tiffany's still eating All right get the hockey team going I know Let's go Jim [Applause] [Music] I would like to advise all those present
that notice of this meeting has been provided to the public in accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting act and that notice was published in the city website copies provided bergen record Alice special the northstar ledger jersey journal also
placed on a bulletin board in the lobby of city hall any objections if any shall be made to the city clerk all rise for the flagged flag of America and to the
republic for which it stands One nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all Mr Con here Miss Fischer here Mrs Jabor here Mr President Xano present Mr Cano
present Mr Ramos Mr Russo present President Doyle present Thank you Mr Fina Um we're going to suspend the agenda tonight to uh deal with the proclamation with with the Hoboken hockey team And I would also
just for housekeeping purposes I would ask people to be cognizant there's three sign up pages here for you to speak One is for ordinances one is for resolutions and the third is just for
the open public comment at that comes at the end of the meeting So um if you if you're here to there are agendas there should be agendas up here So you can if you're here for a certain topic that you want to speak on sign up on the right sheet so that we can go smoothly through
the process after the proclamation Excuse me And indicate what you're speaking on Yes And if you if you can put after your name the the number of the resolution which um you know is is B74 something There's there four there's
three uh ordinances tonight that are uh we're going to have hearings on and and you all get five minutes to speak in all three of those categories So um with that can we get up for I think Mr Ramos
Councilman Ramos Yeah Yeah Don't I just got over co Yeah Well first I want to apologize to anyone that text me or emailed me uh from Sunday to this morning I've been sick I really haven't got back to many
people so I apologize for that Uh but everyone loves an underdog an underdog to to winning story right i think we went from the Hoboken High School Wehawk and see Caucus uh hockey team They went
from uh Gordon Bombay Mighty Ducks to champions and I think we appreciate that right i do Yes I do that hockey Uh so I think the first year they started as a j a junior varsity team Uh getting their start with there with coach Arnon good
friend of mine uh big hockey guy help me taught me how to play street hockey [Applause] Uh then last year two and 14 but going through a season like that where you learn integrity you learn hard work you
learn leadership you learn overcoming to this year where they have 14 wins and seven losses winning the McMullen Cup in in what in 80 fashion over Bon I don't think anyone here likes Bon right that's Boo Bon Boo right so so that's any anytime you
beat Bon that's a big thing And my wife went to Wean High School So big shout out to Wean High School again But I think it shows a lot of character on your behalf to stick with it Starting something from nothing and
becoming champions is really a big deal and it shows all the hard work effort and the work ethic that Hoboken has had for a long period of time and all of our residents You guys really instill that and we're all really proud of you and what you've done what you can continue to do in the future And I know I have to
give a special shout out to uh Aaron Boyin one of the parents of the team because he always keeps me up to date with everything that's going on in the team So big shout out to Aaron Boyin So congratulations guys coming up Coach Arnon the other coaches and the team please come up and congratulations on
all your hard work Yeah Come up over here guys First do we get to drink from the cup like the Stanley cup And I would tell you to put the tall back and the shorter ones in the front And speeds narrow All right Congratulations
You want to say hold words coach please Yeah Uh before we take photos I just want to thank uh council member uh Ramos and mayor Bala for reaching out Uh we thank you for the proclamation Uh just like council Ramos said it's it's been a it's been a journey for us We started the
program four years ago Uh we've come such a long way Uh we're very thankful for uh all board of eds that have been associated with this Hobok and we hook and and caucus All right So thank you so much Thanks for coming and we appreciate the proclamation Thank you Thank you Dan
Let's hold up the cup So they can see it One more One more Nice Congratulations everybody [Applause] Good job Congratulations guys again
Who gets the cup a little bit later right that's a great tradition too You don't You don't watch any show Watch yours Yeah right Of course The clips are hysterical I mean you you
clip his stuff It's phenomenal Bye Brian Thank you so much You got to watch this episode It's a long conversation My favorite is that Jordy We
appreciate we thank you for that too The uh lift function Joe is the lift working uh I don't know Where is it y fully operational I've watched a few episodes I haven't watched it
consistently though I like this too Give me I don't need this I need something [Applause] Man how you doing man i'll forget that So you jump No I do That's what I'm saying You can
you can feel free to remind me you know but But I the first war gets you know are we right [Applause] i'm going to give them a chance to get the hell out of here I probably
shouldn't for fun Okay Where's the ones with my notes on it all right So I'm going to do a little housekeeping Yep All right So for uh those of us those of you who are keeping
tab um the first ordinance for second reading which is B740 is carried tonight Which one is it we're not going to be addressing that Um CD3 which is the companion resolution
related to that is going to be carried to April 2nd Uh CA5 um is a it's a with regard to the waterfront reconstruction is going to be carried to April 2nd
Uh and I think that's I think that's it So we're going to start with the um the hearings on the the ordinances All right Mr Fina Yes Hearing on an ordinance amending chapter 192 parking for persons with disabilities
Thank you Uh just checking here I do not see uh there's no one has signed up to speak on this particular ordinance Motion to close public portion Second All those in
favor i Any council members mr Fina call a vote Mr Con i Fiser Yes Mr Jabor Yes President Xano Hi Mr Canero Hi Mr Ramos Hi Mr Russo I President
Doyle I a hearing on an ordinance of the city of Hobok and amending Hobok and city code section 155-30 to remove 155-30C for clarity Uh I have there's no members of the
public who have signed up for this ordinance Motion close Second All those in favor i Anybody mr Fina please call the vote Mr Con hi Mr Fischer yes Mrs Jabor yes Mr
Presidento I Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi President Doyle I hearing on an ordinance city of Hobok and County of Hudson New Jersey approving the garage B municipal garage redevelopment plan B746
Uh there are people signed up for this So we're going to go in uh uh in order of signup and uh reminding you that there there's five minutes There's a clock here and we ask that you uh abide by the time limits because we have many
speakers tonight Uh Terry Francis Good evening city council members and uh good evening to our fellow residents here and those viewing from home I appreciate all the communications about this proposal but I must say like many
I'm deeply disappointed in the garage B plan I urge you city council members to vote no Why is this one large lot being reviewed out of context when there are many nearby city-owned properties including
the police headquarters and parking area the other two Hudson Street garages and the or empty or former Bank of America lot Um it should have been done as one plan I hope we get there
Uh and then you have to look at the adjacent blocks Basically it's one to five stories on that block of Hudson Street It's 12 to 15 stories across Second Street with the Hudson Square Apartments And similarly with the office
buildings across River Street instead of looking at the wider area there are too many aspirations I believe piled on here And therefore we've got the outline of a 25story building and a massive base with no
setbacks from the sidewalks and no green space built in Is this good planning is this consistent with the master plan our planning board says no Mixed use is fine here but it's just too tall
In terms of pulling on public opinion on this uh Fund for Betterable Fraud Fund did some We really appreciate that And we found that 76% of the the survey takers chose a height for the new garage
if it must be new between five stories and 14 stories That's 76% And all of course well below the 25 stories that's being proposed here The survey also shows that 65% are urging redevelopment to include
those nearby city plots Uh and what about the parking issues what we've got here is perhaps a parking crisis or brooding garage crisis Uh and we've not heard for some reason
from the HPU or transportation on this Very very strange Um there are in the plan mentions of both 810 spaces currently and 829 Uh regardless even if it's the
829 57% of those are taken by current Hoboken residents and then 24% are taken by full-time employees of Hoboken companies that do commute by car
Uh additionally there's there's a larger number that would take it over 100% of part-time people that use it on a flexible basis that also have their jobs or some of their part-time jobs in Hoboken Meanwhile the Garden Street garage is
closing and the people there have been told to move to garage B which under this plan would be demolished or the Midtown garage next to the hospital which is also slated for a major repair job
Uh basically there's going to be a huge huge issue when when this happens in parking and I think it should be handled up front not at the end Uh in terms of uh financing there's really none in
sight Uh the the study or the plan proposal mentions federal Let's get real Federal funding is being slashed across the board uh you add it all up and we need a
solution that fits and don't start at 25 stories We've heard about compromise We'll make it work Um but if you do an RFP or RFPs go out asking for 25 stories I don't think anybody's going to come back with 12 Uh what should be done is
to create a broader plan with a much shorter building mixed use at this site Thank you Appreciate your thoughts Thank you Mr Francis Uh Enrique Herrera how's it going i hope the uh the council
approves of this measure If it is 25 building uh 25 floors so be it Hey go for 30 That's it Thank you Thank you Mr Uh Liz Nidoya Good evening My name is Liz
Endoi I have lived in Hoboken for 46 years I've raised my family here and I am a property owner I'm once again here tonight because I love this city I'm here to speak out against the
proposed building above the garage on Hudson Street But this has been a tough call for me It's been a hard decision to come to Anyone who knows me knows that I'm
pretty much as far left of center as you can get I grew up in a home with very progressive liberal parents who inculcated me from a very young age to care for working people to care for the
poor and to fight for them The concept of housing for all was something I watched my parents organize and fight for I believe with every fiber of my being that affordable housing for all is a
right that government should provide However ironically for me I now find myself not in favor of the proposed plan for this building on Hudson Street I believe it is not in keeping with the
streetscape of Hudson Street and the overall unique aesthetic of our incredible city As an artist as someone who fell in love with this city because of its one-of-a-kind physical beauty I think a
structure of this height and footprint will not only overwhelm the immediate neighborhood in which it would be built but the entire downtown town area of Hoboken I believe that this proposed structure
is also not in keeping with the master plan for the development of the city Hoboken prides itself on being the mile square city and the charm inherent in this soberette is already in danger of
being destroyed by the large buildings that have already been built throughout the city We have gone from being the attractive livable city I fell in love with almost 50 years ago to a city overwhelmed by high-rise megaliths that
dwarf the neighborhoods in which they have been built making them small cities within a city Maxwell Place being only one example I shudder to think our downtown area could become what Journal Square is
morphing into right now I am here to strongly urge members of this council especially those whom propose this project whom I believe strongly and sincerely believe in its
efficacy and whom I highly respect to put this plan on pause and take a more deliberate careful approach to create more housing We need more housing but perhaps it could be spread out throughout the city and at
lower heights go back to the drawing board and find a solution that creates affordable workforce how housing but that that does not destroy the beautiful singular Hoboken New Jersey feel of our
beautiful city Thank you for allowing me to speak Thank [Applause] you Barbara Gross You hardly ever see me at any of these
meetings but this one is important to me And so I came Uh I live on Sixth in Hudson At least I did until December when a water mane broke on my corner and made my apartment uninhabitable I dread the thought of continued overdevelopment
in this city and a 25story building no matter who lives there is overdevelopment in my opinion Uh my council person Jen as you know we lost in the winter So I feel that nobody is here to represent me and the needs of
the people in my district and that's why I came out tonight And I want to thank Mr Doyle Miss Fischer and Mr President Zano who spoke against this in the past and all the others who feel they need to say we agree with whatever Mayor Bala
wants I wish you would think twice about this This is not a good thing for this city Overdevelopment is really just going crazy in this city We are the third most densely populated city in the
United States I don't know if you all know that And I think we're quickly becoming the first most densely populated Let us rethink this Make a more sensible proposal If we need to redo that garage redo that garage Why do
we need to build on top of it thank you for your attention Thank you Miss Gross Sylvia Schwarz Hi I know this is not easy for some people I mean when you make a decision and you really have your your vision
that this is really good for the city because of the affordable housing and I think that's a really great noble um way to look at this I think that's great But and I know it's hard to change your
position sometimes you know when you have a vision and you think and you think this is really the right answer and it's going to be really good And so I know it's difficult to make make a change But I think that in this particular case we really do need us to
think about something that is more in keeping with the scale of that block And I think it requires more work and I know that and I know that there are some good reasons why it was originally thought of
and probably why it was thought for 25 stories that because that devel developer would be more likely to jump on it for that height But the ramifications are just too dire We I was here when I remember when you everybody
said 23 stories for the W Oh that's an exception We'll never do that again I believed it And now we're going up to 25 stories And you might tell me that it's just going to be that one The rest of
the block we won't touch But I'm not sure that that's actually what's going to happen So my fear is when when something is built you can't take it down It's not like a oops
maybe it is too big Oops kind of not you know kind of out of scale It's too late That's why it's so important to look at this now Not just for today not just to try to solve what we're trying to solve which is really important for right now but to look at
it for the whole holistic of the whole town And I know it's going to be more work to go back and to look at this and to try to say how can we make a better plan for all of us here But I'm asking you to please consider that to please
take a pause on this and please take another opportunity to look at this and don't rush into this Thank you Thank you Miss Schwarz Kate Valenta Hi Thank you for the work that you do
here every week It's appreciated Um I agree with Mr Francis and Miss Enjoy and uh Miss Gross and Miss Schwarz Everything they said I agree with And I don't want to take up too much more time but um we have just an incredible um
incredibly intact 19th century walkable city here And every time we build something like that we chip away at something that cannot be regained No matter how much money we spend you just can't get that kind of character back And as others have said if we put one tower here we'll have five more towers
on Hudson Street and soon we'll have a canyon Um and although affordable housing is so important I think we need a comprehensive plan for the whole city and not just a single block Um and I also think that um Ron Hine of Fund for a Better Waterfront has made a lot uh
more nuanced arguments on this than I can make right now and there are a lot of good reasons financial and otherwise that this is not really a feasible project So I urge you to vote no Thanks very much Thank you Cheryl Fall Good evening
I'd love to stand here today and simply say a 25story building in Hoboken anywhere is oversized But tonight something different must be said For decades our elected officials
have allowed Hoboken to morph into a gated enclave for the affluent This didn't just happen on its own It's a shared responsibility that falls on both the those in power and the residents I've heard it myself Affluent
residents speaking with a sense of entitlement as though they're royalty They tell elected officials directly that they're the ones you want here I couldn't believe it at first but we've
all heard it more than once Some of them even threaten to leave if they don't get their way To that some of us though unspoken think "Don't let the door hit you." Or better yet do you
promise it's infuriating I've seen our city pour countless dollars into projects like parks I was part because they're for everyone And I agree parks are important I was part of the iconic waterfront
referendum in the '9s But let's be honest parks don't just benefit everyone They increase the value of nearby properties something that only benefits property owners
The 18 plus plus million in counting spent clearing the last remnants of our industrial past along the waterfront wasn't just about creating public space It was about making the area more attractive for the already
wealthy Let me be clear To those who can afford million-dollar views I say good for you But the hypocrisy is evident The very same voices who pushed for our time energy resources and tax dollars going
into their very special park are now the ones trying to block desperately needed middle and lower income housing for those being displaced For those that need it housing that is affordable isn't about
increasing net worth It's a necessity today not months or years or never from now I of all people would rather oppose this project I've been a loud voice
against oversized development forever I despise that I'm supporting a 25-story building But we've seen r development run roughshot over the city for years It's a paradox that the same people opposing this project were silenced when
they could have raised their voices against more than a dozen declared redevelopments Projects that are loud largely earmarked for the wealthy But for some reason cough cough this project is different This one
they'll organize to oppose and defe defeat And there's no reason to wonder why The numbers don't lie In 2000 Hoboken's median household income was 62,500 Today it's almost
177,000 with 44% of residents earning over 200K Median condo values are now nearly a million dollars with over 20% valued at over a million Median rents for a one-bedroom 3,200 and for a two-bedroom
4200 These figures are beyond what workingclass families seniors and middle-income residents can afford And while our energy is focused on bells and whistles for the affluent we continuously turn a blind eye to the abuses of our rent control and
affordable housing laws Renters fight daily to stay in their homes that developers want to replace with luxury units We act like we can't protect them but mark my words we could if we wanted to For years elected officials have
waved waged a silent class warfare against Hoboken's middle and lower inome residents The message clear Step out of the way for the wealthy Just recently a 90 vote erased a large percentage of 56 required uptown affordable units pushing
them into a future project that may never materialized If I believe there was a chance we'd start prioritizing people being displaced I would urge a no vote on such a large project But I know better The truth is there's never been a real
commitment to protecting the less affluent No matter how many meetings we attend or speeches we make it's all lip service with no meaningful action And let's be clear about something else Hope's wealthy residents don't want affordable housing here No matter how
much they might claim that they do notice how they hide behind excuses Too tall too rushed more planning needed And even if by some slim chance they do want a little bit of affordable housing they certainly don't want it on Hudson Street
or anywhere near them Finishing now So in consideration of all this I must urge you to vote yes It's time we stop pandering to the wealthy and prioritize the urgent needs of the other people in Hoboken Thank you
Thank you Miss Val Deanie Amani I was warned against following Miss Phallic Now I know why Um Din Amani Um it was December 10th 3:00 in the morning and my door was banging I was alone in
the house I opened the door and there was police and they said "There's been a water mane break in front of your house and check your basement." Sure enough we had a foot of water in our basement Our neighbors were not as lucky They lost their entire property Some of them are
here today When finally the water infrastructure company came I asked them what happened and they said there's this fragile system that exists in Hoboken which is overstrained because we keep developing and adding more and more
houses and more and more units to it With garage B we will only make that problem worse And remember this it's us homeowners residents who end up incurring the cost When I applied to the city for repairs and damages and cleanup
cost they said they were immune that the water infrastructure was maintained and therefore I didn't get a single dollar I don't think rest of my neighbors did as well So just remember this when you vote yes today you are not voting for the
residents who live here now You're voting for residents who may come and occupy the units that you're building And I just want you to know that it's the residents who are here today and we are affected by your decision Thank you for the opportunity
Thank you Ron Hine Good evening everybody Uh a councilman who's running for mayor uh has just come out with a comprehensive plan to address the housing crisis
Uh I'm talking about Jersey City not Hoboken Clearly James Solomon has put considerable thought into this His 12point plan Part of his strategy is to hold real estate de developers feet to the
fire and make them accountable He has also refused to accept contributions from developers to maintain his independence and not be influenced by campaign money Some of you claim that your
support for Garage B plan is to address Hoboken's housing crisis but you have not put forth a comprehensive plan Obviously the issue cannot be sufficiently addressed on one
block How will this project provide workforce and affordable housing this question has not been answered In fact developers responding to uh an RFP that would go out for this project
will likely come back with proposals to build market rate housing to cover the cost of 20% affordable units Uh we took a poll 80% of respondents agreed that building heights
should be 14 stories or less 76% agreed the building heights should be compatible with the surrounding neighborhood The planning board felt the same At Monday night's meeting board members showed that they understood
Hoboken's master plan contextual development and good planning As Hoboken's governing body you have the final say on Hoboken's zoning and redevelopment issues and you should
understand these concerns as well Our poll also found that 65% of respondents agreed that this plan should not be confined to one block but encompass the entire redevelopment area
Otherwise you allow 25 stories on one block to set a precedent for the surrounding area multiplying the problem of heights that are incompatible with the scale and character of Hoboken Uh in
2004 Hobokens voted uh to pass by a 10 to1 margin an ordinance that restricted the practice of paytoplay Subsequently we succeeded in getting the city to adopt an ordinance to end the practice for developers in redevelopment
zones For 20 years we have had a level political playing field where people doing business with the city were not having undue influence on local public policy I can remember 20 30 years ago when
political contributions typically the maximum allowed came pouring into local campaigns from developers and professional firms with city contracts It was impossible for local citizens to compete with this outsized
influence Uh the reforms we passed 20 years ago all came to an abrupt end in 2023 when the state statute was passed that stripped the authority of municipalities to pass play pay-to-play
ordinances Now the threat of Hoboken returning to those dark days of political influence are coming back Developer money has been pouring into the campaigns of some mayoral candidates as well as union
money But you are the governing body that is supposed to regulate development How do we know that your vote tonight is not being influenced by the special interest supporting your political
campaigns and what if one of your major campaign contributors is the developer who responds to the RFP for garage B how can anyone trust that you will be objective how can we trust that a
developer will not be selected based on the political influence that he has bought thank you Mr Martin Anderson Dear council members and fellow residents uh please pardon me for reading a
prepared text Um and I want to thank the council for all their hard work I really appreciate the long hours that you've spent on this and many other proposals However I'm here to speak against the garage B redevelopment proposal because
in my view it will adversely affect the residents of the neighborhood and indeed the whole city Uh one concrete particular concern is parking for existing residents The
full plan calls for the replacement of not only garage B but also garages D and G Will existing residents be able to park there and what will be the cost of that parking it surely will not go down
Uh Marine View Plaza residents like myself and especially those on fixed incomes feel threatened by the prospect of losing their close by and relatively reasonably priced parking
Um this development plan is part of a pattern of building in Hoboken which many feel has contributed in recent years to an actual diminishment in the quality of life in our city Uh two facts First what was the
population of Hoboken in 1981 the year I moved here 33,000 Today just about double that number live here Second as someone else already said our population density is now the third highest of any city in the
Western Hemisphere Shall we soon be first where does it all end um and these tall buildings that have sprung up in that time to have them built around the periphery of the city in recent years in
my view is bad enough and just witness what is now in the pipeline just a few blocks south near the train station and on Observer Highway Um but to have tall buildings
like that proposed at garage B begin to creep into the heart of our 19th century neighborhoods feels like a real invasion This issue was raised at the recent Hoboken planning board meeting during
which they voted 7 to one to reject the current city garage B plan stating that they found the redevelopment plan to be in conflict with the master plan Yes And yes Marine View Plaza started all
this but Hoboken was a much different place back in 1975 In the present I'm convinced that we cannot build our way out of a housing shortage in a community of 1.26 square miles Not even if we reach
100,000 souls amongst us I would say this plan needs to go back to the drawing board A more modest proposal would be repair the existing garages The redevelopment proposal estimates the
cost of giving garage B an extra 5 to 10 years of life only $1.8 million 25 years for 7 million preserve quality of life for existing residents wind down the
trajectory of overdevelopment Thank you Thanks so much for your time Thank you Mr Anderson Christina Anderson Good evening Um I am uh agree I agree
with most of the speakers who are against this garage B and that's all I have to say Thank [Applause] you Kate Gibbs Hi good evening Uh Kate Gibbs I'm
here representing uh ELAC A25 which is a labor management organization representing 8,000 union operating engineers and the signatory contractors who employ them And this project uh is so important as it will help provide opportunities for workingclass men and
women like those that we represent in our union but also teachers and firemen and other members of the working class that help our cities and our communities run Uh they don't just deserve to live to work here they deserve to live in great places like Hoboken And we know that a huge part of the affordability
crisis in housing here in New Jersey is because of our severely constrained land right supply and demand If there's a small supply the prices are going to be high Uh the other thing that is really difficult is the challenging development approval process in New Jersey And so if
we're going to make any headway in addressing affordability whether in affordable housing or in market rate we need to increase the supply And in an extremely land constrained area like Hobok uh I think this is a really innovative solution by readapting a
blighted property and and going vertical So we're here in support of it Thank you so much Thank you Miss Gibbs Jim Vance Good evening members of the council Thank you so much for allowing me to speak on this matter My name is Jim
Vance Um both the Fund for Better Waterfront and Responsible Development Task Force opposed this Um and I don't think they do so lightly but they do it for two reasons from what I can ascertain Uh one
this building is too tall and the other is that the study area is too small And they're right on both counts Um it's past time we dealt with the housing crisis
Um I have to go on about what the housing crisis is All of you know and most of the people here know and most of the people here come down on the side of we got to do something about the housing crisis
Um there's ways to address it Um in the past uh I've suggested and others that we build taller buildings back in the northwest part of town west of Willow and and north of 11th um or
north of sorry uh 14th um the piece of land that sits next to the resiliency park that this council was smart enough to to change the contract for designing the park and designing a garage on that
site Yanked it out and it was yanked out because I I convinced people that maybe we could use this for housing Of course it still sits there Nothing's been done Um too tall says Councilman Cohen Um tall
buildings belong in Jersey City That's a quote But suddenly tall buildings belong right here in this neighborhood Unless you be considered and and vote no Um Mayor Stack will sue us Councilwoman
Jabbor says if we build tall buildings but that's in that part of town it's okay to build them over here on this little small section In essence I see this plan as a camel's nose under the tent to spend tens of
millions of dollars rebuilding falling apart parking garages That money could be spent for affordable and workforce housing all over town that money could be spent to
um really take the hop and turn it into a worldrenowned local transportation system Uh that money could be spent building schools That money could be spent fixing Washington Street That money can be done a lot of things Here
we are at second half second quarter of the 21st century wanting to spend tens of millions of tax dollars to rebuild falling down garages so we can continue for the generation those kids that were
here getting these awards today So when they're my age they'll still be able to live in the car culture We really need to take a look at serious city planning This thing isn't planned well And please remove it If you're running for mayor you ought to say "I'm for planning I'm
not for just doing this and building garages and looking like I'm building housing." And and if you if you really really really want to tend to these issues let's put the city's master plan back on the books Take another look at
it and see what we're going to do with real true land use and transportation planning We've never really done it in its time Please kill this thing and let's move on to something serious Thank you Thank you Mr
Vance Adrien Rosco thank you I'm your penmanship You could use a little work Good evening council members I'm Adrian Orosco and uh I'm the New Jersey political director for 32BJ SEIU Um
we're the largest property service workers union in the nation We represent 15,000 building service workers that live in New Jersey including janitors security officers maintenance workers uh who play a vital role in keeping our
communities clean safe and functioning Uh 3,000 live here in Hudson County and 70 of our members work here in Hoboken Tonight I speak in strong support of the proposed redevelopment plan for Municipal Garage B Uh this project is
more than just a new development It's an opportunity to create good jobs for our members strengthen our economy and build a more sustainable and livable Hoboken Uh the redevelopment of municipal garage B can provide hundreds of jobs during construction as well as long-term
employment opportunities for our members once the project is completed Uh by ensuring that these jobs pay fair wages and benefits we'll be lifting up working families in Hoboken and making sure that this city thrives for generations to come Moreover the plan includes
muchneeded affordable housing which will help provide homes for those who need it most As we know affordable housing is critical in keeping working families in Hoboken and this project represents a positive step toward addressing that challenge Lastly I want to emphasize the
broader community impact With this project Hoboken is not only investing in its uh physical infrastructure but in its people Good jobs and affordable housing are the pillars of a strong sustainable community For all these reasons we strongly support this
redevelopment plan and encourage the council to approve it Uh let's invest in Hoboken's future create good jobs and ensure that working people have the opportunity to thrive in this vibrant community Thank you Thank
you Adrian Liz Erco Hi Um I'm here to ask you to vote no on the garage B project The planning board a board that is the a body that this council relies upon to de to to give guidance on development absent of
political agendas determine the garage B's plan is inconsistent with the master plan It isn't often that the planning board finds inconsistency with the master plan but in this case it did The overall height and the reduction of the
parking spots were cited by the planning board But what was also brought up was the lack of a holistic view of the entire redevelopment area in that neighborhood I want to remind you of a council meeting on October 9th just five
months ago when this body debated whether or not to designate an area across the street from the path in need of rehabilitation The council was divided and the project was controversial Some members of the
council argued we needed to look at the redevelopment plan holistically in that area Councilman Ramos said at the time and I quote "We made a huge mistake not looking at all of these blocks together
suggesting that his yes vote would now rectify that mistake." Councilwoman Jabore leaned into that argument suggesting that it would be missing the boat if we didn't have a comprehensive plan If council members
believed in that argument for that project then why should that not hold true for this project nobody disagrees that Hoboken is in need of more affordable housing But we have more affordable housing in that area without
building a 25story structure rather than coming up with a comprehensive redevelopment plan for the area which many of you advocated for Finally I would caution you using a crisis to make
lasting dis um decisions There is no changing a 25story structure once it is built In fact by the time this structure is done the landscape of our housing needs could be completely changed making
an argument for more thoughtful an approach for garage B Thank you Thank you Mr Chucko Manuel Riverolair Thank you Council President uh council
and members of the public It's good to see everyone here Passionate I'm going to keep speaking because the clock is turning backwards to get to five So that's why you must see the people speaking here uh longer It feels uh that way perhaps to you side It's Yes sir
It's returning Exactly It's starting at the beach at five You're using your time to just debate whether this is a clock That's not the way that clock used to work sir But nonetheless it's changed Nonetheless
please Nonetheless thank you Order M Council President I apologize then I was wrong Uh I just want to ask a few questions to the members of the council and the public I was at all of the meetings I know that I sound redundant but it is hard for me to understand
where do we put affordable housing and workforce where if the planning board had a a clue I don't mean to offend them but at least an idea of tell us at least then this is not good because it's too
high We recommend this height Again I see you writing council president That was not an offense So don't go back and tell them Uh to me it it's hard for me to come here because everybody sees me every week and they're going to say "Oh this is the guy who speaks on everything."
And it's true It's true because there's a lot of important things in in in this agenda As a matter of fact this evening I have more But what I would like to know is what is the height what is what is the hype that you know is agreed upon for all of us give us a number and let's
talk it out Um let's bring it back to a meeting But when the members of the public hear that the planning board did not approve it or the planning board said no that they didn't like the idea but they don't understand the conversation that was had by the planner
of the planning board who also believed that it was a viable project Again I'm just asking the question is where do we put affordable housing is it on observer is it back again on the west side is in
the middle of Hoboken where because I'm not you know I appreciate every member of the public and their opinions Of course I respect them all but where and I had prepared notes but I just want to ask where do we put
affordable housing and just like nobody wants um a complex for the unhoused in their neighborhood It's starting to feel that way It's not that way Again not offending members of the public It's just where do we put it why wasn't there a recommendations from the planning
board uh council we believe that it's better 10 stories 15 maybe but to say no is unfair also to the spirit of what is being intended here Now I'm playing devil's
advocate because I know that also yes some people live in the neighborhood and I know but if we're going to stop this then how do we stop all the other buildings that if a developer buys it next to your house and decides to build higher than your property because
there's a building two blocks over that's high then how do you stop that so if we don't stop regular old developers or developers that are are on private property then why is this one different again not to be redundant but I go to those meetings and I speak and I say
"Why is it so high why are you using this material why are you doing that?" And council president is my witness that I try my best I'm just one person but I try to go to as many meetings Was one in yet one uh last night for the zoning board Funny that I agreed on both things
They had a good time about that But again because I know that uh there may be other speakers I just want to say where do we where do we put extra housing and yes it is needed And you know I don't know Please help us to understand that council so that members
of the public could feel comfortable with your vote and understand how you voted Thank you And I yield back the rest of my time Thank you Council President Thank you Thank you Manny Mike Evers Evers
Happy St Patrick's Day Mike Um thanks for the opportunity to speak Yes it is St Joseph's Day And to the cognacente that's an awfully good time to vote on a housing proposal Okay
I had prepared remarks and I'm going to use them but quickly just front We have a whole the amount of BS in this room is frightening right now We have a whole bunch of people coming up here and saying we need a plan for this and a plan for that We have seen more goddamn plans in this town than I can possibly
shake a stick at Nothing ever gets done Okay Dr King spoke truthfully when he spoke of the urgency of the now Is this plan perfect of course it isn't And it's not the final draft of the plan either because every one of these development
plans keeps going back to the city council to be revised which is not a bad thing It's a good thing Now there's a couple of things floating around for those who may be concerned I have read things in editorials possibly by city council people that say that um
do I really only have Oh it's that Okay um that we're going to give away the property I I've heard about ground leases I haven't heard anybody giving it away for free Why are people circulating that kind of misinformation we've had some BS surveys here I to Ron I took
your survey I didn't see an option that said "Would you like to see affordable housing on this site?" That would have been nice giving that was the focus of the thing All right We're here all about density Well geez you got the skyscraper park going up right down the block
pretty much You've got the W you've got the Hilton going up Telling me another 25 story building is out of character is ridiculous Although I must say that it's it's out of character I guess cuz it's not a luxury building Maybe that's what makes it not out of character Okay Now
now to put the feet of you guys to the fire and I like all of you even the ones I disagree with Okay This is a chance for you to show who you are You're you're elected officials and no offense but you guys are better at blowing smoke
than the average bear That's you know partly how you get to be elected Let's face it But the fact is and I would suggest everybody in this room do this judge everybody on this council by how they vote on this because this is going to tell you whose side they're on Are
they on the side of everybody or just on the side of some people who care a lot about 19th century architecture except I never see them at the zoning board when we're tearing down those buildings They care about the poor having housing as
long as it isn't near them Maybe it's on the west side of town Let's put it over there Let's put it in the middle of the river on a barge but let's not put it in any real neighborhood where it could really occur Okay now that's called strategic delay Let's have a plan and
we'll plan and we will never do anything That's what this strategy is about The fact is this is a good plan It reflects Hoboken values What's great about this town and I didn't know it when I moved here I honestly just moved here because it was close to Manhattan okay was that
you get to meet people from every socioeconomic level in this town every background I'm glad I have that opportunity I'm very glad my children had that opportunity If we leave it to market forces we're going to become shortsills on the Hudson Everybody sees
that This is what government intervention is for is to address market failures And if we don't provide housing for workforce folks and and lowincome folks they're not going to be any around here anymore And we will all be poorer
for it Fiscal responsibility This is another piece of BS The idea that you can't build a 25story building that w with vastly reduced upfront land costs if you use a lease or something and you can't make it profitable That's crap
That that that's another thing that's circulating around I'm a real estate investor Small time You can do that Affordable housing and workforce housing is profitably done all over the country They sell them in syndicates all over the place It's easily done Okay
Um now Joe Barry I gather who I think is a good man is um concerned that apparently he has air rights or may have air rights Joe I would give you a suggestion People Joe you're not a young man People are remembered by the last
things that they do And unfortunately too many people remember that you went to jail and that you got violent at a play No I don't mean that to mock Joe I think he's a very good man His applied housing is excellent Joe make the Joe Bo just resolve the air rights issue and
then let's name the building after Joe Okay because it would be perfectly in keeping with the kind of work the man really did most of his life So again everybody pay attention This is the time to define who everybody is here Are you in favor of the 70% of Hoboken that
voted in favor of voting down that referendum to destroy rent control are you in favor of the donor class okay And I hope you vote yes I really do [Applause] Roberto I always butcher your last name Roberto So that's that's okay That's
okay Uh good evening council people It's hard to follow that except to say that it's so inconsistent what he said that if it's profitable it could be profitable at 12 stories It doesn't have to go to 25 We have no proof that 25 is
needed But um I I I'm here to uh talk about this and it's not about affordable housing because that's been the scapegoat Uh we're not talking if if we were we wouldn't be here if it were 25story building of luxury housing It
would not be here right um nobody would ever uh vote for that Okay So it's we're talking about character We're talking about keeping within a a certain
uh what did they call it harmony in in the in in the uh uh in the planning board meeting A similar thing um is happening in Lenox Hill area People are up in arms because
um Lenox Seal Hospital wants to build 40story uh full plate building on top of their current hospital which will a be totally distorting the the uh the height and
density of the area but also um you know through a lot of shadow etc etc Now people are not you know against having a cutting edge hospital And the fact that we oppose a uh a a uh
building that is been opposed by the planning board that's inconsistent is not the fact that we want no affordable housing or that we're against affordable housing Okay we we can have affordable housing in several buildings in that
redevelopment area that can be to shorter I mean you I walked today to River Street It's a canyon with no light There is no sunlight Hudson Street will end up being the same No sunlight
And it's things have consequences I mean right now it takes my wife who commutes to work in New Brunswick about 20 minutes sometimes to go from 13th Street to Newark Street on Hudson Street How long will it take when you add all the
extra traffic extra congestion um you know we talked about there's so many things that the the planning board asked the planner and the planner threw up his his hands and said "I don't know I don't know Shouldn't we get the answers first
why are we rushing this should we should we not get the questions to Councilman uh Jim Doyle answered about the redevelopment zone about things that he questioned um before we vote why the
rush is it you know it's clear that we're in an election period and this is motivating a lot of people here I mean the mayor threw out the outgoing mayor who's running for a different election
threw out a uh a message today that not only talked about affordable housing but offices um school you know a bunch of other things in there I was surprised he didn't actually throw in the pool the
proverbial pool that we've had for 20 years or something like that Um you know it's not you know the Did we not learn from the dangers of being beholden to large donors we just
had an election a national election and we're suffering from the consequences of the large donors to the current president What did we do we have to argue for no not be beholden to
developers Um we we need affordable housing but I haven't seen anything that says it has to be 25 stories It has to be full plate You don't compare it with the the W The
W is nowhere near full plate Um neither is any of the other buildings that were mentioned Um and uh just a quickly we paid $200,000 for a mural that's not going to be destroyed It's a small sign of lack of planning Why would we have
put up a a mural uh you know a few years back and now we have to destroy it why don't we do things the right way planning for decades not for like three three years or not and um as to like we're just a the density we're just a
square mile We cannot afford everybody Okay There is no such thing as everybody deserves to live in Hoboken It's not possible Otherwise Miss Cheryl Fall will have gotten completely her um wish She
will end up with a lot of affordable housing for the wrong reasons Thank you Thank you Roberto Uh James Trarico Where's Where did Jerry go yes he is
This microphone You all don't seem to like who's ever standing behind this microphone James Traracle 124 Madison Street uh this room barely has any air and and we know we have council
meetings and that's the trend of how the public is respected and the trend is what I want to talk about and this uh this ordinance B476 should be voted
down The trends going on here is that it's it's pitched to us as a complete lie Okay There's never been a building that's been promised affordable housing that gets that affordable housing It's renegotiated
Renegotiated If I understand this project correctly you're going to knock down the garage rebuild it with the same number of spaces
Impossible And then put a building on top of it Um that is you you should all be weary enough to know that that is not going to happen That's a bold lie You're you're
actually someone here invited union people that actually knew You're telling us that you're promoting that the building it's important to build the building not to live in the community of the people
Let me talk about the parking for a minute 829 spots in garage B They're rented by monthly owners uh monthly tenants that live in Hoboken
You guys have contracts with multiple buildings all around Garage B from right across from the path to the WY building 221 river They all have contracts where they pay the
parking utility for spots whether they park there or not The reason why the WY building has that has that contract is because to negotiate for them to build that building you guys
promised them parking So you're you're going to have a lawsuit with them and the other tenants that are promised parking right now You get paid from them You get paid for the monthly
people and the and you know you're not understanding that parking is a like a natural resource in this town Okay And and the and the
city powerfully manages that If you count the private garages in the town I believe there's under 10 and none of them are quite as large as as garage B Everybody understands you can drive to
Hoboken and it'll be difficult to find parking but you can go to a lot and pay for a space Once you remove that there's going to be a lot of hesitation and you have to understand
the trends The trend is to get rid of parking spots And this falls right into nonsense trends of vision zero Vision zero And let's let's all thank our blessings that we're still here and we haven't been hit by a car
yet and and somehow our our grandparents died natural deaths and weren't hit by a car That is a scop for political national aspirations because you're forced to believe in it and not question
the doctrine And the mayor is taking that on a national level and trying to promote himself And he doesn't care about any of the daily voters that are all sitting behind me So so that's another reason why you're
so happy to move forward with this because you can knock out hundreds of spots at a time Now that garage if you go to the the budget of 2024 you're going to see on sheet 31 all
the garages brought in $9.8 million Garage B find out how much it brought in 2.6 7 million It's a big one When you go to sheet 33 of the budget how much did the parking utility
transfer surplus to the city $7 million in 2023 So you can't transfer 7 million if you cut out 2.7 million And all you're going to have to do then is ratchet up all the other
costs of parking everywhere else Thank you Thank you That's it for the public speakers on this issue One more Tom Hurley Oh I'm sorry Thomas Hurley and Alex And Alex wants to Garcia He came in late
Okay Good evening council people Hoboken Um I didn't have intentions of coming up here and and uh partaking in public comment but you know I've listened to a lot of opinions Um and I call them
opinions because infrastructure one when you're when you're doing uh a building like building G is proposed the infrastructure would have utility connections that would replace 100-year-old pipes clay things that are
needed to prevent flooding water drainage So the fact that someone's house is flooding because a building would go up in building G is just not true Now I'm not an engineer but I serve as the president for local union 253 I work for the Eastern Atlantic States
Regional Council of Carpenters And a gentleman came up here and said the unions were invited We are not invited We are part of the community Okay so although you may not realize that I'm not looking for applause I just the reality is that the working class
are not recognized unless they have an opinion to strive for struggle Look the unions have not been very successful in partaking in a lot of projects in Hoboken because of the scale of the work All I ask is that the responsibility
lies on if this project does get passed that we please consider responsible development And that means having it built done right the first time Like another resident had said we're doing your infrastructure We work in your
schools in your hospitals We're not the unsightly people eating lunch on the sidewalk We have families children We pay taxes and vote If you do move forward with this project please consider that Hoboken people who are in
construction and are in the unions and live here have the opportunity more than just the housing projects that are soon to be redeveloped or more than just you know renters people who can invest to raise their families here So thank you
Thank you Mr Hurley Alex Garcia Good afternoon Actually good evening Alex Garcia six ward Um first off I want to thank whoever is going to vote yes for this referendum I
want to thank you because at the end of the day we need affordable housing plus lowincome housing So many residents have left Hoboken I'm a man basically who like I said low middle income who
make six figures Even that doesn't suffice We need this building 25 stories it's not enough Look at the waiting list And I'm the first person to be an advocate for parking I'm the very first person to fight for parking because I live on Washington Street I'm always
fighting for it But we need this We need a starting point somehow to bring these buildings You know we need to address the people who have been waiting such a long time to be able to stay in Hoboken and be able for example great example my
daughter she's been she literally moved in with me last year from Ruckers University from Mon from um Mount Island to Hoboken She goes to Ruckers She's a junior And now with a new police contract she's excited to go ahead and then uh apply for the civil service test
Guess what this this building is going to help for the workforce first responders Correct am I not correct for this so with that being said it's excited I'm like "Honey you know what take a test Who knows i can still live in Hoboken Live three blocks four blocks from my
house." It addresses the Hoboken Police Department people who work here the Hoboken Fire Department affordable housing and guess what the parking situation it'll be a headache for for a short period of time And believe me if I
have to if I could go through it with four kids people could go through people struggle just a bit But we need this building Thank you very much Thank you Mr Garcia With that motion to close public portion
second All those in favor i I Okay Councilman from the first ward Thank you everybody for coming out tonight um my friends in the union uh other friends and neighbors from the first ward people from outside of the first
ward I think some of the my colleagues up here are not against the merit of the plan What they're against is the process of the plan So let's rewind the tapes Back in
December 5 uh I was briefed by the administration like maybe a week before the meeting that the mayor thought I should know that we're putting a redevelopment plan for garage B Okay I
listen I then look at it and read it Um I'm like "Hell no Hell no There wasn't one single community meeting I said "How can you make us vote on this?" And it's rushed right at the
end of the year December 5th and December 18th If we passed it would happen That means everybody in here that's speaking tonight whether for or against would not have had the opportunity to speak about it It would have been passed by the darkened night
Now we I I'd like to thank Councilman Ramos um who sat on the Southwest Development Committee and said uh I'm going to speak to the administration see if we can get some meetings We got two meetings We got one on a Zoom and we got one in person held here So we talked
about this for maybe 3 4 hours maybe a little conservative and then we find ourselves here a couple of uh weeks later So let me think about this that we went from
December 5th well first off back up This was made a rehabilitation a redevelopment zone back in November of 2022 So now all of a sudden December 5th this comes to fruition And then here we are 3 months later on a potential 250
foot uh height of a building Now the garage for somebody asked the garage is 45 million in revenue garage B by the way and there are leases all over it So the problem that I have with the plan
is we have Police Plaza Our police are asking for a new police station I support that It's right across the street from garage B I have two other garages in my ward that are between 205 Hudson and 235
Hudson They need to be fixed I then have between Marine View 1 and Marine View 2 another city garage that needs to be fixed Now when we look at this plan and we talk about holistic which by the way if I go another two blocks south east I'm
in Hudson uh Hudson Place and we made that a rehabilitation zone I then go another two blocks north of that or actually a block I have the CVS plaza That's a rehabilitation zone So I understand everything takes a
long time in Hoboken to get things done However we're talking about a street that's literally two blocks and we have a police station across the street How does that work you know today on March 17th of
this year uh the mayor announced that we were uh some Church Square Park improvements which you all see that the digging up that's happening But let me quote from what was written on our website Church Square Park improvements will begin this week
following years of community engagement and planning Years of community engagement and planning We passed the plan or before I got here we passed the plan in November of 2022 The plan was put on my desk
maybe a week before December 5th Years of planning for a park A park We have 10 meetings for a swing for that park most of the time So in three months we're going to approve a project
and not the merit I do agree we need affordable housing and we need to make sure that we have people that work in our city have the ability to live here However I have three garages and a police plaza Why are we not talking about the
other two in a redevelopment plan when you deem it that we don't pick and choose in isolation Why all of a sudden did this just appear what happened in in 2023 now on our side of things sometimes
you don't get to see what happens behind the scenes And not in a bad way when I say behind the scenes it's how it just works up here The sponsor of the of this of this plan never once called me Councilwoman
Jabor you have never called me I reached out to Councilman Ramos to ask for help Councilman Russo had mentioned this earlier in the year to me that he was putting something together The only way I found out of it was a press release in October that you don't
pay much attention to that something was going to happen That bothers me when nobody comes to speak to me of the ward and listen to what my people have to say whether good or bad pro or against Many of you know that are from
my ward I'm out and about I'm knocking on your door I'm calling you I'm talking to you So I have a good feel of what my ward likes and doesn't like My concern is that we're not looking at this holistically We right now have a rehabilitation plan being paid for We
voted upon it for Hudson Place We have another one for the police station We have this one that's done by the city Three plans Is there any crossing of those plans no There's one last piece to the puzzle
here that I don't think anybody's really understanding too much Whether you're in tune or not there's been some words out there that the two neighbors on either side 205 Hudson and
five Marine View uh I called them up and had some meetings with them to talk about the plan They weren't clued in on this plan How do you not include people in the plan that are the next door neighbors of this who are two very one
is very involved in the in the affordable housing part of this town And in that I learned that the owner of Marine View 5 has some easements on top of the roof
When they bought Marine View 5 they got some easements You might hear the term air rights I somebody else said that but I'm going to say it's an easement on the roof They have indicated that there's a chance that they may have to look after their best
interest What does that mean that means a potential lawsuit All right How many times have we walked into lawsuits here my job is to protect your tax dollars Put a holistic plan together make sure we don't get sued When I was first brand new on this
council I walked into the Northwest development mess where our leadership decided now you can't build They sued us for almost a full amount And to get out of out from under that I had to make a tough
decision and pick height over hitting you guys with the bill on the lawsuit Didn't make me feel good What I'm concerned about here is that once we knock the garage down
put the garage back up build on top of it it's exactly what some of this easement may actually come to fruition And maybe there is a case maybe there isn't but I don't want to take that chance So not taking that chance maybe there's
another plan that we actually knock down one of the garages do away with it put open space there or we have a smaller footprint for a building in between Maybe we put affordable housing there But we haven't discussed any of this Have we discussed maybe swapping
land with Marine View 5 and giving them Police Plaza and we then have the whole block We actually pick up a little middle piece there where you can park there's a potential to do that and then maybe we don't need 20 uh 250 ft because
now that we have the whole block we can need only 10 10 stories 100 ft 120 ft which is more into the surrounding but I'm not talking about the height what I'm talking about that this is rushed through in three
months three months there's nothing about the merit of this project that I'm upset with But at the end of the day we're not thinking about this The the words that I heard it's um transformational once in a
lifetime It's once in a lifetime when you build a 25story building because you can't take it down as some of you had said I'm not arguing the height I'm arguing that we're not looking at this holistically in our town Our first ward is going to be ripped up for the next 10
to 15 years 10 to 15 years I It's a guess because how things go in this town It takes a long time But at the end of the day I don't want to fight traffic a little bit more Do I want to get affordable housing we're going to add affordable housing
Don't don't you worry In majority of the buildings that are proposed it's 20% on a lot of the things that we're pushing for The CVS Plaza is 20 If this one would be four uh 80 and 20 uh I'm more than sure we'd have to fight to get another 20 in the other but we we
counted in the first word somewhere between 200 and 250 affordable units with what's being built including Newman Leather What I want to see here is that we go back to the table We come back with a plan for all
three garages and police plaza when we get the rehabilitation zone back and we look at this on how we can make it work for everybody So I'd like to make a motion to table this I'll second I seconded
Okay Okay there's a motion on the table to table this for what duration until we sit back down and we get the rehabilitation report back from police plaza at least All
right Well anyway we we're not going to debate it Mr Second on it Yes Councilman Fischer seconded this on the t on the table Mr Con no
Mr Fischer Yes Mr Jabore No Mr President Xano Hi Mr Cano No Mr Ramos No Mr Russo no President Doyle no Okay
Okay Anybody else have any thoughts none of the people supporting this are going to go first I'll go ahead All right Uhhuh Sure Um everyone looks at me like there's so
many things You don't have any thoughts so leadership is about making decisions that reflect the things that you believe in My background professionally is in social work and one of the tenants that I brought to this role was a belief in social justice and representing people
who often don't have the ability to be at the table That's important to me I've spent my entire career for 18 years working for the US Department of Health and Human Services in service of public service and supporting vulnerable populations So I believe that this project is about
ensuring housing for people who have not had access to Hoboken It was mentioned in one of the sets of remarks that there's a concern that Hoboken is only catering to the most wealthy And I see that and I feel that because families who my children
get close to other parents who I talk to are getting priced out of Hoboken all the time I talked to police officers who had the opportunity to grow up here because they had the opportunity to live in Marine View who can't raise their families here because they can't afford to live in
Hoboken anymore And I think that's a failure So I put forward this project tonight because I believe that we need to build more affordable housing I also believe that we have a responsibility as
the leaders of the city to look at the spaces that are underutilized and figure out how to use them better Is a parking garage really the best possible use of that block when there is a housing crisis and by the way I don't think that's going away I don't see that going
away anytime soon So we have a responsibility to make decisions to represent people who need an opportunity to be in Hoboken too because that's what I believe in as a social worker That's what I believe as a council person It's what I believe in it
as a resident Because when I talk about the fact that I love Hoboken because it's a diverse place to live I mean that in all of the ways And I believe that everyone should have an opportunity to both live here and work here So voting on this tonight for me was an
easy decision because I have to be willing to walk the walk of the things that I have committed to So I will be voting in support of this project tonight Thank you Councilwoman [Applause] Councilman Cohen Thank you Council
President When we had uh debates about having a new police uh municipal complex a lot of people in the community felt like it was too expensive The bond was too big It would
it would be it would be a big hit on our tax payers Uh and there was not enough support to bond for it I'm sure people remember those discussions What I haven't heard about the discussion to tonight and no one's
mentioned it is the fact that this project the our garage is at the end of its useful life There are two alternatives to fix it Alternative one is an estimate for a repair program to add 5 to 10 years to the life of the
garage would cost $1.8 million The second alternative to add 25 years to the life of the garage would cost $7.03 million That is a bill that would be
going to the taxpayers of Hobok This proposal says that the developer of this project will pay for this project including the cost that the bill that will be coming to all the taxpayers of
Hoboken will be covered by the developer 100% of the residential units above it will either be affordable or workforce housing retirees people on fixed incomes
or people who cannot afford to live in uh housing and qualify for affordable housing 20% affordable 80% workforce housing Someone asked well what if what if a proposal comes in and they say that they need to have market units in it
that proposal will be rejected It will not satisfy this plan Will be rejected What happens it will not happen That is the plan Will we will there be a will there be a developer that will come forth to say they will build 100%
affordable housing or workforce housing in a brand new garage we don't know But if we don't issue this plan we're not going to find out The other thing I want to say is this is the beginning of a process A lot of the tenor of the debate and the emails that I've received from
concerned constituents give a suggestion that if this passes tonight we're going to be seeing this development casting a shadow over Hudson Street soon That's not true This is the very early stages of a process of a plan There have been public
meetings There has been public feedback and there has been a lot of feedback that I've seen where people do want and do need affordable housing in our community And this is 100% affordable On my block or or on the street where I live on 11th Street we've
taken a city lot that's been a city lot for many many years used for parking exclusively And we unanimously decided that we would have a project that is higher than anything on that block That's double what's there And people
were concerned about that for 100% affordable housing 36 units of senior housing on the street where I live So this is something where I believe it is our values It's what we represent I want to thank the people of the community who are concerned about it
because it's right to be concerned about it But I think I don't think people have gotten the full picture about this I don't think people have been talking about the fact that this will not cost taxpayers anything for this project but is going to be funded by the developer There are of course there are costs
associated with any project but for the development of this project this is land owned by the city We're going to continue to own the land of the city It would be leased to the developer just like we did at 11th and Willow where the where the developer would get it but it would be ours Uh it would be the city's
property There have been questions asked about what about the other garages what about the other garages in this neighborhood well both of those garages are in mid block Midb block This one is not the end of the block And this one could be built up high without having
windows from neighboring units being built next to them This is uniquely situated in a way that it could go up and could go up in a way that actually makes sense Uh there's no question that we're in the Oh the height This is the same height as
Marine View Plaza 25 stories That that is what the proposal is When people say it's out of scale Marine View Plaza is in the same neighborhood In fact some of the people who live in Marine View Plaza who enjoy the fact that this is that they have below market rents have been
speaking tonight against this project which is and I respect their opinions but this is consistent with those buildings in that neighborhood Okay Uh and yes we do have an affordable
affordability housing crisis I don't I don't think that the city has very many properties like this It's a unique property and it's an opportunity to renovate our garage uh and do it without sending a bill and a bond from this council Uh and finally there was one
person who who made a comment that people who were in the 916 Garden State garage have been told that they can move their cars to garage B Uh I would what wasn't mentioned is that they've also been told they can move their cars to 1301 Jefferson which is actually the
closest lot to 916 Garden The person who spoke didn't mention that In fact I moved my car there I've been I was an original tenant of 916 Garden Street garage I had the lease from 2002 and uh sadly moved my car out of there recently
Uh it's kind of an end of an era but there is available parking in other city locations Uh and again this is not something that's going to be happening soon This is going to be something where a process is beginning If there is a response and hopefully there will be from a developer We'll evaluate it We'll
assess it and we'll see if it if it meets the the requirements And if it doesn't then you know nothing gained nothing lost but at least we tried And I think we have an obligation to make this community uh afford uh available for
people who want to live here who work here for our teachers for our firefighters for our police officers for our service workers for the people represented by the unions who spoke here tonight They are a part of our community Why can't they go home here after they work a hard day here i think they should
be able to do that I think our teachers deserve it I think our public safety officers deserve it I think our retirees who come up to me and say "Phil I really am afraid Is there something that's going to be available for an affordable housing because we can't afford to to be here anymore?" I want to be able to say
"Yes we have something in the pipeline where we might be able to have you and your family stay because we love Hoboken and we want to make it available to people who want to stay here." Thank you Council President Thank you Councilman You want me to go now tiffany Councilwoman Fischer
Um thank you Uh and a huge thank you to everyone um who comes out to speak at this Uh I can tell you I value every single every single person that comes whether they come from far away or you know next door Um hearing from the
public is important for us to do the job that we do Notwithstanding if we don't necessarily agree on something Um so I I just want to stress like there's and I'm I'm certain that uh we're going to hear more about how you know we have an
affordability crisis which we all realize and we all support Um and we all see it And this isn't about to me anyway this isn't about whether or not we're going to build affordable housing on this site or in this area It's just
about and it's not even so much about process It it is about process Um but it's really about just ha taking a little bit more time to understand and consider all the needs Like we hear the phrase um affordable housing crisis
affordability crisis We see it at every income level um uh throughout our city But but we also have a space crisis in Hoboken right we're 1.2 square miles or whatever it is And because of the rapid
pace of development over the last um several years we really just don't have a lot of space left And you know what we still don't have we still don't have a pool We are we are we've approved or are about to approve um 14 largecale projects with
6300 more residential units 720 of those 6,300 are affordable units That's about 13,000 more people before this project So our we we literally over the next five literally that's for council
president Yeah this says I say a lot Um you know over the next call it four to seven years we're going to see a 20% increase in our population in Hoboken I mean it's a crazy number right and when we think about what what do we not have
now to support our current population that requires space right we we don't have recreational um uh space to support our adults and children that that want to be outside We don't have enough schools right we don't actually have
enough schools Notwithstanding this contemplates a school We have restrictions on where we can where and how we can build schools and and the city has not had a conversation with our board of ed in 15 years on on where we should build a school in our town and we
are running out of space So to me this isn't about you know affordable housing is and workforce housing we definitely want but th this is a redevelopment area that typically when we look at redevelopment areas we look at the whole area And what's unique about this
redevelopment area is the majority of the property in this redevelopment area is actually city-owned property Like typically we look at redevelopment areas and all of the property is private owned but this is city-owned And we have an opportunity a huge exciting opportunity
to look at all of these sites and say you know what are the needs within our community and how do we meet them workforce housing being one of them affordable housing being one of them recreation being one of them a new police station being one of them or upgrading And and we have to have a new police station now because we just
approved 10 extra police The mayor is going to put an ordinance up for another 20 police and we're growing our population by 20% Our existing police station can't accommodate our current uh police force Like these are real necessary things And if we just agree to
give away and I'm going to notwithstanding what Mr Trevor said and notwithstanding what Councilman Cohen just said if we allow a developer to build on a site and we don't extract material economics from that site we are
we are economically giving the value of that property away right so we are potentially giving away a piece of city property without having just a bigger conversation about all of the things that we need within our community So
we're not asking like I'm voting no tonight not because I don't support affordable housing here but the difference between tonight and 60 or 90 more days to actually have a conversation about the needs in our community is not going to be make any
difference at all in you guys just don't want to hear from me anymore No not at all All right Thank Thanks Thanks Tom Thanks you guys for coming Thank you to our unions Um so it's really it doesn't
make a difference in the overall timing I've confirmed with the administration that this project will not be built for years And the reason why it won't be built for years even if they get it approved tonight even if a developer responds to it is because of the 825 parking spaces So notwithstanding we
have this theoretical theoretical conversation about you know housing versus parking Parking is the number one one of the top quality of life issues for our current community And taking away 825 parking spaces for two years three years to build a 25tory tower is
not something we can do when the Midtown garage is potentially going to be fully redeveloped as part of a hospital and 916 is taken offline for at least a period of time until we can figure out if we can put parking back there This is a real issue for our city and the administration knows that So if they
know that and it's not going to be built anytime soon then why not take I don't know a couple more months and actually just look at the whole area and come up with a plan for the area And the best example is imagine Marine View 5 shares
the block Imagine if the owners of Marine View 5 were to have a conversation with us about what we could do on the entire city block as opposed to building a tower adjacent to a site that is going to be redeveloped in the future anyway It's not an efficient use
of that property Like why not take the opportunity now and just come up with a better plan there's there's a lot of a lot of possibilities that we can deliver if we just look at this area Leadership I I
I'm going to disagree um with Councilman Jabbor Leadership is not just saying what your views are on things Leadership is really understanding the broader needs of a community and knowing what we need to do to deliver for our community Not just today but for our future all of
our future It's not a ha it's not just a housing issue We have a space crisis um as well that we really need to um consider And I do want to say just one other thing um or two other
things One is everyone talks about and and Councilman uh President Zano he fought for it and and talked about having these public meetings When we when we built the North End plan we had multiple meetings where
we we got input from people that helped build the plan We did a financial analysis We looked at all of the needs in the North End including the cost of the massive infrastructure upgrade um in that area as well as the light rail as
well as open space And when we built that plan for the north end all of those costs were embedded in it And we allowed certain heights to be built that would be able to pay for all of those costs Like it was a whole it was a whole analysis and the public came in they
were educated and they gave input over multiple meings over multiple years The two meetings that they're talking about that were provided were meetings where the administration presented to you their fate plea That's not a public
meeting That's not a public meeting in a planning process That's a presentation of what we would like to do and not changing the outcome So I just want to be clear there hasn't been a public process here where the public has been invited to contribute to the outcome And then the second thing is when we talk
about um the north or um Councilman Cohen mentioned the police uh the what do we what were we calling it for a while palace The municipal palace That's what right there The people that were not supporting it called it the municipala
palace Do you remember that right Right after the failed referendum the failed referendum for a $240 million high school that 2:1 our community came out against A couple weeks later out of nowhere nowhere no planning no no
anything the city council or not the city the administration puts up a plan for a new police headquarters in the north end of Hoboken with literally no background no anything anywhere And and
there and this is exactly like that right that was a situation and you watched it right you watched it not gain traction in the public And so you watched the mayor start changing the description of what that project was It went from police to we can add a
recreation center We can put a library there There was no planning involved and no thought process The mayor someone mentioned the mayor put out a nixel today and said that the upper floors aren't going to just be affordable housing They could be government offices
They can be a recreation facility They can be a bunch of other uses because this is not a supported plan within our community And it can be My only point is it can be if we just took a little bit longer 60 days 90 days we can have a
plan for the whole area and all feel good about it So I would love to see that happen So it it does include public input we are thinking about all the needs of our community and it has a semblance of actually planning and and it has a semblance of being a plan that's buildable This is not a feasible
project It is not buildable So anyway with all of that I spoke a lot longer than I had wanted My apologies but I am absolutely supportive of affordable housing I would just and and workforce I would just love to see a little bit more of a process around this so we can address all of our community needs I'm
still voting no Councilman Cano So I'll apologize ahead of time because usually I'm very organized with my eloquent uh speech and I'm a little going to ramble a little bit today Um but for for the cynics in the room and think that you know there's a lot of developer money
back here my biggest donor is my mother So there we go Um that's right She developed Um I like that Yeah I think you know just to start kind of in the middle um you know there's some talk about
planning for the decades and and and needing needing you know where we where are we going to do schools and and we need a new police station and we need all those things But for me the main reason I'm supporting this is because we need affordable housing first and
foremost Uh uh we need middle inome and lower inome housing and and that is number one paramount Um years ago uh when I was thinking about running I had a conversation with the mayor and he said what is your what is your number one issue in
Hobok and I said it's a kind of two things One I think it's a travesty that we have a community uh where our our poorest people are essentially segregated in one area and it's almost impossible for anybody who's
not making multiple six figures to live here And I agree with Councilwoman Jabbor on this one where it's you know whenever you have a difficult decision you have to go back to your core values on why you got in this and why you're doing the
things that you're doing and why you're going to displease some of your friends because ultimately we have a finite time up here and we're looking to do ultimate good Um so I you know so this is planning for the decades to come because we want to
create a big bigger environment in which those uh who are middle income can afford to live here We just finished an election season in which progressives got their butts handed to them One of the reasons why is because in progressive areas it's
incredibly difficult to build What we mentioned that if we pass this today it's still not going to be built for years That's true But it's because we're going to have more process There's going to be more more uh more people who have concerns It's going to add delays And some of those will be justified and
some of those won't be justified But the point is in in less progressive why is everybody leaving New York New Jersey moving to Texas because they build faster there Now I'm not saying we should throw all our zoning laws out of the out of the books but we need to
remember that if we want people to live here socioeconomic diversity we need to create the places in which they can afford We're about to increase the roles of our police force We've done so of the
fire department Where are they going to live part of the reason why they don't apply is because a lot of them can't afford to live here or they have to live really far away So we actually couldn't even fill our police roles and so we had to change the law so non-residents uh could
could afford to live here Over the summertime you know as we were campaigning for Kla Harris knocking on doors in Hobok and outside number one issue that everyone mentioned wasn't ebikes Sorry It was affordability I can't afford to live here I drove to
Pennsylvania with a woman in her 30s who has a well-paying job who lives in a one-bedroom apartment with a roommate because they turned the living room into a bedroom This is somebody in
their 30s This isn't somebody straight out of college who's you know just scraping it together What's wrong with building in America and and in progressive areas where we can't afford to live that's what's wrong She wants to live here She can't afford to live here Where's she going to go at some point we
hawk in Maybe Good Riddens I don't know She seemed pretty cool to me I'd like her to stay Personally when I first moved here in 2006 I moved here to go to law school I had roommates I had a crew of people that I knew for 10
years They all had good jobs I was the only one who became a lawyer but they all worked in like marketing or whatever right they all don't live here anymore And it's not because they didn't love it here It's because they couldn't afford the two-bedroom threebedroom They weren't even looking to buy They're looking to
rent That's who we're targeting So I'm supporting this uh for majority of those reasons But let's talk about the technical aspects of what we're thinking about uh the planning board
um recommended or or or their determination was that this was inconsistent with the master plan Um my reasons for not following their recommendations are predominantly the affordable housing aspects of it I think
that supersedes a lot of the concerns In addition to that the expert that they relied on said this is consistent with the master plan Point blank Yes he did Okay
The master plan mentions that um you know the scale of the projects should be uh such that it ensures the new and infill development within the city's central residential neighborhood is built to a scale that matches Hoboken's pattern of historic brownstone
development Uh and then it also references that we should update our residential zoning R1 R2R3 This isn't R1 R2 R3 This is a commercial district to C1 We're worried about brownstones To the left of this building
is a 14story building To the to the right of the building it's a 14-story building To the west of the building is a 14-story building Across the street from the building is the police station One block to the north there are two
22story buildings One block to the west 25tory building one and a half blocks to the south there's going to be 25 story buildings This is not a brownstone neighborhood Couple blocks down it is
This isn't being built there It's not the proposal So I disagree uh with those aspects of it And so those are my reasons for not following uh the the uh planning and board's uh
determination But ultimately you know I almost never agree with Mr Evers on anything Uh so it's always kind of a treat when I can Uh and I agree with his uh his statements almost Is this tall yes it is Is it
taller than I would like yes it is Is it definitely going to be this thing no because there's going to be iterations There's going to be back and forth So I hope uh other folks support it uh
so we can begin the process of of determining what's the right thing for this for this site uh and so we can build more quickly hundreds of units for the folks who uh deserve to be able to live here Council President Councilman
Russo Thank you Council President There's most certainly a lot on back here Um first off I appreciate everybody coming out and I really take everyone's comments to heart because like you I want to make sure that any project in
the city of Hoboken services as many people as possible And I think that's really important to say because I think we all ultimately feel that way We may disagree on this project and others but ultimately I think we're all trying to strive for the same thing and that's
making sure that we're doing the best for as many residents as we possibly can So just upfront I think that's very important Overall this project is a direct response to an issue in this city that
I've been crying out for years about and that is affordable housing workforce housing middle inome housing in the city of Hoboken You heard it from almost everybody who spoke about it that there are people being priced out of
Hoboken Some of those people have just moved here a few years ago Some of those people lived here for 30 years before that That's consistent There are people being priced out of Hoboken every single day Now
we've heard a couple of things tonight that I I just want to clear up One about six months ago I set out a housing policy
I spoke about housing our middle class housing our veterans housing those that are homeless housing those with disabilities that was a comprehensive plan about what we need to
do So when someone says that we haven't really planned for this I say you haven't been paying attention We have been talking about this for years There is a housing crisis and
there is a space crisis I get that But if you haven't been paying attention in our housing authority we have hundreds hundreds of residents that are
underhoused that are living with their parents and their grandparents in the same unit for years This isn't about asking more people to come to Hoboken This is about housing those people that are currently in
Hoboken that have the ability to move from a a housing uh a public housing project that is currently here This gives them that opportunity our police our fire our teachers our
nurses our servers our union members Every single one of them deserve the ability to live in the city that they serve They deserve that
I sat at this council table months ago talking about land for use at our housing authority and maybe swapping land and moving our police station to the west side of town so that maybe some
of our housing authority residents could have a waterfront view Why is that a bad thing why is that such a bad thing that they have that same opportunity that everyone else in this city
has it is paramount that we house every single level of the socioeconomic scale in this city That has been my vision That has been my planning Those are the things that we have been talking
about for years And if you think that that hasn't been discussed you have not been paying attention at all At the same time I also understand the skepticism Far too many times in this
city we've been told one thing and something else happens I understand that and I feel it too But I can make that promise right now that if this project does not do what we want it to
do as a community fulfill that need for middle inome housing fulfill that need for those that are even less fortunate to make sure that our city is put first I
will vote no immediately I have no problem doing that In addition to all of that we had members of the unions here I have been fighting for this project for three years Three years ago I sat at a at a a
meeting with the mayor and the owners of Ivory Realy and we talked about potentially building a project like this I've worked very closely with our director with our attorney with the city
of Hoboken to ensure those are the things that we want in a project like this It's not about a developer coming to us and saying "I like to build a 25story tower of luxury condos." This is about us a city saying to any
developer who's willing come and build the things that we need as a community That's what tonight is about This is the first step in that process If they those developers come
back and say "We could only do luxury condos," the answer is no If they come back and they say we could do 50% luxury con condos the answer is no If they say it's 10% luxury condos the
answer is still no It needs to be 100% middle inome and lowincome housing And if there's any deviation from that I give everyone here my word and everyone out there who's listening that I will
vote no on any project like that But right now we have to start somewhere We have to house those residents in the housing authority who are living six people in a
two-bedroom They need that opportunity too This is paramount that we move this forward because it's for the betterment of our entire city This project should be built 100%
union so those workers understand that they are building something that they could actually achieve Those are the things that this project should be and those are the things that I personally will ensure that this project will be I
am 100% supportive of this tonight and I hope all my colleagues vote for it Thank you very much Ramos Yep Thank you Council President Sorry It seems like uh every time you have a conversation about affordable
housing it's like deja vu People say it's out of scale This isn't the right location for it All all all types of things on how it isn't the right size the right scale poor
location every single time If this were luxury housing this wouldn't even be on the agenda tonight this is luxury We're going to be having a conversation about it But because you know as the planning board said uh what
is this it's it's a laudable goal It's a laudable goal right and that indeed it is a goal that we have to try and make a reality and do everything we can to make it a reality to try and make it workforce and affordable housing for our
residents I think it's it's been far too long We have members of the public come to the microphone all the time about displacement and people leaving We have residents from Church towers Marine View
Clock Towers uh Applied Housing saying "We're being priced out of town We can't live here anymore Uh am I under rent control am I not under rent control what What are the rules here for me what are the rules we play defense all the time
Now let's play a little bit of offense Let's play play a little bit offense and find safe places clean places affordable places for our residents to live in We've lost far too many residents over the past 20 30 years because of
affordability issues Not because they didn't want they wanted to leave Hoboken because they couldn't afford Hoboken It's I know people concerned about uh another argument the the element that we may bring into Hoboka the element no the element of Hoboka residence that we're trying to protect That's the element
we're trying to protect The housing authority plan has taken 25 years That was out of scale Uh too big We want them spread out throughout the city We want the residents Can we do this in another location it's too consolidated for
everyone Those are all things that we've heard And this is this is a goal that is achievable Is achievable It's the first step It's the first step to say you know what we're we we re if you if it takes
you this long to understand what the issues are in Hoboken that affordability clean streets educational spaces indoor recreational spaces all things that we need So if it's not this location like Manny said give me another location What's another location that's
going to try and fit this need where is it where is it that's what we're trying to do here That's what we're trying to address one way or the other The garage when this first claim and the conversations happened because the the
garage is going to cost money to rehabilitate So what other alternatives can we come up with and this is one of the iterations that came out of those conversations which not luxury housing If anyone's going to make a move for it the move and direction was going to be
for workforce and affordable housing Provide safe clean spaces for our residents The amount of phone calls that we get that from senior citizens where their son has a great job their daughter has a great job their family has a great job they can't find a place to live not
just here but throughout the state So are we going to try and put our best foot forward and find affordable livable places in our community it's right by the path station New Jersey has a plan called transit villages right this falls
right into the transit village model for all those years And we get to try and live up to that transit village model that we've did along the light rail on Second and 9th Street I think this is beyond a laudable goal for us to do If
we were spending bonding $50 million for a park tonight we'd have what three speakers maybe people applauding us all night long That those are those are things that get us adoration If we had want to spend a million dollars for an
art project on PRC let's applaud that That's a great thing Affordable housing bridge too far folks Workforce housing bridge too far We'll go serve meals for our community center but we won't work to put a roof
over someone's house We'll do that but we won't do the work that it takes put a roof a safe roof over someone Think about that right everyone loves love the community center
love walking to the housing authority giving the food away right love going to the senior building giving the food away It's that that is a wonderful thing We appreciate people doing it but putting those individuals in an clean safe housing not the right time not the right
place needs more studies needs more planning That's what we do That's what we say So either they deserve the clean housing or they don't deserve the clean housing Are we going to work towards making that a reality or we just going to keep on talking
which one are we going to do thank you Council President Thank you Councilman Well we've been at this for two hours I the writing is on the
wall I I feel that uh I I thoroughly reject this notion that it's an eitheror that it's you know it It's offensive No one who got up
tonight opposing this project said anything that even was veiled of we don't want them here They said we don't want that much here And you can build a 14story 12story affordable housing
structure here and the people will be housed Not as many But there's also the parcel across the street which can achieve that as well and up the block So this mutually exclusive you're either
against workforce housing and affordable housing if you think this is out of scale is you know it's simplistic at best I the the notion that that we will tow the line on this Councilman Russo
I'm going to be uh remembering that But I Councilman Cohen I got to Every single plan we do gets amended If if they're in compliance or less than in compliance that meaning they have they're doing
less than what's allowed you don't need to amend the plan How we've never not amended the plan which means we have made more concessions after the fact So we're all comforted by the 250 ft which will not be 250 ft when this is done And
that's fine if you're fine with the 350 ft or whatever it is but don't don't pretend that this is going to be 250 ft Uh you know that the RFP process will will lead to that And and none of the
speakers were nimi I mean it really is you know not in my backyard I don't want this here And I and Councilman President is probably disappointed to learn that he doesn't live in a row house Councilman Cano um the the block across
the street to the I I was a little troubled with some of the west and the north and the east and the south but there aren't 25tory buildings and on all four sides of this garage It's it it's it's just not factually accurate
So you know we don't have to put all our eggs in one basket We can we can have affordable housing and workforce housing and it's supposed to be spread out over the city rather than ghettoized into one 25story building which is why Councilman
Ramos the the concerns about the HHA redevelopment plan is to introduce different kinds of housing and so it's I mean yes we'll take whatever we can get and that the the public is
is anyway I'm done no ghettoizing the neighborhood that's what it's for rightfto izing a neighborhood J And and honestly Council President with all due respect who says that we stop at this one that's
what I just said That's the comprehensive reality But wait a minute That's the comprehensive plan The the reality is that this building is the beginning of this process for me It's the beginning of that process Is there a motion there is Okay
What is the motion call the vote Call the vote And what is the motion motion to approve Okay 746 Jim is this your first no Is this your first ordinance do are you aware of the requirement that when you disregard the
recommendations of the planning board you have to put something on the record to explain that Is this your first meeting i I think Joe explained it himself I think Phil made a comment and explained it I think we all you guys are good with what you got for belts and suspenders Let's Let's Council let me
just just make a brief statement Uh motion to approve B746 recognizing that the council uh finds that the uh opinion of the city planner who advised a planning board that uh the board the plan board could
recommend adoption of B746 could and that it was consistent with the master plan that that those uh that rationale was persuasive and for the reasons that Councilman Cano articulated That's the motion
Second Okay Second Mr Fina call the vote Mr Con i Miss Fischer no Mrs Jabbor yes President Jano no Mr Cano I Mr Romos hi
Mr Russo with my whole chest Yes President Doyle No Okay Your ordinance is adopted Uh public caution All right So we're [Applause]
Do can we would you guys all like a fivem minute break okay We'll be We'll be back in five minutes Excuse me council Excuse me council It's it's it's feeding it's you get overtime I read it was
drama I'm man I'm doing 100 getting here Oh my gosh the opinion of a lot of people You're saying hello but you're like speaking gibberish You never you never actually did the
numbers to say story No you you know you get 25 they're going to go to 30 or 35 I mean this is to compare this this project this brutalism
I used to work Hallelujah What's Mr Join us Join us Don't be Don't be telling the planning No I haven't seen any Sorry I got
I know How we doing here guys paul uh where is she i don't know The guy in the rain coat he's an international spy He's the most
interesting man in the world [Applause] Did you know I was on the catch calling Oh Oh
I keep saying you were had this plan to do this and come back everybody Come back here Uh Tiffany where's Fel Councilman Russo Jimmy yep This is the resolution
Coming up Right Your name So you uh do you know about the uh the 90day yes I think it'll be fine but we will have
to mention it I'll mention it I'll mention it It's just It's just buying us a little time It's simply as opposed to a lot I feel like Reuben should just go home so he's not getting us sick And they don't get that All right so Phil's gone
We're going to try to He's gone Yeah he he he could he just couldn't deal with it anymore He's like I can't handle it I got to go I'm going going home Criticiz Yeah Second Okay So motions He had a motion to close and I
said mine was a joke Oh man we can vote on it Let's vote on it All right So public right This is the public Yes Okay
All right So this is the public portion on resolutions only Uh Cheryl Phallic I can't read Is there a second one or did you get erased
good evening again council Um I'm I wanted to speak to the extension of the clock towers pilot um Keith gives So I mean obviously I want to see whatever's the best for the people there and
retaining whatever affordability there is to clock Towers Um but it seems like this extension was put forward without anybody actually looking at the second amendment that you're going to
extend Um there's a couple of problems with that second amendment of the of the pilot that was done in 2016 Uh not the least of which is that it's like the most confusing and worst written amendment you ever saw in your
life So you might want to have some clarity in there But the other like really important thing that is clear is the second amendment ends the rental housing the non um projectbased uh units
in New Jersey It ends the following rent control in 2035 and the extension is going to 205 Actually Cheryl I don't mean to interrupt but we are amending this or
it's being considered to amend make it a 90day rather than a 30-year so that we can actually question That's what I was going to say That's what I was Okay And um you still have your time which Well I
just wanted to ask if like I also just want there was another thing that was on for first reading Just wanted to make sure that the 10% thing is is move being moved somewhere else and not okay So I don't actually have to talk about that either Good night everybody Okay And
stick around because I mean it could it could fail and we might be dealing with this but you you understand Thank you Um Jenny Leens Uh so I'm also speaking on the renewal of the Jefferson Adams uh rehab pilot
which is Clock Tower Um and whether or not um it's for 90day or for 30 years Um first of all I'm speaking as a private citizen not as a member of the rent board and I'll be sharing only things that are public information and public record Um Jenny
could you come a little closer to the mic a little Yeah Thank you Um I emailed city council on the mayor over the weekend um when I saw this agenda item alerting them to the fact that the rent control board at its most recent meeting on February 26th heard a case regarding
one of the units in Clock Tower and in the course of that meeting it came to light that at least in the case of that one unit clock Tower was in gross violation of the terms of the pilot which is now up for renewal While I understand that a payment in lie of taxes that goes directly to the city may
be an important revenue source for the city it's only justified not just morally but legally according to the terms of the pilot if the landlord abides by the terms of the agreement The other thing that might be pushing you to extend the pilot might be protecting the
affordable housing But at least as far as I understand and correct me if I'm wrong in your own comments the reason there is guaranteed affordable housing in Clock Tower is because it was developed through a law in New Jersey the limited dividend law that um where
HUD um subsidizes the mortgage of developers in exchange for guaranteeing affordable housing which HUD supervises and deals with the contracts for There are lots of protections for section 38 to sorry section 236 projects like this
one through HUD um irrespective of any municipal pilots In any event out of the 173 units only 68 are guaranteed as subsidized through a contract with FHA It's not because of the pilot even though it's mentioned in the pilot It's
because of the FHA contract when the building was developed According to the various pilot amendments the city has made with clock tower In the year 2000 so it started in 1974 In the year 2000 there were only 34 nonsubsidized units
But by 2016 there were 89 nonsubsidized units The 2016 agreement brought those 89 nonsubsidized units under rent control rather than any state or federal oversight But that 2016 agreement also specifies
that in exchange for continuing its tax exemption Clock Tower will expand its affordable housing offerings by reserving additional units for middle-income tenants and charging the rent determined by HUD This benefits the building because the rent the rents
determined by HUD um is higher than what the rent control ordinance allows and so they could bump up the rent considerably and it benefits the city because it brings in more middle-income residents What came out of the rent control board
hearing on February 26th was that for at least one apartment the building was only doing the part that benefits them getting to charge the HUD determined rent which is higher than the regular legal rent that a unit um based on Hoboken's rent control ordinance would be able to charge but they were renting
it to tenants who are not middle or low income who entered the lease with no income verification and not using the required weight list The building therefore benefited itself alone and did not abide by its part of the agreement to expand its affordable housing offerings We don't know how many other units they might have done this with and
we don't know what other terms of the pilot they've been ignoring I urge you to investigate whether this or other violations are happening in this building before making any moves on this pilot I urge you to check with HUD and the New Jersey DCA to find out about this building's compliance and I urge
you to make the results public without checking those reports and doing at least some level of investigation Renewing this pilot is wildly irresponsible in that it signals to all the corporate landlords whether they receive subsidies or not that legal requirements can be set aside if the city gets paid enough And that's
particularly terrifying given the garage B redevelopment plan that you passed to create a building full of affordable housing How are you going to enforce it those legal requirements are there to protect tenants and protect affordable housing in Hoboken but no one is enforcing them or even looking into
understanding them Several of you are running for mayor of Hoboken Surely you'll be emphasizing the importance of transparency in government So please explain Have you investigated or reviewed documentation about whether Clock Tower is holding up its end of the pilot with respect to tenants and
affordable housing why aren't you concerned about setting a precedent for renewing pilot agreements even when their terms are not met and most importantly what measures will you take going forward regardless of whether the pilot is renewed or not to hold clock towers to its legal requirements laid
out in the agreements and likewise to hold the new affordable housing structure to its requirements I hope you'll take the time to address these questions before moving on this pilot extension in any way Thank you Thank you Miss Leven
I I think you you heard that we are talking about a 90-day rather than a 30-year So um that addresses some of some of your concerns It gives us time Um Manuel Rivera
Soler the cons consent agenda Thank you the council president and good evening uh once again uh council president uh I'm going to try to be quick in lie of time uh I will try to be quick and again council president uh
contrary to what you've heard uh no this is not bingo and this is just asking questions on the consent agenda happens to be that they have letters and numbers so um I proceed and I digress because I don't want to I wrote it down this time
I don't want going to lose the forest for the trees So that's just uh a little uh aside there for council president and the council So um A2 A3 in climate
change and climate action innovation CA2 CA3 and CA I believe it's five and that one I will take a minute to ask for a second to ask how does or do they relate to
each other CA2 CA3 and CA4 if at all if you could uh someone explain for you know a council member or someone could explain to members of the public uh the particulars briefly and if they relate
to each other again uh that is uh an aside then on finance the complete F1 F2 F3 F4 again council president can you members of the public understand when now you're moving um temporary uh budget
proceedings um um funds uh for 2025 now can can we get clar clarity on on how that uh is being done and why is it being done and why haven't we have a already a preliminary budget hearing or something like this
um and it's very important F4 is that a bond being relocated to another uh lender or provider uh or is that a new bond i don't think it is but I'm not
so sure I couldn't read all of the fine print Um so I'm here asking council to please enlighten members of the public or give extra details and parks recreation and public work P1
P2 and P3 Again there's two here that relate And the question is not that we're members of the public or I or anyone is against any of these contracts is the amount on P1 How many people or how many members of the public um will avail themselves of this
um program uh the amounts you know it doesn't uh relate to to our budget uh constraints Uh and then T1 and
T2 Uh again if anybody could explain any members of the the council can help us understand uh any of those and of course uh introduction for first reading Of course you always speak on those and you let members of the public know where you
stand on them So with that council president because the clock starts later I am still with a moment a minute or so and I'm going to yield it back sir Thank you Council President Um as as often you do you ask a lot of
questions but the the the the climate action Do you want me to go no Yeah that the three of them had to do with the the the opening the work and then the oversight of the work Correct Yeah Wait we're just answering Manny's
qu Pat Pat we're just answering his questions first Sorry It's okay Sit down It's okay So the CA1 CA2 and CA3 there's a valve that needs to be replaced up at 15th in Willow They basically all those contracts relate to that valve
replacement It's going to happen I think beginning in a week and it's going to be overnight work So each one of those contracts relates to that water valve um being replaced You want me to do the transportation ones well the um I think what else f1 is a temporary budget We
did it for three months Three months are up So we need another month So that's April The month of April P1 there were 400 children that are believed to participate in this softball and baseball but since it's not all figured
out just yet I think there's only 300 and something signed up yet That's the estimated number And then Yep And then transportation The two that you mentioned for transportation relate to Jersey Avenue and we're closing Jersey Avenue for the month Um both of these
are doing work for um kind of analyzing and addressing the um the the like traffic signals and and um road detours etc in that area It's going to be um you know it's going to be a
mess for the city for the month of April when they close Jersey Avenue So that's what it relates to Thank you Councilwoman Uh Tony Kapano Good evening council members I'm here to speak on the resolution regarding uh Hoboken and the uh pilot agreement with
West New York Um I wanted to bring to the council's attention and I uh was involved in the original negotiation of this agreement back in 2015 This is along with Clock Towers Yes Clock Towers along with three members of the council
along with a representative from the mayor's office along with the attorney that represented the town the owners and our attorney And that negotiation was not done in 90 days It took over a year and a half to do that I don't know
anything that can get done in 90 days quite honestly when it can be something that is this complex Um I've listened here tonight a lot about affordable housing and I've been in affordable housing all my life not as
a developer but as a public servant for 32 years and more recently in the private sector in supporting affordable housing So I know what it is Um the only way uh clock towers can be affordable
and continue be is by the existence of a pilot agreement because the difference between the taxes that we would be assessed and what we pay under the pilot is significant um with only a 90-day extension we would
have after ter talking to our attorney we would have no alternative but to file a tax appeal on April 1st of this year where we would have to appeal the taxes because when the text tax records come out in November we have to have our
appeal on the record I wish I could answer all your questions tonight I don't know if we could ever get together when we can answer questions but 90 days is simply not reasonable to happen to do that So if that's what this board is
going to do I urge you we do not have to do 30 years It wasn't but it cannot be 90 days Nothing can be accomplished in 90 days So it has to be a longer period of time Um but if that's what the council wishes to do we will file this
tax appeal not to do anything other than to protect our rights because that means the tax abatement is going away in 90 days It actually expires I think in 3 days today It's the 26th right 26th That's correct And based on our calculations that would increase rents
by the residents of Clock Tower by over $200 per unit per month and the residents of Clock Tower need to be aware that that's what's going to happen in 90 days Well I mean if I could not interrupt you and Councilman Russo I
know you're very you were involved as I think I was with that negotiation Yes you were Yes you know but um the but here tonight before we amended or are proposing to amend it to 90 days
we were we were looking at voting on something for 30 years So you're saying if we if we voted as is you would you would not appeal no If you vote as it as that as as is with the 30 years Yes Of course we would There's nothing to
appeal It's the 90 days that we would have to file a tax appeal because that means the tax abatement agreement Although it's set to end in 3 days you're giving it 90 more days I don't know what the council is thinking what could be accomplished in 90 days And I'd
love to hear that and I could schedule a meeting with you next week to go over the details of this I mean 90 days is just not reasonable If you want to Well if we're just confirming that everything's fine which is what I think was the intent Yeah All All we were
trying to We We just saw We saw this We saw this I mean I don't know if other people did We saw this for the first time Friday and so we went through it in detail over the weekend It just raised a lot of questions So we sent questions to the business administrator and I just
said like we had a couple people raised we have questions and concern about the impact on the the you know what happens at in 2035 You know just we needed more information and the feedback and I just said we just need a little more time We
don't have the seven days Like if this was before us two months ago maybe we could have had all the questions answered but it's literally seven days We're just asking for a little time for us to get the answers That's all I look the owners we certainly understand that
our attorney has been in touch with the mis with the town for over a year now and trying to get this extension with absolutely no reply or uh discussions with the town Yeah Okay And now we are up against the deadline We could have
had all these questions answered And I think it's just but if it I I guess I guess the question is from our perspective I I'm not sure it matters if you file the appeal because if the pilot if we agree that the pilot stays extended and you do your appeal it doesn't matter you're still under a pilot If you do
your tax appeal and for some reason it breaks down and we don't support the pilot You're going to do the appeal anyway Correct We I was advised by our attorney that we would have to do if it stays 90 days we would have to file the appeal in April I guess because how the
tax quarters work of course and we would have to get that appeal on record by April 1st And this could be resolved in 90 days I'd love it for it to be And of course then that appeal with been withdrawn but we're under an obligation to let the residents know that this is a
possibility And we when we file that appeal we're going to have to notice those nonsection 8 residents which there's 68 section 8 The rest 99 right is it's there's 68 there And then when we worked with you Councilman number a
Councilman Russo and uh with Jen Gatano who was very uh supportive of this Um the town was the one that picked the 77 units based on the incomes of the people at the time And what we did was very
unique at that time We put in affordability controls where there were none on those units So somebody was making a million dollars they could come in and get the benefit of rent control and a tax abatement agreement And I think was very wise for the council
members then and the attorney to say "Wait a minute we will give you a tax abatement agreement but we can't have somebody who makes $8 $900,000 coming in and taking advantage of that tax abatement agreement." So the town proposed affordability controls
based on a recognizable affordability um chart that is published every year by the town and we agreed to abide by that And then we further agreed under the vacancy deont control which they gave us to cap those Okay Not to go crazy to cap
them And there is a lot in that agreement You're correct But I'm standing here because the city has not done anything in the past year to bring us to the table to discuss way We're sitting here with the same exact thing where the city hasn't done anything in a
year and just put it in front of the council Friday night Yeah Could I could I if I could just if I could just add My concern of course is always our residents right and I don't want to go into a situation where almost like in
Marine View they're getting a letter saying their rent is going up by $200 next month And I think I think I think everyone's reasonable here Do a year right let's do it a year If it's longer than 90 days that helps you Yeah Yes I
think it would help a lot and and you know whether it's a year or two years I'm not here to advocate that it's it's 30 years or 90 days or nothing I'm just here that I would we would love to have the opportunity to speak to whoever wants to on the council and there are
some things in the agreement but may may be able to be clarified and just and just you know if I can interject like the 90 days was really not meant to be a negative It was really meant more to so we could just have a little time to figure it out So if it's a year that you need I'm okay with that It was trying it
was actually the opposite trying to get to a conclusion quicker for you not knowing that you had this April 1st So I just want to let you know just to echo this I mean I think that if you do communic if we do pass a 90-day uh extension the pilot uh I would encourage
you to let your residents know that there's nothing projorative about that by this council We are not making any judgment other than the fact that we need additional time because we got crunched with respect and there's a lot of legitimate questions that Councilwoman Fischer asked that we
wanted to get an answer to and we simply could not get the answers before this meeting tonight Understood I understand that I understand you want to do your due diligence Alls I'm asking then is let's let's slate it for a year Perfect Let's do it for a year and then please
whoever we have to work with through council Russo or anybody we'd be willing to come to the table in a small group go through the agreement because the rent control board you heard that person there They're they are very mixed up to say the least on the
agreement Um well let me just say they have their job to do and we have our job and their process is their process and our process I'm not I'm not trying to bring the two together I I the owners need to work with this board here and I think you guys are all
very reasonable Our building has been great You don't hear complaints about it and we want to protect affordable housing and at the same time have a a pilot in there and try to just let's get everybody to understand this agreement If it has to be tweaked to make it
clearer to everybody let's work on doing that Okay I I'm fine with that I'm okay with we're just changing 90 to 365 right okay Thank you for hearing me Okay No thank you for presenting so we can Yeah
just F2 And I don't know who the sponsors are but Yeah All right We'll figure it out And I can step in All right I'm sorry So um that's it for No What do you mean pat wants to You're not on the list You're
not on the list Pat you're not on the list Yes I am I'm only kidding Don't even play with me If a list be available could please in the future when y'all taking two hours on a resolution consider the residents that come from work and running in here and the papers gone Pat waiters 15 times I have urged
that we leave them over there and Jimmy keeps giving them to me Well Jimmy I'm going to talk to you after the meeting and meet me outside Um Um I'm sorry You gave me cookies It's one or the other Okay
Jimmy Pat waiters on a on a real note I flew over here in this meeting when I'm getting all of these texts Get down to city hall Listen please y'all and take me very serious I'mma calm down cuz first of all I'm I'm here to pick a bone with whoever going on social media I
can't do this in another 6 months I'm moving I'm serious I'm going to leave her broken y'all If I see one more derogatory thing on the internet I don't do the internet I've been running 27 years They gonna fight us against each other and a whole bunch of mumble jumble
that never offended me But this election it is because it's a little serious because when I refrain from going on social media cuz I want to remain friends with everybody and to see this post and I just answer to it So we going to hear it tomorrow Don't disrespect the
people that I love because an election slowly approaching I said it four years ago before Ravi second term and I said it four years prior to that If the police department could do their job and leave the politics out we'll be okay Me hearing from a former officer I know how
the game go Now when somebody go on social media and attack my Kenneth Fanty you got a problem I don't care who you are And I said before you don't have to accept somebody to respect him He's been disrespected He don't need to be held
accountable This the public portion I could talk about anything right not the public portion Oh my god I'm sorry I want to speak on the public What resolution are you talking about all right I'm sorry I want to talk about the church tower The guy that just spoke Is that the clock towers that's one of the thing Clock towers Clock towers Okay All
right I want to talk about clock towers cuz I don't want the same thing to happen in church towers All right So my understanding is we got another 365 days which is one year right i want to know straight up how it's going to impact the residents Okay cuz just like Marine View
everybody already singing glory and according to them they won in court on Friday and they allegedly said it's not going to impact the residents I want y'all to be honest and I want you to vote with your heart not with your imagination of being the next mayor or whatever And seriously have the meeting
but have it with us residents too okay cuz we need affordable housing Thank you But call me back for the public portion so I can finish Please you can pick up where you left here Where's the paper um Okay So thank you Let's focus here Uh
cons anyone for uh pulling it from the consent agenda Council members do we want to just pull F3 to make sure we're amending it correctly yeah I just changed the date from 2055 to 2026 Is that Yes So it's one full year
Perfect Perfect Yeah I I quick and easy It's get it's getting there the same way So um 2126 So anybody uh anything else
okay Um so you've got Jimmy Jerry CD3 is is out right and CA5 Okay [Music] Um restated pilot agreement
Yeah And there was I believe there was three as amended There was a change to F2 during the day today but that's Well okay It was the change the Caleb could you describe the the transfer uh change
that was from Friday to to today uh it was moving salary and wage from HPU to operating expense to pay two unpaid invoices from November and December Um I'm trying to think what that's fine
Okay All right Thank you then Call a vote Mr Con i Fischer Yes Mrs Jabore Yes Mr Presidento Hi Mr Cano Hi Mr Ramos Hi Mr Russo Hi President Doyle
I So I'm assuming we have public portion first or I'm going to go through the ordinances First reading I was trying to get to Adrianne Um all right First reading First reading Do you want me to read them oh no An
ordinance to amend and supplement an ordinance establishing a schedule of classifications and allocations of title for the herein mentioned positions in the city of Hoboken without my reading glasses You
got it right Good job Okay Uh Mr Cohen I Fiser Yes Dour Yes President No Mr Cano I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I President Dor I
for introduction amending chapter 192 parking for persons with disabilities Mr Fina call the vote Mr Con I Mr Fiser he's gone he's left Mrs Shabor yes Mr
Presidento I Mr Cano I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo Hi President Doyle Idardance for introduction amending the pilot agreement with the Hoboken Community Center Mr Fina call the vote
Sorry to rush you No I can't Mr Con i Miss Fischer Mrs Mrs Jabore Yes President Zano Hi Mr Canero Hi Mr Ramos
He's Ruben Ruben you want to vote ruben community center pilot Thank you Mr Russo I do I trans introduction to add article 10 mandatory disclosures for Hobok and
city code chapter 158 rent control to impose mandatory disclosures to tenants for rent increases over 10% Mr Fina call the vote Mr Con I Fischer Mr Mr Jabore Yes President Hi Mr Canero Hi Mr Ramos
Hi Ruben Hi Mr Russo Hi President Hi Okay Public portion Motion Adrienne Rawlings Feel better
Feel better You're nuts feel better Ruth can I feel better uh you working the microphone i'm sorry We We've got your attent You've got our attention I would I would hope I am
requesting urging pleading with the city council and the administration to remove James Sanford from the board of commissioners at the housing authority He does not want to be involved as he should be He doesn't
speak to residents He doesn't even He's not even on time for meetings Meetings start at 7:00 He'll show up 7:30 7:45 Not even to hear what the residents have to say
He keeps saying "I don't want to be involved in criminality of the board and the the way things are operating." Well when you say that you're also implying
that residents are criminals I don't know what he's implying but I believe every board member when they're there should pay attention to what we're saying and listen to what we
need And him voting no on every single thing is not helping the residents of the housing authority We need full support I think he's using this as a stepping
stone for politics to move up contradictory to what his article which I've printed out a few years ago saying he doesn't want politics in the housing authority He's creating it and
he's just oblivious to what the residents need Voting questioning certain vendors repeatedly You don't need to do that You
heard it once That's it Move on Making requests that he's not going to get because of privilege like a um landlord tenant confidentiality confidentiality So I he
he's not suitable He really is not He needs to be removed And you know he doesn't even interact with residents outside board meetings You can't even get him to stop and talk
It's insulting to me as a resident and I I He doesn't belong there at all Okay Thank you Uh Enrique Herrera Thank you Council President Uh
when we talk about underdog stories and how they are winning stories I wish Ramos was here to read that up Um I am uh I was born in this town Uh my grandma lives right down the street to Oliver's family Miguel Oliver was a police
officer here until he retired died later on veteran to this country Um I have always endured that type of criticism where if it weren't if it wasn't one cancel movement it was a harassment claim where I'm approached by
detectives over mundane topics of texting someone so much over topics that need to be presented and with urgency and a sense of urgency at that Um I'm not necessarily going to blame anyone for that That's a result of a failed cancel movement on my name I Enrique
Herrera am not a criminal I do not have mental illness here If I've ever voluntarily checked myself in and that information was disclosed that is a breach of my privacy Uh that was the worst decision anyone ever made because I am an intelligent human being I'm a published author I published a book on
technology that's indistinguishable from schizophrenia and that was off-putting enough for people to actually go after me where I had to respond with Secret Service agents And even then my underdog story continues Even as a skateboarder I've had to endure being the lesser in the majority I'm not afraid of that Now
moving on to the next minute frame This type of um I wanted to just bring this up to you council president There was a pending request in terms of a um Oprah dispute over where I was living
at which now I am technically homeless I I'm pretty much living out of Hoboken Terminal and I'm pretty much working my way around town trying to figure out where to take the next shower Um waiting me out until I become angry was the game of my family until recently until they got what they wanted or I got upset over
something that my aunt did at the house I was staying at It's an unfortunate situation where I can't get access to those files So I could represent myself in the court of law which I can um under New York state law and I can actually still file the same paperwork over here
to get myself to to do that Um I've been persecuted for my belief of being known in this town u as you know anything other than just that skitso guy that talks about neural links and u to criminalize me in the state of poverty
that I am would invite me having to survive in any way shape or form whether it be vigilanteism or petty theft of a sandwich or some coffee It's not necessarily something out of pocket in an Italian town that if you are hungry you go eat you will
eat So that being said I hope that you guys can understand my story and not take that the wrong way Not where I want to step over your positions of power Um I'd invite you to take all the information I present either in person
or on my social media as a serious note This is free ammunition for you guys Plus you know it makes it easier for you guys to really look at what I've presented throughout my life in terms of any information and just check it out It's it's not necessarily all miscellaneous It involves certain modern
gridding systems that need work and how I I'm pretty much because of that state because of this file I'm listed as a domestic violence person I have not committed any crime in terms of that Um furthermore whether or not I pursue
female leadership in any way shape or form isn't indicative on any type of gossip or anything associated with that I hope um I have been or at least the words I've said have been sexualized in the past I've been known to be
outspoken on certain subjects and sometimes I say the wrong word If you've ever for a lack of a better term a situation it would have it would have brought about the worst type of situation here But I'm responding to what looks like 3/4 of in in progress a
cancel movement against me And without any proper defense I'm pretty much on my own Um I urge you guys to please just take my name seriously And if I ever do come here and speak my mind it's not to in invoke some sense of authority over
anyone I'm more or less rectifying and clearing my name of any wrongdoing Um try instigating the maybe he's right argument Okay just it just makes it easier for people to really understand or at least you can you can pretty much
see from the eyes of the person that doesn't like me once you say something like maybe he's right Ah I don't want to deal with that guy There's nothing to deal with there That guy's a broke person You've criminalized him already He's already broke There's nothing There's nothing there There's not a person there That's when I'm just reduced to a number That's when I'm
reduced to lack of numbers thereof And when and in a Trump era female leadership is what we need So if my vote does not change on Emily Jabard Jabbor if even the event I'm allowed to speak to her or about her or even represent
her it is because we need female leadership so that we have some sense of empathy here in regards to um cancel victims like myself who are so far in that maybe he's right is a death sentence for you guys You say that to somebody that doesn't like me they will come after you But that's when you can say I know Enrique Herrera is not going
to do that I could call him right now and he will not give you that He would not work in your favor He would work on behalf of the council's favor Use my words as ammunition and you'll find that a lot of these people are just smoking
hers Right Thank you Thank you very much Uh Barbara Reyes Good evening city council members Thank you for the opportunity to to speak before you today I would I would like to
begin by clarifying that I am not here in my capacity as chairwoman of the Hoboken Housing Authority but as a concerned resident and an advocate of our community I know many may question why I am speaking out now especially with the upcoming election season And to
that I respond unfortunately it is during this time that actions takes place I fully fully acknowledge that raising these issues may have consequences However as a dedicated advocate I can no longer remain silent
on matters that deeply affect my community For over a year as many of you know I have sought Okay I have sought private discussions in an effort to resolve these concerns But regrettably those
efforts have been in vain It is with great concern and disappointment that I address the continued actions of Commissioner Sanford a mayoral appointee to the Hoboken Hoboken Housing Authority Board of Commissioners His d conduct towards the HHA administration board and
residents and the broader community is both troubling and indicative of a lack of regard for the well-being of the HHA and its residents Commissioner Stanford's recent statements and his express reluctance to be associated with
the HHA are particularly alarming Such remarks undermine the collaborative efforts necessary for the HHA's success and send a discouraging message to residents who depend on our services This behavior not only feels personally
disheartening but also perpetrates the disconnect that our co community has long criticized Furthermore Commissioner Sanford has repeatedly made unfounded allegations of misconduct against HHA staff executive
director RECO and board members without providing any evidence to substantiate these claims This conduct represents a clear violation of his responsibilities as a commissioner His role should be to foster transparency and uphold the integrity of the HHA and its leadership
His failure to provide evidence for these accusations only served to erode trust deepen division and hinder the effect effectiveness of the HHA directly contradicting the oath he took upon becoming a commissioner Moreover
Commissioner Stanford's past actions have led to formal censures by the HHA board In December 2023 the board voted to censor him for breaching the AY's communication policy specifically for sending an email identifying himself as an HHA commissioner just before a
general election without proper authorization This incident raised serious concerns about his commitment to the board's collaborative principles In May 2024 the HHA board passed a resolution calling for Commissioner Stansfford's removal citing his
consistent lack of cooperation unfounded allegations and failure to engage productively in board activities These disruptive actions have hinder hindered the board's ability to function effectively effectively for the
well-being of our community As residents we def we deserve board members who not only prioritize our best interests but also show respect and willingness to listen to us However Commissioner Sanford's refusal to attend board
meetings in a timely manner specifically avoiding the critical time from 7 to 7:30 where residents are encouraged to voice their concerns directly contradicts this fun fundamental expectation Today I respectfully urge
this council to take necessary steps to address these concerns along with the administration with with the appropriate appoint as well as the appropriate appointing authority ensuring that the housing authority is led by individuals who genuinely listen collaborate and
advocate for the needs of their residents they are appointed to serve Thank you for your attention with this matter Thank you very much Manuel Rivera Solair Madame President I say these phrases again It
says "Good evening council president members of the council madame council women." And uh I just remembered that I speak a little French when uh council member Fischer said uh her phrase fed
complete So I heard that and to me it sparked the light I said "Yes you have a feather complete money That's what I call myself your fed complete is to participate in the democratic process which is voice
your concerns your questions to the bodies that you have to speak to on those issues and concerns So I appreciate lighting the spark again uh through you council president to council member Fischer and with that I would
like to continue Um last meeting I was remissed and I'm going to try to be as quick as I possibly can There's a lot I want to say but I'm going to reserve some But I was remissed last council meeting again when I uh mentioned uh the
women's history month Uh are you able to hear me sir i was speaking in in my uh quickness I mentioned of course the council women and the women in this building and those womens that work hard to make history in Hoboken and in New
Jersey Um but I was remissed I missed spoke or I miss remembered that there are other great women of Hoboken that have made history Former mayor Don Zimmer former council woman ammeritus I think she should be Uh Terresa
Castellano Beth Mason also former legislator Anette Chaparo These are women of Hoboken who have made history amongst others I'm sure I'm missing a few Uh so I would like to um say to them we will always
remember but as well council president there is one that I did miss and it broke my heart which is our beloved council woman who now resides in the heavenly realms council woman ammeritus as well and former council
pardon me council president ammeritus I hope um my sixword representative who's not here Jennifer Gantino who was a friend who was a person who was always in the neighborhood and we miss dearly and also made history by being a woman
who who held the presidential uh seat uh I believe the most um as well as um elected in the six ward the most Um I think I can't be sure because forever is a long time Yeah forever is a long time
but current history Um so with that um the time I have I also would like to say council president um we do have concerns in the six ward those concerns still continue to be church square park now there's going to be more activity there there was a groundbreaking many people
knew many people didn't but um they asked um regarding the park I also was a little confused um not knowing um exactly when that was going to happen because I don't remember the last or the final vote I knew I know that I was in
the historic um preservation meeting and I don't know if that was the meeting that said okay we can do all of these things but um nonetheless um neighbors are still interested in knowing um the details or some of the details still um
so that's a concern for the six ward and council president I see that time is is fastly moving I will reserve the rest of my comments for the next meeting which still are important uh but one of them is um I I do want you to know but I um I would like to say we have to also start
thinking about the atmosphere and pardon me where we're living now or in the elements that we are a sanctuary city and we have to start watching um what's happening in the federal government and how they're treating uh cities who denominated themselves as sanctuary
cities Um and with that Council President um I will say again uh God bless the innocents of Gaza and God bless um and protect the hostages that are the Israeli hostages pardon me And I
hope there's a truce again soon a ceasefire and that they release the hostages and their home with their families Uh I hope you unite with me and we send those good vibes and those good thoughts out Um that everybody is safe And with that I also say as an American
I say Slava Ukraine Glory to Ukraine Hero Slava Glory to the heroes Thank you Council President God bless you and God bless you all Thank you Manny And Patricia Waiters thanks for coming back
You're welcome Could you put this down sir we're working on it Joe is lacking We'll get you a box to stand on Long meeting You get a pass Joe Time's taking All right Pat Waiters You know I don't do the internet but I want
to read this cuz I want to apologize to you too I guess this just a prank for you trying to call you out Emily But I want to apologize for you two and Director Fancy I don't like when people misconrue stuff I pulled it up I'mma send it to you your phone I don't like when people misconstrue things and put
up here because I'm not petty All of y'all know if Pat has got anything to say bad good or indifferent I'mma tell you to your face That's me And I feel real good that there's 4,000 people that know that But what I wanted to share tonight is I don't want to be popular
Patty but I am And can I tell you why tonight the event at the high school it was so many people there but they not from Hoboken at this new camp thing they doing But people was walking up to me saying "Hi Miss Waiter." So I'm assuming everybody know me and they from Hoboken So when Flo aa model and all my whole
Hoboken crowd came out of the bingo it was so funny cuz it was so many people and I thought those was the Hoboken people but they knew me and they greeted me And you know what people walking up to me saying lately what are we going to do about this town what are we going to do about the mayorship and when I say
pack it was pack bayon West New York All of them was there parents students everything And I'm laughing because the same way those people is addressing me and answering to this people watching us we should really be on our best behavior regardless to who win But when I see
stuff like this this is an insult And the people that know Pat Waiters is wide awake because they know I'm telling them don't fall victim for nothing you see the next 6 months What I'm hoping is whoever do become mayor Good people on board like Kenneth Fanty my council over
there he know I love him dearly still remain in Hoboken Still remain here because this is scary And this is what I post And this is why I'm mad because I always think about the people Wow And I put it in big letters Y'all know I do all caps This is deep This one just
don't hurts the PE This hurts everyone Please tell me this not true You notice I said everyone right away I jump to the people the residents and the tenants I don't care about politics Don't mess with my hoboken family That's what I got deep down in my heart I don't care if
y'all stay here till 6:00 in the morning and grand stand and use 2 hours on garage A B C or D It doesn't matter At the end of the day when we leave these meetings we are one big happy family And I came a long way cuz I love all of y'all Even the ones that didn't like me
HHA was the perfect example 17 years of me applying and I never got elected to the board But you got tenants coming up here telling you to get rid of the mayor's pick That's another thing I hope the next mayor change Let's give somebody on these boards and committees that's going to work hard and do for the
committee I don't want to wait every four years to get your attention And y'all all doing a great job Y'all all get a a cuz we got y'all undivided attention cuz your future and hoping that you get mayor is at the state of everybody's hand But the same way when
you win you're supposed to still respect us four years later That shows integrity truth faith and allegiance that y'all all raise your hand and say And poor Jing Jenino I know she's sitting up in heaven looking down for her sixword to be untouched And you got a sixword
fanatic here that I got a billion texts where he don't miss one meeting It was a no-brainer Y'all should have signed Manny right away that would have showed true faith integrity and allegiance So again for the next my all of my public
portions cuz people counting on this Pat Wade is going to get up here and talk at every meeting I'm going to be worse than Manny He learned from the best But I'm going to come up here and talk cuz I want us to get it together as a city The same things we was being impacted by the last eight years People thirsting for
change And everybody watching this don't stop me in the street talking about well who's our next mayor if you're going to vote for somebody that's not for the people I'm wrapping it up saying this This election is about not who gonna run for mayor and Mr Doyle don't run for the
board I really want you to run But this is for real Who going to run for the people okay pe keep that in mind It's about the people So at these meetings put the power back in the people saying these is our public meetings Y'all don't have to grandstand People pretty much
know who they going to vote for for mayor So when they come and ask me I'm keeping mine a top secret to the end cuz I might be the next mayor Thank you Thank you Patricia And with that motion to close Second
All those in favor thank you I record that vote Sherry We call Lup's vote