amen thank you all right and Madam President I understand we have a presentation this evening yes i believe um Kingsbury we're going to change the date for Kingsbury they were unable to attend today and move on with rank choice voting
allow 10 minutes certainly oh that's what we said i did probably sorry Garcia you can make that 15 in case they need it 15 it is
good evening sorry there we go it helps if you press the button good evening members of the Trenton Town Council uh township officials employees and residents of Trenton you came to the right
meeting my name is Larry White i'm an organizer for Voter Choice New Jersey and uh if you give your attention to the slide deck please we are a volunteer-led nonprofit
organization that's dedicated to bringing rank choice voting to the Garden State and Oops we just lost the picture and uh adopt there we go
and adopting it for uh all elections in the state of New Jersey [Music] okay very good so first of all let's talk about our current uh electoral system that we have today uh it's plagued with
toxic polarization lack of choices on the ballot uh wasted votes the spoiler effect and strategic voting are employed in order to navigate the current system we have minority rule no majority winners in our plurality system here in
New Jersey and low voter turnout so what's the solution rank choice voting so rank choice voting empowers voters to rank candidates in order of appearance all a few or just one and it ensures that the winning candidate receives a
majority support 50% plus one or more of the vote total and rank choice voting is also known as instant runoff voting and you'll understand why when we go through a mock election in just a moment benefits of rank choice
voting uh you have more candidates being able to run and a level playing field so more options for the voters um it reduces strategic voting and wasted votes because you get to rank your
candidates in order of preference i like to say that my first choice would be the candidate I love the second choice the candidate I like the third ch candidate the choice I could stand and maybe you don't rank anything else after that and if you like the plurality system that we
have today you can just rank your first choice for all the candidates and press vote so you have more options in the voting booth it also discourages negative campaigning why rank choice voting encourages similarity over difference if
I'm running for office and I walk up to a door and I see to have my opponents lawn sign on the front lawn i turn and go to the next house in the current paradigm under rank choice voting I'd walk up and knock on their door and say "Oh I see that my opponent is your first choice well let me tell you how we're
aligned and maybe you'll make me your second choice on the ballot." Okay also reduces election costs no need for costly low turnout runoff elections because it's baked into the system and we have better outcomes
with RCV amongst the electorate as well these are statistics from California that uses rank choice voting for their primaries and you can see that there's a 26% bump in the percentage of women elected and a 19% bump in people of color that are elected to office after
RCV was instituted in California and this these are statistics from the New York City last New York City Maril primary that Eric Adams won you can see the increase in voter turnout from 2013 to 21 of 29% and the
decrease or increase in active ballots and decrease in wasted votes i'll explain more about that when we go through the mock election also across age demographics voters find RCV easy to use as you can see uh actually the 18 to
34 group is struggling the most of all the age groups look folks we rank things every day in our lives we create priorities for ourselves every day and this is just another way to do that uh usage of RCV in the US and
worldwide uh Maine and Alaska use it for all their elections southern states use it for military and overseas voters all those purple dots are municipalities where they're using RCV and elections and there are also and also where the uh
light purple is there's also local jurisdictions that are using it ireland and Australia have been using it for over a century okay so it's nothing new it's just new to us now let me please give your attention
to the screen we're going to go through a mock election here with RCV so we have four candidates two from the purple party two from the orange party in round one these are the results candidate A is obviously the winner in the first round with 55% of the vote they get the
majority in the first round but let's go to another scenario where nobody gets the majority in the first round so how do we get to a winner the lowest vote getter in this case candidate D is eliminated from the race but their votes are not eliminated from the race because
we repopulate their second or third choices with the remaining candidates in this particular case because candidate D was of the same party as candidate A the majority 4% went to candidate A and 1% went to candidate B but we still haven't
got a majority winner yet so we do it again and this time we eliminate candidate C and then repopulate their second and third choice votes into the remaining candidates and in this case the vast majority of them went to candidate B from the same party and
candidate B ends up winning with a majority of 55% our strategy we have bills in the legislature right now that will allow the voluntary use of rank ching rank choice voting for local and schoolboard
elections okay if the governor signs this bill the following November you will place a referendum on the ballot and you will ask the citizens if they want to use this voting system if they vote yes in the majority then the
following election cycle you institute it all the voting machines in New Jersey are capable of handling an RCD election and we've had sitdowns with the county clerks around the state and they see no major impediments to implementing the
system and current voting paradigm should you choose to use it and how we're achieving this is we're doing outreach to legislators to community organizations and stakeholders and we're doing education
and outreach events which I'm going to invite you to in just a moment to uh educate the public about it and we're trying to get municipalities to pass resolutions of support or trigger ordinances to demonstrate to the legislature that are there are
municipalities that are interested in using rank choice voting now our recent wins on that front are as you can see we have seven municipalities who passed a resolution of support or a trigger ordinance and uh
most of them were last year and we would love for the state capital to join that list so on May 7th we are having a education event here
in Trenton and uh we're going to rank ice cream flavors so bring your appetite and come to the uh Trinity Cathedral Senate House
on May 7th at 7 p.m please join us there will the Trenton Council of Civic Organizations is our host and we'll be going through an actual live ranking
exercise with the ice cream so you can see the uh RCV process in real life in real time that's my presentation
questions comments from the council anyone how much time have we got left anyone no no hey uh Wesley Bridges Law Record you made a statement that there's a bill before or there's some legislation
yes sir isn't it Isn't it correct that this citizens of the city of Trenton could vote to eliminate the runoff currently by way of referendum regardless of what's happening right now with this bill uh I couldn't speak to
that but uh it's possible that's true but RCV eliminates the need for runoffs because it's baked into the process and it gives you a lot of other advantages that simply eliminating runoffs right and I'm not saying this is a challenge i'm saying it more forformational
purposes we had an experience here in the city where we had an election that was challenged and we had to do some pretty in-depth research with respect to number one whether the city actually voted by way of referendum to have runoff or to have runoffs or to not run off and our research revealed that
currently as we sit here today the citizens of the city can vote to eliminate a runoff by simply putting the question on the on the ballot uh to vote on so what change what if anything changes based on this proposed legislation that you're referring to well uh you would eliminate the need to
institute that statute because what the bills do is allow us to have a different way of voting than we have now all elections in the state of New Jersey are plurality winner elections it's the only way that we can do it the language in
the bill allows us to vote in a different way than plurality voting and RCV would be the way to vote okay would it would I be correct again more anformational gathering than anything would I be correct that even after that legislation passes that it would still have to be a decision that the voters
would decide on whether or not to accept this form or another form of non-runoff that is correct that is correct and the bill calls for that this is a grassroots bottomup campaign and we want the citizens to say yes this is a superior
voting method we would like to use it in local and schoolboard elections where we have candidates that we know maybe even personally and are familiar with and uh yeah so that's that's our strategy
that's what we're trying to do we're trying to get people to uh utilize it in their local elections thank you appreciate it you're quite welcome thank you and just before you sit down I I told a couple of constituents that I will share some of the emails that were sent to me there
were some that were in support we had one that was not in support but I definitely wanted to acknowledge this long one well not a long one but she said Deborah Amen she lives in East Ward and she was in support of the rank choice voting um she says "I hope you would listen to the presentation about
the rank choice voting with an open mind and learn more about an election process that would empower voters please feel free to contact me if you have any questions as she feels that this will eliminate the need for costly runoff elections since the first election will determine a winner regardless of how many candidates run so I just wanted to
acknowledge that because I told her that I would thank you Council Williams council President appreciate that councilwoman Williams yes ma'am i have a few questions um so this is the second time we've had this presentation I think since last summer if I'm not mistaken so
I'm wondering given all the problems we have in the city uh other issues that we're facing uh now that you've come back a second time and I think it actually we voted down a resolution regarding support for this i'm not sure I
understand what the press or what you're hearing from tronians yourself about why this is so important and why this is something we should do um cuz you know just electorally uh two members of this
body won by one vote either in 2022 2024 and my colleague Mr harrison in 2018 won by I believe four votes so were those three-way or two-way i know one of the statements that was made last time um given that we had two candidates
including myself that ran unopposed um I'm one of the statements said that that would take away uh the ability for candidates have unopposed elections no that's absolutely not well that was what was said at the last presentation well I was here and I don't recall anyone
saying that um what I will say is that if there's only two candidates running then it's going to be clear who is the majority winner between those two this uh rate RCV helps when there's more than two candidates running and it also helps for your atlarge council members and
board of ed members where you typically have several candidates running for a small number of seats in which case the first three candidates to get past 33 and a3% would be the winners in those races if you had three open atlarge seats or three open board of ed seats
that's how that would work in a in a multicandidate race for not a single seat but for multiple seats like your atlarge council members and your board of ed members yeah I understand it but I'm not sure taking away the chance for
voters to vet candidates going into a runoff is actually a good thing and then further I my question had to do with what are you hearing like Trentonians are reaching out to you and your organization and saying we have to have this here we really need this in Trenton
because Princeton Montlair the other places they're very different from Trenton so I'm just curious uh and I you know I would I would suggest that anybody who's reaching out to us from Trenton about rank choice voting is probably
interested and maybe even down for the cause and that's why they're reaching out to us we we have been doing outreach to community organizations in Trenton and I presented to the ETC uh a few months ago and we're uh we're building
towards this May 7th event where we expect to have a lot of community organizations that we've been talking to to come to Senate House at Trinity Cathedral and uh get more education and find out more about RCV and its benefits
understood um any was was there something I forgot about your questions no I I did have one last final question go ahead um since last next year is our next municipal elections for mayor and at large council are you is your goal your organization's goal to have this in
place for next year's uh municipal election well ma'am that's up to the legislature uh we hope Yeah that they'll pass the bill this year and uh that the governor will sign it and then uh you will be able to put it on the ballot
next November okay as a referendum and ask the citizens if they would like to use rank choice voting and we'll come back and help the citizens make that happen if that's what they want you know we're we're we're not
going to stop working once the bill is passed because we're going to be asking municipalities to pass the a resolution or ballot referendum and the majority to actually implement it you know since passing the bill if nobody's going to
use it right okay well thank you for your presentation sir thank you have a good evening and I have uh flyers for all the council members about the May 7th uh rank the ice cream event and also a fact sheet about the bills that are in
the legislature thank you we have one more question from Councilwoman Frisbee yes ma'am so hi Larry i wanted to just thank you again for coming out i requested that you come out the first time and I did ask that you would come out again this time i think that um I one I want to thank you for a thorough invit
um a thorough presentation and I just wanted to uh say that to everyone who's here everyone who's listening rank choice voting does not take away the voters's right to have a discussion or um with candidates it is to that those
discussions whether who you want to vote for is a discussion that should be had prior to you casting your initial vote so vetting a a candidate having any discussion with a candidate whether you want to do it in person or you're doing online whatever it is all that vetting
is done prior to you voting you don't go into a voting booth and you vote you don't vet after you have had a disc um after you've cast your vote um and the and the bottom line at the end of all of this is after we have educated the city of Trenton uh voters on rank choice
voting and how it does um help them it it is it is just um my thoughts that it helps with minimizing what is going on as far as our time our resources and our efforts um it it allows the voters to
know okay if I don't get this candidate then I get to vote on this candidate so it does just what it says it ranks them if I can't have the first I'll have the second and it's automatic without them having to come out over and over again and without them having to go and getting um the candidates themselves doing flyers without the candidates
going out and canvasing all over again all of that they should have had those conversations with the um our constituents prior to that i just want to put that out there and it does not minimize our ability to have discussions but the voters in the end like you said
in November if this were to pass with the governor the citizens have the final vote to say "Yes we want to have rank choice voting on the ballot or um system or not." So it's not that we're making the decision for them the citizenship
opens it up this resolution of support is just to tell Trenton we are interested in exploring this possibility and we would appreciate it if you pass the bill excellent okay and uh I think that's super important to remember and
um I lost the other point that I would thank you thought of when you thank you these are for the council and if I could ask if you would uh send your presentation I'm sure the rest of council would appreciate being able to
view it more thoroughly thank you Mr larry thank you very much for your time and attention this evening and we hope to see you on May 7th at the Senate House at Trinity Cathedral come and eat some ice cream and find out more about rank choice voting council President
yeah Councilwoman Feliciano thank you i'm sorry it's okay just real quick um thank you for coming tonight oh thank you for coming tonight sorry um just so um just just for clarity um from
what Director Bridges said what what he asked in the bill that that you're putting forward to be to be approved it's stipulated in the bill that if it is passed then the municipality has to
put forth the referendum we have to put forth the ref okay so So that's do a what if you don't mind coming back up please i mean if you decide to do a trigger ordinance then it might be possible to
bypass the ballot question but I wouldn't recommend that no I I wouldn't even go in that direction i just was asking if um I just I just wanted to make sure that I heard you clearly with what you said and I understood secondly well ma'am the sheet that I gave you the
fact sheet on the bills the bill numbers are on there and you can go to the state legislative website and you can actually read the bill okay okay so you would know exactly what the language is the bill okay okay thank you thank you so and then the next question I had was if
again sorry I wasn't done so um we could in fact if council decided even before all of this as as director Bridges said if we just wanted to wipe out the runoffs all together we could just put that on referendum anyway and then let
the people decide if that's what they want to do while the rank choice voting is is interesting in concept or theory my concern is and and this is not to take anything away from our residents here in the city right as far as
intellect or anything like that so let me just say that loud the whole process in and of itself of us then having to move to educate an entire city it's it's a little it's it's worrisome to me because how do we make
sure that everybody knows or comes out like everybody doesn't even come out to the council meetings everybody doesn't come out when council people have meetings in the wards everybody doesn't show up the way that we would like them to show up to properly educate on what this process is and for me if anything
we move forward is going to be fruitful people would really have to know right and then the cost that would be be directed in even educating the entire city to make sure that everybody knew this when we could just simply put forth the referendum ourselves to say let's
just do away with the runoff if that's what we decide we want to do and let's just get engaged and and see how the people feel about it i I think you know I guess we just have to wait then and see what the legislature does before because if if we have to put it forth if it passes then
we could just move at that at that time on that but I just wanted everybody just to consider if not if we wanted to do the referendum for that then we could also do that as well i I I appreciate your comment and your questions because it reminded me of what I forgot to
mention earlier and that is that you're only going to be you're already going to be doing that this year because we moved from the county line to office block mhm so there's an educational effort that has to happen around that and Voter Choice New Jersey will help you with the educational
uh outreach effort should you decide to put this referendum on the ballot um after the governor signs it so we're good at this stuff and we can help you okay so uh it's going to voters are going to
have to become more educated in general now that we've moved away from the county line and that's a good thing so RCV is just another piece of that education puzzle and after having to educate the public about how to operate
with the new office block ballot design you'll be primed to uh educate them about our CV next year assuming the governor signs the bill you're welcome thank you so much Mr garcia certainly Madam President at
this time moving on with the agenda uh we have uh some individuals for here for advice and consent for mayoral appointments um and I'll leave it to you if you'd like those individuals to come or be introduced by the mayor I imagine um I see the mayor's present you wanted
to you can come up we were going to ask if they can all come up together please all the um nominees if you all come up thank you Council President and members of the council um we have a board comprised of five members and two
alternates unfortunately two of the members could not make it today miss Janina Kle and Joseph Antanello they both had conflicts um but I have um uh Dr lenor Robinson
thank you for having me um Miss the Honorable Marge Cwell Wilson uh Desiree Walker Desire I'm sorry uh Caitlyn Caland hello and Destiny Walker hey they're our
twins and I would just mention that um each one of these um young ladies uh were uh interviewed uh by the health department uh they met with the shelter management team and they even toured the facility
so they all in their own way are very excited about this challenge and uh look forward to working with the city thank you so much mayor does any council members want to ask any questions um just a couple uh just one I
just want to be sure because there were a few concerns expressed by residents um everyone being appointed is a Trenton resident yes and I that's why I thought um they represented that to me and uh you know we didn't have a okay
fullfledged FBI background check so I apologize for that but uh we took them at the word and and it's disappointing that people who just want to throw stones just write that stuff okay and then uh my only other question and I asked this as just someone who is
the youngest of seven fam seven children um so Desiree and Destiny as twins do you will be able to operate independently of each other okay but it's a reason I asked that is just to be a little humorous but also I do think
it's very good to have uh two young people particularly pursuing animal sciences uh because that's something going forward that's going to be incredibly important to our country so thank you thanks ma'am thank you councilwoman Figuroka and good evening
um welcome all of you thank you all for stepping up um this is something that's absolutely needed for our city um Councilwoman Williams and I just had a meeting with Director Monik Pelli the other day um and one of the questions that arose was what exactly is expected
of this board so I would like to ask any one of you that might want to answer what is your understanding as to what is expected of you um as a member of this board hi I'm Lenor Robinson and Oh sorry
what I applied for the position because I am very concerned about the animal situation here in Trenton i have a doctorate in cultural and urban anthropology i also have a pet care
service so I have become Thank you is that better sorry i have become very aware of certain issues that almost lap into being public health issues of how animals are raised bred
treated and managed i also have a great deal of experience in building organizational ties in being able to analyze data and figure out the best way
to define a goal and then meet and exceed the goal so when I saw the opportunity of course it was the day after the um announcement was closed so I thought I'd try anyway and it worked out for me and I'm very pleased that it
did you know I if you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them no I appreciate it there's a lot of work to be done with regards to animal shelter and the animal crisis that we have in the city right now so I'm really happy that you all have stepped up um we
need voices um we need people who are going to be part of the solution not contribute to the problem um the presentation that was given to us in the meeting that we had with director Minneapelli the other day he's he's actually um been successful in the last
year um with regards to our animals and um you know the number of um animals that have been put down animals have gotten you know adopted and things of that nature and then we have an ordinance that is pending that we need enforced so we need we need the help we need all the help that we can we need
your voices and we need you guys to be on the ground with us so that we can make these things happen so we can operate as other municipalities do and we can really get a um a hold on and control of the animal situation that we have um former Councilwoman Marge Cow
Wilson you you had a question or No well I actually had this discussion with the director and I don't think that we can get up and running until we have the rules set up for us to follow we have to have the guidelines what what
the dos and don'ts are and where our parameters are so once we get that together we can come back to you and let you know what we're planning you know because I I just don't feel comfortable saying what we're going to do when I
don't have all of that in front of me but I want to thank you all for considering me and putting me on this board because I'm really excited about it and I think we can form a good working relationship with human services and with our officers of the shelter
marge you have the history um so you understand and thank you for answering the question and understanding the assignment cuz yes we need to know what you guys are going to do what you're what's required of you and how we're going to work together so thank you very much okay you're welcome thank you Council President
councilwoman Feliciano thank you just really quickly so to to piggyback off of what Councilwoman Figueroa Kenberg said she asked very specific questions right and I don't think I actually heard the answer to the question um she said "What
did you think your expectations were in what you would be doing when you assume this role in position?" Um um honorable Marge Cowwell Wilson you cleared it up when you said if once you get the marching orders then you'll know so my question is when you had the
interview just just to clear this up did anybody tell you any expectations of what you were supposed to do in the position no one told you the expectations so when you had the interview what happened the interview was excuse me
ma'am the interview was to find out about us and what our background was with animals and you know to see if we would be fit to be able to sit on the board okay and our suggestions of what we would like to see happening at the
shelter okay thank you and Marge how long were you there with Dr manipelli like an hour and a half two hours so it wasn't a 15inute interview he's he took the time and and spoke with
each one of them madam President councilwoman please be and then council vice president so I just wanted to say and uh some of my colleagues have hit on a couple of these in my and and
I'm going to say it um I was for me I was going to say as board members you're not there to um make the rules you're there to help enforce the rules once those rules have been put in place and I know that doc director Minopelli has
been working on that we've met we've been talking about just that what rules and procedures have been put into order so this is a good stepping stone so we understand that there are rules that are set into place even as he has to make them up to make sure that um it best is
best fit and best practices for our city because we're not a cookie cutter but what works for what city works with our city um so I am I'm going with the with the guide that you're there to help assist whatever rules that he puts into
place that's what you would do to help in to support that and make sure that things are done in um decency and in order my other uh comment was going to be and still is i wanted to commend um director Mikapelli on actually the steps
that he has been taking i believe that for the last under your your leadership a lot has changed we have gotten a lot of um things in order that have been out of order for a while and so I wanted to just say that and I'm excited that we have not just all five but we have two
alternates as well um this is something that we need uh it has been a thorn for our city for quite a long time so kudos to you kudos to you making sure that um to our mayor making sure that he got together and you ask questions it's not a a a quick one and done that you ask
questions that needed to be asked um and I appreciate just in advance what you're going to do because I know with Marge on there there's no way anything's going to happen that was not there's not that would be inappropriate so thank you in advance and I look forward to uh working
with all of you council Vice President thank you um good evening mayor and potential board members of the animal welfare advisory board um it's great to see you um here today and I want to say thank you for throwing your name in the
hat to be a board member as you all are well aware we've had many issues with the animal shelter throughout the last several years so your service is definitely going to be um highly appreciated uh mayor my question is for you or possibly um Director Mc Nicipelli
are um do you guys have bylaws established yet for the board [Music] mayor can Mayor can you turn the mic on sorry thank you all right um uh the the
animal control is hereby further directed to focus on enforcement proper staff training reducing the number of intakes through community education programs low lowcost spay and neuter programs reinstating a volunteer program
expanding adoption services and working with community partners by creating public private partnerships and integrate them into the animal shelter programs by establishing a Trenton animal care team um but it it is is
outlined they certainly will discuss it and um it's it's up to them to give advice uh to to to the uh health department okay awesome i would like to suggest um very kindly that you guys
establish some type of handbook that lays out all of the roles and responsibilities of the board members so everyone has a clear understanding of exactly what they're supposed to be doing and for any future uh member of the board who's interested in applying they would know what they're getting
into so that's it suggestion well taken thank you that's it so go ahead go ahead Councilman Harrisoner no I was just going to say um thank you all for coming forward um the city appreciates your um
looking out for the animals marge you've been doing this a long time so I know with Marge's help um we're going to keep moving forward so I appreciate you and thank you each one of you for coming forward thank you thank you all for being president [Music]
on your go on your go Madam President mr garcia can we move to um vote on those certainly move that up can we motion for that certainly did you want to and I'll ask the uh solicitor are we able to take a motion to that up approve those
collectively have to name all the names not a problem okay except for the two who are not present i'm sorry um Joseph there's two that that weren't here okay can we do that um okay we're able
to vote on the two that aren't present but I don't know whether that's what the council Okay the CP wants joseph and Jina okay so Madam President if you you're able to uh apparently we do um have to name the names that you wish to approve if you
want to take a motion to approve those names may we take a motion to approve Miss Caitlyn Sealand Destiny Walker Marge Cwell Wilson Desire Walker Lenor Robinson
Robinson so moved second roll call vice President Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figurero Kenberg yes councilwoman Frisbee yes counciloman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council
President Gonzalez yes motion carried thank you and moving on with the agenda this evening madam President uh if you want to we have public comment for agenda items only yes if I could have the
public comment clipboard please for agenda items only thank you uh could I have the other clipboard yes i'll trade her i'll trade it and we'll put this one back there as
well no worries and Madam President we have three individuals listed for public com comment for uh docket items only uh public comment will be five minutes for each individual you may address only items on the docket the council is not
obligated to respond our first individual listed is Michael Smith michael Smith moving on to Eric Gaskin can you press the button right there yeah yeah there we go okay good evening
um [Music] thank you for having me this evening so I I come in the representation of uh Mr mr g if you don't mind giving your stating your name and your address please for us oh okay uh Eric Gaskin um
1340 Brundick Avenue thank you okay um so I come in representation uh I'm I'm owner and operator of family's barber shop located on 1340 Bundick Avenue and I come this evening to
discuss uh so we have parking signs that were just put up there recently and it's in the residential area and the parking only allows uh from 8:00 a.m to 6:00 p.m monday through Saturday uh for parking
which um we have residents that live there in the uh in the neighborhood and also the barber shops there and also a restaurant so excuse me Miss Sir I don't mean to uh interrupt you but what is the docket item that you were uh referring
to um it's is parking i'm sorry parking um uh no parking between 8 and I don't have the docket number oh there's a res is there a resolution specific to this or Yeah that may be public comment Mr eric
i think you're um I think what you're looking for is public comment but not for docket items only we will have that at another uh later in the meeting oh so you could come back up when it's time for the public comment yes okay no problem thank you thank you oh yeah um um Mr eric if you don't mind
signing your name on the other sheet thank you caroline Clark thank you understood [Music] and Madam President those are all the individuals that we have listed for uh docket public comment for docket items
only and we can move on with the agenda on your call um proceed please certainly at this time Madam President if you want to ask for a motion to approve communications petitions and reports we have a motion to approve so moved second
roll call vice President Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figuero councilwoman Frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes
council President Gonzalez yes motion carried and Madam President if you want to ask for a motion to approve the minutes of February 18th 2025 yes may we have a motion to approve the minutes for February 18th so moved second
roll call vice President Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figuro Kenberg councilwoman Frisbee yes yes oh sorry councilman Harrison yes council Williams yes council President
Gonzalez yes motion carried and moving on the docket at this time we are at ordinances for second reading and public hearing ordinance
25-006 bond ordinance providing for phase five of the lead service line replacement program in Trenton in the Trenton Waterworks Service Area by the city of Trenton in the county of Mercer state of New Jersey appropriating 22
million therefore and authorizing the issuance of $22 million $22 million in bonds or notes to finance the cost thereof are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this
time seeing none Madam President if you want to ask for a motion to approve may I have a motion to approve so moved second roll call councilwoman Edwards yes sorry excuse me Vice President counciloman Feliciano yes councilwoman
Figuro Kenberg councilwoman Frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council President Gonzalez yes motion carried ordinance 25-17 an ordinance amending chapter 77 of the code of the city of Trenton
entitled fees may we have a motion to Oh sorry are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time seeing none Madam President if you want to ask for a motion to approve maybe I have a motion so moved second
roll call vice President Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes counciloman Figuro Kenberg councilwoman Frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council President Gonzalez yes motion
carried and ordinance 25-036 uh or an ordinance adopting a redevelopment plan for the in for the entirety of the city of Trenton a designated rehabilitation area and I see madam president that Mr lon is already here yes director listen council
president if I may um with the body's permission um a lot of what Mr the listen is going to talk about is going to be um touched upon in executive session so I don't know if we want to wait until we have that um to under the guise of contract negotiation real
estate contract negotiation so I just throw it out there um for a consideration to have that in executive session first prior to having any public comments questions um in front of the um public yes but I believe he was going to
Were you going to say something about this specific ordinance Dr uh yeah real real quickly bless the director of Hed uh this is a special type of ordinance in the fact that uh you have to pass on a first reading then it has to be sent
to the planning board for review and come back to council for passage uh because there was such a short period of time between the meeting getting at the planning board uh the planning board professionals uh really didn't have a
time to examine this and get in depth in further discussion between themselves and administration so I'm just requesting that this ordinance be um carried until the next council meeting so tabled it to
May 6 I think right may 6th may 6 if there's nothing else Madam President if there's no questions or discussion if you want to ask for a motion can we have a motion to table this uh 25-036 till until May 6th so moved
second roll call vice President Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figuro Keber councilwoman Frisbee yes counciloman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council President Gonzalez
yes motion carry matters tabled until May 6 thank you and Madam President moving on with the agenda we have resolutions um are there any resolutions that the council wishes to extract for questions or for a potential consent
agenda yes anyone have any questions Madame President yes um yes i'd like to discuss 25146 and 25133 and 251373 and 137 yes please thank you
Council President yes ma'am 25145 and I also have a question possibly depending on what councilwoman Frisbee asked for 25137 thanks thank you Council Vice President oh I see you later on
[Music] that's it all right oh Councilwoman Williams um give me one second i just want to make sure I have the number for you but it's the resolution having to do with uh
Stacy Park got it um looking for the number okay 25154 ma'am 15 all right i think that's it right that's okay mr garcia I think our first one will be uh Councilwoman Feliciano
25-145 thank you Council President you're welcome good evening Council jim Beach chief of staff hey hi Chief of Staff beach just a quick question
um I think this is cool that we have the the person here doing doing the work and everything but do we have any report or anything of the work that they've that they've done from 2024 like do you have anything like any projects the person
worked on or anything like that that we could that you could shoot over to council after the meeting just so we could see what they're what have they been doing i could probably provide you with a summary of what he's been doing a lot of what he's been doing is is in the planning stages and that's actually by
design because we've been in in contact with with Harvard this assignment is a two-year project for them and so when he first came here they stressed that we should not be rushing him into finding solutions but really spending the first
you know six to seven months just determining what the issues were and then developing the solutions around that um but after this meeting I can certainly send um all of council a summary of what he's been working on and and what we have to date and then what
the steps are going forward okay and Miss Mr beach if you don't mind explaining too for to council just that this um this his salary is not out of the city budget that is Okay you're right i just want to make sure everyone knew that yeah thank you i still want to know what what they was working thank
you if you could send the summary I'd appreciate it consent is fine council president thank you is that Oh you had um um Councilwoman Frisbee oh sorry sorry um so I I it's actually not a question to you and it's probably just in the writing i'm rereading rereading the first line and it maybe it's just
grammar um issue where it says Trenton was invited to apply to host of 2024 Bloomberg City Harvard fellow who are graduates it's it's that a in there it's like it's singular and then we become
plural again i don't resolution in front of me council it's just a gra I think it's just going to be a little change effectively this has been a program that Harvard and Bloomberg Foundation have been running for I think at least the last three years we were invited in 2023
to apply to receive a fellow out of this program and we did so and then were awarded or invited to interview three candidates and it's kind of like in medical school where they do the residency matching so they picked their cities we picked ours and then ranked
them and that's how we ended up with Nommen so I don't have an issue at all with that i'm It's to me it's just the wording and and I'll go over it with the clerk it's just it's it's the it's using the word a as in we're using a fellow and then we're doing talking about
graduates plural as in more than one individual so that's where I am struggling it seems like it should be is a fellow referring to the one person it's not who are fellow who are graduate who is a graduate i'm sorry Councilwoman which paragraph so the very first um
whereas whereas Yes sir um if you read that first one where it says Trenton was invited to apply to host a 2024 Bloomberg Harvard City Hall fellow who are graduates right there right but I guess the population of the grad of the
fellows that we had to select from were graduates plural but we were only getting one fellow singular you're just messing with me okay all right thank you Mr beach appreciate you sir thank you
um I believe our next one is uh resolutions 25-146 councilwoman Frisbee yes that's going back that was consent mr garcia um noted thank um so thank you
good evening good evening uh council president council members maria Richardson business administrator so I am excited that we're getting rid of um surplus and properties that we are not going to need love that my only
question is what happens to the proceeds and maybe I overlooked it but I did not see when but that would usually go into our general funds so the money going back to basically um our general budget
so does that mean that we can use it for it is non what am I for pay um a little bit the depths of the city services and everything else it will go to our revenue so it's repurposed for yes thanks okay that was my only question on
that great thank you ma'am thank you um can that go on consent consent please thank you um next one is uh councilwoman Williams 25-154
yes ma'am thank you evening Mr beach jim Beachch chief of staff so my question has to do with um this overall in this issue there was a uh article in the Jersey Vindicator uh
several weeks ago and in the article a spokeswoman for DCA was quoted saying that um essentially DCA made a verbal request of city council as a body to pass the ordinance this resolution and I was curious as to you
know how that came about or if you're you were aware of who they contact or spoke with on city council because I know they didn't speak with myself and um I don't believe they spoke with any of my colleagues so I'm not sure what verbal because I would think DCA would put something in writing am I correct
they did not um this had been discussed during meetings that the business administrator and I had with DCA about whether we needed to do a resolution to clarify the payments since services had been rendered and actually payments had already been remitted um so there was
back and forth as to whether a resolution should be submitted dca verbally requested that we submit a resolution i can't speak for the person from DCA in terms of the verbiage she used she may have been assuming that you
know through the administration she was asking the council to pass this resolution but that's supposition on my part okay so it could have been misqued incorrectly even don't know okay i just wanted to make sure cuz um some questions have been asked about that and
sometimes you know when interviews happen things do not get uh transcribed correctly or whatever so I just wanted to make sure all right agreed thank you very much consent please ma'am thank you um and then we have one more
Councilwoman Frisbee oh actually two more sorry councilwoman Frisbee on um 25-133 before Director Wilson hi good evening council it's Captain James Slack from the Trenton Police Department uh I'm here representing Director Wilson thank you Captain Slack
so I had a couple of questions for this one um one I'm excited that we have funds coming in to combat gang related crimes and um this grant is actually very substantial and I know it's already been uh allocated for i wanted to know
with everything that has been allocated is laptops cameras vehicles will there is there space and I'm not sure if you'll be able to answer that for any funds to be allocated for the two uh street teams that we have we
know that with the funding that is going to be um liquidated or put on uh put on hold halt actually just halted by uh funds that we originally would have our street teams are going to be in need of support and with something like this it
would be great and if not this are we able to look for a grant to help support our street team council President do you mind if I answer that question um in this particular grant is not necessarily to
be used for street team um we are not able to allocate uh monies ahead of time for that sort of um activities right but the city actually needs to procure the
services um right now there is those services have been procured and I think I am not sure if we were ready to award the contract but those services were already uh being procured and uh some of
the money to pay for street teams comes from a antiviolence grant that we received from um DCA actually um but the purpose of this um specific grant it's
not for street teams uh but I you know the administration as a whole is really looking uh into identifying other potential uh fund sources for police and obvious
and of course police as well but this specific grant is not for Thank you um I just want to make clear um so I I appreciate that the street teams um if you've seen them anyone has seen them in action they are really um
making a difference and a strong impact in the community and I just want to make sure and so one I want to thank DCA for making sure that we have funds but I want to make sure that we can sustain them with all the changes that are coming down from Washington so thank you really quickly um uh BA Richardson and
um Mr to slack i don't know if you have the answer but behind just while you're up here if you don't mind just um giving us a timeline as far as the budget um I know a lot of questions are being asked about the budget and I just wanted you to share some of our conversations please about when the budget would be
introduced absolutely um we have been working with our DCA counterparts for uh to work on the budget since the beginning of the year all department directors submitted their draft budget
at the end of last year and we um sat down with them went over their asks um so at this point we have already submitted our request for transitional
aid to DCA the deadline was uh March 7th we submitted our ask as you are aware in order for us to introduce a balanced budget and we are mandated to introduce
a balanced budget we need assistance from the state so our ask was already presented to the state once we get a word from the state as of what is the transitional aid amount that they will
grant the city and what is the uh capital city aid we should be able to introduce those numbers to our budget draft and that's when we are able to um present to introduce a balanced budget
uh the numbers that we have although those are realistic numbers it's not balanced until DCA says this is the amount of money that we are going to give you so um we following the state of New Jersey regulations we are not able
to introduce a budget that is not balance it will be a as it is right now we will be presenting a budget with a deficit of $55 million and that is not realistic so we really need to get information from DCA so you know what is a solid number
that we could use and then we will um introduce the budget thank you so much and um Captain Slack if you don't mind I know I don't know if you have the answer to this but um I want to just ask Director Wilson um does he have a plan
for the summertime for our youth like what's our like our summer plan do we have anything in place we don't have anything in place right now but we are we will have something in place within the next few weeks thank you you know we're going to be doing the summer initiative again like we did last year
um but yes and we will be announcing something okay thank you so much Council President um Councilwoman Williams thank you i just want to ask a question because actually uh my colleague Councilwoman Frisbee uh jive my mind on this one uh because this had been issued
before are there any grants that could be applied for by the police department to help uh cover overtime or make more available the community relations officers because I know uh we have a lot of community meetings i know there's been a few meetings where I've requested
uh a community relations officer different from CPAC and we we weren't able to do that because of overtime cost which I understand but it would be uh really helpful going forward to have the officers you know as they're available because we don't want to have burnout uh
make them available to more community meetings and be out there because the citizens really do like to meet with them chat with them and as I observed uh share one-on-one um crime situations things that that are difficult on their blocks that maybe they don't feel
comfortable sharing at a public forum even as a CPAC meeting so it's a really good a way to build a one-on-one with a relations officer yes I totally agree a lot comes out in the communing meetings okay so um would please if you could get us an update on you know maybe in the
next 30 60 days on additional grants we could apply for it I would be appreciated sir yes definitely thank you so much thank you ma'am thank you um that was consent agenda uh Mr garcia and then really quickly I know we had one more but um Councilwoman Feliciano had a
question for 251 154 yes and I know we just did that but she I didn't have the hard copy in my packet i'm sorry council President may I use yours thank you Councilwoman council Vice President
Okay so the question that I have is on the last page of this that I I just saw it says C note below it says for LGS use only it says C note below note I can neither approve nor deny this request
because it has already been undertaken by the city who wrote that note that was uh written by the monitor for the city the city monitor okay from DCA just to be clear okay all right thank you really quickly um uh
Mr beach while you're up here if we could have director um either director Harris or I know we have Mr randy in here to answer some questions but um just to kind of let everyone know why this came about i know there was discussions between myself and some of the administrators and and we understand
that some of the contracts weren't brought before us so we want to make sure that these payments are rendered for the service that's paid for the re the services that were rendered so if there's anyone that does have any questions he is here to answer these questions for us which and Randy is the
consultant company correct yes he works for BLS if he's able to come up if there's any questions does anyone have any questions thank you thank you Council President good evening city council and council
president um my name is Randy Bomb i'm a licensed landscape architect in the city in the state of New Jersey i've worked for the city since 1995 as an employee and then for BRS since 2013 thank you Mr randy do you have a
question you got it okay thank you so just for clarity um when it comes to the work that was done at Stacy Park when it comes to the clearing of the trees and everything that took place Mhm there was a question
there were questions about the permits and everything that were supposed to be obtained and and things of that nature um we were told that historically permits were not gotten or anything can you speak to that can you can you tell
us about the process for that with Stacy Park from your perspective abso absolutely the park the park frontage along the river has been maintained mostly as lawn historically i mean going back to the days a 100 years ago when the park was first
developed what we when I worked for the city of Trent was employed by the city of Trenton and we would do periodic cleanings along the riverfront that was back in the 90s regulations have probably tightened up somewhat since that so I think the assumption was made
by the city that since it had been done in the past without permits that it was likely doable now without the permits as well so as the consultant for us in this in
this area would this have been something that they should have come to discuss with you that you would have guided them or said like let's just get to it what what was what was supposed to happen right like you're there you you do the work
and everything were they supposed to come to you if you knew that we were clearing it up were you supposed to tell them "Hey y'all we need permits because now we have D coming at us saying you know you didn't do this." Um what role were you supposed to play in this well
we weren't brought on board until the letter was received from the D so we weren't aware of the fact that the DP was coming after the city of Trenton until they presented us with the letter so we could begin to provide a repairing restoration plan which is well underway
as a matter of fact a preliminary was sent down to the D a short while ago okay so you're looking to repair and replenish absolutely under their guidance under the guidance they provide with their some of their guideline documents for when there's disturbance
within a repairing zone mhm but you wouldn't be the person that would have advised them to get the permit in the first place is that what your company would is is that a part of what you would do would have done had they approached us yes but we weren't approached until the letter
was in until the letter was arrived until the letter arrived here at the city all right thank you council president no problem really quick a quick question just kind of on the same along the same lines so at what stage so for every project should you be consulted beforehand
typically when we're asked to manage a particular project we sort of take it from the permit stage forward often write the grant for the project do the grant management for the project and take it from the permit stage forward through design documents and
construction oversight typically thank you Council President yes Council Williams thank you uh Mr bum uh just one quick just for clarity sake so your understanding uh was it was always the intention of the city to
replenish grassland with the appropriate um grasses that would not be invasive that were native to the uh the river bank and then also replace trees absolutely correct i mean what was down there was brought on by benign neglect
so to speak for many many years i'm very low tech and I have photos here of the park and but I can't put it up on the camera but I have photos of the park back when it was cleared to the day and that was historically the way it was maintained during the last decade or two
and in particular I don't need to point it out but during the MAC years the park staff was dramatically reduced and the amount of maintenance that was conducted along the riverfront was also dramatically reduced so just through
attrition the invasive material and it's mostly non-native stuff that kills the native material was just sort of overtook the bank and progressively made its way in land and how long would you guesstimate it would take for the new native species
to replenish you know what's there and as we'll see when we drive by or stop by a healthy environment we have a plan in place now with the D submitted to the D for their approval to do some pollinator seed meadows to do some no mo grass to
increase to restore the amount of lawn that's maintained down by the park because that the aggressive I should say the the invasives that are down there incredibly aggressive and unless the vast majority of it is returned to a
moan state it will sort of rebirth back to what it was we don't have the license or the skill set to control something of that nature it it it will be it will be probably contracted out to do some of that work where we will return it to
meadow setting but with if we are able to re if the DAP agrees that we're able to return the vast majority of the park to moan lawn it will probably stay the way it is and
the way it should be okay thank you very much thank you Council President thank you may we go to Oh council vice president thank you um hello good to see you hey um I have a question on how the how everything was procured and paid out
i got to start moving so we understand that um this project or a portion of this project cost over $195,000 and in doing my research um after getting the information from the administration when we asked about
whether this was supposed to come to council what is your take on splitting the aggregated amount into separate invoices well quite quite frankly as a consultant to the city of Trenton I'm I can't answer that question if I may
Council President um that's my job to answer that question so I think that's a conversation that I would be responding to okay um I would say well let me rephrase my question so if if the city has I guess a qualified purchasing agent
would that be included in the process for you to work with whoever that person is on the cost of the project is that included in your scope of work not necessarily the cost of the project but again when we're assigned to
a particular project then we would then we would work handinand with the city employee who's in charge of that project as well and so do you have any involvement on how the projects are paid the invoices and things like that when we manage the particular projects
absolutely positively as a matter of fact more often than not the consultant will submit their invoice to us will review it approve it make sure it's appropriate and pass it on to the city for payment and that's the entire aggregated amount not split invoices
it's the entire project amount based on the purchase order that's been issued to any particular entity okay so so you would require for them to give you one whole invoice with the entire amount on there and then pay that and and often
where how projects are conceived is there is a proposal done by a particular firm or several firms and we help the city choose the most qualified firm to take the project forward a resolution is then brought before city council to
bring that firm on board and then we manage that purchase order and dispersements from the PO okay thank you okie dokie thank you u Mr randy if you don't mind just while you're up or even if Director Harris I know we have a project coming up with um Mil Hill and
some removals i just want you can you speak on that just in case anyone was wondering about that project that's coming forth absolutely positively this one's pretty easy um so we've been working in Milh Hill Park we've been doing several projects in Milh Hill Park over the
years uh replanting the park restoring the Iron Trust Bridge restoring the Douglas House etc etc and this piece of the project that has been the tree removal along Asen Pin Creek just immediately behind the um retaining
walls on the creek i went and personally marked each and every one of those trees to be removed because they were all dead trees there was absolutely no resurrecting anything that was cut down as a matter of fact to be clear there's several more trees that
need to be come down as part of that project this is in well we've this is in light of the trees that we're going to plant with a New Jersey Conservation Fund Foundation New Jersey Conservation Foundation grant that is going to be planting trees up
and down State Street Broad Street Warren Street Milh Hill Park Cadalwater Park so it's it's a necessary first step i mean we did the same thing in Cadal Park last year we probably dropped 40 trees in getting ready to plant the
trees that are going into Catwater Park now um Milh Hill Park we several times have cleared trees from Front Street and Broad Street frontage to get ready to install new trees the work that occurred along the creek this past week is the
exact same process okay and that's been approved and submitted to DB and everything not necessary not necessary that we don't need to do that absolutely positively not when there's dead trees within a public space that pose a public
safety hazard yeah we boom thank you so much thank you Councilwoman um Williams thank you Councilwoman Feliciano for reminding me yeah yeah as the BA pointed out we also have a
citywide inventory taken of all the first initial steps were all the ash trees and that was funded by the D ash trees have the uh bore now that are taking down the trees nationwide so to speak so we have I think close to 3,000
ash trees yay good for us in the city of Trenton that need to be cut down uh so they've been inventoried and assessed as to what their existing conditions are how severe how severe they are and what should be cut down first we're about to
undergo a citywide inventory of every single tree in the city uh to do sort of the same thing so we can with our community uh forestry management plan understand where trees are coming down where trees are needed etc etc thank you
Councilwoman Williams thank you ma'am um appreciate you answering questions and thank you uh council president for initiating that and council feliciana for uh the reminder because I was going to use my time during civic comment to ask you uh so this is an issue in the Mil neighborhood which is in the north
ward and I um do remember even years ago one of the trees that had died it fell into the Asen Peak Creek and created a uh log jam and the fire department actually had to go out in a boat to chainsaw and break up the uh the dam we
originally thought beavers maybe did it but it was just a dead tree right right in Milh Hill Park exactly where we're cutting down the dead trees now and it instead of being a simple tree removal from land it became this major operations with cranes and boats and
fire departments and shade tree crews and yeah it wasn't pretty and was considerably more expensive to do it that way than to get the tree while it was all on the ground okay and then my quick questions are are there more trees along Asipek Creek that will be having
to come down and then do you know how many trees may get planted to replace them because I do understand you had to take these trees down in order to plant new trees yes um there's probably one or two more substantial trees that need to come down i mean as a matter of fact
shame on us we had after we restored the Iron Trust Bridge ago one of the willow trees fell on the Iron Trust Bridge railing and damaged the rail so now we have to go back and have that repaired have that tree removed etc etc so we're trying to avoid repeating that same mistake
um so I would guess maybe one or two more trees i'd have to go down and sort of do a little recon of trees of size and then there's quite a few trees adjacent to the amphitheater that are of yay size that
are completely stone cold dead they have no bark on them so everybody could recognize that's a dead tree okay and uh my last question is do you have a guesstimate of how many trees um you may plant in 2025 overall in the city oh overall in the
city yes sir so we have a $1.7 million regional greenhouse gas initiative grant that will plant a thousand trees that's what it's scheduled to plant uh those streets are scheduled again for Milh Hill Park
Cadwater Park State Street spanning from Cadwater Park beyond Milh Hill Park to Clinton Avenue we have a 319 water quality grant that is going to be planting trees and has already begun planting trees downtown throughout the
old city area the old town area um we'll also that also includes trees in the city hall parking lot to green it up and we have a $800,000 other grant whose name now escapes me uh to plant trees mostly in
South Trenton where the vast majority of ash trees are planted dead ash trees are now there okay all right well thank you very much i appreciate it thank you ma'am thank you thank you so much is it okay to go on consent agenda
you good um council member Feliciano you good with that on consent thank you yes consent to Oh yes okay thank you um the next one the last one I see
is uh Councilwoman Frisbee um 25-137 oh thank you Council President you're welcome good evening good evening Dr mapelli so I actually don't have a question on this i just wanted to acknowledge this one this is
um continuum care for those who are less fortunate the disa disabled displaced homeless families and I really got and as I was reading this I was impressed um by what is actually happening here and I am hopeful that
this will actually this manner will continue for our city uh putting things in place such as this plan for them in advance although I do not believe um $45,000 is enough but I we will take what we get um can get right here but I
am glad that we're doing these proactive um putting proactive um venture ventures in place in motion to do training for our departments for assistance for internal and external staff department um grant administrations protocols
policies and procedures and activities for development of the homeless services that is to be commended i wanted to just tell you that I appreciate um what you're doing what you you've been bringing to your position and I just want to commend you and ask you to just continue it that was all I had with that
thank you thank you very much Council Feliciano thank you Council President director um Manika Pell just a quick question for you um we've been giving out COC money for quite a while yes
right the training though aspect is new to this yes it is so just explain why you felt the need for us to do this now um I think it's great that we're doing it now but again we've been giving this money out for a minute right but why the
need now for this um well it is necessary because we change the the entire COC system within the city of Trenton has changed the uh we have changed the the teams so it is necessary for them to have training making sure that we follow HUD regulations and
particularly now that the leadership in that organization is changing so we have to be on top of everything so we can create um a good team and then give the services that we are supposed to give to our uh residents okay thank you and thank you again for all your efforts and everything that you've been doing to
really bring that department up it certainly shows and we appreciate you consent thank you thank you so much garcia that was everything for consent agenda I believe all right so Madame President with that
in mind if you'd like to motion motion for a consent to approve a consent agenda consisting of and correct me if I'm wrong resolutions
25-126 127 128 [Music] 129 144 145 146 six uh I believe we already did it
25147 was was done already not moved upon in fact Madam President if you'd like to ask for a motion to table resolution 25 147 and 148 no no no no that was approved already oh they were approved i'm sorry they were approved
collectively then yeah yes those are the individuals that were absent 153 and 148 were absent oh I'm sorry 15 that's why I said 153 yeah and wait which ones was I know was So 148 and 153
were not here so those are 153 so extract those two i'm sorry we've approved 149 150 151 152 right and 147 and 147 yes okay okay so consent we'll pick back up on
154 154 so the consent agenda going back to continuing consent agenda 154 [Music] um 25,130 and 131 I imagine require a roll call yes
132 1334 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 yes and I believe that will be all of
them may we have a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second roll call councilwoman Edwards yes council [Music]
Feliciano [Music] um yes okay i just want to make sure we took out the one about the the thing yes yes councilwoman Figurero Edenberg councilwoman Frisbee yes councilman
Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council President Gonzalez yes motion carried and Madame President for the items for the individuals were not present um are they being pulled do we
need a motion to table those items we're tableing those items yes so we have a motion to table those items to table 148 and 153 correct yes do we have a date all right incident solicitor do we have to do those individually or are we able to do them collectively
[Music] i'm sorry do we are we able to do those collectively or do we have to do each one of those individually the motion to table those two resolutions thank you and Madam President if you ask for that motion yeah we're going to have a motion to
approve I mean a motion to table um 153 and 148 until May 6 meeting so move so second moved by Edwards second by Frisbee roll call vice President Edwards yes
councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figurero Kenberg councilwoman Frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council President Gonzalez yes motion carried and moving on I believe to
I'm sorry sir and no Madam President I don't see any resol any ordinances for first reading at this time so if you'd like we can move on to public comment yes Mr garcia
can move on to public comment if I could have a public comment clipboard please okay and Madam President we have 13 individuals listed for public comment at this time um if unless there's anything further public comment will be 5 minutes
for each individual you may address any item that you wish the council is not obligated to respond please state your name and address when you approach the microphone the first individual listed is forgive me for this name Hoen Lee
thank you so you said address and name right yeah hen Lee address is 170 Ser Drive S A Y R E princeton by the way thank you
hello my name is Hoy Lee from Princeton i have been doing outreach to community organizations in Trenton about rank choice voting and I am here today to express my support for RCV in Trenton i believe that RCV is not a radical change
but a better alternative that can compensate for the pitfalls of our electoral system in a city where races have had multiple candidates RCV's guarantee of a majority winner ensures that a winning candidate actually
reflects the will of the people this will help address the issue of low voter turnout by generating a campaign where people will feel that their votes will be counted until there is a winner and with every vote now holding greater importance candidates will be
incentivized to engage closely with their community and stress similarity over difference as well rcv is a fundamental election reform remember that seven municipalities in this state have already adopted a resolution or a
trigger ordinance in support of the bills in the legislature the Municipal and Schoolboard Voting Options Act gives those municipalities the choice to use RCV if their voters desire it specifically as New York City demonstrated the majority of people
across age and education can understand RCV and how to use it as well and as the 2022 elections showed Trenton faces expensive runoff elections with low voter participation and often the absence of a true majority i
respectfully ask this council to not continue this path rcv is not about choosing sides but opening up the electoral process to level the playing field for candidates and empowering more people to participate in politics
therefore I ask you to support rank choice voting in Trenton thank you thank you hal Hamilton uh I am Hal Hamilton Jr of 415 Clearfield Avenue in Trenton and uh just to clarify I think there was some
confusion over the clipboards uh I I guess I signed the the wrong one for uh for public for public comment instead of public comment for agenda items i don't know whether you want to uh reabel those clipboards but anyway um I'm here to speak in support of ranked choice or instant runoff voting uh as far as I can
see uh rank choice voting has no downside uh in elections with more than two candidates it allows voters to vote for the candidates that they actually like the most without being forced to settle in a dishonest manner for candidates that they think have a good
chance of winning and it stops uh governments from wasting money on on runoffs some people call it confusing but you can look at sample ballots from Australia and they're perfectly understandable now uh Mr white in his presentation uh he had an example where
you where you filled in um multiple circles australia uses a slightly different version uh and and Mr white mentioned that that version is compatible with our existing voting machines uh Australia uses a slightly different method where instead of filling in multiple circles you just
write 1 two and three or however many you want to or however many numbers you want to write and I guess that wouldn't be compatible with our current uh voting machines but still in my opinion it's very very um simple for voters to understand not not confusing at all uh
so I do hope that instant runoff voting is adopted by more jurisdictions thank you thank you CJ Barbalace no no is it oh okay good
good evening my name is CJ Barbara Lacy 901 Cheston Avenue uh first I want to publicly acknowledge Councilwoman Figureroa Kenberg i was trying to get a tree cut down for 10 years i called her within two weeks the tree was gone so
thank you very much uh my issue is with parking i live in Chambersburg and the state law is 50 ft from a stop sign but the municipality has the authority to make
it 25 ft uh I have so I only have six pictures uh if [Music] you my vehicle is the third vehicle from the right i'm parked in my driveway
and I got a ticket on April 3rd for parking in my driveway well it's a state law you cannot park in your own driveway unless the municipality changes it so the women have the power and Mr harrison have the
power to change that uh if I'm to park 50 ft from this they're all basically the same picture and I'm going to need them back cuz I have to give them to a Camille Kardi cuz I'm fighting this ticket if I'm to park 50 ft from the
stop sign I live on a corner i would have to be on the other side of my driveway that's space for three vehicles and it's almost impossible in the Chambersburg section or really
anywhere in the city i got a lot of time left uh so if the council can take it under consideration to revise I think it's 39 colon
4138 to revise that to make it 25 ft from a stop sign and to allow parking in your own driveway i talked to Michael Manning and in New Jersey you cannot park in front of a private driveway unless you're the owner of the vehicle
and the owner of the house i talked to Michael Manning and he said that the parking enforcement officers don't even they can't even tell who owns that car uh so she just gave me a ticket just
for 39 years I've lived there i've never gotten a ticket for parking in front of my own driveway so I'm going to fight it my court dates in May but you do have the authority to change that law and I would appreciate
it if you do 25 ft from a stop sign and let me park in front of my driveway thank you and that's it thank you so much so thank you very much and I am going to need them back i give I got to I got to give them to Miss Cromardi
she needs it all in triplicate kathleen Deal good evening council i'm Kathleen Deal i live at 19 Greenwood Avenue i appreciate Mr bomb's presentation today i came here to talk about uh the uh felling of the trees in
Milh Hill Park and the implications with that and council vice president made a made an um a good question to Mr bomb when she asked about the procurement process i'm a procurement um and contract manager for the state so I have
a little bit of knowledge on the delegated purchasing authority and the OM circulars that regulate procurement um so there is a violation if you split the invoices for delegated purchase
authority and the OM process there is um the the city procurement person would be the person responsible for procurement uh a contractor unless it's dictated in the contract for uh them to subcontract
out for certain services it would be it would fall on the on the city to be responsible for those actions um as far as uh Mr bomb's presentation on um the fact that the trees were marked there was no communication to the public on
those trees coming down and one of my concerns is that those trees were quite mature and the benefit of mature trees to the community it it it ranges from uh helping to keep the evaporation of the
of the water in um the acipank uh it helps with um overall cooling of the of the community it helps with aesthetics but there's also a a believed uh response
when you fell a mature tree that three to 10 small trees should be going in to replace that single one tree so one of the questions I have for Mr bomb uh maybe off off record um is how many
trees are being repl how many trees are being planted to replace those single mature trees that were going in as well as uh will Mr bomb and and his team be dealing with the stumps will they be dealing with the overall implications of
if those stumps impact the retaining walls that are alongside the creek all of those things are implications of the felling of those particular trees it's not just the trees themselves there are there are broader implications with
those trees coming down so that's my my questions to to you know Mr bomb or the city but also for some clarity to the to the council's questions on procurement process and overall contract management
thank you thank you Yu i try [Music] uh hi hello um sorry my name is Yoshi i live in Princeton New Jersey um and uh I've been um organizing with the tenants
of the Kingsbury Tower um on Cooper Street Marcus Street and um unfortunately a lot of uh tenants weren't able to join us today but uh we have been um canvasing this uh um King
sorry I'm sorry i didn't mean to stop you if you just say your state your address for the record oh I didn't I didn't say that said Princeton right princeton New Jersey did you need my full address yes okay uh 32 Horner Lane
Princy okay thank you all right um yeah so um so the this uh you know the Kingsbury Towers is in pretty um atrocious conditions like u tenants constantly complain about uh the heating
being um too much or not enough and uh in in the summers like the air conditioning is on blast in the hallways but the apartments themselves they don't have air conditioning um uh there
there's no cleaning done the uh elevators break down very often there's leaks like leak is like a very serious problem and uh in in there to certain extent the management even like
acknowledges this like I think for the past couple weeks basically on a regular basis um they are shutting off the water um 9:00 a.m to like 400 p.m but like going on for even longer and um but like
this kind of band-aid is is not a fix when um uh tenants you know like they need to cook they need to clean they need to wash and they're experiencing on a weekly basis like water getting shut off um other issues is like you know
like the fire uh doors don't seem to be like really working like we were just at there and some fire doors are just like they don't open you know like that's that's a hazard that's dangerous um fire alarms will like go off very frequently
um and because it goes all so frequently you have no idea if this is an actual um you know fire going on and you're you're concerned about the safety of your um your family your friends your neighbors you know um so um so yeah I I I'll just
kind of wrap it up here because like I feel like um really it's the tenants who should be here to talk about these these issues but we're bringing this to the attention of city hall and also bringing it to the attention of the housing authority because this this issue needs
to be looked at like um it is not sufficient that the management um I think wind residential is one of the management for tower two yeah I think it's like tower two and they like um doing um renovation
for the empty units but they're not addressing the existing concerns and tenants um should have um you know the dignity to live in uh you know living decent um housing and I I mean they're
paying rent you know and and then like they're living these um really horrific conditions and and just trying to like well there's nothing to be done so like I'm going to try to
get out here but to where right like you can't really find uh decent affordable housing nowadays and um um yeah I I think that's like pretty much it so um I I don't know if this is a space where
like maybe city hall or housing authority is able to respond to some of these concerns okay if there's no like uh responses to um the um the issues that I just like brought up here um I guess like the next
steps is we'd like to find out how um we can get a meeting with the housing authority and maybe have housing inspection coming into the Kingsbury Towers thank you Mr joy if you want to um stick around some people may address
your comments during their service comments also we do have some of our directors but just for the record Kingsbury does belong to Patterson's housing authority however we do have a subcommittee who is working on um some of the issues with Kingsbury also some of the subcommittee members who are on
council so thank you so much thank you very much Councilwoman and thank you very much members of the [Music] council victory Rosari uh good evening it's a pleasure again victor Rosari 19 Morton Avenue Trenton
New Jersey uh my make my concerns usually is the drug war um Ronald Reagan right i mean not great excuse me what called the great white owl and I added to it uh the white buffalo uh Trump um he declared uh
the cartel Mexican cartel is a charitable group and also lately I realized well uh he also declared some type of war I mean drug war on uh immigrants uh gang members uh that are being sent uh out the country uh there's
a drug war that's been going on the silent drug war which is illegal drug of 1971 uh initiated by Nixon is still going on and um I am really um disappointed with our people of color in
this country who are born in this country and uh do not take advantage of uh the opportunities provided by this country through the legal system that is the voting rights and so forth uh we can blame a lot to black a lot on
the white uh white man back of the 30s 40s and 50s and uh they're um thinking of when they came over on the Mayflower and not the ship called Jesus of 1555 and that that mentality of slave
that slave mentality of course it still goes on what is what is called considered white supremacy uh my understanding is through my uh teachings I mean when studying with the Nation of Islam that uh that through racism my understanding was over in
1984 and the new world order uh began in 1985 so that mentality should be erased my point is that we a people of color right now uh uh statistics that I was studying Malcolm X and he said uh in a
in a group I said well back then 11 11% of African-Americans only 3% of them voted and that's because they want to integrate all right that's the idea of America why America is a considered uh an experiment what I consider reality
but an experiment all right it's an experiment and that experiment allows us to further make this country the closest thing to heaven possibly through of course education enlightenment philosophy but mainly with uh the Bible
and the Quran the Bible uh back to the drug war i see that uh according to uh drug policy alliance drug arrest in this country uh it's a leading country that you
nearly 1 million arrests are made for drug laws by drug laws violation each year and then incarceration rate one in five US Americans are incarcerated and uh also
uh systemic impact uh mandate drug testing harm millions nearly a quarter of US workforce is subject to employer mandate drug testing that's 38 million people and um
particularly black women with children uh seem to be required to test more than the males uh also um overdose overdose
preventable I don't have a one 105,000 007 overdose deaths in uh 2023 uh when it comes down to uh let me see what else the financial
impact 47 billion was used uh is used on average every year to fight the drug war and then also 3.3 is also used on uh along with that 3.3 is used for the DNA
uh officers uh keeping the job funding the drug and enforcement administrator DEA 202 fiscal year 2024 and uh one more I believe is here that I'd like to
share is marijuana policy Americans want marijuana legalization i understand there's 13 maybe 13 states that uh have legalized it and more all of all of it all the states need to legalize that as well as Puerto Rico now
Puerto Rico is considered a dying country is dying i didn't do the f further research i don't know why Trump just bypassed Puerto Rico polo is a transition point for drugs from South America Central America Europe and Asia
all right so that's transition point thank you oh sorry thank you thank you have a good night [Music] this is uh Adam Vasquez Gonzalez
hello yes that is correct my name is Adan Vasquez uh I live in 354 Newkerk Avenue in Hington Township i am quite disturbed at many things that has led me to come here and speak that unfortunately I have to put aside a focus on the water shortage that
happened on April 12th between the hours of 9:00 a.m and 10:11 p.m for most of the tenants in Kingsbury Towers as that is the most relevant i want the city to council members council members to listen to my words this is
unprofessional this is abuse this is exploitation of people in Kingsbury management seems to get away with whatever they want be it harassment cutting water and heat i understand that management made it known through flyers stating that the water will be cut off
from 9:00 a.m to 400 p.m they've lied i have testimonies from tenants that I requested for one of them named Yuri to speak on her behalf when I spoke to Yuri Yari about her situation she said the water was
shut off in my unit the water was shut off there was no heat as well for some parts of my unit water wouldn't return until 10:00 a.m i remind you that the flyer said 9:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m yari didn't have water in her utilities for
more than 24 hours most tenants didn't get their water back until 11:00 p.m almost 14 to 15 hours the people couldn't bathe couldn't use the toilet the tub couldn't cook couldn't wash and clean couldn't drink water i want to see
the city council members and housing authority to penalize uh the Kingsbury management that they cannot keep getting away with this if you do not penalize then they will be incentivized to repeat this these
mistakes that is all thank you so much asante Walker good evening members of the city council my name is Asante Walker proud native of the historic city of Trenton i stand before you today with one pressing question my address uh could you have
your address 70 San Hagen Drive thank you i stand before you with one pressing question when will the black agenda come first today I present a proposed bill for your review and passage titled the African-American
Justice Bill excuse me i'm just a little nervous is that right this legislation is designed to bring rightful and long overdue attention to the monumental contributions of African-Americans in this city i feel personally that we are not
paid attention to um that our history um and dedication to this city is not being recognized from the Williams Hedgepath Board vers uh board of education to the Trenton 6 to our connections to
slavery even Trenton being the first to have our own Black Wall Street it's not being noticed and I plead with this council today just plead with this council today that we would make appropriate steps to
move forward and recognize the great contributions to keep our history in our children's education and also to start to bring attention to those who are suffering in our communities that don't have a voice
that won't ever come before this council and speak there needs to be some attention and some accountability for for our residents that are not coming here and talking about housing dis uh
discrimination and in inequality um and it's not even some of our structures in the city don't even look habitable they don't even look worthy to live in i have a mother myself who lived in the Oakland Street apartments and her unit was
beyond terrible holes in her floor mold and what does the Trenton Housing Authority do they don't answer they don't come to the waken attention to their residents they leave the problems like they are and that's not fair so I
plead with this council to start bringing more attention to our African-American residents in this city because we demand it and we demand change today thank you so much austin Edwards
Robin Vaughn Hi I'm Robin Vaughn 1100 Styverend Avenue Trenton New Jersey i just wanted to come this evening to address the council on a few issues that have you
know that is concerning my community number one I want to uh ask a question about who ordered the sign to come down on Britain Avenue i was uh told that that sign was
ordered to come down because council members said that there was some expiration date on the resolution we name streets all across this city Cycle King Way we name Reverend uh
Woodson Boulevard these names have been you know a staple in our community for decades we don't take street signs down here's a resolution that was passed a memorandum from the former law
director that did a background check on this individual and his wonderful family that the street was named after and their contribution to the city of Trenton and the West Ward where they lived actually the mayor honored uh
Bishop Charles Brinsen with an appreciation at the Sam Naples Center had a great celebration for the gentleman and everything and then he decided to go and take down the
sign who on the council told the community that there was an expiration date on the resolution there was no such expiration date that was not supposed to take but had was not supposed to been taken down within a year's time and secondly I wanted to
address the many appointed officials and some elected officials who are operating with impunity in this city we're talking about unlawful contracts and
usurpation of the open uh contracts law and I want to council to rice director Maria Richardson and get an full investigation on her role in the contract that was
supposed to uh remediate Stacy Park i want that investigation to span back to 2011 when supposedly she allegedly uh filed a a lawsuit a a wrongful
termination lawsuit we can't find many records on that lawsuit but the city paid out over a half a million dollars on it for some of the same activity she claims that she didn't really understand today in 2025
so I have asked all law all law enforcement agencies at every level of our government to investigate these contracts from the prosecutor at the
Mercer County Prosecutor's Office the state attorney general and the US attorney general's office Alina Haba this malfeasence cannot continue the
same investigation should go to um Steve Wilson as well over at the Trenton Police Department you have a grant right now that was allocated for a certain project and you're saying that you're going to
reallocate the funds you got a bond on the water department you got a 55 million budget deficit i hope the mayor is not planning on using that bond over at the water department to fund his budget okay i hope
not so Trenton Waterworks have to remain selfquidating and it should not be fleeced to cover of shortfalls of this city budget so where's the mayor is going to get that money he can't go to the school
district he can't go to the housing authority where is he going to go but I just want to encourage the council to do your job rice these directors they're operating with
impunity rice Maria Richet fire her and do the same thing for Steve Wilson and I land my plane thank you thank you Eric Gaskin
Caroline [Music] Clark good evening council good evening Tranonians so when I came to the last council meeting I had some questions about the
$200,000 contract that did not go out to bid and Councilwoman Edwards directed me to the March 18th YouTube recording of council meeting so I went and I listened and I watched that council
meeting miss Clark Can you just state your address please i apologize it's 1812 Riverside Drive so after watching that video I have more questions than I had before I came last
time so I just sat here but my first question is now moot because council just passed a resolution authorizing the illegal
contract so my concern is that there was not one single one amongst you who thought you should not approve that contract
the contract was illegally awarded and passing a resolution doesn't make it legal it only makes you all complicit in the corruption
so we elected council to be here to serve as a check on the mayor not his choir and what you all just did was you unanimously sang you unanim
unanimously endorsed the corruption that the mayor and his administration engaged in so we didn't send you there to make the mayor's illegal acts legal your job is
to hold him accountable and there was none of that that happened here my next question is how many installment payments were made on that contract how many times did the the the
PA or our business administrator Richardson how many times did they sign off on those contracts i want to remind you all that there are city employees up in federal court for theft of
$5,000 and here we're talking about $200,000 okay so I only want to know why you all think that this should be treated any differently we have um an article that
says that BA Richardson knew the people to whom the contract was awarded we have another article that told us that she in 2011 had experience with the
illegality of splintering contracts okay and so in the 2011 article she was cited as saying she's not going to splinter the contracts because she's not going to go to jail
but in this instance she splintered the contract for her friends and nobody thinks she should go to jail nobody thinks there should be at a minimum an
investigation the investigation should have happened prior to council signing off on that resolution nobody here is interested in knowing if there was pay to play for example i
didn't bring that up ba Richardson did on the tape i think she's signaling y'all okay so my final word is the corruption in
this city needs to stop it's getting to be too expensive for Tranonians we can't afford it thank you capri Baylor Boiler precious Crawford
hi I'm Precious Crawford i live at 128 Mercer Street i am here for the safety of Trenton i am speaking on the safety of Trenton as a mother of in this city I just want to I see Let me congratulate i see all the nice parks and I am in love
with it taking my kids to the park I want to know that my kids are safe i see I can get tickets and I see that we got good jobs i'm I'm I'm happy about that too i'm coming up here happy but I do want to know what are we going to do in these
parks in the summertime when we already know how dangerous our city is the same way that we have parking authorities that can come and give us tickets are we going to have park authorities we're going to have somebody
in those parks to make sure that I'm safe with my kids in that park any park not just C water not just Mil Hill but I want to be able to go I call it Hess i'm trying to think of the East Trenton park i want to be able
to go to any park in this city when I go to Cooper Park and say "Oh you know what this a nice park i like to see this ride come on let's get on here are we going to be safe?" Because just the tragedy that happened this week make me feel unsafe i know it have nothing to do with y'all
but I know it has everything to do with this city with the policing in this city if our police presence was here a little bit stronger I heard uh Councilwoman Williams asking just can we get oneonone because a lot of people don't want to be
seen in public because they're scared it's it's frightening as a parent in this city that I cannot walk in this city to take my kids downtown that is frightening but I can
drive in this city that has no parking and get a parking ticket when I come out of a store trying to feed my kids so I'm just trying to see if we're going to have the same way that we have put in parking authority and I'm glad that it's getting money for the city i I know I
didn't paid enough of parking tickets in this city just spend on my street so I understand I don't have a driveway to pull into i just get the ticket and just say whatever I'm going to pay it i just say it's going to go there but for our children I should have been here for the
last meeting that I just seen up on the uh thing I didn't I wasn't aware of for the school our kids need to be safe our kids need to feel safe are I'm I heard I'm not sure about the
uh what's the word that I'm looking for they were giving counsel to the kids because of the young girl who had passed with her mom i don't know if it's just that school or is it all schools but everybody is scared because everybody didn't heard of it so I don't think it's
just one school because of that's the kid school that that that's the school that the kid went to i think it should be all schools should be having some type of counsel besides G guidance counselors that's always there that's overworked they need somebody to come and talk to and say you know what I'm
scared these things are happening at home and I'm also scared so that's my thing about the and I heard about the summer programs and I'm still looking forward to that to knowing where I'm going to be able to put my kids at in the summertime because
as us as working moms we need somewhere to be able to put our kids and it's not a safe I don't feel safe to sit down and say I'm going to leave them here and there's so much going on i just want to
address the safety of our city that's what I came to say thank you'all all for being here thank you so much and Madam President those are all the individuals I have for public comment at this time uh if it's your wish you can
move to civic comment um yes please um Councilwoman Williams please thank you very much ma'am um so the first uh thing I just want to say um as Miss Crawford just mentioned uh it's been a very rough week in the state so if we can keep uh
particularly uh Malikica Whiting uh the mother of Ja Biggs who is only 13 years of age they were both murdered this past weekend um please keep them and their family rest of their family and their friends in your thoughts um and we will
hope that we can prevent uh acts like this in the future and I know the city is actually to your point ma'am uh offering counseling and I have an announcement to make uh thank you Dr manapelli um so due to the traumatic events that have been happening our city
uh recently uh the department of health and human services is offering counseling uh at the Jenny Stubblefield Senior Center located at 301 Prospect Street uh it uh will be tomorrow night from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m uh there was also offered this evening from 5 to 8:00 p.m
uh transportation can be provided to folks by calling 609989-3463 that's [Music] 609989-3463 and Mercer County a therapist will be available for support services from the county so please share that information with folks it's really
important so I'll try to be as as efficient as possible um so coming up with dealing with crime issues I'd like to invite everybody please spread the word we have our North Ward Citizens Police Advisory Council meeting in two nights uh it's
going to be at Galilee Baptist Church 440 Martin Luther King Boulevard uh from 5:30 to 7 uh excuse me it's 5:30 to 7 pm uh we're blessed to have our new Mercy County prosecutor uh Judge Janetta Marberry uh she took office just earlier
earlier this year um and she will be talking about what the prosecutor's office does offering information we can ask questions also the Trenton Police Department will be there the community relations team that we spoke about earlier fire department's also in attendance to talk about concerns from
the fire department as well as the Trenton community tree teams who do much in the city so please uh join us if you can this Thursday night uh and then next month we'll be going back to our usual uh third Wednesday of the month meetings uh just wanted to uh also add that uh
just last week on April 9th we had uh two very uh beautiful moving ceremonies to uh remember and commemorate the end of the Civil War 165 years because we have uh Civil War veterans and uh soldiers who were killed in action uh
buried at uh at um Mercer Cemetery there's over 200 uh buried there including a Medal of Honor recipient as well as there are Civil War soldiers African-American uh regiments that were buried at Locust Hill Cemetery on Hart Avenue so um
there's also uh Civil War uh veterans buried at Riverview Cemetery hopefully uh going forward uh we can make April 9th uh the end of the civil war an annual commemoration in Trenton since we have so many and we can include and
maybe alternate uh the different cemeteries each year as that's really really important for us to remember our history as we've spoken earlier uh also um I wanted to mention uh the issue of Kingsbury uh look forward I like to
catch up with Mr shin and Mr vasquez uh in a bit because we have been doing a lot to try to help that situation in the past years of renovations i'd like to hear about the current problems you spoke about uh later as the northward council person i' uh look forward to chatting with you uh additionally I've
been getting some complaints uh from constituents about the conditions of our taxis as well as uh the taxi system and form of payment um we need to work with the administration because uh some of the drivers are not accepting credit
cards or uh debit cards and uh some of the uh drivers the conditions of their vehicles are in poor shape so we need to make sure that that is uh not occurring because tranonians desire deserve a fair and sha safe ride no matter where
they're going in the city and they also we need to make sure they're not being refused service because of their destination because a lot of tronians do rely on taxis every day because of parking issues and because of the expense of those uh items um so finally
I just also um want to address uh parks with um you know what Miss Crawford spoke earlier um if you can maybe at the end of the meeting speak with Mr harris he's in charge of our parks but um and maybe he can share you can share your
views further with him but also he can give you some more information what's planned our parks are very safe i can tell you uh George Page Park which is in East Trenton is a good safe one to go to we have some great things happening helil uh park pool and the field working
on baseball there but Hatel Pool is a phenomenal pool for your children i I was there last summer so please make sure you bring them we have excellent lifeguards city residents so it's all things that you can enjoy and safe enjoy i look forward to chatting with you thank you and God bless everybody
councilman Harrison um my prayers go out to the Whiting and the Bigs family um just to hear that what happened it just break anybody's heart um just so sad uh violence is never good and it and um this city needs
healing truly does um like to thank the director um Minnipelli his the animal shelter he had they gave out it was 100 plus to the dogs and cats food at the animal shelter wonderful event thank you so much and um I would like to thank all
the um new animal welfare advisory board members thank you for stepping forward and um stepping up for this great city um and appreciate everybody on this council and everybody for coming out and let's continue to work to move the city forward thank you thank you Councilwoman
Frisbee thank you Council President so good night uh good evening to everyone i want to start with congratulating all the five members that were uh approved to for the animal um control board so congratulations to them we appreciate
the work that they're going to be doing we appreciate them working with our health department um and uh all the work that has been being taken place on behalf of the uh animals in our city i want to thank um those who came out to speak this
evening about rank choice voting i know many of them have left but thank you again for coming out um and just sharing um ideas and there it takes progress it takes time for folks to get used to things but if we don't um at least pay
attention to it hear it we'll get left behind um we change comes and it's every day whether you're ready for it or not but it is coming um my sympathy my heart um condolences go
out um with the Walker and the um White family i've been uh I appreciate that that I've been tapped to work with them during this time of bereavement and uh I will continue to do just that until we get them um to a place where
they are um settled in this uh unfortunate um process i want to bring also to our attention that April is autism awareness month as you probably saw when you walked into our atrium um you saw the balloons and they have um placards down there for as educational
pieces um so thank you to our uh city for making sure that that is brought to the forefront but April is also sexual awareness month i happen to be a co-founder of an organization called Rosa which is rising over sexual abuse we had our walk on this past Saturday
and I just ask folks to hold your family members is not just children but especially our children close you don't know what's going on please don't leave your young girls around grown men that are not their biological father um
you just can't um and even just loved ones you have to just be um very aware what's going on acting out is not mean that you have a child who is being difficult it might mean that that child individual is trying to get your attention to give you um clues that they
need to speak to you maybe quietly i wanted to address the many concerns that came to us this evening about Kingsbury we've been working on um working with that project for quite some time now and is disappointing to hear
what um is transpiring um that has been allegedly transpiring and so um that is something that we will bring to the attention of those who we meet with um during the month um please don't think that that has fallen on deaf ears we will take that in um up with them
ticketing in our city in our community is a thorn we are just we we we've got to get a balance we're doing great that we are bringing um we're trying to get the city in order so folks are not parking just anywhere when they want to but we also have to get balance where
the residents don't feel like they can't park anywhere they don't want to come out because of the fear of coming out to a ticket um we want it to be where folks want to be here want and have a know that they have a place but we want to make sure that it's done in decency and it is done in order and so that there's
a balance so we've got to find that uh in here um I wanted to say to Mr um Asante Walker he left here but I did want to thank him for giving us um the folder with his black agend agenda i will be sure to read it and share I'd
like to just see what his views are with that I want to thank everybody for coming out especially our directors i want to thank all of you who came out to um just be here voice your opinions thank you for being here each and every one of you thank you to um DCA our law
department our uh administrators right in front thank you all for being out here this evening and I did not address our parks and yes parks should be safe for our children at all times no matter where they are in our city every park every child deserves and has a right to be safe so thank you for bringing that
to our attention part of our city's mission statement is recognizing that the people of Trenton have made us guardians of the public trust we are committed to govern with integrity and fiscal responsibility to seek excellence in the city's operations and to serve all the city's people with respect and
compassion thank you and everyone get home safely thank you Councilwoman Figueroa Kittenberg thank you good evening everybody um just want to say it's good to be back