in overpayments that haven't been asked for by the landlord yet. And you're that you're being asked just to put it back into the budget. I guess that makes sense. $17,000 is being refunded, an overpayment of taxes.

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And I'm just going to get it over with so I have to come back up again. First reading number six. We want new construction to cost more than it already does to make the window safer for birds. Instead of just saying cut the height so maybe the birds will fly over the damn

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buildings, but whatever. How is this making anything more affordable because more money they spend, the more money they're going to charge someone else. And this is a real major concern. I guess I should identify as a burden I'd get better treatment by the city. Since I read the entire agenda, I figured I should give a summary to

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taxpayers and that's why I mentioned some of these items. Thank you. >> Thank you. Pat Waters. Pat Waters. >> Excuse me, could you take heed to what Roe just said? And I'm serious. I'm looking at our papers, my paper, Roe's paper, and Mandy's paper almost look

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alike. So please don't sit up there and take a known disregard. Seriously, it's going to get more emotional the next 3 years. We just went over this budget situation and immediately after y'all passed the budget to do this here look very disingenuous. This is not good at

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all and I need a detail. I have mine circle too for these development block grants because I'm still in and out of court. I'm still up at the freeholders watching every penny of that rent re-intervention money and people in the housing

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authority getting evicted. Getting evicted and all of this community development block grant money could be going for that. I need an explanation and I'm serious Mr. Ramos cuz this is mind-bothering and the fact that they rent is going up

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eight and $900. And Mr. Firestone, I said it right this time. You just admit to all of us that you relatively new on the board. Please do your homework cuz half of these attorneys that you and I love Kenny. I

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love Kenny and them. They on here and I'm tired of being retaliated against cuz I'mma come up here and call you out. Do your homework cuz most of these increases and the new contract is ridiculous. And out of y'all, I watched the caucus and out of council's mouth, she goes, "Well, they going to charge us

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anyway." Your sole duty is to prevent lawsuits. Not keep creating lawsuits on the back of these taxpayers. You did not do your homework. For years, Able did nothing for us. I sent so many

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people that's having issues with their housing. And he do can't get in touch with them. They getting checks, collecting checks and don't even be in our municipality. And like the other young men said before he start getting attacked, it's sad. You know why, Mike? When he said, "Oh, Mike,

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I heard about you." Our town has become so vulnerable. And we sit here week after week with these agendas and y'all say call a vote and y'all start chasm and looking in our face and it hurts. Because we getting elected officials

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that volunteered to run cuz somebody recruited them and you playing with our livelihood in Hoboken. This is a disgrace and I want answers. I'mma sit here all night, but I want answers cuz we ain't getting nowhere with the caucus and I want to know the first thing here for close session. Did

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you take action on CS1? Was action taken? >> Not yet. >> Okay, respectfully, thank you, Council President. That's what I want to know. And everything else on this agenda, but please, especially those CD grants, I need Chris up here explaining why the Housing Authority people is not getting

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money, that they taking chunks of change out of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. And housing ain't affordable for nobody here no more, right, Mike? Church towels everywhere going up. >> Dr. Brows down here, Director Gonzalez, getting the CDBG

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grant funding. >> city >> item was carried. >> Excuse me? >> Until the next meet- the CDBG item was carried until the next meeting. CDBG CD2 Didn't we carry CD2? I don't know that we I mean, I I raised concerns. I don't know >> CD3 was carried.

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>> Did we carry CD2? We did. Oh, it does. Okay. >> CD2, I apologize. Okay. Let's go. Manny Rivera Soler >> Thank you, Council President. Once again, I appreciate once again the attention. I appreciate the members of the public who spoke

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before me. One of the members of the public basically uh did my job. She went through most all of the things that I was going to go through, but I'm going to reiterate a few. First of all, of course, I'm going to start off with what you did earlier with the

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proclamation for Pat Calzone. It is true. No harder working employee could you have. No person who understands the procedures of zoning and planning. She will be sorely missed. I hope someone with equal caliber comes and fulfills that position. Council

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President, also in reports from the office, how about if we can understand a little bit better when we receive these um uh reports, especially the one that's for the court, do does the city receive

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that money completely or is there an abatement for the municipal court? And in the claims, Council President, I also echo in sentiments in administration A1. Uh Council President, every every time they come here, every time they give you

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the information for anyone, I don't care how many degrees you may all have and congratulations if you do. If they give you report, it's hard for you to go to every single detail of that report. If you get it today and then you're going to vote on it today as well. You should have that way in advance. You should

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tell the people what's going on. I do appreciate many of the things that they do, but there are certain things that their their price list $600 for quality of life. Where is my quality of life? How is it improved? Because I walk

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through the streets, the streets are mismanaged, dirty, um dog feces, many other things, especially in the Washingtons on the weekend. So, if you could tighten the grip on that one and maybe get some maybe the people will feel better for this organization or this organization

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should, as I always say, should be maybe abolished or sent to another office for it to be um uh a private uh entity with uh uh the businesses because everybody's not being served. It sounds good in paper,

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but a lot of us don't feel that we're being served and it is hard because we do need it. Because I would like to know where do they advertise, what do they do to bring in more people? Covering up the the um empty storefronts is not going to

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help anybody. Don't beautify it. Leave it there. Let it be shame for all of the people to see that they're empty. >> I don't know which one to >> Then, Council President, also I also again a a two No questions were asked in the caucus.

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And community uh development, if you did take CD2, that's good, but people need more information on it. Council President, I'm going to ask you to please identify all of the CD1, CD3, CD4. And also, Council President, there's there's some information here on

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corporate council. Again, we understand I was at the caucus meeting. Uh corporate council gives very good information, but um she it is behooving to give members of the public, like former council, uh, corporate council used to do, an understanding that money

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that's being allocated here is because it's oversight. You're letting people understand that that money is already in the budget, but it's being paid, um, piecemeal, sort of, for lack of a better phrase. But, it is also important to understand that there is too many too

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many lawyers. I thought we were going to be able to do more in-house. Uh, and in the clerk, Council President, I also want to say again, um, congratulations to Mr. Blanos for his reappointment. And, um, no better person could you reappoint. This one I'm

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wholeheartedly and and truly, um, in favor of. C L3 and finance, of course, F1. Council President, and no one asked questions in, um,

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what is it called? Infrastructure. And, infrastructure has I4. It's very important to understand what that is. Council, I believe there wasn't a question, but there was a a clarification by Council Member, uh, Fisher. It's very good that she would give that information back to the people

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because it is important. If we can clean up those wires, that would be great. And, Council President, before my time goes away, um, I'm going to just say public safety. No questions were asked. And, then I'm going to go to T2. And,

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Council President, it is so important when you do introductions for first reading, there are nine. That means that nine times any member of the public could come up here next meeting. So, we appreciate it if you give me that information now, maybe it won't be so

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heavy next meeting. There's possibly even 10 because you you you carried one from this agenda. So, my concern is six. Six, seven, eight, and nine. Six is the bird friendly. That I disagree a little with

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member of the public, but yes. >> This was that's that's ordinance. And resolutions. >> I guess my time is done. I don't know if somebody's telling me time is done, but anyway, please please and it be be fair with those when you when you

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discuss introduction for first reading. >> No. >> Because I don't know if I can speak so much next meeting. Thank you. >> You're going to have to. >> I'll be back. >> Thank you, Manny. Mr. Soriano. Uh CD1 is the affordable housing assistance program.

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47 individuals receiving rental assistance from the affordable housing trust fund. And also will be supporting down payments and HOA fee assistance for those who are uh were successful and won the lottery for 38 Jackson Street. That was allocating those funds. The CD2

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is carried. Uh CD3 is the Hoboken Community Center, various projects in the building. Uh CD4 is court reporting, court stenography. The type is yep, F1 is accepting the grant, $50,000.

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The grant revenue for the NJEDA. To help fund the block parties we're having for the World Cup. Uh shh. Uh I4, as you said, Comcast is reinstalling new wiring, telecommunications, and one of the benefits is they have to find the old

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wiring, remove the old wiring that's no longer active from our poles as well. Uh A1 was went over discussed with this alliance. F1 Uh uh uh uh uh uh

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F I got that is F1, World Cup one is F1. Sorry. CA And that's >> That's the World Cup grant. >> I3 is the Gateway tunnel. Agreement with the those are working on

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the Gateway. Reimbursement for the to the city for that one. Obviously corporation council's barrister litigation paying attorneys. CS1 was a sporting stands sporting goods. Apparently the Babe Ruth program is not receiving many sponsorships. So we discussed that trying to get better

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sponsorships for the Babe Ruth program. A little league minor league girls softball has sponsors, but the Babe Ruth program is lacking sponsors right now. So that's why we're picking up that cost there. Any others I'm missing, folks? TX1 is tax overpayments. We see that

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every council meeting or TX2. That's it. All right. Remember we we have Tony Soares A1. >> Wasn't going to speak on this, but whenever I see more bureaucracy being applied toward businesses, which covering windows is one of

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is the worst thing you can do. I'm going to tell you why. Because you want people to rent the store. And if the window is covered, people think something's going on it's going to be rented. It is extremely difficult in Hoboken to open a business as it is.

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I am proud to say real estate agent for the new Lego store coming to Hoboken, 900 Monroe, and also the new location for one of Hoboken's favorite stores. Not supposed to say it, but Washington is in the name. And they're doubling

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their size. So it there are very successful things happening on Washington Street. And it's a myth that there's 20 stores empty on Washington Street. There aren't. There's maybe six. Maybe six. And the reason why most of them those are empty

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is because of the food. You know, this has to stop this this circus that happens along this rally go through the meeting. People coming up. It's really difficult to watch. Anyway, um so, I want to get back to It it costs about 4 to 5,000 dollars to

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cover a window with a decal for a long period of time. You have to get a designer. You have to get somebody to do it. You have to have it installed. And it's it's not going to And And then if it gets rented after you have the artist or somebody come up with a graphic to stick on the window

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it's it's it's actually, you know, it's it's just not feasible. It's also what they do in a lot of blighted cities. The focus is let's get it rented. And let's have them put marketing. But I I mean, the other the other thing I want to say is just so you know the ordinance we have right now, you're not allowed to have a for rent sign up

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or a coming soon sign for more than 30 days without having to go before the Historic Commission. So, just so you know, Angelo's Seafood had a beautiful sign in their window. It was like a watermark of a stingray. They had to take it down because the Historic Commission said, "Ooh, that's not allowed."

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That's not allowed. A paper sign of a fish. But, you know, Whole Foods was able to put a shopping mall size backlit sign on a historic building that you can see from Mars. I mean, you know, if you look at a satellite, you can actually see Hoboken's Whole Foods sign. And I'm not being sarcastic. It's like the

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inconsistencies we're constantly saying, "We want to make it better for business." But then we now want to like do stuff in the windows. There is there is something that Main Street Pops did few years ago. They do every year. They hang a piece of artwork in. You can do that. But to cover the windows with any

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type of fully covering it's it's it's going to be it's bad idea, and it's just more bureaucracy when we can't even do handle what we got, you know. And oh, by the way, just one thing, in Hoboken, you get fined if you have an apartment with lead paint peeling. And

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I don't know if you guys noticed you've had that up there. And you're we're all getting lead paint poisoning right now. Thank you. >> It's remediated. >> Thank you. >> I hope it's been remediated. There's lead paint here. >> It's not lead. >> Uh >> It's not. >> It was already remediated. >> Motion Motion to close the public hearing?

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>> Motion. Second. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Years ago. >> Uh we have a request, uh members of the council, regards to what's tabling CD1 to the next council meeting for some more information. >> I understand

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if you want to vote on it, fine. Can I just voice my concern? Um it's 150,000 that we're taking out of our affordable housing trust for rental, etc. assistance. If you look at there's no detail, right? There's just a list of

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properties and there's a total number. There's not they're not saying anything that is how much Like, for example, we're providing down payment assistance. Like, since when are we a bank providing finan- helping to finance an acquisition

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in 38 Jackson, which is an incredibly affluent building. One of them on here is 1450 Garden. They They We have been in in litigation with them for a decade. They have not provided their affordable housing units. And over the last couple

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years, Filomena or Councilman Cohen knows this, Pesuto tried to increase rents 30%. Like, what are we doing? Like, giving Like, why why don't we have like the Hoboken Community Center on this list? Why don't we have any other building that's like more tired where we

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have we know we have existing tenants that are exhausted, you know, are struggling financially on this list? Why are there only the most affluent recently developed buildings, right? >> I don't believe this is time-sensitive. So, if councilmembers want to have a little more conversation about this

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>> Yeah, the only Council President, if if I could add the only thing I'll add to that is I mean, serving on the Housing Authority as a commissioner, I know we have a massive issue with rental assistance, right? There's there's a million dollars plus that's outstanding in back rents in the Housing Authority.

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So, I I absolutely agree with your your sentiment here. Uh and if it's not time-sensitive, maybe we just have a bigger conversation about it and we figure out what what moves we're going to make. >> That's that's fair. >> I mean, as Director Brown >> He's not. >> Okay. >> He's not.

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>> I mean, that's one of the reasons we I mean, it is supporting 47 applicants for 49 applications and I assume that those people want to move into these units. >> Right, which is which is the reason why if you wanted to vote like there's more money to come. I just feel like

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>> Yeah. I mean, it's it's not it's money that's in the Affordable Housing Fund. It's not a relatively huge amount of money and it will help 47 people trying to move into their units. So >> Right, but like >> wonder if it's possible to move on this and then answer the larger questions

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when this comes back. >> And and one of the larger questions and and that's why I said maybe not if you want to do that cuz I do think there for the reason you just outlined >> I don't know any more than you. >> The but like an HOA, right? Like are we going to be getting that request every month for every tenant HOA? What should happen is those building owners should

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not charge an HOA to the affordable units or a reduced amount, right? Like those are the things that we need to talk about or we're going to set precedent and be funding things that don't necessarily make sense for us to bear the cost, but really the property

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owner should bear the cost, right? And if we approve this you know, do we need to make a law change? Do we need to All I know is when I looked at the list, I'm like, are you kidding me? Like Bezudo? I people were screaming at us because they were trying to increase rents 30% and we're going to give tenants going to

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that building a subsidy. They they need to give the subsidy. They totally effed us over for 15 years on that building. Why would we give them a penny? >> F bombs in this meeting. I'm just putting it out >> Let's let's hold off on it till July 8th, all right? CD1,

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any other questions? >> Thank you. >> On CD1? >> No, pulling off the items off the agenda. >> I do. I do. >> Let's start with the Councilman Russo, A1. >> CC7 >> CC7 >> CL2 >> CL2

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>> I5 >> I5 >> and T2 >> and T2. Councilman Fisher >> the Sorry. um CL2 just for a vote if it wasn't >> What is it? Which one? >> CL2 just for a vote.

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>> Russo, it's already been pulled. >> um I4 >> I4 >> And I think that's it. I hope that's it. And just and also for T2, pull T2 um >> It's already pulled. >> Oh, it is? Okay, we're amending. I have

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an amended version for T2. Just striking a sentence so we can talk about it then. >> Fine. So, I will just vote on it as amended. T2? >> Yeah, when we get there and whoever pulled it, we can talk about it and I'll explain it. >> Okay, any other members of the council?

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No? All right, Councilman Russo, A1. >> Want to do consent first. >> Yes, consent agenda. Thank you, Councilman. Appreciate it. Want to move it through. >> All right, consent. Mr. Cohen >> Hi. >> Firestone >> Yes. >> Mr. Fisher >> Yes, this is consent. >> Mr. Imus >> Yes.

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>> Mrs. Lauson >> Yes. >> Mr. President Garcetti >> Hi. >> Mr. Cantero >> Hi. >> Mr. Russo >> Hi. >> President Ramos. >> Hi. >> Uh A1 Council. >> Council President on A1 uh as I said earlier, you know, uh it's it's

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heartening to see that we're moving in a better direction. Uh I'm just not there yet, so uh I just want to make sure I pull this off for a vote. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Uh call the vote. >> Uh Mr. Cohn. >> Hi. >> Mr. Stone. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fisher.

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>> Yes. >> Mrs. Amish. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Leeson. >> Yes. >> Mr. President Zano. >> Hi. >> Mr. Catero. >> Hi. >> Mr. Russo. >> No. >> President Ramos. >> Hi. >> CC7 Councilman. >> Thank you, Council President. Uh

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Corporation Counsel, with this contract, what is the uh total amount encumbered uh to the firm? To date? >> Uh It's hard to say. I'd have to think about that. I mean, you have 40 460 in terms of the monthly cost for the

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absorbing of all of Corporation Counsel's responsibilities. So, these are just um bankruptcy matters and government records council matters that were never handled in-house. >> Okay, and then are there any other contracts to Decotis uh that we have as

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well that are encumbered? >> No, you would have approved them all. >> I'm sorry. >> You would have approved whatever was in front of you. >> Yeah, that's what I'm asking you. Are there any others other than than this $25,000 contract? So, what my goal here is to find out

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what the total encumbered amount to Decotis is for the current year. >> Let me look that up. >> There is one for Oprah. That's the only other one that I don't >> And how much is that one? >> I thought that was 5,000, but I don't remember. >> If you give me 30 seconds, I can look that up.

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>> And again, I'm you know, I keep asking the same question and I'm I'm just not not satisfied with the the answer of why we have encumbered almost a half a million dollars for corporation counsel to handle matters and then continue to contract out to the

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same firm for other matters. So, I just don't know where that those lines are and I think um I think it would be helpful for me if we could maybe have that delineated in a very specific way. If you could send a memo to me and to the entire council if they want it.

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>> Sure, I >> Just so I can understand where those lines are being drawn because you know, bankruptcy matter that might have happened that to me may have been something that the general counsel would just deal with. >> It was not. Just saying. >> it something else, right? So, I don't know those specifics. So, if you could

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provide that, I would greatly appreciate it. >> can do it in real time. The easiest way to think about it is anything that's litigation in superior court or any version of that that was never handled to my understanding by corporation counsel ever to my knowledge, right? Um and so that's how we delineate it.

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Anything that's day-to-day including, you know, the various emails, the council meetings, the phone calls, all of that is obviously within corporation counsel's handling and that's what we do day-to-day. Please remember that we did save I want to say about 150 or 40,000 dollars when we came in to do this.

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That's the memo I gave you guys very early on where it showed clearly the salary costs as well as the additional benefits that you were currently paying your um attorneys already and we cut that cost significantly. So, this is anything that's outside of that for litigation

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purposes that to my understanding was never handled in house to begin with. >> Two two points that I want to make. Uh one, the overall budget for uh corporation counsel both salary and outside expenses actually went up this year if I remember correctly. I don't know if it changed in the final

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amendment that was that was voted on, but there may have been a reduction in in the salaries because now we contract out to a firm to handle those former employees, but we also have an increase in

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O&E expenses for additional contracts. That's the first point I want to make, and the second point was our corporation counsel did actually handle matters in-house when it came to answering certain certain lawsuits, certain litigation, things like that. That has

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happened multiple times in in the last I'll just go back to the the last 8 years. So, I know that that happened factually. So, my understanding is that we had a lot of stuff handled in-house. Although it may have been small in comparison,

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corporation counsel did answer a lot of things that came in that were on a smaller scale. So, that's why I guess my confusion is there. So, if you could provide that memo, I'd greatly appreciate it. >> Uh Councilman, if I if I may. Um the resolution that the city council approved awarding a contract to Dakotas

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for corporation counsel duties back in January specified the scope of services of what was included underneath corporation counsel duties um and what wasn't. So, I'd be happy to provide that resolution to you. I think that outlines very clearly what corporation counsel duties are relative

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to anything that would have otherwise traditionally been got uh outsourced to special counsel. >> And then and then you can do the same for the contracts that >> Of course. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> total contracts amount the total contract amounts, um there are there are

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four of them. Um there's the corporation counsel contract, the land use contract, OPRA matters, and general litigation. Um the corporation counsel contract is $480,000, uh 5,000 for land use, 14 for OPRA, and

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15 for general litigation. >> All right. This one says 25. >> Well, that's to encumber to date. Yes, correct. What what you're looking at >> So, 15 to date and then I'll bump 10 here. >> Correct. >> Got you.

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>> Council President, can I add a Can I add another question another part that goes back to a little bit of what I had asked at the Caucus meeting about feeling like we don't really have a good view to what what cases are in process because we're just approving. And I

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understand why we're approving piecemeal, right? Um but I think it speak weight. If we could have some kind of a an update or a status review that gives us here's the budget, here are all the cases we've got going on. You know,

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here is the amount that we've already approved and and so that we can have a sense that we're not overspending cuz I think we are all painfully painfully aware of overspending after we have raised the taxes on our residents so

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significantly. So, >> Yeah. And and so you received your first quarter um briefing from Corporation Counsel memo that that had all of the active uh matters and and we will work uh you know, the numbers into the next briefing for Council.

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>> be fantastic. Is that kind of where you were headed a little bit? >> Say it again. >> Is that where you were headed to sort of >> Yeah, I I I want to know those delineations, right? Like that's To me that's really important. >> Make sense. Call the vote. Mr. Cone [snorts] >> Aye. >> Firestone >> Yes. >> Fisher

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>> Yes. >> Mrs. Himesh >> Yes. >> Mrs. Laichan >> Yes. >> President D'Amico >> Aye. >> Mr. Cantero >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo >> No. >> President Ramos >> Aye. >> CL2 [clears throat] Councilman >> Just a Just a vote. >> What? Mr. >> Just a vote.

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>> I I just Councilman Russo >> Oh, he pulled it. My apologies. >> Quickly, I you know, it's funny I don't know if I'll pull these off for um for appointments, but I I felt obligated to uh really pull this off because As got to know Paul. When I first got to know Paul, I I got to know

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him as a public servant and and he was always a great public servant and served the city well, but I got to know him over the years now as a dad and to see him with his kids, it is absolutely amazing to see how he he interacts with them and

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and what he does for his his kids and his family. Um if if he serves the city half as well as he serves his family and his children we are absolutely lucky to have him. So I would hope everyone would support him here tonight. Council President

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>> [clears throat] >> That's very nice of Councilman Russo to say that. Uh Councilman Blanos has Councilman Russo Mr. Blanos has served on the ABC board really well already. This is his reappointment. And I think he's doing a great job. I've talked to him about it, the work,

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challenges, you know, the time he puts in on it. And I'm happy to support it. It's nice that you pulled it. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, guys. Call vote. >> Mr. Collazo >> Aye. >> Mr. Stone >> Yes. >> Ms. Fisher >> I'm abstaining because I have a conflict. I don't I don't know him. I

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don't not know him, but I have a conflict. That's why I'm abstaining. >> Ms. Giattino >> Yes. >> Ms. Lauson >> Yes. >> Mr. President Giattino >> Aye. >> Mr. Canter >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo >> Aye. >> President Ramos >> Aye. Aye five, Councilman.

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>> Wait. >> Aye five. >> Oh, yes. Thank Council President. >> Aye four. >> It was aye four, right? >> Aye four. >> I called aye four. >> Okay. >> Get there. Sorry. >> So aye four five. >> No [clears throat] one else? >> You're already on aye five. We'll do aye four next. I apologize. >> I bring this up every every so often about services to the city of Hoboken

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when we contract out for plumbing or electric or anything like that. We have an agreement with our local labor council for direct hire and I know our business administrator always tells me that when we look at or evaluate some

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of these things, it always winds up being a a bit more expensive to the city of Hoboken. I just wanted to make sure that that was the case here uh because I do want to utilize that service that we potentially could have to hire directly. And I know we did it at the Housing Authority when I served as a

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commissioner with Local 55 and they are excellent and they came in and they negotiated a lower rate for the Housing Authority because it was a public entity. So, um I would just always constantly try to remind the administration, "Please,

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every time we have a contract like this, let's always check with that direct hire process to see if we can negotiate uh a better rate for the city of Hoboken." Thank you. >> Thank you. I four, Councilman. >> Yeah, just um >> I'm going to start call the vote. >> Oh, sorry. >> On I five.

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>> I five. I apologize. >> Uh Mr. Cohen. >> I. >> Mr. Falco-Stone. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fisher. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Aimish. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lausten. >> Yes. >> Mr. President Russo. >> I. >> Mr. Secaucus. >> I. >> Mr. Russo. >> I. >> President Ramos. >> I. >> I four.

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>> Yeah, just quickly for those watching, um we there's uh this is going to allow some new telecom wiring on existing poles, but importantly, there's a new law that allows or that allows requires vendors when they're up on the poles to

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identify inactive wires, um which is going to be great for the city. We get We've all gotten complaints over the years that we have too many wires and now we're actually going to be able to identify all the inactive wires when they're up there and inventory them and hopefully start a process to remove them. So, this is something I think that

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is well received by people in our community. Thanks. Council President. >> Thank you. Call the vote. >> Mr. Cohen. >> I. >> Mr. Falco-Stone. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fisher. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Aimish. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lausten. >> Yes. >> Mr. President Russo. >> I.

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>> Mr. Secaucus. >> I. >> Mr. Russo. >> I. >> President Ramos. >> I. T two, Councilman. >> Thank you, Council President. >> [clears throat] >> When uh Councilman President Russo and I presented our budget um amendments, we incorporated some revenue

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ideas and we and we talked about potentially doing things uh just as we are here tonight with uh advertising in public on public right-of-ways, publicly owned assets, so on and so forth. Um but I do want to assure everybody, I asked in the caucus um although the mayor sent

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out a press release making it sound like she was opposed to some of those things, um the mayor and the administration are most certainly on board with voting on this tonight and and very supportive of it. So, I'm very happy that we're incorporating some of that stuff. I appreciate it. >> Okay. >> So, >> Yeah, Councilman Quintero.

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>> Oh, sorry. >> Yeah. >> Cuz I have changes that he may not like. >> Look, this is a direct result of the conversations that we've having during the budget process, right? So, we all committed to looking for revenues and efficiencies and such. Uh Uh immediately the day after that or

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actually no, it was the day after that budget vote I sent a note uh the assistant administrator, the mayor, uh Council President saying, "Hey, let's start attacking slow-hanging fruit." Gave some ideas, this is one of them. But we also immediately convened a special subcommittee, which is myself,

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Councilman Firestone, Councilman Fisher, and Council President to begin that discussion, and Joe uh on on all things. We had a really productive meeting yesterday, it's a good start where we're getting creative and looking at all options, um revenue generation, efficiencies. But it was the it was

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probably one of the most productive meetings I've ever had on this council. So, uh I feel really good about how we're starting off and I think we're all committed to keeping the momentum, uh and this is the start of it. >> You sure? >> Yeah.

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>> Uh so, um it is it's uh I I think one of the things that um we recognize is this is a an area that really has been underserved by the city. Um, we had a pretty robust conversation on advertising, um, a couple of them

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over the last few days, but in our meeting that, uh, Councilman Cantero just mentioned, um, but I think one of what is most important is, you know, we have to know what we don't know, right? And so, how do we bring resources into the city to get the administration up to

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speed on how to think about advertising. Um, this originally started off as an RFP that ranged from ad panels to naming rights of garages, which is not the way to go, especially without that knowledge. So, um, when we had the meeting yesterday, Councilman as when it

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was presented, kind of some ideas on how to think about it, Councilman Cantero, um, very quickly said, we need to think about this in kind of short-term, medium-term for the budget next year, and things that may take longer. Um, and then we also talked about not putting them into the different divisions and

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fragmenting something like advertising, so we have seven directors chasing advertising dollars, but more thinking about it as kind of one concentrated area that then the, um, departments become the customers of that knowledge. Um, and the reason why I say

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this is this RFP we are just amending, we're proposing to amend to just tighten it. This is very specifically only supposed to be for the Hop and for ad panels. These are things that if we get it wrong, we're not going to get it too wrong,

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right? If we leave money on the table, it may not be, it won't it won't get some money, it won't be all the money, but I can tell you we are committed. Diane, uh, Councilwoman Imas, um, has already reached out to people that she knows in the community that are senior advertising executives. Um, we had a

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call with one of them recently. She's connected them with the mayor, where we talked about this about maybe bringing in a few other members in our community and creating almost like a marketing and advisory for advertising. But just so you know and give you comfort both the two of you,

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definitely like naming rights is part of that conversation. So the guy that we had spoken to just kind of talked us through, you know, he threw like an idea out there but the things that you need to consider. We said what if it was like the Nike pickleball

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courts in Southwest, you know, Hoboken? Well, maybe they'll pay something for that to brand it but they also may want back like the ability to have a pickleball tournament there or something, you know, a commercial or something like that. So it's it's more complicated and it's not a knowledge set

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that we have within the city of Hoboken right now. But the, you know, he thought it was a great idea and the one thing I'll leave with everyone here is and Diane correct me if I get this wrong, but he basically said that we have the most valuable demographics in the state of New Jersey. And so

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doing we are a goldmine. Yeah. And and he just he just said if, you know, with a little bit of forethought, you know, we do have an opportunity to do things right. And we also want to just make sure they're they're not things that are offending our community either. Like we don't have to chase every dollar. Let's

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think think about it. So anyway, it's totally part of the plan. The the changes we want to make on here because we've gone back and forth and we we want to be incredibly clear. The only mandate right now is the hot bus and the ad panels. So the only

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changes I made is I kind of crossed off naming rights opportunities comprehensive portfolio. I just crossed it off and then we also crossed off number six because it doesn't mean anything but it talks about risk and we don't need to talk about risk. So that's it. So if everyone's okay, we would approve as

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amended but committed to all the ideas that have been raised. >> Yep, happy to start somewhere. Yep. >> Yeah, absolutely. Let's get those dollars quickly. >> Part of the plan. C2 as amended. >> Mr. Cohan >> Aye. >> Firestone >> Yes. >> Fisher

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>> Yes. >> Mrs. Iimesh >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lation >> Yes. >> Mr. President Zano >> Aye. >> Mr. Cantero >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo >> Aye. >> President Ramos >> Aye. Ordinance is a first reading. >> Ordinance for introduction for authorizing the sale of a project and

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transfer of payment in lieu of taxes agreement on block 99 lot one and lot one world X from CLBF Jefferson Urban Renewal to 1000 Jefferson Apartment Urban Renewal. >> Did Did this get amended from

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>> I believe My understanding was yes. >> Yes, it was. >> Yes, it was. >> All right. >> Mr. Cohan >> Aye. >> Firestone >> Yes. >> Fisher >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iimesh >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lation >> Yes. >> Mr. President Zano >> Aye. >> Mr. Cantero >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo >> Aye.

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>> President Ramos >> Aye. >> Ordinance for introduction and ordinance amending chapter 190-11 entitled loading zones to add loading zone to Third Street amend the hours of loading zone on Madison Street.

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>> Call vote. >> Mr. Cohan >> Aye. >> Firestone >> Yes. >> Fisher >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iimesh >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lation >> Yes. >> Mr. President Zano >> Aye. >> Mr. Cantero >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo >> Aye. >> President Ramos >> Aye.

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>> Ordinance for introduction amending chapter 192 parking for persons with disabilities and add reserved ADA space on Park Avenue. >> Call vote. >> I hear Mayor Jones. >> I have big thumbs. Mr. Cohan >> Aye. >> Fisher >> Yes.

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>> I mean >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iimesh >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lation >> Yes. >> Mr. President Zano >> Hi. >> Mr. Cantero >> Hi. >> Mr. Russo >> Hi. >> President Ramos >> Hi. >> Ordinance for introduction amending chapter 190 Nation 9 and title stop

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streets stop streets designated to add multi-way stop control on various intersections. >> Call the vote. >> Mr. Cohen >> Hi. >> Mr. Firestone >> Yes. >> Mr. Fisher >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iannucci >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lason >> Yes. >> Mr. President Jano >> Hi.

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>> Mr. Cantero >> Hi. >> Mr. Russo >> Hi. >> President Ramos >> Hi. >> Ordinance amending chapter 190 entitled vehicles and traffic to establish regulations for persons personal delivery devices

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and related devices. >> Call the vote. >> Mr. Cohen >> Hi. >> Mr. Firestone >> Yes. >> Mr. Fisher >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iannucci >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lason >> Yes. >> Mr. President Jano >> Hi. >> Mr. Cantero >> Hi.

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>> Mr. Russo >> Hi. >> President Ramos >> Hi. >> Paul, you're not going to ride on one of these things, right? >> Hm? >> You're not going to ride on one of these things, right? >> Introduction >> They're going to be run over by cars anyway. >> [snorts] >> Very friendly building design and

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construction requirements. >> Call the vote. >> Mr. Cohen >> Hi. >> Mr. Firestone >> Yes. >> Mr. Fisher >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iannucci >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lason >> Yes. >> Mr. President Jano >> Yes, on first reading. >> Mr. Cantero >> Hi. >> Mr. Russo >> Hi. >> President Ramos

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>> Hi. >> Ordinance for introduction amend amending chapter 196 zoning article 15 to clarify certain duties of the zoning officer. >> Call the vote. >> Mr. Cohen >> Hi. >> Mr. Firestone >> Yes.

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>> Mr. Fisher >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iannucci >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lason >> Yes. >> Mr. President Jano >> Hi. >> Mr. Cantero >> Hi. >> Mr. Russo >> Hi. >> President Ramos >> Hi. >> Ordinance for introduction amending chapter 196 owning to create standard

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standards for placement and utility meters and mechanical equipment. >> Call the vote. >> Mr. Cohen. >> Aye. >> Fiestone. >> Yes. >> Fisher. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iemish. >> Yes. >> Slason. >> Yes. >> President Zanow. >> Aye. >> Mr. Cantero. >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo.

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>> Aye. >> President Ramos. >> Aye. >> Ordinance introduction Hoboken amending chapter 36 177 and 196 of the city code incorporate the intoxicating hemp law permit cannabis manufacturing

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in the I1 and I2 industrial zone and update certain administrative procedures. >> Call the vote. >> Mr. Cohen. >> Aye. >> Fiestone. >> Yes. >> Fisher. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iemish. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Slason. >> Yes. >> President Zanow.

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>> Aye. >> Mr. Cantero. >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo. >> Aye. >> President Ramos. >> Aye. >> Yeah, you know. >> Uh resolution CD 2 the >> The resolution >> CD 5. >> CD 5. >> Just call the vote, right?

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>> Yeah. >> Uh CD 5 Mr. Cohen. >> Aye. >> Mr. Fiestone. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fisher. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iemish. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Slason. >> Yes. >> Mr. President Zanow. >> Aye. >> Mr. Cantero. >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo. >> Aye. >> President Ramos.

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>> Aye. We're going to suspend the agenda really quickly so we can vote on NB1 and NB2. We can vote on those simultaneously. This is accepting the the NJ Transit funding from FIFA and for the lottery for free ticket for tickets as well.

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>> Exciting. >> Mr. Cohen. >> Aye. >> Mr. Fiestone. >> Aye. >> Fisher. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iemish. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Slason. >> Yes. >> Mr. President Zanow. >> Aye. >> Mr. Cantero. >> Aye. >> Mr. Russo. >> Aye. >> President Ramos. Hi. Now we go to public portion. It's a lottery.

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>> It's a lottery. >> Not you, Pat. >> Kids. >> For children. >> It's kids. >> Kid, Pat, you can't. >> Uh I just turned 16. Otis Train. >> Hi. >> What's up, Otis? >> What's up?

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>> May I go up? >> Okay. Uh I want to start by playing a bird song for you guys. Let me raise the volume. That's the call of the Swainson's Warbler. Um that's a bird that doesn't live uh doesn't breed north of Virginia.

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And one April uh it showed up in in Brooklyn Bridge Park. And I love taking photos of birds and seeing birds close up that don't belong where they where they they are. Um and one morning in April, me and my

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dad went to the city to see this bird. And we got to hear it sing right in front of us. And it was foraging in leaves pretty much 3 ft in front of us. And I got amazing photos of it. And I kind of bonded with that bird very differently than I do with

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other birds that I see. Um but one morning, I woke up and I checked reports on my phone on an app called eBird. And the bird was reported dead in Hudson County. And that broke my heart because it was a bird that I really connected

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with. And seeing it dead really hurt me. Um and I've collected hundreds of dead birds in Hoboken and I remember most of them, but this one really stuck with me. I've cared about this issue for a very

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long time and I just wanted to share this story with you on the night of this ordinance's first reading. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks so much. >> Jeff Train Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi everyone. I'd like to begin by

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thanking Councilman Cohen >> [snorts] >> for sponsoring this bill this ordinance and Councilman Fisher for for co-sponsoring and and for all of you city council for for being here. Around town, I practice optimism,

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kindness, gratitude and I kind of channel those elements those ingredients to help others see joy through birds and nature. And those hope those things that you know

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give us hope is a thing with feathers. And so since 2019, my family and I have been monitoring bird strikes. Um it's really sad, which is one of the reasons why I um

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I don't talk too often about it. >> Thank you. >> When I tell people that one to two billion birds a year die due to window strikes, they're kind of incredulous. How's that happen? And I'll tell you, I felt the same way until I started paying

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attention until I started looking and noticing. I read a book and I started walking around. And I began seeing them everywhere in Hoboken. At Planet Fitness, >> [snorts]

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>> ShopRite, the high school, my home, which I fixed, the library, Clinton, Hudson, Maxwell, uptown, downtown, Stevens, the Hudson Tea

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Building, schools, Jackson Street, Jefferson Street, 4th Street, 2nd Street, Newark, Hoboken. Saying I don't see those birds is and bird strikes are not

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happening is almost like saying the corner I live on, I haven't seen a traffic accident. Therefore, traffic accidents are not an issue. But wait, in Hoboken, you would be right.

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You ever heard of Vision Zero? What is Vision Zero? A low-cost systematic approach to Hoboken's [snorts] infrastructure that's been implemented over time and has led to meaningful change.

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Nine consecutive years without a traffic fatality. Whether you're for Vision Zero or against it, you can't deny that it's led to meaningful change, has given Hoboken national recognition, and is

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illustrative of the fact that when Hoboken commits itself to solving a problem, we get it done. Or look to 7 years ago. It might be hard now to actually picture, but there were plastic bags blossoms on

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the trees all over town, in the river. And then, we passed the single-use plastic bag ban. There are no trees anymore. In fact, walking to this meeting tonight, I I amazed at the flowers and the leaves that I saw on the trees, but no bats.

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When we set our mind to something, we do it. This ordinance, in many ways, is unremarkable. It's amazing, but we are following in the footsteps of other cities, large and small, that have

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that have done it. Most significantly, two cities, one next door, Jersey City, and one right across the river, New York City, that share the same skies, the Atlantic Flyway. They're protecting birds. This ordinance

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is a pragmatic approach that gives developers flexibility, uh and can uh lead to neutral um or cost-saving benefits. For example,

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in New York City, the Jacob Javits Center, which was retrofitted, now reports cost dropping by 25%. Imagine the energy costs. Imagine lifetime energy costs dropping

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by 25%. One of the other issues that uh when birds strike windows, one of the reasons you might not see them is because they are scavenged by uh rats. Uh and so, it kind of creates

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yeah, another problem for the city. So, I'm grateful for taking the time. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Justin. Appreciate it. Pat Weathers? >> [snorts] >> Pat waiters Let me start with uh Mayor Giattino's

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June 17th recognition of Pat. Um I know you noticed that I didn't stand up and I didn't applaud cuz it's getting a little frustrating to see I'm still applying for every board or whatever. Not saying they're not doing a wonderful job, but

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having I and people that look like me given the same opportunity will be standing up here getting proclamations, too. So, just remember that when y'all running for office and quick to say diversity. With uh June 19th slowly approaching, I had to get that out. It gets really emotional for me to keep

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trying to ignore that it don't exist, but actions speak louder than words. I run solo anyway, just on that note. So, it doesn't matter. I don't wait for you to recognize and distinguish what I do and who I am. I will continue to help each and every resident that comes to me

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for help that live in Hoboken. Okay. I want to share this and Jerry, I tried to give it to you early so you could print a copy for everybody. And I also said on your email on your text, "Please share this with the mayor." Am I right? Jerry, Mr. Law.

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Did you get this? Okay. This is from my 7-year-old grandson. And most of you know by now my son took the bar, he scored high, all of that good juicy stuff. I will never share it with you because you'll try to look down and make something negative out of it

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anyway. But I I would miss if I didn't share this and I sent it to Jerry today. It's a picture of my grandmother standing in the Hoboken housing authority in 1912. So, he goes on the internet with his school and he said, "Tita," cuz he

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Latino. "Abuela, abuela, this is our grandfather." On the paper and I have to read this cuz it gave me the chills cuz I just experienced this in the housing authority. I'm up here tonight talking about funding and affordable trust fund.

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And when I sent this, Jerry, I wanted to cry cuz it looked identical to the projects. The rusty hallways, the and I mean it goes on and on. But I'm going to just read this small portion. Back then they called it the segregated tenement houses, which was for the colored

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people, referring to as dense overpopulated, often multi-family units, housing and urban developments where the blacks, the coloreds, and the immigrants go. They were legally It was legal. It's

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back legal cuz I'm seeing these same things happen. It was legally allowed and the social confinement of the geographics and it goes on and and the whole I'm going to send it to all of you. And it talks about how they segregate, redlining, and everything.

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And as I'm strolling up, this is a picture and yes, this is my mother's mother. When I showed somebody tonight, they was like, "Yeah, but she's white." Blond hair, blue eyes. They called the projects the white boy projects. Look how nice it look. You see

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it in the back? My grandmother standing there in 1912. Okay? You never mentioned it. My uncle David Little. Now let me get calls from Stans and everybody tomorrow. Drafted. Drafted for the Mets. Am I lying? On board, put him on Amtrak, he was out and

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gone. Gene Drayton and them brought him back to Hoboken the way they treated him. And he was a phenomenal ball player. Only to come back here and still pursue his dream with basketball, tennis. He won You go in the high schools now and you see David Little.

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Stroll across and it's funny because my grandson said, "Well, look at the address." And guess what it says? 468 8th and Adams Streets, apartment 7A. I told you my mother the only one my grandmother lived in that apartment and raised six kids.

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Okay? >> It got locked. Sorry. >> And it And it's sad No, I'm going to send it to y'all anyway tomorrow. It's sad because this is not recognized, but all of you guys want to talk diversity, but being that slavery and racism and everything is starting to exist. What do

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we do? Who's going to take a stand? I'm not going to stay silent to it. I'm not going to do it cuz it's a very uncomfortable feeling to try to exclude somebody after they They built Hoboken.

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They built Hoboken. And you try to overlook it, it ain't going to work. That's where the emotions come from. When I seen it, I couldn't even finish observing the pictures because it's the same housing that's already that exists. Only the blacks is there and some struggling Latinos is there and the same

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thing is happening. You could go four blocks over and see a bunch of millionaires. But you don't care who eat. They down there forcing them to raise their rent, towing their cars. They're being suppressed and we got a city council members, nine. They keep putting

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commissioners on the board down there that's doing absolutely nothing. And I'm closing this saying this tonight. I know my capabilities. Having you gave me a seat like Bob told me the other day, every director in welfare, if

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they would have gave you the chance, you have already changed so many lives. Mike, am I lying? From evictions, Tiffany, when I was there and applied housing, you came on the scene. This is what I do. I'm going to pat myself on the back.

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Okay? Cuz I'm going to continue to do it cuz I love Hoboken. And I love the people in it. Whether you love me back or not, my mother elected me here. And I'm a servant till they take me out in that body bag like they did her March

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30th, 10 years ago. >> Thank you, Pat. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Pasqualina, thank you, Pat. >> Pasqualina Annunziata, 119 Willett 10 years. In these 10 years, I learned a lot of things. I find that a lot of things

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all of the false things, all of the mafia give order, all of the people who not have a words. They keep They have to know what they know. You understand? And I feel sorry for you, Ramon, because they make you feel bad. Okay, your words when you say in 20 day,

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then no exist. I'm sure you feel bad for the for what happened. That's a insult. You understand? An insult. And I not blame everybody. Most of the people Marciano Aloi

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He's be the mafia over here. Marciano Aloi Bruno Aloi, they give so many tickets uh space handicap. They all are paralyzed. All are paralyzed. So, you can be paralyzed, too.

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That's a disgust. I know this is a mafia. I know they want to get rid of me. And the lady you just telling me Oh, you need a plate. Curiosity, I go get a plate. Then you send another plate. What other plate you want me to give you?

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What? Tell me the truth. Say, I got order. The mafia give me order. Marciano give me order. That's it. You don't have to make a long story short. Jesus Christ, I not born yesterday. And I take care of a lot of people. Thank God I have a bodyguard. You understand? I I mean it to be bad.

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But if you do one thing that treat me with stupid or intimidated me so wrong. You understand? If you listen to mafia all the time, if you listen to what they tell you, you have no words and no valor and you have no word and no valor. What else you want me to say?

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You make me talk. You pull the words out of my mouth because I'm frustrated. I know they want to do this and they insult me. You understand? They insult. And I keep continue. I got to find out more thing because the [snorts] more I come more thing I find. In 10 years

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more thing they tell me to do. More I find out what's the truth. It is what it is. You receive word, not receive word, another receive word. And I tell you I feel sorry because when you not keep the words, you feel

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bad to say. I say to anybody and I cannot keep the words. I understand. >> Thank you. >> I I understand. Because when I borrow when a person never borrow Italian and Spanish are the same.

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A person never borrow do you understand? So what else you want me to do? I want to get tonight. And you tell me over yes or some park heaven car heaven. What is your my name? I'm invisible? No, you so visible.

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When you the pool I need to be close to no space. Money command to say that way. Eat that side. And all the zone zipper car Do you understand?

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If I got to get by >> I want a sign because I pay. One time I find out who you know pay. Two time they send me back my money. I say I don't need the money. I need the park. If they have a value the respect the age number one. And they

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know there's no park where I where I live. And they put us so many park. I know Martian. He tried to steal me money. He lost. And for the six years he bring me in court. Three judges change. What the hell? And now you want to aggravate me over here.

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I'm okay. The more I get aggravate, the more I open my eyes over I say I got to do. This is the nation. This is Italian is disgusting. It it before So you tell me I don't know just see whatever.

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Oh, when you did all the paper. What are the paper you want to me to do? Explain to me now. What what do you want me to do? >> I believe that we already sent you a letter explaining the process and what we need from you. >> sent me letter. I know the other >> Yep. >> Stevie you say

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that I have for to go to doctor. I went to the doctor. Please. The all of the people who got so to be paralyzed. So a few more got to be paralyzed. A few other people got to be paralyzed. Soon they get paralyzed and not bother me no more.

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That's the only thing. And believe me I'm sure God will listen to me. I see so many young people I said go get at the paper. Go get at the >> Thank you Pasqualina. >> drama say okay in 20 day >> I missed spoke. >> Thank you. They say you say because the

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plate. I will get the plate. I said to myself I got to see. >> Yep. The plate was one part of it. >> but we need the rest. >> Thank you Pasqualina. >> Thank you. >> Your time is up. >> I want to know >> Thank you. >> I want to know how many more I >> Elizabeth Adams, thank you Pasqualina.

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>> I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> I explained to myself to you because I know when you say no, you feel bad. After you say 20 days and then I'm sure you'll be happy. >> I'm sorry. Thank you. >> I like the thing that you said to me but I mean but I know who's involved in

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this. Martian lawyers. >> Thank you Pasqualina. >> Thank you Pasqualina. >> Okay. >> Thank you. It's okay. Thank you. Elizabeth, thank you. >> Good evening. Tonight I would like to discuss what continues to be an ongoing issue here in

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Hoboken. And that is the problem of the bus lanes that continue to be blocked by motor vehicles, particularly delivery vehicles, using the bus lanes to pick up orders from various restaurants on Washington Street.

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A short while ago, I experienced this problem first hand while waiting for a bus on 12th and Washington Street where I saw not one, not two, but three delivery vehicles all

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blocking the bus lanes simultaneously outside of Napoli's Pizza Restaurant. A bus came by but when the driver saw the blocked bus lane, decided to simply pass by.

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I approached each one of these drivers and informed them that they were in a bus lane and were blocking it. However, each one in turn said nothing, not even to apologize for creating inconvenience,

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smirked slightly, and proceeded to return to scrolling on their devices. When another bus finally arrived, I was constrained to having to resort to stepping out practically into the middle

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of the street in order to flag down the bus. The situation was not only inconvenient, but also dangerous. Not only to myself, but to the bus, the driver, the passengers, and also to the surrounding

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motorists and what is a busy time of the day, the rush hour. I would say that there ought to be a law, except that I know that one already exists. >> [snorts] >> The problem lies with actively enforcing

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the law. It is not enough to have cameras in place. Therefore, owners and or managers who fail to enforce this law should face penalties in the form of stringent fines.

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Repeat offen- Repeat offenders should lose the privilege of deliveries altogether. Another issue that was raised at the May 20th, 2026 Hoboken City Council meeting concerns the removal of many of the

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benches along Washington Street. With all fairness to Mayor Zimmer, this is a practice that began with the previous administration. I am arthritic. I am unable to stand or walk for prolonged periods of time

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without taking frequent intervals of rest. My lower back, knees, and often my ankles and insteps begin to ache when I have been on my feet for too long. Therefore, it would be nice, and I dare

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say that I speak for other people as well, to be able to count on the presence of some additional benches, particularly below 7th Street. If paying for additional benches is an issue,

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as I have stated previously, after all, if such things as press boxes can be funded to the tune of over half a million dollars, surely some funds for a few extra benches can be scraped

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together. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Ms. Adams. Uh Tony Soares, I believe he left. Uh Manny Rivera Soler? >> I think he left. >> [laughter] >> He yields his time. He's yielding his time. >> Binding.

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>> He's yielding his time. >> Yes, Council President Manuel Rivera Soler, Hoboken 6th Ward resident, and I appreciate your humor. I do. Uh yes, I would have yielded, but I have a point of issue. First, I want to thank, and I'm going to be very brief. I want to thank Council um member Diana

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Iimes um for communicating with me um a couple of days ago after the June 11th meeting, which Council President, I have a beef with you. I asked you if I could speak um on F2 or whatever it was. You said no, speak on the one, and then you closed it all immediately, but I I don't

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hold grudges, so I I let that that one go. And also, I did not uh request my 30 seconds extra for the um Nixon 5, but uh we'll also let that slide. But Council President, I do want

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to ask you seriously if I could mention a name of a Hobokinite who is now um residing in the heavenlies. Um again, as a personal privilege, and I hope that you allow me to say her name is um Alejandrina Rivera Estrada.

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Alejandrina Rivera Estrada was my cousin. Everybody knew her as Dina. She was a uh Hoboken resident for for some time, moved to the Caribbean, and unfortunately has left the balance of this earth, and we wish my the rest of her family

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all the best, and all her friends. Thank you, Council President, for that moment of um personal privilege. Thank you, Council President, again. I also want to say um uh being that it was or it is

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um LGBTQ+ Pride Month, it I was remiss, and the Pride people were also remiss by not recognizing a outstanding member of our community who was the first elected openly LGBTQ+ plus

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resident, Michael DeFuisco. So, we want to have his name honored here today and in this month. Uh and you know, thank you, sir. Uh as well as Council President, again, another point of privilege for

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you and I, because we we have this uh being that it's also Caribbean History um Caribbean History Month. Uh we also enjoy the the privilege of saying "Otro puertorriqueño para la historia." Another Puerto Rican for the history

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books, which was Jose Alvarado, a um member of the Knicks squad who scored very valuable points in game uh four, I believe it was. And also, he is of Puerto Rican heritage, as well as Carmelo and

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Carmelo Anthony Towns, which is also a Caribbean uh descent of Dominican Republic. So, we we feel uh honored that these gentlemen are now in the annals of history, and hopefully we can make the parade. And with that, Council President, as you see, I did not make a

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fashion faux pas. I know that you're thinking it, but if you criticize me, you're going to have to criticize the big boss. Uh so, uh I hope you don't. You're going to have to criticize the big boss of you know Mr. Farina who always has a tie in

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fashion with short-sleeved shirts. Shirts. So, I'm going to help him with that in in the future. Council President and now on another more serious note, my last point to channel my Siamese flipping. The reason I am wearing this tie is again for solidarity for the

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nation of Ukraine. Again, the warmongers of Russia have once again mercifully mercilessly mercilessly mercilessly. Thank you Council President. Have sent over the past few days in the past few days

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over 600 drones and rockets to the capital city of Kyiv and they have also done the atrocity of bombing Christian Orthodox Catholic churches who have been standing there for centuries,

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even older than Moscow itself. They are cruel. They are not our um friends. We We We should never ever join with this country for anything. Our president should denounce it and stop

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playing pussyfoot around with this murderous dictator and finally stand up for Ukraine, a truly democratic nation. And Council President again, I thank you for your attention. With that as I always say, Slava Ukraine. Glory to

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Ukraine. Heroyam Slava. Glory to the heroes. Council President, God bless you. God bless you all and God bless the men and women of our armed services who hopefully sometime will be soon returned home safe and sound due to the fact that finally we found resolution to

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the horrible conflict of choice. And thank you Council President. I yield back. My 4 minutes. 4 seconds, actually. Thank you. Good evening. >> Thank you. Uh Derek Wada. >> Council President, Council, how are you?

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Uh my name is Derek Vida. Uh I lived in town for about 5 years and now I reside in Rochelle, New Jersey. Members here, members of the public, uh I'm the owner of the Green Room in town. Uh we've been here for a little over 7 years and um I have something that I wrote up, but I wanted this to come from the heart. Uh this small business is my

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life. Um I started here 7 and 1/2 years ago with a dollar and a dream asking my parents to give me a loan to open my first store. And um this is now my flagship location. It's seen 11 more come after it. Um all based on this model that this great community gave me. Um I'm really

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privileged to be a part of this community. I love what I do for a living. Um I employ local. I support a lot of local events. I'm local. I'm here. I I'm here in the community um every day. Some of you have got the pleasure to meet um over the years. Kaylin, I haven't got to meet you yet, but uh I'm good friends with Anthony. Um

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I love this town and and I love I love um what my business has been able to allow me to achieve um and and what it allows me to represent as a person who uh really loves being here and loves Hoboken and hearing the last few hours of people uh speak. I wanted to wait to get a read on the room

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and understand um what's on the agenda, what people are talking about, what the tone is here. And there's a similar tone that I hear throughout a lot of these conversations and it's the small business in this town is dying. And I'm a small business. I'm a small business owner. Um I've opened up in Asbury and Montclair and Westfield um in Red Bank

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and Jersey City um in Englewood and Newark. I've opened in New York City in West Village and East Village. I've opened in Hollywood, Florida. I really love what I do and I want to spread this message of using our beautiful plant. Um we are a hemp-based store. I've been able to [snorts] help a lot of people over the years overcome issues with

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anxiety, with stress, with sleep, sleep issues, depression, people with severe pain, and um to my little piece of paper I wrote here. Um >> [clears throat] >> Today I'd like to respectfully make a request to the council to modify the ordinance amending chapters 36

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177 and 196 to please separate hemp and intoxicating hemp provisions, take them on as their own item. Currently, as this sits, it kind of makes my business disappear overnight. Since 2019, my hemp retail store, The Green Room, has operated in Hoboken without incident. We've provided

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revenue to the city. We've employed local residents. We've been an active part of this community for 7 years, and even during COVID-19, where my business did stay open, I had the privilege of helping the Hoboken Police Department source N95s that were unable that they're unable to find

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during the time. As written, the proposed ordinance would limit the definition of intoxicating hemp sales to the state [clears throat] cannabis regulatory commission and to the city licensed cannabis businesses, but it gives an existing retailer like us no pathway to a license.

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Changing the rules with no way for us to comply doesn't just restrict our business, it regulates it regulates a lawful 7-year business out of existence. The proposed ordinance runs contrary to the city's own goals at a time when the city is concerned about budgetary constraints,

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extinguishing an established revenue-generating business is exactly the wrong direction. It removes a reliable taxpayer and local employer rather than protecting the local economy. In addition to running contrary to the city goals, the proposed ordinance is

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also premature. The state's intoxicating hemp law P.L. 2025, C.215, was only signed in January, and the CRC is still issuing guidance on key questions including how beverages and out-of-state

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products are treated. Acting ahead of the state is likely to result in an ordinance that will then require amendment. To save the Green Room from closing, please consider segregating the hemp portion of the ordinance and revisiting the same when it is timely and

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well-considered. Thank you again for your time and attention. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh we have new business. Uh Councilman Cohen? >> Motion >> Close public portion. >> close public portion. Second. All in favor? >> Aye. >> Thank you, Council President. So, um first I want to show this. This was in

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the New York Times today. Uh a lot of us have been thrilled by the Knicks run. A lot of long-suffering >> in that one, O'Fill. Where are you? >> Where is the trophy? [laughter] >> Uh just just been thrilling run and uh a lot of people have been taken by Jalen

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Brunson, the MVP. Uh Brunson was asked uh this week by a reporter what was the most memorable part of the finals run. And you might have expected it was a shot that I took or you know, making Wemby look bad when I went up for a drive.

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And he answered it was the layup that Josh Hart missed. And he tends to joke about Josh Hart. They're old friends from Villanova. They played together. And he said, "No, I'm serious." He goes, "After with 2 minutes left in the game when the Knicks had made an historic

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comeback, they were down 29 points, the largest ever facing a team in the NBA playoffs, that he had a chance with an uncontested layup to take the lead for the Knicks with 2 minutes left in the game. He blew the shot. Spurs ran down the court. Wemby is

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fouled and is about to take two free throws. And Josh Hart's sitting on the ground with his head in his hands. And Brunson and three of the other guys on the team came around. They put his hand out. They picked him up. They said, "Come on, let's go. Let's got We got this. Don't don't worry

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about it. And that's leadership. Take your team, put your team on your back. It's not about you. And that and with that leadership, he was the MVP. And tomorrow there's going to be a parade in the Canyon of Heroes. And God willing, I'm going to be able to see the

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team with all the millions of people that are out there. And what does this have to do with new business? This You know, I want to talk about our budget. Now, there's another article. This came out this weekend. This is a picture where you don't usually don't see me and

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Councilman Prezanzano and Councilman Russo in the same article. This is an article about our budget. And some person from the Hudson County Chronicle, someone who I do not know, who did not interview me, watched our special budget meeting last week and reported on

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the people who voted no on the budget. And actually, I thought they did a pretty good job of describing my basis for voting no, Councilman Russo's basis for voting no, and Councilman Prezanzano's basis for voting no. And you know, uh

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laid out his views that he respected those votes. So, uh the captain of our budget team made a comment with respect to this article. Uh Councilman Fisher wrote on the page, Hudson County Chronicles, why didn't you

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reach out to me for articles like this as a former CFO? And as I always do, I ran the process. He was the captain of the budget ship. Don't believe everything that you hear. This is what he said she said about me. Phil,

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not Councilman going, Phil, he knows nothing about how the budget works. He's a litigator and knows how to read and spin. That's it. Mike and Paul, not Councilman Prezanzano, Councilman Mike and Paul could have worked with us to get our

508
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10.5% down a little lower, but they prefer their talking points instead. At best, had Mike and Paul worked with us, maybe we could have gotten to 8 9.8%, but they chose not to, so we compromised at 11.5%.

509
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And for good measure, the mayor wanted 20% to have a cushion in her first year that voters would forget by the time she was up for re-election. Joe, Steve, and Caitlin, that councilman

510
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Firestone, councilwoman uh just Joe, Steve, and Caitlin were initially behind the mayor, but after working with them and walking through our proposal, they came down significantly. So, I would say this.

511
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When you're talking about leadership, it's not about me, it's about the team. The council people who were up here on the team Hoboken, we all do what we think is in the best interest of the city to come to a budget that we can be proud of. And frankly, there is a lot that could be said in support of this

512
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budget. We did not have to do estimated quarterly tax uh bills because we came to a a final budget. We did it in June. Jersey City doesn't have a budget. >> I don't know what else does.

513
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>> We're way ahead of so many other communities. Instead of stressing the positives and stressing what we've accomplished as a team, significant accomplishment, pass the budget. Leadership should focus on the positives and not the negatives and not take out

514
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the members of the team personally like this. So, let's be like Jalen, okay? Go next. >> Thank you, Council President. >> Thank you. Anyone else? >> Uh quick shout out to my aunt Alice. Uh she watched all the council meetings. She's [snorts] like she's

515
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watching Nick games as I could call. Uh she watches game three of the regular season like it's game seven of the finals. So, shout out to you on Alice all those nights watching Nick games West Coast, East Coast, any coast. So, that one's for you, too. >> Council President, just real [clears throat] quick, I I just got to

516
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point out two amazing residents in the city of Hoboken. They just happen to be my children. Uh, my daughter Michelle was honored this week as the student of the month for Brandt School. Uh, and my son Jack uh, finished his while he's finishing his fifth-grade

517
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year going into middle school. So, uh, guys, daddy's so proud of you. Love you both. They're absolutely amazing. Thanks. >> Um, we I'm on the [snorts] uh, Hoboken Pride um, committee and we just got approval to do a little flag

518
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raising at Columbus Park um, next Wednesday, the 24th. That's That's Yeah, next Wednesday um, at 3:15. So, if you can attend, it would be nice. It's still Pride Month. Um, so, thanks. >> Thank you. And uh, Juneteenth uh,

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celebration Hoboken High School uh, this Friday. I don't recall the time of the the time of the event exactly. I don't recall the time off top my head, but it's this this Friday at Hoboken High School. They they want to ran a wonderful event last year and the year before that. So, I'm sure it'll be a great one for everyone to attend as well

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this Friday. Thank you very much. Motion to close. >> Motion. >> I'm sorry. Councilwoman Ramos, I apologize. >> Sorry. I have one more one more piece of good news. Wanted to congratulate all the kids from Elysian Charter and the Hola Dual >> Yep. >> language who graduated today and tomorrow is um, Hoboken Charter and uh,

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I think next week is our high school. So, >> So, all the graduates, yeah. >> Lots of graduations, all good things. >> Graduation month. Congratulations to all. >> Motion to close. >> Motion to close. >> All right. >> Good meeting, everybody. >> Are you ready? You're ready. You're ready. >> 10:00.

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>> No, no, no. >> That's like your law school picture. >> Good night. Good night. >> Good night. I got to go warm up for the game now.