is complete to the extent known. It was sent to the Trenton Times and Trentonian newspapers, posted on first floor bolden board and city hall, filed in the city clerk's office, and posted on the city of Trenton website. Formal action will be taken. Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards,
>> present. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> present. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> present. Councilwoman Gonzalez will be available um as indicated she will be available momentarily virtually.
>> We'll wait for her. Councilman Harrison. Councilwoman Williams >> present. You present. >> Thank you. Vice President Williams. I apologize. And Council President Vero >> present. >> Thank you very much. Myself, Brandon Garcia, Municipal Clerk, present. Mr. Edward Colloji, legislative council.
and city attorney West Bridges. Thank you very much. And Madame President, at this time if you'd like, I can read the invocation. Almighty God, who holds the fate of man and nation, we most humbly beseech thee
to bless this our city, these the liberations, 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 Madam President, at this time um I will check with you to see if we have
any recognitions. And I don't believe we do at this time. So Madam President, I'm going to if you'll indulge me for one moment. I just want to congratulate my colleague to my side here, Mr. Jorgeya, for completing an internship recently. And that was
with the Go ahead, sir. um with the center of Hispanic Policy, Research, and Development. >> Center of Hispanic Policy and Research Development. Uh he was able to do that and also maintain duties within the city clerk's office and uh keep us up to
speed. So, I thank you very much, sir. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for that, Madam President. And we can move on as you wish. >> Let's proceed, please. >> Certainly. At this time, uh, it brings us to public comment for agenda items only. If there are any individuals who
have public comment, this is for agenda items only, please do come forward. And if I could have the clipboard for public comment, agenda items only. >> Thank you, Hillary. I have two individuals listed, Madam President. Um, I assume we will have 5 minutes for each
individual. Thank you. You'll have five minutes for each individual. You may address any item on the docket that you wish. [snorts] And uh, the council, please do understand the council is not obl obligated to respond. >> That's fine. My name is Paul Shore, 425
Greenwood Avenue, Trenton, New Jersey. >> And Mr. Shore, I'll stop you for a moment because, as I understand it, did you require a visual aid? I know there was a requirement >> for only for the public comment later. >> We have that available for you. Thank you. >> I appreciate that. >> No problem. Go right ahead. >> My comments are very simple. They're
related to the fact that on the docket, you have listed probably 40 lawsuits which are part of what the city has been obligated to respond to. And my question is on the docket, can the public ever be
informed as to what is the nature of those lawsuits? And the reason I ask is because we have a civic association and they have raised the Hamilton Avenue Civic Association. We're formulating their uh h how they respond to the city
council and the they're they have a lot of questions about trees and sidewalks. So trip and fall is something that uh they're concerned with and they're concerned with their obligations as well as the city's obligations with respect
to trees. And I will leave it at that that we're looking for council to somehow enable residents to know if the lawsuits that are pending are related to trip and fall or if they're related to parks or they're related to other
issues. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um forgive me. I'm going to give this my best shot. Is this uniser pain? Oh man.
>> Porpa, I'm sorry. >> Propa. >> Porpa. >> Porpa. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> Go right ahead ma'am. >> Thank you, council. Good evening. My name is Yan Pera. I'm here for the
ordinance of 20 20.028 028 274 street. We are from the Trenton Professional Oldtimes which is a nonprofit organization.
We have been in Trenton for 30 years. T which is also called teapot in common and tippa have proudly served the the city of Trenton since early wave of African immigrant from made Trenton
their home. Our organization has worked to meet the needs of family through mentorship education charity outreach youth development and community service. Today our membership has
increased. Individual have devised. We have devised back by ground nationality. All united by the common common committee to serve the state of Trenton. We have an organization by ground
initiate the the school back to school program support immigrants. Sorry. I apologize. I mean, don't mean to stop you and interrupt you, but is this in reference to a specific docket item? >> Yes. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> And this docket it add is on 20 27 South
Street. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> I didn't want I didn't want to stop you if you weren't finished with the comment yet, though. I would just wanted to make sure that it was for the docket. If you had anything else, please additional, please. I don't mean to stop you.
>> Okay. I'm sorry. I thought it was just because I wanted to finish with what I had. >> That's my That's >> three minutes. >> Three minutes. That's entirely my fault. I apologize. >> Okay. I'm sorry also. Okay. Council members, we have come today [clears throat]
as an organization which is in Trenton and we have come here in full. Can every TA member please put their hand up in here? We just need a building that will able to enable us
to carry on our organization because we are part of the Trenton public. Our our children need this building for for schooling like they come home. We don't have no
back to school program for them. We want to help in our community because we have been with this community forever more than 30 years as I said earlier. So as we go about our daily activities, we need a building for Trenton for our
community. We are speaking on behalf of the immigrant of of of Trington right now. We need a building and as we come to see the building that is on Fel Street, we have gone there and we make
sure that we look at it. We have every every means to get this street. So it will be our our biggest our biggest appreciation to the council to okay this building for us. It will not only be
used for Liberians. It going to be used for the entire Trenton. We are looking at our community. Our kids are growing up. We don't want them to leave our community. So we want to bring them into our sighting. even if they graduate they
can come back and say this is where we start it they all are in public school so this will help them up so for our council member you have you have considered today is more than a
transferring of a building it is a opportunity to empower the organization with a proof record of service to continue giving back to Trenton to the city of Trenton. For over 30
years, TIPA has served the community WITHOUT PERMANENT HOME. WE have been going from home to home to have our our meetings. Now, we want a permanent home. Today, WE WE RESPECTFULLY ask for the
opportunity to build one, not for ourself, but for the people of Trin. Thank you for your time in. We pray that you're healed to our respond. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Garcia, we may proceed.
And Madam President, at this time if you want to ask for a if you want to ask for a motion to approve the minutes of I believe that is May 19th. >> Yes. May we have a motion to approve
minutes for May 19th. >> So move. >> Second. >> Thank you. Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Yes. >> We do not have Councilwoman Gonzalez.
>> Uh Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuro Kenberg. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Thank you. And Madam President, at this time if you want to approve ask for a motion to approve communications, petitions and reports. >> May we have a motion to approve communications, petitions, and reports.
>> So move. >> Second. >> Thank you. Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards? >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano? >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee? >> Yes. >> Vice President Williams? >> Yes. >> Council President Figorero,
>> yes. Motion carried. >> And at this time, move to old business. Ordinance 26-046 ordinance establishing require Oh, I'm sorry. This matter's been pulled. Uh, we are we arrive at ordinance
26046 has been pulled by council. Ordinance 26-66. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 2413rd Street, 114 to 118 Shank Street, and 111 to 119 Temple Street. and
identified on the city tax map as block 11603 lots 1 2 and 9 through13 pursuant to NJSA 481213C to Vessel Technologies and Bridgeoint Development LLC for the sale price of
$33,560. >> Mr. Garcia. >> Yes. >> Um Council Gonzalez is not on the call. Correct. >> Correct. >> Who Who is >> She just answered. >> Okay. Is that is that her with the noise in the background? Can we mute that? >> I'm not sure what that noise is.
>> What? That might be >> No, that was the timer being done and continuing to run. >> Thank you. >> Is the timer allowed? >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay, continue, Mr. Garcia. Thank you. >> Okay. [clears throat] >> All right. Where am I?
Uh, are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance? Ordinance 26-066. Hearing none, man. Seeing none man present, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. >> May we have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards.
>> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez. Understood. Uh we'll move we'll move on to Vice President Williams. >> Yes.
>> Council President Figo Edenberg. >> Yes. >> And is Councilwoman Gonzalez available yet? >> Okay. Motion carried. Ordinance 26-72. Ordinance amending ordinance 25-074
authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 900 Indiana Avenue and identify on the city tax map as block 23903 lot 21 pursuant to NJSA 481213C to Sherwood and Mary Brown for the sale
price of $25,000. 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. Do we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards, >> yes.
>> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez. >> Understood. Moving on. Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuro Kenberg. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-075.
Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 116 Home Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block 17301 lot 15 pursuant to NJSA 40A
1213 C to Ulaci Fernandez Hernandez for the sale price of $8,675. 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. >> No, we have a motion to approve. So
moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez. >> Yes. Yes. I'm sorry, it's not working.
>> Thank you. Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuro Kenberg. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-76, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property, commonly known as 438 West Hover Street, identified on the
city tax map as block 2302, lot 21, pursuant to NJSA 481 1213C to Santa Korea for the sale price of $3,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? [clears throat]
Seeing none, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. Now we have a mot to approve. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez.
>> Yeah. Yes. >> Thank you, >> Councilman Harrison. >> Yes. Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Vigoro Keber. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-077, Ordinance authorizing the sale of
city-owned property commonly known as 1523 South Clinton Avenue and identified on the city tax map is block 201102, lot 10 pursuant to NJSA 481213C to Samuel Marmmo
Santana for the sale price of $16,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, madam present, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. >> May we have a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards.
>> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figuro Edenberg,
>> yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 26-078, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 60 Laurel Avenue and identified on city tax map as block 6306, lot 61 pursuant to NJSA 4A1213C
to Jennifer Zam Zamina Barbosa Castro for the sale price of $20,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordance 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 moved.
>> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Counciloman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams,
>> yes. >> Council President Figuro Keber, >> yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-079, Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 272 Walnut Avenue and 409 Walnut Avenue and identified on the city tax map as
block 26402, lot 26 and block 27301, lot 32 pursuant to NJSA 481 1213C to Diego Barios for the Barios for the sale price of $17,000.
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? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee,
>> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Counciloman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figuro Kevin, >> yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-80, ordinance authorizing the sale of
city-owned property commonly known as 682 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and identified on the city tax map as block A502 lot 21 pursuant to NJSA 481213C to Ahmed Kamar for the sale price of
$45,000. 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. >> Yeah, we have a motion to approve. So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards, >> yes.
>> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figuro Edenberg, >> yes.
>> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-081. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 130 Chambers Street and identified on the city tax map as block 27602 lots 23, 24, 25, and 26 pursuant to NJSA
481213C to Riot Associates for the sale price of 28,800. 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. >> Yeah, we have a motion to approve.
>> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Councilman Harrison, >> yes.
>> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figuro Kevin, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Moving on to resolutions at this time. Madam President, are there any resolutions? Uh, Mr. Garcia, what about 26082? >> I'm sorry. >> 26082.
>> 082. I will move to No. >> Did I lose Oh, I'm sorry. Did I miss one? I apologize. >> Correct. >> 26, excuse me. Ordinance 26 082. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 1047 South
Broad Street and identified on the city tax map as block se901 lot 12 pursuant to NJSA 481213C to Yanni Vasquez for the sale price of $1,000. 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. >> Yeah, we have a motion to approve. So move >> second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Felicia, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez,
>> yes. >> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figo Edenberg, >> yes. >> Motion carried. Thank you, Madam President. >> On to resolutions. Again, Madam President, if there are any items that
you wish to uh extract for questions or from a potential consent agenda. >> Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Anybody and um anybody have any questions for any of the resolutions on the dock? >> Seeing none, Mr. Garcia, please proceed
for um a consent agenda. >> Certainly. On one moment, please. I just want to make sure I have everything here. Yes, Council Gonzalez. >> Um, we I know we didn't are we concluding
the communications and petitions on the agenda already. >> Okay. I probably missed that move. Okay. Thank you, >> Madam President. >> Yes, Councilman Edwards. >> I do have one question. Um, 26-298.
>> Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. All right. >> All right. Um I believe that is Council Edwards 26298. That is for uh Department of Administration. Paul Harris, parks and recreation
director. Hello. >> Hello, >> director. Good evening, director. Um, I just have just a couple of questions about the American Rescue Plan funds. Um, do you mind just briefly explaining what
the reallocation is and then I'll get into >> So, this isn't uh a reallocation. This is pulling this resolution because it's a duplicitus because there was two resolutions passed basically for the
same amount of money, $100,000. Um, so this is just wiping the record of that. Council approved two resolutions related to murals. One for $100,000 for Trenton Waterworks, one for $100,000 for the Department of Recreation. So the
Department of Recreation is using our $100,000 for murals throughout the city. Um, this was this one's not this one can't be used because it should never been passed basically. >> Okay. >> Cleaning up the books essentially. >> Okay. Thank you for that. So, what is
the intention of the $100,000 for this resolution? >> No, there's no intention at all because it doesn't this is we're we're canceling out once you pass once you vote. It doesn't exist anymore on our books essentially. Does that make sense? >> So, is the money still available or is
it spent on something else? >> No, what I'm saying is it should have never been presented essentially. >> Right. So, do we have any unspent funds or unallocated funds from the American Rescue Plan? >> Every dollar for the American Rescue
Plan has been allocated. Yes, >> it's all been allocated. >> It's been allocated. >> So, this is a a you said duplicative. >> Yes. here is saying that it's a reallocation of $100,000 in the American Rescue Plan
Act funds previously authorized for the Trenton Museum Society to the City of Tren Department of Recreation, Natural Resources, and Culture. So, every dollar of this is already allocated somewhere else and we're just >> Yes. So the way this works is after
December 31st, 2024, in order to reallocate any ARP funds, there'd be a resolution essentially cancelling it and then you would see another one reallocating it. There's only one on this docket. You're cancelelling it. Just like when we did the LS Lee one,
you had one cancelling it and then one reappropriating it. You don't have anything on the docket reappropriating these funds. >> That's what my line of question is. So, will this be reappropriated elsewhere or is it already accounted for for >> It's already It's already accounted for is what I'm saying. Yes, originally
accounted for. It's duplicitous. >> Okay. Thank you. That's all the questions I had. >> Director Harris, I have a I just have a followup on that. Then, should the title of this resolution be changed because it's misleading? >> So, I
Yeah, the administration is going to pull this resolution. >> You're going to pull it? Yes, it needs to be pulled and it can be rewritt >> rather than amended. >> We can it's >> I mean if we can amend it so that the verbiage is accurate then it doesn't
need to be pulled. But but if the administration wants to pull it then you know that is your discretion at this point. It's simply the verbiage in the title. >> I don't believe it's necessary. uh Jim Beach, chief of staff. I don't believe
it's necessary, Council President. So, I think the administration is just going to pull it >> to pull it rather than amend it. Okay. >> Because I think the transaction has already taken place and so it's implicative of an earlier Exactly. >> Got it. >> Exactly. [clears throat] Thank you. >> Is that understood?
>> Okay. All right. Mr. Garcia, can you please note that uh 26290 is being pulled by the administration? >> Noted. Thank you. And with that in mind, Madam President, >> council president. Yes, Counciliano. >> I'm sorry.
>> So, just just to just to be clear, they they're taking it the other resolution, the 24566 and then hold on, authorizing reallocation of the money.
Right. So it it's saying here that the that they took you took the money. You said never mind for that for the historical part and then you put it back into recreation department and then you already used it to install public
art um around a city somewhere. >> So think of a think of a ledger. Think of debits and credits. >> Okay. >> Okay. This is an extra um debit
that needs to be removed from the books because you have two debits. You've done this with the house with your housing ordinances. Um this is just an extra thing that shouldn't have passed in 2024 when we passed it. So what's happening now is a comprehensive review of all resolutions that were passed for ARP and
financials is being done. So uh when there is an audit, everything's correct. This is an extra ordinance. There's a separate ordinance that you passed for murals, $100,000 that's being used um for example uh at Rutherford Avenue playground. Leon Rainbow did that.
There's Unity Parks coming up in other places. So that's what this is. It shouldn't have it shouldn't have made the docket because obvious you know that's and we apologize for that. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um director Mr.
Garcia. Um we may now proceed for consent agenda um mitigating resolution number 26298 which has been pulled by the administration. >> Thank you madam president. If you want
to ask for a motion to approve a consent a sorry if you want to ask for a motion to approve consent agenda consisting of resolutions 20. >> Sorry Mr. Garcia I apologize. Uh we are going into um executive session at some point for 26300. Please omit that from
um >> I'm sorry >> agenda 26300. >> 26300. Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you. Council council council woman. >> So you said it for I'm sorry you said executive session. >> It needs Yes. We're going in executive
session for that 26300. That needs to be omitted from consensus. >> So we're going to have that for roll call then. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Once we >> Okay. So in that case, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve a consent agenda consisting of resolutions 26-289,
26-230, excuse me, 331, 260, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 298 has been pulled by administration. 301 302 330 303 304 305
306 239 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325
326 327 328 and 329. May we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. Coun. >> Council President. >> Council [clears throat] is the is the one and maybe I missed it. The one about the um senior citizen
advisory council. >> We're going to we'll address that. >> Thank you. I apologize. We do have the walk-on resolution 333 >> and that is in front of you, council. That is for >> Wait, Mr. Garcia, can we just proceed with this consent agenda and then we can do that? Certainly. We've already rolled
it. Thank you. >> And I believe we're at roll call. Councilwoman Edwards, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes.
>> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figuro Kenberg, >> yes. >> Motion carried. >> Mr. Garcia, we do have a walk on resolution for 26-333. Do any members of council have any
questions with regards to this resolution? >> Just to announce the resolution for the public. The walk- on resolution is resolution appointing Judy Asternick as a member for the senior advisory council to fill an unexpired term and that term will be ending uh expiring December
31st, 2026. >> Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Seeing no questions, we may proceed. >> Thank you, Madam President. If you want to ask for a motion to approve. May we have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes.
>> Uh Councilwoman Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Councilwoman Gonzalez. >> Yes. >> Councilman Harrison. >> Yes. >> Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuro Keber. >> Yes. >> Motion carry. Thank you.
>> Thank you. on the ordinances for first reading and introduction. Ordinance 26-058 an ordinance appealing and replacing repealing and replacing chapter 146 article I'm sorry my Roman numerals are
bad eight. Thank you. Titled motion picture and television permits and creating a new chapter titled filming. Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. >> May we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second.
>> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. >> I I did I didn't get a copy of that one. >> Um can you come back to me because I'll look in my Thank you. Come back to me,
please, for the vote. >> Certainly. Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figuero Kevinberg,
>> yes. >> Motion, Oh, excuse me. Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Thank you. Motion carried. Ordinance 26-074, Ordinance establishing the imminent hazard property stabilization enforcement and redevelopment program
for vacant, abandoned, tax foreclosed and deteriorated properties in the city of Trenton. >> Mr. Garcia, >> yes, >> this one is being pulled by uh Council Gonzalez, I believe. >> I'm sorry. >> This was pulled by Counciloman Gonzalez. >> No, C. >> No, it was the first one you already
did. >> Oh, I apologize. Okay. Apologies. >> We pulled that was 046 if I'm correct. Right. >> Correct. Thank you. >> Yeah. Apologies. >> Ordinance 26-074, Ordinance establishing the imminent hazard property stabilization, enforcement, and
redevelopment program for vacant, abandoned, tax, foreclosed, and deteriorated properties in the city of Trenton. >> May we have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes.
Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figo Edenberg, >> yes.
>> Motion carried. >> Ordinance 26-083. Ordinance approving the amendment of the pilot agreement between the city of Trenton and Sunrise Trenton Urban Renewal LLC. >> Yeah, we have a motion to approve.
>> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Councilman Harrison,
>> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. Council President Figaro Edenberg. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-84, Ordinance amending Ordinance 25-042
authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 16 East Avenue and identify on the city tax map as block 21504, lot 13 pursuant to NJSA 481 1213C to Jack M. Condandy for the sale price of
$5,000. >> May we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez,
>> yes. >> Councilwoman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figuro Kenberg, >> yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 26-085, Ordinance authorizing the lease of city-owned property located at 27 FEL
Street pursuant to NJSA 481213, excuse me, 481214C to the Trenton Professional Oldimers Association. May >> we have a motion to approve? >> Some moved. Second. Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards,
>> yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figuero Edward,
>> yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-086 ordinance amending and supplementing that's rule this uh rule 16 of the chap of chapter 8 316 of the Tren municipal
code some reason I'm having a brain fart today >> may have May we have a motion to approve so moved >> second >> uh I have questions. Excuse me. Uh 086.
This is the one discussing uh a cap of 90 minutes for public comments. Okay. Um I have asked just for uh minutes to be pulled since 2020 of council meetings.
Um and it it appears that the general gist of the meetings in the last couple of years since we've been on council um have been an average about of about 3 hours. A longest meeting in 2026 was 4
hours and 3 minutes when we had to res resistant people um here protesting. We had a 4 hour and 37 minute meeting in 2025. We had a 3-h hour and 46 meeting in 2024 and a 5h hour 11 minute meeting in 2023.
I don't think that there's been enough long meetings, especially in our term um for us to have to cap um the amount of time that the public gets to speak. >> Council President, >> Councilwoman, Council Vice President uh
Williams. >> Thank you, ma'am. Um while I you know am agreeable to try to uh not have any unnecessary uh time in our meetings. Uh I agree with you what you just stated regarding uh timing of our meetings and
how long they take. But also uh I am very reticent to try to cap the amount of free speech that we offered a council meeting um and the availability of constituents, stakeholders to be able to
uh seek redress from the government and be able to tell us what their thoughts are on the city. And um while I would totally respect bringing forth uh this ordinance, um I uh have serious concerns they would not be able to vote for it
for that reason. >> Madame President, >> yes, Councilwoman Frisbee, I'll digress to your last one. >> Council President, >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> thank you. So, it's not uncommon in certain in certain
cases for there to be like a cap on um public comments like at the school board they have a cap of x amount of minutes, you know, when the people speak and everything like that. Um but then it goes it goes on to say uh
each speaker shall state their name and will only be allowed a total of three minutes to >> Huh. That was supposed to be five. >> Oh, it's still five. Okay, thank you. Okay. Um, so the thing is I'm I'm not nec I'm not
necessarily opposed to I'm not necessarily opposed to a cap, but it's at the discretion of the the council president to be able to weigh in and reduce time
and everything like that. Um, I think in in listening to the to the two of you and where you were coming from, Council President and Council Vice President, I think that um, and while I understand where you're coming from, Coun Councilwoman Frisbee, and I appreciate
that, I think that the council president should be able to to weigh in and determine if there's a limited amount of time due to the number of people that would be present. um and and just be able to make that determination um
themselves on it. But I'm glad to see that it's not three minutes that that is that it is the five minutes on it. So, I just wanted to say that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Before Councilwoman Frisbee speaks, yes. Um there were amendments that were supposed to have been made ahead of this meeting.
Um it was not f it was not going to be three minutes. It's going to be five. Um these are things that Councilwoman Frisbee and I spoke about. Um and we um reiterated that information for changes. Um so thank you for that. And there's another change that um we have to discuss in the next ordinance as well,
but that was not made. >> Madam President, there should have been a trailing document in the invite with the changes at least for 86 in there. I know afterwards, yes, we had 87 as well and the strikethroughs to be done, but I believe 86 was accurately uh revised.
>> Thank you for that, Mr. Garcia. I know we sat down together to work through that. So, thank you for that. Okay. Yes. So, it was changed in the trailing documents just for reference and that's what went out to the public. So, okay. Counciloman Frisbee, did you have any comments? No. Counciloman Edwards.
>> Thank you. Um, I guess I just wanted to add my two cents on this because I see, you know, where we're going with this. Um, just i.e. one of the meetings where we did have an ordinance on the docket pertaining a certain situation, but then
we had public comment for docket items only at the beginning, public comment at the end. And that particular meeting went on for an extensive amount of time where the group of people that came in spoke during the public comment for agenda item only. Then they spoke when
the ordinance came up for second reading to give their opinions again. So we had to listen to it all over again with the same exact people and then at the end of the meeting there was another p public comment for whatever general you know inquiries or or comments and they spoke
again. So we sat here for hours. So if there's a way without limiting to 90 minutes where where we control that and have better control over that. So if they're coming in, if they're speaking on an ordinance, then that could be
saved during that time rather than in the beginning at at the agenda item only public comment. Then it would have it just would have flowed a lot better and saved a lot of time and and repetition. So it was very uh duplicative.
So I get where we're going with this. um 90 minutes and then coinciding with the next one to eliminate one of the public comment portions. I'm not sure because you know CP to your
point earlier our meetings have been have not been that long. So I'm kind of a little bit in the middle here with whether we limit this eliminate one, you know. So, I I think I need to hear more
about the explanation before I can make a decision. >> So, thank you, Councilwoman Edwards. I just wanted to say um with that with what you had just said, um Councilwoman Frisbee did consider that um public comment for agenda items only was added during all of our term here at some
point. Um Councilwoman Frisbee did propose taking that out in 087. So that would not be that duplicative um you know things which we can address in the next ordinance. Um but she did she did consider that to take that out
of the you know of our meeting agenda. >> Yes, Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Thank you Council President. So thank you to the feedback from all of my colleagues that did speak. Um this ordinance is prepared primarily for us to be productive. There are times when
we are having meeting and a lot of times we don't even have an hour's worth of public comment. But for times when folks come in and I believe it's to be disruptive intentionally to be disruptive and repetitive that is where this rule this would come into play and
I'm willing to put in there to have it at the 90 minutes with an amendment to say that is subject to change at the discretion of the council president. So there are times when we just have a whole group of uh individuals who want to speak, then the council president gets to say we're going to extend the
time. But in cases where we have folks that are coming here to make a mockery of sorts of our chambers, that's where this puts an end to that. And so that it gives us better control over what goes on here in our chambers. That's the
purpose of this. Um not to limit the public. We want to hear from everybody, but we do not want to hear from those who come um to not even be to be a part of the solution, but to be a part of a problem. Thank you, >> Council President. >> Council Luciano, >> thank you for that, Councilwoman
Frisbee. So then here's another concern then, right? So to your point, people come in, it's a whole group of people like the groups we have here tonight. Hey, and let's say all of them sign up to speak
during public comment and then you have little Miss Smith or somebody who wants to speak during public comment. But because now we had 10 people from this group that want to speak, we have five people from this group that want to speak. We had another set of people that
wanted to speak. And then there's little Miss Smith all the way at the end who by the time you have dwindled it down, >> they may have like 60 seconds and then she has nothing. So, I think that, and again, I I I understand where you
where you're coming from with that, but I but I think that um I I think that from your point about the discretion, I think it should just be the council president's discretion overall. Um which is why it's important
when Mr. Garcia gets the the clipboard to announce, you know, council president, we have 25 people signed up for public comment. Then that person in that minute can think and say, okay, then everybody will have two minutes or whatever that looks like. Um because it
could be a whole host of different things that they're going to talk about. I think maybe with your capping principle, if we switched it to like if a certain group came to to talk about something,
then maybe can we can we cap that? Like is there something with that? I can get where you're going. >> So even if we said, let's say we have all these beautiful orange shirts back here, then we have the lime green here and they all sign up. We would ask for maybe a a council's pres president's discretion. We could say maybe we'll
have three to five or a representative from there as opposed to the entire group coming. That's where the discretion of the president comes into play. If you have 50 people signed up on for public comment and they're all here to say the same thing. Sometimes folks
are passing literally a script that they're repeating. Um but it's now you you can say all right we'd like to get XYZ number of representatives that are going to come and speak on your behalf is redundant to say the same thing over and over and over again their their presence
>> that actually is their representation that we we hear you it's say to say the same thing over and over again. You can have it said one, two, three, four, even um five individuals as just as um this incredible organization said they had a representative to come up and speak as
opposed to everybody coming up and speaking. So, I'll let council decide on it, but um that's just where I am. It is to help the flow is to give us better control over our meetings. Um because if it's already known ahead of time, then
it gives a president to say, you know what, we still want to hear from the rest of these and we want to go until we're going to go until we're finished. When Miss Smith gets up here, let her go ahead and keep keep going. But otherwise, folks are in anticipation of we'll be here for 2 hours, we'll be here for 3 hours, and we're going to keep on
going. But you would at least have that in play. And that's what this does. It puts it in play. And then whoever is sitting in the count in this president's seat gets to say, "Nope, we're going to not stop that hour and a half. We're going to keep going. We want to hear everybody or however you choose to do
it." But it at least gives you control initially. Otherwise, it's just everybody comes in with the expectation and I have not seen us yet cut it off. So that's what this is um for. So >> So council, thank you for that. Um I I I
disagree. I understand where you're coming from, but I disagree. I don't think anybody's voices should be mute whether they're going to say the same thing and they're representing the same organization or same thoughts or same ideas. I think everybody has a right to get up and speak should that be what they want to do. Um I think that that is
kind of um pulling from people's um rights to uh to vocalize their ideas. I think that what we have in place and you know when larger groups have come or we've had a large number of people who signed up for for public speaking we
have moved it as a vote of council from 5 minutes to 3 minutes and I think that that works. Um, I don't want, as Council Feliciano said and as concerned that I voiced before, I don't want us to get to an end and, you know, a couple of individuals who have sat here for a full
90 minutes now don't get to speak because we we have maxed out and now they've sat there and and have not been able to voice their concerns. I understand at that point we could probably stretch it and do a vote and and proceed with public comment, but I just I I think that if we do it on um a
play-by-play basis the way that we've been doing it, it has been effective. That's just just my opinion at this point. Uh the Councilman Harrison wanted to say something. >> No, what I was going to say is if we're going to reduce the time for the public, we should reduce it for us. >> Shouldn't be five gonna get three
minutes. We get three minutes. Correct. My concern is sometimes um we uh as a body sometimes when we were talking about something we get so passionate that we keep going on and on and it to me it seems like it prolongs the meeting
and the people in the community who want to speak are sitting there thinking when are they going to move on? So that's my concern. >> Thank you Councilman. >> Yeah. >> Council Councilman Fiana. >> So can I ask Mr. the colloia a question.
Sure. >> Hey, Mr. K. >> Is it is it permissible that if a group comes to talk about an issue, can the council ask for representatives of the group or is that not legal?
Well, under the Open Public Meetings Act, the council has the power to regulate public comment. Not the content so much of public comment, unless you know it's profanity or something like that, but it can uh regulate the
duration of speaking the entire time. I mean, >> can we say that if there's like 15 people for one topic, can we say that we would allow three representatives to speak? >> We we could certainly say like say there's eight people to talk about one
subject. We say, you know, it might be better for everybody. Would you consider sending one individual up to speak about it? But we can't force that. If they don't want to do it that way, they all want to speak. They have the right to speak. >> So, we can't say what is this. So we
can't say if it's five to 10 people two people can come and talk for five minutes each or if there's 15 to 25 only three we can't do that >> we can't compel it we could suggest it might be good for everybody >> but we do have the power to regulate the
the number of minutes to speak as well as the overall time for public session in fact most I mean Trenton does very well Trenton gives five minutes >> um the vast majority of public bies some my experience in New Jersey both for
council boards of education it's generally three minutes >> so we're actually giving a fair amount more than most towns give >> council president >> council vice president >> thank you say a couple things and one in response to Mr. Clo you just said um
that's true. There is a general feeling amongst many in the country uh many citizens that there's more and more increasing efforts by local government state government to limit free speech and response of the citizens. Um we see
that things at the state level with what happened with Oprah request. Uh and I'm just want to make sure I put out there that we should be a little bit reticent. I think one of the great things about Trenton, one of the great things about the city council is that we do give our
constituents uh time to say what their thoughts are and really say them, work them out. And I would be very concerned if we even to match that would limit our own uh possibilities as council people to make announcements. We don't get newsletters to send to constituents. We
don't get to talk about the good things that the city did uh for our residents. we don't necessarily get to make policy points beyond what comes up in the agenda item. I think that's something very much to consider as we go forward. Um we are seeing in many states um more
citizen lawsuits against their local government for limiting free uh free speech. I was at another uh municipality in the past few months for their meeting and I was shocked that they how severely they limited uh citizen participation in
public comment. and I won't name the municipality, but I'm very proud about how we do it here. Thank you, ma'am. >> Madame President, >> Councilwoman Frisbee, thank you. So, for the record, this is not to silence voters because it's been said at least
four or five times. So, this is not silencing anyone's voice. This is for us to take control over our meetings. As you said originally, our meetings don't even generally go that long. So, that just simply sets an expectation. The
other thing is um as councilwoman Feliciano was asking Mr. colloji about it's not telling them whether or not um if there's a group here we can request it and I think that's the better term that you we say we can request um a representative or two or three four five
if you want um we can request that and again this does not limit the public comment as long as the council president is in control and that's what it does it gives control to the council president otherwise it is it is not in control you
don't the person sitting in the seat does not have that [clears throat] regulated control. So it gives you that it gives that this is what we are expecting and if if you we need to it allows for other individuals to continue
on but it is at the president's discretion. So again, it is not limited. It is not taking away anyone's voice because if someone is sitting here and they still want to speak, that's where the president gets to say, I'll allow that. I'll allow every one of them in
here, but is at your discretion. >> Council, >> that's all I have on that. >> Council Vice President, >> I just want to make sure uh I firmly believe in my heart and in my my mind that Councilwoman Frisbee has no intention on limiting anyone's free speech. >> [clears throat]
>> Uh I was just making my points because there are um other places uh in the nation where that it has been done. I don't believe that is the case here but is something we want to be careful with and tread lightly uh just in case because we don't want that perception
happening amongst our our citizens. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> Council. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Again what our concern is not limited the public. My concern is limiting the action from us. We if we're we're discussing something,
we all get our point across and then keep on moving on the docket. I think the longer we take moving on the docket, it gives the public frustration and they'll be sitting here two, three, how many hours and then they get up and they want to leave. And I don't want them to leave. I want them to speak. So the more
we can move along with the docket, the quicker the public can get up there to speak. Thank you. So, Councilman Harrison said that point maybe you can work on an ordinance moving forward where council gets three minutes to speak. >> There you go. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> I said maybe he could work on an ordinance moving forward where council
members get three minutes to speak at civic comment. Moving forward, >> not to be addressed right now. >> Yeah, but we can. So, so Councilman, at this point, do you want to proceed um with
this ordinance as it is? >> Okay. All right. Mr. Garcia, >> we have a motion to approve. >> It's been motioned and second, I believe. >> Yes. >> Uh so, we're at roll call. >> Council, Council President. >> Yes, >> just to be clear, the the thing we vote
is five minutes, not the one in front of me that say three. >> Five minutes is what was sent before, but with the 90m minute cap for public comment. And can we just have it amended where it says it's subject to change at the discretion of council president? That's the part in there that I want to
just make sure that we put in there. >> Where is that at counciloman? >> No. No. I'm saying I'd like to add in there that it is subject to change at the discretion of council president at >> the um pleasure of council president. >> Council president.
>> Mr. What we've been doing is because um the fivem minute period was adopted as part of the rules of council and because the council is also subject to Robert's rules of order in an appropriate situation where there are many many people and we have to kind of limit it.
Council would take a vote to basically suspend the rule to amend it to three minutes. Now you you can change that and just leave it to the discretion of the council president or you can retain that rule where somebody would have to make a motion based on the volume of people we
have here tonight. We're going to amend it to three minutes. >> Yeah, Mr. I mean I believe at this point when there have been large quantities of individuals who want to give public comments, we have um you know made a motion um to amend 5 minutes to 3 minutes and that has worked. Um, so it's
it's a situational um piece. So I think we all agree that we want to keep public comment at 5 minutes at this time. Correct. >> Okay. Okay. Mr. Garcia,
>> Councilwoman Edwards. Roll call. I'm sorry. Councilwoman Edwards. I'll say yes for now for first reading. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes for first reading. >> Councilwoman Frisbee,
>> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> no. Noted. Council President Figuro Kevinberg. >> No. >> Noted. That motion carries.
>> Ordinance 26-087 ordinance amending and supplementing a rule nine. Rule nine of nine of the chapter 8316 of the Tren Municipal Code. >> May we have a motion to approve? >> So moved.
>> Second. [clears throat] >> Uh, Mr. Garcia, I just want to be clear. I know we have a copy of the ordinance before us, but again, you sent the trailing documents. I don't know if everybody saw that. So, I just want to be clear um to uh Counciloman Frisbee's
um uh revisions to this. Um we are taking out public comment for agenda items only and um moving down. Public comment will be after new business and then civic comment. >> Understood.
Is that correct? >> No. So, no, no, no. So, we wanted to the new we wanted to stay because we want to hear the what the public has to say before we vote on new business. Correct. So, that is actually positioned right because it's public comment and then new business and we vote on it um after. So,
that actually is in >> the right position. >> No, council. Well, okay. Thank you for that. But, council member, I thought we wanted um the public to be able to hear new business and our comments on new business and then for them to comment. >> Right. But don't aren't we going to vote right into that? Unless we're going to
vote. They have it at one at the next. So we want to do new business and then public comment, don't we? >> We want them to be able to Yes. >> Comment. [clears throat] Yes. >> Yeah. >> So public comment should come after new business. >> Yours is different. >> Yes. Yes. Yes. >> Mhm. >> So public comment will come after new
business. Will Senator revised copy >> prior to second reading? >> Mr. Garcia, we have two copies of 26087 up here. >> I'm aware, ma'am. Um, >> so which is the correct one, >> Madam President? This the second one. You will know you will notice on there, one of those for some reason does not
have the remainder of the agenda on it. Um, some kind of either either an it's I'll take that as an error on my part. So, what I did was I went and updated you with a new copy with that is completely inclusive. However, I did
place public comment prior to new business. >> Okay. >> So, I will make that revision. >> So, I just want to be clear for the record. Counciloman Frisbee, please follow along with me and if there's a change, please let me know. So, we have one, call to order, two, pledge of allegiance, three, statement, four,
invocation, five, council recognitions, six, presentations, seven, approval of minutes, um eight, uh oh, that should be eight, Mr. Garcia. >> Oh, shoot. Okay. >> Okay. Eight, um, approval of communication petitions and reports.
Nine should be old business. Got it. >> Uh 10 should be new business. >> Okay. >> 11 should be public comments. >> Mhm. >> Uh 12 should be civic comments. >> Okay.
>> And um 13 should be executive session and 14 should be adjournment. Um so everything from eight down needs to be reumbered as well. >> Certainly. >> Madam President, >> Councilwoman Edwards. >> Thank you. Um number four should be roll call.
We will insert roll call. Thank you. >> I did do this in a matter of minutes prior to the meeting. I'm sorry. >> Thank you. And secondly, um I I disagree with where public comment is. Public comment [clears throat] I believe as we
made this change in the beginning of our terms back in 2023 to put com public comment before new business. So that way the public gets to comment on things before we vote on them, not after we vote on them. So actually the order
that's on here, it should stay that. So old business, that's second readings of the ordinances. Everyone should have already heard that and they'll be able to speak on them individually during that process and then the public comment. That way it's a combination of
speaking on the agenda agenda items and general public comments before we go through the docket and vote on everything. Otherwise, their comments would be redundant if they're here to speak on something that we've already voted on after the fact. So, I I would
suggest that we leave public comment in between old business and new business. >> And Madam President, that's what we've been trying. I've been I'm just saying I want to make sure the public's >> the public gets to speak before we vote >> yes >> on new business. So that's the whole
thing. It's not >> that's why I keep saying they they I want to hear what they have to say. We should hear what they have to say because otherwise there's no need in them vote than them saying anything. We've already voted on it. So that I that is the order. I do want to make sure that we hear them first and then we
are voting then we vote on new business. And then lastly, I would say move civic comment before executive session. That way, once we vote on new business, then we comment as council members. So that way the public is still here. Then we go into executive session if there is one.
That way we're not losing people that we want to respond to or they need to hear from us. So we should keep things the way they are, but add roll call and then swap executive session. Oh, you did that. Sorry.
There was so many back and forth with this. Okay. >> But that that's the only thing I have is roll call is missing and then you guys already swapped out >> civic and executive >> council president. >> Yeah. Counciloman Fo. So then this then
brings concern about the the ordinance prior to if we're looking to um limit time to 90 minutes, still leaving it at five minutes per person, but we're taking out the public
comment about agenda items only and then making this public comment period for everything. Um, yeah, then that's going to concern me about the whole other thing because now it's a whole public comment. We're we're
taking out the piece. And the reason why we put the part in about public comment for agenda items only was because we reduced our meeting times to two times a month instead of the four. So we in essence were cutting out the public's time to talk overall. And so now we're
cutting it, you know, we are we are cutting into to things again. Some people may come at different times during the meeting. Um I just I just think we just need to caution ourselves with with how we're I get I get what's looking to be done. But
um I think that if we move forward with this, then we need to rethink about that. So we need to rethink one over the other somehow. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. I think um as Councilwoman Edwards had said before, she she discussed how public it public
um comment for agenda items only was redundant and that was discussed prior to this and that was kind of left on the table. Um I do kind of see how public comment for agenda items only and then individuals being able to speak to ordinances and then public comment is
three bites of the apple for the most part. So it was kind of that was what was discussed before um when this was presented was taken out um for agenda items only. So I mean >> right council president >> yes council vice president thank you um
so I just want to raise a concern if I'm understanding this correctly. So, we would uh hear old business, vote on second readings of ordinances, then have a public comment, and that public comment would any commentary on the
second reading of an ordinance would be irrelevant because we've already voted on that. >> Am I correct? >> No. Council vice president, they still get to they still get to speak on the ordinance portion when he read second reading ordinances. any any members of
the public wish to speak to this ordinance. >> So, but when we're saying old business, >> right? That's part of old business. When he reads the ordinances, he says any >> Okay. So, that would be the only bite is actually when that ordinance comes up. Okay. Just want to make sure that that's clear and that's still available because
yeah, for some folks, they can't come for the first reading. >> Okay. Thank you. and Councilwoman Frisy, um, and and other council colleagues who mentioned this. I do get where you guys are keeping, uh, public comment ahead of new business. I I I do get that. I just I
wanted the public to be able to speak to our conversations about the new resolutions. Um, but I understand where you guys are coming from, too. So, I'm I'm comfortable with that. So, any other comments or questions? Okay. So, Mr.
Garcia. Um, you have all we need to make a motion for the amendments in this the numbering um and and making sure that the roll call is added and the numbers from 1 to I believe 12 or 13. We need to
make an amendment for that. >> Uh yes, she'll motion to amend as if you all agree to amend the order in some way and of course the uh numerals to um to f to follow in correct order. Mr. Garcia, I'll call that out. So, motion to amend
um number one, roll call. Number two, pledge allegiance. Number three, statement. Number four, roll call. Number five, did I say did I say roll call? So, call to order. I apologize. Number one, call to order. Number two, pledge of allegiance. Number three, statement. Number four, roll call.
Number five, invocation. Number six, council recognitions. Number seven, presentations. Number eight, approval of minutes. Number nine, approval of communications, petitions, and reports. Number 10, old business. Number 11, public comment. Number 12, new business.
Number 13, civic comment. 14, executive session. And 15, adjournment. May we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano.
>> Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Councilman Harris, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figuro Keber, >> yes. >> Motion carries.
Moving on to ordinance 26-88 bond ordinance providing for phase 8 of the lead le excuse me lead service line replacement program in the Trenton waterworks service area by the city of Trenton and the county of Mercer state
of New Jersey appropriating 20 million therefore and authorizing the issuance of $20 million bonds or notes to finance the cost thereof. >> May I have a motion to approve? So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards.
>> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez. >> Yes. >> Councilman Harrison. >> Yes. >> Vice President Williams. >> Yes.
>> Council President Figuro Evbert. >> Yes. >> Motion carry. Ordinance 26-89, Ordinance authorizing an agreement for payment in lie of taxes between the city of Trenton and Enterprise MM Urban
Renewal LLC for a period not to exceed 30 years. >> May we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano.
>> Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Different. >> Council President Figuro Kevin, >> yes. >> Motion carried.
Ordinance 26-90, ordinance amending chapter 214 of the code of the city of Trenton to expand the applicability of project labor agreements, reduce coverage threshold for certain public works projects from $5 million to $1 million, establish workforce development
requirements, and enhance reporting and administrative procedures. >> Mr. Garcia, >> yes, >> I have a question. >> Certainly. um project labor agreement um was passed a few years back. Um I had authored it and
brought it to council and it passed unanimously. Um how many major projects in the city have we utilized um the project labor agreement for prior to this? >> I would have to defer to administration. >> Thank you.
I don't need an exact number. I just wanted to speak to the utilization of the project labor agreement prior to this when it was um set at $5 million. >> Jim Bech, chief of staff, council president. Um I don't know the exact number myself, but I believe it's less than five.
>> Less than five. Okay. So, we have utilized it though. >> Yes, but minimally. >> Okay. Um, is there is there a criteria where we can bypass the project labor agreement in in in utilizing um unions
for these larger jobs? Like can we bypass utilizing unions? um with this question. >> So with this ordinance in place, can we refuse to utilize unions under the project labor agreement for these larger
um jobs in the city, these major development jobs or what have you? >> I don't believe so. No, >> we cannot. Okay. >> No. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Any other questions? Madam President, if
you want Director Bridges, did you >> uh Thank you, Council President. It it would depend, honestly. It would depend on the source of the funds, where the funds came from. Um it would depend obviously on the um uh cost of it. Um but it it would depend really be facts
fact specific. If I had like a specific example, I could give it to you, but um >> just in a vacuum be hard it was hard to answer. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. I'm looking to have somebody um from labor to come and just speak to this at our next meeting before second reading. Thank you. Thank you,
>> Council President. >> Yes, Council Luciano. >> So, so for me, I definitely like the section about the community recruitment,
the using the Mercer County Technical Schools. I mean, I think Trenton High should have been listed first, but um from our CTE program and the college and everything and pulling and pulling the kids in because, you know, they do come and partner um and work with the
students and everything to get them introduced to the trades and things like that. So, I do love that piece about the um the community recruitment aspect of it and then look forward to seeing more students overall from the city to be able to be in the apprenticeship
programs and things like that. Um yeah, I I like that. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Madam President. Councilwoman Frisbee, so I'm gonna I don't remember the gentleman's name. I think his name is Leo who I spoke with and had a meeting
with the mayor um some time back regarding having union having the students get have come out with a trade come out with a certificate and I did mention Trenton High um [laughter] um having them come in and actually um
treat teach them a trade so by the time they come out even in their junior years and senior years that they actually have a trade so they can go out into the workforce support their families those who are not planning um to either go to college or defer, you know, come out
even while you're in um high school to do this. So, um I love the idea that we're going to be utilizing our union to help uh train, give our students, our community a trade so when they come out um they keep saying that there are not
enough individuals in the city of Trenton to do the work, to do the job. They're not training trained. Although I see all these individuals here, I'm sure you're well wellversed. Uh but we'll now have students as well to engage. So I'm excited about having um our students be
a part of this process. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. All right, Mr. Garcia, we can proceed. >> Certainly, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. >> May we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards.
>> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. Yep. >> Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez. >> Councilman Harrison. >> Yes. >> Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuro Edenberg.
>> Yes. >> I'll come back to Councilwoman Gonzalez. She may have stepped away. >> Please proceed. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-091, Ordinance repealing chapter 70, sections 1 through nine of the Trent Municipal
Code Board of Ethics. >> May we have a motion to approve? So move. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes.
>> Councilwoman Gonzalez, Councilman Harrison, >> yes. Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuroa Kevin. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. >> Ordinance 26-92.
Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned properties commonly known as 304 and 306 Belleview Avenue and identified on the city tax maps block 7202 lots 1401 and 14 pursuant to NJSA 481213C
to Capital City Enterprises LLC for the sale price of $8,500. >> We have a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano,
>> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez, >> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figo Ember, >> yes.
>> Motion carried. uh to the council. Ordinance um I was it was communicated today ordinance 26-93 is actually uh a um is repetitive. This was actually passed on second reading at the July meeting. >> Thank you.
>> So that item is pulled. Ordinance 26-94, Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned properties commonly known as uh lot 40, excuse me, 44 Asbury Street and 46 Asbury Street, and identified on
the city tax map as block 13, lots 21 and 22, pursuant to NJSA 481213 C2, Maria Marino for the sale price of 26,00 000. >> May we have a motion to approve?
>> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez,
>> Councilman Harrison, >> yes. >> Vice President Williams, >> yes. >> Council President Figuro Eden, >> yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-095, Ordinance authorizing sale of city-owned
property commonly known as 1126 South Broad Street and identify on city tax map as block 19402, lot 7 pursuant to NJSA 481 1213C to Lordis Bonitz for the sale price of $91,200.
May we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez.
Councilman Harrison. >> Yes. >> Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuero Kevin. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-096, Ordinance authorizing sale of city-owned properties commonly
known as 135 and 139 Morris Avenue, identified on the city tax is block 16602, lots 1 and 3, pursuant to NJSA 481213C to Fifi Family Enterprises LLC for the sale price of $40,000.
>> May we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Yes.
>> Councilwoman Gonzalez. >> Councilman Harrison. >> Yes. >> Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuero. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-097. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 74
Jersey Street and identified on the city tax map as block 17506 lot 5 pursuant to NJSA 481213C to Esther R Diaz Roas for the sale price of $8,700.
>> May we have a motion to approve? >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. >> Councilwoman Gonzalez. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Councilman Harrison.
>> Yes. >> Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuro Keber. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-98. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property identified on the city t excuse me. I identified on the
city of Trenton tax map as block 17002 lot 13 to the county of Mercer pursuant to NJSA 481213B1 for the sum of $40,000. >> May we have a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Second.
>> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. >> Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. >> Yes. Councilwoman Gonzalez. Yes. >> Yes. >> Councilman Harrison. >> Yes. >> Vice President Williams. >> Yes.
>> Council President Figuero. >> Yes. >> Motion carried. Ordinance 26-099. An ordinance authorizing the sale of city- owned property identified on the city of on the city of Trenton tax map as block 1202 lots 1 and 8 to the county of
Mercer pursuant to NJSA 481213B1 for the sum of $410,000. >> May I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano.
>> Yes. >> Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes, >> Councilwoman Gonzalez. >> Yes. Yes. >> Councilman Harrison. >> Yes. >> Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuro Edenberg. >> Yes.
>> Motion carried. >> And that brings us to Madam President time of public comment. I can have the public comment clip for please. and madam president we have
8 nine people list nine people listed for public comment this evening >> sounds good we may proceed >> thank you uh to the public public comment will be five minutes for each individual you may address any matter that you wish please do understand that the uh please state your name address
for the record and understand the council is not obligated to respond. Our first individual listed as I understand that he has a place to be very soon is Mr. Prince Gbe Gibbe. Did I get that correct? It was just
>> Mr. Garcia. >> Yes. >> You just pulled one second. I understand that the the Librarian um Federation would like a photo with council this evening. Um so if we can just pause for two quick minutes so we could take a photo with them so they can leave. Very nice.
>> Thank you. I apologize. Just give us two minutes. Yes, >> that's appreciate you guys before. Sure. >> Thank you, Jess. >> You'd like to say some appreciation? >> Yes. >> Okay, we can you do you mind just we're going to let them say of something of
appreciation really quickly. And are you with the organization? Okay. So, you may go ahead and we'll take a quick photo and then we'll proceed with public comment. Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much, Council. First of all, let me say good afternoon to all. I was pleased. Firstly, I will ask for the
moment of silence for when our member who just pass in hospital who died from cancer is so heartbreaking for us right now. Thank you. Firstly, we want to extend our gratitude
to this council. It's a remarkable day for us as Liberia in the community at large. where we comes from and this whole building that we have strived for years years.
We are honored today to have this council to approve this building that we can have a space for ourself and for the community that we live in in Trenton. So once again we want to say thank you so much for giving all the authority and that gratitude [clears throat]
for that building 27 fair street from our heart we say thank you for the internal purpose that we explained from our president Mrs. Uness will be fulfilled to help improve the
status of kids in this community. Our elder in this community will also be because we all work with them. So I want to say again with gratitude we say thank you. Thank you so much from our heart. council at this time. You guys mind just
going to you guys mind just meeting us there in the corner and we'll take a quick photo? >> Okay, I'm sorry. There's there's a lot of you guys. Let's meet out by the stairs in the hallway. Let's go straight out to the stairs. Thank you. I called this one guy.
He wasn't anybody. Every good side is the don't mess around. I'm a little low on mobility right now. >> Yes. >> I had to say I got to stop eventually
somewhere. >> And I don't mean to be I don't want to be >> I'll um I'll ask the council president to It's for Austin. >> It's for Austin. >> Austin Edwards knows the process.
>> He's got to know. He got to tell you. >> I got I got you. >> Not to mention. Got you. >> Huh? >> This is public comment. >> This is public com. >> I don't know. You better ask him about No, I'm it is Paul. He's going to do
something about likely that development that he's been opposed to for some time. >> I don't know if you like to show it more so. >> So, what you're going to want to do Oh, no. It's not going to be I mean, are you're addressing the council or the
public? >> I have to do. >> Okay. What are we doing here? Let's go. Thank you all so much for your cander and your patience. >> Yes. Okay. All right. [clears throat]
Thanks. Mr. Garcia, we can proceed. >> Certainly, Madame President. >> Um, okay. I didn't realize, Mr. Shore, I didn't realize that you were not You know what? I'm going to move you forward. >> Okay.
>> Uh, Mr. Shore, you go ahead since you're set up. >> Oh, that's for Mr. Olen. Oh, so this is I understand. Um, but he's also not next. Let's right. Who's Okay. So, who's got the ver who's
got the visual aid? Right. Again, let's >> let's just proceed with with where the visual aid is and go in order next, >> please. and to announce your name. Sir, you are
Michael Ozac. Thank you. Thank you. >> Press the button. >> A resident of Pearl Street for 33 years and a part of the Greenwood Hamilton historic districts. Uh meanwhile, we've
always been called a transit hub, which I've heard for 33 years, but now apparently people are very interested. Unfortunately, there's a new project that's nearing completion here on 640 63840
U Greenwood Avenue, which is actually Route 33. So anyway, make a long story short, in this picture here, they made this um object called a Uber spot
and something brand new. I never heard of something like this, but anyway, it's it's um in front of the building here, this this new new apartment house right here, Mama Street, and here's Greenwood Avenue. So anyway, make a long
story short, this building has a separate entrance on Greenwood Avenue, entrance and exit. But apparently they're going to use this for Uber drivers. It makes like no sense. You took a half of a pedestrian walkway out, put a curb
that's not um disabled roof. It's kind of shocking. And the thing is um especially when the traffic that's coming down, we all know 33 is an extremely busy street and it's really three lane highway. Seriously, from the
transit station to Chambers and now you're going to be having these Uber drivers, no offense, and people dropping off food into a a block where people are coming down, people like me with a cane. you know, if you fall down
in that pavement there, in all honesty, who's gonna who's gonna help us? And the same thing with the cars going in and out of this place. You got the traffic light on Mammoth Street. Um, who the same thing if between passengers and
motor vehicles, I can't imagine who's the accidents that are going to happen and who's going to be responsible, the owner of that building? I have no idea. But that's all I have to say. Thank you for listening to me. Okay.
Harry Jackadolf. Oh, thank you. I thought you like this. 837 Melrose Avenue. Uh hello. Um the reason I'm here is uh by the end of the month, St. Francis
Hospital is going to be fully leveled. Uh and we've got a clear clear lot there. Uh there's room enough for a shopping center, traditional shopping center, a big waw wa or a village such as they have up at TCJ off of Pennington
Avenue. I mean that's it's a 9 almost 9 acres. Uh it's also uh it's zoned highrise. Uh St. Francis was 10 floors high. So you could also envision uh possible Kingsbury Towers there. Um the
uh the difference I say, well, what's the difference between the different kinds of development that could come up there? Um from the council standpoint, how much would a new assessed value be for each of those different options if
if something were to come there? Uh and how much would it bring the city in ratables? uh from a homeowner standpoint in 10, 20 or 50 years, uh what would the difference be for each of these different types of options uh in terms
of the values to our homes and what we know of what shopping centers, how they develop or highrises uh whatever. Um my question, and this is why I'm here, I'm really not sure how much we can do. Um,
but the question is is what can we do in Trenton now over the coming weeks to influence the outcome of the development? I mean, once it's uh Reed had said to me that uh well, we have to wait till everything's down. Once everything's down, maybe Trinity is
going to give it to us. We're hoping Trinity is going to give us that that property. Uh but there's nothing we can do up to now, which is doesn't make a lot of sense to me in the terms of what city planning and whatever. And it's not in any of our planning books. It's not
part of uh what's in the 250 plan. Um and we don't know. Trinity may already have a buyer. So, with ideas of what they want to bring to us, um I'm simply bringing it to public record. I sent you all an email yesterday requesting that
the city convene a public group to put a CBA, a citizen benefit agreement, uh in readiness. should some new developer be looking for public economic development funding. That's where a CBA would be
workable. Um I was uh unable to do that uh when I was leading the new East Ward um civic association. We just never had enough members come. Uh we didn't get enough uh leverage or whatever even
though we were working with uh with the hospital at the time. I'm going to close and just ask you to look over the email that I sent you. I know it's a bit heavier long. I didn't expect you guys have a lot to do, but um I'd be glad to
submit it for public record. Um in the email, I described our need for senior housing. We we do need that. Uh the space would accommodate nine Trent Towers, but um we do need to take Trent
towers down. I mean, they they are are in bad shape and and we need something new there and we need to displace those people. But, um, two Trent Towers would easily fit in there in that space and we could do a whole lot more. Um, the
potential value of a high-rise downtown city center. I mean, it could be perceived as a as a full city downtown center. Uh, a real renaissance for our city. Uh, and it, you know, I calculated it could bring about 30 million in in
annual income to an owner in terms of leasables, uh, with parking garage and all. Um, I do want to stress this is a highly unique situation we're in. It affects an area about 8,000 workingclass households within a half mile radius.
Um, and that's the end. Thank you. Uh, I we can talk offline, but I I brought that to public record. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Evan Wyn. Good evening, city council, city council president, members of the city council,
city officials, and members of the community. My name is Evan Wyn. I'm here today representing new management of Studio 1027 located on 1027 South Clinton Boulevard or Street. Um, as of June 30th, Studio 1027 came under new
management by myself and my partners. And I want to make that distinction clear because we're bringing a completely new vision, direction, and purpose to that property. First, I want to acknowledge that I understand that there may have been complaints, concerns, or issues associated with
Studio 1027 before we took over. I'm not here to argue with the city about the past or pretend the concerns did not exist. and said, "I'm here to ask the ask for the opportunity to address any outstanding concerns, understand exactly what the city needs from us, and
demonstrate through our actions that Studio 1027 is moving in a different direction. Studio 1027 is not intended to be a party house or an after hours establishment. Our new mission is centered around community, families, young people, and creating a safe space
and positive space in Trenton. We want to provide activities that give children and families something productive to do, particularly during the evening and the weekends. Our visions include family game nights, movie nights, youth activities, book bags, and school supply
giveaways, community events, and other programs. This is designed to bring families together. We would also like to explore developing an after-school meal program and other youth services by working with legitimate local, state, and federal programs and available
funding opportunities. Our goal is bigger than operating an event space. We want Studio 1027 to be a place where parents know their children can participate in something positive. We want young people to have somewhere to go beside the streets. And we want to host programs that bring back instead of
creating problems for the neighborhood. We understand that saying this tonight is only the beginning. We have to prove it. That is why I'm asking the city council and the appropriate city departments to allow us to sit down and discuss any complaints, violations, licensing concerns, and zoning concerns
or other issues connected to this property. If something needs to be corrected, we want to know about it so we can work toward correcting it. I also respectfully ask that when the city evaluates Studio 1027 moving forward that they recognize that the management
changed on June 30th and give our new team the opportunity to establish our own record based on how we operate the property. Now, we cannot change what happened before us, but we can take responsibility for what happens under our leadership. I'm not asking the city
of Trenton to lower its standards for us. I'm asking for the opportunity to meet those standards and work with the city rather than against it. We would appreciate the council's guidance, support, and partnership as we work toward transforming Studio 27 into something that can genuinely benefit the
surrounding communities. If there are pro programs, grants, department, community organizations, or city initiatives that we should be working with to accomplish these goals, we would welcome those connections. We're coming before you in good faith. We want to
listen. We want to cooperate. And most importantly, we want to be a part of something positive for the city of Tren. Thank you for opportunity. Paul Shore, sir. Uh, good evening council. My name is
Paul Shore. Um, I work at 425 Greenwood Avenue in Trenton, New Jersey. And for 20 years I have participated in the engineering aspect of what's going on in the city in terms of transportation
water involvement water sewage involvement. I presently am a uh adjunct professor at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark. In addition to which I have a
program for continuing education of adults in water and wastewater treatment. I knew Andrew Papachin who was with the city water department and helped educate those guys. Uh so I have [snorts and clears throat] great feeling
for the uh need for continuity as well as mentorship that goes along with getting the skills to operate these facilities whether they be roads, sewers, uh gas, electric, all the aspects of
urban infrastructure which are essential to each city. And at this point I want to point out Ruters University has the footprint in Newark footprint in Camden
footprint in New Brunswick. They've been established for 150 years plus. I'm a graduate of Ruters in chemical engineering and that provides security. It provides jobs. It provides
a willing and usually able set of graduates, undergraduates who participate not just one time in four years, but they continue to participate over a lifetime in the municipality in
which they were educated. So before you, I have put what I consider to be the unique aspects of the city of Tren. So you don't have to feel as if we're competing with uh virtual colleges,
Tren State College, which is now the College of New Jersey, Ryder College. These are not competitive situations. What Trenton has is totally unique and that's why I put the on this handout
capital city campus and urban engineering. In other words, back in the 70s, Governor brought into the city many of the aspects that we as living in the
most urbanized state in the country have to have working in cooperation with the municipality as well as with industry and everyone else. I have two minutes left. The
uh what I think is important is that the county executive at this point in time is looking to develop the riverfront. And to that extent, I think council with or without the approval and analysis by the city administration should put
forward their resolution that one of the considerations for the campus use along the riverfront. The campus along riverfront is to do that to develop a campus center,
a higher education center. It'll be a continuation of the work that Councilwoman Feliciano recognized when NAACP was here and it'll also be a longstanding tribute to all the people in the city of Trenton for their
educational opportunities. On the back of the handout, I gave the estimates that were done by the students. knows we had an infrastructure program in 2012 and we had students come here participating with everybody and they put together a whole site plan. I'm
going to leave it at that. I'm going to say that this is financially done. It can be covered because one the land is not need to be acquired. It's been acquired. to all the facilities, Department of Community Affairs,
Department of Transportation, Department of Environmental Protection. There are close to 5,000 graduate students in these locations. They represent the mentors that our students and city rep residents need.
And that with that, I say thank you very much. Let's have a resolution that proceeds to help the county executive recognize this opportunity. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Sh. >> Victor Rosari.
>> Honor again. Good evening. Victor, 19 Morland Avenue. Um, looking over old newspapers. I was cutting out uh LL Parker and I got like a stack and uh I concluded that uh we have a problem in
America where uh we there's a besides the racial issue which to me is minute cuz that's God and the devil uh the politics of uh church and state and uh the atheist versus the believers the
Christian just say it's a Christian country basically and then you got the Jews and And now it's the Christian Judeo Islamic society with uh the patriots, the constitutionalists that uh when now we have a battle between the
atheists and uh the believers. I would say the Christians, the believers and that we clash at times where the same subject is being discussed but from different points of view. of course one
those who believe in God and those who don't believe in God and then uh once we get to that crossroad we combat each other and I believe that uh Americans if you believe in God if you
believe in God you believe in the Bible the scriptures the Bible and then I call you know the Christ Jesus all right and uh the country is based on those on that belief And then the atheists come in with
something that says that man uh rules self and the the law of the land is the uh the fittest and the strongest and um then then the bullying the equivalent activities come in where on the believer's side the Christian side is
more like brotherhood and we can work things out. So I believe in uh in Trenton New Jersey the educational system should focus more on law and order of course the Bible and then if you can't if we we get to a cross to the crossroad where
uh the Bible some the the uh atheist non-believers feel that it should not be included in a in in educational system then we should conclude that if you don't believe in God the Bible scripture and Christ then at least you should believe in George Washington
uh Congress and the Constitution in the Bill of Rights. Once you do that, then you still have to implement or apply the laws that based on that uh theory. Well, it's not a theory, it's a fact. Uh, of
George Washington and the Constitution, Congress and Bill of Rights, uh, that they also and he being a Mason like Benjamin Franklin and the rest of the guy, the rest of his crew, uh, being Masons, Masons are like uh, baby
Muslims, in other words. And uh uh those same laws that we have here that the atheists believe should be only practiced at all times come from God or the scriptures. Uh I think a trend educational system should more or uh
implement or teach the youth from kindergarten or preschool the constitution law and where they actually come from through all the way to 12th grade. And if Trenton could pull it off, give uh extend two year uh two
an extra two years of uh education with every with two years of college in criminal justice and it'll click. Therefore, we have a better country. I mean, we have a better population for the future. And this problem that we
have now with democratic socialists, which is the communist and and socialist that it cannot work. that system cannot work unless Christ himself is the president of the United States. Other than that, the only chance we have
is to keep it as it is and the believers come together and through uh upgrading our educational system in Trenton and starting from B school teaching the uh uh law
and where it comes from and how you conduct yourself and how democracy is the best thing going on because it's a it's it's biblical when you have to believe in self and within. If you believe in self and not self as an
animal but as a a representative or image of God, then you have a better way of having a of a of a of of a a heavenly society which we want to have as a peaceful environment which is not
possible because you have the good guys, you have the bad guys. That means you have in the believer side you have the devils and you have the saints or you have the demons and the saints. You got uh like the nation of Islam 5% you have the
devils. Uh thank you Louis Brady. >> Good evening councils. Uh just to let you know, [clears throat] you know, I've been very we've been very patient on Franklin Street. Okay. Uh we've just had
an accident on Monday where a pedestrian got hit. Cars are going through that stop sign on Frank on Franklin and Ashmore. We need to have something done. I understand I need more signatures on the
petition, but we need to get something done. Having speeding on Franklin Street, it's got to stop. We We have to have something done,
you know. Uh and then uh on Washington and Ashmore, they had a a pedestrian motor vehicle accident on Monday. And it's we we need to get something done like a
stop sign with the FL like they have on uh Cummings and Whitaker. We need to get that out there, you know, and we have motorcycle gang coming back uh across the street from
us. It's waking it's waking the neighbors up at 10:00 at night, 10 11 o'clock at night and it's at 629 Franklin Street. They're in the back [snorts] and we have little kids out. My
neighbors are outside. My I have a neighbor with three kids. They almost got hit by a car the other night and the car went like 50 miles an hour down the street. We need to get something done.
If there's something that we can get done, I would be all for it. But for to get more signatures, I need somebody to come out help me because all my neighbors are are Spanish. They don't speak English.
So, I need to get somebody to come out and help me. Thank you, Ed Fort. Good evening, city council. I feel like this is deja vu
back here again for the same exact thing I've been complaining about for the last two years. Um, in this case, another young man has been killed, murdered right outside that window.
For some reason, the mayor once again is deflecting, blaming, and defaming by saying somehow that it's my fault. I want to say just the opposite. The
mayor has blood on his hands. The mayor is a coward. I have been asking for police coverage for two years. I mass email the mayor,
the law director, city council. Every so often, the last time I actually asked for police coverage was on May 15th. And that was because on May 10th there was a shooting out there and there was a shooting down in South Trenton. And
specifically I've been I've been complaining about these shot spotters. The shot spotters are great tools. You can put them anywhere and after something happens they are great tools to find out what happened. But that is
not what we need. We need cops. And I specifically most of the time use the word cops because it stands for constables on patrol. If there was a police officer out there on these weekends,
there would be no shootings out there on the weekends. If there was a, you know, the funny thing about it is nothing funny about Sorry about that. uh the city, the police department, they
somehow have some type of research that shows where the hot spots are. That's why they put the shot spotters where they put them. But they should not put shot spotters there by themselves. They should put cops there. And like I said, I blast all of y'all. I
have a whole email list that has all city employees on it that I could find. Sometimes it's 60, sometimes it's like 102. And I blast everybody. And every once in a while, I think I count them the other day, 11 times in the last two
years, my emails were specifically about police coverage, cops in the entertainment district. And instead, cowardly, instead of putting police officers there, Reed has assigned
has imposed another executive order. I have no idea what his executive order is going to do besides put me out of business for a month. So what? At the end of the month, everyone's going to
come back. At the end of the month, if I survive, my employees are going to be hurt. You know, people will find other things to do. I get that. They will show up in Philadelphia. They'll show up in Newark. They'll show up at on Eastern Avenue, say, in New Brunswick. And I've
traveled around the country. I've been to plenty of entertainment districts 20 miles down from here in Bristol. You go to Bristol on Mil Street at nighttime. Sometimes there's a motorcycle cop or two cruising. There's food trucks.
There's ice cream carts. the whole nine yards. Tren has never done any of those things. You go to Philadelphia, South Street. I'm from South Jersey. I've been going South Street since I was a kid. Horse cops, motorcycle cops, walking
cops. And yes, they've had problems there, too. I just spent a couple years in Miami. Winwood. I was actually pretty friendly with the police officers who used to ride around on the bikes in Winwood. I talked to them all the time. They would push sometimes in front of my place in in in in Miami, too. There
would be there would be a hundred people in front of my place sometimes and they'd push them out the way quietly. I never had no shooting, no fights, no big fights out there, but they would push them out of the way. I had two businesses on Hollywood
Boulevard in Los Angeles. Same thing. There were bike cops. There were walking cops. Sure, there was a fight or two sometimes, but generally they got pushed away. Not here for some reason. And I have said something. I have I've made
numerous videos. Anybody who follows my page sees me making these numerous videos. If you've ever opened your emails from me, you'll see a percentage of them is me saying there needs to be cops out here. Just so happens that
happened on Sunday. On Saturday night, I made a video. I said the same thing. There's 350 people out here. There's no police and when it goes bad, I'm going to get blamed. >> Thanks, sir. That is >> 24 hours later and it happened. So, I don't know how many of you open my
emails, >> sir. That is your time. >> I know my time is up. I'm asking a question still. >> There was an individual waiting behind you. >> How many of y'all open my emails? Question not answer, Hillary. Mhm.
>> Leticia Peters. >> Leticia Peters. >> Okay. It appears she's Madam President. Those are all the individuals I have for public comment at this time. >> Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Um at this time, I would um like to call up police
director um Mr. Wilson um to address the shooting and the executive order that is in place. Please, Director Wilson. >> Steve Wilson, police director. Uh, so I'm not going to talk about the shooting because that's an active
investigation. Um, but what I will talk about is uh police coverage. Um, we do cover that area. We also cover the whole city. Um, it's summertime in the city and it's very active. Um, that is not the only
hot spot in the city. There are others. Um, and you're well verssed in where those areas are. Um, what I can say is, uh, last year the homicide that occurred there, the police were present. They were breaking up a fight in front of the
business and then the shooting happened on the Montgomery Street side. A little bit after that, there was a shooting on the other side of city hall and the police were present. They were breaking up a fight in front of this location. There's video of two officers being
assaulted. And I kind of take it personal that everybody, a lot of people say on their online that the police aren't doing their jobs and that they're not present. We are doing our jobs. It's evident by
the crime rate, which is down. But I got to watch videos uh of people running for office saying that the crime rate is up saying a flatout lie that I have a directive that says that we're not to go
to Mr. Ford's business unless something happens there. That's a lie. I'm going to tell you all like I told the last council, if you want to cut my throat, use the truth, not lies.
Now, this is only the fourth homicide this year. Any homicide is bad, but we're trending in the right direction. Our crime rate is trending in the right direction overall. We will investigate this with the same
fervor that we do all the time with the county prosecutor's office to bring the shooter to justice. We will hire and continue to hire until we fill our vacancies.
You all voted to help me get that done and it is working, but it takes time. I've told you before, when we put somebody in academy, it takes seven months to put them on the street. We have an academy class in there right
now at 14. They're going to graduate in October. We're putting seven in in September. We'll have another big class in April hopefully to fill or or almost fill our vacancies. It's no small task that the numbers are
what they are considering the amount of people we lost in in 24 and 25 at the police department. We lost a significant amount of police officers and we have to replace them. Now, this location
is the only thing that's open in the after hours in the city. In this corridor from East State to Clinton and make our right down to the train station lies the entertainment district. It encompasses city hall, a federal
courthouse, DP, Planned Parenthood. Turn right. There's [clears throat] the Department of Personnel building, old Channel 6 building, a cemetery, and a train station. Why is the entertainment district even
there in that location? It's all businesses. But that's not for me to decide. That's for me to deal with because I'm the police director. That's for council to do something about. We have
the fact that he's open all night long. That's an issue because when people leave other venues, they all come there and they congregate and they vastly outnumber any police response. And we don't want to get into a battle
of, well, we're going to arrest you out there and we're going to arrest you and we're going to arrest you. We cannot arrest this problem away. That's not good policing. That's not how we got accredited as a police
department. This is everybody's issue because there are lives have been lost here and no one wants that. Not me and not anyone sitting on that dis or anyone in this room. It was bandied about last year changing
hours of operation. wasn't decided then. Maybe it needs to be decided now. Has to be revisited now. That's about all I can say about that. But the police department is responsive. We will be in the hot spots.
But on hot summer nights in the city, it's not just there that requires attention from the Trenton Police Department. Normally people don't do things when the police are around, but I gave you two such situations last year
that the police were here and it still happened. >> That's all I got to say. Thank you. >> Thank you, director. Um, hold on. Hold on one second, please. Director, um, I just wanted to stay on the record. I did ask Mayor Riar to be here this evening to address this as well. He was
unable to make it. I do uh appreciate you speaking on this behalf. I would like to allow my council colleagues just if you have any questions or comments for director Wilson at this time ahead of civic comments. Uh if you can make a brief and just put whatever you want on the record at this time. Thank you Councilwoman Edwards.
>> And thank you Council President. >> Thank you director for coming up here to oblige. You said a number of things and a lot of it was rebuttals to what has been said and I would I want to go on a record and
say this is the third year that we have been dealing with this crisis and there still is not a public safety plan in place. It is not council's responsibility to designate any entertainment zone or any zones at all. Zoning board is totally
autonomous of this council and administration. The administration has the authority to appeal to the zoning board to change the entertainment district which precedes this council being here. It precedes our term. If I'm
not mistaken, it was passed in 2017 or maybe even prior to that somewhere between 16 and 18. This council has been here since 2023. We've had to deal with this. We've advocated for police officers to be out there present prior to that crowd
showing up for preventative public safety measures, not reactionary. We did entertain changing and limiting the times. However, that would be punitive on every business within any entertainment district around a city.
And we could not come to terms with penalizing everyone because it's not every area. And I don't believe that we should restrict residents who who need a night life, who need some type of quality of life because entertainment is
a part of quality of life. And we see what happens when people don't have an outlet to go and have fun and be safe. We see what happens. They're going to fight. They're going to shoot. they're going to find something negative to get into if we're not providing positive
outlets and safe venues for them to be able to be entertained. So, I say that to say irregardless of what time an establishment closes, our police department has a responsibility to make sure the residents of Trenton
are safe and anyone visiting here. It is not just the sole responsibility of any business. So I want to say that so that you understand in the last year we were told by multiple police officers that the
directors were to not go in there unless 911 was called. So my statements were accurate. We don't have time for rants and rebuttals based on candidates running for office. We need solutions here to protect people and
professionalism. So, I I would like to ask, were there any officers assigned to the entertainment district that night? >> Our officers are assigned to the city just like you said. We're here to
protect city residents. There was an issue over there at Coopers. So, the officers had to respond over there in mass, which moved them from other places in the in in the city. So that crowd then came over to uh East
State Street and we had to respond there. And like you said, I agree with you. People need something to do or they're going to start shooting each other. That's not our fault. That's the fault
of the person who pulls the trigger. That's the fault of the person who cannot have any type of conflict resolution except violence. That's way more than a police issue.
>> I agree with that. >> To lay fall at the at at my feet at the feet of the police department as if we're not doing our job. If we weren't doing our job, we would not have these historic numbers in the crime rate right now. It's unfortunate that this
happened. I hate that this happens. I take it personal every time somebody gets hurt like this or worse. And you all got to know that. That's why I stay here and I do this job because I believe in what Trenton can
be. We should be on the same page, but we're not. I believe in team Trenton, but not everybody in this room does. >> So, the answer is no. That there were no officers signed. There was no patroller deployment plan for the parameters.
>> You just don't get it. You know what? I'm the one who's been in law enforcement since 1988. Not anyone up there. You all have you you talk like you have this vast experience in law enforcement and you don't. I would love to have cops
everywhere. We're not there yet and we're not going to be even with the budgeted positions. I remind you that when I started in 1994, there was 420 cops here. Our budget numbers don't even
come up to that number, that amount. We're like 200 less than that. >> I understand that. So, um, director, how many police officers do we have? >> I'm not going to discuss how many police officers we have that that compromises our our
>> I didn't ask how many are on patrol in a day or night. I asked how many in total do we have? >> Our budgeted positions are 290. They're budgeted for 290. >> Yes. >> But we consistently have over $3 million in unused funds from vacant positions,
about 46 of them. We have over $6 million in unused funds from this police department annually. These funds are not being allocated where they need to be. And we said that year after year. We've been understaffed in our police
department, which is causing critical issues. Yes, we're on a on a downhill, you know. Um, and I like that that crime is trending downhill. However, shootings still happen because there is no police presence out here. I'm talking about
preventative measures. I know police are not responsible for the shootings. The the shooters are. We're not debating that right now. I'm asking you, what are you doing to prevent these things from happening? Because if that if police
were out there prior to this crowd forming, they might think twice to do something in front of police officers. Now, as a police officer for since 1988, as you just said, you should know that. >> I do know that. >> I'm asking for a strategic
>> strategy. You don't you don't get I'm sorry, Councilwoman, but you don't get to to to hear our strategy in policing. It's not your function. I didn't ask you to state that today. I asked if you have one. If we could look out here. >> Of course we do. >> You don't.
>> Okay. >> You don't. If we didn't If we didn't, then how would our crime rate be going down if we didn't have an effective plan? >> What you're saying is not that doesn't even make any sense. >> If we weren't doing our jobs, the crime rate would not be going down like it is.
>> Sir, I'm not debating whether crime rates are going down. I'm talking about securing this same area. >> What about the rest of the city? >> What about the rest of the city? >> Where was all this when the person got killed in a fruit of mock rally? >> We've seen this in front of Regal. We've seen this on Ingam Avenue. There's no
>> Yeah. And we addressed it in front of Regal and it moves elsewhere. Then we address it over here and it's going to move. That's just the way the folks operate here. >> Director Wilson, I think um we answered enough questions. I think you >> Yes, sir. I can just >> I didn't mean to make this an
argumentative exchange. So, >> thank you, director. I appreciate President. >> Are you finished? >> Very well put. >> Yes. All right. Anybody else have any questions or comments briefly? >> Council President. >> Yes. Council, >> thank you. This my question might be uh potentially uh for Mr. Bridges, but it
might also be more likely for director Wilson uh as the incident when uh Mr. Jir Miller uh was murdered. And I know he's came in from Euing to come out. Um what is the security plan for the
dispensary in question? You know, did the dispensary hire off duty police officers from Jobs for Blue? Like there's a lot of information that hasn't been reported and I know we get a lot of information from all different sources. That's you know one of the things I'm always curious when we hear like Regal
that was an issue in my ward. This is in my ward. I get a lot of complaints from my constituents uh regarding uh not feeling safe in the area, things that happen not just on weekends, but you know if 150 200 people are showing up and there's videos online
and so forth, you know, the police department, yes, they have a major role. They are responsible for the you know public safety, but also all of our businesses are responsible for the safety of their customers, for their employees and so forth. And I know one
thing with the entertainment district is there was a lot of discussion we had on council regarding security and what was adequate and what would be provided and even the idea of hiring Trenton police officers for that offduty. >> So I'm just curious like what is that
part of this equation? >> Yeah. >> Thank you ma'am. >> Council president. Thank you so much. Um I wanted this to just be um to this particular incident. If council had any questions or concerns, they wanted to uh talk to this specific incident. Whereas that is significant at this time. I
didn't I wasn't wishing for anything else to be addressed other than uh what I asked Director Wilson to address to us today. Thank you so much, >> Council President. >> Councilman Feliciano. >> Thank you. >> So, I think my concern comes in and thank you, Director Wilson, for
speaking. And thank you councilwoman for the d the dialogue. Thank you council president for the opportunity. >> So the night before the shooting happened this time um Mr. Fortune went live on um on
Facebook and he was showing the street and he was saying look there's these people that are out here. It's a it's a ton of people that are out here. And then he showed the inside of his restaurant and he said they're not inside my establishment. they're out here on the street.
So, um, I looked and was was just taking it in. I don't know if police were around or not cuz I wasn't out on the street, but from what I saw from the video, all I saw were the people.
I don't know also if Mr. Fortune called the police and said, "There are all these people out here." Or did he resort to just going live? that would there's a difference with that, right? Everybody while we while we all even myself sometimes like to think that we're a
little bit internet famous, the reality is that there is protocol when we need assistance for things. So, I don't know if the police were called by Mr. Fortune to say that there are 300 people out here. I need assistance
um or not. So that was the night before and then it was the night that the shooting did happen and there were people that were that were there again, right? And so then the shooting took place
and I'm not a law enforcement professional or anything like that. But I am concerned because if if I had seen the number of people there the night before,
then I would wonder why that wouldn't have been an area to to be looked at the next night. And I don't know if it was and I don't know if it wasn't. I'm just I'm just saying these are just concerns or thoughts that I have.
Um, we have to do better, but I believe that part of that too falls on the administration and pushing the governor,
the state a little bit harder for what we need as a capital city when it comes to funding. And I know people get nervous and they say, you know, we need this money. We need this money. Yeah, we do. We need the money. And it's evident why we need more funding. We need help
so that we can supply more police or whatever else it is that we need. It just concerns me. Like I said, the night before there was a whole group of people out there. I didn't see a cop on the video. The next night there was another whole group of people out there.
I don't know if the police were out there or not. This tragedy happened. I ride by Catwalder Park on the weekends and I see they have the games and stuff up in the park and there's a whole lot
of people that's there too. And when I've gone by and rolled up in the area, I don't I don't see any presence there either. um on a frequent basis. They may go through or or not. I don't know what
they do, but I know when I've been there and there's been a whole lot of people um present, I'm not sure if if we have enough people patrolling through there um during during those times as well. And it just concerns me because anything could
happen at any time, any place. Mr. fortune is in the entertainment district. I too agree that the entertainment district shouldn't even be up in this way. I we wasn't here for when that call was made. We didn't have anything to do with that. I don't think that this is an adequate place for the
entertainment district to be. We all discussed that as well and said that that was a zoning thing and that people were supposed to have conversations and look to see about making that happen. I I don't know where that is with that, but I do know that I
don't I don't think that that should be. But because it is the entertainment district at this time and he is allowed to be open to a certain point of time, then I question, isn't it the city's responsibility to provide what's needed
to to keep the area safe? Because he's allowed by the city to be open at that time. And now because this has happened, instead of [clears throat] readressing that issue of how do we do that, we do
another executive order that says well then just close at 10:00. I would just like to see a little bit more done um on looking to to fix these problems. I I just feel like we're just going in
circles over and over and over again. And I and in some cases, I mean, I understand, but in some cases, I don't think these some of these reactions are fair. I just don't. And I think that the administration has to it needs to do
better. Um, to answer Mr. Fortune's question, I read your emails. I do. I ain't responding. Y'all got litigation and stuff going on. That is what it is. I read everything that comes
before me to see exactly what's going on. I'm very aware of the different things that are happening. And just because we don't come out screaming and hollering out in the public and say this is this and this is that does not mean that we're not asking the administration
the questions or having the qu the the conversations that need to be had. But y'all got some funky stuff going on right now and we cannot be in the middle of that until that has been resolved. So that is all I I wanted to say. I do
thank you for asking the mayor to be present um here tonight. I would have liked to have heard from him directly um about his executive order and everything. Um again, Director Wilson, thank you for taking time to come in and and address the council.
I I just think that we need to relook at whatever we're relooking at uh regarding this zoning situation, regarding these entertainment districts. And as we move ahead and look to make decisions about matters such as this, we
should be doing things proactively and not reactively. Summertime is it's not even over yet. I don't even know what's going to happen, you know, this weekend or the next, but people should be meeting to figure that
out and have a plan in place that's able to address what's going on and to have people in place that are going to be able to help um continue to do the great work of keeping the crime rate down. um but still being fair to the people
that are doing business in this city, especially when the city set it up that way for them to be active and open. Thank you, Council President. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Um I understand, >> excuse me, hold on. Um Councilman Harrison, you have some words and then
Council Gonzalez, I'd like to keep this uh light, guys. We still have civic comment after this. This is designed just to speak to this particular incident at this time while Director Wilson was at the podium. Thank you. Um, Councilman Harrison, >> um, my concern is here, Director Wilson
said last year there was two situations where the police were here and there were shootings. So, we need to start holding people accountable. If a fight or whatever was breaking at a Cooper crossing and wherever it ends up in the city, we need to start holding people accountable for what they do. That's the
community. The community needs to come forward because you're right, we don't need to lose any lives in this city. And at the end of the day, if the police are right here and somebody's standing over there and they don't have no fear and they're shooting at other people, that is really sad for everybody in or in the
community because you could be the next victim. So, you're right. At the end of the day, we want this city to be safe, but at the end of the day, you have to hold people accountable. Hold the shooter accountable. the if the police were at Cooper's
crossing and they went from there and they came over here. Well, you're right. There's hot spots all over the city. There's not just one hot spot. If you from the city, we could all probably name the hot spots. And that's the sad part. The community needs to keep coming
out forward that maybe that we can address these hot spots so that we don't have more shootings. We're losing young people's lives to these streets. It should be heartbreaking. This is another young person who lost their life. For what?
Right. For what? Another person lost his life. So, so to blame this on anybody. We need to start looking at these hotspots and people in the community that live by these hot spots. We need to make sure that if there are people out there causing chaos, we need to make
sure that there are more people that realize that we need to get them out of the community because there could be another [clears throat] young man or young female or somebody's grandmother or anything could happen. Somebody could lose their life or they could, you know, anything could happen
bad. So, at the end of the day, you're right. The community has got to keep coming together that we got to identify not just one but all these hot spots. So, thank you for, like I said, I know the community is really passionate about this, but at the end of the day, you're right, we're losing more young people,
and that's heartbreaking. >> Thank you, Councilman. Um, Counciloman Gonzalez. >> Yeah. So, one, prayers out to the family of the young man whose life was lost. That's number one. Two, I want to just say I do agree with um with uh Councilwoman uh Edwards and uh
Feliciano. My question was going to be to the director just I know we had share services last summer and I was just wondering is it was it just for the one summer? Did we look into getting that for every summer or you know for this summer too? You know just to see if we
can continue that partnership with them also. Councilman, is that shared services with the prosecutor's office or >> I believe it was the prosecutors or the sheriff. I can't remember, but I know we did have extra police officers for the summertime last summer. So, I was just
curious to see did we not, you know, is it not extended for this summer? You know, that's all I wanted to know. Councilwoman, uh, the director has is seated, but he is not in his head an affirmation that yes, that is the case. >> So, we do have them. >> Correct.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. At this time, Mr. Garcia, I'd like to proceed u with civic comment. >> Certainly, Madam President, you can start with any individual you wish. >> Sorry, Director Wilson. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Um, all right,
Councilwoman Edwards. >> Good evening, everyone. >> [clears throat] >> I first want to express my condolences for the for the passing of the young man that we just lost over the weekend due
to senseless gun violence. My heartfelt condolences to his family, his friends, and everyone that knew him. And my deepest sympathies for those that were out there that had to witness this tragedy.
And um thank you to the young lady that I heard had administered CPR on the young man. This past weekend, another life was lost in downtown just steps from city hall in
the heart of our entertainment district. I echo the sentiments of Councilwoman Feliciano and and repeat what I said over the weekend that I just don't understand why the entertainment district extends down this far in the business area around
government buildings. It just doesn't make sense. The administration can appeal to the zoning board to decrease this to pull it back if they wanted to. Yes, council can pass a resolution of
support, but if this administration's priorities was for the safety of the public, then the mayor would have done so. So, I want to be clear, the people are responsible for these shootings. There's individuals that choose to pick
up a gun and commit these crimes. They must be arrested, prosecuted, and held fully accountable. Yes. But government also has the responsibility. The mayor is the chief executive of this city. He is responsible for the overall administration of our government,
including ensuring that our police department has the leadership, staffing, and resources necessary to protect our residents. For nearly eight years, this administration has had the opportunity to strengthen public safety. Yet today, we have fewer officers assigned to
patrol when this administration began. At a time when our residents are asking, begging even for more visible policing and we have gone in the opposite direction. Yes, I acknowledge efforts were made. However, we have not seen the
fruits of that labor invisibility in our entertainment districts or around the city where residents can clearly see no police. That should concern every one of us. An entertainment district is meant to
attract people, businesses, restaurants, and investment. When government encourages residents and visitors to gather downtown, especially during evening hours, it also has a responsibility to make sure those public spaces remain safe. I'm not asking the administration to publicly disclose
patrol plans or deployment strategies. Doing so, we know, will compromise officer safety and public safety. Those operational details belong within the police department. What I'm asking for is leadership. [snorts]
I'm asking for an administration that recognizes the need to adequately staff our patrol division to proactively deter crime and to make public safety the priority it deserves to be. Prevention is always better than reaction.
Residents should not have to wait for another shooting before government acts. Businesses should not have to wonder whether another violent incident will drive customers away. And families should not have to question whether it's safe to attend an event downtown or
whether their child will make it home alive. This administration has ex has issued executive orders in response to violence. It has recognized that there are public safety concerns in our entertainment district, but executive orders alone do not stop crime. What
stops crime is consistent leadership, visible policing, strong investigations, and community partnerships, and a police department that has enough patrol officers to respond quickly and deter criminal activity before violence escalates.
Every tragedy should cause us to ask not only who committed the crime, but whether there was more the government could have done to prevent it. After nearly eight years, residents deserve measurable progress. They deserve to see a stronger patrol
division, safer neighborhoods in a city where people can enjoy downtown without fearing for their lives. We owe that to every resident, every business, every owner, every visitor, and every family that lost someone to violence.
Thank you and have a good night. And thank you for coming. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Council member Feliciano. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you for staying. Thank you for your comments. Thank you
for your um your involvement in the um in the process. It's been a long day. I don't really have too much more to say. I think I've said [clears throat] everything that I've had to say. Um, believe it or not, I'm just looking for us to do better.
I'm just looking for for more. My prayers go out to the family once again. I said it when it when the tragedy first happened. Um, you know, I I um I have a daughter here in the town and and I educate. I'm
around thousands of children in the school district. I consider them to be my kids as well. I want everybody to be safe. I want us all to be safe. I want us all to feel safe. I want everybody to do their due diligence. And you know, we say it time
and time again. If you know the people that are committing the crime, step up and say something, right? Say something. Help the the police and the prosecutor and everybody, you know, figure out what's going on. Yeah, I agree with that part, but I also agree that we need the
administration to push just a little bit harder to get the resources that we need to help us to help us. Trenton is unique. We know this. The state occupies a lot of properties here.
They don't pay the full tax value on stuff. We have to go back for transitional aid just so we can survive. It's almost like it's just set up by design that we will just never get out of this this hole that we're in. And and the more we move forward, the more
restrictions are put upon us that we we're trying to deal with our city the best way that we know how to deal with Trenton. We're not Princeton. We're not Lawrence. We're not Yuing. We we are we're not Camden, right? We're Trenton. We're the capital city and we struggle.
We struggle for a hospital. We struggle for for work opportunities, for programming. We struggle on so many different levels and it just seems like the struggle just continues throughout all of the administrations. It's by it's
by design. Nobody has come forward yet and has been able to say that they have the quick fix to help Trenton get up out this ditch that we continuously fall deeper into. No one. We try our damnest
up here. We we we do our due diligence. We work with the administration, we try to figure out solutions that will help everybody. Seems like even even the more that we we say yes to this or yes, we want to fund this or yes to that, it seems like it's
just it sets us further and further back. It's just never enough. The potholes are still messed up in the streets. People are still getting shot. Buildings are still up that could be torn down. We're trying to sell as many properties as we can and do it fair and do it
right. And we want to see economic development and we want businesses and stuff to come in and we want all of this stuff to happen. The mayor and his administration, they try. I believe that this is I've said this from the onset when I when I got in the
first time. I feel like some of this is just by design. We need better relationships and partnership with the state. We need somebody that can get to that to Governor Mikey Cheryl and have that real conversation about what Trenton really
needs. She walked through the streets. She saw when Shenique Talia Pharaoh had her come and walk throughout Walnut and see what was going on. That walk needs to continue beyond the campaign season. She need to be walking right now. She needs to see us for what it is
that's going on. But then we need administration that's going to fight for us. I remember one time when I had a conversation and I was, you know, joking around with director Douglas and he said, "Who going to fight for Trenton?" You're right. Who going to fight for Trenton? We fighting.
But we need the administration to fight also and allow the council to back you up in the fight and not just fall back because we need a couple of dollars. We do need the couple of dollars, but we ain't got to play punk to get it.
We have to do better. I'm in it for the fight. I hope y'all are too. Have a good night. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman Frisbee. Thank you, Council President. So, there's so much that's uh going on. I
just want to acknowledge those who came up to speak. Um know that we heard each and every one of you um that um did come up from Mr. Shore to um Harry. We we do hear and it's all it's just there so much that's going on right now. Everybody is in a different frame of
mind. Lou, the same thing with you, Mr. Forch. We the same we hear hear you. Um and my response to you, Miss um it is that yes, I read every one of your emails. anything that comes to my email I absolutely open but I also know that
there are things that I can't touch until um a proper proper and thorough investigation has been done. So know that it is not falling on deaf ears. Before I get into um everything else, I
do want to just say that the city is on an upbeat right now. We we're having a name. We want you to name Trenton's next community destination and they are giving you a chance to win $5,000. And you can go to www.thehibbrit
that I'm the the thirdbattle.org www. the third tirbattle.org. And there's also a QR code. So that's a that's a good thing, a really fun thing. I also um want to shout out to our director Douglas um the Trenton Fire
Department, our Capitol City's bravest. They want you to apply. They are applications have been open July 15th and they go through August 15th. So, please apply um if you would like to be our fire department. And I want to say
congratulations to our police director Wilson for the graduating of students and of our our cadets as well as uh director Douglas as well who I've missed. Um but I'm sorry that I could not be there. I also wanted to address
um this ADA issue because that's what this is. Um I was a chair for the ADA for several years. This is a major has and I thought and I need to go back and review it and I'd like to um have this u Mr.
Garcia if you could let me know. I thought that the city had in place where whenever new buildings, new construction was being done that they had to automatically take the ADA compliance into effect. Um, this seems like it is
one path from one end of a street straight into a parking lot area with no well no immediate um inlet for anyone on a in a wheelchair with a cane, anyone who's differently aabled to be able to
access this um safely. And we ought to be about safety first. So, anybody who's doing construction in our city ought to be taking our citizens who are differently aabled into uh account at
the top, not at the bottom of their building and their construction. So, we need to look into that and this is something that I will definitely um be continuing to look into. We should not have this issue and you should not be challenged like that. that I also want
to say that the department of health and human services they are asking for um some of our residents our seniors if you um one of if your h house is in need of a re rehabilitation they have a declaration of interest in the
rehabilitation program I have several of their forms here I will leave them here or you can contact our sick our department of health department as for Miss Ruth Carter she would love to see you come out and there are funds that are available before this. So, please look into that. I want to send my
condolences to the family for the young man that was lost, his life that was just snuffed out. I am very sorry for that. Um I the idea of it just uh breaks my heart. Um but I also want to say that this incident does not define the city
of Trenton. We have been doing better. We are doing better. Crime is weighed down in our community. um this this incident. I wish that we did not even have to have this conversation about this. We can do better. Can we do better? We absolutely
can. And I hope that we can continue to have the numbers go down um as they have been doing. Um and I just like for I I I like for all the truths to be I listen to the stats every single month when they come into our West Ward CPAC
meeting and I'm I am proud of what our police department is doing, how the numbers are going down. But there is there room for um better? Absolutely. Every single time. Um and I also believe that the city set up to fail. Um there are powers that should be helping us and
giving us more but I'll talk about that. Um I want to read a portion of a 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. Thank everyone for coming out and get in safely. >> Thank you. Councilwoman uh Councilwoman Gonzalez does not wish to um provide comment this evening. Um, Councilman Harrison, >> um, I would like to first start off to let everybody know that the Trent Police
Department is accredited now. Um, their homicide rate is way down. And I wish, right, I wish we didn't have any homicides in the city. Uh, so I I'm glad and hope hopefully the people in the community can get the information so we can actually um get the shooter. And and
you're right, violence is never good in in in the in the community, especially when we're losing young men and women. Um, Mr. uh, Mr. Beach, could you come up and speak about remember the um, uh, St. Francis and Trinity? Could you just give
a little update or or any kind of what's going on or any ideal with Trinity and St. Francis? >> Uh, we have been having ongoing discussions with the Trinity folks and it's at the point where we're getting the lawyers involved to to try to paper
it. You know, a deal is not done until it's done. So, you know, fingers crossed. Um, we're also looking at some of the environmental issues. So, we have our environmental council involved as well. Um, and that's kind of about all where we're at right now.
>> Okay. >> Oh, also I'd like to uh thank the fire department, the police department, uh, Anthony Santor staff. Uh there was a tractor trailer on Greenwood and Olden took out the traffic light and the
firefighters uh help uh with the traffic and so did the police officers and Santor staff was out there working diligently trying to repair it. um even though it got ripped out, whole base got destroyed, they were out there probably I think it was close to around 10 10 pm.
So they were out there working hard and uh so thank you uh to the fire, the police san out there looking out there for the community because if anybody knows Greenwood and Olden the traffic there, it's with [clears throat] the tractor trailers and uh it was happened right in
the afternoon. So, um, grateful that they got out there to, uh, alleviate that. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Councilman. Uh, Council Vice President, um, Williams. >> Thank you, Council President. Uh, first I just want to offer uh, prayers and,
uh, thought to the family of Jir Miller who was murdered. And uh as we all do that, please if anyone knows somebody who might be watching this on YouTube uh as it goes up soon, if you know what
happened, if you know who the shooter is, please bring that information forth. It's important to get the shooter off the streets, but it's also important to help begin to bring closure for the family. With that, I just have some
announcements. Uh, this coming August 19th, Wednesday, uh, is the Northwood CIS Police Advisory Council meeting. Please come and attend. Uh, obviously issues like what happened this weekend are incredibly important. One murder is too many murder. Too many murders.
And crime issues are things that we need to discuss with our police. They need to know what's going on in our neighborhoods. And we have too many residents uh that um I don't want to say are fearful but they definitely might be res reticent to talk
to uh someone on the telephone but perhaps a in-person conversation uh might be better or comfort amongst other residents. There are some folks in the audience tonight who've been to our CPAC meetings and I think they could attest to the effectiveness of our meetings as well as the other community meetings my
colleagues have. And our meeting will be uh again on the 14 uh the 19th 5:30 to 7:15. will be a little extra that night because our special guest will be the Environmental Protection Agency who are coming to speak about the uh work they're doing in
East Trenton neighborhood regarding lead remediation as well as Trenton Waterworks. Uh we're going to have a discussion of what's happening with the lead line service program and what the uh latest updates are on that and how citizens can interact with the waterwork particularly
on follow-ups with getting asphalt removed to be turned back into sidewalk concrete sidewalk after the project's complete. I just want to issue a uh congratulations and thank you to everyone involved. National Net Out Administration uh council, police
department, fire department, all our emergency services. Wonderful job. I saw pictures from the great event Cowwater Park as well as the events I attended in the north board at Samaritan Baptist Church on MLK Kirkbrite Avenue and Rain Street. It was extremely positive. Uh
great time and really good to have community come together. I also want to congratulate the Puerto Rican uh friends and community organization for a wonderful Puerto Rican festival this past Sunday, Milh Hill Park. Luckily, there was great weather. Uh it was a lot
of fun and just congratulations on you had another good festival. Uh also the Jamaican Organization of New Jersey, uh Mercy County Chapter had his flag raising ceremony for Jamaica's 64th anniversary of their independence. Uh that was at Cow Water Park. very nice
celebration and the uh were able to draw the uh consulate general for Jamaica from Philadelphia to attend the event. Uh additionally, uh coming up uh these are very positive things. Uh on Sunday, August 15th, the 10th annual Trenton
House head uh music festival will happen from 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 pm at Milh Hill Park. If you've never been to it, it is one of the best events this city has. Uh if you've been there in the past, you could tell others how wonderful it is. You know how wonderful it is. It's a
packed day in Milh Hill Park. Very safe, very fun, great food, great music, great dancing. Uh so please come and attend on the 15th. Uh finally, I just want to close with hopefully uh folks have noticed as they come across the river on Route One
North. If you see to your right, for many many decades, I can't remember the last time uh I did not see graffiti along the wall running from uh the Delaware River where Amtrak has those uh train lines towards uh Center Street
overpass. Uh, I just want to thank and uh, Amtrak for working with Mer Dan Benson, our county executive, his office, Mercer County, as well as the Delaware River Joint Tollbridge Commission uh, to getting that wall painted a gray color painted all over
the graffiti. It looks a lot better. It looks like, you know, what we don't want to see in Trenton. It's a nice thoroughare. People have an image, they come in. It's something hopefully we've been able to do in other places, particularly on Route One, to get rid of
graffiti that's not art. There's definitely graffiti that is art in the city and some beautiful murals. Uh, but this is an example of positive partnership. And again, thank you to uh, County Executive Dan Benson's office, Amtrak, Del River, Tollbridge Commission, and everyone else involved.
Have a great night and a great weekend. >> Thank you, Council Vice President. Um, good evening everybody. Um, so to the gentleman who presented about St. Francis, thank you for that. I love all the ideas that you presented. I personally would like to see a number
any number of those things to bring in um revenue for the city, but I'd also like to see another hospital whether they're in another campus because we are inundated um by only having one hospital in the city of Trenton um as well as theos uh the Hopewell campus. So, I would like to see any of those things,
but thank you for being innovative and and thinking outside the box um as we're trying to expand. Uh Mr. Shore, um thank you for your presentation as well. I think it's it's a great idea. I would like to see um some current projections. The projections you presented were from
2012. Um pretty much outdated. I would like to see something where you have some more current projections for us. Um and then maybe that could become a presentation or something of sorts. Okay. Thank you so much though again um for thinking to help build up our um
riverfront because that is something that you know I had spoken about years ago and you know I'm I'm excited that we're moving in that direction. Um to all the directors thank you all for all your hard work. I mean I know our issues in Trenton are never ending. One thing
leads to another leads to another leads to another. Um it is thankless work. I understand that. Um that's what civil service is unfortunately. Um but I do appreciate you all um taking your job seriously and just trying to get ahead
of decades and decades and decades of just turmoil. Um unfortunately another senseless death in the community like I just want to know like when the day will come when you know we won't need to be policed as criminals.
you know, uh, police presence should serve as a deterrence. Yet, today is perceived as a threat with lack of respect, um, due to taught and learned culture of a few. And it's a shame, um, we really can't get ahead of ourselves, um, in that manner, um, because there's
just so many elements and for the city of Trenton, whether it's lack of police, whether it's lack of respect, whether it's lack of quorum, um, it's it's just unfortunate. So, we just can't get out of our own way. And, you know, I look forward to the day where we can go and
we can um be in a crowd of people and just enjoy ourselves and not worry about are there going to be stray shots um fired or someone going to get hurt. Um we've lost way too many children and women and mothers and and fathers and young men. Um and again, another
senseless death of a young man that was just coming out to enjoy himself. and and you know that's that's it's it's a sad day for the city of Trenton. It's a sad day for our nation. Um that that can just happen anywhere. And everybody has um responses. Everybody has uh you know
what can we do better? What can we do differently? Um but it's very clear that to this day in 2026 we still have not had found a clear solution to the problem. So um that being said, I want to thank you all for coming out this
evening. You guys have been great. A lot of input. Um, thank you my council colleagues. Um, thank you again um, police director for standing up and and giving us some information. Um, and you know hopefully we come to resolution soon. So, uh, Mr. Garcia, at
that I would like to make a motion to move into executive session. >> Second. >> Second. >> Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. >> Yes. >> Councilwoman Feliciano. Councilwoman [clears throat] Frisbee. >> Yes.
>> I believe is Councilwoman Gonzalez with us. >> I'll move on to Councilman Harrison. >> Yes. >> Vice President Williams. >> Yes. >> Council President Figuro Gber. >> Yes. Thank you, >> Mr. Garcia. Um I understand we are um expecting to come out of executive
session with a vote. We do expect to have a vote on one matter this evening as I understand it. >> Thank you.