We're resume. Okay. All right. Good evening everyone. I would like to advise all those present that notice of this meeting has been provided to the public in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act and that notice was published in the city website. Copies were provided in the Bergen record and also placed on the bulletin
board in the lobby of city hall. Written objections, if any, shall be made to the city clerk. We can all rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stand
for all. >> All right. >> Okay. Roll call. Yep. Councilman Cohen >> here. >> Councilman Firestone >> here. >> Councilman Fischer. Yeah, I see her. Let me get her in. One
second. See her. Councilman Imus >> here. >> Councilman L >> here. >> Councilman Preszano. >> Let's see. Paul Paul's there. Councilman Cano >> present.
>> And uh Councilman Russo and Council President Ramos >> present. >> Okay, let me just uh get One second. We're trying to get a couple more folks in the meeting.
>> Uh, bear with me. >> I hear someone watching TV. If you guys could mute, that'd be great. Um, couple more directors. Councilman Russo is about to join us as
well. Got a couple directors. Hold on. Okay. >> What's up everybody? >> I will share. Hey, Council Russo, welcome back. >> Thank you. >> Want to make sure everyone can see uh my
screen. >> Yes, I can see it. Anyone else? >> Yep. Excellent. >> Great. We may begin, Council President. >> All right, let's get started on Uh resolutions for reading. I'm sorry. Ordinance if a second.
All right. Block party fe. Any question on that? Ordinance of any chapter. >> Um the only thing I want to add on that one is that there are currently no fees associated with the parking uh signs um
to clear the block. So that is not uh this is only going to be a flat fee. Uh so they will only have one set of fees. I think it was $250. $250. Could you confirm that? >> That's correct. Correct. >> Yeah.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. Thank you, Councilwoman. We have handicap parking item. We have uh the amended park permit ordinances introduced in first reading
at last meeting. We amended park permit fees. Okay. Any questions on petition and communications? A couple of proclamations were supposed to be last council meeting.
That's all good. All right. See nothing. Uh questions on claims payroll. Council President, a a quick question. Um, since we're doing um the caucus on Mondays, do we do we necessarily want to
do like formal proclamations and stuff on council meetings or do we want to start potentially doing them off council meetings to make it a little more special for those families and stuff? And I guess that's more of a question not just to our us as council members, but even the administration where uh if
the mayor is going to come down and present the proclamation, you know, we're we're kind of rushing through it to get to the meeting, so on and so forth. But if we're going to if we're doing something other than our council meetings, maybe we do uh proclamations separate and apart from council meetings
so that those families and those people get that moment in the sun, so to speak. >> All right. Well, sounds good. definitely take it into consideration. >> Yeah. I mean, and and earlier, >> director Gonzalez, I mean, please pass that along to the mayor and it might be something she wants to do so that those
families have the opportunity to kind of celebrate a little bit in the council chambers, things like that. Um, you know, I know we've done this a thousand different ways in my tenure as a councilman, but something to consider. >> Absolutely. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Yep.
President, you're muted. >> Yeah. Any questions on people names? >> Could you go back? >> Yeah. Lost your uh >> You lost your audio. >> Sorry. Better. I'm sorry.
>> I lost the agenda, too. Jerry, you still sharing that, >> Jerry? We lost the agenda. >> Yep. I'm getting us back on. Anyone on sorry uh claims and payroll? Okay, let's go to consent agenda. Mr. Clerk,
the administration has implement the health benefit premiums to try and cost there. That's a ceremonial that action is taken at the state level. >> Council President, on on that one, is th
is this this is related to premiums for the actual employees, right? Not necessarily for um for the municipalities. Or am I understanding that wrong? >> Yeah. Well, it's both. Yeah, it's both. It's just urging reforms to the state
health benefits plan as a whole >> given that we mirror that plan. >> Thank you. And here we're ask for state aid relief for A2. I think we've the city do something uh recent
state aid relief. So we are looking out for our best interest with >> Exc Jerry can you promote Tiffany to panelist please. >> Oh sorry >> that's no problem. Sorry sorry sorry to
interrupt. >> That's okay. >> Okay. I got Diana. I see her >> should be joining us. >> Okay. Community Development
uh CD 511 Washington Street at CD2 service contract review CD3 Three. >> I do have one. Uh, >> yes. Councilman, please.
>> Yep. >> The appointing a municipal housing. This is not a paid position. Is that correct? >> No, it is not. It's just appointing It's appointing a staff member to serve in a role uh where we're carrying out the
Fair Housing Act per the state. Okay. Affordable housing. Okay, thank you. >> And no thanks, Jerry, please. Little League agreement for 2026 control. We always contract the city for years now.
That is only a slight increase. I believe it's only $5,000 over last year and the CS3 to blood levels. Okay, let's go to city clerk L1.
regular minutes of the council meeting. Uh C appointing Barbara Reyes, chairwoman uh Barbara reappointing her to the housing authority board.
Any questions? CL1 or CL2? >> No. >> Okay. Okay. Infrastructure. We have eight items for infrastructure sports care. This is for the batting cages of Mama Johnson field. I I1 the batting cages collapsed during the
snowstorm. This is replacing batting cage. I2 this is the creating a maintenance plan for vivo by design. Uh we are not paying for this. NJP is will be funding this and we will be paying for obviously the
maintenance going forward. Uh I3 any questions there? I4 scroll up please. Again license agreement for properties below Avenue. It's a town park.
I5 LSRP services. I6. This is for the press box at Mama Johnson Field. >> Um, can I ask a question on that? Sure, >> please. Uh, could you could someone
explain why there is no additional cost? Is that is that grant money or >> previously funded somewhere else? >> Yeah, I can answer that quickly. Um, this is just simply updating the term of expiration for the contract. Professional services contracts are
issued in one year. So, this is just renewing it for the completion of the project. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Uh, I seven That is the vaults along Washington Street even a number of them. C >> council president, I think that's uh
that's another fourth street. That's the one we've had problems with. RJ, I just wanted to pass this on. I spoke to a couple residents around there and they're okay with it. Just we just can we give them uh when we decide to do it the can we coordinate and and councilwoman Imus as well >> to just let them know for a couple days
in uh and I checked with some of the people I know in there that have children. So, uh, that was our one thing that I wanted to to do. >> Do we anticipate that going that whole time or is that like we just have a window and they're going to work in that window? >> That's exactly right. It'll it'll be a
window um once we have the contractor on board and we start scheduling it, we'll be able to communicate to all the council members interested as well as the public letting them know exactly when the work will occur. >> Okay. >> Yeah, guys, to to let you know, it's it's been an oncurring >> it's been a powerful nightmare where
this thing it it literally sounds like every time a truck goes over it. Like just picture two pieces of metal smacking together. So we've tried to fix it in the past with welding. It just doesn't work. This is an old vault that we when Washington Street was redone as R.J. had told me that they're just going
to fill it in and we're going to tar over it. We're going to move on to the next day. It's the easiest thing to do instead of wasting more money constantly fixing this. Thank you, Councilman. And then we have plumbing services. >> Who's doing it? Lose landscape.
>> No, I thought it was L's cousin. >> It seems like it. Uh, can you Why are we another It's up to 150,000. Is that correct now? If I'm reading this and we're only what, six months in, four months in, five months in. >> Sure. So I can put some context to those
numbers. Um so we increased the last month up to 100,000 um at the resolution in early April. Um and so we've been going through and dewinterizing a number of our parks buildings, the water fountains, irrigation, and our spray features. And so we, you know, as we go
through that process, we encounter a number of different issues that need to be repaired to get it ready for the summer season. Um and so we are kind of in the the midst of a lot of work that occurs. Um and so last year the total aggregate spend for magic touch was about 310,000.
Um and so this is across all city departments. This is not just strictly infrastructure. For the sake of the resolution we have to accommodate u anticipate cost for all city um expend expenses related to this one contract vendor. So it was about 310 last year
and so based on this we'll be at about 150 by the end of June which is about halfway. Um so same on track as last year. Council President, >> could I ask something that the council explored I don't know which committee this is. However, when we have all of
these um parks that come online or infrastructure projects or projects in general that anything going forward from this point on and again this is what I'm recommending or I'm asking if we can do is that when we bond for anything when
we take on a project that literally we have a maintenance schedule and what we're going to have to do each year and so that we know these costs going forward. Uh every year we continually do this. We build a park. We bond. were great. All of a sudden, it's just an added cost and next thing you know, the budget's exploding over nothing uh over
something that, you know, wasn't even mentioned when the when the plan was hatched. So, going forward, I'd like I don't know which committee can work on this. However, anytime there's a a a bond, anytime there's an infra and council president was frozen.
>> Well, it's frozen in time, but yeah, we think we could get that. >> I got the spirit of what he was requesting. >> Yeah, definitely. It's understandable 100%. >> Did Where did I lose you? >> I got it all out. >> No, you got we we we got it all. I think we got it.
>> Okay, >> we're good. >> Does that make sense? >> Yep, it did make sense. Yes. Uh PS1, this is a poll agreement to install cameras on Verizon Verizon poles.
No cost to the city here. It >> council president. Is this for public safety or is this for the city? >> This is public safety. >> Okay. >> This is >> and one last question. This will only be
used for public safety items. It won't be used for any other department or it will be. >> This will only be used for public safety item. This this these cameras here only public safety. Okay. Because in some some communications that I've seen,
there was a the HPU was asking the police about telephone polls with cameras and that they have a relationship with Verizon. I'm just curious because of the crossover and the questions or the stuff that I had read that I just want to make sure that this is strictly
>> this is this is strictly for police. No HPU, not even city services. Now, this is strictly for police, state and other other agencies. Not not not only for law enforcement agencies,
tax collector, refund of tax overpayments. That's uh transportation and parking. This is this is this is license plate readers for cars.
the the the update that system. So for resident parking permits, Oh, sorry. Um I'm I'm muted myself again. Ordinances for first reading. >> You want you want to explain this uh Diana or or Jennifer?
Um I actually think I would defer to R.J. if you'd like to. >> Oh yeah. Yes. RJ 17. Should we all? This is for >> sure. >> Uh this for the gateway tunnel, everyone. >> Yeah. So this this is a license agreement between the city of Hoboken and the Gateway Development uh
commission for access and use of the 17th Street. um that's between uh Willow and Clinton for about a 2-year period um to allow them to complete portions of the Hudson River Tunnel project. Um it also includes uh a noise waiver um
basically for extended activities um during the week from 7 to uh 7 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Um and then other more specific information related to additional no trucking uh after certain hours. Um and then it also requires them
to complete restoration of Clinton Street between 17th and 16th Street as well as 17th between Clinton and Willow uh within one year uh completion of the project. >> Thank you very much R.J. any questions
for R.J. Okay. Uh ordinance number two. >> Thank you. >> This is park with disabilities. Ordinance number three are loading zones.
>> And ordinance number four is the zoning a zoning change for mid midblock businesses. And I think we want to have discuss this in committee of next uh before the next meeting if anyone has any questions
that's myself uh Councilman Cohen or Director uh Director Brown. We'll we'll discuss this and we're trying to discuss this in committee as well. >> Thanks. >> And uh CD4
Any questions on that? That is just letting go to the planning board and public portion and let no one think I'm public. Go scroll down. J new business please.
Okay. For new business, we have uh Councilwoman Fischer. >> Yeah, >> Councilwoman Fischer and Councilman Imus. Uh they proposed amendments to the budget. Uh I've had the pleasure of working with them last week on getting this on having this item on the agenda
uh for this uh Wednesday's meeting. And while we can't have any formal action on amendments until the budget hearing uh begins, if we have it uh if we amend it that night, it takes a it resets the clock essentially. So, we
want to have these items uh out there in the public sooner rather than later without resetting that clock uh for the hearing start date. Uh and so we literally got this on the agenda. I want to say 3:58 Friday,
right? Maybe 3:59. Uh but we're we're we're glad we got to this point and we'll have Councilwoman Fischer could walk us through a couple of points. And if you have any questions for Councilwoman Fischer, I miss or myself, uh, feel free to reach out. Councilwoman Fischer, uh, you can walk
us through the points she has. >> Sure. >> Yeah. Um, and my apologies. I'm at a an event for a constituent um, at the county. Um, but just I I think at a high level, this is what we'll call like a spirited resolution, which is we're hoping people support going in the
direction of making a meaningful change that would bring down the tax rate, but would still allow us to um, you know, have a multi-year plan to replenish our reserves and just in general kind of
turn the tide for the city. I mean, we're already doing that with some revenue um increases that we've approved. We're already doing that with just HR starting to pay their bills, you know, into this year. Um there's a lot of positive things that have happened that will be going into uh replenishing
our reserves that we've already taken care of. But what this does is says instead of giving a huge cushion um to us and the administration this year um it really tightens it and says you know what we're going to um we are going to
put our residents affordability first. We are going to um use some of the surplus that is sitting in accounts right now. Not the surplus that we generate every year but surplus we've generated in prior years in the parking utility in the water utility. that's
just sitting in accounts and growing because we've generated so many um so many so much excess revenue every year. We want to take some of those, put them into um the budget this year and be able to give some tax relief um but also uh
have some modest expense cuts and um and really just kind of set ourselves up for financial stability going forward. And I think the goal is this is a starting point. Um I think there are some people, myself included, we'd love to see 12.9%
go down. Um but I think what we want to do is say, you know, directionally is is this where we want to go? Um and then really fine-tune it between now and the 22nd um of May at the public hearing and working with the administration. We had a one on Diane and I had a one-on-one
with um Joe today. Um we are trying to set up one with Steve and Phil. happy to get on the phone with everyone and walk through it. Phil, we saw your questions and I'm, you know, they're the most important questions and I think we can walk through and address um the majority of them. Um hopefully the majority of
them or at least uh you know, at least be able to give responses to them whether or not you know you're supportive of it. Um, but in general it's just uh you know we have $8 million sitting between parking and excuse me the water utility just sitting in an account and both the parking utility and
the water um utility generate um surplus during the year. Um so what we want to do is is continue to use that surplus that we've always used because you know parking rates have gone up and um water rates have gone up. So use those balances, but then also find a way to be able to take some of the money that is
sitting in those accounts that have built up over the last three, four, six, seven years um and put them into the budget this year without it being um at a level that wouldn't be sustainable in future years. And the way to think about 20206 is, you know, we've made a lot of
positive changes with um some rate increases that will be beneficial. We also have a lot of revenues that we haven't even budgeted yet um that we haven't even thought about or approved yet that we know are coming down the pike. And although we'll only get partial year on some of those um that we
you know we saw during the presentation that we've been talking about 2027 you know we should all look forward to 2027 and realize we're going to get a full year benefit of all of those revenues um plus uh an uptick in our ratable base next year that will help absorb some of
that. So, it really, you know, when Diane and I were talking about it, it was really instead of having this one time, let's fill up the coffers and just, you know, beat the crap out of taxpayers, what we wanted to do is just spread it and make it more of a deliberate and moderate, you know,
approach over the next three years. And the one thing I do want to just leave you with is I if for whatever reason, let's say 19% is where it ends up being, you know, the way that really impacts and we can't get away from that um this
fact. The way that will impact taxpayers is in order to have a fullear 19% increase benefit. Remember the first and and second um quarters are flat. We've not increased um the tax rates. So the full 19% gets felt in the last two
quarters of the year, which means that the rate in August will go up 40% or or 38%. That's a really big number and we're hearing from a lot of people that even at 19, it's hard to, you know, it's hard to digest um their tax bill going
up 19%. The reality is it's going to go up double that. and we just, you know, we just feel strongly that we need to figure out a way to kind of smooth this over a few years and not have, you know, not bludgeon um our taxpayers this year. So, that's kind of the backdrop. And like I said, I'm happy to Diane and I
are happy to get on the phone with everyone, you know, small group individually, whatever. We can walk through, answer any questions. I know Mike and Paul have some ideas about further cuts. Happy to have those conversations as well. And I think we just want to work continue working collaboratively to get to, you know, get
to an amendment that maybe we can all get behind on the 22nd. Council President, >> and the only thing I would add to that, Tiffany, is really to say that um we really believe that this will give the administration sort of a a a more
breathing room, more space to really look at the implications of some of the things that are coming um both positive and negative, right? And uh not to say that next year will be easy, but maybe we need to move in a direction of
more proactive planning um and really think about how the surplus is regenerated monthly, quarterly, uh well in advance so that uh we don't really get hit with surprises like this. So um anyway, thank you,
>> Council President. Council Russo, sorry. >> Yeah, thank you. and and Councilwoman Fischer, Councilwoman Imus, thank you so much for starting this ball rolling. I'm looking forward to digging in with with both of you to really discuss a lot of it. Uh, Counciloman President and I have been talking about uh some of the
further cuts that Councilwoman Fischer uh alluded to, but I'm a little I'm concerned because I have a lot of outstanding requests from the administration that I just haven't gotten any of that information. I mean
the most simple is just the budget in an Excel format, right? Uh I'm waiting for uh that to come to me. I've requested uh in committee and uh through email uh all of our claims data uh by CPT code for
our insurance uh what that looks like, what our fee schedule is both in network and out of network for those CPT codes. so I could dig into what the insurance um coverage for the city of Hoboken looks like. Uh I haven't gotten any of that information. I think there's a lot
of money being left on the table if we don't evaluate that and make some minor changes that will not affect the individual employees. Uh it will only affect the providers. Uh so it wouldn't have to go to the uh unions for
discussion. It would be the same level of benefit for the employee. it would just be a change in cost um for the provider uh for those services. So, I'm waiting for that. I'm I'm waiting for um
information as far as uh all of our employees by name, title uh from civil service, title that we're using for our uh salary ordinance, and their exact uh pay for the year. Still haven't received
that. I've asked for that multiple times. So, without any of that information, I can't get specific. I can't I can't get into a conversation uh as Joe alluded to where I say, "I'd like to see a cut in X, Y, and Z because this is
what the salary is, and I don't anticipate as much overtime, right? I can't get that specific. I mean, I can most certainly offer up a generalized reduction in salaries and other expenses, but that I don't think does
much for the council members. I don't think it does much for the administration either. So, if I don't get the information that I'm requesting from the administration, how am I supposed to dig into it on that level? So, uh, I'm expecting all of those things to be returned to me before
Wednesday so we could start talking about this because I have asked for it a number of times and I still haven't received it. So, director, if you could please uh work on getting that information to me over the next day, I would greatly appreciate it so I could dig into it and try to make some changes
to save the taxpayers some significant money. >> Thank you, Councilman. And uh please director if you're giving that information we would all greatly appreciate it. >> Right. I think that's uh all the items for
>> president. Council council Firestone. I apologize. >> Sorry. Sorry about that. I had my hand up. Um I if I'm if I recall correctly, there was an email sent on 420 with respect to the Excel file that was
requested. Now, I personally I've gone through it and put it in Excel myself and into Google Sheets uh to try to make it easier to analyze and interpret. I'm I'm happy to share what I have uh with other council members if that's if
that's satisfactory. But I think that this issue was addressed in the 420 email. Um, I I would also mention that I really uh sincerely appreciate the efforts of both council member Fiser and
Immus to come up with solutions for this. Um, you know, there's I I think both have been very collaborative throughout the entire process of trying to figure out solutions. Um, where possible, we've we've tried to incorporate some really good ideas into
the budget and we will listen to good ideas from everyone. Um, you know, we look forward to hearing some additional things from Council Member Russo and President Zano. Um, but I I really want to just say that how much I appreciate the the collaboration that's out there.
I might not agree with you on every single thing or how to move surplus items, but I sincerely appreciate the the work that's being done, the effort that's been put in, and trying to come to a resolution that works for Hoboken. That's it.
Thank you, Councilman. Any other council members? Okay, seeing none, uh I think motion to close the meeting. All in favor? >> Second. All in favor? I. Now we have to go to now where we're going to close session now. Correct.
>> Well, we got to wait till 6, council president, because that's >> till six. >> Till six. Yep. >> No way. We can start it now. Uh men will start at 5:40. It's only us the meeting, not the public. J.
>> Yeah. I mean, I um I defer to corporation counsel on this. >> I You didn't want to tell them no, Jerry. Unfortunately, we can't um because it was notice for six o'clock, but we'll make sure the next time. We always notice it super early in case you
guys are done early. How's that? >> Um >> for now, you get a 23 minute break. I thought it said it was immediately following I thought there was immediately following the caucus or starting at six. It doesn't say that.
>> That's what I thought it said. >> No, starting at 6. That's what's on the >> council president. I have a conflict that um I didn't know we were doing this. So I have a conflict. Uh so I maybe I have to get a I don't know. This is why I was like, "Okay, this conflict,
too." So Let's look it up. >> Can this by any chance be done? We can't do it because before the meeting, right? Is that correct, >> Jen? I mean, if there are only two council members that want to hop on early, theoretically, we could not do an
actual meeting, but talk to them very quickly with our attorneys. I mean, again, not ideal, but >> as long as we don't have >> we can't have >> I am also Yeah, I am also looking at the notice right now and it does say promptly after the virtual city council
caucus meeting scheduled at 5:00 pm via Zoom and to begin immediately at 6 p.m. So, it's a little gray. >> Yeah, it it sounds like that's what I could start it right after because I said promptly it's to start right after the council meeting. So,
>> here's the better question. Are the are the attorneys ready? >> Yeah, >> they are ready. We I think have them ready, but >> motion to go into close session. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> All right. So, I'll see everyone on teams now. All right. So, we're going to
go on teams. Notify them now. Thank you all. Thank you.