Hey Jerry. >> Hey. How you doing Diane? >> Good. How are you? >> Good. >> Hey Jerry. >> Hey. How you doing? Phil. >> Hey Phil. >> Joe. How you doing, Joe? How you doing, Mike? Hannah, Chris. >> Hey, Jerry. >> How you doing? >> Hey,
>> Jerry. Good afternoon, everyone. >> Good afternoon. >> Good afternoon. >> Hey, Tiffany. Thank you. You ready, Jerry? >> Yep. Council President, I am ready. Sh. Let make sure there's no other people.
>> Sorry. >> Okay. Paul just got on. Okay, I'm going to start folks. Welcome to the March 2nd caucus meeting. I would like to advise all those present that notice of this meeting has been provided to the public in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act and this notice
was published in the city website. Copies were provided in the bourbon record and also placed on the bulletin board in the lobby of city hall. Written objections, if any, shall be made to the city clerk. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag
>> to the flag of the United States of America >> and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty, >> liberty and justice for all. >> Okay.
Just going to take a quick roll call. Councilman Cohen. Bill's here. Councilman Firestone >> here. >> Councilman Fischer >> here. >> Councilman Minus >> here. >> Councilman Lac >> here.
>> Councilman Preszano. >> Oh, I just saw him. He's here. >> Councilman Cano. Present. >> Councilman Russo >> present. >> And council president Ramos >> present. >> I'm here Jerry. >> Great. Thank you. We have a quorum form
present. We may start. Council president. >> Thank you guys. Uh so the first item we're going to start with you and put the the agenda up, please. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Is going to be a presentation from New Jersey Transit. No, not New Jersey
Transit. Sorry, NJ. I apologize. NJ NJD with regards to Rebuild by Design. Uh we're definitely going to be asking for a little more solidity as far as their their their dates of construction
for for the various projects they have going on throughout the city. So, we're looking at between 10 to 15 minutes of presentation and then uh council questions after that. and feel free to let it rip
on those uh when it comes to questions to NJ as far as uh seeing to their timelines. Okay. Uh items for second reading. Uh any questions on uh those? There's two items, Jerry. Right.
Second reading. >> That's correct. Ordinance J17 for redevelopment north end redevelopment plan and and the non-disturbance agreement between city of Hobok and Heritage Village. >> Yeah. J J18 is the senior project
Willow Avenue. >> And and I think dire director Brown is here. We've reiterated that they have to get by the end of this month that project moving forward. >> Correct. Yeah, they're they're working towards pulling permits right now and they're
looking to close on financing uh within the next uh very short order, I'd say. >> All right. So, it's been it's been five years, so short order has been long order. So, appreciate it. >> We're getting there. >> Yeah. All right. Any questions, my
friends? >> I I think the delay with that was is all environmental. It's not the owner, right? It's they >> an environmental mishap. >> Yeah. Environmental issues underground
>> from the adjacent property owner. >> Scroll up Jerry to agenda items. Uh any questions on claims and >> council president? >> Yeah. Council Russo. Um 2403385
revise website development and support. >> What that is? >> Sure. Uh that is the contract that the city council approved last year to develop a new website. Um they are this is a a milestone in the process. Um we
are are working through the draft and anticipate um sharing that with council members shortly. when uh could you define shortly for me? >> Probably say by the end of this month. >> Okay. Thank you,
>> director Theel. Is that fair? >> Anything else on claims? >> Um I have a question. >> Council, >> thank you. uh 260079 gold type business machines, Sentinel One, one complete, one range, one
vigilance, and over Yeah, those those four. Could Could you explain what those are? >> 2600709. >> Yes, it's police department. >> Okay. Uh >> Director Franti, do you know what those
are? I can pull them up. >> Hello. >> We've we've definitely paid gold type business every year forever. >> It's and yes, it's it's annual payments at the beginning of the year for a lot of the IT equipment both in the server room and also in the computer aed
dispatching room. There is a a lot of different uh IT equipment there. I can get exact ones from uh from Chief Aguar in the morning and and email that to you as far as what these four specific claims are for, but it's usually annual beginning of the year that pays for for all them approved like 5 years in
advance by council. >> Are these are these uh equipment that we own and are being served or are we renting or leasing? What what is the fee for? >> We we own the we own the hardware but we have to lease all the software. >> Okay. >> It's it's it's annual service
agreements. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh director, I have one other one on the uh claims. The uh Hudson County Improvement Authority, it's almost $300,000. >> Tipping fees. >> Yeah, that's our tipping fees.
>> What is it? >> Tipping fees. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh any other questions on claims? >> This is a more general question. Excuse me. Um, >> could you could somebody just give us a quick or me um a quick overview on why
are there individual Medicare Part B reimbursements on this claims list? I've seen them before. I just don't understand why they're in here. >> Well, any payment has to be made even to an individual has to be made via a claim. I mean, I can get you further
information on those claims if if you're um if you're interested. So, I'm just wondering why but but aren't these people part of the general health insurance plan and why are there all like is this a supplemental plan that they need or I'm just curious why why it
appears like this every other week. >> I can get you more information on that. >> Yeah, Dy, if um if you want director, I could just jump in quickly. retirees. Thank you. Um I don't know why >> the retire the retirees are entitled to a reimbursement of their Medicare Part
B. Um when they retired, they're basically uh your your benefits are exactly as you were as they were when you were employed. So at that time they were being reimbursed for all their
benefits. So that continues into retirement basically. I mean, this is a a condensed version of it. So, each of those employees will get reimbursed for their Medicare Part B reimbursement for the year, which here is uh roughly $2,200
for a lot of them. And then you'll see um some variations depending on how long they've been retired and and what they're entitled to. >> That's why there's some differences there. And I don't know all the specifics, but that's a general >> uh general information.
>> Sorry. Someone threw off their their sound in the background. We're getting an echo. >> And so so as we start to look at health insurance plan questions, I I mean again, this is me being new and not knowing the answer to this. Retirees are
no longer on the existing city plan. They move off and we and and I'm just restating this so I'm clear. We just uh a we just add we just pay the difference between the part B and they would have had correct
>> not. Go ahead, director. I saw you jump in. No, I just I I so I don't want to misspeak and I think it's probably better if we provide you with a memo just about retirement health benefits because I I think it is a very um >> it's a more detailed discussion um and
we're happy to put something together for you in the next uh day or so. >> Okay. Thank you. I would appreciate >> D. We could talk offline. Dian, I could walk you through some of the >> Thank you. I appreciate it. Director Gonzalez, can you um for when you do that memo, can you give like
a real life example like >> example, >> you know, employee X when they were this age got this benefit when they went into retirement, they now pay out this get this reimbursement. Just so we can see, you know, visibly per person what that looks like. >> Sure.
>> Awesome. Thanks. >> Any questions on the resolutions regarding administration? Uh, council president, just uh quickly on on payroll. Um, there was no breakdown of payroll for us. >> Uh, I didn't see it in there.
>> Uh, but my same questions are um ever present uh when it comes to stipens. >> Director. >> Yeah. So, sorry. I don't know why payroll isn't in the packet. We will address that absolutely and get that published. >> Gonzalez.
Yeah. So there is no payroll report for this meeting then. So next one is I guess March 4th. So I think we're caught up to speed just so everyone's aware. So >> because of the tight timing between the two meetings. >> That's correct. Yep. That's correct. So >> thank you. >> Yep.
And as >> Yeah. >> Yep. Yep. Nope. As regards um stipens, we have completed our review. Um we are in the process of meeting with all uh affected employees and um informing them of any changes moving forward. Uh so I
will be able to provide you with a um more comprehensive update after I speak with all of those employees, but I I would just ask that you give us the the time to have those discussions so that they know um how they will be affected moving forward. >> What What's the timeline on that?
>> This week. >> Okay. >> Yep. It's all happening in real time. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh questions on administration vision program. Uh questions on uh infrastructure
like six >> council council president. >> Yeah, I just got a hold on where the hell is my Okay, I'm not muted. Good. Um, infrastructure number three, the resolution amending professional services with Tesser and Cohen for
increased amount of for I mean I always just ask for the increases. I know it looks like legal. Correct me if I'm wrong on that or is that if I read if I read correctly? >> Yeah, that is correct. Um, that is correct. So, uh, there was a bid protest
for a maritime park. Tessar and Cohen represented the city in that bid protest successfully. Um and this is paying the invoices um you know for that representation. >> Okay. And then on uh council president if I go to number six. Is that okay?
>> Yep. Absolutely. Yep. >> All right. Number six. Explain that one to me. >> $36,000 to That's a pretty big jump from small unless again I don't know. 26. >> No. Uh, understood. So, there was a um
underground storage tank um oil storage tank that was discovered at Harborside Park during construction for Rebuilt by Design. Um, so this is the LSRP for the project. Their services to um close the storage tank um which will be removed from the site uh and conduct the
investigation associated with that. Um so it's all as part of our LSRP reporting. Uh, and if director Theorfield, if you'd like to to add anything further, please do. >> Sure. I would just add that there was initial contract um back I I think last
uh November that was the preliminary exploration work and so based off the findings of that work, they're now coming back to do additional delineation and and monitoring >> where um where is it on the site? >> Do you know? So to des kind of where the
bend is when it goes from um kind of where it goes north to to west. I can I can delineate on a map for you, but it's on the western, you know, eastern side of it where the where the L-shaped corner is. >> Yeah. >> So close to the water.
>> Yeah. Where it curves. >> Yeah. It's right next to the waterfront walkway. It's basically on the boundary between the park and the walkway where that L-shaped corner is. And do we do we expect this to be like a big issue? >> Well, it's not >> it's not a big issue if it's resolved,
which is the the goal right now, right? Is removing it and D is is taking that on, but we have to um we have to do a lot of the reporting associated with that. We're doing some of the uh the testing and sampling and and oversight. Um but
you know the goal is obviously to make it make sure that it doesn't become an issue >> and and this is covered by the rebuild rebuild by design money or no >> no >> yeah so I can add a little bit to that. So there's actually a delineation of
work responsibilities. Anything on the side park property would actually be covered by D as part of the reval by design construction. And so this is actually for monitoring work on the walkway area. Um that's technically city responsibility on that area. So that's there there is additional work that D is
doing on site that they are paying for. We are only doing the city's responsibility, >> right? >> Was this a budgeted cost or was this just is this new? >> I mean it's a it's an I mean there's not much you can do on this. You found a tank, but was this a budgeted cost?
>> Uh no. Um no, this is new. Um and we are uh funding it actually through a a existing ordinance for um that area uh which also actually funded some of the prior walkway improvements in the area. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Any other questions on the infrastructure? Let's go. Community development. Any questions on community development? >> Yeah. Can didn't we already approve like the host agreement for Karma? I know we raised it and took it off, but I feel like it snuck on and got approved in uh
consent. >> No, I think we removed it at that time >> the second time. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We never we never had a final vote on. We removed it both times. >> Yeah. >> Director, if if you don't mind, can you um can you give us the details of what
that host agreement reads? >> Sure. Yeah. Uh and just for to address councilman Fischer's uh question, the host agreement where the karma the application was approved by the planning board um few weeks back. So that's why I
think the council was waiting to um see how it went through the planning board >> uh before having the host agreement. So there is a memo associated with the host agreement on the on the uh on the website as part of this uh this this
applica or this this agenda item. Um I think it reflects other post agreements that the city's entered into in the past and that there's a community impact fee of uh 1% um gross annual sales or $50,000. There's a commitment to hiring
uh local to to local hiring. Um there's a public safety co component where the uh the the applicant has to coordinate with the police department for um uh additional security measures. There is an annual community um engagement piece
where at least once a year Karma has to notify uh property owners um or and and solicit feedback um you know for with a for from a community meeting compliance and enforcement and then the term of one year um one year from the effective date
the automatic renew annual renewals uh with automatic renewals so long as Karma continues operating within the city operations in the city that >> but that's all that's literally all spelled out in the memo that's that's included. >> Yeah. As far and this is where this is where this question comes from, right?
We we've done a couple of these now and in a lot of the agreements we uh or at least the discussion was vague. Um some of those monies were supposed to be allocated to other organizations such
as the Boys and Girls Club. uh and they I know they haven't received any monies when it came to uh any of these host agreements. So, I don't know where we are on all of that and how we can move that ball uh down the court a little bit to make sure that those uh those dollars
are being um doled out to uh the community as they were promised. So, that's really where the the question lies. What does that look like as far as the dollars are are concerned? Are there specifics surrounding this uh agreement?
Are they supposed to go to the Boys and Girls Club? Are they going somewhere else? Are they going to public education? What where where are those dollars going is really the question. >> I'm pretty sure there's no specific landing spot or um aortionment for those
for those funds. Usually it's uh you know I'd have to look at the agreement to see to tell you exactly how it spells out um how the funds would be distributed. Uh in terms of past in terms of how that's how that's been managed in the past, I can't speak to that. Um you know that's something we
could follow up on and see how that's been >> um I don't think uh great question. I don't think we ever passed uh an aotment as where the funding would go. The 1%. No, it's not it's not in our >> it's not in our per purview, Councilman,
when we discussed them and and this is going a little bit back. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> But when they were discussed at the uh review board, >> uh we talked about them in in vague general terms, right? Like dollars are going to go to Yeah. >> Um you know, a social program with the Boys and Girls Club or with the the
education fund or whatever it may be. And then that was supposed to be negotiated with the mayor and I think the mayor negotiated well the prior mayor I should say negotiated a couple of those and now mayor Jabbor will be negotiating the final terms on this one. Uh so I'm just trying to find out where
the that money is going. >> I I think um I think the money I think the money I think two things. One if you look at last year's budget there's a budget line item for cannabis revenue in it. I want to say like 130,000. So, we're just taking the money into the budget.
>> Yeah. >> And two, I do think um council president that our ordinance says something like, you know, 75% of the revenues are going to go to social equity. And we talked at a high level, you know, Boys and Girls Club, etc., but I don't think we've ever
allocated. >> We never codified exactly where the money was going, which organization the money is going to be going to. So, I think we have to we have to do that. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. But again, I don't think that falls under our purview. I think that falls under the mayor's >> I think well I appreciate the question council Russo because it's a great
question and I guess we have to look over the next two weeks folks. >> I think it where it does fall under our purview is all of it's going through the budget right now. So we should raise this and understand where it's going if it's just going to go into our general fund or if it's actually going to be
have an offsetting expense. >> Correct. >> Yep. Awesome. Thank thanks >> appreciate it. Of course. Uh any other items? Community development for director Brown. >> Yeah. Can I just ask the Karma's uh they've been approved by the state and
all the other fun stuff. I think that's why we were waiting last time. Is that correct? >> I mean last time they were they're approved by everyone else. >> Okay. >> I I believe they'll need state approval before they are able to operate. >> Yeah. One more but this is the step
before that. Yeah. Not >> can I just uh if I can ask one question not we don't have to discuss it here but um would love to get an update because this is at Newman Leather. We just saw that the Newman Leather ownership
changed and our its rehabilitation area status was actually revoked by the appellet court or Supreme Court. I don't know. Can we have that be a discussion point
um at the next meeting? >> That wasn't I I could just quickly say I don't think the the rehabilitation area status is still in place. Still a rehabilitation area. I It's nothing. We haven't had any conversations with the ownership group about um uh redeveloping
the property in uh maybe over a year. Um well over >> there's a new the ownership changed hands this like in the last week or so. Um, >> yeah. >> And I'm pretty sure there was an article
that just I'll send it to you Chris, but it or director, but it basically said that um there's it the rehabilitation status has been in litigation and just got denied
>> by a higher level. Have we in litigation? the only people that you you're the but you're the entity that would be >> Yeah. >> You're the ones that would have revoked it. >> Director Brown, can you get us more information on Council Official's point so we can discuss that also? >> I'll send it to you. I'll send you the article. I'll find it and I'll send it
to you. >> Could you send that to me? >> Yeah. Send it send it to everyone. >> Yeah. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Yeah, please do. Thank you. >> Let's get on top of that. Uh city clerk
and and finance and public safety as a pedestrian safety grant and tax collector. Very light agenda because we've had a meeting
>> council president. Uh just sir just a quick question uh well two really. one. Um, director, thank you for inviting me to and and Councilman Firestone, thank you for inviting me to the uh finance uh
meeting. Um, are we going to brief the entire council uh like we planned on at at our last meeting at some point or are we just going to proceed uh and then introduce the budget to the council as a whole? I
>> I think uh Dr. Gonzalez I think is supposed to have a meeting with other council members. So it'll be other council members meeting uh okay individual in groups of two or three. Uh so all nine will be meeting with the administration between now and then. And then obviously we'll have that
conversation amongst ourselves and set those up >> amongst ourselves to see how we want to proceed with that. Obviously after the fact the administration is setting their their timetable up now and there were some indicators of thing that they would like to see us discuss. I think we have
to have a conversation about when and how we discuss those in the next two weeks. >> Right. Okay. Great. And then the other question I had was for corporation council. Um corporation council when we um when we have these other law firms in
community development and so on and so forth that I'm assuming we're we're continuing the practice of charging to those individual lines rather than coming out of your budget. Um, >> correct. >> Am I assuming that that's going to be
the the same practice? >> Correct. Whenever you see them listed under a specific department, it comes out of that particular department's budget. Um, the only time for some reason the statute has a little different is the historical preservation
committee that ended up under my authorization, but it does come out of um the other department's budget. But aside from that, yes, you have it accurate. >> Are you are you as the corporation council approving or recommending those
individual firms for the other departments or is that coming from the department themselves? >> So, um, in the I I'm not sure what's happened in the past. Um, I would tell you just from my perspective, I would like to have some ability to have that conversation. So, I'm hoping that it's a
two-way uh conversation since obviously I'm very familiar with the law firms in New Jersey, but the department heads are also very familiar with past work done. So, I think it's a balance. >> Yeah. Okay. And I'm just asking just so I know because I've been on the council long enough to see it happen both ways.
Um so, I just want to understand how we're going to do that. Uh but my ask of you and all the directors really is if you can keep a running total of law firms across the city as we're doing it.
Right. A lot of times we'll ask you uh for your department to understand what the legal fees are across the city and a lot of those other departments are are not kind of incorporated into that conversation. I think from the council's perspective, we want to understand what all of our legal representation is going
to look like over the course of a year. >> Makes a lot of sense. And hopefully everyone was look was able to look over the email um that was sent to you that was sent to all the law firms. And that's going across the board regardless of what department it comes through. And it's something that I'm going to want a
summary on what they're working on. Um, what I don't have yet that I'm trying to mentally figure out is if it's standard um, if it's standard legal guidance that they're giving some a department, not based on a specific, let's say, project
or specific like litigation matter. I'm trying to figure out how do we deal with that type of summary because that's like an ongoing consultation that some of these law firms seem to have contracts for. Do >> um just on this point just to clarify
is this a different practice in terms of having these contracts sit in the department and like the number you know we always see in the corporation council um special council line item you know $800,000 but a lot of I assume a lot of
that was some of our bigger projects that would more typically sit under community development, let's say, but are are you changing the practice or like what would we expect to see under the special counsel under corporation council in the budget?
>> Jen, I know you're I could see you're shaking your head. >> No, no. I mean, so we're not changing any of the past practice at all. Um, from my understanding, a lot of what will be under um under special counsel would be uh litigation related. Um, whereas community development would be the actual redevelopment projects. And
director Brown, please feel free to to jump in. Um context. >> I think that's how it's generally been in the past. All of the all the items that speak to ongoing projects um sit within reside within my specific my specific department. And then anytime we
run into litigation matters, then um even if it's about a topic that is covered under my department, it gets handled under corporation counsel. and and Councilman Russo and and Councilman Fischer, you've you've pointed a very specific issue out and it's that
unfortunately with outside counsel budget like special counsel because it's litigation. While I can say I control it, if we get a complaint in, I have no choice but to have it answered on behalf of the city. So, you know, that's just something to be very mindful of. Um it's not like mine are project specific. It's
just a requirement that we have to actually deal with whatever complaint is filed. >> Yeah. No, I I we we know that. We know it's not a a number that's easy to budget. >> Yeah, unfortunately.
>> Any other questions, guys? >> All right, that's it for the agenda. Appreciate it. See you guys on Wednesday night. I'm going to go take a nap. Appreciate it. >> I'll see you guys Wednesday. I'll see you guys. Have a great evening, guys. Feel better, Council President.
>> Motion to close. >> Thank you. >> All in favor? All right. >> Me and journ. >> Nice Cody. Let's go.