on your call. Madam President, we can start. Thank you. Friend City Council special meeting Wednesday, September 10th, 2025 is now called to order. Please stand and salute the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God 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
1975 chapter 231. This agenda is complete to the extent known and was sent to the Trenton Times, Trentonian newspapers, posted on the first floor bolden 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, yes. Present. Councilwoman Figurero Kenberg, present. Councilwoman Frisbee, for the record, I will check to see if
Councilwoman Frisbee has excused herself from this meeting this evening. She should be here. I don't know if she's in route. Okay, we we expect her and and expect that she's in route. Councilman Harrison, present. Councilwoman Williams, present. A presenter.
Council President Gonzalez, myself, Brandon Garcia, Municipal Clerk, present. Mr. Edward Colloji, Legislative Council. And in for West Bridges, City Attorney is Palmer Richardson. Thank you. And Madame President,
if you'd like at this time, I'll read the invocation. Yes, please. Which I believe is not here. Okay. Oh, Lord. Nope, it's not. 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. Our s say again, thy servants. Our servants that we may serve good will and
to the best of our abilities. To the best of our ability. Amen. Thank you. Deeply apologize for that not being here. Minor oversight. Thank you. um presentations at this time. Madame President, we have our hotel presentations on for this uh agenda. And
Madam President, if you'll indulge me for a moment, uh we have resolutions to amend the budget on this agenda as well. If you'd like to entertain a motion to adjust the agenda this evening to handle those matters
first, that is I'll leave that to you. Yes. May I have a motion to adjust the agenda to allow the resolutions to go forward so we can allow um BA uh Director Richardson to um come forward? So move.
Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figurero Kenberg. Yes. Councilman Harrison. Yes.
Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. And with that being the case, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve resolution 25-345 to approve the calendar year 2025
municipal current fund budget amendments for the city of Trenton. Yes, we do a motion before we speak on it. Right. So, may I have a motion to approve resolution 25345? So, moved. Second. Roll call. Council President.
Yes. Councilwoman Williams and I believe BA uh Richardson is wanted to come forward. Thank you. BA Richardson, if you don't mind please explaining um why we have the amended budget at this special meeting and the
time frame that we needed to have it by. Um yes. Good evening, council president and uh council members. Yes, we are bringing uh these resolutions to to this docket. Um we, as you might remember, um we had to
amend our budget based on the amount of uh transitional aid that the state confirmed for us. we uh received about $4.5 million less than we originally
um budgeted for, but we knew that that might happened. So um now that we confirmed the amount of transitional aid funds that the city will be receiving and given that we went this morning before the local finance board to get
approved the 12.6 6 million um for the cap waiver application. We um DCA considered that this is a significant um amendment and that we should now be
presenting this amendment along with um the approval of the budget which is scheduled to happen during the 16th meeting, the meeting on the 16th. So, we decided to add this resolution with your
uh approval so that we can meet that deadline that the CA imposed on us. Thank you. Um, Miss uh, Councilwoman Williams. Thank you. And thank you, BA. If you could go over because we have 345 and
346, which I do have copies of. I don't have a copy of 344, but I have a digital copy. Um, I'm assuming. So, can you kind of highlight what the specific amendments are because it's not going to be an amendment for each of the items in this?
Uh, no. And I um I'm going to ask uh um the assistant BA to go over those numbers with you. Thanks, Council President. Council Feliciano. Thank you. So, we had the um these
amendments already were were known by the administration prior to us meeting on tonight, right? And prior to our last special meeting that we had. Um is that so? Before this meeting. Yes. Okay. So, my question is then, I mean,
and I understand that this needs to be done, but I'm not sure why we just didn't hear this before tonight. um since they already had the information and then to give time I guess for even public consumption to even hear what the changes are.
So to my understanding it was because of the local finance board meeting that was scheduled for today but BA Richardson yes I as I explained earlier um we just went before the local finance board this morning at 10:30 and we would not be able to do this until we actually uh got
the approval for the $12.6 $6 million waiver. Okay. Just wanted to hear you say it. Thank you. My pleasure, Madam President. Council vice president.
Um, considering the the nature of these resolutions being amendments to our municipal budget, I feel as though that this should be done at a regular general meeting and not at a special meeting because the general public barely even knows about this meeting. It was very
short notice and this meeting was specifically supposed to be for hotel presentations. I think that it would be more incumbent of us as representatives of the public to make sure this happens when the public is present to hear it
and not at a special meeting. Um I understand that approvals was just um done at the local finance board this morning. However, I don't feel like it's fair to like, you know, blitz this. Like, can this go on the September 16th
meeting and then possibly do an a presentation of the new budget during that meeting as well? And then the following meeting, we can approve the budget. That way, the public is included every step of the way. Madame President, may I? Yes. Uh, Mr.
Madame Vice President, uh this is the introduction of the amendment. There will be a public hearing on this amendment on the 16th. Uh and then assuming um council approves, then after that public
hearing, we would ask for adoption of the budget. So there will be a public hearing. And in terms of timing, the reason we're doing this tonight is that uh because DCA has determined this to be a substantial amendment, we require 3
days minimum of advertisement between the introduction and the uh public hearing on the budget. In fact, to your point, Madame Vice President, exactly so that the public has the opportunity to be notified and can come and speak on
it. uh and in order to send our tax bills out in time and collect our fourth quarter taxes, we have to adopt the budget within September. So, this allows us to uh advertise for the public
hearing on the 16th and then close the public hearing and should council um feel so inclined, adopt the budget um as amended on the 16th. Yeah. And um Mr. Garcia, just really
quickly, this um both of these items were advertised when we advertised a special meeting. Correct. Correct. The uh both items were both both items were included on the uh special meeting advertisement. Okay, that's what I thought. I just want to make sure Council Feel Camber.
That's Thank you. Um my my concerns are when you've done Okay. My concerns are one, you know, us as a council really haven't had enough time to review this or review the changes in time for this meeting to
approve of this resolution at the time. And two, I know that um BA Richardson did say that, you know, we got lesser funds um than we had anticipated from the state. And I'd like to hear why one
we we got lesser funds than anticipated and how we anticipated that. I' I'd really like an answer to that. Um but but further again, um we're just being presented with this resolution to be voted on tonight and you know, we really
haven't had enough time to review the budget and review um exactly what these numbers mean. Thank you, Council President. Yay. Um when we submitted our application for transitional aid back in
March 5th, we basically requested from the state 50 uh 45 million based on the budget that we have worked. uh July
5th, the governor sent a communication through the division of local government services that you are all aware of that the city was approved by $40.5 million.
And so then we needed to submit a an amended budget to accommodate the fact that we were getting $4.5 million less than what we requested. But um we actually
were mandated by the state to submit a budget with assumptions. I don't know if you remember that uh several of you asked me the same questions uh here in this room why we were not submitting uh the budget introducing the budget
because we didn't want to submit a budget with assumptions. Usually the city will uh introduce the budget once DCA has confirmed what is the amount of transitional aid. This year and moving forward, we will submit a budget with
assumptions because the state is requiring that we submit introduce the budget on time. And so this will happen in the future again that we will present a budget with assumptions and once the
governor decide how much money the city is getting in transitional aid and capital city aid, we will come back to you with an amended budget. So this is not uh the only instance that's that this will happen. It will happen in the future again. Thank you, VA. And and and to the point
of assumptions, I'm sorry. I just wanted to say like it I I and maybe I mean maybe I misinterpreted, but it it didn't feel like an assumption that we were told that we were getting this money this year from the governor. You know, it was an assumption. It was like we were
getting this this year. And and like I said, maybe that's my misinterpretation, but um that's what I was under the impression that that's what we were getting and you know, now it's something. Yes. No, that was a mis misinterpretation because when we introduced the budget, we really tried
to make it really clear that we that that could change based on the verification, the confirmation from the governor's office of how much money we will be getting in transitional aid, which happens when the state approves
their budget and on June 30th or something like that. Okay. still need to get my uh at some point I'm happy with my colleagues and asking questions but again I I just want to clarify that we are not approving the budget we are
simply introducing the amendments to the budget which is also regular step that we always follow Madam President CBP and then Williams so just to follow up to clarify so that
um I'm on the same page right so this isn't approving the amendments. This is approving I mean not in the final form obviously since we've introduced it before this amendments and then now we have the amendments coming September 16. So this
is saying we're allowing we're approving you to introduce the new budget. Correct. All right. I on the same page now. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. No further question. Councilwoman Williams and then Councilwoman Feliciano.
Okay. Thank you, ma'am. I I would still like to have Mr. Cherry be able to explain the uh to highlight the actual change in amendments here. Of course. Um thank you, Councilwoman. Thank you. Um there are broadly two categories of
amendments that you're going to see. Uh there are quite a quite a number. So rather than going through each one, I'll just talk about the categories. But broadly, there are two categories. amendments because of that reduction or because of other changes in the budget.
And then you're going to see uh in the second section $12.6 million of amendments that were moving money that was inside of the cap to outside of the cap. So, um you're going to see some
substantial decreases. For example, uh in police salary and wage, if you look in the first section, it appears that the reduction in salary and wage was approximately $13 million from about $40
million to about 27 million. However, if you look in the second section, that reduction was just the reduction to the inside the cap, and you're going to see about 11.8 million that was moved outside of the cap. So the actual reduction was about $1 million in
overtime only and that reduction was of course commensurate with that reduction in requested aid. So, uh, throughout that first section, you're going to see the moves to the inside the cap amount. And then that second section shows you
the the various line items that were moved outside of the cap pursuant to the waiver that we received uh this morning at local finance board. Does that answer your question? That that helps. I just going forward and I know there'll be a lot of things
going forward. I would like to ask that we always get an explanation attached to this because that will that's really and I to defend not my colleagues need defending in any way they don't but it isn't fair to just
send this with the changes and not give us even a reminder of the assumption but also an explanation of this because we want to make an informed vote but also the public does deserve to understand yeah they didn't need to go to Harvard to get an MBA to be able to know what's going on with their their government
budget and that would just be more transparent, more explanatory. I think that would help all of us. Of course. Thank you, Councilman Feliciano. Thank you, Council President. So, I had asked previously
um the um the question if it was legal or right that if the council because of how this budget goes and and our reviewing process and everything when we all meet and talk about it, if the council
once the once the administration prepares their budget for that what they want to submit to the DCA Okay. If the council could then be in session to hear what that
anticipated budget is so that if there were any changes that we would want to suggest or what have you or questions, we we could get that out the way before it even goes to DCA. So then when those things are changed, if they are changed,
then we have a grasp or understanding of what's happening. because we have these hearings um you know after the after the fact some may assume because DCA said oh okay it's okay maybe they said it was okay
maybe they didn't they're going to go along with it when actually we can suggest or require changes um along the way as well as the council so Mr. Colloji, is it an issue
for the council if if that was the council's will to once the administration prepares their initial budget for us to want to meet to hear what that is before it's submitted to DCA or does it have to go to DCA first
and then it comes to the council? To be honest, Councilwoman Feliciano, what you're raising um is a procedural issue that's a combination of the local budget law and the Faulner Act. I'm going to have to take a look at the statutes and get back to you.
Um Madame President, if I may, uh Councilwoman, uh the the introduced budget, so what we submit in March, we are required to receive DCA approval before we present that to you.
Okay. However, once the introduction is made, uh that is when we have those those time for those hearings. And just to clarify, this budget, this amendment was uh is pursuant to those hearings we
had with the council members. So, this matches the changes that we made then. Okay. Um, and that is why we were forced to have those, as you recall, we were forced to have those meetings so late in the cycle because we needed to wait for DCA to give us that final number.
Right. No, I agree with that with the hearings happening after at if we have to do it that way after DCA gives a number. Anything before that, it would just be it wouldn't make sense. Um but I just wanted to know if we could be
a part of or see beforehand just to have an understanding so that if changes were made then we would understand the changes as it as they had occurred rather than than getting it like this. Okay. And and to be clear, it is
possible for council to uh suggest or or demand amendments after the public hearing on the 16th. That is council's prerogative, right? Um this is just us unfortunately time
crunched and and so council's aware. Um, this uh hearing with the local finance board this morning was the first available hearing since we heard from the state what our number was. We had missed the deadline for the August local
finance board meeting. So the they meet once a month. So the first time we were able to get an application forward um as we came to you at the last council meeting requesting permission to submit that application and this was the first time we were able to get on their
docket. So unfortunately um it just is I agree a very unfortunate timing and kind of uh condenses all of us on our schedule. Right. Okay. I do agree though with
Councilwoman Williams. um you know I will ask you 50 million questions. Uh we need explanations to what to why these changes and everything are going to happen. So it would help especially like given on a night like tonight you would have that where we could have read it ahead of time just to kind of get a
flavor of what was going on. So thank you council president. Council president Councilwoman Williams. Thank you. Um, just in case, and I know this is actually a typo, but on the last page of uh at least 345 and 346, it says that the amendments will be published in
the Trenton Times in the issue of September 12th, 2025. Are we not also uh advertising in the Trentonian? because I did physical paper not I know we're move all moving to a digital world of newspapers but um it's more well read
than um the Trenton Times which is only available at nj.com I can answer that um I'm sorry um we would as the clerk I pro I I I advertise in both papers okay that's what I figured so yeah we the tronium comes in very handy in time crunches like this we're
typically able to get something into the newspaper there within a day as opposed to the lead time of the times which is now online anyway so we're wondering why but we still have quite a lead time with the times so yes we use them both okay thank you very much especially in budget matters
I appreciate that thanks ma'am thank you anyone else Mr. Garcia, you move on. Okay, Madame President, with that being said, then um for resolution 23-345,
I believe we had a motion to second. We're at the vote. Yes. Understood. So, uh vote to pass. Vice President Edwards. Oh, yes. Councilwoman Feliciano, yes. Councilwoman Figureroa Kenberg,
yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilman Harrison, yes. Yes. Councilwoman Williams, yes. Council President Gonzalez, yes. Motion carried. Moving on to resolution
uh 25-346 to approve the calendar year 2025 municipal utility amendments for the city of Trenton. May I have a motion to approve? Second roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes.
Councilwoman Feliciano. Councilwoman Figuro Kenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilman Harrison. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez.
Yes. Motion carried. And now, Madam President, that brings us to uh resolution to go into executive session this evening for the purposes of contract negotiations. I'll defer to the solicitors if anybody has anything
additional for going into executive at this time. I don't believe there is. It's resolution 25-344 authorizing the city council of the city of Trenton to hold an executive session which excludes the public. May we have a motion to approve? So moved. Second.
Roll call. Vice President Edwards, yes. Councilwoman Feliciano, yes. Councilwoman Figureroa Kenberg, yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilman Harrison, yes. Councilwoman Williams, yes. Council President Gonzalez, yes.
Motion carried. Thank you. And at this time, Madam President, um I'm sorry. Yes, we'll go into executive session. I do not believe we anticipate a vote coming out of executive session to the public. Uh shall we? Let's go. How many we got? One, two, three.
Um, Council Frisbee's right here. Four. That's our half plus one. Beautiful. I'll wait till she gets settled. Mhm. She's settled. I need a motion to come out of executive session, please. Have a motion. Thanks. Second. Okay, that was moved by Frisbee.
Thank you. And it was second by Harrison. Much appreciated. Thank you. Roll call. Vice President Edward. Oh, no. Excuse me. I am at Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilman Harrison. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes.
Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. And Madame President, at this time we've reached a point of public comment. If I could have the public comment clipboard, please. I have the public comment clipboard. Apparently,
public comment will be 5 minutes for each individual. You may address any m any item that you wish. The first individual listed for public comment is Caroline Clark. We need time. Good evening, council. Good evening.
And the two tranonians that are still here. So, um, Caroline Clark, Riverside Drive, Trenton, New Jersey. Okay. So, I'm actually here to talk about the
residency law. So, there was a first reading that happened at the last meeting and then there were some comments from council members. So, I'm here to once again urge council to not adopt the state's residency
requirement law. It was clear to me that some council members had not read or did not understand Trenton's residency statute. Our statute does more than the state's
statute. The only reason to adopt the state statute is to depri deprioritize tranonians. So I would not understand why council would
think about dep prioritizing tranonians when putting residents from other townships at the same hiring levels as tranonians. that would work against you because it's only tranonians that can put you in
these seats. So implicitly tranonians should be prioritized in your dis in your decisions and discussions. So the moment that we hear Trenton
Waterworks and DP recommending us to do something, I would have hoped that all our bells would have gone on given the context that we have been in over the last couple of months. And once we hear that, we need to start asking critical
questions like why is this residency issue coming up now? The law has been in effect since I think at least 2019. So why are they coming to you with it now in the context of regionalization?
Essentially deprioritizing Trenton adopting the state's mandate is actually regionalizing our jobs. It is a first step towards regionalization and therefore we ought to reject it on
its face. Councilwoman Feliciano is not here, but I would like to thank her for asking the hard questions last time. Councilwoman Frisbee, again, I'd like to also thank you for rejecting
that notion outright. There is no need for us to do it. Trenton's ordinance complies with the state's mandate. The state's mandate merely says that if a water utility serves other townships,
we can hire or or we shall hire. Well, our own ordinance says that we can. It says Tranonians first, counties second. All the townships that we serve are in the county. So those people are already
covered. So there's no reason to take the state's mandate over ours. Which is why Mr. Beum said it was a recommendation. But it is a recommendation that is to
the detriment of Trentonians and it's the state's test to test your your appetite for regionalization. And I in my opinion only two of you took
a firm position against that move. And so I'm only going to urge the rest of you to go read those two uh laws. See that we don't need the states and that the say the states
mandate deprioritizes Trenton and therefore is adverse to the interest of Trentonians. Thank you. Thank you. Carl McCall just calling just in case. Robin Vaughn.
Yes. Uh Robin Vaughn, 1100 Styverend Avenue. Um, thank you Council President Gonzalez and the rest of the council for allowing me to speak. And I just want to concur
with my fellow resident, Miss Clark, about on the residency law. And I just want to add that of course Tintonian should be prioritized.
And if you choose to vote, I think you should take a stronger stance and really advocate for the people who put you in those seats. Right? These individuals are facing the highest
unemployment rates in the state of New Jersey. the highest unemployment across Mercer County. And I would suggest that if Trenton has to amend its residency law because it's
part of the utility, a municipal uh a municipality that has a utility, then why don't you all demand through resolution as a collective that all the townships that are part of the service
area to amend their residency law are the same to hire Trenton Tony. Ionians to hire Trentononians in Hamilton to hire Trentonians in Lawrence. Right. Council Councilwoman
uh Williams like Right. So if you believe that they can come here and get high salaries, then why aren't they hiring us? Why don't they amend their residency law
since we're all part of the same water system? Right? Regionalization should go two ways, a two-way street, not just one way. Whereas, we're giving up all our assets and revenues and they get
everything for nothing from a underserved and already underresourced city. So, it's time for you all to advocate and fight for Trenton. Fight for Trentonians.
Every township has put up a resolution fighting for their residents while you guys remain silent. Silence, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, is complicity. So, you're for it. If you're not doing
anything about it, you're not saying anything about it, then you're for it. But that has yet to be seen. But you trust me and when I tell you you stand against Trenton, we are going to stand
against you. Wait for it. And I will just land there. Uh and and I guess I'll get an opportunity to speak about the redevelopment project.
Stand against Trenton. Trentonians will clap back. Thank you, Miss Wah. Um, civic comments. Anyone have anything to say? Well, thanks.
Thank you. All right. Um, Mr. May I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Second. Oh, okay. Roll call. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilman Harrison, yes.
Councilwoman Williams, yes. Uh, Council President Gonzalez, yes. Motion carry. Meeting adjourned. Thank you.