She sure will. >> There we go. Good morning. >> Morning. >> Apologize for the technical difficulties. Welcome to the premeating of the Newark Municipal Council on Tuesday, February 3rd. Council President, council members, we have an
appointment on page 27. >> Thank you. Before we begin though, I I just wanted to say a couple words. We um uh to thank Councilman Gonzalez for his service. Uh for 20 years of being a
public servant for the community. Um, you know, as as I'm sure everybody knows by now, he is not running for reelection, but I just wanted to publicly state that we appreciate your service, appreciate what you've done. Um, you know, I've always said you were
there for my mom long before anybody else was back in 98. And so, I just want to thank you for what you've done for the city of Newark and for the residents. And I I know this isn't meaning the end of your public service. It just means you're moving on to a new
chapter. But, you know, appreciate what you've done, what you're going to be doing, and want to thank you personally. >> Thank you, Mr. President. It's it has been the honor of my life to serve the residents of the city of Newick.
I just want to enjoy the rest of my life dedicating time uh to my family, my children, my grandchildren. But I will always cherish the experience
that I had here with my colleagues. >> Thank you. >> No, thank you, Councilman Kelly. >> Yes. >> Um, I just want to we really appreciate you, Councilman. I know a lot of times we
have differences up here, but a lot from you hearing how you delegate with agendas and things that we need to do on behalf of the business of the city. I've learned from you. I thank you for allowing me to lean over and whisper
in your ear about some things and and you giving me uh direction um allowing me to come to your office and talk to you. See, people don't see that part on the other side. They just see when we disagree, but we actually agree more
than we disagree. And you know, I always love this city and I I swear that I I express how I love it the most, but meeting you, you're one person who loves this city wholeheartedly and I just want to say thank you for your service.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman Kentana. >> Yeah. Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez, for your service. And you know, not just as a councilman, but as a friend. many occasions in your house and we met in
the back downstairs and yourself and you know this is something that I always treasure as a council person is not just coming up here and sitting up here sometimes you have to have that network of friendship
I remember the you know in the past it's always been relationships >> like the late Donald Tucker and myself who had a relationship and this is what council has we have to learn and when you open your door to your house on many
occasions and there was one election you drove me around I'll never forget that you were my driver and you said don't worry well we got to go I said Carlos I'm going to drive you crazy and you have always been a friend and um your
knowledge and wisdom to this municipal council means a lot to me uh the history of the city uh and you will be in that history of this city uh when the darkest days were when no one wanted to come to the city. 20 years ago, you couldn't do
much around here because people were having doubts and you didn't. I'm tax abate means you were always you have always asked the questions and always raised questions and conscience to this body. For for me, it's uh you know,
you're not retiring. You're not going you're just gonna relax a little bit and then on one of the trips you're gonna invite me to Ecuador with you and we'll spend a little time. I'm not buying a house there, but we're going to spend a little time together. And you and
Margarita, your wife, the deputy mayor, who My Garita, who's also someone who paved the way in this town. I'll be because of Margarita, the deputy mayor. What a deputy mayor, the wife of Carlos Gonzalez. What a family. And the
contributions that they've done for the city of Newark means a lot. Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Scott Roundry. >> Thank you, Council President. Well, Councilman Gonzalez, um I'm going to start off where
Councilman Canana ended. Um I had the honor of working with um the wonderful wife of yours, Deputy B. She was deputy mayor of community engagement, and I am sure she is pleased with the decision that you
have made to enjoy the rest of your life. What I admire and I thank God for on this council is your knowledge as um as an accountant um your knowledge as a legal legal representative
and at some point when I was working for the Booker administration I think you got your ministry license and that's true people don't know that he actually got a minister's license um so you're a minister legal know the numbers kind of
guy. And that is um such an asset because we all have our specialty up here and what we do. But it is nothing like having somebody that know numbers, nothing like somebody who knows the law, and nothing like having someone who will uh ask the necessary questions that you
might not be um able to ask because you're not knowledgeable on that level. So, what I have learned and and to uh Councilman Kelly's point, um we've learned from you and we do thank God for
your service to the city. Uh we thank God for your family that has allowed you to be and shared you with the many residents of the city of Newark. And I am sure the sentiments of this entire council is even though we don't want to say see you later, we will see you
later. But congratulations um for the work that you have done. And may God continue to bless you on the new journey that you're embarking upon when you decide and it's all done. May God bless you and your family as you enjoy the remaining years of your life with
your cigars and your hats laying on the beach. God bless you. >> Thank you, Council Councilwoman Day. Well, first I want to echo uh my council colleagues in first congratulating you on deciding to choose yourself, you
know, for for once and to be able to enjoy your time with your family. Thank you for your service and even before I came to work for the city as the workforce development board director, I remember working with you in the county. Um, and so I've I've I've seen you be a
public servant for a very long time. I'm not going to take it personally that you're leaving as soon as I got here. So, I I I will not, you know, my feelings are not going to be that hurt, but I'll definitely, you know, wish you well and just thank you for all that you've done for the residents of the city of
>> Thank you, Councilwoman. >> Let me let me just say that. >> All right, Councilman. >> Don't be too happy. I'll be here until June. >> Absolutely. >> July 1st. >> July 1st. >> Officially July 1. Yeah, June 30th. first.
>> All right. Thank Thank you. Um, so let's let's move on to the agenda then. >> Yes, we have an appointment on page 27 of the agenda. It's an appointment to the central planning board as a class 4
member. Andre L. Speak. If you're in the audience, please step to the podium. He is not appearing right now, but if he comes before the end of the >> certainly we are on page three of the
agenda, item five, reports and recommendations of city officers, boards, and commissions. >> Any questions from the council? >> Hearing none. Next item. >> Ordinances on first reading. 6FA is an
ordinance authorizing the first amendment to the original tax abatement granted to Cathedral Park Associates LP for an affordable housing project located in the north ward. >> Questions from the council >> hearing none. Next item,
>> public hearing, second reading and final passage. 6P SFA will be there's a request from the administration to defer attending the local finance board meeting. >> Thank you. >> B is an ordinance amending zoning and
land use. There's a motion to return this item to the administration. >> No, no, no. A second one. >> Oh, my apologies. So B, the zoning one is not >> is moving forward. B is moving forward.
>> Okay. So there's an ordinance amending title 41. >> Wait, did I say that backwards? Let me say you're right. I'm wrong. It's the other way around. >> Oh, no worries. So B will be returned to the administration. C is amending the finance ordinance for
prohibiting the use of city funds for fossil fuel. So just as to note to my colleagues, B is being returned to administration because uh it has to go before we received um legal opinion that it has to go before
the uh zoning board. So we have to do a a referral to the zoning board or planning board, excuse me, a referral to the planning board. Thank you said that. Referral to the planning board and then it'll come back to us for the us to vote on. but see we can move forward with and
and I do want to thank the uh administration, the mayor, uh the business administrator and corporation council um so that we can move forward and ban this or or prohibit the city from using
its funds to uh promote or to uh make having uh develop additional fossil fuel plants. Next item >> D is an ordinance preventing parking of
vehicles on front lawns. Sponsored by Councilman Ramos, second by Councilman Gonzalez. >> Any questions from the council hearing? None. Next item. I'm sorry. Let's go back to 6PSFC. Did you have the
sponsors? And >> my apologies. This is sponsored by Council President Crump, second by Councilman Council. >> Thank you. Any questions on on D? Hearing? None. Next item.
>> Resolutions. 7R1A is a temporary emergency appropriation for the Broad Street phase 2 pedestrian safety improvement citywide. questions from the council. I actually I do have a question on this matter. Um
this is a question regarding um to piggyback on on what Councilman Gonzalez would ask about u providing uh uh traffic devices to help pedestrians cross the street for those who are uh
blind and visually impaired. Can funds from this uh matter be used for those items? Anybody from Yeah. >> Good morning, council president? Council members. U Raymond Conion, assistant director of the department of
engineering. This particular project is extending from is on Broad Street from EMTT all the way to um possibly Thomas maybe South Street and as part of the scope of work it will include the APS. So there's going to be signaling upgrades. The APS is the devices for the
visually impaired. So it's going to include >> it will include Okay. >> Yes sir. Yes it will include them. >> Great. >> Councilman Gonzalez. >> Yep. How much does does it cost to replace one of those? um well in optimal um conditions right if we've already
have some signalized section that it does includes them it's about ballpark 5000 what we experiencing here in the city of Newark is some of our infrastructures of our traffic signal devices are antiquated so sometimes when it comes to replace that is probably double or triple that amount because we
will have to redo conduits new wiring um possibly even um trench across the roadway so installing new ones in some of the conditions that we currently have is greater. The 5,000 number is if the
current infrastructure is current up to date, >> up to code and then that we could just do a replacement, but in some intersection, which is the majority of the city, we don't have that. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome, Councilman. Uh uh thank you. You're welcome.
>> B is an extension of emergency contract for elevator inspections. Any questions from the council? I >> I know we we were in the process I don't know if we were in the process of of trying to uh work with a third party u
organization to get uh some inspectors in here around the elevators. Is there any kind of update on where we are with that? uh because I know that there are several buildings uh specifically even in the south for ward that needs uh re elevator uh reinspection and inspection.
>> Good morning, council president. The council um council's question. This is in fact uh uh our an emergency contract that we uh did an emergency decoration back in um October of last year as our elevator sub code um retire and we
engage a third party agency which is is what it is. This is now an extension from that emergency contract for an additional date to the particular company. And just to give into context right now that elevator company when they have been fully started since November to date they have inspected 266
devices throughout the city. That's devices that doesn't mean buildings. It's just some buildings have two elevators, three elevators so forth. They done already 266 and for the month of February they are anticipated to do an additional 150 inspections. Of
course, those inspection have yield possibly reinspections because of the condition of the devices, but this is what this is. It's an extension to the emergency contract. And in parallel, we're also working to do a long-term um implementation for do a proper contract for an extended period of time while
also we're also trying to find um individuals that we can on board as inspector to have it on the city. >> Yeah. Did did we put in place a plan for for urgent not to say that all are not urgent, but for issues that we know uh that were pending for a long period of time? Did we put in place to make sure
that they went back to these locations, 130 Chancellor Avenue, 25 Vanvelsa, and made sure that those units were inspected again? Was there a a a kind of of order that was put to to to this >> when we did the on boarding? That was
one of the keys that we did. I could provide you an update on those particular properties and give you an update on that on a separate on a separate >> that that would be good to know if they were put in order because we still yeah haven't had anything at 130 Chancellor 25 Van Velsa no reinspections no one else come back out and I know there was
other areas uh that were in need of just regular inspections so just the height of where they fall in chronological order would be good for us to know. >> We'll do. And can you share that list with the whole council too? >> Yes, we'll do. >> Thank you. Anything else from the council?
>> No. All right. Next item. >> C and D are state contracts for the purchase of salt materials. >> Questions from the council. Next item. >> E is a bid contract for water treating disinfectant.
>> Questions. Next item. >> 7R2 A through C or private sales. A is for two family two two family homes and one single family home to sell at market rate in the central and south wards.
>> Uh madam clerk, I believe we're going to uh as council as a whole return this to administration. >> Duly noted. B is new construction of three family home consisting of one owner occupied unit and two units will be rented at
market rate in the south ward. >> Yeah, Mr. President, I'd like to defer this item. >> Deferred by Councilman Council. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundry. >> Noted. and C is new construction of a mixeduse
building with a grocery store in the west ward. >> Um, so let's >> buyer here. >> The buyer is here and I believe well I don't know if the buyer's here but I know they spoke last time. I believe the councilman is all right. Councilman
uh Kelly we're on 7R2C the purchase by the manor. >> Yeah. Uh, I'm going ask that this this item be deferred. >> Okay. Def deferred by Councilman Kelly, second by Councilman Canana.
>> Next item. >> D is a professional service. D and E are both professional service contracts for planning consultants. >> Questions from the council. Next item. F is a resolution authorizing reduction in the number of subsidized
and designated home assisted units in the south board. >> Mr. President, they can come up and give an explanation. I'm clear, but just for them to give an explanation to those folks that may be viewing to get an understanding of of what is occurring on on South 11th Street. That would be good.
>> Thank you. >> Good morning. Andy Daniel, legislative coordinator for economic and housing development. Um, this item before you is an amendment to a home funds loan for Washington Bay. Uh, the original project was supposed to
be for five owner occupied home assisted units um to be to be sold and occupied by single family households earning 51 to 80% of AMI. Um during the developer's uh research
um and trying to get this development done um due to the change in the market and some economic hardships, she uh the developer had to change their project description. So instead of building five homes, uh the developer will now be making three units,
but it will still be um for the same purpose to be occupied by single family households earning 51 to 80% of the AMI. >> Council councel. >> Yeah. Can you just repeat the AMI again?
>> 51 to 80% of AMI. A quick question I guess on so does that change the footprint for each of the um three buildings because it was going to be five on that on those
>> I can get that information back to you by the end of business day. >> Can you provide us with that information just to confirm? >> Thank you. Anything else from the council? >> Next item. Thank you. Next item. SevenR3A is application acceptance of
grant funds for the 2026 local freight impact fund program. >> Questions from the council hearing? None. Next item. >> B is a professional service contract for the Central Avenue Bridge over New
Jersey Transit City subway. >> Questions from the council. We keep moving this down. Next item >> C is support resolution supports the preliminary preferred alternative for
Route 21 Newark riverfront pedestrian and bice bicycle access project. >> Let's get an explanation. I believe it's necessary for the study, but if we can get just a brief explanation of what this support resolution will do.
Good morning, Council President. Raymond Conion, assistant director, Department of Engineering. Uh to the question, this is a um pedestrian uh improvement project that we're working on. It extends from Rush Street down on Park Place, Center Street, all the way down to 21 Street. It's a bike improvement
plan, and um it also includes the project right now. This particular part of it is to um go into the design phase of the project so that we can based on um meetings that we have from with the local officials and also with public um
hearings that we had and now is to move forward the project with the design. >> Thank thank you. Any questions from the council? >> And just want to add ahead. >> The project does include the audible for pedestrian crossing as well. >> All right. This is a lot of good stuff
for you councilman. All right. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Next item. >> Seminar 4A is establishing the petty cash fund. >> Questions from the council. Next item.
>> B is application to New Jersey urban enterprise zone authority. >> Any questions? Councilman council. >> Yeah, Mr. Chair. I I do see uh the co invest new here. we get an update on I know we had 2025 uh UAZ dollars and uh I
know there were individuals that possibly applied for them and uh how did that work and and where what are we looking for um as we move forward in 2026 with with this UE council president council members Morning, >> Councilman Council. Yes, we had a
>> I'm sorry, just state your name for the record. Just >> Marcus Randolph Investn North. Uh we had a number of projects that we got approved by the Investn North board and also the council. Those are now moving through uh to for DCA approval. Uh but right now we have gotten Calabro square
that's done. Uh the Ferry Street improvement project that's uh that's partially done. We're waiting for the weather to warm up before the trees can get in there. We got West Ward and uh uh and South Ward facade program. People are applying for that and we're actually
having to have some open uh hours to help people become UBC certified to do that. The via transit uh program is wildly successful. That number keeps going up every weekend. Uh people using that. Um and uh we're trying to we had a conversation just last week about
getting more assistance from the DCA to get more of our projects through. out include the citywide facade program as well that I think we brought maybe earlier maybe late last year. So we have a number of these projects that are that are moving through uh you know this year you know there'll be another allocation
we working with uh uh with all the stakeholders about you know how the city wants to use these funds in 26 and 27. Any other questions from the council? Thank you Mr. Randolph. Next item >> C is designating bank depositories
adopting the cash management plan. >> Questions from the council. >> Next item. >> 7R5A is amending resolution to provide Ryan White HIV AIDS related health and support services.
>> Any questions from the council? >> Next item. >> B is apply and accept of grant funds. to apply accept grant funds for the upgrade of the city of Newark's public health emergency preparedness and response capabilities.
>> Any questions from the council? >> Next item. >> C is an exception to public bidding for the electronic medical record system. >> Questions? Next item. >> Seminar 6A through G are all
professional services contracts for the law department. A is for litigation defense. B is for litigation defense. C is for workers compensation. D is for labor and employment. E is for litigation defense. F is for
workers compensation. And G is for perdm attorneys in the north municipal court. >> Questions from the council hearing. None. Next item. >> 7R8A is a whole harmless for the annual M. >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We have
corporation council coming up. >> Sure. Just um I apologize. Can city nor corporation council just on page 19 and on page 20 uh the brick burn firm uh they have the people who do the work for us is from they have a office.
>> I'm sorry I can you hold the mic up I really having trouble hearing. >> Sure. So uh city of North Corporation Council Kenyatta Stewart. So, uh, page 19, 7R6B and then, uh, 7R6C. The address speaks to the White Plains
address. The the firm has expanded. The people who do our work, work out of the NORC office. That's the reason why we gave them the opportunity. They are um people of color who do their work uh, and they have an office in NORC. That's what this whole thing was about. I think
that's their guess their um big office for lack of better words. Uh but I think it should say the fact that it's a NORC uh business. >> Thank you because I was going to ask you about that later. >> All right,
let's go. >> Seminar 8A is a whole harmless for the annual mass dedicated to Roberto Clemente sponsored by Councilman Kentana. >> There a second. I second. >> Second by councilman uh Gonzalez.
>> Duly noted. B is a whole harmless for the annual Easter egg hunt sponsored by Councilman Canana. >> I'll second this one. I like Easter egg hunts. >> Thank you. C is a whole harmless for the
North Ward job fair sponsored by Councilman Ramos. >> Second. >> Second. >> I don't know who said second. I'm sorry. >> Second. Counciloman Scott Roundry. >> Thank you. D is an exception to public bidding for the cotification of the
general and permanent ordinances. >> Questions from the council. >> Next item. >> E is an exception of public bidding for the legislative management software. >> Any questions from the council?
Seeing none, next item. F is recognizing commending resolutions and G is expressing profound sorrow and regret. >> Questions from the council. Next item. >> 7R9A is an appointment of special police officers. All NORC residents.
>> Questions? >> I do have Councilman Gonzalez. >> We have a we have a list that of people that were grandfathered. I just want to note if they say the list of the newer residents have increased or
decreased and whether the the one that for individuals living outside the city has continued to decrease as anticipated. >> Hi uh James George, captain with the police department on behalf of the department of public safety. The list that's before you is all residents. Uh
the ones that are grandfathered in is a separate list. It's not growing because it can never grow. It's only people that were grandfathered in before the 2014 amendment. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Next item,
>> communications. Item 8A is an appointment of Mr. Spate to the central planning board. Mr. Spade in the audience yet? >> He's not. He said he's on his way, but he's not. >> Let's go to B, which is a reappointment to the central planning board of Mr.
Pertie. C is a reappointment to the Newark Housing Authority. Councilman Council, >> I want to sponsor that. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Everybody wants to second that one. Uh I want to say Gonzalez. I heard first
or Kelly. I let them find it out. >> Thank you. >> D is a reappointment to the Newark Public Library Board of Trustees or Miss Cooper. Any questions? Next. Next item. >> E is an ordinance of the municipal
council of the city of Newark providing for a cap ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a camp a cap bank. >> I'm sorry. So, I know we do this every year, but let's let's just get uh Mr.
Goosebond just to give an explanation. Good morning, council president, council members. Benjamin Guzman, acting director of finance. Yeah. >> Uh as uh stated here, this ordinance uh on communication today is to able to establish the uh cap limit on the appropriations for the 2026 budget.
Statutoily, a municipality is only permitted to increase it by 2 and a half% over the prior year's appropriations. um by uh we are permitted via ordinance to increase it up to a maximum of three and a half percent. What that does is again it
gives us the municipality the ability to increase their appropriations up to a maximum of three and a half% over the prior years. Doesn't necessarily guarantee that we will increase our budget appropriation by 3 and a half%. The cap bank portion states that if we
don't increase it by that maximum amount that we increase it to the three and a half percent we're allowed to bank that difference to be able to use in either of the next two prior next two succeeding years. So that way if there is a need to increase an appropriation over a certain amount we have this bank
this in order to be able to go and increase the appropriation should the emergency arise. >> Thank you. Any questions from director Guzma? No. Oh, >> we could go >> advance and adopt. >> Okay. Yeah, we could advance if Yeah, we request if we can to advance and adopt on first read.
>> Yeah. >> All right. We'll advance and adopt. >> Thank you, director. >> Next item. F is an ordinance authorizing the city to enter into a 5-year lease agreement with Newark Beth Issro Medical Center for rental space within
city-owned property at the health department to provide a food pharmacy. >> I'll sponsor. >> I'm sorry. You said >> I'll sponsor >> sponsored by council minutes and adopt on first. >> Second. >> Sponsored by council councilman council.
Second by Councilman Scott Rantry and advance and adopt. >> Thank you. Item 10, miscellaneous, is the raffle license today. >> All right. Thank you,
>> council president. Council members, we have four added starters that our corporation council will explain to you. >> All right. I'm aware of two. >> Good morning. I'll actually u do my best to list them all first
and then have the appropriate folks come on and give you more details about it. Uh so the first one is in reference to Covenant House. Uh it's uh EHD matter uh 26-0121. It's a subregation agreement. So, uh,
I'll have Brandy come down to speak to it in a few seconds. Uh, number two is, um, to send the fossil fuel ordinance, uh, to the central planning board. Uh, that number is 26-122. Uh, the third one,
it's a DPW item. That number is I'm sorry 26-0137. Uh that's in reference to a contract to uh shelter or warehouse our DPW uh snow equipment. You want to do it within the next uh 90 days.
And then madame clerk, I am missing one. 26-0137 >> 37. That's in reference to uh >> I'm sorry, could you repeat the number? Uh >> 26-0137. >> Okay. >> That's in reference to uh uh automotive
parts and assembies for light duty vehicles. So I'll have uh someone from >> That was the third one >> from the first. >> Yeah, that was they just repeated the number for the third one. >> Let me do my numbers again. Do my numbers again. I have 01, excuse me, 26137.
>> 26137. That was the one you Yeah, that was the third one you you gave us. >> 26 260122. >> You gave us that one. >> I have 260121. >> Yep.
>> You said four. That's three. >> 26. >> It's 0136 and 37. >> 036. What is I'm sorry. What is 36 then? cuz I didn't hear that one. >> Uh that's a um a source world uh cooperative contract
uh for procurement. Uh it's also an engineering item. So I have those folks come down to speak to it. >> Okay. So I'll start with EHD. Then I'll ask uh um Kareem to come down to speak to the DPW item. Then I'll ask somebody
from purchasing to follow up after that. Thanks, Corporation Council. Uh, good morning, council president, council members. Allison Lad, director of economic and housing development. >> Uh, the two items we have on, um, as potential addis starters are, as stated,
um, one is 26-0121, which is the Covenant House of New Jersey. It's a subordination agreement. As this council will recall, you recently approved a sale of the land to Covenant House and now uh they are looking for financing and in order for
them to receive their financing, they will need a subordination agreement of the reverter clause. This is something typical. We do this on a regular basis and um the reason for an added starter is that it was advertised for tomorrow's meeting um and we would like to proceed
um as advertised. Any questions from the council? >> Sponsor. >> Sponsored by Councilman Gonzalez. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Councilman Kelly. >> Thank you, Council President. The second is the Central Planning Board referral.
Uh that's 26-0122, the fossil fuel ordinance. Um, as uh you mentioned, council president, at the beginning of the meeting, this item will be referring the ordinance um as presented by the municipal council to the central planning board. We will move
quickly to have the central planning board consider this item and then have it back to council for final consideration. As a note, I have already had our planning director, Paula Vishindi, review the ordinance, so it should be able to move as quickly as possible. We did not want to delay um
but we did know we needed to modify the process. >> Well, thank you. I appreciate it because I thought it was going to be at the next meeting. So, kudos to the administration and yourself. >> Oh, we're happy to be supportive. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. I'm sorry. Any there no questions on Yeah,
>> we're good. Thank you. Thank you, dire uh deputy mayor. >> Thank you. Good morning, uh, council president, council members. >> Good morning. >> The the first item is >> I I hate to tell you this, but you got to state your name for the record, please. >> Um, >> even though we know you
>> Karine Madame, Mterm, director, Department of Public Works. >> Thank you. Um the first item uh 26136 >> yes >> is a cooperative agreement with source well right uh source well contract for
clear plan they provide prefabricated steel or buildings like we house our sort or some of our DPW equipment right pre pre-fabricated engineering buildings they come on a truck put them up in about 30 to 60 days right um getting
more snow equipment we need to make sure we restoring equipment inside, not outside. >> Any questions from the council? I'm sorry. Were you finished? I didn't mean to cut you off. >> So, that's that's store the to store the equipment so that if it snows, it's not
covered with snow, I suppose. >> Thank you. >> I have a question, >> Councilman Silva. >> Uh, director, just a quick question. Is that one location that that will be that will be done in? Is that one location? >> No. This is this is a contract for us. When we need to put these things in
certain areas of the city, we can put it up. >> So I I I I think I brought it to your attention that we have land in the east ward, privately owned and city owned. In my opinion, you're the expert on this. Each ward should
have its own facility when it comes time to snow removal because the conversation I had with you before the snowstorm was the people that were cleaning the east ward were coming from another part of town
and I don't think if we know a storm is coming that that benefits the east ward or any ward um if we somehow during prior to a storm could put these vehicles in a place where they could be
utilized better or getting to the snow issues a little better instead of them having to come from somewhere. And then my second question was just to get off a little bit this, how do we track these third parties that are doing the snow
removal for us? How do we track them? How do we know they're actually cleaning the streets? >> So, two things. one the first question is I mean the administration in 2024 we started opening up satellite centers in
all five wards right so some of those satellite centers we don't have structures at all of them but most of those satellite centers they have salt in each one of them it's about two of them that don't so these pre-fabricated buildings we can put up quickly and put salt in other places um your question
about how the vendors check in and then deploy to different areas our check-in process is how we time to the vehicles, right? They need to check in. As we get more efficient in that, we we'll think about what we talked about deploying them in different wards, but they need to check in one place first. Um, all the
vendor vehicles are GPS, right? They're GPS. for the GPS tracking in the vehicles. We started this when Councilman Council was there and we continue to do that even new vendors that come in and our supervision
monitors the streets and stuff that we do right with the with the vendor vehicles. Um, so that was that was your question, >> Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you, Councilman Ramos. >> Yeah, I was I was going to wait till the end, but
you're here. Councilman, Councilman, um Councilman, >> you know, and and and again, Councilman Ramos, >> I I appreciate the efforts of of the director and his team. And you know, I just think that um at some point we should have some kind of debrief on because there's a lot of moving parts
here like like this morning, you know, left um my location about 7:45. I didn't get to the Hall of Records till almost like 9:15. And you know, some of these are county roads, right? I reached out to Sanjief
and you know, there I I think at some point we need to sit down with the sheriff's department. We need to identify streets within the city that ahead of a storm like this, like the police division needs to be aggressive about enforcing no parking. Uh we need
to identify some hubs uh beyond schools because schools are tight, right? Like they open up two or three days after a storm, they need access to their parking lots. just got to be church property, other resources that we can redirect um residents to park in in those lots. Um
but but just this morning driving on Broadway uh between the Second Precinct and Third Avenue, there were 19 snow covered cars. So this means those vehicles have not moved since before the storm. And I guarantee you that a number
of those vehicles are connected to like used car dealerships that operate on Broadway and they park on the street all the time. So, you know, it's really an enforcement issue that impedes your ability with your subcontractors, with
other personnel to effectively, you know, plow uh some of these streets. Mount Prospect is another disaster, right, with the bike lanes, whether they're protected bike lanes or unprotected bike lanes. We got people who park on the bike lane and park next
to the bike lane. So, a storm like this again presents some significant challenges to your team because those streets are not cleared out prior to the storm. So, you know, I I I pray that this is the last snowstorm of the season. Um, but I'm pretty sure that it
won't be the last one that that we have to deal with over the next few years. And, you know, we really got to pull some of these folks in that have responsibility uh to to do a better job on their end to make your job easier. >> So,
>> that's my two cents. >> And and I'm what what the plan was is to have a discussion at the end of the meeting. >> Yeah. >> I walked in late, but somebody from engineering was parked in my spot. So, >> no. Yeah, we know how that goes. Trust me, I understand. So, if it's okay with
the council and and with the director after we finish everything, we'll have a discussion with uh with the director. Is that all right? So, back to on snow, but go ahead. >> I'm out of here after this, but let me let me do the next start. >> Yep. Go ahead.
>> The U 26137. >> Yeah. It's a vendor that we buy that repairs our snow equipment and that we buy parts from to repair stuff inhouse. >> Very good. Any questions from the council?
>> All right. Thank Thank you, director. Don't go too far. >> Yeah, I had another non snow question and I I don't know if um folks it's not related to you, Kareem. Uh folks from UEE left. I I wanted to ask through your
chair and the clerk. I I received some inquiries from some of our small businesses about this um facade program that supposedly is only being piloted in two wards. So, I think some of our north ward uh businesses are asking I I did
reach out to Deputy Mayor Lad. Um they use UEZ funds for this program. So, I'm hopeful that, you know, it's available to anybody that's eligible to receive a support for that program. So, >> yeah. There's a question through your chair. Maybe they could answer it prior
to tomorrow's meeting. >> Let's see if we can get that answer. All right. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Councilman. >> Pri prior to uh Councilman Ramos coming. Um Executive Director Randolph did speak about the um program around the facade
uh usage and that they were working in the south, some in the west, and also in the north. and they're trying to get more people uh to get engaged in it. So, I think it's it's probably important that they send out the information so that everyone know that collectively. >> I think whatever is out there just
restricts it to the south and west right now. So, I have some Bloomfield Avenue and Park Avenue businesses that are asking. >> Yeah, let's get clarification on that. >> Thank you. >> Public comment. >> Yep. We are in the 30 minute public comment
portion of this meeting where each speaker will have three minutes to speak. Please state your name for the record. Is there anyone wishing to address the council? >> Kier McDougall Gonzalez, I'mma miss you, baby. You had all the good questions. I'mma miss that insight. I think we
going to have a film guy coming up there. It seems as though we got a film place coming up in here, but you know, that's just me quick thinking. Good morning, council, council president, council members. >> Morning. I want to begin with a quote from James Baldwin who said, "Not
everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it's faced." That quote matters because there are things happening in Newark every day that are easy easy to overlook precisely because they happen quietly. Here's one example. In Newark, many workers follow
the same routine every day. Construction sites, warehouses, home care jobs. Same shift, same bus stop, same route. One day they don't show up. A job site is short staffed. A family loses income overnight. A senior who relied on home
care worker suddenly has no help. Children come home from school asking why a parent isn't answering the phone. No violent crime occurred. No immediate public safety threat was resolved, but a household and sometimes an entire
support network was destabilized. This matters because when most people hear ICE, they assume enforcement is focused primarily on dangerous individuals. In reality, enforcement often prioritizes predictability, people who are working,
housed, documented in systems and easy to locate. ICE does not operate alone. It relies on advanced data platforms that connect addresses, employment records, court data, and family ties. Much of that software is built by
Palunteer. A private firm paid millions to make enforcement more efficient. Here's the point that deserves this council's attention. Public pension funds in New Jersey, including funds supported by public workers, are invested in
Palunteer through the New Jersey Pension Fund. Now, somebody go to Mikey Cheryl and figure out what's going on. because how we fighting ICE and then paying for ICE at the same time. I'm going to come back and speak more about that, but I
just wanted you to know I'm I'm up on that. I'mma miss you, my boy. I'mma miss you. The insight, the intellect to know to ask questions. Um, yeah, granddaddy's doing pretty good. He's getting better. you know,
some people had threw the dirt on him before he was even out the hospital, but you know, that fighting spirit continuing to fight. And um I want you on top of this on your last time here
because you know the numbers. Find out why this is happening because it's not supposed to be happening. Gonzalez, we can't talk out of both sides of our face. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, Monera El Bummani,
you You know why you got the name failed leadership? No other way to describe you. Failed leadership. Failix. No other way to describe you.
This is the worst administration and municipal council in the history of this city. GO AHEAD. SOMEBODY SAY IT'S NOT. Say it. Say it ain't THE WORST ADMINISTRATION and municipal
council in the history of this city. One resigning and I hope some more to go. That's all I could say. Thank you for resigning. THANK YOU FOR STEPPING DOWN AFTER 20 YEARS of
nothingness. $4.5 MILLION FOR ELEVATORS STILL BROKEN DOWN. 6.6 MILLION ALMOST 7 MILLION FOR SNOW REMOVAL. And you HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN A
CLUE FROM THE LAST ADMINISTRATION. Uh uh under um what's this guy here? Uh council. EVERY YEAR THE SNOW REMOVAL IS A FAILURE. Grade F.
BUT YOU GOT A PLAN TO GO AGAINST THE DEMOCRATS. I mean the uh the Republicans and Trump. THAT'S YOUR ONLY PLAN is to attack. BUT YOU DON'T HAVE A PLAN TO ADDRESS THE HOUSING CRISIS, THE HOMELESS CRISIS,
the snow removal, THE ELEVATORS, ALL THE MILLIONS. ALMOST $1 BILLION DOLLARS TO ADDRESS HOMELESS AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T EVEN SCRATCHED THE SURFACE. A eviction TSUNAMI
THAT'S GOING ON AND YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A PLAN TO ADDRESS THE EVICTIONS. FUDGE CRIME REPORTS. FUDGE HOUSING REPORTS. FOR YOU. AND I I HOPE YOU DIDN'T JUST SIT THERE AND LISTEN to Kadim or Kareem,
whatever his name is about the tracking and all this bull crap. He come up here with the uh uh uh BULL CRAP TALKING JOB TALKING. You just had to sit there and JUST LOOK BACK YOURSELF. uh um silver
and thank you for PUTTING UH IN SOME WORK TO GET THAT SNOW UP IN EAST Ward because North WARD DIDN'T EVEN FOLLOW SUIT WITH YOU. SNOW PILED UP TO THE SKY ALL OVER THE STREETS IN NORTH WARD. >> Thank you for your comments.
>> Fail leadership. No other speakers appearing. Public speaking is now closed. Um, one of the things we talked about doing is is to have Mr. uh, Director Adem come up and just give a little debriefing on the
snow removal and what occurred over the last week. Director and then any questions from the council? >> Yeah, Mr. share one before the director comes up. I think it's important that they break down the stages because so
many times we just hear snow removal, right? There's different processes in this and I think we really have to begin to understand it, right? There's a pushing process, there's a removal process, uh, and there's certain times where where these things begin to happen. So if he can break down both of
them to begin to give some understanding and then ultimately to understand that people's frustration about not being able to move around or what happens uh really identifies with the fact is they really don't care what the situation is. They just don't want the the snow in in
in front of their property. But the city's responsibility to make sure that the the streets are clear and clean for passage and movement. Uh because ultimately there was a lot of different factors that that was happening that was going on and until we really begin to address this holistically as a
community. Um not out of emotion but out of strategy and system uh from making sure in front of our houses are clean for making sure that we understand the proper way to shovel and move snow to our sidewalks from in front of us to in back of us and then uh to ensure that
they have proper passage to clear some of these streets and things up. I was involved uh in a fire on on Seymour Avenue where cars didn't move, didn't want to move, and people were throwing snow back in the street. And at the same time, the fire department is running in
to try to get a family out of all of these houses. Uh there was nine families affected in in one home and and seven uh in another one. So, some of these things are very serious. And I know there's a lot of people that can be cynical about all of this other stuff, but people that
are getting caught in in fires, they don't have the opportunity to be cynical. They need to be saved. So we like we we we really have to begin to put our arms around this and and recognize that all of us share levels of accountability to make sure that our
community, our streets, uh in these instances are are handled and taken care of appropriately. even some of these bad landlords who don't show up to clean up in front of their their properties. We have to begin to look at what that what that means in terms of assessing higher
fines, higher penalties uh to some of these landlords who may not live here. Uh but wherever they are, their properties may be clean, but you know, in front in front of other properties may not. And so, you know, we really have to really be laser focused on on how we you know, attempt to deal with this. So,
>> Mr. President Council Councilman uh Ramos. >> Yeah. And and again, I I I want to commend Kareem and his team and Pat Mike and I were at the OEM on on Sunday. We know how hard they work. We we appreciate the folks on the county side that talk to Sanjief almost daily. Um
but but just two quick points again on my end is that uh in preparation for a storm like this, we we need law enforcement's help to um enforce like no parking on certain corridors in order to enable our DPW crews to do their job. I
think if we allow people to park on some of these major corridors and a storm like this, you you you're going to see a situation like what I saw this morning where you had close to 20 vehicles that have been snowed in since prior to the storm and in a major a thorough affair
like Broadway. We have the same problem on Springfield Avenue, Bloomfield Avenue, where cars were not removed. And as a result of that, you went from three lanes to one lane. It just creates chaos and traffic. And and I'm I'm hopeful that we can do a better job of
designating these no parking areas in every ward of the city. and then getting local police and and the sheriff's department to pitch in to to enforce the no parking prior to the storm to enforce no parking during the storm. Uh it's
it's chaotic and not reasonable and and like councilman council, we had three fires uh in the north ward over the last seven days that the night of the storm on Wakeman Avenue, we had five properties uh that that were impacted as a result of the fire and and talking to
the crews from the fire division, you know, they had a difficult time accessing that street because it's a very narrow street. Um you know, thankfully no one was hurt. Uh but but these were row houses where the fire spread rather quickly and we had like 32
people that were displaced uh as a result of that fire. So, you know, I just um again moving forward maybe uh pulling together all the potential stakeholders, identifying parking options for residents beyond schools because I know the schools are are
limited in in the amount of property that they could offer us for parking, whether it's churches, um you know, some of these abandoned properties that were that are in uh looking to be developed in the future that could provide surface lot parking.
We we have assets in every ward that I think we can lock in uh to to allow our residents to park and and I know some people are concerned about liability, right? Because that's one of the things we get back is well what if somebody gets hurt and we allow them to park on our property u which is a valid concern.
So, you know, figuring out ways to to address uh some of those issues that that property owners may have if they allow us to to uh uh encourage residents to park on their property. So, but again, I was there that that Sunday, you know, that I know that the the city was
meeting, they were planning, county did a very good job as well, but this was a very challenging storm and the the the weather that came after the storm made it even worse. >> I mean, it's it's like a giant iceberg out there on our streets. So, >> definitely. Thank you, Councilman.
Councilman uh Canana. >> Yeah, just observing. Thank you, Director Kareem. Rio and I had a conversation prior with during the storm. What happens is we got to register all these companies to come and
we need to know who they are and hold them accountable because what they do is they come clean lot and they bring it right to the street. you know, the driveway, they bring it right to the street and it creates a problem and they'll do a nice beautiful job on a
parking lot, but they put our the snow right on the street. So it's you're if you talk about properties that have lots you know like house uh senior housing uh board of education that use private companies we need to have make sure
Kesha that we find some way to get an ordinance ready uh that they would have to register with the city of Newark knowing know who they are because what they do is they plow the stuff the snow and just keep going to the next stop and
it creates It's a problem. Uh New Jersey Transit with the bus shelters. People were on top of a mountain trying to get to the senior buildings too throughout the city in front of Video Victoria. People couldn't get out of the uh
because it was just horrible. Uh so whoever companies they're working with, they need to say, "Look, take that snow out." uh in terms of the bus shelters, in terms of the police department back in the early and 90s, the police
department was deported to be out in the different sectors deploying tax uh traffic out of the city. There was such a traffic all over the city. We need to do better with the traffic, people coming in and out. I know the snow was
an issue, but traffic was just a a horrible and moving forward uh you know the storms are not as easy as people think. They cost a lot of resources and you know everyone says well my lot my house my front my house should be
clean but we also have to put our part to it too and make sure that we tell the people I got I called you up. I got into an argument with a guy on the street and he was just cleaning the stone throwing on the street and he said call the
police and you know it's just I mean the guy said look I ain't I and I was like really trying to be nice to the gentleman but he was just upset where do you want me to put it? I said put it back at the car. But again, these are issues that we have to and we all
have to bring, as Councilman Ramos said, bring everyone together. The housing authority, the board of education, NJIT, Ruckers, all these institutions got to come and have a plan. And they have to submit a plan to the city of Newark. What how are they going to dispose snow?
How they going to get rid of it? And who are their who are their vendors? >> Thank you, Councilman. I I'll just add just a um I I agree with the uh particularly the traffic on Thursday with the Devil's game. It was like a
perfect storm. It was the between the devil's game and snow removal and the snow that was built up. I I had someone uh say that it took them over two hours to get from Audible, which is Washington Park, to Hill Street because of the
traffic. and and you know, maybe there's a situation when things like that happen where we could have more uh of the traffic officers out to help control that traffic because it was just it was unfortunate. I mean, you know, it's not something that happens regularly. We normally do have traffic officials out
there, but it just seemed like it was for situations like that where it seems like everything is happening at once. rush hour, the normal rush hour, that devil's game, removal of snow, deposits of snow elsewhere, uh was just like I
said upon lack of a better term, a perfect storm for what occurred. So, that may be something to add to the the pile or suggestions that we have for uh city council from the city council to the administration. Uh council woman, do you have no
councilman coun uh councilman Silva? Um, just uh thank you to Director Adine uh because they're removing piles of snow that we made in the east ward. I was able to secure a few parking lots uh and I want to thank those business owners to
allow us to store um a lot of that snow. Um I can't believe how much snow we put in there, but uh we've put uh large large amounts of snow in those lots. And again, uh Director Redeem, this wasn't an easy storm. Like my council
colleagues said, uh I have never seen I've live been living here for over half a century. How cold it's been for consecutive days in a row. I had never seen that before, especially after a snowstorm which made the job obviously a lot more difficult. You know, the snow, the ice, the weather um combination just
made the everything more difficult. But I do agree with what my council colleague says and I'll I'll say it. The board of ed needs to do a better job. I had to go ask a business owner for a
favor to clean East Side High School because the principal and his staff couldn't get into the school. The board of ed needs to step up and do schools in this city. They have a responsibility to make sure that their
students don't have to climb over mountains or have to go around two blocks to get into the school. They need to do a better job. And I know uh I believe Councilman um Quintana mentioned transit. Transit as well, the bus stops.
you know, we're we're starting to do the work of all these entities and then our constituents end up suffering because we can't hit some of the streets or or there's still snow on certain streets, they have to take accountability. They have large budgets as well and they
have to take some responsibility. Now, what I did see driving around for hours and hours and hours again and and I asked that on a day like this that code enforcement comes in full force is what Councilman Quintano was saying. People
putting their snow in the street, parking lots, people cleaning out their private businesses and putting the snow out in the street. Those people need to be fined. There's piles on corners in the east ward. I don't even know how they got there.
But we need to start holding other entities in this city accountable because we shouldn't be doing all this work and it affects our constituents. It affects the streets a lot of times. Uh
I'm getting complaints from residents that snow and it's not the snow or DPW. It was individuals that created this problem. And I have no problem in the east ward code enforcement going out, north police
going out and enforcing these laws that are in place. But again, like Councilman Ramos said, I think we should have some type of briefing with all the parties before we know this is happening so we can be
prepared better. We were up at the community at the uh we drove through the storm council Ramos. I was very impressed with the operation, but we need to get more of these entities that I mentioned involved in helping us with the snow removal, especially the
schools. There's no reason why they should be calling my office to remove and help the schools when they have a larger budget than the city of North does. They need to have a plan in place.
We had Ant Street playground available for parking. School closed Monday and Tuesday and they wouldn't let us use the parking lot till after 2 p.m. on Monday. So, anybody who parked there only had a few hours. That doesn't make sense. These entities have to work with the
city. We have to come up with better agreements. We have to do better during these storms. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Beck. Councilwoman Beck, excuse me. >> No, definitely I I agree with uh
Councilman Silva as far as making sure that everyone uh does their fair share and I also agree with Councilman Ramos in reference to us um having a briefing and coming together and and putting a plan together. Um, I do want to thank
uh, Director Adem and his team for being so responsive because, you know, my team and I, we're fielding calls from community left and right, different things happening. Um, because the city gets blamed for everything. If there's snow and ice in front of businesses and
people aren't doing their share, and we talked about transit and and property owners who don't live here and they're not taking care of things, everything gets put on the city. And so we need to make sure that everyone does their fair share and takes uh responsibility for
what is theirs. But I definitely want to thank uh Director Aden because every time we reached out to DPW um his team were they were on it, they were really very responsive to uh community concerns and the constituent issues and I just
wanted to thank him for that. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Scott Roundry. >> Yes. Um, I too want to thank start out with um thanking uh Kareem Medine. Thank you council president uh for the work they did. I believe uh councilman council it was 1996
uh that we had one of the largest snowstorms that we've had in a long time. We've had one recently maybe 2016 that was just a little bit more than this. Um I I it's an act of God. It's not like we have control. Uh, Newark is one of the largest cities and is the
largest municipality in the state of New Jersey. So, I I hear the constituents, but I also hear the administration because some of the towns that were calling us saying that New York is not doing their job.
Those towns you could put inside Newark five times. So, they didn't have as much snow to clean. So if someone called and said, "Why are you not doing what Harrison is doing?" We can't do what Harrison is doing because we have over 800 streets, if not more, that have to
be plowed. So yes, to all of my council colleagues point, great ideas. Come together, be prepared. The meteorologist is the only one that can give you some information and be wrong and still
keep their job. So they can tell us four inches and we get 12. >> So you might prepare for seven and end up with five more inches. Uh and as Councilman Silva said with the ice and the cold, if you don't move that snow
immediately, I mean like immediately after if you have a 24-hour snowstorm, by the time you take up half of it, you got another six inches. So I understand the operation. We've sat at 480 Clinton Avenue. I didn't sit this time, but I've been there for some of the worst storms.
So, I really have to commend you. And to our residents point, we got to do our best to do better the next time because we can always do better. And thank you for your comments. And thank you for your concern and your calls. But until
you sat in the seat of the director and the people that have to go out there with those trucks and move this snow and hear the complaints after it is two degrees to below on top of the snow, it it can be an issue. So yes, we can do
better. And I got to thank you because every time you got a phone call about a problem while you were already doing a job, you addressed it. Your people addressed it. So whatever we can do to come together, Councilman Silva, Councilman Gonzalez, Councilman Bay,
Council and Council, whatever we can do to come together for the next when it comes to an act of God, you can't really do with so much planning. So thank you for the great planning that you did and thank you for the teams that sat at 480 and monitored. There were
people monitoring every 15 minutes, 20 minutes of what was happening. And a lot of people don't know the work that's done behind the scenes. Nobody's sitting at home because they can't get out. There people that were actually finding a way to get to OEM or trying to find a
way to get to the emergency station on that morning, Sunday morning, so that they can monitor and track. And you don't see that. You don't know who's sitting at the table saying like, "Oh my god." Because we're not on Facebook. We're not calling RLS. Channel 12 News not covering that. They not following
the demon. the trucks. All they see is the results that they don't think that we have handled the way that we should handle it. So, thank you community. Thank you city of Newark and thank you Adine for doing the best and the greatest job that you could have done in
the midst of this snowtorrm. Thank you, Council President. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Uh Councilman Kelly. >> Uh thank you, Council President. Um this snowstorm is uh has really caused a
lot of problems for our residents, for our workers, our cities. Um director, I think that you're uh you always do a great job in in everything that you get involved in. Just from my experience,
um I remember it was something that I I reached out to you. Well, I didn't reach out to you. I reached out to one of your workers about it might have been something in sanitation and it didn't get done and I and you said make sure that I call you and
you know I I reached out to you for for the snow but I I don't have the same experience as my other colleagues like I I don't feel like I got the same response. Not saying that you didn't do the work because I I live in the west so I I see some of those streets all all
plowed and and things of that nature. Um I think it was just the kind of individual things that we needed help with. And that that doesn't necessarily mean that you didn't do or send a crew to do the jobs, but I think we need to
find um a better process for helping our seniors out. I get a I've gotten a lot of calls of um snow removal in driveways and and cars. You know, I'm glad that Councilman Council said that there's a difference
between pushing and removal. >> Uh I I think my question is one of my questions is are we doing removal in the West Ward? And if we're doing or or are we just pushing in the West Ward? And if
we're doing removal in the West Ward, where is that happening at? Where where is that where is it going? Um the reason why I asked that because I have several calls from seniors trapped in the West Ward. Um and some of the blocks are
still, you know, really can't navigate through. And uh with that, I had to form my own crew. I put my own crew together. of a team of about 20 young people and
they went around actually shoveling seniors out, shoveling driveways out. Um, that's because I I felt like the calls were urgent and I wasn't I know and it doesn't mean that it wouldn't have been responded to. I just think
that it was urgent enough that that type of action had to take place because of the type of snowstorm it was, the blizzard that it was that we were everywhere else all over the city. And so we we did that. But I I wanted to
know if there's a a certain process when we hire these third party companies to come in and shovel our snow. Are they removing? Are they just pushing? And if they're just pushing, they're blocking cars in. Is there a second passage that
or a process that we have these drivers or these companies coming in to is there a process or vehicles or machinery that doesn't allow them to block the cars or if they do a second passageway, does it clean the driveway? I've seen in some
other cities where they actually have machinery that shovels push and then skips the driveway. I mean, uh, clears the path of the driveway. Um, you know, so these are these are mainly questions
for our disabled. These are mainly questions for our seniors. And, you know, I I really, like I said, I had to bring in my own crew to help out those people in the West Ward. So, and then like I said, it doesn't say that you you
weren't doing your job, but I don't have the same experience as the other council members. So, um I believe that we really do need to sit down like Councilman Silva said before when we know these storms are coming in partnership with
the county like uh Councilman Ramos has said as well because then we can really discuss hot spots and areas you know up in the upper section we have a lot of narrow streets and I know you know this director too because you live there. Um,
a lot of these streets are very hard to maneuver through and I'm still getting calls to today and I'm sure all of us are, but it's it's just starting to get frustrated. I seen three accidents today. I got a call from Mount Vernon School this morning on my way into the
council meeting about three teachers with three accidents. So, it it's it's very frustrating. And it's more frustrating when it doesn't seem like the snow is being removed and it's only being pushed to be piled up or block a
car in or block a driveway in. So I I would love to have that same experience as the other council members up here, but that just hasn't been my experience this go around. >> Thank you, Councilman. Uh I believe director, you want to come up? As as you
do come up, though, let me say Okay. Well, we get Let me let me say to Director Adem, I know you stood up, Mr. Ba, but I will say um although you've heard a number of challenges, I just wanted to be clear also that from the
council, you heard uh a number of us talk about the appreciation of the work that you do and what you did. So, I I I think that's important. We don't come up here just to Well, I want to thank you for the work that you did, too, Mr. VA. >> Good morning, Eric Pennington, business
administrator. I appreciate that final comment of you want to lay out the appreciation first. Uh, however, it's an appreciation, but and I understand that the primary job when there's a snow event of more than 2 in is to plow the
snow to clear the roadways on the uh primary streets, then the secondary streets, and then the tertiary streets. that is we want to get the black top at least uh one to two lanes on the major roads so that traffic can get through. I think DPW and the city did an
extraordinary job in that regard of getting to Blacktop. The sounds like many of the problems that the council has raised u are with respect to snow removal. It is almost impossible for there to be a snow removal when our
residents and others don't move their cars. It is also impossible to have snow removal when the residents and business owners uh move the snow and dump it back into the street. It is illegal. It is dangerous and it makes it
extraordinarily more difficult for our DPW and uh third party vendors to do the work that they are tasked to do. Uh the third thing I will say and it was raised here is that in this event uh well in in most snow events we rely on the weather
to help us because typically uh one or two days after a snow event or even during a snow event the temperature rises above 32 degrees and it helps the snow melt. This is an extraordinary time where we've had over 11 days in a row where the temperature never broke uh the
the the 32 degree mark where the temperature froze. I think uh Reverend Roundry indicated that that's an act of God. There is nothing we can do about that. All we can do in that regard is to ensure that our residents help us. It is illegal for any car to be parked on a
snow covered street during a snow event. They have to move their cars. We don't have enough snow trucks, police or others to make sure that every car is moved. I think we did an extraordinary job again in making sure that our ambulances, fire trucks, and police
could get through to deal with emergencies. Absolutely. We could do more, particularly if we had an unlimited budget, which we do not have. We need the help of our residents. We need the help of the council members to identify uh areas where individuals can
park. If you know where they can park and you can get us that information, we will push that out. we'll get out there and get that done. Councilman Silvin, looking at him now, indicated that he had a crew of people who moved snow into piles and then we came and removed the snow. So, we worked together to get that
done. I thought it was pretty successful um in that regard. Um I I I guess the the the point I'm trying to make is that this is a cooperative effort, cooperation from uh the city, business owners, residents, and others uh to get
the to get the job done. We will continue to try and uh have a removal effort. Uh and I'll ask uh Director Adem to to speak to that. Um, and what we have to do, perhaps we can do a better job of identifying the streets that we
are working on plowing out so folks can move their cars, but to Councilman Kelly's point, cars are snowed in. That's that is not our uh fault. The issue is we have to plow the snow. When we plow the snow, driveways are going to
be plowed in. We need the help of residents to uh remove that snow onto lawns, onto the median between the sidewalk and the street, uh onto other areas that are not out into the street.
That's what we need the residents to do and they have to cooperate. We don't have the equipment that they have in Ontario, Canada, in Skenctity, New uh Pennsylvania. I don't know where Sketi is, where Skenctity is. U in those cold weather areas where they have machines
where they come out with humongous snow blowers where they are followed by 18he trucks and they move that and they have some devices where they have arms that can go down and remove uh snow from driveways. We don't have that. And we do not shovel out driveways. We don't
that's not a service that we can provide. it's not something that we can offer here. So, we need help in that regard. Um, again, I want to end with just saying that it's a cooperative event. This was an 11 in snowstorm. We don't get those that often. Uh,
relatively speaking, clearing out the primary and secondary streets. I I think we did a a great job. There's more work to be done. Uh, we are praying for warmer weather that will help us. Uh, in the meantime, we need our residents to help us, too. and they got to they got to shovel their own cars
out. That that that is the bottom line. I'll answer some questions, but I'll certainly turn it over to Mr. Redeem uh to address it. >> Councilman Kelly. Um yeah. Uh thank you, BA. Uh I think mine was more of asking
is there a process in place? Um you know, I've been in this city my entire life, so I've been through all of those big snowstorms. And I do understand that that when a plow comes through, it blocks the cars in. That's not my question about how do we get, you know, the cars out. I'm just saying in regards
to our disabled and our seniors, it do we have a plan in place? Um, I know that they called DPW, they call, but it's an emergency, right? So, it's a lot of things going on that they probably don't get through. So, is there a process in place that we can help our seniors even
though we don't technically um clear driveways or we don't clear um their vehicle when it's trapped because of the plow? Do we have a process or they have to fend for theirelves? So, this is why I I formulated a crew at the time
because I didn't know of anything and I couldn't reach anybody. So, I just made a 20man crew myself that actually went around the West Ward of the calls and the complaints that I personally got and this is what we did. Like I said, I I think that that the director always does an amazing job at the things that he
does, you know. Um, and I think that the city did too, but that just hasn't been my experience this goound when it comes to specifically helping certain individuals. And as you said, we don't we don't do that, right? We don't get
block cars out. We don't clear driveways. But should we or is there a plan when it comes to our elders? Shouldn't we be able to be able to help them? >> Yes. To that to that point, Councilman Kelly, let me answer your first question first. Is there a plan? Yes, there's a
plan. I tried to articulate it as briefly as I could in the beginning, and that is in the first instance to clear out the primary routes, those emergency routes, the major thorough affairs so that folks can get through. We do that. Then we go to the secondary roads and the tertiary roads to get those open to
allow vehicles to come through as well. With respect to emergencies, we will absolutely do everything we can to assist an emergency situation with respect to an elderly person who has an issue uh and needs to get help. Some of the things for example if they have
medical equipment and medical devices there is uh information that needs to get to public service electric and gas company to make sure that they are on notice if uh if their power goes down for example th those uh u communications
are available in advance. If there was an individual had to get out of their house we would have our fire department go and get them out of the house for some medical emergency. No question about that. We have done that. Um that has been something that we do. Uh we have uh uh engaged minute men mostly
with trucks and plows to assist on the smaller streets. And we discussed having Minutemen with shovels. I believe we engaged some of them as well, but that was mostly to shovel um access ramps, ADA ramps to get through curbs and uh streets. If there again was a medical
emergency and we had to get a senior to a location, we could certainly use those minute men to engage to help get them out. But in the first instance, that's done by police, fire, and EMS. And uh we are on top of that and do that. If you're talking about shoveling out
someone's driveway or their car, that is typically not something that we do. But again, if there's an emergency, particularly if there's a life hazard issue involved, we'll address it and that will become a priority. Uh thank thank you m Mr. Ba. Uh >> would you like to hear from director Dee with respect to uh answering other
questions and specific because it sounded like there were some specific issues lack of communication and whether or not >> and there may be some information that Mr. Excuse me director Adine may want to provide. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Council President Director
>> Council members Kareem Medine, interimm director, Department of Public. Um, just to give a little clarity, a little more clarity on what the BA said, our primary focus during any type of snow event is to is a pushing event. You push the snow. You
push push push until the snow stops. When the snow stops, you start a salting process, but you start salting the streets. Unfortunately, this wasn't just a snow event. This was a snow event that stopped and came into a ice storm on top
of the snow, right? The last time we had one of these was 2018 and the city was gridlocked, >> right? For about 24 hours, all the highways was gridlocked, right? So, a lot of us forget this, right? It was this ice it was a small snowstorm and
the ice storm came. I do agree right with the with council rainbows and the BA about, you know, working more with public safety in the county and getting some of those snow covered roads removed. Um, our main focus is push, push, push.
All right. And we're pushing, we're clearing the main arteries, the main quarters to get those open. And the purpose of getting those open, we want to make sure that the fire department, the police department, and the amalams can get through these streets. So you always see us focusing on those main
corridors, right? Um what we also don't realize we we're dealing with four fires during that time, not just three, four, right? Um in the north ward and in the south ward. So our focus is right, we need to respond to make sure the fire trucks can get through, right? Double
parking, everybody know parking is huge in the city, right? Throwing the snow back in the street is huge. I'm not going to make excuses. Um when we start going to the secondary and triestary streets, our thing is like the BA said to get to black top. We right,
our vendors are there to push and salt the streets. Push and salt the streets. Push and salt the streets. Temperatures went as low as below 7 degrees in the first three days after the snow event. Most of us don't know
that, but it did. But our DPW crews are working 24 72 hours, right? When we get we fatigue starts setting in. My job is to make sure I'm protecting those men and women that's out there working for DPW to make sure fatigue don't set in.
We get a fatality. We got to shut them down. Our vendors come in and we start monitoring them. This storm is unusual because you know when you look at the tri-state area that experienced the ice storm
no not even New York Jersey City or Bayon or some of the closest city were able to have a passable city within 24 hours. Brian Lair said it not me Brian Lair Friday on NPR that Newark New Jersey was 95% passable 24 hours after
the storm. And he explained what that means. It means you can drive through the roads. I work most of your council. I live in the west. I love I love where I live at. I'm I'm doing my job, right? My biggest obstacle and I happen to run run into the mayor because our mayor was
out there, right? Not some of the councilman was out there, but our mayor was out there was to see how our residents throw snow back into the street and then call and say, "We didn't come through your street." That's a problem. I I've been through as a little kid, I lived the blizzard of 1982,
right? I I lived the blizzard in 1986 working here working here in the city right when we all had to come to work but we didn't get we still had to come to work I lived you know the 2015 blizzard with Pat council 29 in I live
the 2018 the 2021 >> this was a different type of a storm only because of the ice storm the ice and the temperatures normally 10 in city open back up um so after we do the main roads and get the roads So our next thing is to ensure
that the firehouses are free of snow so the fire trucks can get out. Can you imagine that if if if we didn't focus on the main roads and then making sure we cleared around the firehouses and the police stations so our public safety team can get out. Then we got to go
around the hospitals to make sure we got access around the hospitals and the dialysis centers. We all that information that you may not know that we have because we got to make sure these places are clean and the shelters. Our next thing is after we get that under control, we start looking at, you
know, we want schools to open. So, we got to start pivoting to try to clean around the schools as much as we can to what the access we have at that current time. It's important, right, to make sure we right. It may not
be a 100% job at every school, but we need to make sure that we do a good enough job with the access that's available to clear around the schools. That's important. Then after we clean around the schools and the dialysis center, we're going to pivot into the employee parking lots that's owned the
employee parking lots and the public buildings that the city own. A lot of the calls that we get is not a DPW related incident. Hey, after working about 78 hours, I still had to go home because nobody
cleared my snow. I live on Carrian, by the way. My street was okay, but nobody cleared my snow. I had to shovel my wife's car out and bring my boys out the show, right? pushing into the street. The obstacles
that we face and we always face these and you know every director probably face these is pushing the snow back into the street. We, you know, running AC. I understand the residents do it, but the vendors that do it. I We had a huge issue on Broadway, huge issue on
Elizabeth Dap, huge issue on um Washington Street, University Street. Look, we do meet in OEM pre-torm. We have a pre-torm meeting. We meet with Exus County, uh all the hospitals, all the colleges, EMS, by Port Authority.
Everyone's there. Everybody has a plan. until the event happens. Right. Everybody has a plan until the event happens. >> Right. Or Mike Tyson say until you get punched in the face. >> That's right. >> Right. Sometime with your plan, you do need to pivot. You pivot on the
conditions that's available to you at that time. And that's what we we continue to do. A snow removal operation happens on the main corridors first. The snow removal operation happens on those main corridors because we continue after
the plows come through to try to widen them as much as we can and then we start obsessing the city and start moving snow in areas that we that we can move snow in the main corridor to widen them up. A snow removal operation is not every block. It's not intended to be every
block, right? We do understand like what Councilman Silva did and there was a couple couple of other councilmen throughout the city, right, that you had vendors or you had volunteers that came in with equipment, back holes or whatever and they stack snow and they move snow and they came and did something for some of your residents
that may were blocked in. And listen, we coordinated with them to put the snow somewhere, right? And some of that stuff we removed, not all of it. Some of the stuff we removed, but not all of it because it's not a snow removal event is not citywide. In addition, you know, um, fatigue,
employee fatigue, dealing with three flies. We had two water mane breaks, right? Our job is to make sure that the water department can get to those water main breaks and fix those things during subzero conditions to make sure people have heat.
Water main break. When it breaks, you got it's already below seven degrees. We need to repair the water main breaks to make sure they got heat back in the house. No water, no heat. Um then we DPW's job is not just only snow
snow plowing salting and snow removal. We had to deal with two city hall flooding. Several pipes broke in city hall that flooded this building. Most of you may or may not know. I think the council know right because started up in your right on both sides of city hall.
We're still doing that. um our continuing effort to to work for this administration to go out and and do what we did in this storm. Um our
expectations sometime are unrealistic to what we expect to do versus what we actually know we're doing until you go out there. A lot of times you need to be out in the streets to see what's actually going on. And I commend everybody that comes out and see what's
going on, how we're moving stove, making stuff accessible, right? Um, but we don't, like the BA said, we don't come and shovel driveways out. We don't we we've never did it since I've been here. I've always seen the nonprofit organizations or the
volunteers that come out and help do those type of thing on the community block association. Our thing is to make the streets passable and very open for our emergency vehicles and residents to get through in case they go to school. But I just want to clarify a lot of
those organizations, council, my council uh colleagues, they do meet with us before the storm and during the storm at 480. Yes, we still have an ongoing removal. So, so the ongoing removal we're we're
right at the ongoing removal process. We're we're we'll be posting a list, right? We'll send it to all the councilmen on the areas that we're going to continue to remove snow. >> And just with that, director, you also post it on the city website. >> In the city website, that's that does
that doesn't mean everybody's street. I think we have this misconception that I'm going to go in every street and remove snow, but it's just some areas that's designated that snow needs to be removed. Right. And then the other thing I think Councilman Silva in the BA talked about, we don't have places to store all the
snow, but it was great that we had the two lots in your area, right, to put that in and some over here. Um, but we do identify areas where we put snow. So, the ongoing snow removal um has hasn't ceased. We just need to get a
grip on what we're doing to make sure that fatigue is not setting in and we start responding or wasting our resources on things that we don't need to and getting the biggest bang for our buck. It's expensive to remove snow. >> Yeah.
>> All right. Director Adem, thank you so much. Anything? I can't even see him, but I hear him tapping. Council >> McK thank you for that. Uh, director, can with the list of the streets that you're going to send the council, can you send the list of the nonprofits that
actually help do those things that you guys don't do? Um, that you said you meet with. >> I don't have the list of the nonprofits. I'm saying through my history in town, I've seen the nonprofits come out and help work with different council members to get things done. I don't have a list myself.
>> So, we don't we don't know those who those nonprofits are. You're just saying that >> I know UVSO helps sometime. I can tell you that in in your my in our area UVSO comes out to help. >> Okay. >> They all provide services. >> All right. Thank Thank you. Any any other questions, comments from the
council. Uh thank you again, Director Dean, for the work that you and your team do. We we really appreciate it. >> All right. Last word from the BA. >> Yep. This is the last word. Has nothing to do with snow. Actually, I just want
to take 30 seconds point of personal privilege, particularly before Councilman Canana Rainbow Sleeve to let folks know that even though I'm on this side, and oftentimes it may look like I have an adversarial relationship with the council, I just wanted to congratulate Councilman Gonzalez, who
I've known for 35 years, uh he and I were classmates in law school. We uh fight up here, but we never fought back then. and uh he has been a true friend and an outstanding colleague. He's raised issues that we have to address.
He makes me work harder, think harder, and make sure that I'm in a better position to provide uh good service to the residents and make sure that I address issues that the uh council needs to know about. Uh he's been a staunch advocate. I will miss him and I hope
that we have an opportunity to continue our friendship as uh he moves on to the next chapter of his life. He's a great man. Thank you. All right, with that being said, >> all right, I think that's it, right? There's nothing else. Uh, Madame Clerk.
>> All right, everybody, have a wonderful day tomorrow. Well, today and see you tomorrow. >> All right. I'm teaching.