Did they see you? Yes. Okay. Good morning, council president, council members, and everyone here. President watching. Welcome to premeating of the city of Newark for today, Tuesday, July 1st.
Council members, can we please turn to page 67 as we have three appointments uh for the Newark Equitable Growth Advisory Advisory Commission? AI will be Miss Maria Eiglesias.
Is he present? Is Mr. Eacles present? Okay. Oh, there you go. Right there. Um please come up. Do you have no the microphone to the microphone? I'm sorry. Behind right there. There we go. Oh my god. Am I
confused this morning? That's all right. That's all right. So, first, uh, Miss Glacius, you are, uh, being supported to the appointment to the North Equitable Growth Advisory Commission. Do you have an opening statement that you'd like to make, a short one?
Yes, I am extremely honored to be named to this committee. I have been uh in the city of Newark, working in the city of Newark for a very very long time. The city of Newark has been very very good
to me in all the general meaning of the word and I think that I reach an honorable age and that I now I can give something back now and I hope that being in this committee will allow me to give
something back. Great. Thank you very much. Anything from the council? I see I saw council katana first and then council Gaz. Maria Agles is someone who, you know, when we talk about people who come before council and speak, she was
one of those persons and back in the early 90s and would come to this chambers to complain and and and tell us, you know, what the concerns were about the community. And then she through her and her partner there were
M&M's uh the two M&M's and there was a property behind Ratunda pool and I recall and that property could not be sold. nobody would even look at it. And they were able to put some houses, the
two women, in a place where nobody would move cuz everybody was looking for downtown and nobody was looking to go into a place next to Rundapool and they built some houses in that area.
Mrs. Glaciius has been a a person who business person in the Ironbound, someone who still has a lot of business here and does a lot of things within the city. And I just want to say to her, I want to be a sp I want to sponsor I be a
sponsor because I know the reason why I'm here on this council is because people like Maria who believed in me at one time and always and she stood by me the hardest days and and I remembered that Mayor James would said to her, "How
do you want to go over there and build? You want it, we'll get you to build." and she was able to build and from there she started her journey as a as a person developing in the city of Newark and a female and and that's great. It makes it makes uh uh the women can do things in
our city. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman uh Gonzalez. Good morning, everyone. I just want to echo the words of my coun colleague. Maria is someone that I have known for
many many years. Her and her partner in crime, the other Maria, they have built a lot of beautiful big and beautiful buildings in the city of North. Taking the word from our
president, the big and beautiful. Uh so Maria uh thank you very much for allowing us to use your knowledge of the city of Newark uh in that capacity. Thank you very much
for being able to contribute back to the city. Thank you. I'm honored. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else Ramos? I'm sorry. Second to second the sponsorship. Who second it? Oh, Councilman Gonzalez second. Yeah, I was going to second it, but
Carlos to us. I just uh want to offer my congratulations as well. Maria's done a few projects in the north ward um over the years and we're very proud of the fact that we do have minority women in in the city who've been here just and
show up one day to the next uh that have developed in town. So, congratulations. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yes. Uh, congratulations Maria. Next, Miss Hazel Appawite
appearing. Good morning, Mr. Appleawite. Good. You are uh here to uh for a short interview for appointment to the North Equity Growth Advisory Commission. Do you have a brief
opening statement? Thanks. I appreciate that. Good morning uh council member. Um good morning council president. Most of you I do know my name is Hazel Lapawide and I have the privilege of serving as CEO for I ambound community corporation.
I have spent the last 20 years of my life in Newark. I was not born in Newark. um lived in New York City for most of my life and moved into the community of Newark about 20 years ago where I lived uh for about 15 years. My
leadership at ICC is de is which ICC is I ambound community corporation is deeply uh I have a deep commitment to fostering equity uh sorry my eyes. I have a deep commitment for fostering equity, growth,
and social justice, especially within marginalized communities. I believe in building relationship based upon trust and transparency, and I lead with integrity and honesty. My focus is on
creating sustainable opportunities for our community um that allows our community to thrive. I am resilient and dedicated to working collaboratively um to bring positive lasting change. My goal is to inspire others to lead and
succeed in that our communities can grow stronger together. Um I believe I'm a good candidate for the equitable growth comm uh community commission based upon my extensive experience in community development, community relations. Um
also my experience and education around economic development, right? And the importance that you know in order for communities to thrive, in order for our community members to thrive, we need to have obviously affordable housing,
uh benefits that speak to the needs of our community such as uh whether it's, you know, economic empowerment which comes with financial literacy. And I think these are all goals of the
commission. Um, I currently hold a BA in business management. I also, you know, have an MBA and I'm currently about two months away from my MPA, which also gives me the experience from ICC working on policies, policy development that
reflects equity, right? ensuring that for so many years our policies within the state and the nation right have basically oppressed right black and brown folks. So it's important to have folks at the table that understand this and are able to develop and speak to
policies that allow our community members to thrive. I am a servant leader. So what that means in detail is I'm here to serve the community. I am here to speak for the community. And I believe this is what makes me an excellent candidate for this commission.
Thank you for your time. Thank you very much, Bab. Anything from the council? Councilwoman Scott Roundry, I'd like to sponsor her. A wonderful, wonderful servant. Uh, Council, uh, anything else from the council? I'll second that.
Thank you very much. Congratulations. Next, Miss Fabian Cox Fraser. Good morning. Good morning. Do you have a brief opening statement? I'm Vivic. I wasn't prepared for that, but anyway, you don't you don't have to. It's It's
your choice. You say I'm honored to serve. I'm honored. I've had the privilege of being the president and CEO of the Urban League of Essex County for 21 years. And uh over that time I focused on building the organization from strictly social
services to really uh economic development and community development. I believe that you know Newark is developing. Certainly we all see the renaissance and at the core of that I believe that the Newark residents and the families here need to be the beneficiaries of that in terms of
equity. So I'll say there's no equitable development if people don't have equity in it. So that's what drives me and I'm happy to serve. Thank you. Any questions? Uh comments from the council. Councilman, I just want to say um
congratulations to Miss Frasier. She does a lot of work in the west ward and um you know we partner a lot of lot of different things in the west and I just want to thank her for thinking about um the residents of the city when it comes to affordable housing and things of that
nature. So, just want to say thank you and I want to sponsor a second. All right. Sponsored by Councilman Kelly, second by Councilwoman Scott Roundry. Anything else from the council? Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Okay. Thank you. All right.
We are now in page three of the agenda. Reports and recommendations of the city offices, boards, and commission. Questions from the council? Hearing? None. Next item, 6FA is an ordinance granting a 30-year tax
abatement to the Robert Tree Hotel to undergo major renovations. Questions from the council? Councilman Ramos. Yeah, if we can just get a a brief update. I know we we had representatives here from the hotel trades council. They came to the last
meeting and um from my understanding there were supposed to be some conversations with the uh owners. Um there were also some allegations that I read in one of the blogs from um you know workers that were complaining about
conditions and stuff. So just if we can get an update in terms of where we are in that process. Deputy Mayor. Good morning. Council President, council members, Allison Led, director of economic and housing development. Uh
yes, uh we council president, we did relay the question that was asked in the June council meeting and so we do have the owners present. Um and Miles Burgerer is here to speak to that. Good morning, council. Uh yes, we had
some conversations with the union uh which were reiterated in an email to uh Deputy Mayor Lad. In addition, last night at around 8:30, my attorney spoke with them too. They came up with a group of uh some valid and some not correct
recommendations. We've agreed to follow those recommendations and institute some new policies which will improve certain things for the employees. So, we're on the right page with them. Thank you. If I could add uh
and I don't know if you've seen this, but I think we got this this morning or or uh a letter of working conditions. Did you receive that letter at all or the different working conditions? Yeah, we got it yesterday morning. Okay. Um, what I think would be helpful is if we
could get some kind of just written response to these so that we're fully aware of what's going on and what you're doing toy those. All right. Want it before the meeting tomorrow? Yes, please. Okay. You'll have it today. Okay. Great. Thank you. Anything else from the council
before next? 6 PSF and 6 PSFC. Council members, we have a request of these both items to be deferred. 6P SFD is an ordinance granting a
20-year tax abatement to 54 Lockwood Street Urban Renewal LLC for a project involving the demolition of the assisting obsolete industrial buildings in the East Ward. Any questions from the council?
Hearing none. Next item 6PSF is an ordinance amending title 10 finance and taxation expanding the guidelines for the expenditure of the affordable housing trust funds. Questions from the council
here saying hearing none. Next item, 6PF is an ordinance granting 25-y year long tax abatement to SUK Urban Renewal LLC to construct a new 13story mixeduse building with 225 residential rental
units consisting of one rental units 196 at market rate. This item has been sponsored by Councilman Silva, second by Councilman Gintana. Any questions from cons from from the
council? Councilman Gonzalez, I would like to go back to uh to eat uh the affordable uh housing trust fund. uh I would like to to get
and I understand that there it's going to be provided but I want to make sure that it's on the record that how this uh the how the contribution to the housing trust fund uh is computed because I
understand that there has been some discrepancy between the way that we are doing it and the way that the statute requires it to be to be So I I want I want clarification as to
say how is it that is being computed and how is it that a building that has let's say 25 square ft of commercial uh building commercial space and let's say 50 units is considered a b a a business
h building and not a residential building. uh so the rates is are substantially different between the the trust fund contribution on housing and the trust fund contribution on erh
commercial. So I want to I want to uh I want to get an explanation in writing of uh what is it why is it that we are considering these buildings commercial buildings and not residential buildings. All right I thank you. So through
through your office note 6F 6SFA is an ordinance authorizing the execution of a lease agreement within the city of Norc and 169 Clinton Development Urban Renewal LLC to accommodate the city's public purpose of
providing housing for a significant homeless population. Questions from the council. Councilman Gonzalez, this item has been deferred like five, four times and failed on one. I believe it's time that
we send it back to administration if they want to make the corrections necessary so that it would be palatable to us to approve. I believe that it should be returned to the administration. Mr. President, and I saw Councilman
Ramos. Yeah, I just want to add that um when this item first came up, I I did receive a call from the business administrator's office because I did have a number of questions regarding the the financing behind this and the long-term cost to the city. And um you
know, I never did get a date to fully discuss those parameters. From my understanding, the terms of the lease have changed. We're supposedly the number of years that the city's committed has has has been reduced. Um, but you know, I just never got answers
to any of the questions that I had posed when this initially came up at the meeting. So, I just want to put that on the record. Councilman Silva. Yeah. Um being from the east ward where the biggest homeless problem probably exists
uh around the Penn Station area. Um, this is a project that, uh, I support, but like Councilman Ramos said, I don't think we've been given enough information on this, and I'm concerned that the amount of dollars uh, that are being spent here, uh, with the turmoil
that's going on in Washington DC, um, the funding, uh, are we securing it? Is it already given to us? Um, is it, uh, in our hands already? And I'm concerned that we may be losing uh obviously uh
the possibility of losing some funding into the city uh being what's going on at the White House. And I'm concerned about uh like Councilman Gonzalez had said a few weeks ago or even last month uh regarding the amount of dollars towards this. And so again, we haven't
received or I haven't received uh enough information to make a um a decision on something like this. So, uh, whether you want to send it back to the administration, whether the administration wants to get us more information so we can make an
informative decision, uh, that's, uh, upon us to find out what's the best course of action. Anything else from the council, Mr. Ba? Yes. Here we go. As the uh comments from
the audience uh are thrown my way, I hope they'll hold their comments and they can curse me out at the end if they want to. I have no problem with that. Personally, I do take a section though to uh continue comments from Miss Parker about Allison Lad being called lying
Allison Laden that goddamn Allison Lad. I don't appreciate that. It has nothing to do with what's going on here. I can hear it from my desk and it is inappropriate for that to continue here. And it would be my request that if that volume reaches the desk of the council president that he be asked uh that these
people who make these comments be ejected from the chamber. I can take it. Got no problem with it whatsoever. But it's inappropriate. It is unfair and it's cowardly for those comments to be half whispered but loud enough for other people to hear. And if you want to
direct me, come at it. Have at it. With respect to this particular issue, the um the questions uh with all due respect to Councilman Silva, I got this morning. I did not get prior questions from Councilman Silva. I'm prepared to
answer them as best I can and our staff is also prepared to answer them. The first two years of this lease, which is a 12-year lease, first two years with extensions are free. So there will be no budgetary uh commitment on the city with
respect to the spend for the Riviera Hotel. It's the administration's position that we certainly need to provide accommodations, emergency accommodations, transition accommodations, and family accommodations for all the residents
here. Uh I'm getting more comments from uh the audience here and it's making difficult. So let's Mr. Let's do this because we want to have a productive meeting here today. Please, I'm asking you one time right now. That was not limit. I'm just I'm just saying in
general, you know, we respect you when when you come up and speak and don't speak over you. Let's allow the BA or whoever comes to the podium to speak and not be talked to. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. Uh it's our obligation.
It's our obligation as a city to uh accommodate our residents. Those are residents with addresses and residents without addresses. The Riviera Hotel will give us an opportunity to have uh units for emergency housing for men and
for women. And uh there's a commitment that they will also provide housing for uh families on emergency basis. And in addition to that um we'll have some transitional units involved as well. There are no the the lease terms. Um I'm
not sure what Councilman Ramos is talking about with respect to the length of the lease. It's I think it's it's accurately reflected in the legislation that is before him. Now there are two extension periods that could carry it out as much as 30 years but uh doesn't have to be at 30 years. after the after
the 12-ear period, the two free years and the 10-year period after that the 12 years, then there are options to extend uh the lease, which we obviously don't have to exercise. We also in the terms of the lease, if it's not funded, we have the right to to seek to terminate
the lease. Um that goes to Councilman Silva's question and I think to Councilman Ramos's question as well. Uh we also know we have the tremendous partnership of the county with respect to homeless services led by our own councilman Ramos and I'm sure that they will support us in our efforts to
provide services to the residents of Norc. We also know that the county on a regular basis doesn't accommodate uh residents from other towns in the county and they're sent to the city of Newark and we take them. We're not going to send them back. We would love to get more support from the county with
respect to what we deal if they want to uh commit u funds to this endeavor. We would absolutely be happy to accept it and have more input from you as to how you want this to go. Not you, Councilman Ramos, but you the county of Essex uh to
see how these things go forward. I think Councilman Silva's question also goes to uh how we're going to fund this going forward. Well, we don't fund there are very few things that we fund beyond a couple of years. Um, and it's subject to the availability of funding. We do
expect that there are going to be challenges from the federal government with respect to certain projects that be funded. This is not one of them because, as I indicated, the first two years there would be no cost. The project will be run by an outside entity pursuant to
an RFP. Right now, Catholic Charities is there. We expect that they will continue to bid to run this project, but they'll have competition just with any other project. Uh, and hopefully we'll be able to get the best provided services uh from the best company that's available.
The way that this particular lease is structured also is on the first floor, we'll have social services built into the program um that will be paid for, we anticipate, by grant funds uh that provide for homeless services. And even with
challenges from the federal government, it is not our expectation that they're going to fully cut out uh funding. We also have a meeting coming up, I believe, tomorrow that the health director is going to be meeting with the department of community affairs where
they have discussed the possibility of taking uh some homeless funds that they have for transitional housing, put them into this project, then we move some of this money from this project um into making sure that we have better partnerships with the housing authority
and others uh to have permanent transition well permanent housing post transition. additional housing. Uh, so I think that we have a fairly comprehensive plan that will satisfy the concerns that Councilman Silva has raised, hopefully what Councilman Ramos
has raised, uh, while making sure that we provide the services that most of our residents uh, in the city want with respect to addressing the needs of people who are temporarily unhoused, chronically unhoused,
um, people who are displaced for emergency situations from uh lack of rent, loss of a job, uh or or or other issues and making sure that they have an opportunity to ultimately get to a permanent housing. I'm happy to try and
answer any specific questions beyond that that any of the council people have. Mr. President, Councilman Ramos, yeah, I just want to state I I I don't understand um Eric's um comment about the county and um whether the county would support this deal financially. I
mean we do have a a number of programs that we offer. We work in collaboration with uh Mr. Olio on homeless services. Um that's all you know this this the the question at hand is this deal right? This is a a big
commitment on behalf of the city of Newark. Absolutely. To a private developer to rehab uh the Riviera Hotel. uh it binds us for a period of time and and for me is is worth whether or not the deal is is worth it financially. I
know from a social service standpoint, this is a very important service that we offer uh for residents without addresses, but you know, when you calculate the lease payments over the terms of the lease, this is a a considerable amount of money. And as
Councilman Silva mentioned, this is in an environment where there's a lot of uncertainty about whether or not there's going to be federal funds available past this year to support initiatives like this. And this is also in an environment where the state government, as you uh
know and and will know over the next few days, is kind of tightening its belt financially. So, you know, my my responsibility up here is always to try to, you know, I'm a very reasonable person, right? I asked questions when this deal first came up and I didn't support it. Your office reached out to
me and I texted you and I said, "Look, I have some questions about the financing involved here." And I never did have the opportunity to discuss that with you. I apologize about that. I thought that we had gotten you the information that you requested. That's it. It's fine. It's not a personal thing. This is, you know,
I have a responsibility up here and, you know, I'm as open-minded as they come as long as I feel that the deal is is protects the taxpayers and at the same time provides a good service. Yeah. I I And I'll relate to the county executive your comments about whether the county
should be invested in this or not. Absolutely. It doesn't have to invest in this. just take more residents who come to Norc from elsewhere in Ess's County and make sure that they are addressed and so the the city of Norc doesn't have to assume that responsibility. But I'm happy to work with you if you're working. I think we we have you I think
our folks are working with with your you know we have the same struggles that you have. We have people from all over the tri-state area that show up at our county welfare agency seeking emergency assistance and housing. It's not a problem that's just unique to the city. I am throwing my I'm just throwing
myself on the mercy of you and the county executive and others to make sure that we get our fair share here in New York to address the needs of the homeless population from throughout the county and as you say throughout the tri-state area as well. But with respect to this specific issue, it is one of the
uh plans that we have in place to address our immediate needs with respect to your concern about whether or not federal funds are going to be available over the next few years. This lease really addresses that because the first two years of the lease will be uh rent
free and we expect that after two years the likelihood that we'll get more resources from the federal government will improve rather than uh uh what's the opposite of improve uh whatever the opposite of we must have a lot of political insight what's going to happen
in DC in the next few years. We we just we know that there will be a midterm election and our hope is that uh it will be uh better for us. Can't say for sure, but uh we know that the next two years we're solid. Yeah. And
yeah, just uh I I sent you a couple of questions. If you could still respond to those questions, not today, but in an email or whatever it may be, because uh those were just my concerns about this. Uh yeah, I want to do the best I can to respond to them today because my request
is that we do not send this back to the administration. We do not defer, that we vote it up or down, move it forward, and we want your support. So, I want to make sure that um you know, I answer your questions as as best I can and I'm
looking at the information that I have. Um you ask questions about who's going to run it. are looking to contract an experienced nonprofit service provider to manage the space and provide the supportive services. Um, we are working in collaboration, as Councilman Ramos
says, with the county and other nonprofit entities to make sure we service the population uh fully. Um, yeah, the option there'll be an option to renew after I thought it was after 12 years, but it says after 15 years is the
answer that I have here. Uh, so we do essentially have a 15-year commitment. That is true, but it's always subject to our the availability of funds. If we don't have the funds, if you don't appropriate it, we could terminate the agreement. Now, in all cander, if we terminate the agreement for a lack of
funds, they still have an opportunity to sue us. So, we'd have to deal with that. We'd have to deal with that lawsuit. But if it's a legitimate reason for us not to have the funds and a court will take into consideration whether or not we have done so in good faith or in bad
faith. Um and that would be part of our defense going forward. Our expectation is we won't get to that point, but we have the right to terminate uh subject to a lawsuit on the other side as we move this uh move it forward. What what did you have any other question that was
specific that I didn't answer? whatever whatever I uh sent you this morning. I think I addressed it, but if I didn't address it satisfac I want to address it satisfactory to you if I if I can so that we can move this matter forward. Anything else from the council?
So, let let me just ask this question and I think you've said it a few times. Number one, it's a the first two years of this uh uh agreement would be rentree. That's right. We wouldn't have to pay. Um, and I know there are conditions a after that
I believe you just mentioned. And if we do not move forward with it, it would cause a a lack of beds for uh our homeless population. Um, which we would have difficulty trying to
figure out ways to to house. That's absolutely Is that correct? Absolutely. No question about it. We have an obligation to do our best to serve this population. This is uh certainly one of the things we're doing and and when I say that I don't you know I want to go back to Councilman Ramos.
Um I fully am prepared to stand up here and take whatever questions you have. I think it's appropriate. That's your job. You have to make sure that we are entering into an agreement that is fiscally prudent. It makes sense. And relative to our obligation to address
the uh these residents and the impact they have on other residents who are housed if they're out on the street, you have to take that in consideration. And so by all means uh ask your questions whatever they are to whatever degree. Thank you. Any any addition Councilman
Gonzalez and then Yes. How how long would it take to rehabilitate uh the building for let's say the use that we intend to give to the building? Uh we expect that it'll take up to a year but the we'll be able to use the
facility during so that it will it will not be let's say done on time for this year winter season. That's a there's two ways to answer that question. The full rehabilitation will not be completed by this season, but
there will be spaces available to house the unhoused during that period. What kind of housing? Let's say permanent housing. No, there will be some permanent housing when the full rehabilitation is done. But before the
full rehabilitation is done, it will be emergency and transitional housing uh only. Uh but at the end of it there will be permanent housing, transitional housing emergency and that housing cannot be provided anywhere else.
No I believe we have sure it can be provided elsewhere. The the the building that we have I believe on on Raymond Boulevard is that operational? Which which building you're talking about? The drop in center. Yes. No, not yet. That's not operational yet.
So and that and that the drop in center is not a housing center that that is but we we can provide let's say the same services that we are going to be providing like counseling and all that kind of service here that we can provide
also let's say in the at the Riviera the drop-in center will have uh facilities for showering clothes washing social services that you're talking about mental health screening uh veterans affairs ability to for people to go in uh other social services
that will be available to people depending upon their circumstances determinations as to whether or not they are out of county, out of city, out of state residents. So that portion of some of what will be done at the Riviera can be done at the drop-in center. They do
similar things but for uh different purpose, different immediate purposes. And the my last question is in terms of erh providing temporary housing during the winter, have we contracted with somebody else because we know that we
cannot provide that service at the Riviera. So have we contracted with somebody else to provide that service? Yeah, we had yes we had RFPs out RFPs out for all of you know the other nonprofit social services providers none of whom can satisfy the full requirement
individually collectively collectively there still will be a shortfall but we do have some resources available we will not be able to accommodate the needs fully unless uh we enter into this agreement and I am happy happy to get
suggestions for other places that we could find but yes we've had an RFP out there and we'll continue to go out for RFS for other social service providers. Thank you, Councilman Kelly. Thank you, Council Press. Um, Councilman, he he kind of took my my
question. He got a lot of things that I wanted to hear as well, but doing the rehabilitation so there won't be the residents won't be uh displaced. No, my expectation is that they'll have at least 100 to 120 uh beds available
during the renovation period and and also doing a rehabilitation. Will there be um will the management will the management be you know different? Will the management and operational officers will there be changed? Will there be
different management coming in once the rehabilitation is done? The two two again two questions. The current uh agreement is with Catholic Charities. It will be in place for at least another year. After that, we expect to go out for an RFP. It likely will be Catholic
Charities again, but it may not be. It could be some other uh competent provider uh to make sure that the services that we need to accommodate that population um is managed properly. So, so for up to about a year, the
management really won't change. that you're talking about the the management of the building with the social services providers. Yes, that's correct. You're right. Thank you. Anything else from the council? All right.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ba. And I just like to reiterate again, I apologize to Councilman Ramos for not getting his specific answers to him previously, but I'm available. Always available. And if we need uh directors and or director Ulario to meet with him or any other council members between now and
tomorrow, we'll do so and and thereafter necessary. If any council members have questions, please reach out to the business administrator uh prior to the meeting tomorrow. Thank you. Next item, resolutions
7R through 7R 71 I are temporary emergency appropriations. Questions from the council. Are you going to go through them all? Go through Let's go through all 7R1J through 7R1R
on bid contracts and purchasing agreements. No, 7R1A through 7R1J through 7R1R. We haven't done A yet. A through and then start A through I
A and B together, right? Or you can do Yeah, you can do more than that. Temporary emergency. Yeah. Do all the temporary appropriations. I apologize.
So, would you like to go through each appropriations? 7R1A through 7R1, I believe. Right. Correct. Okay. 71 R A and 7R1B uh to provide funding for the hiring of
15 police officers to address violent crime. Keep going. C and D uh funding for overtime to address violent crime. E is to provide funds for the operating expenses on the adoption of the 2025
operating budget for water and sewer. I want to to ask the question that I always ask. Let's say the $61 million that we are appropriating uh for uh the budget.
Uh, I I received a letter, I don't know if you all received a letter that we are going to be fined $25 a month if we did not $25 a day if we did not uh submit the the
No, it's it's off. Turn it back on. There you go. We did not submit the the say the budget by June 30th. Today is July 1st. I don't know if the administration has gotten a an extension of that filing date.
So I would love to I would love to hear from the BA what they say the plan is to submit the the budget to us so that we can avoid having to pay a fine uh to the state.
All right, Mr. VA. Absolutely. Certainly. Eric Pennington, business administrator. uh to Councilman Gonzalez to the council president. Um we have requested two things. One, we've appealed the fine and we've requested an extension. The extension has not yet been granted, but I've had uh
conversations with the commissioner of DCA about whether or not we're going to be able to get continued assistance with respect to the shortfall as a result of our uh ongoing rebal process and equalization ratio. Uh she and I have had those discussions. I have a call out
now to the governor's chief of staff to discuss that further. I expect to speak to him yes. I thought I was going to talk to him yesterday. That didn't happen. I'm hopeful that I will speak to him uh today. We will realize some savings through our changes in the health care plan that will offset that
$29 million, but not enough. U so reaching out again to the state. I expect to speak to the commissioner again after I speak to the chief of staff to see where we are. Um, and my hope is to have a budget introduced somewhere around the middle of the
month. Um, I've spoken with the council president and subject to the council's availability um, either in the middle of the month or toward the end of the month, we'll uh, ask for a special meeting to address that. Okay. I I just want to
see the budget at least there is a resolution here calling for 4.68 68 tax rate. Yes. Compared to the last year tax rate of 3.803
that give us a 0.0697 uh taxing tax increase 7% tax increase. Is that the contemplated tax increase that we are? It is not. Uh but it I think it's important that until we know where we're are with the state that we
use this number so that the third and the fourth quarter taxes that people get hit with are not so astronomically high that they can't handle it. Um it is our expectation that the increase will be less than that. But I don't know what that is. We don't know specifically what it's going to be. So we're going toward
the higher end with this particular request right now. So there's not going to be a sticker as much of a sticker shock going forward. Is is that another let's say concession from the state because we are supposed to only increase it by 2%.
We are um as I understand it there are you know inside the cap adjustments and outside the cap adjustments and we have done within the law uh what we need to do under the circumstances um so as not to have as much of an
adverse impact on the residents as possible. But it's not not just a concession, it's what the law allows for. Thank you. You're welcome. Any additional questions? Thank you, Mr. You're welcome. Next, uh we're on 7R1F. 7R1F New Jersey Forest
Servant urban and community forestry program workforce investment opportunity youth and dislocated workers program. H to provide medical equipment to improve health care to delivery in the
north in the city of Newark and I workforce investment opportunity act data reporting analysis allocation for 22 to 26. Any questions concerns from the council on any of those items hearing none. Next item
uh I'm sorry council uh Mr. VA. Yeah, I apologize, Eric Pennington. I just want to go back and give, I think, a more complete answer to Councilman Gonzalez's question. A portion of that increase is going to be allocated to the county because of this $29 million
shortfall. And that's why um it is not an exception or or um what was the word, a concession from the state. It's really the allocation from the city as to where those funds are going. a portion of it will go toward the county portion of the
tax rate where otherwise it would be on the city side. It would be more than what the state would ordinarily allow. Okay. Yes, Mr. Follow up on that. You okay with that? Yes, Mr. President. La last year we had to pay that penalty because of the equalization
problem that the city had. Is that also going to be paid in this year's budget? It it will, but it's not a penalty. It is the um Well, it's a penalty because we didn't do the revaluation. So, the state imposed this additional uh not a penalty. Okay. Whatever you want to call
it. No, but it's not it's not imposed by the state. The equalization ratio is assessed based on the assessed value of the properties throughout the county. And so, they equalize what the payments are supposed to be. Well, since we didn't do rebal, they we have to pay
this additional Exactly. And how how much is that in this year's budget? about we anticipate $29 million more than what it would be without this equalization ratio issue. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I just want to make sure it's not you know penalty is just as a legal
term. It's not it is not a penalty in that sense. It's a penalty because our residents have to pay it ultimately. But uh uh Councilman Kelly, Council President, I just want to go back to um 71 F. Are we finished with the Thank you. Thank
you, Commissioner. Just wanted to go back to um 71RF, the um temporary emergency appropriation um for the New Jersey Forest Service of Urban and Community Forestry. Which which one is that? Um it is 7R1F.
Page 10, pardon me. 7R1F. Um it's from the temporary emergency appropriation of uh New Jersey Forest Service and urban community forestry. Now, I know this is um to support the management of the trees, but this is not
just for planting the trees, right? I know we're doing a a massive planting around the city, but we still have situations, especially in in, you know, wards like the West that we have tree lines of residents complaining about
stumps are still there, residents complaining that the trees are dead in some of the situations. And I know we have a moratorium on on cutting down the trees, but there's still still some instances where the trees are dead and and they're causing problems with the
sidewalks and and the residents want to fix them, but they can't because the trees haven't been let down. We just had one on Ivy Street where the branches just thank God there wasn't any cars under it fell to the street. Um, and we have a lot of those in the West. So, I
just wanted to make sure that this appropriation still deals with some of the dead trees so that we can, you know, prevent anybody getting hurt from walking or the trees if there's implemented weather that the branches
won't fall on somebody's car or fall on somebody and be fatal. And I know that we're just planting the trees mostly, but I hope that some of this money will be used to attack some of the and manage those situations in the west that we
still have a problem with. Good morning, Eric Pennington, business administrator to Councilman Kelly. Uh you're let me do two things. You're correct that these funds would be able to to be used for the management of trees. I want to go back to your sort of predicate statement about the moratorium
on cutting down trees. There's a moratorium on cutting down live trees uh until we make sure that those trees are assessed. If there's a tree that's either dead or a live tree that is in a dangerous condition, it can be cut down in our uh through our sustainability
office and DPW. We still have our tree superintendent who is out there uh responding to requests some of which have come from your office uh to address those situations. It is not specifically designed for tree stumps in in this particular case but for tree management
of the existing trees and that includes cutting down um dangerous trees, sick trees, trees that are about to fall, lead trimming. I noticed that the public services in the audience, some of the trees that go through power lines have
to be cut down by them or their contractors. And so we're working with them and they're doing a great job assisting us in addressing tree issues as well. So the concerns that you have raised, I don't know the specific ones that you're talking about, but the general concerns you have raised are being addressed, some of which will be
addressed by this funding. Okay. Thank you. Um I I yes some of those issues have been addressed by the department but one thing that still hasn't been addressed is the stumps. So this won't this appropriation won't deal with any of the stumps.
I don't want to say not with any of them. Let's say for example there's a stump in a tree pit that we plan on planting trees and we have to remove that stump in order to do so. The funding this funding can be used for that. a general stump removal. That is not what the intended purpose is for
this funding, but um you know, we have other funding that we intend to use to to address that. It is a long longterm problem and it's going to take some time to get addressed, but it is on the radar. And I guess my last question too is with this appropriation and with the
management, um we will be letting the residents know. I I know we we have them deal with the sidewalk to the curb, you know, from the home to the curb, but when we do these appropriations of of certain trees, we will let the residents know before we cut into the the
sidewalk, before we're cutting to their sidewalks, right? Yeah. Yes. The plan is to make sure that there's adequate notice to the residents. um to that question. You know, we I'm sure sustainability has a plan to get all this information out, but they are uh I
think planted about 500 trees already during this period. And there was a concern that some residents said they were not notified that trees were being planted, you know, new live trees were being planted. It is my understanding that they're actually going doortodoor in the neighborhoods where the planting
is done. We will do a better job of that to make sure that it is out on social media, out through our communications and that notices will be placed uh on the residences in the areas where trees will be planted and removed. the to your point as well, the sidewalks uh are the
responsibility of the homeowners and we will work with them to the extent we can with the grants that we have to address the uh the sidewalks, but it is the homeowner's responsibility and so we work with them and let them know and coordinate our efforts with theirs. Yeah. And and I I don't want to speak
for the south, but I I know that the west and the south, Patrick council council, I know he's probably been getting some of the complaints, too. When you say the sidewalks or are, you know, the problems of the the resident, we have to let them know if we're con if
if it's the problem of the resident, then we have to let them know that we're cutting into their problems. You know what I mean? Absolutely. I just want to because I got a couple of calls on that. So, I just want to make sure if it's if it's their responsibility when we when
we, you know, deal with their sidewalk, we need to let them know. It's our responsibility to let them know. No, no question. Your office and Councilman Silva's office is uh vigilant about letting our office know what what is going on and we respond as well as the rest of you, but you two in particular.
Thank you, Councilwoman Scott Roundry. Yes. Thank you, uh, Council President. It's it's their sidewalk, but our tree is lifting their sidewalk that they have to pay to repair because our tree uh someone with their planting some so many years ago uh decided that when we plant
trees that they were not looking into the future, of course, to seek that insurance, the homeowners are affected when sidewalks are lifted. So, they can't even properly get insurance because of our tree that's planted that's lifting their sidewalk. Um, so
I'm hoping that we will find some type of um relief for homeowners uh for their sidewalk that our tree has lifted that affects their insurance. And I just wanted that on the record. Thank you. Since it is on the record, I think I'm compelled to respond. I think you're
I think you are right that we have to have a good forestry plan in the city with our urban forester to make sure that the appropriate types of trees are planted so that they are trees that are consistent uh with an urban environment and don't lift up where tree roots don't
go into uh uh you know sewers and drains and sidewalks. I just have to say that all of those trees that were planted were not all planted by the city. Uh some of those trees were planted by residents and they weren't the right tree. They weren't the right kind of
tree and now we are responsible for removing them but the homeowner does remain responsible for the sidewalk. We have our uh the forester. We have the urban management plan that we have for trees uh ensures that the type of tree
that is planted is not going to have expansive an expansive root system that it uh should not extend into the street that it shouldn't grow taller than uh necessary particularly if it's under under wires and all those things are now
being managed jointly with the office of sustainability and department of public works. So your points are well taken and uh we are responding to that. Yeah, Mr. Chair, Councilman Council. Yeah, I I don't want to belabor the point, but I think it's critical that uh communication needs to happen between,
you know, the office of sustainability uh with the residents in in the community. Um folks should not be coming home with contractors cutting into the curb because we set a double standard. If we are telling residents that they're responsible from 18 inches to the curb
if their curb abutts or lifts up, we're asking them to do the work around it before we come out and administrate care to the tree and then we're asking them to cover it up. But then they have to come home and find somebody cutting a curb, expanding it to place a tree there
without any kind of communication is just egregious upon us. We have to do a better job at communicating to the residents and and making sure that we meet with them. I'm quite sure if we do so, no one would fight the the need and
the necessity of making sure that we have trees. But the communication has to be better and then after we do it to try to take this kind of Leia attitude like, well, it's already done. It's also egregious to the resident because when we're asking to remove a tree uh because
their sidewalk is lifted up, we want that resident to do the repair uh prior to us removing the tree or after removing the tree, but we don't show any consideration. So, we have to show some consideration, some kind of decency when we move out. And I think, you know, just
having that kind of communication just means a lot moving forward. I'm asking that the office of sustainability before they send contractors and anyone out there meet with the neighborhood uh and and folks in those neighborhoods about what's going to happen and what what is
about to happen so that they are aware of what's going on. That that's just my request. Absolutely. Um I actually I concur with everything that you have said. It is my understanding that there are some residents who believe that they were not adequately noticed notified and
they should be. We have to have good communication uh through door-to-door efforts if necessary, but certainly community meetings as well. And to your point and to Councilman Kelly's point, if you have any specific uh instances that you want to bring to my attention,
I think you have brought some, but if you have others, I'm I'm happy to address them and make sure that our sustainability and DPW address it. Um I say one one final point on that. I just got a text while I was up here that there apparently are 715 tree stumps in
the system and we are working our way through those tree stumps to get them addressed. Uh many of which are in the westward. So we we're on and the south ward. So we are working on that. Anything else from the council? Thank you Mr. B. Thank you. Next items 7R1J
through 7R1 RID contracts and purchasing agreements. J is maintenance and repair trucks over one ton capa capacity. 7R1 K to provide recreational bus transportation services to the elderly
senior coach. 7R1 L rental of chairs, table folding wood and metal and 10 heaters. 7R1M to provide health education materials.
N to provide asphalt and concrete mix hot and cold laid. O to provide automotive cleaners and fluids. P to provide office furniture and installation.
Q to provide meals for the 25 sunup summer food program. and 7R1R is to purchase hypocchlorite liquid sodium to use in the municipal swimming pools. Questions from the council. Councilman
Gonzalez, your mic is off. Your mic is off. Councilman on Jay, the dollar sign is missing on the 700,000. Noted. Okay, we call that a scrier's error. Let's
move on. Yeah, Mr. President, Councilman Ramos, I see the um asphalt uh contract. C can we get an update on on the paving situation? I know the director had mentioned that there was an issue with a contribution that the city has to make
as a match for some of the grants um that's preventing us from paving streets. So, I don't know if that's been resolved and maybe just provide us an updated schedule when she gets an opportunity that takes us through the end of the year. Okay. Yeah, we don't we don't need to through through uh yeah,
the clerk's office. Let's get an update for the paving. Next item. 7 R1S is a donation of public works equipment coordinated with Sister City. This item is sponsored by Councilman
Kintana. Uh, is there a second on that? A second. Second by Councilman Gonzalez. Councilman Councilman Canana. All right. Next item. Uh, I'm sorry. Councilman
Kelly, just just a quick question. Um, Councilman, when we donate um machinery like this, I think you I think you might have answered this. I'm just not sure um who who fits the fits the bill for sending it to the the bill is concurred
by the by the government of or that entity and with a resolution from us and sent to the state department so that that resolution when we we're were applying for grants so that we get credit towards what we're doing but the
the transportation is concurred by that government, not our government. This means a of country or whatever it may be. And these vehicles are no longer usable for the city of those vehicles are very
heavy and and that's a a cost. So they were probably going to spend some time and rebuilding them and putting them together. It's so right now they're they're saying sitting around doing nothing but taking space. someone else
can utilize them. Thank you, Councilman. Next item. 7R2A is the 2025 annual budget for the Bergen Lions Clint improvement district. Questions from the council hearing that next public hearing will be
held tomorrow regular meeting. Yes. 7R2B through 7R2F private sale redevelopments. B, new construction of a multif family home to sell a market rate in the south wart. Mr. President, question. Uh,
Councilman uh Gonzalez is that according to I can't hear you. According to Councilman Gel, he's okay with this. Okay. Got a note. Anything. All right. Uh, next item.
7R2C. It's a new construction of two multif family homes and three affordable units in two market rate units in the West Ward. I'm good with it, Council President. 7R2D. Wait, I'm sorry. I I couldn't hear
anything right there. I'm sorry. I said I'm I'm good with this, Council President. Okay, next item. 7R2D is a new construction of a two family home to sell at an affordable rate in the West Ward. Yes, I'm I'm good with this move forward as well. All right. Thank you.
Next item. 7R toe E authorizing execution of the second amendment to agree a agreement full sale and redevelopment of 140 and 166 Raymond Boulevard in the east ward. Any questions from the council?
Uh Councilman Gonzalez. Yeah, I don't have a question on this one. I have a question on the previous two that are going to to build and rent affordable housing. I just want to make sure that we as a city have some way of controlling or
determining that this that that's in fact the case because once the property is built and we don't have people to go there and check that they are in fact renting it for a prices is
I believe I believe we have to do better than than just approve here. weeks. Somebody has to check that the rentals are being made at affordable prices. Councilman Kelly, I think Councilman Gonzalez is absolutely right and we do
have those stipulations in place now with the rent control office here in in the in city hall. I've dealt with them several times with um different properties um and they've been excellent because uh before before we had those stipulations in place, Councilman
Gonzalez is right, we didn't have any anybody going to check them out and I've utilized them for properties in the West War specifically. So, um, and and this is one of the reasons why I moved it forward because I probably, you know, I've learned from Councilman Gonzalez,
you know, you got to make sure you check that assessed them out. And when I when I actually checked this out, it was good. And this is a a person who grew up on the block, um, works for the city, you know, so it's it's helping our own
have ownership in the city of Nort, and I think that's a great thing to do. So, Councilman Gonzalez is exactly right. We now can check that through our rental assistance department right here in the city hall. Any other Mr. President? Councilman Ramos. Yeah. Is there like a deed
restriction that's that's incorporated when they sell it just to make sure like you know I I I understand the role of rent control but you know what prevents them 5 years down the road to um you know rent a vacant apartment at market and then rent control can still make
sure that they don't increase rents beyond CPI or or 3% but you know what kind of restriction is included in the sale of this property that prevents the the owner from converting these units into market rate. Deputy mayor.
Yes. Uh, council president, council members Alson Lad, director of economic and housing development. So, there are two things related to private sales that occurs. The first is um that there is a deed restriction that's attached and actually recorded um when we transfer
the property from the city of Newark to the purchaser. Um, I will say that the deed restriction works because we get several requests about deed restrictions when um the owner would like to sell and at that point the deed restriction has
already sunset. So there's no longer a deed restriction at that time. And so at that moment then we're able to release the deed restriction but that's usually 15 20 30 years down the road. Um and we have seen that recently because of properties that have been built you know
decades ago. Um second uh we also instituted a certificate of completion. Um some of you um either in the community or on council may have heard about this. Um our office of compliance actually handles all requests for
certificates of completion. There are about 10 items that the purchaser has to provide to the city um in order to get the certificate of completion and that includes things like the taxes need to be current. They need to have paid water and sewer. They need to have done
photographs. We also send out our team to review the properties and make sure that they're actually built. Um, and then in closing though, um, then in order for us to release, um, the certificate of completion, all those things are reviewed and then we will
sign the certificate of completion and that allows the developer to move ahead with selling the property. Um, but until that point, as you know, through the redevelopment agreement, their reverter clause stays in place until they get a certificate of completion. So developers
now are asking for that on a regular basis. uh because they want to be able to move to sell and or rent. Oh, and I'm sorry, one more thing um to Council Member Ramos's point. Um the last part is is that now with the change for rent
control where one to four unit buildings are now under rent control as of a couple years ago, now all units have to and owners have to also register with rent control. Um and so we have seen an uptick in those registrations um since
the law was passed. Um and we also now require an inspection of all of the units um to ensure that they're habitable and not just um available. And so that is done through our code enforcement officer and a partnership with economic and housing development.
And um if there's any data that we can provide, we're happy to share that with you. Thank you. Do any follow? Councilman R uh Silva, sorry, just uh that's 7R2E Raymond Boulevard. Um what are the what's the int I know it's down by the turnpike and stuff like that.
What's the intent to the for the use of that property? Um yes. Uh council president are would it be okay for me to reply to that question because I didn't know if you were finished on the first? Yeah, if there's nothing else you can come with that. Okay. I just wanted to
defer to you. Um thank you. So to the question asked, it's going to be a warehouse development. Um and the um owner will actually has done more development in the city in the east ward in particular and we see them have good clients being able to come in at least
those long-term properties. And so that's where what we're expected to see um on that uh site. If you could have them reach out for my office, please. I'd like to set up a meeting with them. It'd be my pleasure. I know the the legal council for the redeveloper is present in chambers and so I'm sure
they're hearing that as well and I'll ensure that that happens. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Anything else from the council? Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Thanks, Council President. Next item. 7R2F is a private sale an agreement to subordinate the city of Newark reverbera
rights in order to permit the redeveloper to obtain financial necessary for the redevelopment of an affordable midrise multif family residential building in the south ward question from the council hearing none next item 7R2G
professional service contract to provide professional architecture civil mechanical electrical plumbing and fire protection and structural engineering design services to the Kauaii towers. Questions from the council
hearing. Uh did you say something? Which item are you on now? 7R2G page 27. So So is this is this property owned by the city? Because I remember some years ago we approved um some
u some kind of abatement or for a private owner. at Billy Go was Omni that owned this property. Yeah. Deputy mayor. Yes. Um hi uh council president. Good morning and council members. Uh Cowita Towers um you
are correct. It was approved several years ago and when the company was purchased by a new owner um they uh were unable to meet the city's requirements to move forward with the project. And so
um through legal counsel and with our business administrator, we unfortunately had to terminate the agreement with that group. And so we are no longer um in a business relationship with Omni or their successor, which is New um and that
group is out of New York. Um so we're we were disappointed that we weren't able to bring to you instead a request to add them to the ownership because we wanted to move quickly. Um but to close on good news, our goal now with the site is yes,
we still own it. Um and we would like to um hire this architect so that we can um design affordable condos um in our downtown. So that is the goal and architect is present um OCA architects
and we've been talking to them about designing affordable condos. And then the last element is is that we are looking to utilize some funding that this council approved our ability to accept from the late Congressman Payne.
Um he dedicated about $8 million to the city for us to be able to fund affordable housing. And so our goal is to use those dollars to help us build this project. So, so the property's reverted back to the city or it's in the process of
Very fair question, council president, to that question. We never closed. So, the city owned the property. We were in the process of closing when the owner actually um was I'm sorry, I don't I'm sorry. So, the city will be the developer of this project. At at this
time, that is our goal. We believe we may have to do a joint venture and so um but we wanted to have something significant to explain to any partners that would be interested in working with us and and the firm was selected how the the the architect uh for this OCA
architects they were selected as a professional service so we did not need to go out through a competitive process and they have experience in designing these kind of projects. Yes, we've been very pleased. I think as a city, I don't want to speak on behalf of the administration, but I guess I am doing
that as well. But I I do believe that we've seen them do a lot of great work. Um they were also the architects for the West Ward um center that recently opened. Um they did that project and they've done a few others um on behalf
of both Invest Newark and the city of Newark as a whole. That's it. Councilman Gonzalez. You referred to condos. Are we selling them or? Yes, that is our goal is to sell the properties to homeowners. Um, currently
our plan is to do 80% of AMI and below. And so that would be why the city wants to be a true partner in this project. Thank you. Any other questions from the council? Seeing none or hearing none, next item. Thank you every
J. through 7R2K is acceptance of grant funds to acceptance of workforce innovation opportunity act. K is to provide an acceptance of workforce innovation opportunity act data reporting and analysis fund. L is
an investigation for area in need of redevelopment in the south ward. Any questions from the council? Hearing none. Next item, seminar 2M is individual training account training services amending
resolution to increase the grant contract amount. I'm sorry, did you did you say skip L? I didn't hear L. Skip L. Your mic was off. I'm trying. I'm lost in the What item
are you on, clerk? I think it's 702 L. 7R2M as a marry. Correct. Did you do L? I didn't hear L. Yeah. Could I could I just be noted as a sponsor for 7R2i? This is the the greenway that's that's going through the
northward 9 and a half mile track that connects Montlair to Jersey City. Yeah. So, this is granting the state access to build this greenway along the old Conrail line. Ramos Gonzalez.
Thank you. Did I skip it moving fast for L? Am I correct? Am I incorrect? Maybe I missed it. I didn't hear L. Okay. Yes. 72 L. Mr. President, it seems that the whole South Ward is going to be
designated that whole corridor. It seems. Any questions on 7R2L? All right. Hearing none. Next item 7R2M is an individual training account
training services amending resolution to increase the grant contract amount. Questions on the council hearing none. Next item seminar to end submission submission of updated recreation and open space inventory to
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Questions from the council. Next item, 7R3A is a big contract to provide the modern sensation of elevators at city hall.
Questions from the council. I'm shocked. Next item. 7R4A through 7R4D are settlements for tax appeals. We will pick up on page 44. Next item 7R4D
as well. We pick up on 45 tax collector to issue estimated tax bill for the third quarter of 25. Questions from the council additional hearing none. Next item seminar 4F is
application acceptance of $7.4 $4 million of the zone assistant funds and transfer them to the zone development corporation. Questions from the council. Next item, 7R5A through 7R5C, a contract
with grants of recipients to provide emergency shel shelter services, homelessness prevention and or rapid rehousing assistance in the city. A will be the YMCA of Newark. B will be
the Urban League of Estis County. C will be HP HBP Rain Foundation. Questions? I'm sorry. Second and D will be Newark as Israel. Okay. Questions from the council.
All right. Hearing none. Next item. 7 R 6A through and 7 R 6B and C are requested to be deferred A through E deferred A through E C I mean C is in Charles C is a child excuse
me right ABC okay seminar 6D is a settlement of legal litigation to be discussed in the Executive session. Mhm. 7R6E settlement of workers compensation as
well and 7RF prelitigation settlement as well and 7R6G preigation settlement to be discussed in this executive session. Okay. 7R6H is professional services contract.
Any questions? Next. 7R8 is an appointment to the second river joint meeting. The name of the appointee is council member Carlos Gonzalez.
Next item. B. Appointment to the joint meeting maintenance councilman Ramos. Next item. C. Declaring intent to dedicate football field at Nat Turner Park.
sponsored by Council President Crop. And I get a second on it. Second by Councilman Canana. Next item. 7RD. 7R8D declaring intent to rename Richport Park to Powette Jones Legacy Park sponsored
by Councilman Council. I want to second that. Second by Councilman Kelly. Next item. 7R8E is waving special application permit fee for the brick city jam al sponsored by
council president Trump. You got a second. Who said that? Council Kelly. Next item. Seven 8F is waving special event application permit fees for the welcome
of the Westward block party sponsored by Councilman Kelly. I'll second that. Next item, 7RG, waving special event application fees for Coort Christy Walk,
sponsored by Councilman Patrick Council. I'll second that one, too. 7R 8H is a ceremonial street designation to IA Galante Funeral Home. This is
sponsored by Councilwoman Scott Roundry. Is there a second on it? Second. Councilman Silva seconds. Next item. 7R8 I is a whole harmless and and deminification agreement for the senior
summer barbecue sponsored by Councilman Ramos. Second. Second by Councilman Kana. Next item 7R8J accepting a gift monumental statue of Juan Pab Pablo
Dualte want sponsor that second sponsored by Kelly I didn't get the second it was about second Scott Roundry 78K 7R8K is a contract agreement to consent to
the assignment of the contract of legal services for election matters. Any questions? Next item. 7 R is recognizing and commending 7R8M.
A profound sorry and regret. Questions. Next item. Sorrow and regret. Uh, Councilman Kelly. Um, yes. Can we add um Anthony Johnson to sorrow and regret, please?
Johnson. Yeah. Anthony Johnson. Anthony Johnson. Sorry, Lee. So, we'll have to amend that on the floor and then vote on the amendment. 7R9A and 7R9B
are contracts contract with state agency to provide emergency medical services and to ensure con interconnectivity between the city of North emergency operations. Questions or concerns from the council? Councilman Ramos. Yeah, Mr. President. I
I just want to take this opportunity. I know for a number of years, you know, I've been um relaying some of the concerns that we receive from residents um managers from our various senior buildings about the response time when it comes to ambulance services. And some
years back um St. Michael's Hospital had uh purchased a number of ambulances to uh add to the rotation of ambulances that our EMS services would have available. And for a number of reasons that um was never that offer was never
included as part of our um dispatch services for EMS. And and I really have to thank the new president of University Hospital in a very short period of time. Um she took years of indecision and just
inability to kind of move this forward and and has now established a partnership that I believe will benefit the residents of our city whether it's St. Michael's Hospital or other um individuals or hospitals in the future that decide to make an investment to add
uh ambulances to the rotation. So, I just want to commend her for her leadership um uh for making this happen in a very short period of time. So, Oh, that's great. And I and I I would like to uh support this tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Second.
Anything else? Oh, Councilwoman Scott Roundry, you're off. I actually want to go back to the sorrow and regret um and amend. Um so let's just and I just want to make sure everybody's good. We're clear with uh 79A. I want to finish that up first. Yes. Say something on 79 and
then we'll come back to you council. In terms of the UMDJ uh and I'm I'm glad that this agreed this is taking place but in the board of trustees there needs to be some diversity. Uh so through your presidency
uh there is no diversity in terms of uh the Hispanic community has no representation for the last 10 years or so. So I'm encouraging that there be some participation and that there's full diversity on a board
of trustees. The late Raone Ribera uh was one of those persons who fought with Stanley Bergen at the time so that there would be representation across and it has been so long 10 years or more
that there's no representation and it's not I I don't know if there's no one you could find or there's no one but I think there's a lot of folks that could be members of the board of trustees of UMD and The agreement of 68 agreed. The
agreement was that there would be full uh representation of Newark. And again, um the late Raone Rivera, the the founder of Lacas Pedro, who fought the fight at the time with the late
Donald Tucker and others who fought for making sure that there was representation. But I'm appalled that that in that institution not doesn't have a full diversity of what uh this community represents. So
I'm urging that there be some representation uh you know in the board of trustees of that entity. Thank you Councilman and through uh uh uh the clerk's office. Let's let's extrapolate these comments and send a letter to University Hospital
uh and the president regarding uh diversity with the board of trustees. Councilman Kelly. Uh thank you, Council President. I I just want to um thank the CEO for meeting with us and and having great conversation and and you know
people people say a lot but the results and the actions stand you know um I think that she's a woman of her word and I have no reason to believe otherwise. I think one of the things that I speaking of representation like uh the councilman
said I I really want to see that happen. I want to see representation, but even in the educational components as we talked about before, you know, we have a lot of uh residents here and young people who who usually don't
choose the hospital uh career with university being right here, right in the middle of their backyard because they don't know how or they don't know how to go about it. And I love the programming that we're doing at Westside
High School with getting youth from 10th grade, 11th grade involved early. I think that if we can continue to keep our foot on the gas with those type of programs um where they get their associates degrees in in certain high schools here in Newark, that the medical
career at University Hospital is offered to them. Not just the doctor or the RN nurse. We want that too, but the other jobs that actually help the hospital run because without those people running the hospital, the doctors and the nurses
would probably work somewhere else. So, I just want to see those programs continue under your leadership and um actually thrive. So, thank you for that meeting, too. Yeah, Mr. President, Councilman Ramos, I I I was remiss to um
to thank Eric as well for helping out with this EMS situation. And I know um he got beat up a few times here, so I show him a little love today. Not too much. Congratulations, Eric. All right. Uh that's some love. I I just to concur
with everybody, I I kind of uh I appreciate the new uh uh interim president coming and coming not only before the council, but being out in the community already. Uh and I mean really hit the ground running. Um it's it's important that as a community hospital
that you are in the community and we appreciate what you're doing so far. We'll see how it goes. No sugar. We appreciate what you're doing and and and just want to thank you also. Next item. Excuse me. Oh, I thought you I apologize. I forgive. Oh, I get that
look. Excuse me, councilwoman. We're going back. What one did you go back to? Since we're on the university um UMDJ, I too want to um thank the CEO and the biggest advocate for UMDJ, Brooke Tippens, for meeting with some
very key leaders. That is one of many meetings that will take place. Um that's not the only one. And she tried to leave whether you guys know it or not. uh she had given a date and for some reason it's not good to just leave people hanging in the air when you've come to
fill a space temporarily without any plan for the future. So thank you for deciding to stay and as Councilman Crump has stated we pray that as we go forward that the conditions will be better for the people that the hospital will continue to serve the community because
while they're trying to shut down more entities that is our community hospital. So, as long as the community is being serviced properly, our conditions are improving, we applaud you for moving in that direction. Thank you. That's Thank
you, Councilwoman. And now you have that other matter, right? The other matter is we have an officer that transitioned um that used to be a part of EPU, Richie Williams. So, I'd like to uh Richard Williams. Um I would like to add him to our profound sorrow and regret. We also
have a resident that lived in the west w for 60 years and has a house of worship in the south w for 48 years and that is Elder uh Cooper. Um she's transitioned I think officer Williams funeral is
Thursday at St. James and I'll probably announce it again tomorrow. And then we have a sanitation worker who also transitioned. His name was Eugene Vic. He is the brother of a pastor and they're also working on his arrangements
have been already shared but I want to express profound sorrow and regret and I make sure that we follow through on uh giving condolences to the whole department of sanitation as well as the city of Newark on a tremendous uh loss of an individual who committed. So just
add those three names please. Thank you. Thank you so much council president. Thank you C. Thank you councilwoman. Next item 7R9 C through 7R9E uh accept acceptance acceptance of grant funds.
C will be 2024 drunk driving enforcement fund. D and E are both funding for overtime to address violent crime. Any questions on those? Uh go back. Did we do we didn't do B.
All right. Okay. So, we're going to go back. Any questions on those three items, C, D, and E. Hearing none, let's go back to 7R2B. 9B. You You skipped 7R2B, nine. 7R9B.
Excuse me. That's right. 7R9E. E boy. Funding forward, but time addressing uh violent crime. as E as in boy and BS as in boy. Seminar 9B to ensure interconnectivity between the city of Nor's emergency
operations center and the city mobile EC and state federal agencies. Any questions on that? All right, hearing none. Let's go to I'm sorry, Councilman Kelly. Just one question. Um
so, so with this With this we will we will be which one are you referring to to 7R 7R9B. Okay. So with this we what type of uh
I know this is for prepared readiness for by homeland security. What type of meetings what type of notifications or marketing or promotion will be given? We're in some crazy times right now and and I've been hearing a lot from different residents about prepared
readiness. You know, um I know that we have a resident that comes in and has been talking about it for years. We're in those times that we really need to pay attention. So, what type of uh preparedness will the city be doing to prepare for to prepare the residents to
be prepared for uh home readiness? Like will there be marketing, will there be motion? Will there be community meetings? Will there be professionals to uh you know first responders coming out letting us know or letting the residents know what's going on?
I'm look I'm looking over at uh public safety. is coming. I I know I think in the past they have been they've had uh uh training with the community with the community in the past. OEM has um know
around co time we did some mock mock things with public safety with ambulances and morning council uh director Leo Kell Newark Police Division uh for uh to answer Councilman Kelly's question
regarding uh community outreach uh we uh on the police division side we have regular meetings uh priest and captains uh all have monthly meetings where they engage the community on a regular basis. Uh in terms of the OEM side of the house, uh there are training opportunities, things like the SER
program, citizens emergency response team programs that they uh have training. Uh we also have public safety youth academy, public safety community workshops that we do where we bring in OEM fire and uh again uh we have these programs. Uh we just had a graduation
recently and we have a graduate uh new class starting up in September as well. I I think my um Thank you. But I think my qu I I know we have community meetings. We have a lot of community meetings with public safety in the west. I'm not particularly talking about those meetings because those meetings usually
just talk about the crime in the area and parking and things of that nature. I'm talking about prepared readiness for disasters, prepared readiness for for those type of things for the you know
for the residents. Should we get masks? Should we you you know oxygen mask? Will OEM have some type of prepared res readiness community meetings? where we start having those type of meetings or sending the residents to websites to to
find out, you know, how do we prepare for disasters that we've never faced before just in case council president to Yeah, I'll definitely uh look back into OEM to see what other programs they may be going and maybe areas we could explore
and and please provide us with that information. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Councilman Kelly. And will this money I guess not if we don't know right will this money be put some of it be used for that prepared readiness to let the residents know to inform them for
community outreach for the OEM side not just public safety meetings in our community because we do that. I think all the council members do that but prepared readiness for disasters. Will some of this money go to for outreach
for that? Uh yes. So, council president, uh specifically for this uh uh uh item, this is to have interconnectivity between the EOCC center uh at 480 Clinton Avenue to the mobile unit. So, it's some to build uh the technology to
be able to communicate between the mobile vehicle and the actual office um at 480. Uh so that's what this specifically is about but I could certainly sort of on over that broader question to see uh what what more uh could be done and what is being done now and beyond what I what I had answered
and I definitely understand that it's full of mobile connectivity and that's communications right so I I definitely think that it correlates with having communication with the residents in in terms of a disaster we definitely want the money to be able to have these
mobile mobile units prepared if there's a disaster So, it kind of goes with my question just to see, you know, I think that we really as public safety have to start paying attention more attention in these times to those type of things. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman
Scott Roundtree before you go. So, I'm not asking the question because the question has been asked by the public quite a few times. Thank you, Council President, about what have we done, what are we doing, what if this happened, what if that happened, is there a plan? So, what I'm asking for is like a plan. Like, can you present a plan? Um I know
we've gone through Sandy, we've gone through Katrina, we've gone through all of that and some even co that just came upon us and we had to do OJT on the job training and learn and we did really good. Thanks be to God. I mean we lost a lot of folk but if in instance of what's
going on around the world today I thank God that nothing has hit New Jersey, New York or the United States with what's going on in the country. We just should have our people prepared home in our own states. the large, you know. So, I'm asking like for a plan. Can we
start looking at plans in the event? People talk about shelters. They talk about all of these different things and they've come to this meeting over the years. So, now that we're talking about prepared readiness and we're talking about houses of worship being attacked and all of this, but people live in homes that if something was to attack,
where would they go? Where would they dig a hole in the ground? And I mean, like, where would they go? So, we have no no escape plan. know we have nothing in the biggest state of New Jersey. So, I'm not asking is any money being used for it. I'm asking, can we start looking
at a plan for prepared readiness in the event of what Councilman Kelly is saying? A disaster, not a a rainstorm. Even even with that, but Katrina, the town city just went black. We was walking around, couldn't even get enough
light with a flashlight. So we do need to start thinking about prepared readiness and have a plan just in case so we will be ready because right now if something were to happen I'm not speaking and I'm praying that God covers us and we don't we have to pray for
those countries like Iran and all these other places that are Palestine all these places and I thank God that we have it and I'm praying for those people but in the large in the United States of America North New Jersey does not have an escape a shelter none of those plans
So, I'm just saying, can we try to while we getting money to talk about it, can we try to find a way to be about thinking about a plan for be prepared for a real disaster? That's all. Thank you so much,
director. Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Canatada. Yes. to to just if I may uh council president to just respond to uh Reverend uh Councilwoman Roundtree. Uh we we absolutely have internally uh an emergency action plan an emergency
operation plan addresses multiple disasters things from plane crashes to uh the river overflowing to you know so it's a variety of things but I absolutely hear the uh sort of the broader question uh which is to bring the community and it's a lot of things that we have worked with in the police
department to have the community have a voice in terms of our policies. We did that on the police side of it and and I'm and I'm hearing uh that you know to bring the community in for this emergency action plan as well. So I'm I'm absolutely hearing and and makes sense to work towards that.
Yeah. Director and a couple years ago, some years ago with Councilman Gonzalez, President, myself, and there was sets of groups that went down to Texas and we were not we were in session and
class. We were discussing from policy what happens in an in in a in in the disaster. We were there for two days and there were some residents who went to uh to to to uh Texas at the time. It was in
Austin and it would we were we were shown what would happen with the and then they came back to to the police headquarters which some of that money that came for the uh Bergen Street. The
agreement was from Homeland Security. That was Congressman Payne who who made sure that that happened. And with that, we went to Texas to two two sessions. Those two sessions were great because we were in groups. We're discussing what
would happen, how are we going to act from the business administrator at the time to uh to the mayor, how everyone was going to and then and and the residents, how residents were going to help if something happened at Penn
Station, Newark, what would happen, where were the hospitals, and all this was a plan. And um going back to that, I think we need to look at in the budget, you know, in terms of grants from the
homeland security where we can go back to these courses because they were for me it was very instrumental. We were there for two days. There was no vac there's not a vacation. Everybody thought we were going on vacation. There was no vacation. This is not my conference. We went from morning to
evening and we were there to understand what would occur. Uh we had EMTs there. We had UMDJ was there w with us. The fire department of every entity was there. So again we need to find some
kind of grant that can help us here locally or with homeland security. We have an airport. We have all the major highways in this city and we are not prepared. Uh we were prepared at when
that plan came. Uh the and to the business administrator, the business administrator at the time uh Judge Neils was very involved with that and we and and there was a plan what would happen from the police. And then after the
training week, we we were at Urban Street to rehearse what would happen if if something occurred at the arena, if something happened at Penn Station, the airport, how we're going to deplore our people, how the policy folks are we're
going to start getting contracts from contracts because when you have a crisis, you have to have contracts. So again, we need to look at that. And we were residents went in that grant uh business uh the b the city employees
from different aspects and we need to look at that possibility again. Yeah. Let me just add I I I agree with Councilman uh Kintana that that was an excellent program uh TICS and uh it taught us a lot down there about what we
did not know or or would not know in an emergency situation. and and I the followup that we had here at at on Bergen Street uh Clinton A uh was also a great thing. I I think the and it helped in terms of what we would do in terms of
the safety of residents and also the continuity of government um and moving forward. But I think what may and I think I hear from the council is what about the residents in terms of what they know not what we tell them but what they should know on their own. So, I
think that should be something that we look into uh to find a way just like we do the clergy program and we do other programs. We should we should do really work on doing something with that. And with that being said, thank you very much. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, Council. All right. Next item 7R9 C through Eurence of grant funds. I'm sorry. What? Where you? What did you say? Seven channel.
I didn't I didn't hear the number you were page 61. We're on page 63, actually. Okay. We don't go over it. 7R9. Page 63. What number are we on?
7R 128. Okay, that's what I thought. Okay. All right. is to exe execute contract change order for the rehab of the Puquanic Aqueduct. Questions from the council. Next item. 7R12B to provide supply
delivery of water purification chemicals to the city of Newark's aquatic water treatment plant. Questions from the council. Next item. Communications. 8A through 8H are reappoints to the Newark Equitable Growth Advisory
Advisory Commission. A Mr. Gerard Crowder B. Miss Deborah Smith Gregory C. Mr. Antonio Vaya D. Mr. David Trout E. Miss Judith
Thompson Morris F. Dr. Kevin Lions G. Miss Aisha Clover H. Mr. Reacher Kamary. Any questions? Yeah. Uh, Council President, I I would like to um to
sponsor um 8B, uh 8G, and um 8H. I'll second. All right. Make it easy. Council HK. I'm sorry. That round tree will second all
of those to make it easier. All right. And what was the last one? I'm sorry. 8K. We already did that one. Oh, we already did that one. Yeah, we did that one already. Okay. Next item. 8 I and 8K were discussed earlier today.
8 L is an ordinance granting a 20 and granting a 30-year tax abatement to the Sheila Y. Oliver Oliver Oliver senior housing community for a project to construct a five-story residential
building providing 100% affordable senior housing consisting of 48 senior housing units comprised of 42 units to be rented at 60% of AMI five units to be dedicated and rented to seniors with special needs
at 20% of of AMI in the south ward thank you Uh let's advance and adopt this matter. Any any other questions, concerns about this? Next item. ADM is an ordinance amending title 8 business
and occupations booting or removal of vehicle on private property to update boom boot immobilization regulations and adopt fees. Mr. President, Council Ramos. Yeah. I I just want to um thank the
clerk's office, the administration, particularly the department of public safety, we we worked on this in a few weeks. Um when we looked at the city's uh towing ordinance that we adopted a few years ago as far as regulations, um it was silent when it came to booting
and and we know that this is a common complaint that we get from residents, especially those individuals who've been booted on private property. there no restrictions in terms of the fees. Uh sometimes they are being booted by operators that are not licensed within
the city of Noric who do not display um you know appropriate um you know peril identifying their their their employer or the company that they represent, their sliding fees that are charged. If you're booting a minivan, it
could be double the amount of money from a regular vehicle, even though essentially it's the same boot that's being uh installed. So, what this ordinance does, it it sets a maximum amount that the booters can charge. It requires them to be licensed with the
city of Newark. It requires them to call in to the police division when they do boot a vehicle because oftent time residents will call the police if their car is towed or booted. Um there is a mandatory 24-hour hotline that they have to have in order to immediately release
the boot from the vehicle if the resident uh calls. Um so I I think this does a lot to really safeguard our residents and at the same time curb some of these very illegal practices that unfortunately happen in our community when it comes to the private private
booters. So I'd like to advance and adopt this if I could. Sure. Just a quick question. Quick question. Council President Ramos. Um I I definitely love this ordinance, but we have a situation going on at Georgia King Village where they're booting UPS
trucks. They're booting delivery vans, FedEx trucks. And and I know it this ordinance deals with the booting or removal on vehicles on private property and Georgia King village is a private property. Is it stipulations in there for delivery
vans? delivery trucks like a UPS, uh, a FedEx because it's getting ridiculous over there. Yeah. And and I I think that there should be some type of grace or understanding or we need to put it into the ordinance that, you know, if they're
delivering and they can prove that this is delivery that they should not be booted. Absolutely. Yeah. We we can look at it before we um adopt it on second reading. So just just remind me and I'll work with uh deputy director Carillo to see if we could add some language.
Please. Yes. I mean the the only thing would be if there are residents who are in the delivery business and they park in those parking lots then you know we just have to make sure that they are in fact um that we're protecting those individuals that are popping in to do an
Amazon delivery or Walmart delivery. That's what I'm that's I think we could figure something out. It's a good point. I never thought about that because a lot of the complaints that we get, I know there's a Kentucky Fried Chicken on Park Avenue where someone was charged almost $500 by a booter. Uh, you know, this this is
more than a regular tow and five nights of storage. You know, you're you're you're booting a vehicle. You know, they use spotters, which is illegal according to state law. So, you know, I think this this helps protect the residents. No, it it definitely does. But I I just asked before we adopt, could we just make sure
there's some language? Yeah. Yeah. It's in communications going to move up. So before it shows up again, we'll try to figure out some language. That's fair. So So before the first meeting in August, make sure that you all talk about it. See what we can come up with. You can come up with. Okay. Thank you.
All right. Uh advance and adopt. Are you sponsoring this? Uh council sponsor. Okay. Second. Second. Go ahead. Then councilman Silva got me first. version Ramos Silva.
Council President, council members, we have three added starters. Okay. File number 25-0914. It's a resolution authorizing the mayor or designate enter into a contract to provide professional engineering
services for facility condition assessment nor pool and recreational facility facilities. Let's get all three and then go through. Let's get all three first. Council President, there actually five. There's there's actually five of them. Five?
Sheesh. Just being honest. There's five of them. We we uh I can go through them if you want to on the list. Let's let's talk about let's let's go let's get the first three and then we'll go back to the two. Let's go to next one is 25-03. It's a resolution authorizing the mayor
designate to accept the proposal to provide professional engineering services for construction administration and management services for the the Quanic water treatment plant. And the next one, the third one is waving special event application permit
fee number 25-0906 for the Maker Height Block Party. This is sponsored by Council Councilman. Uh I'll second that last one. All right. Director Adem, let's talk about these first two. Good morning,
Director Dee, Department of Water and Sewer Utilities. Um, council president, the first one is the HVAC contract at the water treatment plant. That's a confessional engineering service to oversee the contract making improvements to the HVA system at Pquatic Water Treatment Plant. The second one is the
investigation where um we're doing a sewer investigation in our city. We found about four of our city pools are leaking water into our sewer system. So, this is water that we're treating at the plant. It's going into the pool system and every night the Eastport pool is
losing about seven inches of water every day. It's going into the sewer system. Ballinger street pool is losing about four inches a day and JFK is losing about three and a half inches every day. So this is professional image service for water and sewer in conjunction with recreation to find out where this water
is leaking because we're like paying to treat the water go in the pool and then paying for it to go to P Valley. So we just need to stop it. Get a good How much are each of these contracts? I don't have the amount in front of me. One of them uh the HBAC contract for
Salem Engineering I think it's about 320 and for the pool thing could be another like 280 maybe. I don't have it right in front. You're talking thousands 200. All right. Any questions from the C councilman? So um we're in the middle of
the summer. Is this going to require the pools to be closed or anything? No. Okay. This this is right now is the best time to find out where all the water is coming from, leaking from because the pools are full, especially the indoor pools, but now in the outdoor pools, some of them are leaking, too. So, we want to go through the summertime and
identify what the problems is. Hopefully, in the offseason, we can start making repairs. Thank you, Councilman Kelly. How you doing, director? The 280 for the leaks in the pools. Is that for total for East Water and the West pool? For all the pools in the city is leaking water into the
system. Okay. And those are the only two pools that's leaking water. There's three pools that we identified so far. We need to assess all. So we we're we're putting we're metering P Valley. So part of our metering program that we're looking to meter P
Valley, our consultant on the meter side, we have found water that's coming into the uh sewer system. We track that water to the pools to the places where the pools at. So now we can see why it's leaking into the system. So, and you said there's three pools that's leaking right now. That'll be identified at this
point so far. And if you identify more pools that's leaking, will that price go up? No, this is still price to finish the remaining pool. Any other questions? All right. Thank Thank you, uh, director.
Uh, counsel. Sure. So we uh we have um one more that we did not mention uh which is from workforce. Um it's the number is 25-0942. I'm sorry. Can you repeat that? Uh 25-0942.
Okay. Um Miss Gaylord will come up and speak to it. Good afternoon. Karen Gaylord, executive director of the Newark Workforce Development Board. Uh this uh added starter addresses uh a competitive bid that was already authorized. We're
looking to award the one-stop operator for uh the one-stop system which includes our state partners, our municipal partners, and uh the one-stop operator is basically the convenor of all of the partners under that system.
Mr. President, uh, Councilman, can you state who who who going to be designated as the onetop operator? Newark Works. Okay. So, you did have a process and you Okay. Yes. Very good. Yeah. And I And I would I would sponsor this because I know it's there's some urgency behind
this process. I'll second that. Yeah. All right. Thank Thank you. And then the last two uh come from the business administrator's office. Uh the business administrator will come up and speak to it. Uh there are two budgets when it comes to the SIS and bids.
Uh good afternoon, Eric Pennington, business administrator. Uh, as the council knows through prior presentations, the North Downtown District and the Greater Newark uh, Convention and Visitors Bureau have been subsumed, essentially subsumed by Newark
Alliance uh, prior to them moving over um, a suspended money going from the city of Newark to those two entities so that we could have a smoother transition. Now, the budgets need to be adopted so
that the work can continue under NORC Alliance. And so, I'm asking that these be advant accepted as added starters. Uh, for tomorrow's agenda, I don't have the um the legisl numbers, but I will get them immediately after we finish our
executive session to the council. I don't anticipate anything different than what would have been done if it was under NDD or the uh visitors bureau. So it's nothing anomalous other than the the transition and and just to to
clarify there are two or there are two uh resolutions. One is for the budget for NDD. The second is for the budget for uh uh visitors bureau. Yes. G&DCB. I'm sorry. GNC. Oh, GNCB. Okay. But it it it all under
Mr. President. Go ahead. Would this be a public hearing or just a tomorrow? Because they're like special improvement district budgets. That's a great question. The is a special improvement district budget for NDD. The visitors bureau is slightly different. It's not a
special improvement district, but um I have to check as to whether or not a public hearing is required for that as well. I don't know. Ren's looking at me, so she's saying yes. She didn't say it, but I read her eyes there. They were one of those Yeah, you
should know better kind of than yes. And and any other questions? Mr. Beck, if you could uh have someone from your office send us both budgets. Sure. We can take a look. Actually, I should say Evan Weiss, who's the CEO, president of New York Alliance, was here earlier, but I didn't know we
were going to actually get to this, so he left. And I'll if necessary have him come back tomorrow. Anything else from the council? All right. Thank you. So I, you know, I might have to think
about five items on there. Uh because this is a special meeting. I mean, this is a once a month, you know, once a month. I don't know. It seems like a lot. All right. All right. All right. All
kidding aside. All right. Um so we'll review those and and and the council will be guided accordingly. Uh I before you go to public comments, I do want to say something and that I meant to say earlier is I just want to
wish Councilman Nebo Ramos a happy birthday today. Today is his birthday. We are not going to sing because it would clear the room, but just wanted to wish him a happy birthday. Uh I've known him since he had black hair and I had
hair. So, hope you have a great day after the meeting today. I appreciate it. Council today, uh, somebody said something. Yes, sir. Mr. Chair. Oh, over there. Councilman Council it definitely want to
celebrate his birthday. Uh, in light uh of of the councilman's birthday, if we can get some garbage and recycling picked up around this city, my lord, that would be some great help. Yes. Um, listen, I I just want to bring up how important it is uh for us to really
concentrate and focus on quality of life in this city. Uh, this is been a a a horid uh couple of weeks as it relates to garbage pickup, recycling, uh, as well as paper and plastic. People are
utterly confused from zone A to zone B. Uh and I just hope that there are some systems and structure that is put in place uh that can be able to alleviate this situation. I know, you know, sometimes we can try to think about manpowering our way out of it. Um but if
you hire 20 people and 20 people still don't show up to work, you're still 20 people short. Uh we have to figure out some systems and structure to make sure that the garbage is picked up uh in the city uh as well as the recycling is picked up in the city and more
importantly put pressure on the residents in the city uh to clean up from 18 in to their curb uh in the city as well and for our own sanitation department uh to clean up behind themselves. It is it has been horrid and
throwing garbage all over the place in the street, leaving the garbage in the street. We want to to provide a decent uh living and livable wages for folks, but at the same people in this city deserve to have a quality of life uh that when they go into other places that
they can look at as well. And and um I'm speaking for every resident in the South Ward. I I don't I'm I'm not going to wait for no other kind of meat to talk about it because our streets are are are dirty and they have to be clean. Garbage has to be picked up. Um and and I'm
quite aware of whatever circles that may be happening. But at the end of the day, uh we have to get back to the basics of making sure that the garbage is picked up in the city and recycling is being picked up uh in this city. and whatever advancements or conversations that you
know need to be had, we can have them. Uh but I just don't want us to keep looking at excuses like manpower or machinery where we've purchased machinery time and time again and it is broken down. When you go down to sanitation, there are garbage trucks sitting alongside with garbage that is
filled in those trucks, not released, not cleaned up. We have to show that we are willing to be uh a city uh that takes quality of life serious at the end of the day. We have to focus on it and we have to be intent in intentional and
impactful in the way that we clean uh and take care of our city from to me from the south ward to every other ward and we have to have a a clear line of communication about it. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Wow.
Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Silver. Yeah. Um I I I I'm waving the white flag in the East Ward. Uh we voted uh some time ago to bring it in house recycling and um uh it hasn't worked. It
just hasn't worked. It's not because uh there was an effort made. I believe that when we all voted, we voted with good intentions. But, uh, the BA knows a week doesn't go by where I don't complain about recycling or garbage. Uh, and as
Councilman Council said, uh, I just think that our residents deserve better. If you I've never I was born and raised here. I've never ever ever seen this city as dirty as it is today. And that's a fact. That's a fact. I'm sorry to say
that, but that's a fact. Um, we can make excuses all we want, but our residents deserve better. Um, I I'll mention the tax evaluation that's going to go in to 2027, and we're asking our residents to pay
more taxes, but we're not providing them with the services that they deserve, and that's a problem. So, um I'm hoping that the BA takes into consideration because I think every ward um has probably got the same complaint, uh Councilman
Council has in the south. I have it in the east. I'm pretty sure Councilman Ramos will talk about it in the north. But again, we we need to do better and um we've given it some time and director Rolan and prior to him, director, we've
they're working really hard, but uh just can't make any more excuses. We have to start taking some action. So, please, I'm asking the administration to do something. Mr. President, so Councilwoman Scott Rousey first. So, I I had stated to my colleagues that I
wasn't going to uh publicly until we tried to figure out how we could bring this in house um the discussion to speak with the leadership. But I'm wondering does anyone see what we see? Because riding through the city this weekend, I
literally had one of my legislative aid takes pictures of the streets of the garbage. And we're actually going into a holiday weekend and I still see garbage packed up in front of houses, not even businesses. I mean, extreme bags of
garbage. So, I don't know what the plan is for sanitation. And as Councilman Council said, we cannot continue to make excuses um bringing it. If we can't fix it internal, going outside, it's not going to make a difference because we
still have internal to deal with. So, I'm just asking once again as my colleagues have and I'm sure the VA is going to get on top of it, but I really when the c when the public comes to this podium and they say things and we don't
respond, then it's like we don't care and we care. We really care and we've seen it for ourselves this weekend tremendously. I wrote through this entire city. So I can't just speak on behalf of the south agreeing with councilman counsel on behalf of the
east. Uh there's some at large council people up here which means we have to be concerned about every resident throughout this entire city. And so I'm asking please before we reach this holiday weekend do an assessment of what's going on throughout all of these
neighborhoods. Um Mr. VA to talk to the leadership to just please please uh for the sake of our residents, for the sake of rodent control, for the sake of the health of our residents and our children, uh please try to address this before this holiday weekend comes. Thank
you so much. Do that if I may. Council President. Yeah. Can I let's finish with a couple more comments. Okay. Yeah. No, I you know I don't want to keep repeating the same thing. I think the the BA is familiar with the challenges. He lives in the neighborhood, so he knows, you
know, the the situation. I, you know, and I I I just want to say that I do appreciate the fact that when I reach out to the director, he's very responsive. is respect. Um but ultimately like councilman council mentioned it's it's either you know manpower issue or you know situation
where you get an unusually large number of call outs some days and then when you miss pickup one day it just compiles the problem to the next day and it's essentially the same crew that's picking up the following day that now now has to go back and um make up for the work that wasn't done the previous day. So you
know it's a tough situation. You know, last week we did have a few days where it was ridiculously hot out there. Then that compounds the problem as well. So, you know, I don't want to keep repeating the same thing. We just got to figure something out. Thank you, C. Councilman. Uh, I mean,
all all of my colleagues pretty much said it. We know uh you know I just get so many calls from the west ward about garbage pickup and and like Councilman Ramos said the director is very you know
um he he's you know he's there he he's attentive he's he he picks up the calls but I think that we have to really start not just react to the situations. I think that's a lot what's going on. We're reacting. you know, when I call
DPW, I call, you know, the director, they go to the the issues that are concerns and they fix them, they mitigate them. But we have to start being proactive and in really making it work. Uh I maybe I disagree a little bit with with Councilman Silva saying this
is the worst that I've ever seen it because when we had out outside resource, they were horrible, too. I think what were they called? Vest something with a V. But they were horrible. and and now we've brought it inside. Um I don't think we're as
horrible, but any garbage anywhere that makes our city look dirty is horrible. So, not to beat a dead horse, but I guess if we beat it a little, maybe people will hear our cries. We're definitely crying out as as council members. Councilman
to be in terms of the cans, people are still waiting for cans, you know, in certain sectors and, you know, the continuing the bags to to the sanitation department. It is also a problem that
people are still putting garbage in bags and those bags are tearing up by rodents and and etc. There's sectors of folks in the city who have not received those cans. We talked that we would put there was in a budget. I don't know if the
manufacturer is failed or whatever, but we need to make sure that we uniform the whole city with those cans. There's sectors that did not receive them. And uh I've received numerous of calls from different areas throughout the city as
people saying, "Where's my can? When am I going to get my recycling can? When am I going to get the garbage uh of the cans that everybody else has? If you go up on Martin Luther King Boulevard in some of those brownstone, there's four
and five for one house where just only a two family, you know, and there's other sectors that really need and we need to look at this because still the plastic bags and are still being put on the curves and we need to and the rodents
get to it and the sanitation workers get to it. They're all over the place. So, to the credit of our director, because our director, I witnessed him going out and picking up this pickup truck, uh, city pickup truck and loading it up
with stuff and and he he is committed to, but I think we all got to partner. Uh, we have the part of these improvement districts. We need to also ask them to help us through this time. these improvement districts need to roll
up the sleeves, help us out because this is about all of us. Public works. If we need we're short that we need to get somebody and water and sewer to help us out with trying to clear up this a problem that we have. It's a problem that is not just sanitation, it's our
problem. Yeah. I hate to say let me pile on, but let me just uh add that I I agree with my council colleagues. um we do need to stop reacting and be proactive. Um and I
think I see that more and it's you know the director has a tough job. It's I mean it's almost an impossible job to do but he's a very good at at responding and taking care of situations that are occurring. But at some point we have to just do a real deep dive to figure out
what where is the disconnect and figure out how because yeah there are pockets where we drive by every day and as a councilman we get emails we we get pictures text to us we get all types of things and and instead of it being and and I've spoken to you
Mr. today about certain things. But instead of my hope is that instead of going forward instead of us reacting and providing locations that need to be addressed that we look at it holistically, how do we fix the problem from the beginning? So it we don't have to worry about the director doesn't have
to worry about getting phone calls or dealing with situations like that. So um I just I don't want to beat a dead horse too, but that that's my comment. Understood. council counsel president and council members. Uh we too recognize that there are issues in sanitation that
we have to address. We are in the process of u bringing operations person into assistant director and making sure that we address the issues that you've raised. We have met with uh reworld which is where the sanitation goes to uh
through councilman Silva. We had I thought we had a very good meeting with them. We've talked about uh operationally changing how we bring our sanitation uh to ReWorld on off hours, excuse me, to make that uh more
efficient for how we do things. We have just hired an additional I think it's 30 laborers to address both the sanitation and recycling issues. But to I forgot me council council's point if if people don't show up uh you know we still have to to address that and we're certainly
working on that. This is not to minimize the seriousness of the situation. It's actually to acknowledge that we recognize it and we are putting as much resources into addressing this as possible. You may recall that we had five electric garbage trucks that were
supposed to come in. They were dedicated uh to recycling. That hasn't happened yet. They were supposed to come last January uh December, then in February uh then in July. That still hasn't happened because of chassis configurations and some other issues. Uh but that still
cannot be an excuse. Sanitation, garbage collection, and recycling has been a responsibility of the city for 300 years. Uh and so it's not like it's a secret that we have to pick these things up. Um I hope I can agree with Councilman Kelly that this is not the
worst. The prior recycling company had was Basso. And Basso was called to this council on a couple of occasions where they were disrespectful to the council, where they failed to comply with our contract, where they thumb their nose at their obligation to make regular pickups
and so we uh decided to bring it in house. We we did so probably without having as an effective plan in place as we needed. We got reports from our DPW department as to what they needed and we provided that. But we
needed more and uh we recognize that we are addressing it right now. We are continuing to work with somebody else suggested with the bids and sids. We had a meeting again with Councilman Silva's help with the uh uh Ironbound Business
Improvement District. the director of that uh uh the sanitation pickup CDS. They also handle lower Broadway and uh Ironbound and uh have another I think upper Bloomfield Avenue as well. So they
have a few locations that they deal with. So we are working on ways to legally transfer some of their trash to our trash and get it to the um uh transfer station more timely. So, we recognize that there are several issues.
We're looking at rerouting or creating different routes because the uh number of residents has increased downtown. There are more residents in the in the um uh different wards. Now, we have more residents and more buildings in the east ward where we have to make sure that we
adjust our routes um to manage what the where the residents are. And so, we're taking all of that into consideration. And uh I'm going to make the director available to speak to you because there is uh some of the strategic planning uh we shouldn't discuss in public session
right now um as we move forward. But we certainly have a presentation to the residents, to the council in public um after we u talk about contracts that we're negotiating and some of the things that we need to talk about in in private
session. Uh, but I always stand up here in front of you and take the concerns and criticisms that you have. The mayor on one side is letting me know that we have to fix this problem and it's coming from you essentially. You are representing the residents and bringing
to me from from both sides. We take responsibility for that. I take responsibility for it and we will address this. And Mr. President, can I council? Yeah, I know Councilman Canana mentioned the issue with the trash cans. The other issue we have is that we've
given cans to, you know, homeowners and residents and they refuse to use them. Like they're still putting bags out on the sidewalks. You know, I got a few apartment buildings that for Monday pickup on Sunday morning, they're putting out hundreds of garbage bags.
I'm on Prospect on Broadway, you know. So like you said before, we need people to be supportive in our efforts, not create additional unnecessary work. You know, with the prevalence of Amazon and
Walmart, you know, I I see people putting out literally 20, 30 individual boxes in front of the their property. You know how long it takes to pick up 20 or 30 individual boxes if you're doing, you know, garbage pickup? you know, we we have to hold people a little more
accountable. I think code enforcement needs to be out on the weekends to deal with some of these folks who are doing illegal things uh on the weekends, especially if you're putting out garbage for 48, you know, hours before your schedule pickup, you know, that just
adds to to many of the quality of life issues. So absolutely to to that point, Councilman Ramis on the code enforcement side. Um I actually had a meeting with the U proposed code enforcement manager yesterday and we talked about changing
the schedule so that we have somebody who works from a Monday through Saturday and a Tuesday through Sunday. The same thing I have not had the opportunity to discuss that specifically with DPW, but the same thing with sanitation inspectors. They have to be out on the weekends as well to address the issues that you have raised and they have to do
it in a systematic way. We can't be as reactive as we have been. We have to be more proactive. We need more sanitation inspectors and when we get them and code enforcement inspectors uh they have to do their jobs. So we have had that discussion um as I say had that discussion yesterday with code
enforcement and I was actually uh pleasantly surprised with the discussion. I believe that they are committed to improving and we are working on getting them the appropriate resources they need to get their jobs done as well.
Thank you. Anything else from the council uh Councilman Silva? Yeah. So, um I'm going to take that what I said in to the east ward when I've never seen the streets the way they are today. The south, the west, the north could speak
for themselves. I'm letting you know living in the east ward for over half a century. Uh I've never seen it the way it is today. But it's also you nailed it on the head. Uh we have a lot more people. We have a lot more people. I
wouldn't even know how many people are living in the east ward today. But I could tell you that we probably have the most of any ward or the fastest growing ward in the city. And I'll tell you an example of what I saw yesterday. And I appreciate the effort. I saw a small
garbage truck going down the street and the driver would stop and pick up the recycling by himself. That can't happen. That can't I appreciate the effort, but that man will be beat within the next
few blocks. And to beat down our people this way is not an effective way to pick up our garbage. I agree what Councilman Council said. Uh you could hire 30 people, 30 people call out and that could be the problem. I have a stack of applications in my little city hall uh
waiting for people to come pick up because I want to get people uh hired and I know that the the city needs it. Uh but we need to come up with a solution now sooner than later because it is really
getting bad. Today I have one of my aids assigned to go out to see how much cardboard is still out there. And we have a lot of cardboard still out there. And today's Tuesday and it was Sunday night pickup. And so why not just pick
up everything Sunday night if they have to stay an extra hour or two? Why have to come back Monday? Why have to come back Tuesday? There's no need for that. So if we have to extend the shift and and pay a little bit extra, why not just
pick it up in one one day instead it affects the pick up in other wards on Monday because they got to come back to the east then they're back in the east today again two days later. And that's what's happening. they're coming back consecutive consecutive days and
somewhere in that it's affecting the other pickups and the other wards when you have to pull your resources back into the east on Monday back into the east on Tuesday and so I don't know if it's reworld I don't know again if it's the weight that we discussed in that I
thought the meeting was very productive but we have to come up with a solution the way it's going today is not working the garbage pickup is very good it's the recycling the bottles and cans and the papers. So, if we can just try something different,
I don't know what the answer is. It's not my expertise, but if director Roland, who's doing a great job and like Councilman Ramos says, always answers the phone, but there's got to be a better solution than what's going on today. Understood. Yes, sir. All right.
Thank you, council members. Thank you, Mr. BA. I think in the essence of time we need to continue and move forward. Let's do it here. Lord, we are now in the public portion of this meeting in which each speaker has three minutes to
speak. Please state your name for the record. Is there anyone wishing to address the council? Hello, my name is Charles Smith and I'm a 30-year resident of on University Avenue between James and
Central Avenue. I'm here on behalf of the homeowners and taxpayers on University Avenue uh to speak about two problems. The first uh I've heard the council speak about and that's the garbage and
recycling. A lot has been said. Um the only thing I would add is that the situation that I've been dealing with for the last four years uh has been horrendous. I've written letters to the director of
sanitation. I've made numerous phone calls. that could fill a book. To me, it's seems to be an endemic problem. Somehow, whatever is being done, it's not changing the situation.
It's almost like asking the fox to manage the hen house. I don't know. But I think perhaps some objective eyes from outside ought to take a look at the whole system and how it's being run and how it's being managed because I only see band-aid
approaches. I see changes that happen every couple of weeks and then it goes back to the same pattern. I won't say any more than that. The other major complaint I have is that
last year uh the North Museum started a major construction project on univer on uh Central Avenue on the corner of Central and University. No effort was made by the museum or the city to contact the homeowners on
University Avenue to ask about the impact of that construction. To make it very quick, a quarter of our parking spaces on that block, which are all permit parking, which we have to pay for, were taken for construction.
every day. Construction vehicles, electrical vehicles, 16-wheeler or 18-wheeler uh vehicles are coming down University Avenue to the work site, but they're
also taking parking spaces that we as homeowners are limited to. We cannot park anywhere else in the area. The problem is that we've reached out to the mayor, not the mayor, excuse me, to
the museum. Uh, we've spoken to the construction workers. They've not responded. They continue to park. They bring their vehicles in. They act as if we don't exist. I'm asking the council to address or
some at least the uh council president. Um, I sent pictures to your office to indicate what's the problem. So, I'm asking some help uh for the homeowners. I hate to say cut you short. Thank you for your comments. I
at the end we'll talk about I I'll speak to you afterwards if you can stay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, Felicia Austin Singleton. Good afternoon. First want to say happy birthday to Councilman Anva
Ramos. Um I also want to take the time to say thank you um President Crump for your assistance um with the mother of five. You know we were down to the hour basically and you stepped in. You you lended out a hand and I wanted to thank
you because if not we would have six homeless people on the street right now and you know that. Watch the movie Straw. That's our residence today in housing. That's our residence. This agenda has technically 68 pages of
lies. Of lies. Y'all created the homeless. The mayor's homeless office that was created. Then Eric Pennington want to come up here. Ain't talking about me.
You had the same person sitting here, first thing on the agenda, who gave us Lincoln Hotel, but yet you want to put a whole another Lincoln Hotel right there at the
Riviera. Disgraceful, disrespectful. We did have oversight of affordable housing. God rest his soul. Dwayne Middleton, they called him heavy sweet God. He was our oversight for affordable housing.
When I asked him, he answered very different from the team he supported, but very nice Scott. Where has it been? Where is our housing committee meetings? Half of the information that's coming to
this council that you don't want to hear can be heard at the housing committee meeting. I sent you emails, no response. Thank you, Patrick Council, for addressing me on issues in the Southwood because at the end of the day, I have to say thank you because we haven't been
getting it. But at the end of the day, your time is winding down. You have less than a year to continue making excuses or show some progress for the people or 2026. I promise you. I promise you we're
going in a different direction. I promise you we're putting them out just like that garbage left at the corner. That's where you will be left at the voting polls. Not at a victory party, not nothing. The residents need
you. Step up or step out. we can't do it anymore. For it to come out across Facebook that the housing authority had interactions with L&M and that museum outrage me. If you don't know what I'm talking
about, I asked Patrick Council, it was at the board commissioners meeting that it was a problem. I rolled my eyes so much I had to focus to get clear at this council meeting. Lord Jesus, thank thank you for your comments. Next
speaker, Jesus, Lisa Parker. Let me first address the BA who comes here rambling about nothing, who has failed his fiduciary obligation, to have a budget on time. He has allowed
the city to be in debt deficit through mismanagement, wasteful spending, and bonding. we pay those debts back. Instead of being fiscally responsible, he has
promoted the administration's agenda. All this agenda has nothing but pork belly in it for all these tax appeals, tax abatements for everybody that's a friend, family, and a donor to this
administration. He has no response to the people for anything with the city's business that we come here for answers for, but will come to the podium to violate the constitution, our civil
rights by suppressing public forms and free speech. I have the right to free speech. If you tell a lie and if you don't tell
the truth, it's a lie. Let me put this aside. You talk about emergency preparedness when you was a epic failure for that cargo fire that two firemen lost their lives that Linda
Carter comes here for the past few years talking about emergency preparedness. I've come here about emergency preparedness. You don't have one sign in this entire city to tell somebody where
to evacuate in an emergency or a crisis. You've done nothing. The president, don't dare go on social media ever again to talk about your frustration with being in that seat when
all you have done is collected a paycheck from three different sources, but have yet to do anything legislatively to resolve our issues. I have come to you about the people in my community that are suffering. Where's my
legislation? Where's your people at to come and talk and sit down with us to figure out a plan to keep people in their homes, but everybody outside shalom gets to rule and buy everything and and gentrify us
out of the community. How dare you? Let me know when you ready to talk business cuz you should have been doing that since you got in that seat. Don't talk about us. Do your job and start working for the people. Thank you for your comments. Next
speaker, Deborah Salter's worry for the people and what she said. So I don't you know the fact that you get on on on social media what upsets Larry? Let me tell you what upsets me. lying Larry Crump. And
and as she said, from the time that I learned the English language, I was told if you tell a lie, you're a liar. Tell the truth and you're a truth teller. We know that from six months. So it's not a a a shade thrown. It's the
truth. I tell you all the time. I don't care about your truth. I don't care about my truth. What is the truth? The truth is you tell a lie. especially continually. You are a continual habitual liar. Now, you all will argue about garbage cans
and trash at Georgia King Village, booting at Georgia King Village. The people are living in such deplorable conditions. The they're using mothballs in the ceiling because they fired the uh
uh exterminators. The smell will make you sick. And this is what the people are living with there. They boarded up the uh handicap access to get up and down. They got to go all the way around the block to get to the bus because they boarded that up because they don't want
to deal with it. So there are living conditions, deplorable living conditions right there. You mentioned Georgia King and booting living. They're not living a good quality of life. The sick are being made sicker by the quality of life that
they have there, which is nil to none. But you all will argue about garbage cans. Where is my parking silver? My neighbor, because of rock the bells the other night had to park all the way down on her way almost to Central Avenue because we don't have parking permits
that you can make happen because everybody else made it happen. But you were told to leave it alone because I was the one asking. Our neighbors who are paying market rate rent, who are paying for parking and lots that get
inundated and overfilled when you can rectify this, but you do it for your precious ironbound. We are the east wart as well. Don't pick and choose. We're talking about the garbage. Fix the sound, please, cuz this echo is crazy. We're
talking about garbage. You know why? because people were out not doing their jobs. They were campaigning with the mayor for governor. We don't have a budget, but yet we have the BA standing with him at at Delaney Hall and wherever else for the undocumented.
How about those of us who are here, residents been here, paying taxes, which are going up, paying water bills which went up, all of these things, and we we don't get the attention when it's in your power to do so. which shows us that you do not care.
What you care about, you provide for. So don't look at us like we're crazy. Your actions are telling us who you are. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, Reverend Queen Motheraku, Central Ward. I'm back here to update you on my apartment situation. Note, the city is
suing my landlord. Okay. I don't know when because they don't tell the residents when um that's happening. I don't think that's correct. So, I have uneven flooring. They put in ceramic tiling. Okay. So, all throughout
my apartment, instead of it being balanced like this, it's like this. I trip throughout my apartment every day. So, it's my landlord's position that there's nothing that they can do about it. So that makes my apartment uninhabitable according to New Jersey
law. I've already tripped and hurt myself a number of times. Okay. Now, the sister who represents relocation office, she came to my apartment and uh she fell in first because there's a gap when you walk in
the door. There's a drop that's about the size of this. Okay. And so she advised me to put up with it and to compromise. It was such a such a beautiful apartment. Well, is wherever I
live is going to be beautiful cuz that stuff is mine. Okay. But in spite of that, because of the all the money that they put in on flooring and oh, I can see what they they're doing what they did. The subway tiles, what that doesn't count. I live there. I'm not compromising my health anymore. This has
been a two-year issue. two years and also so some repairs were done, some abatements, but again like two years ago and like a year ago the individual decided to pick and
choose what to fix and what not to fix. Okay. So also my windows which before when initially when I moved in were sealed shut. They were painted shut. Okay. The
fire department forced them to open it which they did begrudgingly. Okay. So then there was a gap so my windows wouldn't close. Now my windows are back to being glued shut. I want to know what is the city going to do about this.
two years and the building is still unregistered. Still, what are we supposed to do? Compromising our safety because a good-looking apartment is hard to get. Good-looking apartments are going up all
over the city and then people move in and find out that there are problems. See, the thing is because you don't live there when you live there and find out and complain and then it takes forever for anything to get done. I'm so angry right now. I'm so angry
with y'all. I've lost so much faith. I want to see something happen and not just some lip service. Don't tell me I have to compromise my health. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Mona El Bummani
good riddens fail leadership no other way to describe you no other way I didn't come here
for no feelgood ceremonies. I'm a American national who pay your tax dollars who pay my tax dollars for your for your salaries.
I am American national who tax dollars are going towards municipal services and it's my civic duty to provoke government accountability. All we have going on in this city is
slum lords, slum politicians, gentrification, displacement, joblessness, poverty, filthy streets,
shootings and murders every day. And in July, no budget. Unacceptable. We are paying penalties every day that there's not a budget passed in this city.
Newark residents, homeowners, taxpayers, you're not outraged enough. You're not outraged. It's July. No budget. This BA who receives a three almost a
300K salary shouldn't have no authority to come up here and talk about any agenda on this on this in this book right here. You got none whatsoever.
It should be a a a a letter sent for his removal this day forward. 300k salary that's coming from the tax dollars, homeowners and taxpayers of this city and you're not outraged
enough. No emergency OEM plan, no anything in in this city. no authority. He should have no authority to speak. And then you talk about this lady talking about political intimidation.
Huh? L Monica McGyver, since you've been here, since you've been a council president, all the community advocates like myself come up here, all we was faced with was political intimidation, exclusion,
objections. Thank you. unacceptable. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Good afternoon, George Tilman Jr. First, I'd like to address um
our last meeting in June 4th, 2025. um this municipal council along with the business administration um spoke to the residents of New Community and they told them that they were going to come up there and meet
with them the residents and discuss the issues that were going on there and compile a list of the complaints that uh was to be addressed and that did not happen. And so, um, when we talk about,
um, Mr. Roundtree, um, they lied. New community lied to you all about the things that they were supposed to do up there. Well, um, the residents feel the same way right about now that they were lied to because there was no meeting. It's been a whole month.
No, there wasn't a meeting where the entire council, like they said, we're going to meet with the residents and the business administrator. That may ne never happen. It never happened. I've been meeting with those residents ever since that meeting on June 4th and that meeting did
not happen where the administration and the entire municipal council came and met with the residents regarding the problem as a new community. They'll be here tomorrow. So if that happened then we'll find out. Not getting any answers.
Mr. Ramos, he's not here right now. So he knew how we feel. We're not getting any answers. There's no way possible that we're doing business right now. And you say, "See what we see? New York residents aren't working." The administration sees that, but we're
still doing illegal business. I'm going to say why we're doing illegal business. There's no way that the councilman, we came here, we talk about the Affirmative Action Review Council. That's a part of our law. and you have a sworn obligation
to uphold the law where that affirmative action review council that's supposed to be doing the monitoring and compliance of our Newark residents employment policy has not been meeting at all. Yet, we're still doing tax abatements.
That's illegal. There's no way that a a a whole component of the government is not functioning. That's a part of these economic incentives and we are still doing business. Tell me, how is that possible? Councilman,
Council President, how is that possible that we still doing business where a whole component of the government that's supposed to be doing the compliance and the monitoring of these tax abatements is not functioning, yet we're still doing business. So
we not getting any answers either. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Peace. This is Sister Tia Bay. I'm sorry. Could you repeat your name? Sister Aia Bay. Thank you. and and your
from the White Terrace Clinton Place West Run. Power to the people civic association. Thank you. I would like to commend all of you guys because what y'all doing as leaders not perfect but you're doing your best. I know have been
in leadership in positions many times. But I really want to give my I want to give a solution after I first give a comment to my council person and my council at large person Roundtree and council. I want to thank you for what I
have seen you do thus far recently especially around the Junth weekends coming out to um events. Brown Tree. It was such a wonderful, wonderful um I although I missed you at on Bergen
Street because I had to leave to go to two other Junth celebrations, but I did get the opportunity to speak with my council person. And I want to thank you for always trying to do something positive with our community pertaining to Junth.
Unfortunately, it's been over seven years that I'm a wooder. June 16th was the date that my husband passed. So I've been kind of out of touch for seven years, but I'm ready now to move forward and I will be looking forward to working with you council. I need to know when you have your monthly
meetings and how we can come up with some more solutions to some of the said problems that we know goes on in all of the wards, but more so the council person. I want to also thank Gonzalez because he's gone at the moment. I don't see him. I'm visually impaired in one
eye, totally blind in the other. Okay, thank you. But I had to ask him at Jer Junth on Bergen Street, why is it that he never responded to me as a council person at large to any of of the meetings that we was having at Leaders
for Life. He claimed that it's a big NORC. So what? It's a big NORC. None of the council at large persons have ever came to any of my invited meetings and that must stop. So what he was kind of embarrassed because I did this in front of the fallen heroes. My brother died as
a fallen fire 14 years on the force. Cornelius myin and um that was in 2007. So he gave me his card. He asked me to invite him to the very next one because I'm ready to unseat any of the couch potatoes. I'm
ready to let it be known what it is that you have and have not done as far as Round Tree. She has done more that I've seen with all the than all of you put together at showing up and
assisting and inspiring the residents and anybody else that are just regular average people. She's there. I go to funerals, she's there. Some of y'all are there, too, but she's there. So the only solution I will call you back on that.
Okay. Councilman, I want to also speak to you, councelor Lar. I'm sure that you will help too because your mother loved me as her bonus daughter. Peace. Absolutely. Thank you for your comments. Uh next speaker. Seeing none, my speaking is closed. Uh
couple quick comments. Councilwoman Scott Roundry, and then we'll go. First, I want to address um Queen Mother. I do want to um follow up with uh the individual that she met with um
the representative from the city or whatever office. So, we have an aid that's taking that information regarding that comment. Um to address Mr. Tillman, there's never been a time that something was brought to this meeting that I did not discuss with the council president,
the other at larges. Uh those are central word properties. Um, we scheduled a meeting with the entire leadership of New Community Corporation. It wasn't a meeting that was put out
publicly because we wanted to hold them accountable for a list. There's a report that will be given. We walked through the building with the so to say that we did not have a meeting with all of the tenants because as soon as you left this meeting I went to the central ward
office council president and I had a conversation and we held all of new community just the three properties we're dealing with all of them your concern came here about 180 140 and 265 but we are concerned about the entire
new community ownership of where residents live. We just started with those three because they were concerns that were brought to this meeting by the residents. We went after meeting with and that was from Councilman Crump's office and the central ward. I cannot
say what the problem was with the scheduling of the other individuals. Um I don't think it meant but I wanted to do it before we came to this meeting and sometimes the schedule just won't allow for everybody to show up at their convenience but at our at our ask the
whole team was there everybody that does anything from pest control because I wanted to express the concerns and get a report from them which they provided and then I walked through the building with um we're going to do the other two but we spent so much time with the
leadership at 140 the security pest control managers all the way down to all the way up to the CEO. So we started at the bottom but everybody was in the room at least 20 people and leadership in 140 for us to discuss those because these
little peace meal meetings and you it takes longer. So they brought everybody to the table that has anything to do. This isn't a um it's personal but it's professional. It's city business. When the residents in these and the seniors
when we talk about the conditions of their living, if we could go through every building throughout this city where there's a senior to do an inspection. In this case, it was brought to the council. You brought residents here. Residents showed up. They've showed up at tax abatement committee
meetings. Immediately when they left here on June 4th, we scheduled a meeting. And we didn't ask them when it was convenient for them. We told them we needed a meeting before our next council meeting so we'd have a response for the community, not just for you, but for the
whole pe all of the people that are watching and all the people that are in this council chambers. They've given me an updated report as of today. I had two reports because I went myself to those people who were complaining about pull cords. I also got a report from some
residents that told me they weren't going to let the people in. So, if you don't let the people in to check the problem, how the problem won't get fixed? And I'm putting that on record because I had one person tell me specifically a leader in that building, I'm not going to call the name, came to me and says, I
said, "I need to get in your apartment. You got a complaint about the poor." She said, "Nobody." She said, "You could come." I said, "Well, I don't fix courts." She said, "Well, I'm not letting them in my apartment." So, that's part of the problem. So, while we're complaining about what they're not doing, we have residents not in
compliance. We also have residents that are very filthy. And and it's not that it might be a sickness. Hoarding is a is a mental issue. So they don't want to let people in. So we want to get in. So we got 20 I got a report right now on my phone because I requested before July
1st a report of everything that was on that checklist. So I don't want it to be on record that nothing was done and no meeting took place. The tenant presidents were called. I asked specifically after we met with the leadership of that building for the tenant presidents and two of the people
in there said their cords weren't working. Three of them we went up the end of court was working in one of the residents. The other one that was working in one room and not working in the other. And then the other person said we couldn't go in. She says I don't want them in. She said oh you could come
in. She said that's she didn't have a keys whatever. So I mean like we we can only do but so much but it was truly addressed and we definitely went before this meeting so we would be able to respond just in case someone came to the podium to say we did not. Now will there
be a follow-up meeting? Absolutely. Because we're going to and I wanted to do that before this meeting just wasn't enough time. I want to go to 180. I want to go to 265 and then we have some other um administrative concerns about some other properties throughout this city,
not just new community. So at at the you know request of of the community, not just those who live in the building, just the surrounding community, we are going and we're going to check and we're going to hold them accountable because you can't tell me
it's fix. I gave them 48 hours to give me a report and I told the residents to call me. I didn't say for them to call me. I said, I want you to call me and tell me if it's not fixed. I haven't gotten one phone call. And that was on last, was it Wednesday? I don't know
what day we went. I got to look at my schedule so many. But I asked them for a report in 48 hours for those cords where the apartments I did go to. Now, they responded, but the residents had not. So, we can only do so much. I'm going back over there. We're going to go
to 180 and we're going to do our own walk through. We don't need a per We're going to do our own walk through so we can physically see not who they take us to where we just randomly go and knock on a door because someone had a complaint and then we'll come back with
a further report for you, Mr. Tman, and the community. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Anything else under council? Seeing none, one quick thing I just want to say. Uh, Miss Bay, I I try to pride myself on going to as many community meetings as possible because I
do truly believe that the community does not well, we can't know what the community is thinking by sitting up here or by going upstairs. So, if I don't go to a meeting or nobody from my office goes to the meeting, 90% of the time, we don't know about the meeting. And if we
could uh I'll give you a card so you can make sure that I'm on your email list. Miss Bay. Miss Bay, Miss Bae, I just want to make sure I because I will give you my card to make sure that I'm on your list because I I'm not aware of any meetings and I talk to Al Tariq all the
time, White all the time. So, I I I just want to say I'm not aware, but I want to be made aware. So, I'll give you my card when this meeting is over. Thank you. Uh, that being said, I I I I I do apologize
to PSCG that they've been hanging out here for three hours. Uh, I appreciate your patience. I, you know, honestly, you tell me what you want to do at this point. We may revisit this somehow because I know you all have other
obligations. And although the city of North is the biggest city you represent, you got other obligations. I'll say that. But I appreciate if even if you do a a truncated version of what you know you're going to present. No, I got you, Council President. No problem. Thank
you. I'm going to try to do my best. Is that Michael? I'm try to do my best to run through this as quickly as possible. I did prepare a small little presentation. Um I can figure out how to work this. It's not on yet, is it? And can we get your name for the record,
too? Ah, there we go. Perfect. Um, so again, so my name is Gary Williams. I'm a regional public affairs manager for PSENG. Um again, um first just wanted to say thank you to Councilwoman Roundtree. Um last week at her mother's legacy
brunch, she honored myself and my mother. And again, um thank you for that honor. And do me a favor, Mr. Williams. Can you Yeah. Pull the mic up a little, sweetie. Um the clicker's not working, so I'll just um It's not working. I'll just And you're welcome. I'll just go through
this. Um. Ah, there we go. That's him. It's not. It's all It's all right. Don't worry about it. Um, there we go. So, the things I just wanted to touch on briefly is our summer relief initiative, our
affordability initiative. I have I have some colleagues of mine here with me to talk about payments assistance programs and energy efficiency programs. So our summer our summer relief initiative uh first off just want to say that um PSCG is committed to ensuring that all
customers especially those who are financially vulnerable have access to safe, reliable and affordable energy. Uh the affordability initiative is a multi-prong approach designed to reduce energy burdens, promote energy equity, and also build stronger, more resilient communities.
PSEG is implementing the summer relief initiative to protect and assist customers managing those high summer electric bills. This initiative helps address some of the impact from the June 1st electric supply increase that's a result of the PJM's capacity auction
price auction. Uh so some of the tenants of that initiative is a summer moratorum. It's an expansion of what we currently do in the wintertime. Uh but we're going to be dragging that out beginning July 1st through September 30th. Uh we will have uh shut off protections for lowincome and qualified
individuals. Uh also no reconnection fees through the September 30th. Additionally, energy assistance bill payments. The state will provide two one-time residential energy assistance bill payments to defay the impact. uh one every every customer will
get a $100 credit and then those that qualify will get an additional $150. Just want to be clear and let the record state that PSNG was the first utility to implement a summer relief initiative. Um and we continue to work through the NJBPU on additional proposals to
mitigate that impact those impacts of these electric supply price increases. Uh so payment assistance programs. PSENG offers a range of financial assistance tools to help customers stay current on their bills. Uh some include the un the
universal service fund. Uh lowinccome energy assistance program also known as LAI which is a federal program. Uh page the payment assistance gas and electric program. Also deferred payment arrangements. We offer flexible payments allowing customers to pay overdue
balances over time. Together, these programs support thousands of customers annually in maintaining their energy services without without financial hardship. Energy efficiency. So, we we're trying to reduce energy consumption, which is
one of the most sustainable ways to lower lower your energy bill. Uh PSEG offers a home weatherization program, a whole home energy assessment, also energy efficient uh appliance rebates. You can get up to $750 for your Energy
Star appliance. That's that's applicable. Uh, also we do targeted outreach. We engage we do an engagement campaign that's focused on reaching the underserved community, those that with the greatest needs of efficiency upgrades. Those efforts not only reduce the bills, but they also improve home
comfort and environmental outcomes. Community partnerships. Uh PSCNG partners with a wide range of nonprofit organizations, local government, faith-based institutions, and community leaders to number one, identify households in need. Uh it's important
that we com that we communicate with these organizations because to your point earlier, council council president, we don't know what we don't know. So leveraging the community's touch points to connect with those hardto-reach residents as is is a vital resource. We also provide application assistance through to help walk walk
residents through that through through that process and also we like we try to amplify our impact supporting community based organizations through grants and spot sponsorships tied to our fidability and sustainable goals. These partnerships are crucial to bridging the
gap in the divide in access and trust and information for our communities uh customer outreach and education. So no pun intended but knowledge is power and in this and in this case it also serves it also provides savings. PSNG
proactively educates customers about energy usage and affordability options through uh community events and webinars. I know that we've done some things in the westward and the southward and throughout the city um and also throughout our territory. We hold seminars for payment assistance. We also
make sure that our um our information is multiling is multil- linguistic uh to reflect New Jerseyy's diverse population. Again, targeted campaigns. We use data to identify and reach customers that are at high risk of falling behind.
So, and again, the goal of the goal is to empower customers with the tools and information they need to manage these energy costs and confidently and sustain and sustainably. Uh so with that I I have some colleagues here with me who may want to touch on some of the pay energy assistance programs through
outreach and also some energy efficiency questions if you guys have them. Um so with that that conclude that concludes it. So if you guys have any questions or need different additional information happy to provide it. Thank you so much for your presentation and I
meant to say this in the beginning. I want to thank PSEG and and Gary and uh Mr. Williams and and those who are here and those who uh I guess a couple of maybe a month ago, I I attended a um
a stakeholder meeting that uh PSG had and and because of that meeting, they they were talking about so many great programs that are there for our residents and to know about. So, I thought it'd be important for BSG to come here to share that information so
that we as council members can share it, but uh to our constituents and community, but also for the community to see this on TV and and also know learn about it. So, I just wanted to say that and be thankful and thank you for PSNG for being such a good community partner
with the city of Newark. We truly appreciate that. With that being said, question from and then you Councilman Kelly and then Thank you, Council President. I just want to uh thank you, Mr. Williams, just for being so responsible to all of the residents
needs or whatever whenever I have questions about some things for the residents with PSEG. Just being great partners in the community. You always answer the phone even when I have difficult questions. I appreciate it. or you get right back to me. And it's not
really getting back to me, but it's getting back to the residents. So, I just want to say thank you. No problem. Councilwoman Roundry, I just have to commend Gary Williams. I'm telling you, this young man has um I've known him for through Trenton, through all of his he
has a beautiful mother. We know his mother, Dr. Nian Hill. He comes from Goodstock. Again, congratulations. A welldeserved honor. Um, I have someone, you know, very close to me that works for PS and she's been there 25 years and had no idea that her brother had the
position that you have and and it's just Listen, I have to say DEI public service got their eyes right because they put you Yeah, they got they got their eyes right, council president, because they put you in a position to help the people and it's a very high ranking position.
And so, you're doing a good job. We commend you. We thank God for you and we wish you the continued success that is before you with what you're doing to help our people, the people, God's people, be able to get the assistance
they need. So again, thank you, brother Williams. You're welcome. And and thank you, Councilwoman C. Councilman uh Council, it's still dark in a South Ward, you know. I mean, there there's some stuff that we haven't on overlay
off of of Dayton. uh and if we can arrange a a walk uh in the evening to check out some uh areas uh that we can continue to try to work to make sure that there's some areas in the south ward that are that are lit up. I mean, I
do, you know, agree uh with, you know, my council colleagues. You are um you know, indeed uh responsive. Uh but there are still some some things in the south ward that that needs to happen. There's some lights that are out and um
residents, I know that there is is a new system that was in place that we wanted to let residents know about. So, if you can just inform them about if they have a light that is out on their block, on their pole, I know there's a system where they can go through and put it in and have it checked. Can you just, you
know, make them aware of that because there are a lot of lights out in certain areas around, you know, the city. I know in the Southport there are some, uh, but if you can, you know, just advise them of that. Yeah, absolutely. in regards to the lights in the southwork. Um, happy to do that, do a walk with you and bring
my colleagues who can help with some of some of that. Um, but in the meantime, if you can give me the poll numbers, I can see if I can get a get a crew out there to see if there's some quick changes we can get done in the meantime. Um, so in regards to reporting outages, it's it's really simple. We have a new userfriendly system. You just go to
PSENGoutages. You will be able to self-report. All you need, all you need is your address. It'll pull up a map and you can literally see what light is off, what light is on, when it was reported, and you just you type in your address, you hit submit. You will get an email
confirmation that we have it. You also get an email confirmation when it's fixed. Um, and and if it's not fixed in 72 hours typically, which is our turnaround time, uh, that means it might be a broader issue as opposed to just a quick switch. It might be an underground
electric issue or the light might just be out of out of at the end of its life cycle. But again, we try to get to everything as quickly as we can. Appreciate it. Thank you. Uh I believe that is it. Let me let me give a shout out to Sarah
Pena, director of external affairs. You know, we've known her for a very long time and been a community person. But again, thank you, Gary uh Williams. Thank you for your whole team for being here. Uh, I appreciate y'all staying here and thank you for the information. Everybody have a great day. Now we're
done. Thank you. We can't. We can't. We can't. You got four