My heritage. Good morning. Welcome to the premeating of the Newark Municipal Council on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Council President, council members, we are on page three of the agenda. Item five,
reports and recommendations of city officers, boards, and commissions. Any questions from the council? Hearing none. Next, ordinances on first reading. 6FA is an ordinance granting a 17-year tax abatement to SPG 100
Frontage Road Urban Renewal LLC for a project to construct a warehouse distribution building in the East Ward. Question from the council. Uh seeing none, next item. B is an ordinance to amend childhood lead poisoning to create
the inspection of certain residential rental dwellings for leadbased paint hazards. Single family and multiple unit dwellings built prior to 1978 be inspected for leadbased paint. Questions? Seeing none, next item.
Public hearing second reading and final passage. 6P SFA is an ordinance granting a 30-year tax abatement to Fulton Street Newark LLC for a project to construct a new multifamily housing project consisting of
369 residential units. 316 are market rate. 80 affordable rental units of which five transitional housing units shall be restricted to tenants at 30% of the area medium income in the central ward.
questions. Next item. B is an ordinance amending businesses and occupations to create a chapter, a new chapter entitled driving school registration to promote improve street safety in the city of Newark's public right away.
Questions? Next item. C is an ordinance amending business occupations to create a new chapter regarding licensing of dockless vehicles used for commercial e deliveries in order to promote improved sidewalk and street safety in the city
of Newark's public right away. Questions from the council. Councilman Gonzalez, I don't have a question about this. My concern is we have a lot of motorcycles, the small motorcycles, the best type motorcycles that are running in our
streets with no license plates, no no registration, no helmet, nothing. So I believe that we should I well I I suppose that's a state that regulates whether they should be registered or not but at least we should
inquire why is it that this motorcycles do not have let's say license plates they so suppose that they hit someone how are we going to determine that that what the person was and and
the responsible individual. Yeah, absolutely. I I agree, Councilman. Through uh Madame Clerk, we can get some information regarding motorcycle uh and and moped. I guess it's like the Vespa type, let's say ones that are not
regular motorcycles, but they function as a motorcycle. So, what what are the uh uh restrictions? What what are the what do we need to do to register that information on all what the councilman was referring to? We can get that.
Councilman Kentana in terms of in terms of those fourwheelers, you know, those four-wheelers should not be on our city streets. Yes. I mean, those are like dirt bikes that should be some kind of recreational, but not on our streets.
And and if you see on a Friday if if at 74 degrees every they all come out and and there's they're on on our streets. If you go to other communities, they they don't allow that of
four-wheelers, which are dirt bikes on city streets. They're very hazards to a community. A hazard situation. Agreed. So, why don't we do this at at this special the next special? Why don't we bring public safety in so we can have
discussion because yes one the one thing is that they're pulling wheelies in front of city hall in front of police officers and nothing happens unfortunately it's very disrespectful I think Councilman Ramos yeah I I apologize for coming in late but I can
never seem to get into my parking spot. Um, so I just want to be noted as a sponsor for BNC. And you know, I walked into the conversation regarding the um the I don't know what we call these little bikes that Councilman was
referring to, but I just want to clarify that that our 6 PF 6 PSFC is is really um our attempt to um regulate the uh food delivery uh bikes that are in the city.
Councilman is correct that the other issue is a state regulatory issue. Yeah. Um there is an ordinance that I sponsored some years ago that allows the city to um confiscate and destroy any of these other vehicles like the
four-wheelers. I mean, New York City has done a really good job of publicly um destroying vehicles that they confiscate, and it serves as a really a very good effective um an effective public relations tool to deter other
individuals from illegally using four-wheelers on city streets. I would encourage through your chair and the clerk that this administration consider doing the same thing. I'm sure they've confiscated a number of these vehicles over the years and and I think we need to send a strong message uh to the
public that if we catch you on the streets, we will confiscate and and more importantly, we will destroy these very expensive pieces of equipment. Thank you, Council Ramos. Uh so we have a a sponsor for
both of those. Can we get a second? Yes, second. Or did we have them before? We might have had seconds before. We did. I just didn't announce because it wasn't here. So B is sponsored by Councilman Ramos and second by Councilman Gintana and C is sponsored by Councilman Ramos and second by Councilman Kellis. Okay.
Yeah. And I want to acknowledge that Councilman Silva did work with me on on both of these. So there's a way we can share the So Sohip I would like to share with him as well. Thank you. Thank you. Noted.
D is an ordinance granting a 30-year tax abatement to 69 Sherman Avenue Urban Renewal Company LLC for a project to construct a new five-story building with a total of 44 affordable housing rental units which shall be restricted to
tenants at 60% of area median income in the south ward. questions from the council. Hearing none. Next item. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I believe I sponsored this at the last My apologies, Councilman Council. It It
said council as a whole at the last meeting, but I'll change it. Would you like to sponsor the council? Yes. All right. Sponsored by Councilman Council. Second. Silva. Duly noted. E is an ordinance granting a 30-year tax abatement to 317 Malbury
Street Urban Renewal Company LLC for a project to construct a 24 market rate residential rental unit. Council President, council members, the ward has to be amended on the floor tomorrow to reflect the central
ward. In addition, a public hearing will be held at the special next week because of advertising concerns. Oh, that's why that's noted there. Amend on the floor. All right. Thank you, Madam Cler.
Councilman, I'd like to be a sponsor of that. I'm sorry. They're tied in together. These two projects 69 Sherman. It's part of a five uh five property uh uh project and so I'd like to be the sponsor of that. Want to sponsor this one? All right. Second.
Sponsored by Silva. Second. Councilman Silva. Second by councilman Gonzalez. Duly noted 6pfa. There's a request from the administration to defer this item. Resolutions. Mr. person if I if I may
say I know that we're deferring the item but I requested at some like three four meetings ago a detail of the rentals that we are going to be paying for this uh and I haven't received it. I would love also to receive a copy of the lease
uh so that we can review it. This is a 32 a possible 32-year lease 15 years to begin with and two extensions one of 10 years and one of seven years. I want to know how much money we're committing to
this endeavor through you madam clerk that information Mr. President, I'm sorry. Yeah, I I I agree with Councilman Gazalo. The BA and I kind of um touched base right after the
um ordinance first appeared on the agenda, but I never had an opportunity to talk to Eric in detail. But um I I had requested also like a financial analysis of of the project. you know, what are the long-term costs and to also
give me information on other similar leases that we have um connected with uh homeless services. You know, I know we have the drop-in center that's opening up on um Raymond Boulevard. Any other uh similar project that has committed the
city to a long-term financial commitment? Thank Thank you, Council Ramos. Resolutions 7R1A through C are temporary emergency appropriations. A is to provide funds
for the operating expenses until the adoption of the budget. B is for the recycling tonnage grant program and C is to provide funds for the operating expenses until the adoption of the budget. Any questions on A through C? I my my
regular question budget question. When is the budget? Actually, when are we going to see the budget for for the city? We uh we were threatened that we were going to get it on in March. Erh March passed, April
passed, March pass May pass and we are approving now funds for for June. So when is it that we're going to actually see the budget? Councilman Gonzalez, BA is out the off out of the building. not building out of the room, but as soon as he comes back, we're going to let you
ask that question again. All right. Next item. D and E are the use of state contracts. D is to purchase communication equipment and E is for firefighter protective clothing.
Questions? Seeing none, next item. F is an application acceptance of grant funds to encourage North businesses to participate in PSCG's energy efficiency initiatives. Any questions? Next item.
7R2A through F are private sales. A is to construct the construction of a three family home to sell at market rate in the south ward. Mr. Chair from M. Yeah. I I would like to uh support this item and and I know it was uh under some
great contention at the last meeting. I had an opportunity to have conversation uh with the individuals who are developing it. And then just to give some framework uh one about that area. One, we just built a brand new park in that area, Shambley Park Square. Uh
there were two uh brand new three family homes that are uh adjacent to this property that's about to be built. And so, you know, when we're talking about fitting the aesthetical beauty and the need for, you know, uh, affordable housing in the area as well as home
ownership, um, I think that this project is a perfect project that fits this area to help bring families back to this area, one to enjoy, uh, the new parks and that we have in the area and then it gives some stabilization around uh, the old promised land uh, Baptist Church
where the former CL Chambbley uh, was the pastor. So, um I I wouldn't mind um sponsoring this. Second sponsored by Councilman Council, second by Councilwoman Scott Roundry. Next item.
B is new construction of a three family home to rent out at market rate in the West Ward. Let's let's come let's come back to that one. Let's come back to that one. Councilman uh Kelly's coming, but let's come back and finish this and come back. C is renovation of the property as a
commercial garage for removal, depository, sorting, and passive storage facility in the south ward. Is the uh developer here today? 7R2C Rehab Homebuilders LLC. I do not believe they are here. All right.
Council council would defer that matter. Now, Mr. Chair, I I would like to move this item forward. This is a property that's off of Fabian Avenue behind Shaw. is in a a desolate location and the need for this is a greater need for the community and helping uh to use as a
sorting station to help sort and bend uh use clothes and items that goes back out to the community uh doing clothes giveaway uh uh items in case there's individuals or families that may be in need of furniture or things during fires. And so this this is a great need
for our community and I would uh love for uh you know the council to uh work with us as a whole to sponsor this and I'll sponsor this item. Sponsored by councilman council second by councilman Kelly
if I may say sure councilman we have a property here that is assessed as $186,000 again selling for $30,000. So the optics of of this are really bad and uh we I know that lots in the city of
Newark are selling anywhere from $150,000 to $250,000 and we are giving this this land away. I understand that they become let's say taxable in the future but in the meantime we're transferring wealth in the amount of
$140,000 at least. And Mr. owner lives the owner lives in Newark, too. Yeah, Mr. Chair, I I I concur with with with uh Councilman Gonzalez. I don't argue with him on that front. This piece of property is desolate. Sitting right there now is a
old shed. It's it's very dilapidated. Uh and it is problematic. It's a eyesore in the back part of that community on Wayne Wright uh in Fabian in which we've been trying to do a lot of work in that area one with the traffic traffic studies truck traffic and just trying to bring
some different kind of amenities to the backside of where the um uh former Pathmark now super fresh and uh the whole little mini mall strip is. It is a very desolate and blank area and we want to try to make sure that we light it up
and get folks back there to do it. um and and and you know, Councilman Gonzalez's defense uh to be able to argue about uh the the uh assessment and sales of these items is important, but I also think that it's important that we get this kind of depository because we
have been hit with a flood of fires and a lot of things that have been happening in our areas. and to be able to provide uh a place where individuals can go rather quickly to receive clothes, furniture, and things that are needed. I think this is a an important item. Mr.
President, thank you. Councilman Ram, this council uh for Councilman Council, is the um buyer like a like an adjacent property owner? Is it like a nonprofit that's looking to do this um charitable purpose? Um or is it a private private owner for the for this lot? Yeah, they
have a they have a non-profit organization. So, they also have a a nonprofit organization that deals with refurbished uh different decent clothing, uh furniture, uh and and a whole sort of different items that they utilize. Uh and more importantly in that
area, which part of it is like a oneway extending itself out towards Lions Avenue, uh is very desolate and barren. Uh and so again, what sits there now is probably uh a old kind of tent uh
barrerow uh that looked like it's been there since 1920. Yeah, I've driven by there. I know what you're talking about. Definitely it's in need of some kind of development. Councilman Gonzalez. Yes, it's I am not let's say objecting specifically to this
one here. I'm objecting to the let's say the assessed values of the property should reflect the actual value of the property not let's say a number that is taken from maybe in in 200 or 1990 this
was a valued at 186 now today might be valued at let's say $40,000 or assess at $40,000 so that we don't look as bad when we are selling property that is assessed at
$86,000 for $30,000 is I I I don't object to selling this property. I'm objecting to the assessed value assigned to it. Yeah, I think uh Councilman, yeah, agree with you. I think we have that issue when continue to have the
issue with assessed values and hopefully in the next ah we have the business administrator who wants to chime in on this subject. Good morning, Council President. Council members Eric Pennington, business administrator. U Councilman Gonzalez
brings up, I think, a valid point and a valid concern. The issue is, I think, that there's a a bit of a misinterpretation as to what an assessed value means uh relative to the price of a property and what an appraised value is. The assessed
value is not an appraised value. We know that we're in the middle of a fairly lengthy uh re-evaluation process and at the end of that re-evaluate process, the assessed value and the the real value of the property should be the same. But that is not the case. These properties
have not been reassessed for 13 years. And so there's an assessed valuation that has essentially been on the books for a while. That's one one point I wanted to make. The second point is some of the development and our objectives to get properties developed is not just uh
based on the price of the property. We want to make sure that the property and what it's going to do and the neighborhood it's in and the services that it will provide are um sufficient for a developer to actually develop that property and in some cases make a profit
in other cases to make sure that it is low and moderate income housing that's going to come along with it. So, all of those have to be taken into consideration as I'm sure Councilman Gonzalez knows. I'm not trying to educate you. I'm just trying to educate the public generally as to what is going on. I have no doubt that Councilman
Gonzalez understands all of this. I understand his concern about something may be uh assessed at $100,000 and we sell it for $30,000. As we have as you have asked for and I believe we've done a fairly good job of
we provide you with information on each of these properties some of which don't exist anymore they burn down they are falling down they are dilapidated so we know that the uh assessed value in the actual value of the property is not the same others we should if we haven't
provide you with information about the project so you have a sense as to why we want it done the westward and the south ward are doing so much better now we don't have to incentivize uh developers and purchasers the way we did in the past. But many of these projects have been in the pipeline
for a long time. And there still are certain areas where we have to incentivize uh developers to come in and small owners to come in and owner occupants to come in. And so the uh um EHD department does an assessment on an
individualized basis and comes up with a price based on the LOIs that we receive that we believe is appropriate. Um that is not to suggest that you shouldn't ask these questions. I encourage you to ask it every time and we'll be prepared to provide you with the answers. But that is a general overview of why the
assessed value in the price that sold may not be the same. Mr. President, thank you Mr. Bay. Uh, M. Councilman Gonzalez. Yes. Uh, I I agree with what you're saying that the objective is to to bring these properties back to the
productive use and all that stuff. I understand that and I understand that we have increased the say the selling prices from the $4 that were before to 10 and 12. Now it's and I I do appreciate that.
Now that I have you there, the other question is when are going going to receive the budget? We were threatened that we will get it in in March, April, May. Now we are approving June. So when when is it that we're going to get it?
Mr. B, you want to come up and speak? He got caught now. Absolutely. Councilman, I know I subjected myself to whatever questions the council wants to put forward, but I was ready for that question. Quite frankly, I know I am still working with our budget director to get that that information to you.
Obviously, I think we promised that we would have it to you in March and then I indicated to you that April was our objective and we are now in May. We still haven't done it. There have been uh complications, some of which have been generated by the federal government. We have had several million
dollars pulled back from our budget already and we are working through to make sure that we can give you a budget that is going to be doable and make sense. We had the most recent they pulled back home funds of you know a million dollars yesterday and then last
week we lost about $6 million. We have CDBG funds that are risk. So we're trying our best to balance all that with bringing you a budget um as we keep the the city running. I promise I will work on it as diligently and and and as hard as I can. Perhaps we should let's say
you should have a a meeting with the budget committee so that we are let's say aware of what is is happening so that I don't have to to ask you here publicly. They say we we let's say if we know that that is happening there is no
need for the questions. I understand that but to to your point I want the public to know this. I do want them to know that we are faced with a federal administration that is not uh as concerned about making sure we have home funds and hop funds and other funds uh
for project CDBG funds which are not just for housing and others and they should know that. But to your point, if you schedule a budget meeting, we'll be there. I I would I would ask you to do that and then we will uh accommodate that. I'd love to talk to you. Thank you. You're welcome. So, so Councilman
Gonzalez, Councilman Gonzalez, we request the uh See, we Yeah, Madame Clerk, if we can schedule a budget meeting. Well, lately the budget committee is the whole the whole council. So, it's a we have to revisit
the members are because we should we cannot have a meeting of the whole council. No, we we'll do that. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. President. Council said that. I'm I I keep looking the other way. I don't know why. Going back to the property sales. So, you know, I looked at an
email that a deputy mayor sent this morning and it has some real basic information which I appreciate. It's got a picture of the property or the lot. It has a justification included as to why the city's looking to sell it to the individual or the corporation that shows
up on the agenda, but it doesn't include like a summary of other letters of intent, which I've asked for a number of times that we received on on these particular properties. So, it just has the LOI that they accepted, but it doesn't show me whether they received
three other uh LOIs or four. You know what I'm saying? like I don't think that information is that difficult to to get, right? It should be somewhere. We we should keep a record of um individuals or corporations that submitted letters for these individual properties that we
should be able to see like there's there should shouldn't be a secretive process. So, I'm just asking to make sure that we get that prior to the vote tomorrow. Yeah, the councilman has been asking for that for number a number of months. So I I really think at this point um EHD
should provide that information. So yeah, I just I don't understand why they don't want to share it. Yeah. So So let let's talk about like there's a rubric that they use. So, you know, I remember from my days working at the board of ed,
a rubric is a comparison, right, between different uh prospective buyers and a justification as to why you're selecting the buyer that's on the agenda. So, there should be a list of other buyers who have recently submitted interest
letters and then that's it. Why did why the the the justification is included? I just want to see how many other people um express an interest on these properties. So three uh EHD needs to provide that information before the
meeting tomorrow. Mr. Chair, uh Councilman Ray uh council, I I'll be councilman Ramos for the day. But in in in light of what uh Councilman Ramos has stated, I think we probably need to be specific about how we want to
receive the the information. I know when we talk about the bidding process, right, there are certain amounts of bids that go out. So, it could be 30 bids that went out, 20 responders out of the 20 responders. You know, the this these two were the most responsible biders.
I'm not sure if he wants the LOI process to look that way to say, you know, there were 10 people that requested LOI on this property, right? there where this was the one person uh you know that was responded in an affirmative based off of all of these different criterias and
this is why they were awarded. But there needs to be structure in which we want to receive the information that'll help us draw down on it to to move quickly because I know in the packages we do receive with the photos the comparables about other areas and how that looks and what the price is around there. But just
to to be succinct about how we want the LOI process to be able to look. So if there's four people that applied out of the four they went through this process and they said this is the best one. So at least you know that there were four people that put in for the LOI and this person did it because of these variables.
I think that's a great suggestion and in one of the meetings I even said look let's let's go back five years because I'm sure if you go back 15 years it could have been 30 LOI submitted for for for a particular property but we can go back you know four or five years and say
look we received four LOIs the these are the offers that we received and this is the reason why we're selecting the the vendor that's before you know that that's it. Okay. Thank thank you council members. Next item. Council President, do you
want to go back to it? I'll finish with the whole place. Yeah, let's go back. Well, let's finish. Uh, no, let's go back. Let's go back. Let's go back. Might as well. Item B on page 13 is new construction of a three family home to rent out at market rate in the West Ward.
Council member, uh, I'm going to ask that this item be deferred. Is there a second for deferment? Second. Duly noted, deferred by Kelly, second by Councilwoman Scott Roundry. We are now on page 15. Item D is new
construction of a two two three family homes to sell at market rate in the South Ward. Any questions from the council? Oh yeah, Mr. Chair, I'm going to ask for this item to be deferred. All right. Defer. Councilman Council is there for a
second. A second. Second by Kelly. Council Kelly. E is new construction of a multif family home to sell at market rate in the west. Move move this. All right. Let's move for move on that item. Next
item. F is new construction of a 16 unit residential building with a mix of affordable units at 40 to 80% of AMI and market rate units in the south ward. Any questions on this item? M I'm fine with this item. Fine with that. All
right. Move forward on this one. Next item. Seminar 4 A through C are applications to the Department of Community Affairs for the urban enterprise zone funding. A
is for citywide facade improvement grant project. B is for marketing and events fund project and C is for small business revolving loan fund project. Questions from the
council. Council Kelly. Yeah. Just does this include the entire war like all of the wars or is it just certain wars specifically? I see Mr. Randolph from Investn North here. Uh good morning Marcus Randolph Investn
North. Uh good morning council president, council members. Uh yes, Councilman Kelly. This program includes all five ws all businesses brick and mort eligible for these funds. Okay. Thank you, D. Any other questions from the
council? Hearing none. Next. Next item. D is approving form of sale of city secured bonds in the amount of $12 million. Mr. Guzman. I'm sorry. Any questions from the council or we just
Good morning. Benjamin Guzman, acting finance director. Good morning. This resolution just to authorize the sale uh as stated for bond anticipation not bonds of $12 million. $6 million is to cover the costs uh incurred with the path home project that Health and Human Services and Homeless Services are
working with in conjunction with the housing authority. The additional $6 million is to uh for covering the costs for the city's uh revaluation of real property. Okay. Any questions from the council on it? All right. Thank you.
Next next item. E is approving loan and escrow agreements for the Petty Cso project. Questions from the council. Let's see. Hearing none. Next item. F is designating bank depositories adopting cash management plan.
Questions. Councilman uh Gonzalez. Yes. We are approving the let's say the banks that we're going to deposit our monies on in in May. This should have been done in January let's say so that
we have the banks authorized at the beginning of the year so that we we when we deposit the money we are depositing the monies in banks are authorized by us. See if we do it in March in in actually May erh we have
been depositing monies in banks that are not authorized by the council. M. Okay. Mr. Guzman is coming up. Good morning, Benjamin Guzman. Uh again, uh for Department of Finance. Um to Councilman Gonzalez's questions, you you are correct. Uh we are a little bit
behind the ball on getting this resolution adopted in order for the cash management plan. Uh by no means is that mean that our deposits in any of these financial institutions from January to now are not in uh necessarily an institution that has not been
authorized. whatever authorization we had given in the previous year, which we we had done and that one for 2024 was done on a more timely basis and I do admit that um those still continue to be authorized by the city of Newark while we then uh adopt a new cash management plan uh and bank deposiitories. We'd
like to do this again and not only like to but it's statutoily required for a municipality to do it once a year. Uh we are doing it again this year just to reauthorize those that we had authorized in the past. We are also looking to add additional financial institutions that the city may do business with. Um, one
of those being uh local uh branches, for example, Provident Bank, who just recently opened up a new branch, my understanding is on Edison Place right by the Mars building. uh and uh we want to make sure that we spread a wide net of financial institutions and we want to make sure that you know we have the
ability to be able to deposit funds and do business with banks that are secure that offer community reinvestment to the city of Norc and that will able to assist not just the city operate but as well as those residents of the city and and we have come we have the BA coming up if I may follow up oh before I'm
sorry please the resol this resolution here says January 1st 2025 5 through December 31st, 2025. So, anything that happens after that is not is not covered by this resolution. I believe that the resolution should say that until the
next one is approved. Okay. Yes. Yes, we could we could modify that. Again, our the goal is to have it done and on a more timely basis. And I'll make note of that to make sure that it doesn't, you know, fall through the cracks. and we'll have it uh ideally adopted sometime in December of this
year in order to cover 2026. Yes, Mr. Ba. Yes, Eric Pennington, business administrator. The one thing I wanted to add to what Ben said and I think he gave a great explanation of uh the banks that we use in the depository institutions. Just want to add that some of a large
chunk of our money is in large banks such as TD Bank and PNC and they don't give us necessarily the service that we think we deserve. So just because they're big and just because they are national that doesn't qualify them to be
the depositories that we should use. We need to look at smaller banks. Uh for example, we have uh I think Provident Bank, Ben just mentioned, Colombia Bank, which is right across the street. uh other financial institutions that are more agreeable and amendable to working
with us to either keep our costs uh low or eliminate those costs to take a call when we have an issue that comes through. We had some issues with TD Bank which I believe were resolved. Uh they had to deal with just personal interactions and we're not going to have a situation where we're depositing
millions and millions of dollars into the bank and they are mistreating our employees or not giving them the um access to the business line that we should have or calling us back when there's an issue with respect to depositing some funds. So we do to Ben's
point want to cast a more wide net to make sure that we have depository institutions that appreciate our service. It's very difficult to go somebody to beg them to take your money and they don't give you the uh adequate level of service that you deserve. So we're working toward that. Thank you.
You're welcome. Thank you. Thanks. Next item. 7R5A through C are contracts with subreipients to provide HIV AIDS related health and support services. A is Rucker's clinical quality management
program. B is Isaiah House and C is Broadway House for continuing care. Any questions? Council hearing none. Next item. 7R6A through E are professional services contracts for the law department. A and
B are both litigation matters. C and D are both workers compensation matters. And E is labor and employment matters. Questions from the council? Hearing. Next item.
7R8A is a reappoint as an alternate number four of the board of adjustments. Uh, Rosa Torres Zawolski sponsored by Council Member Canana. Second on that. I'll second.
Was Ramos. Council Ramos. Was that you? Okay. Ramos. B is a ceremonial street designation for Zelma Mitchell Collins sponsored by Council President Crump. Second. Councilman Council. That's not
my wife, by the way, y'all. same first name happens to be, but no. C is waving special event application permit and street closure fees for the Clinton Hill Community Action Farmers Market sponsored by Councilman Council.
I'll second that. Next, D is waving special event application permit fees for the 4th annual Holly Street Festival sponsored by Council President Crump. Second. Councilman Gonzalez second.
E is recognizing and commending resolutions and F is expressing profound sorrow and regret. Seminar 9 A and B are appointments of special police officers.
Questions from the council. Uh so hearing none. Next item. C is a professional service contract for the for deployment assistance from the
FCC and RPC for the police department. Questions? Hearing none. Next item. D and E are application acceptance of grant funds for the hiring of 15 police officers under the 2023 cops hiring
program. Any questions from the council? Council Councilman uh Kelly any questions on this item? All right. Uh Councilman Gonzalez. Yes. This programs the grant usually is for
five years. Erh and uh the question has always been in my case uh do we have the budget to continue employing these police officers once the grant is over Eric Pennington business administrator council president to
council Gonzalez not necessarily to your question about do we have the funds available now after this grant is over to continue hiring these perhaps. Um, we don't know. We fully expect that the complement of police officers we bring on are necessary uh for the uh the the
safe uh deployment here in the city to make the city run well uh to continue the good work that we've done in reducing violent crime to make sure that the residents are safe to uh deploy. There are now quality of life there's a quality of life group that's going to come out of the most recent class that's
coming out now. We want to continue all of that and I I cannot stand here today and say that we have the funds now that'll be available at the end of the grant term to employ those officers but it is a clear expectation that we'll
find the money. Well, yes. Say you hopefully have attrition that that would compensate for for those individuals is I am my question wasn't do we have the money now? Will we have the money five years from now uh to to hire to continue
paying this these individuals and I I believe that we do. I just asked let's say the question so that we can clarify that we are let's say complying with the cops program er because at one point in time this program was eliminated in the
city of north right now we are absolutely complying great great question and again it's our expectation not only that we'll maintain a balance we want to increase the number of officers on the street so what we lose in attrition we want to make sure that we not only replace them but but hire more that that is the plan I think we're
working on putting in a class of hundred right now. So, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Mr. B. Next item. Uh, I'm sorry, Councilman Kelly. I'm sorry, Council. Thank you, Council President. I want to go back to um 7R8E recognizing and commending under um
sponsored by Councilwoman Roundtree. There's something that was sponsored by me. Number 27, John and Mildred Cross um uh street naming designation. Can we can we make an amendment to uh show that
rec under recognizing and commending sponsored by me number 27 for the street naming of John and Mildred Cross. We amend on the floor. So July noted. All right. Next. Go back to next item.
My apologies. 7R10A is application acceptance of grant funds for the 2022 recycling tonnage grant. Questions? There none. Next item seminar 12A is a change order for the solids
floatables control measures netting facilities. Always good to see a reduction. Next item B is a bid contract to provide for the replacement of fire hydrants. Any questions from the council?
Next item. 8 A through D are reappointments to the rent control board. A is for Mr. Powell. B Mr. Vimoa, C, Miss Hernandez, and D, Miss Mosley. Questions from the
council. Next item. E is an ordinance granting a 30-year tax abatement to Robert Treat Hotel Urban Renewal, Inc. to undergo major renovations to all systems within the 108-year-old hotel. Question from the council.
Hearing none. Next item. Item 10, miscellaneous raffle license questions. Next item. Oh, that's it. Uh, council president, council members,
we have one um added starter, proposed added starter for the S SOA contract. Questions from the council? All right, we'll get those letters in and be
good to go. Yes, sir. Can I'm sorry. Can you can I get the leg start number just for that? I had a started number. I'd like to be a sponsor that council number. Councilman Silva wants to sponsor. Second by
Councilman uh Canana. Legisar file 25 0583. 0583. All right. Thank you. Public comment. Yeah. We are now in the 30 minute public comment portion of this
meeting where each speaker will have three minutes to speak. Please state your name for the record. Is there anyone wishing to address the council? Hello. Good morning. Good morning everyone. Um, my name's Natasha Akin. I
was on the list to be considered to build two new two families on South 10th Street. Unfortunately, it was written incorrect, but I wanted to say something about the idea of home ownership in
Newark. I am not a large corporation. I'm a young woman who grew up on section 8. In my proposal, I talked about growing up on section 8. In my proposal, I talked about changing the blight in my community. I talked about the fact that
I'm raising sons in the city of Newark. And so, when I get informed of the cost to buy the lot from 15 to 50,000, I need everyone to be clear. I'm not a large corporation. I'm a community member who
wants to change our community like the mayor talked about. So, when he made that call, I did that. I clean the lots that I talk about. I rebuild the community that I'm trying to build up in. So, I just wanted to address that.
And so, when you talk about the idea of assessed value in different communities, they have lower assessment values. That property that I'm talking about, there's nothing there but garb garbage, debris, concrete, people throwing mattresses.
that wasn't the original lot that I had applied for. So I want to make that clear. So imagine to my chagrin yesterday to find out that I need to come up with 50,000. That's only to purchase. Like the um BA said, you have
to deal with what comes next. After you purchase, you have to find the funds to build that. This is an extraordinary dream. And it's not just a dream that I want to make money because you don't make money. It's very hard to get through the 18 months and to
successfully build. So I just wanted to speak about that. So we'll defer it. But everyone with an LLC is not a big business. I'm a small woman trying to do big things in our community. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your comments. Next speaker. Queen Motheraku, Central Ward. Good morning. Good morning. This is my nebulizer, which I've had to use increasingly because no abatements
have been made in my apartment. Even though the city has taken my landlord to court again, it's really not pleasant to have multiple asthma attacks a
day. It's not pleasant to come home to an apartment that smells like mold. It's a lovely looking apartment, but no, no abatements have been made. None. It's
May. This issue was opened up in October of 2023. I was told that the city was going to make my landlord address the abatements. And the biddy the the
city said that the building is still unregistered since 2015. At this point, my landlord is non-compliant and the city is complicit
as as well. This is my health at stake according to law. When the landlord is aware that there's a health issue, this is defined as harassment. What is this city going to
do? Y'all need to relocate me. Y'all need to relocate me. I've said this before. You need to relocate me. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Uh if we could have uh Queen Mother, if you could
step to the back and there'll be somebody there to speak with you. Uh I was told that before I went to her office. She did nothing. So do me a favor. Have a seat and I'll come back and talk to you after the
meeting. Thank you. Thanks, speaker. Good morning, council president. Good morning, honorable council members. Um, on April 25th, 2025, I hate to say it, we know who you are, but thank you for the record.
Jun, I'm sorry. It's all right. This issue just got me so excited. Um on April 25th, 2025, uh Rucker's Law School Center of Law, Inequality, Metropolitan Equity came out with a report
u says gentrification in three New Jersey cities lack job creations. And one of those cities, uh Newark, like Patterson and Jersey City, it said that Jersey City is fully gentrified, but
Newark is in transition. And it also goes on to state and I quote, "No is experiencing job gentrification where investments in expensive market rate, new housing and investor le renovations
raise prices without corresponding job growth scene in traditional genification. So um I'm I bring this issue to us because um this report was done over over the last 10
years and as you know this administration has been here for the last 10 years and it says that our community is in transition of being gentrified through job creation and so I bring this to the forefront because it
should be alarming that we don't lack job creation. We have an enormous amount of tax abatements that we continue to give out that creates an enormous amount of jobs. However, when we look at what the government is doing and we look at the
components of the government that is inactive, is not functioning properly to be a part of these tax abatements, this is affecting our communities tremendously as we see this gentrification going on in our in our in
our community and is directly saying that it's associated to these jobs. So, I'm I'm going to ask you again that we bring this administration before this municipal council to talk about the affirmative action review
council that is responsible for the monitoring and compliance of our Newark resident employment polic policy that has to do with our job creation. So if we have this this this problem in our city that is being
um spearheaded by this administration, this gentrification, we need to do something right now as a as a body, as a collective body, our community, elected officials, and everyone that's involved in this process. Thank you. Thank you
for your comments. Anyone else wishing to speak? hearing none. Public speaking is closed. We don't have anything of executive session. So, we're finished. Can we Can we stay here? So unusual,
huh? Can we stay here? You can hang out as long as you want, council, are you in your parking spot now? I'm stay here. All right. Thank you everybody. See you tomorrow, I guess. Stay here tonight. God bless. Kind of anticlimatic at the end, huh?