okay everyone we're about to get started if we can find find our seats silence our cell phones and if we can close the back door the side doors I'd greatly appreciate it okay good afternoon everyone we are on the record today is Monday the 10th day of March in the year
2025 this is the city council city council Caucus meeting of the Jersey City municipal Council we had a scheduled 4M start the clock on my cell phone is showing 402 p.m may we have a roll call for the
commencement of this caucus council person Ridley is not here yet council person Prince AR here council person aano is walking in council person SLE is not here yet council person Solomon is not here yet
council person Gilmore I believe is outside council person Dees here council person R will not be here tonight and council president wman here and I see we have council person Gilmore and council
person s present is here Denise is here too and we have council person Ridley so we now have seven council members present at 402
p.m on behalf of council president Waterman and the members of the municipal Council in accordance with New Jersey public laws of 1975 T chapter 231 the open public meetings act also known as the Sunshine Law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the posting on the
bulletin board of the first floor of this of City Hall the annual notice which is the schedule of meetings and caucuses of the municipal Council for the calendar year 2025 and filed in the office of the city clerk on Friday November 15 2024 in addition at its time
of its preparation the agenda of this meeting was similarly disseminated on Friday March 7th 2025 at 4:25 p.m. to the mayor Municipal Council business administrator Corporation Council and the local newspapers and posted on the city's
website so I can certify as to our total compliance with the Sunshine Law council president I'm going to turn it over to you good afternoon K director before we proceed we got a special belated birthday shout out to
our council president probably going to want to want to wait to the end if anybody wants to sing because we don't want to hear any offkey canaries before we start so with that being said director kce we're going to let you go thank you very much Sean and happy birthday council president
thank you um good evening I have um several items before you today the first one is ordinance 25027 3.3 this ordinance will amend and supplement fees associated with the use of the Public Safety Training Facility since opening the facility was
determined the present fee schedule is not competitive to attract smaller law enforcement a agencies and was not inclusive of the fire training burn building schedule will be open later this year so what we're looking to do um is ATT trct some of the uh smaller
police departments throughout the state uh just today we had a meeting with the state police team's unit and it looks like they'll be moving forward into using the range um since April 15th uh of last year we've so far we bought in about approximately $30,000 in fees and
the uh with the goal is to have the fee schedule support the range of the operational end and Greg this is just for fire and police right no other entities the Yes actually what we are doing it's open for
um the United Nations uh security forces and we had Goldman Sachs uh come in and they're they're also training they're all retired police officers so we are as I say the main thing is what we're looking to do is make it the budget cover the entire operating cost of the facil
facility next is uh resolution 25168 10.23 resolution we authorized the public sale of 15 Motor Vehicles to the Public surface.com Public online auction next is 25175 1030 resolution
will award a contract to paramis Ford for the purchase of a 2024 Ford Transit passenger van for use by the Jersey City Fire Department total amount of this contract is $61,800 30 and the funding is available in the DPW Capital
account this was 10:30 Greg this is 10:30 correct next is 25 176 1031 resolution we authorize you Award of a contract to Samuels Incorporated training as bywise Auto Parts to provide various automotive
parts and supplies as needed total am of the contract is $400,000 with a temporary incumbrance of $20,000 which is available in the automotive operating account next is 25177 10.32 resolution we authorize you Award
of an openend contract the loss and products for the purchase and delivery of various automotive parts and supplies as needed for the DPW Automotive division total amount of this contract is $44,000 with a temporary incumbrance of $5,000 which is available in a automotive
operating account and the last is 25178 10.33 resolution will authorize the award contract of Northeast sweepers and rentals for the purchase and delivery of parts and repair services for the ravo street sweepers total amount of this contract is $100,000 with a temporary
incumbrance of $10,000 which is available in the automotive operating account thank you thank you director Shay would director Shay speaks I just want a more council person Solomon present at 4:08 p.m so we have eight
council members present at 408 go ahead director uh good evening council president good evening council members uh Happy Birthday council president belated birthday uh the Department of Public Safety has three resolutions for the council's consideration on this
week's agenda the first one is agenda number 1027 it's reservation uh resolution 25172 it ratifies an agreement with Robert Santilli Consulting to provide maintenance and support services for the
police department's existing software applications that were created about 15 years ago by Robert stily Consulting it's a continuing resolution it's in the amount of $55,000 and it's paid for out of the police Department's budget this is the
software most of you are familiar with it but this is the software that we use for overtime for accounting our police officers presence scheduling Etc question the second resolution we have is agenda number 1028 it's resolution
25173 it ratifies the award of an open-end contract to AAA emergency supply company for the self-contained breathing apparatus used by our fire department for parts and hydro Services Under State contract uh it's in the
amount the total contracts $100,000 we're only encumbering $30,000 because it will depend upon how much we use this equipment through the course of the year uh obviously we all hope and pray that we use it as little as possible because it's what our firefighters use at fires so this is for
the self-contained breathing apparatus and again it's a continuing resolution and the additional funds would be made available from the fire department's budget as additional parts are needed question and the third and final
resolution from the Department of Public Safety is agenda item number 1029 it's resolution 25174 it's the award of a contract to the affordable interior systems for the purchase and delivery of office
furniture it is under State contract the office furniture it's in the amount of $85,900 be interviewed in in interrogatory fashion it should be in more of a home setting uh think children sex Crime Victims domestic violence
victims so both in our ordinary detectives and in our Internal Affairs we are going to be building out those non interrogatory spaces using this furniture question question okay off the agenda
director Shay is here do anybody have questions he's getting ready to pleas we've said the emails he haven't responded so I mean at this point we'll move forward with theal confidence I mean the issues have been laid out for years and part of the problem is the Pow
is taken out of the council hand when each director is not come have not come back up for reappointment so now when constituents are calling as it relates to traffic issues by uh particular fire station is not uh open brown outs all
type of public safety issues where we're emailing the proper um Personnel to get responses and we can't get responses right so it's I've been sitting up here for three years I've been hearing similar complaints before I've sitting on this Council so again the
administration have taken the power out of the council hand as it relates to us reappointing all directors every we run for re-election every four years why the directors have to be special and they have to be voted on every four years right so again they took the power our hands this is
something that we we have the jurisdiction over we have the power over to have a vote of no confidence again the the the the reasons are clear on the record um you heard councilman Rivera specifically talk about the the dangers
of response times as it relates to fires you've heard councilman boano on several occasions talk about um all type of different traffic infractions I've been emailing the public safety director for over three years asking about crossing
guards what is the comprehensive plan to address getting new crossing guards there have been nothing presented we've asked for itemized budget when we spent upwards of 2030 million we still have got we have not got that itemized budget so at at at this point what do we do
when when our constituency ask us what is being done as it relates to this people are sending me all type of pictures tractor Trail is parked in bik LS car parked on the sidewalk they're calling parking authority is is not coming or they're not doing anything I
mean at some point we have to do something thank you councilman Now Rich you have something to say yeah a lot of the problems uh a lot of the traffic issues and problems are because there are not
enough Personnel in the city here to operate the police department there's not enough people in the parking authority to uh um to upate the parking authority when I came on the police department there were 1160 cops I think we're down to 800 something now and I
think it goes a lot higher too in the administration and they have to start paying attention to the problems that are people are complaining about because we're getting our backs broken by people and it's a shame and uh so that's basically it I say as I said it goes a
lot higher it in this city here yeah I just wanted to ask a point of information um a point of inquiry actually um is this resolution and this is more for the law department is this uh is this a hearing or what are we
doing that this resolution is here he walks out this door we go with this resolution then one of the council members say well he was here we should have questioned him so that's why I'm keeping him here to make sure we finalize this once and for all I'm tired of it keep coming back up all
right so it's not on this is how this happened so if y'all want to ask him a question uhuh no want to ask him a question he is here we'll know what to do from here Joyce can I also say something the Law Department was supposed to arrange a meeting with us and the director and a few other people
and you never did in a public we did we had we had a Clos we were told uh the last somebody brought up an ordinance they if he don't remember it so y'all need to say we had it that's why I'm saying let's get it all out today because I've had it I think we did
enough of this session but rich is speaking about that followup um meeting that he requested and also I requested that we were supposed to get to um so I mean I don't know how the communication got lost there but the Law Department
look the Law Department I don't I don't understand the what meeting you're talking about we did have the closed session but it's not for us to schedule any of the meetings I know director Shay said he would make himself available if any of the communities wanted to meet John knows about it right
John speak up now there was a quest uh few few months ago for a closed session the closed session occurred I'm not sure what what we're missing here I think rich rich had requested a
meeting Rich had requested a meeting outside of the closed session no rich rich was at the Clos session right right there a Clos session that's why they that's why they're confused if it's Community then it's a different state no no no I think
what rich is saying is that he's requested to have one-on-one meetings with the director and it's never come to fruition to the Law Department I don't I SP what is the particular subject and I can arrange the I a spoken to John we were going to sit down maybe three of us for two three of us with the
director and other people in the city about certain things uh a lot of things that are going on in the city and it never happened councilman if you could send me an email with exactly who you need in the room and what we're going to discuss can to say certain people on for
various things then somebody's not going to be there and then we're going to be blamed again so to make sure it's thorough so i' I'd like to raise a question this is more of a procedural question just to make sure that I'm understanding what is coming before Council the council has a to do vote of no confidence but that would be more to
a centure yes yes and then and then but the the other thing we could do is ask to or request for a hearing yes it would be if you want to actually do a removal you'd have to give
notice a hearing and then a vote okay so what's being considered is more akin to a centure than anything else okay can you explain the the legal effect of us voting for this resolution if we were to vote for it there is none
there is none okay is okay it's like a slap on the wrist just like a public slap on the wrist I guess okay yeah he's here so I want to make sure if there's any questions he can answer because we're
going to move on at this agenda I mean like I said I've I've sent the emails I've asked the questions now that's there an issue potentially we don't have enough police officers we see sweet we're the biggest Police Department we've ever been I mean at
this point I something just has to be done man something has to be done there's issues that haven't been addressed for the life of me I can't understand how we don't have a traffic division to enforce
simple stop signs red lights turning where prohibited like we're major city like how we how we don't have a traffic division to address those infractions and what do we do when residents call us oh councilman I'm
walking my son to the school and someone blew a stop sign or they went around a they went around a uh a park bus where do I tell them as a a council person oh you just got to live with it we have no Traffic Division no they ain't got to live with it w our tax have tripled in
depth like is there uh direct director gonna have a chance to answer too so that's why I'll make sure y'all get all your questions out because director you gota you gotta answer something would it be possible to get the um the data
regarding how many moving violations have been given out um throughout the city councilman absolutely I am going to repeat what I have said multiple times requests to me need to come through the business administrator oh answer I've
said I don't know how many times I've said that in front of here I think we can go back to video on multiple things requests we don't do individual requests to subordinates because we all have a chain of command any requests go to the business administrator CC me he'll Check
Yes answer this and I will get it back you but that's the statutory way it is supposed to be done that way I'm not doing something answering something for someone when he thinks I'm doing something else that's the way and I think I've said that in the past
seems to be confusion but send it through send it through the business administrator if he thinks it's the appropriate use of our time and resources he will have us do it and you'll get the answer and I don't remember one that's not been done legal we have an issue as it relates to
public safety concerns we have is it is the does the law clearly specify that we articulate that to the business administrator who subsequently articulated to him yes you're supposed to to speak through Department directors through the
bus so if I send him an email asking a question he basically can't answer it it's under the Faulkner act it's under the Faulkner act yes the faul ACT yeah it's a New Jersey state law right it's
crazy so I think that the issue is um we need to get one set way of doing things right corre as most directors you contact them email them directly and then it's done right so that doesn't mean that what director Shay is saying is wrong but if you're used to emailing
the director like if I can email let's try to pick on somebody that's not here help department and I can get an answer then like are we supposed to send all emails through the business administrator like John is going to be overwhelmed that's job I know how many
emails I send every day so that's a job right John right I'll find I'll find sleep next week it's okay you got no no how many you have you got one two three business administrators oh he got help look so it's a formal process to
establish it through the business administrator this way um we could follow up appropriately I can call the directors a task and then to make sure that the information that is going through is getting delivered to the entire counil we've had one off where um a director will uh respond back to one
council member the other council member say they didn't get the information so what what's the most seamless way a little more complicated is to go through me we get the information and give it to Shawn and he disseminates to everybody at the same time so we have a meeting if we have a question at this meeting I
gotta ask you to ask him that's why they come to the Caucus meeting that's my whole point I've said on the record several times what is the comprehensive plan to address safety measures in crossing guard on the record I've said that several
times on the record I've asked for itemized budget for the city spinning 30 40 million that stuff is on the record director respectfully the Caucus meeting is for the items that are represented at the agenda oh well that's why we had
Clos sessions and budget hearings to address other items that you know when we look at the budget hearing how many do you have how many do we need what is the Strategic plan that it's not that we're we're going to buy an air conditioner and we're going to start talking about crossing guards that's not the purpose of the meeting in all fairness to councilman Gilmore when we
asked those question it was an issue with the crossing guards when he asked that question I remember I go back the answer was not there but the reason why I'm doing it this way because I know he has that on the agenda about dealing with the director the director's here I want the director to understand our
concerns and so I wanted him to be here to answer any of the council questions because the truth is I'm I'm tired of us going back and forth here I'm sorry directors I'm holding up time here but y'all got to understand I just been frustrated we've been frustrated when it come to public safely Al together so
that's why we're doing it this way all right and after all we can't go off the agenda because we do it when we feel like it when is our subject that we like and I see it okay so I just want you to know this is what we're faced with we wanted answers thank you now going
forward we know part of the challenge is it's getting everything to the ba and so the ba will be responsible to make sure all directors know our concerns that's what they telling us but directors by no means if we send you email is it okay
for them to answer us just include me on the email but more so for for strategic we make sure that Sean's on it so he could seminate to all the council members because sometimes we do actually get the same inquiry on on different items and instead of repeating that work a few times or you guys extending yourselves to get that
information we already have it available SE I mean John just one simple question where is the itemized budget for the 30 something million the city just spent as it relates to updating the systems councilman the uh director Moody
had presented an eight-page memo describing what the what the details of the system are and what was being replaced we we voted on it already see it was given to you that week we went through this councilman I'm not looking to be combative here we went through this at the time of the vote you
asked why didn't we get the information we confirmed on the record that the memo was sent that's all the memo ain't ain't addressed what we asked to address and you you sending us information after a vote was taken the same thing with the 955 program we
voted on it Wednesday and we got the email Thursday how was that responsive effective leadership okay people get paid to answer questions I don't know how what is it the big thing about just answering the questions if you don't know the answer say you
don't know the answer councilman the memo was sent before the vote if you didn't read it that's a different story but Sean had sent it out to the entire Council and council members on this day is confirmed they received it okay director you have anything you want
to add here absolutely not okay thank you I just wanted to make sure we had this conversation here director Patel hello council members I have three resolutions for you for the Department of infrastructure I'll start with agenda
item 10.40 resolution 25-1 185 this is a resolution to award a Professional Services contract to French and PLO Associates to provide engineering design services this is for
the project that we've discussed previously which is Manhattan Avenue and Franklin Street related to a bike raise Grant we received from the New Jersey Department of Transportation want to talk about this yep it should be right all right go
ahead you can start it should be delayed because we have the fire department here uh and I'd like to have him come up and say something uh the head of the union and one of the other fire Representatives the police department
the nursing home the home for the blind uh the people up in that area all against it it's a hot issue um the what's the name of the food store on Central Avenue they will not what is it Stop and Shop they won't put it in
writing but they're against it it's like a total shame you can't disrupt Manhattan Avenue and Franklin Street we spoke to the bker and Mike the other day at a meeting they can reapply for a grant and put these put the money on these some other streets in the Heights
where they won't disturb the won't create a hazard I mean you have a hazard where a fire engine can uh a hook and ladder cannot make a turn and it's a it's a shame uh so uh Joyce can we have
the fire the head come up and speak I would I would just like council president if it's okay I would just like to clarify that we have been considering two options for the advancement of this project one of which
would include the conversion of both Manhattan and Franklin into oneway streets and the second option which would only convert Franklin from a two-way into a one-way Street um which is the option that it seems from our
conversations uh people are more favorable to and as the councilman said we did discuss that with him councilman Rivera director Shay director kce and others within the city so I will step
aside and I don't know if you want someone else to come up he wants to yeah representing the uh Public Safety police and fire uh fire department the official Fire Department we have our Union presidents here I respect them both they'll speak on behalf of their members okay official
fire department position is that this will add potential response time okay so they would prefer not to do it having said that it's important for the council to remember we don't make policy we give you our recommendations we give you our advice if you ask us we won't you won't
do anything because anything could potentially add response and again I'm not telling anyone how to vote personally sorry to all the bike riders I'm not a bike rider I don't like bike Lanes that's just my personal opinion but we do not in the Department of Public Safety make policy we will
provide our services in whatever environment you need the example I give is the um pedestrian Plaza on nework Avenue uh when you asked us about that we said the same thing it will increase response time we would rather not have it and then you made the decision is it
valuable enough and made the correct one and said no we're going to put it in and we deal with it we'll deal with whatever we have to so the fire department's official position is they would prefer not to would rather not to because it will add to their response time but having said that again uh we don't make
policy we'll support whatever you decide to do and we will operate in whatever environment there is in Jersey City just like we do now okay thank you Mike you want to add something oh I mean I see you there I don't want to overlook you that's why I ask you if not don't don't feel forced to speak you
don't have to how confident are you about the turnaround time for the design for if this was to be approved um what level degree of confidence do you have that we could get it in before the deadline it's difficult for me to answer
that question when we talked about this two weeks ago at the last council meeting I mentioned that even at that time um we have a very very short window in order to complete the design plans that are required by the do before the
deadline we are now two weeks later so that will be a difficulty moving forward it's hard for me to say whether 100% it will be completed on time or not but we will do everything we can to get the engineer started as quickly as possible
does State allow us another extension or what have they uh indicated to State's position so far has been that we are allowed The one extension that we've received earlier this year which brings us to June however if this moves forward
we will try to continue advocating um obviously if it doesn't move forward then that is irrelevant and I will say to director Shay Point within the last several years we have either by requesting council
members or Community groups or through safety observations presented several ordinances that convert two-way streets into one ways across many Wards of the city granted that wasn't for bike Lanes it was for things like increasing residential parking by converting a
two-way street into a one-way for improving circulation for other reasons and all of those have been approved and implemented since then um so there is precedent as of us exercising this option and redesigning our
streets I guess um for me um honestly I just think overall the bike group The Sid us as a council Administration we did we just did a horrible job at communicating and getting people to come to a reasonable
compromise um my biggest issue right now is that I just don't feel confident a war in the contract when two weeks ago we were pushing it and now it's two weeks later right so that's that's
that's the the the major issue for me at this juncture right now um and for the life of me I just I just don't understand how we couldn't have gotten this done rather it's halfway on another
block somewhere do something uh but right now you've even stated right you you don't really know to what degree of certainty um you have as it relates to them being able to get the plan get the contract sign a contract get the plans get it to the DOT
yes that and the reason I say that is I I don't want to mislead you as a council appreciate that and I don't want to mislead the community and and overpromise and underd deliver that wouldn't be responsible thing for me to do um I will say that if the council
decides to move forward on this we will push and try to meet the deadline to the best of our ability but I do want to be transparent in the steps that are required in getting there which are having giving the engineer clear
Direction on you know a consensus option that the greatest number of people are on board with having them actually do the technical design work submitting that to the do to make sure all of their requirements are met circulating that
internally finalizing those plans getting the bid out advertising it and then awarding the bid and so much can happen in the bid process as well we may not get any bidder so all of those steps are things that are still remaining however you know if
this is the decision then we have our marching orders and we will do everything that's required to get this done we understand it's a priority for the community to have something in the Heights we take that seriously but I do want to lay out the steps that are required to get there yes I I mean I
appreciate um your honesty um like I said I guess the the biggest problem for me is like there's no there's no certainty right I go to the gym every morning I will hope to get the six miles guess what I don't get there every time
right so now you're asking the council to spend what is it 160,000 160,000 uh so quick question so what happens if well I guess once they start any work they will have to be paid up until that
point right yeah and let me just clarify too the the 162,000 includes the design of the project so preparing the engineering plans to submit to dot for their review and approval but it also includes the followon construction inspection so once the contract is awarded a constru you know the dot
requires us to have a construction inspector on site doing all the paperwork and inspecting the project so there's a little bit less of a risk of spending the full amount if the project doesn't ultimately go to construction obviously what I was going to add is
that you know every project like this every Safety project has tradeoffs right and in this case there's no way for our department to put dedicated cycling facilities on this street without some kind of trade-off either loss significant loss of parking or oneway
conversion so if the council's not prepared to support one of those options that really it wouldn't make sense to vote Yes on this because be designing something that ultimately isn't going to get the support corre of the final recommendation of the configuration so
so um quick question Mike or Barker so what if anything um so there's no other dot grants that will that can have this come to fruition in another area uh there's there's several dot grants that
we use to to construct bicycle facilities uh Municipal Aid grants can be used to strip bike Lanes this bike ways grant program is another program but when you apply for for a competitive program like this the bike ways program
you comply you apply for a corridor if you don't use the funding on that Corridor you're not allowed to use the funding you have to apply in the next round and there's a there's a new round every year so there's always an opportunity to select another cdor another project uh for this grant program but we do have this one in place
um we have been working you know three years engaging the community on got more questions using this so okay we got more questions go ahead go ahead I just want to talk about the practice with emergency vehicles I see that we received something that had some response times I wanted to know if your
department did any routine practices with it being converted into a one way or what the bike lane like are ambulances and fire trucks able to turn correctly member uh I don't know if she has anything but at our last meeting the fire chief and the local deputy chief
you know that covers that area said they estimate 45 seconds to a minute to some locations would be added not to the entire box but to certain trucks arriving at the box and as you know that sometimes can screw us up a little bit because the truck gets there before
another truck so we will have to do major adjustments if we do this we'll have to if we have to operate in a different environment like this but that was their number on response time and that was a rough estimation but they're experts and I trust them when they give a rough estimation it's usually pretty close to the
numbers another question and then hour practice for that is obviously designing um and implementing a radius around a street corner we test it with we run autoturn analysis using the trucks the essentially the largest trucks that we
have in the city's Fleet for the fire department and Implement a radius that works for those trucks sometimes we've gone out a little bit too much and it's been difficult for trucks to turn and in those cases the director will let me know and we'll adjust and pull things
back so that it works for their vehicles we H the fire Union yeah can they wait wait wait did y'all finish your questions because then I'll call them up yeah no I'm GNA hear what the people have all right y'all done y'all sure all right come on we got the fire
um director here please come up thank you yeah and Jack got good afternoon president of the fire officers here in jerse City uh 33 years on the job longtime resident here in your hand
you should have a packet that we completed with the help of the professional firefighters in New Jersey and the International Association of firefighters you can cut right to the chase go right to the back page this is an updated uh sheet based on response times on the proposed changes that will
be made to Franklin in Manhattan Avenue so you'll see if you just go all the way to the last column on the last page the time that it's going to add to a response time because we cannot go down Sherman Avenue and cut over because Sherman Avenue can barely fit a regular car never mind a
fire truck we can't make those turns we have to go all the way down lad law over and back up adding minutes possibly to a response time not only that you are now going to have companies as the Director alluded to who should be fourth du
getting there second due second due getting there fourth due and it will change our whole operation on what we do why we do it and how we do it this is a bad plan just like many other of the bike lanes that have happened in the city have added an increase to response
time police fire and EMS but this is the first time with the enhanced version of a GIS study that we're able to provide you the council you've received multiple letters uh from me on this issue black and white this is a bad idea it's a
dangerous idea and should not be approved yes Jack you want hands some uh Jack Collins president of local 1066 uh uniform firefighters jerse City he laid it all out it's very clear it's here have to keep in mind response times are
important for very simple reason fire doubles every 30 seconds it burning some of these situations and these are ideal situations this is ideal what the increase would be some of these there are three minute response time increases
imagine the size of a fire our power Market concern are the citizens of Jersey City and P Paramount concern are our members these response times will ensure that there are larger fires larger circumstances that we have to save people from larger circumstances
that put my members in Jeopardy his members in Jeopardy your members in Jeopardy you have the best Fire Department in the state we're asking you to take that into account we do the job like the director said we will answer we always have we always will we're just asking to reconsider this plan this was
anywhere else it would probably not even being an issue side street like like Sherman or somewhere else it causes these problems sometimes it's just obvious we're not saying that we don't want bike Lanes anywhere that the bike rain Riders rights aren't
important but what's I heard Paramount I heard tradeoffs and other things what's Paramount to me my members there is no trade-off for their safe thank you thank you thank you yeah I just want to also say we have a letter from the head of
the police uh offices and they're they're way against it also okay next one B next we exhausted okay uh the next one is agenda item 10.34 resolution 25- 179 this is a
resolution to award a contract to shik's Nursery uh for the US Department of Agriculture Supply and delivery of trees throughout the city for the Department of infrastructure and then the next resolution is related to this one I know there was some talk um yes we
have we have a working list of locations um do you want to am I'll invite Amanda the sustainability director okay hi hi good afternoon yes we have a working list of locations that we're identifying to be planted all along MLK uh drive for
this particular project it is still a working preliminary site listing and it won't be finalized all the way up until we're at uh the construction point because we need to do 811 Mark 811 markouts prior to uh actually doing any sort of
construction um I just want to State for the record that I think is a great idea to put trees on MLK um I'm not oblivious to the fact that there are currently trees there that's giving homeowners hardships um so I just hope that you know we do our due diligence as it
relates to the proper beding because apparently you have to have a certain amount of yes I just hope that that's that's good because I I don't want to have another meeting with a group Association y'all gotta pay for this oh no the tree belongs to us but the
concrete belong to y'all y'all got to put the concrete up so we can shave the roots and all of that stuff but all the know I love the fact that we're going to have some trees on MLK it's hot out there yeah Yanda how long was this project in the work I'm sorry Amanda how
long was this project in the work I remember this is like two years what is this project so the entire USDA Grant is a five-year Grant however this project and both of these contracts are one-year contract for I think up to two one-year
renewals for the construction and one additional one-year renewal for the uh tree purchasing I do not intend for this to take longer than two planting Seasons starting this fall and going into next spring so I really don't intend that we'll need to do the renewal next year
but in case that we do we do have that option and we could extend it further whether we needed more time in the spring planting season of 2026 or if we needed to go into the fall planting season of 2026 do you identify sites already
because that's what you did a walk through yes so following the walkthrough with you council president and the several meetings that you've had with the team with the Sid um we have a list of Ideal candidates for locations where tree plantings could happen that's the
list we're working off of and one by one the team here in sustainability is going through all of them to then understand what utilities are underneath whether they can be planted exactly in that same site or they have to be moved a couple feet in either direction and then also
trying to coordinate with each property owner along the corridor um to accommodate them because as you know in some cases property owners don't want it directly in front of their door or shop windows so we try to do the best that we can to accommodate for all of those
things while also getting trees on the entire Corridor so that is the work that's happening right now and to your point councilman we are envisioning larger tree pits as you'll see there are many trees on MLK right now that are
dead or dying um so we're identifying why that is happening whether it's because of the small size of the treatment or some other issue trash blocking you know water from getting into um the rooted or whatever it is addressing those things and then um
expanding the tree pits where we need to so they have the best chance of survival and they can thrive on the corridor hey Barker if you can U just if you guys could just share the working list with my office so that way the individuals in the area is privy so you know
yes question this might be more for the Law Department I know that we have written in like our forestry standards if they if someone removes a tree they have to replace it um I see sometimes mostly in front of residents is they do remove public trees they don't always
get replaced is there a fine attached to that there is just acket yeah okay it's an order ordance violation so it can be a fine of up to $2,000 depending on the value of the tree if it's greater than that we've also
reserved the rights to take them to court for damages to the city property now that you know it was nice out today you know we're kind of looking more I do see it um happening so I don't know if there's a way to put in this gr or just with you whatever tree policy that we do
that we have a monitoring for a to that we know in a year or two that they're still there they're thriving and that we hold people or businesses our homes accountable for abusing these trees yes we absolutely agree so our plan through this grant is to put together a
maintenance plan for what will happen following the planting so the first step which we W which will be something that's standard across all of our tree planting activities is that there will be a 2-year uh period wherein the contractor themselves are responsible
for regular maintenance of the tree watering Tree Care all of that and then beyond the uh two years we're putting together a plan for what that looks like through the city staff both with the division of sustainability under my department and the division of Forestry
under the Department of Public Works how many um hours for staff will be dedicated to Tree Care what that will look like how uh often they will visit these trees all of those things which I just have to say forestry has been doing
a great job with monitoring that so far um and our team has been doing regular checks on recent tree plantings so we will put that together and submit that to the council um and to all of the commissions that we work with the SHA tree committee the environmental
commission to make sure that everyone's on board with the plan as this work is happening hey John just a quick question um with regards to the trees does the does the rule change when it's on your actual property versus in that shared
space as it relates to cutting them down there will be an ordinance going forward that's going to require a permit to remove trees on private property um I don't believe we've attached a violation schedule to it um assuming it could be
there but it's just a standard ordinance violation but I'm I'm not sure that's in the code or not I'd have to take a look at it and councilman that's related to regulations uh across the state from the D that all municipalities are now going to be required to do even on private
property so it's just something that you know we' we've been hearing about from the state for a few months now so I mean because like some of these we have some we have a lot of trees and I see we have some of these beautiful trees but they look like I can't tell if they dead or if they alive because it's just like the
trunk and then it's like a skeleton no leaves or branches ever grow on it but the trunck has been here for years which which suggests that it's still alive um and I know I have personally seen people across the street when they built the two new houses they took the big tree
down in the front and in the back I was under the impression that because it was on their personal property so even if it's on their private property they are still required to get approval things like that if they are redeveloping a property or build
tearing something down and building a new all of that gets taken care of in the site plan review process okay where um one of the review agents of that development review process is the city Forester and so they will determine whether it's okay for that property
owner to remove that tree and pay a fee um which then goes back into planting new trees or if there's some other remedial action that they can take so there you know because we had for several years a gap and we didn't have someone in that position um some of
those things were contracted out for that review now that we have a city Forester and that staff has grown they are taking um a closer look at all of those applications that come in and in any cases where we can avoid removal of
mature trees like that we are encouraging applicants to do so okay thank you cool and then I'll just say the so this resolution is tied to the one that we just talked about which is agenda item 10.35 resolution
25-18 this is a resolution awarding a contract to watch us grow landscape design um and this is for the USDA grant for tree planting in 2025 thank you thank you thank you
Baker happy birthday council president good evening council members I have three resolutions before you to this afternoon first is item 10-24 resolution 25-1 169 it's a resolution ratifying the
award of a contract to Otto life and Safety Solutions Corporation for the maintenance of the 911 system under New Jersey state contract for the Department of Public Safety Division of communications and Technology Center
it's in the amount of 166,000 $569 this is the continued uh maintenance and support and security up dates for the existing um 911 Center which you know we must maintain while we're going through the process of you
know hopefully switching it out you know we need to keep it in this top running condition next one item 10-25 resolution 25- 170 it's a resolution ratifying an award of a contract to Gold type Business
Machines Incorporated for the automated License Plate Reader called LPR it's the annual maintenance and repair service through the New Jersey Cooperative purchasing Alliance Bergen County court for the Department of Public Safety Division of communications and
Technology this is in the amount of $64,800 and again this is the annual maintenance an update of our Alp cameras that are both uh fixed mounted throughout the city and on our city Vehicles director on the
um alprs um I know we were going to deploy them with our parking enforcement unit to track the resident on them that's right they're on them also yeah do you know uh you can you give us a number either today or before Wednesday of how many are on our uh you know with our
parking enforcement Division I believe the parking enforcement currently has four four okay to do the residential parking that's what I those are one I know I was directly involved in I I put four on The View and and are you aware of more being deployed um at any point in the near
future oh yes yes positively okay if you could get us a number of how many uh what the timeline would be to be able to to do the residential Park but I did uh too if you're interested I printed just the seven this is set last seven days of what the alprs have done for the police
department that' be great to see appreciate that thank you how many do we have oh sorry I think he's trying to save paper have do we have more than four Citywide a director do we have more than so I know we have four for parking
enforcement do we have more for um the police that they're using the automatic license plate readers or okay is it possible to put them on the borders of um you know Jersey City near they are already um what's nice about this
particular system it's not just limited to what Jersey City owns but we have access to them Statewide Nationwide excuse me so we could technically follow a vehicle from Jersey City to California you know if if we had to and stuff it's just a matter of putting it in and
you'll see that's just seven days of what the system was able to do on the on the PD side jeez and we do these with traffic violations yes oh what what the do they get alerted like do the
police get alerted when they're like absolutely okay that's awesome this is pretty cool any more question and my last one is item 10-26 resolution 251
171 it's a resolution authorizing an award of a contract to Shi International Corp for the Dell VX rail servers maintenance and upgrade for all public safety servers through the New Jersey Cooperative purchasing Alliance Bergen
County uh Co-op for the Department of Public Safety Division of communications and Technology again just like the 911 system this is the continued support to the existing um server uh system that we have located at Bishop Street updates
these U the Securities and the um versions for software wasn't um wasn't Shai International J was that the uh Metro was that the the company we contracted remember they was supposed to do some
type of SWAT analysis is that this is this the same uh this is not them remember we was going to do about oh okay so it's all right yeah councilman this is just a digital asset that we use uh for Statewide
contracts thank you thank you good afternoon council president members of city council HHS food and nutrition has one item for your consideration resolution 25167 item number 10.22 this is a me memorandum of
understanding between the Jersey City Housing Authority and the City of Jersey City to use jcha facilities to host congregate meals at Berry Gardens Holland Gardens and Booker T Washington this mou sets up obligations and
expectations for both parties among those number of participants space to operate prior notification of any events that would affect lunch following Serve Safe procedures and meeting guidelines for state inspection um
director you know with the next s six months we expect Holland Gardens to close uh what would be the plan to to redistribute that to a different site obviously in my district for public housing I have TJ Stewart uh as well uh we would if if that site were closed we
would consider any site as long as they follow the the our guidelines for lunch because we have to our resources are thin we just had somebody retire so we have to make sure but obviously would consider and we would discuss with the site yeah I'd love to discuss with you
and the Housing Authority team just uh absolutely when that happens you know TJ Stewart as an alternative to move this over I don't know if this we would have to amend this or not to before Wednesday but no this would if this is Housing Authority it would not need to okay great thank you thank you
Joseph afternoon council president council members this is ordinance 25-26 which is to amend chapter 131 the uniform construction code requiring applicants for construction permits to demonstrate prior approvals from certain
city officials and agencies the main amendment to this is to add the jcmua to the list in order for them to collect their fees and get their approvals prior to my office issuing permits what number is this again director item 3.2 all
three points soon thank you director is there a state law that says that the jcu has to sign off no this would be a local ordinance okay because does it fall under the state uh laws that's why we created a local ordinance sure I don't have any
issue with the adding the jua i' just like to add the the payroll tax office to be able to determine to make sure that any contractor or developers in compliance with the payroll tax um so if we had the legal Authority at mua I'd love to to add the the payroll tax
office as well okay so and I can work with a law department on it y the um the MUA will be paying for this uh platform no no no the the the contractors and developers would have to uh apply to the
MUA for their approval for and water permits and in the past they were the permits were getting issued without the approval therefore they had to negotiate the fees and the approvals after to the fact so it unifies this the the ACT process now they will not get issued
until those fees are paid could you on a job a couple months coming in here rectifying things thank you good job thanks Joe thank you Stacey good afternoon Council um I'm presenting from the Municipal Court
resolution 25-1 183 item number 10.38 on the agenda for your consideration um this is a resolution just authorizing a noost extension of a contract that the court under uh Community Solutions program has with New
Jersey Institute of Technology um earlier in 2024 um a contract was awarded which is fully Grant funded um for a period of eight months but njid has asked for a few additional months to um fix and tweak um a couple items
before the project is finalized thank you I am uh here on two resolutions first one item 10.19 resolution 25-64 this is a resolution uh prepared
in coordination with the council president uh title resolution of the city council Municipal um resolution of this Jersey City municial Council authorizing the planning board to conduct a preliminary investigation of the conditions on block
16502 Lot 29 AKA 665 Bergen Avenue to determine if such area meets the criteria to be cleared an area in need of Redevelopment without the power of condemnation more specifically a non-c condemnations area uh this uh has a
resolution with a map attached to it uh you'll see on the map that it identifies a lot on the corner of Fairview Avenue and Bergen Avenue all right uh I have another item 20.20 resolution 25
-165 uh another long title for us resolution of the Jersey City municipal Council authorizing the planning board to conduct a preliminary investigation of the conditions of block 13103 Lot 1 AKA known as
1155 Montgomery Street to determine if such area meets the criteria to declared an area in need of Redevelopment without the power of condemnation more specifically a non condemnation study area this as well has a map attached to it is a a lot that's right behind City
Hall here uh on on facing streets York uh Marin and Montgomery probably familiar with it it is a parking lot at at this time so just on this one um I have met with that over here but just two points I mean one is I think they should meet
with the vanor park and uh VV uh Na just to to move that forward it's right on the border but that should happen and the second is I I'm still working with them on this question of uh Public School contribution is this monetary is this physical and and so to me that's
just unanswered so obviously you know want to continue those conversations as it moves forward understood community meeting doesn't have to be ahead of um possible designation no no because I know the designation is a process but it's you know it should be okay
understood should be ongoing thanks so this is like the first step in the process yeah thank you thank you Ryan good afternoon Council uh Brian rans with the Division of Community
Development I have 11 resolutions for you uh first one is agenda item 10.9 resolution 25-4 it's a resolution of the municipal Council to authorize the business administrator to execute a discharge of mortgage incumber in4 hin Street on
March 8th 1999 a constituent executed a mort and morgage a note and Mortgage in favor of the city of Jersey City uh to secure a $5,850 loan under the Home Improvement program um this indebtedness is a deferred payment no interest mortgage on
the fifth year after signing the mortgage it shall be forgiven in its entirety um you know pursuant to the repayment schedule nothing is owed and we're just asking for the ba or for authorization ba to execute a discharge of mortgage the second resolution is agenda
item 10.10 resolution 25-55 it's a resolution authorizing the business administrator to execute a discharge of mortgage and comine 30 laid law Avenue on January 30th 2006 a constituent executed a mortgage and note in favor of the city of Jersey City to
secure $ 22,27 N35 from the golden neighborhood home ownership program um the mortgage um was a 10-year Mortgage in pursuant to the mortgages repayment schedule no payment is due from the Barrow at this time so
we're asking um your permission for the business administrator to execute a discharge of mortgage third resolution is agenda item 10.11 resolution 25-15 6 a resolution of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City authorizing the ba to execute a
discharge of mortgage encumbering 338 340 Holiday Street in January of 1993 a constituent executed a note and Mortgage in favor of the city to receive $52,000 to acquire the property at 338 340 Holiday Street um the owner intends to
sell the property pursuant to the terms of the mortgage this is a 955 property uh the recapture is uh $64,900 [Music] um I guess a question with regards to the discharges um because a lot of these
programs they're like 10 and 15 years and we're just removing them I understand the ones for the people that's selling but the ones where the money like you've you've satisfied the terms of the loan is there any way and I guess legal can uh jump in here is there
any way where this thing can be like automated because what happens is life sometimes people die um sometimes people go ill and then it becomes hard for the family to navigate the process because they may not have became executive of a
state or the the the the owner may be in a mental institution a rehab institution and it kind of like makes a hardship for the family so I'm just asking if that's a possibility yeah that is a possibility and that's our intention moving
forward recordkeeping throughout the years has not been the best so sometimes it's figuring out what is encumbering the property and that often requires a title search um but we do have some records and with available staff time we're going to start looking to proactively do this but there's no
recapture not the 955s though the other ones yeah exactly okay and then uh the next item is agenda item 1012 resolution 25-57 it's a resolution of the municipal Council authorizing the business
administrator to executed discharge a mortgage encumbering 386 386a Johnson Avenue on July 8th 1993 a constituent executed a mortgage and note in favor of the city of Jersey City uh for $52,000 to acquire the property on Johnson
Avenue the owner intends to sell the property and pursuant to the 955 clause in borrowers' promise uh paragraph 1 C 6427 3.95 due to discharge the mortgage like all the other 955 mortgages upon receipt
of the funds when the transaction closes we'll discharge the mortgage agenda item 10.13 resolution 25-18 it's a resolution of the municipal Council authorizing the business admin administrator to execute a discharge of
mortgage encumbering 445 447 Pacific Avenue on July 27th 1995 the constituent executed a mortgage and note in favor of the city of Jersey City for $60,000 um on February 28th 2002 this
constituent then sold the property to the current owner uh for $16,728 62233 is due in owing and on receipt of the money uh we're looking to discharge the mortgage okay and um we approve the
sale from one to the other and made sure we check the boxes as it relates to them being eligible and stuff correct um usually what happens and I think this has been in front of the council previously we have the new owner signed an assumption agreement just to
memorialize and record that they're assuming all the responsibilities and then if they have a lender we usually subordinate so they can acquire financing and that happened in in this instance and what and and what's the rule they can't sell it for more than what they brought it for right correct
we have a resale and recapture policy and the it's based on federal law that they're supposed to receive a reasonable rate of return okay multiple methodologies the methodology we use is utilizing the CPI so we have a calculator um no matter what you know
the homeowner gets their their Equity back depending on how much they put into it um and then also um the inflation over the course of how long they had the property all right next one Brian okay um resolution 1014 resolution
25-1 159 this is a resolution of the Jersey City municipal Council authorizing the business administrator to discharge an affordable housing agreement dated May 22 1995 with JP affordable housing holding Co um city of Jersey City and Jersey City
Redevelopment agency executed a contract of sale of L to Lafayette Park scattered site project to JP affordable housing holding these are the projects a lot of the 95 Clauses that you see every Council on May 22nd 1995 the city executed the affordable housing
agreement the agreement uh stated that it had to be the properties had to be affordable to low and very low income homeowners for a minimum period of 20 years each home was sold to an eligible homeowner and they signed a mortgage essentially assuming all the
affordability require requirements um and since the affordability period is expired we're just looking to discharge the mortgage for the affordability agreement is there um I'm I'm trying to understand is there uh so we're taking away the affability
requirement or no so these are all the 955 properties that are no longer considered affordable the city no longer deems them as affordable it um pursuant to the terms of the affordability agreement um restrictions have already expired uh and then it just says within
a reasonable amount of time the city's supposed to discharge of the affordability agreement um so this is really just a technicality understood um resolution 10:15 um or I'm sorry agenda item 10:15 resolution
25-60 a resolution of the Jersey City municipal Council auor Rising the ba to discharge an affordable housing agreement dated June 11th 199 three with JP affordable housing holding Co again uh the city of Jersey City and the jcra executed a contract of sale for phase
four of the Lafayette Park affordable housing project to JP affordable housing on July sorry June 11th 1993 the city executed the affordable housing agreement which memorialized all the terms and conditions for the resale of those properties to eligible homeowners
um the restrictive period was 20 years each homeowner assumed those responsibilities by executing in a mortgage um but you know the 20 years has expired and we're just looking to discharge the affordability agreement that which um is this what addresses are
these ones um on the second page of the resolution you oh I have them there a lot of them are on Pacific Avenue and Holiday Street agenda item 1016 resolution 25-1 61 a resolution of the municipal Council
um authorizing the award and execution of subing agreements for summer youth programs under the Community Development Block Grant Public Services Program for program year uh 2024 which runs from April 1st 2024 through March 31st 2025 um HUD awarded the city of Jersey
City 5,267 1978 and cdbg funds for program year 2024 pursuant to the awarding resolution earlier this year on January 15 2025 uh the city and M Municipal Council
reserved $100,000 for summer youth programming when you know children are out of school and they need constructive activities to pass the time and you know improve their their lives um and um you know we scored all these applications we
reviewed them they're all eligible and we're just uh looking for authorization to execute and award the money so we can reimburse the sub reian next okay agenda item 1017 resolution 25-1 162 a resolution of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City
authorizing a contract with driven and Associate CPA PLC for auditing and monitoring services for 2023 cdbg ESG and hwa sub Awards um we receive a large amount of money from HUD and one of the requirements is
that we have to make sure our partners are complying with the law in the event that we don't uh comply with the law the HUD usually asks us to pay back the money with uh nonfederal funds or take a voluntary Grant reduction um we've had an opening on our org chart for a senior
auditor we've had difficulty securing that position and um due to that absence we've decided to contract with the CPA firm to perform uh Audits and monitoring pursuant to two CFR 200 regulations to ensure that our subrecipients are
complying with all the rules um this is extremely important because the first thing HUD says when they come to our offices show me that you monitor yours so this is a Professional Organization we put out an RFQ uh they had the most affordable quote and we're really excited to work with
them you have faith in them this is the first time we've contracted with them but from our interactions I do have faith okay um so resolution 23 uh sorry resolution 25-1 166 agenda item
10.21 a resolution of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City authorizing the a ward of $3,339 192 and the execution of a sub repping agreement with the city of Jersey City uh housing authority to
administer the last tranch of emergency assistance rental assistance which was passed a long time ago in the cares act back in 2020 um so we finally got our third trunch uh and we're really excited to award it uh just to summarize um the
American Rescue plan um allocated $2.55 billion for emergency rental assistance for people who were impacted by the pandemic and were considered low income with incomes not to exceed 80% of Ami we received an initial tranch and then you can only uh get the second and third
tranches after you spend down the money so in November of last year we received the second tranch we awarded that to the house and author and we recently received the third TR and we're looking to do that this is the final tranch that we've received from the city of Jersey City I'm sorry from
um the Department of Treasury and uh the period of performance actually expires this November so it's really important to get this money out so the house and Authority can provide rental assistance do you have uh recipients already identified and you know that haven't
been evicted or anything like that yeah so it gets a little complicated since technically the emergency is over but the residual effects of the pandemic loss of income health problems has kind of caused a snowballing effect so people have been experiencing poor credit have
been having difficulty maintaining their homes um the Housing Authority has a wait list still with a lot of people who want assistance so what they did last time was they went through the list in the event they were still facing housing instability they processed the payment if not they just moved on to the next
person uh they advised us in the event that they run out of applicants they will publicize to the public um for individuals who need rental assistance and the money is in the account right now or okay that's important because you know what's going on down in
DC or the administration changed we executed all the paperwork and then they wired it to us so we the money's there awesome any more Brian I'm sorry council president any more that's it uh one more
um so agenda item 1018 resolution 25-1 163 it's a resolution of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City authorizing the award of a competitively fit contract to civitas LLC to provide technical assistance and Consulting Services the Division of Community Development with all aspects of HUD
Grant Management and program implementation um as I stated previously um the city received uh a large um amount of Hud funding 5 million and two 5,267 978 in cdbg program funding as
well as home funding ESG funding and hopa funding um these programs are very technical uh you don't go to law school to learn about HUD grants you actually have to kind of re-educate yourself and a lot of it is based on past president and uh your experience in the program so
um since I've been here and long prior the city of Jersey City has been contracted with civitas to help provide us with Consulting Grant Management assistance that helps us formulate our annual action plans our Consolidated plans does environmental reviews reviews our manuals our contracts um so our last
contract expired we went out to bid we received two bids um and then we chose the bid that I guess most met our needs and was also the most affordable um and they agreed to provide a one-year contract of $120,000 with three additional one-year
uh term renewals um and we're asking Council to approve this count uh this contract questions thank you thank you so much Council thank you Jim evening council members and uh Happy Birthday council president I have four
items for today first agenda is 10.36 res Council resolution 25-1 181 it's a resolution authorizing the payment of a claim submitted by CRC uh claims resolution Corp for providing
thirdparty administrative services for workers comp and liability claims for the uh City uh the total for the account is $212,450 cents and this was for the period of uh January 24 uh through December of 24 um at that
time we had a issue with somebody in our office Personnel matter um and fortunately he's made a back to us so uh but it wound up uh going on our agenda as an approval any questions next you okay uh agenda number uh
10.37 a resolution authorizing renewal of a contract uh to Total administrative Services Corp also known as task U to provide thirdparty administrative services for Resources office of employment benefits
uh this is a renewal contract from April 1 2025 to March 31 2026 and they've been providing Services uh for our retirees um for over the last year and I think so is well so far
question um agenda item 10.39 resolution 25-1 184 a resolution ratifying the award ward of extraordinary unspecifiable Services agreement with claims resolution Corporation Inc to act as a third party administrator for
workers compensation and liability claims for the city of Jersey City total amount of the contract awarded is $229,000 to be paid in 12 installments monthly uh $1,833 uh it's note that there was one proposal in this process when it went
out to uh RFP and the contract is proposed for one year with with a 2-year renewal option I was going to say uh is this to like investigate workers comp claims or no this they they administer so they basically oversee all the workers comp
claims and we talk they review the amounts for proposed settlements they work with the attorneys um and they also discuss matters with Council concerning any proposed settlements uh to ensure that we're we're you know getting what's uh consistent with market rate got
it item um 10.41 resolution 25-1 186 uh resolution awarding a Professional Services agreement to banano and D Stefano PC to provide the defense Council Services related to workers compensation claims
petitions filed against city of Jersey City this is a contract uh to not exceed $60,000 each case uh will be paid uh $1,500 um and it's effective January 1 of 2025 and it's expires in a one-year
period they've been providing services with us previously thank you hope you enjoyed your birthday council president Danny Danny acent exent good afternoon council president members of the council for
your consideration I have one item it's agenda number 10.1 resolution number 25-1 146 and it's a resolution authorizing an emergency temporary appropriation for calendar year
2025 and the funding is necessary for the continuance of city services without any disruptions any questions Council just a quick update um we're finalizing some of the components of the budget we probably won't see it at the next council meeting but we're
going to introduce early in April thank you and happy birthday good afternoon council members and ccil president I'm L from the tax assessor office I have one resolution resolution number 24152 item 10.7 a resolution granting a veteran
exemption for the black 1109 lat to qualifier c005 property location 377-379 3rd Street U from local property tax tax session pursuant to the chapter njsa 54 D um
3.30 and property owned by 100% disable veterans are eligible for a 100% tax exemption on their primary residents therefore I'm requesting the municipal Council to authorize the tax collector to refund or cancel 10 months of property taxes in the amount of 9,6
$330 I was going to ask something regarding the Senor tax uh refund if that's okay the um that's something with the state if you're referring to the freeze yeah it's like a $250 yes that's with a tax assessor now that was different that would be with
the tax assessor office okay so I have to talk to I can send you an application and an email regarding the applications someone said they had to get like a doctor's note I don't know if that's true if they apply for a disabled yes oh for a disabled yes that's correct got it
there's different categories and and there's an expectation of documentation if they qualify for certain uh categories understood thank you okay thank you thank you Lord thank you evening council members and council president I have one resolution in front of you this evening it's agenda number
10.8 resolution 25153 it's a resolution granting a Redemption Amusement game license to RPM Raceway located at 99 Cav Point Road uh the purpose of this renewal is just for renewal of the state license they've
already been issued the license it always has to come before the council yes that's a state requirement okay and it's annual or how many annual got it they're fun that's all I can
say elizabe good evening council president members of the council thank you for indulging us I'll be quick I know it's you guys get home um if you can I'm sorry interrupt if you could just identify yourself for the record sure sure Steve sea executive director of
Jersey City Housing Authority um I was going to go through a whole list of everything and thank everybody that's on this Council because there is every single person here has helped us over the last year um greatly on a whole bunch of stuff but I think it's important that I just talk about some
quick policy stuff um that we're doing so that you guys are aware and that you can bring it back to your constituents when when when the time arises uh I think everybody knows that my position is always to increase affordable housing and uh access to affordability so we're
doing a few things I got HUD to approve it my board has already approved it so I want to talk to you guys about it one of the things that we've done is we've added 750 vouchers to the city um we put out an RFP uh everybody
applied that everybody that applied received them and now we're just going through the motion to figure out how I'm going to get them to them and what it means it means a lot more money into the city a lot more uh a lot more affordability and um it also in effect helps helps the landlords as well
because it gives them the ability to provide more services so it's a really it's a win-win um we are going to do it again in another two months I'm going to add another 500 vouchers to the city that'll bring us
from 5,000 to uh nearly 7,000 vouchers and make us actually larger than Newark in terms of affordability the other thing that we're doing um and I want everybody to to know it so that when your constituents ask
we're going to get rid of security deposits it's been a huge problem that I have a tenant that comes up on the list they go in and then they they can't afford to pay the security deposit and there's nowhere really to go I mean the county does give us some money but not
in terms of how many people actually get into housing and it's become a problem so we're going to get rid of it it it doesn't it's not worth it to us we're going to get rid of uh security deposits across the board if you are currently in housing um and you have a security
deposit and you do not owe me money you're going to get your money back we're going to do that we do have people um that owe us upwards of $20,000 um we are working out deals with every single person um because I I don't
want to kick anybody out but HUD mandates that you know we got to get paid um so that's the second thing that we're doing um and then the third and most important uh everybody here knows and that there's been council members that were uh very important in me
getting web off the ground to be taken in as public housing it is now public housing um and and the property is doing much better there are two more properties that I know have come before this board one of which is 69 storms and
the other is 242 Bergen we are about to take those properties over so um I appreciate that the that the city counil and people in the administration have indulged me in that we are about it's as
soon if if I get notice to tomorrow from hmfa we are literally taking over and me and myself have already made plans to go and meet with all the residents and explain what that means you have a lot of residents there that don't get any subsidy they are now going to get subsidy and we're going to fix the place
like we did we we just did with web so um those are the things that I wanted to update everybody uh if anybody has any questions I know I get I get calls you all have my cell phone number um but we are making repairs rapidly to all of our
sites uh including heat uh boilers hot water roofs um I am not in the business of making money if you give me the money HUD spend it on the residence so that's basically where we're at uh does anybody
have any questions for me no I I just I just want to thank you man you've you've done a really great job with regards to even when people owed money you've tried your best to make sure families had somewhere to stay um even when it
was Court Deets you've given extensions um so I just want to thank you because you know a lot of times there this certain in this position about people who live in housing you know people look at them in a certain way and you've for the most
part you've respected their privacy you've respected their position even when you disagreed with them um and I just want to commend you for that appreciate really thank you for that apprciate did you increase your maintenance team because I know was a a issue yes you know all right yeah so so
one of the things that we we've done and I'm very very proud of okay um and I'm thank you council president something you reminded me of something so we have put together a program if you live in housing you're the first person people to get hired right so we have and
the way I've done it is we started with temporary workers come in whether you be a BMW or you come in in the administrative side and then we we develop you to come in and become permanent employees we've
every year we've hired about 15 residents and on a temporary basis and we are just about to hire four of those permanent some of those have for instance one was a BMW came in he was just cleaning
sights he is now a boiler operator so we we are that is a a strong position that we take now in that same light one of the things everybody knows is that you guys get a lot of calls at night about heat and hot water so what what I have
done is I've made changes to the way that we staff at in the evenings one of the things we never had and I think was because no one including myself didn't understand there was a difference between a boiler operator and a boiler mechanic the boiler mechanics only work
during the day that is the only people that can fix a boiler or fix a hot water heater the The Operators do not do that they just turn it on so we have we're putting an a boiler mechanic we're we're increasing to a boiling
mechanic that works from um 3 to 11 which housing has never had that is a person that will be accessible in case a real repair is needed at night for either hot water or um heat in addition
we're increasing the number of operators in the evening by two so where we had only one now we're going to have three and that is going to be the uh 3 to 11 shift and then in addition to that
we're going to keep one operator from 11 to 7 so there's always somebody around the clock that can handle any of our heat and hot water issues going forward um we're also increasing the number of uh operators
during the day by an additional two it's always heat and hot water that is always the problem so we want to make sure that we are fully staffed and the way that the calls come in now they Co they go to a call center that call center has a protocol to call the property manager
the regional manager the director instead I'm going to have an on-site person in our Housing Authority with all the cameras monitoring everything that's the person that's going to get the call and they will send out the people good steeve thank you thank you
very much again thank you I just want to say just so you know I'm going to Washington DC next week we are gripping for some trouble time yeah um I've already seen the writing on the wall the New York field office has been reduced by more than 50% and the other
50% was told you're either going to work in New York or you're fired so I don't know how that's going to affect us it's certainly going to affect some of the city cdbg stuff as well um but I'll have more information when I get back from Washington thank you Steve thank you
everybody travel thank you and we look forward to visiting 69 storm so they can meet you and the residents there can meet you I know that would be a big welcome piece of relief um so thank you again for for jumping up and taking over maintenance of that building should hmfa agree which they should I appreciate you
guys too because when I need money for some of that stuff you're always there so thank you good night night okay uh first reading ordinances item 3.1 city ordinance 25- 025 5 is an
ordinance amending ordinance 22- 089 that authorized the city of Jersey City to accept from 1304 Bay Street LLC three theater condominium units within the property located at 151 Bay Street Jersey City and authorizing the city to
accept 134 Bas Street LLC one residential condominium unit at 151 Bas Street 3.2 and 3.3 were touched on earlier 3 24 city ordinance 25- 028 is an ordinance amending chapter 160 fees
and charges chapter 75 food handling establishments as regards regulation and permits for mobile food vendors wait a minute Sean go ahead Isaac I'm short sorry um hello the members of the council thanks for having
me I'm just going to really quickly uh explain this so we can get your feedback so oh my name is Isaac Smith is a a m i t h okay so um this is an ordinance we're putting forward it basically has
three parts um all relating to the food trucks the first is amendment to chapter 160 amending the cost for the permit parking for the food trucks um the basic logic here is that especially this the Zone one food truck parking is all like
right in downtown those food trucks basically their their lifeblood is the commuter coming in and out of New York ever since Co and the switch to um hybrid work they've seen a significant drop in the amounts of frankly in the
amount of people coming to eat there a lot of them don't even show up on certain days um so we figured it made sense just to sort of like amend the fiia to match the complete transformation of that market um that's been a request from a number of the food trucks now HHS did reach out to us and
mentioned uh they felt that it was a little bit too much to cut for 40% so we amended to the draft so it's a 20% cut um which basically represents Friday because if you go out there on a Friday there's maybe one truck there on any
given Friday it's so little traffic going in and out of New York um for the um just so you know also for especially right here other that section is zone four parking if it wasn't food trucks
it'd be zone four resident commercial uh resident uh permit parking so so that's what is sitting right here um and like I said it's mostly empty so that's the reason for that change and particularly again in comparison to basically any
other sort of Commerce the food trucks in zone one were particularly just uh impacted by the switch to the um hybrid work after Co the second part is regarding the push carts now there was a
sort of a weird uh element of our code here with with the different uh chapters don't necessarily agree but because of that there's sort of a rule that uh food trucks can't be well I want to show uh
T's not here there's a weird question of legality of where the food trucks can be relative to uh commercial restaurants we figured that we didn't want to touch that issue it's a complicated issue but we figured for the push carts so the people that sell Italian ice the people
that sell hot dogs most of them already are doing that they're sitting within 200 ft on Central Avenue or places like that we felt that it made sense to exempt them without touching the rest of that Minefield and the third part regards the um private streets currently again in the code it's a little bit
weird but it looks for the most part uh food trucks are not permitted in uh privately owned Lots um we felt that privately owned streets are slightly different there and some of the privately owned streets the owners of private streets had mentioned
that desire to do that during the Summers and this basically is restricted to Newport a few private streets remain in Newport Right Around The Exchange Place there there's Hudson Street and in Port liberte not Port liberte sorry Port uh Liberty Harbor North those are where
the private streets basically exist and they they would be allowed to have host food trucks if they wish of course those private owners wouldn't have to know that if they do this if they have stores that sell food or drink in those same buildings it's sort of
their uh it would be if they oversaturated it'd be harm to their own rentals because the uh places like uh bars and restaurants that are breaking mortar would pay them a lot more than the food trucks so we figured that would let them have if they if those places
that have private streets did feel the economics made sense for them we felt that it was enough of a difference from a private lot a garage or a parking lot that it made sense did you meet with the Sid down here yeah uh which s call uh um historical downtown uh we did not meet
with the Sid our position it's outside of the Sid but also this doesn't increase the number of food trucks in any way the number of food trucks are set by the permits right the permits aren't being used the the council set the number of permits the permits aren't being used partially because they're
just there's just no Market um what about um HHS