Okay, good afternoon everyone. We are on the record. Today is Wednesday, the 29th day of July in the year 2026. This is a budget hearing for the Department of Infrastructure with the Jersey City Municipal Council. We had a scheduled 1
p.m. start. The clock on my cell phone is showing 10:06 p.m. May we have a roll call for the commencement of this budget hearing. Council person Brooks is not here. Council person Zuper is not here. Council person Efos here. Council person Little
>> here. >> Council person Gilmore is here. But I'm going to mark him absent for now. We had a problem in the morning, but we'll sort it out. Council person Singh >> here. >> Council person Griffin is not here. Council person Lavaro is not here. And
council president Ridley here. uh very proudly that all four of us have attended all sessions sessions just four of us so very proud of this achievement >> the clerk will congratulate you on that
[laughter] there is no awards for that but I will recognize that you have perfect attendance on all budget hearings and I see council person Brooks arriving at 10:07 p.m.
don't have Gilmore too. Um, it's okay. [laughter] But we have now five council members present at 107 p.m. In addition at its time for its preparation, the notice of this meeting was similarly disseminated on Thursday,
July 23rd in the year 2026 at 1:32 p.m. to the mayor, municipal council, business administrator, corporation council, and local newspaper. so I can certify as to our total compliance with the sunshine law. Now I'm going to turn it over to council president.
>> Good afternoon. Um this afternoon we we will review the department of infrastructure. This is our last budget hearing for what is now become round one of our budget hearings as we have a few
uh other departments to recap on. Uh hopefully we'll get to those next week. But I want to thank the infrastructure department for being here today. And as with all of our budget hearings, we have a different council person lead each session. And I believe that this session
is also being chaired this today by our council person Little. >> Um I I am co-chairing with Councilman Efas. >> Okay. >> We have two two chairs. Twice the fun. [laughter] >> Just don't throw the chairs.
Um, you know, infrastructure is is a really important department with a a multiple divisions and a reasonably sized budget. So, I without further ado, I'd like to just get to it and thank you all for being here today and I'm looking
forward to your presentation and looking forward to your to hearing some answers to our questions as well. So, thank you all for your work. >> Save the best for last. director, if you just want to introduce everyone with you on your team and then
I'll have the the camera on the presentation. >> Fantastic. Thank you, clerk. Um, first of all, I'm Andy Kaplan. I'm the director of the Department of Infrastructure. Thank you. I am biased. I'm happy. I also think we saved the best for last, but um, let me just briefly introduce my team and then we're
excited to kind of have your interest in our department and a lot of the incredible work that I think we accomplish and uh, the budget that we use to accomplish it. So to my to my left immediately is Drew uh deputy director Drew Bangghart of uh the overall department of infrastructure and
I also have our division leaders with us. On the end I have director Amanda Diamond um of the sustainability division. Uh to her right is director Brian Weller of our architecture division. Um to his left is uh Drew I'm
sorry Doug Carluchi. Um Doug leads the traffic permitting group and um when for the period where we haven't had a traffic engineer for the majority of this calendar year has really kind of stepped up and done a lot of work for that division. Um and to his right is uh director Peter Truch who started this
morning. Um so we are excited to have him. Um and over the next few weeks hopefully an opportunity to meet uh the council persons and uh he is a director of traffic engineering and has a strong background. We're excited to have him on the team. Um, and then all the way on my right, our designated PowerPoint clicker
is uh, director Lindsay Scoffield of transportation planning. Um, so next slide, Lindsay. A little bit about what our team does. Um at a high level the department of infrastructure is a group of project
professionals, planners, engineers, um landscape architects, project managers, um who deliver and oversee a lot of the capital programming that we work on in our city. Uh that includes our parks, our buildings, and our public
right ofways or our streets. Um because of that we also have what I I fondly think of kind of the department of transportation uh mandate. Um and that's uh really done between our traffic engineering and transportation plannings groups working closely together. Um our
specifically our traffic engineering group really looks at kind of the design and implementation of roadways signals signs, pavement markings and advancing and implementing a lot of the work that transportation planning does in terms of envisioning um vision zero safety
equitable mobility complete streets. Um transportation planning also oversees the delivery of certain transportation services programs that the city uh has that include via and city bike. Um, additionally, I mentioned uh architecture, right? Architecture and
Brian's group really works to oversee a lot of the the capital delivery portfolio at our parks and our buildings. Um, we work closely with DPW and the parks and youth development uh to make sure we understand what those needs are uh get grants and help to
deliver capital improvements in them. uh our engineering uh division which uh currently we uh is a vacancy as a director um that's been a long-term vacancy and a challenge um that group is really meant to be the city the municipal engineer um they oversee the
the pavement management program ADA curb ramp compliance um environmental compliance with rules and regulations they deliver a lot of the federal and state grants um and they also set design standards and um engineering standards for the city and then last but not least is our sustainability division um which
oversees the green infrastructure, the urban forestry and tree planting program as well as energy efficiency programs such as the EV on street charging and the city kind of EV charging fleet uh program. Um and across all of these divisions, we also manage a large number
of grants um and other programs to really help leverage uh the capital investment across our city. Next slide, Lindsay. So, a little bit of what we've accomplished in 2026 so far. Um, I think the topline number that we want to
really highlight, and this is a bit more kind of our mobility and streets related programs, although some of this crosses division in terms of delivery, uh, is that we provided over 520,000 over half a million trips between January and June uh, to residents of this city on uh,
these mobility programs, City Bike Via, and the Port Liberty Ferry. Um that is something that you know we through contract management and oversight deliver more mobility options to our our public directly in addition to capital delivery. Um the other big area that
mobility looks at and and this again extends across all of our divisions is grant management. Um I actually think I it might be a little bit higher, but right we we we have 71 more than $71 million of grants, federal, state, county open space trust um that have been given to the city uh to be managed
and delivered. Um, and you know, it's a significant amount of money and these projects last multiple years, but it's a very large portfolio that we have the responsibility to deliver and and that's really the goal of getting these grants is to see these improvements out on the streets, out in the real world,
benefiting the residents of Jersey City. Um, another key focus of of the department has been vision zero, u making our streets safer, and a lot of those capital programs will do that, but they take so long to deliver. We we we know there's an urgency and a mandate to
provide safety improvements now. Um and that's where our quick build program um where we've committed to and have already started implementing over 100 safety improvements at over 80 locations throughout the city in the calendar year 2026. And we worked with a large number
of council members offices to help um make sure that you know our priorities align with what their understanding of the community needs are uh to help really shape that program. And one other accomplishment that I I I felt important to highlight is that we've updated our transportation master plan. Um this is a
part of the overall city master plan. It'll be presented to the planning board uh this fall. Um and this is the an element that's updated every 101 15 years in our case. Um that really sets the vision of what transportation in Jersey City looks like long term. and flowing out of that vision. Um, it it
really helps to define certain standards, development goals and other projects and and and what we do when we implement uh what how we use our public right of way in our street space. Um, some additional accomplishments in 2026.
Um, our sustainability group has overseen over 90 plantings that were fully grant funded. Um they've also uh submitted grants for more tree plantings, right? Up to 500. Uh hopefully we we we have high hopes that we'll get those grants. And again,
that's a no match award. Um we've earned Tree City USA status and and and we're working to stand up an environmental justice task force in conjunction with the council. uh as well as community solar and a lot of other of these fantastic initiatives to help our city respond to some of the storms and some
of the environmental changes and challenges that we face it especially in our infrastructure. Um our architecture division has delivered a full capital portfolio. Um you know of course we're all limited in staffing but especially our architecture division especially infrastructure. Um they've still
delivered park, playground and historic preservation projects including right now uh active construction at Engine 10. um as well as the Monosella court. Our traffic engineering group, especially the permits division, has raised our permit fees to what was previously
approved statutoily. And we I think this is a an old number. This is from June. Um we're on track to have a record amount of fees collected through our traffic permitting process. Um, we've also brought in today uh a traffic engineer uh to lead this department um
to continue to grow its efforts in terms of implementing and enacting vision zero. And our engineering division has rebuilt um over 70 intersection uh curb ramps um to current ADA standards and is currently overseeing in conjunction
because we are understaffed um with all the other support of other staff um over $71 million worth of grant funding as we mentioned. The next slide, this is what I really want to kind of explain. I think this kind of helps illuminate a lot of the
numbers about our budget. Um, this shows by our division, including the director's office, as a standalone line, what what is in the 2026 draft that's being presented to you. And for comparison, we're also showing it to the
2025 adopted draft where it looks like there's pretty significant increases. Um but one of the biggest challenges that we've had is that in 2025 almost twice our on paper budget were expenses that
are opex expenses but were paid out of capital and I know this is not a unique story for this department but I think the magnitude of this impacting the department of infrastructure is huge. Um, so you can see in the column on the three columns on the right, I've
included the amount of costs that were hidden in the capital budget and we've this administration has moved them back in 2026 to the operating budget. um we we've also cut them down. But in order to really understand what this year's
budget represents and compare it to what 2025 should have reflected in practice by considering those operating expenses that were paid out of capital, we we we've shared that here. So that's that's listed here and I'm happy to go through them. I think some of them are on the bottom of the
slide here. Um but this reflects the true budget and when we compare this with with the capital being accounted for and operating there's a reduction across every division you know despite I and I think we have some some good arguments that we are already
understaffed in terms of delivering some of the ambitious goals some of the ambitious projects and programs um but we're still able to kind of reduce budgets and we we've done that by being very frugal and intentional stewards of the public money. Um the only exception to this and and is the director's office
which has gone up nominally and the reason for that is that there are some members of the director's office and unions who received a three plus% annual raise uh which averages out to this. Um so it's not a very large number to begin with. Um you know it's mostly salary and
that and that's where that all comes from. Um to highlight some of the items that were paid out of capital that are really operating expenses. Um, in 2025, we spent over $600,000 for operating and maintenance contracts for the PJP landfill. Um, that's the landfill that I
think is envisioned to one day become Skyway Park under the Palaski Skyway. It is a historic landfill that the city has ownership of. is capped and the liability of what's underneath that cap relies in the prior owner. But the city has the responsibility and legal
obligation to ensure that that cap remains in place to ensure that it's not leeching environmental problems and there's monitoring wells and there's an annual reporting of this city's property. And we accomplish those testing and accomplishments through a contract with the professional services firm. And that's the annual cost. It's
an operating and maintenance cost. And it's a something that we can't really avoid because we own this landfill property and we are um have legal responsibilities and ethical responsibilities to ensure its environmental stewardship of of this site. Um additionally $300,000 was uh
engineering on call. Um again we'll go into the orchard but we don't have an engineer in the engineering division at the moment a licensed professional engineers. Um, and so we've relied on some on call services and professional services for being able to keep responsiveness. Um,
additionally, we previously received bills for D permit fees and we had those paid um out of capital, which is not something that should happen. In the traffic engineering division, you'll see significant, you know, o
almost, you know, over four almost four and three over four and three/4ers million dollars. And that includes signal maintenance contract. Those are traffic signals. Anytime there's a crash or an outage that impacts a signal, we have a 247
uh contractor who maintains, responds, fixes, and keeps the traffic signals operating and running. They also ensure annual inspections because these are considered life safety critical systems um to prevent crashes and to be operational. Additionally in here uh is
the road striping contract. That's uh over one and a quart million 1.3 million. Um and again that is something some of the what we install uh can be counted towards capital but there's a significant portion that is not. Um and one thing that's important to highlight is the difference between capital and
operating. why this matters. Um, capital expenses are can be bonded for and be paid back over a period of time. Operating expenses are meant to be things that really you pay for and and last this year, maybe maybe two years, but not
long term that you kind of take out a loan to pay for like you would a building or something that's going to last a long time. So, when we talk about how that applies to some of these contracts, like the striping contract is a good example. When we put down what's called Endura Blend, which is like the colored pavement, those will last five,
10 plus years. Those are eligible to be a capital expenses. Things like delineators, things like line stripes, those have a life cycle cost of three, right? So the engineering standard is that those are not capital expenses because they require maintenance and
upkeep in a shorter time frame. Um, so uh wanted to just kind of highlight that. Additionally, we have a contract uh with a a doctor who reviews all the ADA parking applications. Um so that's that's 50K, but that's paid out of was p previously paid out of capital, but
that's an operating expense. Uh and then lastly, in the transportation planning group, we also had an on call consultant. Um but we also had uh uh $142,000 payment to CityBike. Um that was under a prior contract. will note
that the city by contract was renegotiated and earlier this year was passed uh by council to no longer be at cost to the city. So that is no longer something that we uh expend starting in March. We do have a line item in our budget to pay for the cost of city bike
under the old contract for the first few months of this year, but as of the new contract date, um we no longer are paying for that cost. Next slide, Lindsay. So, you know, I wanted to just highlight
again what we're doing to fix the budget. Number one, you know, we really are focused on properly funding key positions. Um the the lack of staffing, the history of this department where for
years when a vacancy occurred, when someone left, um it was just not filled and it was removed from the budget and not returned. And that happened multiple years under the prior administration and that has crippled our ability to really be proactive in a way that we want to be
and desire to be. Um and we are what we're doing in 2026 is that we're focusing on filling key vacancies. We are not in a position to fill every position that we hope and dream for. We are not in that budget situation. We understand that and our budget reflects
that. Um, but we've been really focusing on a few key hires that help advance the core missions. One of which is is here today starting. Um, and having traffic engineering to advance the implementation from plans and conversations into actual improvements
on our streets is critical in our ability to provide vision zero, advance the concepts, advance mobility. Um, the second key piece here is really focusing on delivery. It's it's wonderful that we get grants. I love that we can tell people how much money
we have in grants, but that's not really meaningful to me. What's meaningful is when the that money is spent and people see improvements on our streets, experience the city around them in a in a with improved investments. Um, not having money in the books or in the
bank, but actually having capital projects delivered. Um, so that's again we we we've had challenges with staffing to advance these projects in a timely fashion. And frankly, um, the grtors who give us money at some point see a backlog of projects and that makes us no
longer as competitive to give grant money to. Even if we have good projects in the pipeline, we we need to be able to improve our delivery of the grants we have. Um, to continue that. So that's a second area where our budget has not fully, you know, given us that ability
to deliver. Um, and lastly is is is the gimmicks, right? We took out um the spending on capital was spending of opex expenses in capex. Um and that's really you know having a transparency and an honest budget presented to
council presented to the public um and it makes it challenging to compare this year to last year since they were budgeted so differently. But um I'm hopeful that the 27 budget process will allow us to compare you know to to this being an honest representation. Um, the last thing I just wanted to add
here kind of as we talk about staffing um, as part of our transportation master plan, there was a a a look at a few peer cities um, with different populations in Jersey City and what their staffing was for their transportation element. Um, and admittedly that means something
different for every city. Um, and when we adjust for population to the 300,000 population we have in Jersey City, the per capita equivalent ranged from 84 to 39 staff members in departments of transportations in other cities
including Oakland, Nashville, San Jose, Boston, and Philly. um in the department of infrastructure overall, including our sustainability, architecture, um engineering, traffic engineer, all of our divisions, you know, we currently have have 26 full-time. Um so, you know,
we're definitely staffed below the benchmark. And when we look just at kind of the the transportation function um and even if we include engineering to be generous we're we're still looking at about 15 uh dedicated 15 to 19 dedicated
staff positions. Um so I I mean I think when we look at our external benchmarking we can make the argument you can go to the next slide Lindsay. Um we can make the argument that we do need to grow. We need to also grow with the right people and the right structure. Um
but we also recognize we can't do that all in a budget crisis. That's not the time for it. Um so to that extent, you know, there are 18 requested vacancies that the department believes it would like to see long term that have been
removed from this budget. We know we can't afford it. Um that saves 1.2 million right off the bat um by not filling those vacancies and deferring them in 2026. Additionally, and this includes the transition um six staff members left. Uh three were
actually I I take it back four were added today. I made the slides yesterday. Um and uh we also currently have four postings. Uh again by focusing our hires. So um we are expanding our headcount but minimally um when we
compare who's leaving and who's coming. Um and again for context we currently have 26 full-time staff members to to do all of the work that we described. Um, additionally, you know, I I I will say this is not living in our cost
center. Um, but we've saved over $5 million by rethinking how we approach uh some of the services and contracts. Um some of it was you know required based upon contractually but you know when
when via is an important service it's $8 million approximately a little bit under $8 million annual cost under a prior contract prior years that was never funded that was never appropriated and it was improperly paid out of capital. um
we were able to reduce the cost of the via service by half for a savings of over $4 million. And this did have real impacts and and we're not going to uh you know say otherwise. This removed weekend service. This removed some
service hours. This removed uh required people who would take a via to use a public transit trip if that's available even if it's slightly less convenient. Um, but these are the tough decisions and tough tough trade-offs that we have to make and we have to think about when we're in a budget crisis. And when we
look at our overall budget and we look at our overall priorities, that $4 million of savings from the via contract is significant. Um, it additionally we converted two key contracts. Uh, one was EV charging and one was our bike share. both of which
had expenses from the city to pay for those into costs that are at no cost to the city. Um those are also providing annualized savings and we also reduce our professional services budget by a half million dollars. Um you know I
mentioned [clears throat] that we have high expectations of ourselves and we are constrained in delivering everything that we really want to by staffing and capacity. Um, and we leverage professional services to provide some of that, especially in areas that we don't
have technical expertise on staff. Um, but we've scaled that back. Yet, despite all of this, oh, and we cut overtime for sure. Um, we've also paused certain operations in order to focus our efforts on core
prioritize services. Um, we've we've kind of paused providing site plan review uh to the planning department for applications that move forward. and writing memos. Um, we've paused a number of requests that have come from your offices and from constituents about
traffic engineering requests for reviews for improvements and safety. Um, things that we we we are committed to, we want to see, but we we have to we're tracking, but we're not able to deliver without that staffing. Um,
we focus on our essential responsiveness. Um and again just just for example right now uh we have a single staff member in sustainability um paid for on the budget. You'll see in our org chart it's reflected in the budget as well. We have a second staff member that's grant
funded. We have uh two staff member well now three with Peter um three staff members um in our transportation groups not including our permitting group. Uh we don't have any license architects. Uh, and well now with PE, well, I'm the
only licensed engineer in New Jersey. Peter is a licensed engineer and we'll get his reciprocity for New Jersey. Um, but right now I'm the only licensing engineer in the department. So, you know, despite, you know, some of these these criticalities, we've really been focusing on deliver what we think is the
most important. Next slide, Lindsay. Um, so looking ahead, um, we're looking at a a few key things. Um, one is really finding new revenue streams. Um, a lot of the key here and these are some ideas that we've been discussing with the
administration and with some other peer agencies. Um, we understand that it's critical to create revenue streams that are offsetting costs to the city for administering programs. These include things like the delivery
robots, which we provide a very high level of of regulation oversight of, but we are looking to kind of build a program out, but that has cost. So, we're looking at revenue streams to to to offset that. Uh, we're looking at TNC's, which is a a technical industry jargon word for um transportation
network company, more commonly known as like an Uber or a Lyft. Um, and looking if there's fees for that or for package delivery fees for people who are using our public right of ways but aren't necessarily uh paying the city directly for that use. Um similarly development you know
they work with with with the planning department but you know looking at are there ways that we could recoup some of our activities to support development um through the development fee process. Uh we're also looking to rethink how we issue traffic permits and sharing the
city's public right of way whether it's a sidewalk or whether it's a parking spot or a parking lane or even closing a street for construction. How are we ensuring that the city is financially compensated for its public assets appropriately letting someone use uh
through a permit uh in order to advance a project or or something along those lines. We're also very aggressively continuing we've been successful in the past and we are continuing to be aggressive to pursue external funding. Um, some of these programs are often limited to capital
investments for the projects we want to deliver, but some of these have been able to offset uh some operating costs. Um, we currently have 71 over $71 million worth of grants and we're actively working to apply for and pursue every year um additional funding for the
benefit of our residents. And lastly, we're looking at new ways of delivering. Our EV chargers and a city's bike are one way of being innovative and look rethinking how we do things at a way to be more fiscally responsible in the context of our budget crisis while
still being able to deliver the services by restructuring some of these contracts. We're also very aggressively um currently there's an RFP um for a camera assisted parking enforcement program. Uh we've spoken to all the members of the council. spoken publicly
at a caucus about our vision for that program. Uh at this point in time, we there's currently an open RFP process to procure a vendor partner um to advance that and that will open up what we believe will be additional revenue stream. Um but more importantly, it will
be done in a program that is focused on safety. So, you know, it's it's a net revenue positive. So, we're thinking about it as part of the budget, but but we really are focused on a safety related program to bring chaos kind of in in these streets and to enforce some
of the curbside. Um, and we're focusing on delivering quick build. Those are really lowcost, high value projects that we can deliver today. So, with that, I I know I've kind of dug in detail and I do apologize. as I'm an engineer by training, so I often
go more into the weeds than than perhaps a regular person would. Um, but I I welcome any questions and conversation. Um, and appreciate the council's interest in time. >> Great. Thank you so much, Director Kaplan. Um,
we are going to go by office in your spreadsheet. Well, I guess I guess first we'll open it up to um general questions and we'll start by going left to right and then we'll go the opposite direction for each round. Yeah.
>> Council chair, before we do that, I just want to mark Council Person Gilmore present at 39 p.m. >> So, we have six council members present and it's the accurate time that he arrived. >> Okay. So, watching you.
So general questions or questions on the presentation. >> Thank you councilman. Thank you director Kaplan for the presentation. I have a first question about EV charging station and just want to tell you that how
grateful we feel that your department is um we we all know the the challenges your department is facing uh under staff for sure. Um but these questions I'm asking so that you I'm I'm sure you're
aware but just want to know what what is the plan for EV charging and I'll give you one example. The two EV charging station right at the city hall parking has not been working for last two months
and um I don't know if we want to change the vendor or want I what's the plan? >> Yeah, I'm happy to respond to that and uh director Diamond tell me if you want to add anything after afterwards but a high level we are in a transition with our there's
two EV charging programs. Let's speak let's just kind of start for charging stations. We have one for city fleets and we have one for the public to use. Um I believe your question is related to the one that the public is using. Um that includes a number of charging
stations that are been inoperable for an extended period of time and we have had challenges with the prior vendor in terms of their responsiveness in allowing us to provide updates and repairs and under the prior contract
those repairs were were to be done at the cost to the city. We would have to pay for those repairs which is not unreasonable under that contract terms. But since then, the council has passed a new contract with a new vendor that would be providing new stations and I
believe there's certain maintenance responsibilities as well under that contract for the new vendor. Um, and you know, given the budget crisis, given the uh non-responsiveness and challenges with a a prior vendor, and given a new
contract with a new vendor, or at least that's been approved by council, we've been really focused on the future. and rather than repair what's there today that we've had extensive history and challenges with as has the public based on their frustrations that I'm sure you're you're referring to. Um we are
hoping to just have those replaced in kind with a new vendor system that will be maintained will will not cost the city anything. And that is our goal. That is our vision. we've hit some bureaucratic challenges just in getting
contracts negotiated, getting everything locked in and in sight. So, that has been a further delay than what we envisioned originally since the council approved that contract. Um, but things have been moving forward and we do intend uh and are fully committed to
having those on street charging stations uh fully operational with with the new system. Now my next question is about camera assisted parking enforcement pilot. When are you anticipating
to start this? Because now obviously with new RFP. >> So yeah before I >> what's the timeline? >> Yeah. So so I there are some things I am able to answer and for this one I'm a little bit constricted because we have an active RFP on the streets right now.
That RFP is due on Friday. that is when vendors would be expected to respond. Um, our goal is to have items on the August council agenda before you. Um, I think that's a timeline that I can speak
about today publicly. Um once those RFPs are received, we'll be able to certainly have more detailed conversation and I can talk to you a little bit more offline in terms of what we're thinking, but uh because of the public procurement process, we can't really speak about things not written into the RFP.
>> And uh you mentioned uh about um delivery robot regulations. Can you please talk more about it? Yeah. So, you know, a couple things. First of all, I want to give a thank you to
Councilman Efro's chief of staff, Jifu, who's been a a collaborator uh pulling a lot of significant thought into this. Um, and I can also say I had a kind of informal conversation with the author of uh was it Sidewalk that book, Peter?
Sidewalk. >> Sidewalk Wars. I'm drawing a blank on the name, but there's a it's it's a hot book in the profession right now um about really looking at the sidewalk right ofway, the maintenance and delivery robots being a key part of that nationally um and regulatory schemes
across the country that are kind of lacking and what cities can do, what states can do. And this is a concern that I think we have in Jersey City. We are blessed and cursed by being at the forefront of many of these technologies deploying here early, one of the first
spots in New Jersey. Um, so we we we get benefits, but we also get problems, right? And so I I I do think this is an active area that we are looking to there's not really like another city in New Jersey that has a mature regulatory structure around these robots. We can't copy and paste someone else's homework,
right? We have to invent this ourselves. Um, so we're looking at best practices and it's a bit challenging. Um, but we do believe that there are both benefits but also legitimate concerns with the way these robots sometimes are operated
and believe that a regulatory scheme that provides guard rails. um and additionally provides revenue to offset some of the administration of a regulatory framework that establishes those guardrails will both benefit the public and allow us to do those
regulations. So exactly what those are, exactly what those look like are something that we are still thinking about and frankly we are challenged to with staffing and and time and bandwidth to be as proactive as we would and aggressive as we'd like to be in really
fleshing this out. And um are we asking director's office salary? U >> well ma your questions uh you asked all your questions right there. >> Just one look at you. >> Yeah. >> I'm sorry just to correct what I just
said. The the book of the summer is Sidewalk Nation. So put it on your reading lists >> each reading. Could you mention one thing director that we know that how much money we are losing without parking enforcement.
There are parking meters but there are no stickers so people can't pay through app right. My office has been struggling reaching out to your department and you you are very helpful. Your staff is very helpful but sometimes we just go in a
circle. You your staff asks us to reach your office ask us to reach out to DPW. We go to DPW. They ask us to reach out to you. But the question is why are we not prioritizing this? Because like just
yesterday I was at the Jerus Square and um I wanted to pay for parking through my through the app. There was no parking stickers and then I tried to I was literally I for five minutes because I wanted to see how can I pay for five
minutes I was checking I could not find any sticker so I decided not to pay because I did not have coin now think about how much money can be earned but we are just not prioritizing and again I understand that you are understaffed but
then I feel if we do not enforce this we cannot not generate any revenue and something where I was in Hoboken I paid $12 for three hours or maybe three and a half hours $12 and here I just you know
city actually lost that $12 that I would have paid for three and a half hours and I think we have to prioritize this. We have been very frustrated for last two months because our office has been prioritizing this. This is one of the
revenue generating idea where every second person in Jersey City is asking us and now we are studying what are the other cities charging why Jersey City is and I'm sorry I'm going to share one more example I was on Central Avenue I
paid 50 cents for one and a half hours that's I mean we we can charge way more right if I go to Morristown I'm paying way more so why am I not paying enough or reasonable amount to Jersey City. Um
so let me let me jump in here. Um parking enforcement and all the challenges that you articulated is a priority for this administration. It is a multi-depart multi-ision effort. uh as you've been hearing from the various
departments, they all have a piece, but there is no um you know main department that is in charge of that. So me as business administrator, I oversee the department of infrastructure, I oversee the department of public works, I
oversee the department of public safety, I work very closely with the law department and the finance department. This is an initiative that I will be prioritizing with our BA's office staff to project manage, you know, the creation of this this multiwork stream
initiative and try to really um tackle those challenges that you're talking about. And I'd be very um uh excited to work with your office and any of the other council members office to map out what it will take for us to improve parking in Jersey City.
can >> that I have seven interns and all of them the task is how do we generate revenue through parking enforcement. I would love to work with your interns. I really want to for us to take it forward
because believe it or not this has been quite challenging. I totally understand all the challenges you are having but I feel there is money right there and we are not taking it. So, thank you for being patient, but I'm frustrated for last couple of months, so maybe it's
coming up. But thank you for your work. I >> think in the meantime, you can make a $12 checkout to Andy Kaplan. >> So, certainly not to me, it's to the city of Jersey City. >> Oh. Oh, excuse me. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Um, [clears throat]
you know, I wanna I want to follow up on Councilwoman Singh's questions. Um, you know, I noticed and and this is a question on your presentation because I noticed in your presentation that um you have raised parking permit fees the
maximum allowed by statutoily. That is a statute of Jersey City. Correct. >> So yes, except these are not parking permit fees. These are traffic permit fees. And let me explain what that represents because it is confusing. Um
the parking permit fees uh like like business administrator Troy mentioned you know this parking is kind of spread across a couple divisions. Parking permit fees are set by uh public safety. Uh that's what residents pay or for a visitor pass or for an annual pass. Um we certainly have dialogue with them and
we certainly work on some curbside management and policy related there too. uh the what I have in this presentation um that we call uh permit fees are not for parking permits. Those are what we call again we should probably rename these roadway opening fees and roadway
closure fees. Roadway closure fees or traffic permits are when someone needs to close a road. Um whether that's a utility, whether that's the MUA, whether that's a contractor or someone filming, when they want a permit to close the road to traffic, they apply for that. We
review it, we approve it, we ensure that they don't close different parties don't close all the parallel routes at the same time. Uh when they want to dig up the road, we call that opening the road. When they physically dig underneath the road in the public right of way, whether
they're creating a new telecom or fiber optic line or water line or sewer line or PSNG gas line, we need to permit that. And part of that review includes coordination to ensure that they know what else is under that road and that
there's coordination that they're not accidentally digging up someone else's utility, right? >> Um that also requires them to restore it with a a trench, right? To restore the pavement and we have records of that so that if a pavement trench starts to fail, we can return within a certain period of time and hold them accountable for restoration of that collapsing
trench. All of those reviews, documentation, and restoring, um, those are our permits fees. A couple other things we do is we do also charge for dumpster permits. So, if you want to place a dumpster in the public right away, that's an additional permit that we review. Um, and then I guess ADA
parking, if you're requesting an ADA parking, I think that's all of them, >> more or less. Um, so that's >> Oh, the disabled. Okay. There's not a charge for the disabled parking. >> Okay. Thank Thank you for clarifying what you meant by permit fees in the
presentation. Um I just wanted to echo um Councilwoman Singh's point I think for for metered parking and for um for non-resident parking permits as well as for resident parking permits particularly those for for households with multiple vehicles. I think our
rates could be much higher. Um, I know my office has in stated our intent on working on a parking reform uh ordinance and I look forward to working with you and the various departments and the other council offices and the as well as the administration on that. Um, because
it you know it does seem like this is an area where we could we you know we could make some more revenue and and we are arguably undercharging right now relative to other nearby municipalities. So, um, thank you for explaining the difference between the permit fees
referenced in the presentation and, um, park parking permit fees are separate from traffic permit fees. Thank you. Um, my other question for the presentation uh was on your quick build program. Um,
you mentioned um, your the targeted rate for this year will be over a 100 safety improvements at over 80 locations in neighborhoods across the city. Um, can I ask what was the what was the rate of quick builds last year?
We'll look that up for you. Um, and I will let you know what that number represents and why that number is the number we're building. At a high level, it's based on contract capacity. Um, how we implement these quick builds is through our our certain contracts that
we have to physically install pavement markings, crosswalks, delineators, update signal timings. Um, and in order to do that, it requires two things. It requires budget and it requires contract capacity. So, we've scoped our program to use the maximum amount of the the
contract capacity that we have on the books this year. Um and we this administration provided the full amount of funding to utilize those contracts to their full extent. Um and that's how we defined the scope of the quick build program. Um and then we prioritize the
locations based on a number of factors that were outlined in the uh what's it called? The traffic um trafficcoming toolkit. Thank you, director. um the traffic timing toolkit that included proximity to schools that included or parks that included our higher crashing
tree network. Um so that's how the locations were were chosen within the constraints of those contracts. Um in terms of how this compares to past years, did I stall enough for you Lindsay? Are you still looking it up? >> Okay, I apologize. Still looking it up. Uh I believe one of the things we were
doing was sort of backing into what would what our contract capacity is. I believe it's fairly similar. It varies a little bit based on uh the types of projects. So there are some years in the past where say we've done a protected
bike lane on a whole corridor and then every intersection gets curb extensions. We often will add a new crossing. We'll often do some signal changes. So there are some years where if there was a corridor project it might have been a
little bit higher um but I believe it's roughly in line with prior years and then we will be looking to accelerate uh as we now have um as we're building up the traffic engineering staff and engineering uh we're looking to accelerate that number but we can follow
up with sort of historic numbers. >> Okay, that would be great. Thank We'll follow up with that if we I mean I don't want to give wrong numbers to you or the record. So we'll we'll if we don't have it handy we'll follow up with you on that. >> Great. Thank you so much. Um this is a general question. Um are
salary postings competitive enough uh broadly to attract high quality and proven talent to Jersey City? >> Very broad question and I'll give you a very broad answer. Um we well with with someone we just hired in the room um we
certainly I believe um this administration has increased those postings. Um there's a couple constraints to this. Um one is the market right and and I'll tell you just speaking from my own experience as an engineer the federal
government passed the IIGJ the uh infrastructure and jobs act. They pumped a lot of money into infrastructure. uh infrastructure investment jobs act a lot of engineering firms started hiring blitzes and they got private capital investments because there's a lot of
projects that they saw coming down the pipeline to deliver the cost of an engineer specifically has gone up significantly in the last few years since that that a lot of money has been invested into needing engineers. Um we
are working to increase the salaries to attract talent. Um but we still struggle with that and sometimes you know we also need to be cognizant of you know other professionals and other areas both within this department and other
departments that may not have you know the height of their market right and we need to find ways where we can increase the salary range commiserate to market rates to attract talent but also you know find other ways to deliver if it
may not be the most costefficient to hire hire someone at a very high price if we can't compete. Um so this administration, our budget reflects an increase to a number of key technical positions salary postings
um including you know from prior years where where these were posting in vacance the uh engineer director, traffic engineering director um supervising engineer and architect and I believe landscape ar senior landscape architect. uh those positions kind of
have had their salaries increased a little bit more comate to market rate. >> Thank you. >> Some of them are still vacant. >> Thank you. Um we learned in the HDC hearings that uh your department is planning to do another city parking
study. Um my question is why is this necessary when one was conducted in 2020? And um I I know there may be some updates but you know hopefully not a whole new study is needed and um how much does this study cost the department?
>> Well I also learned that from meeting I think there may have been some miscommunication here. Um I think we as the department of infrastructure as a set of professionals of planners who have a certain oversight of the curb space um and have completed through an
NJTPA grant a number of years back a parking study have a certain technical expertise to help guide and advise that conversation. But as the business administrator mentioned, we don't have ownership of parking in the city. Um so I I don't believe we're looking at
another study. But what we do need to go from the study that was published through the Department of Infrastructure in the past to actual changes in policy and on our streets, I don't want to call it a study because it kind of is confusing, but there does need to be an effort to translate a theoretical policy
into something actionable and implementing. Um, I don't know, you know, I'll defer to the BA on to what group does that, but we'll we'll support. >> Yeah, I need to go back and take a look at the notes. I know we talked about parking lots and parking lots in
buildings as something we were auditing and taking a look at, but I don't remember the parking study, but I I'll take a note of it and circle back with you. >> Thank you. Um, my last general question, um, and I have other questions for the
specific departments, but my last general question is, um, where are we on moving towards the 25 20 mph citywide speed limit? I know that was a key priority. >> Yes. So, we've completed uh a study that
we believe justifies the speed limit reduction from a technical standpoint. Um what we're now advancing is an understanding of what are the practical changes needed to implement that. Everywhere we have a sign that says 25 miles per hour would need to be changed
to 20. Every time we have a pavement marking that says slow 25 miles per hour would need to be changed. So, we uh are currently as part of the vision zero uh SS4A grant um looking I think in the next few weeks we're going to start doing a data collection um through LAR
of our hiring injury networks um and across the city to try to understand where those assets that need to be changed are so that we could actually create kind of an implementation plan and understand what the costs would be to implement that policy. >> Okay, great. So, so it is moving forward and you're just developing a plan for
for how to change the signage. >> Uh just a little bit more about that implementation study is also looking at best practices from other communities who have undertaken that kind of a change. uh the communication practices, um what kind of noticing and also for us
to understand um some of the design changes on some of the streets that um are designed to almost invite you to go above the speed limit. Um many of Jersey City streets, people are already going 25 or less. Often they're actually going
below 20 m hour, uh which is a benefit to our urban grid and the number of intersections. Um, but one thing we do know is that we have some streets, um, Grand Street, Commun, you know, some of these larger, um, streets that go
through the city. Um, we'd like to also pair some design changes that will encourage folks to actually go that reduced 20 mph speed limit as well. >> I think that makes sense, but I would hate to delay this while we're waiting for the design changes. I' I'd rather
see us move forward with the speed limit reduction and then and then move forward with the design changes as we should, but I I don't want that to be a hold up. >> Yes, absolutely. Uh I don't think it's going to hold up. It's just part of the analysis of what the implementation is
going to look like. Um but a lot of that right now is around how do we roll it out? What how do we budget for rolling it out and and what director Kaplan had mentioned. >> Okay. Thank you so much, uh Councilman Ephros. Thanks. Uh I have a few general
questions before we get to the divisions. Um first I'll just ask uh BA we can maybe talk about this more offline and I can also uh ask this question to finance but I think it would be helpful uh to get um a set of
guidelines on proper versus improper use of capital funds for each different department because it sounds like for infrastructure there are very clear uses of where capital funds make sense and are are acceptable and where they're not. Um but that seems to be different
for each department. >> Yeah, I'm happy to um provide that. We had sent something along in one of the other council meetings when we were talking about the use of the capital funds, but I'm happy to resend it. >> Thank you. Apologies if I missed that.
Um so just general questions and I really appreciate the presentation here. Um appreciate the work that you all do. probably the team that I email with the most on a a weekly basis. Um, and I just
work together a lot, especially recently on the delivery robot regulation. I know CFU is out on medical leave right now, but um, partnership there has been uh, really, really helpful. Hopefully we can get something together soon. Um, you boast an incredible amount of grant
money that you all are managing. So kudos that we're getting money not from taxpayers that are coming into the city. Um how are we ensuring that through your staff's work we're not losing a dollar of that grant money um that that we've
been awarded and what do you think is necessary that you need to be provided with to make sure that we make good on all this grant money that we've been awarded particularly Franklin Street up in the Heights but also um Summit at the Heights Journal Square and then Communa there's different sites that we've been awarded money for. So, um, if you can
just speak to that grant management and any other needs that you all have as a department to make sure it's successful. >> I I I appreciate that question. Um, and and I can say that when when I personally kind of joined the department, it was after there was a few key departures. Um, and there was also
the engineering director which was a departure maybe a year or or more prior to that. And since that time, Deputy Director Banghart under his leadership and with a lot of his personal sweat and time has been a bit reactive in
responding to whenever a grtor says, "Where's this? I need this to move. Where's this?" Um, Drew Drew's been bringing in other members of our staff to keep things moving. Um, and at this point in time, you know, our grtors are getting a little frustrated with some of the grants that we have and we're
working closely with them as a focus. um especially in the last few weeks as the federal authorization kind of deadlines come and and some of the the departments of the state want to get projects to authorization. Um and you know there's a number of challenges here. There's a
number of just administrative challenges and uh you know our limited staffing and our variety of focuses has certainly impeded um our ability to more proactively and more expeditiously advance all of these programs simultaneously. Um the other so I I I do
think that you know us being able to fill some of the key vacancies and hires um I I don't know if Peter knows this yet but he's going to have a number of these projects that he's going to be responsible for. We hope to fill some of the vacancies in the engineering department to advance that. Um you know I think that we believe that will
provide a certain kind of more more stable minimum level of staffing capacity to ensure that these grant programs are continuing to advance. Um, additionally, the prior administration which has awarded some of some of these grants are
every grant's different, a number of these grants will pay for construction, but the city would have to, for example, pay for design or pay for construction inspection. Um, which are again small, relatively small dollars and the, you know, tens of percents ballpark of the total project cost. Um but in past years
we have a number of grants that have been sitting because no capital funding was allocated for the design even though we received a grant for the construction and if it wasn't in that capital program maybe it'd be in the next one. And so in this capital uh reallocation, we work closely with the administration to
prioritize a number of projects that have been sitting idle for a period of time, including Monaceel, including Caven Point and Pacific. Um where we received reallocation of capital and we've actually put out a professional services uh request for proposals. We've received a number of them back um after
this budget hearing. I will make sure to review them along with our staff so that we can bring a designer on board and when the capital reallocation completes um if it does then we would be able to enter into a contract and you know actually start to move some things
forward. So those are kind of some key components. Um and I I think as we move forward and look forward and look to the capital programming, there's a number of requests that we have for grant related matches or design work that are also important, but we have the real backing and commitment of the administration
that recognizes the importance of this. Um so that's I hope that answers your question, Councilman. >> Yes. Thank you. Um so a couple other general questions. Um, your headline results in your presentation is 520,000
plus trips provided by infrastructure mobility services in the first half of this year um through things like via port liberte ferry and from city bike. um administration is is cutting via in
about half. Um the city, if I understand correctly, city bike uh reimbursement uh for uh city staff is being ended for the maybe not reimbursement, but the city bike plan for city staff I think is being ended. Um so just with with a
couple of those things, um you know, I would hate to see the headline results uh be a place where we're actually now like detracting from for the rest of the year. I understand the constraints, but um if you could just speak to where does VIA live in in this budget or where has
it been allocated now that we've actually corrected a lot of what was wrong with with our VIA contract before? Um I'll leave it at that for now that question. >> Yeah. So, so a couple response to that. First of all, the VIA program is one
that we value. >> Yeah. >> We value the partnership. We value the service it provides. Um, and there are parts of this city that VIA and microtransit provide services to that don't have the density that a fixed route service could provide. So, we we've done extensive numbers. We looked
at the cost, you know, per vehicle trip of like a or per trip of a bus full of people is way less than a via. And that's true, but that only works if you have a route that can fill a bus full of people. and V is serving areas of the city that are underserved by transit because you don't have that market
demand for a fixed route traditional service. So it actually is a lower cost per person than a fixed route in that type of environment. Um so we value that service but we also recognize that you
know we are in a budget crisis. We need to save money and you know the VIA program was a very significant cost that was previously paid out of capital was not properly appropriated in past years past
administrations. It is not a capital expense to operate that service. Um, and for that reason, we've been focusing the via trips on areas of core service hours.
And we've pushed when a public transit trip is available, riders would be redirected within the VIA app from getting a via trip assigned to them to be told, "Here's where you go to take the bus and here's how you do it." um or light rail or other transit
trip so that we could preserve the capacity of the via system and the trips that we are providing to the trips that are not able to be accommodated by the existing public transport network. So we may see this number reduce but I don't believe it will be reduced proportional
to the cost savings because we're focusing the design of the revised system to focus on the trips that can't be served alternatively um during the core service hours. Um, we also recognize that there are people who valued the service
hours that we cut and it is impactful and it is our department's desire to try to seek external funding that can expand some of the operation and service hours um because we value the service. But when it comes to just what we can afford in a budget crisis, we've been really
trying to focus via program on that. Oh, I'm sorry. And city bike. Thank you, Lindsay. So, City Bike, it's not about the savings on City Bike has nothing to do with staff time. Um, to clarify that one, we enter into a contract with City Bike. Previously, we would pay them uh
approximately $300,000 or something like that a year, but there would be a revenue split where some of the fair I'll call it fairbox. It's not the right term, but payments that customers use to pay for the city bike would be shared with the city. Um, that netted out as a cost to the city. uh
last year that cost was 142,000. So it was reduced from the amount the fee by by a revenue share but it was not reduced to zero or positive. So we renegotiated that contract as part of an RFP and a renewal and now we will not pay money to City Bike. We will still
receive revenue share. It's a smaller amount and it kicks in at a higher threshold but the downside risk the cost to the city has been um eliminated from a financial standpoint. Um, and that's part of just the way we approach and renegotiate that contract and that has
not resulted in any changes to service hours or um, support. >> Thank you. Um, I'll just ask a final general question and we'll keep it moving here since I know there's so much and we haven't even begun line items yet. Um, but just I contractors patching
up the road after they do work. I know you mentioned um, road openings. Um is that the responsibility of engineering, traffic engineering, DPW, a mix across these different departments? Um and how
are we ensuring that we make that we do that patchwork ourselves in the events that contractors fail to and even before how do we make sure that contractors actually do it themselves? Yeah. So, um, great question. And one advantage or Okay. One advantage of
having a small department is that we can walk over and talk to each other pretty easily. Um, so right now the permits are issued by the traffic engineering group under Doug who's here. Um, but then the pavement is kind of analyzed and managed um by our engineering division um by an
individual, one of our our our younger engineers. So, uh, the DPW is responsible for filling potholes. So, we work closely in partnership together. Uh, so when the DPW is out there receiving cclick fixes for filling a pothole and it's a collapsed trench,
they'll let us know. Our engineering group will go back to the permit database of permits that were issued by traffic engineering, determine what contractor was that permit was the the old permit was issued to, communicate to them that they need to repair the trench under the terms of that permit. Um and
uh you know in terms of of what what we have not yet had real problems with a contractor failing to do that. You know they may tell us oh that wasn't our trunks that was someone else's trench right so there's some tracking it down. Um but generally there's a group of contractors that perform this work that
receive future permits and understand and are are responsible actors that when there is a collapsed trench they will restore it. um we can you know withhold future permits if there's a pattern longitudinally um well I should talk to
law before I commit to that but you know I I don't think we've encountered [clears throat] that luckily um so we haven't had to explore it um generally we we we've had responsiveness from >> right yeah I think everything we can do to make sure it's nipped in the bud at the at the very moment of the contractor doing their work is wonderful but
appreciate that you all are collaborating across divisions and departments >> oh um you want to Yeah. >> And uh additionally, as part of, you know, what Doug does with the road opening permits, when they do excavate, they do need to post a bond. So, if for some reason they don't come back and
fulfill their, you know, restoration, we can, you know, work with the bonding company, make those repairs ourselves, and then, you know, no contractor wants that against basically their insurance policy. So, it's their insurance policy gets dinged and, you know, their rates
for their next job are going to go up. So that's another way to you make sure we're responsive. >> Thank you. I'm going to keep it moving. So Councilman Gilmore, general questions in the presentation the division. >> Yes. Um um I'm that was my question,
Jake. Um, so I mean I'm glad to hear that response, but the reality for me, we've been going through an issue on Stegma Street where a contractor to rip the road up and it's still doing the
Harlem shake to this day. Um so I guess along the lines of council person Efro if we can just talk about what is the clear protocol when uh whoever go in the streets like what's
the duration what's what's the time that's allowed to last before that road is repaved. That is a decisively complicated question or not decisively a deceptively complicated question. Um
it it councilman it it depends on a lot of things. So oftent times roadway repaving is not required following a trench repair as long as a trench is in good condition. Um depending on the exact work we may
require the roadway to be repaved. The MUA typically has a policy that after they do work, they will patch the trench. There's then something called a settlement period. So the the the soil that you put to fill that trench, it has to settle. So if you repave it right
away, it actually won't long-term stay that way. So you're left with not an ideal situation while during that settlement period. And then for example, the MUA, they'll come back and repave if it's a more significant um repair. So sometimes you will be seeing a trench on a roadway that is in its settlement
period and there's a plan to come back and it may take a year or so for that settlement to take place. >> Oh, so wait. So who's ultimately responsible for the the the repair? I'm a little confused. So I understand the
process of the ground having to level out in order for them to repave it. Um, so who's once once like let's say if Bob and Joe's excavation go and they they working on some type of repair and then when they
leave they patch it up. We all know that the patch is not it's not sustainable because the patch leave it unbalanced, right? So there's a point which you're saying that that patch has to level out before they
repave it. Who's responsible for the are they just responsible for just patching it or putting this back to its original form? >> It depends on um my understanding and and don't correct me if I'm wrong or it would depend on the size of the
>> second need the mic >> would depend on the size and the nature of the excavation. Generally speaking for single family two family home repairs they're not making a large enough excavation where we're going to make them repair. What we will make them do is what's called infrared asphalt
repair, which means when they put the top surface course on the trench, they're supposed to use a it's basically a giant infrared light that melts the asphalt together, so there's no seam. Um, we have to require them to do that.
We say it on the permit. Uh, there are instances where we should inspect and require them to do it, but they are required to do it. It's their requirement. for larger utility projects uh you know that require like trenching like block long trenching that's almost always MUA the director covered the
MUA's responsibility PSEG has the same responsibility sometimes we get uh fiber optic companies they have to pave curb to curb on the block they affected up to the point at the end of the trench >> oh okay so larger projects is repavement
smaller projects is not necessarily pavement but there is something that they have to do to shore it up. >> Correct. There's some level of discretion. Uh, you know, and there's a balance. We don't want every resident who has their shoreline repaired to have to repave the street because, you know,
the expense is high. Uh, you know, it's fair for utility company to bear that expense. And in addition, when there's new construction, um depending on the size of the building, usually the planning board will require them to do curb to curb repavement to the property line, which will account for the
trenches made during the utility connections. >> Now, who like who from infrastructure checks to see if that's been done? >> So, the who holds them accountable?
>> Yes. Um, if it's a site plan, that accountability is held uh as part of the CO process of construction code inspection of that property. If it's for one of these traffic permits and trenches, we have inspectors within our
engineering department um who may observe we we honestly we don't necessarily look at every single cut in the road as much as we'd like to, but if they observe following one of these permanent cuts that it's not to our standard, then we will, you know, follow
up in the ways that Drew mentioned. Um, additionally, you know, sometimes it may look good on day one, but then a few months later there's there's a deficiency in underneath that trench and we will receive cclick fixes. We will receive emails from council members offices and that will trigger us to then
look back through the permitting system. Uh, our engineering division specifically will then issue a letter and hold accountable the permit, the person who received that permit once we were made aware of a failed trench. So you know Doug Doug's group will
determine what uh mitigation post is required and then if a contractor is not fulfilling that obligation our engineering division will hold them accountable. >> Okay. Now another um well my last
general question is um whenever developers are going through the journey of bringing a building to fruition um there's this thing called a traffic study. If you can walk us by like what
does it what what does the traffic study entails? Because for me and for regular residents um particularly as it relates to Monte Cello Avenue, there's nowhere to park now, right? Um so they say, well, you know, the traffic study
doesn't call for x amount of park in this establishment. Um so I'm just trying to see like how how does that how does that process play out? What exactly are they looking at?
Councilman, you you've hit upon a a passionate topic of mine and I will try my best to keep myself brief here and actually it's funny um but before I started in this role at a a conference me and Peter actually gave a a led a conversation circle about this. This is
an industry-wide challenge. Traffic in impact statements that are applied with development are by engineering standards, right? What's the accepted state of the practice are really focused on vehicular trips based upon the use of that development? And
then they take those trips. They well they they take the number of trips, number of people going to this new facility, assign them a mode, how many people are driving, how many people are biking, how many people are walking. And then of the people driving, what is the level of service impact, which is a fancy way to
say how much traffic is there um from those trips? They don't really look at and again this is an industry standard. this is a challenge and and something I disagree with that industry standard and I'd with with unlimited uh brain and
time I'd love to help solve it but you know they don't really look at pedestrian trips or level of service of the sidewalk or level of service of the bike lane or safety of all these pedestrians and they don't always look at parking um of on street parking impacts. That's not really the purview.
The purview of these traffic impact statements as per industry standard is really focused on vehicular congestion and delay from additional car trips from development. Um I believe that this is something that we
can have conversations about and be more proactive about. Um, but the parking in terms of like what what parking and people coming and and driving do they fit on the street and whatnot, that's a much more complicated conversation. And that that really as it ties into
development falls into kind of the planning purview in the sense that um there are parking standards that are set by zoning and planning for each development and what they do or don't need to provide. And that's both vehicular parking and bicycle parking which Jersey City is very progressive
with in terms of of requiring those considerations as well. Um when we look at what what I would say I think your concern in an area like Monaceel, we would want to look at curbside management. So we have a lot of demands but we have more people looking
to use that curb space than we have available curb space. So how do we manage it better because we're not making more curb space. Um these strategies for that include potentially parking meters, includes time limited um parking areas. It also
could include loading zones. Um and we have a pilot study. I don't know that we've exactly determined where, but we have funding as part of the safety SS4A grant to look at curbside management to, you know, it it's not useful. I I know we've had a a conversation and a walk through with Jackson Hill uh Main Street
SID um on MLK around the light rail station and south and there are no time limits, right? Those people move their cars for street sweeping and residents will park on the business district the same way almost for a week. So curbside management is something that is I think
would be better to address um some of those concerns. >> Can I ask a followup question on this? Uh what is a study to see? >> Okay. >> What what is a study to see um how many
parking spots on that street are required or are used regularly. Uh is there any way to figure out especially I'm talking about Columbus Drive or uh Central Avenue where we want shoppers to come because we want these
small businesses to do well. Um but we also want to make sure that you know there are there's no traffic but then cars are parked for limited time. Uh when I want to go for shopping I should not be struggling to find parking and
then I change my mind and I change go somewhere where I can find parking. So what's the study about those parking spots based on the the uses? So, a curb space management study at a
high level would look at demand and supply and find ways to try to to put them into balance um at a very high level. Um, and you know, I mean, this may be a better conversation uh for you know, I'll defer to the chair of this this committee, but
I'm happy to kind of talk about like a technical what goes into a curbside management study. Um, you know, and I think as it relates to budget, it it's this is something that the BA is leading an initiative about parking overall and that this is something we can bring to that conversation and that table and happy to talk about the technical
specifics of >> Absolutely. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. I want to defer to Councilman Brooks. Council President, that's all right. Because he has to leave at 3 and then we'll get to you. Um, >> Councilman Brooks. >> Thank you. I have to leave before 3 uh
like in mere moments because I have a doctor's appointment at 3M. So, thank you. >> That's what I mean. >> Um now everybody in Jersey City knows I have a doctor's appointment. Um >> we wish you the best. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. Um following up on in the slide
presentation the transportation master plan. Um, when do you anti when is that anticipated to be completed and will it have um a revision of the 2020 uh citywide parking plan or is that going to be separate?
>> So, the transportation master plan, I believe that the the draft final documents are posted on the website. Um, and the next step is for those, we're going to call them draft final. They're kind of final from our standpoint, but they're they would be presented to the planning board for consideration and adoption. Um I can certainly follow up
offline and give you the direction to those documents. I will say as part of the master plan we've identified uh I believe it's seven key priority areas and one of the identified areas is to investigate parking reform and management identified as a concern. It
does not go into the specifics of what the solutions are. There's a previous study that predates this that looks at some parking recommendations on parking policy reform. Um, and I think that was alluded to earlier in this conversation. Um, and I I I so that's I think the totality of of kind of how the master
plan identifies and acknowledges the priority of of of this review. >> Thank you. Yeah. And I'll just take the opportunity to say that um, you know, I've had a lot of feedback from residents in our ward about residentonly parking uh, citywide. Um, Bayon does it,
Union City does it. Um, you know, council president has raised uh this as well. Um, probably not something that's feasible to accomplish this year, but maybe to start looking at it for for next year or or 2028. Um, second
question. Um, we had been in correspondence about uh there there's no contractor for speed humps currently. >> That is correct. >> Okay. And would that uh business
administrator, my favorite topic, would that be since those are kind of permanent, they're not temporary objects, would that be potentially part of the capital budget? >> Yeah, sure. Yes. Um, but there's two components to getting things installed, right? There's money and then there's
having someone who can do it either on staff or contracted. So, um, right now that I believe that would be a capital expense because that would be part of kind of asphalt pavement. Um, but we currently are looking into what our pavement contract program looks like um,
overall and including that line item. Here, let me give it to Drew. >> Warrant. Well, just like a warrant analysis, too, which now we have Peter to help us out and identify if a speed dump is something that should be put on that particular road or if it could become more of a harm to users.
>> Thank you. >> I'll just also say um I'm going to circulate for the council the rules of capital funding. It's it's complicated, which is why we also have a bond council who reviews all of the um purchases that
we are using capital funds for. Um so that might also help you understand what falls in capital budget versus operating expenses. >> Okay. And um we'll I know we have a meeting scheduled tomorrow, so I won't get into the
nitty-gritty of stuff in W B, but um looking forward to the improvements on Communa, which will go through towards FNA as well. Um getting the uh UEZ improvements going on Westside Avenue. And lastly, just wanted to flag for
followup for Amanda to talk to you about the the rain gardens um or the rain basins. Am I using the correct term term? Rain gardens. Okay. On Westside Avenue that um >> you know, we're not they're they could
use some TLC. So, um that's all I have. So, thank you everybody. Thank you, Council President, for letting me go first. Brooks. >> Okay, >> go ahead. >> Sorry for blowing up your spot, Joel.
>> All right, I am going to um piggyback [clears throat] off of something that uh Councilman Gilmore was discussing, but see if I can bring us back to the numbers because we have less than a half hour to get through this budget. But I understand that we don't really have the
opportunity to have the directors in front of us uh as a group and discuss some things. So, I think a lot of the things that just were discussed publicly were very important and things that the community wanted to know. But in regard to paving, I know during um Philip's
first term, he came down really hard on the city contractors like uh PSCG in regards to paving. And I believe, and this is going to be directed to our city clerk, uh, and I don't expect him to know off the top of his head right now,
but I'm going to ask that he look into it. But I believe in 2015 we not us but that council at that time passed an ordinance that uh contractors are supposed to repave blockto block uh
any road that has been resurfaced by the city within 10 years if they rip it up. So if we could kind of look into that I believe it was sponsored by former council woman Osborne. if we can review that and make sure if um make sure that
the council gets it and also that director Kaplan has access to that because you know sometimes we pass laws and then it's on the books and no one knows about it but in that if we take a look at that director Kaplan and if there's any room where you think we could make changes or make that stronger
or if there is any way to collect revenue from PSCG MUA when they do these projects projects because I think that's where most of our uh road disruption comes from, those projects the most. Um, if there's any way for us to save on our
paving by making sure they're doing what they're supposed to do or imposing certain fines, then that would be uh very helpful. >> Absolutely. And I could say um I know we're familiar with that. I think it may have been implemented closer to to 2020, but we'll defer to the clerk's uh
searching abilities um to find it. Um but we currently do have that requirement um where it's applicable and we'd be happy to to review it and discuss with you um other ideas for legislative changes to make to enhance. >> Okay. >> Council President, I will uh forward the
ordinance to all the council members and director Kaplan and anybody in your staff that wants to be CCD on it. I'll be more than happy to do that. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, clerk. So, um I know we haven't even gone to the line items yet.
It's already about 2:30. Um if we could extend to 3:30, we've extended some other department's hearings a little bit. I are there time constraints for for the clerk or anyone in the infrastructure team. Want to be respectful of folks time, but we have a
lot of questions unpacked here? >> No problem for me. >> That's that's much appreciated. um to 3:30. Okay. Hard stop at Okay. Our clerk says hard stop at 3:30. So, it's a hard stop
at 3:30. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Um I guess the next division is the office of the director. If anyone has any questions on that office, on light items on that office. I have no questions on that office. Um and I did promise we would go the opposite direction. Council
President, did you have any questions on the office of the director? >> Uh, I do not. >> Thank you. Uh, while Councilman Gilmore is getting his notes, I will just ask um 10,000 [clears throat]
were requested for union allowances, but none was drafted uh in the proposed budget. Um are are we're not going to be negligent on any responsibilities through our union contracts, are we? >> Nope. Um to clarify, I I I'll defer to
finance on why, but these are uniform requests and those are budgeted under the union allowance code. Um the uniform requests for us include new safety vests, new polo shirts. Um it's a request that we make. We'd love to have it, but it was not advanced and I think we can understand why.
>> Got it. Thanks. This is just the part. >> Okay. Councilman Singh, did you have questions on the director? >> Just one quick question. So, uh, line item 306, dues and subscriptions. What
are the dues and subscription um, we are paying for? >> Certainly, this is a budget >> amount. Yeah, this is a a budget line that is meant to accommodate uh primarily the license fees. Um so I'm a professional engineer. Drew is a
licensed landscape architect within the director's office. So this would cover um fees to keep those current and that includes continuing education requirements um costs of webinars or whatnot that are required in order to maintain those license certificates.
>> Thank you, director. Great. Uh, so we will go on to the division of architecture. Um, and we'll start at the opposite end. Councilwoman, >> I do not have any question. Thank you. >> Um, little >> Thank you. So, I noticed the architect
vacancy has been carried from 2025. Um, is the department having issues filling this position? And do we open ourselves up to liability by not having a licensed architect on staff? >> So, um, Brian K. I mean, when did we our
architect reside? I don't last March. So, it was not for the entirety of 2025. Um, but it was budgeted in 2025 for a full amount. Um so the I don't I mean correct me if I'm wrong I don't think we have per se a
liability. I think the concern is we're limited in what we're able to advance. Um you know engineering role which we can talk about in the next division is is something required under state statute. Architect is not. Um, one thing that we did do uh earlier this year is we reallocated some of our professional
service funds to provide some on call architectural support. So that would be a consultant or professional staff that would be able to answer questions uh under contract for that uh for any emergent issues that we may want to seek an architect's advice and guidance for
because we don't have one on staff. >> Thank you. That's my question for architecture. >> Thank you. Um if you could just speak to the professional services the 50,000 uh shifted from capital budget uh is this
the same as the engineering traffic engineering and and transportation that all had significant much more significance amount moved from capital into operating. So to to clarify a little bit um yes however it was moved
from the engineering division to with where it was paid in the past as capital for engineering on call. $50,000 was moved to the architecture department for an architectural on call. So it's the same type of contract. It's the same intent but it would be to reach a
professional architect for emergent or questions that come up in the due course. Um and it was moved here because we didn't we had this this vacancy extended vacancy of the arch position. >> Thank you. And then on line item 401 um
last year we adopted $60,000 for furniture and furnishings and it looks like um this amount is significantly reduced within the architecture division budget but the majority is maybe moved toward a citywide office furniture
budget. if you could just explain what this line item of furniture and furnishings is supposed to cover and was covering last year um and what exactly is being shifted to the citywide budget. >> Yeah. So, and let me clarify, this is not being shifted to the citywide
budget. Um this has been reduced in the amount shown. This line reflects office furnishings's needs across the entire city. Um I believe in the law department's budget hearing I recall there was a concern about a spring in a chair that was deficient. This is the
line item that those budget furnishings would have come out of and as part of kind of the budget concerns um this line was cut from 60k to u the the amount shown 3,598. Um this is not office furnitureures for
the architecture division. is uh the architecture division supports the purchase of furnishings um and it's accounted for within their budget. >> You you deserve a comfortable chair, Brian, but $60,000 chair, I don't know. >> That makes a lot more sense. Thank you,
Council Me Gilmore. Council President, >> just want to uh piggy back off of that. So, the money in in the architecture budget for furniture is for citywide furniture. You're saying >> that's how it was done in 2025 and
that's what the $60,000 reflects and that's what the the corresponding 2026 request reflects. Um and as of right now I there's minimal amount of citywide furniture office furniture purchases. >> Okay. And guessing yes
>> because that number in the 2026 draft is so specific um $3,598. I'm assuming that is close to what we've expended so far out of that line item. Um, >> correct. >> And I um
I understand that and I understand the cutbacks. I'm just a little concerned uh about supplying furniture for the entire city for the remainder of the year on that number. But okay,
>> so I'm just trying to get clarity. So, citywide, why why would infrastructure would be responsible for citywide furniture? >> This is a finance department question.
I'm happy to take it back. Why historically was put under this department? >> When is finance round two? >> Um, we're trying to nail down a date for next week. Okay.
I mean, I don't I just Oh, I'm interested in >> Yeah. Yeah. Can we add that to the list? Uh, BU uh BA Ruby to um to look into because I think we've had furniture uh line items and other budgets. So, I
just want to verify that infrastructure is supposed to be taking care of the whole city on on that uh amount. Maybe it's office infrastructure, not the roads, the office, the infrastructure, all
>> can circle back with you. >> And again, in the past, architecture was always involved with any kind of improvements to any office. So, furniture was usually added on onto that. Um, just speaking from experience
and it's nice to have one place where you would do that. Um, I don't know if the council wants to make a change. I'm just letting you know, but the history um has always shown that architecture has handled uh purchasing of office furniture for the entire city.
>> Thank you. Um the question >> can we move on from the furniture unless >> just want to clarify that we just want to make sure that other department did not have the line item for furniture just one department is responsible that was the only question we do not want to change anything I believe
>> as the BA said she will confirm uh with finance to uh to answer your question. >> Thank you. Uh moving on. Um our next division is engineering. Council president, did you have any questions for engineering? >> No.
>> Thank you. >> Um Councilman Gilmore, did you have any questions for engineering? Just engineering, traffic engineering is next. >> Yeah. Two different traffic. >> Okay. No. >> Um for engineering, we have a number of
new hires uh that are not being budgeted for uh 2026. Um it's a variety of positions. Principal engineer, engineering aid, supervising engineer, another engineering aid, clerk one. Um if you can just explain the uh the kind
of work that we're losing out on without these new hires and um you know if you had your brothers and were able to get uh at least some of these positions what else would be would we be empowered to do in the infrastructure department? >> Yeah, I I mean I I certainly can respond
to that. I think some of the workload that is not being advanced due to the you know some of these other positions that were requested um it would include I guess additional oversight and advancement of some of the grant work the design work it would include
additional capacity to complete site plan reviews for planning something that's not being done as much and also allow opportunity >> say that last part again I'm sorry >> certainly um doing so um site plan reviews when a site plan for a development is submitted through the planning department engineering as well
as transportation or or review agents where they'd review and comment on those. Uh it would give us opportunities, additionally uh a responsibility could include updating the the city design standards um various levels of age and
dates to those. Um so I I think those are a lot of the key uh responsibilities of the engineering department. Drew, do you want to add anything? Yeah, I think we've we've talked about pavement management and, you know, pile repairs versus trench repairs. It's just added
capacity to, you know, have more eyes on some of these projects to make sure they're restored properly or, you know, just passing by if a trench was done and it is failing that we can be more readily getting into contact with those contractors and get them out on site because ultimately they're still
responsible for the trench until final pavement. You know, certainly things you used to have an environmental engineer on staff that would assist with a lot of these different uh either city- owned or um
outside responsible parties that are remediating sites to follow up with them and make sure that they're doing their due diligence. And additionally, um, like like Andy said, um, updating our standards, you know, is is something I would love to do and dedicate a lot of
time to to, you know, bolster everything that we do in the city and make sure things are restored properly. >> Thank you. And, um, I also just wanted to ask about, uh, welcome, Peter, uh, to to Jersey City.
Um could you just explain the the accounting of replacement for Miss Wong um to proate at 6 months like where was um the previous uh director's uh where was that in the accounting here
and and how I'm just a bit confused on how uh the Peter's new salary is um being accounted for relative to the replacement. >> Sure. Just to clarifying role. No, I'm sorry. That's why I was trying to go sit. >> Councilman Gilmore had flipped my uh
chart over, so I I'm gonna hold on to that. I apologize. >> I'm happy to respond to that whenever the hearing chair would like me to. >> Okay. Councilman Eferris asked my main question on engineering. Um but as a followup to that, um I do notice that uh
line item 314 professional services is uh $740,000 while we and overtime has been slashed to nearly nothing. Um only $2,500 down from 20K um while we have these five
positions unfilled. Would it potentially save money to fill one of these engineering positions? Would it potentially save money on professional services contracts or is that not how they're set up? >> Sorry, Councilman Little. I just want to confirm I'm understanding you're
referring to the engineering division line 312. I believe that reflects a request of 750K and uh expense about 740. Is that >> Sorry. Yes, I I misspoke. >> Okay. No, I just want to make sure. So
um if we and I believe the question as I understood it is if we reduce some of if we were to hire instead of professional services would there be a net savings? >> Yes. >> Um the answer is both yes and no. >> Um I think there may be instances where like our general on call for engineering
we would not need some of those professional services if we built the in-house capacity. Um but I also you know similarly the site plan we have budgeted for for professional services. Um, however, there's other things where
we may not have a full-time employees worth of work who is a licensed site remediation professional, LSRP, right? But we may need access to one. We may not need a full-time worth of professionals work in some of these other technical areas. So, I don't
believe that a full hiring of staff would eliminate the need for professional services in an engineering department, but it may reduce it. >> Right? So if if we were to hire one of these if we were to give you guys money for one of these positions, we could potentially reduce the amount of prof
professional services that line item of 740,000 by more than the amount of the new employee. It is potential. Um right now we currently have two vacant positions posted for the director and the supervising. One challenge when we talk
about what a municipal or a city engineer does, they really are kind of jack of all trades. They have site plan, they have drainings, they have all different types of experience. So depending on these specific candidates and the individuals and their backgrounds and expertise will kind of determine exactly
what on call support is needed based on their strengths. So it's and that's an unknown. So in general, yes, but you know the specific amount and whether it will be beneficial really kind of depends on our ability to attract and retain qualified candidates for the vacancies we have.
>> Okay, thank you for clarifying. Um moving on next to uh traffic engineering. Um >> yes. So um traffic am I good? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was there's only four of us now. So we can just ask
our questions. >> Yes. >> Um so traffic engineering. Um I think this is where Peter Peter uh the director of transportation. Correct. Um so with with respect to Peter coming in,
can you um speak a little to his roles and how and or in what way will this help facilitate uh communication ex expediting things and things of that nature? >> Absolutely. And and Peter, pay
attention. Um so the the role here for the director of of traffic engineering there's a number of things that happen here. Um we identify a number of different programs and improvements through the vision zero planning through the quick build
programming. Having oversight and ensuring that they're built to engineering standards that they're designed properly are things that we need an engineer to do. That's something this division will do. That includes signal timings that includes safety upgrades at traffic signals. that includes pavement markings, that
includes signs and work orders. Um, those are kind of more technical scope. Um, additionally, additionally, um, you know, Peter and Lindsay collectively are going to work closely together on transportation policy and site plan review from both a
planning and an engineering perspective. So, there's a lot of value added in terms of advancing the vision zero goals, seeing things advance to construction. Um you know and one key thing is just providing oversight. Uh you know the last administration we had
our our pavement marking contractor and they were reimbursed for refreshing faded pavement markings across the city which is their contract but they were not necessarily given direction as to which pavement markings needed refreshing. They kind of identified something faded and they said okay we'll
fix it and then submit for payment. And that's not we we've corrected that. We since have someone in our engineering department providing oversight. Um, and we've clearly communicated that, you know, they will only be reimbursed for work as directed. If they see something they think needs refreshing, they need our permission and direction first. But
those are the types of oversight that will create efficiencies uh within some of our other contracts and efforts. Um, additionally, Peter's going to be coordinating with DPW and other divisions to help streamline processes for work order implementation and
coordination. So, um, feed it too. I'm feed I'm gonna get your number. Um, >> yes, I'll feed it into the record right now. No, [laughter] >> if you guys um speak to um the different
type of professional consultant services, um you requested 250,000 um and then in the draft subsequently is 300,000. Um, so if you could just speak to that.
>> Absolutely. 250,000 reflects both what was requested and inclusive of 250 of the 300,000 represents a traffic engineering all call contractor. Um, prior to us having a traffic engineer, they were doing all of the engineering work. So they would
look at um, if we requested an allway stop, there's an analysis, data collection analysis needs to be done. The only capacity we had was utilizing that 250k contract. It's meant to be an extension of staff. We've heavily leaned into it previously and we will retain
them now that we have Peter to to be an extension of staff. >> Oh, okay. >> The $50,000 the reason it's it it's been increased. Um it was a an oversight when the budget request went in that there's an additional uh $50,000 contract with a
doctor that supports the um ADA parking review committee. So when someone submits an application for a reserve parking spot on their curb, a doctor reviews the medical condition submitted and makes a recommendation. that cost of that doctor performing that work is
about $50,000 a year and has been added to the the the traditional traffic engineering contract and collectively represents the $300,000 you see. >> So Peter bringing on Peter will essentially
reduce this line item for next year. >> I don't believe so. I believe what bringing Peter on will do will allow us to more effectively do more with this $250,000 contract >> because he will be giving them oversight
in addition to the work that he himself will be performing. >> I I don't know what order we're going in anymore. [laughter] Um, okay. So, for traffic engineering, many fatal and serious injury crash
sites, including Sixth and Jersey and Ward E, have yet to see rapid response or quick fix or quick build improvements. Um, when can we see left turn calming at Sixth and Jersey and other safety improvements at sites of major crashes? Uh, furthermore, curb
extensions and flex posts throughout the city have been destroyed without replacement. There's also demand for green infrastructure, whether planters or curb extension rain gardens. Many intersections have safety improvements consisting of just white painted lines. Um, and many flex posts are missing where
they where they should have been, resulting in things like people parked in the line of sight or in the bike lane. Um, what is the needed budget to fully fund flex post daylighting to fulfill demand? Um I is that included in the $250,000
contract? Are we able to regularly obtain planters? And um what is our path to funding permanent infrastructure like rain garden curb extensions? Sorry, that was a lot of questions in one. >> Is there anyone you want me to start on first within that? >> Throw them.
>> All right. Um and please keep track if there's any I missed. I'll I'll follow please follow up. >> Um let's start with flex posts. Uh, one thing that this administration has done, uh, we've worked with DPW to build the capacity where DPW can now install, we
call them delineators, flex posts. They can install them. Um, that is not something that previously was done. Previously, we used our on call road striping contractor, and that's for the budgeted conversation underline 314. Um, we would use them to install and we'd
also have to use them to replace. DPW now has the staff capacity and the labor and the training and the ability and we've been working closely with Director Frana and Director Levy about prioritizing where to to put the delineators we can purchase. However,
we're still utilizing our road striping contract to purchase the delineators. Um so the purchase of the physical devices are within the budget line here. Uh, we've ordered, I believe, two pallets so far this year. And for reasons that I
cannot fully explain, our contractor is having challenges with customs and procurement of getting more pallets delivered on a the time frame we'd like them to. So, um, as delineators are able to be provided, we will be working to continue to install them throughout the
city. Uh, this winter has been rough both on our pavement as well as our delineators, more so than a typical winter. Um, so there's a number of challenges, but but our division is working closely to support the procurement of the physical devices, prioritizing them with DPW, who's now
able to install them, which is a much more costefficient way for them to be installed and through our contractor. Um, I think that addresses delineators. Um, some following crashes, providing safety improvements. Um, we're currently in conversation with the law department.
You know, I think we for [laughter] at the risk of being a little academic, um, we want to put safety improvements ahead of where the next crash will occur. And we can help understand and and identify where the next may occur by looking at risk
factors of where they have occurred in their past, not necessarily the exact site of a single crash. Um, we do also want to show a responsiveness to the loss of life and serious injury of people in Jersey City. So, we are
looking at programmatic ways and we are including crash histories and risk factors from past crashes as a key factor of our high injury network which is used on where our improvements and quick builds go. Um we are also working with law to make sure that
we are focused on doing it that kind of riskbased and using you know because that is going to get us more effective return on our investment in terms of reduced crashes and safety by following risk factors and patterns as opposed to playing you know almost whack-a-ole to
where the latest crash occurred. Um so that's our strategy and I'm happy to give go into more details offline about kind of some of those factors and what we're doing. Um, but we are both responsive and cognizant of those crashes, of those tragedies, of
those fatalities and serious injuries that we are putting a lot of effort into preventing and and doing it in the most cost effective way by looking at risks, not responsiveness. Um, the next item I think I saw was kind of hardening. Um, a lot I mean a lot of this comes down to
to to dollars, right? And time. Quick builds are quick builds because they are quick. Um, and quick is a relative term, but for us that means, you know, within a year, right? Or or or as quickly as we can. We have a lot of these on contracts. We have a lot of responsiveness. We're able to do a 100
locations this year because they are quick builds. Um, things that are harder hardening and also harder things like a concrete curb extension, a bumpout. Those often will the way drainage on roads work is there's a crown and the
rain falls on the road and the road the water flows to the curb and it flows along the curb to the inlet. When we put a bump out, it now will prevent the the water flowing to the curb to the inlet that may be on the corner because we're putting curb there. I if we do that
without addressing the underground utilities and the drainage, it creates other, you know, ponding, pooling, and then freezing. It creates other problems. So to do some of a lot of these hardenings they have kind of a trickle down impact of what needs to be incorporated into that project which
both has costs and time frame. Um we have been committed to expanding concrete curb extensions for example at locations through our grant program. when we receive funding for a grant, we
utilize um this is one of the key treatments that we put into those grant programs in those corridors where we can. Additionally, as development applications come through and as we are able to review them, we are requesting bumpout extensions to be installed by those developers. So those are ways in
which we are utilizing existing funding streams to uh incorporate and expand the number of of of roadway uh bump out hardenings as much as we can. In addition to that there's been you know a
desire of this department of this administration to rethink our repaving program for future years. um to not only pave curb to curb as it is, but to think about those as opportunities to improve the road for safety. As part of that,
we're currently at the early stages of envisioning future years where instead of just going into a road that needs repaving, we can repave it and install other infrastructure that provides safety, including rain gardens. Um and a lot of this also will turn into the very
unsexy conversation of design standards. Um, as we start to look through and update our design standards, which we will hopefully get more capacity to do, that will allow us to kind of more standardize a vision of what we believe um these these hardening aspects should
be across all projects. >> Great. >> Did that answer your question, Councilman? >> Yes. Thank you so much. Uh, Councilman Efos. >> Uh, okay. Now I will get to the accounting question I was asking. about earlier.
Um, again, welcome. But I'm just trying to get wrap my head around the two different um line items or lines within the uh salaries and wages line item um around replacements and two different ways that the pr-rated uh six months
salaries are laid out. Um, EA, if this is a a finance question that you want me to just email, uh, I I can certainly just email that and and figure it out later if it's too complicated to ask. >> Yeah, I think that's that's the best.
>> Okay, I I'll take that offline then. Um, then I wanted to just ask um on 102 for the part-time salaries, is this typical to have um part-time engineering aids? Is this a position that is normally um
and preferably full-time? Um are these either of these positions ones that the division would consider um extending to or offering full-time hours to? So these positions uh and the specific
individuals in these positions are I believe this is the arrangement that works for them and they are valued employees and perform a strong function and able to do so in this arrangement. So um I believe this is one of those it's working for both parties. So we're
not necessarily looking to make a change situations. >> I got it. I appreciate that. Um, and then in line item 314, uh, this is obviously the kind of like standout number. Um, I understand we're
moving money from the capital budget to properly account for it. The signal and maintenance and road striping are the two justifications and comments listed in 314. Um are those the the only two
services that are going to be accounted for by the 300 plus million? >> Yes. Um the $2 million represents the signal maintenance contract. Um I believe so the way that works is we have and the
contract because it's a lot of it is on call. So the amount actually build to us um is relative to how much work how many signal knockdowns how much work actually happens throughout a year. So we have a contract capacity that exceeds the $2
million budgeted but we've seen historically the use of this contract. We looked at past billings and we've budgeted what we believe um represents the amount of work that they have performed in the past with some additional buffer in case it's a busy year. So that is where the $2 million
reflects. Um and then the 1.316, that dollar amount is partially funding our road striping contract. Um with finance, we went through the different uh things that that contract installs and and kind of identified what we believe is capital, what we believe is
operating expenses um with finance as guidance and then we we estimated a dollar amount to that. So, this is representing the non-C capital portion of the road striping contract. >> Okay. Yeah. I'm I a little surprised to
see how expensive road striping is. Um but that's >> and and I mean I if it's helpful, Councilman Efro, road striping is not the same as like the paint that we put on our wall. Um road striping is meant to last multiple years. It has
retroreflective beads so that when you're driving with headlights, it reflects that light back at you. Um, and it it's it's it's much more expensive material, thermoplastic or epoxy, um, with kind of some of those properties than, you know, traditional painting uh,
would would be. >> Okay. Thank you. And we feel confident we're getting the best contract we can, best bang for our buck here. >> Uh, the contract has been procured through an RFP. Uh I I don't remember the last time it was, but by putting it out to an RFP, that that is the way that
we try to get, you know, ensure that we get the best bang for our buck. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Council President. No questions. Okay. Thank you. >> Um moving on to transportation. Um we can go in the opposite direction now. Uh
Council President, did you have questions on transportation? No, I'm good for transportation. You first. >> Um, yeah, I would just ask uh about the the vacancies and and new hires. If you can
just explain the kind of um hopeful work that we can get done if we had um these vacancies and new hires filled in transportation planning. Sure. Yeah. Again, not talking about people and positions, but the work we want to
do. Absolutely. >> Sure. So, uh, what we would like to do, um, with the departure of the former director, I've now been promoted to that position. Um, a team member on our team has been promoted into my position and
now there's the backfill of that. So, um, you know, among the things that we're doing are now moving into implementation of the master plan. So thinking about how we take those priorities, start to set policy and strategy and um concepts for projects,
building those out um and then working with traffic engineering uh to then deliver. So there are some things uh that we mentioned in the budget presentation, things like site plan review that we've just um almost essentially paused. So we have a backlog
of about 50 applications probably that we haven't um been providing comments on. So staffing that up will help us uh to be able to deliver more of those sorts of uh programs and policies. Um and then the engineering aids that you
see those are actually interns. Um and those are um you see some grant offsets in the budget. Uh we do have a grant through our NJTPA the regional MO. So that helps us to fund uh intern positions as well as offset some of our
staff salaries. >> Understood. Um the grant offset looks like it's for it would cover both of those interns, but only one is being budgeted for. >> We have some flexibility um in terms of the hours. You know, we we're looking
for um uh flexibility. So there might be one person who's able to work a couple of days a week and depending on the semester, they might stay a semester, they may stay a full year. Um we think we just need one at a time. Um and then
any um the grant can be used for staff. So if we don't spend it on intern, we can just use it towards full-time staff offsets. Um so the grant is very flexible in terms of which transportation staff it's actually funding. >> Okay. Thank you. And council president,
I know you did have a question. >> I apologize. I did have a question. Um, for the vacant principal planner uh position, my eyes are merging together. Let me make sure I'm on the right line.
Yes, it looks like we're not calculating for it in the workbook. And it should be an addition of $3,150. I'm sorry, just to make sure I'm on the correct line. You're saying the draft is
lower than the request. >> There is the draft uh column isn't calculated at all. So, it just looks like the it was just skipped. >> I believe I'm looking at the Excel. I believe that number is if you look at
the last line, it says grant offset NJTPA and there's a negative number that >> got you. So, that's the same number. Okay. So, that >> correct. So >> that's being funded through there. >> Correct. That's how the uh that's being reflected. >> Okay. >> Y >> can you explain what the professional
services contracts are for this division? >> Yeah, it it's it's very similar story that we talked about for engineering and for traffic engineering, but it's to expand the staff capacity of this department of transportation planning. Um this has been shifted a little bit
this year to support both the transportation planning efforts, data analysis, data collection, but also to have a focused contract for community engagement. Um that's a commitment of this department and something that we will are looking and continuing to expand capacity for.
>> Thank you. >> Shall we move on to sustainability? Close it out. >> Let's go. >> Cool. Um, okay. Councilwoman, >> thank you. >> Can move or um >> Yeah, we started. Yeah. No, you're right. >> Okay. I can figure out who's going
first. Um, okay. So, sustainability. This is a very lean department. Um, Director Diamond, um, it's you and one employee and, uh, you had another employee who was not backfilled. Um, that would have
been a program analyst. And I know in the past you have spoken to me about your your desperate need for an environmental engineer in your department. Um if if you could fund one additional position because this is such a lean department. There's two people
and you do so much work. Um can can you speak more about what work is not being done because of the lack of filling that third position and what you could do with a third position and in an ideal world what you would like that position to be.
Uh hi, sure. Um thank you for the question. Uh I would say that it would be my priority would be to backfill the sustainability manager position. What's happening right now is that I have um as
you stated, we have two employees actively working within sustainability. Uh myself and a forester. The forester is managing um almost every aspect of our tree planting projects which are almost exclusively uh grant-f funded. So
um with them focusing on those aspects, my role has um expanded to include all aspects of program management, project management, uh community engagement,
um uh grant management, uh like documentation management, all the sorts of managements. So by backfilling that position, which I think would be the most important position to start with, I would be able to have more
of a capacity for uh like more uh uh to develop and expand more programs. Um originally we thought we were going to possibly get an intern to help out with that. Um that has taken some time and there's a little bit of back and forth
about that. So, uh, while it's it was baked into this budget, I don't know if we'll be able to get an intern for the summer. Maybe looking forward to the fall having a little bit of, uh, help and capacity when it comes to, um, you know, managing documentation.
Otherwise, uh, it is, um, uh, we are basically at capacity for all the work that we're trying to do. Um what I would love to see is to expand on programs. One of the best parts about my job is that I get to work with um you know
members of the community, community groups and organizations sid uh who have a lot of fantastic ideas. I would love to see um different programs being expanded upon or created. And I think that that would be that would be like the next step and goal um rather than
kind of just maintaining what we have today. >> Thank you. Um and this is sort of a joint question for you and engineering. Um if if the background I know engineering is sort of the the jackof all trades
division um but if the backgrounds of any of the employees in engineering allow um I see there are currently a couple of vacancies. There's the chief engineer and the super supervising engineer. um
and vacancies that are funded. Um if their backgrounds allow, would it be productive or feasible for um for them to dedicate some of their time to supporting sustainability's work? >> Absolutely. engineer a lot of our
divisions not only do we collaborate and share each other's expertise but engineering architecture sustainability because we are technical experts of those fields even traffic engineering transportation planning we support the needs of other divisions and other departments as it relates to our technical area so without question you
know we will support Amanda sustainability will support the rest of the city government um absolutely >> right um thank you and then my last question was um contractual services. Um
there's a pretty big um and and I also want to I want to commend you on on your work seeking out and getting grants. Um that is, you know, for for everyone who's been doing that because it's very important and it allows us to accomplish a lot of things we wouldn't be able to otherwise. So um I do want to commend
everyone who's been um actively going out there and getting grants. Um for contractual services um there was a reduction from your request uh from $500,000 and then the 2026 draft is just
$30,000 and the explanation the comment just says charge point. Can you explain please? The $30,000 reflects the electric vehicle charging repairs and costs
incurred at the beginning of this year prior to the new contract being implemented. Um it reflects outstanding invoices. Moving forward, we won't have a cost. So that is why it's really reflective of historic expenses.
I think Director Diamond can add more. >> Yes. Uh uh Director Kaplan is correct about the charge point and we always request $500,000 for tree planting which would go into the contractual uh services budget. That's historically where it's
been put unless it's put in capital. It really does belong in capital. So um that's something that uh uh we tried to request on an annual basis. Um, I imagine it would be moving solely to capital for the foreseeable future, but
we can definitely um u confirm that at a later date. >> Thank you. I'd actually um I'd like to confirm it now if that's okay. Um, director or business administrator Choy um is the intent to have tree planting the the trees purchasing of the trees and the planting of the trees in the
capital budget. So, we we currently don't have a new capital budget to discuss at the moment. Um, we have some funding left over from previously allocated capital projects
that we are trying to prioritize for emergency repairs. Um, but we are actively working on coming up with a new capital budget that I don't have a timeline for. >> Okay. Thank you. So, currently with no new capital budget and the contractual
services reduced from $500,000 to $30,000, that means we do not have any money set aside for tree planting. Councilwoman Little, there are grants that we have um including a block grant that has already been set aside that we use for tree planting and there's also
the tree restitution fund um that Amanda has access to. So um it's not through operating budgets and as business administrator said you know the capital budget is still in the works but there are funding streams at revenues we are actively planting um I think we've
planted 90 trees so far this year um in the spring planting season and there's uh plans to plant more in in the fall. >> Uh we have currently uh we have our community development block grant that we are finishing up. We're
exploring options of spending more of the USDA grant for tree planting. Uh and like dire director Kaplan said, we have um tree resitution funds that are going to be uh used for planting as well across the city. Um and we just applied
again for uh another round of the community development block grant funding as well as we applying for the natural climate solutions grant funding. So we are um supplemented with uh grant funding for tree planting which allows us to be able to do that complete that
this year and looking into next year and the following years still looking for more grant funding but um so so it wouldn't be coming out of necessarily this operating funding. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, Councilman Effort,
>> uh, just minor question because you've asked a lot of what was on my mind. Um, on the program analyst who resigned on, uh, January 15th, um, despite such an early resignation in the year, there's over 10,000 budgeted for that salary.
Um, I could just get some clarity on two weeks of of work at the beginning of the year. I'll follow up with finance on exactly what represent and separation. I I don't have that answer. That's a a question we can follow up with you after we talk to finance on it. >> Okay. Thank you. And that's all from me.
So, council president. >> Well, mine was just on the uh the program analysts who resigned their salary being budgeted over 10,000 um despite the very early resignation after two weeks into the year.
>> Okay. So, It's the final dance. We're almost at the end of two weeks of budget hearing here. So, I need you to walk me through the grant offset for this one here. So,
I see that the grant is offsetting the program analysts um salary. So, I get that. But in the drafts we have um an addition of 50,000.
Is the total grant like 114,000 or where are we getting the 50 from as opposed to 2300? >> So this is a multi-year large grant. >> Okay. Um, I'll defer to director Diamond on it, but uh, as it relates to offsets
to other items shown. This is the amount of the multi-year grant which we are intending and budgeting to use during the 2026 fiscal year. >> Okay. So, that 50 might be the remainder of the total grant. >> So, I believe you see I I see what
you're saying in the plus minus column,000. >> That I believe may be an error. >> Um, >> okay. I believe that maybe >> might have just been dropped down from >> an error. I'm looking it's not a calculated cell. I I believe it it it
probably should be reflecting the other uh we'll talk to finance to make sure that it's corrected. >> Okay. >> But that grant offset of $64,000 is offsetting a salary and there's an additional offset for an intern line shown.
>> Got it. Okay. I see those two. Okay. >> Thank you. Um, if we since we still have six minutes left, um, [clears throat] I did have a follow-up question on the trees. Um, you said we've planted 90 trees so far this year, um, with grant funding. And I I'm just curious how many trees we
planted last year and, um, how that number might change if we did if the city did provide funding for tree planting outside of the grant funding, whether in the operational budget or the capital budget. Um while I wouldn't have the exact
number, um I believe we planted close to 200 to 250 trees last year. All was also grant funded. Um what the average cost of a tree to be planted in a city sidewalk right now is
about $3,300, which sounds like a lot and is a lot. Uh so what we're hoping to do is um we've applied for funding from both the state and um through the CDBG program uh to
plant upwards of 500 trees respectively in both grants um uh that would be these would be year-long or uh longer projects. And then looking forward, uh, if we were to get what we [snorts]
always generally request, which is, uh, $500,000, that would be generally around like 150 trees, which I know is not, um, meeting our standards that we want to set, which is closer to 500 trees a year. um since that standard was set,
the costs have risen um significantly, which leads us to having less impact with that much money. Um what I would like to say is that if we were to introduce it into a future budget um
through the city, this would uh continue to put in at least an uh generally about like 150 more trees if we were to dedicate a yearly annual amount. That being said, we are also always looking for more opportunities with grant
funding. We just applied for another grant. we'll apply again as soon as we find another grant. So, that's been uh one of our our strongest suits is definitely grant funding. >> Thank you. Um and I'm I'm happy to hear
that with the additional grant funding, um you're responsible for planting the trees, um keeping them alive once they're in the tree pits. Is that that's forestry, right? Uh, we have a 2-year guarantee for all trees planted through
our projects, grant funded or not. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> I think with that, we'll take a motion to adjourn. >> So, I have a motion to adjourn at 3:27
p.m. Motion made by council person Efos. and seconded by Council Person Little. All in favor of the motion to adjourn at 3:27 p.m. By acclamation, council members, please say I.
>> I. We are out of here at 3:27 p.m.