Okay, good afternoon everyone. We're about to get started. If we can silence our cell phones, close the back and side doors, I greatly appreciate it. Okay, we are on the record. Today is Monday, the 19th day of May in the year
2025. This is a city council caucus meeting of the Jersey City Municipal Council. We had a scheduled 4pm start. The clock on my cell phone is showing 4:02 p.m. May we have a roll call for the commencement of this caucus. Council person Ridley here. Council person
Hulings here. Council person Biano. Council person is not here yet. Council person Solomon here. Council person Gilmore is not here yet. Council person Deise here. Council person Revera here. And council
president Waterman. Okay, we have seven council members present at 4:02 p.m. On behalf of Council President Waterman and the members of the municipal council in the coordinates with New Jersey Public Laws of 1975, 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 city hall. The annual notice which is the scheduled 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, May 16th, 2025 at 12:56 PM 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, President Waterman. Members of the council, I have several
items before you this afternoon. First one, resol resolution 25335 uh 10.9. The resolution will authorize the public sale of 158 vehicles through the public auction no longer suitable for public
use. Next is 102125 uh 347. 25347. Resolution will authorize a payment of a claim submitted by Gillespie Group for the services provided associated with public safety training deescalation facility in amount
of $49,26562. Claim was associated with additional work necessary due to the conditions of the facility's concrete floor due to unforeseen conditions. Next is 1022348. Resolution will authorize the woman of payment submitted by Herk
Reynolds Incorporated providing portable emergency air conditioning units to various city facilities in the amount of $86,469. These services were necessary due to unexpected failure of HVAC systems at the Bishop Street Communication Center and the Jersey City
Municipal Court complex. Fund for this payment is a fund for this payment are available in the DPW buildings and streets operating account. Next 1023 25349. The resolution will authorize the award payment of a claim submitted by Jersey State Energy
Controls for the maintenance services of the automatic temperature and digital controls at city-owned buildings. Previous contract with this company expired. However, due to the proprietary issues, the services of this company were necessary to regulate HVAC systems at city city- owned buildings. Total
amount of this contract is $17,800 and is available in the DPW division of buildings and streets account. And last is resolution 25354 1028. Resolution will authorize the
award of an open-end contract with Plaza Automotive Body Incorporated at VA's Auto Sales to provide collision repairs for the DPW automatives automotive services division. Total amount of these contracts as follows. Plaza Auto Body not to exceed
$176,146.95 with a temporary incumbrance of $20,000. Vary's Auto Sales not to exceed $245,78644 with a temporary incumbrance of $20,000. The renewal of these contracts is for a one-year period
effective June 13, 2025. And the funds are available in DPW Automotive Services operating account. Thank you, Council President. I just want to mark Council Person Gilmore present at 4:06 p.m. So, we now have eight council
members present at 4:06. Name Nicole. Good afternoon, council president, council members. Nicole Dupri, Department of Administration, um, Office of Employee Benefits, here to present item number 10.34, resolution number
25-360, resolution authorizing a change order to increase the contract amount of our prescription benefit manager, Crumbdale Partners, who provides prescription coverage for retirees and active members and their dependent in the amount of
$31,25,711. $72. Apologies. What was the number? 31,25,000. I apologize. The resolution number. Oh, resolution number 25-360. Ah, got it. Thank you. Yes.
Got it. And how how much is um you said how much is the change order for? 31,25,7112. And and does do we anticipate this meaning that uh we'll be paying more for the prescription drugs this year? Yes. This is due to usage and the number of
dependence um the number of lives on the the contract. Thank you. Thank you. Prince. Well, well, well, before you speak, I just
I just want to mark council person present at 4:09 p.m. So, we now have all nine council members present plus a former council member present. Glad you could all make it for my first time here in front of the council. So, hi. So,
Council President, members of the council, the JCEEDC has three resolutions for consideration at this week's meeting. First is item number 10.24, resolution number 25-350, a resolution of the Municipal
Council of the City of Jersey City authorizing the submission of an application to the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Authority for enterprise zone assistance funds for the Jersey City UE marketing phase 2. And the amount is in $2,35 and no
cents. Any questions? Sure. Um for the marketing phase, could you just sort of tell a little bit more about what is um what what they'll be like what the sort of uh purpose of the marketing campaign is? So there are a couple of
different campaigns that are considered in this amount. Um the first one is uh the $750,000 going to MWWW for marketing. This is more specific to um City Jersey City in particular for the events that we have coming up this next year with
World Cup and America 250. Um just for some background, MWW uh is the firm that the UE has been working, I'm sorry, the EDC has been working with for the past three years. They are a New Jerseybased firm that has international reach and scope and they are also the agency of record with the
state. So that gives them some comfortability with us working with them. We do have a marketing plan that I actually just received later today. So if you guys would like I can forward that to you so you can understand this full scope. But it covers social media, it covers print, it covers um some some
videos that we're going to be doing that will also be going onto YouTube. But they're also really important right now for us because of their understanding of the international markets and considering the current climate. They've also been able to sort of guide us as to where to best utilize our marketing dollars based on what's happening in the
world and how people are and are not traveling to the United States. So the next item is for promotional items in the amount of $450,000. Those are for the Jersey City swag that you see at all the events that we do. Um, each year we do things a little bit differently, but it includes everything from crossover
bags, laptop covers, drink tumblers, t-shirts, etc. and so on. Um, the next is for the July celebrations that is in the amount of $600,000. We included this as a sort of general catchall because we do not know what the plans are for the city for the
4th of July for next year. However, we know that there's going to be some very big events. We have World Cup. We have the tall ships in the harbor. So, we just want to be prepared for what that's going to look like. The next one is for the JCEDC upgrade and maintenance. That's an amount of $50,000. If you've
been on our website, it's not bad, but it could certainly use some room for improvement. So, we are finally going to be funding ourselves with that. Um, the we have the maintenance for the cultural affairs website. In the last marketing budget, the EDC covered the amount for them to do their own upgrade. If you have not seen their site, take a look.
It's got a lot of really great new features. We may not look like them, but that sort of gives you an idea of what the EDC may have in mind moving forward. The next one is for um conferences that the EDC attends. This includes League of Municipalities. This includes um
tourism. This includes JC Summit, things like that. Then we have memberships and subscriptions. $63,000 for all of that. This also includes a subscription to a company called Placer AI and they help us with all manner of demographic research for tourism and people
traveling to and from Jersey City. our nonprofits and people in other sectors also can avail themselves of this information in case they need it for grant writing. So, it's a really helpful tool um across the board. Then we also have the JCEDC UEZ education materials
and that is going to include um pamphlets and literature on how we can better support our businesses being registered as an urban enterprise zone business. The the value of that actually for those who don't know, businesses are registered. The more businesses we have registered, the more money the city gets when the state allocates every year.
Currently, Jersey City is number three. So, we have a goal to get our number up to at least number one or number two in the next year. And that this marketing material will help us for that. And then finally, we have the sponsorship and event or no, not finally, sorry, sponsorships and events that we do in
partnership with the city. the JCAST Jazzfest by JC, Jersey City Pride, NJSO free concerts, JC Fridays by um Bio New Jersey. Um we also have allocated amount for JC EDC sponsored events. I'm going
to be getting us out into the field more often. So there are smaller events that happen across the city. This money can help cover participation there where I think it's important for us to be. And then we also have um the uh nope, I'm sorry, let me flip that. JCEDC events which are our own
events which we will be hosting over the course of the year and then the other events which is what I just mentioned which is to be determined. We'll be building out that list moving forward and then we are anticipating some uh needs for media content managers and consultants. This is a 1099 employee
that's going to be tied specifically to the UEE funding. We have um $75,000 earmarked for that to give us flexibility in case we want to hire part-time, full-time, and stipened internships. That's also intended for that purpose. So,
that's marketing phase two. And just so you all know for the timeline, should these be approve uh adopted at the council meeting on Wednesday, we send it over to the UEA authority on Friday. There's a 45day review period. Then we get on an agenda. So based on the
calendar, we're looking for these to be on the August agenda for the state. Any other questions? Next. Next. Okay. Resolution 10.25. I'm sorry. Item number 10. Resolution 25-351.
resolution of the municipal council of the city of Jersey City authorizing the submission of an application to the New Jersey urban enterprise zone authority for the enterprise zone assistance funds for the Jersey City UE offduty police program for fiscal year 26 and that is in the amount of
$1,969 1 million 961,986 and finally item number 10.26 26. Resolution 25-352, a resolution of the Municipal Council of the City of Jersey City, authorizing the submission of an application to the New Jersey urban
enterprise zone authority for enterprise zone assistance funds for the Jersey City UE fiscal year 26 administrative budget. It's important to note that this is a sixmonth budget from July 1st, 2025 to December 31st, 2025. It is in the
amount of $379,477. The state actually prefers that urban enterprise zones municipality submit 6 months budget and not a full fiscal year. In part because if we don't spend that money for position that we have in there, we do not get that money back. So as we are reevaluating the
organization and understanding what the needs are going to be, we thought it was better to be just a little bit cautious and submit this number for the first six months. Should we decide to hire another employee, we can tie it to a program and 1099 until we come back to council for the second half of the fiscal year.
Any questions? Oh, that's very thorough. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. I learned something up there. Tough fact to follow. Good afternoon, council president, members of city council. Uh HHS Food and Nutrition has
one item this evening for your consideration. Resolution 25343, item number 10.17. This is a resolution authorizing the execution of a memorandum of understanding with the Hoboken Boys and Girls Club so they can receive summer food service program meals this year.
They reached out to us and we created a anou uh which requires the same compliance of grant guidelines from all our sites. Um, the Hoboken. Where's the Hoboken Boys and Girls Club at? In Hoboken?
Yes. They don't have meals on. They don't have They don't have summer food service. Summer food program. So, they reached out to us. We've we've done this in the past. I believe two years ago, we had a few sites. So that's why we create theou so it has the compliance of grant guidelines from the department of agriculture. So if anybody doesn't meet
compliance then they would be removed from the program and it's the same reimbursement process. Oh are they going to use the same sites that they did like two years ago? I don't believe that the the boys and girls club was one of the sites but it's the same thing. They have to provide a
site manager. They have to to it's monitored very closely by our staff and they have to meet compliance. So it acts as this the very same as all of our sites but because of we require theou. How many sorry how many children are
they going to be servicing? I think at last count it was 30 to 40 but I can confirm that number. Yeah. all the kids. Thank you. Good afternoon, Council President,
council members. Laura Takuri from the tax assessor office. I'm here for item number 10.6, Six. Resolution number 25-332, a resolution granting veterans exemptions for various properties from the local property tax pursuant to the
NJSA 544-3. There are eight properties that apply for the exemption which are which are the following. Um 56 R Street, Unit 202, 689 Marine Boulevard, unit 503, 622 Grove, 316 Second Street, Unit
7001, 120 Harrison Avenue, unit 2, 355 Community Avenue, 2874 Street, Unit One and 6 Drive, unit 1609. Properties owned by 100% disabled veterans are eligible for 100% of tax
exemption on their primary residence. Therefore, I'm requesting the municipal council to authorize the tax collector to refund or cancel the taxes in the amount of $55,76.50 for the eight properties. It's all any questions? No. Thank you.
Good afternoon, council. I have before you item number 18-30. This is ordinance 25-059. And actually, um, before you guys came, there's a one sheetformational um that actually speaks to all the change, not many changes, but
it speaks to the changes specifically and the reason behind those. Uh, and so if you look through those, you'll see hopefully all the questions that you may have have been answered. But if you look at the item the last the next to last bullet point pretty much what it let you know is that the entire ordinance has
been revised. Uh and we use the word to have a rhythm so that specifically it's been put in a better chronological order so that anybody who's reading this can distinguish and really remove any gray areas. Before it was a little bit confusing here and there but now I feel
like this has a more consistent rhythm so that anybody reading it can understand everything that we are asking. Yeah. Can I just ask you something? You sure can. Uh, you're in charge of the uh places on Newark Avenue. Is that
correct? What places in particular, sir? Where they're selling the pot? No, that's not me. Oh, that's not you. No, sir. Oh, all right. Okay. Not mine. No problem. I I do have a question about this. Does
this in any way limit the amount of Airbnbs that are being posted on the website illegally? So it it it doesn't quote unquote eliminate them because people can do it legally or illegally. But if you guys are aware also, you know, we started a partnership
with Airbnb and so as of uh March of this year, unless they have a city permit, you cannot advertise on Airbnb's platform, which actually has doubled our application. So that initiative has actually helped a great deal. You're welcome. Also now for for whenever
someone go to Airbnb to advertise, they have to show the city permit that they're eligible to do. That's always been the case. They just um platforms were not enforcing it. But now Airbnb has led the charge to make sure that if you don't have a city permit, you cannot
advertise on their platform, which has also caused other ones to become more compliant. Great. Do we have other Oh, sorry. Do we have other agreements with other booking? Uh, no, we do not. Um, Airbnb actually they reached out to us and so they initiated
the process. We also wanted to have a time period to make sure that this worked, but now that we're seeing it flow a lot better toward the end of the year, we are looking at reaching out to other platforms. Thank you. Good afternoon, council. I'm here for item
10.5, resolution 25-331. And this is a resolution to authorize the tax collector to prepare and mail estimated tax bills for third quarter. John, what? Yeah, John, what is the rate
we're proposing on the third quarter estimated tax bill? Uh, it'll be 2.338%. 2.338. And is that the the maximum we're allowed to propose? Um, yes. Okay. Because I I guess the thing that I'm I'm worried about what's happened in the
past is when we've done the estimated third quarter bills, we've had this huge increase in the fourth quarter because the whole thing gets shifted. And so I just want to I you know, we now we have introduced budgets now from all three entities. Um so I wanted to know if we could estimate what we think the third
quarter rate's going to be and then the fourth quarter rate so that you know we would I want to see before Wednesday what we're going to be putting on taxpayers bills. understanding the budgets aren't approved yet, but they are introduced and then um you know I don't know if we have any more ability
on this this budget to to you know apply for a waiver if the fourth quarter is going to be a really painful quarter. Yeah, I mean by going up to the max here we're you know hopefully the fourth quarter will be smaller. Um I mean I did
a quick calculation that the the average uh residential assessment is about $486,000. So for the third quarter uh the increase would be about $250. Of that $26 is the municipal
piece, the part that we can control. Right. Understood. Um yeah. So if if you could share that as well as what you believe we're going to be charging on the fourth quarter based on the introduced budgets and that would be great. Thank you. Any other questions?
Okay. Thank you. Good evening, council. Here to bring forward resolution 25345, uh, authorizing a license agreement, the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency, authorizing a license agreement with the
city, uh, for the use of block 1141, lots 1301 and 14, commonly known as 247253 First Street. It's item 10.19. Yes.
10.19. Thank you, Danny. Good afternoon, council presidents, council members. your consideration. I have one item. It is resolution number 25-329, agenda number
10.3. And the title of the resolution is a resolution authorizing an emergency temporary appropriation for calendar year 2025. And this request is needed for the continuence of city services without any
disruptions. Any questions? Thank you. Good evening, Council President, council members. For the record, my name is Paul Kate, director of disease prevention with Health and Human Services. Uh, tonight I'm asking for your approval for item number 1016, resolution
25-342. This is a resolution authorizing the acceptance of a renewal grant from the state DO. Uh this covers our salary and wage for our disease intervention specialists. They are tasked with uh testing and assisting in treatment for uh STI cases in the city clinic.
Um Paul, while I have you here, not on this ordinance, but I just want to ask um do you have sort of statistics on how the um I want to call it a vending machine. I don't know the appropriate term is, but yes. Yeah. How how that has worked and how it's been used and all those? Yeah, definitely. I could send that over to you. We have a pretty
comprehensive deck that we have access to the dashboard and the LTS they send us a deep dive on the metrics as well. Um we are in the process of working out the renewal for that contract. Um there's a lot in play there. Sure. If you could send us the deck and the stat
be great. I'll send it over to you tomorrow morning. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you very much. Have a good night. Welcome back. It's a pleasure to be back before everyone this afternoon. Thank you for having me. Um, I come from a brief stint
with the federal government in HUD, um, as the field office director for the state of New Jersey, um, which had me sit as the highest ranking public housing, economic development, and community development federal official in the state of New Jersey. But I'm going to bring back uh that initiative
that I have for driving strategic initiatives and developing robust stakeholder engagement and a focus on operations and risk management for our grant. So I have agenda item number 10.11 through
10.15. Um 10.11 is resolution 25 through 337. Um, it's a resolution authorizing the business administrator to execute the discharge of the mortgage encumbering 36 Clerk Street. Um, in
2008, um, a mortgage and a note in favor of the city was secured for the amount of $32,13 made under the homeowner repair program. Um, this debt is a deferred payment, no interest mortgage, and upon
the 10th year after signing, it shall be forgiven in its entirety, and the city is obliged to execute the discharge of this mortgage from the public record. The next item I have for you is 10.12, which is resolution
25- 338. It's a resolution authorizing the discharge of the mortgage encumbering 144-146 Virginia Avenue. Um in February of 2001, Virginia Adenue Associates executed a mortgage um in the amount of
500,000 made under the multif family loan matching grant program. um upon the end of the fifth year after signing this mortgage, it shall be forgiven in its entirety and the city is obligated to execute the discharge of this mortgage.
Um the next item that I have for you is 10.13 which is resolution 25-339 and it's a resolution authorizing the business administrator to execute discharges of mortgages encumbering various properties that receive the
homeowner repair program assistance in the calendar year of 2000. So, what I'm trying to do moving forward with the team here in the office, instead of coming here to you members of council, and trying to discharge these mortgages one at a time, I've had the team go in
and do research and find all mortgages that are eligible to be discharged. This way, I can cut down on the constituents coming to request the discharge because they have a closing or a refinancing. I'm just going to do it all up front and then they can go um to the county and get a copy of their discharge mortgage.
So, for this one, there is about 19 properties. Sean, do you want me to read those addresses into the record? No. Okay. Um, are there any questions? No, I just I'll talk just to get a copy of of
the list of the um it's attached to the resolution and all the information there. Okay. Okay. The the next resolution that I have for you is uh agenda item number 10.14. That's resolution
25-340. Um and this is the same. We're off asking authorization for the business administrator to execute the discharge of mortgages encumbering various properties that receive the Golden Neighborhoods home ownership firsttime home buyer assistance grant
during the calendar year of 2000. Um, this program does come with a 10-year affordability period, and there are six listed properties eligible for mortgage discharge. And the last one that I have for you is agenda item 10.15. That's
resolution 25-341. and we are requesting permission to authorize the business administrator to dis uh execute the discharge of an affordable housing agreement that was dated May 14th,
1999 with Whiten Street Associates LLC. Um the city executed a regional contribution agreement that's also known as the RCA um with Whit and Street Associates LLC for the construction of the project known as the Whit and Street
Homes. Um the purpose of this agreement was to ensure that the units were sold to qualified uh lowincome home buyers and would remain affordable to low and very low eligible households for the minimum period of 20 years. Um, the city
has reviewed this matter and we found that the restrictions and all terms and conditions including the agreement have expired and should be discharged from the public record. Thank you so much. Great. Afternoon. Uh Jennifer Wong, director of
traffic engineering. I have four items for your consideration. The first item is 3.3 ordinance 2560. This is um designating reserve parking spaces. They were all approved at the committee meeting
that was held on April 16th. Next is item 3.4, ordinance 2561. This is to designate the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Woodlon Avenue as a
multi-way stop intersection. This was a result of or this is being proposed because of the safety issues at this intersection. Based on crash history, there were nearly 30 right angle crashes
at this intersection inclusive of six crashes that resulted in injury. 31. I don't think they recorded mine. Sorry. 31 accidents at that in a in a three-year period. Yeah. I don't think
they recorded mine though. Oh, okay. Um crazy. The next one is item 3.5, Ordinance 2562. This is an ordinance to restrict the parking for street cleaning
purposes on Berry Lane and to extend the limits for Forest Street to the dead end just one block. You're going to go inside the actual
like parking lot there in Berry Lane for Bry Lane. Yeah. Yes. Both sides. Oh, okay. Um there were there were some issues with uh vehicles being parked there for several months. Um so this should help.
And the last item is agenda 3.6 ordinance 2563. This is to designate on street parking spaces on Liberty Avenue between Newark and Van Winkle Avenue um to be metered
parking. Um currently there are metered parking spaces on the east side of Liberty. This would um this would extend the limits to include the west side as well. Um currently people are parking on the west side. So there are there is a
need for additional parking to serve the businesses in the area. Thank you. Hello, Council President, members of the council. I have eight items for the Department of Infrastructure. Um we're going to start with the easy ones
first. So, I'll ask Mike to present those. Good afternoon, council. Mike Manzella, director of transportation planning, Department of Infrastructure. Um, first item is agenda item number 10.18. It's resolution 25-344. It's a resolution supporting the
NJ DO's Palisade Avenue bridge replacement project. Um, the the DOT uh is in con um concept development for this bridge replacement. construction is anticipated in 2030. Um and this uh the
DOT conducted a public information center uh had a few comments from the public mostly in favor of the project. Um so we are recommending a resolution supporting replacement of this bridge. Next one's item number agenda item number 10.33 resolution
25-359. This is a resolution requesting from NJ DOT a six-month extension for the grant award uh to award the construction contract for the Manhattan Avenue Franklin Street bikeways grant project. Um the our department has started the
design process. It's moved along really well. We've had really good conversations with DOT. We've submitted some initial very early layout concept plans. um they're very much on board with the modification that we've talked about just um focusing on Franklin
Street. Um the deadline is currently June 11th. Um and you know due to the back and forth that we've had with DOT um they are willing to extend us one more time. In fact um we asked we we proposed to them a three-month extension. They said no no go ahead and
ask for six. So, um fingers crossed that there'll be no problems with us them granting that and uh we'll move forward on the on the project. Continue to move forward. That's it. Okay, I'll go through the rest of them. So, the next one is agenda item 10.4. 4
resolution 25-330. This is a resolution requesting permission for the dedication of revenues received by tree removal penalties and settlements uh in order to establish a tree replacement reserve fund. This is a requirement by the New
Jersey DP that was recently passed in an effort to not only increase canopies in urban areas and invest in urban forestry, but to set up a dedicated fund year after year in order to do that work. Um and so essentially this would
create that from any penalties that are um assessed or any revenues that are collected through any activities related to tree removals or replacements throughout the city. Is the amount that we're getting in the fines enough to like from like
grinding the stump down to getting a replacement tree to planting it and taking maintaining it for 2 years. Is that enough um to basically supplant the new tree or it probably wouldn't include
the 2-year warranty of maintenance period because right now a vendor does that and we get charged um essentially a premium for a vendor to do that work instead of in-house staff doing it. So, the intention of this is that the fees would cover um the prep work at that
site that has to be done, expanding the tree pit if that's necessary, purchasing the tree, planting the tree, but it wouldn't include some of those additional items. Okay, understood. Thank you. Okay, the next one is agenda item 10.10
10 resolution 25-336 and this is related to agenda item 10.27. So I'll do 10.10 first. Um this is a resolution rejecting all bids received by the city of Jersey City for
ondemand bus services that were received in November of 2024. So this that's for um so what's what's going to happen with the contract then? So the next item which was 10.27 um will be a resolution to do a
three-month extension of our current contract so that we could use the time in between to re-release the RFP and collect proposals and essentially move to award a new contract. And those new
um white with the yellow and orange side and on the via vans, those are the electrical ones. Um you may have seen a couple of new vehicles without the purple wrapping all the way. Some of those new vehicles are because we
increased um vehicles and drivers over the last few days in anticipation for the New Jersey transit strike. And then some of them are just being swapped out if some vehicles go out for maintenance. So they're they don't always come in 100% wrapped. Oh,
what was the um minimum bid that we received that um came in? Are we allowed to say uh Councilman, in light of um renewing it, um there was only one bidder that was the sole uh bidder. So in that light, we want to um
get an appetite for additional uh entries. Another thing that we're going out for is we're going to strengthen the language around the possibility of organizing the drivers uh to be unionized. So those are the two uh a competitive playing field as well as possible unionizing. So that's why we're
going back out and uh we'll have it wrapped up in the next 3 months. Got it. Thank you. Okay. So that was 10.27. The next item is 10.30 resolution 25-356.
This is a resolution authorizing the award of a contract to MRC, Inc. for the purchase, delivery, and installation of playground equipment at Barrow Street. Um, this contractor is a state contract.
Um, oh god, this this vendor is a state contractor that is a part of the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey. Well, I mean I do you want to do all of them because there's three amount of that one is
$91,517. The next one is 10.31. This is a resolution authorizing the award of a contract to a fencing company which is also a state contractor part of that state the same co-op uh which is the ESC of New Jersey. This amount is
$58,000368. Sorry, $58,368. And then the next one is 10.32 resolution 25-358. This is a resolution to award a contract to a resurfacing company for
the playground. And this is under also under New Jersey state contract. And this is in the amount $53, uh, $40. So those are the three for playground equipment for fencing and for playground
surfacing. Walker, is that playground in the street? It will be. So the Barrow Street will essentially be made a plaza with an emergency vehicle lane that will remain open for um fire, emergency vehicles,
etc. And the playground will go in the expanded plaza area. Do you think that's really wise closing a main street down for a playground in the middle of the street? I just got a couple of emails from people complaining. I'm guessing we're on the same email
chain. Um I did get a number of from residents and business owners in the area. um just wanting to know the timeline of this and expressing their you know not wanting this although they love playgrounds and didn't want that to come across did not feel like it was the
right area and wanted to ask about a public safety plan due to the growing concerns of homelessness theft and robberies in that area um just didn't know if the councilman or you could address some of that so we can have the residents watch this and
listen I can answer the questions about the timeline and the work itself. Um I don't have information about the other items that you mentioned, councilwoman. So if these resolutions are to be awarded at this council meeting um within a twoe period, the vendors would
be given a notice to proceed. There's quite a bit of concrete work that has to happen on the site to prep it in order for a playground to be installed there. So we're hoping to start that work within the next couple of months. and it will likely be about a five to six month
uh construction period. Has anybody consulted all the businessmen on New York Avenue and the residents in that area? Um we have not had a meeting with all of the business owners, but you know the director of the SID is aware of this
plan and has shared information with the business owners and with the people in the district because most people do not want this. You know, you're destroying the businesses, you're taking away parking, you're blocking a main street going through. This is a joke. Well, the street councilman has been closed
temporarily without any upgrades, and it's causing more issues in the condition that it's in now because there isn't any programming. It's important to the mayor and the administration to activate that area which is currently empty. Get some new lighting in there,
make it safer, and formalize the closure so that there's a dedicated area for emergency vehicles to go and the dedicated area for kids specifically of this age group to have play equipment because the parks and the direct
vicinity of this area, while some do have playgrounds, they're not for this age range. You know, Barker, it it it's really idiotic to close a street like that. And I don't care what anybody in the administration says. This is wrong. And it's absolutely ridiculous. Uh I
travel down Christopher Columbus Drive every morning coming to city hall and people would love to make that left-hand turn there onto that street and they got it. The street is closed, councilman. They cannot make this. I mean, I think director I think I so I think I can
speak pretty well to to views of the proposal and as you might imagine it's a mixed bag. I think the things that people like are that the Horseman neighborhood so north of Columbus does not have a playground. Um it's Vanor has
playgrounds but north of Columbus doesn't. So, I think there is a need and I think on Barrow Street because it's vacant, we could use something, but the businesses in the area are very concerned. And I think this is less for
the director, but it's more for the administration. The the business's message to me is, hey, we spent a lot of money to make the plaza, and yet we're not doing a great job of maintaining it on a number of fronts, and they're seeing their businesses hurt and suffered. And I
think if this is voted on on Wednesday, we're going to see a number of those business owners here sending that message to us saying you're moving forward with another capital project, but you haven't maintained the first one that you did. And so my view would be and administration knows I've been, you know, working with them on this, but we
still haven't gotten the progress that we need to make. And so my thing would be if if before we vote on this, I think we need a commitment from the administration on exactly how we are going to maintain and upgrade upgrade maintain the pl maintain the plaza, maintain the quality of life, address
the legitimate concerns the businesses are having because they are seeing business decline because of the declines on the plaza. So my view would be that it's it's a you know I'm not opposed to the idea in principle but until we have a real credible plan on how to address the quality of life issues and business
issues on the plaza we're going to get a a stream of very angry folks on Wednesday if we're moving forward with this investment. So that' be my view choice. Yeah. So, just quick question so we can uh I
guess circle back to the start because I know you said the street is closed now, but can you um refresh our memory? Why did we close the street to begin with? We were having a lot of conflict points at the intersection of Barrow and Newark. So if you remember when we
expanded the pedestrian plaza from initially it was just the block from Newark to Barrow Eerie and then when we did the permanent upgrade we expanded it one more block all the way to Jersey. However, we kept that street open running through the middle. And
essentially what would happen is people pedestrians would walk through the plaza as if it was a pedestrian-only space. And when they would come across that intersection, vehicles were still going um you know at full speeds through that intersection. Even though there was a
stop sign there, even though there was a raised intersection there, and vehicles were constantly blocking um the corners, creating visibility issues. We had foot patrols from the Jersey City Police constantly on the plaza. And what we realized was that a long-term solution
to remove those conflict points and all the near misses that were happening where people were almost getting hit as they were walking from one side of the plaza to the other um was to close off the street at Barrow to eliminate the
conflicts and then over time to upgrade Barrow over the course of a number of years. the same way Newark A had been upgraded over the course of a few years. So when we first closed it off, it was because of that safety issue and the inability of police officers to
constantly be monitoring that intersection. So it solved that problem. And then when we closed off Barrow, there was some light programming um that was intended, but it never really materialized in the way that we we needed it to, which was people needed a
reason to go to Barrow, and there wasn't really um the lighting needs to be upgraded. There needs to be more seating there. There has to be a dedicated use. Um and so that's what led us to the point where we are now.
I I think that um I thought that we were going to make that area like a delivery drop off area. Uh I thought that that was the plan. Uh especially when you talk about the near misses, your near misses are coming on Christopher
Columbus where these delivery vehicles have to park and people are getting near missed hit there on a daily basis. I'm actually surprised that a study hasn't been done there, but I actually thought that this area was specifically for
deliveries. I mean, we are really suffocating these businesses. So, I don't think I'm Yeah, I don't know what about the other everybody's going to do. I can't support this. It was councilman when we first closed off Barrow Street. We installed the gate there and we gave
keys or access with a code to emergency services which is fire, police, medical center, OEM, etc. But then we also gave limited access to the SID and to the businesses so that whenever they needed to do loading, unloading, deliveries
that they could manage their own access into that section of Barrow Street um because they were given keys and a code. Um and there were several um iterations of notices where we said, you know, this is the way to properly manage operations
on this closed off section of Barrow Street. However, that didn't end up working the way it was intended. Um, either businesses and their delivery drivers were not coordinating that so that if a restaurant needed to have a truck pull into there, they weren't
willing to themselves go open the gate, let the truck in, let it back out. And so what we saw happening was that trucks for deliveries would continue to park on top of the crosswalk on the outside of the gate, on top of the crosswalk on the Jersey Avenue side, on the Newark Avenue
side, and on the Eerie Street um and Bay Street side. So it we did try that and it didn't quite end up working the way we thought. I I think that, you know, I I'm sorry. I think they they should take that big dreadful gate off because I
mean I was actually there when they had a two alarm fire u on the plaza and u in the summer and all those tables were outside and literally watched the fire
trucks struggle to get in there uh because nobody had the key. Uh they actually had to come the wrong way up off of Jersey Avenue and North Avenue and Engine 6 had to come in through
the Grove North Avenue side. I mean, you know, we're putting it's dangerous, you know, number one, it's dangerous for the people around there. Number two, you're creating a situation for the firefighters. And if we're talking about safety, we're
kind of like intercepting a big safety issue there. Yeah, understood. And they they do have keys and fire department has installed their own Nox box with their keys on the gate. Um, so I understand what you're saying and I know there was an issue um during that one
incident, but they do have access. Every department, every division in public safety has their own access to the main plaza and to the Barrow Street extension. And and just to finish, so when we have the access, we're talking about a firefighter has to come out,
open the key. You know, there's there's time being done there. Like in in street, he's the one who requested that type of ballard on the original Newark Avenue plaza. We presented several different types of options at that time on the best way to protect the
pedestrian plaza and also give fire department easy and convenient access whenever they needed to get into there. The decision was made alongside the fire department to have a type of ballard where they would enter their own key into the ballard, lift up the sleeve of
it and then drive through. So the fire department said they did not have a stay in that. Okay. I know there's been a lot of So Barker, I just want to make sure I understand this correct. So initially the street was closed. No, for precautionary measures
from a safety standpoint because I guess it was a point of confusion as you went through Barrow to get the knock and go over. That's the rationale. The street was closed. That's the reason the portion of Barrow Street. Yes.
That's one of the reasons. Correct. Uh we we can make we can make the case that we closed the city down if that's I mean if it's a matter of what we there was no point where we considered enforcement mechanism installing a traffic light and
things like that be because the issue the issue that I'm having as I'm listening to all this is first of all I can't envision where would be a safe route for the emergency vehicles to get through in an
expedited manner when the park is there. And then from a safety standpoint, I don't know how safe that is. You're talking about emergency. You're talking about kids five and six year olds that's playing around. It would be fenced, Councilman. The the play area. Oh, you
put a fence there. The playground itself would be fenced. So, we're willing to put the fence, do the improvement, do the upgrades, and we can't exhaust any funds and get in the traffic light there. Traffic signal. Um, it would be
tough to do a traffic signal because we would have to essentially break up the existing plaza and the pavers that exist there. Um, it would be hard to put a traffic signal in that intersection in the current configuration that it's in.
I mean, I don't I just I just think it looks really messy. Um, okay. To to do that way, man. And if we're talking about safety, I don't I don't know. I just can't visualize how this would be a um
better use for that area right there. So I mean I just I mean I think some of these issues are solvable in the sense of I think you can work through with fire department and JCFD and come up with a plan and propose it. I you know I
would just say coming back to the main point for my for me which is you know I'd love for you again the full administration to present an a plan on on full maintenance of the plaza because again the message that I know I'm going to get on Wednesday if we vote or if we vote in two weeks is you did one big
infrastructure project it's not being maintained so why are you doing a second one before you maintain the first one I just know that's the message and that's a fair question that's not an unfair question that people are going to ask us so for me that's the the thing I'm Again, some of these concerns are real, but I think we can address them if if we
address the the main issue that folks are having right now. Now, present issues. We want to address present issues before we move on to this issue. Okay. So, I don't know if it's best for you to take it off, but because you can see we don't address stuff.
Yeah, we'll start with a working session with the councilman and some of the um directors to start addressing some of those issues one by one and we'll share everything with the council. So, what we going to do in the meantime with this the three cuz um I guess they're not feeling comfortable voting on until the issues resolved. That's fair. So, so you
want a table or I mean Sean, what do we do? Oh, so you would with it's if it's resolution, you would withdraw the resolutions. They want to resolve the first issues. And that makes a good point cuz they got
homelessness. They got a lot of stuff going on down there. There's a lot of other things going down there before we even put a park there till we try to solve those issues. You can't keep on taking away uh traffic streets from people. The traffic
is horrendous in this city and closing that street was a big mistake. Is there a way to make it like a art walk where it would allow deliveries like you'd be able to walk through and I don't know if a playground, you know?
I don't think so. Councilman, there's other motion. I think I I I'd like to make a resolution that uh Sean uh that it be uh withdrawn. So, we can do that at the council meeting. You make a motion to withdraw
the 1030 and 10.31 and 30 I think. Isn't all of them connect? No. No, it's 1030 and 10.31. 31. Yes. Okay. There's three. Question. the uh money that's going to the um playground. Could we channel it to
another Oh, in 10:32. Sorry. It's three resolutions. 1030 31 and 32. Sean. Yep. But at the council meeting, we would make that motion. We don't take any action during the caucus. Yeah. Barker. So to
councilman um to council president uh waterman point uh the money the money is already airmarkked for the construction of this park would come out of um the general parks improvements uh capital account and how much we estimate that
would be to um bring this a little over 200,000 huh it's a little they got it already we need Riverview or Persian but there's other parks that's struggling So, because since it's coming out of the park, it's only 200. Ain't
much improvements can make with 200. You know what? You have a lot of little side parks. Pocket parks. Yeah. Cuz if I go down Wilson Avenue, there's a little pocket park. Yeah, I see that park. Even on Monaceel, there's a little pocket park. So, how could we use some of these
funds to upgrade those parks? We would have to go through the process, council member. Okay. Get quotes. To give you some context, the most recent playground repair that we did to an existing playground that had a lot of the foundations and everything already in
place was McGovern Park in Ward Day. It was $860,000 um for the fix of the playground equipment and you know fixing up some of the foundations around it. So that's just a a frame of reference for you to use. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Right,
Barker, before you go, do me a favor. Please get the sign up at Baldwin and Newark, the loading zone. I don't know who removed it, but what's happening? The cars are parking there. Trucks are trying to make deliveries and that double. They're parking out in Baldwin Avenue, and it's a disaster. Please, for
that business that's on the corner, council. Yeah. Well, the sign was there for years. Okay. Nobody took it away. Approved the sign at a recent council meeting. A work order is issued. DPW will now go and install the sign as soon as they get to it, which is working
through the process. All right. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Can I go now? Thank you. Okay. Bye. Sean, take it from the top. Wait, I'm just kidding. There any more questions for Director Battel?
Oh, director. Just trying to be funny. Go ahead. All right. We good. We good from the top. We're We're kidding. We're kidding. Um, item 3.1, city ordinance 25-058, is an ordinance amending chapter
175, food handling establishments of the Jersey City Municipal Code, creating an itinerate mobile truck parking zone 3. This is uh my ordinance. So, just to give you that quick context, um, as the current city code is written, um, food
truck, excuse me, uh, food trucks and but specifically ice cream trucks are not allowed um, at the Hamilton Park neighborhood. Of course, we have many trucks there because it's summer and kids love ice cream trucks and it's created some conflict between the neighbors and and folks are using the trucks. So, we're just trying to
basically be be good mediators. And what we're proposing is uh basically a rotation where the truck would basically go in each of the four sides of the park. So, it basically it doesn't impact one neighbor's home for eight hours. You're just rotating it around the park. So this way we we make sure we have food
ice cream truck for the summer for the kids, but we're limiting the impact on any individual neighbor. So it would just rotate around the park. Um and so it basically just creates that process and uh hopefully uh is uh you know ends whatever conflicts existed and then we
presented at the neighborhood association meeting last uh week and so we got the feedback made made changes and now it's here. Okay. Items 3.2 through 3.6 6 we touched on earlier. Item 3.7, city ordinance
25-064, excuse me, is an ordinance amending chapter A352 enabling ordinances of the Jersey City Municipal Code dedicating a plaque on a bench located on Grove Street or Newick Avenue in the city of Jersey City in honor of Arie
Patel. Item 3.8 8 city ordinance 25-065 is an ordinance opting into the Garden State Sea Space Program to facilitate the financing of the sea space projects.
Second reading ordinance item 4.1 city ordinance 25-00005 is an ordinance implementing chapter 67 pedestrian malls article 3 Provo Street between Bay Street and Morgan Street pedestrian plat pedestrian
mall excuse me all the same thing this is different item 4.2 2. City Ordinance 25-055 is an ordinance authorizing the execution of a temporary construction
easement and access agreement between the city of Jersey City and Stockco Development Group LLC authorizing Stockco Stokco to install and maintain one monitoring well at 605 Mammoth Street. Item 4.3 city ordinance
25-056 is an ordinance of the municipal council amending chapter 3 administration of go government article 10 department of housing economic development and commerce to amend a required wage benefit and leave standards for building service workers covered uncovered excuse me development
projects and item 4.4 4, city ordinance 25-057 is an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 218, multiple dwellings of the Jersey City municipal code of the city of Jersey City by adding new section 12
entitled preventing algorithmic rent fixing in the rental market, rental housing market. And yeah, on that one I have um so uh we uh had a few meetings over the last two weeks to discuss this ordinance. Um a couple of the concerns
that were raised were that uh it could affect uh the use of public information but not the what we call the proprietary information and obviously we think very firmly that you know collusion is illegal and the sharing of proprietary information is illegal. Um but we did
take some of the feedback and adjust some of the definitions. Uh so we think that it adds this definition of non-compet non-public competitor information and the definition of coordinate and we think that those uh definitions uh make it clear that uh
we're talking about the proprietary information that shouldn't be shared and then we also adjusted one definition to make sure that you know within one corporation you know that corporation can share information with itself right so just you know make sure that that's clear so those are the two proposed changes you see one amendments in
coordination and non-competitive comptor public non-public competitor information and then the section the second is to make it clear that you know it does not affect properties within a company. Um and so those are the two proposed amendments that we would uh you know ask that the council vote in favor of on
Wednesday. So we're looking to with these amendments um are these amendments substantial changes to the ordinance? Um I just have to see the final uh version of it. We did have discussions about it. They should just be clarifying definitions just to make sure we're not
encompassing anything else. Um I do have a memo on it too. I just want to see the final version because one paragraph dealt with one of the languages and once we have that then I can delete it and make your memo shorter. Okay. Thank you. Can we have additional time to review
this as well? just cuz I did get comments that it was over broad and I did want to see you know whatever the final changes were before you know proceeding. You wouldn't mind pushing it uh 2 weeks. I I'm happy to call tomorrow
and then if that's not resolved tomorrow then happy to have the conversation. Okay. Right. We're also going to have a public hearing on the 2025-2026 Central Avenue special improvement assessment role in budget.
We have our public speakers 25. Any questions or comments on petitions communications items 6.1 through 6.33? Hearing none. We have one officer communication. Any questions or
comments? and report of directors items 8.1 through 8.3 we have our claims and on to our resolutions. Item 10.1 resolution 25-327 is a resolution accepting the 20
2526 assessment role of the Central Avenue Special Improvement District of the city of Jersey City. Item 10.2 2. City resolution 25-328 is a resolution adopting and ratifying the
2025-2026 budget of the Central Avenue Special Improvement District of the City of Jersey City. Items 10.3 through 10.6 were touched on earlier. Item 10.7, resolution 25-333, is a resolution honoring the
life of Julio Suarez Jr. Item 10.8, 8. Resolution 25-334 is a resolution honoring and thanking Director Walter Kier, Greg Kierce, the the Office of Emergency Management,
and the Jersey City Police Department, and the Jersey City Fire Department for their swift coordinated response to the helicopter crash incident. Items 10.9 through 10.19 were touched on earlier.
Item 10.20, 20 resolution 25-346 is a resolution authorizing affiliation agreement in connection with an internship for career center intern credit from the trustees of Truffs College aka Truffs University. Items
10.21 through 10.28 were touched on earlier. Item 10.29 I believe uh is going to be withdrawn, right? Yep. Item 10.3 to 10.34 were touched on earlier.
And item 10.35, resolution 25-361 is Jersey City declares May as International Water Safety Month. Does anyone have any other thing to add or make any comments? I have a motion to
adjourn at 511 p.m. Second. Oh, wait, wait. Uh just just item uh we're tableabling for the uh fire department. We just have to make sure that the documents are up to date and then we'll bring it back in two weeks. It's not that we're not doing it. It's just that we want to make sure that the services
are at the adequate number for the uh bid. That's on item 10.29. 1029. I didn't know the number. Thanks. That's okay. Sorry about that. Be all right. So motion to adjourn at 5:11 p.m. was made by Council President Waterman. May I have a second? Second.
Second by council person. All in favor of the motion to adjourn at 5:11 p.m. By acclamation, please say I. We are out of here at 5:11 p.m. Thank you so much everyone present and everyone watching at home. Remember teamwork makes the dreamwork. Have a great night. Stay
safe.