your [Applause] yourap set we wait can I get one thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you not responding to us all right
a rod we give me a different pen just keep stying on me thanks brother here that's R I would like to V 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 that notice was published City website copies provided the Bergen Record L special the norstar lger Jersey Journal also placed on a Bolton board in the lobby of City Hall written objections if any
shall be made to the city clerk all raise for the to flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for
all you didn't stand up Tiff stand up M con here M fiser said here she's here all right Mrs
Jabor preso Mr Cano pres Mr Ramos pres Mr Russo pres president Doro presid yep and uh number one for second reading I think that's it right what's the first
one you said yes so for housekeeping um B 740 is being carried because it has to be reviewed by the planning board which should happen tomorrow night it'll be it'll be back on March 19th um and A2 which you'll see on the
agenda the public will see is is redlined or stricken crossed out um so we won't be addressing that tonight um we have no proclamations or anything that won't hold us up on anything right the Little League thing
doesn't hold us up on anything with little league right y up by five oh oh okay all right so um are we going to start in on B 741
yes an ordinance amending chapter 19071 entitled municipally manage electric vehicle charging to a FTA charging station to Garden Street thank you Mr Pina
uh uh Manuel River Soler for Beast 47 741 excuse me you just read the title right Jimmy I have it [Music] oh got the
clock sorry council president uh my apologies for uh being a little disorganized here I got a little late um I just want to ask a few questions on this ordinance and it's just basic questions that sometimes don't get asked or should get asked more often um are these charging stations where where
they're going to be located are they going to be the smaller unintrusive uh charging stations or are these going to be the big ones with the signs um that sort of um obstruct a lot of uh not only the sidewalk but
obviously the parking that people are going to be um not able to park there any longer as well as I would like to know um the revenue that um arrives from these charging stations how do they get distributed in the city's uh uh budget meaning that budgets are going to be
discussed soon and there's a lot of members of the council who should be talking about about it and also do members of the public and this one I always asked uh I'm going a little crazy cuz that's going wild over there uh do
members of the public that are in those neighborhoods get information or let are let known that there is going to be now a a charging station there and they're not going to be able to park and such and thus okay those are the questions and I don't know if I have time but I
yield it back than SP thank you Manny um nobody else uh signed up to speak motion close public portion second all those in favor I um I I'm going to ask director
Weber to come up for B 742 so maybe uh if he would come up and answer Manny's question and then we'll vote and then we can get into the reason for uh 742 did you hear question I did not hear
the question um the question one question was what was the size of the charging stage is the charging station going to be the same size as the other charging stations like the one right here on BTA Volta yes yes it will it
will be identical to the other Volta stations okay and the second question can uh neighborhood get notice in advance were you asking whether the public gets this is the hearing so this is the notice that the public would get with regard to that yeah I can comment on that I mean there's no letters being
sent to the neighborhood if that's okay no I I'm not I'm not trying to debate I'm just okay thank you so there's no additional notice if you could stick around but anyway if Mr fra any or any
members of the council want to uh I would just wanted to make a comment if anybody's getting any of these volage charging stations put into their Ward um check with your neighbors we were going to put this on the corner across from Luca brasia and people in the building
were okay with it and then they found out that it was going to be a television in front of their house so they were all turned it off so we wound up finding this location because the most inobtrusive to Residents and that everybody was kind of raised where they
lived so just as a side note just don't assume that everybody is happy to have that in front of their house so go out and check with people before you put one in just some friendly advice Mr just a quick comment in in response to council president Onana uh there was one installation near Columbus Park where
the neighbor was concerned about the the brightness they turned it off and we were able to adjust the brightness they didn't so well they well they didn't in the neighborhood where this was installed so I mean it is possible once they get installed if people feel like they're too you know light
pollution or whatever light polluting uh they can be adjusted yeah no I appreciate that thank you so anyway yeah anyway thank you president J thank you thank you councilman Cohen would you give me number three b742 well I I have to cross something
out yeah so um with regard to b742 please to vote I asked Mr finina call a vote on 741 uh on ordinance 741 Mr con I M
Fisher yes Mr Jabor yes president Jano I Mr Cano I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I president do I thank you hearing onor an ordinance amending chapter 192 parking for persons with disabilities thank you um there no
members of the public have signed up to speak motion to close public portion second all those in favor I I thank you so now Mr uh Weber the uh there are there are I believe 12
or 12 or 14 amendments which two of the Amendments here uh we want to exclude that are stricken well not me but are their General uh handicap spots rather than individual specific spots and so it was not
intended to strike those out and so if we remove those two then we'll vote tonight on first reading on the remainder and we will be back here in two weeks to take care of
to to pass the others and if you look uh the the the there's one that's without my reading glasses Garden Street Garden Street East West Side of Garden Street beginning at which
is back first why don't we just no if we just strike these and vote on first reading right now and then we'll be done with it this is Corporation Council you know we're making an amendment we can then vote on it for which will be first
reading and we'll be done unless you want to come back and deal with it at the end of the two general ones yep uh one is Garden Street West Side of Garden Street beginning at a point of 112 feet south of the southernly curb line of 8th Street and extending 22 ft
and the other is two yeah Gard Street East beginning at a 0. 106 feet from the northern curb line of 8th Street extending 12T from there so those two will be removed uh will not
omed they will continue okay do we understand what we're voting on so we keeping they will continue to be because of that it's now only a first reading that's correct beautiful it was that wasn't clear not at all okay anyway given the
transportation shair yeah and I'm I'm sorry then Mr Weber you can explain it to us again but are we all set yep thanks okay thank you Mr director um so we'll be voting on this for a first
reading Mr finina call a vote Mr con hi M fiser Mr Jabor yes president Zano hi Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi president DL I hearing on an ordinance
to amend chapter 190 D 11 entitled loading zones designated to add loading zone to no Street between Hudson Street Washington Street Garden Street between Third Street and Second Street and River Street between Hudson Place and nor
street thank you um Manuel River Soler council president thank you once again members of the council I didn't say uh good evening before to you and to the members of the public I was a little rushed now I'm a little more relaxed as you can see uh council president all I would like to know again there are
similar questions to the questions that I asked for the charging stations again um do members of the public you as council members where you're going to locate these um loading zones which by the way let me be on the record that I'm in favor of uh but there are questions
again do you go and consult some of the neighbors as was just mentioned here for their charging stations do they get any input when you locate these uh uh areas where you're going to put the loading zone are they because it's more beneficial because of business is
business uh located in these zones or in these places where you're going to put the loading zones and uh again it it's a very basic questions do people get consulted um in any other way and again you did say that this is where they know but there has to be a better way to inform members of the public in their
neighborhood that they will not be able to park in certain areas in the neighborhoods from 8 to 6 again I am in favor of loading zones but um people just need to know where and why are they being located there and why are they going to lose parking space for a certain amount of time during the day uh
so I appreciate uh if you could give us some of those answers and uh well with that I'll you back thank you thank you uh there are no other members of the public uh signed up to speak on this ordinance motion to close
public portion all those in favor I I uh councilman president Zano say something um as you can see in front of the CVS and the Bank of America building that is all under construction for rebuild by Design so everybody that's lost we've lost parking on that side of the street so I spoke with the
transportation department and we uh we walked through some areas that I said can we make uh from uh Hudson to Washington all loading zones cuz remember we've lost a lot of spaces there for you know we have uh on first in Bloomfield
and and first in Washington is applied housing there so there's a lot of bua buos that uh there and people are delivering food or there's some grandmas grandpas and so families don't have places to park and around City Hall we have a lot of Reserve spaces so the
transportation department worked with me to put that as all loading zones and then at night it'll change back to parking overnight the other thing is there's all businesses there so there's a constant flow of traffic we have a big double parking situation in front of city hall because of all the businesses
there and not enough parking so that's the idea behind this um we do a little use a lose a little bit of parking Revenue but the reason why it was raised was PJ Bagels actually contacted me that when the path buses were coming down Newark Street there they had to put
ballards up because nobody could park on that corner otherwise you get clipped every day so he first started this conversation with me and said is there something we could do because I have a lot of people that are in and out of here and then then it just went it kind of snowballed and everybody started to talk but one of the reasons was as well
to help residents in the neighborhood have a spot to make a quick stop and drop stuff off to relatives or things of that nature um as you will know that I do put a lot of stuff out on social media and emails letting you know so for my first word should be pretty well
informed just as a heads up thank you councilman anyone else Mr finina call the vote Mr con hi M fiser yes Mrs jaor yes president Zano hi
Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi president too hi hearing on an ordinance of the city of hobok and amending the city code chapter 190 vehicles and traffic to amend Viola Public Safety and EMT
parking no members of the public have signed up to speak motion close public thank you all those in favor I anybody Mr finina call the vote Mr con hi M fiser yes Mrs Jabor yes Mr presen Zano
hi Mr Cano I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I president Doyle I public portion honor gend items public portion on resolutions yes um
Andrew Perez on A1 good evening members of the city council esteemed officials and residents of Hoboken my name is Andrew Perez I'm the president of the Hoboken police
benevolence Association Local 2 Union I want to thank you for this opportunity to speak before you today regarding this memorandum of agreement that impacts not only our police department but our community as a whole I would like to thank mayor Bala corporate Council briya
and uh business administrator uh for negotiating this agreement in good faith and commitment to Public Safety in the city of Hoboken tonight I want to address this the uh the hobok and police Union contract that has been proposed it is a fair 8-year agreement that stands as a
strategic Advantage for both our city and our Union this contract is not just about numbers it's about the future the quality of policing in Hoboken and ensuring that our officers who valiantly serve our community are well supported
fairly compensated and able to carry out their objective with keeping our city safe as many of you are aware New Jersey is currently facing a severe hiring crisis within law enforcement when we look back just a few years ago our Police Department
regularly attracted around 200 applicants each year each testing cycle fast forward to 2023 we have seen that number plummet to a mere 12 we have seen that number plummet worse in 2024 to nine
applicants taking the civil service test within our city this decline poses a threat to Public Safety as we struggled to fill the ranks needed to protect our community effectively moreover retention is equally critical many of our seasoned
officers who have dedicated over 25 years of service are leaving due to inadequate salaries and high insurance cost these retirees are moving on to positions like school resource officers in other jurisdictions or securing jobs in executive protection to reclaim as
much as 35% of their salary this Exodus only depletes our experienced Workforce but also undermines the trust and security that our established officers have built within our community the proposed Sal salary guide
in this new contract addresses these pressing issues head-on by adjusting compensation we can effectively Recruit new Talent even in today's challenging landscape and simultaneously retain our seasoned officers who are critical to the institutional knowledge and
experience that Fosters Public Safety consider current conversation packages surrounding in surrounding agencies within our own Hudson County sewers offers a top salary of $152,000 with paying only 1.5 of their insurance
premiums with a statutory minimum Edison police department established a staggering top salary of 191,000 for a patrol officer while Oldbridge pay stands at 61,000 for their uh first line patrolman and top salary
of 143,000 coupled with free healthcare and retirement we must remain competitive if we expect to attract and retain the best candidates another clear indicator of this crisis is with the data new jerse city police have they used to receive
between 177,000 and 20,000 applicants per testing cycle they're now receiving lower than 2,000 across the state uh of applicants it is clear that we must adjust our approach to ensure that hobok remains a desirable place to
work for top tier for our top tier law enforcement professionals I also want to stress the of maintaining high standards within our own Department unlike neighboring jurisdictions like New York City which have lowered the hiring
qualifications and have lost significant amount of officers to uh uh recruiting and other departments like Florida and New Jersey um in the face of this crisis our
leaders Chief agar and the Command Staff are committed to upholding the highest standards for recruiting police officers we want the best for Hoboken both for its citizens and the men and women of our Police Department who protect us every day this new police Union contract
represents a necessary investment into our City's future it is a step toward stability within our own police force a commitment to our officers a promise to the citizens of Hoboken that we are dedicated to providing Superior Service fostering Community Trust and ensuring
public safety for all um support the additional officers needed for this Patrol so we can effectively Patrol the city this is not just a financial decision but a commitment to The Brighter safer future for all of us in Hoboken the Hoboken PBA
greatly appreciates your support thank you thank you Mr perz um Enrique Herrera what's going on guys um I'm hopefully uh going to include that a numbers game
involving the PBA is a threat to this committee and this town we need law enforcement officers not citizens who unlawfully prosecute people in cluster mobs of numbers fingers and magnets that you guys use to communicate uh in the event you guys are using any type of communication Channel you're not using
the proper law enforcement officers that need that funding that need that support I support against um that type of deal uh I support more or less funding our police officers and our proper law enforcement and our police officers that work
in favor of the United States not in our own self-interests Public Safety is necessarily something that as as humans we we can attain without that type of numbers game where uh first of foremost
you can't issue a lawful arrest as a citizen with this type of authority a law enforcement officer or a judge is what would carry that out um funding this type of cluster mob activity where they know and they use
numbers they use their their number systems and they operate whatever Ward or in or out of buildings they have that authority to put on a police uniform every now and again just to shut it down um locking it in on citizens that would much rather have a law enforcement
officer with a camera or some sense of actual presence police presence is more or less implied there not Public Safety Not people who frankly don't have police Authority um I'd much rather go with a police officer than a citizen that
doesn't want anything other than Money numbers um since this is a modern grid system that type of vibe that cluster mob activity encircles good people people and leaves people like myself out of public eye um
mostly immigrants or anything like that but even American citizens that need actual support that need actual law enforcement uh I'm voting in or at least not me but like I hope you guys vote against this deal thank you thank you
Mr um Manuel Rivera Solair good evening again council president and Council thought there would be more people before me but anyway uh I just would like to ask obviously my questions that I do want consent agenda if heads
up to anyone that wants to note uh any of these again council president you mentioned before you moved cd2 or was it A2 A2 was okay thank you then uh in Community Development uh
C2 um also in corporate Council CC1 if um if there's anything members of the public could um hear from this settlement um without uh um divulging any uh personal information or any private information members of the public would um be interested in knowing
maybe what that is if not then just let us know that we have to go through um legal means um by a oper request uh also so in the clerk there are two uh number two cl2 and cl3 um once again councilor
president cl2 I would like to ask the council and we have um a question for members of the public once again two meetings ago or so I asked a question and I believe a member of the council um made a point of making reference to the
people in this case again nothing against the person um you're you're voting for someone this evening for the hobok uh zoning board and uh once again my question would be have you had Communications with this person do you know personally have you uh had any
interviews being that again it was uh mentioned that it was sort of like an a job interview even though it's not a job but these uh individuals have a lot of weight they carry a lot of weight because their decisions uh change uh the city's uh architecture sometimes so it
is important members of the public at least see or hear or know that you've met these people at some point before you vote for them because you're voting for a 4-year term and we're at the end of a um uh mayor's term and I would assume that you would prefer to wait off
on that but anyway that's my opinion again I would also like in finance F1 if you can tell me what's the co corelation pardon me corelation with um the public service and PS1 are we allocating the money the resources because temporarily
till we get the grant or or the grant hasn't just gone through yet that it's it's just a particular question I don't know if you follow what I'm trying to say here um but why are we taking temporary Appropriations uh and at the end in transportation and parking again
again I thank you for the grant the applications we have to do more on that uh T2 and T4 uh and with that council president I believe I have time but I will yield back thank you thank you Mr
Rivera Solair um pened on A1 as well I believe correct A1 thank you council president I want to address a couple of things um obviously you're addressing an issue a problem
right so we've seen this problem start maybe you know eight nine years ago and continue on where it's been harder for recruitment to get new officers in to rank and file and it's obvious when you look at how many people recruited you know 15 20 years ago versus now that
something changed salary is one part of it you know salary what you're doing is you're competing against other counties you're competing as Bergen County Essex County and uh even middle sex so I don't know if that addresses the full issue I think
that addresses a partial issue so while you may be on the same level is another municipality or County um Cherry your clock's messed up oh it's backwards sorry so while uh you may be competitive with with salaries I don't I don't think that's
the only part that that is going to address it there are other things the job has changed in the last decade or so and it's it's become harder it's become harder because you're you're held accountable there's more cameras there's you know mistakes happen but the the one
thing that is not being addressed is in any other line of work if if someone works for Goldman Sachs and they and they work there for 20 years or 22 years and and something happens an unfortunate incident happens they may get let go but they don't lose their
pension and in in a police department you actually could lose it in year 22 so what happens is you get a lot of people that have a lot of experience after year 17 or 18 and then they start doing a risk analysis you know is it worth it for me to stay on another year where if
I get into an unfortunate incident with someone I could lose my pension so you're having a lot of people retire early which is not helping you because you're losing the people with the most experience and I don't I don't think we've addressed that so what I what I'm trying to say is this is just one piece
of the puzzle in that recruitment number because if someone's coming out of college now or high school and and they want to join you got to they're looking at what's happening to the people on current police departments around the country is it worth the risk and
anything could go bad in a you know in a minute's notice where everything can going fine for a decade year 12 year 13 and then you have you're in a situation where you're dealing with things that are unplanned someone pulls a firearm on you what you think is a firearm you got seconds to decide your pensions on the
line so I don't think we've addressed that part of it and a couple other parts are the the initial pay when you're asking someone to enter this career it's not like any other career where you're saying Hey I want
you to be a a broker or a real estate agent or something else a lot of fields have easy transfer rights so I could work for again Goldman Sachs for 10 years I don't like my boss or something I could run down a block work for Morgan Stanley or or JP Morgan it doesn't work that well with police departments you
get you don't go to the same rank if you want to leave here and go to you know a Bergen County town or alp or or or down a Shore so you don't get the same rank it doesn't transfer easy so I think that there's more parts of this that are not
addressed yet I think we have to look at it like this isn't a Magic Bullet I think pays just one part of it and at the end of the day what do you want Public Safety is Paramount whether it's Police Department the fire department if you don't have a safe Community it it corrodes the entire Community it's hard
to to get new ratables on it's get it's hard to get people to feel safe in an area in an area feels unsafe you start losing the population we've seen that throughout the country whether it's Detroit or whether it was hobok in the 1980s and even in the 70s so this is a
good initial step I think it should help I think it's going to I don't know if if I think it's 47,000 initial pay I don't know if that's going to be enough I think we have to compare it to other municipalities see if that they're paying the same or similar and I think you should look in portions let's let's
look at it in two years but the other parts I ition should not be ignored I think whether you hire someone to help us consult on that or how do you address that or maybe it's a Statewide thing you know where we're pushing on a string because if other towns are having the same problem then it may be a bigger
issue than just pay so I asked you all you know let's this is good step one let's let's see where it goes and there are other steps we have to follow thanks thank you Amed Mr Amed um no more members of the public signed
up close second all those in favor I I all right council members for uh I mentioned earlier A2 is off anything else okay T4
T4 cl2 thank you cl24 F1 A1 A1 and F1 or just both A1 or
F1 A1 A1 yep okay uh call a vote on everything else yep Mr con i m
fiser Mr Jabor Yes except for cl3 I abstain Mr preso I Cano I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I president oil Yes except for cl3 as a
federal employee I recuse myself and obstain uh okay so A1 y hear me okay yeah we have the mic right up to it okay so um first I want to appre or uh I appreciate um officer Perez coming
in and you know uh supporting the contract um we had a long conversation a few weeks ago and I think most of the council members did um I think everyone feels dra ly uh that we want to support our police we want to be able to um hire
uh as many you know just be as competitive as possible I think the problem with this is it's an eight-year contract um we were given we were given the terms on Friday um there's a ton of
questions um and not enough time to answer or to investigate we are about to go into a budget process um where you know understanding how all of these contracts uh that we are expected probably to excuse me vote on and
approve over the next C couple months we should have a full understanding this is one of the biggest contracts this contract is very back-ended although it doesn't look like it has um that big of an immediate um impact today you know this is to be honest you know mayor Bala
is leaving at the end of this year and I don't think he has the right to approve an 8 contract and just leave it with um whoever the next mayor is going to be and the taxpayers within Hoboken without you know a full understanding of of the
contract itself there are some features in it um you know we're seeing above average uh historic average um increases year-over-year um and the starting salary is um has been a talking point
that we've had in our public safety meeting um all of last year that we can't be competitive because we're basically at $46,000 we're basically paying an entry-level police officer you know an amount that is like slightly you know
just slightly higher than a fast food worker so I think we are all surprised to see um to see uh this contract come in with such a low starting point um I personally would like uh to better understand the implications I'd like to
better understand um how we can raise that uh initial salary um to be able to hire the people that we've already talked about hiring as well as ones um that I know are going to hire um in the future and then there's um other issues as well including the fact that the
highest um with all of the increases that we're talking about we now have Rank and file police officers that are actually going to be paid more than their superiors and we haven't even seen the superior contract I confirmed that today with our business admin minator so
I just I feel like that this is something that if possible we can um just you know carry it for one um ex excuse me one meeting two meeting what whenever so we can actually have a more robust um conversation you know as I
mentioned this got put on the agenda I don't believe that it was talked about in committee um you know we were given some materials over the weekend to look at and we had one day before we came into the meeting tonight to vote on something that is a substantial increase
to um our payroll costs within Hoboken so um I am either going to be a no or abstain tonight um but I would like to start the conversation just by making a motion to carry table whatever the appropriate one is not to vote on this
tonight I don't know if anyone would consider seconding that okay well I've said my piece no I'm just anyone okay then without a motion there's no anyone
else Mr finina call a vote excuse me Mr con hi M Fisher okay I'm abstaining abstain yep Mr Jabor yes president Dano
pres want us to come back to you yeah please Mr Cano I Mr Ramos Russo I president Doyle I president we're not you obain or I'm
abstaining okay okay [Applause] cl2 yeah council president uh on the
agenda the candidate's name is Miss Bel uh his name is Arthur Gan guu an it's spelled k k an I just wanted to clarify that uh I think he reached out to everyone on the council I'd never you know heard of him before he was very
impressive trained his name engineer I think he'll do a great job that's all thank you council president thank you councilman Mr finina call vote Mr con hi M fiser
yes here she said yes sorry Mr Jabor yes president Zano hi Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi president Doyle i t T4 it's a resolution entering into
agreement with the city of Jersey City for the administration of the city of Hoboken Safe Streets for all SS for all a supplemental planning activities Grant can director
Weber is that okay Jimmy I tried to read as much as I could on this and was a little beg um could you just explain what this grant allows I know it said for the Ada and some Vision zero plan and enhancements can you explain a little bit more so uh we're
undertaking a number of activities a couple of them uh will be joint activities with Jersey City and then uh we're doing an ADA transition plan on our own uh that's solely uh within city of Hoboken and we're also updating our
vision Vision zero action plan uh also exclusively in the city of Hoboken okay is there anything that we'll do that will run it before the council or will we is it kind of all just within the department the grant anything that
requires Council action will certainly uh be brought before you and if uh working with council member Jabor if uh if you would like a briefing on our activities we were always available okay one one it's kind of multi-prong
question because I know in Jersey City there's a mess right now with the grant that there was an approved protected bike lane and then now Community jumped in and then it's a it's a kururu so my question to you is in this money being designated are we looking at any quick
builds or are we looking at any protected bike Lanes with this money no okay all right that answers everything because I just don't want us to fall into the same what's happening right now in Jersey City where they could potentially lose the grant because after the fact a whole bunch of stuff came up so I just want to make
sure that we're not in that same thing but thank you very much then you're welcome okay thank you thank you okay um Mr finina call the vote Mr con I for M
fiser yes Mr jaor yes president Jano hi Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi president oral I ordinance for introduction and ordance of the city of Hoboken amending Hoboken city code
section 155 D30 to remove 155 D30 C for clarity Mr frina call a vote Mr con I fiser yes Mr Jabor yes president Zano hi
Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi president Doyle I introduction of the city of hobok and County of Hudson state of New Jersey approving garage B Municipal garage Redevelopment
plan Mr finina call the vote Mr con i m fiser yes Mr Jabor yes preso no Mr Cano hi Mr Rama I Mr Russo I president Doyle
no no uh resolution referring the ordinance of the city of hobok County of huton New Jersey approving the garage B Municipal garage Redevelopment plan to the planning board for a review and
recommendation I want to vote no on that so you tell Jim motion reconsider that vote can we read on the yeah ordinance my apologies I was ordinance number two on the agenda development plan can we
open that to open it we're going to open it for the the last ordinance ordinance second number two first which a motion to First have a second on that
second okay Mr all right M fiser no TQ cons oh yes yes and reconsider yes sorry Mrs jaor yes to reconsider Mr preso I Mr Cano
I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I president Doyle I so on the on the revote itself Mr Mr con i m fiser no Mr Jabor yes president Zano
noo I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I president doy no okay okay passes first reading one last resolution resolution referring the
ordinance of the city of hobo County of f New Jersey approv garage B Municipal garage Redevelopment plan to the hokan planning board for review and recommendation Mr frina uh I guess it's a resolution but nobody else Mr frina
call the vote Mr con i m fiser yes Mr Jabor yes pres Jano I voted just sending it to the planning board for St mandated just wanted to make sure I'm Mr Cano hi Mr
Ramos hi Mr Russo hi president Doyle hi okay public portion could thank you very much Alissa uh Enrique Herrera 15 minutes what what's going on so um my inclination to be against the PBA is
of multiple reasons not just because of the synchronized mob activity that is the civilian activity of monitoring people without actual credentials um I understand that some of you have abstained from that including fiser and Pano uh and I understand why because
it's the minority versus the majority uh this can be extended toward social media where you're not as famous because you are the minority you are not followed as much because you are the minority I am not followed because I am the minority uh in essence that is what shadow
Banning is that is what that type of activ is and that's Unbecoming of anyone's character to sit there and say they're American and operate on Nazi values of synchronized mob activity to discredit and remove people and put them in any type of regulatory system AKA
concentration camps modern day or ancient times 40s I can't necessarily abide by that type of ruling and I would encourage you to actually commandeer any technology utilized by these cluster mobs of people that use
starlink that are monitored by starlink that are fitted with neural links that operate on this synchronized modern grid where if I'm somewhere there's an anti-stalking campaign somewhere else if I'm somewhere the woman I would want to
be with is somewhere else being told by someone else in private that it would never happen this type of activity is Unbecoming of any American citizen let alone anyone in this chamber on a local state or federal level are we not supposed to do that if it does interfere
with state lines or county lines I would hope that the police officers can investigate that Commander all enforcement anyone that has a weapon anyone that has that type of enforcement power anyone that has a uniform that can walk into buildings to process people into psychiatric ords without due
process if in the event you are this kind of person where you think you are better because you have more people I am your leonitis this is themop thank you you thank you very much um Ron
Hine I'd like to uh Ron Hine 515 law I'd like to raise um a number of points concerning the U garage B Redevelopment plan uh I think that it's I think that
it is seriously flawed for a number of reasons um after I read through the Redevelopment plan I consulted with uh uh an architect planner that we uh regularly consult
with and he stated the obvious this plan needs to consider needs to consider uh not just garage B but also the city owned property on the other side of the street on the other side of
street is she Tiffany just mute yourself thank you Ron I'm sorry continue if you want to backpedal a little bit that's fine for the distraction yeah I um as I mentioned uh I I talked to our
consultant our architect planner who's advised us um since we started and he stated the obvious which is this needs to be a comprehensive plan it can't be about garage B alone you have to include
the city own property on the other side of Hudson Street you have to consider the other two garages on Hudson Street it has to be thought of as a cohesive hole if you think about this in
isolation and then later you have to decide what happens on the other side of Hudson Street it isn't necessarily going to fit together and I think the way it's written uh would indicate that uh now this this is going to go to
the planning board next and what the planning board needs to decide is whether or not this uh Redevelopment ordinance con conforms with the city's master plan and I've reviewed uh the
city master plan as well in relationship to this ordinance and it clearly does not if the planning board was to look at this objectively they would see that on its face it did not conform to the city's master
plan um process has also been flawed uh typically uh when the city is dealing with a project like this they would have a Sur they would ask people what they
thought about various things related to this plan uh they would have meetings with stakeholders they would have meetings with people in the immediate neighborhood and if any of you had talked to people in the neighborhood you
would find out that there was tremendous opposition to this proposal uh so and I did uh participate in the zoom call and the meeting here in City Hall
as well and there was a lot of questions asked about the uh the garage itself and these questions pertain to the parking utility no one from the parking utility participated in these
meetings uh one question that councilman Russo asked is what percent of people parking and garage B are commuters I don't know I don't I I never heard what the answer to that question
was um there's a lot of uh questions about whether or not this plan is actually feasible um the other thing is that uh it the city will put this up to an
RFP developers will respond what you're going to end up with is a developer conceived plan this is not the city's plan this is not our plan for what should happen there this is will be
a developer plan a developer a developer's vision of what should go there and I can guarantee you the kind of responses you're going to get back are not going to be happy ones thank you very much thank you Mr
hind um Sylvia Schwarz hello I completely agree with Ron in terms of how it looks if you look at the building across the street it's really pretty it's got the brick it he it feels like part of Hoboken and if
there's any way that we can look at things from a broader perspective regarding the development that he was talking about and and I think in keeping that look of Hoboken that would be great because we already have places where the buildings are really tall right we H we
the the W Hotel kind of isolated we let that go by at 23 stories that was supposed to be it and that was an exception then we have on the by by the the the path area where that's going to be okay and we have bu big buildings going there this area here if we start
to have big buildings right there it's sort of like out of proportion to everything else so if we can somehow keep them down that would be fabulous but I'm also going to share my re another concern and that's the financial
aspect I really think we have to be very careful in making any kind of financial expenditures and really being looking at that carefully especially if we need any federal money we are in a situation where there's a lot of unknowns and we
don't want to put ourselves at risk somehow and we know with the cuts that they're talking about doing on the federal level that pushes down to the state level states have to have a balanced budget there's going to be
pressure you're going to have to look at different ways to to you know mitigate the the the changes that may happen because of this so I really ask you to be cautious in making any kind of big um expenditures with our taxpayer money
thank you very much thank you thank you Miss Schwarz uh Jim Vance good evening Council thank you so much for allowing me to speak I want to talk about planning um there's this
Redevelopment project that's being promoted for um basically to refurbish our garage and there's lots of window dressing around we're going to get housing and we're going to get this we're going to get that first of all we have a large
area up there that needs to be looked at from a standpoint of of good urban planning that's not happening here um I don't know the motivations I can speculate on them but that does not what matter what matter is we're really not doing good urban planning here we have
to look at the the whole area the other thing is that here it is we're entering the the second quarter of of the 21st Century um and for over a century automobiles
have no pun intended driven our cities and they've driven to the point where they are hardly livable anymore um this town I moved here we had 35,000 people we have another 35,000 people and everybody was invited to come to Hoboken
and bring your car and they did uh I have a friend who who's I've been saying we need more housing and we need more hous that'll cause more people and places already congested enough you know I said well you can get down on the
sidewalk yeah it's not a problem we get around town on on on foot bicyle it's not a problem yeah but when I get in my car there's all this congestion I can't get out of town so we basically should not have additional housing especially
for whoever uh because will create more congestion let's stop inviting people to come to Hoboken and bring their car let's encourage people who live in hobok and it's less than 50% of the households own cars not to have one and and and
let's not let's not go through this process and it's not a planning process I'm not sure maybe this political process to to do any more
about fixing this garage because this garage is going to cost those everybody an awful lot of money it's basically free parking and the price of free parking is very expensive from an environmental standpoint from a safety standpoint from a livability
standpoint thank you thank you Mr Vance uh Martin Anderson good evening um please pardon me for reading a prepared text uh dear council members and fellow
residents uh I'm here to speak against the garage B Redevelopment proposal because in my view it will adversely affect the residents in the neighborhood and indeed the whole city one particular concern is parking
for existing r residents the full plan calls for the re uh replacement of not only garage B but also garage it's D and G will existing residents be able to park in these
locations and what will be the cost of parking it surely won't go down uh Marine View Plaza residents like myself and especially those on fixed incomes feel threatened by the prospect
of losing their affordable parking and wonder about the fate of the properties now housing garages dng my neighbors tell me this is a very
real concern for them a concern which I share the development plan is part of a pattern of building in Hoboken which I and others feel has contributed in recent years to an actual diminishment
in the quality of life in our city two factoids first what was the population of Hoboken um in 1981 which was the year I moved here 33,000 today just about doubled second
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 uh to have tall buildings built around the periphery of the city in recent
years is unfortunate enough in my opinion and just witness what is now in the pipeline a few blocks away South near the train station and on on Observer highway but to have tall buildings like
that proposed at garage B begin to creep into the heart of hoboken's 19 Century neighborhoods feels like a real Invasion and yes Marine View Plaza started all
this but Hoboken was a much different place back in 1975 uh 50 years later in the present day I am convinced that we cannot build our way out of a housing shortage in a
community of 1.26 square miles miles not even if we reach 100,000 plus Souls amongst us I would say repair the existing garages the Redevelopment proposal
estimate estimates the cost of giving garage be an extra 5 to 10 years life at only $1.8 million or you get 25 years or 7 million I would say preserve the quality of life for existing and future
residents we must wind down the trajectory of overdevelopment and thank you for your time thank you very much Mr Anderson uh man Manuel Rivera
Solair thank you council president council members of the public uh council president first and foremost I would like to say I I hope you all join me and we could send our our prayers and our thoughts to those affected in North Carolina and South Carolina in their
fires um we pray for their um safety and wellness as well as of course the people in California who've gone through those terrifying moments um I would also like to say um to everyone who's observing
the month of Ramadan Ramadan Mubarak bless Ramadan that's what that means um and it's there's also a saying may this Ramadan bring you love light and Harmony to your into your life um so council
president also since I'm in the Sai moment I would like to those that are Catholic like me and all of the ones who care to pray for our Holy Father the pope St Francis for his well-being um and we hope that he is restored back to health and we get him back in service
and if not may God give him peace wherever God wants it to be um so with that being said I would like to go back to more things um again uh this is uh also women's history month I would like to uh salute the women in this Council
uh council member Jabor and council member Fischer for their service to our city um and their contributions as well um there are many many women in that work in our municipality I salute them uh the young lady who's sitting uh right
in front of you sir uh so meliss Alissa so I just want to just want to say that because um there are a lot of mothers out there and a lot of people who work hard and this is I know that it's history it's people in history and we salute them but we want to make sure that those that are close to us know
that we appreciate them uh so thank you council president for letting me say that uh as well as um would like to take a moment to say someone who is missing in our blusterous meeting this evening um I would like to also um single her out Patricia waiters who is an advocate
for Hoboken um for many many years and is in contact with many many of Hoboken knites who give her uh their um uh needs and she tries to help everyone she can she's not here she's not present here she wasn't present last week and she recently had a death in her family so we
send her also her and her family uh our thoughts and our prayers and again I personally and I hope you all do someday uh salute her uh as welld deserved and council president my minutes are are are still there so I would like to now go into something that's very near and dear
to my heart I would like to say that um we should all always think about the things we say in presence of others and how we speak to other people um there was a horrible incident this past uh Friday to a person and is IR regardless
of personality I am always speaking about this country and I always say SL SAA Slava Ukraine glory to Ukraine hero Slava glory to the heroes because these are people who are fighting for their lives they're not
trying to make deals to become rich or anything like this they are striving to save their lives their properties from a dictator from a murderous dictator and if we stand with the murderous dictator who are we as a Americans so I bring
that to this Council and I let Hoboken knites know that this is not for party this is for us as Americans we have to stand on the right on the side of right and democracy I believe is worth fighting for that's what they're
fighting for and we pray for them and we send them our thoughts and our prayers as well for their well-being and as well as we also and I always forget to say the name of our sister city which by the way in no July of 2023 July 11th to be
exact our mayor entered into this protocol or this friendly um situation which is called a sister city it has nothing binding by law but it is something that we should always remember and our sister city in the Ukraine is
meop Ukraine now these people are suffering as well if we can do anything for them I hope that the mayor hears and anybody that's on this Council that would like to at least reach out to some of them and send them and let them know that our thoughts and prayers are with them so I know that this is a little bit
of a a uh different way to speak to you but it it's something that needs to be said and I thank also Council woman Fischer who put it in her social medias that she stands with Ukraine and there are many many others that should say that but it's not again a political thing it's a human thing and we also
pray for the people of Gaza for them to get back their country the citizens the civilians and we pray that they release the few more hostages that are there that they should be home with their families so we pray that the ceasefire continues for Israel and Gaza and we
pray that someday all of this will be done so with that being said council president God bless you God bless you all God bless Hoboken and of course God Bless America thank you thank you Mr uh Deanie money thank you for the opportunity can
you hear me y maybe a little closer um if you would thank you this is better great um no again uh thank you for giving me this chance to speak today um I wanted to talk about the mo um me the memorandum that just got um passed with
the police department um I am a a a big admirer of Hoboken police they have rescued me on a couple of occasions they are professional they're responsive um and like I said I have
great respect for them however I'm wondering if the city missed out an opportunity to discuss something serious in what just got uh negotiated which is the retirement benefits um what city has to contribute towards pfrs which is the
police and fire retirement system is rising very very rapidly um in Jason's presentation in 2024 budget he showed that that number went up 22% in 2024 itself now we putting in
close to $13 million in pfrs every year um just for perspective all the property taxes that we pay towards municipality is 63 million so if that number is not addressed in an environment where more
officers are retiring early um retirees are living longer and the salaries are going up uh faster I think very soon city is going to face a day when these contributions to retirement fund will just overwhelm the city budget uh so I
was really hoping that this 8-year contract there will be some discussion of renegotiating retirement benefits but looks like that didn't happen which is a disappointment thanks thank you very much uh council president I just want to say if we could have a moment silence
for uh Patricia waiters mother-in-law Willie Mrs Willie May waiters and also the former judge of Hoboken Michael mongel and his family um the family was a big part of Hoboken
the father was a former council member City attorney and former judge Mel was a teacher became a prosecutor and judge so I just want to have Mo in silence for those two individuals thank you thank you Mr lur amen all right new
business second hi