present. All right, we can get started. Mr. Garcia. Yes. Yes. All right. Greetings all Trenton City Council meeting May 20th, 2025. It's now called to order. Please stand and salute the flag.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. State. 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. It was sent to the Trenton Times and Trentonian newspapers, posted on the first floor bolden board in city hall, filed in the city clerk's office, and posted on the city of
Trenton website. Formal action will be taken. Roll call. Vice President Edwards, present. Counciloman Feliciano, present. Counciloman Figueroa Kenberg. From the looks of it, she is present. I
will come back to her. Councilwoman Frisbee, present. Councilman Harrison is excused for this from this meeting. Councilwoman Williams, present. Presente. Council President Gonzalez. Presente. Coming back to Councilwoman
Figueroa Edenberg. Can unmute. I faintly heard her say she was here. Present. Yes. Thank you. Myself, Brandon Garcia, Municipal Court, present. Legislative council, Mr.
Edward Colloji is present this evening. And city attorney, Mr. West Bridges. Thank you. And Madam President, if you like, I'll read the invocation. 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. And Madam President, at this time, I believe we have a recognition if you'd
like to announce that. Yes. I believe u Mr. Mayor was not able to attend um had something. So, we're going to actually move that to a later date and so we can move right along to the presentation, the le presentation. Understood. At this
time, we have a lead presentation. Madam President, is there a time limit for this presentation? 10 minutes, please. Certainly. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. How about that? Uh good evening. Um I want to thank Councilwoman Edwards for inviting me here to talk about a
lead. We met at a press conference where that is organized to um elevate the issue of of cut funds uh at the federal government and uh Councilman Edwards spoke very uh very beautifully on behalf of the city and um invited me here today
to talk more about lead. And I know I've got 10 minutes and I also want to call out my friend and colleague Cheryl Snyder who's here with me tonight who I work with. Um, so I'm going to talk to you about important things to know about lead and maybe there's going to be some
prize surprises for you. Um, so the problems of lead. So here's a New York Times quote of the day. If you This is a picture of um someone named Dr. Mona Hannah Atisha from Flip, Michigan. She's
the pediatrician who identified the increase in lead levels among children in Flint uh back in 2014 and understood that it was because they changed the source of water. She said, "If you were going to put
something in a population to keep them down for generations to come, it would be lead." And here is a quote from Dr. Robert Sansson from Harvard which is lead toxicity is a pathway through which
racial inequality literally gets into the body. It's the number one um environmental health threat uh for children and also there are adult impacts and that may be the surprise today when I go through my PowerPoint.
So, high blood pressure, muscle pain, kidney disease, miscarriage, is still birth and more. And um oops oops um so quick facts about uh about lead in the body. It acts as
calcium and it accumulates in the bone over a lifetime. So, and during pregnancy, um, the body pulls out lead where calcium is supposed to be. So, if you were burdened with lead as a child and haven't been anywhere near that lead
environment, you could be poisoned all over again, causing troubles in pregnancy and for the fetus and newborn. Um, maybe some of you have heard of ACES, adverse childhood experiences. The top one shows, you
know, the ones that the child development experts have talked about. And I will say that I've been schooled by uh some pediatricians who have who really helped me understand that lead poisoning makes all of those ACEs, those
adverse childhood experiences worse. So, this is some data back from 2012. You may know that the state collects um data for on an annual basis about what lead levels are. And I can
say that um right now what we asked is how many children are starting kindergarten with at least one high lead level and that doesn't get reported. Back in 2012 we could see that over 50% of children were starting kindergarten
with a lead level of 2.5 and above. And let me just emphasize here, there's no safe level of lead. If you remember nothing else from this, there is no safe level. Um, this is just research which
just shows even at low amounts how it affects learning, grade test scores, more likely to fail grade at reading read grade level reading and math tests. And here's what lead poisoning in school performance. We hear a lot about this. I want to put some meat on the
bones for you. Compromised long-term memory. So, a student learns their multiplications on multiplication tables on Monday. They wake up Tuesday and they've got nothing. It's reduced auditory processing makes it difficult
to hear the difference between S as in Sam and F as in Frank. and that inability to control behavior, disruption in classrooms, lower test scores for individuals and entire school districts, um, and a
disproportionate number of lowincome males, incarcerated, unemployed, and aimless. Here's an insidious thing about lead. It affects the male brain more so than the female brain. Um, here's here's some data for
Flint. Um and you probably are aware of the terrible of the terrible change in water and problems that happened in Flint starting in 2014. So the suspension rates increased from 2.5% to almost
14%. 40% proficient uh in reading before water change reduced to 10 seven times more likely to be suspended. Those suspended 10 times more likely to end up in juvenile detention. So there's clearly some work that's been done by a
Princeton professors interconnection with poverty and relates to housing. So and then there's the adult impacts of lead much larger than previously understood pregnancy outcomes, cardiovascular disease, kidney
disease, even dementia and intergenerational obesity. So the four leading causes of um black maternal mortality in New Jersey are preeacclampsia, cardiomyopathy, embolism, bleeding and
hemorrhaging and this is overlooked research what in terms of what the impact is of lead on these lead is is correlated with all of these conditions. So you probably are aware of this. Black mothers in New Jersey are over three and a half times more likely
to lose their babies in the first year, more likely to have complications of birthweight problems and also birth uh miscarriages and and and even maternal infant mortality. So, here's a team I've been working with on uh bring highlighting
all this research about adults. And you know, we you could look at this later. I'm not going to take my time reading the names. Um oops. Uh okay. So lead and preeacclampsia. So it appears to be the
strongest risk factor yet for preeacclampsia reported and it shows that we should rout routinely be testing lead concentrations in pregnant people. So this is a known a known factor and
yet we don't we're currently not even testing women or pregnant persons for lead. Um we know it's uh uh it's associated with embolism or clot formation. We know it's involved in cardiomyopathy and it uh which is again
a killer here in New Jersey and lead and cardiovascular disease. Oops. I don't know if I'm um hold on. All right. And it's uh it's involved in uh
hypertension. And we know that these conditions are particularly high in um the black population and uh um in folks uh in in um well anyway the it's much greater cardiovascular mortality than we
thought before. Lead accounts for more than 400,000 deaths annually in the US. A t-fold increase over the number of deaths currently ascribed to lead. Um so lead and internal bleeding. Again, there's the proof there. And new moms
are at risk of developing high blood high blood pressure and complications six weeks after childirth even if they've had no problems because lead is also continues to be released from the bones um during uh during
lactation and um anyway the higher risk among moms over 35 and black women and New Jersey collects data about postpartum moms for 12 months because they know there's problems after that led and kidney disease. Blood levels at
even low levels increase the risk of chronic kidney disease. And uh and then there's lead impact pregnancy and infasy infancy. There's a colleague Eric Bend who's doing a project with New Jersey uh department of health. It's called the
Biom Monitoring Project and he's showing that 14% of Newark women, they're only testing up in Newark, had lead levels of greater than one microgram per deciliter. 13% of the babies were born with small heads, small stomachs, low
birth weight, shorter stature. Remember, there's no safe blood level. And we're we currently the CDC only recommends public health intervention at 3.5. And we're talking about symptoms and impacts as low as one microgram per
deciliter. So what we've been doing so far, this committee and uh and and me or I we've been meeting with Nurture New Jersey. Oops. Did I um seem to disappear on that side? Um
with Nurture New Jersey, MIA do Nurture New Jersey. We've engaged with the Preeacclampsia Foundation. Robin Doria, who I've been working with, as head of the Preeacclampsia Foundation, and she was stunned to know after all these years working in public health and
maternal health, that lead could be remobilized during the bone during pregnancy. She didn't know it. We're working on uh a bill, two bills, 4848 and 3616, typo there. Um to uh require universal testing of pregnant persons
for lead during pregnancy. We started an education campaign with partners both for health care providers and for uh and for the public. We've met with Bonnie Watson Coleman and Corin Booker, Corey Booker, uh, seeking to revise prenatal
and postpartum protocols at the federal level. And we're also working with Brian Buckley, um, there. And we started education campaigns, universal testing. We're working trying to get all community health workers and home visitors trained, passing legislation,
um, and a few other items here. much. That was your time. Does any council members want to ask any questions, comments? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm sorry.
Uh, Madam President, I don't know if the uh, council has any questions for the uh, presentation or if we're moving forward with the agenda. You are moving forward. Thank you. And at this time, at this time, we'll have public comment for agenda items only. If I could have the clipboard for public comment for agenda
items only or docket items. And to the public, public comment will be five minutes for each individual. Uh, we have one individual for um for public comment for docket items only. Uh please note you may you may
reference any item on the docket. Uh nothing else at this time. The council is not obligated to respond. Our individual is CJ I'm sorry Barbara. Got it. Thank you. Barbara Lakesy. Sure.
I was struggling. Good afternoon, good evening, council members, Mr. Garcia, Jenna who's with the baby, and Mr. Harrison who's not here. I'm talking about 2547. It's new. It's very new. It's uh
to change the parking from stop signs from 50 feet to 25 ft. Except in school zones, still keep it 50 feet. Uh, I'm really glad this has been bought up. I've received numerous tickets in the past six months. Never
got any for 39 years, but now I have one. I'm actually going to trial for July 17th for parking in my own driveway. My driveway, it's not like a regular driveway. It's, you know, sidewalk. It's the street, a cutout,
sidewalk, and a garage where my wife parks. I'm not allowed to park in the garage. Uh anyway, I'm glad this is bought up. Hopefully, Mr. Santor and the powers to be and you all pass this to make it 25
ft because as it is right now, the way my house sits and the way my driveway is to be legal, I have to park over 70 ft from the corner. So, that's 23 feet the city's getting. Uh I would like to be able to
park in my driveway. municipalities. So, I'm gonna actually add something to this uh 2547 that if you can make it and you can an ordinance regulating parking of vehicles and your stop signs,
right? uh if you could add it cuz I've seen it in other other cities throughout the state where residents can get parking permits for three vehicles to park in the
driveway. Not I'm not you know there's parking I showed you pictures the last time I remember this I'm on the street. Uh if that could be added, that would be great. Or maybe we should let this 25 ft go first and then jump on that. And you
know, it's like a $15 fee a year or something like that for three parking passes for the residents of the house. That would be great. But I really appreciate that you all have bought this up and you're working on it. And hopefully it
passes. And I got two and a half minutes. So, $1. Thank you. Have a great evening. Thank you so much, Madam President. Moving on with the agenda at this time. Uh, if you want to ask for a motion to approve
communications, petitions, and reports. Actually, my apologies. If you'd like to ask for a motion to approve uh the minutes of March the 18th, 2025. And madam president, I did circulate April 1st minutes. Uh though I do not know whether you've had time to review those, so I'll defer to the
council. Um did anyone have a chance to look over the April 1st? No. So we're going to leave April 1st out until the next meeting. U Mr. Garcia to give everyone ample time. No worries. We have a motion to approve the minutes for March 18th,
please. So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Counciloman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figo Edenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President
Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. And Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve communications, petitions, and reports. May we have a motion to approve communications, petitions, and reports. So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards, yes.
Councilwoman Feliciano, yes. Councilwoman Figureroy Kenberg, yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilwoman Williams, yes. Council President Gonzalez, yes. Motion carried. And moving on to ordinances for
second reading and public hearing. Ordinance 25-23, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as Lipton Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block
34005 lot 6 pursuant to NJSA 4A 1213B5 to David W. Boston for the sale price of $2,500. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Director listen
is going to come up. Understood. We um did some additional uh research on this property and a butts against a a public avenue public street. Can you hear me?
Sorry. Sorry. Uh because it butts up against a public street. Legally, um we have to do a vacation on the street. we can't sell the street and we have to also notify the rest of the
people in the area that we're looking to vacate it and then we would after we vacated if that's decided to be done uh we would uh then do a sale. Um so I'm requesting this this
ordinance be withdrawn at this point. So we're going to pull it from admin. So the matter be pulled by administration. Thank you. Well, by Hed sorry, pulled by Hed. H. [Music]
Got it. Thank you. Moving on to or for next ordinance for second reading public hearing. Ordinance 25-026. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 938 Greenwood Avenue and identified on
the city tax map block 27502 lot 13 pursuant to NJSA 4A col 1213C to Bernalda Incarnation for the sale price of $5,000. Are there any members of the
public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, madam president, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May I have a motion to approve 25-026? So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes.
Counciloman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figuro Keinberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried.
Ordinance 25-029, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 351 Walnut Avenue and identified on the city tax maps block 27401 lot 12 pursuant to
NJSA4A 1213C to Robert Barber Jr. for the sale price of $3,000. Are there any members of the public wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, madam president, if you want to ask for a motion to open. I have a motion to approve. So moved.
Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figurero Edenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Councilwoman Council
President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-30. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city- owned property commonly known as 15 Clag Avenue and identified on the city tax map is block 22502 lot 41
pursuant to NJSA4A1213C to Senior Scott for the sale price of $3,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Madame President, council, council, vice president, I just wanted to point out
that clag has two G's. Two G's. Yeah. In this title. Understood. We will see to it or make sure that the resolution reflects same. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this
time? Seeing none, madam president, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May I have a motion to approve 25-030. So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes.
Councilwoman Figurero Kevin. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-032. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as
478 North Clinton Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block 21901 lot 14 pursuant to NJSA 40A 1213C to Cruz B Gomez for the sale price of
$3,500. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, madam present, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May have a motion to approve. 25-032. So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes.
Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figuro Kenberg. Yes. I'm sorry. Is that a yes? Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried.
Ordinance 25-34. or ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 24 Perin Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block 1701 lot 17 pursuant to
NJSA4A 1213C to Tommy E Gore for the sale price of $10,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May we have a motion to approve 25-34.
So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figuero Edenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council
President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-037. an ordinance establishing a high-rise emergency assistance plan for a multi-unit residential building of 40 units or more and mandating certain
emergency action. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May I have a motion to approve 25-037? So moved. Second. Council President.
Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Thank you, ma'am. Um I know at the last minute we discussed uh having a lower amount yes down to 20 to 25 and then you and I subsequently had a conversation right after the meeting with the fire captain and uh discussed having an amendment uh
that in one year's time. Hence we would lower the amount to 25 units. We we did speak about that but not as an official amendment. He was just saying he wanted to Yeah, he is right now. Well, we're doing so I wanted to ask about proposing
an amendment tonight for 365 days, one year. Hence, that we do lower this amount from 40 to 25 after the fire department gains more experience in um actually making sure that this ordinance
is carried out and that we do cover more buildings in one year. Um, I'm open to if anyone wants a motion to amend it to keep it as one for one year um for 40 units or more and then after a
year go down to 25. I don't think that was the conversation that I don't think he wanted to make it official. Yes, I would I would like to make you want to make it official. I'd like to make a motion for that. All right. So, may we have a motion to
amend 25-037 to [Music] include language um which includes 40 units or more for 365 days and then we will go
to 25 units or more. Yes. Is that correct? Yes, ma'am. Okay, Madam President. So, that was the motion. Is there a second? Um, second.
Seconded by Edwards. Thank you. And I'll take roll call for that motion. President, Councilwoman for Councilwoman Feliciano, just real quick. I'm sorry, hun. Did we say [Music] um something about posting it up or
something? Did we cover that? It's included. It's under um communic I think something like that. It's letter E or F. Yeah, E or F. Something like that. It should be under the Didn't we say something about posting it up in the buildings or stuff? It says throughout it would be posted
publicly and available upon request request from the president residents. I can't find it right now. I was looking at the section section which section two. Uh oh, sorry. Section three.
Section three. Letter F. [Music] Activation. Do you see it? Okay. You got it. Okay. Madam President. Okay. Moving on with the vote for Oh, I'm sorry. No, Madam President. Or can we move Madam
President move on with the vote for the amendment? Yes. No. Excuse me, Madam President. Can you hear me? Madam President, it sounds like somebody's trying to say something. Oh, there's additional discussion. Give me one moment. It's Councilwoman. Do you
have a question? Yes. Yes. I just Can you hear me? Yeah, we can't hear you. This is every time with this laptop. She wants to switch to her phone. Um, Mr. Garcia, I don't know. Can I
[Music] Hey, Brandon. You're live. Okay. Thank you. Can they hear me a little better? Okay. I went to ask a question really
quickly councilwoman Williams just for more clarity on the amendment from 40 units to 25 units in the next year. What does that what does that entail exactly? Do you want to answer that? She she
wants to know why more clarity on why you want to go from 40. Yeah, you have to mute Councilwoman Figuroa Kenberg either the laptop or the phone. [Music] Uh to answer your question,
Councilwoman, uh the reason I originally suggested to the lower is because we do have a great number of midsize buildings uh for our residents in the city that are apartment And I would love to have had to start off at uh 20 or 25, but considering uh
concerned uh fire department, fire captain that they uh are doing something like this and going to be enforcing an ordinance for the first time in at least a very long time. uh they'd rather wait a year uh so they get a year under their
belt with a larger number of apartment units and then migrate to a lower number that would cover more buildings in our city. So thank you council member. Would it make more sense maybe to amend it to say
high-rise emergency assistance plan for multi-unit residential building of up to 40 units or more? So, Councilwoman Figuro Kenberg, we kept it at 40 at the moment, um, after
speaking with the captain because he felt like they wanted to get a handle on making sure that they were being able to enforce it the correct way first before adding on to um the list of buildings that they would have to to do cuz the fire department is going to be
responsible for mailing out the notices and kind of doing all of the paperwork to notify all of the building owners. Okay. Thank you. So, I just wanted I just was wanted to be clear as to why we were starting at 40 and then working our way down or why we wouldn't just say up
to 40. But I appreciate that. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Madame President, council vice president. Um, just before we vote, where exactly would that language be placed in the ordinance and how would it
be worded? So, I'm thinking where would we put it? Let's see. Work it out. President. Yes. Council, I suggest the first paragraph to say, "Whereas the city of Trenton recognizes the need for a comprehensive emergency preparedness and assistance plan for high-rise
residential buildings containing 40 units of more units semicolon. And in one year, comma, this requirement will be for 25 units or more. Period." So in the in the beginning is that and then that um clause
would every instance of 40 units. Mr. Colloji, are we able to add that into the first? Madame President, I'm going to give Mr. Colloji a copy in order for him to look at. I have one briefly. Councilwoman Williams, would you be okay
if we just came back to this in a year and amended it at that time? If that's uh easier and that's what Mr. Cuz you suggest, I'm fine with that. Just please let's not forget. Yeah, Madame President, as you're aware, uh, an ordinance on adoption or a second
reading hearing can be amended, but if the amendment is considered substantive, really substantive, it would then have to be carried for adoption at the next meeting. So, the first thing we need to do is be very clear on exactly what
we're amending this ordinance to say tonight. And based upon just the number of units going from 40 to 25, the city attorney and I both agree that would probably be a major substantive amendment. So, I mean, we could put that in there that it's going to go to 25,
but we couldn't actually adopt it until the next meeting. and any other very specific amendments that we're going to make tonight. Uh, whoever is making them, the clerk has to be able to take them down verbatim so he knows exactly what
the council's intent is. So, we know the 40 to the 25, but whatever the other amendments are, that was the only amendment for right now. So, I was suggesting if if it's too much, can we just come back to this in a year and amend the actual ordinance after the year? we can amend it to vote to amend
it tonight and there'll be another public hearing and a vote on the ordinance as amended at the next council meeting. So just to clarify, we're going to take a vote now for the amendment which I'm going to try and reiterate very quickly and then at the same time we'll need a motion to table the
resolution till the next No, we're going to vote to amend the ordinance to reflect 25 units instead of 40 units. No, no, no, no. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Yeah. Is that's that's not what we're amen. We She wants to amend it to include 25 units after one year.
After one year of what? Of of this being in place. After the 40 units being in place, she wants to amend it at after a year. Then it goes down to 25 units or more. I'm just trying to understand. So in other words, it would go in as 40 units
and after one year it would only be applicable to 25 units. No, she wasn't. What about the 40 units that have already been 25 units? She's she's suggesting that and and correct me if I'm wrong. She's suggesting that after a year we include the 25 units or more
also with the 40 units. However, I'm asking would it be too much if we just But I would just suggest we bring that up in a year. In a year. That's what I was thinking too. Best way to do it. Then then we don't have any problem. Thank you. So, we have the original motion on the floor. Those I I'll
withdraw my amendment. Can we do that? So, it's withdrawn. Yes, sir. Understood. Motion's withdrawn. And Madame President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve, as I understand it, the ordinance as written. May we have a motion to approve
the mo um ordinance 25-037 as currently written. So, move second. Thank you. The second came from Frisbee, correct? Yes, sir. Thank you very much. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes.
Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figuro Kenberg. Counciloman Figuro Kenberg. Oh, moving on to Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council
President Gonzalez. Yes. I'll come back to Councilwoman Figureroa Keinberg. [Music] I do have a majority. Um I'm unable to hear her at this time.
Is is I mean we have Well, we have we have a majority. So the motion does the motion does carry. So we'll move on and uh we will check to make sure that we can make connection with the council woman in a moment. Thank you. Moving on to ordinance
25-039. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 839 Prospect Street and identified on the city tax map as clock 5403 lot 5 pursuant to NJSA 4A 1213C to Lorraine
Robinson and Philip Arthur's for the sale price of $15,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May we have a motion to approve 25-039. So moved. Second. Roll call.
Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figueroa Kevinberg. Is she I think I I think I see a Councilwoman, if you can unmute yourself, I think maybe we'll be able to hear you.
She said she was trying to get on the phone. She just unmuted herself. Councilwoman, do you have a vote for this uh ordinance? With all the respect. Nice. Okay. Moving on to Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council
President Gonzalez. Yes. That motion carries as well. Ordinance 25-040. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 26 Sylvester Street and identified on the city tax map as block 9202 lot 13
pursuant to NJSA4A1213C to Terrence Chu for the sale price of $4,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve.
May we have a motion to approve 25-040? So moved. Second. Roll call. Councilwoman Edwards. Yes. Excuse. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figurero Kevin. She says
she's trying to is she's trying to mute. I just asked her if she can call in. She's trying to call in. I have her on hold here. Um Madame President, is she able to use the thumbs up or thumbs down button to maybe uh reply on screen?
I don't know. Can we do that, Mr. G? I guess so. Councilwoman, are you able to hear us? Yes. Maybe I heard you say that you had me on on hold. Maybe that's why you guys couldn't hear me. I'm sorry. Yeah, I voted yes to the previous two,
just FYI. And I'm voting yes to this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on, Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Yes. Motion
carried. Ordinance 25-041. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 449 Stson Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block 4904 lot 45 pursuant to NJSA 4A
1213B5 to Derek Tado for the sale price of [Music] $3,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May
I have a motion to approve 2541? So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Counciloman Fisiano. Yes. Councilwoman Figurero Kevin. Yes. Councilwoman
Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-042. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as six 16 Eastern Avenue and identified on
the city tax map as block 21504 lot 13 pursuant to NJSA 4A1213C to Jack Mandi for Candi for the sale price of
$5,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. Maybe we have a motion to approve 2542. So moved. Second. Roll call. C. Vice President Edwards.
Yes. Counciloman Felix. Yes. Councilwoman Figuro Kevinberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried.
Ordinance 25-043, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property, commonly known as 36 Fountain Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block 7102, lot 23, pursuant to NJSA
4A1213C to Shamar Santo for the sale price of $15,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, Madam President, if one want to ask for a motion to approve. May I have a motion to approve 25-043?
So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figurero Kenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman
Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-044, Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 42 and 67 Oak
Street, common, 202 Payic Street, 140 Spring Street, 323, and 498 West Hanover Street, and identified on the city tax map as block 1801, lot 6, block 1803, lot
86. 7 block 21 04 lot 25 block 403 lot 26 block 3708 lot 11 and block 2301 lot
26 pursuant to NJSA 4A1213C to BL Investor Group LLC for the sale price of $40,000. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this
time? Seeing none, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May I have a motion to approve 25-044? So move. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes.
Councilwoman Figurero Kenberg. Oh, excuse me. Hold on one second. Uh, one more time. I'm sorry. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council
President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-045, Ordinance amending ordinance number 24019 and ordinance 252 to correct a lot designation. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this
ordinance at this time? Seeing none, none present. If you want to ask for a motion to approve. May we have a motion to approve. 25-045. So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes.
Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figuro Kevin. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance
25-046, an ordinance providing for the safe storage of firearms within the city of Trenton. Are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? [Music] See, please state your name and address
for the record. Sure. And you have five minutes. Terry Martineenko, 272 Hillrest Avenue, Trenton, New Jersey. And as a member of Mercer County Moms for Gunsense in America, I am um going to
talk about the ordinance and why I support it. We partner with the BS smart program to educate parents about safe storage. And I'm speaking for myself in support of the safe storage ordinance. As a survivor of the Ardal Knight mass
shooting on 618 2018, I experienced firsthand the shock and panic from gunfire and the victims that resulted. But the hardest part of gun violence, it's that it's the leading cause of death of our children and teens. And
why? Parents who thought a child was safe with a gun in the house when in fact they were not. Also, there are many veterans who die from suicide with a gun and this is preventable. If you would please Google moments that survive to
hear the tragic stories of children who are no longer with us because they had access to a gun and also the stories of devastation of suicides when that gun could have been stored away from the person who used it. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May we have a motion to approve 25-46. So moved. Second. Council President.
Councilwoman Williams. Thank you, ma'am. Um, I fully expect this uh ordinance to pass and I'm very happy to put my support for it, but I would like to ask if potentially uh the clerk's office or somehow administration uh can send out a
press release to the public so we can disseminate that this ordinance is coming online uh so many members of our uh city of Trenton can know that this is a requirement going forward. I think that'd be very important because sometimes uh we pass ordinances and the
public doesn't find out about them until uh they committ a crime and get a ticket or whatever the charge may be and it could be very good in prevention. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Councilwoman. Anyone else?
We're good, Mr. Garcia. Okay. U roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Counciloman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figueroa Edenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. I'm proud to sponsor this um
ordinance and my answer is yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-047, an ordinance regulating the parking of vehicles near stop signs. Are there any members of the
public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time? Seeing none, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May we have a motion. President. Oh, Councilwoman Figurero Katenberg. Thank you. Um, I just had one question because
there was kind of wavering answers from my own research and by people that I spoke to and I just wanted to make sure that it is legal to supersede the state statute on this ordinance. And I I can't recall if I did ask this at the last council meeting or not, but I just
wanted to be sure. Um, I do think that this is wonderful as it will allow more parking and a lot of my residents have asked for this. I just want to make sure that we are within state statute guidelines. Thank you, Councilwoman Figurero Kemp. I believe you did ask that the last meeting. Um, and I'll let
Mr. Colloji respond if you like because I know he did the research on it. Yeah, Councilwoman, it's specifically um I it's it's actually specifically sanctioned by the statute. all of the changes that we made as a municipality,
it gives us certain rights to do certain things as long as we don't interfere with what the statute says regarding a school zone, etc., and we've, you know, I think we're in totally full compliance. So, I think it would be sustainable.
Okay. I couldn't hear anything you said, but I um imagined that it was positive and it answered my question in the affir affirmative. Thank you, Counciloman Figeroenberg. And just thank you. And just um a brief um
background as to why this was created um after listening to SE obviously we all know the parking issues that are going on in this city and so we're trying to come up with as many solutions as possible. So, just even speaking to the um gentleman who spoke earlier and was speaking at a couple of meetings ago, we
thought that was kind of a a a short-term solution that we can actually try to adjust the stop signs um the parking within stop signs so that we can accommodate more parking wherever we can. We're still doing the studies in the city. I know um a couple of us have
met, council vice president and I, we've been speaking about doing um getting a study done without the within the city. They're coming up with different places where we can add more parking onto the streets. And this was just one way that we can kind of um accommodate more vehicles from a corner, from a stop
sign, um and where you can park. And 50 ft to 25 ft we thought was reasonable. It's enough space for a person to actually turn with a truck and um get around an actual corner without hitting another vehicle. So, this was the reason why um I was able to um put this
forward. So, I just want to say thank you all who are in support of this. We can go to a motion. I'm sorry. I'm still looking for a motion to approve. So, move. I thought we did that. No, I'm sorry. I thought that was I
thought we went straight to the council woman. Okay. What was the motion to approve? Yes. Thank you. And a second. Second. Thank you. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Counciloman
Figuro Kenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. And Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Moving on to resolutions. Madam President, are there any resolutions
that you wish to or you or the rest of the council wish to extract for possible questions or for a from a possible consent agenda? Yes, Council President. Yes. One second. Council here. I'm ready. Thank you.
184 185 187 1889 205 191. Just say all of them. Say no. 191. You said yes. 193
194 Mhm. 2011. Mhm. 203 and 204. Thank you. 2011, 203, and 204. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Um, yep. My second 204. Anyone else? Um, Ashley counts.
cheap convers I believe hit them all and the other um I do I do want to um ask about 25-050 050 is that an ordinance or is that a resolution that is what the police
department oh 050 that's the first reading oh that's an ordinance yep never mind okay I'll get to him um Council Ma'am, thank you. Ma'am, uh 189 189 Uhhuh. 192 and 193 192 193 and 200
and 200. Council vice president, you good? I think that's it, Mr. Garcia. So, we can start with 25-184, which is Councilwoman Feliciano. Thank you. The questions are brief, but I just
want to want to touch it. Thank you, Council President. Yes, ma'am. Good evening, VA Richardson. Good evening, council woman. Good evening, council members. So, I like when things like this come up, right? because then it gives me the
opportunity to ask about other stuff that I was curious about. So, I'm not really curious about this truck. I'm curious about a fleet listing for all the cars that are assigned to staff. Um, so I'd like to have that. I had asked
for this before for council under the previous BA um that was here. And so, uh, if if we could have council could have a listing of all fleet cars assigned to staff, um, along with the
hours of usage. Um, and then also our mileage logs maintained for the vehicles, uh, when staff that is assigned to them use them. Our mileage lo Oh, I'm sorry. I I thought that you wanted that as part of
the listing that you want. Well, that you can answer if they do the mileage logs, right? I'm just curious. But do they keep mile do they are mileage logs maintained by the staff that are assigned uh city vehicles? Well, I am going to say that I I I know of at least
two departments that keep um the mileage and uh yeah, all departments should be keeping the mileage. Okay. All right. So, if they're not keeping all the mileage, then I would respectfully suggest that mileage
logs should be maintained just kind of know where people are going and what's going on. Also, um I'd like to have the listing for council um of the fleet cars assigned to staff and the hours assigned so we can see who has them overnight or what it is. Um right, what it is that
they do. I will follow up with an email just to make sure that I got all the details. Thank you. Consent. Thank you. I think you might as well see. Yeah, I was going to say 25-185. Thank you.
Um, I just noticed here it said, uh, in this resolution of the energy taxes, I think that this is interesting, right, that now we're calling out the state, they were supposed to be giving, uh, us this money. Uh, they were, but, now they're not. Do we have any idea how
much we got in um, fiscal year 2023 and 2024 from them? Like, what are we talking about as far as uh, money to us? Well, um f from uh municipal aid and this [Music]
um not from transitional aid, right? We received on 2023 we received about 1 million2. Okay. In 2024, we received about
$900,000 and that was specifically for road construction. Okay. But I think that that's still good, right? When they pay us what they owe us. I mean, you know what I mean? The energy relief on it because we're using it for something and it's not, you're not talking uh chump change on
it. So, all right. Thank you. I just was curious to know what we got for those two years. Consent. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. on this one. Um, BA Richardson, if you would just explain to us why um that you actually felt a need
for this resolution. Well, actually um this is um the this was a call uh to all municipalities in New Jersey from the New Jersey League of Municipalities. We are trying to um basically come as a 500 and some
municipalities asking the government the governor um to give to restore the energy taxes to the municipalities. This those are taxes that are collected and uh at the be at years ago they will go
directly to the municipalities. These are as stated in the um the resolution those are taxes on gas and electric utilities and were originally collected for to be used by the municipalities. Then the state started to collect them
for the municipalities and they will pass it through for several years. Now they are um basically using it for other purpose which they are entitled to do that but not on a regular basis. So we
are basically asking that they give their share portion to the municipalities. So we're not getting funds that we would have previously gotten. Um we are getting the funds we are getting funds as municipal aid. Correct. But that is
less than the portion that we should be getting and each municipality is getting less than what they should be getting. So the um the League of Municipalities put a call out for all the municipalities that wanted to pre uh
adopt this resolution to put a little bit of pressure on the governor to give us a better portion of those taxes that are collected and that they are supposed to come to benefit us. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, BA Richardson um 25-187. Thank you. This it's the same question for me for 187, 188, and 189. And the question that I have is um do do we have an organization of interest to to do to
do this work? And does this mean that we um do like how does this work? Do we contact certain companies then let them know that they should apply? like what is this? Not yet. Um this is basically um asking this council to give us
permission to procure the services as competitive contracting. Usually for professional services we will have to um put RFPs. Professional services are only for one year. However, um in certain instances,
uh and I will take for example the police um training, right? Um most likely all the training that we would like for police to have is not going to happen in one year, right? And so if we
procure these services as a regular RFP, right? We will have to limit the contract to one year. That means that past that year we will have to go again and procure it and probably if police like the services
but that company is not able to provide it or their prices are too high for different reasons. This is only allowed when you want to have continuity in the services. But in order to procure that way, we first need to get the approval
of local government services and the commissioner of DCA which we did. And the second step is to get authorization from the council to procure it this way. Once if we get authorization from this
council, then we will advertise the services and we will be back to the council with um once we get um proposals and the proposals get scored the regular way then we will be back to this council
to get approval to award a contract. At this point, we do not have specific contractors or vendors for those specific services. So, just for clarity, so the difference is the the um professional you said it's one year
only, but doing it this way. And I did read that y'all got the okay from um the Yes, we can do it up to five years. So, you can It's the length of time. Yes. That you can but still go out and advertise for it. It's not like you're handpicking anyone. Yes, we could do it up to five years. Okay. Usually what the
city does is a two-year contract with three uh extensions of one year depending on the quality of the services or funding. Mhm. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um consent
from me for 187 1889. Yes. Okay. And Councilwoman Williams um wanted 189. She had a question for 189. Sure did. Thank you. So uh in reading through this and I went into the uh intent uh for the um
section with training needs assessment and development and there are several references to the November 21st report. So is that I would imagine that is the department of justice report. That is correct. It's kind of like you're not allowed to say the word Super Bowl so
you say the big game. Um but I just want to make sure we're all talking about the same thing. Yes. Yeah. So I was really pleased to see that um planning is going ahead to carry this through and not an immediate reaction and for carrying for five years. And in
response to this um have you had any uh review yet with DOJ and what training requirements may come from them? And then also I know we have to find funding for live tren training which is something this council
has uh requested u many different times. Um if you can enlighten us um what's going to hopefully happen and maybe in the next year or two with the training. Um what I can say about that is that the training was almost specified in the
report that the OJ um sent to the city. However, the director, the police director also identified um different areas that he considers that the force should be
trained on. And for the rest, um, I am not privy to the information. So, probably the law director will be able to respond some of those. That would be great if you could, please. He's walking back when he comes
back. He's right here. Walking back in. Could the director speak to that a little bit for us? I think we need to ask the question, director, if you could. Okay. what I was asking.
Um, no, no trouble. We understand. Um, if I was asking if, uh, perhaps a police director could enlighten us on some of the training he's hoping to do in the next few years, uh, that's covered under this section in the back retraining needs, assessment, and development. Oh,
I'm sorry. I misunderstood your question. The question was actually for both of you. So, well done. Yeah, I thought you said bridges. Oh, I no I didn't. Okay. That's okay. No worries. Thank you.
Okay. Good evening. Steve Wilson, police director. Um the training that will be um going through with regards to this will be uh the training that was pointed out in the DOJ report that we need more
help with. That would be use of force uh fourth amendment and rest search and seizure and things of that nature. Okay. And do you expect any of that training I know it's funding contingent to be live training? Yes. Okay. That that yes
that's what that's what we're we're trying to get here. Okay. Um any uh possible guessment even as a timeline when the training could start if it hasn't already started? Um, as soon as we get approved for all this, we'll be
rolling right along. Okay. All right. Thank you very much, sir. Consent, please. Thank you. That was 189 right now. Am I council president? Councilwoman Feliciano. Thanks. Just real quick, Director Wilson. So, when it comes to the various trainings and
things, I guess, you know, yeah, from the DOJ report and everything. Um, I I know we have the arrive together program and all of that with the the mental health piece of things, but I'm and have been from before when we did the whole um mental health
conversation concerned about the police officers receiving regular training um as it pertains to mental health. Is that a part of this? Like is it ongoing like not just touching it when they come into
the academy but actually doing um consistent trainings with the officers as it pertains to deescalation mental health you know and how to deal with it. Yes. Our deescalation training we incorporate it into our bianual training
and also um bystander training. Um in addition to that um we've we've started already with crisis intervention training um through the arrive together program and we're going to uh be expanding that to the whole police department. Right now it's the daytime
task force who works directly with um arrive together me uh uh mental health um professionals from Capitol Health. Um but we will be expanding that um to them to the whole department. And so when things happen and there's an issue,
right, and then the people call the Capitol Health arrive people, they're supposed to go out on site. Yes. To help the people. Yes. And then on a regular basis, um they do follow-ups, which is really the most important thing. They do
they don't just do a one-time visit. If there, you know, if there's a person that is identified as needing help, they will do follow-ups with our daytime task force personnel and uh continue getting the help that they being offered the help. Sometimes they don't take it.
Okay. One last question for you about that. How how often do you monitor what Capitol Health does? I only ask because I've I've had concerns um in hearing that there may be some deficiencies with their reaction time or
whatever or however they're handling things. Like how how hands-on are you in in seeing what it is that they do? I get I get updates every day at the our command staff meeting um in regards
to how many um engagements they have um with the folks that need to help. So it's pretty much on a regular basis I get informed on on how many engagements they have. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Council Council uh
Vice President, I just have one minor question. Thank you. I just have one minor question. director. Um, in the report it refining needs assessment and development scope of services report is RFP. I'm not sure
what this is, but it alluding to the DOJ report for November 21st report as it's referencing, but um is it possible to actually add that in there so people understand what the November 21st report
is referencing? So, if it can say the DOJ report instead of November 21st report or say the DOJ report November 21st. I'm sorry. Um I I put the specifications for that um competitive
well for this resolution for the competitive contracting. Right. When we uh put the art the competitive contracting out the the report will be an attachment for the vendors that will be
applying. That would be information that would be available for them to to read before they prepare their proposal. Okay. And this is this is online. This is public record. It will be once um you
adopt the resolution. This resolution is only giving the city the the ability to procure as competitive contracting. Nothing else. Okay. I'm just looking at it from an
outside point of view. when people are reading this and they're like, "Well, what is the November 21st report?" It omits that information. And though maybe unintentional, but I just want to be a little bit more informative as to what the November 21st report actually is.
So, anyone looking up this document because it will become a historical fact down the line. They'll know what it's talking about. Yes. When that information will be spelled out in the in the procurement process, definitely. Okay. And yeah, it could have been spelled out in this one. There is no
reason not to. It's a public document at this point. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, President. And I was going to say I have one quick question on Council just to Councilwoman Feliciano's point while we were kind of on the subject about the arrive together. Um, police director um
I know some of the concerns that have been mentioned to Counciloman Feliciano and myself. Just for me, for clarity, I heard her say if someone reaches out to them, do does a person have to like some if I'm calling for an emergency, I have to reach out to they arrive together, the
Capitol Health, or do I contact the police? The old the old way that was done, crisis outreach is still in play here. So, um, if there's something in the instant moment and just say, u emergency first responders show up, whether that be police, fire, or EMS,
and there's somebody in distress, the old, um, crisis outreach is in play. They automatically come out. They will well, they will call the dispatcher will notify um, crisis outreach over at fold and then they'll send as soon as they can. So, it's not up to the individual
calling the emergency. It's right. Okay. I just wanted to get clarity on that. Um um arrive together does not replace the old the old way we used to do it. Okay. It's in addition to Thank you, Councilman Feliciano. I was going to say thank you, council president. Um to
council vice president's point about because I actually had wrote the note drawing it to the DOJ report. I think that it is important that we do note that in here because it does show that the city is addressing the concerns of
the report. Um, so I would I would say that it does need to be um the section it does need to be added that it does need to say areas outlined in the November 21st DOJ report because this again could be looked at as well what is
and and I get it where BA Richardson said it would be attached to the bag but I think that for documentation purposes to show that we are not skating away from it and we are addressing the issues in that report. I do agree with um council vice president that it should it should be listed under the um under the
goals and objectives as well. Council president, if I may just uh add some additional information to this. Yes. Um director. Yeah, I think the the reference to the report was really um uh trying to be overly transparent and overly um detailed with respect to the
purpose of this um with respect to the public's looking at what's happening with that GOJ report. we are still um meeting with DOJ and that report will be addressed in a subsequent agreement that will be brought before this council. So um it's really kind of a two-step
process. We're saying notwithstanding even before we enter into any agreement to uh engage in any training or or modifications that DOJ US attorney wants. Even before that we're going forward and seeking this type of training, this type of certification. On the heels of that, very shortly,
probably within the next couple of meetings, we'll be before you discussing the results of our talks with DOJ and the agreements that are going to be put in place to address the concerns that were raised in that report. So, all very good points. I just want to clarify um that it it this this issue will be
before this council a couple of times as it relates to this the training, the certification as well as resolution of the underlying report and recommendations. So, I'm sorry, Council President. Thank you. So then to that point, if you're saying that this was already being done
director Bridges prior to or like the the November 21st report didn't have anything really to to do with it, that we didn't have to mention it at all. It we we didn't have to mention it had something to do with it, but if you recall, just by way of background, we were also waiting for training purposes
because we were also waiting on a a report from DCA with respect to some of their recommendations. So, we've been kind of in a holding pattern waiting for all these other agencies to give us advice and the the we we got to the point we decided to do this regardless
of what any investigation said, regardless of what the discussions were that we wanted to do this to get this training for the police department. Okay. Council President, may I clarify something? Yeah. Um and for this resolution right um the attachment that
you are referring to is basically the scope of services um that is really not part of this resolution is there just for reference um but I can make those uh corrections for the scope of service before we uh make the information before
we procure the services. I definitely can do that. But that that language is really not part of this resolution because that's not the matter that we are talking about. It's just this is just requesting your permission to
procure as a competitive contracting. It's the same language for all three resolutions. Right. But I can definitely correct the the scope of services. Thank you. Consent. Thank you. Oh, Councilwoman W.
Oh, you you asked it. No, that was okay. Question. I'm sorry. No, it's okay. I'm glad you both followed up it because that that was I was trying to get to that point that you can't just say, you know, November 21st. That's not going to mean anything to anybody. So, I'm glad you uh you and council vice president
brought that up. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Good. Consent. Yes. Thank you. Consent agenda, Mr. Garcia. Um, uh, 25-0205. Okay. And that is Councilman Feliciano. Thank you. So, just a quick question.
Um, I see you want a resolution of support for New Jersey Transit application. Uh, that's great. How do we get benches um at the bus stops though and then the covers to prohibit the rain on the people since NJ you know since
New Jersey Transit wants us to say yay uh what you know can we do we go to them and ask them for that because constituents are asking for benches at bus stops right and they want the cover when they stand you know have to wait for the bus to come. Is that something
we can go to uh them and ask for? Um yes, Councilwoman Feliciano, but I need to say that you don't lose an opportunity. Right. I'm going to need every chance I got. I say we're here. Um we can put a request to New Jersey Transit for that.
Okay. So, I would respectfully ask that we do that that we put in a request to New Jersey Transit for benches at the bus stops. Um and then the the covers for the people so those that have to take public transportation when the bad when the weather is bad they they have
um some kind of shelter over top. Thank you. Consent. Thank you. Madam President, Councilwoman Frisbee, with that um on the heels of um Councilwoman Feliciano, if we would also make sure that where um these benches and the
covers are at these bus stops that there is a light lighting as well cuz all the bus stops do not have lighting. Thank you. Thank you. We will ask
25-19. Uh, Councilman Feliciano. Okay. Thank you. Um, Director Bridges. I guess. Yes. Hi. So, just real quick, just to refresh our memories,
um, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. the the last whereas uh the dollar amounts, right? The the hourly rates 175 for partners, 135 for attorneys, and 85 for parallegals. Where what were where were we at with the rates before this? Uh that's the same rates we've been
operating under for 5 years. It was initially 155 under prior law director Densson and he increased it to 75 to try to get a little bit um more response to the RFPs. Been that way for about four years now.
However, just um for council's benefit, we do have select council that have special um unique abilities where we pay them 220. So, for example, our bond council um is the bond council rate is not 175, it's 220, as well as um the utilities uh
council that we're using for the litigation um emanating from TWWW. Um aside from those, everybody's at 175. And that 175 is um also pursuant to DCA's mandate um as it relates to retention of outside counsel. Okay. And
then in the title just just to be clear because I'm I'm looking it says not to exceed a million. So it says not to exceed 4 450,000 but then under the noun therefore it says not to exceed 1.45 million.
where [Music] legal see now therefore be resolved the mayor is hereby authorized to execute contract total revised amount not to exceed 1,450,000 [Music]
but in the title it says not to exceed 450,000 am I missing something need to see sorry council woman I just didn't I'm pulling I need to look the actual resolution. Thank you. I believe I believe it was [Music] 3001, please. Yeah, I think the issue is
the titles is somewhat I I I I take it you're talking about the title to make it more clear that we're because the initial amount was the one million. What we're doing is increasing that amount to address additional work that's coming in. So we had to make that amendment. So I
think amending what we need to do is authorize an additional funding contract that was awarded to multiple vendors for those years and an amount not to exceed the million to increase it by 450 per calendar year. Right. I see I see where you have now the 300,000 and the 150 to
well to get to the 450. But yeah, it just was a little I cannot I mean we can we can do that amendment on the floor. Thank you. So, we're going to amend that to resolution uh 25105 to authorize an additional funding
to the contract that was awarded to multiple vendors for CY2526 and an amount not to exceed 1 million increased by 450,000 per calendar year. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
[Music] Does that make sense? Mhm. What would we say? Additional funding of 400 to the contract of 450,000 per per calendar year. Yeah. per calendar year, something like that, right? To
Director Bridges, where we at? Is that going on number one? Director Bridges, that was that was in the uh I thought we were putting that in the title. in the title to clarify what's happening to clarify what's in the Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So, can you say it again so
that we hear what it is again? the amendment. I have that on a resolution um resolution amending resolution 25-101 105, excuse me, to authorize
additional funding to the contract that was awarded to multiple vendors for CY25 and [Music] CY26 in an amount not to exceed $1 million increased by $450,000 per calendar year
not to exceed 1 million. Increasing that by $450,000 per calendar year and increasing I'm sorry I ain't mean to make this difficult. Wouldn't it be easy to say to
authorize additional funding of 400 like you put the 450,000 first before we get into the million? A resolution authorizing an additional 450,000 per calendar year, right? to resolution
25-105 authorizing a contract that was awarded to multiple vendors for CY 25 and CY26. Right. I don't want to add not to exceed or leave that part out.
Yeah, you add not to exceed 245,000 per calendar. Yes, Council President. Okay. So, are we good to add that on consent or are you still looking through Oh, yeah. No, consent. Consent with the amendment? Yes. Gotcha. Thanks. Thank you,
Garcia. You good? You got that? Oh, uh, yes. I'm going to ask the solicitor, do we need to take that amendment at the vote for that amendment at this time? Thank you. So, Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve that amendment. May we have a motion to approve the amendment to 25-19.
So, move. Second. Noted. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Counciloman Figuero. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilwoman
Williams, yes. Council President Gonzalez, yes. Motion carried. Motion carried. Amendment passed. [Music] I believe we're at 192 then. One, I'm sorry. Yes, 192. Um, Councilwoman
Williams, thank you. Uh so my questions regarding this director uh regarding 192 193 uh can you talk about how uh these if they're approved tonight will improve uh the department's response to opioid
abuse and some of the uh issues we have potentially to overdoses. Um so I know um the department you know responds to so many calls each year and it's been a growing problem. Okay. Uh Steve Wilson, police director.
Uh 192. Uh we were awarded an um $33,000 and some change from uh an award that we got back in 2020 to establish an opioid response team. So um I think the state saw that we're doing a good job, so they gave us some extra money. Um $33,000
worth. Um 193 um is is relative to our opioid response team, specifically recovery advocates. And um how how that benefits is they
specifically target those who are addicted um and offer services them also mental health um um services to them. And uh this resolution ensures that we will
have that service for the next two years with the with the option to extend further. Um would it be possible say recovery advocates obviously they have um a long history of being able to work with folks in treatment. Uh would it be possible
for any efforts to go to where some of the campsites are in the city? Um to actually do more outreach on site before we have an incident for opioid. Um maybe um I know we have a lot of cases like people have Narcan. I have Narcan from
when I worked in human services. Um but you want to be able to hopefully help folks after they have an overdose or before they have their next one. They well we actually do do that with recovery advocates and if you want the the detailed information the director of recovery advocates is here but u like I
said this resolution is to make sure that their services are with us for the next couple of years going forward. No that would be great to hear from her. Thank you. Okay. Thank you director and good evening everyone. My name is Stacy Ross. I'm the executive director with Recovery
Advocates of America and we are privileged to run uh the program through for the city and the Trenton Police Department called the opioid overdose response team. I'm a person in long-term recovery. I just uh celebrated 10 years um of recovery. Uh thank you. I I the
city is um where I spent most of my time homelessness. So this program is near and dear to my heart and so are the participants that we help out on the streets. We go directly weekly out to the encampments, out to the abandoned buildings, out to all the hot spots
where people overdose, where people are using and um we just show up and we build trust. Over the couple few years, we have been um really lucky to have helped so many people from panhandling um you know, the women of the streets
and things like that. Like we get out and we meet them where they're at and we build that trust. And that's why we are so privileged because it doesn't happen right away for everyone. It it takes time because we lose trust in the community, in the police, and we're also bridging that gap to be able to let them
know that the police are not against them. Like we are trying to build the community together again. And we partner with so many of the all the different organizations in the city of Trenton. We have a huge outreaches. Uh we just had one on Friday. We got rained out at at
noon, but we service about 65 people right from down bottom South Broad Street off of 29. So, we hand out Narcan. We are we we do follow-ups. Um we get them rides to treatment, clothing, um anything they need to
remove the barriers to get them to go and get treatment. And we follow up with them. And um we've actually had participants come back with years sober, a couple years sober, and actually help out in the outreaches where we give haircuts and food and clothing and all the resources that they need.
Thank you. And I actually I'm really happy you're here to be able to to speak upon this because it's important for us to know what we're doing, what you all are doing, and then also maybe I can beg the question. Um, you know, obviously resources aren't infinite and, you know, we don't have all the money in the world
to help this problem and certainly much more is needed. Are there any uh areas or a few things that our city could be doing more with in the future uh or do better in the future that we should be looking at? So, just my opinion, um, the city of Trenton does offer a lot of
treatment services. I'm a big supporter of having I wish we could have an uh inpatient residential treatment center that deals with substance use disorder and mental health issues um because we have a lot of space in the city. I know there's a lot of buildings and things like that. Um as as far as I you know
there isn't a ton of money and and we do our best. I have a lot of contacts. I am born and raised um here for 54 years. I gave my age away. But um so I know a lot of people and people are very willing to help um donate anything. We get clothing
from the public, anything that we need as as far as it's just basically um we have this mobile unit now. So so we're hoping to it needs some repairs. It's an older unit, but um you know hopefully the city can help with some of the repairs with that so we can continue to
go right out to them and we're going to do many outreaches right in the certain specific areas. We're starting that this year. So, actually, we're going to have one in in the next month. Okay. Well, thank you very much and congratulations on your recovery, Stacy. Thank you so much. Consent agenda for me. Thank you,
Council President. I um I was going to say for 193 Councilwoman Feliciano and Williams, I think Thank you. Um just a quick question for you. Thank you. Congratulations on your um
recovery your time period and thank you for looking to help the people. So just for clarity, I was reading through everything, right? And um the the team analytics and stuff and I got to the part where the participation interactions and outcome and you have
point of contact a chart back here. Can you just explain I mean based on what you just said just explain so you have street meets right and in November 24 you have two. What does that mean? So street meets are we have different names
for the program. So street meets is where we go out weekly. It has been once a week because we do give a lot of items and for budget costs we have to only you know do it once a week. So we go right out. We did two some weeks we'll do two. So what we were doing was we were
hitting it in the morning to get the women on South Broad Street and and we were breaking it up between panhandling and sometimes the women that are um on South Broad. So, we would do early morning um going out early trying to hit
both, but I think we we found it more um it was more helpful that we just went out once and went all over to those different areas. We added some more hours to going out to be able to service both all demographics of people that are
out there. Mhm. So it says totals right for November 2024 of everything you did, meeting them in the library, meeting them on the hotline, meeting them in the court, meeting them in the street. Seven seven participants that went to
treatment. I don't have the analytics in front of me and unfortunately my admin person is away on vacation. So I guess the So you you just said something. You said seven that went to treatment, but that this number doesn't mean that these are the number of people that you saw
during this time, right? Because I'm looking at $500,000 and I'm thinking y'all saw seven people. What are we doing? We are now up to giving 70 um bags to each participant every week. Care packages, clothing, um and other items. So we have our numbers are pretty
high. Yeah. So I think so I think to to make it make a little more sense, right? because when we're looking at the salaries and all this other kind of stuff and what you're and what you're looking for and what you're looking to do when you're when you're putting these outcomes I guess or
maybe something together if we just had um like the number of people that you actually touched. I'm going to get a revised a revised version of that and get that over to the director and he can get that over to you because we do have
that. I don't know what which one you're looking at. It's the newest one. I mean, I see the like I see care packages, you know, I don't I don't know. So, what does it say for care packages on that period? The total for from November 23 to November 24,
2,694 care packages that were given out. That's correct. Okay. All right. I just wanted to know what all that meant with the chart. Like I said, when I saw the seven, I was like, "Yeah." Um, I'll have a deeper explanation of each one and I'll have Trina work on that. Okay. Thank you so much. Consent, Madam President. Council, you're good with
that, right? Thank you. Consent. Thank you. And 194 Councilwoman Feliciano. Okay. Thank you. Is it me again? Hello. Hi. So, when in reading this, right, I get it. They do
the click it or ticket it um campaign where they're focusing on it. How come, just out of curiosity, how come when we initially did this, the focus was only in the east ward? Um, the eastward had a lot of different
issues. So, we targeted the the more hot spot issues in the city. Okay. Because it said during last year's enforcement period, we focused on the eastward of the city, which consists of mainly Hispanic demographic. this year we will expand to other the other three wards in
an attempt to further relay the importance of seat belt usage. So I I get it. Uh and then to hit a more diverse population. That's why I was asked in the question um about why why did we focus because it kind of I was like well I hope it wasn't only
because they were um we we had a we had a lot of uh issues with the traffic enforcement in that area. So that's where we targeted. Okay. But now you y'all going to target the whole city? Yes. Okay. When are we getting are we getting radar detector
guns? Did we talk about that about people? Uh we we do have uh radar operators and cars that are equipped with radar. Um we have a couple of guns, but we need more operators. Okay. All right. And that that will expand as the
police department uh replaces the vacancies. We will we will have that traffic unit which will do these type of things. Okay. Thank you. Consent. Council President. Um, Councilwoman Williams. Thank you. Uh, Councilwoman Fleiana jogged a couple of things in my
brain. Um, so one question is, and this happened occur last week. I was driving on Market Street and a mother is driving uh, two children in the car. Doesn't have car seats for them. They both looked like they were under two years of age. Uh, do we, and I believe this came
up from one of maybe one of my colleagues about a year or so ago, uh, do we offer as a police department free car seats like Hamilton does and also installation or is that something we could look at doing with the grant? Yeah. Um, well, not with the click or ticket grant. That has to be specific to
Click It or Ticket. Okay. Um, as as far as a car seat, our community affairs unit does teach and uh do giveaways. Uh, and they also teach how to install the car seats in and vehicles, but I think that's actually through donations. Okay.
So, we would have to and I apologize, but I don't want to use this opportunity. So, that's something we would have to set up totally separate. Yeah. Okay. Um, all right. Again, I I'll hold my other question for another time. Thank you. Okay. Consent agenda. Thank
you. The next one is Councilwoman Williams with 25-2000. Thank you very much. Questions uh for Director Harris. Good evening, sir. How are you? Good evening. My question regarding this uh it was uh
very thorough as far as all the information on the bidding etc. But trying to exactly divine what we're physically going to see at the end of the day with the expansion and everything the way it's worded. I just wanted to ask you to come. So if you could explain um what's actually going
to happen. So what will the public see at the end of this beginning? You know because Battle Monument Park is um a state park, but then there's the portion that we as a city are responsible for. And I'm very excited this is going to happen actually. But I just wanted to
learn from you, for myself and others. Yes, I can just tell you from the specification sheet, we are going to be doing uh removing and replacing blue stone. We'll be uh adding a number of trees. We'll be adding interpretive
signage. We'll be adding uh benches. We'll be adding across from the park. You're driving down a boulevard now. There's a um unsightly uh bin where they you can put clothes in that people tend to leave
all around and then there's so there is we're going to be taking a port that's city property. So a portion of that property will now be brick on the other side will be brick on the other side where the maternal center is going will be brick. So what you'll have is tip of
the bottom monument there'll be a brick sidewalk all the way around and then in the park itself again uh there'll be a number of items from ballards to interpretive signage uh a big medallion will be placed bronze medallion will be placed in the ground uh talking about
the battle and a number of other things but there'll be improvements a number of improvements. Okay. And do you have a timeline for all this to occur? Two months. Two months. So you're going to approve this? If assuming you approve this, it'll be a two months. The vendor has two months to complete the job. And
we're doing this because, you know, Trenton 250, right? So, what we're trying to do is bits and pieces where we can find money to make improvements. And I'm big on interpretive signage. You're going to see more of that because a lot of people don't know our history and a lot of key sites. Uh so, you're going to
see those everywhere now. Okay. And uh with that, I just have one quick question because this is always uh something when people come for the battles of Trenton, they always ask, "Do we exactly know where the first shot was fired and could we put a marking nearby there?" Um I don't know the answer to
that, but um we there we hope to put out an RFP to be able to do his markers throughout the city to identify those just what you said. So, we have a team and we have a there's a Trenton 250
committee. We meet on a regular basis with uh principles here from the state uh the county and we're just putting some things together. Okay. And then any uh word or rumor about the elevator, it's going up to the top. I know it's a
dream of everybody. It is. It's a million-dollar dream. So, um yeah, no one's interested in moving forward at this point, but we're going to keep pushing it. Okay. Well, thank you very much for doing that. Yeah. Thanks. consent agenda, please. Thank you. Next,
we have 25- Z 2011. Councilwoman Feliciano and sorry, Council President, I don't have any questions on 25201 or 203. I only have a question on 25204. Okay. So, you're taking it off. Thank you. So, consent 2011 consent for those
two. Yes. 202 and 203. Um, Mr. Garcia, thank you. So, 204. Yep. Thank you. Gotcha. Excuse me. Good evening, director. Simple. Good evening. Hey, Sean. So, director of W and S. So, I see that we're giving the state police back
63,689. Just for clarity, they made overpayments. Is that because for a while they were making estimated payments? That's correct. Okay. So, what are we doing or what have we done? Are we working to eliminate
this whole estimated payment thing? Yes, we have a a very good program going with fixed and estimated reads. This case came went back to CO. Okay. Where we didn't have access to the to the compound, okay, and we were not able to
read the meter. So, we continued building them and and the state workers all you know they don't work every day, right? The building was almost empty for the most part. Mhm. And so we continue billing them estimates and they paid the bill. So now that we have access back to
read the meter, right? We had a malfunction with one of the meters there and it turns out that we owe them this amount of money. We try to credit give them credit, but they wanted back. It's too much money for them to not to be um Thank you. I just wanted to clear that
up and just talk about like what we're doing to eliminate this whole estimated payment thing, right? It's a long it's a it's a great huge problem that be working on. Okay. Thank you. Consent, Madam President. Thank you. Thank you. That looks like is it the resolutions?
Yes. Garcia. Let's see. Uh yes, Madam President. I mean, um, and Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve a consent agenda consisting of
Well, I don't see anything that's excluded. Is that excluded? No. So, may we have a motion to approve the consensus agenda of 25-183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189,
205, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 90, 196, 197, 199, 200, 2012, 203, and 204.
So moved. Second. Roll call. Council Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano, yes. Councilwoman Figurero Edenberg, yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilwoman Williams, yes. Council
President Gonzalez, yes. Motion carried. And Madame President, moving on to ordinances for first reading and introduction. Uh, ordinance 25-022, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as
35 Damon Street and identified on the city tax map as block 100003, lot 50 pursuant to NJSA 4A 1213 B5 to Anid M. Cunningham for the
sale price of $2,500. And Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. May you have a motion to approve 25-022. So moved. Second. Roll call. C. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Counciloman Feliciano. Yes.
Counciloman Figuero Kenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-31. An ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as
141 to 147 West Ingam Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block 6804 lot 13 pursuant to NJSA 4A1213C to Ulochi Global Investments LLC
for the sale price of $30,000. And Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to approve. We have a motion to approve 25-031. So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes.
Councilwoman Figuro Kenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-033. Ordinance authorizing the sale of
city-owned property commonly known as 46,48 and 50 Tyrell Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block 1803 lots 1918 and 17 pursuance NJSA
481213C to Tyrell Street Redevelopment LLC for the sale price of $15,000. Madam President, if you want to ask for a motion to May have a motion to approve 25-033. So moved. Second.
Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yeah. Councilwoman Figurero Kevin. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President
Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-048, Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 24 Hart Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block
21403, lot 16 pursuant to NJSA 4A1213C to Aciata Ibraim for the sale price of $5,000. May we have a motion to approve 25-048? So moved.
Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Counciloman Figurero Kenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman
Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-049. An ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 37 Tyrell Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block 1701 lot 50
pursuant to NJSA 4812-13B5 to Ruth Rose Hawkins for the sale price of $1,500. May we have a to motion? May we have a motion to approve
25-049? So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards, yes. Councilwoman Feliciano, yes. Councilwoman Figuro Kenberg, yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilwoman Williams, yes. Council President
Gonzalez, yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-50, an ordinance appointing the classification of class 2 special law enforcement officers in the Department of Police. May we have a motion to approve 25-050?
So moved. Second. [Music] Councilwoman public first. I'm sorry. Um I have a couple questions regarding this. Um so specifically
um in reading the portion under chapter 2 uh letter B that the class 2 officers uh shall be authorized to exercise full powers and duties similar to those of a permanent regularapp appointed full-time police officer. The use of a firearm by the officer of this class may be
authorized only after the officer has been fully certified as successfully completing training as prescribed by the police training commission. And then about the salary range, $25 to $35 an hour. So, I have some concerns.
I'd like to get information on on the requirements uh physical experience and so forth for this position if they're going to have all the uh full powers and duties similar to a regular Trenton officer as well as uh I'm assuming they
would not necessarily be required to be part of a police union. Uh, additionally, you know, with that, that rate is definitely lower than what our offduty officers would get for such an assignment. And then, um, where are we
recruiting these officers from? And what type of training will they have received? Steve Wilson, police director. Um, class two officer. will go through a the PTC certified police academy um specifically
for um class 2. They will have the uh same authority while while working as a as a full-time police officer. Um they will go through the same training that a police officer does and have the same equipment.
So why would they not and this is I know this isn't this your decision. UC's financial decision, but why not hire a Trenton officer if they're going to have the same, you know, duties and responsibilities and also legal ramifications to their actions.
Um, this is a way of bolstering the manpower, but uh, class 2 officers, I want to make it clear, they do not supplant full-time police officer positions. We are budgeted for 289. We will still move that way for full-time
uh police officers. This is a way to um bolster our manpower. Okay. So, would they have qualified immunity? They will have the the same as a full-time police officer while they're working. Yes. Council President May and
Council Williams. Yes. Yes. Um they would have the same protections from immunities that any um city employee would have. Just by way of background, this is a program that's been very uh successful across the street. And really, it's an opportunity for us to kind of have like a a farm system, so to speak, where you can have folks that are
certified and and and officers that are coming in and doing obviously not police related duty, but quai police related duty. And then we have a like I said, a farm system to to to backfill from as positions become available for those off class 2 officers are successful and are performing well. We have the ability to,
you know, seamlessly bring them in right away. They're already going to be certified. they already understand the policies, procedures, and how this uh TPD works. So, it's really a good feeder program and something that's been very success throughout the state. But they they would have the same immunity, same protections, same training and what have you. They just wouldn't have the same
responsibilities until they became full sworn police officers with the city. Okay. And so, thank thank you. That's really good information. Um, so then why would they what would be holding them back from becoming full officers and then you know having
everything be exactly the same but also you know obviously the rate would be a higher rate because they would be a full officer because are they going to be wearing a uniform will have a patch for TPD? It sort of it definitely sounds like that they'd be wearing a uniform but not the police uniform. They would be they would have to be distinguished
from actual officers that are you know out doing full-fledged police officer duties. They'd be doing things like transportation um uh you know security uh what have you. But uh they would they would have a uniform. Yes. Oh, so it' be distinctive kind of like a hired security guard type of situation, but
they would have a firearm. They would not have a firearm. Okay. But they're they will they would they would have while they're working they they'll have a firearm. Um, the funding comes from UEZ. What they will be down in the downtown area.
Um, that's where there'll be a sign. That's why we could use that money from there. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilwoman. Um, maybe have a motion to approve 25. No, we I'm sorry, Madam President.
It looks like we had a motion and a We already had a motion. Motion and a second. I'll call the role. Uh, Vice President Edwards, yes. Councilwoman Feliciano, yes. Councilwoman Figuro Kenberg, yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes.
Councilwoman Williams, yes. Council President Gonzalez, yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-51, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 457 West Hanover Street, 29 Marian
Street, 315 3223 and 327 Rutherford Avenue, and identified on the city tax map as block 2303, lot 20, block 4601, lot 8, block 4601, lots 45, 41, and 39.
Pursuant to NJSA 4812-13C, SM Trenton Redevelopment LLC for the sale price of $100,000. And Madam President, may we have a motion to approve 25-051? So moved. Second.
Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Councilwoman Figurero Kevinberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilwoman Williams, yes. Council President Gonzalez, yes. Motion carried. Ordinance
25-052, ordinance authorizing sale of city-owned property commonly known as 21 North Olden Avenue and identified on the city tax map as blocked 260003 lot 16 pursuant to NJSA
4A1213C to Yois Maria Lionz Reyes for the sale price of $25,000. May we have a motion to approve 25-052. So moved. Second.
Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano. Yes. Councilwoman Figurero Kevin. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried.
Ordinance 25-53, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 10 Beak Street and identified on the city tax maps block 8703, lot 13 pursuant to NJSA
4812-12C to Hector WA for the sale price of $4,000. May we have a motion to approve 25-053? So moved. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards.
President. Yeah. I was going to say I think we all kind of have the same question. We all have the same question to Director Bridg. My apologies. Yeah. Council. Go ahead. Council Williams. Yeah. This is a a city employee and so I think we all have the same question. Is
it okay that he is able to purchase the property? Is is I'm sorry, Candy. Go ahead. Excuse me. Um employed or previously employed? I don't know that he's not
employed with us. I don't know who that is. Huh? Okay. I'm I'm hearing that he is an employee. There is there is no prohibition to selling properties to employees. However, you have there are certain uh prerequisites that have to uh
occur. I was unaware that this was actually an employee. So, thank you for bringing that to my attention. I would like to pull that ad from the administration just so I can confirm that the necessary steps were had i.e. um appraisal arms length individual
representation. So, I thank you for that information. With that, I would like to just pull this until the next meeting. so I can look at those issues. And director, there is one other employee that I believe we've already um voted on. Same thing.
Um I I would I would uh I would ask that we pull both of those so I can look at those further. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Madam President. It was it was it was it was it was for second reading today. Yeah. And I didn't realize that Was it
for second or was it for first? I'm sorry. Yeah, it says it right. Let me look. Hold on one second. I'm sorry. This is the first but there's another one on there for second reading. Another employee listed on there. I tell you 40 254.
It's legal for them to do. We just don't know what 254 is that it passed on a second reading. I didn't if again with with the benefit of that information. Oh, I'm sorry. I was about to say we're trying to look at something too. Go ahead, Director Bridges. No,
with the benefit of that information, anybody in here who is a city employee, um I think we need to pull that just simply to confirm that the proper steps were had with respect to that. And if it has passed now with that information, I would u suggest the council make a
motion to uh revisit that passing and and then have the administration pull that so we can confirm uh that the necessary steps have been taken to sell property to a city employee. So my question then becomes so we have 23 property owners potentially on today's
docket. um 11 were for second reading and 12 for um first reading. So, is there a way of us making an amendment? Because I don't know all that are listed here if they are uh city employees, but
that's something we need to look into just to make sure that we're doing things in decency and in order. Um for the one that's the first reading, that's going to be pulled by administration. for the one that was a second reading and then passed with that information. I would suggest the council do a vote to resend that um vote right now to allow the administration time to confirm that
the proper steps were were were taken uh to do that properly. Council President, Councilwoman Feliciano, so just a quick question. I mean, and I and I I do understand the concern and stuff, but we do require people that work here to live
to live here. No, I I totally understand that. You know what I mean? Like I don't think that we should penalize people that work here from acquiring side lots or whatever it is that they're trying to do. As long as they're they're paying, you know what I mean? Like what's
supposed to be paid? Like as long as there's no discounts like crazy discounts given or anything like that, I don't think that we should we should prohibit people uh from being able to p purchase properties. I I agree um with you, Councilwoman Feliciano. I was just
going to ask Director Bridges just for us as um council members and for the public, right? What is the process for someone who does work for the city who wants to purchase property? I I could tell you a high level. I'm not going to be able to tell you chapter and verse, but there has to be it has to be what's called arms arms length transaction. The
individual is going to have to be represented by council internally. We're going to have to have counsel, not anyone internally, have those negotiations. there's going to have to be um an appraisal and there has to be articulated why uh a certain price has been uh decided for that property and
then certain basically certifications that um there was nothing uh internally nothing externally that uh touched upon the integrity of the process. Um it's it's it's a checklist of things. I just don't know if those checklists were done because I was unaware that these individuals were in fact employees.
Council President Councilwoman um let me um Frisbee had a question first, but go ahead. What were you going to finish your thought? But to your to council woman's point, yes, we should not discourage or penalize the employees. It's really not only for the city's protection, council's protection, but theirs protection as well should anyone
raise any issues with respect to that. They can confirm that all the steps were had to properly um uh sell that property to them. Um Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. So um not a question. So, it was it's clarity and actually director Bridges has um hit on it. This is not to
discourage because I would that everyone um who desires to be a homeowner, I want them to be a homeowner whether they are work for the city or they don't. I just want to make sure that we are doing things in decency and in order so that we don't get caught out there. They may not know the process and if so that this
is a um like again there are 23 that are on here this evening. We just want to make sure that everything is done right so that no one comes back later on and gives them gripe. we end up in Trenton orbit or wherever. Um, so I just want to make sure that we are doing things properly or in Tranonian any any place
else. I don't want us to be in the news anywhere saying that we did not do things. We did not go through the proper protocol. So that's why I'm asking this question to make sure that we we're helping them as they're getting this their properties um in order and we're doing our our due diligence as well. No
point taken and I'm very confident that it was done properly. the director listen has ample experience with this but however I want to look at it independently because I did not look at it with an eye towards those facts so I just want to you know belt and suspender to make sure that everybody is is
copathetic here council president um counciloman Feliciano then Williams so and thank you for all this and councilwoman Frisbee I'm with you 100% on this but now I'm even more concerned
because we've already went through employees that have already that have already purchased properties like this should have been looked at at the onset like every and excuse me if I'm wrong but when the um hed department when
they're bringing these things forward do they not go through the law department to be looked at like I mean like why didn't y'all sit down and have a conversation about what it looks like if it is a city employee like we're here now and we're and we're checking it now
because we've seen but there were other employees that got properties already. So, we should have been checking all along. Like, this should have been set up prior to when we said about when I asked for a checklist, right, in the first place about what are we doing to address all of this with the people
buying properties at that time. If there was anything different or a separate checklist that should have been for employees, it should have been established already or the conversation should have been had because now here we are. We should have already addressed this. Is that is that I'm confused. Is that a
question? I don't know what it is. I'm just making a statement. We should have already addressed this. Now, here we are. You know, obviously other conversations just need to be had when we're dealing with all of this kind of stuff. The question that I had was was when these when these
um items are being brought forward from Hed, does your department look at these agreements? Do you look at the applications and stuff? Like, do y'all read them? My department doesn't. My department doesn't do it. I do it. So you So but you didn't look at these
director. I looked at all of them but I did not I was unaware that these contracts were employees I think but it says in the application these are employees like it's written there city employee city employee like it's there. If then if they say city employees and you have to appreciate I haven't
probably looked at these for three weeks. Um if they say city employees they do then we have looked at this requirements to sell them to employees. I didn't recognize the name, but if it says a city employee, there is a checklist that we go to to make sure that the steps were followed to send to
sell to employees. I just didn't recognize the names as we sit here and I still don't recognize them. So, as I said earlier, I'm very confident that it was done properly. However, not knowing these individuals names, nor recalling when I signed it, I would I I'd like to be overly cautious and look at it again
to reconfirm that those steps were had prior to transitioning these properties to city employees. Thank you. So then based on what you just said, because it says city employee, you said then you did look at it and you are certain that the check so they do say city employee
on the application. So we don't have to pull it. we can move forward because it says city employee on them. I would say yes and if I find that to be inaccurate, I will I will respond to it, but I was kind of acquesting the council's concern to pull it beforehand. But if it said city employees, we've looked at those
steps that had to be taken to sell to employees. We have sold, as you correctly stated, we have we have sold properties to employees in the past and when we determine that they are employees, we take the added necessary steps to confirm it's being done as
armed length agreement to rebut any concern of any impropriy or any uh improper dealings of property. So that is an automatic mechanism when we see employees to check off the box for those additional steps that need to be had for employees. Okay. So, Council uh
President and Councilwoman Frisbee because he he said because it says employee, he did his due diligence and he said it on the record. So, are we good with moving forward with this? But I know Councilwoman Williams wanted to ask something also. Thank you very
much, ma'am. I appreciate it. So, I think that it's a good question to discuss even if it does say it because um one of the things this council has had to deal with over the last two years is a pretty incessant barrage of folks
who say that the purchasing process is unfair, that the purchasing process has favored uh folks uh outside the city versus folks inside the city. Um, we've had complaints about people being let in to see properties where others weren't
able to be let in to see properties. So, with we've had all kinds of things uh go on. And one of the things I'm very proud of this council is we've all advocated strongly that the process become more fair, whether it was moving from auctions to direct sales or whatever the
situation might be. Um, unfortunately, when it comes to city employees purchasing properties, they're going to be held to a higher level of scrutiny. There's going to be questions whether they had favoritism. There's going to be things that are said that are unfair. And um, Mr. Bridges talked
touched upon it earlier about uh, reputation. And one of the things I always come back to, there's a gentleman, I believe he's secretary of the treasury back in the 80s named Nicholas Brady. And he was falsely accused of having uh mob ties uh and
nefarious things by the federal government. And it's a very long trial, bankrupted him, bankrupted his family. And when he came out of the courthouse, first thing he said to the cameras was, "Where do I get my reputation back?" And that's something I always keep uh in
mind um particularly with things that are said about our work together as a team. And um I think it is is fair to make sure that extra extra questions or confidence is gained that nobody had a favoritism towards purchasing one
property versus another. I don't believe it occurred in this case. Uh I'm I'm very happy that you know we do list whether someone's a city employee but it is um a question I think we need to consider for the future if maybe one more level of scrutiny needs to occur or
maybe a clearer process so then the public uh itself not our critics but the public uh has full confidence that everything is square when a city sells a property in the city of Trenton. Thank you ma'am.
Thank you so much, Madam President. Councilwoman Frisbee. So to so to the public to be clear, we want residents of the city of Trenton to purchase property. And we're not saying that they cannot. We just are
saying that there is a a another level just so they are safe and knowing no one can say that there was any favoritism or anything that was done was not done on the level. So that's what this discussion is about. It is not to discourage anyone. It is to actually
encourage, we want our residents, but we've been advocating since we've had our seats that we want more residents of the city of Trenton to become homeowners. So let's be very clear on that. We just are doing our due diligence to make sure that everybody is crossing their tees and dotting their
eyes so that everyone can go and enjoy their quality of life once they get and these acquire these properties. Thank you, Madam President. And just hopefully hopefully to close the loop, I went on the the checklist that we have for selling employees. Number one, you have to review the state and local ordinances with respect to conflicts and
ethicals and make sure that the proper um representation made. You have to avoid conflicts of interest, obtain an appraisal, you have to provide public notice, obviously get approval from the governing body and then the document the the transaction has to be documented thoroughly to to
identify you know who, what, when, where and why. And um it's basically 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 eight box checklist that's added to the due diligence if it's an internal city employee. Thank you director. So just and the
statute for that is NJSA48-13. Are you done? Wait, that's what I'm saying. Are you done? I think he's still reading. That's why No, you're done. Okay. I'm sorry. My apologies. I hear you. So, are we okay with voting on this now still? Yes. Right. Thank you. All right. So, I guess we can move to the
vote. Council President, Councilwoman Feliciano, sorry, just real quick one more time. Councilwoman Frisbee. Madam, no. So, just to just to be clear, I get where you're coming from. Um but my
point was not through you but through the process of what is law looking at what everybody are we looking at what we supposed to be looking at like we should have known all of this beforehand is what I'm saying right so that everybody can come forward and we can move
smoothly through this while I'm glad we spent the time to clear this up there with you right but yeah we all got to be on point in this thing absolutely so all right thank you thank you for that thank you council president thank to everyone.
So, okay. So, are we I'm sorry. I have a motion in a second for for 25-53. Yes. Are we voting to for that approval? Yes. Okay. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano,
yes. Councilwoman Figuero Kevinberg, yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, with all the tees crossed and eyes dotted, yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes, sir. Council President Gonzalez, yes. Motion carried.
And so to be clear then, we do not need a resolution to re excuse me, a motion to resend. No. Thank you. Moving on to ordinance 25-54, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as
271 Tyler Street and identified on the city tax map as block one uh 13805, lot 5 pursuant to NJSA 4A 1213C to Luis Pesantes and Renee
Reyes for the sale price of $13,000. May we have a motion to approve 25-054. So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Counciloman Feliciano. Yes. Counciloman
Figurero Cutenberg. Yes. Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance 25-55. Ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 61
Anderson Street and identified on the city tax map as block 14705 lot 44 pursuant to NJSA 40A 1213 C to JU for the sale price of $150,000.
May we have a motion to approve 25-05. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards, yes. Councilwoman Feliciano, yes. Councilwoman Figureroa Keinberg, yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilwoman
Williams, yes. Council President Gonzalez, yes. Motion carried. Or ordinance 25-56, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 630 Edgewood Avenue, and identified on the city tax map. It's block 2702, lot
16, pursuant to NJSA 4812-13C to Ebony Day for the sale price of $3,000. May we have a pro motion to approve 25-056. So moved. Second.
Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Councilwoman Feliciano, yes. Councilwoman Figurero Kenberg, yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilwoman Williams, yes. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried. Ordinance
25-057, ordinance authorizing the sale of city-owned property commonly known as 36 Binmar Avenue and identified on the city tax map as block 6202 lot 44 pursuant to NJSA
481213C to Lazar Lazaro Dubang for the sale price of $25,000. May we have a motion to approve 25-057? So moved. Second. Roll call. Vice President Edwards, yes.
Councilwoman Feliciano, yes. Councilwoman Figuro Keber, yes. Councilwoman Frisbee, yes. Councilwoman Williams, yes. Council President Gonzalez, yes. Motion carried. And Madame President, I believe that
brings us brings us to public comment. Yes, Mr. Garcia, I'm sorry. Yes. And Madam President, we have nine individuals listed for public comment this evening to the public. Public comment will be 5 minutes in duration
for each individual. You may address any item that you wish. The council is not obligated to respond. First individual listed is Michael Smith. Oh, please state your name and address for the record when you approach. Michael
Smith. Moving on to Caroline Clark. [Music] Push the button. Oh, there you go. Okay. I shouldn't have pushed it. Good evening, council. Good evening,
Trantonians. Uh, the address, please. 1812 Riverside Drive. Thank you. Thank you. So, I attended the DP presentation last Thursday and I walked away with two
things that I believe were important. Trenton Waterworks is safe and Trenton Waterworks is making progress. So in the context of those two things,
why is the state forcing the sale of Trenton Waterworks at this time? So the proposed co-owners will have the power to sell. If they own, they can
sell. So the state's push for quote unquote regionalization is really a push for privatization and I am still curious why the state is investing in privatizing a public
utility. So I turned to the 2009 referendum, the Supreme Court case. And in that case, it said the state of New Jersey will receive additional gross receipts and franchise taxes from New
Jersey American Waterworks if that acquisition were to be completed. So in other words, if they privatize us,
they make revenues. If they don't, if we don't become privatized, they don't. So they have a financial interest in privatizing Trenton Waterworks. We have management problems. We agree, but we've
been under state uh oversight, at least under two state departments for over 10 years, one of them, and we haven't turned the corner. So, what good is this state oversight? So, we've had a police
department. They knew that we had problems because we paid out $7 million. They said nothing, but here they are all over the water. So they knew about illegally splintered contracts. They didn't call law
enforcement. They called council to sanction the illegal activity. D also said we hire improper we we um hire improper people and we
underinvest. Well, DCA knows when we're hiring and some of those hires are from DCA, their mandated hires. And with respect to underinvestment, Trenton Waterworks made
$760 million over a 10-year period. Where is the money? D should go ask DCA where was the oversight over the last 10 years when we made the money
what happened to the money and why wasn't the money reinvested in Trenton. DCA should have some of those answers rather than criticizing us. My final point is that the state is largely responsible for Trenton's fiscal
plight. Our inability to proper invest to properly invest is because we do not get the revenues from the state. We should be getting including that $69 million in taxes that we don't get the
use of our water, the use of our our resources, our firemen, our roads, all those things. We are subsidizing the state and then the state criticizes us for not
reinvesting. You can't create the problem and then criticize us for not fixing the problem you helped to create. Thank you. Thank you. Kendia Kandia Torres.
Victory Rosari. Victor Rosari, 19 Morland Avenue, Trenton, New Jersey. It's honor again be in front of you. Uh the dealing with uh the lady that was here. I had to regroup with what I was
going to say about the moms with guns control and so forth and [Music] um according to Dr. Thomas so well s o w e l l he says that uh black and black
crime in in America uh most of the shootings that was that's happening in America right now is uh young black men against black and black men against black men. So uh the mid war good and evil started where you know what we say
heaven and which is uh the holy lands like Jerusalem and Mecca uh between uh two ancient tribes which is uh the tribe of Shabbaz of 50,000 years ago and u called the tribe of Jacob was uh of 6,400 years ago both of
them are still fighting here on earth from Trenton to around the planet earth. Uh that's the war of good and evil and so-called when you take it down to the minimum uh black and black crime. uh and that's because of uh many teachers have
come uh from the east to uh North America to uh uplift what was considered then uh the free labors of uh slavery uh which is African-American descendants of the first original uh slaves of 1555
up to 1619 who are not properly documented anywhere except in the Nation of Islam. The only documentation of slaves here in America are from 1619 to uh 16 I think it's uh 65 1865 that is
1619 186 1665 was 1865 anyway the end of slavery 1865 and they're British slaves those pi to uh those the slaves pi to the British slaves of 1619 that goes back to 1555 were American slaves or sold to the
Americans farmers or slave pastors of North America. What I'm making is that uh this war has been going on since you know since uh the knowledge of God has made known to mankind and in the Bible and the holy Quran. So that the war grew evil, God of the devil, Shabbaz and Yak
was the same fight here in Trenton, New Jersey between the Muslims and the uh so-called uh gorilla uh organization in jail for instance. You have you have Muslims, you have Sunnis, you got Shia, Nation of Islam, 5enters, then you have
the gangster gangster gorilla gangster families with mafia and all soal and I was a part of something like that. So therefore uh I think that um our reasoning about how to handle uh crime in America is falsely uh
portrayed because of the the descendants of the original slaves 1555 1619 who are not properly documented except for the Nation of Islam. That group of people are being used as a cash cow to uh for
the slave masters and then the people or the black people of the tribe of Jakob to exploit them and never find and never they have found solutions but they never put forward or bring forward the solutions to uh crime problems and
economic problems and racial problems. in America racial the racial problem again is because of the travel I mean the tribe of yakuru which is shan or ye bliss or the devil in the bible they uh were used to enslave the righteous
people of the planet earth which is the trib and that continues you'll never find a true solution you will never receive a true solution to politics or religion as it is uh uh presented to us
as it is today. So I think that from now every time you look at the polic you look on TV anywhere you always start with we need to work together we need to work things out but you never get to the true problem is this between law enforcement is the same thing uh Michael
represents law enforcement under Jesus and Jesus said we were gods he questioned the Pharisee we god so therefore we can do godly things and therefore it goes to law enforcement being under Michael and uh that's not properly portrayed because now if you look in the Bible I I think it's uh 2:10
uh the somewhere in the Bible says it's the devils to arrest you and put you in jail or something that pray for 10 years or 10 days of tribulation. So therefore that's taken over by the devil too. So I say when we talking about the highest level of crime of criminality criminal
uh of crime we talking about devils in a person. If we're gods then there has to be a good god and a bad god. And that's the way uh uh we need to address things. And uh that's all I have for now. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. [Music]
Big Verise. Spawn. [Music] Good evening. Good evening to the council members and good evening to everyone. My name is Bernice Vaughn. I live on Columbia Avenue in Trenton, New
Jersey. Uh this evening, I just quickly would like to know a little or a lot about what is going on with the animal shelter.
I um am concerned that the um city is continue to spend more and more money on the animal shelter than they are on us our senior citizens in
the city of Trenton. And I am a senior citizen. I've been here for over 50 years from um moved here from Virginia with my husband when he was enrolled in the United States Air Force. So, we
based our three children here and uh one is here. Two are gone. But animals we love. We bought we had a dog with them. So, I'm not against animals. Just want
to know why or what you are planning to do that would benefit us the senior citizens. throw us some of the money our way instead of throwing it to the animal shelter. Would someone please help me
out with that? Thank you very much. Thank you. [Music] Uh I'm sorry, I'm having a little trouble here. The last name I think is Nance. Is that correct? I'll move to
Anthony Samuels. [Music] Greeting council members law director. Uh Anthony Samuels represent uh 153 Oakland Street, Tren, New
Jersey. Uh years ago, I had bought the uh property from uh individuals. What I didn't know, they forfeited on the on the land. So, I paid over 35,000 for the property and I put a judgment on them,
fixed up the property, and uh I had a lawyer lawyer wrote to the city trying to see what the payout is, how could we move forward, sent the city to judgement, but I was awarded from Miss Luden. Still don't got no
response. Few days ago, guy came from out of Connecticut and said he bought the property. So I'm like, I don't know what's going on. Two days ago again, I got a eviction notice. So I'm asking to the city and
I'm telling the city council members I had to plan for that property. My daughter runs a organization. Her name is Bel Samuels. It's called uh I have a public patch. Each one of you am I able to put the uh give us
[Music] Mr. Sams, real quick, can you just repeat? Can you I don't know if you said at the address of the location you're talking about. It's uh 153 Oak. That was your address where you live. My address is 600 Artisan Street, Tren, New Jersey. So you you're talking about 153 Oak.
Yes. I've been there for over 10 years. And uh unfortunately the lady, she took care of her husband, Mr. uh Jay, and he still they moved down to uh South Carolina. So I do everything was record required for me to do, sent notice to
them, put the judgment in. She never came to court. I won the judgment. I got a lawyer. We filed it. I put a construction lean on it. Everything's on it. Still, Miss Luden never gave us nothing to find out because we're not allowed to get it. We're not allowed to get the information about the tax. I
tried. I tried. And then my daughter wanted to get this to make it happen. Do something for the city. And now I got somebody come on, knock it on the door. He wants to take the property. And he's asking me what what do I want to do with it? Could I pay him? But I think that's
unfair to me because I wanted to pay the tax and I paid for the building. So, I mean, I just need help on this situation. So, that's that's where I'm coming from. Thank Mr. Samuels. Director Bridges is going to give you his um card so he can talk directly to you. Yeah, I
talked to him already. And uh I appreciate it again. And uh my lawyer called called the uh the sheriff this today. They didn't even put the eviction day on there, but they said I got July 1. But still, we got a vision for that
property, and I just need help. Yes. And it's it's it's not fair that you got people coming from out of out of the city trying to take what we trying to do good. And she has a track record. She does book back drives. She's she's
she just got her uh the other day masters. She She ran the uh YMCA. I mean, it's for her. I just need help. Thank you. Could you leave your um email and stuff to it? I know you have it with Mr. Bridges, but can you also leave it with um Had right here at the
bottom? All right. Well, and uh I have all the copies of Miss Luden. They they said we tried to contact Miss Luden. This uh we never contacted whatever. I have have copies as well. My lawyer
say what we uh we got the judgment on. Here's the judgment and everything. She never gives no help. They tried to get the property and now she just I sold it to somebody else and that's not fair. But um again, I appreciate you. Thank you guys. And I'm just trying to do
something better for the city to help the kids out, you know, and we have good vision. Everything's written down there and all that. And we just don't want to just lose that property. And it's not fair for that situation because he's not going to do nothing to it and we want to
do something to it, you know. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Samuels. Mr. Fris Councilwoman Frisbee's coming over to you also. Uh Robin Vaughn. Hello. Good evening, council. Good evening, city of Trenton,
Trentonians. Um thanks for having me. give me the opportunity to speak. Uh had a very difficult weekend. Uh I think that it's fair to say that there should be some
investigation into Earl Construction and you know they pulled up front of my house. My nephews like Optimus Prime is here.
If you know, you know. We're going to have to fix that. So, you know, the bosses around town has friends with big trucks, big big trucks, and they pull up
in front of residents houses. I hope my infrastructure of my home is not compromised with these trucks rolling up on my street. So on another topic, word on the street is
that Mayor Gayor and the NJD commissioner are a spoon coons, our besties, our friends. The mayor is being disingenuous regarding his role in the publication of the RFP. He's throwing
his rock and hiding his hand. Yes, he is, as he always does. Word on the street is that he asked Sean Lerette, commissioner of NJP, to offer to author the RFP to hire a consulting firm to
perform a feasibility study to regionalize the city's water department and sell it to a private entity. The mayor is in talks with the state D, DCA, the governor's office, and
telling them that he has your support, that he has the city council on lock, that you all are supporting this effort. I would love to know who's going to raise that ordinance. This is where the rubber
meets the road. Either you're with us or against us. Transparency is critical. Residents and taxpayers, the owners of our waterworks and all our departments, need to know where our
council stands. We want to know who will raise that legislation that will move to regionalize, create an outside board, privatize, or sell our water department. Who's going to raise that ordinance?
Who's going to raise that legislation? And who's going to vote for it? Four to three. Who's going to vote for it? Well, for the record, as you well know, the municipal council, the legislative body, the most powerful entity in our
government, the mayor plans. You approve the funds that cover his plan, and you can overturn the mayor's veto. Yep. You sure can by majority supermajority
vote. And guess who can overturn you guys? The petitioners by referendum per NJ 4069A1 185 by petitioning referendum can
overturn any piece of legislation the city municipal council puts forward. So, let's go. Tell us where you stand. Time is a ticking. My understanding is the mayor is around
town talking nonsense as usual, talking about how he has to get this done by November before our state government turns perhaps to another
party. So, but we in Trenton, we're ready. Tranonians, we're ready. We have the signatures. So, either you're for us or against us. Keep playing in our
faces. All right. And I'll land my plane. And thank you very much. We'll see you around town. Thank you, Miss. You're welcome. And Madame President, those are all the
individuals I have for public comment at this time. If it's your wish, you may start with any individual for civic comment. Yes. Thank you. We're going to go left to right. Uh Councilman Williams, please. Thank you, ma'am. Uh I'll try to be as brief as possible. Uh so first of all,
tomorrow night we have a really good and interesting Northward Sisplace Advisory Council meeting at Galley Baptist Church, 440 Martin Luther King Boulevard from 5:30 to 7:00. We're going to have as a special guest the director of the Trenton Free Public Library, Director
Karen Ali will be with us to discuss what the library has been offering and what it will be offering in the future. some changes that have occurred that are really positive, but also uh safety at the library. So, uh there are some misnomers that the library are isn't a
safe place, but it is uh something we'd like to discuss and make sure that folks get more comfortable about visiting the library. Also to know more about what's being offered uh particularly as it's on Academy Street in the north ward. Uh,
additionally, I want to make sure folks know about an important event uh that will be this coming weekend at uh Locust Hill Cemetery. Uh we it's at 783 Hart Avenue, we'll be having a Memorial Day remembrance ceremony. It's sponsored by
uh the Civil War Veterans of Locust Hill Cemetery as well as the Kuanis International Club. Mike McCormack, who many people know, and our city of Trenton will be sponsoring it. It's at 11:00 a.m. Um, please join us. Uh, the sixth regiment of the US Color Troop
Reenactors will be with us as always. Uh, it's a very moving event and it's a way to honor the, uh, 10 African-American Civil War veterans that we do know are there. There's potentially more. And, uh, this weekend
is a weekend to honor those veterans who served our country. Um, many of whom have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. and that so we are able to even gather at a government um function such as site which is simply just having a
city council meeting. Um so I'll just close with uh I know last week we had the meeting with um DP and Trenton Waterworks. Unfortunat I wasn't able to uh attend that meeting so I was in uh
struck in an auto accident. Not my fault. um and so was not able to make the meeting that night. Uh but I did want to just say a few things. Um there's a lot of rumor, there's a lot of conjecture of what's going on. If anybody seriously has followed this
council in the last two years, they know where this council stands regarding uh with the Trenton Waterworks and any potential sale of it. And rest assured uh and I say this also as someone who
was a petition gatherer in 2009 to defeat the sale of the Trenton Waterworks which when members of the team did the research and they went deep. Uh there's also foreign entities involved with New Jersey American water that folks need to be aware about and
that's not something we should ever consider ever again. But have no worry, this council is not going to be um entertaining seriously the idea of selling our waterworks
certainly and as a willy-nilly idea. Um, this council does not respond to pressure to influence and I have not discussed this recently with the mayor personally, but if there's any evidence that the mayor is, you know, doing
anything untored regarding our water works, let that evidence be brought forth. Again, we had a discussion a little earlier about reputation and people being falsely charged with things. So, we need to make
sure before tomatoes, cans, anything gets thrown around that people have the facts. And I will say this, the government in this city, the leaders of this city, if you ask them a question, you'll get an answer.
and people all they have to do is go on YouTube and they can see videos of this council and what they've said in civic comment regarding our Trenton Waterworks and the many questions that have been asked about how to make it
better and why it hasn't been allowed to do things such as issue additional bonding for all the repairs that need to be done. So, we're asking and we're getting things done and we need to continue. And I again will congratulate
and thank the administration for getting additional money from Hamilton Township. We need the rest of it. We also need the other towns to pay what they owe. Things are going to happen. Things are going to be said.
But if you have a question, please bring it to the deis here at city council and ask it. We'll answer it. Thank you. God bless and have a great rest of your month and please have a safe Memorial Day weekend. Thank you, Councilwoman. Councilwoman
Frisbee. Thank you, Madam President. So, good evening everyone. Um, I wanted to address um a couple of items. One, Miss Carolyn Clark, I wanted to just tell you thank you. Thank you for being a active um person in our community and making sure that um you keep us to the point,
but also the rest of the state as well. I sincerely appreciate um everything that you said on this evening. So, thank you and I ask you to continue to come out and share with us and continue to hold if we can get an opportunity to hold the state to the fire as well. So, thank you for coming out here. Um Mr.
Victor, I thank you for always being out here on this evening. Um you come out constantly and we appreciate you being out here. Miss Bernice Vaughn, I want to just acknowledge what you said about the animal shelter and in comparison to our seniors. Um there is absolutely
positively no comparison. I love my pet. There is no my pet does not vote for me and my pet if it's between my pet and a senior there is there's never going to be a hesitation. So yes, as much energy as we put into um the animals and making
sure that they're secure, we also need to put the same type of energy into our seniors as well to make sure that they're secure and they have everything that they do. You are the reasons why you are amongst those that are reasons why that we actually are sitting in these seats. You actually get to vote for us. The animals do not. And that is
no disrespect to anyone. love my animal, love every um pet, but I am never going to put um funds into a place where it should be um where's precedence over our seniors. So, thank you so much for being out here this evening and bringing that to our attention to Mr. Anthony Saunders, I
believe he who left um situation that he's in with his family ought not be um if he I can't wait to go through the paperwork to see what um he has presented and um get some questions and answers done, but if someone's been
investing there, they should know not be getting an eviction notice about property they've been investing in. Um, I want to thank our my colleagues for um, giving a unanimous on the second reading of ordinance
25-046. Um, advocating for gun safety in our community and in other counties as well is something that's high on my priority priority list and I appreciate your support on this. Um, I want to say direct thank you to our directors in particular to interim director Paul
Harris who has been working so very diligently on Cat Walder Park. It is looking more and more beautiful each and time each and every time that I go out there. Right now, we're finally getting started on the Outer Loop, which is um just being being repaved, which is incredible. Um considering that we have
an event coming up on June 7th, which is our party in Orange, which I invite each and every one of you to come out. That is going to be a time at 10:00 a.m. on June 7th, where we will be um bringing attention to the gun violence in our
city, but also we will be giving support to those families that have been impacted by gun violence. So we ask you to come out, be a support, be a part of the solution. You know, it is um it takes all of us to make a difference in our community. Um our water, as I will
echo what my colleague said, we are by no ways giving up our water system easily. There's they will be f we will be fighting tooth and nail. Um I said it from the very first moment that they brought it to our attention and I'll continue to say it. Our water is not for
sale. Um, I want to just say thank you to our directors, our administration, to all of you that are here tonight for coming out. Whether you came to the Davis to speak or not, I thank you for your time and being out here um as well. And on that I will close with a portion of our mission statement that says
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 of the city's people with respect and compassion. I thank you
all for being out and everyone get home safely and thank you again for being here. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Councilwoman. Um Councilwoman Feliciano Thank you, Council President. Um, so first, uh, Councilwoman Figuro Kenberg
asked me to announce this because her phone was acting up, so she Yeah, she's not going to say anything. Um she's having her CPAC meeting on Thursday, May the 22nd, uh from 5:30 to
700 p.m. Uh she has special guest Jackie Cornell of MP well MP I guess she's MPAP opioid settlement funding, deputy director of Mercer County Department of Human Services. She has featured guest director uh police director Steve Wilson
and public works director Wley Anatiri. That's happening at St. Mary's Church on 335 Adeline Street in Trenton. Um, also her meetings happen the fourth Thursday of each month. With regards to Trenton Waterworks, on behalf of Councilwoman
Figueroa Katenberg, she says Trent Waterworks is not for sale. She's not with it. She's not with regionalization. She's not for giving up our waterworks. From me, Crystal Feliciano, council woman at large. I've said it from the rip. I'm not with the regionalization.
I'm not with giving up Trent Waterworks. I still believe that there is more that can be done for us to hold on to this and work it out. We just need to figure it out and we need to work it out. The state needs to come up off the money um to help us with this. D and DCA need to
get on the same page and stop playing around. I feel like, like I've said, our hands are tied, right? They're both coming at us but not meeting each other in the middle. Again, I still would love to have a conversation with DCA, with um
D, with the council, and with the mayor, right, and his administration just so we can hear all sides at the table at the same time. I think that that is critical for us moving forward with this. We hear a lot of things. Um, and then to
councilwoman uh Williams point about what was being said that the mayor is is is supposedly saying, you know, show and prove that. Like we want, you know, if he's saying it, we want to hear him say it. Um, conversations that I've had with
him, he has not said that. He spoke publicly at the um he spoke publicly at the D meeting. He said what he said. Um, you know, and so far as much as that goes, I have to take him at what he said until I see differently. I've not seen
or heard anything different from him. And I'm not one to really go with what they say because they say a lot of things about me that ain't. So, so if y'all got something you want to say or proof to have somebody come here and and bring it so we could see it or hear it um for
ourselves. To that end, I thank everybody for coming out tonight. I thank everybody for speaking up from their perspective about different um concerns and everything that they have. Our senior citizens are very important. Um and and by no means would anybody
take anything for any other department, right? To take away from our senior citizens. Y'all are the foundation uh from which we come, right? And I I hope that we live long enough to be uh fruitful senior citizens when we get older and people will look out for us.
So don't think that we just um ignore anything that's being said or just go along with anything. I do know that Dr. Diego Manikabelli, our director of health and human services, is working very hard to address every issue to work things out for the seniors. I know that
some seniors were complaining about the reading center and getting things fixed over there. They are working on that to get that done. Things take time, but it is in the plans and is the work to get things done. Um, I know that he's trying to address different issues, the lead
issue. He's trying to address the animal shelter issue. He's trying to address y'all and and, you know, still run his unit to the very best of his ability. But I have every confidence in him that he will pull through and do what it is that needs to be done. Um, and work with his staff to make sure that quality of
life for everybody is met to the very best of his ability and to the very best of the resources that are provided to make that happen. That being said, I thank everybody for coming out. Thank you to all the directors for everything that you do. Shout out to public works um for getting out there in front of
Architect Housing. Thank you for taking care of the the brick work that needed to be done because that was truly a hazard um and tearing up people's stuff. So, thank you for looking out because that is the entrance way and exit way for our senior citizens. So, I appreciate y'all jumping
on top of that and getting it done and directors for all the work that you all do. um for all of us, for the mayor, right, and then for the constituents in the city. We appreciate you everybody. Have a wonderful night. Have a safe and blessed holiday weekend. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilwoman Feliciano, Council Vice President Edwards. Thank you, Madam President. Good evening, everyone. Um, I want to touch on a few things, but for the sake of time, I'm just going to keep my comments short and just say I do support city
employees purchasing city- owned properties and um, let's just be fair across the board. I know that there are guidelines regarding the appraisals and things, but I think that um, it's a good incentive and it should be an actual program for the city to have a housing
incentivation program for city employees to purchase city- owned properties. and that would definitely drastically um push things forward in that regard uh to getting our city- owned properties back on the tax role and making sure our employees live here and are invested in
our city. [Music] Um today was the last day to register to vote for the upcoming election. I just want to say a gentle reminder to please cast your vote regardless of who you're voting for. Voting is important and it affects a lot of things. It affects our
funding. It affects our community in every way that you may not be able to imagine. So, please exercise your rights. Um, I want to say to the gentleman, Michael Smith, who had um, unfortunately had to leave before his name came up on a public comment, he was
here to speak about exercise equipment specifically in Unity Square Park that was removed. um him and a lot of other um ladies and gentlemen who often uh went to that park to exercise are very upset that the equipment was moved and
have not been given any type of reassurance to its return in the unforeseeable future. And he also had comments to, you know, when when speaking to, I guess, whoever in the administration was saying, well, Cowwater Park does have exercise equipment. We have to keep in mind that
though we would love for our city to be united as a whole as Tranonians, we are very segregated and siloed and some people do not feel comfortable with going into other areas of the city that they are not particularly from. So, let's keep that in mind and make sure
that every side of the city has access to exercise equipment as gym memberships can be very costly and we want to make sure we put health um as a priority in our city. Lastly, Trenton Waterworks, the elephant in the room.
Um, unfortunately, to my knowledge, the D commissioner nor anyone from D had addressed this council prior to putting out an RFP. And from what my what I understand that this entire council found out when the public found out.
Unfortunately, sometimes that's the way things have been going. Um, and I'm hoping that we can improve some type of communication. I would personally love if the commissioner uh themselves could come in here and address counsel. Um, we
uh council president and I had met with our attorney today, Mr. Colloji to talk about what our roles and responsibilities are as a legislative and governing body of this city and particularly Trent Waterworks as it is a department of this city. It is under our
oversight. So we do have jurisdiction and unfortunately have not been at the table during any of these discussions. So um it was to my surprise as well that an RFP was put out but doing my due diligence they are well within their rights to do so. So they did not violate
any laws. Um and and I want to say that they do have a broad authority to regulate water systems especially where the public health concerns under the unsafe drinking water violations to the safe drinking water act. There's a mandate to corrective actions or
operational changes for non-compliant water utilities. There's a there's a uh they can facilitate or recommend regionalization or consolidation of water systems when it deems such action necessary to protect public health or ensure reliable services.
But at the end of the day, this is the governing body and they cannot do anything regardless of whatever RFP they have the authority to release to make any decisions about Trenton Waterworks regionalization going into an authority,
the change of its governance or anything like that without this city council. I am not for the sale of Trenton Waterworks even though I do professionally understand that creating an authority does not mean to sell but in essence it is in some ways when you
talk about regionalization having to split the revenue between other municipalities though I do want to say an authority similar to housing authority and parking authority where it's a Trenton entity I am in favor of because it would be able to have its own
bonding power being able to free up bonding power and increase our capacity under our general operating budget would be a plus for the city. Regionalization authority, I'm still out on that, but authority would be helpful
and I wish I had more time to explain, but we can continue this. Have a good night. Thank you, council vice president. Um, good evening everyone. Um, really quickly, I just want to thank uh, Miss Carolyn, Victor, Miss Bernice,
uh, Mr. Anthony, and Miss Robin for being here and expressing your concerns, sharing your ideas, and letting us know what is going on. I do know there were some that are going to be addressed. I know Miss, uh, Councilwoman Frisbee spoke with Mrs. Samuels, um, and Miss Vaughn, we heard you loud and clear. We
definitely, um, want to make sure that our seniors are taken care of. So, thank you for sharing that with us. and Miss Carolyn, thank you. And Miss Robin for thank you for bringing those um laws and different information for us to be educated on as well. Um just a quick
announce, not a quick announce, I also want to thank my colleagues um for supporting the emergency preparedness plan and also the parking ordinance. As most people know, we um when we try to create these ordinances, we're really trying to think about the people first. So, most of the things that we're
putting forth is um for the people of the city of Trenton to make sure that it benefits um the residents here in the city. Thank you, Councilwoman Frisbee, for also putting forth the um firearms um ordinance. Also, um we want
to keep our city safe and we are doing our best to to do that as as much as possible. Um as far as the water department, I mean, we have said this several times, several meetings. Um, I can't say it enough. I am not in favor
of regionalization. I am not in favor of selling the Trenton Water Department. Um, the only way I would even consider something like that is if the people came here and said that that's what they wanted and we put it at for a referendum. Other than that, I'm not for it. So, no one has to doubt where most
of us on this council stand and me, Yasminelli Gonzalez, is not in favor of it. Um, also, um, thank you, uh, Director Bridges for clarifying some of the city- owned properties and selling of it to employees. We definitely want
to encourage our employees to purchase property. So, thank you for clarifying that. I don't think any one of us wants to say no to that effort. Um, and just just a quick thing too, I know we mentioned this before, but when you don't hear us asking a bunch of questions, uh, council woman, a council
vice president and myself, we do meet with the administrators prior to the council meeting, we ask these questions beforehand and then we share it with the other council members um, for um, thanks to our presidents who were before us for actually putting that in place. So, just when you hear some of us not asking as many questions is because a lot of these
questions were answered were asked and answered and and a long discussion was had prior to even coming on council. Um, I think that was all. I just want to do a quick shout outs. Voices of the people, thank you for organizing their event that they had Saturday. There were
several things going on throughout the city. So, I just want to shout out everyone who was doing something positive, educating our people, educating the the the youth on um just being positive and being a positive light here in the city of Trenton. We have a lot going on and I do know that
it's also mental health awareness month. So, if you know of anyone that needs any help, it's it's okay to ask for help. We have resources. We have programs available. Please do not hesitate to ask for help. whether it's from a neighbor, whether it's from calling a a city, calling, googling the programs and
resources that are available, but there are things in place. So, please consider that. Um, also this Friday, they have the renaming of the Carlos Negron Park, which will be on Pake Street. And Carlos Negron was a state trooper. He was from Trenton. He was the first state trooper
in the state of New Jersey to be shot and killed in a line of duty. Um, when he was pulling over someone, um, they opened fired on him the minute he pulled them over. Also want to say that next rent stabilization board meeting will be Tuesday, May 27th at 6 PM here at city
hall. So if anyone has any issues with their rent, their landlords, please bring that to that meeting on Tuesday, May 7 27th. And then I also want to shout out the city for launching a city stat program, which um it looks like it was well attended. I know it was at 10:00 a.m. The next one will be at 5:30
p.m. in June. So they're going to alternate the times. I know people had concerns about that, but there's going to be one in the morning and then also one in the evening. Um, so thank you for putting that forth. I know a lot of people were happy and um were able to get their voices heard. So, thank you for putting that forth and just a happy
Memorial Day. Have a safe and and happy holidays. Thank you all for being present this evening. Um, Madame President, at this time I believe we've reached a point if you ask for a motion to go into executive session.
Um, okay. So, yes, we could have a motion to We're not going to I don't think we have a vote though, right? Coming. Uh, I don't believe we anticipate a vote coming out of executive session, do we? No. So, we can Okay. Motion to go. Yes. Oh, I apologize. And the purpose for
executive session this evening is for personnel purposes. Yes. And is discussion of council aids. Correct. Thank you. So moved. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Roll call. Vice President Edwards. Yes. Counciloman Feliciano. Counciloman
Figuro Kenberg. She's off. Oh, that's right. Council Councilwoman Frisbee. Yes. Councilwoman Williams. Council President Gonzalez. Yes. Motion carried.