[Music] you and just ask her if she's able to turn on her [Music] camera okay are you because I just disabled it for everybody I don't know maybe because
you're a co-host and audio [Music] yeah sure no problem so um Mr Garcia I think we're ready yes certainly council
president city of Trenton Council excuse me city of trendon council meeting March 8th 20 March 18th 2025 is now call the order please stand and salute the flag I pledge allegiance to to the flag of the United States of America and to
the repblic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with the open public meetings act pursuant to public laws 19 75 chapter 231 this agenda is complete to the extent known and was
sent to the Trenton Times And The Trentonian newspapers posted on the first floor Bing board in City Hall filed in the city clerk's office and posted on the city of Trenton website formal action will be taken roll call vice president Edwards
present councilwoman Feliciano present councilwoman figuro kenberg present thank you councilwoman frisbee me I said pres wasn't me on there thank you councilman
Harrison on his way councilwoman Williams president present council president Gonzalez presente myself Brandon Garcia municipal clerk pres legislative counsel Mr Edward kogi and City attorney Mr West
Bridges thank you and Madame President if you'd like I can read the invocation at this time please certainly almighty God who holds the fate of man and Nation we most humbly beseech thee to bless this our city these deliberations and these thy servants that they may act with wisdom
and understanding for the good of our community and thy greater glory amen amen and Madame President as I understand it there is a presentation this evening it is a Stacy listed of Stacy Park update and this will be given by our interm director of recreation Mr
Paul Harris yes thank [Music] you good evening Mr Harris good evening can we set this for 10 minutes certainly with the hopes that we don't go
over good evening Mr Harris a couple of our council members just wanted to ask a couple of questions sure okay um I know councilwoman Feliciano had a question thank you council president you're welcome thank you good evening Mr Harris good
evening so when it comes to Stacy Park and and um and thank you for coming here tonight and council president thank you for allowing uh the presentation to happen um just for backdrop quickly over the weekend I received uh a phone call
and a text message from a reporter um who was asking or wanted to connect with me about questions about Stacy Park and had mentioned that a member of the administration had actually given her my personal cell number um to call me on
the phone I did not respond to anything um it was not appreciated that my personal number was even given out in the first place so me being me we bring it here on public record so we can have the conversation so that we can can find
out exactly what is happening um with regard to Stacy Park and the work that was done first I'm going to say the river looks great wonderful um where we have spoken to
constituents um in that area they have said that they appreciate everything that has been done they feel safer and and the like so we we get through that part now it comes down to a matter of procedure if you could just tell the
council what is the process for for a job like that what was the process that was followed when it came to um dealing with that vendor was there a contract did you bid what happened tell us the process about that so the process is we
receive proposals and those proposals are considered and then if they're accepted they're ented in the system and then a purchase is issued that's the process okay so when in the case of Stacy Park did you ask for proposals were proposals
asked for to do the work at Stacy Park we received yes we received proposals to do the work at Stacy Park so you put out a RFP the city put out a RFP RFP is not the right okay so I'm asking what what was put out publicly so what we said is
we're looking for work to be done at Stacy Park we describe the work and we receive proposals and then we if we accepted those we into the system where did you put the word out that you were looking for work done at Stacy park with vendors who do business with the Department on a
regular basis okay so you solicited to you put it out to bidder to vendors directly you didn't put this out to the public that you were looking correct okay and when this vendor so when the vendor was selected to do the work
nothing ever came before a council for us to vote on if I recall correctly um for us to to say that this was adequate or anything about payments to the vendor why why was that so there were two items that did come to council
okay we have uh two tree companies Rich tree and fair tree those items are tree services provided throughout the city of Trenton council did in fact approve those resolutions okay were there any work that was done at Stacy Park that council did not
approve there was work yes those smaller proposals that we received each indivi each proposal being under the bid threshold 44,000 yes under the bid threshold of 44,000 how many of
those came in well there are two other companies that were involved yes what I'm saying is for the vendor that we selected to do the job right so yes how much did we pay the vendor to do the job over at Stacy Park
the one that was selected how much did we pay not the tree man not the how much did we pay the vendor that was selected to do the work Al together in total Al together in total is
$195,000 $195,000 So that exceeds a $44,000 threshold it it exceeds the but each individual by itself does not the aggregate is an issue of course right but each individual item does not okay so
$195,000 paid to the same vendor who wasn't presented to council how much did each job cost that the vendor did to get us to 195,000 the average was 19,000 so
the average was $199,000 m and there's nothing that's says excuse me um that if an aggregate if it builds to the same vendor that there would be anything incorrect about that I'm just
saying do I need to ask legal on that so if the threshold is 44,000 for a for a job or for a vendor like how does how does that work um Maria Richardson business administrator um the law sees a two
different things right uh when it comes to agregate procurement law in New Jersey um when it comes to the vendor itself you can if it's over
175 uh you need to look at two numbers 17,500 for payto playay regulations right um if the vendor has made any political contributions after
17,500 those whatever services or they need to be procured but we get certifications from the vendors I have not uh made any political contributions that it's one number that we need to look the other number when it comes to
aggregate that we look is at Services uh line items um if we are talking about emergency tires for example um if it's one that it doesn't
have anything to do with the vendor itself but with the service or good that we are acquiring so that number will be 44,000 but it doesn't have anything to do with the vendor but with the service
that we are uh providing um I have to say that in the case of any vendor for the city right before they even make it to the system to the Ed system there are uh documents that we
need to provide to purchasing like we need to provide a certificate um of a business a business registration certificate and uh we also need to
provide W9 so formed so every time that we uh put a vendor a new vendor in the system that is information that we need to provide in terms of the aggregate is like I said we consider the aggregate
for the vendor in terms of pay-to-play regulations and the aggregate for the services in terms of the services doesn't nothing to do with the vendor itself so thank you for that so would you say that a resolution still should
have come before Council for any of this as as we have moved along through this process um yes if we consider that you know the aggregate was over the $44,000 my understanding is that what was considered at the time was the
phases not the aggregate that there were the job was done in several phases and uh then you know it was the misunderstanding that because each phase was under the
threshold you didn't need a resolution but the truth is that because of the aggregate at certain point it need to come before the council okay thank you so let me ask you this um I'm sorry you
mentioned the edmin system I I've worked with the edmin system as and I worked in the finance department and everything so I kind of get how it works when it came to this process and all of this like with the vendors and everything like that when the purchase orders were put in for payment and everything um what is
the level of um of approval that is done in the edmin system so for these POS that happened who authorized all of this to happen was it one level authorization two level authorization how did that work no there is usually a three level authorization in the system um usually
you have home is responsible in each department for logging in requisitions then you have a second level that is usually the department director and then the purchasing well it depends sometimes
it's four levels when you are using uh Grant uh capital or trust accounts then somebody else in finance also needs to approve um the requisition and then the
last level it's uh with then purchasing okay so when the POS were put into the system before you know everybody saw this it wasn't one or two people it was different levels that approved the work to keep going with these phases and
everything that is correct and the thing is that um sometimes even um different words trigger a different level like and I will give you an example is if I use in my invoice um
tires and uh in another invoice I use pneumatics it's it looks like it's two different services so the system nobody's you know trying to do that purposely but the system would not recognize that you are doing the same
you know uh trying to acquire the same services or the same Goods okay so it's a lot of details um and yeah [Music] whatever sometimes you need to go back
and and put a resolution after the fact or need to cure whatever error was made okay thank you Mr Harris thank you Beav I don't know if I'm G need you again with the next question so I remember
when we were walking um along the the river and I was talking about the park that I wanted to put at the end and was asking about right near the apartments and everything and it was stated that we had a consulting company that works with us that would have to look at that and
see if it was okay when it comes to permits and everything for everything that was supposed to be done for the work in Stacy Park were we supposed to have permits or anything for that work to be done so the answer from D's perspective is yes okay but the answer
on the city side is historically if you go back they'll tell you that we've we did not seek permits when we this 20 years ago we did not so the question is is not us ignoring the letter of the law is what has our past practice been and our past practice has been when we've
cleared Stacy Park and unfortunately it tends to be every 15 or 20 years um it it's not salt but that's exactly that's an honest answer so when we have the consulting company that we use was the consulting company do we pay them to
tell us you need a permit for this we don't need a permit like is that in their purview of what we pay them for they are licensed in all manner of areas so the answer is yes so they knew that we needed to have permits and no one said that we should have had them
because historically we just don't do it but we still pay them to advise us that we need to have permits I don't know I would categorize it that way but we we acted based on past precedent that's what we that's what we did that's the
best answer I can give you but we do have a company on pay on standby to advise us on when permits are necessary for all manner of projects correct how much do we pay them um the last contract was $450,000 $450,000 and now we have a whole D
debacle about permits that we should have been told to get but historically we didn't do it so why would we bother thank you director Harris I appreciate that thank you madam president I'm done with my questions thank you um councilwoman Williams thank you ma'am um
Mr I just have a simple question uh some of the reporting I've seen um had different amounts of uh the amount of land that was actually worked on including one I saw this had a mile long stretch of Stacy park now to my knowledge Stacy Park does not run for a
full mile maybe I'm wrong but um just roughly how how much acreage was actually worked upon so Stacy Park is exactly 32 acres and we worked on roughly 32 acres of land okay thank you very much appreciate
that thank you thank Madam president Council vice president thank you uh good evening Mr Harris good evening uh thank you for joining us this evening um I just want to say first and foremost uh I agree that the Waterfront looks
beautiful and it was um I'm not going to say maybe a job well done but it does look beautiful um I did Express concerns about that being a flood plane area and and ask what the city plans to do to
mitigate the flooding going forward um a lot of times vegetation and trees and things stops flooding and even hurricane winds and things like that so it but I didn't get any updates as to whether there was a plan to plant new trees
along the Waterfront and then fast forwarding now we have the d report that basically asks for the same type of plan so where is the administration with establishing and implementing a plan so
uh I just want to be clear to everybody when we started this it was it was always Our intention to do this next step it'd be crazy for us to go and do what we did and leave it it's basically like a mud zone so you cleared it it was
a jungle was overgrowth for 20 years we was clear properly no trees living trees were killed any was dead dying and disease trees so now that you've done that DP now is reviewing
what our draft restoration plan is and that includes these phases it includes grading if possible lightly it includes uh hydr seating it also includes um what we
call a license bringing a license applicator in to address any kind of uh invasives you need to address invasives if you have a garden at home basically you know you can't plant if you have weeds right so you know but all that requires D making sure first of all you
have the right process you have the right vendor but I need to be Crystal Clear what you see now and we've said this in the video on Facebook last year that this is done in phases phase one is completed phase two now is okay bring it up a d approved vendor in and going
through each one of these phases and if you ask me what the park will look like when it's all done it'll be like a metal there will be new trees you'll be able to see the Waterfront and the argument that we've made and it's important because I think it's being lost you drive up and down this Coast every
Community has access to their water so why shouldn't we and people have been complaining for years rightfully so so we did is we took action and this is the result it just takes time there was no way to do what we did and then come in there during that particular season and
then do Hydro Seating it's a delicate process I just wanted to make that clear and it's going to take some time and Hydro Seating it can you explain elaborate with that is so what's going to so what you have is imagine somebody with a um a hose on their you know and
it's basically seed um we're baking holes with water mixed with seeds and um fertilizer and we're spraying it it sometimes it looks green sometimes it looks blue and what happens is after you've tilled the ground and
made it so that it would adhere you're spraying that all around and then what you're doing is you're coming in and you're maintaining in water you'll learn you'll find that EPA did the same thing with our lead remediation at various sites in the city if you go to East Trenton Library if you go to Bruning Avenue Park if you go to uh the if you
go to uh my God the park behind North Clinton Sunny Marine that grass has grown and has come in because what you did is you close it off you water it and it you know it's perfect okay but it's it's a process I need to explain it's a process and that's just grass oh no it's
so no it's more than grass we need so what you have now is like I said you want to stop the sedimentation so you want something to grow and sort of bind the soil right okay so that the grass and other items are going to do that and then we're going to bring in some other
trees to do that as well but what we're not going to do is we're not going to have a jungle ever again that's what I can tell you awesome thank you and have you guys created when when you made the assessment on what you were going to
remove from the area was there some type of inventory taken of all the trees the dead trees that were removed or diseased trees that were removed and whatever other vegetation was over there well the vendors who do the tree companies that were responsible for removing trees not
brush yes in their invoices they were crystal clear as to what is being removed uh and the the the quantity yes okay can I request that information that's just the invoice of course of course the invoice that the companies provided what was the company oh the companies that I mentioned were Rich
tree and fair tree they're the ones who did the business when it comes to tree removal okay and in terms of the D saying that a lot of the dirt that was brought in being washed away can you explain that yeah so I think that the
issue we have again is uh misinterpretation of the letter that was received so there was never any dirt I'm sorry there was never any soil brought in doesn't make any sense to bring any soil into the area that's definitely illegal so you know no soil was brought
in now again even when it comes to grading we're going to have to get the permission because what you want to do is it's currently very hilly but they're going to have to sign off they may determine that listen this is how it's going to be the current topography if they say that's what it is that's what it'll be and then we'll just do the best
of what we have but now we didn't bring any soil and the letter also mentioned something about uh structures there's no structures that were put there in place right and so but the River Bank is still um solid it's not eroded or anything like that it's not washing away I can't
the river bank is solid yes the sooner we have D sign off on what we've SYM them and we have have a vendor in place the better off we'll be because you want to lock that in as you said earlier very right smartly um vegetation locks the
soil in place that's the most important thing we can do at this point and we have a plan and a tight timeline to do that what is the timeline the timeline is where if DP responds to our thing we're going to begin within the next couple weeks okay and is that going to take long or is that no process the idea
of work is this you have a you identify a vendor that's on a state list is the best way to operate business is to find a CO a co-op and a vendor that's on that list actually an approved D vendor and then from there we'll go from there and then they'll come in and they'll do the job if you know we might we definitely
will come to council uh for approval if it's over the threshold okay and is there any type of remediation necessary with this aggregate amount of $195,000 that would be required to come before Council
I'm sorry Council vice president could you please repeat that question I was asking if there is any type of remediation that would be necessary that you would be required to come before Council to yes we actually need to put a resolution indicating the amount of
money that we spent okay all right thank you so we're correct um for for a specific vendor there are two vendors the ones that uh were in charge of removing the dead trees is those are
already under resolutions that you approve last year I think um yes 2024 so those are still under contract but there is one that the one that we exceeded the aggregate that we need to bring before you okay and what
was so rich tree Fair tree was the one that removed the dead trees who was the other vendor the other vendor is NE and they removed the vegetation they removed the vegetation and they yes they
removed the [Music] vegetation okay thank you thank you so much thank you council president no problem thank you Mr gar thank you Mr Harris so much
for being in front of us this evening certainly council president at this time um that's my understanding that you'd like to consider or have the council consider a spef a particular member on a resolution for Z consideration on zoning
board yes I believe we have Mr Mar Jones present yes M Jones if you want to come up to the podium are there any council members that wish to ask Miss Jones any questions and council president just so
just for the council's benefit we have given you uh Miss Jones resume and letter of uh letter of interest on the days as [Music] well I'm sorry that's sorry always give everybody else a chance to ask first so
go ahead councilman Williams thank you uh thank you for coming Miss Jones and uh wanting to serve our city on the zoning board so um I know what we have here uh and thank you for providing uh your resume and your letter of interest but if you could tell us ver BL for you
know anyone watching or here tonight why do you want to serve the city of Trenton on the zoning board um I feel that my desire to help make Trenton better um coupled with my desire to learn makes me a viable candidate um I'm
born and raised in Hiltonia I'm 37 years old so I don't know much about zoning but I feel like this would be a good starting point for me okay and then uh as an alternate uh you I'm sure you
understand that you wouldn't automatically be able to vote at meetings but you could definitely observe the meetings and should you know we have uh situation one meeting we had several people get the flu or during covid got Co so they had to miss so all of our alternates actually had to to fill in so that would be a situation
you're comfortable with yes most definitely all right um that's all my questions uh I was also a zoning Board member for a long time I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and I have a feeling you will so thank you very much ma'am thank
you anyone else Council vice president thank you madam president um good evening Miss Jones thank you for joining us um I I definitely appreciate your interest in joining the zoning board we definitely
need more people um more alternates um because we have been having issues with some of our boards with meeting quorums and things like that so I appreciate you stepping up um while I understand that you don't have an extensive knowledge
about the zoning board can you elaborate on any basic knowledge that you may have um and whether you have attended any prior meetings or anything like that okay so I did take it upon myself to research responsibilities of a zoning
Board member um I did come across that they hear appeals as Miss Jennifer said um reviewing zoning applications they Ensure compliance with local ordinances I know that they conduct public hearings and they make decisions
on different variances okay and so besides you know wanting to see the city get better and getting involved um what would you say because zoning you know is is a very
important board in the city you know they are the ones that are responsible for saying what goes where you know coinciding with the planning board as well and our Land Development ordinances um so what would you say is
the like a most pressing thing for you um I know I came to one meeting and there were quite a few people here that were upset that a halfway house was going to be put in M
Hill things like that I don't agree with so so hopefully I know that I won't be able to vote per Miss Jin said but hopefully moving forward I can help with not allowing
things like that to happen because I do not agree with that at all and that's just one particular instance that and I know that there are dispensaries popping up all over the place I attended another meeting where there was a dispensary um being put across the
street from a church there were a lot of people here that were very upset about that I'm also in agreeance with things like that not happening okay okay thank you you're welcome thank you Miss Jones
okay can we move to may I have a motion to vote on res uh resolution 25-11 so move second [Music] roll call vice president Edwards
yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion
carried thank you congratulations congratulations and Madame President uh moving on we've reached a point of public comment for agenda items only uh if I could have the public comment clipboard for agenda items only and to the Public Public comment
will be five five minutes for each individual this period is reserved for uh could I have the other public comment uh clipboard please that's the one
again you may address anything on the docket that you wish at this time Madame President we do not have anybody listed for public comment for docket items only I'll call a last call for Public public comment for docket items
only seeing no one Madame President if I can move on with the agenda for something that's on here on the agenda I'm sorry um yeah okay this this for an item that's on the docket is this something that's already on our docket I'm not even sure is the
docket that listed here I let's see what you got there okay and just show me what it is that you're what you want to speak on oh yeah you so okay all right so if you're listening for ordinances um then there will be well no
this is first reading in public first reading yes feel free sir go ahead yes go ahead thank you if you would just uh give me State your name state your name and address for the record you'll have 5 minutes to address what you wish address in relationship to the document your
name and address period to yours location yes where I reside where you reside yes name Joshua VGA reside 26 Timberlane will bro New Jersey 08046 um I can just speak
right can you can you just speak into the microphone thank you can you repeat that for us please name Joshua Vega address 26 timberlan Willingboro New Jersey 08046 thank you okay um I want to speak
to the ordinance that's listed here 25-11 this is a reference to the uh vacant lot of 14 Ward Avenue um I believe this will be addressed today but I just want to bring up my comments or concern I stayed on Ward Avenue for
about since 2008 um lot has been vacant since which me or my brother a local residents happen to maintain right at this current time it's a tree that's uh very old that's been falling down on a property I own across from it so I would like to you know obtain the landine
right clean it up and get it ready to be able to be attached to the property on 12 w Avenue so that's my goal in particularly that outside of that I'm not sure how the dollar values are articulated or inut on this I believe on orig original document I indicated the
total budget of 5,000 so I don't know how that'll be considered as you walk through or talk through that um I think I would consider something a little less in the event that you know in purchase since that was the total budget um should I continue okay yeah
okay outside of that um the other document that lists me which is 25-14 I believe that might be a type of graphical error because um uh initially it was supposed to be for 11 W Avenue that was a property prior own um and owned by Keith Marshall which I found
out then in time I found out that Trenton actually owns the property as I done my research so now it's Tren on property uh I found that out about four to five months ago after uh dealing with title work um that particular property happened to have fallen shingles debris
everything falling apart so because I own a few properties within that particular area on that street I would like it to have you know the visual appealing and bring that property up the speed being a local um investor and Trenton native that's all I have okay
that's well it's no it's it's this one yeah 14 Ward Avenue on 25 days thank you sir thank you thank you on your call Madam
President we can Ros hold on one second certainly you got it it was corrected here oh was that the cheat sheet the cheat sheet probably is not correct yeah yeah okay thank you yes we can
proceed certainly Madame President moving on with the agenda at this time if you would like to ask for a motion to approve uh Communications may I have a motion to approve commun iations
second thank you roll call vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes
council president Gonzalez yes motion Carri and Madame President moving on with ordinances for second reading and public hearing yeah um so Mr Garcia if we can I
believe that these are for 10year terms okay um so I just wanted to make sure that we put that um maybe change the title and correct this with that amendment that it would be 10year terms for these
uh for the for the uh Pate agreement okay you're ask are you asking me to is that a motion to amend the title of 25-9 may I have a motion to amend the title 25-9 second Madame President prior to
the um you know what I'll defer the solicitor can we take that motion now or do I have to wait until um after the public hearing understood thank you it's been moved in second I'm sorry it was motioned by Gonzalez second by Feliciano
thank you very much uh roll call vice president Edwards yes counc Feliciano yes councilwoman figuro kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman
Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried for the amendment to the title and Madam president U excuse me I'll go ahead and read the title now um as it's
written ordinance 25-9 an ordinance approving the application of final agreement for a long-term tax exemption and authorizing a settlement agreement with the ler urban renewal limited partnership for Block
18202 lot one on the official tax map of the city of Trenton um are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time for a 10 years for a 10year term so we add that for a 10year term that's
okay my apologies for a 10year term are there members of the public wish to speak to this ordinance at this time I see none Madam president if you want to ask for a motion to approve the ordinance as amended maybe have a motion to approve soov
second roll call Council vice president Edwards yes councilman Feliciano yes councilman Figo kenberg yes Council frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez
yes motion carried ordinance 25-01 so in ordinance approv I'm sorry Mr Garcia the same thing for um 25-1 can we amend that to also State the 10-year term agreement certainly is that a motion may
I have a motion to amend 25- 010 to include 10 10 year term so second thank you thank you roll call vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes
councilwoman Figo kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried I'll read that title as well ordinance 25- 010 an ordinance approv
approving the application of final agreement for a long-term tax exemption with realy management Trenton urban renewal LLC and IOP Pennington urban renewal LLC for Block 4201 lot one on the official tax map of
the city of Trenton for a 10-year term 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 we have a motion to approve so move second roll call vice president Edwards yes
councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figaro kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion
carried and moving on Madam president to resolutions at this time are there any resolutions specific resolutions that you wish to extract from a potential consent agenda at this time or for that matter ask questions to directors are there any resolutions that any council members would like to ask questions or
have removed from consent agenda yes one second and Madam president I'm sorry I don't mean to interrupt but I just want to take into account there was a matter of um some minor typos on three resolutions that we just want to make sure that we make known they are not of any um consequence
to those resolutions at all and we'll make sure that those that we have those Originals corrected thank you so much certainly councilman Williams thank you ma'am uh just 2593 093
yep yep council president yes ma'am uh 2588 88 and that's just going to be for a spelling here that's all um 25090 [Music] [Music]
25092 that's it for me thank you thank you councilwoman Figo kenberg do you have any no ma'am I have ordinances but none of the resolutions okay thank you I believe that's it very well on your call
so we have um Council Feliciano on 25- 088 thank you um the only thing I have on that is uh the assembly woman Verina Reynolds Jackson her first name was spelled wrong so if that could be fixed no problem that was all it could go on
consent thank thank you so much and next councilman Feliciano on 25-9 Thank you regarding the one um about the Loretta Corp 29522 92 um it says erroneous payment I just
was curious how do we make an erroneous payment of $29,000 like what was the error you mean you mean 39,000 it says 29522 292 oh you talking about the actual um yes uh
uh good evening again Maria Richardson business administrator um the information that we received from our tax collector is that um these individuals made duplicate
payments sometimes they um make make payments um I don't know how I would make all those payments erroneously but it's basically duplicate payments or
they have um pay already or pay less than what they were supposed to do so we need to return the money and they submit the correct amount that was the case with um uh Letta
Corporation they have no property location listed here though find out what is the property location I don't know what is the location I can provide that information to the council at a later
time okay I mean we only have the block and the lot the property is um identified but we don't have the I don't have the location right [Music]
now um yeah most likely not Madam president I'm just say I would I would like a little more information about how we got to 29,000 and then the exact property location to be listed
um is there can we can I make a motion to amend this that we um we allow it but without that one on it at this time until we get the other information I'm okay with the motion I'm
trying to find the um responses that the administration did provide me one second council president we could do make the motion to to ask for that information okay I'd like to make a mo Mr Garcia I'd like to make a motion to amend
resolution 25090 to remove the first item listed the block z um yes I'm Sor really quickly I'm sorry just from the response that was received because that was one of the questions
that was asked as to why there was no address listed for Loretta group um and then also why was that amount uh why was 29,000 obviously being ref it is oh I'm sorry and it says there is no specific block lot associated with this refund
Loretta wired funds but did not provide any details as to where the funds were to be applied so their payment is being refunded yes I'm sorry missed that in your things and I did glance over it it's okay so I mean I don't know if that answers your question but that was the reason why there was nothing listed
because they submitted These funds to us but didn't specif where it was supposed to go okay where it was going and then they submitted a um a payment with the right information but as in regards to this one they didn't submit the proper
information okay never mind then okay you get with that consent thank you thank you okay so that was um hold on uh 90 right yep 90 yeah thank you you're welcome and then we have 92 did you still have a question on 92 yeah um just
real quick we um in the um itemization of numbers here you have salary and wages for the finance director $100,000 do we have a finance director no we don't but that is uh part of the uh 2024 appropriation and so because we
really didn't spend that money we are transferring to cob obligations I am technically the acting uh Finance director but I don't you know that salary was not touch okay
yes that can go to consent but I do have a question so you're you're the ACT you're the we don't the ba and the finance director but the salary this salary doesn't get touched has would your
salary be affected or changed any by doing the duplicate roles no okay thank you not at time thank you thank you so much Madam president oh counil vice president I'm sorry I did have one clarifying question because I I couldn't
quite hear the response so we don't have a finance director we haven't for a while so we we've been these monies so if we're not paying salary and wages on this where's the money going oh wa this is this is um this resolution is
authorizing temporary emergency Appropriations right so what we oh this one I'm so sorry I thought that we were talking about another resolution this resolution we we need to appropriate the money for that position because we are
listing the position the position is being actively listed and we are receiving uh uh resumés and applications but as of right now the position is not okay Al it is being um
advertised yes yes all right thank you sure good with consent right consent agenda Mr Garcia noted next one um councilwoman Williams for 25- uh 93 thank you very much ma'am um
so uh business M Richardson this is regarding the uh Bond that would be issued because we have uh some bonds that are coming due on May 29th so uh the 18 million that we would be issuing uh that's just simply paying
because we need to retire those bonds or convert them by the 29th of April or or may rather we are actually retiring notes but I am going to defer that uh response to our consultant Mr Everett he is here ett John always good
good to see him thank you yes yes also it's also on the question that's just Johnson no problem good evening council president council members good evening how are you good
thank you so um I wanted to ask this uh publicly because we have a lot of outstanding bonds and um the you know conversion uh the retirements getting a schedule of them for our city you know we need to kind of get more information
as a council for this but also going forward given the turmoil we're having in the markets particularly um I know when we usually issue bonds who are locked in at a certain rate for a term and so forth so with these bonds um is this considered a
simple retirement or conversion so you were right about converting so we have can you hear me we have notes that mature on May 29th we are going in to convert uh a majority of the notes to permanent bonds the reason why we're
doing that is because when we issue notes and I've said to the council before but I'll repeat as if you never heard me because maybe some of you might remember when you issue notes they mature annually by Statute when you issue bonds let's just say issue for 10
years then you set the rates for next 10 years up front so we have notes maturing that we obvious don't have money in the budget to pay for so we had either have to sell notes to pay off the existing notes that mature on May 29th or issue
bonds to convert those notes to Bonds Beyond three years you have to make a pay down on your notes in Principle as if you had issued bonds anyway and so we're at that point now with the large portion of the notes where by we have to make a pay down as if we issue bonds
even if we roll the notes over so usually Triton has a policy of every time we get to that point which is every couple years we issue bonds to pay out notes that are currently outstanding we're not issuing this is not authorizing any new debt this is all debt that's already outstanding and
previously approved by the council okay thank you because that's a big concern uh given the turbulence that we're seeing like particularly last month with the bond market um do you for see I don't know the municipal financing we can be this Nimble uh trying to take advantage of maybe where rates are
versus where rates could go I tell you that I've been selling a lot of debt recently and the municipal bond market is not uh so far I've been dramatically impacted by the stock market um notes and bonds have been relatively you know close to the treasury market and selling
at good rates however we won't be selling these bonds until May um so I don't have a crystal ball now in terms of what the market will be in May um but as of today you know rates are still pretty uh pretty fair would the um the
federal rates on uh T 30-year T bills and so forth if there's any pressure on that given your federal budgeting what's going on with Doge and so forth um and the chaos in the current Administration that should not have any
effect on what we need to pay for a rate on our bonds to attract purchasers of the bonds that we're issuing um as long as we are reasonably attractive we would actually maybe possibly be a safer bet for some investors that's a loaded
loaded question but yes the city is a safe bet yes uh in general for investors in in a municipal bond market um and the terms I'm trying to think of what you said in the beginning because you said a few things regarding chaos at the federal level yes
the treasury no Market obviously will imp impact any Municipal debt that'ss issued in terms of rates but remember you have to issue debt no matter what in May to pay off your debt that matures so whether it's bonds or notes anything can impact it but you have to borrow the money no matter what because obviously
the city's not going to pay $18 million out of its budget for this year um in terms of debt service on these bonds okay and then just two last questions what is our current Bond rating your current Bond underlying Bond rating and knew you would ask that question it's
B2 okay and can you explain whether that uh that's midling or is that so that's on a lower end um and I'm glad you asked that because that kind of teas the resolution is to why I'm here to begin with so the resolution before you is to authorize a submission of an application to local
Finance board whereby local Finance board would qualify our bonds under something called the municipal qualified Bond act and that was an act that was approved I believe in the 70s by legislature that authorized the state to utilize state aid received by
municipalities with lower credit ratings to be used to pay debt service on bonds issued by those lower credit municipalities the benefit of that is Municipal will get the benefit of the state's enhanced credit rating so the enhanced credit rating by the state is
A2 which is three kns above the credit rating the city has which will enable to save to borrow money at cheaper interest rates the same way if your credit rating was you know 550 and your parent had a credit rating of 700 and you bought a
car and you use your parent to kind of cosign you're going to get a better interest rate because of your parent 700 credit score similarly we're going to get the benefit of the state's enhanced credit rating through the missile qualified Bond act okay so that's why we're here today thank you and my last
question is has to do with the water and sewer particularly water the uh this Council has um approved every single investment to my a knowledge that we've made purchases of new chemicals things that have had uh to be purchased to improve uh the infrastructure of the
water system at a certain point does that also not help us with our borrowing cost and financing when we have to issue bonds for wood and sir you not help us as far as be being a system that the infrastructure has been repaired that
it's becoming more of a uh safe system that may you know granted publicly there are different you know issues that occur but we have been making the improvements into the overall system to make sure that it functions in the future I mean that's not really a bond question I
guess but um in terms of from my perspective on the finance side um as long as the the system is is receiving revenues which I know what it is sufficient to pay all of the expenses from a bond market perspective the debt is going to be attractive so from a
financial they're not really concerned about um whether or not the Sy operating inefficiently or not they just care about they can pay back their money from the finance perspective and you know the city definitely um has been able not Miss The Debt Service payment it's not in danger of missing so um it's
utilities are self- liquidated which means that the revenues generated pay for all expenses and Debt Service for water and sewer but in terms of the intricacies of the water system and the sewer system I'm not a part of those conversation so I don't feel comfortable no and I wouldn't expect you to be it's just uh this our water system takes a
lot of flak and bonds and uh you know concerns of some of our Suburban Partners in this system um it's interesting to say the least but what how we're doing with borrowing and the amount of borrowing we can do that's a separate issue I won't take up your time tonight but I would like to at a certain
point but um us being able to borrow uh as a city for what we need to to repair in a system or improve since it's 100 years old uh is a great discussion we need to have yes right thank you very much sir and thank you madam president thank you so much Madam I need to look
over vice president thank you um hi welcome back can you repeat what our current rating is you said that kind of fast B A2 b as in boy boy B okay I thought you said D I'm sorry you know B
no no worries no worries it sounds the same um and it and it's okay if you don't know this off the top of your head but how many notes are U maturing in May the amount 22 million 22 million I think
849 I have it actually right here for 22 million 810 and and these are various notes like multiple notes well General Improvement water utility SE utility paring utility so different purposes
okay yeah well both first was the quantity and then the aggregated amount yes so the aggregated amount is is 29. 810 million but the but the no 22810 22 sorry I wrote 29 thank you
22810 but there are multiple Bonds aggregated in multiple yes multiple different projects that make up basically a lot of bond ordinances that make up the total amount of 22810 it's not one ordinance okay so and you said
you said they either must be sold or converted into bonds sold we we issued as notes which which you issued last year or sold as bonds rais the money to pay off the old debt basically okay and
so our rates our current rat sound the same as it was the very first time you came here we still have the same rating right the bond rating the bond rating since this council's been in session yes the last couple years it's the same rating I believe the beginning of I want
to say last year Moody's took the negative credit watch off of your rating so at one point they said had negative credit watch that was removed which is a positive credit um that has happened the last year and a half or so but the rating itself was B2 for last couple years by
Moody's so it is approving in in an Essence in profile yes but not the actual score itself yet but that's the first step into Improvement to remove the credit negative credit watch okay so what in your professional opinion do you think that the administration needs to
do to improve our Bond ratings I mean that's more of a financial advisor question that is a bond legal counsel question um but they'll look at different I can to rating agencies look at their standard criteria they look at um the income levels of the residents live in town they look at your general
fund your Surplus they look at development they look at a whole number of factors um and they have a matrix that they utilize to to um to determine what the rating should be given the town but there's a whole lot of different factors that they look at um when they
when they actually provide that rating but that's usually a conversation between the financial advisor in the rating agency and not me as the attorney no that was good though thank you okay that's all I have thank you so much thank you I think that's it consent
thank you have a good day thanks consent Mr G consent Madam president thank you are there any other questions nope Madam president if you want to ask for a motion to approve a consent agenda consisting
[Music] of well all the items except for resolution the previously Revolution 101 y so that would be resolutions 25- 086
087 088 089 090 091 092 093 94 95 96 97 98 99 and 100 yes may we have a motion
to approve the consent agenda so move second roll call vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figaro kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes
councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried thank you moving on to ordinances for first reading and introduction ordinance 25-2 ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as
Hanam alley and identified on the city tax map as lot uh 12203 lot 133 pursuant to njsa 40a calling 1213 B5 to edro Gonzalez for the
sale price of $2500 Madame President councilwoman Figo kber yes I just wanted to make a comment on this um I just want to thank the administration um I have been working on
this ordinance with the city um for my 2 years plus tenure on Council um diligently and relentlessly and um Mr Gonzalez has been trying to secure this piece of land um by his house um for
several years before that um I know the previous councilman in South Ward was trying to help him um to secure this piece of land um and was you know to no avail was not successful um and I'm just really really ecstatic that we were
finally able to make this happen for him um as him and his neighbor were working together to try to make this happen as this was kind of um an obsolete Alleyway and it was causing damage to his house and it really wasn't necessary where it's located so I really want to thank
the administration and all its hard work and diligence and the back and forth with me um regarding this sale and making it um Fair um for Mr Gonzalez um to now be able to utilize this piece of property
next to his home so just wanted to again uh put that out there thank you thank you so much councilwoman frisbee thank you council president so I have a comment one a comment and then a question I am excited that we have seven
items on this seven ordinances that are getting seven pieces of property back on the um the tax roll my question is um which I've gotten over and over I know we've asked this question but I don't believe there's still Clarity on it is there a centralized location
where there are the properties in the city that are for sale along with that question are there contingencies in place for individuals or whoever purchases the properties for
a timeline in which there is um time for them to act on it good evening March listen I'm the director of housing Economic Development good evening um the first question was the
um essential location list we have properties that we we don't advertise them as properties for sale uh what we do is we with individuals in the neighborhood or neighborhoods who wish to come in and
and acquire properties and identify them as um properties that are owned by the city uh we look at the condition of the property if it's a sellable property or if it's a demo property it depends a lot of times on the condition uh and also in
a strategic standpoint of how that home or that uh property fits into the actual Redevelopment of that neighborhood or the city as a whole there are some properties that we own that we are not going to sell because they tie into a
larger uh strategic plan uh but there are ones that if it's listed uh on on and and we have public documents that list the uh properties that we own if they come in and we are approached about selling the properties then we take that
under consideration looking at all the possible aspects so if an individual does not live in the neighborhood but they are let's say someone in the north wants to purchase a property in the South so they're not aware of what's going on or vice versa there there is we have nothing in place to let individuals
especially Trentonian know where we have available properties we have a central list that's been sent down to the clerk's office and can be accessed at any time or through the assessor's office we'll be sure and disseminate the council great thank you thank you and
then the second part of that is there are there contingencies in once individuals are now getting this CU I'm I'm glad that we're getting them back on the tax rooll but do we have something in in place so that individuals if they get when they get these properties they're not sitting again for another
year another two and they're just I again every property uh is sold with an tax Redevelopment agreement or Rehabilitation agreement where there's timelines that have to be met these properties that we're mostly selling right now are not um these are not prop
properties that are going to be built upon what they are going to be is they're going to be adjoined to existing properties but if we sell properties to a citizen walks in we have a three or four in works right now where we have people who want to buy properties they
want to rehab them and they want to um live in them which is a priority home ownership we have time frames that they have to meet to make sure that the property is done uh within those timelines if it's not done within those
timelines then we have the ability to call the property back and take it take it back we're also working that which is very important in this process that people have to understand is we're qualifying people up front first just like when you for a real estate
transaction we qualify people walking in the door so if someone comes in and says I want to buy a piece of property and they have $5,000 but we know from for our analysis that it's going to take $775,000 to rehab the property we look further down
and say okay what assets do you have or what's the possibility of you borrowing money to complete the project best part about that is a couple programs first-time home buyer programs will give1 15,000 second is 20 203K program from
FHA has a program that we recommend to the people to look at uh the broker the lender and what they will do is actually work with the purchaser to rehab the house they actually assign a monitor who works with the contractor and make sure the contractors St keeping up the
contract and making sure that the whole process is completed because FHA has um skin in the game now too so they will they will work with us and uh at this point we're recommending those two people walking in the door and we have a couple that we know that um FHA they're
looking at FHA Loans right now thank than you director Liston thank you director I also just want to say really quickly that I'm excited to see so many properties being sold so I see movement in the department so I just want to say thank you for that because there's a couple that we've all been
kind of like hearing over and over that people have been trying to purchase for years so we just want to say thank you um as we see this movement in this department there a lot more to come yes I know I'm excited next week you got a
laugh yep thank you thank you so um oh sorry go ahead Mr Gracia let me let you do your job friendly reminder Madam president you need a motion in a second prior to discuss say but I was waiting so prior
to discussion that ensues on an item you just want to make sure you ask for a motion in a second and if you want to ask for one you can ask for one now to approve may we have a motion to approve 25-2 so second
roll call vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figaro kenberg absolutely yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman
Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried ordinance 25-5 an ordinance establishing the appointment duties responsibilities and functions of city council member liaison to certain boards and commissions of the
city of Trenton may we have a motion to approve 25- 005 so move is there a second can i i i a second right yes second second oh Tes um M councilwoman
frisbee thank you second by councilwoman frisbee is there any discussion none heard I'll go to roll call Council vice president Edwards yes councilman Feliciano
no noted councilman Figo kinberg no councilman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams no council president Gonzalez
yes that motion is car carries on to ordinance 25-11 ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 14 Ward Avenue and identified on the city tax map block
25702 lot 34 pursuant to njsa 40a 12113 B5 to Joshua s Vega for the sale price of $5,000 maybe we have a motion to approve still move second roll call vice president Edwards
yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg yes councilwoman frisbe yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried ordinance 25-12 ordinance
authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 29 Hampton Avenue and identified on the city tax map block 26402 Lot 2 pursuant njsa 40 col 12 13
B5 to Diego G baros uh for the sale price of $2,500 maybe we have a motion to approve so moved second I'm sorry who's the secondo thank
you roll call vice president Edwards yes councilman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figaro kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harris yes councilwoman Williams yes
council president Gonzalez yes motion carried ordinance 25-13 ordinance authorizing the sale of City owned property commonly known as 45 Southern Street and identified on the city tax map it's block 1101 lot 8.01 pursuant to
njsa 48 call 12 1213 B5 to Hatty W Wilson for the sale price of 1,950 $50 may we have a motion to approve so move second roll call vice president Edwards
yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg yes councilwoman F councilwoman frisbe yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried ordinance
25-14 ordinance authorizing the sale of city- owned property commonly known as 37 Tyrell Avenue and identified on the city tax maps block 1701 lot 50 pursuant to njsa 4A 1213 B5 to Joshua s Vega for
the sale price of $1,500 we have a motion to approve second roll call vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figaro kenberg yes councilwoman frisbe
call me councilman I said councilwoman just checking yes too fast councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council
president Gonzalez yes motion carried wait council president excuse me real quick yes was this the one that Mr Vega needed us to change an address on or something was that documented I believe that one was a previous was that 14 to an
11 that was okay I thought it was 14 so it supposed to be 14 Tyrell oh on Ward Avenue on Ward Avenue correct let's move back for a moment hold on orance
25-11 was approved um I believe it was this yeah 25 14 is 2511 oh okay Mr kogi we approved this on first reading and apparently there is a
discrepancy with the address um there will be a second reading would the matter be able to be um amended then or should this be yes this is Introduction because it's already been voted on and approved it can be amended at the hearing on adoption to correct
the what is it just a number correct yeah we can it's a a non-s substa of amendment we can amend it before the hearing and before the vote to adopt it understood thank you thank you thank you moving back to the ordinance uh give me
one moment ma Madam president uh Council vice president I just have questions about this matter um I'm not sure if it's appropriate to bring uh Mr Vega back up but when he first reached out it was for 14 Ward Avenue and 11 Ward
Avenue so just to clarify what it is he is attempting to do is he trying to buy 11 W Avenue and 14 W Avenue or is it 11 W Avenue or 14 W
Avenue um you can come up thank you for letting me explain all right so 11 W avenu is a single family home that's on a corner so that one I just want to rehabilitate is again it's been falling for like the last 20 years Joseph I'm pretty sure you seen it since you walk past her all the time so I I
mean I have the means to get it up and running so it's literally just the moment you know things get moving now 14 War Avenue is just land that's next to a property that I own and I want that to be joined for the individual who will be occupying it so you still you want I
want to purchase both so 11 and 14 more Island wait wait so right now we're just talking about 14 so you do want to purchase 11 but that's something totally separate correct yes okay so we don't need to address that right now so then to be clear there's no discrepancy with
the address right so the address is fine okay yeah I'm only speaking about the other one that says 37 tyell I didn't um my application didn't include that address is what I'm saying now confused president so when he
spoke earlier he said that he wanted 14 which is what we have here right 25111 he said he questioned the fact he said my budget was $5,000 but then he threw in the fact that he also wanted 11 Ward Avenue and
for the $5,000 to Encompass both of those properties no okay but I want offer $5,000 for a single family home that's right so the part about 11 was him just throwing it in saying I also want 11 also I was questioning did he
want Terrell did he want Ward like what are we doing right now so right now we 2511 we don't need to amend that Mr Garcia it sounds like he is still purchasing 14 Ward Avenue so he doesn't want Tyrell does he want 37 Tyrell Avenue separate and apart right right
I'm not interested in 37 Ty so we need to take pull this then from um admin so the ordinance is erroneous then yes they're going to it's going to be a to pull it well not a motion to pull it the ad is pulling it didn't we just vote on it though thank you so is this pulled by
Administration then 254 correct thank you Colin appreciate you thank you ba thank you pull by Administration and and 2511 is staying the way it is correct okay so
let me take my for that thank you noted uh on your call Madam president um I'm I'm sorry proceed thank you ordinance 25-15 ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 23 Hayes
Avenue and identified on the city tax map block 6104 Lot 10 pursuant to njsa 482113 B5 to Howard J Jones for the sale price of [Music]
$3,700 may we have a motion to approve so moved second roll call vice president Edwards yes Council Fano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg yes
councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes ordinance motion carried I apolog ordinance 12 25-16
ordinance of the sale of ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 122 Burton Avenue and identified on the city tax map is block 8505 Lot 27 pursuant to njsa
42-13 B5 to Debbie parks for the sale price of $17,500 may we have a motion to approve so move second roll call huh Madam president yes just want to uh just say uh something regarding this sale um I know Miss parks
and her husband have been great stewards of trying to maintain the property next word them that they'll be purchasing so going forward there should be no expectation that this property will not be taken care of redeveloped as as they said they would and add it will be something we'll be proud of thank you
thank you Mr Garcia certainly roll call vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg abstain
noted councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried and with that being said Madame
President I do believe we have reach the point of public comment and to the Public Public comment will be five minutes for each individual um Madam president I have two individuals listed here Mr Vega did you have another comment to make okay so
Madam president I have one individual listed here at this time again public comment will be five minutes for this individual the council is you can address anything that you wish the council is not obligated to respond on individual listed is sha I hope I say this correctly
shakia is that I'm gonna let you say the last name good evening Mia is that a make a maker thank you hello good evening all right guys um about a year ago I came and I mentioned
stuff about land I'm sorry ma'am if you could just Ty your name and address for the record yeah 211 Parkway Avenue Trenton New Jersey thank you go right so almost a year ago I came before you and I
mentioned to you guys about a situation with my landlord also about how high rent has changed and you guys mentioned something about rent stabilization board and what you are going to do to make the city better now I must say that I have seen
some things and they're great I will also like to give a shout out to all those organizations that help feed people in the city of Trenton from everyone that helps because a little do you know it's getting really costly out here everyone is struggling somehow some
way it is not making it any better but in the event of me knowing what I went through and still have some issues with my landlord I took it myself and several other young ladies in the community to find out some stuff
even though the city made a city ordinance not to raise rent more than 4% and we do thank you for that it is not happening we are having L that are fing women and even some gentlemen but mostly single women and to two and 3,000 price
gading rather now in the city I have sent emails to anyone regarding that area of Trenton I have tried to contact what I have found out that only miss Stephanie register is still in charge of
this so her hands may be full but we have about four families that's about to be evicted yes because it tend to find out after doing my research having some meetings talking to some attorneys and
even taking some dis um um Civil Right classes that we are facing discrimination due to sour of income landlords will literally tell us that their bills is going up our bills are going up and according to leases they
can give 30-day notice to have us evicted with those evictions I'm finding out that half of these landlords don't even have cosos for their houses there are not complete Registries done on these houses with tenants in it I have
done surveys I have sent out petitions I have had meetings with people at the laundry mat check cash in place and our elderly Community because all it takes in Trenton to show to evict the tenant is
you own the house and that they registered it but the question is was the registry done correctly it's not landlords are not answering to their complaint through Municipal Court and they're looking for
some too so I don't know if you can look at this or pass this that is literally a young lady that contacted me along with emails and screenshots of text messages between her
and her landlord and I want to know do the city finds that acceptable it's not they're transferring properties at a dollar here they're buying their properties for 40,000 not completing a full renovation and telling tenants that they're
responsible for two to $2400 now what I want to know is if landlords are making 28 $2,800 a month in rent for one property but they're only paying 3,000 a year less than 4,000 in property taxes what would that say
for someone like me and other people that want to buy a house because I have talked to some homeowners too and new homeowners are highly upset that their property taxes are higher than tenant property taxes on their own block this
has almost been a year I have two binders full and over several women and several gentlemen that want to pay rent want to be tenants but see we can't do that cuz one eviction will tarnish us
yet even if a landlord house is in foreclosure we still have to pay them rent these landlords are losing their houses they're taking out mortgages on them they don't tell the tenant new owner sweeps in for less than nothing and now
you have a fight on your hands it's unacceptable and unfortunately the city doesn't have the proper person or are working on it to get someone to get in contact with a direct person so I take it upon myself and anybody else that
contacts me or any of our other ladies to do formal letters because we have no escrow once the landlord files for non-payment of rent and we send those pictures when we get to court the damage is already done the option is we should
have paid and then file them and then but it's easier M K thank you so much but I do want to bring um because I know we've been in Communications too but um March 25th is the first rent state ization
meeting that would be here I believe it's at 6: p.m. I'll make sure you get the right time and and stuff so you can bring this forward to them also um they are there's one I think two vacancies still on the rent stabilization board okay thanks you hold it on no I want to
look at it okay on your call M presid um we can proceed that was it right certainly Madam president those are all the individuals I have listed for public comment at this time I'll give a last call for public comment yes
[Music] sir please say your name and address for the my name is David boner one Craven Lane lawrenville New Jersey David I'm sorry say that again bonor o n n e r um I just want to uh I told M cha I
would be here to support if she doesn't know I am but she knows now I want to just uh piggyback off of what she said in that um and I made some notes um she absolutely has the
documentation that the uh powers that are supposed to evaluate Monitor and uh and uh oversee the landlords the process is
not working um from what she shared with me and my personal knowledge the fact that a landlord can come in buy a property um and disrespect the tenant that's in the property to the point where they raise the rents to double or
triple um forcing them to be homeless unacceptable um the fact that there is no um when uh individuals go to the Mercer County Court and are being told that they can't put money into escrow um
to so that their uh complaints can be heard um that's unacceptable perhaps some kind of liaison uh between uh the city of Trenton and uh the Mercer County Court when it comes to these that might be but I'm just want to make sure that
uh that there is a line of communication um Madam um the fact that you uh said that you would uh bring her under and I know that she's been invited to join the rent stabilization board and um I'm pushing her to join Council um
that's it that's all thank you so much thank you and Madam president those are all the individuals that we have for public comment at this time and if you want to move on to Civic comment yes can we um start with councilman Williams please thank you ma'am um as many uh
folks know over the weekend and uh lifelong Trentonian a good resident of the north Ward uh Mr alganon Ward Jr passed away and uh he did everything he could for the city as he said once when uh both of us and many others were
teamed on trying to stop the sale of the Trenton bworks that he gave his heart to the city and he didn't know how much was left well he did find a long more time a lot more time to give to this city and we should all be thankful so please uh keep him and his his family and his
friends in your your thoughts and prayers in these coming weeks um I do have a couple announcements in uh an issue TR like to bring up uh first one is uh tomorrow night is actually our northw citizens police advisory council meeting and I see our great representative from the
Trenton Community Street teams here with us tonight as well as director Wilson uh we always have a great conversation uh regarding crime issues in the city uh issues of quality of life so it's at 5:30 at the Galilee Baptist Church 440 Martin
Luther King Jr Boulevard and tomorrow night we'll have a couple special guests uh we'll have the new executive director Tom rust for Trenton Downtown Association with us as well as Austin Edwards who's the chairman of the Trenton Downtown Association and they'll
be joining us to help with uh having a discussion about uh perceived crime issues downtown what is done to mitigate crime in downtown Trenton where our businesses are located and how we can better connect our neighborhoods and all the wards uh to downtown so please join
us uh also there is a need a great need uh for election workers uh I know you usually hear about this uh coming towards election time but uh if anyone is looking uh to possibly be an election worker uh coming up on the um for the
juneth primary uh please call 609 989 6522 that's 609 989 6522 for Mera County Board of Elections if you could work the entire day they pay $300 so it's a pretty decent money for a
good 12-h hour shift and you don't um admittedly on a primary day it's not that busy uh but the good thing is you're able to help uh be a part of our democracy make sure that we have a clear uh clean efficient election and having
done that in the past myself I always had a good time uh chatting with the folks I worked with so please consider it if you're available that day Tuesday June 10th uh there is training involved uh that you can go to uh but again 609 989 6522 and there are is a need for
bilingual uh folks of Spanish uh different other different languages you could be helpful with um so regarding and this is an issue that is continued uh for a long time and every single person on this Council has spoken about it which is parking uh We've spoke about
this last time it's an issue that's not getting solved uh frankly we need to start working on long-term Solutions uh particularly what the focus what the priorities are I think of what our parking enforcement officers who are
working hard uh they're doing the best job they can but there are a lot of neighborhoods where we have people parking their cars right at the corner so you cannot see someone coming opposite directions creates a really scary very terrible blind spots every
single neighborhood in the city is affected by that those people should be ticketed people who are parking right in front of fire hydrants or really close to a fire hydrant that's extremely dangerous that's a $300 ticket we're not a city that you know doesn't need money
but that's not why we should be offering parking tickets or giving parking tickets we should be doing that because of safety so we need to have our Administration sit down with city council say sit down with u other folks from the community who could have a good
voice on this and we need to solve this and let's make 2025 a year where we solve this also there is a severe need uh just in the north Ward with having a parking space or two dedicated for food
pickups uh for scrubhub for uh other businesses for deliveries for the businesses themselves on 300 South Broad Street where 10B is located one of the newer Latin restaurants uh they have gotten a lot of tickets because and I went out there the other night to see
the signage the signage is very very confusing the parking signage uh telling people they can't park During certain hours is hidden by a tree and then what it really does is it doesn't allow people to park during Prime breakfast business hours around 8:00 in the
morning till it's after 9 9:30 so they lose all that business coming in it's very difficult for them to take advantage of the courthouse business uh and all the state work workers that do come in County workers but that's also downtown we haven't solved South Warren Street we have to solve South South Warren Street we have a lot of food
businesses they could be doing so much better so please let's get together and work on that this year thank you very much ma'am God bless and hopefully see you at the next meeting councilman Harrison um how do I start um the last time algon
Ward standing at the microphone he told everybody in his room uh about how he was feeling and what was going on in his life broke everybody's heart um alon's truly going to be missed he fought for
the the TR water he fought hard in the community all the time for the less fortunate so Alan you truly truly will be missed um to let everybody know um have it in my pH here the viewing is
March the 23rd camell funeral uh 12th 25 Calhoun Street viewings from 4: to 6:00 p.m. and then Monday um March the 24th Galilee Baptist Church 4:40 Martin Luther King Boulevard um viewing is
11:00 a.m. service is 12 um I said Alon you truly will be missed um I would like to thank u ms on wheels for allowing me to volunteer and a lot of other people i' like to thank the volunteers Mary and Brian um for allowing me to go out there
with them and uh help out in the community thank you so much um i' like to thank Paul Harris for all his hard work at Stacy Park um Stacy park looks awesome and um grateful that you did that and you got it all cleaned up so that being said I wish everybody a
blessed evening thank you very much councilwoman frisbe thank you Council uh vice president so I am with my colleagues I uh my heart goes out to aljon's family alganon has been a major player in our community um very
impactful I had the pleasure of working with him on several Endeavors including just this past uh December with The Smith Family Foundation he and his um Legion they came out and formed beautifully um for
us and we were just working on another Endeavor with him for without blacks and philanthropy so he's going to be sorely missed um he is missed I uh just want to uh send my condolences to his family on a uh happier note I want to say
congratulations to the Trenton area soup kitchen today marks their oneyear anniversary um of serving um folks on their with their food truck they have served over 37,000 people in their first year and
that is worth celebrating so congratulations to them they were out today on eer Street giving out cupcake um so congratulations to them I want to say thank you to all the directors I um with my monthly um West for Community
conversations I invite and they uh gladly attend all the directors and then other members of the um Administration they come out and they report out to our community what's going on in their various departments and I just want to say thank you to each one of you who
come out or send a representative you are apprecia app it um and a special thank you to director Wilson who um if he's not there which is very few times that he hasn't been here he always has one or two Representatives um there so the police department is always
representative represented but each of the other departments I want to just say thank you to all the directors um for all of you um always uh taking part in the uh discussions and educating the community on what's going on in your departments and I also want to say
Stacey Park I know that there's some hiccups and things that are going on with it but uh Stacy park looks amazing it absolutely looks great um pulling up dead trees pulling out weeds um dead vegetation I'm all I'm for it yes I am
for doing things in decency and in order but I am also for beautification and giving our community what it stands in need of and what it deserves and that is a clean healthy space um and where our community is not worrying about dead trees falling off over on them them
stumbling over dead trees uh our uh enhances this the life in the community of our um the life well-being of our community so thank you for that uh and with that I oh I also want to say on April 26th I'm having a Sister sewing into
Sisters at Greater Mount Zion am Church from 11:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. that is for any expected mom if you know of anyone who is expected um expecting a baby if you are pregnant um please contact me contact my office and we would love to
um tell you more about it I promise you it's going to be a grand time and if you don't if you missed it last year you missed the treat but it will be um that much more this year so um with that I'm going to read a portion of the city's mission statement which 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 I want to thank everyone for coming out on this evening thank you to our directors the mayor's
cabinet our business administrator um to all of you for being out here on this evening and everyone get in safely thank you to our uh Council and our our advisers in front of us and the clerk's Department thank you councilwoman
councilwoman Figo kenberg good evening everybody um I'm trying to make this can you guys hear me okay you're just a little uh distant okay how about now can you hear me better no guys still can't
hear me no we can't hear you councilwoman I don't mean to interrupt you but may I call you for your Civic comment sure that's fine certainly why you do that we'll go to councilwoman feliciana you thank you thank you council president good evening
everybody thank you for staying around for being with us tonight um I just want to say a couple of things really quickly um to the families of alganon Ward algae the great from the Garden State um my
condolences good man good brother um to the family of Miss Willamina green um my condolences as well she is also passed away um wonderful woman West Ward city of Trenton and then to the family of
Alfredo Marin um a wonderful young man who has also passed away uh recently my condolences to to their family as well as well as to everyone else that may have endured a loss um my heartfelt sympathies to all of
you congratulations to um qu sea Williams and Mama L dly on their celebrity their second annual celebrity basketball game the Thunder games that they held on Saturday at Thrive Academy it was a wonderful event
it was sold out again the stands were crazy it was just a wonderful good time just about everybody that could be there was there and so shout out to them and their wonderful efforts and their teams that help put all of that together and then shout out to coach khed and the
team from Thrive Academy who uh won the state championship as well um on Saturday so good good job to everybody trans Central High School is going to be having their um production of Aladdin on
this Friday 700 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. at the high school it's actually dual language Edition so it's an English and Spanish so anyone that can um go and support please check them out and support the youth I want to congratulate
our council president uh along with the other honores that will be honored for women's History Month this Friday at 6 pm at St Paul am me Zion Church I am the keynote speaker that night so I'm looking forward to um honoring and
celebrating our council president as well as the other women actually grew up in um St Paul am Zion Church started singing there when I was nine years old so I've I've been in that church it's been in my family a long long time so congratulations to
you um thank you to Dr manell let me tell you so I had a bat in my house again after he got done laughing in my ear here when I said I needed help I was like are you laughing he was like no no
no C so I got help thank you they came in with the swiftness snatched the little bed off the wreath and threw it out the door I you know was done so thank you um for all that you do I appreciate you
thank you um they're coming actually Dr mapelli and his team Memphis and everybody they're coming into Trenton Central High School school tomorrow for a career conversation day to talk to our youth so I'm excited and the kids are excited for them to come for that as well um on Monday the mayor came and
spoke to our Student Government Association and brought forth a good message to the eboard and then on Thursday um Mr Garcia and his team are coming in to talk to the city council kids uh about parliamentary procedures before they go for their first public
school meeting which will happen next week so it's all about Community it's all about engagement and everybody stepping in and doing their part so I'm grateful for all hands on deck and then to um interim director Paul Harris Stacy
Park wonderful job it's clear um even when the mayor came to the school and spoke to the eboard on Monday um a young lady spoke one of our members if somebody could mute councilwoman Figaroa kenberg for a moment um they spoke to
the eboard and she even that she feels safe now walking along Stacy park because she can see and at one time she didn't feel safe right and a lot of the neighbors and everything also said the same thing and again I will say that as we walked and I was
pointing and showing different things about the high stuff that was there over 20 years and everything the the people were actually thanking the mayor and I as we were walking and looking at what was going to be done at some point
protocol is protocol and procedure is procedure I do agree with that and so we have to follow the rules that are in place and if there are no rules in place then we need to implement them and regardless of what may have been historically done you must correct what
has been done so that things like this don't happen again there are people that are looking to celebrate the city and then there's others that are looking to tear it down and nothing that we do will ever be good enough because some folks are just not satisfied Trenton is a wonderful place we're on the upswing
we're doing the very best that we can do to make it better um but again we do have to follow policy and procedure and if none exist then we need to create it thank you all for coming out tonight God bless thank you councilwoman Figo
[Music] kenberg put your mic on can you sorry go ahead Council okay can you guys hear me now yes yes all right good evening everybody um this has an [Music]
echo time try to make this really quick um just again my condolences to Al on board hold on okay m is Al on W and also to um Al
Marine's family um in their lost um to cancer this Saturday uh you know my thoughts and prayers are with their families um I wanted to say that I'm also aware of the shootings that have occurred on Dayton
around D Middle School um can't speak to any of the information about it at this time um however you know the city is doing their due diligence and looking into this shootings um I know that the the residents have been contacting me um
and people from the school as well so the city is doing its part and once they have information over relas it to the to the community to the to the public um I want to say again thank you to my colleagues about Hanah Aly um I don't know if all my colleagues remember but
you guys were a part of vacating this portion of the alley in order for it to be sold to Mr Gonzalez quite some time ago so I'm just happy that we've gotten to this this part of it and um you know he's able to his portion of the land to
do as he wishes with it um you know as he's a homeowner there and has been there at the end of Lamberton Street for quite some time um I want to thank Trenton cats Trenton cats has done a wonderful job um as many of you guys know I recently had a baby um and I've
had to re home um my precious cats of eight nine years and Trenton cats rescue has um really come and helped me to help find um suitable homes for my two cats that um I'm going to miss greatly so I want to thank them for their great
efforts and um they work really really well for the city of Trenton so I want to give a shout out to them um and again I just want to thank the city of ATT my colleagues for being patient with me during this time um you know having a baby and and going through this process
of new mommyhood and really just trying to keep all of my priorities situated um so thank you again for everybody's patience um as I navigate through this um new stage of my life so with that um
hope everybody has a wonderful evening and God bless and see you all at the next meeting thank you thank you Council vice president thank you good evening everyone um first I want to start off by saying thank you to my colleagues that supported uh my
ordinance 25-1 defining and establishing the roles and responsibilities of the city council Liaisons um it's important that we codify this because nothing existed in our codes that Define what a liaison is
for city council and that's important for the public to know what it is city council does and what our roles and responsibilities are especially for those who are considering running for City Council in the future for them to understand um what their jobs are so I
appreciate that and I want to say thank you to all of you um on that same note voter registration deadline for the upcoming primary election in June is on May 20th 2025 if you are not registered or you
have moved within the last few months please update your voter registration profile or please do your due diligence to register the vote as you heard our our bond consultant earlier if I'm saying that correctly how our bond
rating are based on the income of our residents our car insurance is based on is on multiple factors but includes our education and our voter registration or the lack thereof affects
our funding that we get or don't get in the city a lot of people judge us based on low voter turnout so please do your due diligence to vote and vote early we have early voting and I want to say on
that note as well um that the there are talks about Robinsville wanting early early voting in their town but the board the mercy County Board of Elections only has enough funding to fund seven early voting
locations and this board consist of four people two Republicans two Democrats and two two of the Republicans wanted to instead of adding on an eighth location and seeing how we can increase the funding that we get from the state and the county for these locations they
wanted to eliminate the lowest early voting locations that would be Trenton so please do your due diligence and participate in our democracy because our livelihood our econom our economy our funding that we get to the city is
affected by you not voting thirdly I want to thank you for acknowledging Quon and Mamu dly Quon Williams and Mamu dly are um the founders and and planners of the
Thunder games the celebrity game and it's such a unique experience that includes people from every background that you could think of in the city of Trenton um from your your regular um everyday workers small business owners
Community leaders and elected officials it's about Bridging the Gap between our public our residents and our elected officials and our business owners and things so you know what we have in the city it's about stimulating the economy
providing jobs and providing opportunities to small business owners so I appreciate everyone that had um attended the game or participated in the game any kind of way this was their second annual um so thank you and um
congratulations to them and on that note congratulations to thrive Charter Academy I do know that TCA is in Hamilton but most of those students are Trentonian and so I want to say congratulations to coach leader AKA kin
Lewis um his it's such a Bittersweet moment March 15th he was this was the first year so Trenton it used to be Trenton Charter Academy before that it was mccon now it's Thrive it's his first year as Thrive and this was his first
head coach position and this was their first St Champion that they won as a rookie coach and it was so amazing and the bitter part about it was it was the same day he lost his father a year ago so and his father was a basketball coach and it's and that's the Legacy right
there so I just want to say congratulations to um coach leader and all of his assistant coaches who uh trained up those boys all year long and and they came home with the ship to the Celebrity Game during halftime and it was such an amazing thing to witness
um I want to speak to uh the recent uptick and gun violence and um the fact that the city suffered the second murder this year and I just want to um just be an advocate for putting the guns down
just pay attention to what's going on and how these actions are affecting people I know it you know and that was five minutes I Pro I promise all right wrapping it up put the guns
down and I also just want to do just a 10-second moment of silence for if if you may if if I'm allowed I'll defer the council president a 10-c moment of silence for let's do begin for algae for alganon Ward for Willamina
green for alfredo maren Jr and for royalty Jackson who was the youngest Cancer Victim that we just recent buried on the 14th she was 6 years old right I also want to add two names to that since I I won't do it cuz I was going to do it
during my time um DJ bank and also the Gregory family thank you want um miss fris you just wanted to make a quick um announcement really fast so I did not use up all my time so this is adding just taking off that little
bit of time but I did um want to say thank you to the organizers of the celebrity basketball game for honoring myself and my husband on that day um we couldn't stay for the whole thing only the first hour and a half almost two hours but I do thank you for honoring my husband and I and I do want to wish our
council president congratulations on her upcoming um honor oh thank you you um so I'm going to be really quickly but before I begin I wanted to you can start my time though I want um Brion to stand up for me please this young man I just
want you all to know that I'm excited to see him here um I am he's a part of the upward bround program I went and spoke to the kids over there and I spoke to them about getting involved and the duties and roles of responsibilities of council and I I encourage them to come
out and be a part of our process and so he said he wanted to learn more about a city he reached out to me afterwards and wanted to come to city council so I just want to commend you for coming here listening and jumping right in he's actually they're starting a petition also for changing the lunches at the
school so I just want to say thank you for being present [Music] welcome um a lot of things have been mentioned already um a big congratulations to everyone who organized the celebrity basketball game
was beautiful turnout um congratulations to uh Pastor Armstrong on 25 years of his pastoral an anniversary um as mentioned earlier March 25th will be the first meeting for the rent stabilization board so please come
forward and bring some of those concerns um to the board so that they are aware of what is going on as far as with the landlords and tenant issues um I also want to say um well I know she left M shaia she and I have been in contact a lot so I've always encouraged her to keep coming forth and um she's actually
gotten a group of ladies to um share their concerns and everything so we just want to encourage them to get involved and be a part of that rent stabilization board so they can be advocates for some of our tenants also um um Mr boner I I like the idea I
think he stepped out but as far as maybe possibly finding a solution to the oversight of the landlords I don't know how that process works but definitely something that we will look into because it is um there are some landlords who are taking advantage of our tenants and
it's not fair and some of them are living in deplorable uh homes as well so um thank you for bringing that to our attention um let me just not make sure there's some upcoming events coming up oh and also I just want to uh say thank
you to our public works department um on ruford behind Rutherford Avenue there's been a lot of illegal dumpings and you all have um there have been residents who've been complaining about that and that was taken care of so thank you so much for that and then um just some upcoming
announcements um shout out to councilwoman Feliciano I didn't know she was going to be the keynote speaker until the last night so um thank you for being a part of that as mentioned earlier as far as the uh eliminating one of our early voting
locations on April 8th um you can go to the Mercer County Board of Elections from 12:00 to 1: p.m. sign up to speak and um against it because as she stated they are looking to remove uh the early roading location that has the lowest turnout which so happens to be
Trenton uh March 28th we have the father daughter dance um and that would be from 5: to 9: also shout out to Kim and um Omar for coordinated Sun the mother Su dance that was at Cooper last week it was so cute it was really nice to see the young men dressed up and dancing
with their mothers um don't disturb the groove March 22nd um and that is at artworks from 8:00 pm to 12 I mean 8 yeah 8 to 12 Trent eat locals at Magic restaurant 826 South Broad Street that is March 20th at
6m and I believe that's all my announcements I hope I didn't forget anything thank you so much for being here this evening thank you to our administrators thank you to my colleagues and have a good night everyone Madame President thank you very
much and if you want to ask for a motion to adjourn good we have a motion to adjourn so moved roll call vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman fig kenberg has left the meeting to get rid of the echo that was
occurring councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carry meeting adjourned thank you n [Music]
[Laughter] it happens every [Music] time T that tomorrow t that