Alf of the Patterson Municipal Council, I welcome you to the workshop section on July 8th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. The meeting is now called to order. Just for our viewing public, the meeting will be
The meeting will be viewed on channel 75. Madame Clerk, please call the role. Yes, Council President. Councilwoman Cotton. Councilwoman Davlin present. Councilman Jackson
here. Councilman Khalik here. Councilman Mendes. President Clerk. Councilman Omar present. Madam clerk. Councilman Uden. I'm here. Madam clerk. Councilman Vez. Present. Madam clerk.
Council president. I'm here. Ready to serve. Thank you. We'll all here. Madame clerk, please read the statement of compliance. Statement of compliance with the open public meetings law 2025 through 2026 meeting date July 8th, 2025. It is now
6:37 p.m. Adequate notice of this meeting was compiled and disseminated in accordance with the open public meetings law in the following manner. One, the annual notice of regular meetings and workshop sessions of the municipal council was compiled for the year 2025
through 2026 on or about July 1st, 2025. Two, a schedule of the regular meetings and workshop sessions of the municipal council for the year 2025 2026 was duly transmitted on or about July 1st, 2025
to the North Jersey Herald News. the record, the Arabic voice, the Italian voice, the the P County Post, the Menacana News, Laiscara International, Lisbiel, the Patterson Press, the City Post News,
Tap into Patterson, The Weekly, Bangla, Patrika, in addition to any other publication duly requesting such notices. Three, the schedule of the regular meetings and workshop sessions of the municipal council for the year
2025 2026 was prominently posted in the lobby of city hall first floor in the place reserved for the announcements of this type. Four, the schedule of the regular meetings and workshop sessions of the municipal council for the year
2025 2026 was duly filed with the municipal clerk. And five, a copy of the schedule of regular meetings of the municipal council was mailed to any person who requested and paid the fee authorized by the Open Public Records
Act. Council President. Thank you, Madame Clerk. Item number five on second reading, we will be moving it forward. Um, I'm just putting a request on the floor. Uh at the previous meeting, we requested that this would be a special meeting on tonight
where it would have been voted on, but possibly um just a slight mistake. So, I'm just asking that is moving forward and that we expedite it, that it does not have to take 21 days. So, I'm just putting on the on the record corporation council for second reading of the
historic uh historic movement of Bible way that we vote on it in second reading next uh meeting and then following that vote that we will expedite it um to have happen before the 21 days. Council President, thank thank you madam clerk.
Council president. Yes. Uh council president regarding item number five. Um last meeting I requested that you and councilwoman uh Cotton will be co-sponsor on this uh resolution. Um just to put a note on it. I don't see it on the on the paperwork.
Thank you Councilman. Um Corporation Councilman to Madame Clerk. Uh the request was made previously that myself and Councilwoman Cotton be added as co- co-sponsors on this item. Um if we will update um item number five to include that. Thank you.
Duly noted. Council President. Hey. Yes. Council, Vice President. I don't know if the projection is good for out there, but I'm going to tell you right now, I did not hear anything you said. I did not hear anything Councilman Vela stated. Um I don't know if you guys
could hear me clearly. All right. But it's I don't know if the um microphones are low. It's better because of the fan. No, I'm just saying even the projection unless you're here that close then you can hear
me. But I can tell you right now, Councilwoman Cotton and myself, I don't know if Councilman Jackson, but I didn't hear anything you said. Okay. Okay. M. So, what I'll do, Madame VP, I'll make sure I speak into the mic. Okay. So, um
um payment of bills. Council Vice President. Council President. Yes. Councilman Jackson, I don't know whose bright idea it was to come here, but is there is the air conditioner working in here?
So, why do we have fans running when we if we came here because they there's air conditioning. So, to answer your question, Councilman Jackson, the decision was made by myself as a council president. when they went in to fix the air conditioner in city
hall, they found some particles as they were cleaning that were not going to be good air quality for our for the residents that were come to be in the um in the chambers as well as oursel. So, I made a quality of life decision that will not infect the health of anyone coming to the chambers. We had a choice
to be here or to do virtual. So, I know that the community likes to see us in public. We have some issues sometimes when virtual is done, but we can't hear from the public. So, I made a presidential decision on tonight and um in conversation with Madame Clerk and
Madame Vice President to have it here and I think the public would agree they wanted to be publicly here so that we can hear them and they're not dropped on virtual. So, that decision was made. We could not be in the chambers. Uh possibly by Friday everything will be uh repaired, but based on that we could not
be in the chambers. So, if we're paying for access to this building, why isn't the air working in this building? If we're going to come here just to so the public can suffer again, I mean, the system sound system is is is not working
well. We had to turn one of the fans off. It's hot in here. I mean, even if there was an executive decision to come here, should there should have been better preparation? I mean, do we have no buildings in the city now that there's functional air? I mean, this is
Thank you for the point of reference. We paid how much money we paid $6 million for this building and and and we still there's no return for our investment. We don't we don't have air in here. Thank you for the point of reference. Payment of bills, madam VP. So there's no answer why the air isn't working.
I've given you the answer is not suffice. No, you you had an answer of why we moved here being working on both Jackson. I'm asking a question that I did not get an answer to. The answer was given. Why isn't the air working in working but it's not circulating. That's why they
have the fans on. At this point, if we move into city business, we have an opportunity to move forward so the residents won't have to suffer in the heat. So, we're trying to make sure we do city's business. I understand you have a concern. The cons this place is better than where it was. I get it. Fans
are on. We have many fans that were placed here to assist as well. I understand the concern. Possibly by next week, we'll be back in the chambers. Until then, payment of bills. Madame vice president. Thank you very much, uh, council president. Good evening to my
colleagues, to the administration. Madame clerk, um, the payment of bills before us are in the amount of 21,412,6460. Uh there are two uh payroll weeks here,
two payments of a total of 11,443,46.31. In addition, there's also a board of education payment for 6,351,919.92. Um if you look also there are um some street lighting um in the amount of over 280,000
uh public works uh a payment of $388,545 uh60. Uh that includes you know traffic um roads, vehicles uh that total $388,54560. Uh making it a total once again of 21
million412,6460. My motion is for payment of bills. Second motion made by council vice president Dava. Uh second by council president Mims. Discussion discussion councilman Mendes. Um through the chair to Mr. Silva. Uh we approve payment of bills every week
every every at every workshop and every program meeting. And we have entity uh that provide service to the city like Ellison photo gall and other small business locally and they have to wait six seven eight months to get a check that needs to be corrected. I don't know
where is the uh this this disconnection but there's no small business owner that will uh you know wait until six seven months to get a check. So please look into that Silva because some of those entity they refuse to provide business to the city of Patterson because we're
not paying Pison has a horrible reputation when it comes to pay um the people that do business with the city. So please correct that. Thank you. Thank you Councilman Mendes. Uh, council member Le. Uh, council
Uden his voice. Councilman Odin. I'm sorry. Council Odin. All right. Thank you, Council President. Um, so CFO and uh uh uh Mr. as well that recently I we are talking about when we
sent the framing of any um resol resolution or any certification we use uh Ellison photos since 2023 they are not getting paid from the city the amount is not really big it's very small
amount but it shows that how serious we are like $400 from 2023 then next year until today uh last time I paid out of my pocket to get the services. This is not a matter that I'm paying out of my pocket or not. But point is that why the
business says are not getting paid. It's a small amount like $67,000 for last three four years. Thank you, Councilman Odin. Councilman Khaled. Thank you. Um Council President, Mr. CFO. I would like to see the breakdown
of Ellison um photo the frames breakdown of who order all these uh get get on frames cuz I request one last week and our madame uh madame clerk said that the
Ellison photo studio didn't get paid. That's why I couldn't get it done throughout the whole year. Uh I don't remember probably I got 8 n 10 um citation frame. I would like to see the breakdown of it and also I believe I have as every council member has about
$3,000 to spend on such a such a uh thing and I would like to see the breakdown. Okay. Thank you. So just to interject um it was brought to my attention in regards to the payments. Um, in our finance meeting today, I spoke to the CFO and so, um, I
will be forwarding all the invoices. I can also send it to C Councilman Khaled because I requested that from our clerks and our secretary. So, I have all the the, um, items, uh, invoices that are in need of payment. So, uh, Mr. CFO was aware that I'll be sending that off to
him sometime tonight and I will also forward it to you, Councilman Khalik. Um, Madame Clerk, roll call. Council President, uh, Councilman Jackson. So, first let me, um, for a point of clarity, and
I know this goes to the public, uh, more so than it goes to council members because I'm sure they're uh, perfectly aware of this. The moment that we cut our meetings down from four a month to two a month, it then because
at every single meeting, whether it was a workshop and or a regular meeting, we had a payment of bills. So now we're only having one meeting month or two meetings now with the including the workshop. Um, yes, it's going to become more challenging for vendors to be paid.
You guys are making complaints to the CFO who's obviously have not has not made a a any efforts in making sure that we have a respons responsible spending practice. But where is the council's measure in
holding the administration accountable? Now, we have this new um regime of of leadership that we're together better together, together better, whatever it is. Are we questioning anything or we're just going to approve whatever is being
brought forward as a chair of finance? I mean, don't I miss Councilman Morris? I mean, you know, and when I challenge these certain certain expenditures, it doesn't get the support of the council. What are we challenging? We still don't have a a
a f final uh um adopted budget as we continuously approve these these uh uh bills list. It's eating up into the into whatever is left for us to expend. We have not been responsible. The
council's primary uh function is to be fiscally responsible. I don't know if you guys realize that. I know you you're you're busy cutting ribbons, but we have yet to be responsible when it comes to the to spending. We're just fine. Just give it give it to them. And lastly, I
was thinking that I was going to come here and see something different. Maybe there would be like a a splitting of the bills so we can finally be responsible, vote on payroll. No, I would never not vote on payroll. Okay. So, are we are we
holding this administration accountable? Are we just playing a game here and allowing for the the spending to just continue? Reckless spending at that while we're worrying about we can't get frames from the printer uh from the frame shop, we're still we still don't
have a balanced budget. Just want to make that, you know, remind you guys of that. And I think because of my consistent badgering, I'm probably one of the only ones here though doesn't have a working fan. All right. Councilwoman Cotton is going to make sure I get right, you know.
No, I don't want nothing. I don't want to take nothing you have, brother. Trust me, you good. Oh, look at that. She knows how to do it. All right. Thank Thank you. Finest. Thank you, Councilman. Council President. So, is there is there an answer to any of the any of my concerns? Are we just
going to move forward and vote? I mean I I well look well look well look well look well look well look well look well look well look well look well um Councilman Jackson every council person has a right if you want to go if you want to remove items from the agenda and vote on them separately that would be your purview but when you take a look at the payment of bills list it is in the amount of $21
million and 12 million of that is payroll for our employees and the another $6 million is for our children's education so I'm not sure what you want to remove it is up to you if you want to remove something and just tell the public, you don't want to pay them. That that would be your perview. But right
now, this is payment of bills. Whatever you would like to shift separately, you can do that. We'll vote on it separately. Um, but everything on this bill's list requires payment. You One second, Councilman. But everything on here is uh for payroll. The payroll
of this of the city is $11 million out of the 21. And you have six million of these dollars that goes to the board of education. So you let us know what you would like to remove. If you want us to come back to you at some point, we could do that. But um and if you want to vote it down, that would be your choice. But
um that would be your perview. Councilman Veles. Thank you, Council President. Um now that we we talking on finance and I know that we are talking of payment of bills, but uh going a little bit deeper here
regarding finance in the city of Patterson. Um I would recommend that that at the end of this agenda it says council committee report. So to highlight the council because I don't sit in finance.
Some of our council members don't sit in finance. There's only four members. They should have custom reports to the council for we can make sure that it is in the table that we know what's going on. For example, uh to the chair
to Mr. BA, has this administration or you as a BA had look into the audit that the police, fire, and DPW conducted? Have you looked into that audit?
Madame BA, I'm not aware of an audit that you're referring to. You're not aware of that, Mr. Ba? There was a there was an audit for the police, fire and DPW that they did and they requested and they did the audit. Those audit report had never gone to
your hands or to CFO. Council President through you. I have not I have not received that. So, Councilman Blesz, if you would like to give him an opportunity next week to bring that information. So, next uh you could write a question. you could come back with a report and and give it give it back to me about
that report because if if you have seen it have delivered to your office or to the administration we at least in finance should know about it about those audits because it cost money right and it highlights some issues that's going on in those departments. Uh do you aware
that um that $500,000 was mismanaged from the police department? and they had to return it back to the state and that we accountable on that according to that audit. So, so Council Member BZ, are your questions directed to the new BA? Yeah, the new BA. Yeah.
Okay. So, I'm just going to just take a point of privilege. I don't think it's fair to question him on those practices. He wasn't here. If you would like to make the recommendations that he get that information and come back to you, he can do that. But I'm sure you're aware come back to me. Yes. That's why I'm, you know, I'm telling on the floor.
Do you know why I'm doing this? because I sent a couple letters to the administration and they never got back to me at all. But yes, a colleague could text the mayor saying, "Mayor, do you saw the BS
letter that Councilman Valz sent." So there's no transparency in in this game here. So now I'm putting everything on the floor because we want to be like council Jackson say fiscal and responsible making sure that the community that vote for us get the right
information because you know what we don't hear we don't I hope council president you take my recommendation about the committee reports because one of the things that we are missing here is that we talk about going to this event this close this street closure
this uh event for river cutting but we don't speak about committing reports and that will clear any great uh clouds that out there speaking people or whatever and that will put us in an information line to know what's going on when we are
not in that committee. Communication communication is the key on this. So let me answer your your request. So it's not fair because there was a committee report read from the finance chair. It was done right before payment of bills. So, I'm not sure if there's something in addition, but the finance
report is read every week before payment of bills. We have a meeting. We met for an hour. We came out. Everything that was discussed, uh, the finance chair, madame vice president, did it in full review. Each um, to the viewing public and to our council members present,
committee assignments are already given out to every council member. So, it is going to be your responsibility as the chair of these committees to go and have your meetings, schedule them with your committee members, and then to provide a report when you have items on the
agenda. So, it's not just asking for others to do it. I'm asking all of the chairs, every council member is on a um a functioning uh uh committee assignment so that we can actually work together and get the work done together. It's not a I, it's a we. Madame Clerk, roll.
Roll call. Madam cler. Mr. President. Um I had the last question he could write and answer me back. Councilman. Um the state the state agreed on the 2% for the fire department. Why the city want to fight that? If the state agreed
on the 2% of increase for their salary and whatever and benefits, why the state why the city is fighting that spending more money and now agreeing at the 2% that the state say. So the DCA say is good. Go ahead. 2% for the fire
department. Why we had to fight that back? Thank you, Council Member Le. Roll call, Madam Clerk. Roll call for the payment of bills in the amount of 21,412,6460. Councilwoman Cotton. Thank you, Madam Thank you. Um Madame
Clerk, I just want to say I know we're in roll call, but we have about 3540 pages of payment of bill. Um you can say I say no uh check number what well what what no but the rest of them I say yes I
mean that could be done um I had gotten many com uh thing about Ellison photos I think each council person should already know what they are ordering from Ellison photo they should know what they're ordering and I think a lot of them do not know what they're ordering they just
frame it frame frame but all that stuff adds up um I'm looking through this um payment of bills and that's how you can do it. But um council members need to keep track of of of things that they're sending to be framed what they what
they're sending out to Ellison photo. Um yes, of course they got $3,000 and you have to try to stay within that budget of what you're spending. So each council member should already know. Um it's like you know you have a job and you know you got to make sure on your job you keep
track of your sick time. you you keep track of your vacation time. You keep track of your your time due your personal time. You can't expect nobody else to keep track of your time because you want to make sure it's going to match cuz you know some places might take a day or two from here or there but
you should make sure council members know what they have ordered from Ellison photo and they should know that. Madame clerk with that being said my vote is yes. Thank you Councilwoman Councilwoman Dav. Thank you. Uh once again good evening. Um,
I am going to say this one more time and it'll be my last time referring to Councilman Velis's statement as he did on July 1st and he stated it today. It is I, Councilwoman Marissa Davila, that was
texting the mayor and text Councilman Vevelis. It is I who said yes. Did you see the BS? I didn't write it out. the BS letter. And yes, I referred to it as that because the letter that was stated was stating that we were raising taxes.
And I said, why? And then I addressed him. I addressed him. I have numerous text messages after that. Okay. The fact that he waited over a month to discuss it on our reorg, that's on him. I want
everyone to know here, I refuse to argue with him or any other council member here. They're gonna trip on their own. All I'm gonna say is this. Stop it with the attacks. Stop it with the references. If you have something to say with me, be a man. Pull me to the side,
which we already had the discussion, but yet you want to continue pandering and pondering on something that occurred that yes, was a mistake. I apologized to you and I told you the reason why I wrote that and I told you how much I cared for you and loved you as a brother
and that you needed to stop it because every time you write something negative, people turn it around and put it against you. That is what I stated. Anybody wants to see my phone, I welcome you to see the messages that him and I after that over a month I even spoke to him in
person. So if you want to continue bringing that up, keep bringing it up. It is I, Councilwoman Marissa Dava, who wrote that message. And yes, I apologize, but this will be the last time. I'm not discussing this no more. So, with that said, payment of bills and
yes, the reference here to our agenda and that we have to give out committee reports. Yes, we will be doing that. Moving forward, we have to change. My god. Listen, I may not have sat with you yesterday, but today we're sitting down. let us move forward. When do we stop?
When do when do we say no more? Here's the white flag here. Peace. Can we do that? Because it seems as though certain people want to continue the fighting. I mean, let's stop it. So, with that said, I want to thank everyone. Thank you for
everyone who attended the council, the finance committee meeting. We did go over there are various numerous uh um uh entertainment licenses that were discussed in finance along with a refund as well. You will see that all before you today. If you have a question about
it, you can do so as there is some um uh in the first ward there was um oh my god the license the um no not entertainment. Oh my god, the other license. The junkyard license. So, if Councilman
Jackson has, you know, any questions concerning that in the first word, we can discuss them when we get to that. In addition, there's also uh licenses and bizarre a bizarre license uh that will be moving forward. So, please let us not think that we're not doing the work and that we're not having the discussions
and that we're not being present or that we're being um transparent. With that said, uh Council President, Madam Clerk, my vote is yes for payment of bills. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Jackson. I don't even know if I want to follow that.
No, I No. Listen, being truthful at times is required and letting people know where they step when they stepped in the poo poo
is is part of being professional as well. But um but my my concern is is a tad bit different. Glad to see Councilman McCoy Walkin who's who's been a part of a process of been of of accountability. Um, we're requesting for a report from
the council committees when we still are not getting reports from directors. I've been asking for finance reports from directors for the longest time. I just I I just was very disappointingly
chastised by the director of economic development today. You know, say I'm in my feelings because I'm not getting the things that I'm requesting. Like we have the purview over entities that are not being responsible and reporting to us.
The money that was spent at Hitchco Stadium, I guess we're just going to continue to allow that to go. um the money that's being spent and squandered the uh the money that's being utilized as a slush fund from the PRC.
There's no accountability. What is going on with the with the uh communication uh center? What is happening with the money that we spent on the incubator that equipment? What is happening? Why did we just automatically approve because the
mayor wants it $2.5 million to a professional soccer team? What is the ROI on that on that investment? We spent money on this. The PRC is over this building and yet we don't have air conditioning. So, there's a lot of uh uh uh reports
that we can we can we can fudge towards, but I just want to say this. While you know, Councilwoman Dava was totally correct and I appreciated the way she approached that and the jab that was thrown under under under in the dark.
Bring it bring it to the forefront. And now you're going to hear every council member talking about, oh, this money that was spent at the uh at the framing place. Go ahead. But Council Councilman Mendes was having a fiesta
by Londo and getting citations and certificates for everybody spent over the budget and everybody's making these innuendos quietly. Oh, I want to report on how much was spent and what was spent. Tell Councilman Mendes to produce
it. If he's the one that's just been calling over and getting all of these things produced, went over the budget, then he should be responsible enough to let him pay for that out of his salary. If he went over his $3,000 that's allotted to every council person, he
should have to pay for that directly. But the point of the matter is we're more concerned with buying citations, getting them framed, buying scissors to cut ribbons, having parties than being responsible. just reading off the
expenditure list and what the bills list expenses expenses are is not being responsible in finance. Coming out here letting us know what cuts we're making because we're reaching the threshold of going over our budget. That's a part of
being responsible. So yet again, I cannot support this because as a council, we should be convening to find out how we're going to be fiscally responsible towards the end of the year so the taxpayers aren't impacted because when they're hit with a blindsided tax
increase, all the council members are going to point at the mayor. But it's right now is the council has an opportunity to make the necessary cuts, make the necessary changes, but we're not doing it because we're better together. So my vote is no, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman
Khalik, my vote is yes for payment bill. Madam clerk, thank you, Councilman Mendes. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh, so let let me be brief before my vote. Every councilman um, every council member has a budget. And when I'm questioning the administration now paying one entity,
it's not for a specific reason. We have a lot of small business that they want to do business with the city of Patterson, but it's impossible because they cannot wait for a year to get a check. That's my comment. I'm very responsible on my action. Yes, I acknowledge and support my community and
I recognize people that deserve to be recognized in our community. I do this all the time and if you invite me, I will be there. That's the type of person that I am. Always in touch with the community, always connected. Mr. BA this been for over a year there's
been request that you've been getting in every meeting please if the administration is not hiring anything let's produce that document that the councilman is alluding to let's produce the document for the stadium we got it before but I want that document
to be produced and just put it on on channel 77 send it to put it on YouTube channel let's talk about the finance of the city uh you you know, let's let's just let's just that way we could pass that because we have a you know, we have a lot of challenges ahead of us and one
of the main challenges is the budget that we have in front of us. That way we could leave that u political speech behind my vote. Yes, madam clerk. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Omar. Yes. Thank you, Councilman Luden. Thank you, Madame Clerk. Yes. I'd like
to restate as well what Councilman Mandes mentioned. So, we all have $3,000 budget for recognizing our community members for excellence of our youth. And I do a lot every every week I recognize someone. But this is not the point. If I
use more than my assigned budget, I am ready to pay out of my pocket. No problem. The point is why we have to wait three years to know that what's exactly happening with our budget. So, where's the confusion? It could be any of our council members that could happen
or we still may have our uh you know budget left to use. We don't even know. So just blaming for no reason but someone providing services need to get paid. That's that's all is our stance should be. Uh second thing is when you
talk about and I don't want to talk about budget since it's not on the agenda but I I would like to mention that we are actually giving temporary appropriation one after another and uh Mr. BA this is very concerning regardless whether we say in introduction budget we're not raising
taxes we just introduction we have to bring the stuff into consideration that when we accepted uh cannabis licenses right cultivation delivery and other other categories we had a hope that we are going to get revenue back we are not actually
speaking about it all the license holders are holding the licenses for years we are not even recalling them or giving giving them any particular deadline. But we are just blaming them. We are not just we are just blaming each other that oh there's no revenue coming. We have to raise taxes. There's no other
options. No, they are our options. But we are not really looking at every single items individually and find that what other great option that we can use. But we are just pushing more one after another without knowing that what exactly we are expecting. So when you're
saying budget introduction is is not raising taxes I believe that you all understand that but introduction should reflect what we expecting in the real budget as well. So that should be and as uh Mr. B you took over I'm very optimi
um optimist that you're going to bring some positive changes and uh with with that being said I support this bill my vote is yes. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman VeZ, way back, uh, Councilman Jackson, I
myself and I believe Councilwoman Mins requested to the payment of bill to be split in two. And I recall that and a CFO say we could do it,
but it haven't happened. Why we request that? Because there was some bills that we didn't agree, but it was mixed with salary and wages. And if we voted no, people was going to think that we was against the payment of salary wages. Councilwoman, you you
remember that that was real critical because there was some bills that some of the councilmen agreed to pay and we requested to put
a to form a payment of bills that will be a little bit more responsible because if I don't agree in some items that are regular bills because you don't see it produced in the community. There's some bills that you could see the works out there like the
one that being used for grants and etc etc. You could see it the one the police community policing do you could see the work out there but there's other not and I said it today and I hope we could keep it the way I request it. If
committee reports are done are given, I think will be more more beneficial to us that they'll not sit in those committee um especially finance and other committees. Um saying that oh last but not least, uh Mendes and some people
here it happens. There's a vendor in the city of Patterson. I could prove you with my receipts how much money I have used for my pocket to buy trophies to donate to plaques and all that stuff because the individual
don't get paid on time and you don't want to put that burden to that person and that's why sometimes we pay from our pockets and this is every vendors let me say this and counciloman McCoy probably could attest we are the city that
takes more time to pay our vendors. Six, seven months, eight months and that had to change. CFO that has to change. Um saying that payment of bills are here, uh service
are rended. Um my vote is yes to this. Madame clerk, my vote is yes. Thank you. The votes are nine, eight in favor, one against. Payment of bills is hereby adopted. Thank you, madam clerk. Item number six will be on consent.
Item number seven, corporation council. If we can include in the resolution the bill number, I know it's in legislation currently. Can we add the bill number to this item? It is for uh the bigger trucks. Uh Councilman Ble, is it okay for it to be on consent? Uh which one?
Your item number seven. It's just supporting the movement of uh trucks on the interstate. Uh yeah, you could put on consent. Uh, number seven is consent. I'm sorry, Council President. Yes. Um, item number seven, Councilman's um
resolution supporting the movement against bigger trucks. This is So, there's a bill. I just want clarification. So, there's a current bill that is in legislation. So, that's why I called uh Councilman Vez to request that the bill number be identified in the resolution.
Correct. He wants to support the bill that is moving forward. um stating the oversized trucks where a lot of residents have issues with them being internally in the community and on our roads. Um and that's what this item is for. But if there's a concern, we can actually put it on regular. If anyone
has an issue with it, we can move this item to regular. No, I I don't I don't have an issue. I just wanted clarification since, you know, certain items if they're discussed. Um I don't know what committee it went to. Um but I don't think it went to any and that's why I'm
asking the questions here as this is workshop and we should be able to ask the questions here president I am you know okay if this is uh something that's moving on at the state level and this is just a resolution deoralizing and in support of I do not have an issue with
that at all. Thank you very much council president. You're welcome council vice president. So this item will be on consent. Uh health and human services 18, 19, and 20. All of those items are on consent. It is for HIV prep. It's for uh council.
You forgot to put something in your council. One second. 18 and 19 are HIV relief. Um number 20 is for our youthbased services. I'm sure um Mrs. Moore will be happy. All three of those items are on consent. Thank you,
director. I'm sorry. Council member BZ Councilman Blesz. Uh Council President, uh um I forgot to say that uh you also are co-sponsor and that resolution number five for the trucks. Okay. Yeah. For number seven, um please add me as a co-sponsor.
So the one on human service, human health and human service number 20. Item number 20. Yes. Councilman. Uh number 20 um it's resolution authorizing accepting award from New Jersey Department of
Children and Family and this is a grant front then. But is that matching grant um with the director? No matching grant on this. Council President, may I? Yes, director. There currently is no matching grant that we've received that grant for 35 years at this point.
So no matching grant? Not at this point. Thank you. If we received founding cuts, then that's a different story, but not at this point. Correct. All right. Consent. Thank you. It's on consent. Uh Mr. Smallwood and all of our youth and Yumoja and Buds, I'm sure they would be really happy about this item continuing.
Councilman Jackson, can we get more details on on the items so that the public would understand? I mean, we're just coming here and oh, we're going to put this through. I mean, we we we we should have the director should come forward and explain not only the grant, but the success the previous
success that it's had, the previous um performance that it's had. I mean, we just just approving everything like, oh yeah, we're just going to put it on consent. I mean, there's a responsibility that these directors have, not just to the council, but to the public. So, we understand that,
okay, it's grant money, but grant money shouldn't just go spent without any accountability. So, so just a point give us a breakdown on on these three items. Just a point of correction. We are not voting on any items tonight. Tonight is a workshop. Next week we will be voting.
I don't need a correction on what the workshop is for. Madam President, if you're automatically assigning them to the to the consent, that means there's no reason no way to content contest them. when they when next week arrives and we vote on consent, these items will
get uh uh blanket blanketed approved with everything else. I don't need a a lecture or a a session on par parliamental procedure. I'm asking that the director the all the directors as we're approving their items, we should
have them come forward, give us a an outline, a breakdown of this expenditure. If it's a renewal, if it's a previous item, they should talk about what the item has been successfully tracked and doing, showing us reports on
on these successes, not just okay, it's for this one. Let's celebrate and let's approve it. So, let me let me be clear before placing on consent. I clearly stated item number 18 is for St. Joseph University Hospital. It is for medical
services for HIV prep. I clearly stated that I item 19 is for HIV emergency relief grant and minor for our minority community to receive HIV and health and human services. I clearly stated that before. Now if you would like to have
reports we have different committees that are assigned health and human services. This was this was spoken about in committee work. I am speaking to the committee work. If there are additional questions, if you need to ask why the minority community is receiving HIV
funding or why St. Joseph Hospital needs that, then that would be your request. But in the committee work, they did the committee work and they understood this is a recurring grant that gets done to make sure that people that are infected or they have um they're impacted by HIV,
they get the necessary resources. So if Councilman Jackson, if you're asking for the director to explain that, then he could come to the microphone and explain that. But it was explained in the beginning. So if that's what how many how many people are we servicing, council president? It wasn't explained. So if you
It wasn't explained. My mother's a medical professional director. She services a great deal of people as a director of nursing in straight and narrow. So I understand how this works. If if we're funding a program, we should know how the program is functioning. How
how much of the public are we servicing? It should be even more details. Are we servicing Patterson residents or are we serving outside people that are being ousted from these various programs? In order for us to get a hold of the of the derelic activity that's going on in our
community, we have to start holding service providers accountable. And as a director of health, he's a service provider. I would like to know how is this money going to be utilized and how was it utilized in the past? St. Joseph's Hospital provides clinical
services to individual who are high risk for HIV AIDS HIV prep. It is a grant we get from the state. This is probably 30 years now. The how many people did we serviced last year?
That is data that is protected. I can speak to the health officer. He can put together a report. people doesn't isn't protected by uh by because of the type of population. It is highly protected data that we do not own. So I can ask Dr. Persad and with
consultation with corporation council we can put together a report. Very good. Council president. Thank you. Um council president. Councilman. Yes. Uh director, now that you're here, you know, number 20, how many school based?
Yeah. How many how many youth are going to be benefit on this? Our school our school-based program is housed out of John F. Kennedy High School for the last almost 40 years. It is DCF funded. We serve depends on the year from 30 to 40 youth out of that
program. This is a mental health program at John of Kennedy High School. So okay. So based on the whereas says here DCF has this designate 336 337,6
$265 of this fund for counseling service in the silk silk schoolbased youth service program for the period of June June 1st 2025 to June 30 2026.
The letter, the letter that the state sent to you, director, says here, "Dear Mr. Ramirez, I am pleased to inform you that the Department of Children and Family, DCF, is reviewing its contract with your agency effective
July 2025 to June 30, 2026. Your current contract terms expire June 30, 2025. DCP continues to work towards implementation of new wet base contract management database. The new database
will permit DCF provide the to view and maintain their contracts and supporting documents online and improve DCF processing of contract related activities including renewals, modification and closeout contracts.
Additional information including information and training will become available in future day. My question here says in one of the warehouse is that it's going to be for the youth and
this letter say that they notice that the contract that is supplying that program that is expiring and they giving $337,000 to maintain that contract in that
facility. So and it says that the the worker scope is there. Red worker scope council president is there. Now when I say how many youth are getting benefit so it's none a company is getting benefit
because they running the it says here the letter. So council member le so with all due respect Mr. Raheem Smallwood who comes who was just here a couple of weeks ago with all of those youth they benefit from this program every year. You have a program that's called BUDS. You have for
the young men and then you have a a program called Yumoja for the young women. This program has been going on for possibly the last 40 years. This comes before us every single year. A lot of our kids benefit. There's after school programs during the day. They bring them out. They get the resources
necessary whether it's mental health, whether it's questions regarding addiction, uh parental helps, low self-esteem, so many different things. They do provide transportation and everything. $336 is a very low grant. They really need more money because a lot of kids want to be a part of this
program. And every year they look and um they work very diligently to find more dollars. So I mean it's it's up to you if you want to move it to No, no, no. Council President, I I agree what you said. One one second, Council Member, but confus what I'm reading here.
No, I know. But this it's been the same for 40 years. Councilman, the program that is going on, this is for the youth. So, I'm not understanding like school base is a program. They just came here and we clapped them, thank them for coming with the big signs. They were
here. Now, this is a a grant that they have written and they found for the last 40 years to provide these services for for our children that are in desperate need of getting resources. That's what this program is for. They've been doing it every year. Mr. Smallwood, Mr. Um I
can't think of his name right now. He'll congresswoman Paul was the director before that. Congress Congresswoman Paul and all so many people put a lot of effort into this. So we're grateful that it has gotten to the place of 300 and something thousand. But we started very minimal at 25,000. So our kids need it working in
the educational system to see so many kids benefiting that they save their lives in this program. I'm not sure if you have a wording issue that you could talk to the director offline. No, no, I'm not going to talk flying director. You know why? Because um council president because unless the document is
attached to the wrong resolution is okay. Let's accept that. But here it says that we are going to spend $337,000 and $265 to the youth. I agree on that. But when you look at the letter that the state of New Jersey sent the scope the
$337,000 is go to a different scope of work. is going to a company is managing the web the data whatever is the contract what you know it's it says here you council president may I don't know if councilman as a audit
could say if this match with this nonetheless please allow the director to report councilman this is just advising us that we're going to a different reporting yes portal for the system it's no longer a paper report it's a web-based report right so this is not the scope of work what they doing here
the state scope of work. This is just the award letter and it's telling us next year this is just the award letter. So look at the scope of work, sir. And and then tell me there is no scope of work. Apply for the award letter does not have the scope of work. It says right there.
No, it's the award. When it comes to one second, director, when it comes to grants and dollars from the state, you have to have a a maintenance plan in place on drawing down on the dollars that you receive. So if it's 300,000, the state wants to see
that you correctly allocate the funds to the program. They just identified and let you see. You just talked about reports. That's a report. It's attached. You just asked about reports. A report is attached to show you what is required for them to continue to get the dollars and the cent.
Councilman Mendes. Um um thank you. Thank you, Council President. I just going to add that every time that we receive a a grant from the state uh or renewing any program, we need to add the data right next to because that's going to help us. If it's a great program and it's really helping our children, we could fight to
increase the funding instead of 300 increase to 400. But the data is very important and not only for this case for for other project and all the grant that we receive in director. That's extremely important. I know the HIV is uh it's is sensitive uh but moving forward with all
the project all the grant I adding the data is is very helpful it's going to be helpful for us and and for the cities as well council president um council president and then councilman Odin all right thank you I just want to say u
to the to the listening audience that this is a school base at one point it was Raheem Smallwood now I believe it's Mr. Wilson schoolbased uh like Councilwoman Mim said um with the young people they do a lot of
volunteering they they they they get them involved in the community but I just want to remind everyone I can't remember it was three or four years ago where the state want they want to give them nothing and then we had to go to our state assembly
people which at the time was Wimbley and Sumpter to fight to get this money back because they is cutting it out completely. So, we have this funding and it's for the school base at John F Kennedy. Just go over there and see what they're
doing. Go over there and see what they're doing over there at Kennedy High School with these young adults that they have them volunteering in the community. Um cuz at one point they wanted to eliminate this all together and if we get the wrong governor, we might not
have it next year. So, we better keep it while we got it. Thank you, Council Macau and Councilman Uden. Thank you, Council President, Director. So, as an educator at JFK High School and I know how important it is the youth services, the counseling services that
our youth are getting and I believe that SRBC should be extended to other high schools in our municipality. So the question is how much a grant was awarded last fiscal year. Fiscal year 2024 2025.
If I recall correctly it's flat funded. 500,000. No flat funded. It's the same amount last year. Same amount. Few dollars difference. And and just to answer East Side High School also have school base, but it's managed by a different agency. We're actually the only municipality in the state that manages this program at a high school
currently. So what other high schools have that program? East Side High School has the the same grant, but another agency manages it. A nonprofit. Similar grant, similar amount. Yes. All right. Thank you, director. Thank you. Thank you, director. Madame
Clerk, um public portion, we're getting ready to open. I know the public is waiting. Also, I want to let the public know we do have water in the cooler. So, if anyone is in need of water, the public portion list, as stated on July 1st, will be up for one hour only. Um
and we see uh we have the list that is pulled. We will begin to pull uh call uh names and uh very shortly. Councilman Jackson. Thank you, Council President. Um director, very quickly, the um the the budget that's set up for the program, schoolbased program at Eastside, is it
identical? I know is it's not managed by your office, but are you aware, director? We do not have access to that information. It is a private nonprofit. I believe it's YCS that runs it. Um, so we could try YCS. Yes.
Okay. So, um I I I'll I'll do my best to do due diligence to find out what, but when possible, I would like to see an outline of the of the budget of um how this money is specifically allocated
because if we're bragging that this has been in place for 40 plus years and we're still remaining on a stagnant uh budget, we should be doing a better job with providing additional services. just because there's a grant that's um
allotted and and to council president's point, we see the work that these people are doing. It's very much so visible. Now, contrary to that, I do not agree. I'm not asking for anyone's medical records. I'm not asking for names, but as a
community, we're entitled to understand what the impact is. The state does impact studies. the the the the the national government does impact studies. They could tell you where populations are uh uh segmented where there's populations of HIV infected people.
That's critical information for us to know when it comes relative to protecting the rest of the public. So, the fact that we're being told that uh you know it that that uh uh this information is being protected by um uh uh you know, HEPA or or um I don't know
if that's the correct uh the by by the HIPPA law. That's incorrect. We're not asking for anyone's specific information. We are asking for the data. How many people are being serviced? Who's being paid? I want to know the budget breakdowns for these for for
these programs because in the case of the BUDS and emoji, we should be supporting them more. we should be finding ways instead of uh spending money on on uh uh uh uh frames and citations, we can be, you know, putting money into the into these young people
that are coming here um uh and and these other people, the the the individuals that's doing this work. So, it's very important for us to not just mill over these things. We have to look at it how we're going to be responsible in providing additional services. They they've done a phenomenal job and we
should support them more. We can't support them if we don't have an outline. We do have the planning council, the Ryan White HIV planning council. As you know, we are the subreient for Bergen and Pose County and then the monies for the HIV grant then gets distributed to
all the providers. Uh so we do have Pay and Bergen County, the planning council which is who's responsible for then administering the quality of the work with oversight from us. And then we have HERSA, which is the federal big brother that watches over us as we're
administering that grant. We do have an annual report. So I will forward that to the BA and he can then forward it to the council. With all due respect, director, and I appreciate the information which we'll have some of the data that you're asking. Yeah. But ultimately the responsibility
for these approvals on all funding come through the council. Correct. The council's responsible. Do I have faith in various departments in the city and their accountability? All you got to do is look outside the door. And that that answer would be absolutely not. And
if this council is not going to take a progressive, you know, stance on how we're allowing for money, all dollars to be distributed, then we're not doing our job. We want to cut down the number of meetings. We want to reduce our workload. Just say yes, yes, yes. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. But that's not
what we're here for. We're here to make sure that we're holding every single dime accountable to to the expenditures to make sure that our community is receiving the services that that that that we're that we're allocating this funding for, not people coming from
Hudson, Atlantic, Bergen. We should understand exactly the population that we're servicing. And there's a lot of money that we all lot to St. Joe's. And I hat goes goes off to them. and they do a lot of great work, but at the same time, it doesn't negate the accountability of the expenditure. So, I
appreciate the the the the effort and please, if I can get those reports um before the next meeting before we vote on this, I would appreciate it. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, director. Uh Madame Clerk, uh it's time for a public portion. Just to the public,
uh each speaker has three minutes. I am requesting that if you need extra time that you reach out to the office prior to the meeting and not at the on the days of the meeting. Um, please call so the sec my secretary will reach out to me. Sometimes the agenda has a lot of
items and I want to make sure that the public gets an opportunity to speak. Madame clerk, I notice we have 16 speakers, some that are not present. I'm not sure if someone signed their name, but they are not here. Madame clerk, first speaker. Yes, the first speaker is Adrien Tulie.
Please state your name. Good evening, Miss Tulie. To start. Okay, thank you. Okay, it's on. Okay. Good evening. Thank you for having me here. My name is uh Adrian Tulie. Um I have a concern. Um this stays in the
realm of Philips Academy Charter School. I was here uh some time ago um regarding these photographs which are still um resurfacing all over. Um parents and including myself who complain about this
are retaliated against. Um I had Mr. Jackson and his team uh helped me out because my daughter was put out the school. Um and they Mr. Jackson and the office of administrative law put her back in the school. So, thank you again, Mr. Jackson, for your for your help. Um,
what I'm asking is the the the community of Patterson, there has been a petition uh started and many of the Hispanics uh parents are scared because they have been threatened with that if they become involved that ICE will be called on them. So, this has led us to start a
online petition. Um, if members of the community would be so kind to log on to change.org, it is titled under Dr. Davis has to go. Uh, Philips Academy Charter School needs a new CEO. Um, there's a QA call QR code
that was here circulating, but I could not reach everybody. But if um the community would be so kind to sign the petition because we have to be concerned as to people elected to lead our schools. When people are wicked and they do things like this, they put things
like this on social media for people to see. Um it is a concern for the students. It is a concern for the parents. And then when parents step up, they're retaliated against. And now the Hispanic parents are being retaliated against with threats of ICE being
called. We have a serious problem and um it it's time that we all join in to get this problem out of Patterson because the next thing you know he'll be, you know, some kind of administrator at the Patterson Board of Education. Um the fact that he put my child out of the
school, it should have been a serious concern for everyone up here. Um but Mr. Jackson did him and his team and uh the office administrator law judge um Judge Baron did you know make sure that she was placed back in her school. She was
put out of her school for reasons of retaliation um for me raising my voice and that is not right and the the retaliation continues. the behaviors, the alarming behaviors continue and we need more hands on deck to remove this
person out of the city of Patterson because this person is not a good leader for the community um of Patterson. I I thank you for my time. Again, time. Thank you, Miss Tulie. Next speaker, madam clerk. Next speaker is Ernest Rucker.
Please state your name. Good evening, Mr. Rucker. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Before I speak, before my time starts, I left a packet there that I want each council person to receive. They received it. They have uh Ernest Rucker, Patterson,
New Jersey. Uh before I start into what I want to talk about, and I'm I'm very sad that Mr. uh Joel was Rodriguez, Mr. Rucker. Yes. I'm sorry. Before you do begin, well, no, Councilman Jackson, the speaker is speaking. I will reach out to
the secretaries for that. Madam President, if it's council Jackson information, I will I will address it with the secretaries. The speaker is speaking. I you I I would like for you to address it with me. I want to see Jackson has nothing point of order.
We're in the You're I want to see what he has to present. Councilman Jackson, you're interrupting the public's time. Council U Mr. Rucker, please. Let's restart, please. Uh, like I was saying, Mr. Joe Romeris
left, but I wanted him to be here when I made these particular statements. One, at one of the council meetings, I guess Mr. Rodriguez got upset because someone indicated he was gay. I personally don't give a damn if he's gay
or not. But what is happening is there is a paytoplay from the corner of the assembly men that is going up for election in November. Al Albaziz along with Joe Ramirez, the superintendent of schools made a direct
comment about who she suggested for a contract for the insurance. What Mr. Rodriguez did like he's been doing for quite a while. He ignored that and voted for somebody came in fourth which was fair view and that's the connection to the Democratic party.
The reason I ask everybody to get that is I want to make it crystal clear that is a case law on the first amendment. I dare anybody I dare you to infringe on my rights. I
will sue the asses that do it. Freedom of speech is not something you control. I don't care who the president, the vice president, you don't control freedom of speech. That is our right. Now, do I agree that we can be less vulgar? Yes,
we can. But when we get vulgarity from that end, you going to get vulgarity from this end. It's enough that you have taken away two meetings. You're working less, getting paid the same. But yet, when an ordinance came up
to raise the speaking time to five minutes, look at the people that voted against it. Now, at this point, I'm asking the new president to bring it back up. If you're going to take two meetings, then you
need to raise our time to five minutes. You don't deny us speaking time because you guys got lazy and didn't want to have to deal with the public. That's your problem. That's your problem. I am sick and tired of coming to this
council and have to lecture grown people that's supposed to know what the hell they're doing. And let's talk about reports. Why is it such a drawback about giving a report on your committees or why is it such a drawback for the administration
not to supply reports to the community? That's where all this double dipping garbage is coming in and back to Mr. Rome along with people on this council and Al Abaziz.
Yes, our sim men to become if he thinks it's going to happen. That is a problem. We cannot afford. I'm going to close this out. Thank you. All right. I'm not We're not going to stand by and let this council, this
administration, Joe RmIrez, or anybody else not do what the hell we tell y'all to do. You're not our bosses, your workforce. And that's what the hell I expect. Thank you, Mr. Rucker. Next speaker, Madam Clerk. Next speaker is Commissioner Corey
Teague. Please state your name. Corey Teague, Patterson, New Jersey. Uh just a couple of items. The first item is um on Saturday, August 2nd, Patterson Public Schools in cooperation with NJCDC
is going to have a scholarship event at 32 Spruce Street. uh students, parents of graduates that are going to be attending a four-year college in the fall are invited to attend this particular event. Now, remember, you
have to be attending a 4-year college in September. So, I think it would be important for you to bring that acceptance letter to make sure that you can attend this meeting because there will be some scholarships given out. I believe it's about 30 different scholarships that's going to be given. Oh, the time is 10:00 a.m. Yeah, 10 a.m.
is the time. Um immediately I I won't say immediately after that, but later on that day around 5:00 pm, uh Jamaica Day 2025 kicks off in East Side Park in the lower field. Um we invite everyone to come out and enjoy. And then of course
the following day, August 3rd, uh right after you get out of service, there is going to be the Jamaica Day Gospel Fest. And both events have an amazing lineup of performers and singers. And I think I see my picture somewhere here. Yes. So there is an amazing lineup of singers
and performances for both days and I encourage the residents of Patterson to come out and have a good time and enjoy themselves. Um, in an unrelated matter, when we look at situations like the flood in Texas, it should remind us to prioritize what really matters most in
our lives. We are not this material world. These seats that we hold are not ours. These places that we're in are not ours. These houses that we're in are not ours. at any moment something can happen and it all could be washed away. So we really have to really begin to prioritize what is it that really
matters in our lives and start putting those things in proper perspective. And when we do that, we'll find ourselves less fighting over crumbs and starting to make bread together because what we have going on right now is not sustainable. Ask yourselves, are we in a
better place now than we were four years ago? Just ask yourself that. You don't even have to argue. You don't even have to fight. just sit down and write a list and say, "Are we in a better place now as a city than we were four years ago?" We have are we at the same place that we were four years ago or are we worse off
than we were four years ago? Because when you do things like that, it removes the item of optics and it brings in accountability. So, I leave you with that. Have a good evening. Thank you, Commissioner. Next speaker, Madam Clerk. The next speaker is Cameo Black.
Cameo Black. Oh, it was on. Yeah, I thought Can y'all start my time back over because my um thing wasn't on yet. The mic wasn't on. Can y'all start it back over? Thank you. Good evening. I came here for several reasons. one, just to
let y'all know that I am running for commissioner of the school board. Um, it's time for a change. Enough is enough. I'm sick of the city and the board of education playing with our kids. That's first things first. Um, another thing, Alex Mendez, I want to
say to you, I'm like baseball. You get three strikes and you're out. The first strike was when we had the candle light vision and all the black people was around. You ran. I told you that was very disrespectful. That was the first thing. Then you did something else. Then
Junth, you come to our black parade. I said, "You want to sign my petition?" Oh, I got to see who else running first before I can sign it. God, when I tell you he don't play about me and he spins that block. When you see me today, when
you was at the city clerk office, whoever you was with trying to get him to run for commissioner and they told you you needed them petitions, I'm so sick of you. You're disgusting. You're horrible. And I'm putting it on Mike. Don't ever, ever, ever speak to me
again. I cannot deal with you. I'll appreciate if you stay out my face. Only time is hi my sister is when it's something for you. I'm not your sister and I'm not a mommy. Okay. So let's get that clear. Another thing is a disgrace.
We sitting in here all the money that the city get. Y'all had to move it here because it's hot over there. It's hot as hell in here too. It's hot. And y'all try to discourage us by saying air condition or whatever. Whatever. Also the director he left. It's disgusting
how hot the border health is. Y'all got fans in there. Everything about this city is so damn ghetto. Nobody is professional at all. Only person I could thank Billy. I appreciate you. Every time I call him, he's always there. This
city, y'all really need to get it together. And then men's as the council president. this corum you wanted from us, you better talk to them cuz you know how I'm coming. In order to get respect, y'all gonna give respect. And when I get
disrespected, I get disrespectful. So talk to your colleagues and talk to everybody else. If y'all don't want me coming to this mic, you don't want me cursing, check your colleagues and check everybody else. And that's all I got to say. Have a blessed night. Oh, and one more thing.
I got one more thing to say. If anybody on July 13th, if y'all not busy, I'm being baptized because that's how bad it is with this city. I have to stay prayed up and keep God first. Y'all disgusting.
Next speaker, Madame Clerk. The next speaker, Chanel Fields. Chanel FS. State your name, please. Good evening, Chanel Fields. Um, I I was watching the meeting on the way here tonight. I just want to put it on record
for everybody. I heard Miss Ruby say it. I heard Mim say it um over 30 years ago about school base. I just want to I just really have to put on record and um Mr. Smallwood can back me up. My mother is the founder of Silk City Schoolbase. She
founded that program with Edward Nuno and Nelly Poe. So we so that it never gets said again because I'm tired of it. All right. And when she founded that program, it was with the respect of having giving youth a a safe space to land and to be able to receive good
counseling and good guidance. And she's never been honored for it. She's never even asked. In fact, when I brought it to Miss Rox McCertie and Mr. Smallwood. Um they thought she had died. She's very much alive and um she should receive
proper credit. I'm doing that tonight and um putting it on record because I lost a lot of parenting time because she put a lot of hard work and dedication behind school base. At one point it was at John F. Kennedy just to give a little history and then it moved to Ellison
Street and then it moved back to John F Kennedy. And if you ask me how I know, it's because she created it. Okay. So, Dr. Mary Phills McCoy is the founder of Silk City Schoolbased program. And my hope is that any money that can be
allocated for this program could continue because our youth definitely need a safe space to land. They can't um a lot of them can't get it at home because the parents are working or too busy trying to um heal trauma. So, we
need to always be here as not just the council but as community representatives to make sure that our youth always have a safe space to land. Have a good night. Thank you, Miss Fields. Next speaker, Madame Clerk.
Yes. Next speaker is Inest Santiago. I hi Miss Santiago. Please state your name. My name is Ian Santiago. I stand here in front of every last one of you. I'm very disappointed with every
last one of y'all because my son was murdered three years ago. The only one that stood there and to be honest was Louis Valz. Okay. I have a lot of people that came here including Miss Cotton that she doesn't even remember who I am.
How many times I've done say hi Miss Cotton and you look at me like you don't even know who I am. Okay, your ward is the worst ward in this city. I'm standing here because I'm going to run for councilwoman of the third of the fourth ward because I do fight for my
people and I do feed my people and I'm here for the people. And again, my son's walk was cancelled for this walk for gun violence awareness that the mayor stated last year, the year before that he was gonna do something for the
first week of June. My son walk was cancelled. Cancelled. I don't know why it was cancelled, but the money that was I know for a fact that the there's a lot of money involved and the kids were not given full scholarships and any kind of scholarship. They were given personal
checks. the kids. I'm talking for the kids. I did not know the kids that it was going to be cancelled. I was never aware of it. No one told me anything about it. I'm here respectfully to talk to you guys if y'all know me because a lot of you guys know me outside of this
job. I know I've been walking this grounds for 35 years. I know my city in and out. I know where every last one of y'all live. I care for you guys. I respect every last one of y'all. I want the same respect back because if it was your child being murdered by a straight
bully because of gun violence, people still hang out and sell drugs in front of my mother house. I can't even walk upstairs because they won't move for me to go upstairs. Okay, y'all. I've been asking I've talking I even wrote a letter to each and every one of y'all.
Y'all ignored it. Y'all didn't respond to it. And then when I cursed out, I get suspended for two days without pay. that affected my income, my household, and I can't pay my bills. It's a lot going on. I reached out to y'all from my block, my
block, the paving. Then y got people like people, y'all know who I am. Y'all know exactly who I am. I come from the brownstone. That's my real job. That's my real boss. Albert and M Tommy Manzo. That's who my boss is. I don't care
about losing this job because I'm always have a job. Y'all understand that? I I'm here because the people, the kids, y'all, these kids are walking out here with ski mask. It's 90 degree weather. That's probably calls for an officer to
pull y'all over to ask why y'all wearing a ski mask. There's no reason why these kids, they're the ones killing. They're the ones robbing. They're the ones Come on, make it make sense, people. I love every last one of y'all. I support every last one of y'all. But I want the same respect that I give y'all. I want it
back. Okay? And I'm talking for the kids. The kids want to know why that gun violence awareness walk was cancelled. I want answers cuz the same way like Miss Camille said, I'm con I'm very respectful to every last one of y'all. But I can get ghetto and I can get real
gangster if I'm from the streets and I'm about that life. Please. I'm begging y'all. Please please. Thank you. My children answers. Thank you, Miss Santiago. Please my car. Next speaker, Madam Clerk. The next speaker is Joe Keys Jr.
He is not here. Oh, yes he is. Mr. Keys, please state your name. Joel Keys Jr. Patterson. Meaningful consequences. Whenever we develop bad habits, we generally never stop them unless they're
meaningful consequences. There's a big difference between consequences and meaningful consequences. Consequences may get our attention, but they aren't strong enough to cause us to stop and change the bad habit. On the other hand,
meaningful consequences not only get our attention, but are threatening enough to make us stop and change the bad habit. The council has a bad habit of failing to separate the payment of bills, which is their only hope of providing a meaningful defense of the community
against redundant corruption by the administration. Regarding meaningful consequences, the council gives the excuse for not separating the payment of bills that if they don't continue to make blanket votes of yes on them, then the local government will shut down.
Those are meaningful consequences because they are threatening enough to the council that the members continue to make blanket votes of yes on the payment of bills. I would be remiss if I failed to separate the council members who constantly make blanket votes of yes
from the council member who continually votes no. And everybody knows that's Councilman Jackson. I have a question. The threat of the local government shutting down if the council doesn't continue to make blanket votes of yes to the payment of bills is a meaningful
consequence of what bad habit? It's not failure to separate the payment of bills. In other words, I begin my speech stating that we don't stop and change bad habits unless there are meaningful consequences. What is the bad habit of the council that shutting down the local
government is a meaningful consequence for? Again, it's not failure to separate the payment of bills. I ask because we know that meaningful consequences are a deterrent to bad habits, which means they discourage their continued practice. If the council continues the
practice of making blanket votes of yes to the payment of bills, the local government will not shut down. So that is not a deterrent. On the contrary, the council is encouraged to continue the practice of that habit, which are blanket votes of yes on the payment of
bills. From that logic, that's not a bad habit. If that's true, then what is the bad habit? I reiterate the bad habit of the council is failing to separate the payment of bills. In conclusion, the only people who are taken for granted are those who allow
themselves to be taken for granted. The council has allowed the administration to take them for granted through the threat of shutting down the local government if blanket votes of yes aren't made on the payment of bills. My final question is, should we continue to buy the perception the council is
selling that votes of blanket votes of yes on a payment of bills is not a bad habit that requires meaningful consequences to stop them and change them. Madame clerk, my vote is no. Thank you. Next speaker. Madame clerk.
The next speaker is Director Dave Gilmore. Dave Gilmore. You, Mr. Gilmore. Your name, please. Thank you. Good evening, council. I'm going to talk fast because I got a lot to say and three minutes ain't enough. But I want
to say first of all, glory to God. I I survived a heart attack, an aneurysm, conspiracy to fire me, violated my first amendment rights to speak like this continues to happen here as well. But I want you to know
September 2nd is coming quick. federal court. We're going five years. We're going on six years. I've been waiting to go to court for what they did to me. It's my turn. It's my turn to bring the noise.
When they first uh violated my rights back in 2020 or 21, whatever it was, one person stood up for me. One. That's Councilman Jackson. And I want you to know that that was Councilman Jackson.
One person out of everybody on this council, but most of y'all was still here. The end of the day, to me, one of the most redeeming qualities of the human being is loyalty. If you're not loyal, you ain't
That's how I feel. You understand? I make no bones about it. Loyalty is number one in my book. No matter who it is, you make a commitment, you stick to it. That's it. That's who I am.
I'm speaking as personally now, not in my official capacity. But let me tell you something. I'm loyal to that lady right there. I like her. She's a good director. Okay? And I'll do anything for her. I work for I work for her.
Some of y'all need to find somebody that you can work for. I work for her. She's not a bad person. But at the end of the day, everybody's got to be held accountable for what they do. The city andor the city's lawyer came to federal
court two weeks ago and petitioned the the judge to not have to speak, to not have to do dep uh uh uh uh uh depositions denied. They got to come in the next two weeks. If they don't come, we're going for
sanctions. I think the letters are already written. But the court date is September 2nd. What you did to me, you going to pay for that at the end of the day. I haven't I haven't been here much or said anything about it, but my time is coming. It's coming. Civil service
said I was It was a conspiracy at the highest levels to get rid of me because I found somebody that owed millions of dollars and wouldn't pay when they was getting their permits. people in that office is going to jail. I'm the one that blew the whistle and I
don't care what nobody call me a snitch. Whatever you want to call me, I told it to the attorney general, office of public uh uh integrity, DCA, and everybody else that would listen. They're going to jail. That's it. And
it's coming any day now. Any day. Mr. You've been warned. Thank you. Next speaker, Madame Clerk. Next speaker is A Robertson. A Robertson. She's coming.
Thank you. Please state your name. Hey, Robertson. Good evening. How's everybody? Um, just some concerns. Oh, I'm sorry. It's always about the mic, right? Um, in terms of the
development as always in the city, my question I'm posing a question the on the corner of Maine and Broadway have not seen any any construction going on any construction going on on that
location in quite some time which is an impediment for the city again. Where's the developer? Why is it not happening? Not that I want it to happen. Okay. So which now it becomes the eyesore. Main Street and uh uh Broadway right across
from Broadway Pizza. Okay. The other thing on Marshall Street in between Weiss and Van Winkle 261, we have two sites going up up there. Okay. Where's the parking? How is it
going to happen? Is going to impede the city again? We need to begin looking at this here. We need to, you know, be talking to zoning, okay? Because it's killing the city and it's going to kill the city and it's, you know, we know what's going to happen. We're going to
have police officers out there start ticketing and what have you. The question I have a question about the cameras in terms of the predators for dumping. Are they working? Are we catching? Are we finding? Great. Um the
other thing West Broadway coming down West Broadway from the top of Laurel Street um right by Checkers the trees they need to be scaled back because if you're coming down you're going to look
at the light at the corner of West Broadway and Belmont A and you're going to think you have a green light because the tree uh on West Broadway right by checkers needs to be scaled back. We need to look into that. Um,
Laurel Street, won't give the address. In between Oxford and West Broadway, a house was built there. It was condemned. Built it up from the ground up. It was a rental. Now it's a for sale sign. Hasn't been rented since, you know, hasn't been rented.
Abandonment already. You understand what I'm saying? And this is what we're allowing these developers to come in. Uh, still our 40 acres in a mule. They want to bill. They can't rent. People can't afford the rent. And then guess what? We're going to have the problems
that we had 30 years ago. The elopment. Okay. We need to do something. We need to as a council, our council need to be speaking to our zoning. We need to slow down the development of these properties
until we can figure it out. The other thing, right off of River Street, the side streets right off of River Street where the dump trucks go to dump. I see they did the pavement over there. Great. We need that. But what about Curtis, please? What about Curtis, please? We got to do better. We got to do better.
Our city is We're flatlining. We're flatlining. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Annette. You're welcome. Next speaker, Madam Clerk. Yes. Next speaker is Francis Harrison. Good evening. Good evening, Mother Ason. Good evening, everyone.
Thank you for this new board and I'm hoping that we've gotten over kicking the can down the road. How long have we asked to have the the bill separated on different issues? I'm hoping that that's going to happen. I hope you guys get
together and realize that there is something that needs to be done about the bill paying and stop using the excuse that you have to pay the employees. Okay, I'm standing up here with several issues. I have a problem with supervisories of the DPW. I want to
know what are they getting paid for because if you don't put something on Facebook or call Valz or make pictures of the garbage and the stuff that's happening in this city, nobody sees it. We have to clap up mess. Mess comes out
and cleans up whatever is called. But what are these supervisors that work for DPW? or they riding around with blinders on. I'm noticing all over town that these signs are leaning to the side because cars have knocked them or or
they're or they're gone or they're down on the ground and they've been there for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. So, a work order that says when you see an incident as a DPW person, you should write it up so it can be followed up.
Why does the public constantly have to be notifying these people to do their job? Okay, customer service is another issue. Too many years, it'll be eight years Andre has been in this job. And that was one of the things that he said
he was going to take care of. Calling any office, any office in this city, and the phone rings off the hook. Nobody picks up. If I didn't have a personal number for someone else to go
over and find out why the phone is not being answered, I would never get through. I've had to call people that I have their personal number to ask them to go check in the construction office, to go check in the zoning office.
When is this going to happen? Customer service is the worst. The website of the third largest city is pathetic. It's been said that IT people have been hired. This one has been hired.
Communication person has been hired. All these people have been hired. What the heck are they doing? Even on the website, you still got names on the website that these people are no longer here. They're not even in the system anymore. You try to send an email to
somebody, it doesn't go through because now they're new and they're not in the system yet. Get it together. Council, please. It's a new regime. Work together for this city and do better.
Thank you, Mama Francis. Next speaker, Madame Clerk. The next speaker is Eddie Oliviveres. State your name, please, sir. Good evening, Miss Alviveres. Good evening, Patterson. Good evening. You guys don't seem happy
to see me, I guess. Um, I'm going to start uh today with uh Mr. as is usually the case. Mr. Please stop dreaming. You're daydreaming. The last meeting you were talking about having corporation
council do something about me stopping me from speaking not happening. You you may think he's stupid, but trust me, he's not. He knows I'm going to sue the city and he knows he's going to be a defendant on that lawsuit because I'm
going to name him personally. I'm going to continue with um Alex Bendes. Alex said that uh the city of Patterson has a terrible reputation for the way that we pay and I ask too bad he's not here but I
ask you guys whose fault is that you're to blame it is you your pro you know you caused that problem uh Mr. has also said uh that the city takes um uh you know a lot of time is
spent um uh ribbon cutting uh but not enough information is forthcoming from the administration uh Mr. Nevertheless, the last time I check, every time I look on Facebook, you are at every one of those ribbon cutings. So, I don't know what the hell
you're talking about. Um, he also said that we have to do better with the amount of time that it takes vendors to get paid. Seven months, I think uh Mr. said um and that it needs
to change. Well, Mr. Veles, I got good news for you. It will change when we get rid of the mayor. It will change. We're going to change it. And so, um, but you know, in closing, where's my my good friend? We
have a a new bouncer. And so, I got to make sure that I stick to the three to the three minutes and not one second longer. Uh, guys, every time we have a meeting, we come over here, we plead with you guys, please do, please do something. The city
is filthy. It's dangerous. Parents are afraid to let their kids go outside and play, you know, and and some of you have been there for I don't know how many years, 13, 14 years, a long time, and it's not
getting better. You would think that at some point you would say, "Well, does it have anything to do with me? Maybe it has something to do with me because I've been here for what, 10 years, 15 years, whatever it is." And I'm, you know, I I would have to make an exception with Mr.
Jackson only because he's the one that is always going against you guys. The rest of you working together. In fact, I have I have a a a proposition for you and for Alex, you know, um the the issue with with the principal where he says that he said that if if Latinos get
involved, they're going to call I am going to go over there and talk to him. Maybe you should come with me. I will show you. I will hold your hand. I'll tell you how it's done. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Alive. Next speaker, Madame Clerk. Next speaker is Elvis Durham. Elvis Durham.
Good evening, Mr. Dorham. State your name, please. How y'all doing? All right. We in the summer season and we got
a new council president. Congratulation, Councilman at Laws, Lisa Mims, new council vice president, council woman at laws, Marissa Daria. Well, y'all got work to do. This is the
third largest city in New Jersey. This is not no town. People is going homeless. I was almost homeless. Thank God. Okay.
Rent is too dog on high in this city administration. I talking talking to y'all too and respect. It's time to bring low income. It's time to bend jobs. How you going to how we going to pay for
these nice high behind apartments? Ain't no jobs here. Bring the jobs. That's it. Also, we got two black businesses brand new in the downtown area. It's time for us to
support our own in Patterson. Stop running to got to stay more and support downtown. We got a we got um Silver Fox Ice Cream Shop, the best ice cream shop in the in the tri-state area on 59 Broadway,
downtown Patterson, New Jersey. We also got Oh my god. We got Fast Break Cafe Sports Lounge. They got some good food, y'all. Maybe the best food in the tri-state area
inside Center City Mall, 301 Main Street, downtown Patterson, New Jersey. You want some good food? Go to Fast Break. Also, we got two major events coming up in the month of August.
Okay, everybody say, "Oh, it's no place to go in Patterson." They right. Ain't nothing to go. I thank God for council, the former Councilman McCo and his his team for bringing the Jamaican festival every year. God knows if it wasn't for
them, we won't have nothing in this city. And most of y'all got connection. Y'all got connections with big people in the industry, but y'all say y'all care. Come on, make it make sense. Councilman McCoy got the um Jamaican
day, August Saturday, August 2nd at East East Park. Um I believe the address is 800 Broadway. Saturday, August 2nd, I believe at 5 5:00 p.m., right? 5:00 p. them.
And Sunday, good God almighty, we going they're going to put the icing on the cake. We're going to have church. Good God Almighty. Ain't got good Sunday, August 3rd, East Side Park, the Jamaican Festival at 5:00 p.m. And
guess who's one of the special guests? This guy is better than this guy is better than Dynam Corkin. He's better than Dynam Corkin. I'm talking about Cory T. He back there somewhere. He's gonna be live in concert. Okay. Thank you, Mr. and and um Council
President, I got one more announcement and then I'm gonna go home. It's It's hot like a mud here. Okay. And I I don't think y'all can pay my doctor bills. Um S city. Sport. It's going to be at Hisk Stadium
on Saturday, August 2nd at 12 PM until 8:00 PM. Saturday, August 2nd. And it's going to be featuring one of the best on B pop groups in the world with going to be live in concert. Thank you, Mr.
Also, also wait, let me let me also Ashley Mly going to be in concert. Respectfully, Mr. This we have to be the change we want to see. You said one announcement. So, thank you so much. This is the whole bring it back next week. We still have
some time until August. No, no, I'm finished. I'm finished. I'm finished. Thank you. And um God bless you. Yes. Next speaker, Madam Clerk. Next, the next speaker is Kamisha Rogers Jones. Good evening.
Your name, please. It's very warm in here. Good evening everyone. Kamisha Rogers Jones, Patterson, New Jersey, Fourth Ward. Um, my auntie wanted me to mention that her recycling didn't get picked up on East
27th between 9th and 10th Avenue. She did call and they told her they would come, but they didn't. So, she asked me to mention it um public portion today. Um, I'm actually here about a concern in regards to residents. I know we had this
issue last year. A young lady that lives downtown Patterson was experiencing a lot of parking tickets. And so I had a resident reach out to me, a few residents reach out to me um who live
downtown and they're getting constantly getting tickets at 8:00, 9:00 early, not afternoon. We're talking like 9:00, 9:14. they're getting am they're getting these tickets and so my question I
wasn't I didn't follow the um result from the young lady and so I do have a question for council I don't know you know who would be in charge of this but was there anything to rectify that were residents allowed to get parking permits
to park downtown I know we have the parking lots but it's if you see the condition of Patterson of downtown Patterson especially at night. For residents to come home at night and try to park in one of those lots, it's not safe for
them. You have homeless sitting outside their apartment buildings. It's really downtown. If you ride through downtown after hours for residents, it's very scary down there. And so I wanted to know, is there a plan in place? I see we have new construction about to happen at
the old um supermarket down there. You have construction going on right now. on Broadway and Main Street for res for residential um living and what we've seen across the city um residents aren't
parking in those lots. So, a lot of these developments, the parking lots go empty and residents are parking on the street. So, are we considering possibly a permit for residents to who live downtown to have that so they're not getting over ticket? I have one young
lady, she received four tickets in 4 days. And that's just cuz she lives downtown and it's 9:00 a.m. 9:00 a.m. She doesn't have to be to work till 12. She's sleeping. She goes downstairs. She has a ticket at 9:10, 9:14. And so I wanted to know if are we considering
those things when we approve the developments for downtown for the residents who will live down there because that can be a very very costly issue. So that was all I had today. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Kamisha. Next speaker, Madame Clerk.
The next speaker, next speaker is uh Councilman Bill McCoy. State your name, please. Good evening, Mr. McCoy. Good evening, Council President. Good evening. That has a beautiful ring to it. Congratulations
to our council president and our council vice president. Um my good friend did a beautiful uh presentation on our Jamaica Day festiv festival that's coming up. This is uh
it's my beautiful wife by the way. Let me be let me be right about that. Um in in another couple of days on July 16th we'll be married 42 years.
So if anybody want the book on how it how it's done, you can come and check me out. And the day I got married, it was hotter than today. If you can imagine that in a church that didn't have um air conditioning. Um
but yes. Yes. So let me um let me let me really thank you for um the opportunity to address you. Let me backtrack a little bit and say to Miss Santiago, I think all of us owe you um a
set of condolences. Um that was a heartfelt circumstance. A as a victim of violence myself. I was assaulted two years ago in front of my house. Two guys with baseball bats after they've attacked somebody at my job thinking it was me. Two years later, although
everybody know who it is, we haven't arrested anybody yet. So, I'm I'm really concerned about that. And every day that I got out of my house, I have to be looking up and down and be concerned about that. That's wrong. We need to get that addressed. Um, but challenges make
us stronger. Um, council members, I want to appeal to you for charitable organization just like the Bill McCoy Foundation. These fees and costs for putting on events for local folks that are free and are giving back is really off the chain. the amount of money that
we have to be paying really is cost prohibitive and I don't know how many folks are going to be able to keep up with that. So I want to encourage you to just look at that make it practical. Let it make sense. We are not people that need to be policed out of our minds. We
have a great time. We're well attended and we do well. So for us to be paying almost $20,000 just to get a permit um is a little bit um unusual. It's it's stressing on the community and we're not sure how long we'll be able to do that
as as a community. We're thankful for local businesses that are giving us some support, but their revenues are tight as well. So, they can't be as generous as they need to be and the costs are just getting too high. So, I want to thank you for the opportunity. Look forward to
seeing all of you. If you promise to come and behave yourself, you're welcome. those that are not under self-control, we ask that you stay home and chill out. God bless you and be well. Thank you very much, Madam Clerk. Next speaker, please.
Next speaker is Balal Hakeim. Oh, yeah. These are old bones, man. These are not these are not young bones anymore. State your name, please. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Hakee.
Uh, good evening. Good evening. I seek refu from the devil. and the whispers of the devil. Zoran Mandani who won who won the
primary in New York has shook up the country. It's in the air. So none of you feel like you uh don't get too comfortable. He defied the party. Bloomberg pumped in
$80 million. Still lost because although you might be a part of a party that has organization etc and money, you don't resonate with the people, you lose.
The other thing I want to say is anytime a person that is supposed to uphold the law and administer justice becomes derelct, you undermine the society. And this message goes to you,
corporate counsel, because you could have took a stand just like uh Karen Brown, who was corporate counsel in New York when her boss wanted her to go along to get along and break the law.
Okay. Shame on you. Shame on you. The lady showed a picture of someone that's supposed to be in charge of the school and a lot of the other minations that's going on here in the city. Evil. And I wrote this down. Let's talk about
how real evil reveals itself because real evil does not walk around looking like a monster. Okay? It often wears a warm smile. Okay? speaks with a charm and hides behind a carefully curated
image of decency. And that's the danger. The most destructive people are really, rarely obvious. They're persuasive, polished, and socially fluent. They know how to win over a crowd. 90%
of the crowd uh uh uh um to go against the 5% that can see through all of the BS. and disarm the skeptics and paint themselves as the victim while quietly orchestrating someone else's room ruin.
True evil isn't loud. It's not loud at all. It's calculated. It's manipulative. So be careful what you believe about someone because sometimes the story being told is coming
straight from the source of the problem. Evil is not always the uh the one being talked about. Sometimes it's the polished one with good diction articulating, doing the talking, and pushing evil. That's all I have to say.
Amen. Last speaker, Madam Clerk. Next speaker is Keith Jefferson. He's not he's not here. Seeing none, move to close. Motion to close by council vice president Dava. Second.
Second by Councilman Mendes. Roll call to close the public portion. No, it's Keith Jefferson. That's not his name. He wasn't signed up on the sheet. Did you sign up to speak? He didn't sign up to speak. Might be his first sign. Who Who is he from? From from Federation.
Yeah. Who name did Are you saying you No, the guy back there. Who is ask? No. No, he's not Mr. Jefferson. We know him very well. He didn't sign up to speak. Uh, roll call to close public portion. Madam clerk, roll call to close the public portion.
Councilwoman Cotton. Madam clerk, my vote is yes. Thank you. Councilwoman Dav, yes. Can I speak for a minute? We're in the middle. Roll call public or anything. I just need to speak to you. No. Simple issue.
No. Um, no. point of privilege. We're in the middle of closing it. Yeah, the signin sheet was out for over an hour. I can allow our business administration to talk to you on the side, but we're now at the middle of closing public portion. But our business
administrator, if you can um have a conversation to see what the concern is, he will take your concern. Absolutely. It is order in the chamber. Can you please speak to him? Uh, can you continue with um he's going to address you. He he's going to have a
conversation. Okay. Uh, Councilwoman Dava, Councilwoman Dava, your vote. My vote is yes. Thank you, Councilman Jackson. Thank you, Madam Clerk. So, I got a long list here.
First of all, let me say to uh Miss Tulie, sis, I take my hat off to you for your your consistent willingness to fight on behalf of your beautiful daughter. And um you know, I'll say this uh and this
is for all of those like uh Mr. Rucker, Brother Gilmore, um those of us in the community, Brother Balo, who understand that our community is often mistreated, um for this young lady to have been
treated the way she was, to be excluded from school, to be removed from school where a parent then has to take legal action and a judge has to say, "What the hell is wrong with you, man? You're opening yourself up to litigation." and demand
that the young lady be remitted back in the school. For another person of color to not have an issue when someone is being bullied, when somebody is being called um derogatory names, when someone is being hit on, you know, our children
deserve an opportunity to be educated in a in a in a uh environment that's very conducive for their growth. and any person, I don't care if it's one child, brother Rucker would love to see you there. Anybody that that understands
um the the necessity for fair and equitable treatment um should definitely be willing to line up. I know some people are afraid because of their political associations, but I'm never one to be afraid. Um
Now, see, this is why this is why, council president, with all due respect, this is why the practices in which you've chosen to to to u pursue is inappropriate because right now I got questions for the BA and he's not in the room. Somebody should be present at all
times from the BA's office to answer to my questions and my concerns when I have those concerns. We're being stringent on three minutes. Somebody comes to the podium. Nope. Nope. You can't speak. You didn't sign the list. Now the public
doesn't get to hear their concerns because see that is the only way in which we get a response from this administration and director Rodriguez, I'm glad you're still here. Um, so Corporation Council, maybe you can convey this to the BA because I am going
to hold him absolutely accountable for this. I want to know why is this young lady suspended from her employment for for for voicing her opinion. I need I'm going to need you to tell me your your story on that because we consistently believe we could violate people's
constitutional rights of expression while the mayor goes on and and has these Facebook live posts because I forget who where was it? Um I think it was Mrs. Harrison that talked about, you know, the uh tech technicians that we
hire in in IT where they're busy running around the city doing ribbon cutings and doing press conferences and carrying speakers and carrying microphones and crap like that. So we can we can, you know, have these media blitzes while he
can go and express and utilize employ city money, city time, utilize employees that's supposed to be doing something constructive to go do press conferences. That's not appropriate. That's not appropriate. Especially when we have
people who have their right to express their opinions, their frustration, and we want to uh uh utilize falsely use power to try to intimidate them. And I respect you greatly for saying I don't give a damn about this job because you
can get you you you understand that your your value is is much bigger than that. So, so I I want to find out why why was why were you suspended and and why was the walk cancelled? Uh I was told by one of the council members that the walk was
canceled by the schools, but the city controls the schools, I mean the streets. So if the schools didn't have a walk and the family who lost someone who I think would have been better served corporation counsel instead of running around here uh uh fighting against
things that's going to cost us money, it would have been much more um advantageous for us to to sympathize with a family that lost a loved one in our city. And we all should have participated in that walk. But I I I honestly I wasn't even aware of it. I didn't know the walk was going on. I don't really get informed and you you
know not notice you don't see me at their at their ribbon cutings and press conferences. Um they don't inform me anyway, but I not not that I would you know be eager to attend. Um so the mayor utilizing these these
employees for his political gain. Um Director Rodriguez and and I say this with all due respect and Mr. Ba you can chime in on this as well. Um because it seems as if and I and I and and I'm
not pointing the finger at the director of DPW. Please everybody understand that because I understand that he's grossly understaffed. I understand his staff has to work overtime to to pick up the the pieces on the bulk pickup that that the
poor um negotiations from the administrations from the administration has caused the city. But it seems as if I have to do a live video in order for garbage to get picked up. And then other council members, you know, say, "Oh, this was serviced." But it was the live video. So now I got
to travel the entire city and and we could all do it together because as we saw with G, we could do remote access and hit multiple locations because even 16th was picked up yesterday. Somebody dumped on it again. So my question is, was the land owner fined $10,000 for
dumping? See, Joe Key so graciously talked about and he educated us on consequences, right? If there is no consequences, you're going to continue to get dumping all over the city. This city is is a piece of garbage, man. Every every corner garbage. You go outside right now
in this garbage. And everybody then turns to the director of DPW requiring him to pick it up. But yet the various divisions in the city is not doing their job when it comes to writing tickets, writing citations, holding people accountable. Grass is is 3 feet tall
when the when the city code requires that anything over 6 in is supposed to be cited. So director was was anyone I mean just a head nod and it was there a fine issued before that garbage was picked up on u on uh bell. Okay. So I
want to see a copy of that because we going to we going to definitely need to know. holding people accountable. Um, so so Corporation Council and Mr. BA, you know, my my disappointment,
um, and it falls directly on your shoulders, Corporation Council, because you know, prior to you coming to the city, you made a living on suing the city. Now, it seems as if you're making a living costing the city more dollars. In the case of Mr. Gilmore, where you guys have been fighting over not being
deposed and and I I know my name is listed. I'm a willing participant because if we're not willing to be honest and truthful about the series of events that happened, then that's a problem that when people don't want to come forward and testify, it's because they're trying to hide something. And we
saw as members of this council sat and watched Mr. Gilmore's uh constitutional rights be be uh ignored. And what's paralleled is this young lady. I think brother Gilmore, you should share your attorney's information with her because if she was suspended un wrongfully for
expressing herself while she was not working, uh we could talk further later, but if you made a post off hours and it wasn't you weren't at work, there's no way you should have been suspended. And if you were, you know, I'll help in supporting you in in do taking care of
what's necessary. So I'm curious why why are we appealing the decision that was brought upon by the fire department? The state already agreed. They they they went to arbitration. They they they uh
uh they commissioned an auditor and now you guys corporation council, you're putting us further at risk that's going to cost us additional money. Why not just sit down and negotiate with these men and women who by the way saved
the lives, never mind the 180 lives that had to be attended to and the 25 that had to be transported to the hospital at Hinsk Stadium when foolishness just put a a a graduation ceremony in 100 degree weather. But I'm trying to understand
and I want to get an answer. Why are we continuously fighting these things that's only going to cost us more money? I know you guys only have 10 months left to be here and you're going to push the can down the road, but where's the audit? Where's the audit that was that the fire department that was
commissioned by the fire department? Why hasn't this council seen that audit? Why haven't we had a a a a joint um um a meeting of the of the whole to discuss
this audit? And is it accurate that $500,000 was returned from police from the police budget due to poor management? I want to I want to have these questions answered. Um, you know, it's very disturbing. You
know, I just ask simple questions. I don't really um I don't really, you know, sit here. Mo most may say I'm trying to grandstand, but these are things that I'm fighting consistently. And and yes, Sister Rogers,
first of all, I made sure that tenants and and I got to continuously say this and please help you guys. I need you to help me disseminate this information. It is unlawful for a landlord to charge for parking. No landlord in the city of Patterson should should charge for
parking. It it is unlawful for that to happen. More importantly, when these these large-scale buildings receive their permits to to to build their required parking that they have to provide, even if they have to pay the
parking authority, they have to provide parking. So, um, I'll be more than interested in sitting down with you to talk about those tenants that's that's being charged and paying for parking because there's a responsibility on those owners, but the accountability has to
come from this administration and we see what that's getting us. This administration targets and feeds off of this community while we make provisions so that developers and investors can make make you know larger sums of money on the
backs of people who can barely afford to pay. I mean as you saw the provision that we I brought forward for the uh for the tow company that's charging excess money. We had you know council members fighting on behalf of the tow company until we had to unveil that. So I'm not
surprised. But I would like to um sit down and have a discussion about that. I have one more item, council president. Um so listen, and I respect the fact and I I hold a great deal of value and respect
for our director of economic development as well. But I tell you what, one thing that I'm entitled to, I expect to get the things I'm entitled to. Corporation council, I've been asking you about reports for quite some time. you have come in and you've assured me that your job, your mission was to make sure that
I'm entitled to. And if you need me to show it to you, I can show it to you in within our uh our charter of where I'm entitled to all reports. When I ask for a report, I don't expect the song and dance. I don't expect the the director to tell me, "Oh,
well, we don't have authorization for that." Any entity that exists under the purview of this this city, this council has the ability to audit their their their their interactions as well as their fiscal responsibility.
This PRC, I want to know what the what money has been allocated. I want to see the money that they've been spending. I want to see their budget. I want when am I going to get this budget? You promised me a few weeks ago you was going to make sure that I get some of these things. I asked you about the stadium. You gave me
some excuse. Oh, we can't do this cuz the schools. I'm tired of hearing excuses. I want to know when am I going to get these reports that I'm asking for. We're we're we're sitting here approving money. You guys are just uh uh through the mayor's office. There was a press conference done for $2.5 million
for a professional um soccer team that's being spent from the PRC. Where's the outline on how the return is going to be made? How's the city going to receive money back from this investment? If we're investing in the outside business, how are what's the return on that investment
just like we invested in this building here, where's the return on the on on on what? Because we could call and utilize it whenever we whenever we like. I want to know how's this money being spent, who's on there, how is it being voted on. I'm asking for something as simple
as what I'm entitled to. So at the end I would hope for an answer from you on when should I be expecting some of this information and I'm also expecting an answer on you know this arbitration with the with the fire department. We are continuously putting the city at risk
financially. You guys are getting your checks. You guys are getting paid handsomely and you're putting the city at risk with at risk where the taxpayers are going to have to foot this bill. We're going to have to pay a pay a big check to Mr. Gilmore. That's the reality. We're going to be paying a a handsome check and you taking everybody
in here out to um uh we gonna go to the ice cream. We gonna go a fast break and then I want ice cream and it's on there because they don't care. They don't care. They could completely violate corporation council never advised the council which he's supposed to do.
That's part of his job advising the council when a move is going to be a detriment. He never advised the council that he advised the mayor that suspending and or firing Mr. Gilmore was going to be detrimental to the city. Where was he on that? He sat not only
did he say quiet, he aid it in the in the effect. So, as it's going to cost us millions of dollars on this move, he's sitting there with this smug look on his face as if, you know, hey, it's just it's just part for the course. But council will continuously vote on these
items and continuously approve these things. cuz we're going to be voting on the approval of that. And I look forward to you. I think you should you should render a uh some kind of a lawsuit cuz that's what they depend on. See, they anticipate that people from the urban settings and from, you know, minority
communities, they're not going to do anything. They thought Mr. Gilmore was not going to do anything. He He sure showed them he busting their ass. That's that's the real the real story. So, hats off to him. Now, the rest of you, get a piece. Line up because you know it's there for the taking. Madame clerk, my
vote is yes. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Kik is not here. Councilman Mendes. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh let's um let me first thanks the public for coming and address the council and also address
administration. Um one of the members of the community spoke about the camera that the 80 cameras and and I request a presentation um last month I believe. So I request a presentation from Mr. E Boi.
Um we have a million dollars to invest on 80 cameras. Dumping is a legitimate problem in the city of Patterson. We're spending thousands of dollars uh with DPW cleaning up and people dumping it again. We have those camera. We approved
that funding over a year ago. We have seed the report. We need a report of how many camera we have working. Director, let's put that presentation together. Director Billy Rodriguez, I know you're not director. Director uh I know you're not directly
on charge of the uh camera. Mr. Ebos is in charge of the program. Please, we need a presentation on where we are with that. We need an update. How many cameras are working? As you and I, we see I'm calling you every day. We have people dumping in every corner of the
city of Paso in the third war, 20 and 34, 6th Avenue. And we know the location. Please, we need that. We approved that money over a year ago and and I have some I have some concern with that project. So, the community need to know also as well. Uh also the economic
development uh we have our director here. I'm very happy to see your director. We also know that the DCA is u overseeing the the building department. We also as a council need an update. I need an update on how we moving forward
with the building department. I've been saying this for a couple of years. The building department is one of the department that could generate a lot of revenue to the city of Patterson. A lot of revenue is being if it's been run by the the right way. So, we need an update on that. We definitely need it. We have
people waiting two, three years for a permit. We need to know if we resolve that problem. That's important also as well. And and let me just say this. Um, if you're running for office, you should not be upset because I I don't want to sign your petition or maybe I need some
time. I believe that I mean your job, your colleague should be convincing me that you're the right person for the job because there's going to be three seat open at the school board. So, I believe that that you should not get upset for that. Uh, that's that's my belief. uh when somebody when I need to convince somebody, I talk to that person and I
prove that person and I show that person that I that I love the position and that I'm ready to fight for that position to represent the ch the children. And and another note, I I I try to attend to all the event people that knows me, you invite me to an event, I do my best. I I
have two business that I run uh family plus my city council job that I do it with much love and and a lot of passion. But on top of that, you see me at the weekend on a different event. You invite me, I'm there. Uh I go to event from the African-American community, not because I'm running. I'm not running for
anything, but you see me there greeting the people because that's what I have. Love for my community. Whoever knows Alex Mendes, you you know who I am. You invite me, I'm there and I greet the people and I enjoy to be with my Psonian. That's who I am. I don't use event for political purpose. I just
enjoy and respect the people that are that are there and and and and another note uh madame president I think that I would like to encourage you to uh just uh be more flexible with the list. I know I haven't seen a gentleman here but I I know that when I when I was council
president one of my concern and the reason why I keep the list open is because I know but I I know I know how people I know how people are struggling in the community and and I see people that they try to come here and I went to another town and I saw like three people at the meeting. I'm like you know what I
like to see my Patterson resident attending the city council meeting. There was only three people in that town and I see our council meeting they're full of people they some some come to criticize us which is okay but some of the resident they come to talk about legitimate issues that affecting our
community in term of safety and the lack of cleanliness of the city the lack of services of the city we need to hear from you definitely need to hear from you u and last but not least let's pray for our city is a great city and if we work together we could make Pison a
better place and in closing Um, those that know me, they know that I'm not a violent person. I'm very respectful person. I could work with any person. I could be able to sit down with anybody on the table and make things done and get the job done. Uh, so if you
have an incident, there's video, show the video. That's all I requesting. Um, and that's what I that's my encouragement to any person that got involved with a problem. If you have video footage, show it. God bless you, Patterson. I would just ban clerk. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Omar.
My vote is yes, Madam Clerk. Thank you, Councilman Nuden. Good evening, Patterson. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Uh, thank you those are here in this chamber in this intense heat and those are watching us live on
um YouTube. I thank all of you for your participation in our council meetings. We the city of full of potential. We have the people hardworking people in the city of Patterson. The youth their dreams big
and and that's why we see a lot of our community members they are putting their heart and soul their effort to bring us together. One of the four I can I have to commend councilman McCoy for putting the uh event together every year. So we we commend you for doing and bringing us
together one more one more time on the 2nd of August and third of August. Thank you very much. So, uh, again, so many of our residents, council members speak about the separation of bills every time we vote
for and it it's not going anywhere. But one thing I believe that when you're talking about stronger Patterson, it cannot just depend on a shaky financial uh base. So, I I want to hear from the corpor uh
Mr. CEO for that what would happen if we separate the bills um you know and is he going to take your time or what's the problem because we cannot just talk about something that's not ending up so we want to hear the strategic point of view from your side that what would
happen if we separate the bills what's the benefit of keeping as it is so I'd like to hear from that after uh we close the public portion cameras as uh councilman Mandes mentioned about uh cameras. We sat down
with Mr. Advazi who is was responsible for 77 plus cameras, $1 million that that we approved over a year ago. We sat down with him last month and supposed to come here in the council chamber to have a presentation
when I was the uh DPW chair until last last year. uh we we called him even though it's not part of the DPW fully part partially we sit down with him we learned the progress where he's standing and we
expecting all the cameras would be in function by September so but I I we we we uh invited him to come to the council chamber and uh provide the update that where what we are doing how many what's the um software some some of the cameras
are installed uh for the sake of um uh function effectivity. Uh we are not going to mention the locations of every cameras but we resident deserve to know that the functionalities and what's the uh what's the consequence would be if
someone uh get caught for illegal dumping which is regular concern in our city every part even uh director knows that I I sent an email that was last week uh there's last night even I checked this is not that was not picked
up um on uh Lenard a lenard avenue uh right behind the um Joseph at school. There's another ongoing um illegal dumping taking place on uh Sher not Sherwood um
Sheridan I believe Sherman Avenue my bad. So I email two of the emails that we expecting to be picked up. So this is not regular issue. It's not just one part of the city in every single section. So we like to see that city is ending. Here's a funny part that when we
speak to the family members and here's a is a it was a joke but I really was hard when it someone said it. I said listen you don't have to I was driving and with some of my family members um they're from out of town and we just came here in Patterson. He says welcome
to Patterson. So someone was jokingly said it you don't need to say welcome to Patterson. And when you see trash, you know that you are in Patterson border. And I was really hard when someone said it. Someone said it jokingly, but this is very, if you think about this is very true. We don't want to see someone
commenting about Patterson like this about gun violence. Miss Santiago uh and many mothers out there their their souls are tearing because the uh gun violence and ongoing uh is happening everywhere in the city
of Patterson and we don't see the ending of it. I understand this is not the one day of uh job that to be stopped in suddenly but we have to prioritize prioritize this issue. We don't want to see our uh youth are dying, losing their
lives, families are uh losing their loved ones because of this ongoing situation. So we have to prioritize some of the options that we as Pattersonian see progress and also Patterson the resident of the city of Patterson need to see the real progress not on the
paper not on the speak. We actually speak for hours but we tell nothing. That's the very truth. Sometimes we speak for hours and if you sum up what we said it's not been one minute of speech. So Patterson wants action not speech with that expectation. Patterson
thank you for being part of their city council making your voice heard when you come here. I think the government works better. With that being said my vote is yes. Thank you Councilman Councilman. Council President, I I going to try to make it quick in u my statement because I I
listen to the community uh today. Um Miss Santiago, um you mentioned something that really really I'm working on it. Uh I spoke to uh corporate council a couple uh I believe a month and a half or two months
ago uh creating an ordinance uh to prohibit ski for seasonal ski for seasonal. That means from March to December, no mask and from December, you know, spring to, you know, seasonal
only. Uh we that's in the works already. He looking where the law stands with it. Remember that everything had to go by the law, by the book. We not want to prohibit people wearing things that they probably using for other things, right? But uh medical or whatever. But we want
to make sure we do it right if we're going to bring things on the book. uh regarding regarding the the uh the uh death of your son, we still remember those days. Um always going to remember the day of your of the suffering of your
family. Um and you that we cannot forget that. The council cannot forget that. Um one thing I have to put on the record because I have to be fair. I recall Councilman Mims and Councilman um Ruby Kind go to your house because they
reported to me but you was doing funeral um arrangement. Oh. Oh, okay. Yeah. some some sometimes sometimes we have to get remind who we are sometimes and um
with the with the amount of I'm not saying that you know being yes correct and I and I respect that um we deal with a lot of people during the day that sometimes we don't even remember who we spoke last last day you know but in your case I just want to put on the floor
that councilwoman Mins and uh did and you confirm it that she was there uh but regarding the ski mass uh don't get upset when you see this ordinance is that people using those ski masks to drive bikes uh assault people around and
do a lot of stuff. So we have to make sure our seniors don't get hurt, our kids don't get hurt. Um and that's a good initiative moving forward. Also, if Newark spoke about a curfew for juveniles, why we afraid to do something
here? I know we going to have a a lot of people saying we sp I remember that Joy Torres tried to put the um the uh uh noon um noon for school curfew in that time and it went it went down the drain
because of some community activists didn't saw it fitted. But I think if you do it right with the right resources that the city needs for those youth and make accountable the parents, it will be it will be good. uh moving down the road. Um
um Francancy Harris um um is is we need to look at and and Mr. Ba um Mr. um Mr. Ba uh sorry to interrupt you but um she spoke about the customer service on the phone. I don't
know uh I cannot testify if they are busy in the phone or or they are doing other works in other places or but it's really important when they announce that any department are not working that they send a good robocall a better one a good
one saying this department employees was sent home um because of heat or whatever just in case there's residents out there trying to reach that office they are aware of that nobody no personnel is in that office especially the border of
health division or whatever to send a roll call due to the weather this office is going to be closed because the heat or whatever you know what I'm saying because that's the information the resident had to get u daily uh that they would know what's going on in our city
um Mr. Poly virus. Thank you for highlighting the good work that we do every day in the city mentioning our work because whatever he say is that he paying attention that we doing a work it would not satisfy him no matter what but we are doing the work for the city of
Patterson. Um, regarding the lady that came from um for the residents parking um in downtown um there is an ordinance draft uh that we are working uh for almost a year and a half. Uh is going to be soon finished
and is going to be uh brought to committee and to discuss and to see if my colleagues uh will support it and if they have something to add to it. Uh we as a council have to take initiative in that. It will save a lot of uh problem
with our residents. I had to I had to be I had to be honest here. DPW hits inspectors hits those landlords and tenants with fines when they put the garbage out early, when they don't put
it on time, when they don't do recycling, they mix the uh garbage. They do hit tenants and they do hit also um homeowners. Okay? Because the ordinance allows to do it. All right. And our
inspector so trained to look for information, not dumping to make sure No, Councilwoman. Yeah, I I will wrap it up in a minute. It will be less than 25 minutes. Um they are trained to to to give those tickets to those tenants.
That corner of Straight Street and 16th Avenue, I could show you more than 10 before and after pictures. Okay, this last one that they did a video whatever was reported in July 1, but as you know
that it was a holiday. They was working with skeleton crew. Okay. And before the DPW goes there, they send an inspector to issue what they have to issue and then pick up the garbage that is all dump in that corner to say that they not
taking action to the landlords on that place. Yes, they been in court. They have they they issue warrants once because they didn't show to court and they also have uh um more fines on the way. So saying that and I want to add
I'm not going to say where are the cameras uh that are washing the uh the people are dumping in the city of Paris. They are out there. Okay. And the DPW employees and those camera have caught a lot of people with license plate and
they have taken into court and we have a a a a quite good report on that. But that's why I talk I speak about giving committee reports because all that is spoken and and and conversation and committee report and we could bring a highlight to the community to let them
know what's going on. Last but not least, I receive a call council woman president. I receive a call from a resident from Woodland Park
asks me that her son got a ticket that how I could help her to get an attorney because this is the first time her son of 20 years old got a ticket. And I asked what's the ticket for?
for dumping in the city of Patterson. You know what I want to say over the phone? You imagine what I want to say. I just went like, "Let me hold myself, right?" But I orientate them. I say, "This is an attorney. You need to get an attorney. You need to whatever you feel
to do." And I asked them, "Why you did dump in the city pass?" They say, "Listen, I am 20 years old. I never know knew that this guy hire me a truck a U-Haul truck and say that we could dump in Patterson.
I took the the garbage in the corner. I dump it and he didn't knew what was going on. But now he's in trouble. So I know that I didn't spoke 25 minutes, but I want to say that we are working out there. We are making sure our city get
the right information. Please do not get distracted. This council is working the way that you want to us to work. You could agreed or disagree and that's okay. That's what we're here for. Agree or disagree. But if I have to improve in
something to make your life easy and to improve the way that you work in the city or to improve your your your neighborhood, just talk to me. I'm willing to work with anyone. Last but not least, there was a fire in South Park. Council man. Councilman. There was a
fire in South Hart. I I want to say thank you to the fire department for their pro to uh respond to the Patterson police to take people that was inside those houses mainly my dog too. Okay. My
husky. Um I was not in the city. I was in Baltimore. And soon as I arrived at Baltimore 4:45 they calling me now. I didn't even register at a hotel. I don't know to come or stay. But my two aids, Ilia Vijaneva, Nairobi Vargas, and Unifi
Ferman was assigned to assist anyone there. But I want to keep the record clear. The fire hydrants was working, but the pressure was not enough. So they had to call the water commission to uh pump up
the pressure to um to supply uh uh water to through Roso Park and through SAR to contain that fire. So kudos to them the work that they did and I got video from my camera how hard they work uh in that
fire that preserve the life and other residents in the city of Paso. So thank you fire Patterson Fire Department and thank you for the colleagues that called me right away uh to make sure we was okay and uh pray for the family that got displaced. Uh saying that council uh
madame clerk um might say to close the public council president. So I'm going to be the change I want to see to the public. Thank you for coming and thank you to those viewing. My vote is yes. Thank you. The votes are eight in favor, one absent. Public portion is now
closed. Madame clerk, item number nine is regular. Okay. Item number 10, Uden, would you like that on regular? Your appointment discussion. Okay, let's pass. We'll come back to that. Finance items 12 through 7, I
finance items 12 through 17 are all on consent. Item 21 is on consent. President item. No, no, no. President, I just wanted to say in finance as as the chair, we did discuss this. Um I did um
just council vice president. Yes. I I'm sorry. Uh council president. So item 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17. 12 is a renewal entertainment show license uh for for express service association.
Uh 13 is a renewal of the dance hall for the same uh um association. Uh 14 is addressing the renewal for entertainment show license uh for Los Citales Shop Bar. Uh we did have a discussion concerning uh the six ward and the
councilman. And so we move forward and we were okay. If anyone doesn't have any any um issues with it, we're going to move forward to uh put it on consent. Uh the item 15 is a junkyard license to bake a scrap metal that's in the first
ward. Uh 16 is a resolution um addressing a license for Charles Brown to conduct a picnic. Uh and 17 is a resolution authorizing cancellation of a tax sale certificate. Um unfortunately this individual was in
foreclosure and was being taxed. So therefore uh a refund uh and interest uh will be um issued uh if this council um does support it. So with that said those are the items in finance and uh they were discussed. So thank you very much.
Thank you council president. Item number 11 is on consent madam clerk. I think item number 11 should be okay. Item number 11 is regular. Regular. Council president. One second. Item number 21 is on consent. Yes.
21 consent. Items 22 through 24 are all on consent. Those are the public works through 24. Solicitation of bids, submission of grant applications. Yes, council president.
You're good. All on consent. 26 and 27 are also um public works. I don't have 26 and 27. 26 27 26 27 consent as well.
Really didn't have no DPW. 26 is a reappoint. What do you No, 26 is additional appropriation. It's appropriation to Paula Sakolski and Sarta LLC for architectural and engineering design services.
I don't have that. One second. Sorry. Um, okay. So items 26 and 27 as um 26 should be regular and 27 should be consent. Madam clerk, uh if I may, I see the director leaving
for for which item for wh which item? Um council cotton. Director Rodriguez. Yeah. What now? Director Rodriguez is a question. For which item, Council Cotton 27. No, no. I saw the director leaving Tiffany. Um
because we we put on Director Delaney. Director Delaney, she's leaving because we did her item before is on consent. Are you saying you want to remove it from consent? Item 11. Which item is that? Cuz I thought number 11. I
she brought in here. Good evening. So, just to One second. Let me bring some order. Item number 11 is a resolution in support of Habitat for Humanity. We understand that. I understand that.
But I thought you were looking for another item on here that's that that did not make the agenda. No, no, it's just item number 11, which is the Habitat for Humanities. So, they made you come here for item number 11. Who made her come? I'm saying because
No, I came because I wanted to hear be approved, but um I'm fine with it being on the regular. It's a workshop, so they the director should be here for for No, no, but this is on your letter director. No, I understand. But it's an important project and I wanted to make sure what everybody else is saying.
Yeah. Well, that's why I said consent. I appreciate you saying you do. I appreciate it, but I don't mind. Okay. So, one of the counts consent. Let me finish. There's a letter is a letter of support. Yes. Support. That's all this is. But I love seeing you director
and but it's an important project. Council Councilman Mendes is requesting regular. Item number 11 is on regular. Thank you. I requested that before he did. So you want it on regular. Okay. So we're on the same page. Councilwoman, what's the Thank Thank you, council colleagues. Let's be the change we want to see. So
now we're going on. So we have number nine. So council president. No, one one second. Item number nine is regular. I said that earlier. Item nine is regular. Okay, that's fine. Right. That's what you said. You can put on consent. It doesn't matter. Okay. Item number nine, consent.
I'm sorry. number that's item number nine. Councilman Mendes request nine to be on regular. So I expecting that's why we heard all that. It's like we didn't So now we're moving on. I was thinking about 10. One second. Council vice president uh
Davala. All right. So um I just want to put this and I know everything that we say is on record as we are on YouTube and we are on uh channel I believe 75. Um, this has nothing to do with an
individual, but just process. July 1st, Councilman Udin put forth an appointment. He did not reappoint the person that was there. As of June 30th, he should have
let the clerk know that he was not reappointing an individual and put forth another name. We voted on that. I now see here there's another name and they're saying a reappoint. And if we
know about process, we know that there's been a lapse. Therefore, there is no reappointment. And if he is going to change the person that we all voted on and agreed to have as his board of adjustment commissioner, there should be
a resolution here rescending that, not a resolution. from another councilman doing a switch. That is not the way we do business. I don't know what they're trying to do, but I just want to put it here on record. This is not the process.
Councilman Mendez did not provide as of June 30th to the clerk the person he would be reappointed or not appointing. Did not happen July 1st. There were three people who we voted on. Councilman
Udin submitted a kas ali. That's on record. We voted unanimously for him. Councilman Jackson had a reappoint. That commissioner was also a parchment was uh um reappointed. That's a
reappoint. June 30th, July 1st, that's a reappoint. And then council president submitted her new appointment. And there was discussions there about that. So I'm looking at this. I don't understand the games being played right now. This isn't
charades. All right. We need to stand and do what's right. If we are going to resend Akasali as a commissioner, there should have been a resolution here. It was it was on there. You want to say and if if there is a new resolution, there should
be one to resend so we can take action in our regular meeting and then one to appoint. So I just want to put it on record here. That's not what this reflects. It is saying that Councilman Udin is
appointing and it's appointing. There's been a lapse. not July 1st. That would be in our next meeting, which would be the 15th, I believe. Uh, madame clerk, our regular meeting where we take action on these items is Tuesday, June
15th. So, I wanted to just put that president council president make that statement because councilman council and I were having a discussion and you know there seems to be like I I don't I don't I don't I don't understand and I know that council was upset on
July 1st and did walk out after we voted. So I I just want to don't understand what's going on. Council president one second. So let me just say I So you are absolutely correct uh council
vice president in regards to the appointment that was made on that date. I made the recommendation as the president that due to the fact that the sponsorship was changing that we would amend what was approved resolution
number uh whatever is listed here. The resolution would be on here to amend the person sponsoring that person. It's no because what happened was there's no uh Commissioner Bar was previously Udin's
person. Correct. He adopted Udin's person. Uh he adopted Flavio Rivera's person who was our former councilman but it became Udin's person. So on July 1st, Councilman Udin decided he was not going to appoint him,
reappoint him. He was going to appoint Akas Ali after July 1. Right. Council Mendes didn't have any appointments on that day. After July 1st, Councilman Mendes and Councilman Uden had their dialogue. They made a change. They said,
"Councilman Udin said, "I will reappoint uh Hector Barrage as the person that he adopted from Council, former Councilman Flavio Rivera." And then we would amend the uh the one that was approved just to change the name of the person sponsoring it to
reflect that it is now Councilman Mendes who is appointing Akas Ali. Their their span of service doesn't change. Um I know that you uh Councilman Uden and then Councilman Mendes if you would like to make those changes is up to you. I'd
like to talk actually before because one second. Councilman Uden, Councilman Mendes, and then Council. Well, thank you, Council President. So, let me let me clarify something. I am the council member who doesn't really
play games. I'm very straightforward, clear with the people, and stand on my ground. When it comes, I talk to the corporation council for my legal advice, not my council colleagues for any advice. If I need legal advice directly, I reach out to the corporation council for for information.
All right, Patterson, I want you to know this on the July 1st, I put on the resolution that I'm appointing Akasali as my board of adjustment commissioner and he was on
the day with the um suggestion of the corporation council. He was put as the alternate two. On the same day, the council president's councilman Mim's appointee was
recommended for alternate one. That was July 1st. And that's it. I have no idea what happened afterward. I received the first call I received from the council president. All right. Can I finish, please? I received a call from
Councilwoman Mims. Council President Odin. Uh there is uh Councilman Mendes is not reappointing his commissioner. He is going to put Baralt as of his
commissioner. So we have to bring the changes because your appointee is going to be alternate one and Bar and Mendes commissioner is going to be alternate two. That was the that was the phone call.
I said, "Okay, can we just can you give me a second? Let me reach out to the councilman Mendes." I called Councilman Mendes. I said, "Councilman Council, Commissioner Barath is sitting in the commission for pretty while and
he's a regular member and I feel this is unfair to bring him down to an alternate." Yes, it is. Can we have a dialogue and you better sponsor my guy and I'll sponsor Commissioner Baral so that he
can have his current boarding power. That's exactly what I have done and I call corporation council again. I did not just listen to what councilman Mendes saying or council president Mim saying I came in person to the council council chamber had meeting with
corporation council as a corporation council what legally has been done and he is it's perfectly fine we have to just resend the um commission the first one and we have to change it and that's exactly the reason what happened if
someone tells me that I changes something you know the first call I received not from the clerk cuz I even called the clerk. I said certain change came I should get call council first call I had received from uh council president then I reached out to
the uh councilman Mendes said listen it's really unfair someone was sitting in the uh uh in the in the uh board for a while fully voting power we are putting him down and I feel this is not fair so can we change the sponsorship and that's why we came here today and I
feel this is the right decision according to the experience they are carrying it's nothing to do with my sponsorship who I'm sponsoring not and and after this we are done and this is this is where I'm standing clearly and
again everything I have done with the with with the uh you know discussion with madame clerk corporation council that is is is go by law and also with the cooperation of my council colleague Mendes that's exactly
where I was standing Thank thank you council. Before you speak council just a point just point of clarification. Councilwoman Mims as the president did not make the determination that you will switch your person.
No you did not. I did not. But that's what you said. So I'm bringing a point of clarity. Let me be clear. Councilman Mendes put in a request to appoint Akas Ali. That's what he did. And what happened?
Well, he put in a request to appoint Hector Barack. When you found out that he was no longer a voting member, you chose to change. And so that's what you have to say. Don't say council president. You got to tell one second council. So
you chose to change and reappoint Commissioner Bar, which I have no issue with. That was your choice. And then to place. So based on that conversation, that is the way it's identified here. Me being a fair council
president saying that you had your reappoint that is on this agenda. We will amend the item that said that you was a sponsor of the other now making council meases the the sponsor. It's here. It's listed exactly that way, right? There's no conflict. All right. Council President,
uh Councilman Mendes, thank you. I I think Council Mandavila, respectfully, I never did respect you. We we've been uh for No, no, no. Just not let me let me speak. I I respect I'm gonna ask you not to respect. Don't address me if you don't want me to address you. I not disrespecting you. Council members council members tell you
what I've been sitting here for. I've been sitting here for a minute. I've been sitting here for a minute. If there's if there's one thing that I don't do this chair is playing game and when you have another council member referring to the council ki or what type of game they playing, I see that so low and so disrespectful. But let me finish
with this. Council Mine has all the right to reappoint to Dr. Bar. I have all the right to all the right to appoint this new members of the board. We want to make sure that Dr. Bar doesn't lose uh voting power. And that's exactly what why what we do now. Cooperation council, if something I'm
speaking, please. If something need to be done, councilwoman, can you allow me to speak? No. Can you allow me to finish? Council members, now in conclusion, corporation council, if something need to be done, any additional information, legislation need to be in place before next Tuesday,
please let let handle it, but everything is in here. I don't see why Council Mining has all the right to do what he's doing. I have the right to do what I'm doing. I don't know what is the problem here. That's all I'm going to say. So, let me let me just thank you, Councilman Mendes. This was not done
haphazardly. I was in communication with corporation council to amend the changes that you requested. The items are listed as appropriate. Next week it will be on regular. We can choose to vote it up or we can vote it
down. Councilman Uden is choosing to reappoint Hector Bar as commissioner. Um and no is choosing to I got to get my reappoint him. No, he can't reappoint him. So, Hector, so let me explain it because Councilman Jackson just came back. So, Councilman
Jackson, no, I need a chance to talk. Flavio Rivera originally appointed Hector Bar. As you know, he was no longer he didn't run for reelection. Now, Councilman Uden adopts that person. So, now he's choosing to reappoint him.
It is considered a reappoint. No, he is. It's a reappoint. It's not It's not a reappoint. So what happened was last week when we did July 1, councelor Mendes had not chose to put anyone after July 1st he's now choosing
to do Mendes Uden did on July 1st on July 1st he did Akas Ali that's his appointment but now after the fact they're chosing to change because they realize that
so then Councilwoman Cotton, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And as I said before, this is going back eight, nine years for me. I had an appointment that I reappointed
who was the former councilwoman person. So, I could not reappoint her since I'm a new council person sitting on the board. My appointment now is an appointment. I could not reappoint her.
That took her out of be a voting member to an alternate. That's not true. It would have happened. That's not true. It's happened. Well, let look. It's not true or not. What it is is that on July 1st, you can say not true or not, but on
July 1st, he appointed Aliasa Aasa. Now, regardless, he appointed and then Councilwoman Mims had her appointment. Councilman Jackson did his appointment.
Councilman Mendes had no appointment. Now, he came back and realized something that they want to try to change. But the procedure is that Councilman Mendes is not a reappoint. He's appointing the person. Even though he might have been
there six years, it's still an appointment. No, no. The person has been there six years. It's not a reappoint because he was appointed by Councilman Flavio. Flavio is no longer here. So, it's not no reappoint. It's an
appointment now by Councilman Mendes, which it is Menddees. Counc Just a point of clarity. Look, first of all, you know, some people going to say some people going to say that it's not right, but I know Let
legal please speak. Let legal speak. Councilman Men's appointment should move up to a regular. Councilman Uden appointment should move up to a first alternate and Councilman Mendes appointment would go up to a second alternate. That's how it's supposed to
go. So, let me to avoid the extra conversation. Corporation council, but I I have an opportunity to speak. Councilman Jackson, Corporation C and then C. Yeah. Yeah. So, so that that is
incorrect. Tenure is set by the representative on the board because one, they have training. They're required to to to go through a significant amount of training. Councilwoman Mim's appointment cannot fall into a voting space because she
still is required to to receive the ad adequate train. Councilwoman, please listen. When I came on, I assumed I assumed Councilman Davis is Can you please stop talking? Well,
when I came on and Councilman McCoy, can can uh can attest to this? When I came on, I assumed Councilman Davis's appointment. I reappointed him. It was uh um it was Gerald Thaxton.
Gerald Thaxton was the longest tenur sitting. He didn't become a new alternate because I was the one who was appointing him. The problem that we have now is Councilman Odin, he already made an appointment.
You cannot resend an appointment. Once you make an appointment, you don't have the ability to fire your appointee. You if he's if he's trying to resend, that means he's trying to take back No, I understand that. But if if he if
he appointed someone on the first and now he's trying to appoint someone else, that means he's trying to vacate his appointment that he that was already approved. He cannot do that. His appointee is going to have to resign
before he can make another appointment. It doesn't matter. He's been appointed. He's been he's been voted on by the council. That's how the appointment is made. The appointment is made by someone who is appointed by the council. Once
that person, let's say if I'm not pleased with my appointee, I don't have the the ability to say, you know what, I'm removing you. You cannot remove an appointee until their term is expired unless the appointee resigns. You can't
just come in two years in, I'm not happy with what you're doing, I'm going to remove you. You cannot remove a a sitting commissioner. The commissioner is going to have to resign. If Councilman Houdin put someone else in and then today he's trying to He don't get two appointments. You get one appointment and a person that he
appointed on the first is still appointed. That person is going to have to resign for him to be able to appoint someone else. Council President, I'm just just to bring some clarity. The item on the agenda, if you take a look at it, it is not a
rescending. It is amending the resolution because we're changing the sponsorship name. So instead of Uden appointing a cause, Mendes is now appointing a cause. You don't get you don't get to amend. It was been voted on and that person is
appointed. So for the following meeting to make the necessary corrections, there needs to be a rescending council president. One second. One second. You can't resend an appointment. One one second. Um, Councilman Jackson,
due to the fact that Councilman Uden is choosing to not appoint Aas, he's going to allow Councilman Mendes to appoint him. We would have to resend Akas's appointment next in the next meeting. Then we would have to appoint Akass
under Councilman Mendes. We would also need to reappoint Hector well appoint Hector Barack and then Vivian Gaines now goes on as a voting member. Vivian Gains is a voting member and adding
she does not she does not she does not have the training. She does not have the experience. She does her tenure her tenure is not created by a council's vote. Her tenure is created by her tenure. A person's tenure on the board is appoint
is is created by their tenure. They have to receive training. You just can't go and become a voting member without being trained. Council Jackson, there are many counten that is not true. There are many appointments that went on as voting
members. So that's not true. Many of the people that are appointed and I can give you the names and we can provide the information on the board information. The way the the resolutions will read in the next meeting, it will be a rescending of a cost from Councilman
Uden as one resolution. It will be an appointing of cause by Councilman um Mendes. He will be an alternate to the council president just clarification. One second. It will be uh appointing of
Hector Baren. You don't have a resolution. one and Vivian Gains will become a voting member. Council President, first of all, first of all, let me first of all, point of order. Point of order. One second. One second.
One second. Council President One second. Council President, one second. I've asked Corporation Council, Corporation Council, if you can speak at this point. The point of order has to be answered to first. Well, before the point of order, we made
the request for corporation counsel, but he was But once I make a point of order, we're not a roll call. Point of order has to be answered. But we're in the middle of getting clarity. We're not in the middle of getting clarity. Can we get a point of clarity? Somebody else. Point of order has to Can you clarify that the point of order has to be answered too fast based on Robert orders of rules when
we've been waiting for corporation council to give legal um representation. We need to hear that first before the point of order is taken. Corporation council, please. True. Corporation council. Thank you, council president. Um, what I've heard thus far is essentially
the the policy debate between council as to who council thinks would best serve in what capacity on the board. The law is that the council appoints the the members of the board.
The law does not delineate how you designate an alternate versus a full voting member. How that's been handled by this council is a custom. It's not a law. It's not a rule. It's not a regulation. It's a custom. And my
understanding of the custom is that when you have a newer board member, a less experienced board member, they are normally designated as an alternate. And the more experienced board member,
whether that's an alternate or someone else, gets put in a voting position. Now, again, I'm not I'm not explaining the law here. The law is that council in its in its collective wisdom makes the appointment as to who they want to vote
full voting member and who they want to designate as an alternate. How the council arrives at that conclusion is a policy and custom that is that's not enshrined in the law. So with that being said, madame clerk, this is how we resolve it. Council President,
one second. One second. This is how we resolve it. One second. One second. Pulled the records for the last 13 years. That's all. We will rescend Akas Ali as we stated from Udin. We will appoint him by Mendes.
Akas Ali will be an alternate two. We do nothing with Vivian Gain. She's already an alternate one. And we will do your appointment to act. It will be an appointment for active bar who will be a voting member. That's correct. That's right. The And then let me put this on record
that will be next week. those the Hector Bar and Akas Ali will not be able to be sworn in until after the vote next week because we have to vote on them first. So that's how it will be. We don't need to bring Vivian Gains back to
the agenda. She's already approved as a alternate one. That is how it will go. And next week those items will be on regular. We can determine to vote them up or down, but that's what it is. But well, you want to bring Vivian Gains back. No, she doesn't need to come back. She's already altered. Okay.
So, with that being said, can I have a motion to close? Move to close. We didn't answer to the point of order. Council President, you don't just get to arbitrarily decide how things are running. Apologies, Councilman Jackson. First of all, first of all, for the point of order and and corporation
council, if I may, um, the council president doesn't just determine how things are going. We we work as a consensus. That means the council as in a totality has to decide. The council president does not just arbitrarily just get to decide how things are going to
go. That's not how it works. And customs and practices of the council are very valid. The past practices and and if anybody is uh missing on some of these some of these matters, you can reach out to Miss Jane Warren and I'm sure she can educate you on the custom and practices
of the council. They're very much so warranted. it it has to follow through how the way the the common practices have been. Now the only point of clarity that I would like for you to add corporation council is once a once a a board member is seated
or once a board member is sworn is uh is adopted by the council. For example, if a board member has a three-year term and they're serving for two years within the law and or the practices, can a board member be removed by its appointing
authority? May I council president? Absolutely. Corporation council. Thank you. So, and I'm just trying to put this in in very um uh straightforward and simple terms. The council appoints who they want to
the board in a situation where you're taking an alternate who has a two-year term. Not referring to just hold I'm giving you to the extent that you have an alternate and you're essentially promoting that person to a full four-year term. That's
a promotion and that gives that person more rights and and extends their tenure on the board. So that person theoretically not have a claim or an argument that they are being disenfranchised or minimized in any way.
In a situation where you're taking a full board member who has a a remaining term and you're taking that board member as a full board member and you're relegating that person to an alternate
which is a two-year term. So, you're taking them from a fouryear to a two-year term, say in year three. Arguably, that person may have uh an argument, and I and I want to be careful here because I'm advising the council. Arguably, that person may have
an argument that they have been disenfranchised in some way. And that would be up to litigation to decide whether or not that person actually has a property right or an expectation to finish their term in light of the our municipal land use law. and the state's
law. So if in the simplest terms, if you're taking a two-year and you're making them a fouryear, that does not implicate any property rights or disenfranchisement because you're promoting them. If you're taking a four-year term person
um in the middle of that four-year term and you're relegating them to a two-year position or or at some point, then then that is technically an issue. So for a point of clarity that that's not my question. So and and and to that point if the term
has expired for someone that I appointed to first of all these terms aren't for four years I'm not sure but three years but if a term is expired like for example when we were appointing constables we had an option to appoint them for various time spans. Once the
term expires, I'm not um taking away from whatever you have possession of by then appointing you to a lesser term because essentially you're not entitled to the appointment. I don't have to appoint you. My question is not
that. My question is, if I appoint you to a three-year term and I'm unhappy with the way that you have been rendering your your vote, can I fire you and remove you from your three-year term in the middle of your three-year term?
Now, from the way it was outlined to me when I came on with Councilman McCoy Mars was in place and uh Madame Warren was was here. Once a person is appointed to their term, they cannot be removed
until their term is expired. That is the question. Council President, Council President, one second. We're waiting for an answer from So in your hypothetical, Councilman Jackson, uh you are correct initially in
that if someone's term has expired, then there's no entitlement or no expectation or right. Um and that person can be reappointed to an alternate or a full v voting voting member. However, to to more to drill down on your point where
the council wishes to remove someone whose term has not expired as a full voting member, the the you could question my question. So that that that would depend on the circumstances and could possibly be
problematic. If it was for cause, if there was some issue that the bo that the council felt like it needed to deal with and there was appropriate notice, opportunity to be heard and due process, then I do think it's within the council's purview to do that. But just to unilaterally, if if there was cause
and associated due process, but if there was no cause or due process and council simply wanted to remove a person in the middle of their full voting term because they were unhappy with decisions, um again, I'm advising council on this council's attorney. Uh to put it mildly,
that would be problematic. Correct. So my point my point of now today my point today is on the first on the 1 this council voted corporation council on the first this
council voted to fill councilman Udin's appointment. So therefore today in either rescending, amending by any action this person did
not have an opportunity to weigh in on their choice. They were selected. They were voted on by the council. It was approved by the by the uh by the by the legislative body. Now to change it is you cannot change it unless to your
point right if there was a if this person missed a certain number of people if I may if I may short circuit this so council council as a as a body makes the appointment an individual council member can sponsor
that person but it's ultimately council members that make that appointment. So in the situation in which one council member appointed someone as an alternate and now council wishes to elevate that alternate to a full voting position that does not implicate the rights that I
discussed earlier. No no but but corporation council. No first of all this council doesn't decide who goes into alternate spaces and no it's it's it's provided by tenure. is
provided by a tenure. Okay, understood. Okay, fine. But my point is this. If the if the if the appointee is serving a three-year term and the council makes takes harm as to remove them at after
year one or after year two, it is no different than we voted in in the majority. He was approved. This person now has expectations to it. So whatever it is Oh.
No, that's that's that's not what's happening. Corporation council, I believe you missed a point. If Councilwoman Davala and I have two two appointees and we're both serving, we decide amongst ourselves. We want to switch. I'm going to appoint her appointee. She's going to
appoint my appointee, right? and then their positions change based upon how we how we switched them because of oh their tenure was was gapped that then we're disenfranchising that appointee
if we're giving them more rights but what we're doing now by what was initially talked about by taking council I mean uh a member of Bar's status from a full v voting member to say then his appointment was interrupted that he was
not consecutive or it was lapsed then he reduces back down to a uh that's what has been happening has been happening here commi commissioner bar and I would like the council to think of
this emancipate the law what is legally required which is this body to appoint a member emancipate that from who appoints them And so, Commissioner Baralt, his term expired. And so, at this point, it's the city
council as a body that's going to appoint the next person in his position. I've gone over what the council's custom has been, but the council's custom does not give any commissioner more or less rights other than the rights that I have
discussed here at link. I understand that and I yield to that. But my expression to my point to you is that as Councilman Odin appointed someone on the first, he cannot resend that appointment. That appoint that
appointee must resign. He cannot just pull his appointment. Just like you can't pull it after someone's sitting for a year or two years, just the fact that they was already voted in. He cannot just I I take my appointment back. He cannot do that. Yes,
my understanding is that that's not what's necessarily occurring. What what's occurring here is they're changing the sponsor of the appointments and again that goes back to the custom of this council and unfortunately I have nothing else to add on this.
Thank you. Corporation council motion to close. Second. We have a motion to close by council member, second by councilman Mendes. Roll call to close the meeting July 8th. voting right. Madam clerk
roll call to close the workshop session. One second. I just want to say because I see Miss Santiago is back. Um and I just want to say that I council mess I did visit your home. I was at the walk as well. I don't know if you remember but I saw your mom and everything. So I will
definitely um I think my aid gave you my card and just I know you you did very respectful. So, I'll I'll make sure you get my card and I'll reach out to the school because I know they were very active. I'm not sure what happened, but I will definitely check because I know
there was a change in leadership at the school and that could be what possibly one of the concerns, but I'll definitely check it out um on tomorrow because I'm working um at in the I work in the education, so I'll check for you tomorrow. Okay. Uh Madame Clerk, roll call.
Roll call to close the workshop session of July 8th, 2025. Councilwoman Cotton. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Um um before before I close, I just want to say to you, Madame Clerk, I need you to pull the last 13 years of the board of adjustments so I can show my council
colleague. Speak louder. I can show my council colleague how exactly how it went um for the last 13 years of being a member of the uh board of adjustment. It is not like we have anything against any of the
names that are being mentioned here, but we just want to go by procedures and and and how it has been done. Um, so if you can do that before the next meeting. Uh, I can't see her. I didn't hear you.
You hear what I say, madam? You can't hear me? No. Scream louder. Louder. Okay. I just You want me to put it in writing? No. I just I just need you to pull the last 13 years. Uh because I remember
when I put um a a voting member on and she was not my reappoint. She was my appointment and she went back to an alternate. Oh goodness. Okay. you know, I just um I just want to thank
everyone for coming out here today um speaking. Um you know, there was a lot of things said um you know, I for those people that lives in Texas,
um my heart goes out to them. You know, let me just say, you know, we as council members up here um deal with tragedy, too. we have tragedy in our lives. Um, things happen to us and we don't always talk about it,
you know, we may talk about it to certain people, but things do happen to us. And um, you know, I remember as a kid growing up in the south, even though I was a northern girl, but I I I was a northern girl, then I had to go down
south every year to work on a farm that wasn't a it was my uncle's farm. But there's so many things that are happening now and I thank God um for us to so far to live in a part of the country that we haven't had devastation
like other parts of this country that we have. Um, also I just want to say to you too that um, everybody saw that mega bill, what they want, I don't know what they call it, mega bill, whatever bill with President
Trump, whatever bill. I mean, I think that people may not may not see it, but it's getting ready to happen. I'm I'm getting ready. I'm getting calls already now about Medicaid, uh about SNAPS, about so many things
that that's going to affect us that um the federal government is going to leave it up to the states to designate the money. There's going to be a lot of stuff that's going to get ready to to happen. And I just want to say that for family members, I'm telling you, you got
to start looking out for your family members because it's getting ready to go down. It's getting ready to hurt a lot of people with this bill that was just passed that they fought so hard. I just want to say to some of the um
to u Miss San Diego um I didn't we I really didn't know about the the march and why the school system did not do it or why they didn't have the walk and they should have what I find sometimes um you don't know why things or why
people do things or why why things happen but you know I just want to say I did not know about it um sometimes people do do things I find um evil. They just we have a bunch of evil people out here
and like think somebody said it like you know you smile in your face and then you stab you in the back. Uh I'm telling you right now we got a whole lot of that out here now. But with with that being said I just want to say too that my doors
have always been open. Um, my doors have always been open. You know, maybe I'm more of a quiet type person. I don't need everybody to know when I do something for someone. I don't need everyone to know. Everyone don't need to know uh who's having problems out here,
who having issues. People really doesn't, you know, they really don't want people to know that. But that being said, I just want to say also that if you're interested, um I'm having my fifth annual Ed Cotton Foundation golf
outing on Janu July 28th. If you're interested in coming, uh please do. There's a lot of things that you know I think that we can get done together. Uh I did was able to stop today before I came to my council meeting. Um they had
a a block party on Broadway between Straight Street and Auburn uh where the where the health department Patterson Health Center is reopening in that center on Broadway and they really had a nice um block party for the community.
There was a lot of people out there. Um, also I just want to say you I just want to say to to the family of Dorm, the athletic director for Kennedy High School, he passed away and I just want to say I had the
opportunity to go to the hospital to see him. He was in hospice. So I want to give my condolences to the family um for him. You know, he was an excellent, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful person. And like I always say,
you got 30,000 kids in the school district and you got to try to help as many as you can all the time when you can. Um, with that being said, I want to say thank you for all you out there. Thank you for everyone for everything that you do. Um,
it's got to be we get ready to get for a rough ride. We get to get for a rough ride. I don't know. I don't know if the people understand what's really happening, but we get ready to get hit hard. So, with that being said, Madame Clerk, thank you, Madame Clerk. And you know, people talking about the meetings.
You guys don't people don't understand what the the my clerk and my secretaries go through to do these meetings. You come upstairs at 5:00 and you want to add stuff on the agenda. Those are hard things to do. I want to say I appreciate you. Um, Madame Clerk, my secretary,
Sophia, and my new one, Diane. I appreciate you for everything that you do all the time. With that being said, thank you to all my corporation council, my BA, and my CFO. And I know one thing, I better hear somebody say something when when it get to be their turn. You
hear me? Thank you. With that being said, you know, I guess I'm feeling some kind of way. Um, people don't know when you're hurting and I do my best not to hurt people when I know back in that being hurt.
With that being said, I don't want to hear another word. With that being said, madame clerk, my vote is yes. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Dav. Thank you so much. Um, first I want to start by commending our council president. Uh, I know we would have been
out of here before 10, but I do know And it's important that each one of us has our closing time. So, I appreciate Councilwoman Cotton and the next uh uh council members that will be doing their closing remarks. I'll keep it short. I want to thank the 16 members of the
community that came forward and put forth, you know, their questions, their concerns. Um unfortunately, you know, we don't have the time uh today to be able to address every person. And I think that if every council person addressed each
member, which was 16, we would be here till tomorrow. Uh so to our corporation council, to our BA, anything that has to do pertaining to the public, uh please make sure that uh Mr. Ba, I'm speaking
to you, that it is addressed. And I do know that our clerk and our secretaries are making note of the public's uh um statements. Um I am very interested and would like an update in regards to this
audit of the police and fire. That is very important. Uh as the chair of the public safety committee I'm not aware of that. So I need to make sure. Okay. Uh uh I need to know what this is all about. Uh in addition to whatever monies
was was uh had to be given uh back. Um, I do want my council members to be aware. Um, we discovered there was an issue with the dates. Uh, our council meetings are every second and third Tuesday of the month and they were
advertised as the first and second. So, there was going to be an amendment. Uh, the month of July was correct and the month of November was correct. Uh, but the month of uh, August uh, to start August 5th is a Tuesday. That's National
Night Out. So, be ready to receive the schedule of National Night Out for the city. Um the second Tuesday, which would be our workshop, is August 12th. Uh and uh the following would um um be
uh August 19th. That's regular. In September, uh it's September 9th for workshop, September 16th for regular. on Tuesday uh uh in October October 14th workshop October uh I believe 21st
is regular the Thursday meeting is correct which is uh after uh election day uh November 6 which would be that Thursday is our workshop and then the following week Tuesday November 12th would be our regular the following week we would be at the league of
municipality and then it's Thanksgiving in December we have December 9th workshop December 16th as a regular and if need be and there needs to be a closeout meeting then at that point we would choose that following Tuesday
which I think it's the 23rd and I don't know if we would do that um but you know we can further discuss that with council president in terms of a close out but that would be in December uh so I just wanted to put that on record um and I
know that um uh madame clerk We did have a brief discussion and she'll be making the update and sending it to all the entities to update update our website and update you know our assignments as well as as the dates um on the back of
the assignments the meeting schedules. Um I'm looking forward uh to Saturday, August 2nd. I don't know how many years it's been now that I've been attending Jamaica Day. Uh, and I know as as the previous councilman uh McCoy did say, he welcomed everyone. Councilman Mendes
wasn't here, but he said everyone here is invited to come and be part of Jamaica Day on August 2nd. So, I'm looking forward to that. Uh, in addition, um, I want to end in kind of in a sad note,
um, because this was someone very special. um July 4th. Um we were right in front of her home. Assemblyman Abdeliz, uh myself, Assemblyman, I'm Assemblyman,
uh Councilman Omar, uh Commissioner Ramirez, we were right outside Mrs. Prince's house, Brenda Prince, and you know, the assemblyman gave her a call. And you know, it just saddens me to know that the following day she passed away.
And so to the entire family, to the friends, to everyone that had a relationship with Miss Prince, you know, may she rest in peace. I appreciated her. I appreciated her inboxes, her calls when need be. Um, and she was very
supportive of me. And she always talked about how she couldn't wait to see Council President Mims. and I work together. And um as I stated, when do we lift up the white flag to say no more
peace? Right? And um this is what we're supposed to do. And yes, we should hold the administration accountable. Uh I hold them accountable in a different way and I do it behind closed doors in meetings and if things don't get taken
care of then you bring it out to the public. So my mom used to say take care of home at home. Don't bring out the dirty laundry, you know, and I do get it sometimes. You do do need to do that to get things done. And it's unfortunate.
So you know, no mocking to anyone that does it that way. It is my way. It doesn't mean that it's wrong or right. That is how I choose to govern uh and to address uh situations and issues. Um I do not go out personally against anyone.
I don't call out people's names out. You know, I did make a statement today if a council member felt insulted. You know, again, apologies. That was not the case. You know, there are questions as you heard, uh, Councilwoman Cotton, you know, it's been a practice, you know,
and she was affected by it. Councilman Khik was affected by it. And with Councilman Khik, it was they said, "Oh, but it's a lapse in your appointment. There's a lapse." All right. And so, you know, we just can't for one do one thing and not for the other. Again, in terms of appointments, it's about the
appointment, the process, not about the individual. As a matter of fact, I've heard great things, you know, of uh Commissioner Baral. And um I don't think that there's any issues here pertaining to him. I think it's just the process and the way it was uh dealt with and
gone about. Um, so with that said, there's more I can say, but I just want to say to everyone that has lost a loved one and just a special shout out to my stepdad, the man that's been in my life for since I was five. Um, on the same day of Fourth of July, he had uh
emergency surgery. He almost passed away. Uh, he is recuperating. He's been in the hospital. And um, it really, you know, makes you think about what's really important. And a lot of times we take away from family to do city
business and then we get ridiculed. We get attacked by public. As Councilwoman Cotton said, you don't know who's hurting or what they're going through. And sometimes you don't put it out there neither because people rejoice. People rejoice when others are hurting and
they're down and out. So with that said, and I get it, he's 94, but he said in the hospital, I want to live to be a hundred. And I hope that God hears his word and his plea and you know, he gets better soon. So with that said, council president, thank you very much. And to
all, my vote is yes to close. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilman Jackson. So, um I'm sorry. The first thing is I I I have a question um to the chair. Uh I I requested an item be put on the
agenda. I requested that item to be put on the agenda last week after it was voted on and obviously there was some oversight. In fact, I spoke to corporation council directly and said, "Look, just have the item put back on the agenda. We can we can address it." I
don't appreciate the fact that um the this item to uh uh to to allow for these three family houses within the first ward. None of my residents are in approval of that. None of my residents, and I'm sure there's residents in other
wards as well, that's that's that's not in agreement with that as well. I asked for the item to be placed back on the agenda. Council President, I'm not sure why because once again uh uh uh any council member has the ability
to put any item on the workshop agenda. So um that I'm very disappointed about because the administration if there's one time they bring up an item that's after Friday and it gets put place on this this agenda, I'm going to take
issue with that. Um, you know, this this item needs to be readressed. I do not First W is crowded enough. We don't need any three family houses that's not um uh prepared to
propose some some kind of parking options for the residents placed in in the first ward. We're already enough having a difficult time with parking and that right there was very very irresponsible. And council president, I was very surprised and disappointed to
see you as the sponsor of that item because uh your name is on the on the item. Your name is on the item. Yes, it is. Right at the top of the top of the item,
it says Councilwoman Mims. I mean, it says Lisa Mims and Lewis Valz. No, I did not sponsor that item. I didn't sponsor that item. I didn't sponsor. Here's a guy who could barely read talking about reading the whole package.
What level of education did you did you did he attain? Talking about reading the entire package. I don't need to go through scrub it line by line to understand that is not good for for for my constituency. I don't need to be a to have to scarf through the entire thing.
What I do know is it was supported by everyone there. Her name is at the top of up at the top of the item. And if she wasn't the sponsor, I I will apologize for for making that claim, but her name is at the top of the up top of the of the item.
Council Khan has a copy. I am not the sponsor. It was moved. Don't say nothing about moving. Yes, sir. Okay. I I will apologize for that. So, as as a the person who moved it and
supported it, we're in the first war, we're not looking forward to this. We don't we don't I I need this back on the agenda to be readressed. And the fact that it was put first of all, how could somebody move it if it was placed on the consent agenda? This got voted on in the consent agenda. This this didn't get
addressed individually. This got voted on on the consent agenda. So anyway, this item needs to be readressed. I can't um I'm not going to sit still while these construction projects continue to to to overpop
populate the the the area. If Councilman VeZ wants the fifth ward to be that way and his constituency is supporting him for that, let let him make that decision for the fifth ward. But in the first w this is not what we need. three family houses on a 25 by 100 with no parking
requirements, no setback requirements, minimal setback requirements, three foot on the sides. This is not something that that that uh that the city needs at this time. With that being said, madam clerk, my vote is yes. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Mendes.
Thank you, Madam Clerk. Once again, members of the public, thank you for just getting into this uh council chamber. Not actually the council chamber, but the TV studio. Well, I hope to get back at the council chamber on the next regular meeting. Um, just to thank you for being involved. I visit uh
uh another municipality in the state of New Jersey and I just saw three people at the council meeting and and I'm like, you know, I feel happy when I see the community that address the council in the administration uh with legitimate issues that affecting our community. Uh uh once again uh to the administration
um I really need I I really want to look into all those cameras dumping. It's affecting the city. the city it's filthy um it's just out of control uh it's not only one area it's all over Patterson so we got to get those camera on those
right spot we clean by the uh by the supermarket by le section DPW spend half a day uh almost a full day cleaning all the debris and the garbage that they dump there now they dumping again that's a section that's the location that we
need a camera there to catch those people I feel very excited and I feel very pleased to be able to uh bring that legislation to the floor to increase the fine to up to $10,000 for people that are dumping in the city of Patterson. If you see something, say something,
please. Collectively, we got to get this done. God bless you, Patterson. Um, thank you, Casi. Uh, my vote is yes. Thank you, Councilman Councilman Omar. I'll be brief as well. I want to thank the public for coming out here today and uh speaking to us on all these matters.
And uh also I just want to reiterate what Councilman Davis said. I want to send my uh heartful condolences to the Prince family. Uh Brenda Prince was uh I only met her one time, but you know that that first impression, she really did leave her mark on me and some of her words were if you ever need anything,
don't hesitate to call. And unfortunately uh she passed away. I'm going to send my condolence to her family and thank you guys all for coming here today. I appreciate it. My vote is yes. Thank you, Councilman Council Uden.
Thank you, Madame Clark. Um Patterson, again, we are grateful uh to allowing to serve you and um again, we like to see more productive conversation. We like to see that we are fighting for you, not our personal
problems, our personal issues and egos. Hope one day we can just keep our personal issues away and fight for the residents of the city of Patterson. I always expect that. I'm very optimist that Patterson will be in the right
direction. There are two big losses in our uh community as my council colleague mentioned about Mr. Brand Prince, we sincerely sorry for to the family and we pray for departed soul. By the same
time, we lost coach Scott Durham at JFK High School last week as well. So, we are uh regrettably uh sorry for his loss. We pray for his departed soul and condolences to the
families. Patterson, have a wonderful night. My vote yes. Thank you, Councilman. Castleman. Also, I want to say my condolence to the Prince family. Um Brenda, uh we going to miss her. If you follow her Facebook,
everything that she put on Facebook was greeting birthday greetings and positive notes. You never saw her sharing negativism and nothing like that. I still have message in my phone when she used to text me concern of the block where she live regarding the garbage regarding
they miss a pickup. You know that's some people don't know we got relation with people out there when thing happened you know it really hit hard it hit it hard through us because those are people that always you could mention that they never have a word of criticism they always
have a word of encouragement but when she had to tell you do this right you do it right. So she going to be missed. My condol hopefully if the family could get in contact with us and let us know the arrangement uh to be able to be
supported in uh in um in that um moments of of mourning. Um also u our condolence to even that uh probably no one in Texas watched this um meeting but um you know
it's hard to go to a camp and not come back with your child and um it's hard as more than 100 plus families you know uh people lost their life and um you know and it's it's it's it's sad. It's sad. That's why every day just uh go to bed,
kiss and hug your family. Um and um and you have to forgive people you forgive. That's this is life. You don't want to go to seven feet under without having something in your heart. Uh I just want to clear the record here. Councilwoman
Davil and I, as you notice, uh those that look at us when we was hugging and kisses is because we like that, right, sister? Right. because we have to squash things and move forward. Move forward because there's other issues in the city
that are I'm not going to follow Councilwoman Men's instruction, but I'm going to follow my heart. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. Just kidding. Um last uh last um
uh let's remember uh remind everyone August the 3 Jamaica day gospel fest. Uh I I know I was not contract to sing gospel music but next time he will have the first Latino singing gospel music
Councilman McCoy but I will be there like always supporting your event. Uh please come out and support. There's going to be few events in the city of Patterson from this week uh moving forward. Please enjoy. Look at the
calendar, the silly candler ca calendar and make sure you attend. Uh there was there's going to be a lot of events and headquarters for kids and family this couple weeks. Um and there's a lot of events in the city that you could enjoy.
Um stay safe out there, please. Um uh what's it what's it uh corporate council uh um there's an issue um the board of health we had a good meeting with um with all the um uh some of the u
um food truck vend uh owners uh the the more likely the issue was with PD not with the board of health that's what they expressed Um, but I encourage them, please, if you're going to use residential, the ordinance states that
you cannot be in residential area. If you're going to be in a place that you allowed to be, please do not park close to the crosswalk or any fire hydrants or any bus stop. That is a police matter.
And if they call it in, police will take care issue. Police are not health inspectors, but they will take care if there's nonsense, if they a fight in front of your food truck or there's any complaint about um parking in a yellow
zone or whatever and uh they will take care of that. So, moving forward um I know we going to walk work together for be able to bring benefit to them. They the the the small business that are in the city of Pastor we had to support them uh quite good. Hopefully, um Mr.
BA. Um, we spent almost uh more than half million dollars uh for the unit AC unit in the in the in the in the uh city hall. Uh hopefully uh next week um we be there. The chairs are more comfortable
that this one the microphone works better. It has invested a lot of money and and also Gonzalez also has is comfortable working from there. He got all the equipment there. Um, I know that equipment had to be updated. Um, um,
Ryan F, uh, Ryan, um, please look into that, uh, for have a better, um, um, transmission in into into our city. Um, Madame Clerk, let's keep on praying for Madame Clerk. Uh, okay. And, uh, making
sure that, uh, God is in control of everything. Thank you council president for uh the word members and all the uh committee that I have. I try to build my word my best. I don't need title. What I
need is to work. Um once again, last but not least, thank you to the fire department and to the police department for responding in that uh uh third alarm, second alarm fire in the fifth ward. And um we here to serve. Thank
you, Council President. Um, saying that we came out early. We came before 12 midnight. Um, God bless you. Good night. My vote is yes. Thank you, Councilman Council President. So, to the public that was present and
um in person, thank you so much for participating. I also want to just um apologize. I know it was a bit of an inconvenience to be here at 77 Ellison Street, but your health is always a priority. It was not just air conditioning. There was a another
concern that needs to be resolved. We're being told that it will be repaired and totally resolved by this Friday. So, prayerfully, we will be back in the chambers on Tuesday. So, I want to dispel the rumor. City council members, you all have your committee uh
assignments. Please make sure you set your meetings and let the secretaries know so that you can start scheduling your meetings with your committee members so you can give out reports in our um in our council meeting. To the Klein family, former Councilman Klene,
praying for um his family, his wife who's sick. We're praying for her, my sorority sister, praying for um Scott Durham and his family. and also Miss Brenda Prince and anyone who has lost a loved one or someone that is sick or um
in a place of need of prayer. We pray for them. Also, congratulations to Kia. She um is now a licensed funeral director here. Um she got her license um certificate today. Um congratulations to Kia uh Libra S is that her name is on
social media. So to DPW, IT, Madame Clerk, secretaries, corporation council, BA, CFR, council colleagues, and everyone involved for transitioning and our police officers transitioning us from city hall here. Thank you so much.
We are out before 10:30 so that we can move and shift all this stuff together. And closing, my final comments. We may not all like or agree, but let's learn how to love and be the change we want to see. God bless you. My vote is yes. Have
a great night, everyone. Thank you. The votes are eight in favor, uh, one absent. The workshop session of July 8th, 2025 is hereby adjourned. Ajourned. Good night, everyone.