good morning welcome to the special meeting conference of the Newark Municipal Council on Tuesday February 25th in accordance with New Jersey Law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to The Star Ledger the Jersey
journal and the public at large establishing the date time and location of this meeting in addition the agenda for this meeting was disseminated on Friday February 21st at the time of preparation and posted on
the website of the city of Nord roll call please Council present Gonzalez present Kelly here kintana Ramos absent Scott
rree present Silva absent president Crump present council president council members we are on page four of the agenda item 7r1 as is a vid contract to provide videotaping training and
technical assistance to the municipal Council in the city clk's office roll call Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos absent Scott Round Tree yes
Silva absent president Crump yes 7ar 2 as is a private sale Redevelopment agreement for the First Amendment to the agreement for sale and Redevelopment of land in a subordination agreement in order to permit the redeveloper to
obtain financing necessary for the rehabilitation of property to build a three family house for sale in the South board any any questions comments on this one seeing none hearing none roll
call Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes Pana yes Ramos absent Scott rre yes Silva absent president Crump yes 7 R8 as is an amending resolution to increase
the contract amount for auditing Services council's a hold to adopt any questions from the I do have a councilman Gonzalez yes ER we're increasing this by $200,000 ER and is it because the police
department was not included before in the audit yes sir okay that's it nothing else same question it was the same question roll call Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes Keana yes Ramos
absent Scott brry yes Silva absent president Crump yes 7R 8bs is a resolution to support publishing legal notices on official government website council's a hold to adopt Madam cler can
we just get a quick explanation on this absolutely council president council members um due to the Star Ledger not publishing anymore and they're digitized totally um the law has yet to catch up
with that so this proposed resolution of support is a compromise which is promoted by the league of municipalities as well as New Jersey municipal clerks Association just trying to advocate for making all of our legal advertising on
the city's website instead of you know Contracting with multiple Publications where businesses don't typically read the other Publications and we're spending money for this to trim down the spending by just posting on the website
yeah and this is a recommendation coming from the league of municipalities yes sir question councilman atake Valley we we we were confronted with the same but what we done is we have kept local like
luo uh L speo we kept some of the ethnic papers uh because of the uh the concern so I would say that following the league but also following that we have
different newspapers within the city that we can put place the the ads too because not everybody's going to look at the website so I would encourage what we do at aake Valley is that we do uh with lusso and other newspapers ethnic so
that there is communication of what's taking place absolutely thank you councilman Katana roll call Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes
kintana yes Ramos absent scottt brry yes Silva absent president Crump yes com public comment yes we are now in the public comment portion of this special meeting where each speaker will have three minutes to
speak please state your name for the record is there anyone wishing to address the council members Good morning George Tillman morning Jr um quickly last night there was an affirmative action review council
meeting at 375 marara way marara highway at new works and there was um excuse me uh there was only two members present again uh chairperson Rashid and uh the
other gentleman Donald Carter were the only two members so this is the second meeting in a row where we haven't had a board so um that's just the beginning of the the conversation about what happened
in that meeting however um one of the things Miss Rashi said going forth is that that us coming to that meeting to get information regarding those construction developments we had to submit a request and not only that when
Mr Baptist came with the reports that to give for a compliance she wouldn't allow him to give the reports saying that now there's some new guidelines or that rules that prohib prohibits her from giving direct information so I don't
know where that came from but um I submitted an open request prior to in October 21st 2024 relating to the ordinance
on 71 from from July 1st 2015 to October 9th 2024 as per ordinance 6 pf- c617 15 I requesting the following quarterly and semiannual progress
reports for contractors vendors awarded Municipal contracts and compliance the above reference progress reports to the office of city clerk the office of affirmative action and as to the user agencies or departments containing a
accurate record of one the number of newor hire new New Yorkers hied as well as the number of nework residents currently currently employed on projects or in performance of the contract two the number of training positions and the
amount of positions that will be filled by nework residents three the necessary level of job skills required of news to newers to plan and implement the work to be done on the job or in performance of the contract in the semiannual reports
and the contractors should document all good faith efforts in their actions to HDE no residents as assigned work hours this was according to the ordinance and the response that I got from the clerk's office was that no records were found
for 10 years from that review Council oror works so I only have 10 seconds so I'm going to follow up at our next meeting to get to get give more information in detail thank you thank you for your comments next speaker great day Deborah Salters um I
guess number one I would ask why was councilman Silva in the hallway during the last meeting the last council meeting we just had he was in the hallway instead of in here in the chair do you all know what's up with that I don't understand that one in the hallway
instead of in the seat where we needed him number two Allison lad where is all of the money that we received to give people their first month rent and first uh for security and and rent you stood
up here I think it was back in October we had just gotten another four or six million from the federal government and before that we had gotten a few million for that very reason and someone came to you right after the money was received and they were told that there was no
money where is all the money for the people needing residents out here needing places to live the money is given and everybody's all up in arms oh Donald Trump's cutting this and he's cutting that yeah because y'all been
stealing y'all as in anybody in government and has not been putting the money where it's supposed to be going I told you before you understood you singular you plural whichever you fit you wear it okay it's not personal it's
business it's personal when my people cannot find a place to live that is truly affordable and I heard somebody over here say that's not true I don't know who was talking but what I said was he's uncovering a lot of Fraud and wasteful spending and everybody's all up
arms and we know it here in the city of newk because we experience it on a daily level every Department in this city needs to be refurbished rewashed cleaned it's a darn shame that our
people are suffering and those who are in office are getting fatter off of the the plight of the people it makes no sense and then for this affirmative action committee uh to now join the the
club of uh refusing to give us information that is our information again where are the dollars being spent where you know who is holding the developers accountable we were in a meeting the last tax abatement
meeting and as I'm speaking to the developer he's talking about oh I did a good faith effort I I hired Consultants the affirmative action committee are the Consultants the council people are the Consultants what do you mean you hired a
consultant the people who are in charge of the residents getting employment are the Consultants but we can't get the affirmative action committee to do their job especially when you only have two members who show
up thank you for your comments next speaker no one else appearing public speaking is closed any any uh comments or questions from the council any anything from the administration motion to
adjourn second oh I'm sorry roll call thank you Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes K yes Ramos yes Scott Round Tree yes Silva
yes president Crump yes council president council members we are now in the special conference portion of this meeting however the first issue regarding inspection issues we need to reschedule due to
Communications and scheduling conflict the second presentation with director Stewart we need to take in executive session um to discuss health care for employees Mr chair councilman Council
prior to to to going into executive I I just had some concerns over uh you know the inspections matter one we've been asking for this for a long period of time which it should have given people ample enough time to get prepared or get the information that they wanted uh
based on the urgency of what is happening out uh in in in this community on these streets uh with in inspectors with lack of inspection with the amount of illegal convers that are going on out here the uh moving uh of you know
projects perit processes folks not collecting fines or fees I just don't think that this is acceptable right I mean if it was one of us you know folks have the right to get up scream and yell and you know do all these other things but when you have ample enough time to
be able to do this especially with you know an entity uh downstairs that is um you know very pivotal and and and you know bringing revenue and income into this city for us to you know keep going through this is is tiresome so I I just
wanted to just put that on record president counc councilman Ramos yeah I agree with my colleague and and in preparation for this meeting could could we get um some data back from the courts terms of what percentage of these
code enforcement violations end up getting dismissed in court because of technical violation ations I mean I've heard in the past that summonses were dismissed because the wrong engineering director was depicted on the ticket that
was issued or cited the the incorrect uh city ordinance that they violated so you know I'm just curious to see how many of these violations that that are critical for people who live in in residential properties that are living in subpar
conditions end up getting dismissed in court uh because of technical reasons than thank you madam clerk please get that information for us yes sir C councilman Kelly uh thank you I I
agree with my colleagues too in the west we have a lot of cases that that have been going to court and I just roll by a property yesterday I know that I've seent code enforcement there several several times and the the problem still
exist and then when I speak to them they say that it's in court it's in court well well how long you know how long does it take for us to solve a problem with with the the residents still have to suffer through the issue and the
concerns thank you councilman Kelly councilman uh uh Sila excuse me uh yes good morning um I've asked before um uh that we need uh a task force in each
Ward every day whether Monday be in the South Tuesday be in the west th Wednesday be in the East Thursday being in in the central Friday whatever it may be because we're getting to a point now that's so bad and illegal
conversions garbage just people taking advantage of this city The Outsider is taking advantage of this city I know that East Ward like the back of my hand I know the homeowners I could
tell you where the homeowner lives or the homeowner lives out of town I can tell you that much CU I know and it's really really coming to a point that there's it's getting so bad that we're
going to reach a a point that we're not going to be able to control everything and I've said it before we need to hit these home home owners relentlessly every week until they get the message cuz every one of my
complaints is just over and over the same ones the same locations the same thing over and over again and we have to send a message to these llc's and these absentee landlords that they can't come
into our city and do this so that's my thing a task force in each Ward just one day each week go in and do what they have to do and make sure that we send them a clear message thank you councilman Silva councilwoman Scott rer
yes I I thank you council president I really want to address how cases get dismissed and I have receipts and pictures of um from Big dating back I'm just not going to call out the property or the owner in the South Ward that for the past year has had jbr stacked up to
the back of the house where people could not even get exit if there was a fire but through the front December 13th I actually went to this house um there were dogs on the first floor we had to get code enforcement animal control and everybody else on a Sunday to go in so
the people upstairs didn't have to deal with two Abandoned Dogs on the property the same said property code enforcement has been there they have cited the property I speak to the tenant last week and he tells me that the court dis miss
the case but he sends me current pictures of garbage and debris I'm trying to figure out council president how do we dismiss a case on a on a landlord who has yet not abated the
problem do we let them give us a promise in court and then it gets abated or do they actually Abate the problem before we dismiss the case so I sent that information of course to um where it
needed to go legally because I'm not the LW department but um but there's more than just one case so I really am just trying to figure out what is the process to Abate a a dismiss a case in court where I'm sitting here with
pictures in my phone backed up on many properties that have not been Abad it so it's not just on the landlord it might be on our process is that how we just reduce our case load to dismiss it and the problem has not
been taken care of thank you so very much Mr President Council woman Council then councel yes sir be before uh Corporation Council goes because I know he's going to get up and say there's a difference between UCC and code and I know councilwoman around you just spoke
about code enforcement issues and we were supposed to be talking about UCC today so I know he was going to talk about that but you know if the the appearance is with the court component as well right so even even if that is thrown in but there is a large issue
brewing in the area of of UCC uh not adhering to ordinances and laws that this Council has passed and put out and for us not to be able to have this kind of dialogue that we've been asking for for you know like three months is is kind of crazy especially from the people
that they're under and we were and we were asked to you know move a RFP forward uh out of faith we don't even know if that's going to you know be able to come back with the right information that we have and now we sitting up here you know struggling around you know UCC and having this kind of conversation
about where are they with all of these because these illegal conversions still exist they still exist people are still in dangerous situations there have been no technical uh you know assessment of what is happening no uh dollars or
monetary kind of fine or situation put to it movement at court and and all of this is is critical and and and we have to have you know people who have the compassion enough uh to be able to deal with it right because what happens is when there's a fire or something that
happens you know people are are not going to look for UCC to blame right they're going to talk about the council people in that Ward and and the mayor council president so real quick councilwoman be quick um I know the added started since inspection issues so
while we're dealing with UCC code enforcement and all of those things and the courts I wanted to make that statement while I know councilman counsel is going to definitely um advocate for what's going on with UCC but inspection is inspection all across
the boards with the courts thank you councilwoman so so to the administration I I know you can hear and feel our frustration because as councilman Council said it's been an ongoing issue for for not only months but really for a
years I believe um when I first got on the council this was a discussion and we're still in the same position we were then my concern is that we keep kicking this can down and not actually really having the full dialogue and discussion
on this matter and so if with with my colleagues permission I would if it's acceptable to to all of them I would request that we have end of the next uh pre-meeting which is is it next week
next week which is next Tuesday that we have the full discussion about uh inspection issues with the uccc Deon Williams George pone and the the engineering department and whoever else because the more we keep moving it the more our citizens and residents are are
being put in a situation where there's illegal conversions um on my block alone there are two um they put up signs thank God you know um but that just mean they caught two out of probably 20 or 30 and so we just need to make sure that we
have this dialogue sooner than later and actually have a full discussion and hopefully some resolutions uh not just discussion but some resolutions and and I'll say this no no what I don't want to hear is that's not my
responsibility y because I think the last time we had a meeting similar to this that was what was said and that was definitely not what should have been said or what should be what the responsibility or roles of the people who are working for the city uh with that being said anything
else before I Corporation councel sure uh good morning first kenat store city of North Corporation Council so I will uh apologize for there was some form of a disconnect between if it was going to happen today or if it was going to be pushed off recognizing that you know
there's a number of departments that are part of this discussion um I think it's important for us to walk in prepared and I don't want to make a mockery of what the questions that you have and more importantly I don't want to disrespect you by making sure I not excuse me I
don't want to disrespect you by having folks come up here without giving you a report I think that's probably probably more important that folks give you a full-fledged understanding of what's going on right now when it comes to UCC when it comes to code uh the courts and even the prosecutor's office so I think
they should prepare a comprehensive report I just ask them to have the report done by the end of business Friday but I think it's probably important for them to give it to you by 12 o'clock Friday so that you can have it through the clerk so that everyone is on the same page so that next week when all those parties are here that we can
have a real discussion on Tuesday so so with that being on the record by Friday we will have a report regarding this matter and then on Tuesday we will have a uh a full discussion amongst the council after the ree right here in the chambers as part
of the meeting um no excuses on this no I agree I agree next next Tuesday and and on Friday the report I just got the confirmation that the reports will be done all right anything else from the council thank thank you thank you thank
you Corporation councel that's it I think we go to uh roll call for executive session Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana Ramos yes Scott rry yes Silva
yes president Crump yes e e e