I'm good evening everyone. We are on the record. Today is Tuesday, uh, Wednesday, the 25th day of February, 2026. This is a regularly scheduled meeting of the Jersey City Municipal Council. We
had a scheduled 6 p.m. start. My watch is showing 6:08 p.m. I will now call the role. Council person Brooks, >> present. >> Council person Zupa, >> present. >> Council person Ephro, >> present. >> Council person Little,
>> present. Council person Gilmore. Council person Griffin >> present. >> Council person Lavaro. I did see him. Guess he's here. Council person Singh >> here. >> And council president Ridley >> here.
>> We have eight council members present at 6:09 p.m. We have achieved a quorum. Kindly rise for a moment of silence and remain standing as we salute the flag. Jesse Action. On behalf of Council President Ridley, in accordance with chapter 231 of the
New Jersey Public Laws of 1975, officially known as the Senator Byron M. Bear open public meetings act. Adequate notice of this meeting was provided by posting the annual notice listing the schedule of municipal council meetings for the calendar year 2026 on the
bulletin board on the first floor of city hall. In addition, the annual notice was also filed in the office of the city clerk on Tuesday, November 25th, 2025. The agenda of this meeting was disseminated to the municipal council, mayor, business administrator,
corporation council, and local newspapers on Friday, February 20th, 2026 at 7:31 p.m. The agenda was concurrently posted on the city's website. Consequently, I can certify as to our complete compliance with the
Sunshine Law. There are a few housekeeping items that have to be attended to before we proceed with the agenda. There are three late items which must be added. Agenda item 3.5, ordinance 26.013, 013, an ordinance
supplementing chapter 332, vehicles and traffic. Article 8, permit parking, amending section 332-58, parking restrictions in residential zones to establish a new permit parking zone 20 for streets adjacent to the
Liberty State Park, Hudsonburg, and light rail station east of Pacific Avenue. Agenda item 3.6, ordinance 26.014. 014, an ordinance of the Jersey City Municipal Council amending the Jersey City Land Development Ordinance. Chapter
2, I'm sorry, chapter 345, Article 1, Section 6, Definitions. Chapter 345, Article 5, Section 62, Residential Design Standards, and Chapter 345, Article 5, Section 63, non-residential
design standards. And lastly, agenda item 10.26, 26 resolution 26-093, a resolution authorizing the city of Jersey City to submit a transitional aid application for calendar year 2026.
Please recall that the addition of late items requires a six vote majority. That said, may entertain a motion to add. >> That was motion made by Gilmore. >> Gilmore. >> Second. >> And that was uh Griffin to second it.
Okay. On the motion to add agenda items 3.5, 3.6, and 10.26, how do you vote? Council person Brooks, >> I. >> Council person Zupa, >> I. >> Council person Ephro. >> Hi. >> Council person Little.
>> Council person Gilmore. >> I, >> Council Person Griffin. >> I, >> Council Person Lavaro. >> Council Person Singh. I >> and council president Ridley >> I. >> Motion passes 90. Agenda items 3.5, 3.6,
and 10.26 are hereby added to the agenda. I would note that council person Lavaro is present at 6:13 p.m. Okay. That said is also under my understanding that the administration
wishes to withdraw agenda items 3.1 and 3.4. Is that correct, Mr. That is correct. Thank you. >> Thank you. Very well. Moving on to the first items of business, which is the consideration of the remaining first reading ordinances, whose titles I will now read into the record.
>> Yes. Uh, one second. I just want to note that Councilman uh, Ephro has some members of the community that are here. Uh so he would like to defer to one of the resolutions. >> Uh >> okay. Which resolution number is that?
>> A 10.3. >> 10.3. Okay. So there is a motion to defer to agenda item 10.3 made by Ephro. Is there a second? >> Second.
>> Second by Gilmore. All in favor to defer to agenda item 10.3. How do you vote? Council person Brooks. >> Hi. >> Council person Zupa. >> Hi. >> Council person Ephro. >> Hi. >> Council person Little. >> Hi. >> Council person Gilmore.
>> Hi. >> Council person Griffin. >> Hi. >> Council person Lavaro. >> Hi. >> Council person Singh. >> Hi. >> And council president Ridley. >> I. >> Very well. Then uh Councilman Efro, do you wish to read that resolution into the record? Uh
>> yes. and we have some amendments that have been made since I think it was posted to uh the agenda here, but um appreciate the opportunity. Um a resolution of the municipal council of the city of Jersey City commemorating the new year and welcoming the year of the horse. I won't read all of it, but
um I want to thank my chief of staff, Bing, uh for putting this together. Whereas Jersey City has long been known as America's golden door, reflecting its history as a city shaped by generations of immigrants and is recognized nationally for its extraordinary cultural, ethnic, and linguistic
diversity. Whereas Jersey City is a home to a vibrant Chinese community with recent estimates placing the city's Chinese population at approximately 12,587 residents and is also home to many residents and families from other countries and cultures that celebrate
this new year including the people of Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Malaysian, Singaporean, Mongolian and other Asian and diaspora backgrounds. Whereas the new year also known as Chinese New Year and excuse me for mispronouncing Chunzia, Tetal, Sagon, SAR and many
other names is celebrated in multiple countries across the world. Um and uh there there are a number of other whereas clauses I don't uh want to have to go through each uh one but I wanted to give the opportunity to introduce here. Um, therefore, be it resolved by
the municipal council of the city of Jersey City, New Jersey, that the city council hereby commemorates the new year and welcomes the arrival of the year of the horse. Be it further resolved that the city council extends warm wishes to all residents who celebrate the new year and recognizes the contributions of
Chinese residents and all immigrant communities to the social, cultural, and economic life of Jersey City. >> Uh, excuse me. be further resolved that the city council hereby request the city's communication staff issue an official new year greeting on behalf of the city and share a message of
inclusion and respect for all who celebrate and be a finally resolved that a certified copy of this resolution shall be transmitted by the city clerk to the mayor and the appropriate city departments for appropriate action. Thank you so much. >> You mentioned there are members of the
public who wish to be brought to the front. Is that is that right? Or >> I think if we can just uh have the uh the community we can as city council can take a picture with the we have some students here from the community who we would love to celebrate with.
>> Shall we cast the vote now or >> Yes, Sean. Let's I mean I apologize. Sean, let's do the vote. >> Okay. So, we're going to cast a vote on resolution agenda item 10.3. How do you vote? Council person Brooks. Hi,
>> Council Person Zupa. >> Hi, >> Council Person Efos. >> Hi, >> Council Person Little. >> Hi, >> Council Person Gilmore. >> I, >> Council Person Griffin, >> I. >> Council person Lavaro. >> This is the final vote, right?
>> This is to vote on the resolution. >> Then we'll invite the members of the public up once it's adopted. So, happy new year and um I want to com um acknowledge my councilman, fellow councilman um Jake Efos for bringing this. I think this may be the first time
that uh I'm correct me if I'm wrong um that uh the Chinese New Year is being uh commemorated by the city council and thank his chief of staff Ju um and I vote to proudly vote I and happy new year. >> Thank you sir. Council person Singh
>> I >> and Council President Ridley >> I happy new year. >> Resolution uh agenda item 10.3 is adopted unanimously. Are there members of the public you want to invite forward and take pictures now or
>> I know we have a group of students. We would love to have you come forward. Thank you so much. >> Say some words. Are we taking photos? If any of you would like to to make any a statement, please, you're welcome to. Otherwise, we can just take a a quick
picture. Uh, I think council members, I've been chosen to make a statement. Uh, thank you very much for commemorating this very important holiday, not only to uh, Chinese people, but people all over Southeast Asia. This holiday has many
names. Tet in Vietnamese, uh other names in Korean that I cannot pronounce. Sorry. Uh and you know in Mongolia and you know in Thailand uh everyone in Southeast Asia you know celebrates this holiday. So thank you city council. I'm glad and honored to be living in Jersey
City in such a diverse immigrant city where we can celebrate everyone's heritage equally and together. So uh happy new year. Sir, I don't I don't think the court reporter caught your name.
>> Uh, Jie Efu. Yeah. Thank you so much. And thank you to Christendraart for making sure to coordinate the students presence here tonight. Okay, >> thank you. >> Okay,
>> thank you. >> Congratulations. Moving on to the first uh reading ordinances which I will now read into the record. Agenda item 3.2 ordinance 26 26-010
an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic article 2 traffic regulations amending section 332-5 one-way streets on Franklin Street between Palisade Avenue and Central Avenue.
Agenda item 3.3, ordinance 26-11, an ordinance authorizing the city of Jersey City as a tenant to extend for a 2-year lease with 18 Ash Street realy as landlord for space located at 46 State
Street in Jersey City. Agenda item 3.5, Ordinance 26-013, and Ordinance supplementing Chapter 332, Vehicles and Traffic, Article 8, Permit Parking, amending section 332-58, parking restrictions in residential
zones to establish a new parking per parking permit parking zone 20 for streets adjacent to the Liberty State Park, Hudsonburg, and light rail station east of Pacific Avenue. And lastly, agenda item 3.6 6. Ordinance 26-014,
an ordinance of the Jersey City Municipal Council amending the Jersey City Land Development Ordinance, chapter 345, Article 1, Section 6, Definitions. Chapter 345, Article 5, Section 62, Residential Design Standards, and
Chapter 345, Article 5, Section 63, Nonresidential Design Standards. Council members, I'll be taking a vote to introduce agenda items 3.2, 2, 3.3, 3.5, and 3.6. How do you vote? Council person Brooks,
>> I vote I on all for the first reading. Very good. Council person Zupa, >> I on all for for introduction. >> Council person Efos, >> I on all for introduction. >> Council person Little, >> I on all for introduction. And I would also just like to take a minute to
explain um 3.6. Um so you may notice 3.6 six is very similar to 4.4 um which is the the second reading um of the the bird friendly design ordinance um because the amendments we wanted to
submit were substantial it is required to go back for a first reading. So, um, my recommendation will be to and and and just to briefly summarize those amendments, um, the the height that it's being
applicable is, um, is being changed from the first 100 ft of the building to just the first 85 ft of the building to, uh, mitigate some of the cost concerns that were brought up to us. Um the the ordinance is only written to apply
to projects 5,000 square feet or greater. That is those that are requiring site plan approval, either major site plan approval or minor site plan approval. And um that is to better match the planning department's capacity um and the enforcability of this ordinance. Um and that was the
recommendation from the planning department. Um and then we are also writing in an exemption uh for buildings that are 100% affordable. So if public housing were to be built, it would not be um subject to this ordinance. So those are the major amendments, but
because the law department determined that they were substantial in nature, it needs to go back to a first reading ordinance. Um so my recommendation um would be or or what I plan to say is um I you know I I vote I for introduction
for 3.6 and um 4.4 I would recommend um not moving forward with because 3.6 would um be the new and revised version. >> Thank you. Thank you council person Gilmore. Hi >> for introduction. Council person Griffin,
Council Person Lavaro, >> I for introduction. >> Council person Singh, >> I vote I for three of them. >> And I'm sorry, you said you're voting >> for the introduction. >> Okay. And Council President Ridley,
>> I for introduction. >> Okay. Items 3.2, 3.3, 3.5, and 3.6. 96 have all been introduced 90. We'll be moving on to our second reading ordinances in just a moment. But for those members of the public who are here
to speak on agenda item 4.4, please be advised as council person Little said that agenda agenda item 3.6 which was just introduced is intended to replace that agenda item. So a public hearing on item 3.6 will be taking place at the
next regularly scheduled council meeting that is to be held on March 11th. and the council once it gets to agenda item 4.4 will most likely take a vote to defeat that version. So if you did come here to speak on 4.4, uh you're welcome to stay of course, but
the public hearing on that subject matter will take place at the next council meeting. That said, moving on to our second reading ordinances. Please be advised that there will be a public hearing on every second reading ordinance. Anyone wishing to speak on the ordinance may do so and each speaker
will have three minutes to address the council, but those remarks must be limited to the ordinance that is under consideration. The first agenda item, item 4.1, ordinance 26-004, is an ordinance authorizing the
acceptance of block 1 1612, lot 3, more commonly known by the street address of 95 Morgan Street, from 95 Morgan Street Development LLC. This matter was carried from the February 11th council meeting. We will now have a public hearing on
this ordinance. Anyone wishing to speak finally state your name for the record. >> Uh, yes. My name is Katherine Moore. K A T H R Y N M O O R E. >> Okay. Um I I I spoke a little bit before when it
was first um uh during the first reading and in public comment and I just wanted to just reiterate that um because we want to be budget conscious uh we should uh just kind of make sure before we sign the dotted line for a dollar what it will cost to to work with this piece of
property and just kind of point out that there is a permit um for demolition that is still open. So, we should probably make sure that that um gets addressed before it goes um comes to the city. And
uh there are still parts of that uh property um with metal plates, possibly things that are underneath the ground uh that might need uh taking a look at as well as some pipes coming out of the ground that possibly could be connected
to gas or oil or whatever because it was a car transmission uh business before um its partial demolition. So just kind of be buyer beware that these things will need to be looked at. Um, but I've spoken with Elena and uh she has um
looked into it and she's going to uh make sure that these things, you know, are are addressed at some point before um everything's closed. Anyway, that's it. I think it's a great a great plan to have that come to the community. It's got potential. Um I don't know if we can put a school there or not, but uh maybe
a the playground will be enough or maybe one or twotory structure could also be put in this location. uh just kind of keep an open mind as we're looking for places to help out with the PS16. Thank you. Thank you. >> Anyone else?
>> Motion. >> Motion I think that was Gilmore. >> Yes. >> Motion to close public hearing made by Gilmore. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Was motion second made by Ridley. On the motion to close the public hearing, how
do you vote? Council person Brooks. Hi, >> Council Person Zupa. >> Hi, >> Council Person Efos. >> Hi, >> Council Person Little. >> I just wanted to speak uh briefly to the environmental concerns. Um while there previously were undergrad storage takes
at this location. I reviewed the environmental report and sampling taken from those areas did not indicate um contamination that would have been associated with them. Uh the area is um composed of historic fill and has some elevated levels because of that.
Historic fill basically means it used to be the river and um there, you know, they're they just built land with junk back in the day. Um so we we would expect that in most of this area of downtown Jersey City. Um that being
said um you know because of a few levels that were elevated I have spoken with the business administrator and um he has signified his intent to uh write into the contract responsibility for any remediation that is required um write in
that responsibility um for the seller. Uh this just a motion to close the public hearing. >> Oh I'm sorry. I didn't want to throw the Okay. Uh, council person Gilmore, >> I. >> Council person Griffin, >> I.
>> Council person Lavaro >> stepped out. >> Oh, okay. Council person Singh, >> I. >> And Council Person Ridley, >> I. >> All right. So the motion to close public hearing passes 8 with council person
Lavaro currently absent for final consideration of ordinance 26- 26-004. How do you vote? Council person Brooks. >> Before you take their roll call. Thank you Councilwoman Little for providing
your explanation there. Um yes, the administration does consent to before any agreement is signed and authorized by the city. We will try to add or we will add that language that will ensure that the seller would have to remediate anything should there be a substantial remediation associated with the project.
All right. Again for final consideration of ordinance 26-004. How do you vote? Council person Brooks >> I. >> Pardon me while I change the camera orientation. Uh Council Person Brooks you voted I. Council person Zupa. Hi,
>> Council Person Efos. >> Council Person Little, >> I already said my piece. I >> Council Person Gilmore. >> Hi, >> Council Person Griffin. >> I >> Council Person Lavaro. >> Hi, >> Council Person Singh.
>> I and just want to say that um thank you uh Katherine for your insight. It's it's a small uh lot but um there's a community garden currently and hopefully we can use for something that young families and our kids can use in future.
So thank you and I vote I for this >> and council president Ridley >> I. >> Ordinance 26-004 is adopted unanimously 9. The next agenda item item 4.2 2. Ordinance
26-00006, an ordinance authorizing the use of up to 3% of payroll taxes collected to be used on administrative expenses and a waiver for entities subject to an outofstate payroll tax in accordance
with recent changes to New Jersey law. We will be having a public hearing on this ordinance. Anyone wishing to speak, please come up to the podium. You will have three minutes. Please state your name for the record. >> Ivonne Bolson. First of all, if this
passes, that means that if this if you're collecting $50 million from the from the business community, that's $1.5 million. If you're collecting $80 million, that is $2.3 million. Now, besides paying city hall taxes, I pay
board taxes. So what is not collected is not going to the school system and that's makes my taxes go up. Now I have a copy of the tax lean sale which you know I think should be done by the tax department.
There's 42,000 people in tax lean in 2024 printed in the form of Jersey Journal. Not only do they collect money for taxes, they collect money for the for water. So if you don't pay your water bill, the thing the reason why I'm
saying this because if you transfer this responsibility to the tax department and if if the business does not pay, they can sell the leans. Something that doesn't happen right now. But the point of it is you're talking
about, let's be honest, $1.5 million or $2.3 million to be giving away to a political friend to do the work. That's what it's all about. If the if the tax department can do leans and water uh
problems and sell them, you know, uh as at the end of the year, then they can have the the BA write a letter to all the people, ask for the W2 forms, give it to the tax department, and they can mail it out like they do. If they can do
4,200 tax leans, they can do the business community. I mean, this is an example of wasteful spending. We don't need because again, the money that is not collected. It's a deficit that I have to pay to the board of ed. I got to
pay the board of ed. I got to pay the county. I have to pay the municipal government. And the school system's budget is higher than than the municipal budget. I think it's something like 44% of our total budget. Maybe 45% of total budget. So, you know,
we have to think of we don't need this. We just need people to do their jobs. And I I have a lot of respect for the uh tax department because they're very efficient down there. They really are. You can ask them a question, they know it immediately. They're not political people. That's all I have to say. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. And good evening. And finally, state your name. Velasquez. That's N O E M I V E L A Z Q U E Z.
Um, for the past two years, the school board has been meeting with actually the former members of the former council with this regard and
somehow we have lost contact. But this is a very serious issue for us because we just as a city are also losing revenues uh statewide as well as national. Therefore, we are hoping at
the time when we were meeting we the the council was asking for uh 5%. Thank God that the state said cap it at three, but we were hoping that we could sit and you would consider less than 5%. Because
every in as much as you may need the money to uh pay the staff that will be doing this work uh collecting these revenues, uh we are also in dire need for actually educating our students.
Therefore, um I would like to we would like to know if during the collection of this revenue are we going to be aware are you going to make public how much
actually is being collected and um are you going to make us aware as well as the total community aware because um you know transparency is very important. important. We want to work together and
I know that this is not the same team that we were talking to then, but there's no difference in the collaboration that we should continue. I hope that we can collaborate. I'm hoping that you would also reconsider this 3%
because it will hurt us quite a bit. Um, and I'm also hoping that we continue to find, okay, monies to assist the district. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Good evening, Matt Schneider. So, my name is Matt Schneider and I'm a JCBOE trustee. These are my opinions, mine alone. Uh so thank you for having me. Uh council members, as a trustee and a parent with two kids in the district, I want to applaud that the city council
is taking this step tonight and acting this ordinance 26-6. Strengthening the process around revenue collection that ultimately supports our public schools is an important move and I appreciate the council's willingness to engage on this issue. It impacts our students, taxpayers, and long-term
fiscal sustainability. What I do ask as we move forward is that we put in place clear guard rails to ensure that every dollar retained for administrative purposes is used transparently and delivers measurable value uh for for our school communities.
The goal should be to collect as much as possible for the least amount of cost. If we can get by with 1%, let's do that. Let's let the other 2% get to the schools. Uh yes, it's up to 3% but it doesn't have to be 3%. It can be much less. This should be this should not be some extra funds for the city. Let's
keep our focus on our students that drastically need these funds. To that end, I believe the next step we should push for is a formal memorandum of understanding between the city and the school board uh that clearly defines the allowable uses of how this
administrative fee is used. Requires rec regular public reporting on how those funds are spent, establishes performance metrics so we can evaluate whether it's an efficient process and what savings we're seeing, and demonstrates a clear return on investment for our taxpayers
and our schools. And then we also would ask that there's an audit opportunity for the schools to make sure we we see that uh that the right things are happening. I think that's been a question in the past. We've seen dollars 65 million year-over-year up to 85, but
it's been very consistent and it just seems like there's some questions there. So, this is not really about questioning intent. We want to build trust. We want to be partners as we'll talk about more later. uh strong partnerships between the city and the schools and that's what works best is when there are clearly defined expectations, outcomes are
measurable and transparency is built from the start. Our goal should be simple. Maximize the resources for our classrooms whilst ensuring responsible stewardship of public funds. I look forward to working collaboratively with our city to put these safeguards in place. Thank you. >> Thank you.
Are you coming up to speak, sir? >> Good evening. Jim Nelson of Hutton Street and with Jersey City Together Education Team. >> Thank you for favorably considering agenda item that Dr. Schneider just referenced for the second reading to amend the municipal code chapter 304
article 4 concerning the employer payroll tax. The added language is taken directly from the state senate legislation and assembly assemb assembly legislation that passed in January and was signed into law and permits the city
to use up to 3% of the amount collected to administer the employer payroll tax and there will be likely be other administrative steps and procedures to be covered by future memorandum of agreements as just referenced and also
internal housekeeping to build the capacity. So, Jersey together wants to extend his appreciation for the three years of effort that went into creating the state statute and now your efforts to upgrade the ordinance to be in in sync with that. Furthermore, to
appreciate what the city is doing under uh to build the capacity to enforce compliance with the employer player employee payroll tax and to certify the appropriate amount so that the school board can proceed with a real figure
moving forward for it to plan for fiscal year 2027. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. you coming up to speak? If if if you're going to speak, just please line up behind the podium so we know you're
>> Taylor. I'm a finance director and systems analyst. I've built payroll systems. A full business process walkthrough needs to be done for the payroll tax collection start to finish. Map the process, identify weak points, and fix them structurally. This ordinance is
smart because it allows proper administration. You do need a separate clearing or sweep bank account. All payroll tax revenue comes in during the month and is paid out the following month. The account then resets to zero. That eliminates heavy reconciliation issues, but you have to start upstream.
Try to eliminate relying on manual paperwork. I always work directly with a payroll processor such as ADP paycheck or paychecks on setup and integration. Um, tax rules are configured at the employee level inside each company's payroll system. When payroll runs, the
processor automatically impounds and distributes the payroll taxes, which should then automatically pay out to your bank account. Spend the administrative fee once on automation, not forever on paper chasing. Um, just some thoughts for me. Automation is
fiscal discipline. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hi, I'm David Teali Putnins. You need me to spell that? Te k i e l i dash p u t n
i ns. And on the subject of withholding 3% of the payroll tax, I just wanted to say the city has for a long time seemed to be very willing to take every opportunity the state affords it to collect as much tax revenue at the expense of the board of education's tax
revenue through pilot programs and tax abatements. And it seems like we have a new administration and a new council. And it concerns me a bit that the first order of business is to once again take as much tax revenue from the board of education at the as the state will permit. That is all.
Is there a motion? >> Motion. >> Second. >> I think I >> Yeah, >> we made the >> motion by Gilmore. Close the public hearing. Second by
>> Zupa. >> Zupa. Sorry about that. On the motion to close the public hearing. How do you vote? Council person Brooks. >> Um be before I vote vote on this and then I have a point of information. >> Is that permiss? >> Just close the public.
>> Okay. To close the public hearing. >> I. >> Council person Zupa. >> I. >> Council person Efos. >> I. >> Council person Little. >> Hi. >> Council person Gilmore. >> I. >> Council person Griffin. >> I. >> Council person Lavaro. >> Hi.
>> Council person Singh. >> Hi. >> And council president Ridley. I >> motion to close a public hearing adopted 90 for final consideration of ordinance 26-006. How do you vote? I understand you had a someone have a question though.
>> Yes, madam president. Um to corporation council or the BA um the state law uh with regard to the 3% of the uh payroll tax that's a permission. It's not a
requirement. Is that accurate? >> It's authorizes up to 3%. So, yes. >> Okay. Thank you. And um has the administration um had dialogue with the board of ed either through the deputy mayor for education or other
channels? >> Officially, we've had dialogue as far as how we're going to spend that 3%. If it is 3%, we are waiting to see. We obviously get permission from the council and if we adopt it then we'd have those conversations. >> Thank you. Okay.
>> Okay. For final consideration of ordinance 26 >> questions. Questions. Um so up to 3%. Um so how is that uh that that number ultimately determined who what's the
action that determines the three whether it's 3% 2% 1.25 25. Um, what action is taken? >> We'd have to determine exactly what our strategy would be to increase in the compliance with the uh collection, whether that be through an outside
vendor, whether that be through in-house, whether it be a combination of both. And once we did the cost analysis, determine how much that would cost the city to do that compliance, then we'd have to, you know, make sure that percentage, you know, covers that cost essentially. Um, that's not
what I'm asking per se, but that's helpful to know. But, um, what what I'm asking is is is it the administration that sets the number or is that come back to the council to to set the number and anyone from the administration or corporation council can chime in on that? >> I believe it would be the
administration. It >> be administration, >> correct? >> To to the corporation council. Could could we set that number ourselves as a as a city council? Is that uh does this ordinance give us that that purview? >> This ordinance says that the city may
retain up to 3%. And so this ordinance authorizes the city through the administration to decide up to 3% what that percent will be. through amendments to this ordinance, which may or may not send it back to a first reading, or through subsequent ordinances, the city
council could work with the law department to determine whether it would prefer a different percentage level. That may be possible. We would have to look into it. >> Um, and then my my second question here is uh um does the money does the law, the state
law, the enabling legislation um restrict how we spend it? Is it just on tax um the tax office and staffing and so forth or is it doing an analysis of our our tax operations and being able to bring in outside consultants and use
those monies for that purpose? >> As a plain reading, it'd be restricted to the administration of chapter 305. >> What's that? >> As a plain reading, it'd be restricted to the administration of chapter 305. So clarify that for me some
chapter 305. What are we talking about? >> 304. Sorry. H >> chapter 304. I apologize. I misspoke. >> Yeah. What does that what does that outline? Chapter 304.
>> It outlines how we would potentially administer the payroll tax in the code. I can get you the specifics if you want and send that to you in an email. I don't have it memorized right now. Councilman, >> would a motion to carry be out of order?
>> Um, BA, is there any uh time restraints on this from the state or is it okay to entertain this at the next meeting? >> There's no time for restraints, but obviously the longer we delay, the less time we have to, you know, collect the fees and get the, you know, application in process. We do have an RFP out right
now where we are trying to find a service a software that would help us support us in these services of collecting the payroll tax. Um obviously you know as you know every day that goes by is less money we could get if we do not have all those different companies and people that should be paying the tax
compliant with us. So you know there's no hardline you know rush to do it. But obviously the quicker we get it in place, the quicker we get the money that we should be getting through compliance measures. >> How much is budgeted for that con consultant or contractor to administer
that? Is that out of the 1.3% we're talking about? >> Uh I believe it's think around $30,000. I'd have to get the exact number for you, but I believe that's what is initially encumbered for that.
So I guess um Sarah uh would would it be substantial if we were to amend it to say um it's up to 3% upon count excuse me upon council final review.
So basically what we're trying to do is keep the ball in the council court. um we'll say all right we'll vote to up to 3% but whenever we get to the juncture where we have to entertain whatever if whether it's going to be inhouse or outsource we will still have the
ultimate authority to to set to set the number per se >> that would likely be substantial that is a substantive threshold that is being that in the ordinance that you are proposing changing.
>> I mean, in light of all that, I'll I'll make a motion to um I guess carrier to the next meeting ting out logistics and concerns. Um I mean, because I think it is important that we really figure out um
how much how much of the 3% we're going to use. Um, it seems like a small number, but when you're talking about a lot of money, that number can creep up. If >> if I may, c can I just get clarity that it's the opinion of the administration
that at present, our payroll tax collection is insufficient to be able to get the revenues that we need to do things like funding our public schools. Um, and that, and maybe that's not the exact like legally best way to phrase
it, but um, that without this 3% maximum being allocated to specifically making sure we're good on our payroll tax collection that we we are not collecting what we should be. I wouldn't I'd rephrase it a little bit in the
sense that we've seen over the years, you know, looking at the past I think five years or so when we collected it, there's been spikes. you know, one year it might come at 60, the next year at 20, I mean, sorry, 60 to 80 with a 20, you know, million dollar difference. So, there's obviously something going on
where we're not always getting a uh definable and, you know, number we can rely on. So, and we've seen even after minimal collection efforts on our part, we've, you know, wrote letters and cross reference things through open business records and public records, we have seen increase in revenue we've collected. So,
our opinion is we suspect there's money out there that we're not full in compliance and there could be other businesses that we could bring in substantial dollars to to provide to the board of ed. Um, however, without, you know, a dedicated staff, without, you know, software and, you know, companies that help us with that, we're never
going to be at a number that we feel uh certain with that we're getting the most dollars back for the board of education for the students. So any measure we can take to increase our compliance there and increase our advocacy I I think is money well spent as far as getting those dollars where they need to go.
>> Thank you. And then whatever the RFP is um that would make good on this uh payroll tax collection we would be voting on it. Correct. That would come before council and we would >> Yes. So what you would vote on after the RFP is issued which it has been the companies come back there's you know a
committee that recommends hey based on the criteria we select X company we bring that back to the council the council reviews it and says we agree or we disagree with whatever you know selection we present and then if you agree we can contract with that company and get them engaged in the the
collection process. Uh right now it's just the software. So you know we probably need to work out as far as compliance how it's going to be managed who's going to run it things of that nature. So there probably will be some administrative costs that will be brought in house but you know again we want to have a comprehensive plan to you know communicate with these businesses
as much as possible to review the documentation they provide because there's a component about that as far as how much money we get and what exclusions may or may not apply to certain businesses and just make sure we have as much as possible to increase the dollars as we can. Okay. And we could get for argument sake quarterly reports
about the collection process. How much money is going to uh the actual administrative portion of it? How much more money we're bringing in after we start setting aside this maximum 3% for the administrative process and then we
reserve the right at any future date to amend this ordinance. Is that correct? >> Absolutely. I I feel comfortable with with that. >> My bad, Jay. >> And I will put on the record, the intent here is not to make profit for the city.
The intent here is just to sustain enough revenue that can support these collection efforts. You know, we've had you know, long conversations with the board of ed dating back years where uh you know, it had been felt globally that we were not getting as much money as we could from this tax and we had to find ways to increase it. Obviously, there's
always a back and forth. Well, you know, who's going to pay for that? you know, if we're going to get software, get, you know, contractors, vendors, who's going to cover those costs? This was really a mechanism to ensure there was a ability to cover that and then we can be, you know, as compliant as possible. >> I I asked for um the tax collections
for the past past five years or however long we've we've been doing this at this point. I I don't think we we received that. I could be wrong, but I was just checking my records. You have not. I only got them recently. So, I have the numbers in front of me, but I haven't had a chance to email me yet, cancel.
>> So, what what do our numbers look like? >> So, it looks like in 21 we received approximately 66.8 million. In 22, 79.1 million in 23 67.7 million. In 24, 103.7
and then 25 84.2. too. >> I don't know if you can answer for me, but um what what what was attributable to the spike from 23 to 24? >> I don't have that exact answer for you, Councilman. I would suspect if memory serves me correctly. There was a time
period around 23 or 24 where we did a drive to try to collect more where we actually sent out notices to people. We had internal audit uh compare publicly available data as far as business registries to verify that with our current list and then correspond to those individuals to make sure they were
registered. Um so I think it was more of a drive and an effort on our part to really try to correct and collect as much taxes as possible. >> Council Griffith, you had a question. >> Yes. So, um, to move this forward for us
to collect taxes is, um, can we make a can a motion be made to amend the percentage number? >> I think that's what the corporation council discussed earlier that would likely cause a substantial change, which would go back to first reading. >> Okay.
Um, I just want to remind the council that the Falconer Act already provides an individual council member with the right to at any time require a report on any aspect of the government of a municipality by making a written request to the mayor. And so you do not need to
edit this ordinance to specifically authorize yourselves to request regular reports on payroll taxation, payroll tax collection or administration. you already have that authority >> and I appreciate that and and certainly
the written did not put it in writing but I did mention it that first reading and second reading to get those collection numbers and you know just just checking my my emails and just looking at that I didn't see it I realize it takes time and so I I also can just imagine it's folks have a lot
on their plate snowstorms and other things like that so it's uh I'm sympathetic to that as well and that's by um looking at these 3% um so a 3% of 100 plus million we're looking at $3 million to fund tax to help support our
tax collection operations here in Jersey City. Um, you know, I I know folks have concerns about that and I know that um, you know, when when my understanding is that when it increased to 100 million, Councilman Solomon at the time had a lot to do with that in terms of pushing for
more audits and like trying to get more accountability around that. Um, but there's only so much that a um, city council can do um, to push that. And so I I do support the idea of additional money, just to be clear about that. Um because I do think that the the the
payback and the return for the schools um potentially could be tremendous. Um I I do agree. Yeah. The the the the one thing I do have a challenge with is as other people have expressed the idea of kind of maxing out at 3%. What's the
number? And um you know to to Councilman Efos's uh earlier statements that uh we can look at this maybe later and be able to amend things >> um to be able to propose other options to be able to sit at the table with the administration to be able to figure out how this will be collected to get a
better sense of what our tax collection operations capabilities are. Um so that we're we we're able to make more informed decisions here. >> Okay. >> So I think Councilman Gilmore was making a motion to carry. I don't know if that still stands. >> I was I had an additional point of
clarification I would like to go ahead. >> So, Councilman Gilmore made a motion to carry this to the >> She's Elena Council >> and I think I think Mto also wanted to say something. >> Yeah. >> Um so, so just just to be completely
clear for the record, this is up to 3%, right? It is not requiring us to use 3% and council can as you said um ask for ask for an update at any time and ideally it would be less than 3%.
>> Yeah, ideally it' be just enough to cover whatever expenses would be you know brought to the city as far as administratively and then obviously there's any software or vendors anyone that we need to contract with to ensure the you know greatest compliance. >> Wonderful. Thank you. I I do think um enforcement of the payroll tax and
collection of the payroll tax is important because we have seen um you know small businesses following the letter of the law um dotting their eyes crossing their tees and we've seen larger corporations who just think that they don't have to pay it and the schools have suffered as a result. So, I
I for one would um feel comfortable knowing that I I would feel comfortable voting on it tonight knowing that 3% is a cap and that ideally we would spend as little as possible but enough to make sure that we are fully collecting the tax.
>> Thank you. Just want to say that it's good for the city where people are living here and working here. So, of course, there is no negative about that. I quickly want to check with you uh Peter. Is it a minimum time to amend this uh or we can see for 3 months
quarterly or something like that? How do we amend if we decide to amend it? >> I'm going to defer to the corp council but I believe there is no minimum time but still correct me if I'm wrong. >> Thank you. That's correct.
I mean, I I just know I just know that the creation of this fee is going to yield beneficial results in the city bringing
in more revenue because right now it's kind of like an honor system, right? when we implement this enforcement, I'm fully confident that that number is going to jump. I don't want the vendor
that's doing the audit to have the bright idea. And I can be wrong, but at this point with the deficit we in now, I want to try to protect every decimal point I can. I don't want them to be in a position to say, "Hey, well, you guys,
the most you've only collected was 120. You know, now we're enforcing it and we're at 175. So, that justifies the 3%." So, that's that's that's my that's my concern there.
Yes, that's that's that's my primary concern. I believe it' be a fixed fee. So it's not a, you know, a head hunter type thing where the more you, you know, collect, the more you get. It would be a fixed fee for the software. >> All right. I mean,
>> John, so I I know that Councilman Gilmore made a motion, but I didn't hear a second. Was there a second? >> There wasn't a second. >> There wasn't correct. Right. So there's no second. So returning to the original issue on the floor for final
consideration of ordinance 26-006. How do you vote? Council person Brooks. >> I. >> Council person Zupa. >> Hi. >> Council person Afro. >> Hi. >> Council person Little. >> Hi. >> Council person Gilmore. >> I.
>> Council person Griffin. >> I. >> Council person Lavaro. just one one final statement before I cast my vote, which is I'm going to vote I, but um so so up to 3% and and we we're all committed
here to to collecting what is owed to the city, not uh going after and just trying to collect um to try to bang people up, but uh really just to to collect what people owe, businesses owe uh for the payroll taxes that will all fund our Jersey City
public schools. Um those are critical and and it's critical dollars that the Jersey City Public School needs every single dollar. So um the the idea of giving the administration 3% up to 3% um
with no kind of uh controls on that. While I may have run with this mayor and I may be aligned with this mayor, there are there could be future mayors um who may want to use these dollars in other ways as well. So, um I I do want to
revisit this um because we do want to move forward because we do have budget issues and crisises and so forth to deal with this. Um, but I also do want to revisit this, be able to um, ensure that we have controls there um, that allow for um, the city council to be able to ensure that the tax collections and
those dollars um, uh, are being those dollars are being spent um, appropriately to ensure that we're maximizing our tax collections um, across the city for for our Jersey public schools. With that, I vote I. >> Thank you, Council Person Singh. I
>> and council president Ridley >> I. >> Ordinance 26-006 is adopted unanimously 900. Moving on to agenda item 4.3, ordinance 26-00007, a franchise ordinance granting
permission to Aanir Westside Square LLC for the installation of an LIT Protective Boulevard at lot 30.01 01 on block 9301
qualifier 1, also known as 1075 Westside Avenue into the public right of way. We will now have a public hearing on this ordinance. Anyone wishing to speak, please line up at the podium. >> Move to close. >> I believe that was uh council person Zupa. >> Yep.
>> To move and uh seconded by council president Ridley. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> On the motion to close the speaker. Oh, >> 443. >> Yes, this is 4.3. Okay. So, I presume we're not going to close the public hearing then. Ju just
to clarify the record. So, can I just take a vote to close public hearing? You can vote no. We already took a second for on the motion to close the public hearing. How do you vote? Council person Brooks. >> No. >> Council person Zupa. >> No. >> Council person Ephro. >> No. >> Council person Little. >> No.
>> Council person Gilmore. >> No. >> Council person Griffin? No. >> Council person Lavaro >> is close. >> Yes. Because of person. >> No. >> Okay. Council person Singh. >> No. >> And Council President Ridley. >> No. >> Okay. Motion to close the public
hearing. Fails 90. Uh, please state your name for the record. >> Thanks y'all. Gina Davidson, G I N A, last name Davidson, D A V I S O N. Speaking as a resident. Um, I have some concerns about uh item
4.3, ordinance 26-007. Um, this seems like another situation where we're getting into it with a developer who wants a little exception. Um, we're making it about sound like it's about safety, but it seems like if you look at the plans, this is a
developer using city electricity to fund and drive something that to me looks like something that's mostly aesthetic if there is an issue. Cuz if we look at the map at the end of that street where the developer is building that building,
um, it does look like there are issues with lighting. And so to that end, I would encourage you to consider voting this down and actually having um an evaluation done by our city to see if actually there needs to be a street light there because it does look like an
unsafe space. And they are using the lack of light at the end of that street as a reason for adding this Ballard, but the Ballard will be using city energy and we're doing these agreements with developers that are kind of messy, right? So, if we need a city street
light at the end of that street, let's just please add a city street light and not make it complicated. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Motion. >> Oh, I think this gentleman's coming to speak. >> Good evening, council president, council members.
>> Good evening. Just state your record. State your name for the record, sir. >> Gerard Pazillo. Ge R A R D. Last name Pazillo. P I Z I L L O. Good evening, council members. My name is Gerard Pazillo. I'm an attorney with Genova Burns and I'm here on behalf of the
petitioner of this ordinance uh Aanir Westside Square LLC. Uh, as I indicated in the caucus meeting before the introduction, this ordinance comes forth with coordination between the city's division of infrastructure as well as PSENG and is one of a series of lit
ballards along Fyet Street, which as part of the development that was approved and reviewed by the city planning zoning office includes 30 public spaces, public parking spaces on that side of the street. So this one lit Ballard is a one of a series along that
stretch of the sidewalk. Uh this was all vetted and reviewed as part of the site plan in 2019. So it did go through that review with street lights engineering comments. Uh and again this Ballard was a specifically coordinated with with uh
the division of infrastructure. The the electricity for it will be be paid by my clients. It's not the city. So, we're just asking for this one Ballard and a portion of this corner. Uh, you know, and it's it's literally less than 100
square ft. Uh, and it continues to mean 15 ft of sidewalk clearance on both sides. Uh, and like I said, it's just one of a series. So, I would s I would hope and respectfully request adoption of this ordinance as presented. Thank
you. >> Thank you, sir. Is there anyone else looking to speak? Don't be shy. Come up to the podium. >> Okay. >> Is there a motion? >> Second. >> Second. >> I didn't I think Council President Ridley, did you make that motion? >> Griffin.
>> Griffin. I'll say sorry. And the second was made by >> Ridley. >> Ridley. Okay. That is a motion to close the public hearing. On the motion to close the public hearing, how do you vote? Council person Brooks.
>> I. Council person Zupa. >> Hi. >> Council person Efos. >> Hi. >> Council person Little. >> Hi. >> Council person Gilmore. >> Hi. >> Council person Griffin. >> I. >> Council person Lavaro. >> I. >> Council person Singh. >> I.
>> And council president Ridley. >> I. >> Motion to close a public hearing passes 90. For final consideration and adoption of ordinance 26-007. How do you vote? Council person Brooks. >> I. Council person Zupa,
>> Gina, thank you for your comments and concerns. Uh given that this was in consideration with the infrastructure department and planning uh and Mr. Brazil confirmed that the developers paying for the electricity uh and the fact that this will make what's hopefully a new area uh for pedestrian
access and safety safer. I vote I >> council person Efos >> I for the same reasons. >> Council person Little. Council person Gilmore. >> I. >> Council person Griffin. Griffin. >> Just want to thank Gina for her due
diligence. Um I'm going to vote I. >> Council person Lavaro. >> Hi. >> Council person Singh. >> I. >> And council president Ridley. >> I. >> Ordinance 26-007 is adopted unanimously 90. And lastly,
agenda item 4.4 ordinance 26-008. As noted earlier, uh, ordinance 26-04, which was introduced earlier, replaces this version. So that said, may entertain a motion to defeat ordinance 26-008
without a public hearing. >> Motion >> motion made by Efos. >> Second. >> Second made by >> Stop it. On the motion to defeat ordinance 26-008,
how do you vote? Council person Brooks, >> I. >> Council person Zupa. >> Hi. >> Council person Ephro. >> Hi. >> Council person Little. >> Hi. >> Council person Gilmore. >> Hi. >> Council person Griffin. >> I. >> Council person Lavaro. >> I.
>> Council person Singh. >> I. >> And council president Ridley. >> I. >> Ordinance 26-008 is defeated 9. We're now moving on to the public speaking portion of the meeting. I will call the names in the order that they appear on the agenda.
Each speaker will have three minutes to speak. You may address the council on any issue that you wish. Please be mindful of the countdown timer to my left, your right. The first speaker listed is Leverne Washington. Let me just get the camera set up for you. Hold
on one second. Okay. And I will set up the countdown timer and you may begin. >> Hey. Uh, thank you council for what you're doing. I spoke to some of you council people today for a minute about
a journey that I'm trying to do with uh furniture for some uh the city of location. But more than that, a lot of you people are new and don't know me and don't know what I do for over 30 years in this city. I run a nonprofit. I do a
free summer camp. I don't get grant money. What I do, I get from developers like Greeny Plumbing that bought $10,000 worth of school shirts. I gave you guys a paper of schools who I give uh shirts
to. I gave out $2,000 worth of shirts in September. And on that date, I gave out shirts. I still got shirts left. I gave number 12 school shirts last week. I gave 22 school. I'm getting ready to do number four. And the colors of the
shirts that they uh ordered for me. I They ordered 40 cases of shirts and I'm giving out over this city. And Manny, those are some of the schools. And if you know a school in need of shirts that the colors that I have, I'm willing to
do that cuz the the principal at number 12, he was excited. So the lady said to him, "That's the same lady give me the new coats to give the kids in November." I said, "Yes, but I can't thank Greeny Plum enough and the other developers
that helped me like Manny Shetty, the Sudan, but most of all, I need your support. I need location right now to give out that furniture and the school shirts. So, there's something that I see a few
spots that is empty and been empty that you can kind of help me out to acquire cuz next week I'll be getting six more 16 more rooms of furniture. And down on Pacific, if you ride down 150, you will
see six dumps of nice furniture that came from the Manhattan Marriott. This furniture like this here, solid wood dashes, king-size bed, lady, people are crying, calling me that they seen some of this stuff. A lamp that they needed
and it's not no garbage. You go to Manhattan and take one of them rooms $700, $800 a night. So they not they renovating the place so they have nowhere to put the furniture. So my friend that works with the guy that does the re uh doing the hotel over, he says,
"I know a young lady in Jersey City that does this kind of stuff and she probably can use it." And it was well needed. So please help me. I need your help. I never come up here asking for anything but I'm asking now. I need some space to
get fun out over this city and I thank you and may God bless you. Thank you. Thank you, Eric Connor. Good evening. When I first moved to Jersey City shortly after graduating from college, I
made around $36,000 a year. Like many people who live here in Jersey City, I moved here for a variety of reasons. One was to be closer to my parents after my father's stroke. Another reason was because Jersey City
was comparatively more affordable than anywhere near my job in New York. In all my years living in Jersey City, I rented for a good number of them. I've had roommates. I subleted.
But I've always relied upon market rate housing. I never won an affordable housing lottery. And although I lived in Portide Towers for a year, I never had a rentstabilized apartment. Now, I've had great fortune in my time
got married, had kids, bought a home. But I recognize from firstirhand experience what it is like to spend more than a third of your income on rent. When people put forward proposals that
add pennies on the dollar to any cost of housing, I know that when you multiply those pennies by thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, they quickly add up and it makes harder for people makes
it harder for people to make ends meet. All I ask of this council is whether you're considering any number of ordinances, whether no matter how well-intentioned, whether it's something like bird safe glass to consider the costs, do all of your
due diligence. I heard you up here just a short while ago debating over percentages of the payroll tax. You took very intense interest as to what 3% means. Now, when you're considering added cost to housing, especially
because so much affordable housing is already on the margin, consider what 0.38% means, what 0.5% means, what 1% in additional cost means, what 2.5% of additional cost means. All of these are plausible ranges when it comes to costs.
Now, that's only one side of the equation. The other side is housing supply. I also encourage you guys to consider introducing resolutions upzoning large parts of downtown. There is a parking lot at 15156 Bay Street that could hold a thousand new
apartments on it. We should be looking at all of the redevelopment areas in downtown Jersey City and seeing what is available for upzoning and amendment. Now, finally, with my remaining 5 seconds, I want to give a very brief shout out to my friends. Uh, the B the
Heights needs protected bike lanes. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jonathan Schwedel. >> Thank you. I'm also here to talk about the Bird Safe uh glass ordinance. I would first like to start by thanking Council Member Little for her proposed
changes. I think they're a significant improvement. I think there are still probably a few tweaks we can make to um further balance affordability and protecting these birds. Uh what I have here are some printouts. I can hand them out to the public afterwards. Uh this is
meant this is meant to be a single family home outside of downtown. And before the changes that council member Little made, uh we calculated that it would add on average $3,000 in cost to renovate uh one of these homes. So, thank you for that. that is a
significant improvement. Now, um a few weeks ago you spoke to um someone from city planning at uh cauus and afterwards we were able to connect with him and I think mostly were on the same page uh once we're able to um clarify a few
points. I I would like to add that with some of his his comments, he had mentioned some alternatives uh to bird safe glass uh that would be more affordable. My ask to the council is if we could add some of those uh for example uh facade changes, uh stickers,
uh blinds, uh curtains, there are a few other options. If we could clearly call those out in the ordinance, that would help and remove some ambiguity um as to uh hurting affordability. I think overall planning did a great job here.
Uh but uh admittedly they didn't look a ton at this and we need to be uh careful that anytime we're passing legislation like this, we're mindful of maybe the unplanned uh consequences. Uh lastly, I would like to add uh the also the
addition to exclude 100% affordable housing. This is a great addition, but I think it doesn't go far enough. If we look at the Bayfront project for example, uh that is a mixeduse project that is not 100% affordable housing. So, if we could also please consider to um
add an exception for those sorts of projects as well. Um if any members of the public would like a copy of this or the council, uh please approach me. Thank you. >> Thank you, Charlene Burke. I don't I don't think so. Edwin Perkins
not here. Gina Davidson. Thank you. Gina Davidson, w resident. Speaking on my own behalf as a resident and as an activist. Justice for Drew. Justice for Drew.
Justice for Teson Rogers. In the face of the illegal raids attempted here by ICE, I want to thank you all for continuing to work on keeping Jersey City a sanctuary city and keeping us safe. I'll encourage you all to stay continue to stay on the right
side of history. We don't want kidnappers coming into our city, abducting our neighbors, and terrorizing our children. Ice out. All that said, this is the bare minimum. The people of Jersey City are suffering.
We are asking you to help us stop overdeveloping this city. We're in a housing crisis, and if more development meant more affordable housing, that would be different. But market rate madness has taken over. Jersey City has been an incredible place
filled with rich culture and diversity. But we have fallen into a neoc colonialist struggle that is killing our communities. And just because we make the best of what we have does not mean that it's right that we should constantly be struggling or that people like Tina
Nols, my friend, should have to continue to make up for gaps in services the way that we do. I take serious issue with the executive order from Mayor Trump that was passed two weeks ago, the one that prohibits this city from boycotting real estate
developers based in Israel. We should have the right as a city to determine who we do business with. The right to boycott foreign governments who are carrying out genocide. And in fact, why are we allowing any foreign interests to use our city as a revenue
line item? We have plenty of existing small developers in this city who are eager to grow in the right way. June Jones even had a proposal for 100% affordable housing buildings a few years ago and the last administration squaltched it. I
am crushed by what I see now. Liberty State Park is now being destroyed. We should be increasing our green spaces, but no, we're going to cut down trees that are hundreds of years old so that someone overseas can make a dollar.
Moreover, we are affecting the ecology of the world. We are on the Atlantic flyway. It is a main migration pattern for birds. That's why we have a bird sanctuary. And now we are encroaching on that bird sanctuary
ever more, bit by bit, taking more and more of the tiny bit of space we've left for them. So again, please let's protect people and animals first and let's stop overdeveloping our city.
Thank you. Tina Noles. >> Hey guys. Yes, my name is Tina Noles. Yes, I do work for Education of Gearmore, but I'm speaking upon myself. Justice for Drew. Um, I'm going to continue to talk about nonprofits, small business, and
definitely about the board of education or exactly what's going on. I definitely know we need more leaders inside of there. I also want to talk about nonprofits. I realize that nonprofits are the ones who have their feets on the ground. I have been doing my nonprofit
over 20 years ago and I see that people skip over the stuff that I do, but they make sure the ones who not out there in the community get what they need. So, I see that now on we need to start paying a lot of attention to the ones who don't
see that the ones who's out there doing the work as the nonprofits. I also want to talk about the small business again. and they took that out our community and we need that back. It brought brightness. It brought lights in our community. It brought people that they
could believe that they can have their own small business. Also, Gina is right. I was so disgusted to see about that park. Where's the birds going to go? The lady told me that the birds is the this is the number one place where they come to see that we don't have trees. Like,
they not going to even come to our park. I don't even know why they have to mess with the park. That's confusing me. I wanted to say to Solomon, thank you for um reaching back to me every time I reach out to you. Chicago reached out to us to find out how we was able to save
they homeless because they have so many homeless. I wanted to let them know the truth. It wasn't because of my leaders. It was because of my community. We go out every night to make sure no one is outside in the streets and make sure that if they are that we get them help
into a safe spot. But I keep saying this. I keep putting my boots on the ground making it happen, but I still don't see that phone call of no one making sure that I'm good. So, I want to say to y'all, start looking at the ones that's really in the community. Start
paying attention. It's a lot of people that's doing the good work and y'all ignoring them. Y'all make sure the ones I guess is popular ones, the ones that's on y'all list, but y'all really need to start making sure the ones who's doing the work. I want to say to um Salomon, I was actually in his spot last week. They
kept asking who car that was. I wasn't paying no attention because I've been parking in that spot for years. So that just show you our mayor is really at work because I was in his parking spot and I've been parking there for 5 years. I didn't even know that. So it just show you Philip wasn't really in the building. He was acting like he was in
the building. So I really found out I was really really in the mayor's spot. So, I just wanted to say to Solomon, I apologize for being in your spot only because I get so many flyers to pass out to the community to let them know what's going on. So, I park right there by the door. So, I just wanted to apologize to
to him. But again, it show you he's really at work though. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> William Santiago. >> No. Okay. Cheryl Armstrong Davenport. Oh, Eve Taylor. >> Hi, I'm Eve Taylor from W E. Two weeks
ago, city council leadership accused Portside Towers of oppressing disabled speakers like me because Portside Towers advocates as a group. Wow, how impressive. You spoke for me, a disabled tenant, without even asking me. I was still here, but apparently I have
invisibility powers. I get disregarded speaking alone. They get disregarded speaking together. Disabled residents like me do face public speaking endurance challenges. That's an ADA accommodation issue. Let disabled persons speak earlier. Issue solved. The
next question, however, is whether universally beloved Michelle Hirs and Kevin Weller become ADA violators simply because why more than one person agrees with them? If civic participation is a disability violation, then democracy
needs an accommodation. Let's start by accommodating the First Amendment. Council, please notice the American flag behind you. Public comment is not a favor. It's a protected civil right under the US Constitution's First Amendment. Just to assert constitutional
clarity, the following restrictions are civil rights violations. Number one, limiting speakers based on tenant rights group membership or shared residence building. Number two, limiting speakers because a council member doesn't want to sit through it. Let's talk about that
last one. When Jersey City Council leadership refers to listening to constituents as having to sit through it, but then doesn't sit through it, the issue isn't the size of portside towers. The issue is underfunding of the listening budget. The last
administration copy pasted prior year listening deficit year after year. Budgeting failures like that have a cost. While city hall went deaf, the municipal court dumped $40,000 worth of landlord harassment complaints that I
filed. Poof. $40,000 gone. Dismiss prosecutor discretion. Let me finish with a riddle. What hides behind silence multiplies in the dark and shows up later in the budget. Real
financial deceit. Silence isn't free. We all pay for it. Thank you. Nick Sororski. Good evening, council. Last week, I emailed you about the housing proposal near me downtown at 150 Bay, urging you
to take the necessary action to ensure it does not fall apart. I'm here to ask you again in person this time to please introduce a resolution asking the planning board to study and prepare an amendment to the Powerhouse Arts District redevelopment plan. Now, as far
as I can tell, there seem to be two main reasons that some people oppose this. Either they don't think there are enough community givebacks, or they just don't want more tall buildings. Now, set aside for the minute uh the fact that this proposal already includes very significant givebacks, including
hundreds of affordable units. Please consider that any additional community give back you might extract is ultimately really just attacks on renters in disguise. The developers won't pay for them any more than other countries pay for Trump's tariffs. In
both cases, the story is the same. Even if you don't outright kill the project, the costs will be passed on to renters like me. Now, you might say, Nick, market rate renters, especially those who are going to uh rent in these newer buildings, can afford us pushing their
rents up to pay for things the city needs. But why should this burden fall on renters alone? And while it's tempting to think that we can target just the very high-end rentals, housing market research suggests that the effort to raise costs on the high end of the
market eventually raises everyone's costs through harming a vital process known as filtering. Now, I understand that asking for more and more givebacks is a tempting shortrun strategy, but even if you don't wind up killing the project, it harms renters by keeping the price of housing
artificially high as we are the ones paying for the givebacks. The second kind of opposition comes from million and multi-million dollar condo owners nearby who don't want another tall building by them. Set aside that this is a somewhat strange demand to make while living in the downtown of a
city, restricting the size of this building has a direct impact on property taxes. The annual difference in property taxes that would be paid by this proposal versus the 32 units allowed by Wright is probably about $10 million per
year. Everyone knows property tax sites are coming, but if you turn down an additional $10 million in annual tax revenue, you'll have to raise property taxes even higher to dig out of this deficit. Is that a fair trade-off?
Should people in the Heights or the West Side or the Southside have to pay even higher taxes just so a few rich people downtown can have their aesthetically preferred building heights like they're playing a game of Sim City? This council did not create the quarter billion dollar deficit, but choices like these
are the difference between making it better and making it worse. Whatever you decide, please understand there are real tangible costs associated with blocking this kind of development and those costs will be paid by the entire city. Thank you,
Gus. P uh Poranda Ivon Balser BS I was speaking on the budget. Um Mayor Solomon has said more than one time that the city has spent about approximately $7 million in tax appeals. I don't know where he's getting
information from. The mayor is absolutely wrong. What I have here is from what is called the friendly budget, page six. And on page six, and you have you guys have uh phones there, you look it up. On page six of the friendly
budget for the year 2025, Jersey City paid $34 million in tax appeals. And and the previous year from that, 2024, uh you paid uh $49 million. Now, why do
we have these successful tax appeals? We have successful tax appeals because under city rent control ordinance, you cannot pass on a tax increase to a tenant. The landlord receives the increase, but not the tenant. The
tenants under consumer price index, and that varies, you know, if they're going to renew their lease, it could be 3%, it could be 2%, it could be 2.7%. has nothing to do with tax increases. That's just the profit the landlord can
make. That's all it is. Has nothing to do. So when my t and this has been going on for a long time. This has been going for a very long time. It is not. That's the reason why an article last year it was 336 New York Avenue and this tendant
complained about having a fish in the hallway and it was smelling. the articles print down that said they paid $540 a month in rent. Well, that's because our rent control ordinance is so been around such a long time that that tenant
was not paying market rate rent which means they're not paying taxes. The landlord was paying taxes but not the tenant. So, if this is a continual appeal now I have these papers here. This isn't a continual. Every year the
landlord goes to tax court, he wins automatically. I've been to tax court and I watch this happen and then Jersey City floats bonds that's put on my taxes as a single family hony unit and I along with other people pay this. So if you
want fairness in taxes and if you vote then everyone should be paying the taxes as they go up. They should we should not have these bonds every year. So my suggestion to you was please read page six of the friendly budget which has in
the middle item right here what we pay every year in tax appeals that the landlord has to pay. And if the landlord doesn't pay these tax appeals, you know what he does? He goes and he converts the property into condos because he can't make the the funds. So that's
what's really is happening. So all is I'm going to protect the tenant really means the tenant end up converting his building into condos. Fix that and you'll be able to val your three minutes is up. Sorry. Karen Goell.
Karen Goell. Pavit. Thor. Good evening, council president and members of the city council. Uh, I recently came across a city council web page that invited the Jersey City residents to submit their ideas. Thank
you for giving me this opportunity to speak today. My name is Pavit Takar. I'm 12 years old, an eighth grader at the Learning Community Charter School and a resident of Ward Day. Today I want to share how my experience with a kid-led
initiative led me to the proposal I'm presenting to you. Four years ago, I joined Recycle My Battery, a kid-led 501c3 nonprofit organization where kids learn climate action by
actually doing it. I started small by placing battery recycling collection bins in my taekwond do class, my dental office, and more. Over time, I expanded into my school, libraries, and even Steven's Institute
of Technology. My school won a prize in the state Panasonic ecoitizenship competition and recently we completed an initiative in the Hoboken public school district collecting over 6,000 batteries from all
of the schools. I wanted to bring the recycle my battery challenge to all the Jersey City public schools. It's hands-on, educational, and almost zero cost. Over the past two years, I presented my idea to the board
of education, the mayor's office, and the recycling department. Every meeting went well and everyone was supportive, but the project is still under consideration. I believe that the challenge was not the idea, but navigating the system. Who to reach out
to? How to make it a reality? This makes me think that there may be many kids in Jersey City with great ideas. ideas about the environment, education, public safety, and more.
That's why I'm presenting and proposing the creation of a youth liaison position to assist the city council, which is similar to what New York City, Hoboken, Elizabeth, and Patterson have in place. The youth liaison could act as a bridge
between the youth and the city council. For instance, the liaison council could connect with green teams and ESGT type clubs across schools. Throughout the year, students can implement their own ideas and their own projects. And at the end of the year,
we'll combine everything into a Jersey City youth report presented to the city council annually. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase."
Today, I'm taking that first step and I hope the city council will take the next step. Thank you. >> John. >> Oh, one second. >> John, sorry. >> I just want to uh tell Papa that was
awesome. Um, we also had him speak at the MUA meeting because he has ideas around water and saving water also. So, you know, I'm very proud of you. Uh, and if we start that youth council, you're already spoken for. You have to come to the W A office. But I just wanted to
tell you how proud I am of you and thank you for getting up here and and speaking that was really awesome and I love your confidence and the work you are doing. So you are at the right place doing the right thing. You have already taken couple of steps and we would love to get
involved with you. whatever we can do to support your vision um my team will reach out to you and we'll take it forward and thank you so much and parents you're doing a great job. Uh Pabet, are you offering any public
speaking classes cuz I could really use some help over here. You rock. Thank you. I would love to work on this with you. >> I would also like to voice my support. Um, I don't think we've had the chance to meet yet, but I my day job I'm an environmental engineer and maybe that's
something you're considering one day with your passion for climate change and um, making a difference and and recycling. Um, but I would love to work with you to get this u battery initiative implemented across Jersey City. Thank you. >> That was a very thoughtful presentation.
Thank you very much. If you want to consider a law school, that's helpful, too. Shall we move on to the next speaker? Okay. The next speaker is Mai Okaro. No. Okay. Anmirie Nazaro.
Good evening. I want to thank you firstly for passing number 42 ordinance 26-006 for education. It's good to be here tonight on your
second month of meeting as the new council and also on the 25th of this month. In exactly 3 months, on May 25th, it will be the sixth
anniversary of George Floyd's death. The date is a marker for us. As we mentioned at the last month's meeting on January 28th, in reverence to that date,
we'd like to have held by that time, by May 25th, our meetings with all of you on the council and with the new public safety director and HHS director. We want to mark by that date of George
Floyd's murder momentum movement toward our outreach workers going out either with police or in lie of police whenever there's a crisis that involves a person with a mental health
or addiction challenge. momentum would mean that we start to use or figure out how to use the 1.2 million we secured in the last administration for a period of each of three years to do this initiative.
Three months after we honor George Floyd's murder six years ago, it'll be August 27th, another three years already by then, that we in our own city lost
Drew Washington. By that date, that would be at 6 months from now, we want to have an on the ground program honoring Drew Washington. Please, please, let's get this done. We
know, we have great confidence you can do it with all of us. Thank you, Tony Irvin. No, Ryan Spain. Uh, Beatatric Bofl. >> Hello. Good evening. My name is Beatatrice Bil. I live in the Heights
and I'm a trustee of Bike JC and Hudson County Complete Streets. We have several new members on the board uh on the council. So, I'd like to give some context as to why I'd like you to pass the ordinance to make Franklin Street one way. I owned a car when we moved
here. I soon found out it wasn't usually a great option for getting around. There was a lot of vehicular congestion, narrow streets, and chaotic movement. I'm looking at you, Kennedy Boulevard. Initially, I was excited to explore the city. I went to visit a business on
Marin, but couldn't find legal parking and went home without visiting. On another day, I drove to Journal Square to get my New Jersey driver's license, but couldn't find legal parking parking, so I went home. My son, who was in high school at the time, implored me to drive him there. As a recent teenage
transplant and an athlete who had to carry a lot of gear around, I didn't have the heart to make him take the bus or light rail yet. The four-mile trip there took about 30 minutes, one hour round trip. A few times he forgot his cleat. So, for that second trip, I
started riding my bike. It took me 15 minutes. So, I rode my bike to that business on Marin and I took the bus to get my license. I began to ride almost exclusively because I wasn't stuck in traffic. I was getting exercise. I was
moving efficiently and affordably. However, returning home from my commute from work in Manhattan was exhausting at the end of the day as I rode up into the heights. As the car had become unnecessary and was more of a liability, I traded it for an ebike to make that
climb more easily. Now I run errands, get to work, go to the market, carry a heavy load, and have enough energy to do that daily. What is lacking is safety, but it is getting better. The protected bike lanes have been a gamecher. As our
network becomes more connected, perhaps more people will make the change like I did. I've already met some neighbors who have made the switch to biking since the advocacy work for the Franklin Street project started in 2023. The project garers overwhelming support
as evidenced by the 700 petitioners who sent city leaders asking for this project to become permanent. I personally spoke with residents up and down the original project corridor, the majority which also supported the project and found the street to feel feel much safer. If we added up what
city staff and volunteers had spent in grant writing, demonstration installation and removal, community meetings, meetings with city council members, speaking at city council meetings, and the money produced for the final designs, we would surely exceed the 680K grant that the city was awarded
to install this compromised plan that is perhaps 40% in scope of the original plan. In addition, the final design includes changes to address concerns of public safety. to not move forward at this point would be such an utter tragedy and waste of invested money and effort. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Javier Gadez, Miss Javes, uh congratulations. you are victorious and um it's a privilege to be here. Um you have a a great job ahead of ahead of you. I'm
here in support to uh making Franklin one way. Um I'm hoping as Beatric said uh that all that money and and and uh re you know resource that was put into that can basically go first reading second and approved. Let's get this done. is a
safety um it's a safety matter and also um you know as you're new and some of you have been reelected things like this should be easy this are easy lowhanging fruits you know safety stuff focus on how you going to generate
revenue to the city uh enforcement you know and and actually you know we had a recently we had a meeting about the Franklin uh project and the the fire chief and this folks were were worried about the time that it will take them to get to a to a to a fire or to an
emergency. Uh so there was some compromise to make that possible for them. But there's just this you know endless um you know fight against safety, against making Jersey City a
safer city. Uh you know really adopting the master plan. I encourage you to read it. It's really a really great plan. A lot of work went into that, which is you have a network of bike lanes, you pe you get people biking, you get people walking, and it's good for the city. So,
think about uh Grove Street and some of these um businesses. When you're driving, you want to get something done, you want to buy something quickly because you're late, you know, it's hard to park, but if you're walking, it's easy. So, you increase your revenues if you promote that. So be smart about how
we're going do the next you know cycle here. Think about from buckets. How are you going to think make things that are important saved revenue anything just come up with a plan or have you master plan so when we come and talk to you you're like oh that makes sense that
that will improve that district or that street or that school safety zone or you know those businesses. Think about it that way. Don't think about it just a bike lane or, you know, or just bikers want to get, you know, their their way. Get bikers off the street. It's actually
a good thing. Get them off the street into a safety location. And then enforcement. If you don't enforce, you're still going to have people, you know, on ebikes going fast. I have an ebike. You know, I try it to respect the law, but there's just a lot going on. Control it. You have the power to it.
So, congratulations again. And and again, and this should be an easy lowhanging fruit. Hope you pass it. Thank you. >> David Seni. >> Hi folks. I'm David. I live on Franklin Street with my family in Jersey City Heights and I'm now a member of the
board at Bike JC. Working on this very project has turned me into an advocate. I support the Franklin Street protected bike lane and I hope you do, too. I ride a bike. I advocate for bike lanes, but what pushed me into working towards safer streets was pushing a stroller
around Jersey City. My daughter is a lot bigger now. I see some of my neighbors here and they have probably seen her on her bike zipping around Franklin Street. She's a student at PSA on Franklin Street. She plays at Persing Field and at Riverview Park at opposite ends of
Franklin Street. As it stands, Franklin is not a safe street for the kids of PS8. This is not just my opinion. The reason Franklin Street was chosen for traffic calming by our city's infrastructure experts is because it is part of the high injury network. Streets
where crashes lead to a high number of injuries and loss of life. I have my own stories. This winter, 2 minutes after I dropped my daughter off at school one morning, a car turned onto Franklin Street while I was in the crosswalk and didn't stop until I placed my hands on
the hood and yelled loudly at the driver. I'm sure many of you have had similar circumstances. But my daughter wasn't with me, and I'm glad she's not taller than the hood of most vehicles. We have had close calls when my daughter was with me. Just over
a year ago, the driver of a pickup truck turned into the crosswalk where I jogged alongside her on her bike. He couldn't have been more than 2 feet from her when he stopped. His response was not to apologize, but to yell before I could get a word out that I needed to watch the kid. Other parents came to my
defense. Just two blocks north, a friend of mine turned footage from his Ring camera over to the police when they came to inquire about a pedestrian that had been killed in a hit-and- run in front of his home. I avoided walking on that street for a week with my daughter because I knew there were still blood stains. Changing Franklin into a one-way
street can save lives by reducing dangerous car traffic and reducing the distance children will need to cross the street to get to school. I don't know of any other elementary schools around here that aren't on a one-way street. Concerns about response times for firefighters have been raised. I'm glad to hear that those are being addressed
by the city and the infrastructure department. Any reasonable city government will do everything in its power to prevent emergencies and not just respond to them. As a member of our infrastructure team stated a week ago at the public information meeting hosted by members of this council, more people
died on Jersey City streets from car crashes last year, that includes pedestrians and cyclists of course, than did in fires. We don't have a single protected bike lane in Jersey City Heights. We do not have one. That's right. This project is long overdue. It
is fully funded. It has been thoughtfully engineered. It has been litigated by the public time and time again. It will protect our children. It must happen. Thank you, >> Ryan Riggio. Good evening. My name is Brian and I am
a WC resident living in Journal Square and a trustee of Bike JC. Um, tonight is actually my birthday as well. So, it gives you an idea of how important this is to me that I chose to spend the evening of my birthday here. Um, I am speaking tonight in support of the
Franklin Street one-way ordinance and the proposed bike lane. This has been nearly two years of demonstrations, meetings, fights, and extensions for a lane that's only half a mile long. This street was initially chosen because it is part of the city's high injury
network. And this plan will address that, creating a secure way for residents to get to school and the park and just a safer area for pedestrians and cyclists. The safer road will even benefit drivers by reducing congestion on Franklin Street and then even further
reducing congestion by encouraging people to get out of their cars and into the new protected lane. After incorporating input from the 2024 demonstration, community feedback, and concerns from fire and emergency personnel, the city's expert
infrastructure team has created a great plan that works for everyone. This project will make residents lives better. Please vote to support this project. Thank you. >> Happy birthday. >> Happy birthday, Brian.
>> Karen Nelson. >> Evening. Uh, my name is Karen Nelson. I live up in the Heights. Um, basically what I want to talk about is Franklin Street. Also, uh, one, students need a safe way to get to school, not just at that school, but all of our schools in
Jersey City. Two, there need to be safe ways to bike. Protected bike lanes do that. And three, less cars are on the road. When we allow people to bike safely, I feel like a lot of times the argument is, "Oh, well, the bikes are in the way and the bikes are
this." Every time I ride to school, which I do every day except walking today because it was a beautiful day out, um, I bike. I'm one less car in traffic. So everybody else that's driving, whether it's mobility issues or every
anything like that, I'm one less person off the street in traffic. Unfortunately, I am in the street because I'm biking. Every morning when I go to school, because I teach down in Hoboken, I watch cars run red lights. I
see them speed through yellow lights even though we have a 25 mph um speed limit in our town. We need to be able to walk our city streets. we should be able to let our kids independently walk to school, especially elementary
schools. They're going to schools right next to their house. But it is not true. Every day I look at a crossing guard and hope that she doesn't get hit by a car that's running a red light, turning left, not looking, and all of the little kids, who somebody mentioned earlier,
cannot be visible, usually over the hood of a car. Crossing a street should not be a death wish. I have been in a bike accident before and I do not want anybody else to be like that. Luckily, I was fine, but it was not fun.
We need to have a reasonable discussion. We need to educate people about bike safety, about driving safely, and about letting our kids be able to walk to school safely. Nobody else needs to die because they're being educated or
walking to get food or walking to a park. Biking does not increase traffic, it reduces it. Protected bike lanes are what we need in our city. Thank you very much, Sal. Austin Emanuel Morgan.
>> Hello. Good evening. My name is Emanuel Morgan and I am a trustee of JC, the executive director of Hudson County Complete Streets and a Ward B resident. I'm here today to advocate for a yes vote on this Franklin Street ordinance
at Hudco Streets. Our mission is to connect Hudson County municipalities for people using all modes of transportation. Bike and scooter usage in Jersey City has tripled since 2019. According to the
city's Let's Move JC study, the proposed Franklin Street protected bike lane is deeply needed by residents to move safely east west across the city and it creates the potential to connect the bike lane to the bike lane networks
downtown in Hoboken and in Union City. No Jersey City resident should fear for their lives while walking or biking in Jersey City. It is proven that protected bike lanes increase safety for all travelers,
including pedestrians and drivers. Protected bike lanes reduce sidewalk riding. They get ebikes off sidewalks by between 64 and 92% depending on which study you read. I would also just like to say a word with regard to the fire
department study. Last year, three BYJC trustees met in person with Chief Johnson and Chief Hart. We all agreed that all of us are trying to save lives, but we are responding to different emergencies and therefore we have different priorities. It is
understandable that the fire department would prefer to have wide open congestionfree streets without speed bumps all over the city. But we have speed bumps and we have delineators and we have protected bike lanes for the same reason, traffic safety. For five months last year, a coalition of safe
streets act groups and advocates met with public safety officials, including JCPD and OEM every month to discuss traffic safety. At the end of the year, we learned numbers that at the forefront of my mind, there were 45
life-threatening, lifealtering, serious injury crashes in Jersey City in 2025, of which six were fatalities. That's nearly four lifealtering crashes in Jersey City every month or one per week.
Who will it be this week? Unfortunately, the fire department was missing from all of these meetings and the infrastructure department's vision zero meetings. So, in addition to advocating for a yes vote to address the critical emergency of traffic safety in our city, I am also
asking that JCFD attend the vision zero meetings going forward. This should not be too much to ask and will go a long way toward building the bridges we've been trying to build with them for years. Jersey City's Vision Zero goal is zero deaths or serious injuries by 2026.
That's this year. We must stay the course to achieve this honorable and necessary goal. Thank you, Danielle Damo. Not here. Cindy Davis. No.
Jackie Cox. Hello, my name is Henry and I am M a kindergarter and PX16. And I love my teachers and my students.
I love my school. >> Good evening, council members. I'm Henry's mom. I'm a homeowner and taxpayer and have three children in this school district. And I'm here tonight asking for your urgent help. Starting next year, kindergarten will be ripped
from our school community because of what the superintendent herself calls a crisis. Let's be honest, this is not a sudden crisis. This is a planning failure. Tower after tower rises along the waterfront. Luxury buildings are
approved. New residents move in month after month. This growth was predictable. This growth was encouraged. Over the past decade, more than 9,000 residential units have been added to the downtown with another 8,000 already
approved or planned for. Based on the standard student yield projections, that growth represents an estimated 3,500 additional students. That's 3,500 children. And not one of these
developments has a school in the plan. Where are these kids going to school? Families are paying the price. PS16 is bursting at the seams. Closets have become classrooms. Teachers have stretched every inch of the building to
try and make it work. Try teaching 31 fourth graders multiplication and division in a classroom built for half the size. The gym is an oversized storage unit and kids are eating lunch in their classrooms. Public schools are the heart of this community. Approving
massive development while failing to plan adequate neighborhood school space is unacceptable. We need a solve for this crisis. We need a permanent neighborhood school in the PS16 zone that it can accommodate our
growing community and like that woman said back there where kids can walk to school. We need a transparent plan. We need timelines and we need to know that you're coordinating with the district to make this happen. How are we moving this
forward? Our youngest learners, including Henry, standing here tonight, should not carry the burden of years of inadequate planning. They deserve stable neighborhood-based schools built for their developmental needs. And let me close by saying, thank you so much for
giving us the full 3 minutes to speak. Your peers at the BOE left us 60 seconds last week, which clearly were not enough, and I truly appreciate the opportunity to be heard. John Shannon Gaul. >> John, I think she left some documents
for us somewhere. My name is Timothy Gaul. I am in kindergarten at PS16. I love my school. I love my neighborhood. I love going to school in
my neighborhood. I have two little brothers. I hope they can go to kindergarten in our neighborhood soon. Thank you for listening. >> Hi, council. I know that Mayor Solomon
isn't here tonight, but preparing to come here, I thought of something um that was somewhat inspirational to me. Uh years ago during Mayor Solomon's first runoff for um councilman, I got a knock on my door as
a resident of Paul Hook and it was Mayor Solomon's now Mayor Solomon's mom and I it was he and you know some competitor I hadn't decided who I was going to vote for and by the end of our conversation I thought I'm going to vote for him. I
mean she's out there knocking on doors you know why not? And um I I just take it as inspiration that, you know, even into adulthood, we got to be here standing up for our kids. Um and
that's all I'm here to do. Um my my kids, uh Tim's in kindergarten now. I have two younger ones. They they need to be able to go to school in their neighborhood. They need to be able to walk to school and see their friends from school in their
community. That's how community is built. You guys have all been part and parcel of making um Jersey City a really desirable place to live. But it's not going to be so if kids are being shipped off to go to school, you know, 15, 20
minutes away, depending on traffic, could be worse. Um, Councilman Zippa and I have been friends for uh probably a decade now, and I know that he has worked so hard to make Ward C a really desirable place to live um with boots on
the ground, you know, picking up trash, everything. And that's how he got where he is today. And Councilman Zuba, I'm here to tell you, the more desirable Ward C becomes, we're the canary in the coal mine. This is coming for every
ward, you know, every school district. Um, we all want to live in a desirable place, but we need to have the infrastructure to support the families that move there. And of course, utmost importance is having our children have a
place to go to school that's near their community, near their families that they can walk to. It's the least that we owe to our four, five, and sixyear-olds. Three-year-olds, too. Thank you for your time. Rosanna Silvering.
My name is Rosanna Silber. I am the mother of a second grader Pia at PS16 and this is my son Henrik. Uh he will be attending kindergarten in the fall. I am heartbroken by the decision to move PS16 to kindergarten from its current location to another neighborhood which
is miles away. But I want to make make this very clear. This did not happen overnight. The growth in our neighborhood was predictable. It was approved and what was not planned alongside it was school capacity and now
our youngest children are being asked to absorb the consequences of this failure. We intentionally did not send Henrik to Danforth for prek because of the distance. Proximity matters. Community matters. Stability matters. Especially at 5 years old. In addition to working
full-time as a pediatric pallet of care nurse practitioner, I am deeply committed to being an active and present parent. I have served as class parent every year for both of my children's classes. And this year, I was elected to the CPA at PS16, helping organize schoolwide events. Being involved in my
children's school community is not optional for me. It is one of my highest priorities. Kindergarten is foundational. It is the year children learn how to be students. It is filled with milestones between holiday parties, readalouds, events, and graduation.
These moments build belonging. They build confidence. They shape how a child feels about school for years to come. Moving kindergarten to a building significantly farther away limits meaningful parent involvement. It limits accessibility. It limits spontaneity. It
weakens connection. And adding a third location strains the CPA and fractures a community that has been intentionally built across the main building and annex. Instead of strengthening PS16, this move divides it. If kindergarten moves this year,
what happens next year? Are we back here discussing first grade? Our children deserved stability, not annual uncertainty. We need a permanent neighborhood school in the PS16 zone. We need coordination between the city and the district. We need timelines, benchmarks, and
accountability, not reactive last minute decisions. Because this decision came so late, I missed the deadline to consider other options. We are pulling Henrik from one loving, stable environment only to place him in something that feels temporary and unsettled. That
instability comes at the expense of my child. 5-year-olds should not bear the burden of inadequate planning. I am asking you to help fix the problem this city created. Please keep our kid kindergarteners close to home, protect the stability they deserve, and deliver
a solution that reflects the scale of the growth the city has embraced. Thank you so much. Adija Shridhar. Uh good evening uh council members. Uh my name is Adita and I'm here speaking to you in favor of the protected bike lanes in Franklin Street and Central
Avenue. I am a resident of the Heights and you can find me regularly in Sherman Laundry, Salsa Fever on Two or getting groceries at Stop and Shop. I move through these blocks every single week on my bike and on foot and I consistently see drivers treating our neighborhood like a shortcut blowing
through stop signs and I I have had countless near misses myself. I want to be clear, I am not anti-car. In fact, I love cars. I love the engineering behind it. That's what I studied. These are incredible machines for the racetrack. uh essential tools for some commutes and for elder neighbors who who may not be
having the mobility to bike or walk. But Jersey City is a dense mixeduse urban center. It's not a suburb as our name states. Um our local street should be designed for people who live here, not highspeed thorough affairs. Um again, this project is not about punishing the
drivers. It's about choosing the right design for the right environment. Um I know there were a lot of emergency response concerns. uh we should certainly look at uh data from cities like Paris and San Francisco. They have successfully integrated uh bike lanes while maintaining and improving safety.
Um in fact like we cannot let 1950 standards for uh uh fire equipment uh dictate our 2026 safety needs. I think we can be a little bit more nimble than that. Um true public safety is proactive. It means preventing collisions that require emergency
response as someone uh said previously. Uh I truly worry about uh the students at PS8 who are coming uh out and going in in in the mornings. Um so we have to protect it before that accident ever happens. Uh finally, I'm speaking here as a father uh a recent father. I have a
three-month old daughter. Uh I grew up uh in a city where I had the freedom to bike around neighborhoods and run errands safely even as a young age. Uh and I would love for her to have that independence as she's growing up. Uh, and I don't want to have the fear that a driver's convenience might cost her her
life. Um, if anything, I believe this project doesn't go far enough and it seems very silly that I'm here talking about four blocks of bike lanes. Um, we are currently building the Jersey City that our children will inherit. Uh, let's make it a city uh, let's make it a city that protects its children,
supports the businesses, uh, and al also values the safety of every neighbor. Uh, I urge you, the council, to vote uh, yes on this provision. Thank you. Katherine Moore. Hello again. I don't have a child to bring up here to um help uh sway your
decisions on how to go forward, but I do have a lot of neighbors with children and I see more and more as uh I moved into downtown in 2005, people were sending uh we didn't have sidewalks at the time, but through the years
development has come in. Many um parents in the early days moved to Montlair, moved to Maplewood, kept their apartments as investments, but uh they didn't have a place to keep their children safe. PS16 was has always been
our school and since 2005 um at it has increased. I I think we were saying n over 9,000 units have been built. Uh just this past week, PS16 sent out a letter saying that
the district has increased 258% increase in enrollment. We still have another 8,000 9,000 units that are going to be built in the next uh 10 years. Um five six of them are currently under
construction. What we're having now is um what was going to be commercial zones uh commercial buildings are be turning into residential. So it's not necessarily something that uh master plan really truly had in mind. Just uh
last week a um commercial building in Newport has added nine stories of residential on the top of a commercial building that never intended to um have residential there. So what we really need for downtown in general is a summit
to look at where the school locations could be. Um we need to publish the data of the enrollment of each district and classroom size so you can see what northern downtown Journal Square and uh PS16 what our chances are um and how we
can um uh monitor what is going to be happening in the future. Um, so if we can just stick to um I don't well even now you know you say you have like a thousand units you know could go at the corner of um May uh Bay
and Marin uh that's another thousand units that's not on our list. So, you know what else is going to be coming down the road and there's no reason like once the kindergarteners go to another place, the the next step is going to be the first graders, then it's going to be
the second graders, and these people could just be put into a new school. So, we need to find that place, and we need the community to be a part of that conversation, and we can look forward to um uh seeing if we can solve this problem together. Thank you.
Sophie Wang. >> Good evening, council. Um, my name is Sophie and I live in the downtown area, W E. I heard that there might be a new dispensary opening up at 415 Mommouth Street and I came to express my frustration with this amount of dispensaries in the downtown area that
exists already. There are four dispensaries close to me that are already open and they are all within five to six blocks from where I live. I am an elementary school teacher and it's such a coincidence to have so many young families with here with us here today.
Our children are incredibly observant. They notice everything that surrounds them and they form impressions on what they see and normalize in their everyday
lives. When dispensaries become as common as coffee shops on nearly every corner, it sends a message, whether intentional or not, that this is a central part of daily life. My concerns are placement and thoughtful planning.
The proposed location is off the Newark Avenue strip and at on a much quieter street. Families choose this neighborhood because it feels vibrant and family oriented. When a daycare sits directly across from this proposed
dispensary location, it forces us to ask, do we prioritize the environments of our youngest residents? Are we being mindful of how density and proximity um affect the character of our residential
streets? I hope city council will take our kids and young families in the downtown area into consideration when making decisions um on this proposed dispensary. Thank you, Nurmal Shaw. Oh, I'm sorry. Lauren Morris, sorry.
>> So much appreciate it. >> Good evening, council. Um, thank you for your service. 2026 has certainly been interesting so far, so we really appreciate your time. And I'd like to give a special thank you to Councilwoman Little for sponsoring and advocating for the bird friendly design standards.
council. I just want to reiterate that we are always here to answer your questions and concerns and to put you in touch with those who have been studying this environmental crisis as well as the solutions for years. This has been a long road,
but our commitment to this ordinance and to doing our part to contribute to a better Jersey City for people and wildlife alike is stronger than ever. We are raising our voices to protect wildlife that cannot speak for themselves and we want to do what's
right for our city. We would like to reiterate a few things about the ordinance. It provides flexibility and multiple pathways to designing a building to be bird friendly. while ensuring that materials meet a threshold that meaningfully reduce the window
collisions that are going on currently. Opposition has been based in fundamental misunderstandings of how bird collisions occur and how to prevent them. Ignoring the science and overstating the costs using hypothetical examples that
cherrypick the most expensive materials. We have shared data from real buildings built to bird friendly design standards and quotes from experts on typical cost which on average are below 1%. These design choices can also lead to
long-term energy savings for residents which would benefit them for the life of the building. So why are we doing this? Devoting so much time and energy to the ordinance. I swear I dream about this ordinance at this point. Because people need to do something. Because we need to
do something. Because birds are dying needlessly and horrifically in our streets and we can do something to prevent that. It's really that simple. Soon migration will be ramping up again and our amazing volunteers will be back out there at 6:00 a.m. when dawn is
breaking to pick up dead and dying birds from our streets. Birds like the ones we've shown you, like 30 dead song birds collected by just one volunteer on one morning. We hate taking these photos and we know you hate seeing them, but this
is what happens and it will keep happening without action. This is the first step and we are looking forward to taking it. Ultimately, we want a better Jersey City for people and wildlife and this ordinance is needed to make that happen. It's urgently needed. Let's act
now to make a greener, more beautiful city for all of us for generations to come. Please support the bird friendly design standards. Thank you so much. >> Dural Sha. >> Hi. Um, dear council members, my name is
Dmal Sha. Thank you for your time and opportunity to speak today. Uh, my concern is simple and urgent and echoes the grave concerns raised by previous parent speakers. the lack of long-term capacity planning for PS16 and impact to downtown Jersey City families. I'm a
parent of a preK4 student at PS16. My daughter is seated right there and she's watching this very closely. This September, she was supposed to go into her neighborhood kindergarten school, but instead the board of education has decided without any parent input or consultation to continue to bus her bus
all the 5-year-olds to the Danford Center, which is about a 20-minute ride with no traffic. 20 minutes for a 5-year-old is a long distance from community and from belonging. This is not planning. This is reaction. In last week's meeting uh with the BOE, there
was a motion to review audit results of expenses which was rejected. If there is nothing to hide, then why block the transparency for the parents? In the same meeting, we were told to ask the governor for funding. Respectfully, if there is a problem at my house, I'm not going to call the president. I'm going
to fix it myself. In the same meeting, motion to find long-term solution of PA16 space issues was agreed. But isn't that their responsibility anyways? You don't need a motion for that. For over a decade, we know downtown Jersey City has grown at an astronomical pace. Thousands
of units, highrises, growth was predictable. But what about the school capacity plan? Vacant retail spaces sit throughout the downtown today. We must evaluate them for classrooms. And the numbers speak for themselves. The capital spending on facilities is roughly around $20 million. So about 2%
of the budget compared to the transportation cost which is about $33 million. So we are spending more to move children away than to create space for them here. We also hear that the third floor renovations at Danford centers are taking place where my daughter currently
goes for prek4. If so, parents must see those classrooms now, not on the first day of the school in September. Full transparency, full safety, no exceptions. Right now, responsibility is being passed between the BOE and other city departments like a ping-pong match. And our children are not to be passed
around. Kindergarten belongs in the community it serves. So I ask and urge for three things. Transparency, ownership, and immediate action. Work with the developers, explore the modular classrooms, lease space, reason intelligently, but do the hard work now
and not after another generation is displaced or when we are here again next year talking about the same issues with the first grade, second grade and so on. Empathy, leadership and urgency matters because failing to plan for classrooms is failing our children and failing our
community. Thank you. Hara Parrick. No, sorry. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Arya Periq and I'm a fourth grader at Via 16. My sister is starting kindergarten next year and I've been counting down the
days until she joins me at my school. But now I now finding out that she has to go to a completely different school 20 minutes away. That's not the annex. That's just far away. I want to create a lifelong memory and share my school with her. the after school programs I love,
the celebrations we have together, even just wearing dress down on the same day. I remember when I was in kindergarten and got to go to the main building for for the holiday sing along. Being in the auditorium felt with all the order older
kids felt like I was part of something bigger, like I belonged. My sister deserves that feeling, too. This might sound like small things, but to a little kid starting school, they're everything. They're what makes a school feel like home. I still reme remember my
kindergarten teacher and our teacher's assistant. They are some of my favorite memories from PS16. Even with the full class, they made sure to see every single one of us. I want my sister to have the same experiment experience. Why is moving kindergarten out of our
neighborhood the only resolution? I know our school is crowded. My class has 32 kids, but I've seen how the teachers work hard to make it better. For example, some students go to enrichment, the class gets a little smaller and everyone gets in attention. Why isn't
adding teachers assistance part of the solution instead of moving my sister 20 minutes away? And here's what I don't understand. PS16 has grown 278% in 16 years. That means the adults in charge have known about this for a really long time. This isn't a surprise.
There are thousands of new and upcoming apartments in downtown New Jersey. Now, why are we the parents and kids one being surprised now? Why wasn't this a plan made years ago? And why is this happening so fast? Kindergarten is scary, but my sister isn't scared
because she knows I'm there. Being in the school in the same school as me made her feel safe and excited to come. Taking her away from that from and from me is just overcrowding a problem. It takes away the one thing that's making her feel ready. Please keep kindergarten connected to be
a 16. Thank you. Thank you, Arya. That was really good. And sorry to say, adults are failing you right now. Hopefully, we'll fix it. Thank you for doing it. Nha Sabnes. >> Good evening. My name is Nha Sabnes. I'm
a parent of two kids at PS16. I'm here tonight because what's happening at PS16 is not just a school issue. It's a city planning issue and a long-term infrastructure issue. Superintendent Dr. Dr. Fernandez has called the overcrowding in the PS16 zone a critical
capacity crisis. A crisis we are told needs to be addressed immediately with her non-negotiable plan. But this did not happen overnight. PS16 has been under pressure for years. The city and the board of education has had years to plan, mitigate, and provide sustainable
solutions. Instead, what is the solution? to move the crisis elsewhere, to make our youngest children and dedicated teachers bear the consequences of poor planning and repeated short-term fixes, to add bandaids on top of band-aids. We also need to be honest about the
building involved. At Danforth, families have dealt with recurring heating issues and aging infrastructure for years. Multiple classrooms were without heat, most recently just a month ago, during the coldest weeks of winter. You don't solve overcrowding by sending more
children into buildings that already need significant upgrades. An article from Jersey City Ed from 20 from June 2018 said the outdoor space would be updated by September of 2018. 8 years later, it still looks the same. When we
ask for comprehensive plans, what we get instead is a letter with a so-called simulation of a single classroom with three desks. That is not a plan. Given these vague assurances of the past and the way this is being handled now, it
does not inspire any confidence that this plan will be executed in a clear, transparent and collaborative way. Parents, teachers and children deserve better. We were told the prek move was temporary. We all see how that has turned out. We cannot accept another
temporary solution that becomes permanent by default. We need a real plan and a long-term solution, including for prek. Until then, kindergarten has to stay in the annex and we parents are here to help support and collaborate with you every step of the way. Thank
you. >> Amy Kamadus. >> Evening council members. My name is Amy Kamadus. I've lived in Jersey City for 18 years. I'm a homeowner, a taxpayer, and a mom of two children at PS16, one in kindergarten and one in first grade.
I'm here because of the over the ongoing overcrowding at PS16 and the growing frustration in our community about how it's being addressed or not addressed as our neighborhood be continues to grow. PS16's already operating beyond capacity. An elementary school that
serves only kindergarten through 5ifth will be stretched across three separate buildings and multiple zip codes just to function is a band-aid solution. This is not a sudden crisis. For more than a decade, large-scale residential development has accelerated in this neighborhood. PS16's strong reputation
is highlighted in marketing materials to attract families into new buildings, but nothing is given back to our community. Growth was incentivized. Infrastructure was not. Major residential projects are still under construction and being approved, meaning overcrowding will continue until there is a structural
solution. What families are experiencing right now feels like a runaround with responsibility split between city and district and no clear ownership of the long-term solution. This has to change. Growth decisions are made here. The consequences are being played out in our
schools. So tonight, I'm asking for clarity and commitment. What is the city's concrete plan to align development with school capacity? What is the timeline that this community can expect and how long will you ensure that this does not continue to repeat itself?
Our kids are not temporary. Our community is not temporary and the solution cannot be temporary either. Thank you. Penny's next on the list. Okay. >> H. Hi. My name is Penny Neski. I'm 5 years old. I go to PSXT.
I am in kindergarten. I love my teachers. I love my school. Kindergarten kids stay should stay in our neighborhood. We are little. Please help us.
Kevin Davis I think I can reach this mic. All right. So, you guys know all about Oprah because every single time there's an election, people running say are saying, "I'm in favor of Oprah. People need to
be able to get information on what the government's doing." Everybody came out against the uh the Oprah reform, which was reforming Oprah to make it harder to file one. So, I just figured I'd tell you about an Oprah request I filed where
I'm still waiting to hear back. The response time was longer than the response at NBC. And at least at MVC, they call your number. Although, I don't know if they're going to be calling your number at NBC after the state has passed the craziest ebike bill, which is
insane. Why do I need a license to drive a car to drive an ebike? But that's another story. So, uh, on January 15th, I went when you guys were sworn in, and one of the first things you guys talked about was increasing your legislative
staff budget 150%. So, I thought, okay, let's see if it's a good decision. I want to see who you guys hired. So, I filed an OPER request for all the resumes for all the city council staffers. uh
because I want to see okay are we are we getting people who have worked in government not just in other sectors and I've already been delayed twice and I realized okay I'm not getting delayed for any sinister reason because I'm finding out that other people it takes
forever to get an open response from the city uh including journalists uh so we're having a discussion and we're having all these meetings and opeds on if we should you you know, spend more money on city council aids when we're about to have a deficit when
we do have a deficit in the present tense, but we can't even know like the quality of what we're getting. Um, and I certainly applaud council members Griffin and Educational Gilmore, uh, for pushing to
delay it while the city looks at everything else because once this budget comes out, I don't know how you're going to justify raising taxes, uh, cutting salaries and cutting staff positions when you're increasing your own budget potentially. Uh, so it should have been an educational moment from educational
deal more. Uh, so certainly I hope they get a response and I hope the city can do something to make Oprah responses quicker. Uh, because all you got to do for mine, mine's an easy one. Hope I file this request and it takes only a week. It took me only a week. You just take a black marker and you cross out
everybody's address and all the personal information. The only person's address I wanted was Tina Nulls because I bet you throw great parties, but I don't really care about that. Uh, so please like fix it so we can get our open request filed quicker.
Debbie Deania. Oh, Andrea Worthington. >> Evening. Um, my name is Andrea Worthington. Uh, I have a major fear of public speaking, but um, I have a bigger fear for what's happening to our children. I'm here to
speak of two major problems facing our kids in Jersey City. The first is the very last minute announcement of moving kindergarten to Danforth, as I'm sure you've seen and heard a lot of kids speak of and their parents. Um, my family moved to this neighborhood only
for the reason of PX16 because of its reputation from both of my children. When my youngest son turned three, I was heartbroken to learn he had to be bust 20 to 25 minutes away, but we had a light at the end of the tunnel that we he would be close by in kindergarten.
He's now in kindergarten, but I sympathize with all the other parents who are suffering through long-distance prek and now have to do it as well in kindergarten. Kindergarten is when they really start to learn, when they start to be students. When my son was at Danforth, I didn't
have a car. It was a 25-minute cab ride each way whenever he was sick, whenever there was an event. This ended up costing a lot of money. Then there's the bus chaos. I highly suggest that you come and check it out because it is heartbreaking. Children become
misplaced. They're in constant harm's way. Cars constantly want to go around the buses, cutting them off, parking where the buses are supposed to park. And finally, there's the traffic time that eats into the learning time. This
is especially pro problematic for kindergarteners who are really starting that learning curve. The second issue is screen usage. My 5-year-old is coming home every single day telling me what shows he's watched. We have initiated meetings with Superintendent Fernandez
who constantly gives non-answers and passes the buck and refused to give school guidelines that they must follow. They even adopted tech heavy math programs that are clearly not vetted by educational experts. It is obvious someone's pocket is being lined. Instead
of teachers teaching math, cartoons on the smart green are teaching smart screen are teaching them. Numerous research has proven time and time again that this not only is causing neurological disabilities in children, but it's even low lowering the district testing scores, which they're always
touting to be high. I demand that the board of ed be under closer scrutiny. They are not looking out for the students anymore. They're looking out for their political careers. Thank you. We I see Eric Connor listed here, but I
believe he's already spoken. That's just a duplication. Uh, the next speaker is Ivan Ovali. Hello. Good evening, council members. So, I came to talk here about the proposed B ordinance. So, first of all,
I want to start by saying that while I strongly support protecting birds and wildlife, I and I really appreciate the tremendous work of bird advocacy groups. But with that said, we have to be careful about how this organisms is
ridden. If we are notful about this, we could do unintentionally way more harm than good. Along with the high cost, overly strict requirements, this could change how housing is built in our city and not in
a good way. If regulations are way too strict, we will end up encouraging installing fewer or much smaller windows. That means less natural light, especially in smaller units, making them feel less livable for residents. And
like it was mentioned earlier today even a two to 3% raise like in cost like in the cancel by payroll tax item like you were discussing earlier which might sound like a small number but it is a huge amount of money for this type of
projects. Other cities that have passed similar ordinances have taken a more targeted and practical approach. in New York, in Toronto. They focus on high-risk areas, limited require requirements to under 40
feet tall since most B collisions occur below that height and almost all of them made exceptions for affordable housing. This is smart policym. So we have to make policies based on
real data and facts, not vibes. Let's take for example speed limits. We don't have a citywide blanket speed limit for all streets. It all depends on the context. We apply different limits based on the on the road itself like for example near school
parks where risk is the highest. That along with proper enforcement of course increases street safety without sacrificing mobility. affordability has also been a big priority for the mayor and without
thoughtful amendments. This ordinance goes completely against that goes completely against that. So if you want a more affordable GRC city, please make the necessary amendments because the way it is right now it could hurt many residents like me. Thank you.
U council president if I can just and to the clerk if I can make just make a quick statement because I see people are you know have young children they'll be leaving. Um so I just wanted to thank uh everyone who's come out to speak whether it was on PS16 um on um Franklin um street um bike
lanes um oneway street rather um Franklin Avenue um and um on Bay Street development and any other issues. Um, I've gotten a lot of communications from a lot of people on different issues. Um, but I honestly have not gotten anything
from anyone on PS16. I did get the privilege of talking to uh, Councilwoman Singh brought this to my attention and more recently the mayor's office did as well. Um, but I haven't spoken to folks. So, I'd love to communicate with you. I know you got young kids. You might be leaving. Um, my council aids are out
here. I'm going to ask them to stand up and raise their hands. Um, and if you can just uh if you would like to connect with my office, I'd love to hear more about uh what your uh the ongoing concerns there and what the issues are with regard to PS16 beyond kind of what's been discussed here publicly.
Okay. Feel free to reach out to them if you want to talk to them. If not, then that's fine, too. Thanks, >> Caitlyn Graham. Andreas Layman. Andreas. >> Yeah, Andreas Lemon. Good evening, council members. My name is Andreas
Leven. I'm a parent in the PS16 public school zone. I'm here because downtown Jersey City has a school capacity crisis that has come to a head. a crisis that was entirely predictable, that has been neglected for years, and that this body together with the school district has
the power to address. For years, preK3 and PreK4 students have been busted out of our neighborhood to Danford in Greenville. Parents were told this was temporary, but it has turned into a permanent status quo. Now, kindergarten is being moved as well because long-standing planning failures have led to chronic capacity problems for the
school district and the city the school district and the city have failed to address again and again. Um, others have spoken about the issues inherent with busing people to a far away locations. So, I won't go into that. We want to stop this move because it is yet another bandaid that is being sold as a
temporary stop gap measure but will soon turn into a new status quo. It will yet again allow the district and the city to kick the can down the road on a permanent solution for our uh children in Jersey City. A problem which should
have s been solved years ago. The problem will not go away. It will get worse. What's next? Will grades one and two be sent off to Danford? We are witnessing a collective application of responsibility by the city and the district. I want to make this concrete.
At last week's board of education meeting, over 50 parents showed up to demand answers on this issue. Public commentary was cut to one minute, and no one wants to take responsibility. The district has acknowledged the problem, but continues to push responsibility to other stakeholders, including the city
and the state. The superintendent said explicitly, "Mayors build schools, not us." At a recent planning board meeting where parents spoke up, the response was, and I quote, "Schools aren't our purviews. talk with your councilman, talk with the mayor, talk with the board
of education. You cannot just stop two buildings coming up for schools and everything. And the mayor's office says it is the district's responsibility. This is a collective governance failures. And the voters and taxpayers of downtown Jersey City deserve better. So, here we are. What can this body do?
It's the city's job to manage enrollment growth, development, planning, and infrastructure alignment to ensure residents have access to quality education within their neighborhood. There's tens of thousands of units coming up and we need to make sure that uh we address this issue now. So the
question is um which current upcoming developments is the city engaging with regarding school capacity? What and what redevelopment agreements are being used to secure school space? The city has leverage to address this problem and we demand that this leverage is being used
and make no mistake right PS16 is a canary in the coman as others have told the same issue is going to come to other areas in the city and we're asking the council to take responsibility today and work with the district to solve this issue once and for all. Thank you.
Jeremy Ning. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Jeremy and my daughter Northern May here as a student at PS16. As you've heard tonight, PSP preK3 and preK4 students have been busted for many years and not a superintendent with no
care, plan of consideration for students, teachers or families once they're at kindergarten. Now, I'm not an expert on city planning. That's all of you seated at the table today. But I have played Sim City. And today, I want to share three lessons
I've learned from Sim City that I can't believe I'm still seeing in Jersey City today. Number one, when you build more homes, you also need to build more public services. That includes hospitals, parks, police stations, fire stations,
and of course, schools. If you don't do that, your Sims get unhappy. They move to the suburbs, and you lose the game. Lesson number two, when you have an old abandoned building, you tear it down and build a new one. You don't start moving
three, four, and 5year-olds inside. And even more so, you don't start in construction on the third floor that risk disturbing asbestos related materials. Lesson number three, someone needs to be in charge. It's absurd to me how we're playing this game of past the parcel
between the mayor's office, the BOE, the SDA, the HDC, and other acronyms that I can't even begin to understand. We're calling on you, our elected officials, to step up, even if it's not within your so-called job scope. Anyone
who does that will have the support of hundreds of parents for many years to come. My last observation about Sim City is that it's great because you can very easily tell when your Sims are happy or unhappy because they show a green face or red face. And if you couldn't already
tell, there are a lot of red faces in the crowd here tonight. Emma. >> Hi. Good evening, council members. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Um, I am a PS16 parent. The superintendent
released a letter on February 19 stating kindergarten student of PS16 will be relocated to old Denver building and there is no constructions as of now and that the Denver center is in compliance. However, this letter does not include
any recent aspatals inspections, air quality clearance result or independent environmental certification. Many parents remain concerned about potential asbattos exposure and
environmental safety of this move. Especially they notice that asbestos removal van keep coming to the school during the weekends. As parent, we are not asking for politics. We are asking for documentation.
Before children are relocated, can the city request that asbesto survey, environmental report, and compliance certifications be publicly released? Transparency is the simplest way to
restore trust. We all agree overwhelming and overcrowding is a problem, but safety verification must be clear and documented before any official announcement.
I love Jersey City from the bottom of my heart. However, I know many preK4 families are seriously considering leaving because the uncertainty surrounding this situation. I also know that there are many parents
here tonight even they do not sign up to speak and many more could not attend are watching online. We all live in Jersey City. We care deeply about this community. So I want to ask what kind of
city do we want to build? Do you want to build a city that family just stay here for a couple of years and then they move to suburbs or any other areas? Or do you want to build a city where family feel safe, informed, and confident to stay
here to call it home for the long term? Thank you for your time. Tom Keane. Good evening. I'm Tom Kaine here tonight representing Bike JC and thousands of my neighbors who want a safer way to get around Jersey City, particularly in the
Heights. I urge each council member to vote in favor of ordinance 26-010. This ordinance would reconfigure Franklin Street into a one-way between Palisade Avenue and Central Avenue, allowing space for urgently needed safety improvements. These safety improvements include a two-way protected
bike lane and pedestrian infrastructure such as concrete curb extensions, high visibility crosswalks, and school zone markings for PS16. This location was chosen because of its uh location on Jersey City's high-end entry network. As if that's not enough, this project is
already paid for. To recap the history of this project, the city worked with BikeJ to apply for and to win a grant from the state in 2023. The Department of Infrastructure created initial designs and volunteers uh built a demonstration on Manhattan
Avenue and Franklin Street as a proof of concept in 2024. Professionals were able to watch how all users of the street interacted with the proposed design. Their feedback was then incorporated into the designs, including shifting the focus to Franklin Street. The uh these design uh sorry, the design of these
improvements has been informed by a robust and thorough public engagement campaign which included community meetings and surveys. Over 800 of our neighbors signed a petition supporting the project and sent letters to the council. That's 800 of your constituents asking you to approve this ordinance.
Residents, business owners, school administrators, and city departments have had more than two years to share their input. The design was recently updated to include feedback from the fire department. Franklin Street is the perfect location for this project. It's adjacent to the business quarter on uh
Central Avenue. It connects Persing Field to Riverview Park and will help alleviate dangerous street crossing conditions for the families of PS8. We are long overdue for these safety improvements in the Heights. This particular project is fully funded via the state grant. If the moral imperative of safer streets is not enough to win
your support of this ordinance, consider how unconscionable it would be to reject free money in the city's current financial climate. U with a moment of time remaining, I'd also like to state how disappointed I've been this year uh at the city's efforts to remove snow from the protected bike lanes. Protected bike lanes are critical infrastructure.
Jersey City has a responsibility to keep uh keep them clear for the thousands who use them year round. A full month after the last storm, the 18th Street protected bike lane was still impassible. That is truly pathetic and we expect better. On a lighter note, I'd like to invite each of you and your
staff to the first uh bike JC lightup ride which is Friday the 13th. We're going to roll from the Grove Street Path Plaza right at sunset. All are welcome, all ages and abilities. Hope to see you there. The next speaker is Nurmal Shaw, but I believe you spoke earlier. Is this Yeah.
Oh, this is okay. This is your son. Okay. Okay. Good evening. My name is Siobhan and I am 8 years old. I'm here because I care about my sister and other kindergarten kids. Moving kindergarten to Danford
means a 25minute bus ride and on bad weather days almost 35 minutes. That is a very long time for 5 year olds. I watched my sister go in the bus last 2 years already and it is very
uncomfortable. My family are immigrants. We have been here since I was four. It took us years to build our community. Our school is not just a building. It is our second home. Our teachers and friends feel like family. Now families
are talking about moving away because of school issues, including mine. We finally settled here. Please don't make us start all over again. Schools should make children feel safe and supported,
not stressed. You have the power to make the right choice. These small kids and their families deserve better. Thank you. >> Could we >> I just wanted to we just get the young man's name because we have we have it
listed twice as his father. But what how >> ana can you spell that? >> H I B A N S H. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh the next speaker is Tony
Burelli. >> Hi Tony Belli, vice president of Bike JC. You all already know that as an organization, we strongly support the Franklin Street project. I will just add this. At your recent caucus meeting, you
discussed some minor adjustments that may be made to the plan to the final design in order to address some concerns raised about it. That of course is totally appropriate. I would note here for the record that our cities nationally, yay, even
internationally admired infrastructure and transportation department staffs have always been ready, willing, and able to address such sticking points on this and every project before and even after they're built out.
Indeed, no project that changes patterns of transportation use is truly complete until it has been in place for three or six or 12 months in use in the real world, until everyone who uses the corridor has had time to adjust to it
and its benefits to the entire community have become abundantly clear. With that in mind, we ask that anyone raising further concerns about this eminently worthy project or anyone hearing them, as you inevitably will,
treat them as opportunities to make it that much better rather than a reason to support nothing but the failed status quo. Uh, we'll see you in two weeks and thank you, >> Carol McNichol. No, Carol
Renee Pera. Hi, I want to begin by sharing how many parents are arriving here today if it isn't already abundantly clear. Um, because I believe these feelings are widely shared across our community. We feel disappointed that a situation
affecting your children's school and I say your children because we're your residents. So these are your children by extension. Your children's school reached this point without earlier coordination or planning. Sorry, we feel confused because many of us have taken a
crash course in Jersey City development, historic building regulations, and even the ins and outs of asbestos abatement just to understand what is happening to your children's school. I was going to say we are tired uh but
actually we're pretty fired up. We never expected to have to advocate to fight simply to ensure a safe and stable learning environment for your children. But here we are. I usually try to come to meetings with solutions, but this is so much bigger than any one parent or
even all of these parents, the parents at home. Um, so here are my questions. Can the city provide an inventory of properties that could be evaluated and considered for school space? We could probably help you with that at this point. Um, how does the city currently account for school overcrowding when
approving residential development? Will council formally advocate alongside parents and teachers to prioritize a school solution? Given over a decade without a long-term plan, will council commit to convening a joint planning process with the board of
ed and relevant state agencies? I understand the city does not operate the school district, but the city plays a critical role in planning land use and coordination that directly affects school capacity. To the superintendent and the board of ed, poor communication
cannot be blamed on a lack of funding. Poor communication reflects a lack of respect for families, educators, and this community. We deserve transparency, support, and a clear path forward. We will continue to advocate. We will continue to show up. And when the time
comes, we will vote. Sincerely, thank you. >> Dana Haymon. Uh, hello. I'm Dana. I'm a resident in Ward D and a board member of Safe Streets JC. I strongly support the Franklin Street improvements and creating a protected bike lane in the
Heights. My main forms of transportation are walking and taking the bus. Uh I'm excited that this design not only includes a protected bike lane to make biking safer in the Heights, but it also includes a lot of pedestrian improvements that will make it safer for those traversing this area.
A lot of FUD, which stands for fear, uncertainty, and doubt, is about to come your way over the next two weeks from naysayers. They're going to say the exact same things over and over and over again. No, the people that live here don't want it. No one uses them. It'll
slow down emergency response, and there's too much traffic. I want to assure you that I live in the Heights. I'm going to use the bike lane. The emergency considerations have been addressed by our infrastructure experts. And the fact that this street is a mess
and has a ton of traffic is a reason to do the project. And I'm not alone. The 7 800 people that wrote letters uh to your predecessors asking to have this bike lane put in place agree with me. I urge you all to vote yes on this ordinance um
in a couple of weeks. Don't let FUD get in the way of safety for pedestrians and cyclists. Thank you. >> Kindred Schulen. >> Thank you for allowing us the time to speak. My name is Kindred Schulen. I'm from Ward E. Um, I'm also a parent who's
concerned about the kindergarten relocation to Danforth. I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old. Um, my four-year-old attends Danforth. Um, but I'm actually more concerned about my 2-year-old. Uh, and I wanted to share a personal story to kind of hopefully
illustrate why I really feel like proximity is important and to a lot of other people's points that like we we have a community here. Um, I twice now I've received the call that every parent dreads when their phone rings. And that's the call that my son stopped
breathing at daycare um or school or daycare and um and stopped breathing, turned blue and lost consciousness and um luckily I we sent him to daycare in Palace Hook in our community. I work from home. The second time I was at home
working and was able to literally walk out my door and run to him. Um, and when I entered the room, it was full of daycare personnel and and um, paramedics and he was stable and and and breathing and um, and I could hear the relief that
everyone breathed that the mom, you know, his mom was there and I was able to hold him and comfort him and um, and ride to in the ambulance to the emergency room with him. And I just I think that you know luckily emergencies are are not frequent but I think that that sort of scenario should be given
consideration that um proximity is really important. Our children don't deserve to go through an emergency without the parent able to get there and and be be their advocate. Um he will be starting at Danforth in a year and a half. And um you know the kindergarten
relocation just kind of adds to an issue that's already very concerning that our it's kind of absurd that our children are our our youngest most vulnerable community members are brought to this satellite location for school. Um I worry about you know what what happens if he has a breathing episode and I'm
you know I'm all you know all the way in Palace Hook or you know at my office in Manhattan. How long will it take me to get there? Um what if something happens while he's on the bus? Uh my daughter I'm very familiar with, you know, they get strapped in and the bus attendants are wonderful. The bus drivers are
wonderful, but am I if something happens to him during that ride to school, am I relying on other three-year-olds to report to the bus attendant that my son is in trouble? Um this is a big problem and I I really appreciate your consideration. Um thinking about not not
just all of our children, but also the most vulnerable children and the children who, you know, may come across emergencies. Um thank you for your time. Bill Lilis. Bill, >> if I may just say a word to the PS16
parents. Um, I know some of them have left already, but for the ones who are still here, um, I know some of you live in Wy, some of you live in Ward F. Um, but it doesn't matter. Um, I I am committed to working exhausting all
avenues to try and find a way to get another school built downtown. I don't know if it will happen in time to help the children this year. In fact, I would think that's extremely unlikely because they do take time to be built.
But, um, whether that's, you know, working with the state to get funding or, um, working to get this built as a community benefit in a new development, I do want to make it a priority to bring a public school downtown.
>> David Putin's Hi again, David to Kelly Putnins. I think it hyphenation didn't work on the website. And I'm here with my son. Can you just say your name real quick? >> Hi, my name is Paulie. >> Um, yeah. So, I'm here to talk about the
uh kindergarten move to Danver like many parents here today. Um, you know, in case you're wondering how much these parents really care about this, his bedtime is 7:45, so I am screwed tonight. But I'm still here to talk about it. Um, you know, this has been a ongoing
problem. As people have talked about, there are lots of new buildings going up. There have been new buildings going up. There will be new buildings going up. The first thing I want to emphasize is, you know, people are talking about building schools is hard and complicated and it can't be in Jersey City. We have
40 schools in Jersey City. If a building that's a hundred years old is ready to be replaced, that's like a new school every two and a half years we should be building. The fact that every school, it's like, oh, what do we do? How do we do this? It should just be a regular procedure. There should always be a
school being under construction. And the fact that we're so far away from that, it's a huge problem that needs to be fixed. Hopefully, obviously, we hope we can start fixing it in the downtown area. Um, and one thing I want to emphasize on that, you said, you know, I really appreciate your support for building a
new school. You should think about that one new school. The city built the annex in 2020 20ish um to support preK. By the time it was finished being built, it was for kindergarten. PreK stayed at Danford. By the time this next school is being
built, yeah, we're probably going to be able to bring kindergarten back. Are we going to be able to bring prek back? Also, that's 30 classrooms to bring all of our children back to the downtown area. And that doesn't include any future growth. You're probably looking at 40 or 50 new classrooms that are necessary to be built in the next 5
years. That might be more than one school. That might be two. That might mean splitting the PS16 zone. And I think it's really important that we really just start on this. You can't wait forever trying to come up with the perfect plan. Is this the right place for a school? Is this the right place for a school? You don't need a school.
You need schools. We need to start building them. We need to start building them now. Thank you. Monica Monica Del Rio. Um I'm I'm listed twice because I made a mistake. It's my first time and uh I'm speaking on two topics so I'm going to
cover both. Um so I'm going to start with relocation to Danport. Um, my name is Monica. I've been a resident of Jersey City for the past four and a half years. I am the mother of two children. My daughter Liliana, who is nine, who is
speaking after me, and she attends PS16, and my son who's in preK4 at Danforth. My son will be part of this first class that will be impacted by the proposal to relocate Danfort to Dan. Um, I want to first commend this group of parents for
making me um, extra aware and encouraging me to speak. This community, this parent community is strong and Jersey City is lucky to have them. So, please continue to partner with us. As the parents keep learning about this plan, it has become increasingly
frustrating when you realize and think of the lack of communication and details and the lack of ample time that we were communicated. Um the proposal was shared with very limited time to assess, push back, review other options before
September 2026 is upon us. Framing of the issue as urgent is deceptive and it feels disingenuous. Um Jersey community, city community has been aware. We've seen the overpopulation. How is this acceptable
to anyone here, to anyone that has participated in any position representing this community? framing it as an issue of safety, overcrowding again is deceptive and it feels insulting. Uh we the parents have known that and our children are experiencing
it. You're preaching to the choir. Question is why did you why was it um allowed to get to this point that you're now passing the burden to us the parents and the kids to deal with it. The lack of transparency is the last item I want
to raise. The asbestos issue has been extremely stressful. Um I didn't think I would have to deal with it at this time um in my my life. Um we're running around like crazy parents chatting, texting each other while we're at work.
Um we were we were uh promised that it was not happening. Renovation will take place in the summer. Unfortunately, parents walking around the school start seeing construction on the third floor. That day was extremely stressful. I barely got any work done. Um, but it's
on the parents to start communicating and telling each other that is that is actually happening. So now we're we have people walking around the building noticing asbestos. We have a lot of the mistrust going on right now, which is not okay. Um, this administration needs
to recognize that having the community it represents feel this way is neither good for us and it's neither good for the community. Um, so really, oh no, I'm so sorry. I also had to represent Portite. I'm a Portite Towers resident.
I'm here to also speak on that initiative and uh um I am so sorry, but you guys represented me. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm Liliana, a fourth grader and P is 16. I want my little brother
Christian, who is in PreK 4, to have the same experience as me. When I was younger, my favorite teachers were Miss Palmer and Mr. Backer, and they're awesome. Even if my brother does not get one of my favorite teachers, it's okay because all teachers at the Annex are
just as good. I don't see my teachers as often. I was looking forward to picking up my brother so I can see them more often. I want my brother to learn, not to be on a bus for over 40 minutes every single day when he could be learning in
school. Not only is Miss Palmer and the other teachers exceptional, but they also form a really vital part of what makes this community and politics so special. However, if you do move kindergarten to Danfort, it will be very
challenging for teachers. For example, the music teacher will have to teach at the annex one day, the next they have to be at Danfort. And of course, there's my school, PS16. This entire thing is very confusing and
is going to be stressful for the teachers. In conclusion, you will rule on PS16 and it's history if you do this. Thank you. Dina Estraen. Good evening. My name is Dina and I'm a
parent of two PS16 students. First of all, it's deeply upsetting that we have reached a point where we have to fight for basic fair conditions for our children. We love PS16. We love our neighborhood and this community. That's why we bought a home here to stay, to
invest, and to be involved. We pay extremely high taxes to live here. And we do so willingly because we believe in this school and in this town. And yet, instead of sending our youngest children to the new beautiful annex, a building our tax dollars helped fund, they will
be busted for the third year in a row across the city to an old building next door to a gun shop. That doesn't feel fair. It's not fair that young children experience lockdowns because of shootings in the surrounding area. This overcrowding in downtown didn't happen
overnight. It's the result of years of insufficient planning and coordination between the city and developers. And now our children are the ones paying the price. There are so many reasons why relocating kindergarten is wrong decision. Let me mention just a few.
Firstly, it creates a daily logistical nightmare for families, especially those who have more than one child at PS 16. Parents are forced to split drop offs with staggered start times. Managing this for two years has already been exhausting. Extending it to a third year
is ridiculous. That is not standard our community expects or deserves. The transportation of kids is 200 hours a year. Just think about this number. It's time that is taken from their sleep, their play, their childhood.
Second, kindergarten in annex comes with excellent resources, awesome teachers, CBA clubs, outdoor space, and m much more. Why should our youngest children lose access to this opportunities? There is no way to replicate the same level of facilities and experience at Danford.
There is just no magic. Third, the lack of communication has been unacceptable. The first notice of this move was sent at the end of January, far too late since by then most private schools had no openings available. Even now parents haven't been presented with a clear
construction plan for Danford or detailed logistics explaining how this relocation will work. We are being asked for tr to trust a plan that doesn't exist yet. Obviously, long-term solutions must be found, but we are firmly opposite to this short-term
band-aid approach. Sending the youngest kids away is not a solution. It's a proof of pling failures from the city administration and board of education. We elected you to represent our community and to plan responsibly for its growth. Please don't make us regret
our choices. Thank you. Uh Renee Pera is a repeat. So the next speaker is Ricky Kamaya. >> That's up to the council president. >> Uh we normally uh don't replace people. Are there any other parents who are here
with little ones that are on the speakers list? So, I will ask uh if we could allow the parents with the little ones to go if that is okay with everyone so that they can get these
kids to bed. If you are signed up on the list to speak uh and you have your little one, if you could make a a a uh line in the aisle so we can allow you to go and please give the clerk your name so
that we can check you off on the list. Thank you for your understanding. Uh, Shini Pacharia. I think I'm currently 114. Good evening. My name is Arhan Golden and I'm a third grader at PS16. I have a little brother in the annex and it's
nice to have him in the same school. Other kids should have the same chance to go to kindergarten in our neighborhood as well. Good evening, council. My name is Shini Badacharia. I've lived in Jersey City
for over a decade. Currently a homeowner and taxpayer in the Palace Hook neighborhood. Uh I'm the parent of two PS16 students. My youngest is in kindergarten, so we're not immediately impacted by the kindergarten move. But I'm here tonight because this community
is our home, and what happens to its youngest families matters to all of us. Superintendent Fernandez used the word crisis. I appreciate the honesty, but let's be clear. This is not a sudden emergency. Downtown has been growing for over a decade. Residential development
was approved year after year, and school infrastructure planning was never planned alongside it. That's not bad luck. That's a planning failure. Now, we're watching the consequences pile up. Larger class sizes, young children bust out of our neighborhood, and kindergarteners being moved to the
Danforth building. A building now being rushed to readiness by September with open questions about hazardous materials and asbestous. Families deserve real answers, not reassurances. Show us the plan. Show us the timeline. Show us our youngest students will be safe. Looking
ahead, we need more than a band-aid. We need a permanent neighborhood school in the PS16 zone with transparent benchmarks and accountability. And we need to understand how the city and the school district are actually working together to get there. A couple months ago, I was talking to a friend who grew
up in Jersey City. She attended PS16 in the '9s. Even back then, preK kids in our zone were housed in trailers. Tonight, we've been talking mostly about the last 10 to 15 years, but zooming out, this is 30 years of kicking the can
down the road. So, I'll leave you with a few questions. Will Jersey City families look back in another 30 years and say nothing changed? Will the city's legacy on this issue be over a half century of inertia? Or are we finally going to sit down together and build something
lasting? Thank you. >> Hey, how are you? This is Nor. My name is Nor Conroy and I am a first grader. I am 6 years old and I'm almost se seven. I have a
younger sister named Nyla and I would like to talk about in the past like when I was 4 years old in Danforth how riding the bus was
difficult. I it was it was hot and I me me my sister has the bus now and I had me and my sister had
motion sickness so we don't really like the bus. >> Uh my name is Rachel Kroy. a therapist and also um as I said I have a child in PS 16 and PS3 and we got in PS3 because it was a lottery cuz there's not enough
space for all the kids and they made some a lotment for us at PS3. Um I put my younger one in down because everyone said I had to do it to get a spot at the elusive PS16. So we did it even though she had really bad motion sickness and I had a newborn and they kind of
illustrate a lot of the mornings that a lot of parents have. I had a newborn strapped to me to carry her and we're running to the bus and because I live in a luxury building, three elevators wouldn't work and you had to cross other side, you lose three minutes. If you go down the road and there's a rainstorm or snow and it takes longer to get to the
bus and sometimes the bus leaves without you and it is very stressful, especially when I went back from maternity leave to get to kids on time and if you miss the bus, you would lose an hour of your day to bring your kids to Danforth. And I think Danforth is a great school. The
teachers are amazing. No one's complaining about the quality of education at Danforth. We're complaining about the quality of life issues for the three, four, and 5year-olds for our community. And um I know space comes up a lot. Um there's a whole building available in Harborside. There is space
in Jersey City. We don't have access to it. There is a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe's and that's great. I'd prefer a school for my kids. And I think the idea that having a school in your neighborhood is luxury. It's not. It's a children's right. And I think our children's rights are being absconded and the rights of developers and we have
to be braver to say you know what you can't just build wherever you want. The path system is overloaded and I think that these issues continue to get greater and the whole community it's not just our schools. Why are people fighting to stay in our neighborhood because PS has good grades and scores
and because other schools in Jersey City don't get enough support. I went to interview at a job in Greenville. I thought I was in a developing country. It is disgusting how the schools did not get enough resources and that's why people are all pulling together and a small a lotment of land to go to school and it's not okay. Thank you for your
time. >> Ma'am, hold on. Just I just want to make sure I have it correct here. Are you Are you Rachel Anne McCann? >> Oh, Rachel and Kroy. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. So, you're number 56. Okay. So, I'll not mark you down as having >> Thank you. So, she's number 56. Uh 65.
I'm sorry. Hello, I'm Riti Doshi. I think 95 >> I think. We're Are we hearing people who have children? >> Yeah, she's sitting in the back. She was running around before. >> Okay. What number are you? I'm sorry. >> 95. Okay. So, you Okay. BT.
>> Yes. >> Okay. All right. Hold on one second. begin. >> Um first of all, thank you for being considerate and allowing us to speak. Um last week that did not happen at the board of education meeting and that was
my first exposure to any political stuff in US and I was I I had I don't have words. I was just appalled at how little the board of education here and the superintendent cared about the children or families.
They don't care. Um and we we as parents pay really high price to live in so-called nice area with good school district and we feel cheated. Um, we did not know how dysfunctional the education
was here before buying here. And our three and four year olds are being shipped to Danforth where there is a gun shop right next door. Um, in the four short months of my daughter being that in that place, it was locked down twice due to nearby gun violence. It's
20 minutes away without traffic. It doesn't account for waiting for bus. Sometimes as long as 40 minutes in 7°ree weather, 20 minutes to load the bus and the same to unload them. So it's almost an hour each way that is lost. We have
been missing a lot of school days, but we thought it's fine. It's only prek 3 and prek 4 and now it's going to be for kindergarten 2. That's supposed to be a fundamental entry year for the school and we don't want to do that.
this young kids and we are very disappointed and getting disheartened by inaction of the city and the board of education especially except for two of their members I should say uh the superintendent provides misleading information and is not
transparent work was happening at Danffort and we were lied to three and four year olds can't complain teachers are afraid to speak under this supervision and who the superintendent is highly paid but whose expertise is
deflection. The work stopped after parents asked DO inspector to stop by let alone education even health of our young kids is not important to them. Having a school nearby will give us opportunity to be involved and force
management to be transparent. Many parents here are highly educated engineers, doctors, bankers, lawyers and we could spend time our time doing something better. But we are worried about our children's health and education despite being in so-called
good area and we can't even have a proper school. That's shameful. So every decision maker needs to come together and do something about it and not kick the can down the road. Thank you.
Amber, do you have a child? I I I didn't catch that. Is she Are you planning on speaking? Are you on the list? Are you okay? So, are you are you uh Ricky? Okay. All right. Sorry. All right. >> Good evening. I'm a parent of uh a
taller zone for PS16. I'm here to echo my fellow parents here. I'm very disappointed by the superintendent and Dr. Fernandez and BOE including Miss um Miss Basquez not non-transparency on the decisions of ma moving the PS16
kindergarten and busing the toddlers out. The busing crisis chokes our streets with traffic but worse it robs our toddlers of a community-based education. So the parents in this community have been working tirelessly researching and putting together viable options of where a school could have
been built. We have done the homework, but it is not really our job to be the urban planners. I urge the council to formally work with the board of education. Stop putting toddlers on buses building the schools where our children live and it needs to start now.
In October 2025 BOE meeting, trustee de John Mars, now the VP of BOE, made a public speech stating that no mayor or candidate running is going to run the BOE. And Miss Velasquez did not correct that, rather made a statement to further divide. I hope now under the new
leadership of this council, there is new sentiment and path forward for Jersey City to be connected rather than divided. Thank you. Uh, Nico Echandi. Oh, okay. Uh, we already uh heard from
Rachel. Uh, Kevin Weller. While Kevin's on his way up, I just want to say I'm a parent of a young child and I appreciate the parents uh coming out and making time and uh you were heard tonight. Thank you. Hold on a second. I believe there's a
handout. >> Good evening, Council President Ridley and City Council. I am Kevin Weller in the forever ren controlled Portsight Towers East in Word F. Council President, at the last meeting, you asked Michelle and me by name whether
our group could bring fewer speakers. You asked politely. You asked for an answer before tonight. Let me give you that answer clearly and with respect. On behalf of Michelle Hirs and myself, we decline. Other speakers tonight are individual
residents of this city. Some may give you their own answer. Judith already gave you hers. I'm also asking you to consider retracting your request. Not tonight. Tonight, I'm asking you to listen carefully for what could become a
liability for this city and for you personally. Consult with corporation council and any attorney you trust. Then decide how to proceed. This is the third time you've made this request. Each time the reason has changed. On March 26th of last year, the
ask came through attorneys, paraphrasing your words, "Didn't our lawyers ask your lawyers to ask you to speak less?" January 28th of this year, privately to Michelle, giving as your reason that the new council members are feeling overwhelmed. February 11th, publicly
from the deis, citing elderly residents having to wait. Three requests, three different justifications over the course of 11 months. For the record, over three years and more than 1,000 speeches, Council President Waterman never once made this request. Yours began in a
hallway conversation during your first session as acting president shortly after. Waterman left early. They've escalated from private to public. Every time you acted in your role as president of this council, that pattern matters.
In December 2024, the third circuit decided reading verse North Hanover Township binding law in our federal district. That court held that when government officials coordinate to pressure citizens to reduce their protected speech, even politely, even through lawyers, even through city
attorneys, it's a first amendment violation. That campaign lasted 3 weeks. Ours is at 11 months. The court also held qualified immunity does not apply when the violation is this clearly established. I share this not as a
threat. Council President, you and Council Gilmore know who we are and that we come here in good faith. We don't want anyone in this room in any legal position that could be uh avoided. I respectfully ask that tonight you allow each speaker their remarks without
revisiting this request. You're welcome to respond whenever you see fit, but for the sake of this city and its people, I hope you choose to respond by the next council meeting. If you do choose to respond tonight, I ask that you allow each of us to speak first during this time set aside for the public. We will
not reduce our voices until the violations that brought us here are resolved. Thank you. So John, John, I just want to say a few things now and thank you Kevin for presenting that in a thoughtful and respectful way.
I appreciate that. Um, but some of those things were untrue. When I served as council president prom and I oversaw the meeting. Yes, I did ask you and Michelle if you would consider um not or reducing some of the
speakers which at the time you were happy with some of the things that we were doing similar to the request I just made. Told you that I would never ask you not to speak and I will never do that. Um told you to make your own decision. You decided not to that night and that was
fine. Privately at the meeting before last, I made the request stating that there were some seniors in the audience and there were some members who um you know asked is it possible to reduce the number of
speakers so that uh everyone can have a chance to address the new council asked you privately. So then yes I asked publicly if you would consider that. Now, I don't know if you listen when the other people, the other speakers come up here, but there was an older lady. Um,
let me not say older, more seasoned woman that uh did come up after you all spoke and stated that she was tired of waiting. She got lightheaded. When I left off of this deis, um I was told some comments were made. When I left off
of this deis, I went into the council office and we had to feed that uh more seasoned woman. we had to offer her food um and help her regain her stabilization. So, the things that I'm asking are coming from a real place and
I would never limit your speaking. That is up to you. There are uh rules in place and corporation council, you can correct me if I'm wrong. They're on the billboards here. That gives the council president the right to make that request. Just as you have the right to
your freedom of speech, I have the right to mine. So, I can definitely ask you if you're willing to do it. If you're not willing to do it, that's fine. We just had that dialogue. But yes, I'm going to ask you because I put my hand on the Bible and I said I was going to represent all the residents here. So,
just like I've said here year after year and listen to you, I will make the same requests from other residents. So, that is all. If you do not choose to do it, that's perfectly fine. The next speaker is Erica Blanco. I'm really glad to see all the new faces
um tonight. Um my name is Erikica Blanco and I live in Jersey City. New Jersey has its own constitution. And when it comes to free speech, it goes further than the federal one. Article 1, paragraph 6 says that every person may speak freely, write and publish their sentiments on all
subjects, not just some subjects, all subjects. Paragraph 18 says, "The people have the right to freely assemble, to consult for the common good, to position for redress of grievances." New Jersey courts have consistently interpreted these protections as broader than the First Amendment. That means
even if someone could argue federal law allows certain limits, the New Jersey Constitution independently says no. I want to talk about something specific from Reading versus North Hanover. In that case, a police chief pressured a Facebook administrator to take down a citizen's post. And while he was doing
it, he made a point of saying he was not ordering her to remove it. He was just asking. The Facebook administrator later testified, and I'm going to paraphrase. He said he was not ordering me to take down the post. He was pressuring me to do exactly that while pretending he was not. The third circuit saw right through
it. The court found no legal difference between ordering someone to stop speaking and pressuring them to speak. Stop speaking while saying you're not ordering them to stop speaking. On February 11th, the council president said, and this on video, I will never ask anyone not to speak. I'm not asking you not to speak. And then she asked us
to reduce the number of people who come here to speak. That has now happened three times. I'm not a judge, but I can tell you that saying I'm not telling you, I'm asking is exactly the kind of language the courts have already ruled does not make a difference. And every person on that day has swore an oath on
January 15th to uphold both the federal and the New Jersey Constitution both. And I'll just add the reason we come here and the numbers that we do is just that we have things to talk about. We don't come here for the fun of it. But I thank you for listening to us anyway.
Good night. The next speaker listed is Monica Del Rio, but that is a duplication. So, the next speaker after that is Daniel Feldman. At the last city council meeting, I discussed ordinance 07-153, which restricts vehicle access to the
vacated portion of Washington Street adjacent to the Morris Canal Big Basin between 8:00 p.m. and 8 a.m. So towards that end, I'd like to read a letter from David Picket, the national president of the Korean War Veterans Association. Dear Mayor and Council members, my name is David Picket, and I write to you
today in several capacities. as the national president of the Korean War Veterans Association, as a two-time combat veteran of the United States Army, and as a currently serving city council member in Port St. Lucy, Florida. I respectfully request that this correspondence be entered into the official record of the city of Jersey
City. I'm writing to request your assistance assistance in enforcing ordinance 07-153, which prohibits vehicular traffic between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 8 a.m. in the area surrounding the Korean War Memorial located on Washington Street near Portside Towers. War
Memorials are sacred spaces. They stand not only as monuments of stone and steel, but as solemn reminders of sacrifice, service, and the cost of freedom. The Korean War Memorial in Jersey City honors those who served and those who never returned. It is a place for reflection, education, and
remembrance. Allowing unrestricted vehicular access during restricted hours undermines the dignity of the site and increases the risk of damage to the memorial grounds. As an elected official myself, I understand the challenges municipalities face in balancing enforcement priorities. However,
ordinances exist for a reason. Ordinance 07-153 cannot be consistently enforced during the restricted evening hours. I respectfully request that the city consider installing appropriate security ballards or similar protective measures to restrict vehicular access at all
times. Such measures would prever preserve the integrity of the memorial and ensure it remains a respectable and protected site for future generations. This request is made not in criticism but in partnership and shared responsibility. Communities across our nation have taken meaningful steps to
safeguard Veterans Memorials as tangible links to our history and as educational resources for future generations. Jersey City has the opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to honoring those who served by ensuring this memorial is appropriately protected. Thank you for your time, consideration, and continued
service to the residents of Jersey City. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this matter further. Respectfully, David Picket, national president of the Korean War Veterans Association, city council member, Port St. Lucy, Florida, two-time combat veteran. With your permission, I'd like
to I've got many copies of his speech which I'd like to distribute to the council if that's okay, or I can pass it to you. Thank you. Grace Jolly not here. Jessica Bran.
>> Before I start with my speech, I just wanted to say thank you to Erica for making the time to come here. She just ran from her shift at Tino's to make sure she could come speak tonight. And I just want to say to the city council that um a point that was made earlier about we don't want to be here. Um we if
things were resolved and all of our speakers could stay home that would be lovely, but they're not. And we're here to ask you for your continued help on a myriad of issues. So good evening city council. You know I'm Jessica Bran, a resident of Jersey City for the last decade. Currently a
resident of Portsight Towers East. And on February 10th, when 53 people signed up to speak, some of whom speak at every meeting, um the council president did not ask all 53 to speak less. She addressed Kevin and Michelle by name and asked her group to reduce speakers. She didn't name the rule. She said it was
quote within my right as council president. I understand that's written on the board with the three poster boards displaying A350-19D were posted in this chamber for the first time. No council rule can override the constitution. So A35019D
can only ever be a request, never an order. But even the request requires two things. Same subject and quote repetitious presentations. So let's look at what our speakers covered that night. Judith discussed structural engineering
and collapse zones. Ranata talked about the fact that we have no superintendent, but we do have an emergency hotline that routes to the Philippines. Barbara described how Rub's billing hides costs from tenants. Mark reviewed five years of Rub's data, proving 60% over billing.
Joel highlighted that a false court statement let her landlord avoid over $140,000 in fines. Suvie asked you why $40,000 has been stolen from her disabled son's therapy fund. Michelle talked about a fired CFO, a $475,000
taxpayer settlement, and the Korean War Memorial. Jennifer remind us all of whistleblower protections. and Kevin discussed the 255 million deficit and there are more I don't have time to discuss again. When the clerk called Judith Rogers who
has never lived at port side, you stepped ahead of her to turn to deliver that message. Council President Judith then had to speak after you told this room that people like her were a burden on the elderly. You didn't remember that she's never been at Portsight. She has
been here many times asking for help. help that never came for 100 Montgomery. It's very frustrating. Um, this particular request is asking victims to exercise their rights less less and you were not identifying a subject. You were
identifying a viewpoint. Signaling one group of citizens based on their advocacy position while leaving every other regular speaker untouched is viewpoint discrimination. It violates the first amendment. It violates article one of the New Jersey Constitution and it violates the oath you all took on
January 15th to uphold both >> Ranatada Sari. >> Good evening council. My name is Ranada and I'm a resident of Jersey City at Portides Towers East. I want to share something I read this weekend that I think everyone in this room should know
about. Two days ago on Monday, a federal judge in Iowa ruled on a case called Patterson versus City of Newton. A young man named Noah Patterson went to his city council meeting to criticize the police department during public comment.
He was treated differently based on his viewpoint. The Institute for Justice, a national civil rights law firm, took his case. The judge found that praising the police department would never have triggered enforcement, only criticism
did. The judge called the quintessential viewpoint discrimination. What is particular noteworthy is the judge denied qualified immunity and the case is now heading to a damaged trial on the question of how much the officials will
personally owe. The case was brought under 42 USC section 1983. the federal civil rights statute. There is no statutory cap on damages under the law and when qualified
immunity is denied, the liability is personal. I'm not a lawyer, but I can read and so I read a few more things this week. I read I read Jersey City's own chapter 27, the defense and adminification
ordinance. Section 27-7 C says the city will not identify an employee for a judgment based on discrimin discrimination or retaliation. Section 27-7D says the city cannot pay punitive
damages for willful misconduct. And section 27-4 says the corporation council may refuse to even provide a defense. I also read A350-19D, the council rule about spokespersons.
That rule requires two things before it applies. Speakers must be addressing the council on the same subject and their presentations must be repetitious. Jessica already showed you tonight that our speakers on February 11th cover more
than a dozen different topics. That rule didn't apply then. It doesn't apply now. But even if it did, a console procedural rule does not override the US Constitution. It does not override the New Jersey Constitution. It does not override the oath every person on that
debt took when they accepted their seat. I would encourage everyone up there to read chapter 27 carefully. I would also encourage everyone of you to please resolve our issues. They're not that complicated and they're very
tied up with the previous issues of the lack of space for schools downtown. It's all about the big landlords and the advantage they take. Barbara Goldberg, just while we're waiting, maybe it's a point of clarification for one of the
next speakers can answer for me. If I read it correctly, the the Reading case, uh, the petitioner lost that case. She was she she lost a preliminary injunction and the Peterson case out of Iowa, the city council arrested that guy twice. I just want to make sure that that I read the facts right on that.
Obviously, you know, as a lawyer, I take claims of first amendment violations and and civil rights violations very seriously. So, I reviewed the the the cases. I wasn't uh being rude or not paying attention, but I wanted to read them while you were here. Uh, and yeah, it looks like the Iowa case that the petitioner was arrested twice for
calling the mayor fascists. I just want it's a little bit different than than what we had here. I just want to comment on that. >> Begin. >> Good evening. Good evening, city council. My name is Barbara Goldberg and I live at Portside Towers.
I have I have a small a small voice literally. It's hard for me to speak loudly and it's hard for me to speak for very long. So when I come to this microphone, it costs me something.
I don't do it because it's easy. At the last meeting, this council asked portside tenants to reduce the number of people who come here to speak. I want you to think about what that request sounds like to someone who
already struggles to be heard. My voice may be quiet, but it is mine. And I will not let anyone make it smaller than it already is. I don't need three minutes. I just need
you to listen to one for one. Enforce the laws of this city. Thank you. Connor Sears here. Erin Kent
here. Tara Smith. >> SM >> those are opinions or the councilman's alone just >> I didn't hear it. >> Uh good evening council. It's good to see everyone. It's been a while since I've been able to speak. It's really uh
refreshing to see the new faces and the new energy for Jersey City Council. As I said, my name is Tara Smith. Uh I've never lived at Portide Towers. I lived at a different building by the same owner. Uh I'm a Jersey City resident who
has faced my own housing violations in the city. And um I always stand here for the experiences that I had had when I was a tenant under the same owner. For uh the pregnant woman who couldn't get down the stairs during emergency
flooding of the stairwell was completely pitch black. Uh for the mother who had an autistic son getting older, doesn't know his own strength, wasn't able to hold on to a nanny, and was repeatedly
stuck in the elevator. her elderly mother and the helper and her son getting triggered and taking his energy out on her elderly mother. Uh, and for Damian Boyardi, who the residents
repeatedly asked for a wellness check and whose body was found about 4 to 6 months after he passed, uh, his corpse rotting and the smell filling the hallways and the landlord refused to
do a wellness check. Um, so like when I first started to speak with Portside, uh, my voice was small, but they helped amplify it and I stand with them because they stood with me with each, we each bring our own experience and our own perspective and
our own right to be here. And I'm not a lawyer either, but um, you know, today is day 310 of daily reporting for port side of seven distinct violations at two buildings. That is 4,340
individual reports. Not one has been corrected. In 11 months, the council president's voice was not used to address a single one. It was used three times to ask the people reporting to speak less. As pointed out before, the third circuit said 3 weeks was beyond
the pale. It's been 11 months. Thank you, Mark Boils. Good evening, city council. Two weeks ago, I spoke about rubs. Tonight, I'd like to zoom out to the great unbundling, also known as the junk fee
magic trick. Back in 2008, American Airlines decided that your suitcase had been flying for free for far too long. Kaching, $15, please. That was the opening act. Other airlines followed suit. Soon hotels joined the circus with
resort fees, parking fees, early check-in fees, late check-in fees, and anything else they could think of. The room might be advertised at one price, but by the time you reach the front desk, the total's grown extra limbs and started to crawl upwards on its own.
Why? To make more profit without raising the sticker price, make the product look cheaper than it really is. And the last reason more interesting is to reduce taxes by shifting revenue into fees that are not taxed the way the main product
is. Now that same playbook has landed in our apartment buildings. Pet fees, amenity fees for the gym you just toured, lounge fees for the couch you will never sit on, elevator fees just to move in or out. Utilities like water, sewer, trash, and heat that used to be
included in rent are now carved out and build separately. Rent looks one thing on paper, but the real monthly cost keeps creeping up like ivy on a brick wall. With water, sewage, and trash, many corporate landlords use what's called the ratio utility billing system,
rubs. In theory, it's a fair aortionment. In practice, tenants get a bill with no meter readings, no detailed breakdown, and a new service fee just for generating the bill. It's like being handed a restaurant check that just says, "Food $227.
Trust us. Across the country, tenants are pushing back. In Los Angeles, residents of two buildings withheld rub payments until the landlord disclosed the numbers. The result was reduced bills and a $25,000 in refunds. In Vanoi, California,
another tenant association demanded transparency. Within a week, the landlord ended what they called the Rubs experiment and agreed to reimburse the tenants. Now, maybe Rubs is legitimate. If it is, then show us the bills. Show us the math. Let tenants see how it's
calculated. If Rubs is not legitimate or is a profit center for landlords, then Jersey City should not allow housing costs be inflated through opaque add-ons that operate in the shadows. Two weeks ago, I asked for your help to sponsor legislation to bring transparency to
Rubs. One counselor responded that evening, but the council's staff has not yet picked up the ball. Will anyone help make Rubs transparent? If so, I can be reached. You all have my email. Thank you, Susanna Taviano.
Okay. Uh, David Wilson. Good evening, Council President Ridley and members of the council. First, um I want to address that a previous speaker tonight said that if you are paying the maximum legal rent under 260 that you
have no right to complain if there is a rotting fish in your hallway. I bring this up because this is a look inside the mind of a landlord, one specific landlord, not everyone. Um but in any case, suffice to say, I don't think any tenant deserves to having a rotting have
a rotting fish sitting in their hallway. Second, um on the question of people who are waiting to speak because there's so many people at port side, um I hate to think that me speaking is going to result in someone else not
being able to use their voice. Um and I think that there are things that we can do to solve that. And one thing I was going to say you have already done tonight. I was going to suggest that older people, people with disabilities
um or pregnant or in this case very young people could speak first. Um also people who live far away, you know, and that's something you could look at, I guess, by ward if not, you know, if it's too much too complicated
to do it by address. Um, another thought I had is that we could organize, and I'd be happy to help with this, ride shares for people who don't want to be waiting for a bus to get back home at 11:00 at night after after speaking at a meeting.
We could organize healthy snacks. I mean, there's no reason they should fall on the council to to, you know, to provide food for somebody who just has been waiting so long. Um and
um one you could remind people, you know, speakers that brevity is the soul of wit, right? And sometimes one minute speech is more effective than a 3 minute and 10 minute 10-second speech that you don't really finish because you're trying to get the last words out while the buzz is going off, right? Um the
point is there's so many ways that we can make it easier for people to participate rather than ask the people who are have been coming not to participate. Thank you John. John if I can if I can just take a
very quick opportunity. Thank you. Um to the previous speaker I think that was Mark who mentioned rubs. Um, between last meeting and this meeting, I directed my staff to start to look into this. Um, we're trying to figure out what we can do at the city level that
wouldn't be preempted by state law, and we're drafting an ordinance that now that I would love to share with you all. We absolutely need to work with corporation council to make sure everything would be kosher at the municipal level, but Councilwoman Little and I have been discussing this and we would be excited to work on this.
Ideally, we're able to pass something straightforward at the municipal level. Um, but just want to let you know that that's at least one piece that we can get started working on. >> And and David, thank you for your thoughtful suggestions and being willing to collaborate.
Danilo Kersner. >> Good evening. How I had hoped I would never have to come here again after the new term began. Well, it lasted two meetings. In the last meeting, we were told that requests had been made to reduce our
speaker numbers. This is indeed very concerning. Public comment is not a privilege. granted at the discretion of private interests. It is constitutional right protected by the first amendment. Any attempt to restrict participation
because of community because a community is organized, persistent or inconvenient is unacceptable and unlawful. But here is a very direct way of reducing our time to speak. Ensure
apartments are in good, well-maintained order. Fix the rents that are too high. Address illegal and incomplete certificates of registrations. Make sure supers live in the building and can be reached. Resolve the ongoing security issues. Help us bring transparency to
the RUP scheme. Find the actors to the full extent. And we've said it many times. We are here to work with you and to support you. We trust you. But as long as we don't see tangible action, instead more
requests to us, we will show up. Residents have the absolute right to organize, to speak collectively, and to fully express their concerns, especially when their home safety and stability are at stake. Curtailing that speech is not
governance, it's suppression. To finish, a very personal message to you, President Ridley. If you at all know me, if you truly listen to my many speeches, you know that the right of free speech is very important to me. You
would know that I grew up in East Germany behind the Iron Curtain and that I know what suppression of speech and restricting of reading means and feels like. And I felt this in this very city more than once. You will hear about that
later. If private parties are influencing how public participation is structured, it erodess public trust and damages confidence in the democratic process. And let me add this, addressing us publicly with the request when our first
speaker is already standing in front of you could be very much perceived as an intimidation tactic. And so many would be intimidated, but not Judith. I have deep respect for her for not being discouraged in that moment
and not tonight. Thank you, Judith Rogers. Stability Ordinance 260 matters because housing stability matters.
I respect the threeinut rule and the need to manage time. Last meeting, February 11th, I walked to this podium as speaker number 20.
Speaker number 20. Before I could say a single word, President Ridley stopped me. She delivered a public request as council
president that I, speaker number 20, speak less with the group I was with. In my opinion, because of the group behind me,
I have never lived at Portside Towers. She addressed Kevin and Michelle by name. I was the one person standing here absorbing a message of silence before
being told I could begin. She said it was within her right as council president. It is not. The council's rules of order, which are
here, allow President Ridley to request a group spokesperson for presentations on the same topic. The only thing I share with this group
is we are all victims of inaction. So when council president chose to deliver her message planned directly before speaker number 20,
my speech, the message to this room was clear. If I stand with port side, I will be singled out. On February 11th, the oath to uphold the United States and New Jersey
Constitutions was broken by President Ridley. She committed a color of law violation. The entire council allowed it that carries liability that extends well
beyond this chamber. And I am a senior citizen. I will be 70 this year. I have osteoporosis. I'm asthmatic. I stopped breathing two times. Takes a long effort to get here.
Thank you, Brendan Coughlin. Douglas Bran. So 3 minutes, just three minutes. That's not a lot of time to explain how representative democracy is supposed to work. So I have to assume that you know the outline already. Remember though
that each and every citizen is constitutionally guaranteed the right to speak to their elected representatives about issues concerning them in whatever forum is available to them. I am not a resident of Portside Towers, though it
did happen that I was present in the lobby when a non-resident chased a woman into that same lobby and was not stopped by security because there was no required security.
Many might justifiably say that I'm elderly. Yet here I am late in the evening. As a citizen, it is my right to speak and it shall not be abridged. Even when it is repetitive, even when
several citizens are speaking out about exactly the same issue, even when it is perceived as unnecessary or annoying or inefficient, each is exercising a right that is guaranteed to them.
never demand, hint, or even ask those citizens to limit their free speech rights, however well-intentioned. There's an obvious reason some of these citizens continue to speak out about the same issues at these council meetings
for a period of years. For whatever reason, the previous administration and city council did not choose to effectively address the issues and problems that those citizens wanted fixed.
Not only that, there were various subtle attempts to stifle that public discourse and maintain the status quo. Perhaps they thought that if the citizen requests were ignored long enough, those citizens would give up.
It is the sincere hope of your constituents that this new city council and the new administration will not follow the same path. Before you think about stifling public discourse, think about the cost to us
all if you do. Think very carefully. Then don't do it. If you want silence from the citizens that elected you, simply fix the things that they are begging you to fix. Enforce the laws of Jersey City. Enforce
the laws of the state of New Jersey. Enforce the laws of the United States. Michelle Stenmark. >> Good evening, council. My name is Michelle Stenmark and I live at Portide Towers.
I'm a flight attendant and in my job every single flight before every single flight I'm required by federal law to deliver a safety briefing. Every passenger has to have this briefing.
Every piece of safety equipment has to be in place and inspected. If there's a life vest missing from a seat that plane that plane doesn't leave the gate. If an emergency exit light is out, we don't fly. There's no exceptions.
And the FAA makes sure of that. I don't get to tell passengers, well, we'll get to that safety equipment eventually. And I don't get to say, "We know the exit signs are out, but we're working on it." If I did that, my airline would be
fined. We would be grounded, and I could lose my job. That's how safety complaints works in the industry I know. Now let me tell you about the building I come home to.
There is no disclosure of a resident superintendent in the building in either building actually as the law requires. There is no 247 uniform security as the law requires.
Safety violations have been reported for over 300 consecutive days and the building is still operating. In my world, if you skip the safety briefing, you don't fly. In the landlord's
world, obviously, you skip the safety requirements for years and years and nothing happens. I'm not asking for the council to ground anybody. I'm asking for you to hold my landlord to the same basic standards that the FAA
holds to my airline. If safety equipment isn't there, enforce the law. If the required personnel aren't in place, enforce the law. That's all. I go to work every day knowing that if I
cut corners on safety, there's consequences. I'd like to come home to a building where the same thing is true. Thank you so much. Shannon Ray,
no. Mary Richardson. No. Lisa Avery. No. Jennifer Kesler. Good evening, council. Last time I began my speech with the note of gratitude.
We can all acknowledge that the tone in this room feels different, that there is dialogue and for the first time in three years, a feeling that we're being heard. At the same time, and I've mentioned
this last time as well, gratitude does not replace accountability. We are here tonight to ask you for consistency. For laws to be enforced regardless of who breaks them, for transparency not
just in statements, but in outcomes. for decisions that prioritize residents over convenience or political comfort and certainly treat all people equally. You are at the very beginning of showing
who you are as a council. And so we say this not as a threat but as a promise of civic participation. We are watching portsiders and over 70% of residents who rent in Jersey City are paying attention
and we will continue to show up no matter if you ask us to do so with less people. We will show up with everyone who has something to say because we deeply care about this city.
If your actions match the values you speak about, you will find strong allies in this room and across the city. And if they don't, we will speak just as clearly. This is not opposition.
That is democracy. Thank you, Mel Wilson. Hi. Um, yeah, I'm Mel Wilson. I'm a resident of Jersey City. Um, you've heard a lot about the First Amendment tonight, about case law, constitutional protections, about what courts have
ruled when officials try to limit public comment based on a viewpoint. I want to talk about, well, I want to talk more more about the consequences. I want to talk about what it costs. So, the case in Iowa has been mentioned already. Um the mayor who silenced
critic at city council meeting is personally liable. Whatever the outcome of this, whatever the parallels we can draw, there is no cap on damages under the federal civil rights statute. The Institute for Justice which brought that case has built a national practice
around exactly this kind of claim. They represent plaintiffs for free and they win. In the North Hanover town, North Hanover Township right here in New Jersey, the third circuit ruled a coordinated effort
to silence a mother over a single Facebook post was in court's words beyond the pale. That case is still in litigation. The Rutherford Institute, another national civil rights organization, has taken similar cases all the way to the
Supreme Court. They specialize in defending citizens whose speech is chilled at public meetings. These are not hypothetical risks. These are active cases with real legal fees and real damage awards. And the organizations that bring them have the
funding and the patience to see them through. Now consider where this city stands. Two weeks ago, Mayor Solomon confirmed a 255 million deficit. The city has not collected the fines it is already owed from landlords who continue to break the
law. The budget is stretched to its limit. And into that fiscal reality, a new liability was created on February 10th that did not need to exist. The constitutional education you heard tonight was free. What comes next, if
nothing changes, may well not be. Every dollar this city spends defending a viewpoint discrimination claim is a dollar that cannot go towards housing enforcement, toward the investigation committee, towards the services that the people in this room are actually here to
talk about. My husband John is going to speak next. He has a suggestion for how to make sure that bill never comes due. Thank you. Hi. Uh, yes, Mel just told you what I'm going to talk about, so let's go. Um,
everything you heard about the First Amendment, about case law, about qualified immunity, about chapter 27, about what it costs when cities get this wrong, all of it can be resolved with one sentence. Retract the request unconditionally. That's it. No lawsuit, no ACLU
complaint, no federal filing, no damages trial. Council President Ridley can simply say on the record that the request to reduce speakers is withdrawn. That every resident of the city is welcome to speak at every meeting for as long as the rules allow. One sentence and this entire constitutional question
disappears. I want to be honest about something. My wife and I have attended these meetings for a long time. We've watched this group bring real issues to this body meeting after meeting after meeting. building safety, illegal rents, billing fraud, a quarter of a billion
dollar deficit, an investigation committee that never investigated anything that really grinds my gears. Those are the things that matter to the people in this room. And tonight, instead of spending the full evening on those issues, a significant portion of public comment had to be devoted to explaining why the people raising those
issues have the right to keep raising them. That is time this group did not choose to spend. That is time the council created the need for with a request that should not have been made. So here's what we're asking. After the public speaking has concluded, retract
the request. Let us get back to the work. We'd rather spend every minute of public comment talking about housing code enforcement and uncollected fines and the investigation committee than talking about the First Amendment. We'd rather be your partners on fixing the problems this this city faces than
educating this body on constitutional law. The ACLU of New Jersey has an active practice in viewpoint discrimination cases. Would all prefer they never have a reason to look at Jersey City. That is entirely within this council's control. Please retract the request and let's move forward
together. Thank you, >> Sylvia. Hello. >> Good evening, councils. Uh my name is Sylviau. I live in Portsight to Towers. And first, I want to say something that really meant to me uh from my heart. I'm
grateful for this community. For three years, my neighborhoods and I come to this room together. We support each others. We show up for each others and that is something that I am proud of. I also want to recognize Mayor Sullivon.
He was on the council when we first started coming here and now as a mayor he has say what we has been saying for years that tenants in this city are not protected the way the law say that
should be. that matters. Now I want to talk about what happened the last meeting. When the council president asked to ask to bring fewers speaker, I stood up and say we will reduce our numbers. I also cut my own
speech short. I say I was trying to take less time as possible. I should not have said that. I should not have felt that I need to. I could be home right now doing
anything I want, but I choose to be here because for three years, nothing has been fixed in my building. And the only thing that has happening after 300 days of daily reports is that we were asking
to send fewer people to talk. And to anyone who has complained about the length of these meetings, I want to let you know something. Our group waits 10 full days before any of us registers
to speak. We don't do that because we don't need we don't care. No, we do that so anyone who wants or need to go before us can register as if they speak first. We are looking out for their rights too
and we are happy to go after them. The reason these meetings are long is not because too many people are speaking. It is because too many problems has none being addressed. If the council wants shorter meetings, the answer is not
fewer speaker. The answer is to start fixing the issues that we has been raising for three years. I am here. I am not reducing anything and I am not cutting my speech this time. Thank you
>> Sonia Kersner >> 92. By the way, good evening council. We heard a lot about being silenced tonight. Unfortunately, the topics of freedom of speech, first amendment rights, and silencing people's voices are not new to this hall. Not at all.
Let's recall just a few things. On April 10th, 2024, I stood here on this podium describing what happened at the state of the city address on March 21st. A police captain told us that the signs you see behind us, the very signs we've been
bringing to every meeting for over three years now were a fire hazard. The fire department corrected that on the spot, embarrassing and also totally unsuccessful. We kept showing up. That same evening, my husband was approached
by Philip's private security staff and told, "You remember me from last year? For if for some reason you need to be removed from this venue, it will be me to do so." The previous year, he had attended silently and peacefully, but
was apparently under observation, intimidating him maybe, but again, not not unsuccessful. You all heard about this, and you didn't do anything. That same evening, non-offensive comments from residents asking for enforcement of rent control laws dominated the live
stream of the state of the city address shortly after all comments were turned off. They remain invisible to the public until this day. Outrageous, but again, unsuccessful. Since 2003, we've also made the council
aware of countless cases in which our former mayor censored critical but non-harassing comments about the non-inforcement of existing laws on social media. Unbelievable and again unsuccessful. Miss Ritlay, you knew about that as well. Fast forward to the
last council meeting in which council president Ritlay requested to reduce our speaker numbers with with respect council president Ritley. Speaker, numbers are one thing much more important is for you to really understand that every single time we
stand here, we represent 72% of Jersey City residents who are renters. More than 200,000 people. Again, a troubling attempt and again a highly unsuccessful one. There have been countless attempts to silence the victims and almost none
to prosecute the vi violators. All of these attempts are personally painful to us, but most importantly, they are unsuccessful. Tonight, you heard about 20 speakers from our group. You heard about constitutional routes, about case law,
about what it costs when cities get this wrong. You also heard about unsafe buildings, concealed violations, uncollected fines, and $255 million deficit. Council President, we are asking you to affirm on the record the
unrestricted right of every resident to speak at these meetings and we are asking you to retract your request before the next meeting. We are not going anywhere. We would rather be partners of you not your property. It has always been your time is up.
Tyler Nukem. >> Good evening, council. Uh, thank you for your time tonight. I realize it's a long one. My name is Tyler Nukem. I'm a resident of Ward B. I'm the president of Bike JC and I'm a former EMT in Jersey City. I'm here tonight to speak in
support of 26-10, the Franklin Street protected bike lane and the associated one-way conversion. I understand and I appreciate your need as council people to balance public safety concerns. Specifically, there was a study conducted by the IAFF that reported that
response times would increase. This study was conducted prior to the modification of the project to remove Manhattan and it does not reflect the current plan. Additionally, it does not site methods or sources. And as mentioned in the caucus meeting, it did not take into consideration alternative
response routes or response vehicles. Even the worst case response times that that study provided are still well within the NFPA recommended timelines and would be on par with a city of our size. Further, the Department of Infrastructure will make changes to the
design and nearby streets to improve emergency vehicle access by preventing double parked cars and cars parked too close to the corners, two of the largest uh delays to emergency response. Traffic violence is persistent in Jersey City and throughout New Jersey. In 2025,
there were 48 fire related deaths in New Jersey. By comparison, there were 597 deaths from traffic violence, 12 times as many. This project would provide a critical connection to parks, shopping, and
schools. It would slow turning and midblock speeds, and separate travel modes, making it safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike. It will make Franklin Street more livable for residents and more comfortable for anyone who travels along it.
When I began writing my comments for tonight, I struggled to find words that hadn't already been said. This project has been in process since 2023 with BikeJ and the Department of Infrastructure having a month-long pilot in the summer of 2024. An overwhelming
majority of survey responses said that they felt safer when the pilot was in place, and 93% of cyclists and 68% of pedestrians wanted it to remain permanent. The grant has received three extensions from NJ DOT. There have been two community meetings and the city has
already spent money hiring an engineer to create drawings. BikeJ's petition has gathered 800 signatures in support. Feedback has been given, concerns have been addressed, and adjustments have been made to mitigate some of the challenges that we learned about during
the pilot. We cannot continue to ignore one of our largest threats to public safety. Change can be challenging and draw out small uh strong emotions. I hope that we can count on your support knowing that that support is rooted in clear data, robust public involvement,
and overwhelming community support. Please vote yes on 2610. Thank you, >> John. Jake. >> Yeah. Uh if I can just say briefly, um to the folks who have come out for Franklin Street, really appreciate you being here, um sitting in a a long
night. Um, and I've spoken with many of you privately, spoken with many folks who have reached out about Franklin Street Horn in this room privately. Um, I hope you know that you all have my support. Um, and I'm confident that we can find a a really good uh, solution
here um, in the proposal as it is and uh, in any other minor changes that could be made with public safety. But I think we're in a a good spot and so um, you know, you have my support. Uh, Jacob Neski.
Uh, Rey Doshi already spoke. Elna Muka, >> good evening board. It's really nice to see the new board before us today. Thank you very much. It's great to see you without that umbrella of campaigning going on. Um uh full disclosure, I recently retired from the Hamilton Park
Neighborhood Association board of directors and am speaking tonight as a uh an indiv individual citizen. Uh I am asking that the council members support Keith Donut to be director of parks and recreation.
I do not know if someone has been selected yet or if the decision lies solely by the mayor's office, but I'm asking for your help. In the short amount of time Keith has been acting director, he has been very responsive to
the needs of our park. I can speak only about Hamilton Park, but I know he is wellliked and appreciated by the members of the Jersey City Parks Coalition. In the previous administration, an appointed acting director had his crew
cut down a healthy stand of tree of five trees in Bayside Park because their bark was peeling. So therefore, they were dead. These were healthy birch trees donated by the New Jersey Tree Foundation. Birch trees, their bark
peels. We need a director who would know to consult with experts before any drastic actions like that are taken. Keith is conscientious and caring. I ran into him on Christmas Eve morning in the
park. Someone had reported that morning on Cclick Fix that there was cocking that had come loose in the playground. And so it was Christmas Eve. So staff was low. So he came out to the park with his pair of scissors to relieve that
tripping hazard. Another occasion he came to check on a replacement of a gate lock in the playground. As it turned out, the new lock was faulty and not securing the gate. Last fall, in less than two weeks after I reported the disappearance of a trash
cam after a film shoot, he had it replaced along with a corner street cam that had been taken out and destroyed by a car years before and the city never return never restored it. Keith has also worked efficiently with
buildings and streets whenever we needed to whenever we had any issues with lighting and plumbing. I know this administration wants to select the best qualified directors and I hope that not appointees by patronage.
Keith was a previous director of recreation and youth development and has valuable experience in all facets of the department of parks and recreation. City council members, please do what you can to get Keith
appointed as director of parks and recreation. He has proven himself by his actions. Thank you very much. Priscilla Lou. >> Hi council. Um, thank you for making the time. I can't believe you actually let everyone speak and did not minimize our
speaking time despite the number of people on the on the list. So, I appreciate that a lot. Um, I am speaking as a concerned mother of two at PS16 regarding the decision to relocate kindergarten today and 4th this September. As you've already heard from many others, um, I disagree with the
plan to relocate in kindergarten today and for this September and I call on the city to work with the board of education to come up with a concrete plan to create a long-term solution to keep our kids in downtown Jersey City. uh transporting three, four, and five year and now five year olds across the city
on a daily basis is not a minor logistical adjustment. It shortens the amount of time children spent teaching uh learning. It complicates our child care and work schedules and significantly limits our ability to meaningfully participate in school life. Downtown Jersey City is an urban area
where many families, including my own, do not own cars. Uh just the other day when my four-year-old was sick, it took me over an hour round trip on public public transportation to pick her up midday. These are real and ongoing burdens on families. In addition, there are very serious concerns about day 4th
itself. It's a 115year-old building that was decommissioned, reopened, and now operating under strain. expanding it to include kindergarten raises serious concerns about infrastructure capability, exposures to hazardous materials, including asbestos, which if you are not already aware, this the
state of department of health is looking into, and ongoing safety issues with overcrowding, bus drop offs, uh traffic congestions, etc. E equally concerning is the lack of meaningful parent engagement before the decision was announced. Families were informed after
key enrollment deadlines have passed. Um, and the lack of communication and the planned timing of this proposal was extremely disrespectful to PS16 parents with young children and it places us in a impossible position with little to no alternatives. We currently have a petition signed by 800 plus parents
telling calling for the stop for kindergarten to move to kindergart uh to Danforth. What is the urgency behind this decision announced in January to be implemented in September? Enrollment numbers have generally been flat year-over-year since 2022. So why can't we keep classroom sizes the same for
this upcoming school year while we consider better solutions to keep our kindergartens downtown? Yes, better children toteer ratio raises P16 school ranking, but this should not be done at the expense of moving our ch youngest children away. Instead, why can't we add
teachers aids to our existing classrooms? I echo what a fellow parent said. BOA, the BO uh board of education needs stronger scrutiny and oversight because they are not acting in the interest of our children. Um in summary,
I just uh respectfully urge the city and the board of education to stop the immediate move of kindergarten to Danforth to allow families time to consider options and commit to a concrete, transparent plan and timeline for expanding downtown school capacity.
Thank you. Alex Pez. Good evening, board uh council members and uh council president. Uh my name is Alex Pas. I'm a resident of W F and I serve on the board of deacons of Riverside Assembly of God located in Ward B. Uh our pastor, John Paul Mansor,
uh could not be here tonight due to some >> Alice, can you put the mic a little closer to you? pastoral resp. Is that better? >> What's that? >> Is that better? >> Yeah. Get get a little get get right on top of it. >> Sure. Uh our pastor couldn't be here tonight due to some uh pastoral responsibilities and I know he's been before the council before uh and
attending meetings with you all regarding cannabis dispensaries in our neighborhood. Uh tonight I'm here on behalf of the hundreds of members of our church and their families, the staff and dozens of children uh and their families that belong to our daycare in opposition of resolution 26-085,
which is agenda item 10.18 for a class 5 retail cannabis dispensary at uh 415 Mammoth Street. Uh Riverside Church has been part of our community since 1991. Our church sits on the corner of Third and Mammoth at 317 Third Street. Uh members of the community of our uh
community come regularly with their families to worship on Sundays. Uh we hold regular midweek meetings on Wednesday evenings and we host a youth group on Friday evenings that serves uh youth from all over Jersey City and the surrounding counties and cities. We also host various events for our church for
our church body and for the community including multiple public events uh including a carnival, a Christmas outreach, Easter events, and Thanksgiving food drives and much more throughout the year. But most importantly, we are that daycare that was referenced earlier by Miss Wang. On
a daily basis, our building functions as a licensed daycare center licensed by the state and city, which is now known as Riverside Early Learning Center. Our daycare has been in operation since the early 2000s. Each day, dozens of children from the age of newborn to age six come into our building from
throughout the city and surrounding area to be cared for and learned in a safe and welcoming environment uh where they are cared for and loved. In addition to classroom learning, some of the students play outside in the yard. The proposed cannabis retail location at 415 Monmouth is a threat to their health and safety
and if approved would allow a cannabis dispensary to come directly within our drug-free school zone. You should know that our daycare is identified on the Jersey City drug-free school zone as number 20 under its former name, Genesis Education Center. The daycare is
categorized as a prek uh to 12 school with a drug-free zone extending 500 ft from our location. The drugre free school zone runs up to Fifth Street and back towards First Street. There's also smoke shops that are located within this area. The proposed Camidus retail
location at 415 is no less than a half block away from our front door. According to Google Maps, the lot where the children play is 180 ft from this proposed dispensary. It was mentioned earlier that kids take notice of what they see around them. I don't want any of our children who attend our daycare
to see this dispensary right outside of where they're playing for that. We respectfully request that you would uh vote no for the resolution. >> Your time is up, sir. Thank you. >> Amir Ismile. >> Evening council. Hope you guys get overtime or some type of perk for
staying this late. Um, like I said, my name is Amir. I'm a lifelong Jersey City resident. I'm also here to talk about uh resolution uh 10.18. Um, I think you you're all familiar with like the community objections and uh
everything that um Alex just shared. So, what I want to talk to you about today is just like as you weigh your vote, I want you to think about your vision for the character of Jersey City. Growing up here, I was proud to say that I lived in the most diverse city in the country, right? People ask you about it, you know, you say like, "It's the most
diverse city." Yeah. I was proud of the economic empowerment it provided. I was proud to say that I went to a top 58 high school in the country. Shout out McNair. Um, public service is one of the most meaningful responsibilities in a city like Jersey City. Every vote you cast contributes to
shaping not only today's vision, the character, identity of Jersey City for decades to come. Jersey City is uh defined by its resilience, immigration, entrepreneurship, and neighborhoods with deep roots. Jersey City has always balanced growth with community. That balance is what makes it special and
worth protecting. As the city continues to evolve, development decisions should reflect a clear and intentional vision. I know supporting small business is important, but so is thoughtful planning. Each storefront is more than a business. It's a signal about what kind of neighborhood we're cultivating. residents look to
their elected officials not only to evaluate individual applications but to ask broader questions. Does this align with the long-term goals for this area? Does this reflect the identity of the community that we want to preserve? There are already about 15 smoke shops and eight operating or planned
dispensaries downtown. Does an adding another does adding another highly opposed dispensary align with the community's goals? does greenlighting 48 dispensaries in all of Jersey City, making it one of the nation's leaders in dispensaries per capita um the Jersey
City that you all want to leave behind. Jersey City's strength has always been its neighborhoods, people walking their kids to school, small businesses that know their customers by name, requiring protecting that requires communive impact, not just approvals and isolation. Land use decisions establish
precedent. um they shape traffic patterns, pedestrian activity, business diversity, and the overall feel of a block. Once a corridor changes direction, it's difficult to reverse. I think you all heard from the parents of PS16 that was long time in the making. It wasn't just something that happened
in isolation. This is another scenario where do we want to end up in the city where we have 48 dispensaries, half of which are out of business, half of which never opened, etc. Um, so ultimately the question before the council um is not whether this proposal meets the minimum requirements and whether it advances the
broader vision for the city, a Jersey city that honors its history while planning wisely for its future. Um, thoughtful stewardship ensures that the next generation inherits a city that is not only economically strong but cohesive, distinctive, and proud of the choices made on its behalf. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Yuri Estrahan. Good evening. My name is Yuri Herren, not an artificial intelligence of by any sort. So, I'll speak about the schooling situation. In a human body, you don't notice
something. You don't notice any organs until they start hurting. As government is the one you barely notice. Lights are on, streets are clean, safe, schools are open, kids are happy to go there. Not being noticed is
actually the highest compliment a bureaucracy can receive. This room is full of parents, angry parents. This means something is hurting. A gentleman just recently said, "If you want silence, fix things being spoken about."
That resonated with me. The words I keep hearing about Danfor buses are powerless and violated. Powerless to change anything. Violated because parents have no control over their child situation. 6 months
ago, candidates called me asking for support here in Jersey City. I had one request. Tie new developments to a new school capacity. Make it conditional. If you approve a building, you approve a classroom with it. Make developers bring
solutions, not just fees. Today, families feel powerless. 30 minutes bus each way, an hour, 200 hours, 300, 400, depending on how you count.
That's the time taken from child sleep, reading, from being children. Now, let's talk about solutions. Everyone's been talking about grievances and that's very understandable. But I would like to propose some solutions
too. First of all, residency enforcement in a walkable neighborhood. We still see long lines of cars every morning before resident uh kindergart. So in a neighborhood where everything is walkable, it feels strange. So before
residents kindergartens are displayed, let's ensure the res the inzone families are there. Second space we already have. There is a pool operating in the school basement. It's essentially a private business. Before we bust 5-year-olds out of the neighborhood, we should ask why
instructional space is reduced while non-core facilities stay untouched. That space can be reused. It doesn't have to we don't have to destroy the pool. We can just repurpose it for temporarily. Auditoriums can also be used creatively. Assemblies are occasional. Instruction
is daily. Displacement. Displacement should be the last resort, not the easiest solution. Our youngest students should not pay for poor planning. Exhaust the options, prioritize instruction, keep our children in the community, and thank you
very much for listening. Terry Fox, Robert Pooh, Jacob Neski, that's a repeat. Caleb Hansen, Frederick Pin, Tia Rzabala here.
Oh, okay. Um, thank you, Madame President, City Council. Um, thank you for that full three minutes. Um before I begin, I want to be clear that I'm speaking in my capacity as a board as not as a board trustee. Um
under our governance structure, the only individual authorized to speak on behalf of the board is our board president. My comments tonight are offered solely in my personal capacity as a parent and lifelong Jersey City resident. I want to acknowledge the city administration and the department of public works for their
collaboration reflected in the shared services resolution 10.21 before us this evening. The fact that this resolution is being presented demonstrates that there is an active working relationship between the Jersey City Board of Education and the city. Shared services
when approached thoughtfully reflect communication, coordination, and a willingness to work across institutions in service of the broader community. As a parent and resident, I value seeing public entities engage in this type of professional collaboration.
I had more to say about the PS16 parents, but I do not believe that my voice can do any more justice. So, I would prefer to center the parents that came here tonight with their children and sat here for hours. Um, I am appreciative of your time tonight and I
welcome any conversation that can be had or any spot at the table in order to assist the residents. Thank you. >> Uh, John Frederick Pin and Caleb Hansen just walked in the room. I don't know if it's it passed there. >> We already called his name
>> once we go past. Okay. >> Yeah, Caleb signed up a second time so he can >> Yeah. So that's uh Rehid Doshi. Uh that's a repeat. Matt Schneider. >> Yeah, he >> not here. >> Not here. He already spoke.
>> Okay. Jack McKe >> not here. All right. Number 110 already spoke. Robert Aizi. >> My name is Robert Azi. I'm here to number one applaud the parents that brought their children
here. As a father of four, a grandfather of eight, and a great-grandfather of two, children are very important. They should be here and understand. Let's get into the real reason. I am here to support bike lanes.
I see the Grand Street, Montgomery Street, Columbus Drive, all over the city. I've been traveling now. I I love the bike lanes. I'm on Franklin Street. I was born in 1937. Figure out how old I am. I have
been on Franklin Street for 74 years. I live on Franklin Street and I've conduct a business on Franklin Street. I've watched all the things happen. I have my neighbor Muhammad. Between us two, we maintain from Central Avenue to
Cambridge Avenue with only one little place in between, a handicapped Jol Malone. And bike lanes are important. My first bicycle I got when I was 8 years old at the end of the war. I had it until I went to high school in Dickinson.
I walk to Dickinson every day back and forth to Ogden Avenue, which is where our former mayor lived, right? I'm not to get into it all. I want these people to understand that I am not against bike lanes. They are the
most important things that we can have. But living on that street and and and experiencing all the problems we've had between Central and Cambridge, it's a death trap. We've got the stop
and shop supermarket. There are tractor trailers going in and out of there starting at 3:00 a.m. in the morning and they they end up somewhere in the middle of the day. Some of those tractor trailers have difficulty maneuvering.
So when they get halfway out back and forth trying to get in and out, there's a device. I was in the army. I was a motor sergeant. So I know what happens. There's a compressor in the engine of the tractor trailer. If he puts the brakes too much, it shuts off
and it locks him in place. Now we have a tractor trailer halfway across Franklin Street. And this has happened many, many times. And when you guys did the prototype, you moved the cars from the curb further out.
Now the car at the very end is very close to that driveway. You get a 55- ft tractor trailer trying to get out. 45 minutes Franklin Street was closed because the truck driver hit the car.
They had to get the police in. They had to do all these things. This is not what we need. The other factor is Franklin Street starts at Central and it ends at Ogden Avenue. >> Sorry, sir. You're out of time. >> So, when you get into Franklin,
>> you're out of time. >> Well, so I'm sorry. Okay. I think you heard what I had to say. >> Uh, number 112 is >> against it. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Robert. >> Number 112 is a repeat. Number 113,
Shivven Ma. Uh, Tammy Ortinau. No. Naomi Vas Velasquez. Okay. Hello again.
And I do come before you on behalf of the board. I am the board president. and I I got a call um a text that I forgot to say that earlier when I spoke. However, uh I'm here because we do uh
respect the needs at number 16 school. We do want to work uh with the parents at number 16 school. We have met with them and developed a committee to continue to look for either space or
um a building that we can refurbish. I also we also came and spoke with your mayor and we've been working with him as well as with um Councilman
uh Gilmore for over a year now. We tried we've been trying to get a place for years and there's always um there was always a an issue with the previous administration.
I think they were more interested in building buildings than building schools. And when you build buildings, you bring more students. You bring more children into your community. So why not help us build schools? Also, what I want
to do is we had a parent that said that there was room, I believe it was in Hamilton. Let's look into that. Uh we've also looked into the old number three school. Let's revisit that number three school. um they were holding us back
because of a a historic uh re regulations or something. Let's see if we can um address that so that we can go in there and refurbish that school for the kids of number 16 school. However, I
want to stop uh end by saying uh while I also heard some people uh speak with regards to building more highrises, please just help us find downtown land
for a much needed school. Thank you so much, Jamie Moran. Hear me. Good evening, council members. Hello. My name is Jamie Moran. I'm one of the owners of Warrior Weed, which is a dispensary seeking Jersey City Council
approval. My brother, who is um a retired major in the Marines, also retired as a disabled veteran, is also a part owner as well. We're excited to be the fifth dispensary to open in W E and the very first to open in the village uh
downtown Jersey City. Uh with enormous support from the Village Neighborhood Association and the local business community who came and spoke on our behalf at the cannabis council, we were unanimously approved twice. We are planning to be a small business with focus on local veterans who are often
overlooked and forgotten. I own the space at 415 Mammoth and am the original owner in the building. We are a small shop and will run a very smooth, quiet, successful operation giving back to the local veterans and sponsored respits and
jobs. We also plan donations to the Harimmonious Cove Harsimus Cove Cemetery. Eventually, we would like to provide full furnished housing for homeless veterans and their dogs in Jersey City. Jersey City. Brett de Allesandro, a Marine and founder of
Backpacks for Life and a Jersey City resident, already took part in one of our sponsored trips for deserving veterans. I just wanted to share a little bit of what he had to say because he couldn't make it here tonight. A few years ago, James invited me to take part
in his Bar X project out in Montana, a program he designed to help veterans reconnect, decompress, and find some peace after years of carrying the weight of service. During that trip, I was able to reconnect with the Marine I deployed with, someone I had spent I had seen in
year I haven't seen in years. We fished, shared meals, and spent time with other veterans, including a double amputee from New Jersey who left a lasting impact on all of us. What James created wasn't a simple getaway. It was a meaningful opportunity for hope,
healing, and commoder. And he did it because he genuinely cares, never asking for anything in return. That's the type of person James is, and Jamie shares the same commitment. They were both born and raised here in Jersey City. They already run successful businesses in the area,
and they understand the responsibility that comes with serving this community. Also, I wanted to add that Eric Hoffman and Irene Barnaby of the Village Neighborhood Association have personally engaged with us um and reviewed the plans for this project as well. Eric
also um he he has stated and I quote, "As the president of the Village Neighborhood Association, I have seen a number of different applicants come before the community including development, food service, and cannabis." The community expressed overwhelmingly
support or for this application particularly this specific business model with tangible benefits to the veterans. Uh Mory Reed has demonstrated a clear understanding of the landscape. Sorry, your time is up. >> Okay.
>> The next speaker, Caleb Hansen. That's a repeat. Uh Dan Nitz. Oh. Oh. Oh, all right. Well, >> all right.
>> Yeah, I think three tie offs actually. >> All right. It's appreciated. I appreciate everybody being here so with us so late. And uh two quick things. I am here uh urging the city council to
support ordinance 26-008 because um this is an ordinance that has been in um it has been in limbo for months now at this point and the longer that we take to get the bird glass
ordinance passed, the longer the bad faith comment period remains open for developers to come in and basically make come calls from the peanut gallery to say, "What about this? What about that?" The longer we take to pass the
bird glass ordinance 26-008, the the longer we leave ourselves to make a bird pun, the longer the ordinance sits like a duck in a pond waiting to be shot. And the other thing
is I am a ward D resident and Councilman Ephro has been valiantly running a very dedicated uh volunteerled snow shoveling campaign to help our community deal with the um influx of
snow that we have received here in Jersey City here in the last month and a half month. And I want to bring back to the floor and emphasize the need for city council people to uh fully fund
their staffing budget so that city council men and women are more equipped to be able to handle um emergency situations like a snowstorm dumping 2 and 1/2 ft on the city overnight. And
while our efforts working in Ward D were heroic, helping 22, I believe, seniors dig themselves out so that they can go to their doctor's appointments, they can go to work, they can do all these things that they would not have been able to do
if we didn't have a dedicated volunteer um shoveling labor force out there. Um, all of this is to say is that if the city council people were um given the
0.5% of the overall city budget to fully staff their offices, we could start to formalize some more of these processes that are currently being run on a volunteer basis. All right. Thank you.
Thank you for doing so much. Cheving Caleb >> Dan Nitser Diana Ing. Good evening, council. I live at 415 Monmouth Street in downtown Jersey City, the proposed location for Warrior Weeds
cannabis store. It's a tiny building with five units and my apartment shares the first floor with the commercial space. To be clear, I am not anti-cannabis. In fact, if you ask my husband what our ideal retirement will look like, he would tell you without a
pause, hanging out with a lot of dogs and eating a lot of gummies. But I am against the current proposal to add yet another cannabis dispensary in our neighborhood for many reasons, and I will highlight just two today. Number
one, opening a cannabis store in our building will violate our building's bylaws, which state that no owner may do anything to their unit that would impact the building's insurance. Our building's insurance agent confirmed that a cannabis business would not only
increase our insurance premium significantly, but would likely cause our building to lose insurance completely, and it would be difficult to find another provider. Our HOA has had exploratory conversations with agents and other insurance companies on this topic and all have echoed the same
message of not wanting to insure our building due to the increased risk of a cannabis business combined with a dilapidated building next door. Bottom line is the residential owners of this building do not want a cannabis business because it will hurt our building.
Number two, there is broad and documented opposition to a cannabis store at this location from 216 residents and stakeholders of Jersey City. Maybe the neighborhood associations were supportive in 2023 and early 2024. Um, which I believe um and
Miss Morren had had said earlier, but it's now 2 years later and we know a lot more about cannabis cannabis now whereas it was, you know, a much newer thing then. Our 20 unit six 216 um signers
include 182 people in ward E 130 people within a thousand feet of the proposed location. These are some of the people who will be most impacted by this business on a daily basis and the central concerns expressed repeatedly in their comments are about location fit
and the density of existing dispensaries. 26 petitioners specifically competented that there are too many or enough or plenty dispensaries in this neighborhood already or that we don't need another one. It is concerning that the city has
approved so many dispensaries to open in such a small area. I can walk to six approved dispensaries within just 10 blocks of this location. Please don't allow that to be seven dispensaries within 10 blocks. We ask this council to please consider this neighborhood's concerns before allowing yet another
dispensary to open here. Thank you. >> And lastly, Joel Natus, not here. Okay. All right. Well, that uh that concludes our list of public speakers. It's all right. At this point, our next
agenda item is the list of petitions and communications, items 6.1 through 6.18. Council members, are there any questions or comments on the petitions and communications? Hearing none, our next agenda item is
the list of officer communications. There are none. So, we will move on to our next agenda item, the reports of directors, items 8.1 through 8.6. Are there any questions on the reports of directors? Hearing none, we will move on to the
claims list. Council members, there are uh the claims and addendums number one and two. Are there any questions on the claims? >> Yes. Uh hi, this is Councilman Brooks. Um Peter, question for the BA. Uh on the
claims list, the claims that start with the number five, do those reflect um bills incurred in the for or being paid out of fiscal year 2025's budget? Same thing with the bills. Um,
starting with uh the number six and um we could have a more full discussion on this at the next caucus, but just since the public God bless you if you're still watching, but um if they are watching just for transparency and reading these
reports. >> Yeah, I think you're referring to the account numbers, Councilman, like 5.01-23 yada yada yada. Correct. Yeah, they would in a they come from 20 in 2025's budget. Um the reserve reserves set up there. So they're being paid out of the
reserve. It's not affecting 2026 or any of the current budget projections that we have. You'll see underneath here where it has a 25 dash and a number after it. That also indicates the year that was signed in. So 25 is 2025 and then you know the invoice whatever the number after it uh instead of obviously
in unique the unique line which is being paid from. >> Thank you. and I didn't come up with on my own. Shout out to our council administrator. He showed me that. So, thank you. >> My pleasure, Councilman.
>> Peter, thanks for getting and and to the clerk clerk's office, thanks for getting those claims to us earlier this this process. We appreciate it. >> Sure. >> Any other questions on the claims or addendums? >> Yeah, I think you addressed Morton Salt.
Can you just speak to that again? What specific aspect, councilman? >> Well, there was the question of whether they fulfilled their services before and they're on the claims here to get paid. >> Yes. So, the claims here are for the deliveries that were already provided to
us. So, you know, obviously anytime they've made a delivery, we have to pay for them. Going forward though, we intend to use a different provider, which is in our resolution. Um, you'll see below. Uh, they are still a provider for us. We can have more than one. Um, however, given the difficulty we have
with the last storm, I think our primary provider will switch to Atlantic Salt identified on the resolutions. Um, so we most likely will not see anything coming forward from them. Um, unless there's emergency and we have to, you know, contact them for whatever reason. >> Any other questions?
>> No. >> In that case, uh, I'd like to take a vote on the claims and addendums number one and two. How do you vote? Councilman Brookke. >> I vote I on all. >> Councilman Zupa, >> I on. >> Councilman Efos,
>> I. >> Councilwoman Little, >> I on all. And thank you for getting uh them to us in time. >> Council person Gilmore. >> Sorry. Hi. >> Did I No, I'm sorry.
>> Did I Oh, >> I did not hear you. No. >> Mom to first. >> Oh, no. It was you. >> Okay. John has it. Councilman Gilmore. Councilman Gilmore said I had John. >> Council person Griffin.
>> I. >> Council person Lavaro. >> I. >> Council person Singh. >> Hi. >> And council president Ridley. >> I. >> Claims are approved. claims and addendums one and two approved 90. Our next agenda item is the list of resolutions.
Uh as you remember, we did vote on agenda item 10.3 already. So I'll be taking a vote on items 10.1 through 10.16. >> Really quick, John, sorry to interrupt you before we get into the resolutions. The council president had a question for
the corporation council and I think she has a quick statement she wants to make. >> Okay. So, I just wanted to uh make sure that we clarify what the rules are in regards to uh the council and council president and our rules of orders just so everyone
is clear. Um you know, I know there were a lot of things said today. There was a lot of case law passed around and we know that yes, um there was a sign that is always there saying they are not attorneys. So, they are clear on that. But, uh we just want clarification so
that everyone is on the same page. Uh certainly council president. So first I will say this is uncontroversial but the first amendment is sacrosanct. Not only is freedom of speech profound
but it makes real all other constitutional rights and amendments. And so, um, any concerns, any allegations that First Amendment rights have been abridged warrant very thoughtful and serious consideration
in this case. It is the position of the law department that the actions of the council and the council president have been lawful, have been consistent with municipal code, with your authorities under local law, under federal law, and that no constitutional rights have been
abridged. To avoid any doubt, the law department would be happy to prepare a memo for the council that engages with the law, including the law that has been cited here today to explain what conduct by a governing body would rise to the
level of creating a constitutional problem. So, we would be more than happy to provide that guidance. >> All right, off. Go ahead, John. We ready to move on? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, as far as the list of resolutions, as I did mention earlier, 10.3 was already approved. So, I'll be
taking a vote on items 10.1 through 10.6. On agenda items 10.1 through 10.16, how do you vote, Council Person Brooks? >> 10.1 I. 10.2 I.
Um, I'm sorry. >> 10.3 already voted on. So, >> yes, we did. And all of the rest of them, I vote I as well. And I say congratulations to the new and returning members of the rent leveling board. Uh, it sounds like you'll have a lot of
clients very soon. Thank you. >> Okay. Council person Zupa. >> Yes. On 10.1, just want to thank all the people that work, especially out of W C on the native plant space, making sure we have proper species planted, focusing on green space. On 10.4, 4. Thank you
again to my colleagues for bringing this up and encouraging our state legislature to act on this. I'll say again, um, due process is so important and I want to comment on it one more time is that if we don't speak up now against violations against marginalized individuals, there won't be the protections when they come
after the rest of us. So, so if you're again, if you're sitting at home and worried about law enforcement, we're fighting for due process. Uh, I want to congratulate uh echo uh Councilman Brooks's statements for all the new members of the rent leveling board. Thank you for your service. Want to congratulate Steve Lipsky, a former
counselor from Ward C on on being named as the Irishman of the Year for the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. And uh that's I on all 10.1 to 10.6. >> Very well, Council Person Efos.
>> Uh I'll vote I on all and on 10.4. um you know when we put forward uh symbolic resolutions that uh urge our state legislature to act um on bills at the state level. Uh you know that that is
not without action on our end to continue to do the organizing in our community to keep our community safe from ICE. and uh it is just meaningful when city after city in our state come together around uh the same kind of
state legislation. So that's the spirit behind this. Um echoing the congrats to folks on the ren leveling board. Um and yeah 1 through 16 I uh council person little
I on all congratulations to all plant native plants and abolish ice. Council President Gilmore, Council President Griffin, >> I'm going to vote I from 1 through 16. And I see that Sandra Green is here. I
want to say congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Council person Lavaro. >> Yeah. on uh 10.4. I want to thank uh Councilman Efos for bringing this forward and glad to co-sponsor that and urge the state legislature to
immediately pass the Michigan Trust Act and uh call on Governor Cheryl to actually sign it into law unlike the former governor. Um and then um congratulations to Sandra and all of the other members um who've been appointed or reappointed to the rent leveling
board. Thank you for your service and your work on that. Uh, congratulations to Maryanne Bets McBride and Steve Lipsky, Irish woman and Irish man of the year. Looking forward to celebrating with you and I vote I on all of the rest.
>> Thank you, Council Person Singh. >> Um, so I vote I on everything. Uh, abstain on 10 11 10.11 and congratulations to everyone. Sandra, congratulations.
>> Very well. And Council President Ridley, >> I >> Okay. Um, so for agenda items 10.1 through >> Sorry, I heard something. Uh, for agenda items 10.1 through 10.10,
those are all approved unanimously. Agenda item 10.11 is approved 81 with council person Singh abstaining and uh agenda items 10.12 through 10.16 are approved unanimously and to approve
and to approve agenda items 10.17 through 10.26 the balance of business. How do you vote? Council person Brooks >> questions first um on on the the delayed item 10.26. Yes.
>> So to to the administration um this the city currently receives state aid. Is that correct? >> In one form or another we do. Correct. >> Do we do you can you tell us how much? >> It's a broad term. I don't know off the
top of my head. We receive state aid in a many different varieties. So I wouldn't have that number in front of me. >> Okay. H how does state aid differ from transitional aid? transitional very specific form of state aid that you know contingencies it upon financial distress
of a city um or a particular budget concern or necessary to you know build a critical infrastructure that could be provided um so it has very specific conditions and it comes with you know kind of specific guidelines which is potential oversight and things of that nature. I got a series of questions
here. So stand. Um >> I'll stand for you, Council M. >> So um how long will um if if the application is approved, how long would we receive uh transitional aid? >> So that depends. Uh
currently the projections are we try to get it for at least 3 years. We can return to a 5year balanced budget. Um, if necessary, we may have to go longer than that, but the goal obviously is to get off it as quickly as possible, you know, assuming we can balance the budget appropriately and bring ourselves in line with the correct financial controls
that we need. >> Um, if we should be approved, how does the city get released from transitional aid and the conditions that come with that? So through the application we have to make uh certain requests for money
based on different conditions we have. So basically if we fulfill those conditions and the monitor agrees that we're in a fiscally responsible position then we make the application that hey let's end the agreement essentially and we move forward to it. Um it doesn't
have to be a long-term situation. Many municipalities and you know including municipalities in Hudson County have received it only for a year and then not received it the next year. So, it's not necessarily a long-term binding situation. >> Um, so, so what what does state
oversight and the fiscal controls that come with transitional aid? What does that look like beyond the current requirements that we have to do to get state approval for our budget and things like that? So generally there will they will appoint a monitor that will be assigned to the city and you know our
budget process um amendments to the budget process uh you know audit reports all those things get reviewed by the monitor who make sure that we're in compliance with you know uh all current legislation and that you know uh the
actions by the city would not jeopardize our request for state aid and the parameters that the money is provided to us by So essentially it's it's another level of direct oversight where they're involved in more of our you know uh I would say normal business actions versus
just submitting a report and then signing off on it once a year. >> Then this next question is partially to the corporation council. U it talks about strengthening paytoplay laws. I'd asked for before could we include uh this with this transitional aid
application if it's approved you were going to provide us some some information about paytoplay laws. Um if we could include this as part of that the the new enhanced requirements and that's what the memo suggests is that there's some enhanced requirements on paytoplay. um law department is working
on a memo for council that'll be a a one-pager and by that I mean up to three or five pager on procurement laws, pay-to-play laws, and we're happy to address transitional aid as part of that. >> That's fine. There we go. Just to add to
that, these are potential options that come directly from the state's website and the DCA. So, it's not saying these things have to be taken. It's just these are the things that the state would consider when we make the application. Um, I would acknowledge that the city has some of the strongest payto-lay laws. Uh, the council last year, I
think, made some updates to that as well. So, we are probably ahead of the game. Um, but of course, you know, if there's anything to the city once adjust, we're happy to adjust that. >> I have no problem with more paytoplay laws. I just >> want to know what it is. So, um, and then the big question, um, I assume
there's a number in here because we don't have it in our information in the memo. Yeah. >> Anything else? So, >> so the number is currently being worked on. Um, obviously the application is due the 27th, so we should have that final number soon. Um, >> ballpark.
>> I I'm going to give you a ballpark. Um, I believe we're looking at potentially receiving upwards of more than $100 million from the uh the state. And again, that would probably, you know, trickle down the longer we're on it and the the need uh decreases. Um, again,
there's a lot of complicated conversations. have to go into that with the state. So I don't want to go into too many details, but we are looking for significant uh help from the state. Um and that number is not out of line with a city of our size compared to what other states and other sorry other municipalities in the state have
received for transitional aid. >> Last one just once the application submitted, uh council would like to get a copy of that application. >> Absolutely. And it's a public document too, so we'll make sure everyone has it. Um and then you know become public after that. Peter, um, as it relates to this
item, um, is like it is this something I mean, it's a late item in full transparency, I haven't had the u time I would like to really indulge
this item. Um, so I guess my question for the administration is um, does it hurt to delay this? What what what specifically would be going on? >> If we don't have council approval, we can't submit the application. We have to
submit the application by the 27th. So, this Friday, so it has to be voted on this meeting. >> When when did we find out about this deadline? >> The corporate county answered. Um, the department of finance did what I hope every department will do in the
course of completing important work, which is that they asked for law department to review the application and make sure that they would have all of their ducks in a row. They were obviously laser focused on getting the financials in order because that is the substance of the application. And in our legal review, which happened just this
weekend, we noticed that in a bottom of a long list of small font, there was a requirement that there be an authorizing resolution both for submitting the application and if there is an award. So, this may come before you again if the city's application is successful,
but it was in the course of that legal review uh which it is important uh that that happened. And in this instance, because finance was understandably focused on their terrain that came towards the end of the process that we flagged this procedural requirement,
moving forward, if we were ever to apply again, we would already know that this is a requirement. >> Okay. Yes. Cuz I mean, I just I don't know. I'm just very uneasy um with items that
just items in general that are late items and deadlines are approaching. Um because I'm of the opinion that whenever the state give deadlines like the deadline of 27th, the state didn't just
release it a week ago or two weeks ago. Um, so I just want us to be very cognizant of deadlines and I also want us to be cognizant of mispreparation on the behalf on on the behalf of the administration does not constitute an
emergency on the behalf of the council and I just want us to, you know, be on the same page as it relates to that. >> Understood. And if it wasn't extraordinary, we wouldn't bring it to you. Um, again, we found out late. We just want to make sure this is done. Um, I know that there's been discussions
with the council about the serious financial situation we're in and the critical need to find any assistant to get out of it. Um, so I know we always contemplated potentially applying to the state. Unfortunately, just the formality of the process, you know, we didn't know this was part of it. So, we want to get it to you as soon as possible. That's
why we want to provide that memo to you as well so you know what we were contemplating with everything. Um, council may zupa here. >> Can you can you please address the trace position provide us some more guidance on this? So, uh, the state conditions
aid on, uh, with quote broad oversight of hiring, procurement, and other matters from the time of application. So, as of Friday, the state could take over our hiring practices, right? They wouldn't necessarily take over from my understanding when the monitors appointed just we have to run through
all actions purchasing procurement hiring firing anything that would affect any of the uh obligations and non-discretionary funding of the city we have to run by them including reevaluation reassessment of properties right uh so my my question really is
this is is the administration planning on looking back to undo things the prior administration did or we only looking forward uh uh actions going forward for hiring for for those practices, hiring, etc. >> Well, I don't think there's any
immediate uh direction to undo anything as far as hirings of that nature. Um you know, civil service protection such as, you know, if a person is civil service or permanent, they would still apply. So, we're limited in what some actions we could do. And you know, the the
administration has a guiding principle of we don't want to decrease services or residents. So to the extent as possible, we're not trying to take any action that would jeopardize the services that the city provides. Um so there's no immediate plan for that. As the mayor stated publicly, everything's on the table and I think it has to be in a situation as dire as we are right now.
Um and if we're also asking money from the state, they can may come back to us and say, well, what do you plan to do about you know uh employment and you know all the different things we might have that we have to look at. Um so we're going to be realistic and we want to be honest about that, but there's no current intent to look back for those
decisions. Um obviously the council, you know, in the administration agree we should look back when it comes to pilots or audits or things of that nature, more financial controls, um but not anything employment related unless we're asked to by the state. >> Okay. And obviously I share Councilman Gilmore's concern about timing, but
given the fact that we are in a precarious financial position, uh not to telegraph my vote, but I I think we do have to support this, but I am concerned about the state oversight and and uh having a monitor in in Jersey City for an extended period of time. >> Okay. And one second, Councilwoman uh
Councilman Efforts. >> Thank you. Yeah. Can can you explain a bit more about what power these fiscal controls have over? So, does that have override power over what we as a council might decide? They would have override
power over everything the city. So what the administration decides, what the council decides, ultimately any action that would affect the non-discretionary funding of or spending of the city, they would have to run it by or we'd have to run it by the monitor and they could veto, you know, everything. You know, speaking to colleagues that have been
through this in the past, you know, be things like, hey, we have a line item for food in our budget. They might say, oh, take the food out, it's not necessary. So they can get that nitty-gritty to us um to that extent. Obviously, you know, our objective is to try to work with them to accomplish the goals as administration and the council
because a lot of people ran on that and you know, there's a lot of things I think the city wants to accomplish, but we think we have to be realistic first with our finances and the situations we're in before we start moving forward with, you know, all the other things we want to accomplish together. And >> that override power they have is is for an indefinite period of time,
>> only indefinite to the point where they're still a monitor for the city. So as soon as we stop receiving the aid and they no longer are monitoring us, you know, which kind happened simultaneously, then we return to normal. >> But this passing this resolution does not give us a timeline of when we would
stop receiving aid and stop having to monitor. >> Generally, we apply for it every single year. So you know, we apply for one year, receive aid. um we generally want to make an application to them saying hey we're going to look at this for an extended period of time but I believe you know corporation council correct me if I'm wrong I think every year we have
to resubmit that application >> okay thank you for explaining that again I mean yeah just in addition to the timing um what's concerning is that this this seems to be unfolding at the the city to state level what has happened in so many countries where countries have
ambitious policy goals to meet the needs of their people um and because of the global economic system. They're in financial distress and they go to something like the World Bank or the IMF um and they get structural adjustment
where they have to be subjected to austerity uh to really really uh barbarous neoliberal regimes and then they are given aid only on those conditions. And so, uh, just reflexively, this is, uh, it's really
it's a it's a hard pill to swallow and, um, I really wish we had more time. I understand, um, that the deadline, the due date was only recently discovered, but, um, it's just it's pretty troubling. Um, yeah, and I I have more faith, I think,
in the state of New Jersey than the World Bank. But uh to to be clear but um nonetheless I think the the analog is really resonant here my council colleagues have >> council missing
>> Peter uh um pardon me if you already answered this it's 10.19 um so we we are paying $50,000 to Millennium Strate Strategies LLC for
grant consult services. Uh, do we know how much we how much grants we got? >> Yes. So, I was sent an email about that. Uh, >> I'm sorry, I missed it. >> Sorry. I was sent an email from that about 15 minutes before the council
started, so I did not have a chance to send it to you beforehand, but I'll pull it up and let you know in just one minute. Sorry, council. Yep. Thank you, Corporation Council. So, Millennium Strategies for 2025, and they
were not our grant consultant for the full year, but from January to September of 2025, they were able to secure the city $4.6 million in grants. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> It's pretty significant.
And Councilman Griffin, you had a question about 10:25. >> Yes, the >> uh 10:25. Um can that is Are we rushing on that one or can we table that because I have a lot of questions about it like
when it comes to revenue and um >> I I don't >> their equipment and all that stuff. So, I don't want to misrepresent that. I don't think there's an exact deadline that I know of. Um, I know because of the RFP, we have to make a recommendation to get
that approved at a certain timeline. The RFP and full disclosure came in last year prior to the new council taking effect. We held that because we wanted the new council on administration have a chance to review it and recommend make a recommendation there. So I think we are kind of buddy up against a timeline
where if we don't recommend it soon um we could be in breach of the requirements for the RFP. >> Okay. And what I would say councilman is uh I know you have concerns especially with the revenue portion of it. Um at least that's what I ascertained during caucus.
um the RFP is not exclusive, meaning that if we wanted to explore additional EV, you know, locations or companies or that kind of stuff, we're not procluded from doing that, >> right? But we're talking their revenue is $1.1 million.
Ours is $1,250 if I'm looking at this correctly. >> It's because they're providing the infrastructure that would need to put these in, you know, these devices in place. they're providing costs for and they cost about 30 to $40,000 per charging location. So, we are getting,
you know, we're not getting revenue from them, but we're getting the added service we don't have to pay for. >> I mean, we're I I think we're we're in a time where we need revenue. >> And that's why I said I don't think this precludes us from finding other lo other
vendors that could provide additional revenue to us if they would have an agreement to that effect. Um, again, even if we didn't select this company, it doesn't mean that we can force them to give us more revenue. The RFPs put out with very specific parameters. These I think this is one of three that
answered it. This was the best one based on the determination of the committee. Um, if we decide to say no to this one, it doesn't mean that there's another one or we can go back negotiate and say, "Hey, we want to renegotiate against more money." We're kind of procluded from our actions there. we could issue a new RFP and try to get a different
company to come in or change the parameters for it. Um, but that would take substantial time and it doesn't preclude us from still doing that if we selected this vendor under these conditions. So, so if we reissue an RFP,
does that set us up to get sued? Or >> if we were to try to reissue this specific RFP without any uh exceptions to why we are not committing any recommendation on it, then we could face potential litigation. However, it doesn't include issuing a new RFP with different parameters.
Meaning, if your intent is, hey, let's find an EV charging uh company that would have more revenue to the city, we'd always put another RFP out there saying, these are parameters. We're going to add X amount of services. We want to have this kind of agreement and see if there's any respondents out there that would take us up on that.
>> I may I would echo Councilman Griffin's call to to carry it over or something like that. I I requested other information about our current um EVs uh chargers. Didn't get that information and utilization rates, things like that
to get a better sense of um kind of this whole um EV charging uh plan of ours. Um so I I' still like to have that information for my purposes. If it moves forward, I'm likely either going to vote
no or abstain. So that's just kind of where that's at. Yeah, >> again, I just don't want to lose opportunity for the city by not being able to vote on it now. So, I'm concerned that if we don't vote on it, it could go away. Um, like I said, you know, if there's a concern about revenue or things of that nature, it doesn't
preclude us from offering a new RFP with different criteria that might more comport to what you're talking about, Councilman. >> I mean, I'm I'm open to voting for it at a future date after getting more information. That's just my position on that. But at this point, I don't have enough information to be able to make a
>> I understand. I I just I know we're on a tight timeline. I don't want to say the exact dates for it because I don't know off the top of my head, but you know, there was talk that this had to get on very early in the council. They wanted to put it on two weeks ago. We held it off because we're trying to get more information for everyone. Um so I think we're button up against our time frame.
I just don't know the exact timeline off the top of my head. >> Okay. Well, uh I would like to make a motion to carry it. >> Okay. This is agenda item 10.25, correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, uh motion to carry
10.25 made by council person Griffin. Is there a second? >> Second. Okay. All in favor? Uh Council Person Brooks? I
>> council person Zupa. >> Hi. >> Council person Efos. >> Hi. >> Council person Little. >> Nay. >> Council per. Was that an I or >> Okay. Uh, Council Person Gilmore. >> I.
>> Council person Griffin. >> I. >> Council person Lavaro. >> I. >> Council person Singh. Um I do not want to lose any revenue we can get for the city and it is really confusing because I do see there is so
much potential. There are so many um uh so many opportunities we can have. Um I would say no on this. >> Okay. And council person >> I so motion to carry and this is to
carry to the March 11th meeting. That correct? >> Yes. >> Sorry. >> It would be with withdrawal. You don't carry resolutions. So, we withdraw it and then resubmit it for the following meeting or any meeting there after. >> Motion. I'm sorry. Stand corrected. Uh
motion to withdraw agenda item 10.25 25 carries 63 with council persons Little um sorry uh I believe it was Little and actually sorry uh 72 with council persons Little
and Singh voting no. Are there any other questions on any other resolutions? >> No. >> Are we prepared to vote on the balance of business? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, agenda items 10.17
through 10.26 with 10.25 already been being withdrawn. How do you vote? Council person Brooks. >> 10.17 I vote I. 10.8 I vote no. 10.19 I
abstain. And then uh 10.20 through 10.26 26. I vote yes. Um, you know, with the legacy of state control of the Jersey City Schools, I understand
the hesitance to have um the state monitoring us, but we as a council, this is a message to the public. Again, God bless you if you're still watching. Um, we have inherited a terrible situation.
Um, and I think I'll just speak for myself. if I'm willing to place my faith in the administration um to go through this potentially painful monitoring situation for this calendar year. So I vote I on 10.26
>> and to be clear that is 108 you are voting no and 10.19 you are abstaining. Correct. >> Correct. >> Council person Zupa. >> All right. for 10.17 that's the authorizing a a resolution to have planning work on our journal square
redevelopment plan. Uh this is uh keeping true to a promise uh that so many of us made during the campaign to build affordable housing. I'm very excited to work with planning and administration to bring those promises to fruition and hope to have very good um announcements in weeks to come. Uh
10. So I'm yes on 17, no on 18, yes on 19. Uh for 10.20. This was the prevailing wage uh wage compliance issue that I I raised. uh don't want to didn't want to hold up any park improvements,
but I am concerned that when I brought up not paying workers, that the first response was not from this contract was not to uh tell us that they're happy to open the books and show us compliance and transparency, but to threaten to sue the city. Uh so I'm I'm I'm concerned
about that, but um my office will be out at that job site to ensure compliance. I'm happy to work with Councilman Brooks to to do that as well and making sure that the workers are paid fairly and uh on time. Uh yes, on uh 10.21
through the conclusion of the agenda. Again, share my concerns about state oversight, but we do need to uh uh use all avenues we can to u fix our budget situation. >> Okay. Council person Efos.
>> Yes. on uh 10.17, no on 10.18, yes on um 19 through 26. Uh and just to reiterate um you know when when we were
given a late item around the health plan change last month, uh I think that was last month, hard to keep track now. Um the administration very proactively got in touch with us, gave us briefings
on the health plan change. The timeline was extremely tight and I give them credit for the diligence uh they put into really making sure we were prepared to make a vote on this health plan change that uh ought to save the city
tens and tens of millions of dollars this year alone. Um and and I I really wish we had uh that kind of diligence for for this one. So um understanding that the deadline was
uh only discovered on Friday um and we had an emergency snowstorm again. Um but kind of like last time. Uh I I I do still wish that we could have had that diligence from the administration this time around to really uh walk us through
what it means to have tight fiscal controls from the state of New Jersey basically taking over what we can do as a local government. So, um I I with a lot of reservation vote eye nonetheless
um knowing that in a year uh whatever we will have been subjected to will hopefully be um behind us even if we still have some of our deficit to dig out and we can assess um whether we would subject ourselves to this kind of
transitional aid application again. Um So just to recap, you are voting no on 1018 and yes on the rest. >> Correct. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Council Person Little. >> I vote I on 10.17,
no on 10.18, I on 10.19, 10.20, um 10.21, and and through the end of the agenda. And uh similar to my colleagues, I have a lot of reservations and concerns
with this absolute veto power of the state appointed monitor. But given the scale, the magnitude of the mess that we have inherited, uh I don't think I would be doing my
duty uh to my constituents and and being um a responsible steward of their tax dollars if we were to turn down the opportunity for state aid. >> Okay. Council person Gilmore. um vote no on 1018.
Um I on arrest as it relates to 26 um I mean I've expressed my concerns earlier. Um but I will say this um in light of us being in the deficit I I mean I don't
think it's such a bad idea to have extra eyes on things. Um, and if the administration, um, signed up for this, um, I will agree. But I just really hope in the future, uh, that we have a a proper
understanding. I will no longer be voting on items that I didn't really have enough time to do my due diligence as it relates to understanding the nuances. But um if this is going to give
the state more oversight, if this is going to help us not overburden taxpayers, um I'll vote in favor of that. Um I just want the administration to really really really take into consideration
um the urgency of presenting things in a timely manner, especially things that have huge financial implications associated with it. So, I'll vote I on all except for uh 18.
>> Council person Griffin. >> 10:26. I'm just going to reiterate reiterate my colleagues. Uh 10:18 I'm going to vote no. and 1020. I I do implore the administration to
reach out to the developer of 99 99 storms because he promised the community a basketball court and if the grand dollars can go to the basketball court, but then that would be other revenues we get from them that can we can use
someplace else. Um, I can't think of the name of the development company, but I do have his personal email address, and I do have correspondence from people in the community who's been reaching out to him if you need any of that um for
evidence of him uh offering to do do so. And I'm going to vote I on everything else, including 1020. >> Very well, Council Person Lavaro. on 10.17. Um I'm going to vote I I just am looking
forward to um what what comes out of this uh um review of um the Journal Square 2060 redevelopment plan. Uh huge opportunities with all the development going on in that area for for affordability. Uh I'll vote no on 10.18.
Um I'll vote no on 10.19. Um just on 10.21, 21 the shared service agreement. Um great to see that we have one um but clearly underutilized um from the
discussions we've had. Right. So um unfortunately our colleague our counterparts at the school board left already but um definitely we'll have a conversation with them about how to really kind of maximize this uh shared services and make it mutually beneficial
for everyone. Um on 10.23 23. I just want to congratulate Tita. Uh Tita was my former aid and she'll be a great addition to the rent leveling board. Um and then lastly on 10.26. So,
uh transitional aid and state state monitoring. You know, we we've had this experience with um the Jersey City public schools being under state control. Um, and if you ask anybody who who's been through that, they wanting to get out
from underneath that desperately. Folks were um we just recently have New Jersey State University still currently under um state monitor um as they merge with Kane University. This is not a good process. But I also will say for the
administr and it's not their fault they're inheriting we are inheriting a uh massive budget structural budget deficit and this is a responsible move to do. Um although it's I I don't want
to sugarcoat it. It brings uh real um real challenges and and some uncertainty for Jury City in in the sense of being under a state monitor in that sense. Um, that being said, uh, we need we need the state's assistance, we
need the county's assistance, we need federal assistance if we can get it. Um, so, um, I will vote yes on 10.26. Um, I will also echo the idea that these late items, um, and
frankly speaking, I I hear the idea that I just we just stumbled upon this requirement. All of these state applications, grants and everything else often require almost all of them require governing bodies approvals um through
that. And so that should not be a reason um moving forward on this. Um, and so, uh, the other thing I'm going to put out there now, and I'll make it public, is that I intend to introduce a res an ordinance to change our, um, council
rules of order to make sure that we can get things on, uh, get the agenda before the city council and the public much earlier than we currently have it. um because um we should not be scrambling like this and asking these uh tough questions on on difficult issues and
making these difficult decisions and choices um under this extreme deadlines and pressures. Um it's not fair to the city council, but mostly it's not fair to the people of Jersey City. So um I'm going to vote vote I and all the rest and uh and 10 and then 10.26 vote I as
well. >> Thank you, Council Person Singh. >> Thank you. Um I will vote I on 17 and 18 no. Um rest I would vote yes.
Just want to say that we are a new administration. There were two snowstorm. There is lot going on. We just hired our finance director. So of course we want to them to give us enough time but I think they are trying to do
things that sometimes are in not in their control. So thank you so much but as everybody said it would be great to give us enough time. Thank you.
and council president Ridley. >> No one 1018 I on all. >> I make all the rest. >> Very well. So to recap the vote tally 107 agenda item 1017 is approved unanimously. Agenda item 1018 is
defeated unanimously. 09. Agenda item 1019 is approved. 711 with uh Councilman Brooks abstaining and Councilman Lavaro voting no. Agenda
items 1020 through 10:24 are approved unanimously. 10:25 as we mentioned has been withdrawn and 1026 is approved unanimously. That concludes a list of resolutions unless there is any other business. I'd
like to entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion >> I was a lot of people said that. >> Okay. I think I heard Zupa on the motion first. >> Second. >> Well, a lot. I mean, I'm going to I heard a lot of seconds, too. I'm going to give that to Brooks. I think I heard it from
>> singing. >> On the motion to adjourn at 11:55, how do you vote? Council person Brooks. >> Council person Zupa. >> Want to wait the five minutes. I >> Council Person Efro. >> I. >> Council person Little. I >> Council Person Gilmore.
Council Person Griffin. Council Person Lavaro, >> Council Person Singh, >> I, >> and Council Person Ridley approved unanimously at 11:56. Thank you everyone. The next meeting will be March 11th at 6 p.m. Until then,
be well. United.