##VIDEO ID:8mawc5P_oeA## e e e e e e e e good morning welcome to the pre meeting of the Newark Municipal Council on Wednesday November 6 2024 council president council members we need to go into an executive session at the top of the meeting okay let's go roll call Council yes Gonzalez absent Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos absent Scott rry yes Silva absent president Crump yes all right we'll be back oh yeah e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e page 23 where we have an appointment item 8A on Communications is an appointment as alternate number two to the lesbian gay bisexual transgender and questioning advisory commission Mr Anthony arenas my apologies council president council members he had to leave so we can defer to the next meeting okay nine on page 25 another appointment item 9A is an appointment to the lesbian gay bisexual transgender and questioning advisory commission Mr Padilla also had to leave so we will schedule him at the next meeting item 9B is an appointment to the lesbian gay bisexual transgender and questioning advisory commission Mr Bernard mallister Mr mallister present I guess he's not present be def as well thank you we are on page three of the regular agenda public hearing second reading and final passage 6p SFA is an ordinance amending Public Safety person Personnel to add definition to the basic training course when hiring entry-level Law Enforcement Officers without an examination any questions seeing none next Item B is an ordinance amending honorary and ceremonial Street dedications by providing additional requirements for eligibility sponsored by council president Crump second by councilwoman Scott rry any any questions seeing none next item resolutions 7r1 a through C are budget insertions A is for the community health workers B is for community health workers and C is the purchase surveillance cameras any questions on any of these items seeing none next item 7r1 D and E are purchasing contracts D is the Co-op agreement for telescope device and e is a state contract for office supplies any questions seeing none next item 7r2 a through G or private sale V development agreement a is to provide for new construction of a two- family home and rehabilitation of a three- family home to sell at market rate to city of North employees in the South Ward any questions next Item B is to rehabilitate a three family home with an affordable unit at 80% area medium income in two market rate units in the west ward any question from the council Council M Kelly yes I ask this item be deferred please is there a second for deferment who the second uh councilman Gonzalez seconds yes Mr President yes yes councilman yeah I can see here that we're selling this for $37,800 Er When the assess value is $224,000 I would like to see an explanation to hear an explanation why we're selling something that is assessed at $24,000 for $37,800 I know we got something in uh in the email but if councilwoman I mean Council excuse me uh uh dep mayor or I'm sorry ba yes council president Eric Pennington business administrator G given that it's going to be deferred uh I would request that uh EHD be given the opportunity to provide supplement supplemental information on this so you have it in advance I don't see the benefit of having a discussion right now Mr B the problem that I that I see is that we have a lot of properties that are over assessed and when they come to us with say with this kind of assessment doesn't look good ER for the city and for us understood I mean we we have had we as an Administration along with the EHD have had discussions about making sure that we make the council comfortable and the residents comfortable that if there's an assessed value and we're selling for Less that there's a reason and we can articulate that reason we can certainly get there to you one of the things I can report that I'm grateful for finally is that the revaluation contract has been approved by the state and the county and it is moving forward still a year to to two years away but we're moving forward with that and that'll take care of some of this in that regard all right so pursuing to the business administrator we'll get some follow information from absolutely Deputy Mayor thank you C is to provide new construction of two two family homes to sell at market rate in the west ward councilman Kelly oh yeah I would like to ask this to be deferred as well second Gonzalez for deferment D is to provide new construction of eight three family homes to provide five affordable residential units and 19 market rate units in the South and West Ward any questions seeing none is to renovate the property into a two family home designating one unit at market rate and the other unit as affordable for individuals earning 80% of the area medium income in the South W any questions uh yes Council pres I want to go back to seven um r2d councilman let's let's wrap let's wrap this one up and see any questions first and then no questions okay Council M Kelly yeah I want to go back to 7 r2d and defer the West war war West War part of that I don't know if we can defer it like that yeah yeah it has to all be at this point it's all together Council councilman councel what's your pleasure I I'll second it second it deferment okay the verse 7r2 D councilman Kelly councilman councel got it f is to provide new construction of 68 unit apartment building with 20% of the units providing affordable housing at 60% Ami in the central Ward any questions seeing none and G is to create a side yard for the adjacent owned property at 140-142 Leslie Street in the South Ward any questions on that seeing none next item seminar 2 H and I of both the execution of a community benefits agreement H is for the New Jersey Performing Arts Corporation and I is for the Forest Hill House preservation urban renewal LLC councilman Ramos I can see out the corner of my eye yeah thank you council president I I want to move the force Hill House one say one more time I'd like to move the force Hill House one the the community benefits of that's the second 505 M Pros Ramos counc Ramos councilman canana any any other question any questions I I do have a question so 7r2 I is also supposed to have a hearing is that correct or No Yes council president council members both H and I will have a public hearing on Thursday November 7th 2024 in the council chamber at 12:30 all right thank you any other questions seeing none I just have one quick question council president council members councilman Ramos are you sponsoring I or just moving it yeah sponsoring can I have a second canana thank you 7R 3A is a bid contract to authorize the award of a contract for the construction of the Ferry Street intersection safety Improvement project any questions I'd like to be a sponsor of that please sponsored by councilman Silva is there second second second by councilman Kelly B is host municipality agreement to continue the operation of solid weight waste disposal electric power generating and resource recovery facility any questions yeah I just like to get in uh if the EBA could email me the agreement that we have with uh with this uh entity this uh Kant or whatever it's called now there anybody come up and get again councilman oh yeah I just wanted to get the uh uh a better understanding or a copy of that agreement between this facility and the city all right councilman I mean uh I keep counting out Council people Mr ba the agreement should be part of the the record but I'll get it to you all right thank you 7 r5a is a application acceptance of Grant funds to support the training and deployment of community health workers in response to covid-19 any questions next item 7 r6a was discussed in executive session 7 r8a is a reappointment as an alternate member number one of the board of adust just for the record just to say that 7 r6a is going to be deferred my apologies yes 7 r6a will be deferred tomorrow okay 7R 8A is a reappointment as an alternate member number one of the board of adjust ments CIA koban 7ar 8B is a ceremonial Street designation for Bishop Thomas Cooper sponsored by councilwoman Scott Roundtree no second second by councilman Council thank you C is a ceremonial Street designation for overseer Dr Bryant R Ali sponsored by councilman Council second second by councilwoman Scott morre thank you 7 r8d is recognizing commending resolutions 7 r8e is expressing profound sorrow and regret any questions anything next item 7 r12a is a Professional Services contract to provide professional Engineering Services for the Intensive level historic architectural survey associated with the rehabilitation of the panic aqueducts any questions next item item 88a was discussed already 8B is a reappointment to the Hispanic commission Alfredo Ruiz 8 C is a reappointment to the Hispanic commission Maria J andr and andr my apologies thank you so much councilman 8D is a reappointment to the Hispanic commission Lis a Masano Mas thank you 8 e is a reappointment to the Hispanic commission lesli Ramos and 8f is an ordinance amending title two division of central purchasing by adding a new section 14 policies and procedures governing the use of procurement cards any questions yes around local procurement where where are we now in terms of uh percentage of Lo local vendors that we using we have a number 10% 20% local P Madam clerk through uh your office we send a memo to the business administrator Administration asking for that information if it is available of course that okay all right thank you any other questions seeing none next item items nine A and B were previously discussed and we have 15 speakers for tomorrow's meeting public comment thank you yeah public comment we are now in the public comment section of this meeting where each speaker will have three minutes to speak please address your comments to the council is there anyone wishing to address the council get your name for the record please Dr ingred Diaz good morning my name is Dr ingred Diaz owner and CEO of Keystone Psychological Services I have been serving as a psychologist to the new Yark Police Department for the past five years during the August 13th council meeting Miss Aisha hman appeared before you and publicly alleged that her son was not recommended for hire as a police officer because of racism Miss Holman alleged that racial bias caused me to unfairly score evaluate and not recommend her son I have addressed these allegations in writing to all of the council members and provided copies for you Sor excuse me hold on for a second please cooperation councel yeah no I did not I did not okay but thank you s okay yeah ahead yeah please explain sure uh Good Morning kenat store city of North Corporation Council so from what I understand um at least I least heard some comments in reference to a family member's comments about uh uh the the company's evaluation I just asked and just wanted to make sure that there was not going to be any comments about the actual candidate from what I understand there's not going to be any comments about the candidate I believe this person here is going to talk about the company's um overall process I'm assuming and the fact that there may have been some racial comments about the company and and this person here knows not to make any comments about what happened with the evaluation all right thank you for the explanation please continue Dr thank you um that would be a hip of violation um these alegations um I'm Sorry Miss Holman alleged that racial bias cost made a fairly score and not commend her son I have addressed these allegations in writing to all of you and provided you copies um as well today I initially wanted to stay silent uh but my love and dedication for the job that I'm doing for the city brings me before you here today these allegations are not only inaccurate but hurtful because it calls into question my personal Integrity I'm a licensed psychologist in three states I have two masters and a doctorate I come from a household of a father who was disabled and a family who did not have a lot of money I am a Latina daughter of immigrants who resided in New York most of uh my life pretty much childhood and adulthood I was taught to work with Integrity into the best of my ability as a minority woman of color I have personally experienced trauma and discrimination and would not cause that kind of impact on anyone else as a daughter of Newark I want to see our city Thrive and provide opportunities for all of our young people including people of color I find the allegations of being a racist failing all blacks and not doing anything for our city to be insulting hurtful and untrue as for the examination candidates during July are given the Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory uh police candidate version and it's an examination approved by the New Jersey police training commission the exam is designed to identify desirable personality traits it is true or false and it is written at a fourth grade reading level which means a nine-year-old can understand it the exam was exam administered to over 150 people many did pass that is proven in our Police Academy today others did not pass this time but can in the future uh African-Americans are actually at a higher rate of passing surpassing Latinos and Caucasians these allegations were hurtful to me as well as to our city because the hiring process has been halted I consider my work to be an important part of what our city will look like in the future again as a daughter of the city of New York it is an honor and privilege to continue serving the city that I consider my home as your psychologist and hope to continue doing so thank you so much for your time and attention thank you for your comments um Miss Madam clerk I'm sorry this is madam clerk I didn't see the Corporation Council on here receiving this maybe make sure we he gets a copy of the yes sir statement thank you uh next speaker good afternoon George tman Jr good afternoon good morning [Music] um last week on uh October 28th 2024 um I met with um the affirmative action uh Council committee which included councilman Dupri uh councilwoman round tree and councilman D Silva also in that meeting was uh the manager from affirmative action uh Mr Baptist um there was someone from the Ba's office and economic development there was no one from nor works and there was no one from the affirmative action review Council the one thing we did discuss in this meeting was the amendment um 6 PS f-c 617 2015 which is the amendment to the newor uh Employment Commission and the nework resident employment policy in the new uh ordinance what we discussed that was really important um the duties of implementation went to um the One-Stop Career Center nework works and the enforcement and um monitoring went to the affirmative action review Council one of the things that came up in the meeting one was that the affirmative action review Council and to get back to that have not been meeting to discuss any of these projects that's been going forth to be approved by the council also new works um who's also supposed to be posting these jobs up on the city website um they're not being posted on the city website Mr Baptist testified that um right now we have approximately almost 100 construction developments half of them are current running half of them are not um waiting to go into um construction those other 50 construction jobs or development should be on the city website for the um n residents to um be able to apply for those jobs and um have a point of contact um it was a meeting that um a lot of very important information came out and how we're going to get new residents to work again um doing these tax abatements and these economic consentes the administration I keep saying is out of compliance because these components whether they change them from the the mayor's office of employment training to new works they're not right now actively doing the things according to the ordinance so I I hope that we meet again with the deputy mayor of uh Workforce development and new works to try to see when this is going to beol resolve thank you thank you Mr Tillman next speaker good morning Deborah stter Warrior for the people um on that note we didn't even talk uh one of the things that I wanted to address is the constant uh men I know who are looking for employment and I know a while back several months uh Mr Council was bringing out all of the vacancies that we had in the city of nework and what is being done for the people of of this city to know so that they can get jobs we have men who are are looking for work there's no excuse while our people cannot be working number two uh Miss aens is always talking to you all about public safety and can we get a police officer in the morning to make sure our kids get safe transition well a gun was pulled on her son today 13 years old get off the light rail on his way to school like normal three individuals with their ski mask on um of Hispanic descent are outside up to no good they started something with him he took off running um again she's been asking and asking and asking and nothing has been done so I followed up of course you know who I call um who jumped right on the scene um spoke with the deputy over here you know um on who are on it but it shouldn't come to this when people are coming here constantly asking you and nothing is getting done why do we need you um also with the Ami that is something that you know we know we don't have to use Huds Ami nurk can do what nurk can do if nurk wants to do it why are we not doing what is beneficial for our people I don't care who your friends are I don't care who you like I don't care what they're telling you why are we not not using the Ami that is going to benefit the residents of the city of nework when a one-bedroom is going for 23 28 3,800 the average salary again between 16 and 36,000 a year you don't have to use the Ami that you are using you can do something else why are you not doing that um and let me say uh I know um last the last meeting when the police officer got up and spoke about uh the Widow who would had not received the funds and um there were those who spoke about it why did they have to come here to do this and it shouldn't have been done this way but if someone is coming to you and nothing is being done what do you want them to do they're going to come here because you're not giving them what they need and I am in full support because any one of you from your own pocket could have written $118,000 check you're getting a six figure salary for part-time gig in addition to the other jobs that you're doing why would someone who has sacrificed their life 27 years for the city and other places not receive what is needed for the family thank you for your comments uh next speaker all right good morning morning good morning councilmen and women of city of Newark and everybody in the room um my name is Lisa Smith can you hold your mic up a little bit push it up a little bit so we can hear thank you can you hear me now better um good morning everybody that's in the room and Council men and women of the city of Newark thank you for allowing us to address your platform um my name is Lisa Smith with my sister's lighthouse I just wanted to give you all a followup on our DV event on October 5th we want to thank everybody who came out and supported um councilwoman Reverend leis Scott Round Tree Patrick Council councilman Patrick Council they were out there they were showing themselves out there even councilwoman had somebody come ahead of her um and just to make sure everything was running well the whole thing that I'm saying is basically representation is so important not just with what we're going through and what we're dealing with with DV as an organization but also just in general just like the um the lady just spoke here just showing up communication as our leaders of the city is very important to see that you all care and we see that from the same individuals every time and we want more of you all to step up okay so we do have um on behalf of my sister's lighthouse in every domestic violent Survivor and victim that we have serviced thus far and those that are to come we have an award for councilwoman Scott ground tree and we also have flowers because we do like I said you've been consistent um and Patrick Council councilman Council you have also been consistent we have a gift for you also we want to give you all your flowers now we appreciate everything that you have done for us and are doing consistently and councilman Crump thank you so much for your donation on behalf of Miss Jaclyn Limehouse herself she is on the men she did get her surgery and she's driving her little speed car through the streets but like we said before um representation is so important standing up with us arm and arm when the city comes together as a whole with our leaders in the front it's so important to see that for our citizens so that we know that you all care communication even if you can't make it communication is so important okay so that's all that we look for and I don't know who to give these two but God bless you all for those who have stood in the gap for for the city itself thank you so much thank you thank you thank you all thank you next speaker good day corrupt cult that's running our government uh it's just a lot to say first I'm going begin with um Ramos I sent you a email about the conditions uh that's happening at uh the Bon Joi building did you to go in speak to rectify the conditions the elevator uh wasn't working leaks and all kind of different uh issues happening at 60 68 Mount Pleasant Avenue uh shaking your head but uh hopefully you can go and re Rectify that issue um the election uh though I wasn't you know too happy about who we had to elect those two candidates um just to make it clear to the to the residents this is a republic and we the people have a right to overthrow government officials when they are not doing right by the people so what happened yesterday is a prime example about we the people we have a right to overthrow and fire our leaders when they are not doing right by the people now we could go on with a list of things that the Democrat Party have done that disheartens the American people well we are with sick and tired of being sick and tired and what needs to happen is what happened when you overthrow the president Vice President yesterday that needs to happen on a local level we need to fire a whole lot of officials in new and in exus County so we need to do that we need to follow that framework even though we weren't happy with the lesser of two evils the people have spoken and that's what we need to do now there's no system in place Tillman been coming here I've been coming here other uh uh concerned citizens about jobs the housing look at the every you get money for hous and we still got a homeless problem that's keeps exasperating keep climbing up the rates then we got the no jobs there's no system in place thank you for your comments correct what's going on and you need to do something about it thank you for your comments next speaker seeing none public speaking is closed Madam clerk I'm sorry yeah just to address um Miss um Ban's concerns regarding uh jbj homes we we have been in communication with the management there you know I understand the frustration on behalf of tenants you know we're dealing with the same frustration so I may ask through your chair that we call them in at some point at a tax abatement committee meeting because they do have an active tax abatement with the city um they've gone through a lot of transition over the years with management there and there were some commitments that they made when they first built that project as far as services that were going to be rendered at the location and a lot of those services are not necessarily in place anymore so I think it's time for us to reach out um to them and have their attorneys um come prepared to U discuss some of the issues that are tax abatement meeting just let me know because I'm not a member of the committee so like that all right participate in sit so accept thank you chair all right so so Madam clerk at the ne for the next a batment committee meeting to make sure that we send a letter to them and have them [Music] there thank you any other comments Council uh just to um address Mr Tillman I thought the the meeting that took place last week with uh the chairperson here councilman rree and councilman Kelly was um a productive meeting I learned a lot of things that I wasn't aware of um I think we definitely need to get the deputy mayor at the next meeting to answer a few questions we also have the um Affirmative Action Council which I'm on um and I'm going to take responsibility for that uh I don't know if I can uh I'm looking into it now to see if I can end up taking uh that over uh I'm on the committee uh not the committee the council the other uh where there's about a list of eight to 10 people from what I understand some of the research that I've done some of those people don't want to be on the committee anymore and so uh we're working on getting a response I know Mr batist is on vacation or is going on vacation uh and I I try to set up a meeting with him so when he gets back we'll come up with a date uh but I think that Council uh needs to meet and so I have one of my uh staff members working solely on that Affirmative Action Council to make sure that we're up and going and uh hopefully by December if not by January making sure that uh we're operating in the proper way there hasn't been um a meeting with them in a while because I think there was some um hostility towards somebody on that uh board there and uh so I'm trying to work things out and hopefully by January which I pretty much sure I can get uh some people on there I met with somebody from the Carpenters Union they're willing to sit on the board uh I just need to find out the rules and regulations regarding that board and who can actually sit on there before I make a commitment to anyone but I do know that out of the 10 names or so that are on there including myself there's a few that don't want to participate anymore and that's okay we'll get people that want to particip and are um are going to be active uh in that Council thank you councilman Sila and just Madam clerk if there's a way to get the information to councilman regarding the the Affirmative Action Council so he has that information councilwoman Scott rry thank you council president also um I think we have a meeting scheduled for November 13th for the committee to review what was discussed in the previous meeting because we don't want this to keep dragging out over and over and over again so November 13th we will be having a meeting um I do pray that someone from Nork Workforce Development if not of the Deputy Mayor um I see uh director Gaylord is here so council president I'll yield to um her comments I'm sorry wait a minute what are we doing here wait what is this councilwoman so November 13th we're having an affirmative action committee meeting to follow up on the meeting that committee had last week okay because we don't want to drag out the um findings he's trying to get the information on the review Council I want to follow up on the information that Mr Tillman met with us and requested to see how we can come to an agreement on what it is that needs to be fixed or what we can do legally but you have someone from your department has to be there Lord was there everyone was there as he mentioned so okay now I'll y all right I'm sorry yes Karen Gaylord New York Workforce Development board will be there um we'll make sure that somebody from New York works is there as well and if I can add um on the Mr Tillman's question it was a valid question regarding where can people find information about jobs related to um Construction in particular um uh uh he now has just the beginning of some information we shared earlier with him today on our website which was stood up at the beginning of covid um because we wanted to have immediate access to reach people during covid um so uh he now knows that at www.n lwdb dog job postings exist on that site flyers for training programs and for job fairs exist on that site we have since uh in the last six months also stood up a new website called nework builds nework which is dedicated solely to construction uh and green infrastructure jobs uh we'll make that information available uh to everyone in addition we have at least eight social media platforms and a very very active texting app that we use to push out information about jobs I think the thing that we could do um to Mr Tillman's direct point is connect those Workforce websites to the city's site the ones that were stood up during covid could be connected we can use technology in that way shouldn't be too difficult to do and uh I certainly will take that on thank you Mr tman and thank you thank you great any other comments questions seeing none I believe there are some added starters Madam clerk yes well I'm sorry that the Corp counsel is up sure good morning again uh Kenyatta storeart city of North Corporation Council so essentially from not understanding we're trying to get at least four excuse me get four added starters on uh one of them the number is 24- 1334 I'm s 24 can you speak up I'm sorry uh it's four uh possible added starters one the first one is the number is 24 let start number 24-13 34 okay it's in reference to a contract with the institute for forensic psychology out of Oakland New Jersey uh it's a company that uh the city will be using to add on to its list of uh psych evaluators um I know that it's been through the process as far as the legar process um I know that um the public safety director has also spoken to me about it in reference to uh why he wants it to be done okay any questions on that one see no next matter sure uh the second item I don't have the actual legar it number for it but it's in reference to Spruce industry uh it's an item that I spoke about in an executive session essentially Spruce Industries is a company that did work with the city um has been doing work with the city for years Unfortunately they have been the victim of identity theft or fraud and as a result we had to stop um our payment process with them while investigation was done uh the investigation has been done and is done and this could been completed um and as a result of that now we want to pay them uh the amount is 105,000 854 so it's 10,854 uh that would be paid to them and reference to this again services that they provided to the city they have continued to do the work like most people um when they have an issue they usually say they're gonna stop the work and provide the stop providing the services they have continued all way through um I know the ba uh will probably get up and talk about his to well any any questions on that I'm sorry no all right next Mr ba good morning Eric Pennington business administrator have two add a start is moving through legislation and uh which I expect to make the agenda one is the collective bargaining agreement with Deputy Chiefs which I believe is just uh at the Corp council's the last stage at the Corp council's office the other is the agreement with the local 617 it's the laborers for DPW water and others um that is moving through and I will push it through thank you any any questions thank you anything thank you B anything else Madam clerk no all right everyone have a wonderful day or try to have a wonderful day we'll see everybody tomorrow at 12:30 thank you e e e e