Good morning. Welcome to the special meeting of the Newark Municipal Council on Thursday, August 28th. In accordance with New Jersey Law, adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the Star Ledger, the Jersey
Journal, and the public at large establishing the date, time, and location of this meeting. In addition, the agenda for this meeting was disseminated on August 27th at the time of preparation and post on the website of the city of Newark. Roll call.
Council absent. Gonzalez here. Kelly absent. Kintana in attendance. Ramos here. Scott Roundtree here. Silva absent. President Crawl present.
Council president. Council members. We are on page four of the special meeting. Item 7R4 AS is confirming bond sales. Can we get uh in
[Music] Good morning, council members. Benjamin Guzman, acting finance director. This resolution is to authorize the sale of bond anticipation notes. The city currently has outstanding bond anticipation notes that will mature uh at the end of September and this is to authorize the sale of the new bonds so
we could roll over these notes. There is some principal payown on the existing notes. Those will be paid down along with the uh required interest payments and then these will be sold to uh roll them over for an additional year. Thank you. Any questions from the council
hearing? None. Roll call. Council absent. Gonzalez. Yes. Kelly absent. Kintana, yes. Ramos, yes. Scott Roundtree, yes. Silva absent. President Trump,
yes. 7R6 and 7R, I'm sorry, 7R6 and 7R6BS are both dealing with transitional aid.
A is to resend the resolution and B is to authorize the transitional aid loan agreement as amended and to provide for additional loan support for 2025. All right. Thank you, Madame Clerk. Uh M
Mr. Ba. Good morning, Council President. Council me Eric Pennington, business administrator. Both of these documents are connected. The first one is to resend last year's uh funds that we received from the state from the
transitional aid fund. But uh to be clear, we are not under the opices of transitional aid. This year we are getting an additional $30 million from the state um with respect to uh the city's budgetary needs and the $22
million that we received last year will be the payments will be deferred until 2027. So we have to resend last year's uh agreement and incorporate that into this year's agreement to uh close our budget gap. Thank you. Any questions from would it
be Councilman Gonzalez? Yes. What's the payment uh period for the the two loans? The 20 uh $2 million loan. The payment terms are deferred until 2027 uh payable
over five years at 0% interest. The $30 million loans is essentially a a six-month bridge loan that will be due uh next year in March. We expect that we will renegotiate that at the toward the end of that time. Yeah. The the other thing is let's see
we have it's also 0% I forgot to say I'm sorry we had a shortfall of 22 million last year we had a shortfall of 30 million this year what is anticipated shortfall coming coming or what we are doing to
avoid a shortfall in the years to come. Great question. The principal basis for the shortfalls is because we have not had a reval in a significant long period of time and that our ratio uh has dropped significantly from two years ago in the 80s to 90% range down to less
than 50%. Which means that uh the sales of our houses which is a good thing have increased disproportionately to the assessed values of the properties. So we are now required to pay an additional amount uh to the counties to adjust for
that uh uh the ratio in the property valuation that will continue next year. Um and so we have to take some uh sterity measures to make sure that we address that because we have at least one more year we'll have that uh ratio
deficiency as well. We have implemented, as I'm sure you know, a hiring freeze and a uh salary increase freeze other than collective bargaining agreement mandated increases. That has had a positive impact. We expect that that
will continue next year. We expect that the departments are going to have to u face some reductions in what it is they can do going forward. Not a blanket across the board uh reduction. It'll be more surgical in terms of the the let's say the
difference in the rates that affects how much money we have to let's say to rebate to let's say to people that challenge the tax assessment. How much has that been in the say the last two years? How much money have we had to pay
back to the taxpayers for let's say for when they challenge the rates? Uh it there's a it's a two twofold answer. One, I don't have the specific numbers for you and I can get that to you. But what we often do is uh
defer it defer for and give well not I don't say defer. We give credits rather than an actual refund. So I guess you could say defer as it as it moves forward. And that is our typical approach is try to uh give credits moving forward rather than make repayments. But I can get that
information to you. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Ramos. Yeah. Uh Eric, the um equalization issue, the the the amount that was included in last year's budget was how much? The the deficiency $22 million.
Okay. And this year is it's approximately the same. No, it's about 30 million this year. About 30 million. Okay. So So the loan covers essentially the um the gap that's created by this equalization issue. That's right. That's its intended purpose. And when do you uh anticipate
the reval process to be completed? Fourth quarter 26 first quarter 27 probably being conservative the first quarter 27. So the um 27 budget should not be impacted by this equalization issue based on correct projection.
That's right. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Any other questions from the council hearing? None. Roll call. Council. Yes. Gonzalez. Yes.
Kelly absent. Kintana. Yes. Ramos. Yes. Scott Roundtree. Yes. Silva. Absent. President Trump. Yes. 7R8 is the introduction of the 2025 annual
municipal budget and the public hearing will be held after September 24th, 2025. Mr. B. Good morning again. Eric Pennington, business administrator, council president, council members. The uh administration presents to the council
the introduction of this year's budget in the amount of 970,180,79027. Um sort of as a preamble I want to suggest that a this budget really has a three-fold purpose. Um the first of which is to minimize the tax increases
of the residents who are already faced with a overburdened fiscal responsibilities and deficits in their lives elsewhere and we do not want to make it any worse than than it is and certainly want to keep it at a a level um that is manageable. Uh the second
thing I would say is we want to maintain the services that we provide here in the city and and indeed improve them as as we've started to do in DPW which is on a lot of people's minds with respect to sanitation, collection and recycling. And the third thing is to avoid furloss
and layoffs which we've been able uh to accomplish and we expect that we'll be able to continue doing that. any cuts in employment we expect will come through attrition and just uh minimizing the um the hiring. Uh bearing that in mind, we
will continue to make sure that we have adequate staff in critical areas and particularly pay attention to revenue generating areas which we uh need to pay attention to and make sure that we can increase the revenue to uh the city's
fisk without increasing the taxes. Thank you, Councilman Ramos. Um, do we have a schedule yet for the for the hearings? Um, Madame Clerk, or not yet? Not yet. No, not yet. So, so your your revenue numbers that
you're projecting in this budget, you know, being that we're close to September already. You you you have a good sense as to whether or not, you know, your projections are on target or they're off. They're on target with the adjustments that we have. I mean there's you should
have a tax analysis sheet that indicates there is a uh you know an increase in the rate and with that increase in the rate and the austerity measures that we have taken we expect to be right on target and also in line with the uh funds that we're getting from the state as well. So yes.
So did did the estimated uh tax rate that that went out does that mirror the rate that's included in the uh budget we're introducing or is there a difference? There's a difference. It's fairly close. Uh, but there is a slight difference. Thank you.
You're welcome, Mr. President. Councilman Ramos. Councilman Gonzalez. I mean, Gonzal, I'm sorry. I'm looking at her right now. We look alike. My fault. My have a little more hair. Someone has hair. I'm younger. Councilman Gonzalez, you are giving
Councilman Ramos a lot of credit. I'm sure he's thinking I'm drinking my coffee. All right. I see that the tax rate on the city side went up like 9%. Uh that's unprecedented.
I believe that uh in previous years we have had a 2% increase 3% increase. This year is like if we take 19.1 199 divided by the 2.135 is 09%
uh or 9%. Erh let's see how are we going to justify to the residents of the city of Newark an increase of 9% in the taxes uh the city portion of the taxes because the school
is not that much and the county actually has a reduction uh so I I would love to to hear from you let's say how how is it that we are going to and how we went around the 2%
increase that this the statute let's say recommends the state statute recommends or allows 2% and we are increasing it 9%. Well the that that is a good question as Miss Bay points out the
um I guess the there's not a short answer there's a a long answer but I'm going to try to consolidate as best I can. The overall tax increase when you can include the municipal levy, the board of education, and the county tax rate is more in line with about 5%, five and a
half percent. We have under Mayor Baraka's direction work diligently to keep the tax rate low and as you point out, it's been no more than a 3% increase over the last seven or eight years. Uh when our increases are so low and costs increase, there's a gap
somewhere and at some point there has to be an adjustment. uh that catches up with with that gap. We're at a point right now where we have still managed to maintain less than a double-digit increase where other urban centers and and neighboring municipalities have had
double-digit increases 13 11 12%. Um and we have not done so. That's their overall rate, not just their municipal levy. So even though you point out the missile levy is more than it has been in recent times, if you uh look at what we've done over the years, the average
increase is still uh comparable or or much much better than other municipalities have done. And we're faced with a significant challenges. But as I indicated at the outset, you know, we have a three-fold objective here. that is to keep that tax rate as low as
possible and still provide the services that these residents deserve and make sure that we don't lay off people or furlow them. We could certainly do that. We don't think that's what we should do. Once this is introduced and we presume you will introduce it, you'll have an opportunity to look at it yourself and
make suggestions. I would implore you not to um try to reduce it to the point where we have to have any layoffs or furls. I'm sure that I'm sure that that's something that you will look at as well and likely uh would would not do and that's why we are at the rate where
we are. Uh but it is to make sure that we have the best overall rate that we possibly can while maintaining the status quo as best we can. Yeah, Mr. B is talking about services. Yes, sir. The garbage collection Yes sir. has been,
let's say, horrendous, especially the recycling, the carton recycling more than the the glass recycling. Uh, what are we doing to improve this that service? because that's one of the most visible services
that we have that police and fire that determines more or less how people let's see rate the city in terms of of services and we are failing in some of those. So what are we doing? Thank you for that question. You may you
perhaps you you you recall when I first got up here um I acknowledge that that was one of the areas that was a challenge and it has an issue that we have to address. I'm not hiding behind um you know any rock to suggest that we
don't have uh more work to do to to address that area. Um and we do. So we have as you know we have a new interim director of DPW to implement uh changes to improve the collection of as you say
particularly recycling but sanitation as well. Um I think based on the um the data that we get from our 4311 call center that quite frankly the complaints have gone down. I wish Councilman Silva were here. I get more daily uh um issues
in the east than anywhere else. Those have decreased as well. This is over the last 30 days. Just over the last 30 days. So it is insufficient to say that we are um where we need to be. But I think that there's sufficient data to suggest that we are headed in the right
direction. When I talked about uh earlier making sure that the reduction in staff would be through attrition, uh that doesn't apply to DPW. DPW still has the opportunity to hire as necessary. There's also a plan in place right now.
The unions have been notified that all staff in every area of DPW, which includes uh building service workers, laborers, people who are in Miller One who take the take care of the outside parks and grounds and corridors, all of them are subject to be reassigned to
make sure that we have sufficient people in the areas of most significance. that includes recycling and sanitation collection. Uh some of the building service workers here in city hall have already been put on notice that be that they are being reassigned. That's my
understanding that some of you got a letter from some of the disgruntled uh employees whom I've spoken to about why that's happening. But you have raised the issue uh I think more clearly than anybody else as to why that is happening and we will continue to do so. We will
look at areas of critical need. Um, and we will within the confines of the collective bargaining agreement make adjustments that this administration believes are necessary particularly based on feedback that you give us directly and from your constituents uh to make sure that we do provide the
services that you've talked about. Thank you. You're welcome, Mr. Mr. President. Councilman Ramos. Yeah. And we we don't need to delve into a lot of detail today. But as we get through the hearings, you know, I'm just um interested in hearing from the administration about, you know, what's
driving the increases. I know in a lot of municipalities, different levels of county government, the increases in health benefits costs attributed to the uh state health benefits plan is driving up, you know, cost. I know the administration settled
a number of contracts uh last year. So I would imagine that you know on the salary and wages side um that's going to drive up some of the costs because you have contracts that have been settled whether it's across the board raises additional steps that employees may be
eligible for. Um, so I'm I'm also curious to see where some of the revenue projections off, you know, which is uh contributing to the gap um are our losses and federal funding uh impacting
the city's ability to um you know balance it budget essentially because some of the offsets and and grant losses may have to be made up with city funds at this point. So, you know, just just information for for you and your team as we um get ready for the hearings.
Yeah, your your observations are spot on. Uh although with federal grants, we have not realized as uh significant a decrease as we anticipated this year, but we do expect more next year. Uh but you hit hit the nail on the head with
the largest two drivers of uh what the uh has caused the increase. One is healthcare costs. Even though we are not in the state state health benefit plan and have benefited from that uh our benefit has been realized in less of an
increase not a decrease. So we have cut the gap uh as what the increase would be substantially based on not being in the health benefit plan and going uh to the reference based pricing or that option is available. Um and we expect that more people will sign on the reference based
pricing and will save us more money. The other is that we have negotiated almost all the contracts last year. There are about two or three that are still left. The Norfk fire officers union is still out. Nurses are still out. I think there's one other. So there's uh three three contracts that I'm working on
right now. But the average annual increase over the term of those contracts, which are either three, four, or five years, has been two and a quarter percent increases average across all of them. Um and we think we've done a fairly good job with that. But we have
to pay them. You know, they they uh the cost of living goes up. The employees deserve to have some increase. Uh and they've gotten it. I will note that management has not gotten an increase and we have been uh uh aware that some
of that burden falls on us and we have to take that responsibility. Uh I will look at that in next year's budget. We'll see where that stands, but I don't anticipate there will be any retroactive increases for management as there were with the collective with the rank and file who have collective bargaining
agreements, but your points are all well taken. We'll have more detail as the hearings go forward. Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Council Me. I kind of agree with uh Councilman Ramos. It it'd be nice if we can maybe get a one pager that may show Council President Crump, I have to say.
I can't hear you. Can't hear me. I'm sorry. Is that talking? Oh, okay. Please everybody in in the in the gallery so that we can talk amongst ourselves and we can hear each other. Um, with regards to uh a possibility,
not possibility, can we get a maybe a one pager of of what the significant uh increases in costs or expenses were from uh 2024 to 2025, as well as
some of the grants or revenues, revenue that we did not receive in 2024 versus 2025. So we can kind of get a little comparison. I think that would help us with our analysis too. We could I can certainly do that and I will. But as I just indicated, the the
grant differential has not materialized to be as detrimental as quite frankly I thought it would be. We're not we're not there yet all the way and there are certainly rumors and threats of callbacks. So there's still that possibility. I'll get that information
to you, but I don't expect that you'll see any significant any significant. Okay, that that's fine. Just Mr. Chair, council meant councel. Yeah, ba. So, we talk about other variables that help to drive uh what it
is that we have to do as a municipality. Um the the the back end of stuff, whatever the the the uh fragrance is around uh grant gener generation. And I know that's not one end of it, but I think on our end, our particular focus
in need has to be around uh areas in the city that create revenue opportunities. Uh uh one and then assessing uh the the benefits of us being able to uh extend our help and services to entities that
are supposed to be helping to drive uh revenue in this city uh by way of commerce and all these other things that are not happening. uh to begin to scope out and look at what they're doing budgetarily by by means of what the city has provided and given and to begin to
possibly if if those goals or um you know data points not being reached to be able to you know pull back and assess on that but we really have to have a laser being focused on entities that we control in terms of driving and delivering uh you know revenue in the
city. Yes. Thank you, Councilman Council. To to that point as well, the areas where we have an opportunity to drive revenue uh actually they're few and far between, but but they are real and there are opportunities for us particularly in uh
our pilots making sure that the those are payments in le of taxes that they're all uh compliant that we audit the information that we get from them so that we make sure that the ultimate revenue that we get is is accurate and appropriate. uh special taxes. We have
the payroll taxes, parking taxes, uh uh let's see, payroll taxes, parking taxes, and a few other special taxes with respect to somebody just said hotel taxes, and they're right, but the hotel taxes don't come to the city. The hotel taxes essentially a pass through to the convention bureaus. That's why I didn't
mention them, but but you are are right in the audience that that is another special tax. the the payroll taxes. Um we are working with the state right now to make sure that we can cross reference the data that we have with the data that
they get. They have a much better uh system of getting accurate information from uh companies who have employees that have to have payroll taxes. Ours is a self-reporting sort of an honor system here in the city of North. We're going to uh check the self-reporting and the
the the honesty of those with the state. They've agreed to work with us to cross reference that data and we are putting together anou right now. Those are the types of things that we need to do to make sure that we maximize our revenue opportunities and we'll do so and and I certainly look to you uh to make more
suggestions and we we will accept them and incorporate them. Anything else? Councilman Council? No. Uh, Councilman Gonzalez, let me follow up on that payroll tax because we have been working with the
state to try to uh to reconcile the the tax the tax returns that are submitted here with the quarterly reports that are submitted to the state and uh we have been trying to do that for some years now and uh we haven't been successful in
in getting the state to cooperate. Are we getting any closer to them cooperating? Yes, I've had discussions with the treasurer, with the governor's office, uh his senior adviser who's responsible for budget and treasury liaison. Uh
we've had significant discussions with uh Ben Guzman and Wita Jordan where we have gone back and forth recently with commitments that will get the information that you're talking about and they've actually been very very responsive and supportive. So, I'm grateful to the governor's office right now. The other thing is that at one
point in time, I think we had an exemption for uh people that had salaries of $2,500. I think it was uh quarterly uh I don't remember the number, but it was a it was a a low number. Those
individuals were not required uh to pay the payroll tax because it was a minimum. Do we have an exemption or everybody has to pay no matter what the salaries are? There are a couple of exemptions. One is if they are uh nor residents and their
other is a dimminimous number and I don't recall what that number is as well. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Anything else? Council. Thank you, Mr. Ba. You're welcome. Roll call. Council. Yes.
Gonzalez, yes. Kelly, absent. Kintana, yes. Ramos, yes. Scott Roundtree, yes. Silva, absent. President Trump, yes. Communications
item 8 is an ordinance authorizing a special emergency appropriation. Council hold to advance and adopt this item on first reading as 6FA. Mr. What is this? What is a special appropriation?
Yeah, I was going to ask somebody from the administration just to explain it some of our contractual obligations. Good morning, council uh council. Council member Benjamin Guzman, acting finance director. Uh yes, this ordinance for the special emergency is for
contractual obligations of severance liability. Uh and this will give us the opportunity to be able to by doing a special emergency if need be uh authorize special emergency notes, therefore bringing some alleviation to the city's uh budget and being able to uh account for that.
So in essence, instead of having to budget the entire amount in a particular year's budget, we can spread it over a number of years and if need be, we can sell special emergency notes to cover those costs and pay them over a five-year period. Thank you. Any questions from the council?
Hearing none. Thank you. Roll call. Council, yes. Gonzalez, yes. Kelly, absent. King, yes. Ramos, yes. Scott Roundtree, yes. Silva, absent. President Crunk,
yes. The ordinance adopted today on first reading will be advertised in accordance with law and a public hearing will be held at the special meeting conference on September 9th or as soon thereafter as practical in the council chamber.
Public comment. Yes, 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. Alif Muhammad. Good morning, senior citizen of New York. Morning. Um,
Lisa, I want to apologize to you on behalf of New York. You said they didn't have a deficit. Now they borrowing money, so it's a deficit. You said the taxes was increased almost 15%. Now it's 9%. And he's saying that's it might be more. So
I want to apologize to you on behalf of North New Jersey because I know he don't have the class to get up to see because he walks around like you crazy. ain't nothing ain't nothing crazy about you. I was coming here today just to watch the drawing and um
what happened was I was with Gail and let me make this close. I'm supporting Gail Cheneyfield for Central Ward in the special election. So let's make it clear. The reason why I'm supporting her, she don't even know I lobbyed her. I wasn't even talking to her. I went to Felicia and uh Lisa and say could y'all
tell Gail to run because I thought she was the best person before she ever said I lobbyed her. She didn't know. But anyway, I know one thing. She won't abandon us like the Monica did. And y'all was all here last year this time when I begged her. Remember I begged her
to resign. Remember I begged her and she didn't. So a whole year the senior citizens in the Central has to have no representation. I begged her. But for political reasons to get Larry in that seat, she resigned.
Now, Gail also told me that she got a letter from the council president saying that if she go over minutes again that she's going to be banned for one year. And when you look at that wall up there, I see Gail, I see Mildred, I see Maria
Vonte, I see all these men. The woman did 15 years of service down here. Give her courtesy. If you don't if you didn't interrupt her, she probably instead of seven, she would have finished in six. But the but to extend the most harsh.
See Larry, you becoming political because you want her to go over so she can't come down here and talk because that last conversation that she had, she had 30,000 views. That's political, bro. give her a courtesy for the time that it
was an insult when Sharp James came down here and y'all to let her speak and the son was sitting there. I don't even want to talk about that. All the years that somebody come down here. Well, if y'all didn't have a second job and y'all had to live off like Louise off of the salary, you'll see it ain't enough. I
remember I spoke at the board education and Dawn was the president and I went over. It was about when Leon when they was crying about his contract and I went over a minute and you know what she said? She had enough class. She said, "I have to let him go over. He's my elder. She's your elder.
She's your elder. She's your elder. Respect your elder cuz I know you were taught that way. Walaykum salam. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Good afternoon, Felic Singleton. It
feels good to be back in this building, but there's a lot of things I want to say. you were talking about the budget and they um a letter was sent out to say that the budget needed to be termed in in April. We're now here in September.
The lack of services that's being provided to the residents is just unbelievable. And then you saying we have to put a budget together. Well, I'mma tell you what to do. All the offices of the mayor
of homeless prevention and office of violence prevention need to be cut out. Needs to be cut out. They It was the county's responsibility to place the homeless. The city decided to jump in and now you got a mess.
A mess in housing in just the community is just broken. I cannot believe that we have representation cuz you are advocates. You are advocates to sit up there and
help the residents. And everyone up there know that I will come to you personally through email, text, or whatever before I ever step foot to this mic and say anything about an issue. You know months in advance, I've tried to work with you. I don't care what people
say about you. I am here for the residents. But the lack of resources and incompetent people that we have in this city has to stop. That's why he's getting rid of the uh he's trying to go third party. New York housing authority
is going third party is because y'all let Mitti take control, put Dash Carter down there at the housing authority and she hired incompetent people. The same thing that's happening here in this building. You got Kyle Watts over
here ripping up people applications, talking to people nasty and homeless services. These are people that's going through stuff. It was okay when y'all set up here and let your friends and family get get hired and now everybody's in the uproer
is going third party. He should. It's just the good people that's there will get trapped up in the the no good nonsense that was there. Nobody had nothing to say when he hired incompetent people in there for $70,000
not showing up to work, not doing their job, not applying for the Ross grant, not applying for the no grant. They took money from the housing authorities budget that was supposed to go to residents to pay people in resident services cuz they didn't do their jobs
and apply for grants. And at the end of the day, you wonder why people are here mad. Y'all people walk up on me, size me up. I'm not scared of none of y'all. God got me. I hope he has you.
Thank you for your comments. Speaker, Lisa Parker, good day. Criminal cult that's running our government. I call y'all criminals because this word salad right here that y'all don't read, this is this is a translation of it. The city
of Newark is facing a a crisis, a fiscal crisis. When I came here and bought all of my flip charts and told you I pulled all the budgets from DCA last year, you
was in a debt and a deficit. You got the Halo building with a 25-year tax abatement. You got Smitty on my block that owes you $1.2 million in property taxes. You got another building
on White Cliff that owes 862,000 in property taxes. Let me explain something to you. Last year when you went up on our taxes 7% then you increased our taxes this year
7.8% 8% that comes out to 15% tagged on with the revaluation. Instead of y'all taxing the people that should be paying taxes, you saddling the debt with homeowners, small businesses,
and this this BA here, you should be voting a no confidence in him as a BA because he has been fiscally and financially irresponsible for a budget. We didn't get a budget last year until
October. And so let's talk let's talk about and break this down what he just did. You took out a loan for 22 22 million. He's rescending that and then adding
another $30 million to that of which you supposed to be paying off in 20 2029 to 2031. Why are you saddling my kids and my grandkids with this debt? Because y'all
are irresponsible. The last council meeting, y'all approved a ordinance for the Riviera. Five deferments. Should have went back to the administration after the third one. 3.99
is $4 million over the next 10 years. That's $40 million. where that money supposed to come from while you helping the Riviera renovate and do all kind of hocus pocus and you ain't got no homeless dollars. That's criminal.
That's irresponsible. And yet the good working people in Society Hill can't get you to write legislation for a tax abatement extension. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.
Good morning, George Tilman Jr. Good morning. Um, I want to talk about the tax abatement moratorum that was supposed to be in effect on August 6 that was initiated by Councilman Gonzalez. And I want to appreciate you for sir for taking a stance like you
said cuz on August 13th there was a tax abatement committee meeting that um went forth without Councilman Gonzalez who said that he was going to support the moratorum to make sure that Newark residents were protected and the
administration would do what they have to do to come into compliance so that New York residents are protected. Um, we talk about this this uh tax increase. We talk about all this money that is owed
to the city. We look at these tax abatements. We we're giving away uh tax abatements to developers who owe $1.5 million. We we have over uh $45 million in debt that's owed by these tax abate
tax these tax abatements and these developers. But these taxes are going up. I'm very disappointed at you, Councilman Council. I'm very disappointed that you councilman Councilwoman Roundtree, you said that you was going to support uh Councilman Gonzalez because it was the right thing
to do because administration is not in compliance. Councilman Council, I'm disappointing you because you should have supported your council colleague who's supporting the New York residents because the administration is non-compliant. So this is what we get
when we get this Baraka team. We cannot have Baraka teams. We have to have people that represent the people because you were you were you were there to take a stance for the people and you said that you were councilwoman Roundtree and I'm very disappointed because on August
6 you said I I firmly stir for stand for with Councilman Gonzalez and support the residents and what was right and that was right what he did and councilman council was wrong that you took the chair position knowing that that the government is non-compliant. And I asked
you why you're doing that. You said Councilman Gonzalez has a right and he has his opinion. No, he didn't have an opinion. He took a stance for New York residents. He took a stance for the people. And now we have a process that has to continue with the government
non-compliant. So we need some answers from you, Councilwoman Roundtree, because you said you was going to support it. And Councilman Counsel, we need some answers to why you did not support it. and you a member of that tax abatement committee.
Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Seeing no one else. Public speaking is now closed. Anything from the council. Yes. Counciloman Scott Roundry. Thank you, Mr. Tillman. Uh thank you, Council President. Thank you, Mr.
Tilman, for your remarks. Um the date that Councilman Gonzalez made that statement and I I want to first state this. Um, everything I do and every position I take will always be for the people. There's many things I can bring to this microphone about uh the people
not being in compliance with some of the things that they come to this mic. I'm not talking about any of the people that have spoken prior to you. Uh, but there's some uh things that I actually could speak to. Not to Miss Parker, not to Felicia, but since it's you, Mr. gentlemen that addressed me with
disappointment. Um, there's a lot of things that I don't state at this microphone because it's actually something that I have to deal with politically and professionally with the people of the city of North. When Councilman Gonzalez made that statement, uh, we were also in conversation with
Councilman Canana and Council President as pertaining to uh, Lisa's request for relief for the residents. At the same time when he made that statement we were supporting him for the moratorum at that time which we did state that there were
things that were already in the hopper already things that were scheduled he didn't come to that meeting I don't know whether he'll be at the next meeting I was on my way to the emergency room and called to that meeting as you recall and went to the hospital I came to support the residents that were in there that
had things already on the table. So when I'm called, my first position, just like this morning, being here for this budget is to be here. I've never missed a council meeting. I've never missed a committee meeting and I will always be there to support the people. That is my
first assignment. So I'm, you know, a little taken back because the truth of the matter is I've always met with you. I've always brought people together for you. We're in the process of right now with the law department reviewing the process of this civil I mean of the um
affirmative action review council. That's what your issue was with being in compliance. So in reference to the abatement and in reference to the committee I was called to the committee. The date was already scheduled. I showed up and that's what I was supposed to do.
So when you say support the moratorum, that was something he said here. The council that was here agreed to do whatever they were going to do here that day, but going forward when there's something on the table, I have to show up. I'm not going to boycott a meeting
that I was requested to come to. So we will we can talk about this offline and go forward with the other concerns that you have regarding moratoriums and development and the meetings that you have with developers and trying to make sure residents get jobs and all of that. That's all great because you're doing
what you're supposed to do and I'm doing what I've been elected to do and that is stand with my colleagues at the same time for the people and those who are building in this city. That was already on the table. So, I just want to say you you said you were disappointed and I get
that. That's fine. And you're saying that I didn't stand with um Councilman Gonzalez. You don't even know why he might not have come to the meeting. Okay. Well, well, we didn't know why, sir. So, I'm glad he had Well, I'm glad he told you. Mr. Tailman. Mr. Tailman. No back and
forth. But, but you know what, sir? Tell me. No back and forth. Mr. Tailman. Mr. Tailman. It's okay. What's even worse, I'm putting on the record. He didn't tell me why, so I showed up. Okay. And and that's that. And we can talk about this
after if you care to. My office has always been open to you. My mind has always been open. and we can further have a communication about the committee, the review council as well as the moratorum and the tax abatement committee because I sit on it. Thank you
so very much once again for your comment. Thank you, Councilwoman Scott Roundtree. Uh re real quick, I just want to say that for for me personally, I've always been respectful when I'm up here and I will continue to be respectful no matter how people treat me because that is the position that I've chosen and I've
taken. And so I want to say that publicly and and for the record, the letter does not say that that I would ban uh uh uh uh Councilwoman Jane Phil Jenkins for the year. That that's not in there. That's not So with that being
said, motion to adjourn. Council, yes. Gonzalez, Kelly absent. Kintana, yes. Ramos absent. Scott Roundtree, yes.
Silva absent. President Trump, yes. See everybody next week.