##VIDEO ID:bcvpFGVi38M## adequate notice to this meeting has been given in accordance with the open public meeting Act pursuant of public laws 1975 chapters 231 this agenda is complete to the extent known and was sent to the Trenton Times posted on the first floor bulletin board in City Hall and filed in the city clerk's office formal action will be taken roll call councilwoman Edwards president Council councilwoman Feliciano present councilwoman pigo kenberg councilwoman frisbee present councilman [Music] Harrison councilwoman Williams pres he's present council president Gonzalez pres myself Brandon Garcia municipal clerk present Mr Edward cogi is legislative councel he is present as well and Wesley Bridges City attorney is present as well again this is a call to order for the ABC ABC board meeting this evening we have one matter of business Madam president if you'd like I can read the invocation now yes please certainly almighty God who holds the fate of man and Nation we most humbly beseech thee to bless this our city these deliberations and these thy servants that they may act with wisdom and understanding for the good of our community and our greater glory amen amen amen and Madam president as I said there's one matter of business on the agenda at this time this is resolution 25-1 resolution granting renewal of plenary retail consumption license 1111 33099 008 609 Lounge LLC for the 2024 2025 licensing period and uh please keep me honest Mr license inspector as I understand it this is a pocket license at this time yes correct thank you madam president the matter has been vetted by the our ABC detective as well as our licens insector for complet list in terms of paperwork and uh it's up to you if you'd like to ask for a motion for approval for this resolution may I have a to approve resolution 25001 so moved second roll call councilwoman Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried and at this time Madam President we do have to allow for public comment for the ABC meeting are there any members of the public that wish to speak for the purposes of ABC Alcoholic Beverage Control at this time seeing none Madame President if you want to move to Civic comment for this ABC board meeting itself if there are any members of the board that would like to speak yes any council members we are all good may I have a motion to adjourn so move second excuse me roll call vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried meeting adjourned moving on directly to Trenton city council rescheduled conference and regular meeting for on this day January 28th as advertised at 5 directly following the ABC meeting call to order uh I have a please stand and salute the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag to the flag United States of America and the Republic for which stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with the open public meeting act pursuant to public laws 1975 chapter 231 this agenda is complete to the extent known and was sent to the Trenton Times and Trentonian newspapers posted on the first floor Bing board and City Hall and filed in the city clerk's office and posted on the city of trendon website formal action will be taken roll call vice president Edwards presid councilwoman Feliciano present councilwoman Figaro kenberg councilwoman frisbee present Council councilman Harrison um he's on his way just FYI he just I'll note he's in rude thank you councilwoman Williams president present council president Gonzalez presente myself Brandon Garcia municipal clerk present Mr Edward kogi legislative councel and City attorney Miss West Bridges thank you and Madam president if You' like I can read the invocation once again yes please certainly almighty God who holds the fate of man and Nation we most humbly beseech thee to bless this our city these deliberations and these thy servants that they may act with wisdom and understanding for the good of our community and thy greater glory amen amen and Madame President my understanding that you have some items and individuals to give remarks on presentations if you'd like to introduce them yes I have asked um we have some uh report that was released from the Trent and water department Trent and Water Works that we have asked the mayor to come forth and he has agreed um Mr Garcia can we allow 15 minutes we can oh he's here good good good thanks [Music] Ro it whenever you're ready to start mayor or Madame President great uh good evening uh distinguished council members and members of the public uh what I wanted to do is provide a quick overview of um what happened with d in Trenton Waterworks um if I just wanted to reference um uh a 2009 administrative consent order that uh outlined a lot of problems that uh uh Trend Waterworks that we've had to address particularly with the closing of the reservoir and moving towards storage tanks we've always lacked resources to completely F complete the job and there has been years of under financing and a lack of resources from the state the last two years DP has periodically come into uh Trenton Waterworks at time operating um uh Trenton Waterworks uh uh periodically since 2009 um and for the last two years we invited them in uh D came in to actually assist and work uh with the with Trenton waterw Works Personnel they would come in uh at least on a weekly basis or at least a bi-weekly basis and um they commissioned two studies that came out on Monday I one a 360 overview of the assets and the liabilities of the corporation and another one regarding managerial Technical and financial capabilities well they give a stark assessment um it's not the end of the world for us and one of the recommendations was either um there were there were various uh levels of responses one was to do nothing and allow Trent Waterworks to continue to operate we do have 150 employees we Serv as five municipalities including Trenton On The Other Extreme was to completely privatize and sell to a private uh company I will say that um private companies still have uh uh problems with the environmental violations we're not unique in the state of New Jersey or or in the country um there are other companies that's that do uh receive violations uh we're no different we're not the worst um but we do have them and we we do recognize that we do need to make substantial upgrades since I came in we have made u a lot of progress and for the first time actually the reservoir was ordered in 1975 uh to be decommissioned and we started on that progress we're actually going to uh switch to water tanks uh to be in the service municipalities and that is underway right now we had a we had to actually acquire property in the service municipalities we had to work with the townships and uh we're we're doing that we're actually putting the Trenton tank on Prospect Street uh and that will be in the next few years one example of um the shortcomings and um was uh our billing and our um customer service one of the things that the problem we have is that since covid we had a moratorium on collections so for over three years we haven't been able to collect um uh a lot of people said well since there's a moratorium I don't have to play my water bill so that has been uh and that is done by the state and when the moratorium was lifted it was then subse subsequently put back down um there is right now a moratorium we can't have shut shut offs and until that we can't collect one of the benefits of of of um moving towards a regional utility is that the resources and the financial power can come from five service municipalities and not just one of Trenton we need Bond fing capacity to do over $600 million in Capital Improvements over the next 10 years we can do it alone if that's council's prerogative or we can get a shared responsibility among the other municipalities I personally think that's a way to go we'll still keep the tea and Trent Waterworks we'll still have protect our uh employees uh they'll have Civil Service protection uh but we will be able to have the other uh municipalities have a seat at the table right now 55% of the customers of Trenton Waterworks are reside outside of Trenton so they have uh demanded a better say in in our operations and I think that's reasonable exchange for having their muscle weight um right now we do have great uh support from the legislators and the 15th legislative district if it if the governance includes Hamilton that will bring in the 14th legislative district so we'll have two legislative districts fighting for us in Trenton for the resources uh we need if we do nothing we have to go It Alone we have to make these upgrades ourselves we have made substantial progress but there's so much more that we have to do um we've worked hand inand with de we they're bringing in helping us bring in middle management that was another problem is the ability to recruit and pay middle managers um we've not not been able to do that with the resources we have but with a moving towards a regional utility that will go a long way with helping us get the resources and get the talent uh to run the water system um we don't want to privatize we don't want to sell to private company um but we recognize that if we do nothing it's all the burdens are on our shoulder uh to make the improvements um and uh they have been substantial we've initiated the lead service line replacement program we've um done under D's uh Direction a new intake system in the Delaware um unfortunately that has had setbacks but we use D's guidance we use D's engineer and we use D's vendor contractor to put it in so right now we're working to see how we can get it running properly right now we still are drawing 33 million gallons of water each day from the Delaware we're processing it through the Filtration plant and then it goes to the reservoir and then it's distributed we have a 50y yearold Filtration plant that is uh becoming obsolete as as we continue um so again we can either go it alone or we can bring in the other um municipalities and help us get the resources to pay for all the upgrades that we need to keep the tea and Trenton Waterworks if anybody has any questions if I may are there any council members who wants to um ask any questions council president councilwoman Williams and then councilwoman Figo gber uh mayor So reading through this there are some things I found concerning um in the statement uh that was issued by yourself and the other Mayors it says this entity must be separate and independent from Trenton municipal government hence able to access special financing Advanced Capital work and be operationally efficient attract additional talent and remain free from political influ interference what does the uh phrasing and remain free from political interference actually mean well we had and this is no reflection on this current Council you are all rational actors we had a council a previous Council who just said no to a lot of up upgrades we probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for council's interference we brought on Steve Pico a former uh assistant commissioner of D to be our director to finally bring that professionalism after 90 days they would not allow him to continue um and it's things like that uh upgrades system upgrades uh that uh uh were um delayed because of the previous Council so there is a there is um a benefit to having a utility that I can't control that you can't control uh but that will operate independently it doesn't have it's not the the best um uh you know just look at Trenton parking authority um they they're completely an independent agency and there's things that we would like them to accomplish but they are an independent agency so one of the biggest complaints by uh D and as well as our neighbors is that there was too much political interference especially the previous four years uh of my first Administration okay because I saw um commissioner lett's comments uh on njn Spotlight and he talked about Council uh not appropriating anything to fix this where this Council I don't think we've turned down one appropriation for water work no and I and I applaud you all collectively how um you've been serious about making upgrades about serious about bringing improvements um there have been dozens of resolutions that have gone through before you and I don't think you've turned down one of them okay thank you and my other question has to do because particularly concerning for myself and I I would imagine councilman Harrison because we were two of the petition gatherers that help save the Water Works 14 years ago amongst others thousands of Trent tonians were involved and we actually uh first municipality in New Jersey history sued to get the right to have a referendum under the fauler act and we were successful in a water work at that point so this is really sad that we're here but when um there's one part of the statement that also says that a uh excuse me an accounting of the cost that will be needed to fairly compensate the city of Trenton for its asset does that language mean that we will lose control of the Trenton bworks or we're being forced to sell it by the state of New Jersey not at all keep in mind that there are only two municipalities as the five that the complete uh geographical territory is within Trent Waterworks system that is ying and Trenton um one of the models is a weighted model of um how many customers you have uh Trenton would still be on on top of that so that's one system that I favor um and again you're also in the driver's seat you have to approve anything we do as a first initi IAL step and it's still debatable of what we're still researching whether this has to be approved by the voters which I'm fine with the last time they had a referendum as an elected official as an assemblyman I I I voted no or I supported the no vote um uh so I was with you on on stopping it the problem was 14 years ago we didn't say okay let's completely invest in this system and it is again it's not the worst system in the world um as a lot of uh folks may want to paint it it still delivers the majority of time it operates it delivers a water that's in within meeting safe water drinking standards um we do have times as any you could Google there's systems across the system uh the United States that shut down that um have to deliver bottled water we have not done that um so um we know we have our challenges and we're meeting them um but I I think that collectively and rationally we're still digesting the reports we're still meeting with the service municipalities we're a long way to go before a proposal is is put forth in fact I would suggest that Council form a subcommittee uh to also equally um weigh in um because ultimately you're the first stop um to approve or not the only thing I caution is that if we do nothing we have to come up with a plan to get the $600 million uh to fund all the the Capital Improvements that we need over the next 10 years okay and my last question uh would be what the timeline if this sort of go forward I know there's a lot of things we have to consider you have to consider your Administration the public what is the timeline by the Department of Environmental Protection and our Suburban neighbors to try to make this issue come to fruition if we agree with it well there are a lot of people who would want that decision made next week and that's not going to happen it's uh uh I think we're going to be studying the issue for the next six months um I don't I don't think anything is going to be done before uh 2026 thank you very much sir thank you Council favor good evening mayor um so you know regardless of what happened prior to this Council um this Council has approved so much money so much supplies so much materials um we've really vested and poured into our treaten Waterworks I mean tonight alone we have four resolutions on the table totaling $450,000 that we're putting towards you know treaten Waterworks and what Waterworks needs and we've been consistently doing this as councilwoman um William just said you know we haven't turned anything down as you said we haven't turned anything down you know we invested in having better water um addressing the community meeting the needs of all the municipalities that we serve um Mike I guess my question and I just want as much clarity as possible on this because obviously there's intricate interdepartmental issues with Trenton water work that just saying all these other municipalities coming to the table and having a say or oversight is not necessarily going to fix anything if we're not fixing the problem within Trenton Waterworks why we have these issues why we continue to have these issues we have inner bickering we have Financial concerns we have management issues we have procedural issues you name it um what is this board going to do about that like what is their say so in this and what will be their financial contribution to this again $450,000 is being most likely approved by this council tonight going to tr what it works and that doesn't even count what we have approved in the last two years alone so what can we look forward to for the city of Trenton and what are we giving up in our rights to treaten Waterworks by doing this uh that's an excellent question and I would urge us to continue to spend whatever it needs to make those improvements because what a deal killer is is that any new entity that that takes over the governance has to absorb the debt so um we don't want uh uh treaton taxpayers hurt anymore necessarily but if it we move to a regional utility then the then the debt should be shared among the municipalities so that is why that's the one benefit that could come out of this that we could have more muscle power to get things done um we're still working on uh uh upgrades to the Filtration plant uh the roof the hbac um there um are systems that needed upgraded there um so there's a lot of projects that need to be taken care of that we just don't have the resources to do that unless D comes in the state comes in the feds come in uh to help us with those upgrades we think that by going a regional approach you'll have five voices Collective voices that will be able to lobby for these fundings to take place and so in those other municipalities having this oversight or these boards to lobby for what should or should not happen with Trenton Waterworks where does that leave Trent city council and our authority over you know what we approve and not approve and what may or may not be still necessarily coming out of our own budget you are the toughest step in the process so um uh whatever proposal uh gets put together in the next six months or so Council has to approve this and you can simply say no we want to keep completely in treaten ownership which is a rational decision but also bear in mind who will come with a heavy burden to raise the money completely to do the necessary upgrades that that uh are needed to take place to avoid further regulation or a hostile takeover right now Trent and Waterworks is subject to a lawsuit that um uh the the plaintiffs want another entity to take over completely we can either do it ourselves and negotiate that or put it uh leave it up to the courts so in your opinion mayor is this a is this a matter of lack of funding that the city has to put towards Trenton what works 100% okay and what in your if you if you pull the figure out of your head what would be the number that we would need in addition to what we already have in the budget for Trenton Water Works that would get us to where we need to be it's estimated 600 million over the next 10 years we may very well have to decommission the fil filtration plan and come up with a new one um it's 50 years old and it's a and it's a structure that needs to be completely rehabilitated and so has there been a discussion over a a financial PR promisory Note coming from these other municipalities coming into this that's part of the negotiation but today we will have to float to bond and Trenton will be responsible for uh a default now with the regional approach it's borne by the region council president Council felano thank you mayor yes good evening so in the report it says as stated Trenton Water Works primary deficiencies are either directly or indirectly attributable to organizational failures water treatment infrastructure doesn't run itself and is highly influenced by the people who are responsible for its maintenance rehabilitation operation improper maintenance fail to follow recommended equipment own in practices and a general complacency throughout the organization has resulted in a diminished Technical and managerial capacity of Trent and Water Works this inadequate organizational leadership has also detracted from the Financial Health of Trent Waterworks by allowing delinquent accounts to grow considerably further the lack of Trent Waterworks and City staff who are sufficiently knowledgeable in financial processes and procedures inhibits Trent Waterworks ability to have waivers and purchase orders approved in a timely manner including critical purchases such as the chemicals it says that it is necessary to address the capacity the deficiencies uh identified in the report if Trenton woodworth's leadership cannot Empower and motivate Personnel to improve both their individual job performance and the assets of the utility a change in Personnel at all levels is warranted concurrently a sizable Financial commitment is required to adequately respond to the deterioration right of the physical assets so with all that being said and we've had this discussion many times before some staffing is just inadequate some leadership is inadequate at Trenton Waterworks things need to change um overall so you know if we bring in or we partner with the other municipalities with that are they going to bring in some managerial staff that are going to help to oversee what's happening um is there going to be the proper training that's given to the employees that are there that has been long overdue so that people um know what they're doing and are held accountable and our proper disciplinary Mees measures going to be taken to address those that are not doing what it is that they're supposed to do right our managers going to be held accountable for actually overseeing their staff and doing the job instead of worrying about Petty minuscule things they need to worry about Trent and waterw works so what happens when we if we partner with these other municipalities to the employees here and I'm not saying that I want anyone from Trent Waterworks to lose their job let me be clear with that I want you to be great at your job but most importantly we need you to do your job right even on the managerial level so what happens from that regard when it comes to if we bring in and we partner what other resources because then it also said that we have the limitation on people having to live here and if people are coming from other municipalities then does that mean that we're going to lift it The Residency requirement altogether for everyone that works at Trent and Waterworks even those that currently live in the city of Trent the big deficiency in Trent Waterworks is middle management and um there have been we've been plagued with vacancies and as a singular residential uh required um um uh entity um we have hard time uh attracting the talent um because we can't afford to pay competitive wages and we also um have a resource issue that we need to fulfill uh d d who's been working with us for the last two years and has been in the plan every two weeks at least um floated an RFP in January uary this month to bring in Middle managers uh to help us um with with the managerial prerogatives um so it it's always been a lack of resources um there was a time where the Chris Christie Administration wanted us to sell the Waterworks and that's we're back to that we had a referendum and as a result they wouldn't approve any upgrades we still had aou with uh with the Christie Administration they wouldn't approve things and were kind of forcing us to die on the vine we fought back on that but we still are recovering from the on the day one that I started the administration we had 70 70 vacancies at rent Mor works and even by filling partially you still have attrition you still have to fill more so we are working with d they are helping us with middle managers and that's something that's going to U really help uh uh get a better uh structure to uh the employment at TR Motorworks so when it comes to the people if if it's only going to be de so if you're dealing with the other municipalities they're not going to be bringing in any of their own employees well the possibility is there right if if there's a vacancy somebody from another municipality could work at Trenton Waterworks we have to go that route now by necessity uh are your ordinance says You must hire Trenton folks first if you can't do that you go to the service municipalities if you can't do that you can go outside of the service municipalities um we're at that we're at that stage right now um uh so we need we need to have the middle managers so that they can train the incoming employees so that they could take over the organization that is not happening right now so will there be a a retraining of the people that's already there through managers that's what why you have middle managers with the knowledge to get the job done so I think that that's where performance evaluations and things would then have to come into play because I don't think that they do any of that Citywide really um that needs to definitely come into play because we have people that have been working in many departments throughout the city that are just existing um and not performing and so if we're going to be bringing in other people that are going to be training and looking then we need to do our fair share of Assessments to make sure that we're getting our money's worth on both ends of the spectrum with 100% but that also takes resource ources that the city unfortunately does not have okay thank you madam president Council vice president thank you um a lot of what I wanted to say was said already I just want to reiterate that specifically councilwoman Feliciano and I have been addressing these issues upwards of two years we have addressed the incompetencies and complacencies about the staff many of just give us the names and and uh that I I don't know that so I would urge you to convey what deficiencies there are what staff members need to go so D has been oversight for the past several years they yes two years for the last two years they've been here so this report states that there's been inadequate leadership under Staffing import training cultural complacency communication failures okay what specifics are there um I I don't I don't necessarily accept everything as gospel that D said and they've come in here a number of times since 2009 um and we're back we're on a cycle we actually welcomed them in for the last two years and we said um uh give us the deficiency but there's no specifics in that report and if you find them just please refer them to us well IE the employee that was falsifying records when he wasone home [Music] so I want and there's there's systems in place to avoid that from now on we now have GPS in in uh Trent Waterworks uh Vehicles now we also are requiring the um the testers to take pictures when they're out on the field um so those we've put safeguards in there so that it doesn't happen again but that's one employee and it's a shame that we have 150 employes the majority are Trenton residents hardworking we have three really tough women that are running the Filtration plant um D has pointed fingers at them and I think that that's outrageous because they I go in there and I see the hard work that they do um but I I would ask for specifics if you're going to point the fingers that gentleman who was the inspector Absolut the tester absolutely gone but I I think we need specifics even from D than just a blanket statement that that there's man managerial deficiencies what are they I think performance evaluations what have helped determine that I think that there needs to be proper processes in place just reiterating some of the things I've been saying for the past couple of years okay just give us the money to do that in order for me to consider an independent utility entity I would suggest that if this is going to be considered that we need to maintain some type of council oversight if there's going to be a board separately from what already exists with this governing body I would suggest to your point of forming a subcommittee with the city council that whoever the chair of that subcommittee is needs to be on that board and every municipality should do the same so that every council could be on that board um furthermore uh and and why I say that we need to maintain Council oversight is for public inclusion accountability you have Council oversight right now but we we have been making recommendations that have gone where are they could you forward them to me trainings I can for you we have started training you're being very combative I'm I'm just answering everyone else up here on the day that spoke the respect without cutting them off and I'm asking for the same sir all right thank you I have recommendations and I will forward them to you and I will gladly pull up every last single suggestion and recommendation that we have made and forward that to you as well if you would like I have no further comments thank you we look forward to the the suggestions thank you um councilman [Music] Harrison mayy um you talked about the previous Council um be honest with you I think the D in the state has a huge problem because the D in the state could have stood up to the last council could have been finding milance council for not passing bonds that we should have been passing so now when this Council here is going in the right direction of trying to move the city forward now you're coming along saying hey by the way let's create this board where were you for the previous four years when the council was out of control nowhere to be found state or D but now you're coming here and now you're telling us we need to create a regional board think this is a joke it's embarrassing you should have stood up then then because the people in this city deserve this state to start taking this C capital is we're the capital I don't know if anybody seems to realize that we're the capital and it annoys me when the D just now wants to do a report when they could have been holding the last Council which I was a part of which made me sick to my stomach that we weren't passing bonds we we turn this pl we turn this city into a war zone with all this fighting every time it was embarrassing so yeah it breaks my heart then now that the DP and the state wants to stand up now where were you then where were you then we needed Staffing then we needed mid Staffing now give us the funding stop talking to talk and start walking the walk it annoys me that the D is just going to continually write why weren't you writing those letters when the last Council was out of control you kept saying you were going to find them and you did what how many of my previous councils got fined for not passing those bines exactly zero yeah so there you go so D in the state you want me to hold you and respect you stop coming here now trying to bully this Council who actually gives and cares about the community and the people of this great City don't to me this is disrespectful this report to me is disrespectful how you're slapping the people of this great City in the face when you couldn't been holding the last Council accountable you just looked the other way you looked over there and you didn't want to deal with the issue that's the problem what happened you should have been dealing with the issue there's a lot of city employees here a lot of directors that know exactly what I'm talking about they were on eggshells every day didn't know how when they came up to the standard where you're at right now how they were going to be attacked and that's we're here to do the city's business we're not here to attack people so please State the governor's office and the D step up for city of train and please don't write US Reports give us the money give us the middle level staff and probably if you would have held a previous this Council here wouldn't have to be dealing with this thank you mayor thank you thank you councilwoman frisbee thank you council president so mayor mine is not a question mine is a statement and I'm probably going to be back pretty much on uh councilman Harrison here we have been watching this Fiasco for several years now and we have been realizing that we're not getting the assistance that we needed in the last two years we have come a mighty long way this Council has approved we as uh my colleagues have said there's nothing that has um been denied for the most part when it comes to our water department we have fought hard when they told us that our water department was up for sale and we said no ma'am no sir we are not up for sale the bottom line is is is finances it's funding we know that in order for us to get this moving get it to where we needed to be we need the funding we've been doing our part but we also know that we are at a disadvantage we have been at a disadvantage especially since christe came in and did all that he did with taking funds from us we have we we remain in a disadvantage so we're as I'm I'm right behind uh my colleagues here we need the state to step up we need D to step up there are a lot of things that our city is being hog tied about right now and the money is what's going to make the difference folks say it doesn't make a difference here and it doesn't it absolutely when you're going to different cities and you see what they have and you know that they can do things because they have the funding and we again we are the capital city we should not be begging for D we don't we uh Brown Bag lunches don't belong to us crumbs definitely don't belong to us we should have the funding we already know that we knew something was going to be coming down the way because as much as we have been doing it still was not enough for us to be at this stage knowing with all that we've already um progressed in and still is not enough we're asking the state we're asking D do your part you want us to succeed let's do it and work we want to work together we're showing that we're working together we have a council that is working with one another we have a council that is working with our Administration we want to get this together we wanted to get um working um properly but we can't do it if we don't have the proper resources so I just want to Echo what my colleagues have said we need the funding we need to get it get it together we need to work together work collaboratively so we can get our city together our waterwork system is not for sale and I'll say that over and over again and I will never vote to V to S to sell our water department thank you madam president thank you thank you everyone um so thank you mayor for being present here this evening um on such short note no but as we all know this is very important to all of us and I'm not going to reiterate most of the stuff but I do um agree with everything that was said here on the day is um it does bother us that we see Department of um Environmental Protection has been over this for two years and then here we are you know going through this lengthy report so with the sake of us in time because we haven't all gone through the actual report I would like to just suggest that if possible we can have some type of Workshop some type of training I was going to ask Mr K this on the side um just to see if there's something that we can coordinate so we can get more information dig into the report a lot um more in depth and that way we can have further questions later on in the future sure and I'd be more than happy to revisit this with you and uh I know um uh director simple is here as well to answer any questions but it is an important issue and I and I think that I commend you for protecting um the institution of Trenton Waterworks that has so much potential but it's always been a lack of resources and that's and it is a shame that we're we're at this juncture right now um but uh working together and still it's up to council uh to decide which direction we're going to go so the administration intends to give you a proposal um it's a it's going to be a workable proposal but you're in the driver's seat if you don't want to to go that route that is perfectly rational decision but at the same time we have to get the resources uh to do the job thank you council president yes I'm sorry just real quick to councilman um Harrison's point right I remember and then when we all first came on and got together about this there was the concern about D requiring that we had to do X Y and Z but then when you would go to the DCA and say we need X Y and Z they kept saying no to the XYZ and it got to the point where we wanted um a meeting where it was DCA the the goal was to have DCA and D with us in the room so we could have everybody face to face and hear both sides of what was going on right and this was under councilwoman Frisbee's tenure as President we went back and forth and we were asking you know for these it it is it is not fair and I just want to say on the record it is not fair um what the city has been going through overall with different challenges and struggles as it comes to getting the resources needed you have one state institution saying you have to do this but then the other one pushing back saying no you can't do that and we're not so again it's almost like we are just destined or is just predetermined that the city is going to fail um this count has been great in doing what it is that we've been tasked to do as far as moving things forward but I do agree and go back yet again um the state needs to step up and do something and stop shackling us like this and allow us to do what is needed to help best serve this city thank you council president thank you councilwoman that is excellent point about the dichotomy between DCA and DP we think we have worked on that collectively uh to make sure that uh DP is is the sole uh monitor when it comes to water issues but that was a a rough battle to uh to overcome and it was Chris Christie's DCA uh that blocked a lot of improvements that should have been made thank you mayor thank you thank you Council yeah um we're going to ask for Police director next so we um also asked at the Police director come just to give us a a sense of what is going on and what is not going on in the city of Trenton when it comes to ice being in the city of Trenton there are a lot of rumors going around so we also asked him to come and just bring some sense of calm to the city and bring some uh accurate information so that the public is aware thank you director Wilson Steve Wilson Police director um so in during the course of my duties uh since uh the new pus has been uh took office um I know that there's a a large concern about ice being in the city uh so I took the time to uh contact that agency and um there's a lot of rumors and inuendos about what they've been doing in the city they haven't conducted any raids here um they are specifically going to Target um the the uh the gang members the people who who um commit what we call part one crimes part one crimes being uh you know the the most violent homicides sexual assaults robberies aggravated assaults domestic violence a assaults thefts those are the part one crimes and those who are here on um IL legally and involved in criminal activity or or those that uh that agency is going to Target for um to take into custody um as far as the Trent Police Department we are strictly Guided by The Immigrant trust directive and i' just like to um just read a little bit about what we can and cannot do as uh police officers and I'll give you a little background on the uh the immig Immigrant trust directive itself so in November of 2018 the Attorney General issued directive 2018-6 known as The Immigrant trust directive or itd for short this directive was then revised in 2019 and has been in place in our state since then as a reminder the itd was designed to strengthen trust between New Jersey's law enforcement officers and the state's diverse immigrant communities uh thereby ensuring that victims and Witnesses feel safe reporting crimes the directive draws a clearer distinction between state county and local law enforcement officers who are responsible for enforcing state criminal law and federal immigration authorities including immigrations and Customs Enforcement or ice a who enforce federal civil immigration law the directives limits the type of voluntary assistance that New Jersey Law Enforcement Officers May provide to Federal immigration authorities and applies to State and local police officers correctional officers working in state prisons and county jails and the state and County Prosecutors so as far as New Jersey police officers go uh we cannot stop stop question arrest search or detain any individual based solely on actual or suspected immigration status we cannot ask the immigration status of any individual unless doing so is necessary to the ongoing investigation of a serious offense which is are those that I mentioned earlier um and relevant to the offense under investigation we cannot participate in is's civil immigration enforcement operations we cannot provide ice with access to state or local law enforcement resources including equipment office space databases or property and that's some of the things that the Trenton police department or local police departments cannot do um based on the um itd um as far as uh the schools and I know there's some concern with the schools and Ice going to the schools um and is um not my opinion that they will go into any schools if there's any um school age persons that are involved in the offenses that um I mentioned just a few minutes ago um is my opinion that ice would not enter a school for that that they would um go after that person if if they were you know legally able to do so when they were not in school because um one that's just tactically unsound you don't bring uh that kind of issue into any schools and and I you know they're not going to do that they're not going to go in the schools and call such a a Ruckus like that um so I I think um that it should be noted that we do have those that are involved in criminal activity that have illegal status here um and some of those are uh members of the trinitarios some of are members of MS13 um as you know um that you've seen some MS-13 tags in in the in the city of Trenton particularly in the South Trenton area those are the folks that ice will be targeting that are involved in those CRI criminal activities counc [Music] president president sorry councilwoman Williams thank you ma'am um Police director just to make it simple because I know there is also some confusion um kind of ABC D what is the uh rules of process if ice were to come in as far as notifying uh how the city would know that before it come happens to refer okay so uh so the federal government doesn't have to notify um local authorities they're a federal government however I think based on uh my relationship with that agency that we would um be notified if they were operating in the city in in the capacity um that you've been reading about they're certainly not legally required to notify local authorities no okay thank you um could you just I'm sorry uh director Wilson can you just kind of go over again um what what it is you're not allowed to divulge you were saying you were not able to div oh the things that police officers cannot do uh according okay so according to the Immigrant trust directive um we cannot stop question arrest search or detain any individual based solely on actual or suspected immigration status we cannot ask the immigration status of any individual unless doing so is necessary to the ongoing investigation of a serious offense and relevant to the offense under investigation we cannot participate in Isis civil immigration enforcement operations and we cannot provide ice with access to state or local law enforcement resources including equipment office space databases or properties um just so you know what I'm reading from you can go to new jersey.gov trust and you can read this same information um there is some things that we may be required um to divulge such as information involving this this type of of um uh the advanced criminal behavior that we talked about involving part run crimes if we have knowledge of that we we we do have to provide that information but only as it applies to um the criminal element that participates in what we just talked about and I'm I'm summarizing just to try and you know condense uh because the immigration the uh the trust directive is several pages long Council woman for is being then Council woman fana so thank you director um you just answered I believe the question that my first question was um You' informed us of all these things that you are not allowed to assist with I but my question was going to be is there anything you are allowed to assist with and that is only when it comes to records of criminal if if re if uh if you're asked is yes also if there's exent circumstances we can assist uh such as I mean they are law enforcement agency and if they are in a circumstance that is an emergency uh such as uh life endangerment to the the officer then then yes we will assist in that thank you and then the other question what and I think you kind of um answered it but I'm going to ask it again anyway the proper protocol for dispensing information if something were to happen and it comes into our city what is protocol for Al aler alerting the citizens is there a process is there a protocol for getting the word out to us if we need to what information are would you be allowed to dispense and how should that be dispensed to us um well uh the the federal government operates um outside of us so um any information that is public information I think that we could put out you know um arrest information is public information so anything like that I think that we could put that out if we became aware of it thank you thank you Council vice president so I think that thank you director Wilson for coming forward tonight and thank you council president for having the director speak as well I think that the um the concerns come in well one once we hear that you know the potential of ice coming in is is scary right so there's that but then on the other part they're coming in to take out illegal criminals yes not people that are illegal that are not criminals and so I think that the fear overall is that they would come and just take everybody right and so then it's it's a matter of going into the schools and going over here and going over there and you know take taking people but if we're looking at it in the right context if that is what they are doing when they come if they come well when they come right it is important how we are relaying information so is is it even possible for you to to even tell the the counsel and stuff oh well they're here they're getting you know what I mean the criminals and then you have somebody going out saying well they're here like it kind of defeats the the purpose so if you could just guide us again like councilwoman frisbee said you need to guide us on what H how does that work are you just going to only tell the mayor would the council know if the council knows can we say anything should we not say anything like just make it very clear right now on the record so we understand what it is you want us to do if we were to get word that this was happening cuz one thing is for sure I I don't want anyone to be upset with this anything that I'm saying or to mislead or misguide people in any kind of way or in further Panic you know I work in the school district um and and I don't want to in sense a sense of fear so tell us exactly what will happen and what you want of council okay so we're not going to interfere with any federal investigation because I'm not going to jail you're doing that and I don't think counil wants to do that as well so um if if I get knowledge that they are operating here I would not compromise their investigation um and and I don't think that any of you would would want that to happen as well so I want to I want to make one thing clear that ice over the years I um back in the day when I was a young officer and working in an undercover capacity in the viice enforcement unit we we did have a proactive relationship with them we did human trafficking jobs together um uh and things of that nature and when we had gang stuff involving um those who were here illegally we we were allowed to contact is and everything so they have been here um they were here last year uh and I just want to give you just a couple of samples of the type of persons that they have been arresting [Music] um victed in Mercer County Court endanger endangering sexual contact with a child by non-c caretaker um that was one person they came and arrested it was illegal um there's another person uh two counts of sexual assault and second degree and uh criminal sexual contact in the fourth degree and danger in welfare um that's in our neighboring Town they've been here and they picked up that person um also uh unlawful possession of a machine gun possession of unlawful purpose terroristic threats that's an arrest that they made in the city of Trenton um specifically that was the MS MS13 gang member so these are the these are the kind of folks that they are targeting um so I I don't believe that any of our good citizens have anything to worry about at the moment um because they're going after this type of criminal behavior and uh um so I I kind of think that's uh the best I can describe it is try and um calm calm the the uh the waters so to speak for the city um I don't think that um folks that aren't involved in these serious crimes and gang activity have anything to worry about at the moment I mean things could change but uh right now this is where it stands so do they tell you like when they pick people up will they tell you we picked up John Doe he was a sex offender like do they tell you the people when they're picking him up you get a roster of who they are and what they did so then you could say okay they they took 20 people and they were actual felons like verify that that that they were criminals no I think anybody that gets picked up in that capacity they would contact the prosecutor's office or the county jail because that's who they would put if the person was picked up and put in the county jail obviously they would put a detainer on that person or um these these folks are already convicted so they would contact the prosecutor's office that they they pick them up not necessarily local police and again last question again just to so you're not going to tell us anything so basically we ain't saying nothing because we ain't gonna know nothing that's what you're saying right there there may be an occasion when I can pass on information and if that occasion I will certainly do so okay and you will advise the Council if we are allowed to repeat the information or not is what I'm asking yes but I I'll I'll go through the mayor's office first and and then I'll I'll also find out that uh um as you know as the council president there are some things that you you can hear and some things you can't hear so when you were the former council president that's how it works right yeah okay thank you council president um just one more thing yes Council thank you so going back to my uh original question I I'm I I'll I'll say this so one I would like to know when because we know that it's inevitable with um the new Administration having taken um office now he's already promised that they're coming they're coming they're coming so as to not allow our city our citizens to be in a state of panic because we're all and I I'm sure because I've gotten several calls emails I'm sure my colleagues are getting the same my question now becomes will you and or the mayor put out a have a conference that speaks to the citizens put out a letter that speaks to the citizens to give them the comt there are people that will be watching this but everybody will not so that we put out something that gives a I won't say a disclaimer but gives a a sense of calm more because what you just said actually puts some of the people um that have contacted me some of my constituents it should put them a little bit ities they're not coming in there to our schools and rip our babies out of there and so that that's so folks think they can't go to their churches their synagogues um because they're afraid that they're going to be out there they don't want their children playing out in the public now because they're afraid their children are going to be snatched up all of these are conversations that are being had right now so knowing that ice is not here has not been here um in the last week to whatever um since uh Trump has taken office uh uh they're just I I just believe that it would help this community if something were just simply said to let them know that is not what they are here that is not their primary um reason for being here they're coming here for those that have been engaging in criminal activity and that's what um is being targeted then along with that um I'm going to go Council um woman Feliciano just um you and she just had this uh semic semi semi conversation protocol is because I think now back to when we were going after Osama Bin Laden we don't want drones we don't want people on phones we don't want people alerting everybody of when they're coming because now that defeats the purpose and they can't um the the purpose of getting the bad guys now they get a window via US so it you don't want I would think the proper protocol as you just said is if the conversation is is going to be had you will have a conversation with our president and then I would think that we would follow leads between behind you and our mayor so that we know that we're dispensing things properly is that fair to say yes that's that's as it is always so um there are things that we can um we can put out and it'll go from the mayor to council president yes and then council president will let alert us whether or not it is um okay to say or what we're allowed to say what we're not allowed to say yes okay thank you sir thank you madam president thank you anyone else Madam president I'm going to goil vice president and then councilman Harrison thank you um I've heard kind of conflicting information because a few days ago I was told that if uh that ice was required to contact you and the mayor and then council president and I would be contacted after that but then this evening you said a few minutes ago that the federal government does not have to notify local law enforcement when ice comes in the community so if if that is truly the case then how can we either substantiate or unsubstantiate a lot of the claims that people are saying they saw ice around the community and things like that that is my concern um not to say that these things are cuz a lot of them are false and have been deemed false yeah but if people are seeing ice if that's true how could you know um because if ice is here and they're making an arrest they will wear identifiers just like the Trenton police do on their vest on the front and back it will say ice and if they don't have that they will have a badge identifier around their necks um so um you will know the difference between Trenton police and Ice agents thank you um uh next um and correct me if I'm wrong uh counselors when when a person is undocumented or an illegal immigrant when they commit a crime they could possibly face deportation criminal prosecution or both um in my experience in the federal government typically they are deported when they are committing a crime so I'm not sure how the federal government is specifically targeting undocumented or illegal immigrants who are committing crimes when typically they are deported when that happens or prosecuted when that happens so I don't and I don't expect you to have the answer to this but I'm just wondering how they're able to even signal them out or pinpoint them out if these things are actively happening when they're happening like in terms of them being deported um well I don't want to get into a political conversation but there are those who have been deported in a re-entry um quite often that happens they they um are found guilty of a crime they get deported and they come back and those things are monitored by the federal government uh through um Homeland Security through uh um Immigration and Customs um enforcement so uh there are those that um have re-entered even after after having been deported and uh I think those are folks that are being targeted as well also um the argument on the other side is um B reform allows a lot of these uh persons and not just the illegal immigrants but um our criminals in general um to get out um in in a a quicker time than we would all you know hope and un unless uh I don't want to speak for ice but unless they are notified um that this person's in custody and put a detainer on them um ice has a very small window to put detainer on folks that are have that status that we would you know we would see them arrested for um their Major Crimes that they've been been involved in and their illegal status here ice only has a small window to put detainers on those folks and then B form um kind of messes messes that up but not not just the uh ice agents but even even our Police Department we have a a problem with the um bail reform should be just a little bit tougher because we have so many repeat offenders um I can give you a list of repeat offenders that include violent violent crimes all the way down to property offenders that keep getting on getting out and keep victimizing our our community yeah okay thank you um I just want to say I appreciate you for coming in here to yes ma'am inform the public appreciate you councilman Harrison director um is there a number that the community can call like a tip line just to report overall crimes in the community yes you can email or or text tpd tips um and and for our crime uh as usual you can call our dispatch non-emergency number 609 989 4000 609 98941 70 or obviously call 911 if there's a crime in progress um I'm I'm hoping um this year you can be get able to get more resources uh from the DCA to help you um recruit back some officers here and um overall help remove the the city Ford because I know that um we need more officers I know we're going to be having a new class coming up soon um but overall I think everybody in the city doesn't want anybody to see anybody going in schools but you're right we need to get violent criminals for whatever gang they're from off these city streets yes sir so I I agree with my colleagues that we do not want to see families and churches or anything like that thank you director thank you anything else thank you wanted to say thank you so much Police director I know I missed some of the stuff that you said but also um for just being open to inform the the community I know we did something yesterday and just to let everyone know and I'll say it again um um [Music] I just want to make sure that they know they can send their kids to school um I will say after we did the um live yesterday uh two of my four who haven't been in school did come to school today so hopefully it's getting out and people are actually um listening to what's being said so thank you so much for being here thank you you're welcome Mr Garcia certainly Madame President at this time I believe we have another a presentation uh from Mr Paul Harris and this is for NJ Department of Environmental Protection Franklin Park project This Is Res regarding resolution 25-19 thank you thank you interm director Harris this one will be this [Music] long okay yeah thanks I'm going to be three minutes good evening everybody we are um seeking a grant for uh Franklin Park um you know we know funding's tight so we're we instructed our staff to look for Grants to fund our programs and our upgrades so what you see on the slide here is currently Franklin Park that's the area that we're going to uh it's about three acres and we're going to be doing some work there the grant is called Jake's law and Jake's law what it does is it encourag us to P to build playgrounds to exceed the current ADA requirements and what that means for you it means uh something that's accessible uh it means 25% of the equipment is accessible by disabled and non-disabled it means a unitary surfacing uh minimum it has to be shade and then it means there's fencing around the playground and generally quiet uh Jake Jake's law is funded by the the D historically it was it only went to counties this is the only year that we'll be eligible to get this funding next year won't be we we won have access to it we are looking to get up to a million dollars so $750,000 and then it's going to be a $250,000 loan the timeline is we had a public hearing a public meeting with councilman uh Figaro kenberg in our conference room on the 16th today is the public hearing that's open to the public we will submit the application on the 4th we expect to hear back in the spring and then we expect to begin construction uh God willing in the fall again this is the this is the uh footprint of the park I'm going to show you some more slides that that's the existing playground here now what we've done here is we put some new fencing in and we've done some work with the um playground all the playgrounds because we're not guaranteed to get the grant so in the meantime you you you know you do the upgrades that you can do the slide that you see here is more of a footprint but I'm just going to pass this because it's hard to see this is a better look at it this is a concept plan and basically what we're doing is the the playground is going to be 5700 sare feet okay that's bigger than it is now uh we are not taking any trees down we are actually expanding the playground and there will be a tree within the playground area we're also building a pavilion this is the playground as you see it now if you're looking at the playground there are some structures here that are important for people with uh with uh disabled individuals there's a ramp there that will allow people who are on a wheelchair to go up and play there are devices here for those who are uh have sensory issues okay uh for example if you have uh issues with your site we have devices here that you can play that you can hear um the unitary surface is important because a lot of the playgrounds that you have they require um they have mulch this is a surface that you can ride a wheelchair on that's important and we're going to build Pavilion I love Pavilions um so this is we're going to be one I know this is going to be a pavilion it's going to be near the playground as well it's going to be 25 by 25 um so the environmental impact is important um you know there's going to be short-term noise noise um it's a long-term benefit for the city it's going to allow more children to use the park there's no new lighting or uh traffic patterns proposed there's no removal of any trees and um when we're doing the actual Construction there'll be noise but there'll be dust suppression and then we'll make sure there's soil erosion measures in place uh we expect the program to cost a million dollars and in addition we're going to there's a basketball court there that's a short Court we are going to do a double court now so what you're going to have is a brand new playground new curbs new sidewalks handicap parking on the street and then there's going to be uh there's some blue stone that's in a little Pavilion area that we're going to repair and the again the basketball court will be double the size and then Park features across the board the grass will then be seated as well so what you'll have um is a essentially a new playground and an improved access to the park and other features and this is in line uh with everything else we've done here with what you funded and um that's where we're at any might has any questions or concerns anyone any councilwoman Figo kenberg and then councilwoman Frisby thank you council president um thank you director um you I just want to say you did an amazing job with this and with the design and with the design team um and I just wanted to applaud you for holding the public meeting that you had um what two weeks ago week and a half ago um it was well attended um Franklin Park neighborhood is is very much involved as you know um they're very much involved in maintaining their park maintaining that Community maintaining that neighborhood um and and this is definitely something that's coming well appreciated by that Community um the upgrades are well thought out um and something that they have been asking for for quite some time um I did put a lot of the Deets of the upgrades um out on social media media after the meeting and it was very much well received um so I just wanted to applaud you for your efforts on this and all the other parks in the city of Trenton um but on behalf of the South Ward um thank you very very much and um the community is very grateful thank you thank you councilwoman F me thank you council president so I don't have a question I the all the questions that I did have for you um you have answered already so I just want to commend you um on not making those are differently abled um a second thought um as a parent of a child with disabilities as a former chair of the Ada board um it is important to me that those who are differently abled are thought about and this is really a great um you thought about it everything even the one with with site because that's sometimes things that folks do miss they you have the ramp in there which helps those who are able to at some degree uh to C to catch you on latch on they can do that and then um the touching the making sure that um the grade even getting a wheelchair that is some of the issues that I've always had with my child is getting in um into a park and getting his um wheelchair in there without trying to um figure out how do you get past without it tipping over so I just want to commend you and your team you did an absolutely phenomenal job on this and I look forward to this going into play in the uh South Ward the Franklin part the um Comm community they're going to be greatly uh benefited by having this in their uh Community thank you council president uh councilman feliciana thank you councilman Williams I just want to say great job once again um you you exemplify um true care and concern and then holding true to your Mantra of uh quality of life for those in the city of Trenton you have held true to your word from the time you've started and as we continue to move forward so I I'm encouraged um as you continue to move throughout the other Parks throughout the city I love the part as councilwoman frisbee said about the differently abled I when we went to Orange Street Park and then watched to see how with the Braille and all that kind of stuff like just the thought and everything and then you know seeing the children and you know taking all of that into consideration things that many of us that have those um abilities may not think of you've thought of them and you consist stly think of them and so thank you for the tremendous work that you continue to do job well done thank you thank you council president um just want to say phenomenal job expecting no less and uh as you do this and I love one of the things you've been bringing to the table is Forward Thinking and expansive thinking and as my colleagues talked about but differently abled folks of different types of um ways that they can be able particularly young ones play and entertain themselves but also grow and learn um like to for in the northward and I would love to get some of these I don't want to say they're toys but I would love to get some of these playgrounds in the northward so my so the kids uh in the north uh have access uh to sensory um exercises different things but particularly um as we clean up with the pollution areas more so uh that these become standard uh on most not maybe for every single playgrounds I understand there is a cost involved but also uh for the increased amounts of autism right because that is something uh anecdotal uh I don't have solid research on that yet but um I believe Ruckers may be doing a study uh that you know we do have increased amounts of autism because of the environmental pollution we've had for decades and decades in the north so thank you very much for all your work and thank you for your approach to this job just so you know uh Sunny Marine assuming we can find Funny Money Sunny Vine was my next to my target it's a big site it's right behind a Rec Center that will be a site for uh the next ADA Compliant playground thank you very much director councilman Harrison director um just want to say thank you and your staff I know you guys have been hard at work it's always good to see our parts being addressed and us collaborating on this Council working to make sure that we support all your hard work and all your staff's hard work thank you thank you thank you uh in term director Harris um I want to say great job as always same thing as my colleagues just said it's always exciting to see us investing in our kids um because if we don't invest in them with our Recreation and our education department where are we going to be so thank you so much for being here this evening thank you Madam president if you give me one moment go ahead and announce this uh Madame President it's my understanding from the director that the purpose uh after the to follow this presentation purposes for a public hearing a public hearing is requ as required as part of the funding as a part of the funding so if it's your wish then we could go into that public hearing at this time we I would ask you or the council uh what would you like to limit uh any possible public comment to um we're going to do three minutes that's fair just to make it clean Madam president if you want to ask for a motion to uh limit limit public comment for this particular item to three minutes per person may I have a motion to limit the public comment for this item to three minutes so Mo second thank you thank you uh roll call vice president Edwards yes Council Feliciano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes thank you motion carried are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time please note the council is not obligated to respond seeing none Madam we have one two okay Mr Roland pot please state your name and address for the record you're going to want to press the button on that device Rolland pot 113 South Montgomery Street Trenton New Jersey just wanted to um say that I support the plan as presented by Mr Harris and um the uh the opportunity for the public to comment on this um Park plan as required under the funding application is an important step I'm glad GL that uh you've you've opened that up to the public and um hope that you'll pass the resolution thank you thank you stay your name and address for the record good morning Council good morning director Harris uh good evening Jesus um my name is Edward Livingston um 32 656 Grand Street um once again um thank you very much for uh um for everything that you have done um I support the plan as well but the question that I have is um for security purposes um is the park going to have the same security purposes as most of the parks in Trenton um with cameras and maybe and or the uh Park Rangers if we still do have that um that's my only question sir for the benefit of the Paul Harris intern director Parks and Recreation for the benefit of the Publican council did not I neglected to mention it there will be uh security cameras installed part of our public meeting we had with Franklin Park residents that was a request and then we do have security guards who are fulltime on our staff and they Rove and they look at all the parks so in addition to those yes and then that's directly linked to Trenton Police Department as well thank you are there any other members of the public wish to speak to this uh resolution or agenda item at this time seeing none Madam president I imagine that would be if you want to ask in a motion to conclude the public hearing to this item have second sorry I'm sorry who's the motion brisbee thank you and the second felici gracias Dan vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano councilwoman Figo kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Feliciano I'm Excuse me council president good I apologize yes it's okay it's going through a bun here um okay that would conclude the public hearing to item 25-19 Madame President if you want to move on now to public comment for agenda items only may I have a motion to uh have no need for a motion all right you just move on to public com comment for agenda items only if we could have the public comment clipboard please and could I have the additional public comments clipboard please there should be an additional comment public comment clipboard there I'll trade with you there we [Music] go it's for agenda items yes if it's for general public comment uh miss vaugh you want this one okay thank you madame and Madam President we do not have any individuals listed for public comment for docket items or agenda items only um was it for general public comment or for specific item on the docket general public so that would not be this time period this is just for agenda items okay yes sir I'll have you sign it at the uh oh it's a resolution then yes that counts I will have you sign this and go right up to the podium thank [Music] you council president yes Council I'm sorry before before we proceed to this part just for clarity sake with this resolution 25027 is a resolution appointing council member liaison to the boards and commissions should we have a list in in front of us of the appointed people because I don't see that um and then you do have an ordinance here it says an ordinance I I did um share with Mr Garcia that he has it listed as a resolution and then it's we just got to make the adjustment may I see that ordinance that is in front of council please but the ordinance but this is a draft councilwoman police okay so okay Madam president I could uh explain that for for a moment yeah that's fine so the reason that there is an ordinance in front of you that is a draft ordinance is that is a draft proposed ordinance by one of your council members right regarding Liaisons now the liaison themselves as I understood it from feedback from Council there was the entire Council was not exactly in agreement for that purpose so it's not possible for me to record all those appointments unless the council agrees upon it to the resolution so if what I uh elected to do in that case was yes you do have the resolution but the resolution would have to be formed by your feedback and agreement as to who will be assigned to what board yeah okay we we never so can we can we um do yes councilwoman Council vice president I'm sorry um no we did figure out all of the boards and commissions there weren't any overlapping boards or commissions for Council so that should have definitely been um prepared for this meeting I don't know obviously there was some confusion but I do have the list if we want to go it and still discuss it um certainly councilwoman if you have the list then i' be happy to hear it and if you want if you want to make a motion or Endor discuss and then approve then that then more than receptive council president so I apologize if we missed that list prior to this meeting but right from what I had understood there was individuals that wanted to discuss those appointments okay I I wasn't aware that they wanted to discuss it but that's fine um councilwoman Williams thank you ma'am uh if we were to discuss this tonight may we all get a copy of that list right please start be I was going to say we should probably all have it one and two I was going to say can we listen to the person who actually signed up first and go in that order and then when we get to that part we can either um discuss it on a Das or p it into the next meeting certainly Madam president I believe we're still at public comment for agenda items only and we have M uh Mr pot thank you hold on I just wanted to get to that after we hear him out I'm sorry go ahead I would like to go with um listen to the person who signed up first um and then we can get to this one because it's later down on the line we do have Mr did you speak to 25-27 [Music] yet yes um okay permission to speak right ahead permission okay thank you uh my name is Roland pot uh 113 South Montgomery Street um here to speak on number 25-27 resolution appointing council member Liaisons to various boards and commissions um I'm actually here as a member of the Trenton Downtown Association board of directors and our um chairperson Austin Edwards uh had to uh beg off early tonight he wasn't able to be here but he did leave me with a few words which I'll read to you and then I'll add a couple of my own comments right after that um these are the words of chairman Austin Edwards the Trenton downtown and let me step back just for um Council as well as members of the public Trenton Downtown Association is the special Improvement districts Management Corporation primarily tasked with the clean and safe activities for downtown Trenton um collecting an assessment of the commercial property owners downtown and reinvesting that assessment in the downtown district to make it clean and safe uh so it's a 501c3 organization which Co which uh um manages that those Queen and safe programs among other Economic Development programs for the downtown chairman Edwards asked me to say over the past few so this is the time of year when um the council chooses the boards and commissions for the coming year so uh the comments relate to that he said over the past few years Jen has been deeply speaking about councilwoman Jen Williams has been count has been deeply involved and ingrained with the TDA and the down downtown she has been instrumental in helping through the executive director position search she has made herself available for TDA board meetings and she has demonstrated a talent lacking in the city to be able to disagree without being disagreeable we thank her for her continued service to TDA so those were the words of um chairman Edwards who asked me to read them because since he had to leave early I also just wanted to add that um you know we're very fortunate here in Trenton to have a a group of great Council people and um anything that the council is interested in engaging with on on TDA is much appreciated and we thank you for the time and and insights that all of you have given to TDA um traditionally this role has been the northward council person that has um served in it and I think um you know councilwoman Williams has been on for a couple years partly because her uh M Hill residency which is in the north Ward also because of her longtime experience as a zoning Board member really un deeply understanding the business of of Trenton and then also um as someone that is very interested in public safety um working closely with the north Ward citizens police advisory Council uh so that qualifies her very well um we'd be lucky to see her continue as we be lucky to anybody that is willing to put the time and effort that she has put in over the last couple of years the TDA welcomes a committed um board member that would put in the time for the meetings as well as outside committee work as part of that board membership so thank you councilwoman Williams for all of your participation and thank you to the council for your consideration in this important upcoming year for TDA thank you thank you Mr V yeah so um Council vice president do we have any other person sign up uh no ma'am not at the moment can we just give us like two minutes o h council president of that is all may we continue with the yes please wonderful up next I have uh approval Communications petitions and reports do I have a motion and a second please maybe I have a motion for Community for the communications and reports please correct so moveed second and that's motion by Council feliciana yes all right second by Edwards all right Council VP Edwards yes all right excuse me my bad y'all councilwoman Feliciano yes Council woman Figaro kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman councilman Harrison yes councilman Williams yes yes and council president Gonzalez yes all right motion pass moving on to ordinances for second reading and public hearing none I have none at the moment ma'am may I proceed yes wonderful next up we have [Music] resolutions Madam president are there any items that you wish to extract from potential consent agenda this evening is it discussed separately or are there any items or is there do you have consent agenda and you like to motion on consent yes I'm going to ask members who may have questions on any of the items council president yes Council I have uh just a few like questions on question um resolution 25-15 015 25 uh uh 25188 25 and then 25- 020 thank you thank you anyone else council president yes um so my understanding is 25027 uh will be its own uh discussion so I wouldn't necessarily ask uh to have my own question time for that okay um unless need needed but uh I do have questions about 2513 25018 and 2525 as well as 2526 and 253 oh Z3 0 Z3 thank you anyone else council president yes Council fiana I I'm just saying just to go back to 2527 just some clarity on what we're doing with that yes that's all I I don't think that should be in a consent agenda I don't I mean I don't know what we're doing so okay thank you thank [Music] you I believe 003 is an ordinance not a resolution okay all right thank you for that anyone else that's it I think that's it um Mr garciaa understood Madam president then on your call if you'd like to start with the first resolution for discussion yes we could start with 25013 and that was councilwoman Williams thank you ma'am uh as I see uh director Liston come to the day to the podium good evening director how are you good thank you good thank you uh so my question about this more so for dissemination by the public because I know uh some folks uh have asked regarding um this loan at this time can you talk about the origin of it and uh how the funding actually works through uaz for the city to the ultimate um benefactor of the of the loan which will be uh the Maxine's property which has been dormant for many many years yes uh he is in the process of rehabbing the whole facility uh and he he's done some uh major repairs to the roof uh and he has uh requested uh some assistance to the uee which the U is structured for to help uh businesses um in in gap funding situations with just is uh the the structure of the loan that we're looking at is a fiveyear at 3% with a it' be a fiveyear balloon the most the benefit of this grant is the fact that on the loan we will be in first position on the building which means we'll collateralize the the loan quite well and second part if everything is successful with the with Al loan the 1.7 plus the interest returns to what they call second generation funds which we will be able to utilize in the future for other loan programs and other types of Stu to me that's very important um with if we get a change in administration next year uh at the governor's level we Al we all saw what Chris Christie did with the U's so if if we can have the uh ability to build up our second gen funds this will help quite a bit okay when had the second generation funds it sounds like that's uh would be Untouchable by a future Administration it may not be as um supportive of Trenton's effort for economic development it's it's it's a revolving fund where councils can uh projects can be brought forward and we can fund uh you know additional business programs uh the future can yes okay and without this uh Gap alone this project would not be able to come to fruition um within a next year or two because it's been he's he's hung up he he's he's in a situation he's he's put a lot of his own cash into the building uh and and this is one of these properties downtown we see is a future drawing uh people backing down the downtown especially we we get the hotel cooking again uh this is you know a top end type restaurant that'll bring people downtown okay thank you very much sir thank you ma'am D direct anyone else director listen really quick um I just want to make sure I heard that correctly so the the term of the loan payment is five years be five year on a 30-year improvization with the with a um fiveyear balloon which he pays it off after five plays the balloon after five years thank you and then I see it says uh an allotment not to exceed one 1,700 so we're not allocating that completely to them we don't know that that's just no we're going to monitor and disperse said uh we're there's going to be a second resolution coming in front of council approving the contract on this so this is just the first phase where we are applying to the state so the state moves the money so we have it available the second phase this part is going to be qualifying the business for the loan uh just like you were close on a mortgage we're we're going to have um basically a mortgage drafted up uh and then what we will do is is uh proceed with a loan in in the process of how we're going to capture the funds back so it's um it it it works quite well for us and I just had one more um after speaking to a couple of um business owners in the downtown area in regards to this uh resolution most of them are just concerned that they will they won't be open to the community so we just want to make sure that um Momos will you know cater to our community not close at 4 p.m. and then leave when the state workers leave so do we have all of that yet or an idea of what their plan is my understanding is they're going to be open late one of one of the best parts about doing a loan like this is you know we can put certain conditions in the loan that they you know to to receive the loan that they're going to have to have certain business hours you know and stay open till say 10 p.m. or something so we do have some uh leverage in lending this money out thank you director can this go on consent agenda please do ma'am thank you next we have 25-15 believe that's next thank you council president um so director Liston my question with this is I know this is for remediation um of this old cleaners my concern is what is the what safeguards are we putting in place when this remediation is done and do we have plans for this site the there's some plans on potentially renting it out to an adjoining property uh the safeguards on on the property itself are you put monitoring wells in and uh they're monitored on an annual basis to make sure that the uh pollution uh is under control uh I I will tell you that in doing environmental work it's the most uned predictable type of work you do because you don't know what's in the ground that's why they put the the uh monitoring wells in because you don't know what kind of flow you're going to get which way it's going to go the groundwaters going to move so it's it's monitored for for us for for 20 30 years um and we make sure that uh that we will have issues with selling the property because of such contamination but it can be rented out where the the city can receive funding for renting the property out to an adjoining owner or some else we could lease it out if somebody wanted to build on there with the proper environmental controls so it's it's the these are this especially a property like this is probably the toughest on you're going to do uh cleaners the the cleaning fluids they used went down went down deep and really did contaminate the ground terribly I will tell you an $88,000 change order on this is very very minor uh when you do environmental work I've started environmental work with estimates of you know a million dollars and ended up spending over $3 million after all the change orders because of uh the unknowns that are in the ground especially in a historic Community like ours thank you so my concern Still Remains for um the contamination that we know that is in the ground because of the chemical chemicals that are um in there from this cleaners if we know that there there are these chemicals in there why are we proceeding with PL putting anything on there where residents could possibly be at risk well we would cap it would be a capped property what they call environmental controls so no water would actually run over it and it would be controlled so you know if you park the vehicles on it or if you were putting something on it um you know we would make sure that the public was protected from uh any type of Expo direct exposure like uh o Open dirt or anything like that to the property so it's very well controlled uh by the environmental groups okay thank you sir that's all the questions I have on that that um Madam vice president can go back on consent agenda thank you councilwoman frisbee does anyone have any more comments on that no thank you thank you uh next we have 25-18 so that was um me and I actually um don't really need to exit the two questions on 258 or 25-25 for me they can both say um on a consent agenda okay I actually uh had questions on that myself so I would like to ask my questions thank you Steve Wilson Police director good evening Mr director thank you Council vice president uh so regarding um this this contract or the 16 for it escapes um and then Associated there's a resolution authorizing the contract uh so at this time why are these vehicles necessary um and can you talk about the longevity and what they will do to improve the department because I know we have a lot of various ages of various different vehicles I don't know that we have any of the Dodge Chargers or too many of those still running around from the 2000s but that was a very large purchase at that point I think 2008 if I remember right um so in fact we still are using some of those Dodge Chargers um we are still using um a used used Crown Victoria that we bought what used uh from I believe it was Brower County Sheriff's Department was the original agency and we have a number of old vehicles that these 16 Ford Escapes will uh replace in our Fleet um these vehicles that we are replacing are very high mileage um some of them have over 200,000 miles on them and they've been resurrected by our fleet manager um pieced together from older cars that are now out of service um so um these these vehicles when we when we do replace the older cars um will also um help decrease our line items for repairs because then they will then be under warranty um for three years so any repairs done outside of collision will be under warranty okay and um after the warranty period does the department have its own mechanic and body person who handles these or do we go to garages for that um we we do have mechanics here um they they fall under the fire department because several years ago our garages were combined and so our police mechanics were were uh put under the fire department um but they don't do major repairs they keep the vehicles going um and we do farm out our repairs to uh Ford dealerships and um and uh other vendors that we utilize okay and my final question as far as uh if these resolutions are approved uh what would happen to the vehicles they may replace or would you retain those rather than retire them um we will we will try and keep the ones that uh um aren't too bad but the ones that that that we are replac I don't I don't see us keeping a whole lot of those cars they will be decommissioned and set for auction for the city okay and uh any proceeds from those auctions will go back into the city's general fund thank you very much sir thank you ma'am you're welcome consent agenda please for 25-18 and 025 yes ma'am thank you thank you Mr Garcia I believe that is all for there was one more Madam vice president that was [Music] 25-20 and also 026 okay 25-20 thank you good evening C good evening director honary thank you for being here um so this is a every this resolution is important to many of us um the milling and getting the asphalt down my question is about the award date I know that we don't begin um putting down asphalt until March if I am correct and this says one year from the date so being that we're at the end of January uh top of February will this uh is this going to begin in uh February or will this actually begin in March will that be the start date of and I asked that question so that we're not losing a month when we are going to be trying to get get these streets uh repaired uh good evening Council uh actually this contract starts like you said on as needed basis even though it says February but we're not going to call them until March beginning of April before we start you know this delivery so that one of the reason why we have to do this is we want to we have a lot of streets that we want to do so we want everything to be ready to go that's why we're getting this done now but by March is when we're going to be on these streets excellent that's what then and that was my concern I didn't want to that I thought the it says from the year of the date of the award and so I didn't know if that was the date that it was actually approved yes or if that's different from the date that we actually began so you're saying that it is the date that we actually begin um Coler assistant business administrator councilwoman the contract will start as of tomorrow if it's approved today it'll be a year from tomorrow just as the director stated we won't call them until we need the delivery but we'll be locked in the prices will be locked in and we'll be ready to go as of ostensively tomorrow okay thank you that can go on consent agenda M of Vice [Music] President thank you does anyone else have questions on Council Council men Harrison Wally sorry Wally Vol my question was when will we get the list of streets and Alleyways that you're going to be doing in when will that be coming out yes that's going to be our goal is to try to we have list of streets right now that are really bad with Port holes that's where our focus is going to be and then after those we jump into the alleyways and then do couple of speed home before we continue moving on but we have so many streets that we're doing like 72 streets in the city for this summer and it's all over the city in the four WS okay yep thank you is anyone else have any questions one Z is that okay to go on consent yes ma'am thank you and next we have 25-26 good even thank you Mr Cherry thank you council president so um my question regarding this um this is uh something I I would assume it's very new uh could be very exciting because we've talked about shared services uh in different form forms for our city uh for quite a long time I know many of our count my council members myself have talked about this so this uh particular one regarding Department of Health and Hamilton Township there was a couple things in the resolution that caught my eye and it just wanted to have you explain it for myself um everyone actually in the public too uh towards the end of the uh resolution 25026 says whereas the city desires to contract with the township of Hamilton New Jersey Department of Health and designate the public health officer of Hamilton Township as a corresponding position of and for the city for the purposes of overseeing the functions of the city public health office and then further after there therefore it be resolved the mayor is hereby authorized to execute an agreement for acceptance of Health Services through the county of Mercer so two get two different government entities want to partner with uh Hampton Township and the other is acceptance of Health CER through the county immerser now I realize that um the portion about the county immerser might be kind of a standard contract or standard resolution language uh because I'm sure we had to partner them very much during the pandemic but this uh shared services agreement with Hamilton about a health officer and so forth can you go into what this actually means for the regular Trentonian or what it's going to mean for us as a government body for the regular Trentonian it should not mean much of anything from their perspective they should see us having a health officer which is required by the state uh we do not currently have a health officer serving in that capacity so this uh attempts to solve that particular issue uh from a residents perspective they should see nothing different they call the same numbers they participate the same uh from the governing body's perspective at least for the time being being the uh Health officer in Hamilton is going to also serve as our health officer uh it was determined that they had enough bandwidth to do that um and we think that this is a a very quick and costeffective way to to make that happen Okay and then uh how many hours per week would the health officer from help to be shared with Trenton I don't believe we have a fixed number okay I think it is uh a collaboration determined based on need um unfortunately the director is uh is not available tonight but I can get some more detail for you as um as we move forward okay thank you and how long has uh that position of Health officer been unfulfilled for our city I can't speak to that I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head but I can find out okay I no I would appreciate that and then um if you could share just for our uh knowledge you know what the position entails its responsibilities even via email that would be helps I know this this isn't your bwick but uh but thank you for answering my question yes of course of course and we can get you all that detail um but this person is going to do the same thing as our health officer internally just through that service with with Hamilton okay and financially how does this work out uh for our taxpayers at least currently it is a quite costeffective method uh for providing the service though obviously we're going to evaluate as we move forward this is something as you said that's that's new we have not had a health officer via shared service before so we'll evaluate our need we'll see how how it works for us and then we can uh address that moving forward okay thank you very much of course it works out well could sign agenda please thank you councilwoman and now we have 25- z27 I know we wanted some clarities I'm sorry we wanted some clarity on 027 so I believe the issue is that we don't have the actual list of the appointments um to my understanding as we were drafting this there was no um I didn't know anyone had any discrepancies but but most of what everyone chose was we selected the same ones that everyone had or that they picked first choice is that correct Council VI president yes um in in when we ask for everyone's preferences there were one or two overlaps that we had cleared up everyone has submitted their preferences um there are three council members that have two preferences um and everyone else has one except for myself I have three so um I can read them now or do we want to table this for the February 4th I would like to table it if I could have a motion to table it just so that way we can have everyone look at the list and review it um prior to us being here this evening I would concur with that m' so so I have motion to table it you can motion who's second second second been moving the second I'll call the role councilwoman upwards yes councilwoman Feliciano councilwoman Figo kinberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried thank you matters tabled until next public meeting correct yes February 4th meeting thank you all right Madame President with that in mind then you do have a if you'd like to make a motion to approve consent agenda may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so move second roll call councilman uh vice president sorry yes Council council president yes Council I'm sorry can we have the right but can we have the clerk read the numbers in to run the roster so we're just clear that we got all the right ones sure okay thank you certainly resolutions for account resolutions for consent agenda this evening 25-13 04 05 027 06 excuse me uh with the exception of 027 06 017 08 025 09 0 020 021 22 23 24 26 all except for resolution 27 which was been tabled have a motion for approval so moved second roll call vice president Edwards yes councilman Feliciano yes councilman Figo kenberg councilman frisbee yes councilman Harrison councilwoman Williams yes council president president Gonzalez yes motion carried and Madame President that brings us to ordinances at this time and that brings us to ordinance first reading introduction ordinance 25-1 ordinance amending chapter 132 article 17 section 135 of the revised ordinance of the city of Trenton to increase the cost for lead safe inspections and add a filing fee for lead safe certificates may I have pres ask for a motion to approve so just a quick question from my understanding can I can we discuss it before we do or we have to do the motion first if you motion and second the matter then you could have discussion thank you may I have a motion to approve 251 I'm sorry that was moved by Williams William thank you Harris thank you haris thank you has been moved in second is there a discussion go right ahead ma'am yes are there any council members who wish to speak to this one council president yes councilman Williams so I just wanted to share um and I'm sure other members have heard this there's a bit good bit of concern from U some members of the public uh regarding um the effectiveness of this ordinance because there's a concern that um there may be landlords who do not actually follow the rules and carry through and and you know rather than actually have the lead testing done Etc May shy away from it because of the cost now I don't know that that's true or not but that concern is out there so I'm wondering um is there a part to perhaps that might need to be visited uh for a penalty for landlords or an increased penalty who do not uh comply with this because I think the intent of it is is very very good the intent of this particular ordinance is um director listen here to answer that question good evening uh Colin Cherry assistant business administrator uh that's certainly something we can explore right now this particular ordinance however seeks to get our fees more in line with the surrounding municipalities because what has been happening is we are so much more inexpensive than private and surrounding municipalities that we have well exceeded our capacity and we are not um taking in nearly enough money to cover the cost of the training and all of these um all of these uh inspections so your comment is very well taken we'll certainly have a conversation about what our enforcement options are are but for now we just feel strongly that we need to get this done so that we can stop being swamped by lowcost requests and really bring in the revenue that will allow us to continue the this program okay and may follow up uh with that for since you know we're being swamped we have you have an idea how many additional inspectors will be hired to make sure that we are servicing everybody and that we're protecting our resid I we don't at this time feel that the the best option is necessarily to hire more inspectors we think that once we make our fees in line with the private and surrounding municipalities that what's going to happen is those requests will spread out among those groups so we will be not inundated with so many requests because we will be competitive with the pricing around us okay all right well I look forward to a part two hope of course Council thank you council president um so um my question to have two part um one part to two part what is the current fee for it and what are the surroundings municipalities that we are not competitive um I don't have a list of the fees for the surrounding municipalities but we are the cheapest in the county uh the fees um for the current I I don't have I only have the fees that we are seeking to bring it to but we are the cheapest in the county including the private sector I don't doubt that if you would just be able to get that information to us I would like to know that of course thank you sir thank you madam president thank you anyone else my only concern I mean I hear why you know e e in progress uh started with these these fees previously but again it's a new program a new roll out and and this just SS and so the chart that's here in under letter A this is a new chart or they were other they there were other numbers that were there see I think that when we're showing these things if we show what it was to where we're going that would kind of help so for a one-bedroom unit what was it before this $350 uh to the council's for prior question I will make sure we we provide you with all those those yeah I think that that would help us to kind of of just see better um what we're doing I understand the need for fees and everything like that I get it but to council president's Point um just to kind of do the comparison right just so that we can we can see exactly what's going on I think we need to um see that thank you council president Council vice president thank you I just want to um concur with councilwoman Feliciano um is it possible to have this updated reflecting the changes because there um when we talked about this IND doet review we uh talked about the recent amendment that we did last year and the fact that this went up by $50 so in the rubric can we put the previous prices with a slash through it and then put the new prices next to it to reflect the changes certainly we can we can work with Mr Garcia to to determine the appropriate form for this ordinance yes and then um I would also like to add like going forward whenever we do have price adjustments or cost adjustments fees adjustments that we always do that as a rule of thumb to put what we're changing it from and into so the public is aware of that thank you I think that's all the questions uh Mr Garcia we can move forward spin motions move in second I'll call the role vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez I'm GNA abstain noted motion [Music] carried on to ordinance 25-3 an ordinance granting renewal of Municipal consent to Comcast of merer County LLC to construct connect operate and maintain a cable television and communication system in the municipality of Trenton Mercer County New Jersey may we have a motion to approve 25-3 some moved second council president there you go yeah councilwoman Williams yes thank you ma'am I have a couple questions regarding this ordinance so thank you again Mr Cherry so course the duration of the franchise is 15 years which uh is a very long time uh I understand Comcast has been here ever since we had um cable come to the city 1981 I believe and only reason I know that is because we had to convince uh my father when my mom went on vacation to order it so we could get MTV that's how old I am but uh reason I bring that up is they've always had a monopoly uh for the most part um we do have Verizon FiOS uh they did come in later but you know a lot of folks most folks have Comcast and particularly when it comes to the internet uh service I was I was glad to see that you know they did list or you you all listed uh who they provide courtesy cable for and video uh internet rather and video uh which would be the cable and I was glad to see that the library has that as a courtesy Trent High Boe a few of our schools uh but then I saw uh under the internet uh many schools do not as well as uh even here City Hall and that that's a different story but for the schools and the firehouses and police particularly with uh how communication is ETC and I know you know it's too late for this contract very likely but I would love to see that they provide internet as a courtesy to our schools in the city uh as well as we had we don't have that many firehouses for the firehouses also case for communications and so forth I know they have security Communications but in case for a backup as well as police and I'm wondering is that something that could be asked for going forward granted this is a 15-year contract which would go through uh 20 um 40 um but is that something that could still be at least ask as a courtesy U we can certainly have a conversation with them this this contract is just pursuant to BPU regulations we don't really have any uh input into the details of this form of agreement we could have that conversation with them um whether whether they'd be interested is is kind of up to them but that is certainly a conversation that we can fac facilitate all I would appreciate that I think that would help a lot of folks um particularly certainly with the schools and then Poli and fire it adds another secure safe feature and then my only other question is um in discussions in this may not have come up but I know we've discussed it in other words with PSC and G is the idea of trying to get their lines to actually go underground because uh it's very good when we have natural disasters Like a Hurricane Sandy but between having uh Verizon Comcast uh as well as psng all these lines in some of our streets like Brunswick Avenue many others there's so many telephone wires cable wires and so forth strong across streets and along streets we actually can't plant that many trees in the city and a lot of the trees when they do grow they get into the wires which causes a problem then we have to make an ugly V cut to be able to hopefully have the branches grow around the tree but ultimately over time what that's done to our city is created a lot of heat Islands uh and we have a c a good number them all over the the city but we have a strong number of those in the north Ward and with global warming um as well as the high rates of uh respiratory issues asthma in our city that's something very longterm but I think it's something important to uh when you have if you could bring that also up to um the utilities that we have Opera in our city and maybe at some point we can coordinate a a greater plan at least in some of the the tougher areas where we have you know utility lines really making it an unhealthy situation for our residents maybe we can explore even if it's a few blocks at a time putting these lines under the ground we can certainly bring it up to them I I'm not really sure what they infrastructure upgrade plans look like but it's certainly a conversation we can we can initiate all right I appreciate if you if you could you know when the next round uh that you do talk to them and you know let us know because very much long term we had something as a as a city we have to look at for the health of our residents and this is we're at we're at their behest of what they want to do unfortunately we can't help ourselves with that right thank you very much I appreciate it of course thank you ma'am thank you Council will anyone [Music] else or if you can move forward Mr Mr Garcia certainly roll call vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figaro kenberg councilwoman Frisby yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried and moving from there Madame President I believe we missed a motion to approve the minutes of September 19th December 5th and December 19th if you want to ask for a motion to approve may I have a motion to approve no move [Music] second roll call councilwoman uh excuse me vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano yes councilwoman Figo kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harris yes Council Williams yes council president Gonzalez yes motion carried and now Madam president moving from there I believe we have reached a point of public comment um if there any I have the public comment clipboard we do have three individuals listed it appears two of them have left we have two individuals listed for public comment this evening public comment will be five minutes in duration unless I'm told otherwise five minutes five minutes and please understand the council is not obliged to respond to you uh Edward Mr Edward Livingston is our first individual public comment this evening um good evening Council um thank you for having me um my name is Edward Livingston um I live on Grand Street TR New Jersey South Ward uh stand before you today not with the stop sign I promise you that but um I'm here to offer Insight on the Drone influx plaguing our city in state as of November 2024 New Jersey has become the epicenter of identified drone activity some of us might have seen drones here in the city I know I certainly have um I I've seen drones and other flying aircrafts what I could not identify so where did they come from what do we do about it I can almost assure you that it was not the Iranian Mothership off the ocean our us Atlantic Fleet forces command would have taken care of that expeditiously whoever they are wherever it may be whether it's an internal agency doing activities or exercises within our country a top secret government exercise or visitors from another galaxy we will not have answers from our direct answers from our national government so what do we do about it who do we turn to the answer is US Trenton our Capital we do it together so to our leaders of this great City and the leaders of the state of New Jersey and I'm glad that our um Police director is here um I propose forming and activating a drone surveillance task force dstf whose mission is to detect deter identify Warn and warn against unidentified anomalies within Trenton Mercer County and the state of New Jersey's airspace to accomplish this Mission we need to en enact laws permanently restricting airspace around our local state buildings and buildings of critical infrastructure now not to uh I know I have two minutes left but not to inst um not to insult anybody's intelligence but our uh Power grids our um our reservoirs that we talked about um anything that make our city run um we also need to require licensing to all civilians with drones next in order to accurately deter and identify any flying objects within our airspace we need extended range high resolution cameras with light and sound deterr systems somewhat similar to what Washington DC uses they use enhanced protective systems that use signal blocking high definition infrared uh cameras with laser and sound technology now that's a little expensive but um just the cameras would do so before the holidays I traveled around the city to find suitable places for such cameras I found the Old njn Tower right across the street the camcast tower on Prost Street the water tower above the old Stokes rubber plant on Taylor Street the tower above roing Center and the flight Tower at Mera County airport with these systems in place we will have the ability to visually identify track and warn the appropriate agency to the divert or neutralize the target depending on the Threat Level these agencies include but are not limited to State and local law enforcement the FAA Department of um Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense ladies and gentlemen this drone ordeal is not a hoax or fake news since the FAA lifted the ban over New Jersey last week more drones have been spotted over our energy plants our military bases our airports and even over critical infrastructures heck they even flew over president drum's golf course in bed Minister I guess they wanted to uh play the front nine but all jokes aside you have to honestly ask yourself why would an entity or a group performs such coordinated exercises over specific points I'm almost done um of Interest knowing that we are not equipped for drone Warfare they are a threat are they a threat or friendly we will know never know unless we pass our own airspace bill pass our own mandatory civilian licensing and form a drone surveillance task for before it's too late I'm going to conclude by paraphrasing Mr Les Brown it is better to be prepared than get prepared my name is Edward Livingston and I hope you approve this message thank you Robin bour good evening Council good evening Trent tonians and other visitors uh I'm here this evening to address um the issue that has come up across our community around the aggression Excuse Me Miss V can you state your address for the record please 1100 sty Avenue um yeah I'm here to address the recommendations coming down from the New Jersey Department of environment and protection around usurping our municipal government uh we are under the government of a mayor council form of government whereby was it a strong mayor council government and the council is responsible for the oversight in the funding of All City departments that are largely funded by the residents and taxpayers of the city of Trenton and that includes of course the Department of Water just like all the other departments they're all equal and requires your attention and oversight and control and governance So reading this it says today commissioner Shan M lored of the New Jersey Department of environment protection released a report a technical managerial and financial assessment of Trenton Waterworks that highlights specific deficiencies we haven't seen that report but we in the community will be requesting it and we'll we'll peel it black back like an onion um that and we will respond accordingly so the Highlight specific deficiencies at Trenton Waterworks and recommending the creation of a new public water I mean public utility entity to operate the water system and this entity must be separate and independent from the Trenton municipal government so separate and independent of the Trenton municipal government so I just want everybody to know that our Municipal council is a governing body and the board of directors of Trenton Waterworks and we're not interested in having any other government body or a group of people coming and usurping the Seven council members that were elected by the residents and the taxpayers and the voters of Trenton you are the governing body of that water utility and all the other department here in the city of Trenton and I don't understand how is it that a mayor that was elected also would even collude and talk about co- mayoring with other uh elected officials that weren't even elected by residents of our city when we went to the ballot only his name was on the ballot not any other Mayors out of any other towns they are acting unconstitu tionally and undemocratic based on the New Jersey constitution of 197 1947 the state or any other entity cannot intrude in Municipal Affairs that's our councel and our mayor the state only can pass laws general laws that all municipalities must abide by but they cannot pass specific laws that Target us specifically so I hope that all of you take your duties Ser seriously and your and recognize the powers of your seat you are backed by 990,000 residents you cannot be controlled by somebody who just have an appointed job at the department of uh environment affection Sean Tourette is a nobody he's just ano Ed official and I suspect by in six months he won't even have that job he will be replaced by another appointee because when I was on the council it was Katherine mccab they rotate them every election cycle so it's all a money grab to take control over the revenues of the Department of Water and we all know it take control of the contracts that you all supposed to approve prove so this new entity will take over that and they want to usurp you guys and I hope that you recognize that thank you m' thank you and Madam president those are all the individuals I have listed for public comment at this time if it's your wish you may start with any individual for civic comment we'll start with councilwoman Williams please thank you council president so we have uh obviously um well first I want to say thank you to everyone for coming tonight um this is technically a triple header since we had an alcohol beverage Control meeting before uh dou meeting for Council and uh there's obviously a lot facing our city we have Trenton Waterworks we still have uh things like the doj which um with the administration that'll be interesting how that uh turns out we have all the regular issues we have to handle but at the end of the day there is good happening in the city and that's what I'm going to try to talk about for a couple minutes here we have 90,000 plus Trentonian and we all have to look out for each other and what I am seeing particularly uh with what happens with this uh situation with ice they were in Philadelphia today as I i' just saw reported before the meeting Trentonian look out for each other and we're going to have to these next four years are not going to be easy they're not going to be easy for any there's going to be some good things that happen there going to be some not so good things that happen but we have to make sure that we take care of Trenton and part of that is and I hope when you saw questions coming from Council about the Waterworks and what the future is we're going to be fighting you know quote Winston Church will'll fights in we'll fight in the streets we will fight in the Hills well the hills are mostly in cowat park and the west ward but we'll be fighting everywhere because it is important that way we protect our city and that we know what is exactly going to happen for the everyday Trentonian should this sale or whatever they're going to say it is or try to put lipstick on a pig in my opinion is going to be we all have to be open minded I will be open-minded but 14 years ago the citizens of this city United and voted it down in a referendum and we have that power to do that again and make sure that we are the voices of change and we as Gandhi said are the change we want to see and that's something nobody can stop us from doing so when we move forward let's make sure we know that we're on team Trenton my colleague councilman Harrison always says that team Trenton team Trenton that's what we have to think about and um so I'll move on with I just want to say a couple thank yous right off the bat uh want to thank interim director Harris natural resources and his staff and team um it's been intermittent because of the weather but trimming the trees on Martin Luther King Boulevard it's already making a good change we have some more work that has to get done uh but it's making improvements and we hope to see even more so on our Boulevard honors Dr King whose birthday we just celebrated and that's very important because um as we take care of Trenton these were ways to take care of Trenton and honor the past and we have to do that too I also want to thank uh director Ani Mr WEA uh the deputy and public works for cleaning out all the dumping and all the overgrowth that happened over many years at rogers's alley so emergency vehicles can go through and residents I had some complaints from constituents it was freezing cold on the day they had to do it but they got it done so there are folks in this city and our city government they're going to take care of Trenton uh finally uh regarding uh what Mr Livingston talked about that's very could sound very very big picture and I know know when we talk about um drones and different things in government and what they say or say aren't things could be conspiracies Etc but I do want to bring up a point because I did see some drones myself today it was announced by the Trump Administration that the drones were approved by the Federal Aviation Administration for research purposes now one question about what those research purposes were they wouldn't say what the research purposes were so could have been innocent they could you could be measuring you know Air Stream cold weather who knows but at the end of the day it's also our privacy and we don't talk about that you go in your backyard you have a drone fly over you know they're seeing you have people over to your house they're seeing you put your laundry out they're seeing all kinds of stuff we do have a right to privacy in our airspace above our homes and that's something I just want to bring up to consider going forward uh finally uh I would like for our Council to consider extending comment uh going forward since we only have one meeting per week thank you Council May Harrison um let's see what do I start well first I want to start with we talked about tonight sh woodw works I am not going to support anything about recreating this board I think uh D and the state needs to step up give us the funding help us get the mid-level uh staff that we need um I would like to thank uh Wall-E and Hector and all their staff for their wonderful job and removing the snow and salting the streets um I would like to thank uh George McGill for over 23 years of being the planning board and Zoning Board attorney George is an awesome human being I wish him all the best in life unbelievable human being um here exactly um i' would like to thank all my the mayor um Andrew bobit all my colleagues uh my uncle passed away so ID like to you know thank my colleagues for all their support and um thank you for the uh fruit arrangement for my mom today she truly thank she appreciated it so let's keep working together like my Council colleague said let's go team Tren councilwoman frisbee thank you madam president so good evening everyone um I wanted to just address a couple of things um to Mr Livingston I am uh in agreement I don't trust uh what's going on with the drones I don't trust anything that our newly elected president has said that is going to be for our good with the federal aid freezes The Cutting of funding for seniors children's and Medicaid um I don't see anything so far that is for our good so I second guess everything and I do believe we need to be proactive to protect ourselves uh when it comes to our water department I've already stated it we're not for sale um I stand on that uh I do want to make a few announcements and that is um we have know that we're getting ready to move into the month of February and that is heart um health month along with black history month so we ask that you would check in on people and also on yourselves to get your heart tested make sure that you're moving it is not just um good enough to just be uh good with eating habits you have to move um and also I wanted to announce that uh The Smith Family Foundation in the month of April beginning in a March they're going to start giving out the information but in the month of April summer grants are going to open and it's going to be centering around um f making fun for our children I know some might say that it is early to start talking about Su the summer but it is not you have to start planning for it so I ask you to pay attention looking forward um just forecasting ahead also in March there's going to be a technical Workshop uh also with the Smith family foundation so you can go to the site which is www.s nj.org and you can find out more information on that I would like to also thank council president for making sure that we got the information needed for having mayor gusur to speak for having director Harris who I hope will be appointed as permanently director Harris soon director Wilson um all speak and quell the fears and um give Clarity to some of the discussions that have been going on in the community so thank you for that I also like to thank our uh directors that are here that are always out here um our fire director our water director um to all the directors that come out to even our DCA I thank each and everyone of you for coming out you don't always have to be here you could be doing other things you could just count us as non uh important but we appreciate you being here giving your ear and hearing what it is that we have to say and what is going on in our community and I believe with that I am about done oh my West W West W Community conversations will be happening in happening on February 2nd which is the second Tuesday of the month always at the uh police station uh on artistan welcome you to come out at 5:30 with that I going to read a portion of our City's mission statement which is recognizing that the people of Trenton have made us Guardians of the public trust we are committed to govern with integrity and fiscal responsibility to seek excellence in the city's operations and to serve all the city's people with respect and compassion I thank you and I hope that everyone gets home safely thank you councilwoman frisbee um councilwoman big Ro kber good evening everybody um I too just want to thank the mayor for coming and speaking to us um as well as um director Wilson you know these issues are issues that we as Council should not be speaking on until you know we get um further information from the administration as so as not to put out misinformation to the public um so it is I'm grateful that you know they were able to come and speak and we were able to ask questions um and inform the public you know of firsthand knowledge um I I to um you know concur with my colleagues about Trent and Waterworks and I just hope that we could come to a viable solution so that Trenton Waterworks does remain in our control however you know I do have concerns for operation of Trenton Waterworks how we are managing it um and you know money is not always the solution or the sole solution you know there needs to be other things um put into place um for Trenton Waterworks to run smoothly and to service the M municipalities that it does serve um other than that I just wanted to state that there will be a uh local meeting coming up I cannot disclose the date and time publicly but if anybody is interested it will be about ice um for the local community um at a location in the city date and time so please contact me if you are interested um mayor Reed gusar and director Wilson have confirmed their attendance at this meeting with the community um regarding ice and the public um thank you so much have a great evening thank you councilwoman felano thank you council president excuse me I have no comments tonight thank you Council woman Council vice president thank you uh council president um first I want to just speak to some of the things that I was not able to say earlier in regard to the de's report about Trenton Water Works um the things in this report is very unfortunate though very expected we have in full transparency have been speaking with the administration and the Water Works director about some of the things that we have been experiencing things that have been brought to our attention by the residents including like customer service feedback and things like that there are issues within the department that are fixable and we recommended training we recommended supervision we recommended staff meetings periodically more frequently to provide more oversight with the employees and to see the report kind of basically corroborates the things that we've been experiencing that was brought to our attention without even having any type of contact with the so I want to say that you know as the governing body of Trent Waterworks we gave our professional opinions and recommendations and I I feel like that was not taken heed to um I'm very taken aback by the mayor's comments to me tonight and I will follow up with him respectfully to just clear anything any miscon uh any confusion or miscommunication on any of our parts as I would like to have a respectful relationship and so that we can move forward and be Progressive in our approach when governing this city I am and have have read the reports and um do have several interpretations of these reports considering an independent utility entity and um I will wait for the mayor's leadership on that but as a governing body to the Trent Water Works I'll be talking to my Council colleagues and I know a lot of us are opposed to this um however I want to say that the lift to maintain this utility is heavy and it should not just fall on Trend we service four other municipalities separate from us and we have to find a way where we can get more funding if we can get help from other municipalities if we can get help from the state if the county has any funding if there's any federal funding we need to be actively trying to procure these different me uh different Avenues of funding we cannot afford to do this on our own and because it is ours because these P are ours the municipalities are not allowed to replace the pipes themselves I explored the idea of being um of you know maybe possibility of shared services a couple weeks ago with the municipalities that we do service and because we own the pipes they cannot touch them so something has to give and if we can find some type of common ground that allows the municipalities to be able to take out bonds and to be able to take on some type of financial respons ibility to replace these pipes we need to at least explore that while maintaining transparency while maintaining Council oversight with Trenton because this is our utility and we need to be respected but at the same time we have to hold our employees accountable in the department we have to weed out the Bad actors that are making everyone else look bad the the report talks about complacency that it's not not far-fetched we do have to weed these people out and we have to focus on disciplinary action we have to implement performance evaluations periodically we do need to hold the staff accountable that is that goes without saying um so I just wanted to just say that and that my recommendations are for enhanced training and certification programs improv management oversight strategic financial management and customer service overhaul as well because people are not getting positive feedback and things like that when they're reaching out there's billing issues people not receiving bills there's a lot of things going on so I will again communicate with my colleagues and see what it is that we can do without this utility being taken from us thank you thank you I didn't know it was going to do that thank you Council vice president thank you everyone for being here we're going to be I'm going to be very brief um but first I just want to say prayers going out to the family of Miss mahisha um family of DJ Juice Brian short um they did a beautiful tribute to him and I just want to send prayers out to his family also to councilman Harrison and his family and also um Pastor Johnny vaugh and his family and his church his spiritual family as well um thank you to our mayor and and our director Wilson for being here this evening I know it was last minute but as we all know this these are uh critical times for our city and with this report it's been very disturbing so I just want to thank you for being present and just trying to clarify I know we won't get all of our answers um this evening and there's a lot to digest there's a lot to comb through and there's a lot more um questions and things we need to work through and before we make that decision so just want to say thank you for being present um for that um I also wanted just to take a few moments to make a couple announcements first congratulations to councilman Feliciano for being named one of New Jersey's most hardworking women in New Jersey by Assembly women Sumpter shout out to [Music] you um also um there's an expungement Clinic um tomorrow at razor sharp 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. if anyone is interested um or knows anyone who can benefit from the expungement Clinic it would be going on at razor Shar on bake Street um from 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. um also I just want to say um thank you to our public for being understanding with our technical difficulties in us having to postpone a meeting and then cancel the meeting and so thank you for being understanding to that it was definitely out of our control um thank you to the Guatemalan civic association for allowing myself the mayor and Police director to come out and um do an interview about the whole ice situation again as we heard before please do not panic um things are going to happen in orderly it's going to be in orderly fashion and kids please do families please do not be afraid to send your kids to school um because it is important for them to be there um us as a at the as councilwoman Feliciano mentioned we do work for the Trent Board of Education and we do know that we are not releasing any students to anyone um that is not on the list to pick up so please do not get frightened about that but also have a plan in place um to the families and one quick second I just want to say congratulations to council woman figuro kenberg on her announcement that she recently made um and I think that's all for this evening make sure I didn't forget anything yes I think that's it thank you so much for being here this evening and to our directors DCA Garcia and our my colleagues have everyone have a good evening maybe we have a motion to adjourn second brok call vice president Edwards yes councilwoman Feliciano councilwoman Figo kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Gonzalez motion carried meeting adjourned yes thank you