Good evening. On behalf of the governing body of the city of Pake, we welcome you to the September 2nd, 2025 city council meeting. In accordance with chapter 231, public laws of 1975, advocate notice of this meeting was provided by resolution of the municipal council adopted on June
17, 2025, setting forth the schedule of meetings for the year 2025 2026. said notice was published and posted on the city hall bulletin board by the office of the city clerk. Please be further advised this meeting will be conducted in person. The Zoom stream provided is
for viewing only and is offered to the public as a convenience on August 8th, 2025. Public notice and Zoom instructions for this meeting were published in the Herald News and posted on the city of Pake website at www.c cityofake.com. Council agendas.
Instructions are also available on the last page of this agenda. Please be guided accordingly. Roll call, please. Counciloman Love, present. Councilwoman Melo, present. Counciloman Mayor, present. Councilman Garcia, present. Councilwoman Colom,
present. And Council President Sher, present. Should we all please rise? Heavenly Father, we ask we thank you, Lord, for allowing us to meet this evening. Lord, we present to you the agenda that has been set before us, Lord. And we ask you to please guide us to make the decision that will benefit
the residents of the city of Pake. We also ask for a special prayer, heavenly father, as our children head back to school, Lord, let this be the the year coming be fruitful for them and their teachers. In your beloved name we pray. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of
the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Good evening members of the council, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us at tonight's meeting.
We're going to do a little bit of changes to the agenda. Uh something tells me that many of you might be here for one issue in specific and I'd like to obviously get to that issue as soon as we can. Um at this point uh
let me just share a few points with you if I may. Number one, if you have a cell phone, if you could please turn it off or vibrate. Number two, it's common that there are issues which are of concern to all of us very much and oft times the person
sitting next to us has asked a question that we want to answer. The problem is that that obviously cause makes it difficult for the other person to hear as well. So we ask you if you have a conversation going on with someone, please just step
outside the council chambers um have your conversation and please join us back again. Uh but if we could ask you to please stay out of of council chambers while you're in other conversation. Um the council agenda is composed of many many uh pieces to the
puzzle. One is hearing of citizens, the mayor's update update, um ordinances for second and final reading such as the one we have tonight, ordinances for first meeting, correspondence, resolutions, etc. These are all part of the normal council agenda as is tonight's a normal
council agenda. Um if we could ask uh there are some seats still available. I apologize that we don't have more, but there's some seats still available. Please avail yourself of them. At this time, I'd like to go a little bit out of order with the
council's permission and ask mayor uh if you'd like to share with us your report. Sure. Council President, with uh with your allowance, can we have just sending the translator just translate the uh announcement you made in the very beginning so that everyone is aware?
Absolutely, sir. Thank you. Gracias. Thank you, council president, members of the city council, city hall staff, and all with us today. Council meetings uh often uh begin with a quick report as to the state of the city and what is
occurring and what we can look forward to. I'll try to be brief, but we had a lot going on over the past couple weeks, council president. So, I'll try to get through it. In terms of infrastructure and development this month, as many of you know, we probably opened the new public parking deck at Pake and State
Street. a six-story deck which adds over 300 brand new parking spaces, public parking spaces for the community. The deck features and now has operating EV charging stations or electric vehicle charging stations, digital signs that
show how many spaces are actually available. Enhanced security with all cameras up on the inside and exterior of the building and elevator access. We also made it more accessible with free overnight Sunday parking, also free
holiday parking along with affordable monthly rates. Yes, you can pay for a monthly pass for the parking deck. We've also obviously in compliance with ADA regulations, made it accessible to all entering and exiting. In addition, our
road paving and parking upgrades have added over 170 spaces just this summer across from Chestnut Exchange Place, Henry Street, High, How Avenue, Myrtle, Pake, South Street, and Third Streets. And we have been able to increase 500
new spaces that we've added throughout the summer with our roadway, our striping, and our parking lot initiative are identifying space and creating new public parking. understanding that we're one of the most densely populated cities in the United States of America. Parking
is a very serious issue and we're very proud to move forward. I want to thank the work of engineering, our purchasing department, obviously our department of public works that goes out to paint and just with innovative and creative approaches of the angled parking spaces, we've been able to multiply and add
parking spaces in every single ward. We are also taking steps to improve parking on Gregory Avenue which uh just this fall we will be looking to have a new angle parking spots. They will be created to increase capacity and convenience for residents and the
businesses. In regards to our youth and community program this summer we especially were proud of the success of our junior police and junior firemies. As I mentioned in the previous meeting, and I'm excited to share that this year, we had a graduation for over 300
children that participated in our police and fire academy. And for the first time ever in our city's history, we welcomed children of all abilities, including those on the spectrum, all with special needs. These young people learned teamwork, safety, and leadership, and
they build lasting bonds with the first responders who serve our city. I want to thank the leadership of our chief of police, Lewis Guzman, and our chief of the fire department, Patrick Trencos. I believe we are the very first in the state of New Jersey who has actually incorporated a special needs and an
inclusive program into these juniormies and we look to expand that throughout all of recreation. This week, we were able to swear in three new police officers who will serve as school resource officers. Their presence will strengthen school safety
and community police relationships. We also recognize two retirements on September 1st with Sergeant Dubac and Detective Delos Santos retired from our Pade Police Department. We thank them for their many years of dedicated service and for the contributions they
made to the safety of our community. In terms of community events and celebrations, in August we came together as a community for National Night Out, which was celebrated at our last council meeting outside strengthening partnerships between the residents and our police. We celebrated our great
diversity in a continued effort by this council, my administration, and our city to express that we are a welcoming community for all by having our Indian and Ecuadorian flag raising ceremonies. I want to take this opportunity to highlight that in the next week we will
be promoting two brand new sergeants. One officer Rana who comes from the South Asian Indian community. That was exciting news at our Indian flag raising as well as officer Nunes who also be promoted which lines up exactly with these two retirements that we had of
sergeants. Again, we continue with our work in the community. We recently had our community citywide book bag giveaway right here from city hall. We distributed more than 800 book bags to help students start the new year's with
resources, notebooks and pens. I want to thank our police, our fire, our volunteers. The clerk office, madame clerk, the entire office was out there giving out book bags and working very hard. Thank you. to our youth council, council president, members of our mayor's youth council that came out to
hand out the book bags and many volunteers. But I also want to thank the parents. You know, none of these initiatives would be successful unless the parents assisted us in helping us get the word out throughout the entire community. I also want to thank the educators as was already mentioned in
Councilwoman Melo's most profound and deep prayer. We wish all of our students the greatest of success in this brand new school year and many of them are in need of these resources. That's why the donations of those in the community and those who partner with us make such a difference. We also hosted a community
clothing drive. Council President, you'll be extremely excited about this along with our council members and all the community. We gave out more than 6,910 pieces of brand new clothing items in their original packages to needy
families. Over 1,382 residents were able to receive more than five items each with winter clothes, coats, socks, brand new suits, brand new shirts, dress shirts, as well as leisure
wear. We were extremely excited. We've had a great amount of success with this program. Council President, I want to thank our human services. I want to take time out to highlight Masio from our administrative team who worked tirelessly with volunteers to ensure
that we reached out to every corner of the city to get as many families as possible to come in and participate. Over the last couple of weeks, we've had flag raisings, but we've also had some dedications. Members of the city council, we honored community figures
with a bench dedication for Will Mad Dog Smith in Third War Memorial Park, uh, which lined up with our cars in the park, our big car show. He passed away a couple years ago, but he was near and dear to his heart, and he was always present at every event. I know Council
President Gary Sher, you're very close to Will, as were many of the council members. So, we honored him with that dedication. Just yesterday, we renamed the corner of Columbia Avenue and Monroe Street Chin Legacy Way in in honor of
Rosa Chin Ortiz. She was the very first Latina on record to open up a hair salon in the city of Pake uh over 60 years ago. So, we were able to name the street that her salon employed and served so
many people. She was also the very first of Puerto Rican descent to win the New Jersey Queen's pageant. She made sure that she told us and I said on behalf of the council and all of us, she still looks like a beauty queen. So, she
appreciated that. and council members. Last month, our city council obviously continued forward with many initiatives, many that are positive, but I want to take this opportunity just to pause and as we recognize retirements and service unfortunately in the city of Pake, we
also have uh individuals that served many years ago and passed on. I want to take this time to recognize the passing of retired firefighter Richard Richie Gurggets who had served the city of PIG fire department for 28 years. He began
his career on engine 3 and then transfer to engine 6 and spent most of his years proudly assigned a truck 2 and served this city with distinction and honor. I highlight him because many of our firefighters and I take this opportunity to thank firefighters from surrounding
municipalities who took time to cover our fire stations as our firefighters all attended the memorial wake and the funeral tomorrow. We also had the passing of our retired police officer uh Wagner Larson, Officer Wagner Larson. So
I would ask council president if you would allow that we have a moment of silence in order to recognize rise for a moment of silence. Thank you ma'am. Thank you council president. As we look forward and we go into the fall and winter season we look forward to our
turkey distribution for Thanksgiving. our toy giveaway. Uh many in the community are aware that our toy and gift giveaway was changed when I began in my administration. We are no longer have children come to city hall. The distribution goes to the parents and the
parents appropriately give those toys at home to the children. We believe that it is a sacred, most intimate and beautiful exchange and experience and it's one that should be had with the parent and the children, not necessarily here in city hall. And I'll just take this
opportunity just on a quick recap because I'm excited. I know that many are here as the council president articulated for something very important. But I want to share that as last month our city council introduced this uh rent stabilization ordinance uh
bringing us to a 3% cap. I want to share that over the last two years, we have presented home rehabilitation programs and incomebased support to help owner occupants of one to three family homes make critical repairs by applying for funding and receiving it a forgivable uh
grant that you receive if you live in the home for more than eight years. We also passed ordinance to provide opportunities for accessory dwelling units permitting ADUs in R1 and R2 zones to create smaller, more affordable options for residents. These are
conditional and contingent upon they only can be allowed to or they're only allowed to be rented as affordable housing. We have a mandatory set aside that we passed just within the last year requiring that new multif family or mixeduse development include affordable
homes with uh 20 to 15% set aside including for workforce and affordable housing. We uh reinstituted a rent leveling board more than 30 years where we did not have one. We have received a great deal of positive feedback from the
community as they are there as a guard rail as a gate to protect our community to ensure that they hear cases and they can fairly, pragmatically and justly make decisions in the best interest of those who live in our city and protect
those who are most vulnerable. And we also move forward on our market street redevelopment plan which works to provide mixeduse and multifamily developments within close proximity to bus lines and nearby rail transit. This plan requires an affordable housing component to be included in any new
construction project, creating more than 10 new affordable housing units on Market Street and a complete all affordable housing development that just was completed on Lexington Avenue in the city of Pake. We have many more down the pipe and we're extremely excited to
partner with the community. I am so proud of this city council's approach to address the concerns within our city and to work together with all of the stakeholders as we deal with the unique challenges that everyone is facing today. Thank you, council president.
I'll cut my report there. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. Any questions for the mayor? Mayor, I wonder if we could come back to your report which is is as always voluminous and and such an incredible things going on in the city. Thanks so
much to your direction, your guidance, and your support. But I wonder if you could come back a little bit in terms of the children with with different abilities, disabilities we call them. Is this something going on in other communities? Is this something that I know that we did this with playgrounds,
blue play blue playgrounds if I'm not mistaken, and that was at your initiation as well. the blue parks. We were actually recognized as the first city in the state of New Jersey to develop blue parks by making a couple of simple adjustments and investments where we repositioned the benches of the parks
at the entrances of every park. We created gates around the entire parks and playgrounds because many children on the spectrum, some with different abilities can be elopment risk. And for some parents, it really wasn't exciting to come back home from work and take their children to the park to have to
worry about whether they were going to run away from them. And so we wanted to create space that wasn't specific to children with special needs, but rather inclusive that all children could enjoy, but also address those concerns of the parents by taking a few pragmatic approaches to how we design these parks
and adding inclusive equipment. We have made it more conducive for parents to come be able to sit right by the entrance with a special gate that opens often times with a latch that you can see at pools where you have to squeeze, press, and pull up. So it's not so easy
just to push through the gate and run out. And this brought a lot of peace to the parents. As I often said, it's not our goal to have parks specific for one group, but for all children to enjoy recreation and play together. Because if you close your eyes, you cannot distinguish between the laughter of a child who's often described as
neurotypical or a child that may be considered on the spectrum. All children of all abilities should have access and enjoy all of our parks and all of our amenities. So that's one of our programs. Another program that we have is our special needs program for young adults recreation after school and after
work where they come here. It's led by Joe Cologne in our recreation department where they travel to museums, to parks, to plays, bowling. These activities are more than just having something to do, but encourage socializing with other individuals. ensures that there are
strong bonds and friendships developed so that all children, all young people, and all adults can enjoy not just our activities and events and resources in the city, but around our state and even outside of our state as we've been able to take some of these young adults to Broadway shows and different
performances in New York. Also, we are actively and aggressively pursuing affordable housing opportunities for adults with special needs and those who are on the spectrum. Considering that as many children age out of the school program, it begs the question, what will
happen to them? Will will they have a certain level of autonomy and dependence, but also being a program where parents can feel safe? They know that they are protected and taken care of. We are moving further along with this investment. We have explored with Joyce Hunt, our director of community
development, partnerships in order to have a development in proximity to a business. We've been in conversation. I met with the uh executive and CEO of the local shopright who has agreed that if we can build uh an affordable housing
for special needs adults in proximity to this shop, he will agree to provide them employment. There are some ideal locations in proximity to transportation. Again, conducive for uh for independent and autonomous living as
well as followup through case workers, social workers, and families. So, we're extremely excited about that. But the one that I mentioned, council president, this uh academy, we've been in conversations with our chief through our blue envelope program in partnerships with the p county prosecutor where those
who have licenses to drive and are on the spectrum. They have a blue envelope on their windshield where police can immediately identify that someone is on the spectrum. This becomes extremely important in the exchange because some behavior, some reaction may be interpreted differently by a police
officer if they did not know. That's why we work so hard to educate and ensure that all our police officers are trained in this blue envelope program where stemming or sudden movement of the arms or perhaps not following an instruction like look me in the eye or someone turning around or spinning may be
perceived by an officer as perhaps resistance or not cooperating. Through this training, our officers learn that this is a common uh behavior, conduct or reactions of someone who's on the spectrum and they deal with them differently as they deal with everyone in our community with patience and
consideration. So, our junior police academy and our junior fire academy, incorporating and including children with special needs. It serves purposes of creating bonds, relationships with our law enforcement, understanding but also empathy as all the children
participate together. See, with our parks, with these programs of recreation, if children grow up together understanding that we have more in common than our differences, and differences are often highlighted, but we have so much more in common, then these differences, you grow up with greater empathy. Now, that kid that you
played in the park with growing up is that kid that you're in middle school with, that you're in high school with, you're less inclined to want to bully or maybe more inclined to want to help them, assist them, and understand them throughout the many changes we face so many through those formative developmental years. And the last thing
you need is to feel ostracized or left out. the more that we can get all kids of all backgrounds, of all lifestyles, of all abilities together, the better it is for our city, our community, and society as a whole. So, yes, Council President, we have a number of great programs, and some of them have been uh
emulated throughout the county and even throughout the state. So, we're extremely excited to partner with other municipalities and share uh these approaches and initiatives in order to ensure that even more children can enjoy safe and enjoyable recreation and educational opportunities throughout our
state. Amazing. Your administration and your leadership, sir, are amazing. Council President, lastly, I forgot I just want to share that we took possession of the 911 monument at the high school. As many are aware, the high school will be demolished in the next
year. And some people have asked Yeah, some people have asked what happened to the 911 monument and the historic bell. The city of Pake took possession of it. We're storing it and we will place it somewhere safe. The project looks like it will be about 5 years before it's completed. We are one of only a handful
of municipalities out of out of 564 municipalities that received over $350 million for a brand new high school with state-of-the-art classrooms more conducive for learning and uh less children and more teachers as well as
for the first time ever those who graduated from Pake High School most of you on the deis uh for the first time ever it will no longer be a joke that there's a pool on the fourth floor we're actually getting a brand new aquatic center with a regulationsiz pool in the
new high school. That's a big deal cuz many of us who grew up in Pank, including me as a freshman, that was the hazing practice. The first week you were there, they would tell you, "Go check out the pool on the fourth floor." And to all of our disappointments when we would get there, there was nothing but lockers and seniors laughing at the very
naive freshman's that went up there. But for the first time, we will have an actual pool. I thought that would be something cool to share. Thank you, Council President. Uh I failed to mention earlier, forgive me, ladies and gentlemen. Uh you can receive copies of our agenda. They're located immediately outside the door.
They're also available to you on the internet, uh as well as all the uh information, resolutions, proposed ordinances, etc. um they are available to you and you will receive all the information that the council in fact receives that the council in fact receives in
which to make its determinations and decisions. I'm going to go a little bit out of order um really for the hope that it will be to uh be available to uh those of you who have young children and need to get them to bed a little bit than
otherwise. So I would like to skip down from hearing of citizens We have four ordinances for second and final reading for which discussion is required. The ordinance that I'd like to put under consideration at this time for the benefit of my
colleagues is number four, proposed ordinance 2494-25, an ordinance amending section 231-23, rent stabilization of 2025 of chapter 231 rent control of the city of Payic
code to reduce maximum allowable rental increases. Please, council president, the ordinance before you imposes a 3% cap on all rent increases. It also propo it also has
vacancy uh control, which means if the property becomes vacant, the 3% rent increase uh still applies. It also requires landlords to file a registration each year with the rent
leveling board which is necessary to impose rental increases. At this time we are going to open the public hearing on the proposed ordinance. Everyone is invited to speak to the ordinance at this time but only to the
ordinance. A little bit later, we'll have general hearing of citizens where you can speak on any subject that you would like to. But right now, you may only speak to this proposed ordinance. Is there a motion, please, to open public hearing? So, move. Motion and second. Roll call
to open public hearing. Councilman Monk? Yes. Councilman Love? Yes. Councilwoman Melo? Yes. Councilman Mayor? Yes. Councilman Garcia? Yes. Councilwoman Colom? Yes. And Council President Sher? Yes. Thank you. Is there anyone who would like to address the council at
this time? Please step up to the podium. Please share with us your name. We do not need home addresses, but we do need names for the record. Michael Kitenberg. Um I manage um many apartments in
downtown Payic and understand very well um what this rent leveling uh means to everybody in the room. It's a tremendous opportunity to create a cap on an expense in everybody's life that is uh
is very very uh impactful. The only thing to keep in mind is that really under the guidance of you know Rick Fernandez and the honorable Hector Laurel, this city has become a boom town and despite the fact that it is one of
the most um populous cities in the entire country, it contends it continues to attract more and more people that want to be here because there's so many good things happening here. Um, and part of that is
been really watching in the last 10 years specifically really an incredible amount of construction that has gone on to really provide a tremendous amount of upgraded housing.
In regards to this um this this new rent leveling uh law, there's one point that I would just like to take issue with to bring to the council's attention is the idea of rent deontrol when the apartment
comes vacant. Um, I think that the the message has been to from the city over and over again is that we want to provide a quality uh safe product for um for tenants to be in. And what's amazing
about the city of Payic is is that there's so much new construction yet pretty much all of those units have been uh been absorbed. And so there's a credible demand to be here as not just as a second choice but as a first choice place which is really a compliment to
the mayor and to uh to Rick and in both of those uh in making that happen. Um the the fact that this city however is not strictly uh new buildings. It is also uh has tremendous amount of old
structures. Old structures um require a tremendous amount of attention and care uh to to keep them not just safe but also to make them really on par to the best of one's ability with the new
buildings that are uh on the market and the new uh apartments that are on the market. those those uh those apartments as they come vacant require a great deal of capital in order to bring them um up to speed with everything else that's
going on in the marketplace. In the event that there's not um a deontrol upon vacancy of a unit, you're going to see more and more buildings and more and more of these older buildings just left on cruise control and being uh you know
kept to bare minimum requirements of what's necessary to keep them safe and occupiable. But in order to keep the standard and the quality of living up, you have to ensure that people can uh make the necessary investments in those
units to bring them on par with the rest of the marketplace. There's a tremendous amount of expensive units in the in the neighborhood. And those of of us who are working with older buildings, um there's a tremendous amount of it's very cost intensive and labor intensive to bring
those apartments up to speed. um and to bring those apartments to a place where they are marketable uh once they are vacated. And therefore I am presenting to the council that keep the rent control uh ordinance as you wish but do
not implement the deontrol factor um the the control factor even upon vacancy because you will end up in the long term not being able to provide the quality of living that the city has been aiming for and providing for their tenants for the
last uh since really 2008. there's been a sweeping turnaround and I think that that's uh I think that's something to take into consideration in the long-term picture. It doesn't hurt the tenant. As long as the tenant stays in the apartment, they're still protected. On
the other hand, when the tenant leaves, it it creates an opportunity for the the landlord to increase the value of the apartment, which simultaneously, by the way, just at one can see that the rents
in Pay used to be extremely low. They're now very some some buildings very very high. Bottom line is there's a market for all of those apartments and it's still it's not a question of gentrification. It's a question of still focusing on the indigenous audience
that's here in Payic and cherished. And as a result, I think it's really important to realize that deontrolling an apartment when it comes vacant is critical to taking care of old buildings and ensuring that there's a quality status to those units as they're
transferred to the next tenant. Thank you, sir. If I may, everyone who would like to speak will be given that opportunity. I say that only so that you don't find yourself standing for more than a few minutes waiting to to speak. So if you
would like to speak at some point, you will have that opportunity. Yes, sir. Uh good evening. Thank you for attorney for sharing my testimony. My name is Antonio. I'm a 24 year old member of Make the World New Jersey and I'm also been a Pacific resident since I was five
years old and most of you guys remember I was here last month and you guys know that I love living in Pik and want to continue living there. I currently like I said I live with my mom and my three siblings and at the moment it has come to the point where we have to split split the bills to be able to survive.
It has come to the point where me and her had to make a decision of having to pay our auto insurance or our rent. And even then, my siblings are getting older. Everybody's growing. And we try to look around for new apartments. It came to the point where they would tell
us the need security deposit plus a month and a half, which is more than $1,200, something we can't afford at time. Now I would like to thank the council for considering import an important protection for stable stabilization rental and increase at 3%.
As you see here as I told you guys I want to be a scientist and a science teacher and what does a scientist do? They bring you facts and evidence. So I do have some evidence. I have a chart as you see here. Sorry about that. So as you see this chart it shows you two lines. It shows a
blue line and the red dotted line. The blue dotted line shows at a 3% increase rent at a constant year of 10 years. And then it also shows the 3% the 6% increase at a concept of 10 years. As you see, every year the red line gets
much more larger than the blue line. This is because there was a $900 difference between the 10-year increase. That is about let's just say the base is 2,000 a month. at an increase of 3% for 10 years, they would have to pay a total
of six two $2,688. Now, if we were to allow an increase of 6% for 10 years, the exact that they would have to pay would be $3,582. Like I said before, that is a $900 difference. That could be the difference
between somebody having to pay rent or be able to provide food or groceries for the families. Like I said, I want to build my life. I'm sick. I told you guys, I want to be a teacher for you guys, especially for the academy because I graduated from there and I would love to teach there, especially for the
biotech program. It's an amazing program. Now, I'm excited to be here tonight because you guys are going to be making history if you guys pass this ordinance. You guys will be one of the cities that passes orders and still has rent, stabilization, and control. I want to thank the council for your support and
thank you for all those who joined us tonight. We all deserve to live with dignity and respect. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Margie Fiori and I've been a tenant attorney with Make the Rain New Jersey and PaG for the
past three years. I've represented numerous tenants that have received extreme rent increases while enduring terrible conditions violations. You've already heard a lot of testimony uh today and uh the last reading on why this new ordinance will support the
large constituency of tenants. So rather than add to that powerful testimony, I'd like to speak on how the landlords and developers will still thrive under the strong rent control ordinance. First, I want to quickly zoom out and
look at how rent control policies have impacted cities and housing markets. Recent studies have shown that landlords in unregulated markets have managed to reduce rental supply while increasing their own profits. Studies have shown that landlords have such high market
share that they have successfully raised the rent anywhere from 9% to 25% across the US. This should come as no surprise to the council as you've heard countless stories of extreme rent hikes over the previous years when Payic had no rent
control. To quote the economist and Rucker's professor Mark Paul, "Accounting for landlord market power flips the narrative on rent control. Rather than it being an inefficient policy attempting to correct a wealth functioning market, rent control becomes a policy precisely to balance market
power, reduce inequality, and enhance efficiency." So, we've got another graph for you. Um, all right. But I will try to hold up here. Okay. So, here we have a graph
showing the medium Oh, yes. Thank you. Okay. Here we have a graph showing the medium incomes in the city of Pacific as well as the medium rental prices. So, as you can see, the incomes have stayed relatively stagnant. Um, and you'll see they actually decreased dramatically in
COVID um pandemic while the median rents have increased exponentially. So, again, this is because of the extreme market power that landlords have. So, in light of the economic reality facing so many of our community members, this ordinance becomes an essential tool to provide
necessary stability. Um, okay, you can leave it. So, do you want to take a picture? Let me take a picture. All right. Um, and now looking at the proposed ordinance more closely, I want to draw out a few pieces that specifically account for the concerns of landlords
and developers. So number one, we have these mom and pop landlords that are already exempt. Okay, under the proposed ordinance, landlords of single family homes or owner occupied two family homes are not covered by this ordinance. They
have nothing to worry about. For new construction, meaning anything built in the past 30 years, this is already exempt. So therefore, landlords and developers looking to construct new buildings are not impacted at this time. Uh number three, hardship applications
and capital improvement applications which already exist under this ordinance also provide clear avenues for raising the rent it is economically necessary. And finally, the property tax pass through. Landlords can still pass on all
property tax increases to their tenants. So, in conclusion, I commend the city council for working closely with their constituents to develop a strong rent control ordinance that will create much neededed protections for tenants while continuing to encourage growth and development in our city. Thank you.
[Applause] [Music] See? Okay. I live in P. I've been here for 28 years. I have a wonderful wife.
My the students are footballs athletes and I'm with the movement and we are here because we want to give complaints about the rents. After the pandemic, these landlords have been abusing of these hardworking people.
of 200,400 and $600. We know that work is not very good right now. And people are suffering. Those high prices are abuse. That's why we're here with our colleagues from Make the Road from
And we need a fair resolution, not abuse. And that's why we are here. Thank you. [Applause] Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Um, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Laura, Councilwoman Monk, Councilman Love, Councilwoman Melo, Mr. President, Councilman Mayor, Councilman Garcia, Councilwoman Montes. My name is Miguel Rodriguez. I want to
be clear that Black Lives Matter Patterson stands with Make Rose, New Jersey. The working class of Patterson stands with the working class of Pake. Everyone deserves to have a roof over their heads. When the rent is too damn high, the only people who benefit are the
landlords and developers. Again, when the rent is too high, the only people that benefit are the landlords and the developers. Not the tenants, not the renters, not these people filling out the council chambers, not the homeless or the people who can't be homeless at
any given moment. The people of PA does something huge by bringing this ordinance up. I salute you all. The next part is for the city council to do something huge, which is vote yes. Vote yes for the people. Vote yes for the residents. Vote yes or sake. And once
again, vote for your people. Stabilize the red. Stabilize the stabilization. [Applause] Excuse me. Excuse me, sir.
Excuse me, sir. [Applause] If I cannot maintain civility, not yelling and screaming, then we'll postpone, which you don't want and we don't want
either. Yes, sir. Good evening. My name is Hugo. A few months ago, I lived in a studio. That's the only home that my youngest son has had.
From night to the next morning, the landlord raised our rent $1,000 so that we could leave sooner. He cut our gas and would not return our phone calls. In total, three of five families were
obligated to leave. I started looking for a home for me and for my son and they were from $2,000 to $2,800. And they would ask for a deposit of a month and a half. So to leave from where I was, I had to
gather around 6,000 to $7,000. And I knew people from the same area, from the same living in the same units, from the same landlord whose rent was increased three times in one year. Now I rent an apartment with my son where we both sleep together
and and my room is as big as a bathroom for now. This is all I can afford because rents are too high. doesn't stop asking me why we moved and almost all my salary goes toward
rent for the moment. I would like to give stability to my son but with these high rents I can't and not just for me but this is a problem for many families in P And because of that, I am asking for you
to vote yes for the 3% cap and for vacancy control. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening.
Good evening, council and mayor. One moment. Okay. My name is Albert. [Laughter] My apologies. Let me switch. My name is Alberta Jimenez. I have five adolescent daughters and I've been
living in the city of P for 17 years. For 16 years, I've been at the same address. I cannot count the amount of times that I have been concerned about not being able to pay the rent. I earn $3,000 a month and my rent is
$1,800. More than half of my monthly salary. My light bill is approximately $250 a month. The phone bill is $55. That leaves me with $195 a month. Many months there simply isn't enough to
cover all our expenses. And the months where I am behind on rent, the landlord charges me $75. We had to buy uniforms, which was around $300 for all the girls. I had to take odd jobs to compensate. I cannot save.
It is simply impossible. And I cannot find a better apartment for my daughters. I am trapped. Many times I've felt the physical stress and mental one when something unexpected happens that
throws off my budget. The opport I have felt that the economic opportunities were an illusion. I want to thank everyone for being here tonight. to stop with the deontrol of vacancy
vacant apartments and to stabilize rent. We all deserve Good evening, city council and mayor. My name is Phelis Gallardo. My name is Phelis Gallardo. I am a member of Make the Road New
Jersey. I've been living here for more than 25 years in Pto. Right after the pandemic, a person came and bought the building where I currently live. Right after the pandemic, he bought the building.
and establish a new rent. For some, it increased to $2,000. Some of the tenants of the building, he increased $400 and for others $600. So that way from one day to the other we didn't know what to do
about the matter. I want to thank the city council for taking measures to approve tonight's ordinance. stabilizing rent to 3% cap eliminate. It's vacancy control. These are exactly the proposals that we
need. To maintain our families in their homes. Thank you. At this point, our councilman has put his light on to uh speak for just a few moments. Councilman Mark. Thank you. If I get in trouble, please
council. Sorry. After the councilman speaks, we'll continue with everyone else who would like to speak. Yeah. Um I wasn't here personally. I wasn't present here at the last meeting, but I was on the phone, so I did listen. to
hear all of you speak and I'm hearing a lot of the similar comments that I heard a few weeks ago and I find it I I find it interesting that many of the stories that we are hearing
are individuals that have seen their rent increase 200400 $800. here has been informed, been educated about what this city council and this administration has
done in the past few months. The mayor and his administration together with the council has spent many many hours understanding the pain that all of you have been going through over the last few years. And therefore, we have instituted a few
months ago a 6% cap. So please understand that many of your horror stories that you have you are detailing tonight have been to a certain extent dealt with with this administration and council.
Thank you. Gracias. Thank you, counselor. Good evening, city council and mayor Laura. My name is Marianelli and I am a member of Make the Road New Jersey. [Music]
I've been living in P for 15 years. I've been here more years but in P 15 years. I've done because I'm because I have an illness with my spine. Uh my son is the one that's working and helping to cover the
rent. But every year it is increasing so much that it's not enough for us to cover food and to cover the rent. I see my son desperate and not being able to sleep. So there's been there's been it's not enough for us to cover all of the
expenses. Sometimes there are tickets and then um he's been getting very desperate. and he wants to leave, but I wanted to come here because I have a lot of friends that are experiencing the same thing as I where they call me crying because they
lost their apartment because because They've increased their rent $250, $300 and they've had to uh rent rooms and they have um children who have been suffering. I have a friend whose daughter is suffering from depression.
For the moment, I'm trying to keep my apartment. I'm very excited to be here since the city of P is making history by protecting tenants. mine in our homes. We all deserve to live with respect and dignity.
Muchas gracias. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Jessica Kitson and I am the director of legal advocacy at Volunteer Lawyers for Justice. Um we are a civil legal aid organization. Um, and we are very grateful to the council
for being in the forefront of advocacy to reduce housing instability and homelessness in Payic City. Our organization operates nine distinct legal programs, including a housing program and a veterans legal program that serves New Jersey veterans with a
variety of legal needs, including housing. It is the veteran community that I want to focus on with my remarks tonight. Far too many veterans and especially those on fixed income are struggling with housing instability. In order to
provide context, I offer the following sobering statistics about New Jersey veterans from a recent report by Monarch Housing Associates. That report showed that 73% of veterans identified as having one or more disabilities. A large number of veteran households identified
as having fixed sources of income such as SSI, SSDI, TANF, or general public assistance, the Veterans Pension Program, andor Social Security. Even worse, a significant number of veterans surveyed noted that they had no income
at all. More than 200 veteran households in that survey reported having experienced homelessness for up to six months. A 2024 report by Housing Assistance Council focused on New Jersey veterans revealed that approximately 62,000 New
Jersey veterans live in homes with one or more major problems of quality, crowding, housing afford uh and housing affordability, which is the greatest housing problem among veterans. This is consistent with national
research that shows that the number of veteran renters across the country who are costbururdened has drastically increased over the last five decades. At a time when the rate of veteran homelessness is on the rise in New Jersey and throughout the country, rent
stabilization is a crucial tool in combating the issue. It is really encouraging to see the city council lead on this important issue and take affirmative steps to stem the tide of ever rising rents, prevent displacement,
and work to ensure that affordable, safe housing is accessible to all. Volunteer lawyers for Justice applauds the members of the council for addressing this issue on housing instability due to increasingly impossible rent burdens. I
urge the council to pass the measure, thereby protecting existing affordable housing options for those um for for all and especially our veterans who have already sacrificed so much for this country. Thank you very much. Good evening. I'm Andre Berger, a
community organizer with Movementto Cosetcha and I'm here to speak in support of the ordinance, but more specifically in support of the vacancy provision um and maybe address some of the um things that were said by one of the initial speakers about that. Um, so
without a vacancy provision, right, it provides an incentive. If you have a a rent control, a rent stabilization bill and no vacancy uh provision, it provides an incentive for landlords to force out legally or otherwise uh their current
tenants. And this is something that we've seen, you know, with communities that we've worked with throughout New Jersey, uh that landlords do have a variety of means um that they can make life impossible for the families that are living in their buildings. And if you provide a massive financial
incentive uh for them to do so, there will be people who will take advantage of that. Uh so if you close this loophole, then that issue no longer exists. Um and the second point there is that you know the vision of this ordinance, right, is that you don't just want uh people who are currently living
in the apartments that they're in uh to be able to continue to pay for those apartments. You want the entire community to continue to live in Payic. And that includes the people who are here who are growing up here, the kids, right, who are graduating from high school, graduating from college and want to be able to move back to Paek. And if
you only have this ever shrinking pool of affordable housing um where anytime anyone leaves, anyone moves to a new apartment that disappears, then obviously uh that's not going to be sustainable pathway to ensure that the community can continue to live here. Um,
so again, I just want to say that I commend the council for having this provision that addresses that loophole. Um, and I would certainly ask that you keep it in. Um, and that that is a really crucial and essential part of this ordinance. Thank you.
Hi. Uh, good evening, mayor and city council. My name is George Bean. I've been uh investing in Psychic uh for a lot longer than well must be more than 50 years now. Uh and I want to speak on
the exact point the previous speaker uh presented but from the opposite point of view. Uh and that's the point of view of having a tenant in buildings for many many years and then not being able to
bring your rents up one's rents up to something not necessarily market but a reasonable rent. I have a a tenant, a wonderful tenant, many wonderful tenants. Um, but one wonderful tenant recently moved out or told me he was
about to move out of a four bedroomedroom unit we had. Uh, he's been there and raised his family there for 30 years, maybe 31 years. when he I don't know what his rent was when he moved in, but I can guarantee you it was in the
$600 or $700 a month, maybe $800 a month maximum range 30 years ago. He was able by living, working, raise a family and he bought a house in Payic, I believe. And we felt wonderful for the man who
has it's the American dream and it's the American story. And when he left the apartment, uh, well, he's about to leave, but his current rent for his fourbedroom apartment, it's been going up two,
three, 4% a year. His current rent is $1,400 a month. Now, I haven't I've done some repairs in the apartment in the intervening 30 years, but we haven't changed the stove maybe or the
refrigerator. We haven't renovated the bathroom fully while the tenants's living there. So, under the proposed ordinance, we'd be able to raise the rent. It's $1,400 a month. Now, we'd be able to raise it. Um, that's aboutund
14 time uh 45 less than $45. $45 limit increase in that time. My taxes when we first bought the building were probably $150
a year per unit. Now they're about $2,000 a year. Three years ago they were 1,000. They've gone from 1,000 to 3,000 in in the last three 1,000 to 2,000
doubled in the last three years. When he moved in, we did roofs for a dollar a foot. Now it's $5 a foot. Forget city taxes. City taxes have been very stable. It's wonderful to pass through city taxes, but they've been very stable. You want to give me a pass
through? Give me a pass through for insurance. But but um I'm beyond the point. That's not I'm outside of the point. The point is s the stock of housing has been fantastically improved in older
buildings in Payic over the last 15 years. As as a previous speaker mentioned, the city has done wonderful and developers have come in here and they've t and they've got they've got renovated apartments. They've improved apartments. We have we have so much the
quality of housing is so much better when we renovate a bathroom. I had a tenant come in and kiss me because we renovated our bathroom. She had tiny little room, no tile floor. It costs a few thousand dollars, but people landlords do that. Landlords,
we've heard horror stories about landlords. Do you think landlords don't have horror stories about tenants? Do you think landlords don't have tenants who said to them, "I'm not paying the rent anymore, kick me out during COVID and the courts are closed for a year and a half." Do you do you
think there are tenants who make a mess, a terrible mess, and then move out? Landlords have horror stories, too. But I'll take my tenants any day. My tenants are wonderful people and they've all do the best to pay the rent. And if they're late with the rent, they're late
and they normally have a good excuse. And they'll say the same thing about me. That is that we're good landlords and we treat people properly. We've heard stories about how landlords have cheated tenants. Well, that's that's illegal. If it if it's illegal under the old
ordinance, it'll be just as illegal under the new ordinance. Anyone can violate people violate the law. We're not talking about violations of the law. We're talking about following. That's what we're planning on. And I am saying to you, I have many tenants who pay in
$1,000 a month, $1,100. Here's a fourbedroom apartment. What's a fourbedroom? I don't even know what it's worth, but it's worth a lot more than 1400. And I'm only going to be able to raise the rent $42. Vacancy deontrol is critical to keep the housing stock in
Payic where it is. And vacancy is crit vacancy deont control is critical to keep our the uh the buildings value where it should be and and the real estate and if there's no vacancy if
there's no vacancy de control I think you're going to see a lot of landlords who are going to be appealing their assessments because in truth the value is decreased and that will decrease assessments and will decrease taxes.
I I implore you. I think 3% is a very a very tight limit. I guess we can live with it, but vacancy control is not something we can Thank you for listening. [Applause]
Councilman Monk. Yes, sir. If I can just trouble you, if you don't mind, George. So, you have an apartment now that someone is moving out, right? They've been there for 30 years. So, I would assume that an apartment that has been lived in
for 30 years probably needs a new bathroom. Absolutely. Probably needs a new kitchen. We actually we probably did a bathroom a few years ago, but definitely a kitchen. It'll need a tremendous amount of renovation. Go ahead. New appliances. New appliances.
Oh, of course. Of course. New flooring. Absolutely. Throughout. Okay. So, let's do the math for a moment. What's you think the minimum you could get away with to make that apartment a apartment that's res for all these
people sitting here an apartment that they deserve to live in as well as well as people to live with dignity. What will it take you to turn that apartment into a livable nice space? A bathroom is about $6 to $8,000. A
kitchen is probably 15,000. Um, and then you're going to have windows. The windows may have already been replaced. We have to replace windows periodically because they get old and drafty. But if you have to do
windows, you you're the last time we had such an apartment, we spent we overspent, but we spent close to $60,000 on the on you know what three or four bedroomedroom apartment. We have two or three such I don't I I don't have very
much residential real estate mostly industrial real estate. So, while I'm affected by this, fortunately, I'm not unfortunately I'm not as experienced as as many landlords who have hundreds of apartments, but I'll tell you, we we
have to spend $50,000 to renovate a fourbedroom apartment. So, let's so let's let's take and appliances are 6 or 8,000. So, let's let's take your $50,000 and let's cut it in half. Let's cut make it $25,000.
So, Uh, so you put in $25,000 into an apartment. Why would you do that if your return is going to be 40 bucks? I sell. You sell. I I can't I can't. You sell. And And
look, we're I I like to think everybody says this. They all say think they're respectable people. I think I'm a respectable guy and I think I'm a great landlord. And I think you could ask any of my tenants about me with one or two exceptions and they'll say, "Yeah, we're
we're we're good people and we do a good job for the money." And when we go in and renovate someone's bathroom for $8,000, we don't raise the rent 12% the next year or we raise rents three or 4% a year. And if we'll spend a lot of money
on a bathroom, it'll come back to us, right? And having a tenant who pays the rent every month, that's a good thing. I want my tenants I want good tenants who respect what we do and pay the rent every month. So to to to get an extra,
you know, 100 an extra $150 or $140 a year for fourbedroom for the renovations required. You see the math. And we're getting squeezed, too. I realize tents get squeezed. I realize it. And it's a terrible thing. And a lot of what you
heard is is landlords acting illegally. And and what tenants need are more advocates, more lawyers. We had one or two lawyers who were here. They need to be able to call someone and get help the moment a landlord misspeaks to them. But
but the way business is done mostly and there are a lot of wonderful landlords in Payic and and they're they I'm sure most of them do an excellent job. They can't live with vacancy deont control. They really can't.
Thank you. To follow up on the count, George, to follow to follow up on the councilman's question. Yeah. You had mentioned a word and I've heard the word mentioned by a few other people who have come to testify. And by the way, thank you everyone for coming tonight. This is extraordinarily
important and very very helpful. The word that's been used is reasonable. How does one ascertain what reasonable means? Well, you're I'm sure you're more a philosopher than I am and I can't uh
and I'm sure you're much more successful than I am. No, I don't think not from what I People speak of you as a very successful guy. Um what's reasonable? What? Well, in business, the market determines
what's reasonable, right? the the market determines what's reasonable. But in a in a business like look, I'd love to see all of these people who demonstrate demonstrate against the banks when they raise interest rates too much and
squeeze us or demonstrate against the insurance companies that are squeezing us. Does the insurance company say to me what's reasonable? They insurance companies, I'm sure you all know, have been brutal over the last three or four years. What's reasonable?
[Music] I can't I can't I really can't tell you what what a re reasonable in terms of a percentage increase. Normal normal yeartoyear on a occupied apartment we we aim at 3% and rarely go over 3%.
Certainly not over 5%. We've done a lot of work maybe more than three but 3% is what we aim at. vacancy deont control. It should be deontrol up to the market. You want to make it 95% of the market or 90% of the market. I I guess people
could live with that. But who's going to determine market? That's a hard thing to do. I'm not answering your qu. I'm the son of a lawyer, so I never answer a question straight. I'm the brother-in-law, the brother, the father-in-law, and the father of lawyers. It's too much.
Same thing. Same thing. I have councilman m. Yeah. I just I just want to sum up my my comments with this gentleman is that unfortunately we we are hearing how important it is to increase affordable housing in the city of Payic. But here
is an example in front of us where we will actually be decreasing affordable housing, making less units available in the city of Payic. Council President, if I may, Mr. Mayor, I just want to be clear. Mr. Bean, if I may,
You're aware that in this ordinance, there's also a hardship clause as well as a capital improvement clause that as it is and the way that it's written, if they are extenduating circumstances which a property owner feels that they're being squeezed as you described
by interest rates or the market or any cases, they they are able to go before the rent leveling board and present these concerns and the rent leveling board can determine whether or not an increase beyond on the 3% is and I'll use the word that the council president
stated reasonable and I I understand that the desire I think we all agree is to protect vulnerable people. You have stated that you are by your description a more compassionate and responsible landlord. I commend you for that. That's
important. I can tell you as mayor that I've had first count experience with individuals who haven't been ethical, who have decided to implement unconscionable raises at the expense of vulnerable families believing that there
is no recourse or they would not be able to be defended. It is why this council, my administration, working alongside community advocacy groups and landlords chose not to work against groups but to bring stakeholders together to ensure
that there would be provisions to support good landlords while at the same time holding accountable bad actors. I know that we have heard accounts in previous meetings of family members, anecdotal accounts of individuals that have said, "My rent went up $900 a year
with a a 30-day notice." I don't think anybody wants that. I understand that those who are responsible, who are ethical should be supported and our city has seen record investment development. I along with Councilman Monk worked on
an initiative that I present at the League of Municipality to try to have a moratorum on any tax increases on homes and property for aesthetic repairs. If you're not increasing square footage, why should we deincentivize you? I share that to say that this council has a
desire to ensure that good landlords, good property owners are supported and again reiterate that there are measures. There are provisions made in this ordinance where if an individual is ethical, if they're saying this apartment was at an extremely low rent,
interest rates have been hiked and they gone skyrocket or they skyrocketed high and they're working with tenants, as you mentioned, who come and give an account to say the repairs moved me to hug and kiss my landlord. I was so excited about
it. That the right of the board can say this is a reasonable increase. And it's tough because it is subjective on what reasonable it is. But I I do want to highlight that that the best I can describe it is we've taken an approach together
not to have landlords be looked at as villains. not good landlords because you're right there are they are good landlords but there are those who believe that residents individuals or families don't have a defense and it is government's responsibility to
step in and unfortunately there have been circumstances that have compelled this administration this council along with advocacy group to collectively say enough that there are some landlords who took advantage of opportunity I had one call me and say, "I don't understand why
I'm being affected by this ordinance. I only raise 45% a year." Thought to myself on the phone, only 45%. Of course, to the individual, no one thinks that they're doing any harm. I don't think anyone intends to be
malicious or do harm, but the case is that we have seen many accounts and I believe that these provisions will be helpful. the renting board will judge him case by case. There is a pass through through taxes. You're right
there. Perhaps should be one for uh for insurance. We can't really do that. Well, you're not the insurers. Are you But I will say this again and I'll highlight it. We didn't come to this in a silo or arbitrarily decide to throw these numbers together.
We carefully met with the community. There are municipalities where you find advocacy groups against the governing body. Let me make this clear. That is not the case here. In fact, I would propose that together my administration,
the city council, and the community, perhaps we weren't on the same page as to the timeline, how fast we would get there, but we were going in the same direction. We were all heading to the same destination. We even discussed over the years potentially bringing it down
to 3%. There are legitimate concerns of vacancy control. We will look at the data. Data was presented. You can find data on both sides. But I will say this with great confidence. I know every single council member here along with my administration wants to ensure that
individuals, as is stated over and over, have access to a roof over their head. But not just a roof over our head, but quality living opportunities. People want to progress. They want to make sure that their
children go back to school and none of them are worried about the fact that they're going to lose their apartment. Families want to ensure that if they're working, they can also afford to eat. They can also afford to pay for their medication. they can also afford to
perhaps have some time to enjoy the fruits of their labor and go out with their children and their families. So, we have to be very careful in how we approach this. But I do want to stress that that sometimes the narrative,
which is often the case when it comes to government politics, omits or forgets the nuances and the details because the most extreme version of what is in front sells and people are attracted to that. I want to say that a lot of careful attention went into this
approach. a lot of discussions with developers, with owners, and with the community. And we have a responsibility and a duty to ensure that we hear the people, the cry of the community while at the same time considering everyone
else. So, your testimony is very impactful. If I may finish, I know that I can go long. It's important for me to put this on the record. I am proud of the fact that we did not fight against the community, that we did
not turn a blind eye or deaf ears to the cries of community, but rather that we considered what's going on around the state today. One of the biggest topics being discussed around the state from both parties is affordability. How do you address affordability? How do you ensure that people can afford to live in
their homes and stay in this state? Some talk about the fact that they may move out. There's a large number that don't have that option or those resources. The consequences for them may very well be that they end up on the streets. We hear rhetoric now coming in
from Washington potentially that's going to eliminate subsidies, assistance for individuals. And we look at our city with our demographics and our needs. good families, hardworking families, some who fear that they can't go to
court. People say, "Well, go to landlord tenant court." And some who are too afraid to say, "I may not make it out of landlord tenant court. I may go in there to fight for my rights and might find myself in cuffs and taken away to some detention center." So, I understand that there are
legitimate concerns. We have good people in the city and we want to see investors make a profit. There's nothing wrong with that. You should have a return on your investment, but there should be a balance. And over the last few years, we feel those scales have been tipped. And
unfortunately, some have taken advantage of very vulnerable people. And they have a right to stand up. In fact, I commend them. I commend every single person who stood together, who lifts up their voices. And I am proud to be in a city that reminds the community that we don't
have to hide. When we oppose something, when you feel strongly about something, the government is here to listen to you and to respond. Not just to listen, to say we hear you, but to act. Valente. [Applause]
I' I'd like to respond. First of all, I've been working very hard to try and learn Spanish, but I didn't get everything you just said. Uh I I hope to come back in a year or two and and be able to say otherwise. um
in in but I would like to answer one of the things you said and that is about tenants who are being forced out of their apartments which is a I I totally agree it's a terrible thing. I think the one of the most important things the city can do is provide legal help or at
least quasi legal help. Doesn't have to be a lawyer. There has to be someone knowledgeable to and the tenants have to be know about it and be quick and able to call them and get an immediate response, immediate help. In terms of being forced out of their apartment,
vacancy D control doesn't force anyone out. As the first speaker said, when a when a a tenant moves out, as my tenant did, buys a house, a success story. No one. Now I'm now it's up to me to create
a good apartment for the next family to move into and I have to have the resources to do it. Appear before some board and try and make my case. Not so easy. I've I've been before boards here before and spent a lot of
money trying to make my case on certain issues and not always with much success. Uh not in the residential field. So I I I've taken up too much of your time. Thank you so much for the attention you've given me. Council President, I'll just conclude
that George, you said something at the end and I think it's important. I would love to continue the conversation. You said coming before a board not so easy. But I would propose to you that when it really matters, one will go before a board as you have done today to come up before a board to make your appeal. And
I would encourage you to do the same because responsible landlords like you should be protected as well. And I think tenants appreciate individuals who consider their challenges and you're not trying to make a buck off of somebody else's hardship. You rightfully make the
repairs of you stated. And I again will say there are provisions in this ordinance to defend individuals who do the right thing while still holding accountable bad actors. Thank you. Councilman, thank you. Thank you, Mayor, for your
words. I would just suggest here publicly if I may, that and George actually touched on this about going before a board. Does one go before board before he starts construction to know how much he could invest in it or does
one go to the board after he does construction? And we also take notice that every month that an apartment is empty, right, is is a loss, right, to a landlord, right? So, as we're trying to help out the residences and then and I understand that the administration's
goal as well is to protect the landlords as well with to find that the right balance. Um, maybe we need to put in place guidelines of what the rent leveling board will consider and how much they will consider because for a a
landlord to fix an apartment up and then go before the board for them to determine what how much can be increased is not going to is only going to deter landlords from from doing doing exactly that. Believe that's an excellent suggestion and I want to explore that with our attorney, but I believe that's an
excellent suggestion. council. Just as a an additional note if I may listening to all the comments that have uh been shared so far. Um one thing appears to be true and that is that with there being a freeze in terms of
what one can increase um and with the heightened market that we have right now it is only natural to assume that there's going to be that the valuation of the underlying properties is going to go down. If and when that property value goes
down, the taxes are going to go down as part of revaluation. Where that hole that's just been established goes is is the question. Are those taxes that are no longer coming in from
building A, are they going to be shifted to other buildings? And I think the answer necessarily becomes yes. Um, one one person had stopped me on the street and said, you know, I I don't mind, you know, the 3%, but is the city going to deal with 3% also? And I think
these are these are serious questions that that need to be addressed because what we certainly don't want to do is to aliate the pain and the suffering that so many people here are fe are experiencing only to have that same pain and suffering to be felt by someone else
because they happen to live in another building or across the street. You're very right, council president, and that's why I think we've considered taking this approach. Two things could be two can be true at the same time. Look, I don't think anyone doubts that I'm a pro-development mayor. We've seen
the development over the last eight years. We want to see people develop. We want to see people do well. I want to see renters become homeowners. That's why we invest in our first-time home buyer program and have aggressively pursued education campaigns and town hall meetings to tell people how they
can access those funds. so they can have that dream and own homes accepting the premise that property values will go down. And I would say that we want to monitor closely the data because perhaps property values doesn't go down. Perhaps
the city may be unique and investors continue to invest and tenants are protected and developers are still doing well. That would be the ideal. I also want to remind those for the sake of transparency in Canandor that it is our intention to monitor this closely and if
we believe that there is an adverse impact on the state of the city, we will readress it the same way that we're addressing this because it is important that this governing body and my administration look at the circumstances of the day. The circumstances of the day
is that prices are going up, utility bills are going up. It's why we're partnering with BPU to have a utility day on October 1st right here to assist families to pay their electric bills and their utility bills. We understand this concern. That's why we went or work so
hard to incorporate these provisions to help landlords. But if in the years to come, if those who believe that this will so adversely impact the city that it is not sustainable, then we will come together again. And we've shown that that's what we do when make the road and
I commend their leadership. Nidia and all those part of the groups came to the city and said we are concerned. We had already passed a 6% and discussed of bringing that cap down lower. We had already implemented a 20%
set aside for affordable housing in every new development. It was mentioned that new developments are exempt, but I need to remind everyone not exempt from affordable housing because every single one of them now are required to have 20% set aside for affordable housing. That
is good news because it shows a willingness of this governing body, my administration to work together to address the needs of our community. So again, council president, look, in your role as assemblyman, you have seen so many cases throughout
the entire state, and I so appreciate that perspective and wisdom that you bring because it enhances our ability to consider situations. So I'll reiterate again, if in a few years we see that situations have become
so negative and detrimental and it's going against the city, then we will come together. But I have confidence we will come together. We will address it. We will meet with groups and we will make compelling arguments. But right now, we're dealing with the situation of the day. And the situation of the day is that there must be a strong message to
landlords who are taking advantage of vulnerable families and let them know that Pake stands not just members of the community, but the city united and together stands up in defense of those who are vulnerable in our community. Thank you.
[Applause] Yes. Thank you, council president. Uh, mayor, not to add more to your plate because in in constant conversation with you, I know um in the development of this
ordinance, you spoke with landlords, advocy advocacy groups, as well as the community. Um, I just propose that we maybe form a committee with landlords like this young man here who just spoke.
Um, I got a colleague here who's an excellent landlord as well and to meet with the advocacy advocacy groups so that there can be constant conversation about the pros and cons on both sides. Um sometimes we get caught in just the one side that we're protecting and we're
looking at and if they come together maybe there could be a happy medium if in fact we have to well if we have to address this down the line we'll already have those factors in place. So I just that's just my suggestion maybe we could develop some type of um committee or
something that they meet periodically just to discuss some of the present issues on both sides. Understood. Councilman, I will remind everyone that our rent leveling board is actually made up of a landlord, tenant, uh, rent leveling attorney. It's a good
representation of all stakeholders in the community, but uh, and anytime we can add more people to the table and more conversations would be positive. Council, thank. Yes, please. Um, good evening, as chair,
council. Um, honorable Mayor Laura, my name is Bon Francisco. I've lived in the city for 41 years since the Reagan era. Um, over the years I've seen um
most of my friends leave this city because they can't afford the rent. Friends that I grew up with. Um if you um if if this doesn't get passed um
you start losing population and before you know it you'll have a ghost town. Yes. Uh the landlord that spoke before me did have a partial point on the um on the vacancy deont control. I I I I can
understand that. But uh like you said before, Mr. Mayor, some landlords do take advantage on that. And um in my opinion, I can't prove it. Uh I I I believe that's a lot. So um please
please pass this please pass it for for the for the residents of this city. Please pass the entire ordinance. Thank you very much. Byebye. Good evening, council members. My name is Nicole Mela. I'm co-executive director of the New Jersey Coalition to
End Domestic Violence, and I'm here on behalf of our 34 member domestic violence providers across the state, including the providers serving survivors and victims here in Paic City. Um, I was before you last month, so I appreciate the opportunity to lift up
again how important the ordinance before you is this evening. This ordinance is more than just housing policy. It is vital protection for survivors of domestic violence. Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women and children. By capping rent
increases at 3% and closing the vacancy loophole, it keeps rent stable and predictable, preventing survivors from being priced out of their homes and the communities that they need for support as well as access for their children. For survivors, many of whom face
economic abuse and live paycheck to paycheck, rent stability can mean the difference between safety and homelessness. When housing is secure, survivors are less likely to return to the unsafe situation or the abusive partner and more likely to rebuild their
lives with dignity. Run control promotes healing, safety, and justice for survivors. We urge your support of this ordinance and your support of survivors here in your city. Thank you so much. Uh good evening everyone. Uh my name is
Donald Lama. I'm a longtime tenant and landlord in Bake. Uh I moved to Bake in 1993 and uh I was paying 560 a month in my rent for a two-bedroom.
Uh I was there. It was convenient for me and it was a reasonable rent and allowed me to save money and uh after about seven or eight years my landlord had troubles financially and I ended up buying the building. So I bought the
building in 2001. So at that time the rents were about 650 at that time and 23 years later I still own the building and my rent is $1,200 that I rent. So, um, I
never even started raising rents at all until the last four or five years. And the reason I did because I feel bad to raise rent because I was a tenant there, too. But the reason was mainly is the insurance issue. It's like it's drastic and I don't think anybody really
realizes it. So, I have two buildings in the state and I was paying 6,800 for both buildings combined five years ago. Now, I'm paying 20,000. So that difference right there alone is is the
reason that I'm doing basically about 5% on an increase each year. And uh if I don't do it, it's basically like a business. And if I don't do it, I will fall behind and then I can't pay my bills. So that is the reason that uh you
know hopefully uh you know I know the the tenants looking for 3% but somewhere is around 5% is more to me more reasonable. I heard stories earlier from tenants that their landlords raised it 200 300 well that must be 30% or
whatever it is which is absurd which they should never be able to do but to me something fair and just in four or 5% is more reasonable for me to catch up with whatever bills that I have to pay
also and um you know I mean I feel bad for for the tenants because I I was there I was the tenant in my building and that's how I know. So, uh, and that's the reason I I love Pake myself and that's the reason that I stayed there and I own two buildings there and
I and I just I try to fix my buildings up as best I can and um there's times that happened to me too where uh I have I had a vacancy recently from a tenant. It was a husband and wife and they had split up and it happened in back in
December and I didn't get any rent at all. They split up and the only answer was, you know, we're not together. I don't have the money to pay. I lost seven months rent. And then, you know, which is whatever amount of money, you know, 10,000, whatever. And then on top
of that, I had to do work on new flooring and this and that cost me seven or eight,000 on top of that. Now, I have a new tenant. And um I was getting from her 1,000 a month in rent for the husband and wife. And I'm now I'm
getting 12250 which helps me a little bit. You know what I'm saying? Like just to justify a little bit of money back and it's still not high rent, but it's just something that I needed to do just to regain some kind of money on my losses. And uh you know there's two
sides to every story. That's all I could say. So thank you. Thank you very much. [Applause] Hi councel. My name is Monica. I'm a member of Make the Road. As a member, um
we actually did try speaking with our um tenants about the 6% um race cap. Um but during our conversation, we noticed that it was too much and we think like we the
negotiation that we have is really valuable in us. For example, my rent was 1,600. Then it graced up to 2,000 and then to 275 in a lapse of three years. And and
so that's uh that represents a 32 increase. And because of Make the Road, my landlord and I actually started like getting along now better because now he
knows that I have knowledge of what's in in play now. So, we can never go back in time now, but at least we we can take action of of after years of deregulations to
keep people in their homes. Thank you, council, for recognizing our broken system and for taking action tonight. [Applause] Hi. Good evening, council members. My name is Alejandro Haramo and I am part
of the coacha movement and I don't live in P but I have relatives friends some of them here and first I want to start thanking the mayor for his clarity right I think the mayor has explained very
clearly of what types of provisions there are from the city for the landlords and I just want to let you know that at some point at some point in my life I was a landlord and it is a profitable business. You know real
estate always goes in value and there are you know tax provisions there are government programs uh and other provisions to accept costs. And at the end of the day, true, there
are times where you have losses, but at the end of the day, you recoup those losses in the future. And at the end of the day, you end up with a property that has a lot of value. So to be hearing the landlords making case of this tenant for
this month, for this year, I think they have the right here, you know, to make their case and to inform and say what they what they think. But we are hearing the needs of thousands of people here in
PA in this room and outside this room that this provision will help in these times that are very hard for everyone and as the mayor say later on if there is something to change I'm sure that you
will consider to change it but now it is the important aspect you know to be with the working families with the families amilies that are strong with with with the families that want to stay in town, right? that have the kids that have a
good life that keep contributing to the communities. And we expect you, you know, to be with those families. And as far as the landlords, you know, it is a business. And as a business owners, when
we have a business, we are creative and we try to find ways, you know, to accept other assets. So for me personally right I think that there is a mandate from the community for the people in passage to
pass this resolution and I thank you all for listen and for your support. Thank you [Applause] everybody.
I must say this is a wonderful example of democracy. People come forward and speak actually with the mayor and the council and a free flowing idea. It's just wonderful. Your ordinance tonight is one of the
most important things you will do for your mayor's already stated some of the points I'd like to make. There's concerns that is stated tonight about the cost of a repair of an apartment. We
have to remember that is one cost over many years. That same property made $16,800 a year without putting that amount of money in.
Okay. You have to remember there are three factors on revenue and property. You have the rental income. Of course, you also have the depreciation aspect. People don't remember that they're making money. Landlords are make
landlords are entitled to make money. They should be making money. We've heard some wonderful landlords tonight. I wish there were more that were at 1,400 and not the 2,000 that we're hearing more about from other people. Okay? But you
have the depreciation and the appreciation aspect of a property. So, let's not be afraid of somebody moving out and having to go ahead and retrofit an apartment. As the mayor stated,
there's a capital uh capital improvement provision in the ordinance itself that enables a property owner to go ahead and increase the value of that property and maintain that value. The ordinance is excellent. There's a hardship provision.
The hard hardship provision goes directly to a base increase in rent. If a landlord's not making a reasonable return on their investment, they can go ahead and do so. We're talking about a reasonable return. Not some of the
landlords, especially those larger landlords that don't know the names of their tenants in which there are more of in everything that go ahead. They're not looking for a reasonable return. They're looking for a major return, an exorbitant return that
is not fair to your community who had their homes here and have lived here their whole lives. Vacancy to control. Vacancy control is the death of rent control. People move, I don't know the
statistics, but people move often. Once somebody moves out, they have to go to another apartment for whatever reason. Maybe their children left. They're gone. They want to downsize. Well, all of a sudden they leave the one apartment that has four bedrooms and they go into a
twobedroom. What? That was vacant. Okay. All of a sudden, that's increased substantially and it happens over and over again and eventually we don't have rent control anymore. The beauty of rent control is
stabilization. It helps everybody. In fact, that's the title of your ordinance. It's a rent stabilization ordinance. Every landlord and every tenant will know year to year what their income and expenses are going to be. So,
I implore you and I congratulate you on this ordinance. As the mayor stated, if it's not working out, we can always change it. But I'll let you know there's never I've never seen people not try to invest and be
safe. So I wish you tonight to pass this ordinance in the form it is and everybody have a good night. So Councilman Monk please. Yeah. I just have a qu few questions something something you just said. You
um just just so we're accurate here. You mentioned that besides I guess we're talking about George. We mentioned about his rent $1,400, right? And you said we need to remember that he's still making $16,000 even without an increase of rent. He's still
making $16,000 a year on that apartment. Right. Correct. But I didn't get the 3%. I'm sorry. I didn't include the 3%. Yeah, we include the 3%, right? That's fine. See that? Excuse me. Sorry. I'm sorry. I need your name for the record, please. Neil and Eil Marada.
Thank you, Neil. Um I just the impression I made is that the $16,000 is profit into George's pocket. And I think you you know very well that of the $16,000
he has to pay real estate tax and he has to pay insurance, right? And he has to pay for maintenance of the buildings and the list goes on and on and on and on. Absolutely. Okay. So, just the impression you gave was that we have to remember that he's
still making $16,000, but you know very well that he's not making $16,000 because he has expenses. I don't know how many units are in his building, right? Okay. The more units, the more money you're making. We don't know. Correct. And every situation is different. That's correct.
Right. Every every situation is different. Right. But I also know he's not turning over the property every year and spending $15,000 on a kitchen. That's correct. But you don't have That's correct, Andre. Absolutely. Absolutely. But to I
just wanted to be clear that there are day-to-day expenses and just because a landlord is getting $1,400 rent, that's not profit. A typical expense on a on a property is at least 60% 65%
before you even get to a mortgage. Before you even get to the mortgage. And you also mentioned about depreciation. Depreciation is deferred. It's not money that you save. Depreciation just means that you're
deferring your taxes, but eventually it catches up with you. So to the points that you've made, I I understand what you're trying to portray. I I get it. And I understand the points and everyone's points here, but I think that
we should stay with the facts because we, as you mentioned, we do have a very honest dialogue here between the people and and the administration and the council, but we should work with the facts so that the decisions are made based on that. Thank you.
Absolutely. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address the council? Seeing no hands, I move. Second. There's a motion. There's a second to close public discussion. Councilman Monk, yes. Councilman Love, yes.
Counciloman Melo, yes. Councilman Mayor, yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Counciloman Colom, yes. And Council President Shear, yes. Thank you. What is the disposition of the council, ladies, gentlemen? Shall we vote now? Should we take a small break? We should We should vote now. Vote now.
We should vote now. We got a lot of young kids that There we go. There is a there's a proposed ordinance on the on the table. Proposed ordinance 2494-25. Councilman Monk. Yes. Thank you. I just want to um to sum
up some thoughts if I may um regarding this ordinance and I I know it's very dear to everyone's hearts here in in this room and to many that are not here as well. But as I just mentioned about
laying out the facts, um, and the way I see this, and it's something which the mayor really spelled out very clearly, that this is really a work in progress here in terms of trying to find the right balance to find out what works for for everyone. And as we know, the city
of Payic is unique that we have a city made up of people from many different backgrounds. We have people different types of communities here in terms of people renters, we have people that own and so on and so forth. So the
administration, the council, we have a tough job here trying to write balance that we care about everyone. as an example, council president mentioned earlier that potentially again I say potentially
because it's something which I know the administration will will keep an eye on to see if if it makes an impact and how much of an impact if sometimes with rent control with um the vacancy we don't
have vacancy control values of apartment buildings go down in price As George mentioned, he said that if I can't fix up the unit and can't get my increase, I'm going to sell. Now, very simple math, and I'm going to try to stay with
common sense without quoting people from Rutgers University or from this university. Let's just try to work with common sense. If George has to sell his building and the rents are restricted at a certain price, that's going to lower the price of what he
could get for it. So if you have residential buildings that will decrease in price and the value that means that that building will pay less taxes. So now the city has a choice.
We either at the end of the year when we need to collect taxes and we have a budget. We could either reduce some of our services that we offer to the residences or we need to increase taxes
on the other buildings, whether they're residential, whether they're industrial, whether they're single family homes, whatever it might be. So, what does that look like? What does it look like? Let's take an example. Someone has a industrial building, a
30-year lease, a 10-year lease, right? a fixed price and now his taxes are going up. What's going to do to the value of his building? It will drop the value of his building. So, he'll come appeal his taxes as well. Now, now it taxes fall on someone owns a single
family home. Someone who was blessed was able to afford and buy a single family home. We have many people living in single family homes that are seniors. They're living on fixed income. They don't have jobs. They're living on a social security check. So besides for
their insurance costs that have been increasing drastically over the last few years, besides for their cost to fix their roof or to fix a boiler which has doubled or tripled over the last few years, now their taxes are going up
even even more than anticipated. So all this needs to be balanced out and to find the right balance uh to make this city viable for everyone for every resident of the city.
Another point that I heard um not tonight but I heard this at the last meeting was about how many evictions there are. How the evictions have gone in just a few years. Evictions went from
2,652 evictions in 2021 to 6,745. That's that's an increase of two and a half times of evictions. That means look how many more people cannot afford to
pay their rent and they were threatened and some I'm sure unfortunately were evicted. Let's look at the other side of things. Let's look at the data of how many people that own homes that were late with their mortgage payments
between 30 and 90 days. the national average and since we're showing charts before I'll take liberty of showing charts. The national average in in um in 21 2021 which is the same period of
the evictions. The national average was 6% of individuals that pay their mortgage late. They were delinquent between 30 and 90 days. In 2024, it went to 3%.
That's not a two and a half times increase like the evictions. That's a five times increase of people who own homes who were delinquent on their mortgage payments. That's a national average. Let's take a look at New Jersey.
New Jerseyy's average also in 2021 was 6% and in now at the end of end of 24 this is 1.8% 8% are delinquent on their on their mortgage. That's an increase of three times.
And then we get down to Bet County. Pay County in 2021 and 2021 also had that same very similar to the national average of6 actually little about 0.5%
half a percent of people were delinquent on the mortgages in the beginning of 2024 it was 2.3%. We went from 6% from around a half a percent up to 2.3%.
That's more than four times that's almost five times the amount of people who were delinquent in their mortgage payments in 2022 to the end of 2024. So what this tells us is that everyone's suffering.
It's not just the people that are renting. Everyone is suffering. The ones in home homes homes because their insurance costs have gone up and their cost to maintain their home has gone up and their electric costs went up and their
heating costs went up. Five times the amount of people were not able to pay their mortgage on time and then foreclosures have increased drastically in the whole nation. So
this is a th what that means is that this body, the administration and any any legislation body has a job to find the right balance to make it sustainable and livable for
everyone. I'm not sure what that number is. I thought that with all the debate that the administration and this council had a few months ago and the hours and hours that we debated this to come up with a number of 6%
that's a number we came up with and I found it interesting that someone came up earlier said you know around 5% could make it liveable doable for him we thought that was and but unfortunately not everyone has the patience to see how that'll work
so I'm not against trying something to to play out how this plays out in terms of is this viable. And if it is viable, it's great. If we can make it 1% and the landlords could survive and it doesn't impact other other people in the city
and they could also make it, it's great. Let's make it 0%. But we have to remember we're all here together. We're part of a city. We can't look at the city as just this part or just that part. we're here to work
together. So, that's just something I think is is is important to keep in mind. And I understand the struggles. Trust me, I understand the struggles of what it means not to pay not to be able to pay bills. Um,
that's that's one point I wanted to mention. The other thing is we have all these people that are coming from various organizations to fight for all of you to make sure that there's more affordable housing. And I understand there was something
quoted from Rutgers University and this professor and that professor. Let's just talk logic for a moment if I may. We heard from George. He can't afford it. I stand that we have the mayor made a very good point that in this ordinance
there is room yes to compensate and again that is the work in progress to see how that plays out will that work right and if it works it's great I'm on board but it's something we need to constantly monitor because without
that what happens is historically historically city after city that has imposed gun controls has seen buildings that have been condoed because condominiums don't have don't have have less restrictions. People sell the
units. They can't afford to hold on to it. That means less housing. That means it's less opportunities. Less opportunities means more more of your friends, more of your families have to relocate to other communities, which
is exactly the opposite of what we're trying to accomplish. As another point is all of you are very respectable individuals. You all deserve to live with decency and dignity.
Unfortunately, let's just talk logic for a second. If I own a building and you're restricting me to 3%. And my taxes will get taxed on our pastor, my insurance goes up, whatever it is. Again, we'll see how the rent leveling board plays out. Again, it's something we need to monitor.
And at the end of the day, I can't I I stop making money. Typ someone is not going to keep putting money into a building. Yeah, you'll do it for three months, do for a year, you do it for two years, do for three years, hoping you'll find there's some light at the end of the tunnel. At a certain
point, you stop. So, what is the landlord going to do? They might love you. Your landlord assume he loves you. How much money is he going to keep pumping into your building to maintain your building, to clean the hallways, to replace the floor, to paint the walls of your hallways?
If there's no money, your hallways are not getting painted. Your your exteriors are not being fixed up, right? And maintenance will suffer. It's just plain logic. It has to come from somewhere.
And that only that does is it reduces the quality of life. Now again, there have been landlords, greedy landlords that have taken advantage of this and they deserve to be prosecuted, right? I I'm totally on board 100,000%.
But just remember, too much control comes at a cost and it comes at a cost of your quality of life or what your buildings will look like. Landlords are not these angels are going to keep put money in if they're not making money and it's going to do something. If
buildings, if you own a house, if you don't constantly upgrade a house, it falls apart. If the boiler goes and it doesn't have money, he's going to put a bandit on it and just breaks down more often and more often more often and it just it's that's that's not quality of life when you the
boiler breaks a few times a month because because he can't afford to put a new boiler in. So, this is something that needs I speak to my colleagues that needs to be really monitored very carefully that we're not hurting you. I understand that you can't
live with 200 or $400, $800 increases. That's wrong. But at the same time, we need to find the right balance that you can live with dignity and live in a building that's wellkept. Because as buildings go down, you know
what that invites? You know, crime crime doesn't have an address. But crime does find its way to buildings that look dilapidated, that are not very wellkept. It's just a fact. We know
that. Um, another thing I'd like to mention is that I think not I think I know that under this administration city has never I can't say I know
because I haven't been here 100 years ago 150 years ago when city was created but to the best of my knowledge there's never ever been more development in the city of Pay in the last eight years under this mayor administration Never.
Never. And I will point out that in 1999, was 25 years ago, is when the city got rid of rent control. And I don't know, I don't know if if we
would have seen that type of growth, what we've seen in this administration had rent control been in place. I don't know. We'll find out because historically, you can look at city after city after city when rent control has been instituted
between 70 and 75% there's been a 70 to 75% reduction of permits for new construction because the developer has a choice where to put his invest where to make his investment. Is he going to make his
investment in a city that's open that allow that doesn't has less restrictions? Of course. So the rent control deters new investments. It's logic.
Lessent means as the mayor said earlier, we take a lot of pride that every new development has to have 15% or 20% 15% and in some cases 20. But councilman I would remind you that new development
they would be exempted. Home occupied um properties are exempted from this. So new development would be exempt. Home occupied would be exempt. So I just want to make those clear. But to your point and it is a very good point Councilman. We'll look at it because any one of
these scenarios could occur. You made a poignant statement. Landlords aren't angels. They also shouldn't be demons. And with that said, we're trying to strike a balance. We don't expect them to be saints. We also don't expect them to be evil. No
one is expected to be in any one of those extreme. What we do expect is this. We expect that our approach will send a message and if it works, we will all benefit from it and we move forward.
We will look at it to see if it works. What we know is over the last 30 years, there have been many landlords that took advantage. And if it's a bit of a hardship for landlords to be told go before a board, how much more so isn't it for vulnerable tenants to be told go to landlord tenant
court? Because if landlords who have the money, the attorneys, the resources are saying that's very difficult for me to go in front of a rent leveling board. Imagine the family that says, "I don't I don't have the attorney. I don't have the I can't I don't have the day off of
work to go to landlord tenant court, which is often bottlenecked by so many cases and miss multiple days." So, I hear you and I think every councilman hears you and everyone in the community knows that there will be challenges. But
again, I do believe that historically has been precedent. This council has fought hard to support affordability initiatives. This initiative I believe is a positive one. City of Pake is unique. I think it's been said over and over. Each city is different just like each property is different. Maybe the
city does well. Maybe we do the right thing and we get rewarded. Maybe a landlord sells and someone else buys and says, "I want to fix the place up." But that's why we have government. That's why we have a democratic process. That's why people come here and speak
and share and express their concerns and council members share their concerns. And we look to the future, but not one of us is a fortune teller. We try the best that we can. And again, if there is adverse impact, not on just a few, on the city as a
whole, we will come together again and we will visit it. But I believe before us is an opportunity to do something remarkably importantly right that will perhaps inspire other
municipalities to take a good hard look at their approaches and to tell investors and developers in all cities it's good that you make money but not so much that the people are being heard. So, I think you made excellent points,
but again, I'm proud of this council for moving forward on so many affordability initiatives in the past, ADU's accessory dwelling units, passing every single ward, set aides of 15% and 20% for affordable housing, and provisions that
exempt all new development that exempt home owner occupied properties. Owner occupied properties are exempted. In fact, I thank the advocacy groups in the community for not being so extreme and saying we don't want to sit down and
talk to sit down and say we understand there are good landlords. I think in in every approach there's a give and take compromise. No one side receives everything that they want but ultimately you work together to do what's right for the community. So yes, I think we will look at it but we will look at it
objectively. We will look at it with data. We won't look at it with a bias and say it's been a week, we think that this isn't working. We will genuinely give it an opportunity and invest in real studies and juxtapose those numbers
to other municipalities and see how it's working. juxtapose them appropriately to municipalities that are similar to ours with our demographics and our investments and look to see I mean stat just came out statistics came out that
county is leading every single county in New Jersey in homes being sold and bought. I don't know what that's going to look like a year from now, two years from now, three years from no one knows what it looks like in the future. But what we see now is a real need because you're
right, in 1999 rent control was removed. In the last eight years, we've seen record investments, but in the last few years coming off of a pandemic. In the last few years, with large segments of our population being targeted and too scared to come out of their homes to go
to work, if landlords are seeing increases in prices, how much more so on our tenants, on our residents? So again, I think you're right. I think you hit the nail on the head. We're going to look at this closely and monitor it, but for the sake
of ensuring that every single member of our community is considered appropriately. Thank you. Thank Thank you. Thank you very much. Just Councilman Mayor, please. Hi everybody. Very cautiously optimistic with this
ordinance. We have a emergency on our hands. There's a contingency of the population of Payic that is be taken advantage of by landlords
that are illic. This ordinance is somewhat of a tourniquet for those that were taken advantage of since the pandemic for the rising costs and and more importantly
those who don't have the voice that they deserve and are being taken advantage of by these landlords. That being said, this is somewhat of a micro perspective and there is a macro
perspective and there will be effects. What they will be I think the mayor and councilman Monk el alluded to that we do have to watch this and this while hopefully is a solution to the
long-term problem. It may not be. There is the reality that the values of properties will likely go down due to lack of enthusiastic investors coming to town with
a rent control no matter what the rent control number is or vacancy control. There will be there likely will be effects on the tax role and the
services possible if the revenue is cut. Cautiously optimistic. Thank you. Councilwoman Mala, please. Thank you, Council President. Um well, as we know, we don't have a crystal ball, but we're dealing with a situation right now. Um we don't know what the
future holds, but for right now, I think, you know, this ordinance addresses the situation, but as as been stated, we will monitor it closely. So, for in the future, if it needs to be re-evaluated, we will. But I think right
now we have a situation and as elected officials, we've heard the voices. This is nothing new. Um, the pandemic really opened up Pandora's box. There were landlords that were squeezing our residents and that's why we are here now
and I think this is the right time. We have to do what we need to do and as time moves along, we will monitor it. But there is a situation in our hands and it's only right that we do what we need to do and our residents have been
very vocal about it and as residents ourselves we understand um that we have um a job to do. So thank you guys for coming out for speaking up um and bringing this to our attention. May I
say something in Spanish? Um Um, for lack of a better word, so Um, Perfe.che. [Applause] Do I have someone's light on?
Yeah, council president. Just wanted to I I just wanted to address one thing that the mayor touched on a few times about new development, you know, new development uh being exempt, you know, for 30 years. a new development. Um,
you know, typically in in, you know, we've there's a concept of of ground leases where someone might give you a ground lease for 99 years. You could build on something, but after 99 years, they get
your building. And typically a 99 year or even a 75 year ground lease doesn't affect the value of a property because it's so far out that if you build a a building on this land, you could sell it
in five years, seven years, eight years, 10 years, 15 years because people are not thinking about 75 or 99 years later. I'm not so I'm not convinced that a
30-year exemption is really going to tell a developer, don't worry, continue coming to Pank and developing like we've been doing thousands and thousands of units and which added hundreds and
hundreds of affordable apartments because 30 years if someone develops something and he's selling it seven, eight or 10 years later and the next buyer knows that, you know, in 20 years left there there's going to be rent
control that might make have an impact s a significant impact on the value of that property which will have an impact on the whole concept of the redevelopment that we've been doing in the city of POC.
There's been over the last 10 years, tremendous amount of development and the city has given out, you know, 15-year pilots, 30-year pilots where, you know, developers had the the advantage of, you know, making your investment in the city
of Pose and will keep your taxes relatively stable, low, you know, over 15 or 30 years, knowing that this will make a big impact in 15, 30 years as our as our expenses go that we know we have something to rely
on that oh there's development A that's going to come do in 13 years development B is going to come do in 12 years where their taxes will reset so it's like all this development has been setting a a um call it a um I said a but a future for
our children that as taxes go up there'll be something to rely on in the 15 or 30 But that idea plan to create that value for the future generations, even if we don't feel an
impact today with a 30-year um exemption, I'm not convinced, again, the time will time will tell that developers will continue coming to the city of Pose and continuing development so that our children have a future in
Pose in 20 and 30 and 40 that will be affordable for them to live here. So, we'll build in a very short period of time over the next two or three years of see if building permits and new construction falls off. But it's something that even with an exemption,
not sure that that will really continue um developers making that investment here in the city of P. Thank you. Okay. Uh before we vote, I'd like to reserve a
few moments for the chair to speak on the subject. I'm trying to be objective now, I guess, when I don't have to be objective anymore, but let's join nonetheless. Number one, let's state categorically that it is unconscionable in terms of scumbag law landlords who
are sapping the blood out of our people. Pure and end of story. We must have a plan to deal with that or else we're just wasting our time and wasting our saliva. If we do not create some sort of an o of an oversight or overview policy group
that's going to look at this issue specifically in Payic, then we're fooling ourselves. Nothing will happen with tonight's meeting. Nothing will happen with all the hours that you've been putting into this subject. So, as council president, I take it upon my responsibility to appoint ad hoc
committees at my pleasure and leisure, and I do so now. Councilman Monk, Councilman Love, Councilwoman Melo are now part of the policy group to develop over the next few weeks or months along with the administration a working group, a
working policy group to deal with the problems of the obscene increases as well as to recognize the practicalities um that landlords need to make some money for no further reason than to ensure that their repairs are up to.
It's not front up to court. I've had the ability uh in my other job in in Trenton, as some of you might know, I serve as a member of the general assembly. I've partnered with Baker Road in terms of driver licenses and a host of other issues. I joined you in your uh
opening of your office here in Pac. Um been close to most many of your leadership. Um but I've never felt more proud of your group than I have tonight. never felt more proud of my council and my marriage than I have tonight. We have done what no one else has done before.
We have come together and actually talked to each other. We've not only talked to each other, but we've recognized that not everything is white, nor everything is black and must be treated with some sophistication much greater than that. And I think we've achieved it. I believe this ordinance
will be voted on in a very few minutes. And I believe that it will pass. There will be some questions about how do I make it better and for that we may turn to the councilman Melo, Councilman Love and Councilman Monk. We have an opportunity. It is an
opportunity council monk as you said to provide both dignity and dignity. We have to protect our people. We have to protect our children's future. We have to protect what kind of city we are going to be. We need to recognize,
Councilman Muckas, I think you said so eloquently, that we are either one city or we're not. We can't afford to be several cities. It just won't work. We've got a common enemy, at least in some areas, sitting in Washington DC right now, thinking of ways to take
money out of the mouths of the poor, out of education for for all of our children. That's the fight. We can't lose sight of that. We have a local job to do. One does not
excuse the other, but we have got to get this done. That being the case, there is an ordinance on the floor. Is there a maker of the ordinance, please? So, move it. There's a second motion. There is a second to pass. Proposed ordinance 2494-25
an ordinance amending section 231-23 rent stabilization of 2025 of chapter 231 rent control of the city of Payic code to reduce maximum allowable rental increases. We have a motion. We have a second roll call, please. Councilman Monk, yes. Councilman Love,
yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes. Councilman Mayor, yes. Councilman Garcia. Yes. Councilman Coline. Yes. And Council President Shar. Yes. This passes unanimously. Motion passes. [Applause]
[Music] [Applause] [Music] 10 minute recess. Then we'll be coming back to complete the council's agenda. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Yes. We are back on agenda, please. We number five hearing the citizens. In accordance with the open public meetings act at NJSA 10 col 4-1 at sect the
council opens every public meeting for comments of the public. However, in accordance with NJSA 104-12, nothing in this act shall be construed to limit the discretion of the public body to permit, prohibit or regulate the active participation in any meeting.
Therefore, please be advised that the council will not entertain any comments from persons who communicated seen material make statements which are considered bias intimidation in which a person intends to intimidate any individual or group because of race, color, religion, gender, handicap, sexual orientation or ethnicity or makes
comments intending to harass or speak any offensive language. The person who makes them statements will relinquish their allotted five minutes for public discussion. Is there anyone who would like to address the council at this time? Good evening, Joe Kesente.
Um, council president, my first uh question to the police chief if he can answer Polison Avenue and Broadway. They have two cameras. My question is, what are they used for? I might as well give them all three
questions. I have uh my next question. Be a bit more a bit more specific into your question, sir. Well, the question is there's two cameras up on the pole. I'd like to know what they used for. That's my question. What are they used for?
Um my next question would be what happened to the two Hummers that was donated to the city? Uh where are they? What are they used for? Are they uh vandalized or are they
just uh discarded? Whatever. I don't know. My next question is uh from January to I guess we can say September um crime
update report if I can get that. Um, my next question is there was an ordinance a few meetings back ordinance 2485-25 res residential parking permits.
My question is um is this for the whole city? You know, can I get some information on that? And my last question is for uh there for years there
yellow buses are parking on side streets. they are taking up uh tenant parking and my question for this is is there any way if it's possible
that in the evening they could use the parking deck that you have across your street at night and just move them out in the morning to eliminate the spaces. Is this where the uh tenants could park their vehicles without parking five five blocks away
from their home? Uh these are my questions tonight. Very good, sir. Thank you so much for your patience with tonight's meeting. Chief, two cameras on Broadway. Is it? Yeah. Those cameras are used for
monitoring traffic or if a if a crime occurs for any purposes that they might be needed. That's what they're used for. Okay. Second question. Two Hummers. The two Hummers are currently in an an alternate police lot. Uh that being
across the street probably uh by St. Nicholas. I know they used to be by the uh by the gas pumps. Yeah, they would they would be there if they needed some type of service. So they're probably at an alternate lot. I can't remember exactly their location right now, but they're still being used.
All right, chief. Do we have a crime report for the months of January through September? We have an internal uh report that's not disclosed until uh the state police actually goes over each statistic. Um
but uh you could actually look up statistics that have are that are already viewed by the state police and the FBI um online on our website. All right. uh an ordinance in terms of
I believe overnight parking you said um permit parking permit parking um I don't have that ordinance offh hand we'd be happy to have it ready hope hopefully coming for you at our next meeting and last was about yellow buses
on side streets and parking in general do we have any considerations on that chief what was the question again that that the yellow the yellow buses parking on side streets, which means that homeowners and renters and everybody else has no place to park.
Yeah, if you see something like that, give us a heads up. I know I know we had an issue with that at certain locations. I think uh right off of Broadway by Irving, I think that was res that was rectified that that location was issued, right? Over 300 summones in one year, right? uh for those type of issues, cars parking
on the sidewalks and and the yellow buses also being um on the streets when they're actually commercial uh vehicles. Those issues were addressed. Yeah. One question to this um was there an ordinance in pass that were uh small
vehicles allowed to park on the street like commercial vehicles recently? Small commercial vehicles. No, commercial vehicles are commercial vehicles whether they're small or large. I thought there was something. All right. All right.
That's what you gave me. Yeah. Okay. Anyone else wish to address the council at this time? Seeing no hands, is there a motion? Council motion and second to close public hearing. Roll call, please. Councilman Monk. Councilman Love, yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes.
Councilman Mayor, yes. Yes. Yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Councilman Coltz, yes. And Council President Sher, yes. Thank you. Ordinances for second and final. Number one, please propose an ordinance 2490-25, an ordinance to exceed the municipal
budget appropriations limits and to establish a cap bank 484-45.14 introduced at July 15 council meeting. Is there a motion, please, to open public hearing? Motion. Motion and a second. Roll call, please. Councilman Monk, yes.
Councilman Love, yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes. Councilman Mayor, yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Counciloman Colom DZ, yes. And Council President Shear, yes. Thank you, Mr. Lurch. Thank you for being here. What are we talking about on on 2490? Oh, thank you, uh, Mr. President. Uh,
the ordinance, the ordinance here refers to the 1977 law. In 1977, they actually passed a law which would cap your expenditures. The original cap was at 5%. So that only allowed you to increase your spending by 5%. That was
subsequently modified where it was tied into a price index. The price index uh for this year for calendar year 2025 would allow you to increase your expenses by 2.5%. What this ordinance does, it increases
by an additional 1% for a total allowable increase of 3.5%. Um let me state this though. uh all it does is allow you to go up to that level. The city never goes up to that level. So, it's really preventive action
that's taken so that should some unforeseen event occur, you would not be constrained by the uh by the legislative cap. Matter of fact, this budget that we're presenting today is $1.8 8 million below
the 1977 cap allowance. So, it's really just a contingency plan. It expires every 3 years. It's kind of a rolling expiration. So, it's more of a technical uh ordinance that expires in a three-year period.
Councilman Monk. Yes. As a matter of fact, it's over 30 right now. As a matter of fact, that's But it's early in the evening because uh historically we've been here much later. What does that mean?
No, you're light right here. Right. What does it mean? the button on this. Sorry. Is that better? Yes. Oh, thank you. Okay. But then you're laying back. Oh, okay. Uh what what it really
that means that the city uh go the expenses can only go up two and a half%. Is that across every line? Again, no. Again, very good point, Councilman. Again, it's two and a half% with certain exceptions. Uh so the exceptions would be debt
service. There's no limitation on debt service. The exception would be on uh on your library. There's no there's no limitation on your library. On your capital improvements, there's no limitation on that either. So, um it's minus the exceptions.
So, what happens if your uh insurance costs go up 20%. And uh your payroll costs go up there. Well, they're actually they're they've actually modified that too. So, there's actually an allowance once it goes over and above a certain level. It's an exception as well. It's let me
share this with you. I think and I have the pleasure of having uh the council president who also sits in the assembly. When this law was adopted in 1977, there's now been approximately 50 exceptions to the law because
prolific legislation and I am not exaggerating because we went from A to Z with exceptions and then we started with double A and now we're with double A up to like double U
uh with a U. So, there's literally uh over 45 exceptions to this law. Um each and every time that you know that we uh the cities faced a hurdle because the only way to get around this is to have a referendum and um out of my many years in
government, um I have not been personally involved where I've witnessed a referendum pass. Um you know, they're very difficult to pass. So, so um so the legislative been accommodative um
with these 45 some odd exceptions. That was the point I was getting to was that you shouldn't be um misinterpreting this that oh great we have a two and a half% cap therefore our budget cannot go more than two and a half%.
There are so many exceptions to this that you know the sky is the limit in terms of where your budget could you could could technically go. Yeah. Well, what the what the legislative did just for background for some of the newer council people that
that are here as well is um that's when they lurch registered municipal registered municipal account. So that too council my pleasure councilman mayor I I was coming over to say hello but wait till
after. Um, so, so what happened is, uh, as Councilman Monk points out, there were so many exceptions to the original 1977 law that then they said this is really doesn't have the teeth that was seeking to for, uh, for tax, you know, for the control of taxes. So that's when
um dur I believe it was during the Christy administration when they passed the statute on the tax levy and that's when essentially the first law was passed that you can only increase taxes by 2%. So what they tried to do is put a
constraint on the on the local governments in both directions. One they said you can't increase your spending by X and then they said okay and now you also can't increase your taxes by Y. So, um, it really certainly doesn't have the
teeth that it was originally intended to. You mentioned you mentioned referendum. What are you referring to in terms of referendum? A referendum, if you can't, uh, with the 1977 law, if you can't do your operating budget within that cap law, the only way to go around that is to have a public
referendum. Um, which won't really fly. Uh, correct. Which, which has a very very low success rate. In other words, you can ask the people to expend more money than the cap or you can reduce expenses, you know. Um, so
and most of the most of the cities opt the red reduction of expenses when when faced with that. There are cities that really uh even with all those 20 42 exceptions um do face some cap problems quite honestly. Which two would those exceptions be? Yeah. Yeah. I mean you just I'm gonna have to count them up but it's
definitely in the W. Um so it's interesting you mentioned a referendum. It's interesting you mentioned that tonight because this group that was here earlier tonight, they they had proposed to put a referendum on the ballot in terms of
rent control, right? To to um So what happens if I think it's 500 signatures? So what happens if 500 So
the date now get so 1200 1200. So if 1,200 if 1,200 people sign a piece of paper saying you know we want a cap of 3% 1% 2% of the
budget can't go more than that. Do the people have the power to do that on a on a budget? No, I don't believe they do on a No. on a referendum. Uh for the budgetary purposes, the statute allows this city council to authorize
the referendum and then it just has to pass by a simple majority. So it it's it's a different it's a different requirement than as the law reads the public is able to put anything up or there's not a restriction but I would have some restrictions.
Okay. Regarding regarding budget, I believe that stands on its own. Yeah. I don't believe it would be binding or else you could you would have half the municipalities in the state go bankrupt. Well, I know there's a limit to how many you could put up but your your reasoning is clear your budget. I just I didn't
see there's a limitation with respect to how many well if you don't have there's time constraints so yeah but did you see one on budget S when you read it did you see a restriction on budget questions? I don't remember what the restrictions
are, but that sounds to me that that would have been like Can you look it up? So for the council with council president's obviously direction clear answer see if you can if the people can tell I will look it up that doesn't I I doubt
that they can do that but I I'll look I'll confirm. Can can I ask a question? Are we done with that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just um not not on 2490 per se, but what does our debt look like now versus your your debt is you have approximately
$18 million worth of debt outstanding, authorized and outstanding. Your borrowing capacity is just shy of about 180 million. You're allowed to borrow three and a half% of your equalized valuation, which allows you to borrow about 180 million.
You're at 18 million. We're you're not even you're at.3%.3 not even 1%. Isn't a significant piece of our debt in the next three years? We we do have a piece that comes due in three years. That is correct. Sir, how much of it?
I believe that payment right now um I believe I have the actual number. I believe that payment is about $600,000 a year. Any other questions, please?
Uh on Person 2490. Is there any motion? We have to close the public portion. Close the public. Move to close. Motion and second to close. Roll call. Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love. Yes. Counciloman Melo.
Yes. Councilman Mayer. Yes. Councilman Garcia. Yes. Councilwoman Golz. Yes. And Council President Shear. Yes. Thank you. On the ordinance, please. Is there a make? So move it. Second. Motion second on 2490. Councilman Monk, yes. Councilman Love,
yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes. Councilman Mayor, yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Councilman Colz, yes. And Council President Sheer, yes. Thank you. On 2492-25, an ordinance amending designation restricted parking for disabled persons by NJ license plate number. Is there a
motion, please, to open public hearing? Motion and roll call, please. Councilman Garcia, I mean, I'm sorry, Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman love. I make the same mistake all the time. Counciloman Melo. Yes. Councilman Mayor. Yes. Councilman Garcia. Yes.
Counciloman Gom and Council President. Yes. Thank you. At this point, the council is the uh is reviewing 2492. Is anyone like to address the council on the side it only? Seeing no hands, is there a motion please to close second? Motion and second to close public hearing.
Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love. Yes. Counciloman Melo. Yes. Councilman Mayor. Yes. Councilman Garcia. Yes. Councilman Colinez. Yes. And Council President Shar. Yes. Thank you. On the ordinance, please. Is there a maker? Motion. Second. And second on 2492.
Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love. Yes. Councilwoman Melo. Yes. Councilman G. Councilman Mayor. Yes. Councilman Garcia. Yes. Councilwoman Colutz. And Council President Shear. Is that on the ordinance? Yes, sir. On 2493, an ordinance amending
designation to restrict parking for disabled persons. Is there a motion please to open public hearing? Move it. Motion second. Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love. Yes. Councilwoman Melo? Yes. Councilman Mayor? Yes. Councilman Garcia?
Yes. Councilman Colutz? Yes. And Council President Sher? Yes. At this point, we are deliberating 2493. Is there anyone who'd like to adjust the council on this item? item only. Have a motion to close and second. Roll call, please, to close. Councilman Monk,
yes. Councilman Love, yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes. Councilman Mayor, yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Counciloman Coline, yes. And Council President Shar. Yes. Thank you. Is there ordinances? No.
There's more. Oh, it's already No, we need to uh the final vote on that one. Yeah. Didn't we vote on it already? Mm-m. We closed. We just We just closed. So, I'm sorry. What do we need to vote for? So, when move on the ordinance that's on 2493.
Yes, sir. Move to ordinance. Who's the maker? Please move it. Move. Second, please. Second. Move and second. Councilman Mung, yes. Councilman Love, yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes. Counciloman Mayor, yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Councilwoman Colom. And Council
President Shear, yes. Thank you. 2494. Did we do that properly or does that need to be redone? No, it's was good. And we passed it. Yes, sir. Very good. We're on under communication, please. Roman numeral seven. Any questions on seven? Motion to accept
seven, please. To accept communications. Motion, please. Motion. Second. And second. Thank you. Roll call. Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love. Yes. Councilwoman Melo. Yes. Councilman Mayer, yes. Councilman Garcia,
yes. Councilman Montz, yes. And Council President Shear, yes. Thank you. Current year 2025 budget adoption. Public hearing was required. What are we looking at, Mr. Lurch? President. Um the proposed budget for uh
2025 uh we're required to hold a public hearing this evening. The proposed budget totals 118 million 671,000. Um just to put that into perspective, the um the actual spending in the
budgeted increase compared to last year's budget reflects an increase of 1.85%. So the total budget spending is up 1.85%. Um and the uh what do you call as far as
just a couple of comments um the uh the surplus of the city um is in a very very strong position. the surplus of the city really is at a all-time high um at least in in in my memory which has
been you know quite a while now of $32 million is our surplus the current fund surplus um $32 million the way they measure that when they do a financial review with uh uh S&P and Moody's um is approximately
27% of your budget our total budget is $118 million I'm at $32 million of a surplus plus um that is quite frankly the equivalent of a AAA surplus. AAA surplus when they do an evaluation they
um what they uh what do you call what they anticipate that you would carry is a 20% surplus of your operating budget. So a 20% of your operating budget will put you right around 25 million. So, um,
we're in a very very strong position. Now, um, for that reason, uh, um, for that reason, this budget anticipates using approximately $13 million of that surplus, which will bring us probably down right around the 20% level again,
which is really aa level. So, I just want, you know, want to put that on the record that although we have a very, very strong position, a lot of that is being put back into the operating budget for taxpayer relief. Everybody got that? Yes.
Who's liked? Councilman. Councilman. Thank you. How much of the surplus did we use last year? Last year we used um 6.1 million.
So, now up to 13 million. What is what happens next here? But remember, Councilman, if I may, if I may, um remember Councilman that the issue was that we had the the funds that we were using from the
relief, the $33 million that were expent, and we were stockpiling the surplus for this moment in time. So, I just want to I just want to remind everyone of that that this is the first year that we don't have the the COVID
relief funds that we had in prior years. Right. Okay. So, if if we would if we would have done the followed last year's number and we would have taken only six million surplus instead of the 13
million, how much would I have our budget? How much? Well, well, let me just It's a little bit more complicated that and I just want to put this out there. Um, last year's budget, you had $8 million of American Rescue money that
was still available. So, of the uh $8 million of American Rescue money that was still available, approximately $3 million was used for capital improvements for oneshot expense. 5 million was used to support the
general operating budget. So that what you're really doing is you're really supplanting the 5 million that we had in American Rescue money and we're now using that in the surplus. Uh let me follow up with that. The the city
historically um the last couple of years regenerates approximately $5 million a year. So let's just walk that through. Uh Councilman, if I may. Um if I have a $32 million budget, I'm going to use $13 million that bring me down to 19
million. But I know historically uh with a high level of predictability that I'm going to regenerate five million. So I'm not going to end this fiscal year with 19 million. I'm going to end this fiscal year right around 24 to 25 million which will put us right
back at the 20% level. Okay. Comes next year. So now assuming next year we start the year with 24 million, right? Could be that'd be that'd be that'd be a very reasonable assumption. So would we
need in order to keep I guess taxes with some very minimal increase would we need another 13 assuming our expenses don't go crazy let's assume our taxes stay exact our expenses stay exactly they are insurance
doesn't go nothing goes up would we need another $13 million from the surplus to keep the taxes stable well well if the t if if the spending didn't go up, the answer would be no. Because even if you went up um say a 3%
level, okay? So if you went up a 3% level, your tax levy is approximately 75, it's 79 million including the library. So let's go 80 million. So if you went up 3%, I can absorb a $2.5 million increase to offset your
expenses. Okay. So now let's assume if everything stayed the same, so then I would have to make up roughly a uh $2 and half million dollar um well I was going to suggest if we're going to assume that the the the expenses do not increase, we assume that
taxes don't increase, our collections do not increase. So we either either we assume they both go 3% or we assume they don't. Okay. My question is, in order to maintain um a very similar tax, let's say
increase of 3%, call it, assuming our expenses go 3%. All right. Would we have to take another $13 million out of the budget? Um not not necessarily. And not necessarily. And um the the city uh what do you call it? the
city has has accumulated reserves to help offset if there's some increases over and above a normal cost of living. Um and some of these reserves that you have and and they're quite adequate or quite, you know, um quite well funded.
We have reserves to offset any kind of unusual increase in insurance costs. We do carry a cash reserve. We have a reserve should there be any kind of unusual increase in workers comp. We have a reserve for that. We also have
reserved for uh for terminations. If you notice, you read in the papers all the time. Um and I'm not going to name comparable cities. Every time somebody retires from the fire department or police department, they're doing an emergency appropriation. They can't pay the people the payout. We have not done
an emergency appropriation here in many, many years. um and certainly not for payouts because we fund that as well. So um in an absolute world if we had no reserves and everything stayed the same
then theoretically we would have a short but the city is in a much stronger position than that. Um so that if you really wanted um if you really wanted a uh a response within a certain degree of um
predictability um I think we would have to do a projected 2026 budget in conjunction with the uh chief financial officer to kind of come back to that taking into account these different reserves we have to respond to that uh in a responsible
accurate fashion. I can't just a certain extent we have someone to give us a projection of what we would look like over the next five years. Right. Great. You know love to see that that projection because at a certain point I mean we use five million from
Oh I I understand in in in the mathematical world you say well I have 13. I can't keep using 13 because I only generate five. So I'd be down six a year three years. You know we use five million from this rescue you know fund right. I mean CO doesn't come around that many that often in our life. No, that's not coming. That American
rescue's gone. No, but let me let me compliment. Assume assume that that's we don't have five million to bank on, right? But that means we needed that five million, right? Because our expenses have increased like everyone's expenses have increased, right? So at a certain point again based on just
but let me say this it could catch up to us and then all of a sudden where I'm going with this is all of a sudden bang go we could see a 10% in tax increase. I I I I I would have to I would have to just take a different position on that. Um, good.
And and I'd like to just refresh everybody's memory going back when we did the conversion. When the city did the conversion, they converted from a fiscal year to a calendar year. You had a oneshot windfall, right? That one shot windfall was $12 million. And we had a fiscal plan. We did a
four-year plan and we said that $12 million will be gone in four years. Do you realize that 12 million, we still have $1.7 million of it we haven't used. That's all. This is such a dynamic city. That's all that's left. Where's the other? Yeah, I I mean I just No, I just want to
share I I just want to share with you, you know, and I can show you. Well, we do we're using a million dollars in this budget. Is that correct, Omar? I think we have a million dollars in this budget. So, I still have another $700,000. That's exactly my point is that we have
But that was supposed to last four years and we're here 10 years to rescue co we had all these windfalls the last few years. Who's coming to our rescue over the next five years? We don't have landlords. Let's go to the next subject. Yeah. No, I I'm just saying it's it's a
very complex city. Um, you know, I think the city's done a great job of managing its finances every time. Thank you, sir. I conclude with that. Are we good on 11? Did we resolve to did we adopt? No, but
on a serious note, can we get Can we see those projections? Not tonight. Yeah. scenario. Oh yeah, you have it now. Oh, great. The night's still young. That's great. Next,
we we have looked at projection over the last uh over the next three years. Um especially given the fact of health benefit cost and a rise in health benefit costs. Um during my presentation um at the July meeting when we presented
the budget obviously one of the big things that was coming out from the state was the anticipated increase in state health benefits which were a part of 30%. So obviously that makes us cautious and looking forward towards the future and where our budgets look toward the future
to your point councilman and uh where we stand. So we we brand projections obviously projections based on what we expect what we think we know or come to expect to your point um we don't expect
for example another American rescue plan fund to come and fund the budget for three four years so now we started looking at the numbers and where we stand and where how we can miticate these extrenuinous circumstances such as you know these significant ificant
increases if they do not level off. Did you did you take into account the new parking deck? Will there have a new parking deck we're going to have? Street. So, we we've we've looked at that and and and the and the debt service that goes along with it.
We're on number 11, please. We're on number 11. Resolution adoption of the CY2025 municipal budget. Is there a motion to accept, please? Accept. Motion. Is there a second, please? Council President. Yes, ma'am. We need to open public portion. We need to open public portion. Is there to open public portion? Motion is
second, please. Motion second to open public. Roll call, please. Councilman Monk, yes. Councilman Love, yes. Counciloman Melo, yes. Councilman Mayer, yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Counciloman Colz. Yes. And Council President Sher. Yes. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, the council will be
deliberating proposed resolution adoption of the 2025 municipal budget. Are there any questions regarding the budget that you would like answered at this time? Seeing no hands, is there a motion, please, to close? Second. Motion and second to close public hearing. Roll call, please. Councilman Monk,
yes. Councilman Love, yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes. Councilman Mayer, yes. Councilman Garcia, Council Montine. Yes. And Council President Sher. Yes. Thank you very much. On items 12, now on the ordinance. So move.
Second. Motion and second on the ordinance. Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love, yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes. Councilman Mayor, yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Councilman Colany, yes. And Council President Sher,
yes. Thank you. We are on item number 12. Item number 12. All matters listed. Items 12- 17, 19 through 27, I'm sorry, 19 through
30, two phases. Is there a motion, please, to accept? Motion. Motion and second. Roll call. Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love. Yes. Councilman Melo. Yes. Yes. Councilman Mayor, yes. Councilman Garcia,
yes. Councilman Coltz, yes. And Council President Sher, yes. Thank you. On 18 and 31, separate vote. Motion to accept 18 and 31, please. Motion. Motion. And second. Thank you. 18 and 31. Roll call. Councilman Monk?
Yes. Councilman Love, yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes. Counciloman Mayor, yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Councilwoman Colunt abstain. And Council President Shear. Yes. Thank you. On 32 to 44 and 32 is
closed executive session. Do we have need for such a session this evening? No. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Business Administrator. Uh, no. Council President, where are you now? Helsinki or where are you?
Yeah, it's actually uh 4:20 in the morning right now where I'm at. Well, it feels like 420 here, too. So, we're all together. Items 33 through 44. Any questions, please, on 33 to 44? Yes.
Questions? Yeah, please. Councilman. Um 33. Is this replacing the current meters? What is that? Ricky, can you help us on 33? Do you have Do you have the uh agenda in front of you?
Yes. Yes. So, so this is on the parking authority. Uh, we're replacing the pay stations along Main Avenue. So, what happens is we periodically in our budgets put in for replacement of
meters and we're up to the pay stations on Main Avenue. So, this would be paid by the uh neighborhood preservation program actually. So, it's paid by a grant. It's not even paid through the parking authority budget. We receive an annual grant for the neighborhood
preservation program. This is year five of that program. Uh we've been able to replace every single meter on Main Avenue with this program. And now we're changing the pay stations. Great. And 36.
I know 36. Council 36. this is an improvement or like a complete uh gut and remodel or rebuilding of the current playground. And second part, is this also grant money or this is coming out of the budget? Yeah, so this is uh this is grant money
and this is going to do major repairs to the park. In fact, the mayor was adamant that this park needed to have the rubberized surface. It's one of our first loop parks that we did in the city and it's going to have u we're
going to be putting in the rubberized surface, some new play equipment, some inclusive play equipment and redo the uh locking mechanisms for the blue park. We actually held virtual town hall in an actual one where
we had input from residents as to what they wanted in the in that area. Rubberized pacer sounds very good. I was there on Saturday and I ended up with splinter in my foot.
We should wear shoes. Any other questions on 33 to 44? If not, is there a motion please to accept? So move. Motion second, please. Councilman second. Roll call, please. On 33 to 44. Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love. Yes.
Councilman Mayor. Yes. Councilman Garcia. Yes. Councilman Colt. Yes. And council president. Yes. Thank you. We're up to ordinances for introduction. First reading 45 ordinance amending chapter 295 vehicles and traffic of the code of city of Pacific adding new section 295-7.4
entitled State Street Municipal Parking Deck Keys. Is there a motion to accept your sit down for second and final reading at our meeting in September 16? Motion. Second. Second. Roll. Councilman Monk. There is a question. Do we is it do we have any debt on this
parking deck? It was the whole thing was a grant. It's all paid for there. There is how much you know off hand? So is there any analysis of of of the I see this ordinance is
to suggest charging a buck an hour, a dollar an hour. Is that going to cover our debt cost? $2 an hour for the EV stations. $150 monthly, right? If I may,
if I may. I'm sorry, mayor, because I I couldn't hear it. So, if you covered it, I apologize. Councilman, if you recall when we were originally getting the the note to go out to bond the ordinance, the bond ordinance, we did a calculation based on
50% vacancy at the 75 cents at the 75 cent rate, which this is higher, and it uh covered the the bond note. Okay. So when we did the calculations, we didn't include the $150
or the EV charging stations and it was at the current rate of the 25 cents for um every 15 minutes and it was that how was was that done by ordinance or by resolution? Rick, it was uh we did a bond ordinance for
that and then you then we did an agreement between the parking authority and the city council where the parking authority is going to pay the council uh the amount of the bond payment. So the city council, it's not going to affect the city budget. It's done through the
shared service agreement between the parking authority and the council as the parking authority is managing the deck. And what happens if the authority doesn't reach its its required goals? So we we we double check that even if
the right now and Omar correct me if I'm wrong. Even if we didn't get a single dollar from that deck, our current income from the parking authority would cover the bond note. that deck has been getting used every single day.
So, just just to reiterate, uh the business administrator, the parking authority did have um an amount in their budget which came off from their original debt service issued in 2009 that they were able to reserve and now will be utilized
once the city officially bonds the parking deck. that amount will be able through the shared service agreement to pay in the amount of 250,000 to the city which is approximately the amount of the debt and also to uh the business administrator's point as well when we
did our calculations based on the number of anticipated spaces and based actually on 75 cents an hour not a dollar an hour and two less hours because we did it from 8 to 6 they would be able to meet their bond requirements at 50% capacity
we extended it to 8:00 Yes. So there's actually two more hours that could be rented. So we believe as a matter of form, can you at our future council meetings, can you provide that information? Yes, we can provide the the previous
sheet of calculation. Okay, good. Any other questions? We're on 45. Witherly, where are we? I'm sorry. Yes. The roll call. Roll call on 45, please. Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love. Yes.
Councilwoman Melo. Yes. Councilman Mayor. Yes. Councilman Garcia. Yes. Councilwoman Colom. Yes. And council president Sher. Yes. Thank you. 46. An ordinance amending the city code to the city of Pic chapter 295 vehicles and traffic. Article 12 schedules 13 schedules
section 32.1 schedule what is that 14 stop intersections to add additional stop sign at Monroe intersection of Hope Avenue. Is there a motion please to take for a second and final reading on our meeting of September 16? Motion.
Motion and second. Roll call. Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love. Yes. Councilwoman Melo. Yes. Councilman Mayor. Yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Councilman Golinez, yes. And Council President She, yes. Thank you. On 47, please. Ordinance
amending the city code of the city of Pacific, chapter 295, vehicles and traffic, part one, general provisions, article 12, schedule section 23.1, schedule 4A, angle parking. Is there a motion, please, to accept for second and final reading at our meeting of
September 16? There is a motion. Second, please. Second. Motion and second. Roll. Councilman Monk. Yes. Councilman Love, yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes. Councilman Mayor, yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Counciloman Colz, yes. And Council President Sh. Yes. Thank you. 48, please. An ordinance
amending the designation of restricted parking for disabled person. Motion, please, to accept for set for second and final reading of meeting September 16. Motion. Motion. Second. And second. Roll calls, please. Councilman Monk, yes. Councilman Love, yes. Councilwoman Melo, yes. Councilman Mayor, yes.
Councilman Garcia, yes. Council Nolanz. Yes. And council president. Yes. Thank you. 49. Please. Ordinance the designation of restricted parking for disabled persons by introduce license plate numbers. The motion please to accept for shut down for second and final reading of our meeting with September 16.
Second. Motion second. Councilman Love. Yes. Council Monk. Yes. You look Mayor. Yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Councilman Colz, yes. And Council President,
yes. Thank you. We're up to payment of bills. Payment of bills. Any questions on the bills? If not, is there motion, please, to accept the bills as presented by the clerk? Motion and second. Roll call, please, on the bills. Councilman, yes. Love, yes. Councilman Mele, yes. Councilman Mayor,
yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Councilman Colany, yes. And Council President Sher, yes. Thank you. Administrator's report. How is Copenhogen? Very dark right now, but very nice. Thank you. I think it's probably the whitest city
in America in the world. Mr. Mayor, sir, none. No report report from anyone? No, sir. That being the case, is there motion please to adjourn? Move it. Motion. Second and second. Roll call, please. Councilman Monk, yes. Councilman Love,
yes. Councilman Melo. Yes. Counciloman Mayor. Yes. Councilman Garcia, yes. Counciloman, yes. Council President Shar. Yes. Thank you. Gentlemen, ladies, uh, administration, council, this was a brilliant evening this this evening and
you all should take the compliment seriously. We didn't we didn't think we would be able to do, but we did it. So, thank you. Motion is a meeting is