uh I'm just going to pull that Jerry I'm removing the garbage carrying garbage to the next meeting because I'm just going to make some changes where is it what number is it scale yeaha I'm GNA oh you're done rose rose just make sure you see at the top of all of those what they're for about a lot yeah today oh my god do we have the um HHA tonight too nothing so we don't need them all thank are we good all right get agressive could everyone either lower your V well actually hello hello we're going to start the meeting now so if you could all silence yourselves and your phones that would be appreciated I would like to advise all those present that notice of this meeting has been provided to the public in accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting act that notice was published in the Jersey Journal City website copies were provided in the record norstar Ledger also placed on a Bolton board in the lobby of City Hall objections if any shall be made to the city clerk please rise to salute the flag Mr con here Mr Doyle president fiser yes Mrs jaor Mr Pano present Mr Cano pres Mr Ramos president here yeah no no yeah we're amending it it's been amended um we're actually going to just suspend the agenda and do the resolution authorizing the calendar year 2024 Municipal budget to be read by title only okay Mr finina do we have we have to open the public hearing no we have to vote on this first this first the public hearing what are we open public you open opening the budget open the budget hearing not Clos call the vote Mr voting on F F1 Mr con hi Mr Doyle hi Mr Fisher yes Mr jaor yes Mr prano I Mr Cano I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I president gtino yes so now the public hearing public hearing do we have anyone signed up to speak I doubt it no we have no members of the public signed up to speak motion excuse me I'm sorry is that about this no it's about the budget budget motion to close the public hearing open hearing motion second not closing it we're closing it no that's what I just did we opened it and now closing it motion to close we had a first let me understand it out so we're going to open the the public for the for the mo I'm sorry for the budget and then we're going to close it but we're not voting on any budget correct we always do that correct are we going to have the ab umit I just want to ask we have the ability to open up public discussion again when we present we present any other I want to know and the final thank you only opportunity call the vote oh all in favor I I I okay one down uh public hearing to discuss plans uh for a sculpture of the river that flows two ways at PC an authorizing action by the administration the effectuate the project pursuing to chapter 56a of the Hoboken city code we have any Annie I think we're going to have Annie present and are you going to be doing the presenting yes I'm just so I just want to just really quickly there's going to be three projects that are discussed today there's no vote being taken this is just the the process of the public hearing and will discuss all three there can be conversation but there's nothing being voted on tonight and you're going to just discuss all three in order so that she will also be discussing uh Marsha Johnson at Stevens Park sculpture and amural at City Hall yes welcome hi thank you welcome can you all hear me okay yes great uh good evening council president and members of the council I am honored to be here in my new capacity as the public art plan administrator for Hoboken and to present these three proposals for public art in our city which are recommended by hoboken's Arts Advisory Board hoken and Waterfront this artwork will provide color and visual excitement to our Civic space I'm GNA move forward in my notes hold on just a sec bless bless you the photo mural will be a record of our Waterfront the Hoboken waterfront is Iconic it is priced and valued at $1,600 for more statement of reasons the useful life this mural will have a long life indoors the quality of the proposed artwork Jason Saget is an experienced art director with a degree in photography and digital art the relationship to the surrounding area this mural will complement the main hallway and the stairway of City Hall and the unique and Innovative aspects of the artwork the most mic texture of the art encourages thoughtful contemplation from viewers and reflects the complexity of the city the next proposed piece of art is the Marsha P Johnson Memorial by Alvin pedit Alvin Pettit is a Jersey City based artist who specializes in representative sculptures his work is featured in Jersey City and he was recently recently selected to create the official Harriet Tubman Monument for the city of Philadelphia some design examples the proposed concept design for Marsha P Johnson the image for the final design and concept for this Monument is still underway uh Pettit is engaging with local members of the community and family members and people who knew Mara personally to uh help create this work of art Marsha was a revolutionary a Pioneer a social activist a change maker with deep connections to Hoboken the location will be Stevens Park the northwest corner for the statement of reasons the contribu tion and meaningfulness to the Hoboken Community a fierceless transgender Youth and Advocate to destigmatize HIV AIDS Marsha chose Hoboken as her home for the final 12 years of her life historical re relevance Mara P Johnson played a pivotal role in both the Stonewall Rebellion the Gay Liberation movement and the AIDS protest movement the relevance to a prominent Hoboken figure or establishment Marsha chose Hoboken as her home she lived at Marine View Plaza with her friend Randy wicker and found solace at Saints Peter and Paul Church the price and value of this is $250,000 statement of reasons the useful life this piece is cast in bronze and it will ensure a long and useful life pedit has made several long-standing sculptures in bronze including the uh aforementioned sculpture of Harriet Tubman the relationship to the surrounding area placing this sculpture of Mara Johnson at Stevens Park steps from where she spent her last 12 years is a unique way to honor her very courageous and exemplary life the unique and Innovative aspects of the artwork there's no comparative bronze to Mara P Johnson anywhere else which adds value to the proposal as a celebr of an unsung hero and to reiterate there's no comparative bronze to this civil rights icon anywhere else the value oh excuse me the value is estimated as $250,000 the last work of art that we are presenting is called the river that flows to Ways by harka dat maang har kadat maang is a dutch-based artist who specializes in large- scale sculptures featuring biological forms her work has been featured in Mexico City and the Netherlands durability there's a lot of words on this slide so I'm just going to read um I'll let you read it and I will read along is engineered to withstand category for hurricanes stainless steel can last for decades and is commonly used in high ing environments similar to the Hudson River Glass can last more than 100 years maintenance the gloss polish is resistant to Salt acid and dirt adhesion it can be maintained with a high- press water C cleaner clean cleaning every two years Parks Personnel would remove any small debris during routine daily maintenance design example proposed design concept the stainless steel arch of glass and steel molded into droplet shapes the arch will Echo the tidal EB and flow of the river the various organic shapes reflect light and invite contemplation of nature nature the location will be Pier C Park in staggered arches statement of reasons contribution and meaningfulness to the Hoboken Community the work will enhance the waterfronts vistas historical re relevance the art references the environmental importance of the Hudson River relevance to a prominent Hoboken figure or establishment this art will add to the beauty of the Waterfront the price and value is $500,000 statement of reasons useful life chain has extensive experience building a durable outdoor sculptures quality of the proposed artwork the aesthetic quality of this work is lyrical relationship to the surrounding area the organic glass shapes in the art resemble water droplets waveforms and marine life unique and Innovative aspect of the artwork designed specifically for pure sea there's nothing like this piece anywhere in the world thank you thank you very much question do you want to ask questions before the public does yeah yeah uh Corporation Council there's no reason I have to do the public hearing portion before the council asks questions correct that's normally the order but there's no legal reason you can do other way all right any council members that would like Annie do you want to come back up thank you not sure she's the maybe you can come oh it might be easier yeah Council yep I want to thank you for the presentation nice to meet you um happy that you're here we're happy to have someone with uh with experience in this this that I think when we voted on having an art plan um I think the only reason why we supported an art plan was actually having an art administrator whether or not we were paying a salary but just having like an organized approach um to um public art and I know we have plenty of money the question I have is the how are the locations of the two statues determined was it determined by the city like what was the RFP and you may not I don't think you were here for the RFP I was there's one Statue it was what there's only one Statue the sculptures there a statue and a sculpture it doesn't matter there both physical art installations in two places in hoken was it the artist decided where it would be and or was it the city like did we say we very specifically want to have a sculpture on pure SE and we very specifically wanted a sculpture in um in uh Stevens park or was it a oh here we'd like to do this art and this is where we'd like to put it I wasn't here for the process um I can defer to Jason or Liz for that or Caleb yeah so in the public arts master plan there was more of corridors areas specific locations not sites where public art was appropriate so it was more aspirational than it was specific I don't know if that so the sorry the the response from we basically said here are a number of locations where art can be or these are like essentially different blank canvases across the city and artists would respond with their art in one of those specific locations okay thanks council president yes councilman so I have have a question on the one on Pier C uh the sculpture there there's two concerns that I Believe Miss Cohen had actually reached out to the artist for me and it asked some questions and the artist expressed some concerns that I had and mine was more on one liability because I've seen living close there I've seen people sit on the top or you know make some choices that may not be good to jump in the river uh and I see that two of The Arches are sitting very close and I I was curious from a liability standpoint have they looked at anything that would stop something like that happening because the railings are tough to to get over right now however if we have a piece where you can grab onto you can Traverse that railing so it's a we it's a it's a more of an insurance question and then also on the art that's sitting above uh while it can withstand everything I mean I've seen things in my home that's guaranteed for X number of years and it breaks within a year uh what about the liability if one of those glass pieces fell when somebody was underneath it because we do get a lot of traffic in there uh has that been addressed at all uh from that perspective yeah I I don't know who council president do you want the liability answer from the legal you have it well I don't have the liability answer as far as we've done no analysis of the artwork but you know we're immune from certain things so we have um certain protections and this you know liability from somebody climbing on an artwork or whatever would be just like someone climbing on City Hall so not that it's not a concern but it should be put in as safely as possible but it's not a concern where we do have insurance we're covered for these type of things when we own our property okay thank you one more so the painting or the SC um mural mural sorry the mural will go outside in City Hall correct yes you do know that people the public cannot access City Hall you need an appointment to get into this building so why would we select that place to put a piece of artwork that I I really appreciate some of the stuff that the artists had done but do you know that you have to make an appointment to get into City Hall a citizen who makes an appointment is still experiencing public art in City Hall and it's would still be beautiful so I it's still the public okay we might disagree on that one because if it's only for one group that makes an appointment that's not for everybody but that's we can we can disagree on that council president can I just City Hall is not close to the public council president Zano has been told that over and over again his opinion is his opinion but the fact that City through the uh director Freeman if you can't walk through the front doors uninhibited without that that's not open I'm sorry you councilman did everyone tonight make an appointment to be here no but that's only on council meeting nights cuz I can tell you all until this January if I didn't have an appointment at City Hall they would not let me in so there is truth to that in the planning board and the zoning board and the historic preservation board I mean you there are more than one exemp one exception yes for for public meetings you're allowed in but until this January if I did not have an appointment I was not allowed in um council president sorry question yes it's not nothing to change the subject um please change the subject with respect to the sculpture on Pierce see um some folks use that here for recreation fishing or whatnot is there any indication that this would interfere with any of that at all not to my knowledge okay any other council members y yes um for the sculpture on pure C there wasn't a useful lifespan do you know what that is I believe believe the public art plan must the art that we put in the public must have a useful life of at least five years but this would have a much longer life than that being made of glass and steel okay yeah I just asked because it wasn't up there I appreciate it thank you I just a another I guess comment on the um the location when we passed the art plan we actually didn't approve location what we approved was there was like an outline of locations across the city is a starting point but the whole idea was to bring you in to bring in a consultant in and put a an actual plan in place that was well thought out not random you know like was thoughtful about the type of art we wanted maybe themes Etc where it could be and we would ultimately review and approve in the future so my understanding is this and we've had this a this conversation um in our committee was this this process started before you came it was based on High level ideas of where it could go and it was really the artists that decided where they wanted to put their art in our town and I have a I have an issue with that especially for p c i I'm I'm less concerned about you know for all of the emails that we got because someone told us that that the the city council might not support the one in Stevens Park which couldn't be further from the truth truth um it's more just that we didn't have that strategic path this was a check your check the box we followed the plan um and we send an RFP out and I think a lot of people are really struggling with the one on purec in particular because it doesn't feel consistent with um the the pier itself or Hoboken or anything like we don't even know where it would have come from not everyone feels that way I'm sure there's people that may like it but I'd say 98% of the emails that we got were against that location and having a large structure on it is that an opinion or were you ask question it's an opinion we get to ask questions and give an opinion I'm excited about the future of this and the next go around um that hopefully you will be able to be more we can all be more thoughtful about how we want to approach art here um and just thinking through if there are themes you know Etc and and how it best connects with our community I don't think the one on pierc does oh there's three pages council president one one last time so one other question um as I was doing my research on this I reached out first thing when I saw it was fun for better Waterfront because they have some very good knowledge on on the waterfront itself um and then I also found out I was speaking with uh Hudson River Waterfront Conservatory uh or C yeah Conservancy um and in discussions with both of them they were a little bit oblivious to it uh I had alerted them of this and then in some discussions uh not so much with fun better Waterfront but Don from the other one uh had said that Jersey City had work with them quite extensively when they did stuff on their Waterfront was there any particular reason why we didn't get their opinions on it because the when they worked on these things with the Landscape Architects back then I know they went through painstaking stuff for a certain look on our Waterfront and I just it was surprising to me that we didn't discuss those two that have a a long history with the Waterfront and it's a question why we didn't again I can't really speak to the process that the Arts Advisory Board uh used I know there was a process and and a lot of planning um I'm happy to have someone else answer maybe Caleb do you just want to just just for the benefit of the public and all the council members just give a quick overview of the process are you the right person Jerry yeah so this is do you want actually Liz do you want to reread your letter into the record I know you were chomping at the bit so first I'd like to address uh what Miss fiser was talking about we have we're welcoming the art master plan but that is for the future and we had been working towards the art master plan for several years and unfortunately the art master plan was not in place when we were given the mission to find art with the monies that we were allotted and the budgetary restrictions that we were given so we were working within a time constraint to find artists within the budget that we were given and this was all before the art master plan was formulated in future I do agree with you that there needs to be way more Community input and Community discussion with stakeholders like fund for better Waterfront the Hudson Conservatory the hobo the Hudson Clearwater people and anyone who loves the Hudson River as much as the people of hobok can do but for these particular po artist the art master plan was not in place so we use the criteria that I'm about to share with you now I also want to apologize for the fact that I made this presentation last week which was really the wrong time to do it and I give my apologies to you all here tonight and also to the family of dam and Murray's grieving uh relatives so I'm very very sorry that I made this presentation last week it was really unfortunate so I'm going to share our process with you again it was a deliberative process we spent many many months vetting these artists and this is how we did it so we had a timeline our calendar was approximately as follows March 202 3 the administration forwarded proposals for the Arts committee to read April 2023 the Arts committee gave feedback to the mayor and suggested locations so the artists had proposed locations we had proposed locations the administration had proposed locations we looked at all those suggestions and then came up with the Final locations that we presented tonight the mayor reviewed recommendations and finalized proposals October 2023 the art committee voted to recommend not recommend or recommend with amendments the final proposals the art committee sent the mayor the vote and an evaluation which set forth the reasons for the art committee's decision the Department of Environmental Services relayed the decisions to the artists our criteria for selection was as follows number one most important thing is the candidate a professional artist what are the candidate's qualifications we needed to know the artist media and style we evaluated the appropriateness and relevance of the proposed artwork which included the scale material and the form reflective on its surroundings we did a permanence evaluation of proposals based on the longevity of the structure the materials and appearance we did an elements of design evaluation to see the ways the work of art enhanced the enjoyment appreciation of meaning or understanding of the place it would be installed we looked at the diversity of form and location in an evaluation of the artwork based on how the proposal would contribute to the city's public art collection to ensure a diversity of scale form style and media we considered the relationship to other planning and Design Concepts and evaluated how the artwork would contribute to the development of linear or spatial experiences such as wayf finding landmarks paths corridors and trails existing or planned and our criteria coincidentally dovetails pretty closely with the criteria in the current new art master plan so with the current candidates being presented to you night to to you tonight we spent many meetings and months discussing whether or not their work was worthy to be shown in our great City our final vote for the top 10 was submitted to the mayor he requested that we then choose our top three we use the same criteria as the criteria I listed to you above and then we did submit the three that you heard about tonight and presented to you tonight and we believe the artists we have chosen represent some of the best in the world and are more than worth the financial investment we are asking tonight I want you to understand by making this investment we're not asking you to give up using dollars for other things we want you to beautify the city and enhance the culture and aesthetic of this city but that doesn't mean you have to give up using money for other things this is not an and um an if or an situation so please don't think by spending money on arts and the Arts you have to give up spending on other important things that this city needs and I hope you understand that the media these artists choose to use a lot of it's expensive particularly hara's piece she has to use materials that will last for decades and she has to use media that will withstand the salt that's in the air the chemicals that are in the air the exigencies of the climate crisis that we're living in today so the materials that she's going to use are going to cost quite a bit of money and she has to work with Engineers who really know what they're doing so that she can build build a structure that's strong enough not to fall down and cause injury to the people who are going to come to look at it so that is our process we proudly stand by our recommendations we salute the mayor's decisions and hope that the city council will approve these proposals for public art in our beautiful City Art Works art brings in Revenue to the cities that make the effort to bring in new art these pieces of art will bring tourists from around the world and you have people coming to look at Art they come to restaurants to spend money and that money can be used for the programs that we so sorely need in this city we need a community art center here in Hoboken and these pieces of art can generate the income to help us create things like that so thank you for listening this evening once we come up for a vote I hope you vote the right way thank [Applause] you um Corporation Council I'm pretty sure in the executive of order is you have to have a hearing on each one so do we have to have three separate open and close each hearing no you can combine the hearings I can combine them yeah thank you council president could I can I just ask a quick followup question in the in the conversation about where these art pieces were were going to appear in the city of Hoboken was there ever any discussion of any art pieces west of Monroe Street yes and art great I appreciate it thank you thank you councilman um motion to open the public hearing motion second all in favor I Randolph [Applause] wicker thank you thank you very much it's a real honor to be here tonight I want to congratulate the art committee and Hoboken on picking Marsha B Johnson who was picked out by Time Magazine they had an issue in 2019 the 100 most influential 100 women of the year 1920 to 209 and five of those got cover pages of their own Marie P Johnson was one of the five they got her own and they voted to have statues of marsh with Sylvia Rivera in New York City but apparently the covid thing hit and none of the statues that they proposed they have more female in statues erected got done all that was done was a park was named for Marsha down in Brooklyn and if you ere approve this statue you will beat New York City and prove that hobooken is really the art center of this country thank you thank you very much delin Camp hi there uh my name is Devin Camp I am a historian I manage Mara P Johnson's archive at the LGBT Center National History archives on 13th Street in Manhattan um most of her came from ry's apartment here in Hoboken across the street from Stevens Park um I'm just here to support the idea for a statue of Marsha obviously um just as an example of why this idea is so popular among the queer Community uh the statue that never got made of her in New York a few years ago was so popular that a local sculptor Jesse Pila created a bust of Mara and put it up illegally in Christopher Park and it stood there for a few months the city let it stay um until obviously they had to take it down because it couldn't withstand the weather um but it was a very popular idea people came from all over to take photos with the mara bust and um it would be very popular in Stevens Park it's an appropriate place to celebrate Hoboken culture she's one of the most famous figures to come out of Hoboken in recent memory thank you very much thank you rosem muray marle hi hi um I understand this money comes from bonds is that correct correct okay so we're talking $761,000 worth of art um I'm not here to disparage anything that's going to be created it has nothing to do with that it has to do with how we're spending money when if you walk around hobok and it's filthy disgusting it's never looked as as bad as it does uh we have so many more issues that money from bonds could be used for you know taking care of the homeless situation tax relief affordable housing what if we put moneyy towards that yes art is beautiful and art is subjective and whatever we're always told that you know it brings in tourism and Community I wish somebody could actually show me the proof of that because I've had this argument with several people and really can't be proven I just wish that money was put towards more things that would help more people in this community this isn't really a need this is a want and I read the backup for all of this and someone actually said that it's Instagram worthy H is that really what we needed right right now at this point will it help help the situations that are going on this was brought up at the last council meeting when people were so sadly affected by someone who was Gunn down none of this helps that I just wish we would put our money somewhere else where it's needed instead of spending this much money on Art I'm sure we could bring it down a little and put smaller pieces of Art thank you thank [Applause] you Laura catel Maybe oh um so I'm here to represent the newly formed Hoboken Pride Committee of the city so thank you I'm going to read the letter uh that was we responded to today dear city council Marsha P Johnson was a Pioneer in pursuing rights for the lgbtq community as Hoboken resident activist and Advocate she was a symbol of Hope and courage for people who had suffered bias and persecution the city of Hoboken is to be commended for its plans to erect a statue of Johnson in a prominent place in the city not just as a tribute to her but as a symbol to all those who still must hide who they are Hoboken is filled with art and beauty and we fully support erecting the statue of Mara Marsha P Johnson at Stevens park near the corner of Fifth and Hudson Street and for it to serve as a Beacon of Hope for all of us the Hoboken Pride committee has only recently been established to assure that the city will be part of the efforts to amplify and highlight diversity of people that live here including the lgbtqia persons we are proud to put our voice to good use in supporting the project and as Harvey Milk once said hope will never be silent the statue will not only honor Marsha P Johnson but will also stand as a testament to the ongoing fight for human rights gay rights reminding us all of the importance of visibility and acceptance sincerely the hok and pride committee thank you thank you Katherine Williams hi I'm here as a longtime Hoboken resident a taxpayer a parent of a 13-year-old to say how thrilled I was by the committee's proposal to put a statue of Mara P Johnson in Stevens park I think it's a wonderful location and will be an inspiring statue for our community I think that one one reason that I as a taxpayer I'm so supportive of the public art projects is that they confer benefits on our community that go beyond maybe the revenue from tourists dollars right they send a message to the people in our community art is powerful because it tells a story and in this case I think the mara P Johnson statue in particular tells a story of acceptance of Pride and will convey especially to children in our community who are also queer who are also trans that they are valued and welcome here thank you thank you Manny Rivera Solair moving right along the art you didn't your name isn't on any of these no you want to be on the art I want to be on every paper you're not on this one but I'll put you on I did I was they erased it I did Manny thank you council president did yeah it was me uh council president I want to appreciate uh the presentation this evening um also uh to express that art is sub subjective I can't say that word but it's interpretive I could like it you don't so whether we decide if we like the mural or don't it doesn't impede there being some type of art somewhere in the city so that it promotes again tourism and I would like to say that although I am not going to say that I'm in favor or against but I want to say that yes the statue is a perfect thing to have where it is because that statue is going to be at the perfect spot for where everyone passes and can have an idea of the struggles of the people who are of lgbtq uh who have lived in this city with the Discrimination that was here way back in the day before it became what people see today again as a born and raised I say that with all my heart because I've seen it lived it experienced it since I can remember so uh yes on that the sculpture it is lovely and beautiful again the only thing on that is the maintenance as was uh mentioned is it going to be maintained by the city's Park department is there have to be a special um training to know how to touch and clean such an artwork or make sure is is it's always going to be pristine um these are perhaps questions that um can be answered um in another session but it is it's important to know that we are still going to pay for it plus we have to maintain it so um is that also money coming from uh the bonds that that uh we set aside and it would also behoove the the council to make sure that members of the public understand that the money that's set aside from the bonds has to be used for art I believe correct so that is also something that should be related to to the public so that they know that the street are dirty we need money to clean the streets from somewhere in the budget the art is over here on another side of it just so that members of the public understand and again as far as the mural this is where I have a pet peeve I've asked constantly in other presentations where is the representation in the murals I bet in this building there would be a best represented that it could have the culture of the people who were here those foundations of the people whoever was here at the beginning whether they be um Irish Italian German Latinos African-Americans everyone where is that mural I've asked for before as well as I've always asked for the Lenny Len pede where is their statue where is their mural I don't have I'm not blaming them I want them to the art commission to know that it's not it's not a finger point at them is that where is it when is it coming at least let members of the public know that that is in the works because it is important we want the art but we also want the art to serve a purpose to let and explain the story of Hoboken and its people because it's not just the people who are here today it's the people who were the foundation of the city who worked hard in the factories who who gave it all when there were fires and there were people fighting in the streets when there were ethnic Wars when people hated other other ethnicities but yet slow slowly but surely they came together and is the city that we have today so that's what I would like the art I'm not criticizing I want it all to come to fruition but I want again not to have to come to a next meeting and ask again for the mural for the Lenny lped and the culture of Hoboken and I thank you and I thank them for the presentation thank you Patricia Waiters well said Manny you said most of what I wanted to cover um the process is a little disturbing to me because I remember last year when this discussion came up I was approached by Walter longtime Hoboken resident and he said to me did you ever present your uncle's name and his legacy which I could have used J Jimmy finina to vow for this what I'm saying about my Uncle David little which would inspired or have inspired so many our African-American youth that live in the house in the dity my uncle was the known man for sports when he was a kid every sport there was David little played his picture hangs in demerus right now today on a Hall of Fame it's like I said it ain't I didn't want it to be political but I feel that the process is political because most of the Committees don't have people wanted to look like me okay so just start with the committee and the process I say this all time with the zoning planning and other boards how important diversity is because they claim it they come up to this microphone and talk about how Hoboken should be diverse but like Manny just said I was in my mother's stomach in 1962 coming into Hoboken it bothers me to see what we built what people didn't even want will be ashamed of to even be a part of back then all the way up until today we have been misfor forgotten we have been ignored we have been overlooked and we still suffering serious impacts I have nothing against the the field the Little League field and I remember like it was yesterday when they named it after Miss Peppe I was happy first woman playing baseball whatever and I asked Jimmy I went to the city cler I said how do I do this to get my uncle recognized he got drafted it took until my uncle died and I went and cleaned out his apartment and if I could stand here and give a presentation like you let that young lady do tonight you would be amazed that would have helped people see how my grandma which we called it back in the days which was my mother's mother how they raised the kids okay so when people stereotyped what's going on in the Housing Authority my uncle was a man of color but the projects they moved him in they named it the white boy projects I'm not making this up I'm serious anybody old too can know that's considered the white boy projects but my grandmother was fair skinned with blondee hair and blue eyes and she lived there one of the first ones Mark REO have her lease I'm saying that to say this when I say Role Models he probably would have inspired some of our saying little kids that's getting shot that's fighting that turn to drugs my uncle started the first thing in hopes to help kids get off drugs he was so involved in this community and building all the children he set at everybody's kitchen table at lunchtime and after baseball games no matter what color you was we was like family I want to see that come back to Hoboken there's nothing wrong with most of you guys that just moved here the last 20 or 30 years but come in Hoboken Unite with us and make it the new reformed Hoboken but don't forget about the people that buil it this is entirely too much money to be spend in and people living with mole and mildew and dinosaurs in their apartments in the house and Authority every time you guys vote on any kind of bonds or money it's sad that you overlook the housing that's why they hang out at night look at their units in the inside I know some grants is made to only do certain things start tweaking stuff a little bit okay say it's the elevator but get a unit or two in there fix up those units please this is a disrespect every time I see something like this and this large amount of money that can improve somebody's quality of life versus a piece of art and I'm not High art I would love art and matter of fact this lady look just like me okay so I want the people to have a good quality of life and I'mma tell you guys again think about when you vote okay don't vote Yes just cuz your colleagues voting yes think about this one thank you thank you Patricia Ron Hine sorry I forgot you uh Ron Hine 515 Willow uh I'm representing the fund for better waterfont um despite fbws 20 34e history advocating for hobokin Waterfront and direct experience uh with the design team responsible for the South Waterfront uh we were not consulted uh one of the great sculpture parks of the world is at Storm King in Upstate New York uh in placing outdoor artworks they work closely with Landscape Architects to identify the appropriate placement for each sculpture Michael Van venberg a noted landscape architect who designed pierc Park would have been one of the first people to talk to but that was not time uh I've shared the the PDF that was available to us two weeks ago uh with a number of people uh to get their feedback and I want to share U some of what I heard in and what I'm going to be reading to you is representative of uh the feedback that we got quote my main objection is placement I walk along the Waterfront daily the natural beauty of the river and unobstructed Views are Priceless the proposed sculpture is large arches overheads and includes reflective glass it directly competes with the simple natural environment I walk out over the pier to be closer to the river not to stand under a shiny distracting structure uh a friend of mine uh who's a sculpture and actually has one of his pieces on the Jersey City Waterfront uh wrote to me uh this public sculpture must mediate between the larger landscape and the human scale if you can imagine a person on the pier under the sculpture they would feel diminished and insignificant uh a hobu resident who formerly worked uh at the Whitney Museum uh replied in an email uh it takes the eye away from actually what actually matters here light on the water and movement of the water are more interesting it also seems quite static compared to the constantly moving World it inhabits while it may be large it seems like too small a gesture not enough there like a floral Arch at a wedding nothing to think about uh this is from a Hoboken sculptor uh who teaches at Pratt uh referring to pierc park uh every design element of the park is integrated and in service of the spectacular view of the Hudson River the parks uninterrupted arcing walkways and long pier capitalize on views to Manhattan as well as to the North and the South the braided steel rope fencing is designed to be invisible from within the park the fencing handrails house downward pointing lights an unobtrusive solution to public lighting that obviates the need for vertical structures by the water's edge the proposed sculpture by contrast sticks up in a semicircle along the length of the pier out into the river in taking this grandiose gesture the stainless steel and glass structure is abrupt intrusive and out of place uh from the rendering it will Tower over the park visitors and obstruct views from all parts of the park Park and from points north and south of the park uh this was posted today on X formerly known as Twitter quote I'm concerned the artist has limited experience on projects of this scale and piure C is a sculpture onto itself much like uh Little Island in Manhattan the art should be in the park not overwhelm the par park or Human Experience uh I understand there will not be a vote tonight uh I'm I'm sorry to come in at this stage but like I said if we had been invol involved earlyer on we would have been happy to provide this kind of feedback early on uh I don't mean to I I know the artist is very accomplished and uh but it's it's B basically what people have been saying is that this is not the right place for a piece like this maybe in Storm King that would be the proper setting some it's a 500 acre setting um so um uh we do support this program we think we do support the Arts and uh but we think to approve this specific piece would be a serious setback for this program thank you thank you gentlemen in the back yeah can you just state your name say the last name again Browns r o u n DS uh is this being voted on tonight or no no okay so my main concern is like if you go to Google Maps and zoom in on pierc look at the eastern part of it you'll see that it says pierc panoramic viewpoint and uh what I'm concerned about with this new structure that's proposed is that it would block the view of the skyline from multiple areas you like if you go a little bit to the south of there and look kind of north towards the G George Washington Bridge I'm concerned that this structure would like block that view also if you go to the Far Eastern end of that pier and look West there's kind of a unique view of the church steeple at at the corner of Hudson and fourth streets and uh what I'm concerned about is that this Arch will just kind of block that you won't be able to see that anymore also from the Sinatra Park Amphitheater looking kind of Southeast uh this Arch also might block that view as well so you know you could go to other parts of piure SC and probably get a view of the skyline but what I'm concerned about is that this particular structure will block a lot of the Skyline View and I just don't necessarily think that's a good idea um I like the the there were some other temporary art installations I think his name was Tom fuan and he made stained glass structures that were in hobok in late 2022 early 2023 some of them were in church gr Park one was in snra park one was on Jackson Street and I really like those because in the case of the snra park one it didn't block view it was right there in the in the middle of the park and you could still see the skyline um but with the uh with this particular thing that's that's just um what I'm concerned about um I'm a little concerned that like with the uh Church score Park Vision plan that there may not have been enough public input that you know the process is kind of might be sort of flawed in terms of like getting the public involved in deciding whether they want this giant Arch on Pi C or not um and one of the things I like about Pi C is kind of the Simplicity and minimalism of it and this structure I think would kind of go against that motif of just you know looking at the skyline you go down to the piure SE and you see like the skyline and I'm I'm concerned that the uh structure would kind of interfere with that um with regard to the Statue one thing I was thinking about the Statue is that there's already a statue on the western side of Stevens park I think it's a civil war statue and so this statue kind of be near near that and so I was thinking it might be better to put the statue in like the northeast corner of the park where it's not like right next to that other Statue or possibly at like a different Park altogether like Elan Park even though it might be not quite as meaningful um I don't think like Elian Park uh has any statues um it does oh it does okay it does have statues but I'm just saying it you know possibly rethink where the statue goes um and I guess that is it I uh yeah okay so that's that's pretty much it yeah thank you did you want to speak no we have no other members of the public signed up to speak motion to close the public hearing Mo second all in favor I council president can I just make one additional comment sorry I didn't realize we were wrapping up on the council member portion earlier um I just wanted to address something councilman Fischer had brought up um about why we were hearing from people within the community about particularly I think the statue um for stev Park I heard something different I didn't hear concerns about the council not being supportive I heard that there were specific members within the community who were organizing against that particular I uh particular proposal for multiple reasons including it's geography as well as its content um and so the people I had spoken to who I think spoke out were concerned um that there might be a particular targeting of that project for those reasons um so just you know you may have heard differently from someone else but that was part of what I heard when I asked people why they were reaching out council president yes Council I I just want to thank the members of the committee for their work on this effort put a lot of time and energy into it they worked on it for months and I appreciate the efforts of the Arts Committee just want to thank them thanks all right I did we did be on that do it twice uh ordinances for second reading uh oh I'm sorry public portion who no one else you're going just put his name else Nick linday oh that's nick uh thank you guys uh for those who don't know me I'm Nick linday I have lived here for 16 years the majority of that has been in the fourth ward um I'm here to speak out about uh the shooting that happened a few weeks ago um I didn't personally know Noo-noo but he uh clearly my neighbors knew him and um they're your neighbors too right and so I wanted to come here to speak out and especially as someone who's a neighbor with them and you know experien this alongside them it bothers me that I couldn't be here two weeks ago um obviously I have a three-year-old and six-year-old makes it really hard to be here I have a babysitter just so I can be here tonight this is how important this is to me um but honestly one of the things that broke my heart last week when everyone was speaking was that I felt like only the majority of people talking were from the housing authority and broke my heart because they talked about us being one Hoboken but I feel like only one side of Hoboken came to speak out for them and so I wanted to show up to to let them know that we are here too right we care about this um you know one of the things that I'm tired of is that um I realize social media is an ugly place but there's just so much uh hateful racist classes things that just keep being said over and over and over again um that just keep reappearing and you know a few of them that I want to address is you know and the most recent one I talked about bulldozing the Housing Authority like what a ridiculous proposal if there should be a bulldozer it should be there to break ground on the new facility right we should get that started as soon as possible right um the other thing is that I constantly hear is that it's not safe you know past a certain point it's not safe and I need to speak about my own well let me talk about the first thing one is the South westfest right this is designed for Neighbors to get to know one another like we can make sure that this happens as soon as possible we don't have to wait for the time that's the most OP time for a photo op like because it's not about the photo op it's about the Neighbors coming together right let's keep that the priority on Southwest Fest and these other things that happen um there's a perception that the neighborhood's not safe and then you know I want to give you my family's perspective on this so when my son turned three he's a really strong willed child like if he gets something into his mind he's going to do it and so one day I'm cooking in the kitchen my wife is taking care of something uh in another room and I hear the front door open and close right so I holl her her to asked to go get him he just ran out of the building right or he ran out into the apartment hall right and she came back a minute later and was just like I can't find him right and so I take off sprinting through the building colloring his name every single level all the way up the six floors all the way back down again into the garage come back and then have to like as a parent it's kind of embarrassing to have to call hobok and police to say hey my son is missing right G to get through this sorry so I then leave the apartment building and I call my friend James to come from the north so that I can go towards the South I go down Monroe Street and part of the reason I go down Monro Street street is because I know if he were to go down Jackson there would have been several of my neighbors who know him and would have stopped him and made sure that he was safe and got him back to me while I was able to go to see if he ran to Madison his favorite park right um you know as I came back so just so you know the story ends I come back around HPD is already there like several of them even the Undercovers all came out to try to find him he was hiding in our laundry room in the dryer but like thank God for them but you know I tell this story just to like getting to know your neighbors is just so important I meet incredible people every day that I live beside and it helps just walking down blocks that people say are unsafe like these are human beings um the uh I also understand the privilege of that right I don't think that every family can feel the same with their son I think that the danger that occurs in this area is a real select population I think the young men are really at risk in that area and we need to figure out ways that we can support them as best as possible we have some amazing nonprofits in this town that are already trying to address us I think about Community uh Lifestyles I think about amazing true Society we have a new one called the Pod that takes place at the Hoboken Grace Community Center on 14th Street that's run by some incredible people that I know um and then the other thing to know is that like the pandemic really hurt a lot of these nonprofits right and I think a few of them are about to close soon or you're about to hear about them closing and I think that we just need to do whatever we can to help address this and provide as much support as possible so thank you guys for your time and uh really hope that you'll work on this uh can I one more thing I think one thing is really important too so I was a part of the shooting that occurred at the mall in 2009 I was like 50 ft away from it when it happened and the thing I learned about that experience is that you don't have to be the one who gets shot at to be extremely affected by a gunshot going off like that has been a traumatic event that my family has been dealing with for about 5 years now and so like when I hear about the you know hey we don't want to have fireworks in the second wart like let's do that in all of Hoboken right every time a firework goes off in my area all of us all think the same thing was that a firework or did we lose another neighbor right like we can make these simple decisions to help eliminate those fears so that that's not an issue so thank you thank you Ron simonini think he left Patricia waiters this the public portion or AG agenda publiction no just Public public and I could get to talk on these other agenda items later no no this is just public portion Trisha P you know you know what's going on P you ask every meeting but waiters I just want to um this young man that I met tonight coming in to that just spoke um just rubber stamp a few things he said about the crowd I know it was emotional last week I came here to say thank God that I'm ganging a little strength back um the same way everybody came out all hands was on Deck I said this last night at the border at me and it's still a certain amount of fear that still lies in our heart being a mother that a son that love I could say it a thousand times and I never told him don't live in the projects even though he grew up he came home out of my stomach on in the second ward Ralph love his family everybody down there know I'm Auntie Pat my son hang out in the projects I just don't want every time he leave out the door I want to know if he's coming back that night when Vanessa FAL was saying breathe Ralph bre breathe breathe Ralph was down there and the feeling you cannot explain I'm not saying nobody didn't feel pain when I seen the tears I seen y'all crowded in the church I seen y'all uniting to experience it with your own child and your family it's a different feeling cuz I feel like we dodged the bullet he escaped death once again and it bothered me so much because that's her second son y'all forgot the first son got shot in the neck so when y'all came out and went to the funeral and everybody rejoiced and came down and raised Bloom and the mayor jumping with his photo our pictures and taking interviews for Glory there's nothing glorious about that I'm going to see how many of my Council leaders I said leaders you notice that not members leaders going to lead this city in a different direction by simply uniting and loving he said it take the hatred everything out of our city and you may not disagree May disagree with me tonight when I say this that flyer played a huge role in racism in Hoboken for Ravi to put his picture and he look Brown like me and say in words this is the fly I should have brought it tonight you don't want a certain person running your city just to send that message out is racist all we simply ask for was an investigation and it didn't disappear cuz look what's happening we paying for it in our actions so when you take a known disregard because it ain't affecting you directly but it's affecting other people indirectly it's sad it's sad cuz you could blame that flyer and I'll go to my grave saying this for a lot of incidents that happen I'm Hoboken all day since the 60s and I know I got a lot of enemies it doesn't matter cuz I'm love my enemies even stronger I'm crazy like that am I Jen that was me 11:00 at night hey Jen I love you walk in your dog it's somebody said it Reverend FES right behind me that's how Hoboken was hey Jen you our next mayor 11 o'clock at night I'm screaming like I'm crazy if I was in a certain area somebody would have took off running oh this black lady crazy she might rob me no I love everybody I told y'all that so if y'all pass judgment and think I'm the worst person in the world absolutely not 3,000 people in town like Pat waiters thank you all y'all that's watching the TV Land no but I do I'm serious about this I got a good heart I want to see us happy Hoboken is a good City people dying to get in here the people that's here let's build let's take that happened and is sad that it happened and stick together and show change through your actions tonight I want each and every one of you and you better call him up to this mic I'm demanding this tonight bring my chief of police up here cuz he did a phenomenal job he put his money where his mouth is I have never seen so many blue uniforms since I left the police academy walking in that house in Authority amazing and even up the street further all you see is police officers and that's all the people in the Housing Authority asked for that type of attention to let them know hey we care he showed it through his actions I went out there the next day and you know I'm going to go follow up and I followed the next day and the next day and he got him walk in the be and he deserve respect the same way they attack him when he do wrong give koodles when koodles is deserved and they deserve a great job thank you Chief agal thank you thank you Pat Manny Riva Solair I didn't to put on my glasses for that one I didn't have to put on my glasses for that one good evening once again council president Council and members of the public uh council president I would like to take a moment to um acknowledge I didn't I wasn't able to do it last um meeting of course for the uh circumstances but I would like to take a moment that to remind everyone that may is Asian-American Pacific herit Pacific Islanders heritage month I'm sorry asan American and Pacific Islanders heritage month so to everyone uh every hobok night we want to unite with you in your celebrations and thank we should thank them all they they contribute a lot um to our community um council president I also before I get into what I really want to say I also want to say that um the council and the administration still has an opportunity um to Advocate and to lobby for the Third Street um building um I'm referring to the digital clock you can still um uh speak to the developers they are still willing to work and try to put a um some type of a digital clock there not the existing one but someone some other one because it is a landmark it's in your hands it's in the hands of the administration should anyone like to pitch in and try to save a landmark I appreciate it and I'm sure that generations of hokan knites will do as well um council president now if I could have everyone's attention I would like to speak on a circumstance that's occurring that is is shameful it's shameful for all of us and it's shameful for the transparency and um just for the information value that um our legislators and our Senators and our Governors are deciding to vote or they have voted but they're they're to limit the information that people need to have in regards to uh the opras um this is outrageous um we have I've been reading it almost became an obsession this week reading the different opinions and the people who didn't vote which are also a a a a concern we have Representatives that should have been there and should have voted no but they were no shows I mean I have nothing against them but this is what we want you to do and I guess it's because getting that position wasn't so hard that working for it isn't going to be of any concern so when you vote elections are important that's why they have consequences you should vote for the people that are going to work for you who are going to represent you so that's why I say every time that there's an election which there is one coming up for primaries Republicans and Democrats so let's check it out let's see who is working for us who is going to represent us who is going to listen to the people so I ask everyone to do their due diligence to seek out information of their candidates there's also going to be on Friday a a forum a debate again it's going to be in the demoris school so you that should be packed you should listen to what your candidates are saying so I don't know how you feel about it but when it gets harder for members of the public to get information as hard as it is now could you imagine how hard it's going to be when we cannot come to ask a question and to get an answer from the people that we elected that we put Trust on you as well as the people who are in other positions need to understand that people you are responsible for and for and the people you have to do for us you have to make us feel comfortable with our decisions so please I have nothing against anyone I just want people to hear it and to understand that you have to hold them also responsible ladies and gentlemen you have to let them know that that is unacceptable show up vote vote what the people want you to vote no and do not be absent and this goes for for everyone who who who didn't show up shame on you especially the Democrats who are supposed to be the allies of the people so that is my my my uh what I had to say pardon me so again thank you for listening thank you for recognizing me uh God bless you and God bless Hoboken thank you thank you Manny pyed no thank you council president H I'm Ed Hoboken uh want to touch on a couple of uh topics tonight uh ahead of the budget talks that will come soon so that these comments don't fall the night of the hearing and nothing happens when you have a budget I think it's about 140 million now um it's supposed to contain not just what's in this year's budget but things that are needed and it's hopefully supposed to eliminate things that are redundant and not needed and one of the things that is sorely needed and we're realizing it more and more each day is Public Safety I have a 5-year-old daughter and a 9-month old daughter who decided that uh it was best to go out yesterday around 4:30 or so on purec normal activities you send the kids after school or you know to get some air and go into the park unfortunately that you know Center at the babysitter and there was an altercation on the pier with two men where one pulled a knife on another man how do I explain that to them is this a normal behavior that we should become to accept and then what's the normal response go to the police station which I told my wife you know you should you should put a report and the answer is what for what are they going to do about it just write it down or what's going to happen we come here for vigils when when young men get get killed that could have been another one yesterday it could have been your second homicide in 2 weeks and the frustration is that do we have working cameras on the waterfront like what's the point we've seen this before we bring things up we had people jump in the river we never have these thing work working and then it's always a tragedy and we talk about it but we never fix it we just talk about it we waste money in the budget on fights that don't need to be had there's ordinances tonight that are on your agenda to lead to more litigation waste of money and then we cry poverty that we don't have the money to pay for the things that are important you have a police department that I went to your Public Safety meetings and I asked them flat out how many cops do you have now about 120 or so how many did you have in 2003 about 180 or so what was your population in 2003 40,000 what's your population now 63,000 make the math makes sense you can't tell them to go out and do a job and not give them the tools to do it but you're constrained every year with a budget where you're fighting over nickel and dimes and trying to make it all work I've said before on this on this mic that the budget's not honest because it doesn't reflect the things that are needed I had a discussion with councilman Cohen about roads about other things that are somewhat overlooked they look like whatever's left we could do that with but now you're doing it with major issues and the way it works is how you collect that 140 million is based on the popularity and safety of your city you don't believe me go look at cities that can't get the ratables paid you have to create an environment that people want to be here took a long time to get there and it's not hard to Decay and let it go south and I'm not saying it's it's Unique to Hoboken New York City is dealing with a whole heck of a lot more right now homicides through the roof robberies crimes on an uptick across the country it's not it's not to be ignored it's not to be chased after when you lose the handle on it it's not to have a homicide two weeks ago and have and hear the anguish and the and the anger from your residents these things are avoidable or at least be able to cut down maybe you can't avoid every crime but we used to have 311 where you take a picture and send something in does it even work anymore do we get responses do can people send something in and something will be done about it or is it only when a tragedy happens that says well now we got to address it I think you have to do a better job together and trying to find out where we could cut things that don't need to be had and where we could add things that need to be had so that we don't have to come here tragedy after tragedy and explain ourselves 5-year-old should never see that here nowhere and we have the ability to do something about at least at least fix the cameras so if there is one maybe we could catch the person and they don't repeat it again you only have so much time up here it's not unlimited everybody comes here with a with a start of a candidacy they get elected and there's a beginning and there's an end and I always hear from elected officials when they're off the council and they always tell me the things they wish they could have done you're here now you could get them done thanks for your time thank you Haney Rosemary marle roxan early Sor good evening I think I also might be on the wrong part of it's fine I appreciate that um I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to speak uh and to briefly mention just a few things happening for the hob book and business Alliance and business Community the first is I want to thank you for considering our budget and the opportunity to present to you at our public hearing on June 17th pending all going well later uh we're really excited to discuss the progress that we've made uh including a new five-year strategic plan an assessment formula that will bring cost savings to more than half of our assessed properties and to highlight the record number of visitors 43% more than three years ago and countless new businesses that are here in hoken I also want to take a moment to thank council member Ramos for his advocacy uh supporting the installation of beastro lights on Washington Street for from New York to 15th he's sponsoring AO but and also for the efforts all of you have made Tiffany Fisher helped to make thank you Tiffany for your helping get the project started all vote Yes you all help make Hoboken a beautiful place but anyway uh the ability to complete this project quickly overnight will be instrumental in helping to Bruce cost savings uh that will help us to deliver a high quality Pro program on behalf of all of our members uh and finally I'd like to offer uh just a little bit of comment on another item later tonight um which would amend fee structures for fines related to placement and put out of garbage times and recycling first thank you for sponsoring and considering this legislation fines related to sanitation are hitting the small business community and they are hitting them hard the alliance applauds this measure especially that of a warning period and hopes the council will consider a couple of my recommendations the first is to consider having a consistent fee structure across all four violations to keep things simple for businesses to keep track of we also recommend considering allowing businesses that close before 9:00 p.m. the opportunity to apply for a waiver which would allow an earlier put out time in a rodent proof container these businesses cannot possibly comply with the current existing law and they're feeling left behind by a one-size fits-all model with repeated fines we can't line the city with City bins and we understand that earlier trash runs can be difficult uh so we're hopeful that by working together we can design something that helps everyone comply with our rules for a safe clean and rodent free Hoboken and we'd also ask the council to consider exploring Saturday service specifically for food businesses uh that to prevent the need to store food waste on site for up to 48 hours while some businesses are working with private entities for a sth day service option a consistent approach to collection on many food businesses busiest days may be a huge Boon to Hoboken as we continue to fight rodent activity I thank you all for all that you're doing to help our small business community and look forward to working together thank you this is this we have no other members of the public signed up to speak motion to close public motion motion second all in favor ordinances excuse me uh hearing on an ordinance amending the Hoboken city code what 19616 F4 to allow commercial uses and selles and nonf flood flood zones Jim you're say that again oh like glad before you do that I just want to um roxan you had signed up for this just so you know it's being amended and we will be voting on it again so maybe you want to speak at the next meeting I like that good job thank [Music] you Manny you also signed up for this but it's being amended and going it's going to be voted on for a second time at the next meeting so I'm scratching you off correct1 y president it's um there was a consistency review um which occurred did you want to say something first um which occurred at the planning board which is what happens for any zoning change and there were some recommendations from the planning board which uh have been which are the amendments that council president just alluded to and so it included a confirmation with regard to Ingress and egress safety uh ADA compliance Americans with Disabilities Act compliance um clarification uh with regard to the zoning code Etc so they're not they're enough that they have to go back to First reading I know that uh Corporation councel we can I guess we can vote now on some amendments to this at second it's on for a hearing but it it will not pass it'll be the equivalent of a first reading vote and it will be back next meeting for a final vote and a hearing in and and a hearing yep Mr any council members Mr finina please call the vote are we this is on the Amendments on the amended this the planning board recommendations do we have the amended version yes it's up on aella I mean we do have oh we have two weeks obviously to look at it it's going back to First correct we're voting on this at the next council meeting with a public hearing we pass it so essentially this is Mr but for clarity it hasn't been circulated to the council to even look at it so we're it has been circul Mr Fina call the vote Mr con I Mr Doyle I Fisher uh yes yes Mr Jabor yes Mr President Z Zano hi Mr Cano I Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo what what no I'm only kiding yes president gtino yes hearing on an ordinance amending chapter 19071 entitled municipally managed electric vehicle charging stations de electric vehicle charging stations on for street Patricia you didn't is she here nope no no we have no members of public signed up to speak motion to close public portion second all in favor I council members Mr finina call the vote Mr Co I Mr Doyle hi Mr fiser yes Mr Jabor yes president Zano hi Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi president gtino yes hearing on an ordinance reinstating establishing a youth advisory commission Rosemary Markle yes youth advisory I just want to say I think that's a wonderful thing but now I'm going to ask you do we have one for senior citizens because I think that would be a lovely thing that that's such a we heard from senior citizens like this is a youth one we now we need the the other group of us to have a committee because we have a lot to say and not just an election time when everybody knocks on the door for a vote so if you could consider that I'd appreciate it thank you thank you it's such a great idea Manny Rivera cair when it's not just good evening council president uh I I Rise to be in favor of this ordinance but I would just like to know where can we have members of the public get more information on what does this commission what what does it comprise how does it work technically where can members of the public get more information I was looking um there is some but more information on it again thank you for if you I believe you're going to vote on the positive but thank you for bringing it back and for for letting uh there be some type of um commission for our younger members of uh the community but um I would appreciate if we could find out more how we can get more information on it and uh I yield back did uh we have no other members of the public signed up to speak motion to close public portion second all in favor yes thank you council president um I just wanted to tell a little bit of the story behind this so I was asked to help uh lead this commission a while back and it took some time to to get to get it off the uh off the ground uh when we finally met one of the things we decided to work on uh with with the kids and there was about 20 or so was to modernize uh this ordinance to make it a little easier to administer uh expand uh the scope to allow for for a more uh diverse set within the community to come in uh and and and really move forward on that front um so over the period of about three months uh working with half of the the commission the other half is working on um uh green projects um we sat down to write legislation which which was I thought really exciting I think the kids thought it was too uh but you know ultimately you know I I encourage all my colleagues to to vote uh in the positive on this one um these kids will have been part of creating a new law uh in the city of hobok so uh a lasting Legacy um now Manny to address your question uh the Mandate really is uh is is for for future commissions to work on uh any projects that would enhance uh collaboration between the city government and and and the Youth of Hoboken and it's really that's a discretion of what uh you know future commissions want to do um there will be an advisor from this Council who will help Shepherd that along uh along with folks from the administration but it's it's it's open-ended um so I just want to again thank the the current members of the commission uh and I will be voting yes thank you Mr finina please call the vote Mr con hi Mr D hi yes excuse me Mrs Jabor yes M bin xano hi Mr cero hi Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I president gtino yes hearing on an ordinance 19 prohibit at all we have one member of the public signed up to speak Manny Rivera cair DPW part turning out of DPW you don't want to speak on 65 we have no members of public signed up to speak motion to close public motion second all in favor Council memb Mr fin please call the vote I there you go Mr con hi Mr Doyle hi Mr fiser yes Mr Jabor yes Mr Pano hi Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi president gtino yes hearing on the ordance of Hoboken city code section 68 is 13 and 14523 the authorized enforcement of public consumption of alcohol on hobok and Housing Authority common areas Patricia waiters I I deeply support this but it's not just in the Hoboken Housing Authority it should be the whole Hoboken the entire Hoboken because it wasn't in the Housing Authority that was actually not allowed but with this we should have read in the city of that mean all it already it already was the rest of the city thank you so much thank you Manny you want to speak on this thank you Manuel R council president um once again thank you for recognizing uh yes I once again am here to um hopefully um get you to be in favor of b665 uh it is important is an important uh resolution um because the people need to know that obviously it's all of Hoboken but specifically the people in the Housing Authority need to also be aware that they are not being singled out obviously I said it in the meeting before I said it in the Housing Authority um they have to do an effort you have to hopefully um help uh the Housing Authority have an effort of information obviously there is no drinking but people do perhaps but they need to know that this is the law they have to follow it like every other hobok night that they are not being singled out is what I'm trying to say because that Community always feels that they're being singled out so um as an advocate as a person I just want them to know that is for everyone is not singling out a community so an information process should be also involved in here so thank you once again I hope you vote in favor I yeld back thank you he yields back I know sorry we have no other members of the public signed up to speak motion to close public motion second all in favor I just really quickly I was going to say this is coming from the Housing Authority it's not coming from the council and everyone on the committee actually first thought was why just the Housing Authority so completely understand where you're coming from but the request is coming from members of the Housing Authority council president to that note uh the Housing Authority passed a sister resolution allowing this to happen on the property so as soon as this assigned to law we'll have the ability then to be our police department will have the ability to enforce all those laws just like everywhere else thank Youk you coun it's consistent throughout the city yep yes councilman thank you council president uh I expressed this concern on first reading I just want to express it again I recogniz this is coming from director Recco I recognize that the Housing Authority wants to have uh the presence of the Hoboken Police Department to enforce this and this was the only part of the city where this was not enforcable but to be clear this ordinance allows for people uh as no person shall include drink or consume alcoholic beverages on a public Street uh the violations include imprisonment in County Jail fine not exceeding $1,000 uh serious penalties for this so I mean my message to the HPD is that you know while we the the spirit of this is for better policing and better presence on the common areas uh I would hate to see or hear that this is being used to issue these kinds of exorbitant exorbitant fines and and prison sentences for this kind of thing without more you know for for to uh you know we've had uh the decriminalization of cannabis uh there's a history of uh discriminatory improper policing with respect to cannabis and and uh minority communities and the housing authority and everywhere else I mean Nationwide right you're not well there's a history of that before there was decriminalization and and and you know the council is acting in concert with the interest of the Housing Authority here to improve the the conditions and that's the goal here to to to have better uh quality of life for the people in the Housing Authority not to make it worse so you know this is not a discriminatory ordinance because it applies the same fine everywhere in the city as it is in the Housing Authority but clearly there's discretion with respect to the enforcement of this ordinance and I just wanted to flag the issue uh and I fully expect that the HPD will enforce it with that in mind but I just wanted to make that clear on the record thank you counil president thank you Mr finina call the vote Mr Mr con hi Mr Doyle hi Mr fiser yes Mr jaor yes pres Zano hi Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I president gtino yes hearing on an ordinance amending chapter 192 parking for persons with disabilities they had Reserve accessible parking spaces speak I sign waiters Pat waiters and I don't want this to be taken bias because I'm not on hand cap committee I just want that known for the record and I want to apologize to my dear friend Tony sorz I heard a lot of other people Dan dos and other Comm uh committee people resigned um Emily you no longer on a handicap committee either right I am not technically I want to apologize to you guys I feel bad for you because I experienced it I've been on a handicap committee for 8 years the abuse lately the way they disrespect us is horrible okay so my hard go to you too I really apologize excuse me I shouldn't have been eating cookies anyway I really apologize when I sat on the handicap committee with Patricia Logan she still serve we going in almost 50 years in Jersey City and over the whole Hudson County we never was impacted with that type of abuse when we said no no meant no and it was a reason we said no if they condition worse that's a different story but we all know everybody know that there's no parking in Hoboken okay so realistically we got to look at the facts and I feel bad because if we put the facts in place not you guys I'm going back way with Terry Le Bruno and before her I'm going back to where if you knew somebody politically you got a handicap space and it's a stigma and it's stuck and we adopted that so with us coming new innocent sitting there trying to do what's right reading between the lines doing everything you know in full compliance we being attacked and it's wrong it's wrong we could really call the cops or whatever because nobody not going to run around town and threaten me and y'all know I don't care handicapp or not Kane or not I'm going to defend myself but you guys should not have been going through that I'm here to apologize to you guys and I'm trying to let people know follow the process it's not you that made the process the process was put in place maybe you guys could get together as a committee and try to tweak it or something to get outside independent people that we don't know and live with to do the committee so that's just a little suggestion that I'm suggesting that you know that you should look into it so it won't fall on us cuz we all live here our neighbors is here and that's not good fighting amongst each other okay guys so I'm just putting that on the record CU I've got tons of people running to me too I experienced it so I know I can explain to what you guys going through all right thank you thank you Miss waiters we have no other members of the public signed up to speak motion to close public portion motion second I second in favor I I uh Mr finina call the vote Mr con hi Mr do hi Mr fiser yes Mr Jabor yes Mr President xano hi Mr Cano I Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo I president gtino yes hearing on an ordinance amending chapter 190-11 dead loading zone to Bloomfield Street Third Street modif by an existing loading zone on 9th Street we have no members of the public signed up to speak motion to close public motion second all in favor I fa Mr finina call the vote Mr con I Mr Doyle I Mr fiser yes Mr Jabor yes preso hi Mr guo hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi president gtino yes public comments Patricia waiters public comments on agenda items petitions too a resolution from mayor rvi Balor appointing Jason Jason Freeman as the administrator it's on there twice so I can just talk to that I can speak on that yeah all right well Jason this for you Mr Mayor can I call you mayor already or I have to wait until the 16th okay no all jok wait all jokes aside I could wait till May 13th it's May 15th oh so no you're doing it again you're doing it again May no I'm done already all right I just want to know when they appoint when they appoint a mayor do they get the authority to make like policy and stuff you better believe it now look no wonder his head couldn't fit in City Hall tonight all right and I want to speak on the um Hudson reporter one wait what number is that cl4 this is G gentino and Ruben R yeah cl4 all right I'll go way back with Carol Karen Bara am I saying it right yeah M maror what I want to do tonight is support these guys that's why I'm out here with the with respect I need to learn a little more what's going on but I remember when they first lost their jobs and it moved to Bayon or whatever do this mean they bringing them back to Hoboken so we we y'all will explain to us what's going on like not yet cuz you send no back and forth but that's it that's the only two things on the agenda I had thank you Miss waiters but I'm supporting them 100% thank you Jordan and Daniel do you want to speak separately I'm pretty tall so awesome good evening guys uh good to be back nice to see some familiar faces um so good evening members of the council last year year on January 20th the unexpected happened around 2:30 p.m. I along with my former colleague Dan Israel our incredibly Mighty editor Jee richings and our retire editorial staff were giving some disappointing news the Hudson reporter a 40-year-old newspaper chain would no longer be running business as usual the city lost a pillar the living and breathing press but a little over a year later we humbly stand in front of the city and appointed members of the council to say that our loss A year ago hi sorry to say our loss a year ago is a win today this is a win today we make history I want to thank especially president um council member Jen and along with Ruben Ramos for sponsoring this um sorry I lost my train of thought if we take a quick look into the paper history the first newspaper came from Hoboken which was called at the time the Hoboken reporter later on it would become the eight weekly newspapers covering the Happ of Hudson County local news matters what we do truly matters just look at the state of the world a journalist will probably be on the sidelines documenting interpreting reporting the news at hand ironically The Last Story I was working on that day that we were La laid off happened to be on the theme of local news deserts cities that no longer had the beacon to the printing press nor access to the local newspapers as journalists our role is to be stewards of the truth and to hold those who serve our Civic institutions into account such as you guys call us watch dos cuz that's exactly who we are unfortunately the closure of the Hudson reporter is not much of a surprise look at what's happening around the world as many reporters are faced with massive layoffs what is at sake when you lose a local newspaper let's look at the facts a study commissioned by Harvard Business School found that after a newspaper shuts down violations of publicly listed companies increased by 1.1% and penalties from Regulators Rose by 15% who is watching over these individuals who have so much influence another eye-opening report offered by the pointer Institute found that US the US lost nearly 2,900 newspapers and 43,000 journalists since 2005 up until now and those numbers are still Rising Civic engagement declines when local newspapers shut down ultimately leading to the erosion of the Public's trust I believe it is in the best interest of both the leaders of the city and the members of the public to not lose that fundamental truth which is the trust in the public without reporters the public is not informed on how their taxes are being used by the city they live in what is happening in the latest school board and City Council meetings the ones that we're presented here today what is happening with the CEST latest crime developments and the list goes on and on I am originally from Miami Florida I was drawn up here to pursue my Graduate Studies in journalism little did I know I would end up covering Jersey City and Hoboken like it was my own City back home and if you guys didn't already know this and I surely know you do a lot happen in Hoboken it was an honor and privilege to report on the stories that truly and fund fundamentally mattered in the city I did what any good journalist would do listen to the issues brought by locals and simply cared our oneyear anniversary recently passed and I would kindly like to propose not a solution but a step towards the right direction let this presentation set precedence for the next for the Nexis of news and journalism and let this be a reminder that we are here the watch dos I'd like to end this quote from the esteemed French philosopher and writer voler quote I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it end quote with the loss of local newsrooms we lose that space to defend and preserve the freedom of speech and expression thank you thank you five minutes good evening I'm Daniel Israel a former staff writer for the Hudson reporter for more than three years I wrote for the print newspaper as well as its sister newspaper the Bon Community News covering seven towns including Bon salkus Union City North Bergen we hawen West New York and Gutenberg from breaking news stories to hard-hitting investigative pieces holding officials and institutions to account to heartwarming feature stories highlighting outstanding individuals there was something in the Hudson reporter for everyone to read and enjoy covering our beats with passion and drive it was a shock to my colleagues managing editor Gene richings staff writer Jordan Cole and the rest of the editorial staff mentioned in the resolution when the rug was pulled out from under us and we were laid off as the print newspapers closed in the following weeks other Publications Under the Umbrella company that owned the Hudson reporter also suffered the same fate so I'd like to thank the city council for commemorating the print newspaper with this resolution following the one-year anniversary of its Clos Ure this past January the loss of the historic local institution right here in Hudson County is no doubt a symptom of a larger trend of the decline of the print news industry and the entire news industry in general Nationwide and it undoubtedly impacts the spread of information throughout the community and Civic engagement it important to remember for history's sake the impact of the Hudson reporter and the news it broke this is especially pertinent considering the online news Archive of the two print newspapers was removed from the still existent but no longer the same online website the website may or may not be under a new owner but shows signs of some type of possible AI involvement in the creation of new content in addition many old articles written under the former staff such as myself and my former colleagues were removed from the website although some have slowly returned but with their by lines purged of the original author perhaps this resolution can begin the discussion of ai's impact on Journal ISM the industry's decline and the implications of that right here in Hoboken and Hudson County regardless we cannot allow history to be deleted or Rewritten many award-winning journalists got their start at the Hudson reporter and Bon Community news breaking hard-hitting stories in the print newspapers and their former online presence with long lasting ramifications while this resolution honors the staff that were laid off that day and metaphorically went down with the ship I would like to highlight some others who were once staff members of the print newspapers and have now gone on to bigger and brighter things this includes former editor-in-chief and now published author Kate rounds late legendary sports writer Jim hag former staff writer and now Hoboken Communications manager Marilyn Bayer former staff writer and now North Oregon public information officer AR Schwarz former editor-in-chief and now writer at patch.com Karen listener former staff writer and now current tap into staff writer Al Sullivan and former staff writer and now Jersey Journal reporter Mark kuso and many many others in fact the Hudson reporter and the B Community News print newspapers are what brought me to Hudson County the job immersed me in the worlds of North Hudson and Bon as well as Jersey City and Hoboken and the stories I covered the places I visited and the people I met touched me so deeply I moved here to cover it better in a time when ensuring the public is well informed with the unbiased truth is of Paramount importance there should be more newspapers opening in Hudson County not more closures in order to not repeat the past we must document it study it and learn from it and local newspapers especially print are key in the preservation of that local history that may not otherwise be recorded anywhere else I hope this may start a conversation about the need and importance to carve out a future that sees a reversal in the trending decline of local news poiter prize winning journalist Richard kuger said every time a newspaper dies even a bad one the country moves a little closer to authoritarianism thank you thank you very [Applause] much Matt [Applause] mccan good evening council president and council members I'm here tonight to speak in support of the resolution honoring the legacy of the Hudson reporter and the importance of local news while I am not an Alum of the Hudson reporter I wanted to highlight why I believe local news to be important even I currently work as a local reporter covering Hoboken we tap into since since September having having arrived here from Ireland on a one-year law Visa I'll be leaving in July in an age where journalism is in Decline as social media and other factors undering profitability and newsrooms are engaging in Mass layoffs throughout the world it is more important than ever to highlight the its importance and begin thinking seriously about what we can do to keep it alive we have seen the consequences of the decline in journalism the decline in independent journalism and and the increase in politicized in politicized journalism I believe has led to increase polarization in this country if people are not also if people are not getting their news from journalists who strive to be objective and independently verify what they report and they're going to get it from elsewhere they may get it from social media and that as we have seen has led to the rise in people succumbing to conspiracy theories and fake news speaking from my own experience we take pride to tap into in making sure that we have a presence in the community and that we engage in Boots on the ground journalism just today I was covering three different events throughout the city before this meeting you as Representatives should ask yourselves if you value having journalists cover what goes on in this city and in this chamber and and delivering it to Residents independently and objectively if the answer is yes then it's important to think about how we can make it more sustainable you could support us to tap into by doing little things like encouraging friends to read our articles signing up to our email newsletter sharing our articles on social media and when you see our articles on soci social media clicking on them and reading them hob businesses could be more willing to advertise with us to help keep our business model of boots on the ground journalism sustainable while considering the fact that local news helps Foster community and keep democracy alive The Washington Post is correct in its assertion that democracy dies in darkness because that's what happens if journalists aren't able to hold aren't able to hold power to account and to have a presence where decisions that affect people are being made elected representatives you you guys have your social media accounts and your new newsletters and you do hold each other accountable and you do inform the public yourselves you do also have your own various political agendas and political motivations underly a lot of what is being said and done that's why independent and objective news is important because at the risk of sounding self important if we're doing our job correctly we as journalists are not motivated by any agenda other than to provide the public with the facts and to hold power to account all too often we fall short on that objective but that ideal is something that needs to be supported and something that needs to be strived for so I ask the council to not lose sight of the importance of local news and to and to consider ways to keep it alive thank you thank [Applause] you Rosemary marle me again okay I have time June 17th I could speak about the business lines budget correct yes yeah okay thank you um ca3 um I didn't see it in the backup where will the new rain Gardens be installed and the five storm water tanks just curious about that um ca5 boy this was some great reading by the way so Big Brother's now going to try us Force us to all become vegans oh sorry plant eaters base plant eaters telling you the best read ever I think everybody should read that um ca7 the city's going to be paying $2,500 a month for parking space for the contractor's trailer to do expansion work on the Southwest Park did I read that correctly I hope um anyway the little detail says 14 months not to exceed $35,000 but there's a little clause in there that says you can extend it for three months so really 35,000 is really not accurate um CC1 Western Edge litigation contract that just doubled I'm trying to guess how many times that's going to come back on the agenda double triple it again now on the first reading of enforcement in ordinance is number five I'm very curious to see how that one is going to be enforced if anybody could just give me a little Clarity on that one um number six it says uh which I'm not arguing with it's a great thing not to have the fireworks in the second ward um second ward it says right but what about the rest of this in town it's already illegal it's what it's already illegal oh but it was legal up in your board it's only legal by permit okay cuz they shoot them down in my neighborhood too and I have a woodh house um oh number seven um I'm talking about this now because I believe it was the greatest ticket scam ever in hobok and I'm glad you're addressing it um now it says starting from now if you get a First Defense it's just a warning what about all of us because my tenant unfortunately tried to help me in put my garbage can out earlier at least that's what I was told whatever I received this fine when I when I went online to pay it they said it was a non-pay offense and I had to go to court so I go to court they hand they showed me a picture that wasn't timestamped it was handwritten I says well how do I accept that too bad you have to okay I said it says nonp payable oh yeah it's payable and now you have to pay the court fees and here you have it that you have to go to court is it's it's a scam either we're guilty or we're not and we're going to pay the fine don't tell us to go to court to pay the fine and then have to pay an additional fee so my question is did those of us who've already gotten this first fine do we get our get it wiped out clean and start from square one yeah we do because it doesn't clarify that we're actually carrying that to the next meeting but yes it does two more three more amendments I believe okay that's all because it's yes it does yeah yeah three amendments and reward that I mean I was just going to pay on line cuz I figur no use in arguing it but said nonp payable so I figur I got to go to court and they'll tell me okay it's forgiven and I wound up having to pay court fees thank you thank you uh Manny Rivera cair Manny pass let's get a pass Manny okay did you uh council president uh thank you again uh I would like to take uh this opportunity to ask a few questions and I will try to be brief so we can conclude before midnight um in petitions and Communications uh I'm interested in the persons that are being uh given a five term for the library um how vetted with the people I'm sure they wonderful people but I would like to know because they outlive the term of the present uh mayor so if you're comfortable um please let us know members of the public who would be interested um now I would like to go in administrations just going to give a couple and then I'm going to come back a to climate action Innovation CA 1 ca2 if someone could explain those to members of the public at least give uh an indication especially ca3 this right way that you're um considering um is it uh again public right away can you let us know uh more details uh ca4 it is um the amount again we know that it's a grant but can members of the public know how the money is being allocated and again as the previous um member of the public uh mentioned C May 7 uh information will be great on that one um and again in corporate Council my friend uh again CC1 this amount um is this the one that we're paying uh a total is when when can members of the public when can the council know um that we reach the end of um increasing the amount I know that they're allocated but please can members of the public know when can we stop paying for these law law fees um then again in the clerk of course cl4 it is important and I appreciate it and I'm sure many members of the public appreciate that you are um acknowledging and honoring uh the newspaper I do remember uh as a young person uh the Hoboken reporter was the one that gave us all the skinny on uh the happenings of our elected officials we knew who was fighting with who we knew who was going to run for mayor uh we knew everything because they had the scoop and also we knew when um uh things were happening uh festivals and such so thank you for honoring them and I hope somewhere somehow something like that returns to Hoboken it is very important and uh council president I would like to um continue and possibly end and with introduction for first reading um I think that I had um praised the council um two meetings ago and to let you remember that I said thank you for making the agendas shorter but I know that it may not be you but you come and you put an introduction for reading you put 11 before when you started it was 14 now it's 11 so it's not don't get mad at members of the public when they have the right to speak on 11 ordinance and second readings for five minutes could you imagine if 10 people came up and spoke on each and every one so let's try to everything is important but let's try to put it in context and let's it's it's too much happening too quickly um there are important things here that I am in favor and I'm against but um let's say for example um number two number four number six number seven number eight and number nine is important to find out what Manny we don't even speak on first reading I know council president I'm just you're doing right now I'm just letting you I'm just letting you know what's going to happen I'm giving you a picture of the future um so just so you know that's accurate yeah right accurate statement so but that's not a resolution a picture of the future just so you know but that's okay continue whatever Council uh president uh says I will agree to but oh I like that I just want you to know I just want the council to know that these these there there is a lot here and when we question it next meeting don't be surprised because there is a lot and um I want to end it of course with with one that is here is the resolution um C D6 it has to do with the historic preservation can members of the public know why and what is happening in this one and to also um understand if if there is a resolution that you're going to make the historic preservation have less members then all members of the public should be against that because there should be more members um not taken away because that um commission is important that commission is the one that seeks out um a lot of information that when they say in in the meetings they tell you there's they're they're very informative and the people who are who are very um qualified in there and they need more um help and expanding actually the the the the historic district is what I want to say so if you understand council president if you want me to to elaborate I will but I just don't want I just don't want you to take away anything from the historic preservation and secondly just to end I'm sorry but you had your seven minutes thank you and historic preservation if you can say it and and your own they're having a meeting on Monday at the library okay thank you Eric Wy all right I I was going over the uh the agenda for this evening and something kind of stuck out to me I didn't really know what it meant uh that ca5 resolution for a plant base treaty motion for the city of hobok that really inspired more questions than I had things to say and I know we don't do back and forth but uh I am curious if somewhere along the line at this meeting or the next one that could be addressed because I'm not really sure what this is about I did go to the packet and I read up the packet a little bit and they had a website so I went and tried to read that up um so they have a whole this whole plant-based treaty is a whole big NGO with a big shiny website and all sorts of I mean there seems to be lots of funding behind it and I have to wonder what's all the funding behind it so that's my first question um lots of NOS that are very impressive and have made a lot of Feelgood stuff and then you dig down and I didn't have that much time to dig down but you dig down you find out the people behind it really are not so well intended ended so I'm curious about that and I'm curious about what is the Practical effect of this resolution supposed to be um you know I I do actually read about health matters and things like that and you know I I've heard a lot of good stuff about vegetarianism and veganism and I'm sure it's probably very healthy for a lot of people I'm not a vegan myself even though I think probably would be healthier if people ate Less meat but are we going to start it disturbes me this is the council can start micromanaging the diets of the residents of Hoboken that seems to be a little bit extreme to me and once again I'm just concerned it seems just like some some's getting a lot of money and sounds trendy I am very concerned about environmental issues I know big agriculture big that was the plan yeah I know that these big feed lot operations and and the U animal agriculture factory farming is very deleterious there a very lot of bad effects both on people's Health from eating it and on the environment I am very concerned about environmental issues however I'm concerned once again like I say I'm not sure it should even be the baileywick of the city council and plus I think to be more the the the better issue is the issue of industrial agriculture versus local Agriculture and I think that's a much better T to take I go to Farmers Market Union Square almost every week of the year when we have the Farms market during the summer here I go to lat I belong to Hoboken CSA for many years I try to do my part to support local agriculture which I also think is a healthier alternative and I'm totally for local agriculture this this this um plant-based treaty I know I I reading reading their stuff it seems to me like you know it's going to be industrial scale plantbased products I don't think that's going to help the environment very much at all so I have I'm very concerned about that and um that's what I have to say Brian Thompson thank you very much council members uh some of you may know me from uh my previous days reporting for NBC but I'm I've retired now and I'm focused on the environment and I just want to say that you have a way uh heading to you to save on taxes of on litter in your streets and that this idea of skip the stuff which is now circulating very rapidly across Ross New Jersey uh it was even up for a hearing uh well it was almost up for a hearing this past week in uh in trentton it's been postponed because they ran out of time but the state legislature needs the encouragement of progressive councils like yours to go ahead and pass local skip the stuff ordinances uh to keep these utensils out of circulation unless they're asked for and it will save your businesses money I surveyed the the very few businesses in my town of Mammoth Beach down the shore they were all for it and I know my mayor tells me that at the end of this month which is a couple of weeks from now that Mammoth Beach will join this tide if you will of uh skipping the stuff and I won't take any more time but just thank you for that opportunity to speak to you and uh and hope you guys have a good journey with this thank you thank you Martha young she water hi Council uh I'm Marty young with clean water action I want to commend what you all are doing just like my friend Brian Thompson just said with skip the stuff it is an absolute win-win for the restaurants it saves money it saves you and me from not Having excess junk when we get takeout orders and we you know go home and we realize we have a handful of Cutlery that we won't use because it's plastic and flimsy uh and we either shove it in a junk drawer at home or we throw it in a garbage can um but again it will save the restaurants a lot of money uh by not having to buy what I just said you and I often do not want but yet it gives the opportunity if you actually are on the go or depending on what your situation is you can ask for the color and condiments so you may have it um obviously it saves the environment there's 40 billion single use utensils that are thrown away discarded every year in the us alone and most of that more than half of that is never even used you know the microplastics the nanoplastics are ending up in the air we breathe in the ground you know there's new studies that are even showing that you know it's in our bodies it's in our fetus it's in our breast milk but it's even getting soaked up in the vegetables and the plants that we are eating so any way that we can reduce helps everybody this is such a triple win and I really commend you all for being leaders um there's Red Bank and Garwood pass in March there were a handful of towns that wo it into their bag band and there are about six other towns that are probably by the end of this month also going to pass um and in the next probably two weeks we will be hearing it at the state um they were supposed to read it as as Brian Thompson just said but just like tonight the meeting ran late and they didn't finish the last couple readings um but I really want to thank you very much I won't take up any more of your time but really want to thank you very much thank you we have no other members of the public signed up to speak motion hang on one he's a horrible signer uper round Timothy rounds um I just want to say that I um strong strongly support the uh plant-based treaty um I think it's exactly what the city needs to do in terms of eliminating you know helping to eliminate animal suffering to uh help with people's health to help the environment and to uh help combat the horrors of factory farming so I'm just want to say I strongly support the plant-based treaty that's it thank you we have no other members of the public signed up to speak motion to close public portion second all in favor I I uh a lot of people seem to ask about the plant-based treaty which councilman Doyle and I both asked for the title to be changed because we suspected everyone would think it was something odd but Council if you just want to actually I would like Caleb are you comfortable or oh I'm sorry yes since you were supposed to change the title yeah tell us why you wanted to keep it kidding and you can tell us what it is and it's not a conspiracy uh I didn't change it in time before the agenda was published okay um it's really meant to help support City reaching its Greenhouse Casas goals and also to provide uh aspirational goals of using plants instead of other products it's not a treaty with any organization other than we're signing on to a pledge towards the goals of the plant this is part of the Paris agreement I believe is that correct it's spoken to in that yeah yeah thank you okay thank you um what you want to speak on the repor yeah briefly as we uh honor the legacy of the Hutson reporter tonight I think some a speaker said it earlier uh Hut I think Manny you may have said something wise we appreciate it uh the Hudson reporter 20 25 years ago was like our version of Twitter it was it was the hobo conversion of Twitter Saturday morning you couldn't wait to get the paper to see what letters were written in the back of the hobok reporter and then the response the following week now it's on social media Easter responses back and forth but those Saturday mornings where Dave Roberts I know he's watching tonight would drive out to The Print Shop the distribution center in C caucus to pick it up to see what was being said at at 400 a.m. on a on a Saturday morning to try and figure it out and just the reporting that they've done over the years where it even won an award when uh one of the directors at the Town etroy Washington he put copper the copper roofs on the smaller buildings of the Housing Authority we say the roofs were leaking why didn't he copper roofs just flatten the roof out and the I can't remember the repor at the time he won a PRI New Jersey prize for doing on the on for uncovering the chicanery that was going on why they get got received copper roofs instead of was it J was it was it Tom jenman I think it's Tom jenman I think it was Tom Jen then you had Carly Baldwin also covered great stories back then as well but the the Litany of reporters that would sit right in that third row over there on the right hand side and we'd always try to run up to them after meetings and try and get what what they our spin on various issues but it's true they were they held us accountable they hold us accountable and it's important to have that you know perspective that's not our perspective we s our newsletters right always slanted in our favor or what we what we perceive the world to be I think the hob reporter did a great job and the other local reporters have to do a great job and telling everyone what it is without with with a filter to it without just our voices behind it all the time it's a great service that was there at the time and hopefully uh it could it come back to that one day thank you thank you guys for your work council president thank you president I'd also like to talk a little bit about Hudson reports a few things one on the letters to the editor uh a late great resident of the fifth W Dale Walker also known as teaweed uh wrote epic letters uh and was a man of letters was an author a poet uh and his work was uh unique uh the the views the stories you got them there were a few other authors I want to mention Andy Newman he's a New York Times reporter Dean D Kiara uh wrote really great stories I remember stories relating to councilman Doyle when his uh appointment to the city council was in limbo uh I came before the city council to make a speech and uh to see the uh coverage of my speech on the front page of the Hoboken reporter uh was a great thrill for me and and trust me no one else was covering that story and no one else covered my speech but to see that in writing to see stories that really mattered uh to our local government uh really it it was nowhere else so uh I want to thank the the people who worked on the HUD uh the Hoboken reporter the Publishers of the Hoboken reporter the people who uh tried to keep that mag that paper going for a long time with declining ads and declining revenues uh it was not a profitable Enterprise but it was an Enterprise that made a difference and an impact in our community so I want to thank the SP sponsors of this I want to thank the people who brought this to our attention and I think it's you know we have the building over at 14th in Washington where it was the uh the Hudson reporter building I think it still says that it may be a soul cycle now but I think if you look over the one and you'll see the words uh Hudson reporter I Hoboken reporter it's still there today uh and that Legacy is in that building uh and it's here part of the city council this was also passed by Jersey City last month and I think it's appropriate that we recognize them thank you y just just one more one more like funny antidote I guess the their their original offices for the hobok reporter was actually in the basement of an applied housing building on the corner of 12th in Washington when I was a kid oh the publisher was Jo but it was like it was it was funny when I was like you know P was probably out was like I was like you know 12 years old and you're running around the block you see these reporters like typing and doing all they had to do down there so it's pretty interesting to watch like firstand knowledge in a basement of a building Happ the the point that I just want to add is um it was such an important source of information to our community people from you know who lived in Hoboken forever people who you know moved here more recently like everyone looked forward to getting the Hoboken reporter and it was the way you communicated with the uh Community I you know my like local activism started around the Monarch project in the Northeast um corner of Hoboken and you know I wrote I didn't know how to reach people and I wrote a letter to the editor and I wrote multiple letters to the editor you know once you knew that everyone was picking it up and reading it you knew that you could get you know an important message out um to the community for people to read and we we don't have that you know anymore it's definitely and it was something that connected the community it it really you know every single person in our community that read it which was many read the same stor so it may have been councilman Cohen's speech but the person may not have known who councilman Cohen even was you know it could have been you know a story about you know Mike Russo's dad and other people didn't know who that he was our mayor and you know it was uh it was just this really interesting thread for our community that I think we feel just isn't here anymore so thank you for you know allowing us to walk down uh uh Memory Lane it's uh it's great and you know if there's a way to bring it back I think a lot of us would you know want to be helpful to figure out how to do that so thanks council president if I could I just real quick I I know we all have great memories and and some not so great memories because we were probably reported on in some of those pages but you know it really was part of the community right and it wasn't just from a governmental standpoint right you turn to page three or page two and good news right you had local children reported on in their communion or their uh or their uh you know honor rooll uh you know all these things were were were talked about in that paper and it was amazing how it did bring our community together because you could remember right you flip the page you know where good news is you flip to the back of you know where the letters are you know you want during political season you flipped it over and you saw the big full page ad right like it was it was almost like as Ruben alluded to you really couldn't wait for it to come out because you wanted to see what was going to be reported and and not all of it was just political or not all of it was about you know a story going on in the city but a lot of it was about community and it really brought the community together and I remember and I still have clippings of the hobok and reporter not only when I was first elected as a council person but when I was a kid about my team or about my school or what was going on in the community right like th those are amazing memories that I know I have and I know many of the council members and people across the city have so it's really it's really important to all of us uh they are great memories and and it really is missed sely missed thank you council president thank you did we vote on this oh no we're on consent agenda I will say to add one other thing to the lack of just local newspapers as a whole um I feel like it's not just Hoboken but everyone is really disengaged with government and elections and I really think the thing that we're lacking is the reporting from our local newspapers a lack of reporting from our local newspapers so if there is a way to bring it back I just think it would be better for a community as a whole and thank you all for your work all right what are we up to AGA one of the communications Library appointments yes you want to oh now yeah right now okay yeah uh just talking about but it's a I'm just communication just a speaking of Legacy appointments just want to congratulate Amanda blay uh better known as Amanda Roberts uh for her appointment to the library board and just to talk about hobok and Legacy the hobok reporter her grandmother Ann Roberts was a library board member for a number of years her mother Anna Roberts was a library board member for a number of years Amanda uh had her degree in library studies she's a librarian so watching her grandmother serve in the library watching her mother serve in the library board for all those years she actually became a librarian so uh we thank her for her service and the mayor it's an ironic appointment uh for what she's on her career and I think someone said it earlier do the people that we're appointing have the background and what we're appointing them to and I think in this one it's definitely in the affirmative so it's great to see her reappointed again thank you um council members wish to pull anything council president can I just continue on that yeah I think I don't know if it's just a Mis type on the the what we handed out tonight but uh it doesn't say who we appoint business administrator to for what it doesn't say to Mayor the letter dated for the appointment to the library does not say to the library so I don't know if this is the what's you know on the official transcript of this meeting but is that something that we should actually address or not well the letter says to the library board in the packet well that's what I'm saying in the packet versus what's here I'm just making sure nothing not be in the title that's what it says in the title vers actual yeah I just I'm saying on the communication what's written in front of us here no in the actual okay I just want to make sure that nothing changed okay council members wish to pull anything no it's not the title I checked it anything else did you say A2 yeah Mr finina call the vote on everything except a I was going to pull some okay sorry ca3 ca5 yeah those are my twoo Mr finina call the vote on everything except for A2 ca3 and ca5 Mr con hi Mr Doyle hi M fiser yes Mr Jabor yes perano hi Mr Cano I Mr Ramos I we have to abstain on CC1 do I yes Mr Russo I president Jan Teno abstain on CC1 yes on the balance okay uh A2 resolution introducing the Hoboken business alliance's budget for fiscal year 20125 and establishing a 28 day public notice and comment comment sorry oh my goodness comment period with public hearing to be held on June 17 2024 so I have a I do I have a a question couple questions yeah sorry what um can you for one second just how do people like give comments what's the process between now and the 17th of June if people do have comments are you having a meeting is it noticed like how do people know about it we'll publish the notice in um two required per Oprah and it's the full budget it's not just like there will be a hearing we publish the budget we'll also post it up at City Hall and folks will be welcome while I put my email and folks can send comments to me can you just send it to the entire Council as well yeah sure that makes it easier thank you that would be helpful and then just a couple other questions I know um you you guys has just recently expanded your board with how many board members we're 15 you're 15 and how many did you bring in seven awesome can I ask if uh either councilman Cohen or our business administrator asked you guys to consider John Allen our assemblyman's wife Tara Mullins for the board uh we were asked to consider all of our candidates I understand did you get a specific call from either our business administrator or Phil Cohen about Tara Mullins I got a a specific call from council member Cohen and did either one of them say to you or suggest at all that if Tara Mullins was on the board that our assemblymen may not provide financing for the HBA what was intimated to me was that if Tera Mullins was not given a fair shake it may be difficult for the assemblymen to support the HBA okay so I just I want to put that out there I mean the the issue that I have with this is not only the uh the Shakedown as it relates to John Allen's wife but more importantly we have to look at Tara the reason why Tara is even considered as a board member and she was voted in but not unanimously is because she has a 10% stake in um mix Wiggins and what's notable about her 10% stake is that she received that 10% stake uh on July 31st you don't need to know that but July 31st and when I was still on the board of the HBA um John Allen asked the head of the HBA three weeks later to do Sunday fundays for the very first time without without disclosing that he had a 10% Financial stake in mix Wiggins and so for me I'm going to vote no on this tonight because I think that she should step down from the board and she shouldn't the the Integrity of the board is at risk because she is on it and so although I'm fully supportive of you I am fully supportive of the HBA the fact that this board allowed her to be on it given the circumstances around her and the fact that people reached out and insinuated you would not get State funding if she was not considered I think is corrupt and and and we need to we need to put an end to it and she should no longer be on this board so I'm going to vote no tonight I hope other of my Council colleagues would consider voting no and we I don't know and we'll put some sort of call out to have her step down so thank you council president yes yeah so you can say you can yeah you can say I I just want to respond to this uh I was not a member of the board of the Hoboken business Alliance when that vote was taken with respect to M Mullins or anybody else that was a decision made by the trustees they decided who serves on the board they voted for it there's nothing corrupt about that uh they decided who should be on that board they had a process they came to they had their vote so you know it's a volunteer board she's serving as a volunteer uh just like anybody else on any other Civic board she's there's no compensation for the work of the people who serve on the board and to insinuate otherwise is just wrong it's just flat out wrong so I just wanted to respond to that thank you council president any other council members un unrelated to that um what's the so how many more members do we have now in how many were added yeah seven seven who who are the members yeah I'm sorry I think she said 12 15 there's a lot of there's a lot on the screen that's all I know I'm I'm happy to I'm happy to defer to James our board president who's here tonight and we can offer a presentation about our process either in the subcommittee OR to everyone it was you know what I think that's perfect and and we don't have to do it tonight I just yeah if you could even even do like a a memo to us it doesn't even necessarily unless everybody want to have a conversation it's yeah we happy to have the conversation I know it was a question that you had last year we were planning on on presenting on it but we took it under advisement that you wanted to better understand transparency in our process so we we brought it and we plan to bring it to you and then overall the budget is a an increase of what the B so the budget is a decrease in expenditures but an increase of 3% in assessment draw so we're spending less money but we're asking the public to give us more we're we're so we're spending down a reserve and over time we're going to run out of that reserve and so we're working to bring uh our balance the future yeah to B thank you sorry it's late to balance the future together so we're we're also going to be exploring additional revenues Grant sponsorship Etc this year uh in order to bring that b the budget balanced I'm going to ask the question I ask every year M Jimmy it's fixed I think is it better now oh it's something in the back they said someone's tapping near an open mic it's just no tou up it's coming for you I like start the tapping when he asks the questions so I was just saying I'm going to ask the same question I ask every year and and specifically for the Third Ward I I still every year when we're asked to provide more money right I don't see any more services specific to my ward anyway and other council members could speak to their Ward specifically but but I need to understand that for me to support not only an increase in the budget right or an increase in the spending however you want to phrase it I need to understand what the value is that for the residents that I represent and that becomes very difficult because again you heard it here earlier even with the art projects that the city wants to do outside of the alliance there are other bigger things that I think we should be spending our money on so we know that the city of Hoboken is looking at a potential tax increase we know that the board of education is looking at a potential tax increase we know that the county of Hudson well we don't know what the county of Hudson is doing but we're we're being asked to give more and more and more on every level whether that's through the HBA whether that's the city whether that's bonding what whatever it may be we're just going to the well all the time and it's becoming more and more difficult so for me to justify that to the residents at least in the Third Ward and Beyond I have to understand that and and that's something that I would hope that you can make me understand totally happy to do that also say we work really closely with council member Ramos to we know that it's hard we know that folks are tightening their belts we know that there are a lot of increases coming we originally going to ask for more we worked closely with the council member to reduce that ask because we know that you're under pressure too so we want to make sure that we're working together um I'll also say we've aligned our formula with our strategic plan so it's different and a number of and I can get you the exact number but a number of the properties in your ward are going to see a decrease in their assessment we want to bring we can bring all that to you I appreciate that thank you of course yeah just to help they originally was it was at 6% the assessment increased and we yeah and because of that exact statement we work we work closely together try and lower that number to where we we hopefully they'll feel more comfortable but with the overall assessment fees going down a number of areas you see we see more people paying into it with with new developments happening and just and hopefully we're going to see new Revenue generating activities next year as well where we where that number could be flattened uh going into the future that's the goal uh for next year but right now just op using our Surplus for this year and then getting us the balance for next year and future Years hopefully have Revenue generating events uh moving forward that's a big goal we're trying to accomplish AB absolutely and I'll say we we kept it sub inflationary we're also facing costs going up right an increase to minimum wage has still increased our sanitation contract we added services to accommodate um requests and to work you know do the business Community wanted to do its part for Road and de batement but but we also have costs that we have to make sure that we're taking into consideration and happy to work with you and provide the transparency you need to feel confident um in the information we provide but you know it's business is also expensive unfortunately I I appreciate it I appreciate your efforts thank you thank you for your time thank you um I am going to vote Yes on the introduction but C Patricia that's okay I am going to vote Yes on the introduction but um in light of what council want woman fiser said I think if some sort of action isn't taken prior to the vote on the budget itself I don't see how I can vote Yes on that Mr lur call the vote on A2 councilman Cohen hi councilman Dole I councilman Fischer no councilman Jabor yes councilman prano yes councilman Cano hi councilman Ramos hi councilman Russo hi council president gtino yes C3 ca3 correct resolution awarding a professional service contract to duberry Engineers Incorporated for Engineering Services to design rights of Way Green infrastructure in the amount of $199,800 funded by njde water quality restoration Grant and B 493 I believe councilman preso yes um who's that's Diana or that's Caleb it's Caleb Caleb um thank you I have a question here what's the main if these five rain guard it's three and two right it's rain Gardens and then there's it's it's two and three right five uh green gray tanks and two rainu okay that's all right so I have a question as far as maintenance per year if you had to put a number on this for this whole package let's say what what would that cost us because I I'm only trying to think back one of the rainu some maintenance we did on Washington Street I think it was like 30 or $50,000 I'm curious on this even though it's a grant and we're not paying for it up front there's maintenance is always something I'm going to be a stickler for the four years I'm always going to ask about maintenance because that's a cost that you know it it goes up we get something for free but it's still going to cost road so if you had a and I'm not listen if you give me a range that's just what I want to know yeah I would um I would say that it's probably proportionate to what we pay on our current contract services so I think it's $20,000 for 15 rain Gardens so for installing five more it would be a third of that okay another five yeah rough okay over take yeah um I'd also say that we have a partnership with North Hudson and so a portion of this that's below ground they maintain things that we don't have either the Manpower or the vehicles to maintain and for these specific practices it's more of a subsurface maintenance so it could be less maintenance on the surface than the practices because they're designed differently than what's on Washington Street and then one other thing I wanted to bring up um as I grew up in the rural part of the New Jersey uh we used to have adopt the highway and people go out Caan the trash beautify do things along those lines um some of rine Gardens I know they put down the um the bark chips today or the The Mulch um gives them a little bit better look but is there something maybe we could look at maybe work together to come up with where businesses or residents can work with us and they adopt a garden and they actually you know they kind of maintain it a little bit give a little bit of Pride we could give them if they feel the need to uh put flowers or plants in it we give them a list of plants but maybe we could look at something down the road where the community gets involved it helps with I think some of the things that we uh from a green perspective but people are always saying you know I'd like to have a garden well you can have a rain Garden outside your house so you can maintain I don't know if it's doable but is it something that we could probably have a get we can have a discussion about sure okay absolutely all right thank you conservancies that were yeah there's sure yeah something like that as long as it's there's structure to it correct correct thank you council president um yes yeah just uh no no no that's okay um I just want to say that uh to a question that councilman Russo often raises about rain Gardens um we actually these this is just for the design of them and we specifically are asking the engineer to design them as rat proof or rat resistance but a structure that will have meshing or whatever it is just below the surface to um effectively keep rats out so that was part of our conversation thinking about you group so thank you yeah thank you Caleb just say one more one more point if I may it doesn't have locations yet we do have locations and I'm happy to to Des where where are the rain Gardens we do not want them um so I'll read the location so the five green gray tanks are Madison Street between Fifth and six t tanks yeah we' like the tanks Adam Street and 11th Street Grand Street at 7th Street Grand Street at 8th Street Madison Street at Fifth Street and the rain Gardens are proposed at the intersection of second in Monroe and fourth in Bloomfield think we discussed that in the past a second Monro a corner does flood uh so I think I think second Monro will be appropriate location be mud the rain Gardens I think that's something was mentioned in the past so let's if we could just try and work around that a little bit better we'll work on that but the only and the second one sorry that was the first yeah that was fourth in Bloomfield is that one's fine but the second mon a row I would is it that you can't have the rain Garden at all or can you just talk about surface that might be stones or something surface like St perious concrete stone this is spefic I think it's that's at the Connor school so it's a demonstration project and so I think that we can work on the surface treatments there to address some of the concerns that you have yeah because we don't want to be become a mud pit 100% that nature so that's a little more little more stur yeah know the school's going to help maintain it to be part of a of a of a project or if it gets to work on yearly that's outstanding but it's just going to be something that's going to become a mud pit you know it could be problematic adopt a rain Garden Conor school love it it's a great idea Conor School adopt a rain Garden right outside your school yeah that'd be great for them to work on Mr La call the vote voting on ca3 councilman Cohen I councilman Doyle I councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman prano counc Cano hi councilman Ramos hi Council Russo hi council president gtino yes ca5 resolution for a plant-based peace treaty for the city of Hoboken councilman pres Zano yes uh I represent the c commercial District uh that sells a lot of meat um I'm thinking I haven't had a chance to get out and talk to business owners on this um I don't want to without getting the feel for the city has nothing to do with that uh if you read into it it does say to go to a plant-based diet it says to stop eating meat it says to stop doing this and I without speaking with some of the uh businesses I wouldn't be uh doing the service to the community or to the people in my ward if I didn't do the research first before voting on this so I will be voting no tonight on this based upon that because I haven't been able to go and speak to the businesses Mr lur call the vote on C5 councilman Cohen I councilman Doyle hi councilwoman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman pres Zano no councilman cantero I councilman Ramos I Council Russo hi and council president gtino yes ordinances first reading C president can I just clar before you go into them just can I clarify the one point on the fireworks that a couple people rais just yeah of course just just uh the fireworks ordinance it on here just so everyone knows our local prohibits fireworks so whenever you hear them anywhere across the city they're prohibited so just call the police and have them come um they're only permitted by permit so you have to actually go to the city you have to get a permit the police chief the fire chief have to approve it um where it's been a little less a little more vague is on the Uptown Waterfront it seems like on the waterfront would be okay but they're adjacent to um residential towers and so it's been a huge issue up there so this is kind of just clarifying this one location but they are illegal across um the city this just says you can't get a permit now at all and if anyone thinks that our police and fire chief are going to issue a permit for fireworks like at the intersection of seventh and anything um they just wouldn't it's just they just wouldn't do that well I mean if you permit you have to get a driver's permit so driving is not illegal it's illegal to drive without a permit so I don't think it's accurate to say it's prohibited everywhere in the city it's it's illegal everywhere in the city it's not illegal if you have a permit it's it's illegal under state law with the exception being if you have a permit the state law says they're illegal our local law says they're illegal except if you have a permit and driving a car without a license is illegal y but people can drive cars because they're able to get permission a permit a license but how do I apply for a permit no all right sorry about that how many we have I'm sorry yes first first reading uh ordinance number one ordinance amending chapter 19013 entitled bus stops designated to formally designate a stop for the hot Bus Service on Grand Street at the multi-service center please call the vote councilman Cohen hi councilman oy I councilwoman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman pres Zano I councilman cantero I councilman Ramos I councilman Russo hi council president gatino yes War number two War amending curbside regulations around feskin field to add two parking spaces for persons with disabilities a loading zone and reserved parking for the Department of parks recreation and public works please call the V councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle hi councilwoman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman pres Zano I councilman cantero I councilman Ramos I councilman Russo I and council president getino yes ordinance number three ordinance amending chapter 192-bit enumeration of spaces to add parking spaces for persons with disabilities please call vot councilman Cohen hi councilman dyle hi councilwoman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman pres Zano hi councilman cantero hi councilman Ramos hi councilman Russo hi and council president gatino yes ordinance number four ordinance amending chapter 179 special improvement district of the Hoboken city code please call the vote Mr L councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle hi councilwoman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman prano hi councilman cantero I councilman Ramos I councilman Russo hi council president gtino yes ordinance number five an ordinance to prohibit the distribution of plastic single use Food Service items and nonplastic single use Food Service items for takeout or delivery orders unless requested by a customer in the city of Hoboken please call the vote councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle hi councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman prano hi councilman cantero hi councilman Ramos hi councilman Russo hi council president Chino yes ordinance number six an ordinance to amend Hoboken Municipal Code 10-24 a to prohibit the launching of fireworks from the land and peers of the northern Waterfront and wehawken Cove within the second ward please call the vote councilman Cohen yes councilman dle no councilman fiser yes councilman Jabor yes councilman prano yeah I councilman cantero I councilman Ramos I councilman Russo I and council president gioino yes ordinance number seven is being removed carried coun uh we're going to do eight now or eight in ordinance amending chapter 42 historic preservation changing the commission from nine regular members to seven please call the vote councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle I councilwoman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman presen Zano i y councilman cantero hi councilman Ramos hi councilman Russo hi council president Gino yeah ordinance n in ordinance amending chapter 196 zoning section 196 D 27.3 Building facades councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle I councilman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman prano hi councilman cantero hi councilman Ramos hi councilman Russo hi council president gatino on ordinance nine yes ordinance number 10 no no no an ordinance supplementing the definitions in chapter 42 historic preservation Mr lore call the vote councilman Cohen I councilman Doyle I councilwoman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman prano no councilman cantero I councilman Ramos no councilman Russo no council president yeah passes okay uh last ordinance for first reading number 11 an ordinance supplementing the definitions and chapter 196 zoning uh yes Mr Mr lur all the vote you've been doing a very good job Council Cohen hi councilman Doyle I councilwoman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman prano no councilman Cano I councilman Ramos no councilman Russo no council president getino yes it passes okay resolutions yeah for the first reading cd5 do you want to do them all at once or separate together together cd5 cd6 and cd7 yeah you can call them all three together um just so everyone knows resolution referring the last three first readings to the planning board okay councilman Cohen I'm sorry which one is this Jerry uh we're doing cd5 cd6 and C7 all three all three references to the I councilman doy I councilwoman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman prano I councilman cantero I councilman Ramos no councilman Russo no council president gatino yes Business Council president yeah just quickly um director I'm having uh I'm having an issue with the St an's Festival where right now I'm sorry is this new business yeah new business okay all right I thought we were still talking about no first time long time no we're so we're we're at a point now where we we the council took a um took an action to wave fees for some of our festivals that passed and now there are still some outstanding fees but it's not so much the dispute on the fees but it's the fact that the liquor license is being held up and St ANS right now can finalize their um their beer truck for the festival so how can we get that expedited so that that get signed issued and then we could have a longer conversation about whatever fees are outstanding but I think we're at a point where they need to get that done so that they could finalize that so that we actually have a St an's Feast this year sure I I don't know that I didn't know the liquor license part so I can look and do it tomorrow morning and report back to you yeah I I appreciate that because again like I said we'll we'll talk about the fees and I think we should wave those fees because that was our original intent uh and it's only about $900 at this point but uh um but yeah the liquor license is is really that's like time sensitive so I would hope that tomorrow as early possible we could get that signed over to them so they could lock in the beer for the and again that's always donated so it's a a big process what about the spike lemonade sorry what about the spiked lemonade I you would have to have the liquor license who um how does the liquor license get approved I have to check I didn't even know that there was a liquor license issue so I I'm not yeah basically everything's just being held up transferred over yeah I thought the state approved the liquor license though isn't it has to get city approval first oh to get S and the city approval comes from like the administration Administration yeah so maybe Corporation Council and director maybe the resolution just should be instead of waving the fee like urging um the administration to expeditiously process the the liquor license because the council is thinking about removing the Fate sure no problem how's that sounds iously urging yeah I don't know about the exped for you we we can that thank you oh you strenuously object is that how it goes um counc movie line councilman um yeah thank you um Ino Ino that's fine just get get in the me and Paul as long as you get our names in the ballpark we're we're we're okay Paul doesn't Paul poor Paul Mr know uh just one item uh next Wednesday May 22nd the multiservice Center Senior Center um at 4:00 be partnering with Northeast New Jersey Legal Services to provide a seminar on Elder Justice open to all Hoboken seniors uh tell your friends tell your neighbors tell your grandparents come on down it'll be good we'll go over things like um you know uh U scams that seniors are vulnerable to resources that they can use uh tenant issues specific to seniors and a bunch of other things thank you sorry multi- service center councilwoman sure thank you council president uh as long as we're doing new business tonight I will recognize uh the Hoboken Public School District theater Department which tonight is premiering for the first time in the entire United States Harry Potter and the cursed child um the dist Hoboken district and our theater program was recognized as being such an incredibly talented program um that this is really um there are two premieres happening one in the US and one in the UK right now um and so tonight was opening night of the production which has kids from kindergarten through 12th grade um it's an incredible incredible production I can't wait to see it this weekend um in adding to all of the excitement the Broadway cast actually came to Hoboken Monday night for their dress rehearsal um and met with the entire cast in the families and I think everyone's just over the moon about it so I know that most of the tickets are sold out you might be able to get a couple of last one-offs um but they will be today through Sunday performing this incredible production uh and I just want to say break a leg and all the best and what an incredible thing for Hoboken to be the premiere for this production so thank you so much thank you thank you uh very director Freeman Bingo on Mondays and Wednesdays yeah we had a we had a long conversation um with Tom Foley the other day there are some options in the work to try to readjust and and essentially there were other offerings that were happening that were we getting big turnouts as well and there was a conversation that was made at the senior center to kind of rejigger the schedule and we spoke to him and we're going to see if we can yeah because I mean try to do both at the same time yeah I thought thought this the schedule is it's an eight hour day to have one event for an hour then nothing else the rest of the day Tak away Bingo for people playing for a number of years they were kind of up in arms about it so I'm glad you guys are trying to address that situation so really really appreciate that uh you know some positivity coming out of something negative uh when we received the word from director frany and chief agar that they're actively uh pursuing the purchase of a mobile unit a command policing Center uh hoping for first reading we'll have the bond issued for that June 5th and the second reading taking place in June obviously won't just be it's versatile enough to be for the entire city I think that was a want and a need by many members of our community and also just I think Pat waiters hit on this earlier it's nice to see the police officers walking uh walking the beat again I think community policing is is the is the backbone of what policing should be uh in a lot of areas when we had uh the community policing division we had a number of police officers that one member of the public mentioned tonight we will a do all those things but unfortunately with the numbers being what they are today it it's they they didn't think it was possible but uh prioritizing it I think is important and the fact that they're doing it now I think is a is a step in the right direction and hopefully that that continues uh a lot of talk about Oprah and and and the state legislation as far as Oprah goes I think it's unfortunate right we all get our emails and text messages o from time to time members of the public you know when we and we comply where if it's not too broad we definitely all trying to comply with that but just speaking out of both sides of our mouths here uh you know hobok we had to pay legal fees $45,000 in legal fees were awarded attorney's fees were awarded to someone because we didn't comply with an Opa request in a timely fashion so $4,5 down the drain because we did not comply with a three page opral request so that that's that's the loss on our part so are we in favor of it or we not in favor of you want to be transparent or not be transparent or just be transparent on Twitter or X whatever you want to freaking call it but not transparent in real life let's adopt it for all of our things and then uh someone mention Southwest Fest we are making an effort to bring it back created a committee for it uh June 23rd was a date we put in for it a real fast turnaround to try and put all this together reaching out to the venors that we had last year they do have available dates for it getting a stage from the county one thing we will need from all my colleagues here is donations so we will be reaching out tomorrow and hopefully you could donate what you can last year uh the event cost us a little over $15,000 that was that's with the Inflatables with the mechanical bull we're adding a dunk tank this year anybody wants to volunteer for that uh did that already the food great at dunking people food uh from the lady out thir we we cover that hot House Pizza is nice enough to donate Pizza all day long thank you rafie Gallow we really appreciate that but and we'll have some hopefully performances but obviously it's going to cost a little bit more we have to pay for parking and other and uh policing that day so hopefully we'll have to raise a little bit more for that but hopefully we'll get more sponsors for June 23rd so we're excited to have that happen so thank you everyone uh thank you council president uh speaking of Fest Sunday is the Arts and Music Festival uh I just checked the weather report Jerry F was a little nervous because there had been rain in the forecast but it looks like partly cloudy and 69 degrees so not too hot not too cold uh and it does not look like there's any rain in the forecast so uh it is a great event uh 11:00 a.m. to 6 p.m on Washington Street over 250 artists Crafters food vendors and local businesses we all know it and enjoy it uh come on out for the Arts and Music Festival uh also the uh Uptown Farmers Market is back uh it started uh two Saturdays ago uh and you can get out there every Saturday Saturday from 9:00 to 1 under the viaduct until December 21st uh the Church Square Park Farmers Market starts June 4th and Southwest Park farmers Markus starts June 6th y uh so those will be uh coming uh but uh you can come on out under the viaduct and get your fresh produce now every Saturday morning from 9: to 1 uh I had um issued a special newsletter about uh people being deceived about the referendum signatures a number of people have reached out to me to say that they believed that they had were signing on to a affordable housing referendum only to find out that they had signed onto a vacancy de control referendum a number of people have asked for their signatures to be removed from the uh petition uh I checked with the clerk's office the sign the uh the uh petitions have not been submitted to the clerk's office yet uh if they are uh at some point in the future I I have a number of people's requests to have their signatures removed I know there are discussions amongst the council members and the administration about ways that we might be able to find a compromise on this maybe avoid the referendum which I think is in folks interest but if you believe that you have been deceived uh by and were tricked into signing that petition uh you can reach out to me at hobo and Phill it gemail and I will uh assist you on that thank you council president thank you councilman pres oh can I say one than I'm sorry uh council president and I were out for a uh flag raising uh in front of city hall right now is the flag of the state of Israel in honor of yat maut uh Israeli Independence Day and uh it was a lovely ceremony and uh want to thank mayor Bala and the city for having that uh we we honor many nations many Flags uh and this was uh a nice tradition that we contined this year thank you CS president motion to close really no we have a oh sorry I thought it was just me that's no it was good it was good good pull I pull it back we have our resolution going it's your turn isn't it no I'm done I you're done oh sorry uh two things one on uh May 22nd is the annual Memorial Day Parade it starts here at 6:30 and it's really just one of hoboken's treasures so I hope everyone can come out and either um come downtown it goes all the way up town to the Elks and then uh there's um like a party afterwards uh but it's uh it's always a fun night and second um uh director Freeman I I think you're on some of the emails regarding the trash issue up on Shipyard Lane are you on those yes okay so I I'd like to so the issue is for um my council members and for the public uh trash is being picked up on Shipyard Lane between 14 and 15th uh right now five or six nights a week it's only six nights a week it's it's only supposed to be picked up three nights a week but the issue is the location they have all of shipyard's trash is in this one location and it's a very narrow Street and it it's like a canyon and they pick up multiple times overnight they have used backup lights Etc and we're trying to find some solution for um a reprieve for the residents that live there because they literally are disrupted every single night of the week but one of the things that we did discover um is that they're only supposed to have their trash picked up three days a week so and I've spoken to um Iron State and I think they're we're we're trying to come up with a solution where they can disperse their trash amongst the um the different properties but that's like a longterm solution a a short-term solution is having them do private hauling three days of the week they could do it in the middle of the day so at least it would cut back the number of nights that they're that that this is happening or the I'm I guess I'm just asking if there's some way we can find some level of even a short-term relief at the margin um just sooner than later so yeah I so we've met with um management and ownership of those buildings I mean the reality is 3 days a week is just simply not enough for that room I I we tried it for about two and a half weeks um and immediately got complaints about garbage literally pouring out of it into the street which was not tenable and and um obviously was a concern as it relates to a lot of the reasons why we talk about trash collection and and uh containerization so um we had posed those same those same options to to iron State I know that they were looking into it um but the reality is I I don't think picking it up only three days a week right now is is going to be something that we can continue to do until they are able to secure private Haller two or three days a week to supplement that I think it's just I think they're o i I don't want to say they're open they're aware that they're getting garbage pickup for free three nights a week and from the city is paying for their is basically supplementing their garbage three nights a week and so I think it's just getting them to a private huler sooner than later and private haulers they they can have that contract in a week so if we could do whatever we can to kind of come to that Arrangement um in the interim before we get to the containers I think that would be well received by so many people in that area thanks thank you I just want to follow up on the garbage I mean if we're picking up there because they don't have the room to store it I just think about all our businesses that and actually even some residents but that I have that same issue I don't know why they're getting this benefit of additional garbage pick up when for free when a lot of other people aren't well in our business district we do pick up six days a week no if not they're not on Washington Street or on bus business yeah and then they mean that's a huge issue for them so I just regardless someone shouldn't be getting something for free unless everyone's afforded the same option it actually it started um without the city knowing CI made the decision on their own during pickup recognizing that this was not tenable only doing it 3 days a week and actually did that without alerting us outside the scope of their contract so they're not charging us though correct they were not charging us then they should charge us less yeah Council um yes Monday night the 20th um the historic preservation commission is hosting a historic preservation 101 at 6:00 at the third floor of the library the U members of the commission will be there um and so I encourage people who are interested in that topic to um to attend that's it no we have our resolution yep you good yes so the first resolution is a resolution to add the item to agenda correct such as whereas the council recognizes the importance of a liquor license to the St an festival and whereas the council desires to urge um both the ABC Board and the appropriate City departments to expeditiously process the lior license application um and said Festival is going to happen before the next council meeting the council looks to add a resolution on the agenda to I don't think it's before the next council meeting it's just they need the the approval for the liquor license to plan are F like tomorrow right but they have to they have to order everything yeah plan thank you I couldn't have written it better myself thanks would you like to Mr uh lur call the vote on both resolutions please both yeah emergency and oh you want to do the other one too the other one says the same thing but I won't read it even though I read it took it as that was both both V on both okay voting on the two items together councilman Cohen hi councilman Doyle hi councilman fiser yes councilwoman Jabor yes councilman pres Zano hi councilman cantero hi counc Ramos hi councilman Russo hi council president gtino yes don't forget Memorial Day Parade next Wednesday motion to close motion to close second favor I thank you Jerry