we com and your friend you know I'm no I didn't say I Cur you Jas I don't have my master but I believe yeah I am up Phil okay Jerry my friend aiz fig good evening everyone good Jerry I'd like to remind all those evening everyone I would like to advise all those present that notice of this meeting has provided to the public in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act AKA the Sunshine Law and that notice was published in the Jersey Journal City website copies were provided to the official newspapers and the record the New York Star Ledger and also placed on the bulton board in the lobby of City Hall written objections if any should be made to the city clerk pledge allegiance everyone please stand stand na indivisible going do roll call councilman Cohen here councilman Doyle pres councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor councilman pres Zano pres councilman cantero councilman Ramos councilman Russo pres and council president gtino here for president um I'd actually like to start this evening I'm sorry for not telling everyone with a moment of silence for an outstanding Hoboken resident who passed away last week Aaron L it um he was just a really great man man of integrity he offered so much to Hoboken and really gave a lot to the city that we all should be appreciative for amen amen um yes thank you just a little housekeeping uh B 642 which was regarding e delivery is going back to First reading and this one's got off that's the other other one tx2 yep it's off and tx2 has been removed from the agenda uh which was a cancellation of 2023 taxes and transferring taxes on new units public portion public portion Jim Vance have how does this work hello I'm Jim Vance I am a Hoboken resident thank you for allowing me to speak this evening um I'd like to talk about rent control um we had a big go around here several months ago and we passed rent Control Ordinance that basically is taking when my one of my tenants leaves will be taking about 10 or $12,000 a year out of my pocket uh I'm a senior citizen I'm on a fixed income I'm a veteran I own a three-unit building in this town and and I need income um you folks up here who have a salary um maybe would consider pending 10 or 122,000 out of your pocket uh to provide help uh for rent to uh people who work on Wall Street and make millions of dollars um the rent Control Ordinance uh is onerous enough and you've now changed it it was now changed uh by um the city council to include um a uh a clause that requires if I rent my apartment to someone in bad times and times get good and the tenant moves out uh I'm stuck with the old rent uh but if I'm rent in good times it's another matter at any rate there's a a referendum being proposed to write this this what I consider substantial wrong um so that not to uh do away with rent control in any way shape or form but to Simply make sure that there's um an opportunity for me and a longtime resident of Hoboken an investor in Hoboken when nobody else wanted to buy here um to have an opportunity to when my tenant moves out make Market rent on my property um so this evening we'll present uh that referendum and hopefully the city council will look at it find it reasonable and and uh vote it in as an ordinance otherwise we're hitting the streets with it um one other quick matter and that is the the issue of the ordinance has been moved first reading um we have a a situation here where um we have some safety problems in this town among them are bicyclist and most particular bicyclist who are using delivery vehicles uh on our sidewalk but we also have safety problem of of um people parking uh their uh automobiles in what we call bike Lanes basically blocking um travel Lanes um and that seems to be okay uh it's all right if uh somebody on a bicycle um in the in the bicycle lane uh gets forced out into traffic you know take your chances out there with a 2,000 lb uh piece of iron running down down the road at you uh so that's important we'd look at this holistically um the ordinance has been presented thank you very much for presenting it it's a good start it got uh um Robbie Congressman wannabe Congressman um off is about to put forward a um a working committee a working group uh I'm pleased I understand it started up um and I think we should defer this ordinance and and put the heat on the working group and really on the mayor uh to get on with it because uh if this is typical it's been put forward by the mayor but it's like the hotel post office down here it's you know 10 years into the making this has to be dealt with and I appreciate the way um everybody is beginning to work on it thank you thank you Nick Telo Nicholas Telo I'm also a resident and I'm here to talk about rent control most of you know me I'm been a real estate developer and contractor for 15 years I don't develop in town I don't own in town I'm strictly here as a real estate professional who has written different pilots in town Redevelopment plans and the people we need to talk about who own these buildings are local landlords like Jim who need to be able to raise the rents fairly so they can replace pipes in the building without putting their tenants at risk who can collect income because that is their income for the year these aren't portfolio managers who own 200 units across the state or 2,000 units they're not looking to come in here and build a 100 units they're looking to make a living off their rent and fairly increase the rents of their tenants and provide them with quality units they can upgrade at a fair basis if you look at some of these 40 50 year old buildings that children are living in that they cannot afford to upgrade properly because they're getting capped on the rents that's something we need to look at as well we also need to look at the replacement costs that go into a lot of these buildings that they can offset to the tenants because of being capped on the rent or someone who owns these buildings who may qualify for a rental controlled unit they can't so I'm just here expressing my opinion as a professional and again I know most of you you've some of you seeked out my opinion on certain items and I just implore you to really think about the rent control that's fairly increased with the landlords with property taxes and the current replacement cost be happy to talk about this further where there's tax incentive programs that we can maybe work with psng has programs United Water as programs with replacing pipes that we can make these buildings safe as well for these residents and the landlords not having to absorb these astronomical costs I know how much it costs to put new piping in buildings I know how much it costs for new refrigerators fixtures it's just not fair to pass all this off primarily on the landlords when they're being capped on the rents thank you for your your time and I really hope you guys put a lot of thought into this thank you thank you Ron Simoni thanks council president Ron simonon Miles Square taxpayers Association we're going to be supporting this referendum and the five uh members of the committee of petitioners that you'll see here tonight um we've also talked to most people here about what we think is fair and rent control we've talked about what happened with the last series of amendments that happened and our disappointment with that and frankly it it just feels like the dialogue that we could probably create mutually here is not going to result in in in much more happening than we've seen happen already obviously we were very disappointed when the uh ordinance that was uh negotiated with myself and Cheryl phallic representing the tenants was vetoed by the mayor um a referendum will let us have the public actually be the responsible party for determining whether whether or not they think that what we're proposing here is R rational and reasonable there's a lot of time here it's going to take us a while to collect the signatures it's going to take a while for the signatures to be counted the council then will have a period where it can consider what we've proposed negotiate against that and potentially come up with something better I'm completely open to that idea but uh last year after this happened we ended up in the election season for the ward elections stda did not want to disrupt the dialogue around those Ward seat elections and so we postponed uh a referendum that we were ready to go with eight or nine months ago uh the referendum is as follows it's a simple referendum should a property owner who contributes $2,500 to the affordable housing trust fund for the construction of new housing be able to get a vacancy decontrol one time and then have his unit fall back under rent control permanently and what it does is uh we've got some data on this that I'll present as we go along but substantial amount of money will come from that uh opportunity for a couple reasons the first is that right now there are a lot of people out there with ticking time bombs in their portfolio and those people aren't registering their units I would say that up to a third of the units in Hoboken are not being registered under the rent Control Ordinance registration is a key component to the ordinance it allows you to enforce the ordinance and right now you're enforcing the ordinance on people who are registering and are reporting but you're not dragging in anybody who's not this will drag people in for this amount of money to be able to validate what you've done in your portfolio will make people register and then you will know who they are and you'll be able to um oversee the rent increases as a body which you do with every other unit the second thing is the creation of affordable housing which you've passed an ordinance recently that encourages uh a plan that was councilman Russo councilman Ramos both put forth plans that have no money without seed money you can't get matching grants you can't get Aspire grants you can't get financing and while the amount of money that we expect to be generated by this ordinance over a 5year period if just used to build affordable housing will not build much but if it's used to ratchet up what you can do with your own credit and what you can do with the municipal granting that you can get you could build hundreds of units rent control currently doesn't give anybody who needs an affordable apartment who's new to hoken an affordable apartment and we've had a lot of conversation here about this band of affordability that rent control does protect it does keep apartment prices low but it doesn't take the person who needs that apartment at that low price and put them in the apartment what it does is it provides a discount for someone who doesn't need a discount and this corrects that to the point where the apartment owner at least is able to recognize a revenue stream from somebody who can afford it and wants to pay it and that's the new Resident to Hoboken what it also does is it says to those people at the lowest end of the spectrum the middle end of the spectrum and the middle high end of the spectrum that there will be resources to build affordable housing in Hoboken so that they can live here while they're serving your Police Department your fire department and your schools and so our view of this is that there aren't any victims in this there's an opportunity to not have to rehash the complex issues that we rehashed all last spring with one simple question it's very rewarding we think to Hoboken on balance I'll let the uh balance of the committee of petitioners speak for themselves but we will be collecting signatures we want it to be here first to announce it to you first because out of respect everybody's been a great listener and had great conversations about this issue over the last two years we feel as though we need to take the matter in our own hands at some level but we're open to discussion and there's plenty of time to do so thank you thank you Tony sorz um got it that's it goes right yeah you oh that's what I thought hi I'm Tony sores I'm a member of the committee for the of petitioners I want the people of Hoboken have a choice in this last time the referendum did not we almost it almost went away I mean they almost won the other side it would have been far worse than what this proposes right now as you know Hoboken has not really built any affordable housing unless you build a massive a luxury building we downsized our density ordinance so you can't so it what triggers the uh affordable housing developments are anything over 10 units but in most of Hoboken you can't build more than 10 units more than three or four units in most neighborhoods without without a variance you don't get variances in Hoboken anymore it just doesn't happen you get it maybe at the planning board for a few little things you can't even get a variance at the zoning board anymore for retail space on First and park just got denied a new building that went up so the only way to build affordable housing seems to be through public housing and the affordable housing an affordable housing trust fund by gen by building more affordable housing that way you actually have some control and you have some involvement in that um this does not throw anybody out the notion that I've been hearing and I've been in Hoboken for 33 years now that anything we do to the affordable hous of rent control is going to be this massive evil landlords are going to set buildings on fire we haven't had a case of that in 35 years and I have to say it's like saying if a car can go 120 M an hour everyone's going to be speeding all over the place so why lower the speed limit from 25 to 20 there's enforcement mechanisms we don't enforce anything the people who are following the laws are the ones who were penalized um right now you know I have landlords that want to give a voucher will take a tenant with a voucher but the problem is for them to take a tenant with a voucher they have to have the apartment available but the vouchers are worth like 2500 3,000 but they have to bring their home up to a whole new standard you can't just like if you have a tenement in Hoboken with cold water flat and there are a lot of those if those become vacant that landlord has to renovate that apartment in order to take a voucher HUD is not going to give let that tenant live in an apartment because I owned a building in Jersey City on Communipaw we had to even we had to change all the carpets every two years just for a couple of the tenants that were vouchers or they wouldn't get their voucher so right now there's no incentive for a landlord to upkeep an apartment building to the point where they have you know they can take a a voucher tenant and you see what's happening you've been the city has failed in providing even the three and four family homes are all going away people are buying them they're buying out the tenants you want to talk about like threatening tenants they're being bought out and as of right are going before the planning board or the zoning board and they're building two family duplexes that are going for2 and a half and $3 million so like let's not like make this Boogeyman thing like suddenly someone's going to pay $2,500 and then start like prot ending you know like making ghost noises to scare the the affordable tenants out of the apartments at night you know and and threatening them and setting buildings on fire that doesn't happen with enforcement this is somebody who legitimately goes and they're going to be on record they're going to pay the money you're going to have to maybe they have to go and see how you know they have to testify that the tenant moved out legitimately its apartment is becoming vacant and they want to bring it up has anyone in this town ever heard of a $600 apartment coming up for rent no doesn't come available if it does someone call calls up their friend who has a kid maybe going to Stevens and says hey I got a cheap apartment in one of my buildings and they put their tenant in it and they like or they put it on Airbnb just go through Airbnb you'll see dozens of apartments on Airbnb and it's easy to not think about rent control if you're not a landlord with a rent control apartment but if you're have a landlord like rose Markle who gets a has to put a new fire escape on the back of their building or you get stopped and you find out you have to do a new sore line to the street 20 $330,000 they don't have most people don't have that kind of cash you know and they can't even pass it on to the tenant until they go before the rent control board have a whole appeal then the control board has to has to you know approve it and then it's only put across for a certain period of time after they but they have to have the money to make that repair first they can't get that money up front from a tenant they can't they you know I mean nobody wants to Jack them up without without but when the apartment becomes vacant it would be nice as a a way to say you give them 20 pay $2,500 for the city in a five unit building that's quite a bit of money if that if those things turn over and you know I don't think someone like rose or some of the small landlords that are here Jim Vance are going to be doing anything nefarious to get to get the rent up most most landlords that live in a building like the people I just spoke of they want a good tenant and and they don't take a lot of money they just want a fair increase they're not you know this isn't about taking someone a 700 or $1,100 and jacking them up to 3,000 you can't raise you can't change the stat the increases thank you sorry thank you Tony appreciate it Justin calibra calib wait wait they'll they'll raise it good evening uh so why is rank control uh a current issue in Hoboken my name is Justin calibri and I am a current resident in homeowner I have lived here for the past 7 years having occupied my residence uh my current residence since 2022 prior of that I lived on Washington Street and Willow AV in apartment units with legal rents that were far below market value while paying less rent each month was a uh great situation for me personally I don't believe I was the intended beneficiary of these rank Control ordinances rather my tendency was an example of the nepotism that governs who is able to reside in these rent controlled units when an apartment unit has a rent that's fixed far below Market it becomes a saw after commodity this commodity is then handled carefully by its two controlling parties the landlords and the tenants that reside within them it's in the landlord's best interest to rent to individuals who will voluntarily move out more quickly and therefore allow for a partial rent decontrol and uh increase of 25% it's in the tenant's best interest to hang on to the unit at all costs cost s or pass it along to family members friends securing the unit's bargain rate monthly rent neither of these situations assists low income individuals in securing in securing quality affordable housing given the time constraints I'm only trying to highlight that the current ordinances uh are not working as intended and that there's a need for a change I hope in the coming days the merits of the proposed referendum may be fully discussed and realized thank you for your time thank you rosem Murray marle hi Rosemary Marco I'm here asking that you support support the referendum that is being put forth by Miles Square Tax Association this referendum does not take away rent controls does not pro promote Mass displacement as the fearmongers will try to portray it gives the mom and popop landlords most of us who are senior citizens a fighting chance to save our home Homes at the rate of CPI most of us have to use our own money to help with maintenance do any one of you know what it cost to maintain a building that's over a 100 years old I do because my building has been in my family for 100 years this year alone a new inspection from the state for fire escapes cost most of the mom and pop landlords anywhere from 20 to $25,000 some of us barely collect that in a year you tell us to go to rent control to pass it on by the time we collect that money we're on to a new inspection with more more cost for us never to get ahead imagine a senior CI citizen living on a fixed income to has have to use their own money because the city feels it's my responsibility to take care of affordable housing this is a disgrace the concern of one councilman was that he doesn't want our rents to become market rate let me assure you that we will never be able to collect market rate rents since we cannot compete with big developments we don't have parking elevators gyms or laundry but it will give us the opportunity to collect decent rents that can help us to improve our buildings we are not looking to remove tenants as some will get up here and promote we are asking to allow us to raise the rents that we can maintain the property and give the landlord an incentive to stay and invest in our communities the $2,500 that we would have to pay to raise the rent after a tenant moves out is adding to the affordable housing fund after all isn't that the goal here you want more affordable housing you cannot expect the private sector senior citizens to provide affordable housing that should be the government's issue um I have to say that most of us are senior citizens that get strangled by all of these rent Control ordinances and every time you redo them it never benefits us I don't want to leave toob boken my family doesn't want to leave I don't want to kill my tenants either but we need a Fighting Chance $25,000 in one shot for a fire escape is an awful lot of money thank you thank you Evelyn Madero is this public portion yes okay oh thank you this is the first time I'm here um I have a little problem with the Hoboken Housing Authority I emailed some of you councilman's I'm sorry that some of you did not receive it but I must have gotten the wrong emails from Miss fiser and some of you I didn't know you had a new council member my problem is that I'm being discriminated not me my family is being discriminated in Hoboken Housing Authority for being disabled the Commissioners who the city council who I sent the email got videos of the noise complaints and everything else I could send them and to this day this still continues a year ago last year I went to the director Greco I said this is what's happening I requested a meeting with my site manager Greco and Frank mercher they said they were going to look into it I call the cops the cops said this is an in-house problem now I leave to take my family for doctor's appointments the officers at 3:00 in the afternoon are knocking on my door there's nobody there what is that they saying that I'm making the noise and I'm disturbing the piece H gives Housing Authority equipment for them to use enforce rules and regulations which they do not do I must have blown Mr Russo's phone I don't even know how how many times I mean and then they questioning my family's disability a cou maybe a couple of years ago I asked Mr doll to help me with something that had to do with my family he did and I appreciate it thank you Phil Cohen I sent him an email he dismissed me but it's okay because I appreciate you emailing me constantly about what's happening in Hoboken I mean I haven't gotten an answer from nobody and then they question in my household disability Mr Russo I'm not Mr Russo Mr Ramos has the same guardian angel that I had many years ago Perry Bill Fury was his Guardian Angel when he was very sick I had George Maguire helping my disabled family with Mr Ruben's father so I don't know why are they questioning the disability in my household to me that's insulting on top of that they come knocking in my home while I had a procedure done which I email my site manager I'm not feeling well I had a relapse who was going to be there taking care of my family nobody I again texted Mr Russo why is Frank merch knocking on my door when they are aware of my situation the only thing that I'm asking is bring me down to the fifth floor to avoid the problem with the seventh floor is getting so bad that something is going to happen and somebody's going to get sued because the RAC is common about Jewish blacks Hispanics it's unbelievable the cursing the fighting just this weekend it was a fight they had to call the cops understanding I don't come here because I'm very private anybody that knows me knows that I do not come here I sit back there and I don't say nothing but I haven't heard anything I still have the emails Miss Jen and fiser and if you want I'll send them to you I don't know you because you just I'm sorry I apologize email I emailed the mayor they turned around and they gave me the court Diane I emailed her with all the information I emailed Mr Murphy Phil Murphy okay I emailed everybody I could think of and I'm still emailing and I haven't gotten no answer so what is it I'm only asking to be moved downstairs then I'm going to lose an a unit an apartment or nothing is the same thing that's all I'm asking thank you for your time and thank you for listening thank you nilly leads good thank um my name is neie Leeds um as a longtime resident of Hoboken with over 20 years of strong tides to this community I am scared and horrified by the acts of racism that are spreading throughout the city against the Jewish Community this racism and increased dramatically in Hoboken after the ceasefire protest on February 14th took place in front of this very City Hall where they were chanting into F which is a death chant to kill all Jews which is me that very same group when went to speak here at the city council to ask for a ceasefire and since then graffiti has painted the streets of Hoboken with anti-semitic slurs and pictures resembling the days of the Holocaust kup signs of elderly men women and children who are being held hostage in Gaza have been painted over with red paint trying to intimidate the Jewish Community here some of those kidnapped signs have also been torn down throughout Hoboken which include family members of friends of mine who are held hostage in Gaza some businesses throughout Hoboken now use their social media pages to bully the Jewish Community by posting anti-semitic slogans creating a hostile and unwelcoming Vibe throughout the city City the Israeli flag that was hung up in solidarity here after the horrific acts that Hamas committed against innocent civilians took place on October 7th that same very flag was stolen three times from here I personally want to thank every city council member in front of me right now from the bottom of my heart that you did not entertain voting on The ceasefire which this local Council was not elected to handle foreign policy and it would only voting for that locally would only paint the streets of hoken with more hate against the Jewish community and American values causing Hoboken to no longer be a welcoming diverse City that I once loved never again is now thank you for your listening and have a good night thank you thank you Dana Hannah okay hi everybody I am an 18-year resident of Hoboken I once ran a business here for five years I ran somebody else's business for five years I am a fierce advocate for special education here in Hoboken and I have two sons in the public Hoboken public school system and I am sharing that so that you understand how entrenched I am in this community I am standing here today to implore you to pass the ceasefire resolution for Palestine I struggled with what to say today thought about this for weeks do I remind you that children are being starved to death do I remind you that women are having unmedicated C-sections on Floors of bombed out hospitals would it help you to change your mind if you saw pictures of fathers carrying their children's limbs in plastic bags or of a child's mutilated body hanging from a fence perhaps a reminder that our tax dollars have paid for every one of the things I've mentioned but I presume you know all this already and it has not suade you some of you have told me you want to find a middle ground there is no middle ground in genocide you either agree with mass killings of a group of people from One ethnic group or you don't this is not a complicated matter it may make you uncomfortable but it's not complicated your lack of action tells me that you have allowed Zionist rhetoric to shame you into believing that Palestinians are not worthy of life after all Israeli officials have said that Palestinians are animals so instead of all of that I will say this I a Palestinian American a grandchild of the first Noba and I am a human my grandfather Elias also a human was born in Bethlehem his favorite joke was telling his human grandchildren that he was born in the same stable as Jesus he and his human Brothers built an apartment building for their human families so they could all live together it still stands today in the katamon Neighborhood Family lore says if you break open the front steps you will find a tube with a copy of the deed inside listing their names I'm told many Jewish American students live in that neighborhood perhaps even in those five Apartments how lucky for them that they are allowed to live in my grandfather's home when I am not given the same right of return I've only visited via Google Earth when I was a child I was not allowed to tell our neighbors we were Palestinian because my parents were afraid for our safety I have not raised my sons with that fear they know exactly who they are and will proudly tell anyone when I get home tonight they will ask me how this went should I tell them that the people who purport to care about everyone in this town don't see us as human that they are okay are okay with the mass killing of the same people who share our ancestral DNA who have the same curly hair and big brown eyes as they do who look exactly like the children that I watch die every morning and every night on Instagram that when you see them on the sidelines of their soccer game they should just smile and move along knowing that you refuse to stand up for innocent people being killed as part of a land grab you can say we are a small town without a lot of power but we all know the collective power of the people make no mistake by not passing a ceasefire resolution you are telling our federal government to continue supporting Slaughter with our tax dollars one day God willing this will be over and knowing that you were in a place of power during this time your human children and grandchildren will ask you what you did to stop the slaughter of other human children what will you tell them ceasefire now free Palestine Denny leens I'll pre by saying that I too am a member of the Jewish community and active and here in Hoboken an active member of the synagogue in town and have been for 13 years I'd like to address the statement city council issued yesterday you expressed a gross misunderstand understanding of what's at stake and where the lines of disagreement are in the call for ceasefire you seem to think this is an issue of differences in religious and cultural values you seem to think that the calls for and against ceasefire are elements in our community that we should adopt a pluralistic and inclusive attitude towards your framing of the matter in this way is so misguided as to be insulting you we should be pluralistic and inclusive when it comes to political affiliations religious differences and cultural and aesthetic values we should not be pluralistic about Mass starvation Mass killing Mass displacement and mass dispossession we should not be pluralistic when it comes to atrocities that every single independent human rights organization that has looked at has called for an immediate end to along with dozens of us municipalities that have likewise called for a ceasefire the international court of justice in the ha has determined that the preponderance of evidence indicates that what Israel is doing in Gaza can plausibly be described as a genocide you wrote in your statement that you Embrace and celebrate our differences and you repeatedly invoked mutual respect and understanding inclusivity tolerance and compassion we are not a city that promotes respect tolerance or compassion if we are silent in the face of one of the most massive most public most thoroughly USF funded atrocities of our times our call is for ceasefire this means straightforwardly what those words mean ceas stop fire bombs missiles guns stop the Bloodshed we are anti-war to oppose ceasefire is to be proar to oppose ceasefire is to say that Israel should continue to use America's dollars and America's bombs to kill to maim to destroy to terrorize to oppose ceasefire is to say that 30,000 dead Palestinians is not enough that 13,000 dead Palestinian children is not enough what kind of depression braved person opposes ceasefire you surely have heard a great deal from the bring them home contingent who tries to shut down all talk of ceasefire by Shifting the focus to the Israeli hostages but the whole point of a ceasefire is to let everyone return home in peace and security and everyone means everyone the 100 plus Israeli hostages the thousands of Palestinian Prisoners the millions of displaced Palestinians in in Gaza the thousands of displaced Israelis and all the people running and hiding in fear regardless of ethnicity and nationality you will not find a ceasefire Advocate who only wants peace for Palestinians no the opposite of ceasefire is more fire more war more starvation more death and yet you won't weigh in on that as our elected officials because you're worried about sowing division in our community because you think it's just a matter of M mutual respect for cultural and religious differences shame on you if you can't call for an end to the Bloodshed and Carnage that our government is funding all your talk of respect and tolerance and compassion in Hoboken is infuriatingly meaningless but those who opposeed ceasefire would have you believe that if the ceasefire movement only called for the release of the Israeli hostages and would condemn Hamas then they'd be with us let's put that to the test call for the release of the Israeli hostages in your resolution by all means we support that too condemn hamas's heinous atrocities by all means we condemn them too specify if you wish that your concern is only for Palestinian civilians not militants and also put in writing and also put in writing that we have compassion tolerance and respect for Palestinian children and for defenseless starving civilian adults in Gaza help us tell our state and federal government that we don't want another sent of our tax dollars spent on their murder if you can't do that then what on Earth do you stand for please show some spine and express the most basic element of human decency by calling for a ceasefire and decrying all of the atrocities overseas that have so profoundly affected our community including the atrocities committed against millions of Palestinians if you spoke out against hamas's at atrocities and many of you did then you have an even greater obligation to call for an end to us sponsored atrocities ceasefire [Applause] Now Kevin [Applause] Davis good evening is my mic on good evening city council at the last meeting I decried the mayor's task force on e delivery issues and since then I was put on the task force which I thought was a smart move because if I'm on it I can't really complain about it um so now I'll be honest I I had some we had our first meeting last night I was there on Zoom many of you were there in person and my expectations going in were low uh because you know I look at the timing of this that people have been raising concerns about ebikes turning our sidewalks in the side bikes and running red lights and all the issues and nothing was being done and then councilman Paul presen Zano gets elected running on this issue and all of a sudden now there's a task force and we got to stop all work we got to stop all work we have to wait until a task force with a never- ending deadline meets um until we can vote on his licensing legislation which as we all know I support so I do think it definitely should vote Yes tonight it's a positive step um but at last night's meeting I felt like our large group our large contingent we made some progress we found some things we agree on uh in terms of um like safety and education there's other things we don't agree on uh but there's there's something to work with now for the negatives there's three people are types of people that were not on the task force that should have been there uh one is how we don't have anyone from the delivery apps uh on the task force um how how are we supposed to have a table where the ones who are delivering the food to the table aren't at the table doesn't make sense now you also the big glaring one was the mayor he wasn't there it's the mayor's task force and he can't even bother to show up we elect him we don't elect his Entourage we don't elect all this appointed of people we don't elect the spokespeople we elect the mayor and the mayor couldn't bother the show up he's too busy using us as a stepping stone to be in Congress so those are the low lights but I think the highlights are really good and we have something to work with here now going back to the issue uh that brings some people here tonight um you know people are bringing up about you guys passing a ceasefire resolution I would like to thank you guys for doing the right thing and putting out a neutral statement um I don't want hobok and City Council meetings to turn into the United Nations we have other heated issues to focus on the ebikes on the sidewalks the rats I can go on um you know the issues that are outside of the perview are just one giant distraction and frankly the speaker before me should resign from the rank control board because if someone is Israeli uh or passionately Jewish how are they supposed to get a fair Shake on the rank control board and I know she's not going to can resign she has no shame you guys should call on her to resign by passing a non-binding resolution the only reason you want to keep her on the rank control board is if the city wants to set a record for how many times the rank control board can get sued thank you Kathy cotch good evening some of you may remember me from a couple of weeks ago I'm close to a 30-year resident if you step up to the mic is this better the closer you are better yeah much better people are talking back to okay um I'm a close to 30-year resident of Hoboken I am a retired Early Childhood educator I actually taught for many years at Stevens Co-op um I've been a lifelong Progressive and activist for human rights I'm a member of Jewish voice for peace yesterday you issued a statement in reaction to a a request from Hoboken citizens for the city council to take a stand on the ongoing genocide in Gaza an obliteration of the Palestinian people and Society with the hope that Hoboken would join the many ceasefire municipalities in New Jersey and cities across the country I read your statment over and over again wincing a bit and trying to find some kernel of resonance in your words I shared it with a friend who said in quotes this statement is analogous to eating vanilla ice cream Bland and not ruffling the taste buds in essence a refusal to stand up for what is right and call out what is wrong no mention of the word Palestine no mention of the word genocide no reference to really anything meaningful that we were speaking about two weeks ago it's an insult to our hearts an insult to our intelligence it's an insult to our Humanity in your statement you said you wanted to avoid that there is no spillover of the conflict into Hoboken the naive of that phrase was so painful to hear from self-described leaders of the community especially as so many of you promoted and participated in the stand with Israel rally organized in the wake of the brutal October 7th attacks and on the eve of the many times more brutal genocide that has followed there has also been blatantly pro-israel and pro-war propaganda shared on the political Facebook page of councilman Cohen an Israeli flag waved outside of this very building until December and may I add I also know was taken down I think three times which should speak volumes to you all and our own mayor has sung the Praises of Israel and described his close relationships with Israel many times even traveling to Israel in his capacity as mayor in 2022 meeting with the mayor of an Israeli city in partnership with the New Jersey Israel Commission in 2020 22 there are many israels Israelis in our community and many Palestinians including those with family in Gaza and the West Bank right now there are Jews in our community who are dismayed that this genocide is being carried out in our name Hoboken cannot and has proven that it does not work wish to insulate itself from the atrocities being carried out over be being atrocities overseas being carried out with our tax dollars genocide is a crime of all crimes and we must stand unequivocally with Palestinians it's not a political problem it's a the moral one ceas fire now Enrique Herrera good afternoon uh council members thank you uh the agenda I'd like to bring up today is deep p uh deep fake pornography and AI porn profiles of every human on planet Earth it is Black Market Tech that was a exposed by me in 2019 I had to fight through psychiatric WS to actually get my word out and when I was not heard and I was shadowbanned I took to social media in classic fashion as a meteor to destroy canel culture for what it is tribalism deep fate pornography plus AI plus sensory transmission technology like neural links inserted into the minds of human beings would give you a sense of artificial schizophrenia which would lead a psychiatrist to dismiss you as schizophrenic itself however this specific case would be a Schrodinger's delusion until proven in a court of law therefore any and all diagnosis of schizophrenia and schizo affective disorder should be categorized under a court of law other than a psychiatrist um unfortunately people in any facet of gang govern and religion would be affect would have been affected already you would have already in essence visually hallucinated a deep fake of insert deep fake here into your prospective technology the nerling technology that drops deep fakes into people's minds is a magnetized technology that can be demagnetized if we actually speak on it as a Act of Terror on our country's soil um deep f porography in itself is sexual assault if my face is on sexual assault pornography or deep faked into any type of csam uh I would press charges as a sexual assault Survivor um but the main topic regarding deep fakes would be the creation of it how is it distributed how is it traffic through our systems um this I also exposed as an infinite simulation generator that creates deep fake Visual and auditory hallucinations deep fake Vis uh videos and pictures of any which person whether it's a child woman man or microscopic organism and it creates a fake Porn profile based on the image provided this is why rule 34 needs to be removed free online porn needs to be abolished so that we can stop the creation of infinite fake porn of our American citizens getting raped and rape is rape AI rape is rape um I don't support rape in any way Shar per form and in the event anybody decides not to act on situations involving this matter you might as well be giving your bodies away to the internet for them to do with what they want um for the last two minutes I'd like to address how deep fake visual hallucinations would affect the human mind and how the psychiatric Community worldwide is involved this technology was created and experimented on people in 1899 and those perfected by the Nazis in the 1940s when this technology was released it was given to psychiatrists who ran the world with a psychiatric Iron Fist to discuss neurolinks and sensory transmission technology is the death of you on social media in a psychiatric word etc etc and for any body of anyone in on planet Earth to dictate who is crazy and who isn't based on an impression that's laced in a court of public opinion would be disrespectful and immoral which would have L me to this point in terms of talking to you as a citizen of this country and a victim of sexual assault via deep fake technology and nurlink uh which I currently have possession of and which is currently in my head um it's not being talked about however it is a Schrodinger's delusion until proven the court of law and until a call of law and trial is presented um I will continue to fight on social media and uh like I said I am the meteor that will ultimately destroy cancel culture Because deep fake rape is rape AI rape is rape rape is rape and it's not cool thank you thank you Kristen H hamon hi hi my name is Kirsten Hamman I've been a Hoboken resident for over 22 years tonight I'll be reading the words of a fellow Hoboken resident who does not feel comfortable speaking publicly due to the attacks and bullying that have already taking place in this town and that in and of itself is something to think about here are those words in response to the puzzling non sequator of a diversity equity and inclusion statement issued by Hoboken Council to respond to their inaction on drafting a ceasefire resolution and the accompanying public statement by councilman Cohen I offer a few follow-up questions and observations when is it ever quote divisive to message as much of as much of hobo I'm sorry as much of Hudson County now has to sectors of US Government beyond the the municipal and who directly impact policy on the region that we as a city recognize the need for a ceasefire and deescalation because we can no longer remain silent about the force starvation maming killing and multiple targeted shootings of millions of innocent civilians the bulk of whom are children how can such a statement be quote counterproductive when it is abundantly clear that the remaining hostages have not been prioritized and will not be released until this aggression permanently ends there are protests going on in Tel Aviv including actions attended by some of the freed hostages and their families that decare the same the Israeli hostages and their loved ones suffer immensely while their government and ours have all but forsaken them if there were ever an issue to unite around it should be this to hold and codify this view on the need for a cessation of unprecedented levels of violence is to embody a permanent protective stance towards all innocent people be they Israeli Palestinian or other regardless of who they are or where they are from and it is a view that must be applicable at infinitum this statement on the need to protect innocent life is a stance that has been publicly held by Hoboken Council and its members on a variety of other technically non-local matters where lives have been devalued and endangered without controversy two examples include one a quote from councilman Cohen on Ice detention at the border issued January 12 2020 quote I believe that the detainments are unamerican while we can't directly influence the policy we can certainly influence the conversation it's an important message that these are the values that the people of hobok can believe second mayor Bala speaking on family separation at a public event in 2018 mayor ravie Bala told the audience some of whom were holding signs that called for the end of family detentions that the policy of separating families is quote patently inhuman and unamerican what we're seeing is the classic definition of Cruelty we're talking about real lives of real people that are hanging in the balance every minute the catastrophe in Gaza and the non Hamas controlled West Bank continues the world becomes a far more dangerous place for everyone this is not the first time Hoboken hasn't lived up to its press releases but it is the most crushing here we look out for our neighbors and for the most vulnerable no matter their religion race or Creed no abdication of Duty by Council can change that in fact if we close our eyes and look honestly inside ourselves what we will almost all find is that a is not division or hatred for fellow citizens who may view this conflict a different way no what we will encounter is our immense grief at our powerlessness when we do not unite we may receive temporary relief projecting this painful discomfort on our peers yet it does nothing to change the shared plight of those suffering in the region or soothe our hearts that bleed along with them we must act thank [Applause] you Josh Einstein Josh sorry for skipping you wor I want to thank the council for your unanimous statement for saying no to the Mob demanding that Israel surrender to Hamas an Islamic fundamentalist group no different than Isis or Al-Qaeda and which is an offshoot of the iwan the Islamic brotherhood born of and banned by Egypt which shares Israel's perspective on the war thank you for saying no to those mostly Out of Towners who are attempting to build support for a nationwide anti-israel movement they misrepresent history and pedal the lie that Jews are not indigenous to the land of Israel they pretend Jews are all descendants of as one of their speakers said last meeting the kazars a turkic people who converted in small numbers to Judaism several hundred years ago while the facts are that genetic tests have repeatedly shown Jews and Palestinians are closely related they can pretend as I've seen them do at pramas rally after pramas rally that Jesus was an Arab despite the fact that Arab colonization out of Arabia came hundreds of years after Jesus and despite the fact that the Quran and the Christian Bible record the Jewish nation's connection to the land of Israel the Quran going so far as the state that the land of Israel is reserved for the Jews thank you for saying no to those who pretend fighting a terrorist group is genocide these vile people have claimed in every war in which Israel was attacked that Israel was engaged in genocide yet afterwards in territory Israel has gained from every war from the war of independence in 1948 to 1967 when it was once again attacked by Arab armies the infant mortality rate has gone down and the life expectancy has gone up for Palestinians within Israel's territory this is why when PED in survey after survey after survey after survey Arab citizens of Israel have stated their desire to stay in Israel and not under the authority of the PLO or Hamas or Jordan or some other country thank you for saying no to those who would who would single out Israel for madeup accusations when in the actual World these people they' never marched when China put 2 million wear Muslims in concentration camps they said nothing when over a million Muslim Afghans were deported from Pakistan in the last couple of months they have said nothing not a squeak when the Syrian dictator Assad slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Muslims in his own country they pretend Israel's committing the crimes they are silent on in so many other countries moreover they pretend they can't be anti-semitic because they falsely State as one of their speakers did last time that they are semites they are historically illiterate as Semitic is a linguistic term referring to a language family spoken by Peoples of different ethnicities and the term anti-Semitism was specifically invented by European Jew baters in order to make Jew hatred sound less offensive and more socially acceptable thank you for not bowing down to the same type of people the same type of extremists who in New York City this Sunday recently fought the police when the police were responding to a bomb threat that could have put everyone in danger thank you for standing up for Hoboken and for common sense values Manny Manny Rivera Solair thank you council president council members of the public I appreciate the opportunity to speak council president I first want to say I am a bit confused I really don't know it's going to take me a while to understand that we have switched uh public comment on non agenda first and uh agenda items after but I would have to make uh use of the time then so I would like to say that give me a moment please I'm going to speak slowly because usually when I um try to speak quickly I tend to get uh lost here so what I want to say is that being the first person to speak about an issue and that said person also pointing out that they were the first person to spoke about an issue um have two connotations one is a person who did something first the second one is perhaps a person it could be cons uh conceived that way that they're boasting or they're trying to um grandis but I want to say that I remember how lonely it was when I was the first person here to speak out about the ISS issue that everybody is speaking of today not saying that that's not important I remember when council president Jabor was the council president I asked her I don't know how far the echo of my voice would be but I wanted to be spoken in this chamber so that people could hear the cries of the innocent people of the innocent residents of Israel as well as the innocence of Gaza this was not me speaking on Whose race or who what race or nationality or anything like this this was speaking about innocence and yes it was lonely yes there was PE there were people who gave me the dirty looks and the words that you love the terrorists no I do not I love no terrorist but at this juncture your message was to the people let's be more and more ambiguous let's let the people know that although we care we cannot we cannot say the words let's save the Innocents on both sides of this war let's not stand for the terrorists the terrorists have been given an opportunity recently for a ceasefire they rejected it they have not want to come back or negotiate in good faith so I say to everyone here on both sides let's not fight amongst each other let's find a solution let's let our elected officials in Washington hear our words and our voices tell them that you don't want to fund anything and then then we may get some action I hope so do not decry do not fight amongst each other let's find common ground and let's move it up the chain of command and ask them to please put more pressure and please help the innocence of both of both Palestine and Israel Madam council president I see that I I don't have too much time but what I really wanted to speak about was I wanted to inform the people that those that were interested in 214 Hudson Street we were unable or unsuccessful the second time around to save it in its entirety it was a 80y old building that now is going to change it's going to be standing in some form but not in its original form this was a shame because it was decided first and then it was changed again no one was asked when the planning board was trying to consider or reconsider opening it again for consideration members of the public had no time to explain to the board that they should have maintained their first stance but now it is too late there will be put in trees on top of the the building and they will be putting another fourth floor on top of that building so I sorry to report that we could not save it in its complete to totalit totality sorry but anyway Madam council president my time is up and I appreciate it I will try to squeeze some of my comments in consent agenda thank you thank you toan Lee oh thank you that's was a tough um tough one to follow so I'm a I'm a 25e resident I'm not sure why but let me explain one of the reason why I love hobok it is an International Community that's had has done great things for the group here and part of the things I'm really challenged with lately is this animosity of people just sharing thoughts and feelings even on contentious issues like Israel so I'm hoping to find Common Ground if you don't if you haven't know this I'm not Jewish I'm not also I'm also not Palestinian but I am an American every voice should be heard including the young Israeli girl um Jewish girl I'm assuming who spoke about being attacked by anti-Semitism we don't want that including our Palestinian friends who are also being attacked vice versa we we none of us wants this right we are a community we can be agree disagree without being disagreeable but we all can agree on a few common things freedom to self-determination Freedom From Fear freedom to voice our hopes and dreams right there always going to be two sides so if any any single person says this side is evil that's bad and everyone else is good and I'm good all the time you really have to question what's going on there's always two sides We As Americans have the right and I would say the obligation to question policies our own policies other countries policies without being attacked so let's find common ground and just let's just talk to each other right so that's one second the ends don't justify the means so this is going to be one of my part of my more contentious part of my speech but really what it says is while I advocate for a ceasefire it is a symptom to a larger human failing it can be encapsulated to one word other them they those Vermin let's break down the word of other and think of us us as a common Humanity right like the words of Maya Angelo we are more alike than unalike if we understand that we start treating other people as animals and Vermin we have we can have a very different discussion if everything is just a ified nothing is Justified never again means never again for everyone not just one particular population I normally I would not be here to to speak but I just cannot stand here and watch the sufferings of families and children for the gains of one's interest I don't care who it is but I think this is the most wonderful thing thing about Americans that we stand up for those who are challenged who are trodden right if my wife was kidnapped I would probably fit the same anger as many of the Israelis I think all of us would one thing I wouldn't do is say hey kill those children those family until I get my wife back I just wouldn't do that just not who I am that's all it is right everyone is different but it's not who I am I cannot justify my w wife's life for the life of others I just can't I'm an American but I'm also a refugee right I was blessed because I had Good Samaritans who brought me here the the land of opportunity and what I can say today is when I say my people again do my education here I'm not saying my people as American an I'm talking about my people as Humanity right so I stand here in honor of not just my family but honor of my Good Samaritans why others pass by claiming piety inconvenience or too busy on local issues to to really care about my family and when I was brought here there were others that stepped up they will ask for things like I'm asking for now I'm asking for ceasefire as a step along the Ark of justice and peace I'm not saying it's the final step I'm saying it is one step it is to say that the ends don't justify the means it is out of compassion it is simply because it is good Patricia waiters Patricia Patricia I'm next M hi Pat wus I'm not falling asleep because I'm not interested it took every ounce of my being y'all know I talk at every meeting to sit here and not get involved when I say get involved I don't want to oh wait Pat wait is 1219 Willow I don't want to get directly involved but it's heartwrenching for me being here since 1962 and thinking that this will never happen in this little small wonderful City that we all love called Hoboken when I seen them outside City Hall I came to the very next meeting after that I sat right in the front and I I do not want to talk about my situation in detail I'm going just give you a condensed version my son too living here as a resident was impacted with a racist road rage crime called a dummy get out of the street while working on duty for this city of Hoboken it almost ripped my heart apart because not saying that these people are Outsiders and want their voices to be heard last meeting someone said that mayor Bor said he have local issues that he have to take care of versus taking care of something on the national level I don't want my elected officials here in Hoboken to lose focus we residents we need your attention too we need your time because coming into our city with this type of behavior is affecting the people that live here and some of those people out there is not from Hoboken okay so we being impacted cuz people walking around miserable acting on emotions animosity and hating their heart but to call my child a niggga three times this is what I'm talking about the guy not from here he just speeding through Hoboken you see so when you bringing this attention to you guys I know it got to take courage for you I I wouldn't print another thing too and and that's for you Mr Cohen not being negative I'm saying this in a positive way cuz you're going to be judged right now you know what I'm saying it might be the ones that's against you with you or whatever but at a time like this this is one time I can honestly say I wish I would never sit in those chairs you guys are in and be a council person cuz I don't like being judged like that it's horrible racism is serious if it's impacting whether you Jewish africanamerican Indian it doesn't matter it's all impacted the same way and we all feel the same pain and it's not fair we making it a more racist issue and more bias than trying to solve a problem saying a ceasefire and putting each other down we causing a bigger War right here in our community so tonight I mean This Bitter Sweet I really don't even know what to say to you guys I don't think you should be tacked or put down because you not asking for a resolution for a ceased fire but I know one thing pay attention to the quality of life of Hoboken residents that live here cuz it's getting serious if you could do anything to diffuse it a little bit cuz we not going to come to every meeting and see this if we could do anything in our powers to help you to get back to a slow normal I'm here for you guys thank you thank you thank you Amy V good evening can you just state your name uh my name is Amy and I've lived in Hoboken since the 1980s uh thank you city council for taking the time to listen to our concerns October 7th was a horrific shock highness highness war crimes were committed against innocent people as a gentile married to a Jew anti-Semitism is an ongoing concern for me obviously such an attack was expected to provoke a response from the Israeli government October 8th began in Earnest carpet bombing the Gaza Strip the most densely populated piece of land on Earth the residents of Gaza are surrounded by a heavy heavily militarized wall or fence depending on the location this means that like unlike other War zones Palestinians can't leave there's no Escape whatsoever so if October 7th was a horrific crime and it was how is what's happening to the people of Gaza not also a horrific crime 1,200 Jews were slaughtered in one day and it's terrifying and what about the more than 120,000 maimed murdered and missing Palestinian civilians with 80% of the housing stock destroyed and 26 of the 36 hospitals bombed to smithin no sanitation no drinking water no medical supplies no medicine 80% of the current acute hunger in the world is in Gaza currently preventable famine is happening right now aren't these also war crimes 152 days later and the equivalent of 137 October 7th later the Carnage continues 50% of Gaza population are children 70% of the deaths have been women and children Hamas is getting more lethal in its military Maneuvers this means more Jews will also die meanwhile innocent Palestinians bear most of the suffering not Hamas 65,000 tons of bombs have been dropped on Gaza since a place of a similar size of Manhattan the bomb dropped on heroshima in 1945 was 15,000 tons to claim that destroying Hamas is necessary is nothing more than a flimsy excuse for mass murder and ethnic cleansing human rights experts around the world are calling the destruction of Goda at genocide our tax dollars pay for the bombs that wipe out entire family Bloodlines in an instant the weapons manufacturers grow wealth while American veterans sleep on the street what will we tell our grandchildren when they ask us what we had done to stop the Mass Slaughter of innocent men women and children of Palestine we have a legal and moral obligation to demand in immediate permanent and unconditional SE ceasefire thank [Applause] you Greg [Applause] REO what is it my name is Greg REO I've been in town for a while um but I'd like to ask how many people were killed since we last met how many lives will be destroyed before you act what's the magic number 50,000 a 100,000 a million if a terrorist was hiding in the basement of this building would you approve of someone dropping a bomb on it right now if a criminal ran into a crowd would you justify shooting automatic weapons into the crowd Hoboken is no stranger to ethnic cleans ing through a campaign of arson murder threats and intimidation the demographics of this city have been drastically changed the bodegas became boutiques so let's not pretend everything was always wonderful um we remember the arson nobody was ever uh Caught no one was ever brought to Justice um the first time I spoke at a city council meeting was because in response to the violence that killed over 50 people including children and made thousands homeless the city council decided the best way to stop the violence was to give the murderers what they wanted slight change APAC is a powerful lobbying group for a foreign government that has more say in both major parties of our own government from the president on down to the city council than the voting citizens they rule by bribery intimidation who they can't buy they seek to silence who they can't silence they seek to destroy weapons manufacturers also have more clout in our government than anyone here right now they are making enormous profits uh part of which they used to buy our rep so-called Representatives meanwhile we are collaborating in the worst crime that any human can commit genocide everyone on Earth knows it there is no justif ification for genocide regardless of what happened on October 7th or in Europe or the Ottoman Empire or anywhere else shooting bombing and starving civilians is a gross violation of international law and all human decency I have relatives who escaped the Warsaw Ghetto through a tunnel they had an infant during the escape the infant started to cry they had to cover the baby's mouth to silence it and the baby died they spent the rest of the war fighting as partisans Israel has recreated the Warsaw ghetto ghetto in Gaza they are murdering with impunity in the West Bank the United States is standing guard and supplying the weapons while the crime continues calling for a ceasefire is the bare minimum you can do you call on the federal government when a storm in dates our city you will be deeply affected by International politics when Greg Abbott dumps a busload of immigrants onto our already inadequate homeless shelters you will not be able to avoid National politic politics When Donald Trump is reelected and sends ice thugs to round up our friends and Neighbors when a National Abortion ban becomes the law of the land and when the Department of Justice becomes the department of Revenge I have voted in every election for almost 50 years but I now feel politically homeless we are asked to choose between Cancer and heart failure or maybe it's just that there's no heart left to fail whatever you do here tonight you'll have to live with the consequences we will not forget it will not blow over there's no rug big enough to sweep it under I understand this is a lose lose situation for all of you because there's nothing you can do or not do that's not not going to get somebody upset so I don't envy you I ask you to put away your political calculator and dust off your moral compass before you vote on this as for bringing the hostages home at least the hostages being held by Hamas have a home to be brought to the hostages would have been home months ago if that had been a priority of Israel unfortunately they're more useful as political pawns if you really want the remaining hostages brought home maybe you should join us in calling for a ceasefire whatever else you do tonight though I would ask that you tell our Senators and Congress people what you heard here because they are not listening to us thank [Applause] you roelle Santos Rochelle um I don't want to give another recitation of figures obviously you don't care uh but I would like to say the events since uh Michigan have changed everything politically and um now KLA Harris is calling for a ceasefire B uh Corey Booker who's one of the biggest warmongers and owned by APAC is calling for a legitimate ceasefire and the Democratic party is scared they know that they have lost the voters and it doesn't matter how much money is thrown out there you're not going to win if you don't change um I think up until now you've gone along with the Democratic machine and the APAC run new New Jersey state however right here in our community in Hudson County you've had ceasefires in Union City North Bergen West I'm sorry we hawan um Gutenberg is coming next uh Carney will vote in two weeks and there may be a resolution in state legislature for a seat fire in New Jersey so to protect yourselves as you have been doing up until now you need to change your protection strategy and consider a ceasefire what you've done to convenience yourself will be the thing that trips you up so um I I I I don't think there's anything more anyone can tell you to be convinced but I know that you follow the party lead and it's going in another Direction I just want to let you know that and maybe you should follow the ground swell as other people other cities in Hudson County have done and uh make it a a a change stance [Music] um in all the times that I've heard about anti-semitic comments they have all been based on something baseless so I would not worry about that I mean I was raised Jewish I went to Hebrew school till 10th grade I lived in Israel but I've been able to learn a little Arabic I don't know why you can't guys can't learn intifa does not mean a death threat intifa means shaking off shaking up the Cur the system shaking off literally and from The River To The Sea actually comes from haika the national anthem for the invented state of Israel where they call for land from The River To The Sea so that same area is what they are calling for as a democratic state which is a threat to no one and not a anti-semitic thre at the very least if you can understand a term it is not any one else's responsibility to protect you if I say banana you don't know what banana is it doesn't mean that it's a threat it just means your perception of banana is a little off um I I I you know I have been going to rallies for five months I watch everything night and day I have never seen threatening or violent tones coming from the pro Palestinian side so everything that I see that is perceived as an anti-semitic threat is mostly a uh not post-traumatic syndrome it's a pre-traumatic syndrome it it's things that that people are just imagining because they want people to limit their speech because they are not able to understand it so that should not be you know one of your concerns that people are not able to learn language I'm sorry uh however your political well-being and your political liability should be concerned and you should write some kind of ceasefire very quickly thank you Sonia Petra [Applause] Ali hello everyone my name is Sonia Petrelli I've been living in Hoboken for 30 years plus I have a home here a physical home that I sleep in I eat in I wake up in my kids they have this home too the friends the neighbors the families the community here have homes just like this the Palestinians in Gaza have no home as they have been bombed demolished gone the parents the children the neighbors the families the friends in Gaza all don't have homes more than 2 million people are displaced can you imagine that happening to you your home's bombed demolished gone your kids have no home to go to I'm standing here with you obviously alive my kids my friends my neighbors my family the community and you all of you are alive more than 30,500 Palestinians are not alive they have been killed innocent young children parents families all killed in the last five months can you imagine if that were your child your parent your family your friend your neighbor how would you feel what state of mind would you be in right now now now the big question is what would you do if you were able to save them think about this what would you do if you were able to save them I'm hope I'm here hoping that you would understand the pain as if you were losing your loved ones going through something so devastating please help save lives save the children that are still alive the parents the families the friends the neighbors that are still alive please pass a resolution for a ceasefire for peace it is the right decision I know that you all have big hearts and would do what's right to save human lives our purpose as humans is to stand with Humanity it is our duty as living beings nothing nothing justifies the killing of innocent people you're doing what's right will give them a chance to live let's please stop the killing the suffering you our Council can be a part of Saving Lives and contributing to the Future safety for everyone in Gaza with a resolution for an immediate ceasefire thank you very much thank you we have no other members of the public signed up to speak motion to close public portion second oh I'm sorry yes sorry no no vote Joe it's always a struggle with this guy thank you uh Pavo sakov 12 in park 10e resident uh I'd like to speak on the msta petition that was recently circulated and spoken about a little earlier uh I think it's emblematic of a need uh to further look at our current rent Control Ordinance I think this is a side effect of the veto that happened a year ago and I appreciate Ron keeping this referendum away from our W elections to not kind of you know muddy the water so to speak but at the same time I think that if you look at what happening in New York City with housing affordability and clear evidence that many rent control apartments are not being renovated and being kept up the code because small landlords just don't see the value if they can ever recoup their at the same time here in Hoboken historic buildings are being torn down that are rank control and replaced with newer buildings that are not rank controlled in this way we're displacing a lot of our residents so while I'm not exactly 100% sure whether or not I support this current uh msta referendum I did sign the petition because I do want to see this explored I think there's a lot of nuance in such a way that we can a help our small uh landlord uh you know especially those who are older in a fixed income uh you know retain their Investments because as we've seen throughout the country uh large conglomerates are buying up single family housing and small family housing uh tearing them down and basically uh shifting Capital away from the middle class towards you know an owner portfolio class that's having really detrimental effects uh throughout the country uh so you know I like to say that uh it's definitely an issue that we need to keep an eye on on and I think what we have now isn't working otherwise we wouldn't be seeing the Fallout today thank you thank you boy just state your name please hi my name is Assaf packin thanks for giving me the time to speak uh I live on 15th in Washington in councilwoman Fishers District board and I I'm not a big talker so I don't like speaking in front of people and large crowds but I did feel compelled to speak today because of some of the words that I heard um I live in hoping boken with two young children and my wife uh last weekend we had some beautiful weather we played outside uh outside our building uh during that time we were unfortunate enough to be uh confronted with a few dozen people marching in from out of town chanting for things like an and a ceasefire and Palestine from The River To The Sea and I just wanted to speak a little bit about my personal experience there because I did also live in Israel like a previous speaker between the time of the first and second antifa so I know very well what those words mean and when I'm playing with my children and I have to be confronted by dozens of people coming in from out of town marching and demanding for a global antifa it's horrifying it really is horrifying I know what an antifa is I know what it sounds like the bombing of buzzes in the city that you live in and I just wanted to say thank you for the joint statement that you made for taking a stand in the side of democracy of actual freedom for people who believe in democracy and women's rights and rights for all people and against hamas's Insidious words that get repeated at these Council meetings as if they could make sense to someone who believes in America it's frankly the things that I've heard are appalling and uh I just mainly wanted to say thank you and I am really thankful that you took that joint statement because it did take courage and thank you for listening to my [Applause] words we have no other members of the mo the public signed up to speak motion to close public second all in favor I do we have ordinances up there for second reading right there no this is second again oh it does say second read it's not supposed to say this but that's okay one should just be the ordinances and then one should be resolutions it's fine two minutes we have yeah but we don't he agenda readinga I'm this um is anyone here signed up to speak on ordinances for second reading do you know which ones Manny if you could just tell me that number three or three 469 got it anyone else 3651 all right Jerry b647 okay we have a public hearing for b647 in ordinance amending the Redevelopment plan for the Northwest indust industrial Redevelopment area we have no members of the public signed up to speak motion to close public for motion all in favor I council members council president yes councilman uh thank you council president so uh this is a project where there was significant input from the neighborhood it's the former Water Music building at the corner of tenth and Madison uh it has been uh tied up in a bankruptcy which uh there had been significant discussion the community wanted the building that was initially proposed by the former developer to be one story lower uh it was made one story lower they wanted to shift the property so that it was at the 100% lot line to create more space for people who had balconies in the backyard so that the donut would be wider for them that was done uh out of uh a chapter 11 bankruptcy a new developer Rhino development came forward uh and has made proposals that uh that in many ways make this a better project for the neighboring buildings in particular there had been a ramp for a second level of parking uh where there was going to be a wall that was going to be higher up in the in the wall on the 10th Street side facing the neighboring properties uh that wall has been reduced by 4 feet 3 in because they're now using stackers instead of uh a ramp which makes for a Le a smaller profile on on the uh on the east on the on the eastern wall uh further uh to make the property more financially viable for the developer the commercial space was reduced from approximately 10,000 square fet to about 4400 Square F feet uh so there's additional parking there's additional uh units uh and there's a smaller commercial space it's the same envelope that the neighborhood wanted uh for this project uh and the project is moving forward uh we don't have a Redevelopment plan yet that will be coming forward I believe in the next council meeting director the negotiations are proceeding on that but uh this is a uh this is a project that I've I've been working with the neighborhood the conduit association's next door uh they understand it I think there are still looking director to see what the final agreement looks like uh from their perspective but the the feedback I've gotten is very positive I think uh they have flattened this property it had been uh a nuisance it had attracted everything from Lantern flies to uh rodents skunks you name it I got complaints about it and the city had had to send out uh uh notices to the management company to deal with it and they did uh now the property has been raised it's been flattened uh and it is ready for the next step so uh it's something that I think will be a plus for the neighborhood and uh hope that the council supports it thank you council president president yes councilman I just want to um point out that the the this amendment was reviewed by the planning board and voted with the professionals recommending and it was de deemed to be consistent with the master plan so I think it's as councilman Cohen was describing it's probably a better version than the last one so thank you thank you council president yes councilman I just wanted to point out one thing and and I'm fully supportive of this but in our discussion about the changes we we actually talked a little bit about the increased number of units and how that potentially could trigger maybe one additional units but under our current ordinance the formula is set a certain way where we weren't able to reap the benefit of that one extra affordable housing unit and again that one unit difference is not really going to make or break what we need in the city of Hoboken but it did bring up the point so that maybe in the future we could look at how the form formula is based for that 10% and maybe we can change the way we round the number of units to potentially add that one additional affordable housing in the next project that comes about so it's just a point that I wanted to make because it was a point that we talked about pretty significantly when we discussed this project and I just wanted to put it on everybody's table so I appreciate it thank you Council thank you please call the vote Mr lore okay for voting on B 647 councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle I councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman prano I councilman Cano I councilman Ramos hi councilman Russo hi president gitina yes okay we have a public hearing on b648 in ordinance of the city of Hoboken in the county of Hudson New Jersey amending chapter 193-20 water consumption charges Manny Rivera Solair and you did sign up really nicely thank you thank you council president again uh good evening to all uh I want to say before I ask my question thank you um to council man mcen and all the council members who spoke on um V uh 647 um it it is important to continue to have or increase um the affordable housing I did not speak on it because I was yesterday the planning board and I heard them speak about it but yeah we do need more affordable housing there's another Development coming um again asking for a little more is better than getting less um and my question here by the way also a little brief uh I I wanted to be clear and on the record that when I spoke earlier in my uh public comments and I spoke about the planning board and other boards nothing against any individual in that board it is not the board uh uh Personnel that I have an issue with is the way that um the codes are are are set up is is somewhat the problem because uh yeah I can go and plead for them not to knock down a building but if the the thing that's coming next and the professionals and the lawyers and the developers um cross the teas and dots the eyes then their hands are tied by law they have to do what is uh uh mandated to the boards and the commission so with that being said council president I just would like to ask on uh on this ordinance can uh Council can council president uh elaborate a little bit more on the amending part what part of the chapter um is being amended what exactly um is the um consumption change um it is is that an individual uh situation or it is a a a broader-based uh type of uh change uh it would behoove uh members of the public to know just what exactly the change is and will it affect um the smaller uh uh uh locations as as uh difference with the like big developments uh I don't know if you're following my question but anyway what is the actual change in that Amendment thank you council president are you back thank you we have no another members of the public signed up to speak motion to close public portion motion second all in favor I I council president and I councilman Cohen went through much of it but and there's a number of little details but the the principle change is that there was a essentially a twostory parking garage on top of the lowest floor and some of that parking was moved down to the the lowest floor and and there still is a second Story the previous ordinance you're on the previous ordinance oh I'm water consumption we're on water consump I was like wait what does this have to do with water consumption yeah that's fine I don't know I'm going to leave this for you rosan rosan Dana would say Saturday Su night right oh yeah uh this is this is amending to there's yeah it's for everyone I know you get Hall palpitations when you got to vote for development but relax this is about a twostory parking garage um no this is uh it's amending two pieces of the ordinance the first is just changing the fees for water use um at a temporary construction site sorry temporary meter at a for water at a construction site from $2,000 to $3,000 and then it then breaking down how much the cost for meter fees are for the first 0 to 90 days of the project and then $50 for each day after the project so it's just right sizing those costs as what the city gets charged thank you other council members Mr I was going to call you Mr finina Mr lore call the vote b648 councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle hi councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman president Zano hi Council Cano hi councilman Ramos hi councilman Russo hi council president gtino yes all right we got public hearing on b649 amendment to Hoban city code chapter 59a Department of Public Safety Article 4 division of fire at section 59 a-31 staff to increase the fire department table of organization Manny Rivera Solair council president previt previt means hello in Ukrainian uh I would like to um be brief on this one because I kind of did read it uh to an extent but um can you help members of the public understand this is for when it says staff it mean you're going to hire obviously more uh firefighters by the way I support completely uh let that be on the record but I we can members of the public know how many I believe I don't know if it was seven or six eight yep thank you see I almost had B uh so okay so then it's eight but uh so it is not anything like we spoke last time that I'm I'm sure a couple of council members remember we we're not also um giving raises or helping more other uh just hiring just hiring just hiring perfect more firefighters that that makes us feel safe thank you council president hope can firefighters correctly hope can firefighters I hope they live in hope and anyway I yield back thank you we have no other members of public signed up to speak motion to close public portion motion second all in favor I any council members I think it was answered but yes yeah I yeah and basically what this is is we are short on some of our apparatus we only have three members on the uh Pumpers and we should have four so we're actually increasing services to the town it makes it safer it protects us from some litigation as well we also have some retirements coming so it's a little pre-planning uh I think it's proactive on doing this because it allows us not to have big classes that are you know in retirement time 15 firefighters retire or 15 police retire you know you have enough to replace the flow and they can actually get some more training from the senior members so I think it's a really positive thing that we're doing here but ultimately this is to make the uh hobok and safer uh and then we have the right number of people on the trucks so that um when they show up for a fire an emergency uh everybody can do their job more efficiently yeah I'll just Echo what councilman preso said and uh add a little more detail uh currently at our current Staffing levels uh if if there's a call for service truck shows up to your apartment your house uh with typically three firefighters a captain and two firefighters when the national uh recommendation is four uh each has an assigned job and and right now how it's working is they have to split duties and one person's going to go in when maybe two people should go in and and they make a judgment call which is great thus far uh thus far it you know we haven't been negatively affected uh by that but you know we can't rely on being lucky so it's prudent that we increase this table of organization by eight will allow us to put four uh individuals on the trucks for all calls uh it's much safer for everyone it's safer for homeowners it's safer for our firefighters uh it's just the right thing to do so I'm hoping this passes 90 council president yes counc if I could just add you know we had a real scare here in Hoboken where because of the Staffing levels we were actually exploring losing our autonomy in our fire department that came to light this Council spoke very loudly to make sure that that didn't happen we made sure that Hoboken was going to maintain its own fire department and this is just to bring us to a minimum level so that we can make sure we have those State Standards enough firefighters on every truck every time it goes out but if if I had it my way and I could stop my fingers this would be 18 here tonight and we do another 18 next year because we need to make sure that not only our fire department but our police department has adequate Staffing so that this city stays safe at all times and at all costs so that's just my two cents I hope everyone will support it tonight thank you councilwoman Jabor thank you are you going to ask for 20 you should ask for 20 fire I'm not ask for 20 um without repeating things that have been said I just want to recognize and thank uh our director of Public Safety Ken Franti as well as Chief peskin um this has actually been a long time coming this has been a conversation um to reframe slightly some of the history there has been a number of different options that have been explored and some of those were received better than others um but I think moving this direction is prudent uh in light of some of the other progress that we've able to make under things like the safer Grant um to continue to be thoughtful about how we're building our Police Department keeping the Public Safety in mind but this didn't happen without a lot of work and so thank you so much to both our chief and our director for making this possible tonight and I hope it will be supported unanimously thank you councilman Cullen yeah just to Echo what councilwoman Jabor said uh this is something that has been a long time coming uh in in the way that the fire department is structured there has been a need with with respect to new firefighters for a long time uh and I'm happy to see this move forward I want to thank Public Safety for their efforts in this regard and again that as councilwoman Jor said this has been a long time coming so I'm glad that we're moving forward on this tonight thank you coun president councilwoman Fischer yeah um as uh someone who's been on the council for eight years we've we've talked about um expanding the table of organization a number of times and um really the the main reasons historic Ally is that we didn't support it was a combination of um not fully understanding what the Staffing what the need to have was versus nice to have at the same time balancing the real costs of adding um just additional payroll um whether it's firefighters police officers Etc um you know we're constantly battling the uh the tradeoff between any type of spending um in increased taxes and you know where do you draw that line and we can argue all day long that safety will will spend you know unlimited dollars for safety you know I think all of us up here if firefighters police officers all of our Public Safety came at were free um we double our table of organization uh across the board you know councilman Russo talks about adding 18 to 20 I think we'd all support that except you know at the end of the day when the budget's put in front of us and we're struggling to understand why we have a 6 7 10% tax increase um you know all of that gets uh weighed and and uh councilman Russo who will never support a tax increase um he uh you know we all get excited about saying we want to expand Public Safety as much as possible but the Practical reality is is we have to weigh these things so I definitely support it now but the long time coming we we had serious discussions about this um you know every single year I've been on the council this is my ninth year every single year up until this year we've had discussions about expanding our table of organization and and I think minimizing the efforts and the decisions that we made at the time are unfortunate notwithstanding I'm supportive of it tonight Mr lur call oh sorry I I just want not not favor of the table of organization increase but counc Russo spoke about it I spoken about it think we need to see uh Equity within the ranks and their their pay scales in their next contract I think that's extremely important I've seen it I I mentioned in the past that my union accepted a contract that I didn't vote for uh that had scales uh two different scales for various teachers and it didn't work out and we went back to a single scale where all teachers are treated uh equitably I like to see that uh here again that's a a big morale boost in my district and hopefully it can be the same here as well thank you thank you Mr L vote vote for b649 councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle hi councilman fiser yes yes councilwoman Jor yes council president Zano I Council Cano I councilman Ramos I Council Russo I council president gtino yes we have a public hearing for b650 in ordinance of the city of Hoboken authorizing the execution of the public access easement and park maintenance agreement between the city of Hoboken and AR at 151 Adam Street LC for property designated as block 130 Lots 1 through 32 more commonly known as 1500 Grand Street 1524 Grand Street and 1501 to 1531 Adam Street within the Northend Rehabilitation area Manny Rivera Solair once again council president a little Preamble I would like to say uh this is a phrase Slava Ukraine and there is a response that should be done if you sell if you speak to someone and you say Slava Ukraine if you're from the Ukraine and the response would be herim Slava both things mean Slava Ukraine means glory to Ukraine or Slava ukraini and herim Slava means glory to the heroes just a little uh FYI so that we could learn something this evening and uh moving along my question would be I have a little um not sure rather um the easement can members of uh can pardon me can Council um explain to members of the public a little bit more about the easement I'm not correctly sure I was again in a meeting yesterday but I don't believe as I read it again this this is for a a different section of Park maintenance um because yesterday there was a a project in being discussed in the planning board I don't believe it's this one but can members of the public uh get a little more understanding on what is the easement and what type of arrangement is the um uh maintenance uh who's going to who's going to pay the maintenance uh it would be in a simple way of asking the question so if um council president can elaborate or any member of the council just give us uh a little bit more detail on what is exactly the easement that you that you're agreeing to and the uh management of the the park thank you very much and uh I guess uh the proper thing would be to yield back by minutes so we can move this along thank you we have now other members of the public signed up to speak motion to close public portion motion second all in favor I councilman Cohen yes thank you council president uh this is for the uh Advanced POI project uh at our last council meeting we approved the resolution for a bicycle facilities maintenance agreement whereby the developers responsible for constructing and maintaining into perpetuity uh dual Lane bicycle path for the city it was unanimously approved his resolution this is an easement that requires an ordinance it is for the maintenance forever in perpetuity with respect to the linear Park and the prominade the linear Park uh is a u uh 11,680 square foot uh piece of land located between the northern and southern buildings uh the prominade is 6,000 square F feet between the southern building and 15th Street these are the two easan properties uh it's been negotiated by the city uh that these properties will forever be maintained and and the responsibility of construction Forever by the developer a significant give back to the community and uh because it is an easement it requires an ordinance which I hope that the council approves thank you council president thank you councilman other council members yes please Council thank you uh I missed the last council meeting unfortunately where we're voting on this project just want to make it a reminder that this was the site where a municipal uh referred to counc presid got excited by this the municipal Palace uh was slated uh to go to and now we're talking about easements for open space uh on that property so this was a a bigger big win for Hoboken the municipal Garage in a location in the furthest North you could get in our city uh a much better location this location would be in my mind my point of view which is why I fought so hard and others fought so hard to to fight for this site and where it should be and creating a neighborhood and now we're creating a neighborhood around neighbors as opposed to creating a neighborhood around the municipal complex the DPW garage and other things as well uh director Brown wasn't here last council meeting can you please just give us I just want to get on the record the on on the microphone the height of the building the building Heights please including uh DF and Mechanicals please excuse me Total light total height total height including design flood elevation and Mechanicals please yeah so this is site for in the north then Redevelopment area the um we call it advanc the yeah the Advan the advanced site on the POI site ADV the advanced project on the POI site um so from sidewalk to Elevation it's about 170 17 from side from sidewalk to I'm sorry from sidewalk to top of Mechanicals from Top top to the top of the bulkhead it's about 170 thank right thank you thank you councilman council president I just to answer the members of The public's question this is one block to the West as you know and you there was much discussion of the linear Park last night at the planning board and this is just the extension that goes west of the of the other and as councilman uh Cohen described in order to accept a an interest in land it's we're not they're not giving us the land but they're giving us a right to have certain access to the land that we have to give permission for the city to accept any interest in land so Dr Brown one one more time Dr Brown and the total number of units for the tire Block Please 360 oh I'm sorry I'll let director Brown come up in are you still talking about that total number of units on the site for 420 thank could have been a swimming pool mean something 420 4 420 right yes the community benefit payment $10 million yeah all go to the station any other questions well there you go all right thank you director very clean please call the vote Mr lore b650 councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle I councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman Pano I councilman cantero I councilman Ramos hi Council Russo hi council president gtino yes public portion Jim you heard him when he said 170 right that's why I said it Manny Rivera Solera on resolutions I'm still thinking about the parking spot it's two floors no more he didn't know he didn't write anything so let's just do needed my phone uh yes consent agenda wow a personal attention this evening for me it's um it's mind-blowing uh last week I was a little out of it uh as you remember I made it short and sweet but uh this week just because council member Ramos is back council president uh no thank you we have him not here you're not coming up no no no I love him too much so I want to start off here with consent agenda uh again congratulating um Elizabeth Falco and the doctor which name I cannot pronounce at this moment um but thanking them for uh their service to the city their Proclamation was last week uh I would like to see if um Council uh pencils up uh in climate action Innovation um it's very important can members of the public have information on ca1 ca3 ca4 ca5 ca4 and ca5 is just I am in favor of any grants that come uh that's just me in favor but C A3 um that right of way which is a a a little um uh important to know what right way what public right away are you agreeing to it would be very important to know um again in Community Development uh please um CD3 now in just from my friend over there uh corporate Council it's very important to understand and let members of the public know when these increases for um the attorney fees are being raised in this case I know how it works because I had it explained to me twice but members of the public like to know when you're increasing now is it in our budget that was um 2324 or is this going to be um tacked into budget 2425 um calendar budget uh or calendar year as you put it but um yeah the increases on that uh and again one is for General and then special councils these special councils can can anybody explain them um Finance uh just F1 F2 again that temporary um budget appropriation can uh members of the public have a little information to that is that because again you're still working on 23 calendar year budget can you explain that to members of the public on Parks and Recreation and Public Works P3 now I'm just going to go fast cuz time is going and I'm going to say in transportation and parking uh T2 um that one is that increase is um that increase of uh the this amount even though it's funded can members of the public understand is this close to the final pardon me final amount or is it uh you know going to be continual continually increased and then in of course introduction for first reading I just uh want to make mention of them um number three the bond uh again with bonding can you explain to members of the public um why do we need a bond for this specific ordinance or the amendment of this ordinance I guess it is I don't know if I'm following it yeah it's amending of the ordinance what are we amending and I guess I'll leave the last one for next week uh thank you council president and my last minute or two I just again would like to say I need my my uh phone here uh this is another uh expression that I have to say um last week or so a tragedy was made uh was done um for freedom and Justice around the world and I just like to say this is on agenda items agenda other members the public if I don't allow them to speak thank you madam council president I appreciate it but you know what I was going to say and it has nothing to do with what was spoken before uh just going to say his name Alex Alex Naval thank you council president thank you we have no other members signed up to speak on resolutions motion to close public portion motion second all in favor I consent agenda council members on consent agenda I'm pulling cl2 ca3 would you say cl2 and uh I'm sorry which one ca3 and then claims just for a vote F1 and F4 uh1 and what one and four A1 anyone else Mr lore please call the vote on everything except A1 ca3 cl2 F1 and F4 and claims oh sorry and claims okay for consent councilman Cohen I councilman doy I councilman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman prano hi councilman Cano hi councilman Ramos hi councilman Russo hi and council president Gino yes okay A1 claims claims uh just uh just call a vote I just have a no on one of them okay well just give him the one you have the no on oh well no he has still call no so we can write it down oh yeah 23- z799 what was it I'm voting no on that just wants toe oh I'm sorry I am abstaining abstain sorry no problem okay uh A1 call the vote Yes Yes uh on claims claims names okay councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle councilwoman fiser yes accept abstain on the one 23- z799 councilman Jabor yes councilman penano I councilman cantero hi councilman Ramos hi councilman Russo hi council president gtino yes A1 resolution awarding a professional service contract to Greenman Pearson Incorporated in the amount not to exceed $75,000 for a rebuild by design engineering opinion for a term from February 21st to May 21st 2024 to be funded by ARP councilman pres Zano yeah I wanted to uh thank um Caleb and uh director Freeman for providing us with the requests that we had for S stuff and writing thank you very much um I'm comfortable with this now um thank you for working on us working with us on that I just want you to understand that where I was and what I've gone through in life is that I could take people's words for things but unfortunately there's a lot of times that I've seen in my life that sometimes people's words don't always hold true and when there's a chance that something might be uh questionable it's always good to get into writing so I thank you again for guys doing that and uh the administration thank you yeah counc Ras yeah I Echo council president zal's words appreciate it uh we want to make sure this this project is extremely important for all of us throughout the city and we just want to make sure we dotted our eyes and Crossing all R te's to ensure that hobooken residents wouldn't be uh as as mayor phlip said paying for the additional cost was his expectation of it as far as the Light Rail Project portion of this goes so we feel more comfortable with what we read today we're going receive the the emails with the documents much more comfortable moving forward with this project with this portion of this study thank you thank you councilman Council yes Council just a quick comment uh we've been working on rebuild by design for a decade or more uh director stratton's been working very hard on it we have an excellent working relationship when I say we the administration with this with the state D on these issues and our committee meeting when we were talking about whether we get a writing or not it was the same day director Freeman director uh Stratton and our business administrator uh Jason Freeman were in Trenton having discussions that day about these issues these are issues that are taken extremely seriously it relates to the long-term resiliency of our community the city and our this council is fully invested in those issues uh and I had full faith that we this was going forward that this will be a useful $75,000 expense which will move the ball forward uh before we had the writing I felt good about it I have I'm F that we have the writing now now but I think it's important to reaffirm that the city and the mayor uh are working really hard on this issue and are truly committed to its success and this Council has voted to have this done on an expedited basis uh and uh the administration and the state has responded positively to those uh to desire of the council to move forward and I'm looking forward to moving forward unanimously on this tonight thank you council president did the D provide a letter today did I I saw a letter from the administration the it was the second one next it was an email that copied cced everybody and everybody said so I'm just because yesterday at our meeting it was like no way would the D ever provide a letter we can't get one how are you able to get one which I'm very happy that you did we asked initially initially they had said no initially I'm glad that's so funny Council it is no what were you going to say initially you're were going to say something initially something there's a number of people who work on these things so the people that we ask don't are not always comfortable giving the answer that they're not privy to give so in that moment when we were down there and we spoke about this the answer was no we had further conversations today as we continue to try to delve into this understanding the dynamic of the request from the city council the request from people not in this room and understanding what we were what we needed to move this forward and they put it in an email I don't think it was anything more than just recognizing that we're doing this work they think it's positive it's an email it's it's not like on letterhead or anything like that so that's why I couldn't find it um but no I appreciate that they put something in writing because I know that makes several members of the council council president I would in our meeting I think the message we got was that it was not clear that that writing was forth coming and I don't think that there was going to be any representation that we could rely that that would be there it we the writing did come uh but I do think that the point in the committee was that there could be no representation that we could rely on our council meeting tonight of having that writing and I don't think they were comfortable making that representation it it came through but as I said I I was comfortable based on where we were voting for it yesterday and I'm just as comfortable today and my interpretation in that meeting was the D will not give us anything in writing that's exactly what was said and I actually believed them and argued the fact why the D wouldn't give anything in writing after that but I'm glad I was proven wrong so thank you again Mr lore call the vote A1 councilman Cohen hi councilman doy hi councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman Pano I councilman Cano I councilman raym mo hi councilman Russo hi council president gatino yes ca3 resolution authorizing the execution of a fifth amendment to a non-exclusive RightWay use agreement between the city of Hoboken and the New York smsa limited partnership Verizon Wireless who P I did oh is this the this is the for those unaware I am the committee of one for five G polls in Hoboken and have been for years um and it's fine like we what it is my sentence it is uh my Penance but I it's I it's something that is important to me because um if we don't kind of have a group really focused on where 5G polls go in Hoboken um as we learned when this process started five or six years ago um it was really being led by the telecom companies and now I think um the city has developed a great relationship ship with all of the telecom companies um that are installing these 5G poles and we've learned a lot um along the way uh no one wants more polls on our sidewalks and all we try to do is identify the least offensive location possible um what's before the committee um now is uh 5G polls on the waterfront which is has been very controversial and trying to figure out how do we how do we do that on our beautiful Waterfront but what is before us with this tonight and the reason why I pulled it is um this is a unique situation where we've had and it's not really written in here but where um we have someone who bought a home that had a 5G pole in front of their home and doesn't want it there anymore and so what this is is um they asked they're willing to pay out of pocket a very large dollar amount to Verizon to move the pole that is offensive to their property um they're actually not moving the poll they're going to move the 5G to another pole in front of a different property and I have a problem with that I just think that um that is a terrible precedent to set to basically say um to anyone if you have enough money you can move a utility poll right and you can move it and and shift the burden to um someone else um in front of someone else the city is not making any money on this this is a an agreement between the homeowner um and Verizon um and I personally can't support it uh we spent a lot of time on it um but I just don't I think it's a terrible precedent and a terrible message that we want to give to people in the community and as someone um mentioned on our um subcommittee meeting about this um they Verizon has the right to put them basically where they want we we if we were to go to court on this and they were to sue us we would lose that lawsuit but it doesn't mean that we necessarily have to as a city council endorse this type of action so I'm a no um I definitely want my name removed as sponsor irrespective of this um I hope that my you know every everyone can make their own decision but I just wanted to walk through this because it it when you read and we scan over all of these you can't really tell that that's the situation with this this is an amendment to an existing rightaway agreement where we just add new polls Etc to and um and I just think it was an important kind of policy Phil philosophy point to raise so counc yes councilman director Freeman is not that I don't trust you but is is that pretty accurate in in in the summation of of what this is this is doing is this moving moving exactly moving one of those 5gs to a different place because somebody reached out and said I'll pay to have it done essentially and it's not I don't want to fault the person for asking you know as as we just talked before you don't ask you don't get right I absolutely 100% agree with you councilwoman I I will absolutely not support this because if this happened to a resident down in the Housing Authority would they move it because they couldn't afford to do it I I absolutely agree with you I am not even I'm sorry D but it's not even just a member the housing authori could be any right originally to be fair um we spent a lot of time originally it was literally moving the pole from one location to another location we elevated that um our our uh Olga Garcia our uh engineer we talked about it neither one of us were comfortable we elevated it to the mayor and even the mayor was like Winsted at it like that doesn't seem right so this this was was just moving the in the 5G box to another existing poll so the existing po no the pole pulls down but I just want to say that a lot of people worked on trying to figure out what to do here and it it moved to a better situation just still notc president yes Council I'm I'm not going to disagree with what you've said um but I'm concerned that if we've facilitated this solution Essen whether you approved of it or not we were using resources in terms of meeting with Olga and this being sort of vetted is there a risk of litigation at this point if this is the stage at which suddenly we don't approve of that and maybe that's a question for Mr aloya because I'm not clear what conversations were had that preceded this ending up as a resolution on the council agenda there's always a potential for litigation but in this case anything that becomes before the council you have the right to vote your minds so I wouldn't be concerned about litigation because you want how do I know an assertion wasn't made somewhere along the way that well of course we'll get this done of course you know were they clear about the process and in terms of our ability to have a say as the last step in their process yeah as the I I mean I wasn't on every single conversation first of all the financial Arrangement was between the property owner and Verizon directly so that was never we were never part of that that was an agreement um we do have Council that drafted uh this resolution I and all of I I think I was on three conversations about this and again I'm a committee of one it's like me and Olga and um Fran McManaman um every time I've said I am not going to be able to support this and every time we had a conversation about it will go to the council but I at least said like I and even even Olga I don't know where they got to and I wasn't on all the conversations but but when we had our like group discussion I I from the very beginning even as I mentioned we in conversation we said go back to the mayor because I don't think this is what the mayor was thinking and he came back and he you know he agreed so we've we've always gone into this with hesitation and I've let them know that I would raise it at the council so I don't think they went into this thinking 100% they at least they heard from me that I would talk about it it's just helpful context to know kind what the tone of that back and forth has been since we weren't all party to that thank you council president I just had a question I'm sorry I was just we have utility Council on this who obviously is not here tonight I don't know of any urgency as to why this has to be voted on this evening so if it if the council would like more clarification from utility Council on this it would probably be prudent to get the answer as to what happens if it is not approved because I do think there is partially as councilman Fischer had referenced there's a a level of deference that the utility companies have provided the city to play a part in this but ultimately by law we have very little say so I don't know what I personally do not know what actions we could or could not undertake on this so it might be helpful to carry it and and talk to FR I'm I'm council president yes councilman I just have one question about this so the location is going I believe from 720 Garden to 800 Garden it is and so my the one question I had and again I've had no exposure to what you've been going through but having a 5G pole in the middle of a block like Garden Street versus having it on the corner of Athan Garden is there any advantage SE separate and apart from the philosophical questions about whether someone should be able to pay to have a pole move one having of having a 5G location on the corner rather than in the middle of of a residential block so two things um to one important both important uh this poll when we when I walk around with them we always always choose locations that are on property lines or 98% of the time right we we try to make them not in front of a stoop not in front of a door I we stand there and look around which side of the street I mean it's an awful conversation to have because no matter what we're putting a new poll on a sidewalk right and no one wants these but we try to this one the what we approved and this was a few years ago um was not this location it was actually on the property line this is like in front of the house so by the time it came to the council so they went in and there is you know they'll they'll say this is a location from a radio frequency standpoint but when they get there if they if there are conflicts that they didn't weren't aware of they may want to move it a couple feet we've yeah underground utilities they may want to move at a couple feet we've since corrected that where they have to come back to us if any of them move even a foot right and this has been a four or fiveyear process so this one got moved it was one of the original approvals it got installed at this location that is more in front of um in front of the um the house and um and it got installed so by the time it came to the council the coordin coordinates got moved and we just weren't aware we they didn't tell us that they moved at 3T you know however many years ago but another important fact is the homeowners bought this house after it was installed so they bought the house with this pole in front of it they didn't they didn't own the house when it was installed um so they bought it knowing that the um poll would be there but to your point um when we walk around I mean it's so you know I I know way more than you guys know but on a scale of 1 to 100 if you guys know one I know three right we talk about the radio frequencies they're like we need to be in this location versus you know midblock because of all the radio frequencies we need to be able to reach people yeah all the locations so there it's like a grid it's like this Matrix but in theory in this conversation we did say isn't it better to have it add an intersection so that was the positive um I don't know that the property owner at 800's been told right like you're were shifting I don't know the fact if they've been told so we're moving a 5G from in front of one property and not withstanding the intersection is a better location we're moving it to put it in front of another and we haven't told that but but I guess to my question is it is there an advantage to having having the pole at an intersection as opposed to Mid I don't know that it's a it's not I wait it's not let me just are we going to be removing this does yes so it's removed from the agenda if you could provide us with information yeah got it thank you thank you aesthetic meaning I will say though I just don't know how anyone can be okay with someone paying to move a utility pole in front of their house when other people can't for to do that because I had a lot of complaints when they went up originally and people would have loved to just move it to the corner that is me do a motion to table or no too no it just gets just gets moved carried just gets carried yeah okay we just did C3 right oh no I changed it to alphabetical I can find things Okay cl2 resolution proclaiming March 9th 2024 is kick kids cancer and celebrate life day in the city of Hoboken um oh my God I have to look it up really quick just so I remember if it was at I think it's at Northern Soul Northern Soul on the 9th um yes Saturday 7001 street from March 9th from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. it's a really great organization they raise money for um CH children's cancers research you can have your head shaved or not but and don't Reuben too late Ruben and Mike should definitely go um but I hope a lot of you can make it March 9th Northern soul 3: to 7:00 p.m. thank you call vote cl2 councilman Cohen I councilman Doyle I councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman prano I councilman cantero I councilman Ramos hi councilman Russo hi council president gtino yes F1 resolution authorizing transfers between appropriation reserves Council Russo m Russo thank you uh director just quick uh overview sure so this is moving no new money this is moving $45,000 from oow from the city engineer and $7,000 from o from the revenue and finance department to the taking that 52,000 and 30,000 of it is going to police o 15,000 is going to Senior Services o and 7,000 is going to Historic preservation thank you can I yep um the 15,000 that's going to seniors is that like additional funds for seniors or is that one of those we have to move the money because we didn't get the money from the county and if it is additional are we going to see that additional funding in next year's budget sure so the the short answer is yes to both I mean sorry yes to the second one the first answer the first question you asked this not related to a grant um this is new money um we continue to peel back a number of different layers to the previous budgeting strategies of the former head of this department and run into a number of issues as how Money's been kind of carried over where it's been used from so when done correctly this is allowed us to actually get real numbers um to recognize actual expenses versus pulling from trusts from other divisions and things like that okay thanks M Mr REO oh I'm sorry that's going to be a really hard one to get undo ever resolution F1 councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle hi councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman prano hi councilman cantero I councilman Ramos councilman Russo hi and council president Gino yes4 resolution authorizing temporary Appropriations councilman res thank you director again yep uh so this is a temporary budget that will get us through April um it includes two payrolls one full months of OE and one full pension payment the thought is that we will be introducing a budget in the first meeting in April and hopefully adopting by the first meeting in May that's where I was going thank you thank you councilman Mr lore call the vote aore F4 councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle hi councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman prano I councilman cantero I councilman Ramos I councilman Russo I council president gtino yes ordinances right so we have an ordinance for first reading an ordinance to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limits and to establish a c bank njsa 44-454 please call the vote Mr lore councilman Cohen hi councilman Dy hi councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman prano I councilman cantero I councilman Ramos I councilman Russo no council president gtino yes okay ordinance number two for first reading ordinance amending chapter 192 entitled parking for persons with disabilities to relocate a reserved parking disabled parking space from Second Street to Willow Avenue please call the vote Mr Laur councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle I councilwoman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman pres Zano I councilman cantero I councilman Ramos I councilman Russo I and council president gtino yes okay ordinance number three for first reading ordinance amending Bond ordinance B- 551 of the city of Hoboken County of Hudson New Jersey please call the vote Mr la councilman Cohen I councilman Doyle I councilwoman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman pres Zano I councilman cantero I councilman Ramos I councilman Russo no council president Gino yes the final ordinance for first reading number four amendment to chapter 168 streets and sidewalks at Article 5 currently reserved regarding certain electronic or motorized bicycles and scooters used for E deliveries have in order to promote improved sidewalk and Street safety I believe councilman pres Zano is making there's a revised copy right yeah the revise copy what we discussed the working group is that we've uh it wasn't what we discussed just over here actually we had another one that we had written up that it identifies more of the so it says commercial uh e delivery so that that was something it's just a one yep it's literally it just follow no it just follows through the whole the whole ordinance we identified a problem and talking in the work I just want to make sure it's on the record because it is an ordinance yeah just read whatever you're read the actual no no no it's there it said everywhere basically it says e delivery like 10 times now you inserted the word commercial in front of e delivery all the way you're resent taking so every e delivery now commercialy everywhere it that's basically the only change commercial commercial commercial commercial so wherever it says e delivery it commercial delivery so that if you're a resident taking or takeout and you're on an ebike you don't have to wear a vest and comply with having registration thank you Mr finina call the vote you Mr finina oh sorry Jesus okay okay for the last first reading ordance number four it's always Mr finina councilman Cohen no councilman Doyle no councilman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman penano I councilman cantero no councilman Ros hi councilman Russo hi council president gtino yes okay that is all the business motion close wait no I wait I you have one thing I have one thing councilman Ramos uh me first okay yeah why not do you first no that's fine there's a uh I thought you could leave Southwest study Southwest Traffic uh meeting tomorrow that the Count's conduct conducting with the city of Hoboken it's via Zoom uh you could please uh access the meeting via the County website or the city of Hoboken website and it's the third phase of the Southwest uh traffic pattern uh changes which also consists of the new 16 uh traffic signals we going be putting throughout Southwest Hoboken and Southern Hoboken and into Jersey City that will coordinate all the traffic signal 16 traffic signals new in that qu additional uh well both existing uh and additional 16 16 or 18 total I apologize not knowing the exact number thank you and f y and uh I asked the county to move that meeting because already scheduled a rebuild by Design meeting uh for the North End um same exact time from 6:00 to 7: it's actually going to be in person um and the good news it's the northeast corner versus the Southwest so hopefully not as not as much of an overlap but yeah no I know I asked the county and they couldn't move it uh but it is um it's a community meeting um it really is just a reintroduction of the rebuild by design project to the North End component um to the neighbors Caleb uh Stratton our director of resiliency or head of resiliency is going to be there and really just kind of reintroduce it to the neighborhood there's um they started construction they've ripped out a lot of mature trees and we just very quickly realize that there's a lot of people that live in the area that haven't been here for the last you know 10 years we've been working on it some of them move three years ago so it's going to be an overview answer some questions but one specific thing we are revisiting the color uh chosen for the urban um landscape structure uh it was a goldfinch yellow that uh a lot of people are unhappy about so we're just going to um have a discussion about that so I encourage everyone to come um it'll be I'm sure the 1st of May just as the construction continues um over the next 3 years so it oh sorry it's at allean Charter uh 14501 1460 um Garden Street uh it's in the gym uh that is shared by Le leion Charter and park and Garden at 6m thank you sorry thank you council president uh another meeting uh Tuesday Morning March 12th from 800 to 9:30 at Anthony Davids at 953 Bloomfield Street I'll be hosting coffee with Cohen with uh director of parks Recreations and Public Works Diana vas answer your questions about those issues and uh hope that you join me for uh for my uh March uh office hours thank you council president thank you Council thank you council president I just wanted to provide an update on the recreation program um two of the contracts that we had on the agenda tonight were actually to add additional um slots to our instructional baseball/softball programs um so you may have seen an announcement went out that on Monday this coming Monday March 11th at 5:00 we will be reopening registration for those programs they were capped and unfortunately the wait lists were closed off and so even the weit lists were capped the problem with that is that we weren't able to get a good count then on how many people really are interested in our Recreation programs and until we really know what the true demand is we don't know what our program levels should look like to make sure we're meeting the needs of the community so what's great about what was on the agenda tonight is that it allows us to accommodate the additional slots for the people who are on the existing weight lists they are being contacted this week by the recreation department to make sure they're still interested to the extent that people don't want to participate when the wait lists then reopen this Monday will'll be able to hopefully accommodate a few additional people um and I really appreciate the efforts that were made by director Gonzalez director vus um and the administration to make this possible um there's just we're not meeting the needs of the community in terms of how much interest there is um there's also a new program for lacrosse that's being started um a local mom has stood this up by advocating um and her interest in this and working with the recreation department in the city and that registration will open on Tuesday March 12th at 5:00 so thank you very much and I appreciate um that the city is being responsive to this Council uh yeah thank you council president um I just wanted to give an update on the E delivery working group that we had yesterday and I'll Echo the comments uh of Mr Davis uh that it was a pretty productive meeting frankly uh very heartened to see everyone who was invited uh attend we had an open and Frank discussion no one held back but we were all respectful and we left you know colleagues um I think what struck me was that there is a lot that we agree on generally we focused uh that this one we all had the share goal that we want safer sidewalks for the city of Hoboken we also identified that really there's four elements in how we get there uh focusing on visibility so we can see uh ebike Riders uh education so they know the rules and we know the rules accountability and that's identification and enforcement uh and then also uh infrastructure improvements uh we agreed that some of these are easier to solve than others namely the visibility and education aspect are things that we think you know we we all really agree on you get stickier once we start talking about the accountability and registration and how we get there um won't focus on the vote for tonight but we all agree to continue to work on this over the next weeks months and we don't want this to drag on uh we want to have concrete concrete resolution one way or the other uh in the short term because our residents deserve it they're asking for it and we're going to deliver it so thank you again to everybody who joined thank you councilman councilman Russo um I wanted to also mention earlier that there is a celebration of Aaron lt's life on Saturday at the Hoboken Community Church at 600 Garden from 11:00 a.m. to 2: p.m. so everyone is welcome I think it'll be a really beautiful event believe it's 11: to one it's to two now oh okay we we had a meeting on the way here that's good to know okay um and also Angelo's Seafood who we've all been watching for two years um after Jeff from stingray's devotion and patience of two years of trying to open it I just want to say thank you to him for that but yes it is opening tomorrow uh noon to 7 so I hope everyone's 6 I'm going to say 626 Washington um super exciting a great addition to the Sixth Ward and with that motion to close motion favor I can I check in with you after that meeting tomorrow I'd love to hear how it goes with the county about Southwest yes oh who are you guys doing with