okay everyone we're about to get started so if we can find our seats if we have them silence our cell phones like I'm doing now just a little housekeeping before we get started um I know uh the public safety director and the Fire Marshall uh addressed everyone here um we have a lengthy public speaking list so once we get to that public speaking portion of the meeting we're going to go in the order that they're listed you'll have three minutes and the three minutes once the time is up um we'll at call the next speaker but what what we do demand is respect um and hopefully you can stay silent while the public uh person is speaking um we want to be respectful to one another I know um this is a very passionate subject to everyone but we have to be respectful to one another and if someone is getting out of hand the council president has the authority to have that person removed from the meeting because they're becoming disruptive and we don't want to do that we don't we want to have a um easygo meeting and a calm meeting so with that being said good evening everyone we are on the record today is Wednesday the 29th day of November in the year 2023 this is a regular meeting of the Jersey City municipal Council we had a scheduled 6 PM start the clock on my cell phone is showing 6:13 p.m. may I have a roll call for the commencement of this meeting council person Ridley will be absent council person priner here here council person bajano here council person SLE here council person Solomon here council person Gilmore is not here yet council person Dees here council person Rivera here and council president wman we have seven council members in attendance at 6:13 p.m. May we kindly rise for a moment of silence please um Chris Angley uh senior content manager for the city of Jersey City artist activist and friend Sarafina Sango former Chief Financial Officer of the city of jerus City thank you very much on behalf of council president wman and the members of the municipal Council in accordance with New Jersey public laws of 1975 chapter 231 the open public meetings act also known as the Sunshine Law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the posting on the bulletin board of the first floor of City Hall the annual notice which is the schedule of meetings and caucuses of the municipal Council for the calendar year 2023 and filed in the office of the city clerk on Thursday December 15 2022 in addition at its time its preparation the agenda of this meeting was similarly disseminated on Wednesday November 22nd 2023 at 2:25 p.m. to the mayor Municipal Council business administrator Corporation councel in the local newspapers and posted on the city's website so I can certify as to our total compliance with the Sunshine Law so council members just uh point of info there were two people who signed up before the start of the meeting so we're back at 111 speakers with that being said as discussed at the caucus we have some items to add before we move on items 3.7 city ordinance 23124 item 3.8 ordinance 23-12 25 and item 10.45 resolution 23- 92 motion I have a motion made by council person CLE may I have a second second second by council person Solomon and this is to add items 3.7 city ordinance 23-14 3.8 city ordinance 23125 and 10.45 resolution 23- 902 on the motion council person Prince ER I council person bajano I council person CLE I council person Solomon hi council person Dees council person Rivera hi and council president wman motion carries 70 with council members britley and Gilmore absent okay on to our first reading ordinances favorite part of the meeting is allow me to read them all into the record all right starting at the top item 3.1 city ordinance 23118 is an ordinance amending chapter 90 animals article 3 dogs and other animals section 12 definitions and chapter 160 fees and charges section 14 permits and fees subsection e animals to add and increase fees for animal control and animal Shel shelter Services item 3.2 City or ordance 23119 is an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic Article 2 traffic regulations amending section 332-5335 D9 stop intersections to convert Bram Hall Avenue between Van Horn Street and Pacific Avenue into a one-way Street in the westbound Direction and convert Bramhall Avenue and woodwood Street into a Allway stop intersection item 3. 3 city ordinance 23-1 120 an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic Article 2 traffic regulations amending section 332-94 city ordinance 23-21 is an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic article 3 parking standing stopping amending section 332-22 parking prohibit at all times and section 33231 parking restrictions for Street clean purposes on Bennett Street between igy Avenue and clar Avenue item 3.5 city ordinance 23-1 122 is an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic article 3 parking standing stomping amending section 33231 parking restrictions for street cleaning purposes on Central Avenue between Route 139 and Newark Avenue item 3.6 city ordinance 23-1 123 a franchise ordinance granting permission to Deval Patel and Jess re me Penny sorry pursuant to resolution of the planning board of the city of Jersey City under case number P22 d199 allowing the installation of Stoops bay windows and planting Beds which encroach the excuse me which encroach and extend into the right of way beyond the boundary lines of lot 33 block 8502 and are for the benefit of lot 33 block 8502 and now or formerly of Deval Patel and jri manip and commonly known as 352 Pavonia Avenue Jersey City New Jersey item 3.7 city ordinance 23124 is an ordinance of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City adopting amendments to the Newport and Horus Cove station Redevelopment plans item 3.8 city ordinance 23125 is an ordinance to cancel fourth quarter omitted or added assessment for the 2019 real estate tax year on block 21401 Lot 29 block 5906 lot 14 block 17803 lot 6 block 23000 1 lot 32.1 block 29601 lot 38 Block 14 095 lot 34 and block 3101 lot 26 on the official tax map of the city of Jersey City due to erroneous assessments council members before I take a vote on introduction I want to Mark council person Gilmore present at 6:19 p.m. so now we have eight council members present at 6:19 so council members are going to be taking a vote on items 3.1 through 3.8 again that's items 3.1 through 3.8 for introduction council person priner Hi for introduction council person bajano I just have an objection to 3 council person Bano can't hear you I just have an objection to 3.6 I think before we approved this they uh we should know more about it because they're encroaching on the sidewalk and everything U you know they haven't come before us and explain this but uh I'll vote yes for now but before the next Council uh meeting or Caucus meeting they have to come and present this to us all the rest yes on all of them council person SLE I for all council person Solomon um couple just quick things on the franchise ordinances for the Law Department I um we had spoken to some members of the Law Department about just clarifying um for questions for the council how we can um once a franchise ordinance is passed change the tax assessment uh of the buildings which is my understanding of how it's supposed to work so obviously first reading okay but just want to clarify that uh 3.7 um votes introduce um but we'll start a conversation around um adding some language to 3.7 um and with that I'll vote I for all council person Gilmore with regards to 3 is 3.8 is is those the Garden State Episcopal properties yes IA introduction council person Dees I for intruction council person Rivera I council president wman items 3.1 through 3.8 are introduced 80 with council person Ridley absent okay council members before we move on to our second reading ordinances I believe I'm going to entertain a motion to defer to resolutions 23- 874 through 23- 877 motion second so the motion I'm going to give to council person Rivera and I'll give this quick second to council person CLE to defer to resolutions 23- 874 through 23- 877 council person Ridley excuse me council person Prince AR I council person bajano sure our mics are on council person SEL I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person Dees I council person rera Hi and council president wman motion carries 80 with council person Ridley absent so council members I guess we'll just go to vote on um each resolution individually we'll start with resolution 23- 874 which is a resolution honoring analytica Vega for her accomplishments and service to our nation council person Prince AR thank you for your service I council person Bano thank you for your service I council person SLE thank you for your service and with that I vote I council person Solomon echoing my colleagues thank you so much for your service and I proudly vote I so person Gilmore thank you for your services I council person Dees thank you for your service I council person Rivera thank you for your service I and council president wman City resolution 23- 874 is approved 80 with council person Ridley absent on to our next resolution is a resolution honoring John J Jack henin a 2023 Veteran Day Honore for his service to our nation and I believe Mr henin is here with my Deputy too so we'll take a vote on it and then we'll invite Mr henan to come up and speak if he would like to do so council person priner so John thank you for your service but also thank you for your friendship and for your wonderfully horrible jokes with that I vot ey council person Bano I have to say I because I nominated him be oh John well you and my cousin go back a long way and both in the military and uh your service has been great John and your son is okay too council person SLE thank you for your service you're a fabulous man and you have a great son with that I vote I council person Solomon so Mr Hen and you and councilman bojano have talked to me about Jersey City history more than any two people in the city but the only difference is what you say is accurate so I uh just want to thank you for your service to our country and thank you for being an extraordinary Jersey City resident who cares so deeply about this city and knows more about you have forgotten more about this city than I will ever know I proudly would I are you a giant fan oh council person Gilmore um I vote I I didn't know John was a vet John looked pretty young that's his oh it's his father oh where's the Dad at right there oh okay that in that uh regards thank you so much for serving our country young fell we really appreciate it you have a good son so you've done served the community right and you left us with this young man here so I probably vote I council person Dees proudly vote I we met on my years of the Board of Ed where you you educated me on Jersey City history and I tried to get you back in a classroom to teach that I wish one day you will you did raise an amazing son thank you for your service I vote I council person Rivera thank you for your service you really are an amazing person and uh kind of like want to Echo the sentiments of councilman Solomon you know your your history is on point and uh you probably have the oldest car in Jersey City uh but uh I proudly vote I and council president wman thank you for your service and I vot I City resolution 23- 875 is approved unanimously 80 with council person Ridley absent congratulations Mr henin thank you very much for this honor and uh for those who don't know my sir I was 28 years in the 69th infantry New York National Guard activated twice for the Post Office strike and the prison guards were on strike I spent a week in sing sing but they let me out and my son is a is a joy and uh before he got married we used to rent them out for f so so so thanks thanks very much thank you very much Mr Howen and I'm glad you're not renting him out anymore in that he's my Deputy clerk he's a lifesaver so thank Mr how and Michael junor says he wishes he could have been here tonight Al righty next we have resolution 23- 876 is a resolution honoring SSG rela Flores as 2023 Veteran Day Honore for her service to our nation on the resolution council person Prince AR thank you for your service I love that we're honoring two women veterans here today I vote I council person ban I vote I council person CLE proudly vote I council person Solomon thank you for your service I proudly vote I council person Gilmore I thank you for your service council person Dees thank you for your service I proudly vote I council person Rivera uh just to note staff sergeant regular uh this Friday will be deployed to her fourth deployment and uh she's an amazing an amazing Soldier uh proudly v i bless her and council president wman thank you for your service I vote I resolution 23- 876 is approved unanimously 80 with council person Ridley absent and on to our last ceremonial resolution item 10.20 resolution 23- 877 it's a resolution honoring my friend for a very long time Richard F dwire on the occasion of his retirement from psng I know he probably is not aware that we're doing this for him um but they wanted me to read it but you know I said um the best person to read it would be his daughter Shannon so if we can invite Shannon up to read everything into the record it would be great whereas Richard F dwire is the oldest of five children and was born on June 5th 1959 at Christ Hospital in Jersey City New Jersey to Richard F dwire a fireman who retired with the rank of battalion chief in Jersey City New Jersey and Jean C DWI whereas dwire grew up in the Greenville section of the city where he attended St Paul the Apostle elementary school until transitioning to St Peter's Preparatory School where he learned to live by the prep motto a man for others and made lifelong friendships and whereas dwire continued his academic and a athletic career at Moravian College in bethleem Pennsylvania where he received a bachelor's degree in political science whereas DWI returned to Jersey City and began working with the Greenville Gazette newspaper and had a column titled DWI inquires and was the editor of the four 1412 Overture newspaper which led him to be a legislative press aid for state senate for State assemblyman then state senator Thomas F Cowan and whereas DWI met his wife Irene McBride of Duncan Avenue in 1984 at the new Park Tavern in Jersey City New Jersey I moved to B New Jersey where they raised their two children aan and Shannon DWI and whereas DWI began working at png's Hudson Generating Station as util utility operator for several years before transferring to the Community Affairs Department becoming a regional public affairs manager for construction projects in the PS service area and whereas dwire managed the communication and coordination of these projects with County and Municipal agencies that modernized the electric and gas trans transmission and Distribution Systems such as the Bergen Lyon Corridor Northeast grid and North Central liability project while serving as a liaison with the Hudson County and Jersey city offices of Emergency Management and the Hudson Regional Health commission during severe storms and critical events and whereas throughout his career at psng DWI has remained dedicated to Jersey City by serving as The Voice for the St Patrick's Day and Columbus Day parades develop Partnerships with Municipal officials the nonprofit community and Civic associations and participated in toy food book and coat drives and Afterschool programs and whereas DWI ends his career at PNG after 40 Years of exemplifying Public Service to the people of Jersey City and for his efforts he has been selected by the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce to receive a Legends of Hudson County award in the public service category now therefore be it resolved by the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City that they hereby honor Richard F dwire on his retirement for his 40 Years of dedicated and loyal service to PG and to the people of Jersey City the municipal Council also wishes Richard and his family future years of health and happiness together on his retirement before we let you speak before we let you speak rich I want I would like them to vote first and then you can address the council and Shannon I just want to say amazing job amazing job Sean before we vote if we vote no do that make him stay or he's still gonna leave well technically no because we're honoring him on the occasion of his retirement we don't have any power over the PS over PS and G we're they'll turn the lights off on us if they don't let them go council person priner so rich um it has been so wonderful to work with you over the years before I was on city council with my neighbor Association and then getting on a city council over the the multiple upgrades and headaches with infrastructure um multiple like days long power outages you were always there quick to respond quick to passle on the information and an ultimate professional so I just want to thank you for being a really good partner it's really made my job in some ways so much easier it really means a lot and I'm glad to hear you met your wife at Park Tavern because it shows it really some of the best things happen on the west side of the city so um and I hope now that you're retired it will mean you'll be able to be our announcer for even more so do never ever ever retire from that position congratulations and I vote I council person bajano Rich I'm still going to call you when I have a problem with psng numbers 1 8004367734 yeah Rich I know you for many many many years and you're the best I wish you weren't retiring but uh good luck with your retirement and next time you come to City Hall bring the dog all right he a therapy dog good luck rich I hope to see you around quite often thank you and your vote Yes Rich change your phone number um council person s rich I don't know where I'd be without you you know as a young council person that got appointed during the pandemic um and we had first hurricane that came through during the summertime and power was out and people were complaining and I I didn't think that psng would be responsive and um you proved me wrong and you have been there by my side every power outage every issue you've always been there you're like Batman um and I really appreciate you your daughter's been a fantastic counsil a as well and the Apple doesn't fall far from the tree I hope whoever you're placement is that they're just as amazing as you they have really really big shoes to fill I think like size 20 v i council person Solomon I feel in the uh resolution the legend of Hudson County is the most appropriate award for Rich DWI you you are a true presence uh in this city uh and in this County and you have done so much to help so many people who don't know all the work you've done for them so hopefully today is a good a moment for the thousands hundreds in the room thousands hopefully watching this this to know you put years of your life into making this city and this County a better place so thank you thank you thank you you see all the love that we have for folks in the audience because Rich answered our calls at 1:00 am 6: am my wife is very patient she is any issue we were having with psng he was the guy who could help help solve the problem and really nobody else uh so thank you thank you for everything you did so welld deserved and I proudly vote I thank you okay council person Gilmore um well wow rich thank you so much for your service man um anytime I had any problem with a why I was calling Rich whether they was Verizon Comcast PS I'm calling rich rich gonna track it down and he's gonna get it done you're just a Class Act you know you get the job done very well respect individual um we've talked about several things on a personal level you're actually one of the only person that I spend that much time on the phone talking about personal issues with um so just thank you so much for your service man 40 years not just in psng but helping everyday residents navigate the course of life and thank you to your wife because that is a it's it's rough when I'm when that when that phone ring at 1 something in the morning at 12 midnight I know sometimes give you the little nudge I told you father was a committee man for years so oh okay she gets um so just thank you so much for your service I probably vot I thank you council person de Mr D Rich these are big shoes to fill and not just because you wear a large shoe size because you took care of people in their most vulnerable moments their heat their hot water uh their electricity you never said no to us in a world of government red tape you one of the most responsive people to us and you would bring things to our attention before we even knew about them from people ways to pay their bills um get their uh bills put down uh you were one of the most helpful individuals and it's because you truly cared you see that with your daughter who's now you know using her Civic ability to help the city and one of our council members and with Sheamus being a therapy chug the important work that you do and the personality that you put out that you just want people to be happy and taken care of is such a great example for us in this city I cannot thank you enough and please someone bring him on part-time to transition the new person uh because it's not an easy job and thank you very much I vote I thank you very much counil person R Rich so I guess what we're all saying here that Jersey is in Jersey City is in trouble if we have a storm the next storm because you're not going to be there but like the common denominator that everybody has here is that your legacy is highlighted throughout the city of Jersey City and man that's amazing and your legacy is contagious you know uh but every snowstorm every rainstorm while I was getting soaked and wet while I had I'm a short guy so three feet of snow was a problem for me I would call you and you picked up that phone and you made it happen and um I I can't thank you because you made every single council person look great to their constituents but you were the guy behind the scenes so I really appreciate you for that you're an amazing person you're going to be missed like rich said I personally am still going to call you I do have your cell so you know I'm going to wake you up I'm sorry ma'am but I'm going to wake him up but uh I probably vote I I knew what you were going to say because I was watching you on Facebook live yeah and council president wman well Rich um I agree with everything um the council has said your response time is unbelievable so often when we going through a storm lights are out we have to have someone that we can connect to and you always been a quick responder believe me we you will be missed you will be missed but I do wish you well you serve the city well you deserve to sit back and relax you and your wife and your daughter so congratulations do what you want to do now do what you want to do thank you very much bless you so I vote C clerk uh G yes this is a surprise thank you very much I actually came here to thank you because uh in the last uh 10 years or so we've done an historic amount of electric and gas system upgrades to make the system more resilient with storms and and reliability and uh I asked you to trust trust me and and you did and but it's not just me your public service but you have an amazing team at Public Service uh Department of infrastructure engineering traffic engineering the MUA the DPW police fire OEM uh we would have planning sessions in the beginning of every single year and see what projects we had to work on together where we had to coordinate monthly sessions and and even weekly so the thing is with all the work that's being done it's incredible what we got done with with with without any real significant complaints you know because people knew and actually in jur I over 3,000 people got my emails every single Friday yes where we were working you know so uh so we tried to keep people informed so again thank you so much you have a great team and thank you for trusting me and and I appreciate all your support and uh have a great holiday season thank you thank you God bless you so while you guys are going to take a picture um I wanted to just say resolution 23- 877 is adopt is approved unanimously 80 with council person Ridley absent congratulations again my friend enjoy your well-deserved retirement don't have to be the back of in here okay byebye okay there was one resolution I forgot to add in that motion to defer so we're going to do that now I need a motion to defer to item 10.16 resolution 23- 873 which is which is a resolution recognizing November as veterans appreciation month in Jersey City motion second motion was made by council person Solomon seconded by council person SLE on a motion to defer to item 10.16 resolution 23- 873 council person Prince I council person prin council person bajano Hi council person SLE hi council person Solomon I council person Gilmore hi council person Dees council person Rivera hi and council president wman motion carries 80 with council person Ridley absent on the final vote for resolution 23- 873 council person priner I council person bajano I and as a veteran I think this is a great great resolution council person SLE to vote I Council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore hi council person Dees council person rera so as a as a veteran uh I just thought that this was uh something that we we should definitely do for our veterans here in Jersey City I mean I don't think we can relegate Veterans Day you know just give them one day I think they should be recognized the whole month all the time but I'm honored to put this resolution forward because our veterans deserve it 100% I proudly vote I and council president wman resolution 23- 873 is approve unanimously 80 with council person Ridley absent okay on to our regular oh congratulations tap the loud in this the lobby speaker all right on to our first reading I'm Excuse me second reading ordinances item 4.1 city ordinance 23- 097 as discussed at the um Caucus meeting we're making a motion to carry city ordinance 23 097 to the December 13 2023 Municipal council meeting May I have a motion motion motion made by council person Cay may I have a second second second by council person priner on the motion to carry city ordinance 23- 097 to the December 13 2023 Municipal council meeting council person priner Hi council person bajana Hi council person hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person Dees council person Rivera I and council president wman I motion carries 8 Z with council person Ridley absent on to our next second reading ordinance item 4.2 city ordinance 23-11 is an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic article 9 parking for the disabled of the Jersey city code designated to reserve parking space at various locations throughout the city this is a public hearing on this ordinance any member of the public wishing be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record motion second motion to close the public hearing was made by council president wman seconded by council person CLE on the motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 23111 council person Prince hi council person bajano I council person CLE I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person Dees I council person Rivera hi and council president Wardman motion carries 80 with council person Ry absent final consideration and Adoption of city ordinance 23-11 council person Prince AR I council person bajano I council person CLE I council person person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person Dees council person rera I and council president Waterman city ordinance is adopted city ordinance 23-11 is adopted 80 with council person Ridley absent on to our next second reading ordinance item 4.3 city ordinance 23-11 two is an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic Article 2 traffic regulations amending section 3325 oneway streets article 3 parking standing and stopping amending section 332-22 parking prohibited at all times to improve the safety of New York Avenue and Ravine Avenue intersection and convert Ferry Street into a two-way street between Webster Avenue and New York Avenue this is a public hearing on this ordinance any member of the public wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record motion second motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 23-23 d112 was made by council person Riva seconded by council person CLE on the motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 23112 council person priner Hi council person bajano Hi council person CLE I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore hi council person Dees council person rera hi and council president wman motion carries 80 with council person Ridley absent for final consideration and Adoption of City wance 23112 council person priner Hi council person bajano Hi council person Cay I council person Solomon I council person Gilmore I council person Dees council person Rivera I and council president wman city ordinance 23112 is adopted 80 with counc person Ridley abson on to our NE next second reading ordinance item 4.4 city ordinance 23-13 is an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic article 3 parking standing and stopping amending section 332-22 parking prohibited at all times on Ocean Avenue at Berry Gardens this is a public hearing on this ordinance and I see lever web Washington make me understand this resolution because you talk him out in front of the 133 ocean the senior citizen building by the Post Office right there yes L and this is uh to make sure that there's a access area for the buses to pick up and drop off the seniors but wasn't they doing that already they were doing it already but it wasn't designated so technically we weren't able to issue violations um legally so we're making sure that we're able to enforce that so only thing going on now you can't park there but the but is it's over that's for the bus stop yeah so we're making sure that's the appropriate stop uh size so that the it could facilitate the uh vehicles that are dropping off and and it gives us the ability to uh issue summons if somebody is violating that thank you okay this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 23113 any other member of the public wish to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record Ocean second motion was made by council person Rivera seconded first by council person priner on the motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 23-13 council person priner Hi council person bajano Hi council person SLE hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person Dees I council person Rivera I and council president wman motion carries 80 with council person Ridley absent the final consideration and Adoption of city ordinance 23-13 council person priner Hi council person bajano council person CLE I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person Dees council person Rea I and council president Wardman city ordinance 23- 113 is adopted 80 with council person Ridley absent on to our next second reading ordinance item 4.5 city ordinance 23114 is an ordinance authorizing the execution of a de easement for Public Access between evanir LP and the City of Jersey City and the execution of a 30-foot setback easement agreement between evanir LP and the City of Jersey City affecting block 9301 lot 30 01 also known as 66 Broadway and formerly known as 1072 d107 Westside Avenue this is a public hearing on this ordinance any member of the public wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record motion second motion to close a public hearing on city ordinance 23114 was made by council person Rivera seconded by council person CLE on the motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 23-11 four council person priner Hi council person bajano Hi council person CLE I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person Dees council person Ribera I and council president wman motion carries 80 with council person Ridley absent for final consideration and Adoption of city ordinance 23114 council person Prince AR hi council person bajano hi hi council person CLE hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore hi council person Dees council person rera Hi and council president wman city ordinance 23-14 is adopted 80 with council person Ridley absent on to our next second reading ordinance item 4.6 city ordinance 23115 excuse me is an ordinance repealing ordinance 08128 contract to pay to play reform ordinance in its entirety this is a public hearing on this ordinance and I see leverne web Washington you explain that one to me so lever the state officials have created a new parameter around elect uh laws at the state level and part of those uh reforms included that no municipality could have a stronger pay to play law than what's on the state record books so you'll also see tonight an accompanying resolution uh the council addresses those concerns it's a state mandate that is imposed on us from the state I'll talk to you the council meet not in favor L this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 23-15 and and your name all right my name is musab Ali I just want to ask what's the accompanying City resolution um addressing the pay to play so I I mean just for using my three minutes as quickly as I can just in the sake of efficiency I know that the state passed a law that said they can't have as strong records but I just think you know the idea behind payto playay is the idea that contractors who get government contracts should not be funding our elected officials and I think it should be a good idea for elected officials to take an individual pledge even if you can't have something in the books that's why I'm wondering if there's a resolution where the city council members should say people who are getting City contracts should not be the ones funding campaigns because that creates exactly what pay to play is right you're paying in order to get a contract and I know the state's taking it away I I don't agree with the state decision but I think a city council members I think it's important for you guys to you know stand up and say look even if this law doesn't exist we are going to commit to not taking money from contractors because then what happens is someone says I'm going to pay you $5,000 make sure you give me this C this contract in the future and there's no law preventing that so that's why I'm asking you you mentioned there was aan resolution 1015 1015 10.15 10.15 sorry the item number yes resolution you can look at it okay so I I see the resolution the summary obviously is the only thing I can see here it says am admonishing the state and I agree with you I think it's bad what the state's doing but I just think maybe this the city council should have some sort of pledge where people say you know we're not going to take that kind of money that's all thank you thank you thank you this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 23115 any member of the public still wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record motion motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 23 dish oh well okay Phil Carrington I just need some clarity on this um are they repealing it or are they amending it I just need Clarity on the pay to play it is important that I get some information of what does this area really entail can anyone um explain this he he probably didn't hear because he was on the outside that is correct I do have the lobby speaker on just so we know oh okay yeah so I I don't need the formal name but the state did pass an election transparency law uh earlier this year and part of that mandated that anything at a local level was now uh no longer enforceable so we're now the state law supersedes anything that happens at a local level so you'd have to cite that state law to what the param are I don't I don't know I'm off top of my head I am not clear as to what you're saying but let me give you what I kind of understood that you had you cannot uh pay to play means that you cannot pay or give some kind of of gur in order to get involved but prior to that or along with that you didn't have to put $5,000 up to even play so when the state was telling you can't pay to play you had to pay them to play so it was it was a con game or scam my question is do you still have to put $5,000 up to play the game in other words if you are going to bid on a government contract you have to have $5,000 just sitting there it just sits there and then you bid you must have your own money as well to pay your staff and to start the project additionally you are really paying to play see if you give the h a politician or somebody's $5,000 to help you you are paying them personally to play but you got to give the government $5,000 just sit there it just sits whether you win the contract or not it just sits there you get no interest on it it just sits so you are paying to play my question is is that still still in effect I need an answer Kenny could you talk to him please because I know what he's saying because he's saying before you bid for a contract they this this isn't pursuant to um any contributions to campaign funding it has nothing to do with uh City contracts or insurance purposes this is if an if an individual were to or entity were to provide a non-t taxable contribution to an election account that is correct you're talking about a city contract no see I'm talking about paying to play you see it's a I think you're referring to a bribe we're not talking about bribes we're talking about contributions to campaigns at from a state law okay all right thanks Phil thank government procedures thank you Phil this don't call out this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 23-15 come on you can come yeah just need your name for the record um yeah my name is Cameron or from Jersey City friends of people's world and the Communist party I'm wondering if um maybe we maybe we need a form some sort of Coalition in this city to fight the state on this um we the council support us in that I'm glad we have a resolution for it so maybe we just need to figure out a way to get together and form some sort of Coalition and and do something because this is unacceptable I mean the right Wings on the Move y'all thank you thank you Cameron okay this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 3-15 any member of the public still wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record motion second motion made by council person Cay seconded by council president Warman to close a public hearing on city ordinance 23115 council person priner Hi council person bajano Hi council person Cay I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person hi council person Riva stepped away council president Waterman I motion carries 70 with council members Ridley and Rivera absent for final consideration and Adoption of city wance 23-15 council person priner um just briefly and I know that we have the resolution admonishing the state stance um yeah I never saw an issue with the city's stricter pay to play laws I don't see an issue with it now just because the state says we can doesn't mean that we should and I don't intend to I vote I council person bajano I council person SLE I council person Solomon I'm gonna abstain like I did on the first reading um just to think it was clear but just to make it abundantly clear the state passed a law that basically said no town can have their own payto playay rules we all have to follow the states even if which was in the case of Jersey cities our payto playay rules are stronger they literally took that power away from us why you can probably guess why right the power of money in politics um that's in treaton so there is a resolution 1015 and is saying that the state um was wrong to do this that we we call on them to change the law um the idea that like we can't even just choose our own stronger it doesn't affect anybody outside of Jersey City it doesn't even affect it if you're running for State office and you represent Jersey City would only affect us Council mayor potentially School Board although don't quote me on that so so it was just a a you know the worst of New Jersey politics in that bill um so I just wanted to make sure everyone was clear about why that was there but legally there's nothing wrong I mean the the legally the law uh cannot be enforced so I'm going to abstain like I did on first reading council person Gilmore I just hate that we're even at this juncture it's it's really a slap in the face of democracy um life of me I really I just can't understand it um I guess I see what the state's trying to trying to do I don't agree with them so I'm gonna vote no council person Dees I council person Rivera and council president wman no city ordinance 23-15 is approved 5 2 one with council members Gilmore and council president voting no and council person Solomon abstaining council person Ridley absent okay on to our last second reading ordinance item 4.7 city ordinance 23- 116 is an ordinance of the city of Jersey City in the county of Hudson state of New Jersey providing for a special emergency appropriation in the amount of $10 million to fund contractually required Severance liabilities resulting from the retirement of employees of the city this is a public hearing on this ordinance any member of the public wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record motion second wait wait wait wait oh hold on hold on sorry go ahead hi guys maab Ali again so this is a resolution asking for a $10 million Bond um for the city for unexpected retirements and I think I have two questions here one is talking about the fiscal controls of the city so another report came out recently that this the police overshot their overtime by $2.5 million and there's reshuffling of money in the public safety department to cover that um but in the last budgetary cycle the city increased taxes a 32% tax increase that's how it was quoted and that was a 2% property tax increase where are we getting the money for these $10 million if this is an additional Bond that's being put out that's again going back onto the property tax owners to have to pay over time so I I guess the question is this $10 million is it inclusive of the budget and if so why wasn't it just put into our budget when we had our budet cycle that happened just a few months ago like why is it we're now asking residents to funnel this $10 million as an additional an additional thing to to property taxes that's gonna take more time like ba I don't I don't understand how we have the money to do this how we have the money for this police overtime how we have 16 million dollars we're supposed to be spending on a French Museum and yet in our budget we don't talk about these things when the budget process happens when the budget process happens you guys don't talk about these items and then you come back and ask for $10 million to happen in the middle of the year and people don't read what's happening with these $10 million so the question I have is where are the fiscal controls and who is going to pay this money because is it being advertised to homeowners that they know this $10 million is going to go back in property taxes but instead of sneaking into the property tax bill you're sneaking in bond like this ba John John this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 23116 any member of the public wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record Kenny you want to explain the bomb I don't even know but I feel like that's wrong that's why so many stuff is coming out in the opening for our community y'all spending stuff like that and people that's doing nonprofits that's doing this stuff free I'm running back and forth to medic CER giving new moms cribs and bottles and pimp and asking you for gas money and they got money right here for to give out to the community that need help like come on y'all got to do better y'all have to do better it's time for voting we got to do better for I don't know why y'all was capping for that other man while he was standing here but we need to do better for our community that's what we got to do no way they should be getting this money the money should go back into the community we ain't got no lights on war F that's what we need we fighting war and up there in our community right now thank you Tina this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 23-16 any member of the public still wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record motion John can you um give them an explanation before we do that can we just take the motion yes wait go ahead so hold on so I miss the motion Danny or councilman Rivera so the motion to close a public hearing on city ordinance 23-16 was made by council person Rivera seconded by council person CLE on the motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 23116 council person priner council person Bano hi council person Cay hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore hi council person Dees hi council person r hi and council president Waterman hi motion carries 8 Z with council person Ridley absent council person Gilmore John you got he gonna these are uh basically retirement payouts for employees um laws have change it since 2013 caps All City uh sorry public employees at $155,000 so anybody that was hired or uh from that point on moving forward their Max cap would be 15,000 and those dollars are budgeted for as you continue what we're looking at here is a a unfunded liability that pre-exists that date right because I mean you're looking at 10 years ago but we have employees retiring now with 30 35 40 years of service that they were incapped at the time of the law they were grandfathered in so um for those employees they they far exceed those $155,000 contrib uh um payouts and it it depends upon how much time they have in the system and how many days they have accured so what the state did is they created a law that allows you to bond for it and it's paid in five equal installments over five years and that's to prevent massive tax increases to small and large cities that wouldn't be able to um handle it in the case of large um uh retirements which we're seeing now so um as we move forward this liability shrinks because the newer employees since 2013 are no longer allowed to receive them and once the liability is bonded for and paid it's not a liability anymore it wouldn't be a reoccurring liability thank you very Sean okay for final consideration and Adoption of city ordinance 23-16 council person priner Hi council person bajano Hi council person SLE hi council person Solomon John knows I voted against this every year since 2018 except in 2020 during covid because I think we should plan but all the reason so I'm going to vote no again council person Gilmore uh John if you can't so how how many how many employees retired under this this $1 million thresold if we know I don't think there's a spreadsheet attached to it we can get it for you but it it really it doesn't really matter on the number of individuals it's the liability for each individual so you could have somebody that you know they enjoy their vacation and maybe they had some issues so when they retire they have a very small payout we have some individuals that throughout the years they've banked their time continuously and it could be a larger payout based on what their final salaries are so it's not necessarily the volume it's it's the amount of gross days that we have as a city as a liability so we can give you that information um and then I could also give you the information of the amount of employees that are still eligible for uh these payouts so do so I guess my next question is we don't continue to anticipate these retirement Appropriations at the end of every year correct well every we take a look at what the size of the volume would be right so just to give you an example um certain fire and police classes and and right they were large when they came in so now they're large as they're exiting so it really depends on the year on what the liability is um over my 10 years here I've seen a few years we budgeted some years we you know we bonded for it and then uh you know we had a hybrid a few years so it really depends on the amount of employees exiting those years and what the liability is okay and my last question is um at what point do we know to to gauge it because if if the municipal budget was just voted on a couple months ago did we foresee this coming down or is it hard to assess um so usually you see uh two or three stages of retirements based on uh years of service and when they kind of come in um beginning of the year uh right after the new acrs come in which would be like early January those we try to anticipate for and then usually August and November based on those were when the years of of classes and new uh administrations came in and did hiring over those years um so that's usually when we see it so for this one we saw it like late August as the the more bulk of it uh we also in this number we factor in those that put in their papers to retire but have not yet retired like you could put in for February now and if they pull their papers we wouldn't bond for those dollars it's just at the mass uh amount this would be not to exceed okay hey Sean I'm gonna I'm going to up stain um on this one um lot of uncertainty for me no problem thank you council person the G council person Riva hi and council president wman city ordinance 23-16 is adopted 61 one with council person Solomon voting no and council person Gilmore abstaining and council person Ridley absent okay I believe we are going to having a motion to remove item 11.9 city ordinance 23- 095 from the tabled agender it's a franchise ordinance granting permission to FD monitor LLC it successors and assigns to make private improvements in both Monitor Street and Maple Street public rights of way adjacent the property located at 62-68 Monitor Street Jersey City New Jersey also known on the tax maps of the city of Jersey City as block 1580 two Lot 37 motion I have a motion made by council person Riva seconded by council president Warman to remove item 11.9 city ordinance 23- 095 from the tabled agenda on the motion council person priner I council person bajano Hi council person Cay I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person Dees hi council person Riv hi and council president wman motion carries 80 with council person Ridley absent just keep in mind that this ordinance was tabled after the close of the public hearing so we will not be having an additional public hearing I believe before we go on to vote for city ordinance 23- 095 that there is a slight amendment to to the ordinance and the amendment is not a substantial change I'll read it into the record first and then I'll ask Corporation Council to make sure assistant Corporation counsel to make sure that it's not a substantial change so the amendment will be um number 11 added to the agenda the city is committed to reviewing the best practices for granting franchise easements the city shall review this individual easement in a period of one Year from the date of this ordinance passage to ensure it is still in compliance with the city's future determination for franchise easements first I mean assistant Corporation Council mckenny is this a substantial change no thank you it's clarifying what we have the ability to do anyways thank you okay council members so I need a motion to amend city ordinance 23- 095 to include the language in number 11 which I just read into the record motion motion made by council person Rivera seconded by council president wman on a motion to amend city ordinance 23- 095 council person priner I council person bajano I council person CLE I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person Dees council person Rivera hi and council president wman motion carries 8 Zer with council person Ridley absent for final consideration and Adoption of city ordinance 23- 095 as amended council person Prince AR hi council person bajano Hi council person SLE I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore going to vote um no I really hope we can really find a solution with these franchise ordinance because with the way taxes are going up in this city and a way these developers are getting these franchise ordinance and making an argument that they're improving the quality of life for the city when actuality you really improving the quality of life for your establishment um we need to really home in on making sure if they get these franchise ordinance they need to be taxed at a new tax level that's including that area because we we we can't keep continuing as business as usual with the rationale this is improving the I don't know the area the quality of life for for the city um so I know going forward if if we don't we don't have that please I'm I'm voting no against all these franchise ERS council person Dees council person Rivera I and council president wman city ordinance 23- 095 is adopted as amended 71 with council person Gilmore voting no and council person Ridley absent okay council members before we move on to our public speaking portion of the meeting I believe we wanted to make a motion to defer to the claims and addendums number one two and three and all of the resolutions with the exception of the very last resolution which is item 10.45 resolution 23-0 excuse me- 902 so there's a motion to defer to the claims it's it's the rest of the business that we have with the exception of the very last resolution that's on the agenda that was added and this is for because we have such a lengthy public speaking list um if the meeting goes over 1 a.m. I'm going to lose my court reporter and I would like to have all the transcript of the business of the city on the record so with that being said the motion to defer to claims and addendums number 1 two and three and all resolutions with the exception of 23- 902 the motion was made by council president wman may I have a second second second by council person Rivera on the motion council person priner council person bajano Hi council person SLE hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore council person Dees council person Rivera I and council president wman motion carries 80 to defer to the claims and addendums 1 two and three in all resolutions with the exception of 23- 902 C of President and and Clerk um what question for the administration just because of the change I think there you know maybe some members of the public that wanted to speak on some resolutions and there's just one in particular I just wanted to know if it was time sensitive and it could be held for the December meeting I think it's 10:34 is that right uh the resolution regarding Tomahawk strategic Solutions so this way we'll hear people when they speak and then it'll be on the December meeting that works have the motion so what what what we can do is we can um motion to remove make another motion to um remove 10:34 not to remove it from the agenda but to keep it last with the um other uh resolution motion second but let me let me read it to the record so we're going to motion to going to motion to move res item 10.34 resolution 23-8 91 as the last order of business with the last resolution so so the motion was made by council person Solomon motion and may I have a second second second I'm going to give that to council president Waterman on the motion to move item 10.34 resolution 23- 891 to the last part of the meeting council person priner Hi council person Bano hi council person SLE I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore council person Dees council person Rivera hi and council president wman motion carries 8 Z with council person Ridley absent all right with that being said council members I'm going to be taking a vote on claims and addendums number one number two and number three again I'll be taking a vote on claims and addendums number one number two and number three council person priner I council person Bano I council person Cay I council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore council person Dees council person Rea I and council president wman claims and addendums number one two and three are approved 80 with council person Ridley absent okay now on to our resolutions and only the resolutions council members going to be taking a vote on items 10.1 through 10.15 again that's 10.1 through 10.15 council person priner I council person bajano Hi council person CLE I council person Solomon so no on 10.3 and no on 10.9 and I on all the rest council person Gilmore I can't hear you I'm going to abstain on 10.3 um as a releas 10.9 I'm G to vote no and I really would suggest that we really get a hold of these overtime expenditures as it relates to Public Safety um because at some point we can't keep going to the well asking um asking taxpayers to to fund these overtime expenditures without detailed plans um long story short we got to get it together so I'll vote I on arrest um I'm standing on What's That 103 10.3 and voting no on 10.9 yes got it council person Dees no on 10.9 the amount of money being taken from the fire department shows that they're either underst staffed or not being promoted as they should be um they rigs off duty I respect all of the Jersey police and I thank those that are here for your overtime but it canot be come on the cost of the quality of life um and the fire department no and I on the rest so no on 10.9 and I on all the rest correct thank you council person Reber hi and council president Waterman St from 10.9 and yes on all the rest staining on 10.9 and I and all the rest I can't we can't hear you we've been trying to have a conversation with that Division and it's just not happening so I'm abstaining from that .9 okay items 10.1 through 10.2 are approved 8 Z with council person Ridley absent item 10.3 is approved 611 with council person zon voting no and council person Gilmore um abstaining item 10.9 so 10 excuse me items 10.4 through 10.8 are approved 80 item 10.9 if you bear with me one second it's um four in the affirmative three against and one exstension and that would fail that Court uh resolution that res please don't shout out the resolution is defeated even though it has an affirmative vote of 431 it requires six votes which is two-thirds of the majority of the full membership items 10.10 through 10.15 are approved 80 with council person Ridley absent sorry for the pause all right on to our next set of resolutions items 10.16 through 10.30 again that's items 10.16 through 10.30 council person Prince AR I we we approved we approved the um 10.16 through 10.20 council person Bano hi council person SLE hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore hi council person Dees council person Riva hi and council president wman city ordinances 10.16 through 1030 are approved 80 with council person Ridley absent on to items 10.31 through 10.44 with the exception of 10.34 and 10.45 which will'll be considering after the public hearing portion of of the meeting so again items 10.31 through 10.44 with the exception of 10.34 which is going to be considered after the public hearing speaking portion of the meeting council person priner I council person Bano no on 10.41 1042 and 10443 I on the the end so 10.41 42 43 and 43 yes and I on all the rest yes thank you council person SLE hi council person Solomon I council person Gilmore I council person deice I council person Rivera hi and council president wman I'll abstain on 10.41 10.42 10.43 and I on all the rest okay if you would allow me to recap items 10.31 through 10.40 are approved 80 with council person Ridley absent item 10.41 is approved 6 1 one with council member bajano voting no and council president abstaining 10.42 same vote 611 with council person bajano voting no and council president Waterman abstaining and item 10.43 same vote 611 with council person Bano voting no and council president w abstaining and obviously council person Ridley absent all right now with that all of the business taken care of we are now going to go to the public speaking portion of the meeting before I do that I just want to State or the record that when we're speaking remind we have to be mindful that when the speakers are speaking we cannot crowd the middle of the floor so only one speaker at a time regardless of the position or what you're speaking about only one speaker at a time can come up also let's be mindful of everybody's opinion when they're speaking and please hold the Applause when you're speaking because what you do is when you applaud you're taking away their time for speaking and the time is tick as you are applauding so if you can just hold your applause till the end we would greatly appreciate that and again be very respectful to one another we want to have a smooth public hearing and we don't want to have to have anybody removed from the chambers but before I do that I believe I'm going to turn it over to council person SLE because he wanted to make a statement I want to thank everyone for coming here tonight um the resolution has been updated as of 5:00 p.m. today um this resolution was started shortly after October 7th and we've been trying to work with both communities to capture uh the spirit the um the resilience the pain the everything that we've been going through collectively as a community I have been trying to capture what the Muslim Community has been saying to me and what the Jewish Community has been saying to me and the resolution that is being put forth today has been edited many many times since October 7th it's not that the council didn't want to condemn Hamas or whatever the rumors are the council has been amending it every week because of the nature of what's happening there on the ground um what we're going to do today is we're going to listen to everyone's voice we're going to hear what everyone has to say so please read the updated version it's on the city council agenda please speak to the resolution and let us know what you think and we are going to hold a special meeting next week to vote on it so that that is what we're trying to do so please give us your feedback on the resolution and then we're going to vote on it next week okay if you're gonna continue if you're gonna shout out and disrupt the meeting you're gonna be removed okay please please we're trying to have guys guys okay guys we listen please I'm begging you so so again again if you're gonna shout out if you're gonna shout out pleas you're gonna be removed from the chambers you're disrupting what did you do dude oh my God okay we need to start we need to start pleas let's everyone please take a deep breath everyone will have their chance to talk okay listen I'm Palestinian American no one feels it as much as me if not the Jewish Israeli Community okay and I was fortunate enough to be born here and raised in the Heights 99% of my family is overseas okay so I'm trying to thread a very delicate line with everyone I had a cousin that died two and a half weeks ago on Instagram okay I so I'm get killed by a settler I'm not here to talk about my pain okay I'm here to talk about how we can build together as a community and I want everyone if I can keep my composure everyone else needs to keep their composure please is doesn't help we're here to listen to each other thank you with that being said we're going to call the public Speakers by their number and their first name so the first public speaker by point1 lever thank you tonight I fell last week on some city property and I should have went to that doctor but I didn't but tonight I'm here about Drew and about homeness in the city of Jersey City Drew father grandfather was one of the first men to to sweep in front of my house at 124 map Street 65 years ago when they first started sweeping Jersey City with sweepers this young man came from a good family a family that me something in this city and we need to have respect for that and and y'all stand up that family stand Irving y'all stand up y'all Irving stand up he I grew up I'm 75 years old I grew up with that family and it and a young man came to my church later T night we had Bible study it's a lot of mental illness going around and it comes out of decent families this goty this young man grandfather is a minister and he came to another church for help respect this family let's get something done about this that it works for this whole city so much is going on right now and we need to stop what's going and have respect for one another everybody got problems but but this young man we need to name this billly after him this young man father work grandfather works hard in this city he ain't come from no Street he wasn't no drug he wasn't this he came from a family that we need to respect things happen I come from a family of 14 in this city my family came here in 1930 my father raised 14 kids in the city we got to do better and respect people everybody in here to respect one another when they out of care where you from I came out of slavery so what's that we have fight respect one another what's going on in the world we got to teach our kids better we got to respect this family and get something done about them I brought a young lady here tonight me they she about homeless people want to take over her house she been there 20 years they done flipped it three times another young lady called our council president she in a hotel she just came off di today she was supposed to come here tonight with me people going through hell in this city and we fighting about stuff that we shouldn't be fighting about our kids out here in the street they got problems we need to train police and train people to help people the phone call I get people think I work here in this city I don't work here work for God I just gave out 350 turkeys 300 something Co I ran a summer camp I a get a dime from nobody but the people who I work with To God Be The Glory thank you lever our next speaker 5.2 Carri you Carri no oh he's car car he's next car's next good evening uh thank you for having me here I feel almost a little bit guilty talking about something is mundane as trash collection in uh in this environment but I do want to bring it up I'm here uh from Clinton Avenue and this is all also on the theme of quality of life issues uh our block is currently drowning in trash and there have been some improvements but we need way more trash collection on our block it's a complicated issue everybody understands this but basically what we're asking for is uh a not very expensive addition of somebody to come around a couple times during the week with a broom and a garbage bag and some and to help keep things clean in our area that's it we've had tax raises in our neighborhood you know I'm a property owner our taxes have been raised in multiple years we expect a commensurate raise of services that come along with it and this is not a problem that is going to be solved simply by um you're sending law enforcement in and and you're trying to incarcerate people we need a quality of life Improvement in terms of keeping the block clean and we need the city to hustle in the same way that there are a lot of people on our street doing that stuff now how are we going to get this Improvement and how are we going to get our streets cleaned on a regular basis and what can we do um I just asked that the city comes through more often and we need to see them as often as we see everybody else um I've gone to the city I've gone to the mayor and basically what I've heard back is we don't have the money for this we don't have the money to pay for this but it doesn't cost a lot of money to maybe hire somebody two three times a week for an hour to come by to a corner and sweep up some extra trash there's trash under the cars there is trash on the sidewalks and we just want a basic practical solution because our the people in our neighbor neighborhood want to feel like we're in a neighborhood that is cared about and respected by the city and that's about it from here um one last thing too I I didn't intend to speak on this tonight but I'm so impressed by everybody's emotions here that I I'm a Jewish person I grew up in Hebrew school I grew up speaking Hebrew uh but I want to stand with the people here that are calling for a ceased fire and I want to quote I want to qu I would like to quote my favorite author Albert Kimu who said that no cause justifies the killing of civilians thank you very much um where you at on Clinton what address on Clinton 250 and Clinton between Westside and and JFK yeah okay and so so the city has been kind enough to come by they've come by and they've helped address your time is up sirry yeah just all right okay next speaker 5.3 tall okay next speaker 5.4 Andrew good evening everyone my name is Andrew Gross and uh speaking my personal capacity uh I've worked worked in uh foreign affairs uh for about a decade of my life and I'm a resident here member of the Hudson County Democrats proudly and last week I sorry last uh council meeting I was here and the the rhetoric I have to say was disturbing disruptions that we heard also tonight are disturbing and I appreciate very much uh all of you for the thought uh that you've put uh into this resolution uh we are certainly facing a very divided City very divided America uh and so your efforts are are important uh I'm a proud Jewish American um I am uh and I've spent a long time in community relations in fact I believe it's very important my father uh went down and March during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s he worked in Newark in 1969 during the riots and I I take this with me in my life it's part of my identity uh and we're all feeling a lot of pain but I have to say that the Jersey City Council is not the United Nations and this is not the place to be having a debate on International diplomacy or international issues so I would a I'm asking you asking you not to proceed with this resolution we did not elect the Jersey City Council to engage in international diplomacy in fact we we we elected you to engage in the very issues that were just raised about garbage collection about traffic so many things we heard about today so many important Civic issues that we focus on we're not here to debate the Middle East and we're not going to solve the problems of the Middle East today or through this resolution we're not as I said international organization in fact other conflicts in the Middle East have not been raised in this forum we didn't talk about uh people killed in Syria we didn't talk about people killed in Yemen we didn't talk about rohinga killed in Myanmar we didn't talk about weers who are in in China we've only spoken there's only a resolution about Israel and Israel is being singled out in this forum and so therefore I'm speaking okay listen and so we cannot cannot litigate this issue here uh but we can find ways to help and so I would encourage all of you uh great people on this uh on the city council to find other means to bring people together to fight the tide of anti-Semitism and of of islamophobia of hate we need to do a better job it is not going to be achieved through this resolution um again statements like working with global leaders there's no way for us to do that in the jersey in a resolution in Jersey City so to ask for us to find a more practical way forward I would ask for us to pray for peace pray for the return of the hostages back to Israel and for the suffering of all people including Palestinians thank you our next speaker 5.5 Italia it's I AI hi not here thank you 5.6 Julia thank you 5.7 Hillary do we have a lot outside still 5 point seven Hillary go ahead Sean okay next 5.8 or O'Neal 5.8 or O'Neal I have the speaker on outside so they can hear me okay 5.9 Joseph all right thanks Jersey City Council for doing the hard job tonight of listening to all sides of a complex issue as a lifelong Jersey City churchgoer graduate of NJCU homeowner and father I care about this city as much as any of you I also care about International Affairs what terrorists did intentionally to innocent women children elderly men and families on October 7th was one of the most vicious cowardly attacks on civilians in Israel's history Jews Muslims Christians Filipinos Indians tanzanians and more were indiscriminately murdered raped butchered it was horrific disgusting my view is that Israel had every right to defend itself in this war that Hamas started in fact they have every obligation to bring these terrorists to Justice and fight until every Israeli or International hostage is returned alive or as we've seen in some cases dead their bodies laying alone in some Gaza building where Hamas left them in my opinion this ceasefire demand which began on October 8th is not only a non-starter but unrealistic Hamas has broken every ceasefire they have ever had with Israel the October 7th attack broke a stand ending ceasefire they have fired 10,000 Rockets since October 7th for decades before they engaged in many more attacks they're behind the suicide bombings we all know about that have happened in Israel and they have vowed in English to repeat October 7th again and again in the words of Bernie Sanders I don't know how you can have a ceasefire a permanent ceasefire with an organization like Kamas he's right because an organization like kamash should not be tolerated but should be eliminated and this is not just for the benefit of Israel but also for the benefit of innocent Palestinians who have been living under the oppression of these dictators for too long M literally indoctrinates their children to become Martyrs and glorifies violence no peaceloving muslim pro-democracy Muslim in this room right now would want Hamas educating their children just as Americans all right just T it now all right just as Americans defeated the Nazis on the shores of Normandy in the streets of Paris or even when they pushed them out of Rome in Italy we ought to support Israel as it frees Gaza from Hamas that said this is Jersey City and while I disagree with the demands of a ceasefire res resolution I recognize that you have the hard job of representing all of us in this room and for that reason I would ask that you actually drop this completely and leave it up to the federal government to handle such a complex issue here at home focus on isob okay Sean Sean okay Sean y I can't it seem like they can't hear me I know we are passionate about this subject but stop interrupting if you continue to interrupt we just going to stop the meeting that's it because we want to hear everyone that's why we a lot in this time for everyone to be heard so we ask you just respect everyone we know y'all disagree that's evidence y'all disagree but we want to hear what everyone have to say Okay so let's don't let's don't disrupt no more okay that's all I'm asking you everybody got a right to speak let's just don't disrupt one another that's it let's go thank you council president our next speaker 5.10 Phillip gallager my name is F Cameron I had a burnning issue but I must speak I'm a black man as you can see unmistakably black I'm gonna tell you the truth as M to say but you like it or not the the white Jews or the Palestinians can't about black people I'm not in a hurry to call for a SE CE fire until the Palestinians ask that the northern um Sudanese have a ceasefire in gur the same kind of humanitary the same kind of Massacre the same kind of genocide is happened in dfor the Palestinians are really quiet on this issue let play on the issue you cannot come here ask for ceasefire until you ask for ceasefire there and the words humanitarian problem is not in Gaza it is in Dr DRC the dep the Dem Manic the Democratic Republic of the Congo where 27 million people are being displaced and they're awfully quiet see the Jews are racist as they are in Israel and the Palestinians is racist too in palestin see there's a part on the Gaza Strip it is called elab what does that mean it means the land of the black slaves or land of the black Savages that's what they call them don't even call them Palestinians so if you're going to come here and ask for ceasefire then ask for ceasefire and if you don't let them kill each other see we we got to play the game by one set of rules I'm I'm not juming on nobody's B I'm a different kind of black man I'm D I'm going tell you the truth whether they like it or not so if you're asking for ceasefire include the crime that's going on in southern Sudan and they are Arabs and some the same Palestinian live there you're awfully quiet you were awfully quiet with the slavery that going on in 2017 according to the UN where the Arabs are enslaving black people in Libya and the slavery is still going on in morania in Algeria they are Arabs as well so let's be clear don't who fooling don't fool me let's be clear I want a balance skill so if you're asking for a ceasefire the gas strip ask for See Fire and therefore four failing to do so let the bombing continue see there are two white people white Jews and pales call themselves white when black people are carrying black people that says black on black crime see I've been involved in the the movement for years I've never seen a group of Palestinians support the black struggle here so let's be clear on the issue if you're asking me to support what is going on over there support what's going on over here you can't be quiet some different kind of black man who can just jump on somebody's bandwagon no you got to play the game by want set the rules I'm Philip carington that's my viewpoint good night good night Phil good night Phil next speaker 5.11 Robin good evening council members good evening I come to you as a Jewish concerned resident in Jersey City I want to open with a quote from Abraham Lincoln a house divided against itself cannot stand we cannot allow our city To Be A House Divided my family is from here my dad was born here and raised here on the West Side he went to Cottage Street Temple in the 1940s he always told me the stories about the mythical city Jersey City where he grew up in we all want peace but we need to remember that October 7th was a worst single day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust Israel was attacked by terrorists this was follow Follow by rushed judgment that has trivialized or accused hamas's terrorist attacks the hostages have become mere footnotes and have become somehow offensive or called fake 1,400 civilians brutally slaughtered are now viewed as colonizers who deserved it I'm not going to even start on the Holocaust and why Israel was founded or the Jewish connection to the land which does not negate the Palestinian connection it is not for the city council to get involved in international matters if that was the case in the past and he to be the case now pass a resolution about the war between Israel and Hamas and to offer an opinion on geopolitics in a world full of hatred leads Credence to the binary view that terrorist organizations are Freedom Fighters and the Israelis are quote the colonizers I recognize the suffering of the palestin Palestinian people who cannot Palestinian people deserve a life with freedom and dignity and without the death or or expulsion of Israel's 7 million Jews once again we are not an international body to offer judgment on International Affairs there has been a 400% rise in anti-Semitism in our country we need to address that issue locally we do not need to address the geopolitics in the Middle East I am a business owner in the city I am sad to see the amount of hate spewed online towards Jewish own businesses and Palestinian own businesses we should all be supporting each other even in times of international conflict there's been many there been so much hate such a resolution now will divide us more and add to the hate and anger please focus on the problems we can solve as a city instead of divisive geopolitics please always remember our children are watching us and listening thank you next speaker 5.12 Samantha hello thank you for listening to us my name is Sam mazanov I'm here to request that we replace resolution 23902 with one that is actionable for preserving unity and safety locally in Jersey City I will suggest a few Alternatives but first my reasons for why this resolution sets a precedent that our local city council is responsible for expressing opinions on International Affairs and validating any one person or group's emotions and beliefs I appreciate that the city council wants to make everyone feel heard I can understand the pressure that you are under I know that there's very coercive language being used around moral culpability aimed at forcing people to take a stand or use very specific words no one wants to be accused of being complicit but the role of leaders is not not to capitulate to the loudest and angriest in the room quite the opposite second resolutions without realistic calls to action use up time and energy when our community needs real measurable help I'm sure many here are here tonight because they feel unsafe in some way online or in person we should instead debate the best solution for safety and unity here in Jersey City instead there is debate over which words are right or wrong which are too harsh or not harsh enough we don't need words and we're not going to agree on words we need actual measurable support which everyone can rally behind here are some suggestions for actionable Resolutions specifically Define what a hate crime looks like and how it will be punished set specific short and long-term plans for ensuring the safety of all residents Provide support groups or other resources to to those with family or close ties to Israel or Palestine the people for whom this war is not an academic exercise but an actual and very real tragedy encourage phone-free activities to reduce online time sponsor protest free community events led by spiritual groups or experts in tolerance literally anything else and these are just a few examples we cannot risk tragedies like the one we saw in the JC Kosher Supermarket we can notot risk tragedies like the shooting of three young Palestinian men in Vermont or the growing list of reported violence and harassment in our city we need to turn the heat down and I'm asking you to lead the way on that cities everywhere are paying the price for letting the anger spill into their spaces Jersey City should aspire to be different instead of trying the same tactics as everywhere else please replace this resolution with an actionable alternative with direct impact to Jersey City thank you thank you next speaker 5.13 Eliza good evening Council Representatives my name is Eliza Wilner I'm a Jersey City resident residing in Ward F I'm here to speak for myself the Jewish and Israeli communities of Jersey City and the Israelis who cannot speak for themselves on October 7th I woke up as many of us did horrified at the news coming out of Israel I spent the next couple of days reaching out to my family and friends ensuring that everyone in their extended families and friends and colleagues were doing okay my parents spoke to our cousins in Tel Aviv and while frightened they were in their safe room waiting to be told they could leave their small space but their youngest daughter's boyfriend had gone to visit his mother and kafar Aza for Shabbat and simor and they had not been able to contact him fearing the worst a few few days later a confirmation came that Gad Mony and his mother mikal had been murdered along with 14400 others simply for being Israeli Jewish and living their lives despite these atrocities that to be honest both the Jewish community and the Palestinian and Muslim communities have faced Jersey city has until today refused to make a statement condemning these actions of the Hamas government and its terrorist collaborators for breaking an existing ceasefire and orchestrating the murder of over 1,400 people kidnapping more than 200 people and injuring hundreds of others despite these atrocities Jersey city has until today yet to demand the release of all of the hostages men women children Israeli American European Pi Filipino Jews Christians and Muslims you have yet to condemn the countless acts of sexual violence and degreg committed against Israeli women and children by Hamas Islamic Jihad and other militants let me say that again Hamas broke an existing ceasefire and 54 days later you were only just commenting on these atrocities that they committed while it is heartening you have finally decided to support the end of hostilities the release of all hostages and the removal of Hamas from power in favor of a more peaceful government what Jersey City's what is lacking is Jersey City's plan to heal the existing Community wounds created by these attacks on October 7th the subsequent war and Jersey City's marked lack of response I recommend passing a resolution not only condemning both anti-Semitism and islamophobia in Jersey City but also creating a policy on protecting these communities from the hate and vitral within their own City creating an Interfaith task force bringing together Faith leaders and community members to build connections knowledge and compassion for each other and ensure that everyone can live in this community that we love safely without fear of bullying persecution or violence Jersey City calls itself America's golden door welcoming people from diverse nationalities faiths and backgrounds uphold that identity Embrace everyone in the city that you lead and create a stronger safer and more welcoming City for all of us thank you thank you next speaker 5.14 sham Shamu 5.14 not here x 5.15 miror hello everybody and thank you for this opportunity to speak I'm a 36 year resident of Jersey City and I've taught music in the public school system here for 26 years one of my greatest Pleasures has been to see and hear children of all ethnic and religious backgrounds Jews Muslims Christians Hindus Buddhists and agnostics be behind her sorry I don't want to interrupt you you have to sit down no but no we're not doing it today it's too many people okay I thank you I'm sorry I paused the time for her okay go ahead it's because remember we have a large number of speakers so we want one speaker up at a time because of the capacity to this room thank you okay um uh one of my greatest Pleasures has been to see and hear children of all ethnic and religious backgrounds Jews Muslims Christians Hindus Buddhists and agnostics all singing harmoniously together it happened every day in my classroom it can happen here in Jersey City and it can happen in Israel and Palestine I think that we can all agree that every human being is no less human than the other and that each person deserves to live in Freedom and safety with equal rights that being said I'm going to read a letter that was written collaboratively by many members of the Jersey City Community it was read to the council at the last council meeting and since then some of the figures unfortunately have been uh updated and it has been signed by Jewish voice for peace of which I'm a member American Muslims for Palestine The Foundry girl Democratic socialists of America Jersey City friends of people's World Peace action New Jersey Veterans for peace Northern New Jersey We Care movement Council on American Islamic relations New Jersey Hindus for human rights indian-american Muslims Council New Jersey American Muslims for democracy New Jersey National lawyers Guild Rutter's law Newark Museum Law School Association and Pax Christie due to time constraints I will edit my por some portions you each have a copy of this in your possession we grieve for the 1,200 dead in Israel and the 20,000 dead in Gaza over the past few weeks with our text dollar Israel has bombed schools hospitals refugee camps and ambulances carrying the injured there is no food water electricity fuel or medicine we are in anguish over the prospect of thousands more Palestinians dying in the near future the more we wait more Palestinians will die already 8,000 children have been killed we are asking for a permanent ceasefire now and an allowance and an allowance of all necessary humanitarian Aid to reach all of those in need over 66% of Americans support a ceasefire only once there's a ceasefire can all hostages be released including over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners detained in Israeli prisons many of them children families of the hostages in Israel are also demanding a ceasefire and an all for all hostage exchange a ceasefire is the just is just a first step towards peace which can only come thank you thank you our next speaker 5.16 Evelyn hi my name is Evelyn and I've been an upstanding citizen of Jersey City for the last 13 years I'll State for the record that my opinions and Views begin and end with peace security fairness and human rights for all civilians of any nationality ethnicity religion and Justice and accountability for those who committed commanded and support murder all of our rallies and efforts have been have included bringing all the hostages home and to allow Palestinians to go home stop getting murdered and to live in peace 20,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 8,000 children 40,000 injured or Mi missing and 1.7 million people displaced while also deprived of basic human needs Hamas released 50 out of 240 hostages and Israel released 150 hostages mostly women and children out of 10,000 Israeli hostages were handed back unscathed while Palestinian hostages report report of beatings brutalization abuse and denial of medical attention in the last few days the same number of Palestinian hostages have been taken back by Israel my question is to you why does Israel have 10,000 prisoners and hostages who are mostly women and children who have never been charged with anything all those hostages were taken before October 7th I keep hearing October 7th and how Jersey City condemns the horrific acts that occurred on October 7th but what about October 8th October 9th October 10th October 11th October 12th October 13 what about the last 55 days and what about the last 75 years of illegal occupation the world is in uproar over Hamas taking hostages while Israel has literally been doing the same thing for decades with zero attention or backlash we have sat by and watched 9-year-olds being shot to death on the street by snipers grandfathers kissing the eyes of their dead grandchildren pediatric cancer hospitals being bombed children on life support having their electricity cut off premature babies decomposing in vacant hospital beds parents searching for their death dead children under Rubble I don't understand how we don't have money for Health Care education Mental Health crisis programs but we have money to allocate more money towards a jcpd who doesn't seem to protect any marginalized people in our city and and money that goes to towards publicly supporting a genocide it's truly disheartening and heartbreaking to live in a world where the people we elect into our government to represent us only take into consideration the feelings of privileged people who are the minority in this city and not the majority of your city as we watch these horrific acts against humanity continue blindly supporting people who are clearly terrorizing those in your community and in Palestine is the opposite of standing as representatives for the most diverse city in America thank you thank you and we call for SE fire now thank you our next speaker 5.17 James not here next speaker 5.18 Rachel not here right next speaker 5.19 Pedro um thank you for the opportunity to speak today um can't hear you put your mic up yeah thank you for the opportunity to speak today um I want to say that on October 7th a war crime happened right um civilians were brutally massacred innocent people were taking hostage it was a war crime just must be denounced but then Israel started the Israeli military started leveling whole whole blocks of apartment complexes they started bombing hospitals they started bombing refugee camps they started bombing ambulances they started using food and water as as a weapon of War which can only be targeting civilians already up to 20,000 people have died maybe more we don't know and even with a ceasefire more and more will die because as as the world health organizations and others have have noted disease is going to start setting in there are no hospitals left there's no Health infrastructure there's very little food people are are are drinking contaminated water in order to survive um if a if if hostilities continue I mean with all of these dead Hamas has barely been touched Hamas is still operational how many more tens of thousands hundreds of thousands millions of Palestinians have to die for them to accomplish this this Fantastical goal of eliminating Hamas like we eliminated the Taliban like we eliminated Al-Qaeda it's it's a fantasy and and in the meantime a genocide is happening and and it's not me saying that this is 800 plus Scholars of international law of conflict studies um who have said that um there is both intent that has been expressed by the Israeli government um and uh and and and the actions right that that accompany genocide murder uh Etc um and and just to address some of the other concerns in this minute I have left uh the this city council at least considered and I believe passed a resolution against the Iraq War this is not the first time that you have addressed International uh crises and there's a theory of change behind it because we need our Congressional Delegation to support a ceasefire so far very very very few have and this adds pressure to them to support a ceasefire to add uh wait to Congress and and our government is one of the few that could maybe maybe stop this from happening um like I said I I I just really really hope that you understand how how devastatingly terrible what is going on in Israel and Palestine is right now um this is not going to end no one is going to be secure in Israel no one is going to be secure in Palestine until the occupation ends until apartheid ends in this region and the only way to get there is not through bombs it's not through guns it's not through taking hostages it's only through peace processes and it's only by allowing peaceful protest and peaceful resistance to work thank you thank you our next speaker 5.20 MO hi everyone it's Mo again representing Jersey City Heights uh only difference is that this time over 4,000 more children have died since I stood on this Podium three weeks ago so I'm going to get right into it with some Jersey City statistics from from this year the largest age group in Jersey City is between the ages of 30 and 34 approximately 30% of Jersey City's population is between the ages of 20 and 34 and 68% of Jersey City is non-white and keep in mind Arabs are typically forced to check off the white column in the census so a considerable portion of that white percentage is of Arab descent as we all know Jersey City is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the US and we can all agree that we're proud of that now I'm sure you've heard that our younger generation across the US ages 18 to 34 are vly opposed to President Biden's handling of this genocide not war 70% of the total US population ages 18 to 34 are not only vehemently opposed to Biden's actions but are adamantly calling for an immediate ceasefire and the defunding of Israel I can assure you that this will translate into how we vote in Jersey City from here on out so why am I telling you this because you'd have to be living under a rock or so blatantly ignorant to not realize that the narrative has shifted so far beyond what you've been accustomed to not just in your political careers but in your entire lives and the general public and yes that includes our ever so diverse city of Jersey City is screaming for an immediate ceasefire and I'd like to remind you that we hold the power to get you elected into those seats you're sitting it so I urge you to join the general public in the seats of humanity what we've witnessed in the past 54 days is nothing short of a genocide where Israeli politicians and military personnel go on live TV and literally call for the eradication of Gaza and in its entirety for the purposes of its annexation where they plant Israeli flags on the tops of hospitals they besieged and on the graveyards of gazen children as if they've conquered them where where they've seen we've seen on video them singing and dancing on the very Rubble that we estimate over 7,000 Palestinians are still under where they are arming Israeli settlers to kill and illegally take over the entirety of the West Bank where they are starving and dehydrating innocent civilians to death or killing them from diseases and injuries due to a fully crumbled Healthcare System where they prohibit Palestinians from collecting rainwater to drink where they prohibit released Palestinian women and children hostages they call prisoners from speaking with reporters or even celebrating with their friends and family I want to be absolutely clear that these are the people you're backing if you do not call for a ceasefire and no we do not accept any more pauses or any other synonyms like cessation a pause is a means to essentially nurse Palestinians back to health so that they can get bombed and murdered just days later so no Palestinians don't care if they're killed on a full stomach the Israeli defense minister just announced last week that the fighting will continue intens for at least two more months after this pause a pause where Palestinians are still getting killed two children shot and killed in the West Bank just today eight US cities have called for immediate ceasefire so please be that night thank you ceasefire now thank you not can not next speaker was removed from the chamber so I'm going to move on to the next speaker 5.22 Mary hurt and anger blurs the only moral path forward a permanent ceasefire hurt and anger convinces us that an entire group of people are not worthy of Peace security and basic rights they are not worthy of living hurt and anger recreates and fabricates history to justify a genocide propaganda pushes this absurd narrative that we cannot care about multiple groups of people at once we know we can that's why Jersey City Council Members as rational representatives of this beautifully diverse City you must vote Yes on the ceire resolution you do not have to be directly you do not have to directly identify with someone to mourn their death suffering and the destruction of their livelihood and culture I'm white I'm atheist I've never faced any real persecution even so my heart bleeds for pal my Palestinian brothers and sisters facing unspeakable tragedy since the beginning of occupation my heart bleeds for Israeli victims of October 7 my heart bleeds for Israelis being punished for speaking out against their genocidal government my heart bleeds for all folks experiencing islamophobia anti-Semitism or any other type of religious persecution acknowledging all these things at once is basic human decency and we know that governments are not religion so stop silencing the crimes of states with the sanctity of Faith you vote no in this resolution ution you are showing you care more about a certain type of victim over another which is an embarrassment to anyone with the question why don't you care more about this other atrocity going on we all care about many issues I'm a public interest attorney serving lowincome folks with severe mental health diagnoses spend the rest of my time rescuing sick and abandoned cats I have been involved with a lot of different advocacy but here and now we are talking about a genocide and a foreign Nation thundered by our tax dollars while we cannot get basic necessities in our own country and our own City to distract us all from a genocide by saying look over there pay attention to that instead is absurd I've yet to hear one coherent subsi of fact-based argument on how destroying or flattening Gaza protects the state of Israel I've sought it out far and wide I've read and research on the topic extensively red Zionist literature and engage with Zionist all the favorite talking points supporting this genocide have been dispelled so when you don't have facts to work with any longer I find opposition could on to empty threats and accusations because flattening entire neighborhoods and murdering Cold Blood over 20,000 civilians was never about Israeli security we've reached a point where people are more offended by words and slogans than an actual genocide as Palestinian human rights attorney Rabia egbaria asked does one have to wait for a genocide to be successfully completed to name it if you oppose this resolution you are voting in favor of genocide don't let that be your legacy thank you thank you our next speaker five 23 Carol you cancel people um I'm here tonight to talk to you about what's happening in this city to Jewish constituent some of us have their picture taken and plasted all over the Internet someone even called for the Stop Jew to be compiled here in Jersey City and Jewish own business were called out as places which should be boycotted as a result of this a lot of us have been too scared to speak tonight and I would have to admit that I'm pretty petrified right now to be in front of you I decided to speak about the result of all of this hate on our kids I would like to give some example to do so three kids approach one of our kids a Monday after October 7th to tell us that they stand with Gaza an educator part of the school system asked one of our child if she was Jewish after she said that she doesn't celebrate Christmas after she said yes he made a point of telling her that he's Muslim a PTA director questioned and I will quote if it was appropriate and safe to have kanuka school given what's happening in Israel and Gaza meaning that that all of the holidays will be celebrated in a public school but not our kids holidays um our kids should not have to deal with that for that matter no kids should have to deal with that no matters a side which pains me to think there is a side to start with um if this city is going to pass a resolution I'd like for it to be to address what's happening here and not what's happening internationally I also would like for us to come together as a community and find a way to talk to each other that would be a better use of the city's resources i' like to think that if we do that maybe we can men relationships maybe our kids can grow together and that would be a better use of what we're doing um I'm hoping that you the adults in the room tonight can vote with your heart and not under the pressure of how how many people want you to sign for this cire resolution it's on you about 2% of us in this city being Jewish tonight I'm asking you to present all of us and to instead work on an 88 resolution so that one day our kids can speak in this room without being scared to do so because they're Jewish thank you our next speaker 5.24 sh I say that right since October 7th my life has been consumed with death and an overwhelming amount of grief two friends of mine lost their sons the school principal of the high school I went to in Jerusalem is dead my nephews go to that school used to greet the students at the gate each morning morning and now every student in that school is reminded daily of his absence this is just a tip of the iceberg my personal connections here and the feelings are similar with Palestinians wherever in the world they are all consumed with devastation loss and grief the closer you are to this conflict the harder it is to keep your head above the water in all this s in all this sorrow the proposition of a resolution addressing the conflict in the Middle East has added a great deal of stress and distress that already existed in this community I believe it has fanned the flames in our community I did not move to the city assuming that it had a side in this conflict in the Middle East none of the council members here were elected for their knowledge of the situation or their stance of what goes on in the Middle East I know the original intent es of putting this resolution out were good but I think we've all seen and can acknowledge that the results were damaging and we can learn from this and hopefully not repeat this on this issue this issue is so harshly divisive and brings extra pain to people on both sides if it was bringing pain in helping anyone that was one thing but it is not it is not helping this resolution is not helping the children of Gaza it is not helping the children of Israel and it's causing damage and harm to the children of ours here in Jersey City in our community having said all that I want to extend my appreciation to all the members of our Council who were sensitive throughout the last well two and a half weeks reasonable and patient enough individually and as a group to genely hear and listen to the many many voices I hope and pray that the whole resolution ordeal is put to AR rest today one way or another and the entire effort attention and resources on the topic will be directed to anti-hate activism in our city bring communities together support real dialogue in any way and hopefully maybe who knows we may become a real Beacon I don't have enough harsh words to say to the person who has apparently falsified an attack a couple days ago and also to all the people who did not wait before supporting and spreading the lie it's a lie of the most inflammatory kind the kind that Ripples and nurtures more hate and crimes it's a heinous hate crime of its own thank you next speaker 5.25 Percy honorable members of the council I'm here today to urge you to support a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Palestine and end to The Siege on Gaza by the Israeli occupying forces and peace for Palestinians in the West Bank you've been told that this is a complex issue what is complex about this issue are the Insidious ways geopolitical forces seek to use and abuse the land and the people of Palestine for their own gain but when you strip away the borders the Nations the politics the money at the heart of this issue is Humanity innocent human lives are being lost we should never be okay with that we should never stand by and refuse to speak up when innocent human beings are killed maimed and starved you know that approximately 20,000 innocent Palestinians have been killed in the most brutal Ways by Israeli forces since October 7 twice as many have been injured and others are still Trapped Under The Rebel caused by incessant bombing over a million people have been displaced from their homes struggling to survive all while grieving the loss of their loved ones families have been torn apart entire Bloodlines are being wiped out the head of Unicef claimed that the Gaza Strip is currently the most danger dous place in the world to be a child as more than a hundred children have been killed there each and every day for the past s weeks 100 children a day how can we stand by this and do nothing how can anyone look at the long list of Martyrs see the images and videos of men women and children Bleeding Out limbs torn from their bodies how can anyone hear of the atrocities committed by Israel of bombing schools hospitals refugee camps how can anyone with any of humanity see all this Bloodshed and not want it to stop I know you've seen it what you might not have seen are the pictures and videos of Palestinian life during this current ceasefire men and women Lounge on the beach watching children play in the sea they laugh and smile and sink their feet into the sand journalists who have risked their lives to report the horrors of what has been happening to their people meet with their friends and smile a little brighter they get to feel human again they get to live how can anyone see their joy and relief and want that to stop how can anyone want their peace to be temporary to borrow from Paulo F oppression is nourished by love of death not life therefore there are no two equal sides to this conflict there is a love of life and a love of death to support a free Palestine is to love life please show us and the rest of the world that Jersey City loves life thank you thank you next speaker 5.26 Ramona is Ramona here okay I'm sorry there's a lot of people walking around bring the mic up to you is this good yeah okay great uh good evening uh members of the council um I am also here today to urge for the passing of a ceasefire resolution not a truce not a humanitarian pause but a permanent cease fire or perhaps if uh uh that is very offensive then an end to the apartheid and end to the genocide and end to the occupation um whenever AAL conflict and Affairs come up a question is asked about the relevancy it has on the local city level this is but I ask are we not a city let alone a country made up of immigrants from all across the world Jersey City constituents whose parents grandparents or themselves left or fled to the US for a better life while leaving behind family back in their home country those of us who pay these taxes fund this economy and pay for your salaries uh save what l we have to send it back to our families does this Council not owe them the rest and assurance that Jersey City stands with law Justice and peace this is one of those moments that we will reflect on and ask ourselves and our families of what happened why did we have to leave our homes when clearly there's nowhere to come back to at this point if the war keeps going on if the genocide keeps going on it's not a gen this is why the national International movement of a ceasefire is popular amongst all people of all backgrounds including the Muslim Christian and yes Jewish Palestinians we are unheard of when we are peaceful and we are villainized when we are uh when we try to defend ourselves we see it in the us as we see it now in Israel for 75 years Israel has broken International and humanitarian law that is an undeniable fact this is an uh excuse me um the violence of the IDF breeds the violence of Hamas and if we do not respect and uphold international law then what does that say about the Integrity of any law what is the precedent being set by Israel the US and Israel cannot call themselves members of the International Community and not by abide by the standers every other country has agreed upon no one gets to pick and choose the laws to follow and who gets to break them voters are becoming more and more Jaded by the ongoing hypocrisy from our representatives and are choosing to divest not only from the Democrat party but voting in general and what I and other people my age are seeing is that democracy doesn't work for us our Representatives don't work for us you don't work for us so please prove me wrong thank you thank you next speaker 5.27 Isaac good evening Council evening I hope I can I hope you watch this later um Jersey City residents for six weeks in the pouring rain in the freezing cold hundreds proportional to the thousands that live here have stood outside in Journal Square and on Grove Street to demand a ceasefire Hamas can't break a ceasefire they can only break out out of their cage and that's what happened on October 7th the world's largest open a prison where 2 million Goins call their home unable to control the air water or the cement that goes into it Palestinians live under apartheid gazin live under occupation and human rights groups acknowledge that the speaker before said we shouldn't have to weigh in on international issues but what talk is that this is a local issue Jersey City is an international City it's America's golden door as the resolution even says we now have people being harassed assaulted as Pedro noted before this is not the end goal here for a ceasefire this is just the beginning this is the single most pressing issue because humanity is the question and Congress has to speak up and this is the lowest rung on the ladder in government where we have a shot and people here have a voice so we hope you take that into consideration fight war crimes with more war crimes absolutely not do we send millions billions of dollars to fund genocide absolutely not 2023 was the most violent year on record in the West Bank for Palestinians your own colleague lost a family member why is Yousef the only one speaking out on this issue are you fearful for your ability to get reelected because 80% of Americans I'm sorry of Democrats 66% of Americans support a ceasefire where do you think those figures amount to in Jersey City do you want to find out I repeat do you want to find out because organizations like DSA who earlier this year worked with this Council to pass and pack this chamber to pass a little bit of housing Justice you guys also try to water it down too and we reminded folks and the only way we're going to get a ceasefire resolution unfortunately is by doing this so we hope you can motion to amend the resolution put back ceasefire because you're going to make everyone angry if it's not a ceasefire resolution and we want to vote on a real resolution let's remind everyone here that we call for a ceasefire resolution Rob Menendez co-sponsor the Rashida TB and Corey bushville and think of Yousef think of his cousin let's say that Jersey City can pass a ceasefire resolution Jersey City is smarter than you give them credit C on the subject thank you I say if I our next speaker Five Points 28 Rachel hi thank you for the chance to speak um my name is Rachel Felman I'm a proud New Jersey native uh and a proud Jew uh I know that anti-Semitism is real I grew up in kland in Salem County with the name Rachel Felman uh however it is abhorent to me to see uh our generational trauma as Jews being used to support genocide in Palestine yes Jews have ancestral ties to Palestine a hundred years ago Jews Christians and Muslims lived together in peace in Palestine Palestinians are my brothers and sisters however the state of Israel is new and Zionism has nothing to do with Jews when I see Evangelical pundits who have made grossly anti-semitic comments be included in marches for Israel I think that says everything we need to say I grew up believing in Zionism I grew up being told to tell people you don't understand you need to look back to the history and then a crazy thing happened I looked back at the history and I implore you to do the same and I know several people have spoken about how it isn't the place of our city council to call for a ceas fire about why we haven't spoken on other international issues but I want to know why my tax dollars are being used to support Israel's flagrant murdering of Innocence I do want the hostages to come home what is Israel doing to bring the hostages home Israel is indiscriminately bombing Palestine with our tax dollars I want a ceasefire I want an everyone for everyone exchange and I want my representatives to be speaking for the people they represent more than half of Americans support a ceasefire 80% of Democrats support a ceasefire where is that representation and just one last thing on anti-Semitism it is real I know but to see people conflate discomfort and fear not just conflate but see discomfort and fear as being worse than actual genocide and a partide is repugnant to me and I implore people to stop and and think about what propaganda has led them to think that way thank you thank you thank you Rachel speaker number 5.29 Julie [Music] M guy from good evening council members my name is Julie Kyrie mon I am a resident of Jersey City and I'm here in solidarity with Palestine 3 minutes is not enough time to name and respectfully honor the 20,000 plus innocent Palestinians murdered in the past 55 days but I do have time to name a few names that I hope will resignate with you Jennifer Moore Adrien Danielle Rivera Jonathan bajano Linda Dees Howard John Ary ra Cay Noel Solomon Frank Gilmore Jr and Sage Montana fup how would you feel if these people were taken from you would you continue to look away or would you relentlessly seek Justice the idea that some lives matter more than others is the root of all of the problems we we Face collectively you don't need to be Palestinian to amplify the voices of those who have and continue to be silence starved and stripped of everything over the course of the last 75 years interview in early 2019 councilwoman Denise who is not present was asked what women inspire you if any which she responded I am inspired by women who are not afraid to step out and take the lead I hope my efforts inspire you all to take the lead and call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire the double standards and hatred I've witnessed against Pro Palestinians in the past 55 days alone are alarming who are you truly helping and protecting by remaining silent against the atrocities occurring what good is standing by a mayor that doesn't honor and protect all citizens what good is money power and status if if you are silent during times of Crisis we are simply requesting a ceasefire that will end the suffering for all and in turn we are labeled hateful and anti-semitic are the rabbis that attend our peaceful rallies anti-semitic self-hating Jews too human rights are not religious or political issues framing Zionism as Judaism is anti-semetic if you normalize killing Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank where Hamas does not not exist you normalize the terrorism and hatred towards all Races religions and anyone standing up oppression globally I refuse to stand here and sugarcoat what is happening in Palestine it is a genocide if the singular word that truthfully defines current events offends you more than the actual events then I imploy you implore you to ask yourself why that is calling for a ceasefire isn't touchy or offensive it is necessary the world is a dangerous place not because of those who do evil but because of those who look on and do nothing your time is up our next speaker 530 zahana 530 no okay 5.31 vitiana 5.31 not here next speaker 5.32 Felix Felix not here 5.33 Christine Christine not here 5.34 relle good evening council members my name is Roselle Hoffman I'm here to beg for a ceasefire I was asked to come out because I am the co-founder and director of Weare movement you don't have to belong to particular political party to know that what's being shown across this world that it's murder we are all human and I stand before you as a servant of God from the human race Israel not Palestinian not any other race but human and I'm disgusted I had a written speech that I am not even going to say but listening to some of the the speakers tonight defend murder to think that one race one child is better than another I am completely completely disgusted these are adults in this room and imagine I'm a mother grandmother a wife a sister a aunt a friend if something personally happened to one of my members and to have stand up and say oh because your so and so started this fight so it's okay to Massacre my whole family this is the reason why our country our world is at a disad it's evil this is all evil to think that because you feel like you are an an elitist or entitled to say that it's a crime it's it's it's appalling we are adults here kids are being murdered I seen the videos on Instagram I can't even watch them babies are dying being murdered regardless of where they from and for people in this Auditorium to talk about what's right and what's wrong under whose eye God Is Watching God is gonna be our judge so let me say this I know there was some people saying that you Council people cannot interfere with this I say yes you can because where I'm from it says it takes a village and Council Miss I applo your courage to bring this resolution forward this is a Village People it's a village I yield my time but I ask and beg remember we all will stand in the Judgment of God whether you want to accept that or not take a stand have a permanent ceasefire this is too much too much thank you I yield my time next speaker 5.35 Joan thank you yeah it's hard to go after her I mean every every word is so uh so so right and so so true I mean God Is Watching I think we have a huge responsibility tonight and I think that you know it's time I've heard many times recently the last month that you know we need to have both sides two sides there are two sides and I think that there the two sides are really people who want peace and think that human life no matter where it was born matters and there's people who want war and I think that we Jersey City needs to you know voice you know for peace and um somebody mentioned that it's it's International it's not our problem maybe we don't have to take a stance tonight to in jur the city for something that's happening on the other side of the world I think that's fundamentally wrong because because New Jersey spent $144 million for Israel and JS a city in particular spent $423 million and I think you know paying our taxes here working hard I think it's our right to say you know we don't want everything okay yeah um we don't want that those tax dollars are spent in a genocide thank you okay our next speaker 5.36 Hoda uh good evening ladies and gentlemen of the council my name is H mitwali I'm an Egyptian American citizen raising Palestinians here in Jersey City Palestinian children as a resident and taxpayer I can deeply appreciate the importance of the municipal agenda but today I stand before you to advocate for a resolution urging President Biden to pass an immediate and permanent ceasefire in G with that said a radical concept it's a concept that seems so unattainable in our current reality but I ask of you just for the next 2 minutes and 16 seconds to imagine with me for a moment a free Palestine a place where Palestinian and Israeli citizens live on a land with equal rights they're allowed equal access to resources and given the same measure of human dignity imagine a world where Arabs and Israelis work alongside each other they attend college graduation together and I would go as far as to say they fall in love with each other that world might look a lot like America but did our country always look this way no it didn't if you can recall a time when black children did not attend school with white children and were treated with less than equal amounts of respect and during the colonization of Native Americans indigenous people did not have have access to their own land's resources they also faced a violent ethnic cleansing today in 2022 RZA and other occupied territories in Palestine are faced with the same atrocities as those years ago and worse now let me be clear let me be so clear this moment in history does not require a history lesson it does not C call for a geopolitical debate this moment demands an unequivocal immediate and permanent ceasefire in GZA equality for one reason or another still has a long way to come but today as you sit in your distinguished positions with the ability to affect change I hope you will remember the side of History your parents stood on when America was in its development I implore you to consider what your children will think when they remember what side of History their parents stood on thank you our next speaker 5.37 Denia da thank you Anya sorry yep no problem all right good evening my name is Da K Tod and I've been living working and volunteering volunteering here in Jersey City since September 2022 I'm registered to vote here as well I have the incredible honor of being the first generation born here as a Syrian and Palestinian American my Palestinian mother was born in Damascus Syria after my grandparents were forced out of their home in hia during the neba of 1948 being Palestinian is not a belief I hold rather it is a part of my identity when I'm proud of my Palestinian herit AG that is not an attack to any other Faith or people I'm simply existing I've personally faced my fair share of threats and harassment here simply because of who I am so much so that I've considered moving back home to Michigan I'm here to identify myself as a native detroiter standing in solidarity with my community as a Jersey City resident I chose to reside here in Jersey City because it reminded me so much of my hometown my colleagues and friends here tell me stories of how far it has come much like Detroit the people here take great pride in the city's history support local businesses and melt together in a pot from all different backgrounds working hard to build themselves and make the city into a remarkable place to be the parallels between Jersey City and Detroit are what made me decide to call Jersey City home on the East Coast except that Detroit has already called for a ceasefire now tell let me tell you a little bit about my beliefs I believe in love I will fight to earn someone's trust and show them unwavering support not because I agree with their beliefs but because I respect them and believe in the concept of Duality you can be you and I can be me and we can peacefully coexist by respecting one another I will never dismiss someone simply because of their beliefs I'm a Muslim a lot of people feel threatened by my identity and my beliefs because people will always fear what they don't understand so I'll give you a lesson I spent my New Year's Eve last year in the birthplace of Islam which is Medina Saudi Arabia there I visited the mosque the first mosque ever built in the world which is the Alba Mosk the prophet Muhammad peace be upon Him spent most of his time leading and teaching at the other and more notable mosque built in name however he made it a weekly tradition to walk over the aluba mosque every Saturday to pray one might ask if the Muslim holy Day falls on a Friday why Saturday because the surrounding area of this mosque was largely inhabited by our Jewish brothers and sisters he made sure to visit them and spend their Sabbath with them he visited them and made sure they felt safe and protected in Medina never in his community would others feel unsafe and excluded I stood there on the grounds of the mosque sobbing at this historical example of a beautiful coexistent my hometown has already called for a ceasefire I'm calling on Jersey City to F to follow I'm standing up here for the innocent kids in Gaza who are being murdered senselessly I'm standing up here to demand that the hostages on both sides be returned home I'm standing up here um in solidarity with my brothers and sisters in Jersey City who are tirelessly advocating for the voiceless and are getting physically verbally and aggressively attacked by members of their own Community for their identity and beliefs I'm also standing up here much like the prophet did before me from my Jewish brothers and sisters who are feeling unsafe thank you you our next speaker 5.38 Douglas is Douglas here no okay next 5.39 zarena good evening while I too have prepared comments that use actual vocabulary that is recognized um and not just made up you know throwing words like genocide apartheid ethnic cleansing that do not accurately describe the situation in Israel and its unfortunate Neighbors um I won't be addressing my comments I want to address what's happening in this room and with our neighbors here on several occasions those advocating for ceasefire have mentioned your children's names they have mentioned at not only here but online threatening Jewish businesses they have made maps of Jewish people who advocate for for bringing back babies babies that are 10 months old a year old four years old twins that are 2 years old they have put those people's names on lists because they are Jewish and they want to bring their families back home those are these people they have they have the evidence speaks with the people who named the city council people's children and who have threatened your jobs this is bullying will you give into bullying that is what is happening they are loud they are noisy they throw out words that they don't even know what the meaning is they are intimidating not only the city council but the citizens hold on one second I paused the time I I need you to address us not them councilman councilman Rivera thank you I will address you and as a veteran I thank you for your service I thank the council for for acknowledging the veterans that uh in Jersey City and actually spending time passing a resolution for veterans month here in Jersey City I would ask those veterans what does it mean to have a lasting peace you have seen Warfare there's not a single Jew there's not a single Israeli who wants War we want to live in peace we want to live they want to live in in kbut Sim along the border with Gaza which they vacated in 2005 pulled their own people out of Gaza not a single Jew was left there and said take it do with it what you want and what they did with it is they built bombs they took away money food uh anything that could be given to their own Palestinian people to build Rockets 40,000 of those that were aimed at Jewish children at kindergartens and when Israel fights back and says we're not going to put up with it all of a sudden it's genocide it's ethnic cleansing it's a paride learn the meaning of these words before you disgrace the people that are experiencing a paride in places in in places like darur like our neighbor um Phillip he he accurately said what about darur nobody's talking about Dar for what about the ethnic cleansing in Syria in Lebanon nobody addresses that two million Palestinians in Gaza Strip that's ethnic cleansing that is a exposion of people that shouldn't next speaker 5.40 Eco 5.40 Echo IO sorry if I mispronounced your name some reason I thought I was uh 42 so I unapologetically advocate for the advancement and protection of women and girls and I'm here today because I appreciate councilman Sal you making this a listening session where you're getting the feedback because one thing I think that is missing from this resolution is how impacted women and girls have been affected on both sides uh the you know standing outside I hugged so many people and I realized what an incredibly diverse City both Jewish Palestinian Muslim they were all my friends and when I think of the possibility that any of these women could be there or something horrific could have happened to them it brings tears to my eyes because I couldn't imagine these beautiful women having being affected by this conflict this man made conflict the evil that men do lives long after they are gone the challenges of the Israeli Hamas conflicts have disproportionally affected women and girls some of the least addressed issues are access to menstrual and hygiene products which the women and girls of Palestine desperately need another not talked about topic is the sexual violence that happened on October 7th as noted before it when you spoke of genocides in darur and and as in Sudan and in Congo there are also you know sexual violence is prevalent there as well it is important for all women in a sign of solidarity to support women and girls of both Israel and Palestine who have been devastated 70% of the people affected in Palestine are women and children sexual violence and gender-based violence during times of conflict is all too common when Berlin fell the Russian army raped over 1 million German women during 1971 during the Pakistani military and special Armed Forces rate between 200,000 to 400,000 Hindu women sexual violence if it's we're going to speak about all the things that have happened we need to speak also of the sexual violence of that occurred but in solidarity we cannot only speak about the sexual violence that happened in October 7th but the effects that it's had on these attacks have had on the Palestinian women and children who were innocent of what occurred on October 7th both socio economic mental and most importantly the loss of life that they have experienced I ask you to please as you revise or if this measure resolution moves forward or you know however you approach this really to consider writing a passage on the dist the detrimental in how this conflict has destroyed women and girls in both Israel and Palestine thank you our next speaker 5.4 41 Jonah uh my name is Jonah hle I'm here with Jersey City friends of people's World in cpusa I stand today before you to address two issues seemingly disparate I intend to show how these two issues are related and demand your attention first I'm here again to demand Justice for Andrew Washington a broad Coalition of people in our Jersey City Community some of whom you've heard from today have been working tirelessly to demand this body uh to demand of this body steps which can be taken in order to ensure the safety of our community we are here because no one should be killed for for having a mental health crisis let alone because their family asked for help secondly I'm here to demand the council pass the resolution for a ceasefire as a body of the people the city council should reflect the desire of Jersey City citizens to stop the US sponsored Slaughter of innocent Palestinians in Gaza I wish we were discussing a ceasefire resolution however the resolution before you falls short of this bare minimum call from your constituents your resolution condemns Hamas for its attack on October 7th but has no strong words for the terrorist actions of the Israeli State over the past 55 days your resolution claims Hamas does not represent the values of Islam that's not for me to judge but as a Jew I can proudly say that Israel's so-called operations in Gaza which it's launched time and time again including in the present do not represent the values of Judaism is M we do not ask for a cessation of hostilities we the people who brought this chamber to capacity and are waiting in the hall outside are here to demand a ceasefire now the people want to see an end to the murder of Innocents both here in Jersey City and abroad I say this as a member of this community as someone who has bipolar disorder and relies on emergency services and as an American Jew who stands s firmly with Palestinians in their fight for justice in peace please invest in services to help our people not more tools training and weapons to kill them our next speaker 5.42 Ian good evening I would like to go on the record today as constituents of conscience of all faiths or no fate plead with the city council to vote on a resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and an end to Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in G haza and West Bank I'm an attorney living in Jersey City for over 20 years a first generation immigrant raised in New York City's Lower East Side and a father to a son in the 1700s aimus was what the lenp Indians called this area that's where you get a harsimus at from in these parts the lenes were its original caretakers as all people indigenous to a land the lpes tended to the land not only for themselves but for future Generations including those of us who have just recently arrived fast forward many generations to the present you council members are now the caretakers of these parts this city so I call on each and every single one of you to ask yourself how are you caring for and tending to the city in the way of our indigenous ancestors how are you tending to the city for the benefit of the seventh generation on the question of the resolution demanding for an immediate ceasefire I implore you to uphold our City's Humanity by standing up for the human rights of our indigenous Palestinian kin of their right to exist the right to clean water food shelter and clothing the right to self-determination their right to return to their home or Homeland and their right to live as of today the total tally of Palestinians that Israel has killed since the beginning of the hostilities on October 7th has exceeded 20,000 lives of this half are children today I'm submitting a copy of the United Nations latest General Assembly resolution dated December 15 2022 upholding the indigenous Palestinians right to self-determination for what is happening in Palestine is also Happening Here in Jersey City in this city we continue to prioritize property profit and money over people who are simply doing their very best to live a life of dignity we have money for weapons we have money for Wars but never ever for the basic needs of our City's poor since the movement for black lives matter in 2020 We are continuing to connect the dots as to the necessity for return to an indigenous way of life one that care takes for each neighbor each family each Village and each Ward is not an empty sound bite but a way of being for those of us who committed to a more dignified life in this Burning world it is about protecting one another from the concrete harms of among others gentrification the displacement of those in the community who can no longer afford to keep up with increasing real property values food insecurity and the violence of poverty aggravated by police brutality and the war against the poor with this I end with ceasefire forever in Palestine free Palestine and I end with the words of the poet roomy everything I don't know love will tell you our next speaker 5.43 Laura good evening Council my name is Laura daily I have been a Jersey City resident homeowner and Community supporter for over 10 years I am here to urge council members to sign a permanent ceasefire con concerning Israel and Palestine for almost two months the world has watched in horror as the people of Gaza have been bombed displaced starved and denied medical assistance following the attack in Israel on October 7th as a mother I cannot fathom the fear of parents going to sleep each night wondering if my children will live to see the next day as a children's rights lawyer I cannot comprehend the flouting of international law and disregard for the calls from Humanity itarian Aid groups including human rights watched Amnesty International the International Rescue community and Doctors Without Borders to name a few to stop the response of Israel's military which has resulted in the death of 20,000 people in Gaza half of which are children as a proud second generation Irish American I cannot stand idly by and watch another group of people be so similarly mistreated by a global superpower that has repeatedly verbalized its intent to decimate the people of Palestine as a means of destroying Hamas a ceasefire does not excuse any violence that has happened it stops the violence so that the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners being detained without charges can continue as we have seen happening since this past Friday for the first and only time since October 7th this process should continue every day going forward instead of further military action which did not result in the release of anyone taken hostage on October 7th and instead destroyed the safety of the 2 million residents of Gaza including the hostages how can the Council of Jersey City touted as the most ethnically diverse city in the United States take any other position than that of a ceasefire we must join the ranks of those other cities across the country such as Oakland Wilmington Providence Detroit at Atlanta and call for a permanent ceasefire it is the only way forward and I hope my city takes this vital step thank you for your consideration our next speaker 5.44 siia 5.44 nope next 5.45 Adam yep my name is Adam null I've worked in Jersey City for the last 11 years and have had the opportunity to work with many of you three years ago I made Jersey City my home for my family and now a seven-month-old daughter I never imagined that when I moved here that this city would be getting involved in international politics or taking a position on a war I'm not going to stand here and debate the merits of the conflict today as this is not the place for that I truly don't understand what the city has to gain from passing any resolution that does not have anything to do with Jersey City business any time spending work spent working on this is a waste of City time and taxpayer dollars anyone with actual influence over the decisions associated with this war will have no idea that Jersey City passed a resolution today a resolution will literally have no impact on any outcome globally and only cause problems locally effectively sanctioning anti-Semitism in the city if you have time to respond I would like to know what game will come out of this for the City by passing any resolution the only reason this resolution is on the agenda today is because of the background of one council member the the the the job the job the job address can I can I don't insult council member pause for just we very important first we justult council president second of all that that just out of right that's not true everybody is here doing I think is the right thing for the city we may not all agree we we we we we cannot talk about people attribute their actions to their ethnicity that's just flat wrong and cannot happen all right please don't resol to be sponsored by a council you know what that's the way I understand it WorkOne to respect everyone now don't insult us because all the counsil really is involved in this okay there's always one that spearhead so don't insult us we we ask respect and we will give respect okay let's respect one another that's all we asking everyone is to respect each other and let's don't insult one another ad continue Adam the job of a council member is not to use their office to put forward personal interests especially when it will create and hatred Vision Adam you're you're you're going about this the wrong way Adam Adam we will handle it but listen Adam if if if that's what you're going to keep on reading we're going to ask you to leave the podium okay the problems we are facing locally stem from hate and anti-semitism let's address our problems locally I strongly suggest the city take no action here and allow proper forces to influence the outcome of the war thank you for your time thank you okay like I said don't insult us okay we here to listen that's what this time period is that's what public speaking is for us to listen not to be be insulted we can disagree but no one should be insulted okay let's respect one another and that goes for the speakers as well okay next we have 5.46 Cara good evening to the city council council president Waterman my name is Cara albanes I'm a longtime resident of downtown Jersey City here to talk about the proposal to turn Wayne Street between Grove and Marin into a two-way street ordinance 23105 you'll remember it was delayed at the last meeting to be voted on at the December 13th meeting I am asking for you to vote no on this ordinance at the next city council meeting there should be a holistic approach to dealing with the congestion that happens at rush hour in our neighborhood not a hasty change at the request of a single property in speaking with my neighbors with Safe Streets JC and others I've heard many solutions proposed to tackle the issue of congestion on Grove Street at rush hour mostly focused around the intersection of Grove and Columbus if you spend one weekday evening just a few blocks from here you'll see that the intersection causes a tremendous backup along Grove Street and fixing that could fix the parking garage issue among others when Grove was made a one-way Northbound was it considered that this funneled more cars into turning at the most pedestrian heavy inter section in all of Jersey City the Northbound and southbound sections of Grove Street end at Columbus forcing all drivers to turn left or right at an intersection where there is a constant stream of pedestrians Crossing this creates a dangerous Crossing for pedestrians and cyclists no one wants a repeat of the 2017 child fatality that happened there but this intersection creates an impossible situation for cars where sometimes just one car will get through the light cycle causing drivers to take risks when making the right or left turn this bottleneck causes backups down Grove Street during the evening rush and that is the main problem for drivers leaving the parking garage this is why I'm asking for you to vote no on turning Wayne Street 2way without putting in the effort into looking into the bigger picture a yes vote will be for the interest of pro Park the commercial parking garage who made this request they'll be grateful as it helps them with evening Rush hour 5 days a week but the people who will be affected by this change 24/7 will not forget that the interests of one property was prioritized over the peace and safety of residents additionally from watching the first reading two days ago of the proposal to change Bram Hill to a oneway I learned that the those residents were given a surve survey the residents of Wayne streets and the surrounding streets weren't given the same consideration I want to make it clear we were not informed there was no notice in the vanor nebor neighborhood association newsletter I confirmed this with them I'm deeply disappointed that it was stated that there is a 90% resident approval for this change when in reality we weren't notified or consulted not one of my neighbors knew of this proposal and no one I've spoken to feels positively about it we all want safer streets and fewer frustrated drivers acting Reckless and honking there are solutions available am I'm asking for a holistic approach to the problem vote no I just uh sorry car I just briefly want to respond um you guys have my full commitment that what I promised at the last meeting was take everything that from the meeting we took sent it to traffic that's happened we're waiting to hear back and nothing is going to happen here until I come back to all of you with all of their responses to all the possible solutions so I just want to reiterate that on the record you know to make sure that was clear thanks okay our next speaker 5.47 Cameron hello my name is Cameron or from Jersey City friends of people's world in the hudsen B and County uh Club of the Communist Party USA it's everyone's responsibility to fight for peace especially when more than1 trillion dollar of our money is funding War every year a trillion plus that could be going to education Healthcare Mental Health Services housing Etc it's instead it's going to killing we need invest in healing not harm we need money for a full 247 Crisis Intervention Program coordinated with the jcpd and created with Community input not more money for police the council promised November 8th to create a new RFP process that would involve input from the community led by council members Gilmore Solomon and Rivera thank you I urge you to establish a committee with input from the jcpd director provide a lot more money for training social workers and deescalation 1034 resolution solution 23891 hands $45,000 more to Tomahawk strategic Solutions which looks like police militarization not the sensitivity training and culturally appropriate responses we need I'm glad you voted no on giving jcpd another 2 and A5 million but you should have let us speak move funds away from so-called Public Safety and toward Health and Human Services instead of over policing underresourced communities invest in people's needs 911 is already way under and overwhelmed some working 80 hours a week with forced overtime we need a dedicated 988 crisis hotline but we need funding I think this ceasefire resolution should be amended to say ceasefire and it shouldn't be talking about meddling inside Palestine with an international monitor or removing specific political forces why then not a monitor over Israel what about removing the fascist Jewish power party in Israel why not instead invoke any of the existing so far violated un resolutions the the current resolution calls for removing Hamas how have we learned nothing from Bush's so-called war on terror dropping bombs on people and meddling in their countes does not wipe out extremism or desperate acts it nurtures those this is not a conflict between equal Powers but between an occupying power and an occupied people there's no solu military solution to this there can only be a political solution and that's why there needs to be negotiations and the first step is a ceasefire Syria let's talk about it the US AR fronted armed one side of that war just like it's doing in Ukraine October 7th and 75 years of occupation and Slaughter in Gaza is happening because of our government which is propping up rightwing governments in Israel funding occupation maintaining conflict to justify its military presence in the Middle East for big corporations like AR arms and oil can control the resources of the region prevent country's independent development that would threaten us power this is bad for Israelis and for under an extremist repressive Netanyahu government and for palestin Ian under occupation and all people in the region threatening nuclear war while increasing the chances of a magar Rite victory in 2024 we need immediate ceasefire humanitarian Aid negotiations thank you our next speaker 5.48 Jake good evening Council my name is Jake EOS I'm a Jersey City resident in the Heights uh I'm Jewish I have Jewish Family living in Israel and I'm proud to support an immediate and indefinite ceasefire in Israel and Palestine I want to make something clear anti-Semitism and critique of Israel are not the same um in fact what what could fuel anti-Semitism more than generations and generations of expelling and killing Palestinians and justifying it in the name of Judaism I say not in my name and I'm proud to not be alone but actually desend with countless Jews who say no not in our name not not in our name when Israel kills thousands of kids not in our name when Israel arms settlers in the West Bank and not in our name when Israel names Palestinians Human animals so the question of why should Jersey City weigh in on International politics and get involved in this issue well besides being an incredibly internationally diverse City and besides being a community of Palestinians and Israelis and Jews and Muslims and Arabs in General we just don't get to pretend that this is a matter of personal opinion this isn't about having an individual take this is a matter of collective action that's needed to stop this violence and to stop the genocide in Gaza and the Jersey City Council is the highest governing body of our community and the representation of our Collective action and Collective will as a community and I want to see my community stand up on the right side of history and stand for a ceasefire in addition Jersey City taxpayers as has been mentioned Fork over our money and contribute to the billions of military funding the billions of dollars going to military funding to Israel when we could be investing in housing and schools instead we're investing in the genocide in Gaza and bombing children and innocent civilians so I called for the amendment to the resolution in question um to call explicitly for a ceasefire to not dance around the language we should should really meet the moment here we should really meet the movement's demands here and be explicit and clear and upfront in calling for an immediate and indefinite ceasefire because I know that my Jewish Family in Israel they are not safe and they are not free until every single Palestinian is safe and free none of us is free until all of us are free so ceasefire now next speaker 5.49 a we dear respected members of the council I am a first generation Muslim Pakistani American born and raised in Jersey City and a physician by training I was only 8 years old on 9911 2001 I remember the clouds of billing gray smoke emerging from what were the Twin Towers the screams of victims and survivors echoing in my dreams for months my mind unable to comprehend the hate that had caused this catastrophe 2,753 civilians were killed in the worst tragedy our country has ever faced and in the worst way imaginable with many burnt beyond recognition parents frantically pulling their children from classrooms holding them close fearing more collateral damage to a terrorist ideology hell Bend on destroying the American Spirit and democracy that span of 1 hour and 13 minutes that faded morning changed everything I want you to bring yourself back to that day how you felt the confusion the shock the fear the Panic the hate but I was just a kid I can't help but recall that horrid day when I think about how in the past two months purely in terms of casualties the Gin have experienced 8 911s and Counting the total dis regard of proportionality rationality Humanity with Israel hellbent on Collective punishment taken out on the civilians in Gaza and on the Palestinian hostages not Prisoners the Complete Siege of Gaza by Israeli forces nowhere to run to Nowhere to hide the children blown to bits unrecognizable lucky a found ho many of scraps to be carried by their parents in plastic bags countless others unaccounted for under tons of rubble the Health Care System deliberately targeted with 22 hospitals one used to treat patients now bleeding with no one to dress its wounds amputations and C-sections without anesthesia water tanks bombed ambulances and humanitarian Aid Vehicles targeted the adoption of the no Redline policy by our president countless human rights infractions to reject a ceasefire and deny the Palestinians their rights as the indigenous people of the land is to Sully everything that we as a nation stand for and at the core questions the Integrity of democracy that has brought you all to where you are today I have a 10-year-old niece who was just a kid and like Millions around the world is watching in absolute horror and despair at the massacre of thousands upon thousands of Palestinian children her brothers and sisters in faith and Humanity children who were born into an open air prison in a land that was once free but now victim to settler colonialism and aarthi she too wonders how all this can go unchecked unaccounted for as she Begins the school lesson on the Holocaust but I thought they said never again she asks fighting back tears it's happening again and we're just letting it happen how do I tell her that our great nation funds these atrocities three to4 billion do each year hemorrhaged from our economy to the Israeli military I for one do not support a democracy that shamelessly funds a farri right extremist ideology thank you I for you our next speaker 550 Edward let me start with pay to playay I'm encouraged that um you all um disagree with the state ruling but um I want you to put your money where your mouth is I want to see some more accountability because this city especially this city hall has been turned into a whouse led by the mayor who's the biggest pimp and some of uh his minions that sit on this board you so us out to the biggest uh emps developers um who build on one side of town you turned your back on the rest of us you've privatized the water system here this is a wh house you've turned it into a wh house so I'm down here and protest and so you'll have to put your money where your mouth is like we'll figure out what you really mean about pay to play uh 10:34 was this the training that was instilled that public safety director Shay was alluding to in the press conference is this the training that they implemented and that they followed when they murdered Drew because if so then obviously this isn't the training that we want this isn't the training that we need also I need for this body to use your power and your authority to finally bring public safety director Shay here remember we need a committee moving forward for that mental health RFP service and we also need to begin to build the collaborative infrastructure so we can move forward with the proper training for how police are going to be coupled with Mental Health crisis workers to respond to this so uh 10 wait is it is it 10 is it 10:34 it's 10:34 1034 is Grant dollars and we could better use the grant dollars we don't necessarily have to to continue using Tomahawk services and training we don't we can we can have something that's more sensitive something that's more comprehensive and something that's more culturally appropriate 911 I'd like to move on to 911 I don't have much time but during the Caucus meeting your questions Miss Amy were very instructive because you landed on 911 and 988 but I went online and searching about 911 Jersey City 911 dispatcher Center is disgusting and it's under your leadership so I don't think that you're going to be able to deliver for us on 988 or any other infrastructure if you have it if you if you're busy overlooking or turning your back on 911 being depleted they're overworked they they they're they're overworked they're underpaid so that has to be dealt with it's so many different moving pieces so I have to be back our next speaker 5.51 Petra hello first and foremost councilman SLE I want to apologize for statements that were directed towards you as well as give my condolences for your loss and thank you to all of you for being here to listen to all of our voices on October 7th the Israeli people in my life had family and friends brutally murdered as well as taken hostage it was a day of utter shock and heartbreak and it left me feeling helpless trying to find a way to support those around me who no longer have a father nor any idea if their sister brother-in-law niece or nephew will come home from being held hostage in solidarity I have been hanging these flyers around Jersey City because it truly feels like one of the very few things I can do unfortunately every single poster that I have put up has been torn down Within less than 24 hours these posters make no political statement these posters are calling for innocent civilians to return home to their families so to me it is shocking that in Jersey City an extremely diverse and forward-thinking Community there are individuals who feel so insulted and enraged by seeing the image of a three-year-old Israeli child seeing these posters continuously ripped down over the past seven weeks was when I started to feel unsafe in Jersey City this was only Amplified when I saw members of our community vilified on social media the picture showed several individuals standing in this room at a previous council meeting holding these same host hostage posters the text overlaying the image labeled them a Zionist KKK clan in another social media post a Community member noted that quote qu we have full names of the 10 to 15 zionists that live in our city end quote and in yet another social media post a Community member wrote quote we're happy to put you in your place end quote in regards to the Jersey City Israelis Who quote are nothing more than European refugees turned Nazis end quote this is hate and intimidation in our own City this is terrifying and I understand that by standing here right now providing any sort of sympathy to the Israeli people I am also putting myself at risk and to be honest I think there would be a lot more people speaking tonight if they did not feel the same way this is what Jersey City needs to be addressing the city council needs to focus its efforts on uniting Jersey City we need to put resources towards combating anti-Semitism islamophobia and the jar staring divide that has been created in our community thank you our next speaker 5.52 Renee is Renee here okay good evening councilman councilwoman J Waterman thanks very much my name is Renee steinhagen I'm a resident of Jersey City and I'm speaking to you tonight as a member of Jewish voice for peace of Northern New Jersey I am here to urge you this Council on behalf of a substantial number of your constituents to call for a permanent ceasefire now and to assist us as residents of Jersey City in making sure that our New Jersey congressmen and representatives represent us and here our voices municipalities often pass resolutions to reflect Community sentiment on matters that are not within your official Authority for several weeks now I and many of the organizations the members of the organizations that have signed the letter presented by mirror Jaffrey of jvp have been protesting the horrors and the grave Injustice that Israel is perpetrating on the people of Gaza only the last episode in 75 years of Oppression by the Zionist State a state that claims its protecting Jews like myself only to make us more insecure because of its violent discriminatory and aggressive acts against the Palestinian people how did I get to hold this opinion a Jewish American who lived in Israel proper in 1983 and 1984 and and visited the West Bank May of last year I'm what you call a holocaust Jew more specifically a child of the Holocaust brers have been written on the subject but I can only tell you what it means for me my parents met in a displaced person's camp in dondorf Germany and they spent their entire Adolescence in concentration camps all their friends experienced the same as a child grew up not being able to comprehend The Fear The Angst the terror that they have experienced I kept asking myself what would I do over and over again my whole life I asked myself what would I do would have I tried to hide would have I resisted deportation would have I sabotaged Goods that were produced by prisoners in the camps or would I escape like my father from a death march out of aitz in 1945 let me be honest with you I'm 75 67 and I still don't have the answer what I do know however is that I would never I promised myself I would never collaborate with any person employer organization engaged in wrongdoing nor would I be complicit in any decision that I thought was morally wrong thank you next speaker 5.53 Alana thank you 5.53 Alana not here next 554 Tina hey guys um it was a lot going on today um I understand what um the other people they are here for but we've been coming here for a minute too about our community I live in Warf and it's like a war right there to kids mother you know that cuz y'all was raised in this community and we are going through the same thing we are going through sickness we going through our community people are dying every time you turning around we going through that something is going on that someone car getting shot out um last week we going that my building is messed up it's a lot of stuff that's going on that we need to focus on in our area where we live at here in Jersey City um I think that that's what we need to start doing because look I've been doing giving out free clothes for 23 years and our seven ain't got a fund yet but we wor about two other different sides we got to come together and worry about our own Community when we doing other stuff it go over our head I definitely keep them in prayer like they gonna keep us in prayer too um I want to thank education of Gilmore and Jeffy Walker for just helping me out to give me gas feere so I'm able to continue to help out my community community um I'm going to the hospital I'm reh helping the guys who get out of jail and I don't think it's feir that because the community trusts me that I should be able to to take this burden on me I also have my own family too I'm also going through my own stuff as y'all gave a development in my area War F my building and my building is like a slum lless um I just called woo last night and Erica Erica I tell you me texting her scared to go in my building last night three guys was there I just got a tack last week at my building and the city own this building so to see that we worrying about other stuff and I'm getting attacking my own building we got to start doing a little better better I've been coming to this meeting for years I'm sorry guys but we've been here for a long hey fight the power I'm sorry that Y what yall going through but we have been going through a lot right right here in war F where I live at and I pray for y'all but my son and I have three kids too that seen people getting killed right in their face that's why I'm in my community that's why I do Outreach I was disgusted I had to stand in the line I come to this meeting every time and the reason why y'all here is because what's going on but when I'm here every day fighting I don't get to see none of y'all I don't get to see y to drop off no clothes in my community that my family's out here starving and that need help stuff too so I feel like that we oh my bad I feel like that we should all come together and just try to help each other out I don't want to keep coming to this meeting on Wednesday I'm asking all I know all of y'all please help my organization out please help me me out so I'm able to continue to help out the community thank you Tina Tina I spoke to Housing Authority right I spoke to the Housing Authority director concerning your building he told me he should be working on uh the lock within two weeks okay because I did because now Housing Authority owns your building that's who owns it now okay where building correct is the web all right so they should about two weeks they should be trying to fix the lock on the outside and he said they'll be upgrades okay all right okay our next speaker 5.55 Lara even City Council Members um I'm actually glad I followed Tina because I did donate to um her community and um it's amazing it's her what she does is is there you are it's beautiful so nice to to see you again um um but uh I'm I'm here to talk about the resolution that most of us here are are speaking to um my name is laara bark lenes I am a Jersey City resident of 12 Years a mother of Two and a proud Jew um I like every Jewish person I've spoken to over the last 54 days am currently operating in a permanent State of Shock disbelief anger fear and sadness October 7th forced our eyes open to figure out how we must now navigate the world around us there is no returning to before as a parent I am suddenly scared and saddened for my children not only for their safety physically but emotionally from dangerous rhetoric that flows from so many unexpected places I never thought this would be the world left for them to Bear it was supposed to be never again I tried to is the worry of my oldest child who understands too much and hears too much that we are safe here that we have allies in the community that we are not alone but how do I then explain to her and to my youngest why the manura installed close to our home that sweet one with you know the lights adjacent um at the PATH station has been knocked down multiple times over the last couple of days the first time we saw it we thought it was the wind my husband fixed it then again then again there's no place for this here like everyone who came to speak on this topic tonight I have strong feelings about what is happening in Israel and in Gaza but I will not use my time to educate on what a genocide truly is you don't need to hear my personal beliefs obviously hear opinions very wildly even those who are on the same side have varying opinions on how we got to this point it's not black and white it's all irrelevant what is relevant is that we all have something in common in this room we're all here because we care deeply take away those words of hate anger fear hurt what we can see is that we all care for our city and more so for Humanity Our concern together fills this room which brings me to this proposed resolution in my 15 seconds left thank you for taking the time to craft something so thoughtful but unfortunately the only thing that will rise is one message and it doesn't accurately represent all the voices of our city if it's passed thank you our next speaker 5.56 Nicholas I don't believe he's here next 5.57 Nisha no next 5.58 Cheryl pleasant good evening Madame President council members city clerk legal team staff Jersey City Community at large Justice for All I am Ambassador commissioner Cheryl DB Murphy founder CEO of Jersey City Caribbean Carnival festival and parade I am here representing the Caribbean community at large all all 25 Islands the Caribbean the CARICOM I am standing here for our children our next Generation Carnival is the celebration of freedom I am here to address ordinance 23-56 jcpd Public Safety new ordinance parade fees as I stated at our last council meeting on Saturday July 25th 2023 the Jersey City Public Safety cancelled our road March Street parade at the 11th Hour lots of folks lost plenty of money and to hear that the ordinance was supposed to go in effect for 2024 not in 2023 that made it all worse I am here suggesting to revisit rewrite the 230 d56 ordinance for nonprofit especially those bringing culture I am here asking you a question how are we going to address all of the monies that folks lost in 2023 we are paying enough fees for Jersey City events it is truly becoming a burden please do not make it a burden to celebrate culture we make Jersey City look good in all of the media and all of the press all of the cultural parades do a fantastic time celebrating and raising funds I am still devastated disappointed and heartbroken from the level of disrespect that we received for 2023 Carnival season I can truly say that our plea didn't go totally on a deaf ear you know council person who came to our Aid and I do thank you I'm not here to call any names but I do appreciate it I truly want Jersey City to live out its slogan the most diverse City in truth and indeed not just on paper please support our nonprofits who truly truly has built Jersey City please find additional fun resources for culture I always say thank you General and thank you next speaker 5.59 Gordon good evening Council good even council president good evening everyone um my name is Gordon CER and I'm here to address ordinance 23-56 um as I seated last time three weeks ago you know being a product of you know a child from being a child that you know has celebrated this um community and celebrated a parade and having the opportunity to experience the joys and the culture and the lights The Sounds the sights the sounds and the tastes and all that of my culture the Caribbean and all the other cultures you know the Puerto Ricans the um Filipino parades you know the Indians the Irish all the parades that we have here in here in this uh wonderful city of Jersey City the fact that you know this ordinance now is making it so difficult for us nonprofits to celebrate it does make it disheartening as my mom stated earlier you know a lot of people suffered and I do not agree with it I understand why I was made and I do get it but you know the fact of the matter it was supposed to be um implemented in 20124 the fact that it was implemented this year was a big detriment to us because it affected a lot of our people because it wasn't we weren't able to give enough we were not giving enough times to be able to raise the amount of funds to be able to to do our parade properly and those that lost out on you know our grand Marshals that wanted to you know support and show their pride of their culture they had floats that ready to come out but once they found out that the parade was cancelled Friday afternoon they canceled the floats from coming and stuff like that so they were devastated and they didn't get a chance to really have the full effect you know yes we did March in J in um Lincoln Park but they did not get a chance to actually go on the streets of Jersey City as we have done in the past so because they have been devastated I feel bad for all of them I am devastated because I didn't get a chance to do it and I know how hard we worked all year this not a you know just come in July and get ready for the fourth week you know July Fourth week in July we do this all year round to get ready prepare for this so you know the fact that all our hard work was for almost not you know yes we had nice pictures from from LOL Park but it's not the same as being on actual streets as everybody knows Carnival is a street parade so I just ask that you guys you know reconsider ordinance 23-56 thank you for the time our next speaker 5.60 Richard honorable uh Council persons I'm rich dear uh 23 Wayne Street that was in reference to twoway the three parking places on uh Marin B VI chrisy K cream are already being used that's like promising housing units to one group of residents why other groups are already residents who are living there I have several questions will grow Street be able to be East on Wayne Street will Wayne Street be able to be East on Wayne Street will the north side of the curb no stopping or standing uh now how we get persons from the garage to use Marin Boulevard how much is this going to cost the taxpayers will they remove the crosswalk at Wayne and Marin Boulevard uh will we put a traffic light at the intersection of Maron Boulevard in Wayne because we find that it becomes too dangerous the quality of life in this neighborhood will be destroyed forever replaced and more noise and pollution day and night the two lanes must be 11 feet for truck traffic 8 feet for the parking and on the south side of Wayne Street and the double striping has to be uh 13 and2 in for a total of 31 ft and 1/2 in Main Street is 30 ft wide will we disregard the and uh New Jersey Department of Transportation guidelines if so are you going to take both the eight parking spaces on the North side and the 12 parking spaces on the south side of Wayne to force the two-way to go so it'll work is the council going to repeal or amend resolution 1136 Richard you you're you need to speak into the mic is the council going to repeal or uh resolution 11317 approved on May 25th uh 2011 I'll give you copies of that 95 Columbus was completed on 1989 and it has a oneway has been oneway since then it's been fully rented before covid much less now Pro Park leased the garage one year ago now we have to 37 years we need a two-way 95 Columbus management and Ley of the garage Pro Park are looking for assistance for about 10 or 15 hours a week Monday through Friday we we feel that we're going to be impacted for 168 hours a week fix the problem without creating a problem they say a picture is worth a thousand words you are one block away thank you our next speaker 5.61 Daniel good evening uh council members my name is Daniel Cruz I am a resident of 23 Wayne Street and I'd like to express that I am against converting Wayne Street to a two-way Street ordinance 23-15 I want to highlight some inconsistencies with councilman suman's statement at the council meeting caucus on October 23rd 2023 regarding this ordinance councilman Sullivan has never spoken to any of the residents of Wayne Street between Marin and Grove who are directly impacted by this proposal my statement is predicated on my canvasing of my Wayne Street neighbors councilman Solomon spoke to residents of the van vorce Park Association area who are not directly impacted by this proposal councilman Solomon never notified the residents of Wayne Street which he could have by mail Flyers calling emailing canvasing the neighborhood Andor posting on a social media page nor no mention in his newsletter regarding this issue councilman Solomon never notified the residence of Wayne Street of parking spots being taken away on the North side which constitutes the elimination of eight parking spots not three as he stated councilman Solomon stated that there is parking spots on the corner of Marin and Wayne when in fact eight spots are being eliminated were replaced by only three spots on Marin with legal parking on Friday from 1: to 3:00 p.m. the main issue is between the days of Tuesday through Thursday which is the current work schedule in the hours of 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. when there's anywhere from 100 to 200 vehicles coming out of that garage at 95 Columbus you can put this issue anywhere in the world and it will create traffic Havoc you can have a case study on this issue and it will demonstrate that that is too many vehicles for such an area this is not a neighborhood issue this is not a city issue this is the problem of 95 Columbus the employees of 95 Columbus currently only spent 144 days driving into our area based on the 3-day work week we are the residents are here 365 days we are the voters and the taxpayers we are the people who invest in our community and its businesses making a Wayne Street a two-way street is not going to accomplish anything but create more traffic I'd like to see the report from traffic and Engineering in relationship to the existing loading docks and their use regarding the existing Street width furthermore is there a street City report regarding traffic on Wayne Street in regards to traffic how come there was a question here on the single block of Bram Hall but we never had that option 95 Columbus has been there since 1986 why after 37 years is this an issue now I would like to invite the traffic engineering department and all the council members to visit our block and see for themselves thank you our next speaker listed is actually a duplicate of 5.48 so I'm going to move on to 5.63 Joshua thank you distinguished council members um listening to all the uh speeches tonight I'm reminded by a passage from Alice in Wonderland where Humpty Dumpty tells Alice that when I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean no more no less um and Alice responds well the question is whether you can make words mean so many different things um we've heard a lot of accusations thrown around today uh genocide ethnic cleansing aarthi which would mean that Israel is trying to kill each and every Palestinian is trying to kick out each and every Palestinian and is trying to keep them there but maintain them in a separate but unequal system I don't believe that any of those are actually happening but I suppose one could but all three certainly could not um we have seen the proponents of this resolution try to compare Israel to each one of the aess Powers Plus AP paride South Africa plus Colonial Britain France and everything I think what we have here is an inventory of political and social villainy rather than a plausible description of an actual country let's go to the resolution because again we have words and what do they mean ceasefire um I would would recommend that we that the UN has a very good site a peacemaker site which has materials for mediations that can be anything from domestic conflicts to inter International conflicts and there's a section on ceasefires um there are 12 definitions of the term there are different terms in terms of sectional ceasefires permanent ceasefires and such the one thing I will say though is that when it comes to a ceasefire as long as a hostage is being held there can't one because holding a hostage is an act of war and a per se illegal act of War as well um I heard something very heartening about during the ceasefire how Palestinians were able to go to the beach on Gaza um the hostages weren't and in fact today we learned that the youngest one Hamas has announced was killed 10-month old cfir killed during a ceasefire so I actually really appreciate what this Council particularly Yousef has done I appreciate him reaching out and constantly trying to update and change the language but ultimately I have to say this is a case of people projecting their own meaning onto it and we've heard the hurt and the pain from the Jewish Community here kids being told a nine-year-old is being told we stand with Gaza principal saying uh we can't have Hanukkah this year it's too controversial a resolution is not the way I do think further d among communities should be the way but while I think the council and particularly youf has done a great job reaching out you just can't make something which is all things to all people and make everyone happy I would direct your efforts elsewhere thank you our next speaker 5.64 yes wasam I begin in the name of Allah the most gracious the most merciful and I send peace and blessings upon his messenger Muhammad sallallah alaihi wasallam my name is Yasser elbaz I am a Jersey City resident I was born and raised in Jersey City I graduated from Dickinson high school I graduated from New Jersey City University I got married in Jersey City and soon I'll have my first child in Jersey City we've heard many things today about what we should care about and what we shouldn't care about when it comes to World politics and international politics but our inclination as human beings is what calls us to speak on matters that we see are unjust and so I want the council today to stand for what's right to stand for what's truthful and to look internally into yourselves because we will not last forever there will come a time where as human beings will cease to exist and we'll have to answer for the authority that we stood over every seat we sit in every responsibility we have will'll be asked about what we did with this responsibility about what we called for about what we preached about what we stood up for what injustices we stood against and history will show that our children will come and call on us and say to us where were you when this was happening where were you when 20,000 people were killed 66 or almost 70% of which are women and children where were you when the United States of America was funding bombs that was dropping on the heads of children where were we when the world was watching on social media and people were observing and going about their lives as if nothing has happened I call on you to recognize that our children in our own homes are watching this on Tik Tock and Instagram while we are being fed Lies by propagandas in the media Outlets we we are watching firsthand what is happening to innocent people in gah and so I call on you to recognize that in this resolution uh resolution 23- 902 does not do justice to the people of GZA it does not do justice to the people who are oppressed all over the world and no one is free until everyone is free and this is why we are calling for a ceasefire now because more people were brought home in the last six days when there was no bombing more people were brought home in those days because there was peace and so Allah says in the Quran when the young girl comes on the day of judgment and asks for what crime was I killed what crime was she killed what will we say to them when those children meet us on that day and that's all I have to say today our next speaker 5.65 MOSI 5.65 no next 5.66 alen good evening my name is aen McCain I am award e Jersey City resident it is difficult to compress everything I want to say into 3 minutes because we cannot discuss the brutality of the last 55 days without acknowledging the brutality of the last 75 years I bring up history because the study of history is a pertinent tool Society can use to learn reflect on and truly understand the world we are currently living in studying history also forces us to face the heinous acts of the past to ensure that we do not repeat them in the present I can almost guar guarantee that every single person in this room at some point in their education Journey has studied the atrocities of the Holocaust and thought I cannot believe such barbarity could occur and how could the world have let this happen the question I find myself asking now is if we can understand the horrors of genocide and ethnic cleansing then why is there such exceptionalism when it comes to Palestine I want in my heart to believe that it's because people haven't asked why we are where we are today because if people truly knew and understood history we wouldn't be pleading for peace we wouldn't be seeing the rise in islamophobia anti-muslim rhetoric and violence caused by such ignorance and vile hatred the history of the Palestinian people is not readily told the horrors of the nakba are not discussed in classrooms the displacement of families from their ancestral homes and land the unjust occupation under a well-funded and brutal military force that controls their water electricity food supply and has them under a total land air and sea blockade never makes headlines Gaza is often referred to as an open air prison but when you seek out the history you discover it's far worse is it because their history is often erased their people dehumanized by Western media their voices silenced that people struggle to find the outrage for this Injustice and call what we are witnessing today by its name a genocide this is a genocide funded by us tax dollars 20,000 Palestinian casualties in the last 55 days most of them civilians children and babies my heart bleeds as a new mother and as a human from the images I've seen from Gaza to the Palestinian Community here in Jersey City and around the world I am sorry the world has so irreparably let you down I am sorry that I bought into the guise of this conflict being too complicated to comprehend I'm sorry that it took me 36 years to seek out your your history your voices and to ask questions but now that I have I will never stand silent to my elected officials before me I urge you for the sake of humanity to join our calls for peace to stand on the right side of history and demand a permanent ceasefire now thank you our next speaker 5.67 Jasmine good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak here today I hope everyone here simply listens with an open mind because that is how we Foster Community I refuse to stand idly by and pretend everything is fine I refuse to stand idly by while people are dying under governments that do not represent their citizens I refuse to stand idly by and believe that over 50 days straight of bombing men women and children will bring about some sort of Peace if it does it could only be a false peace rendering the collective conscience of generations of families irreparable I am heartbroken for the people of Palestine Palestinian Muslims Jews and Christians alike I am grieving for my oldest friend a Palestinian woman whose work lies in bettering the lives of American children and yet she is Deni the opportunity to visit what's left of her Homeland due to Israeli occupation I am also appalled for the Jews whose faith is being co-opted by an imperialist regime whose lives are continually threatened by violent ignorance and blatant misrepresentation I am frustrated to see this devastating power play pan out under the guise of religion this isn't about religion it's about human rights and speaking up to those Powers who seem to decide what human rights are for everyone else we are creating division when we should be building Unity because Global work does in fact begin locally Palestinian Liberation fuels The Liberation of all people this decision reveals and informs how we respond to the issues in Syria the refugees of Congo the dehumanization of my indigenous Peruvian ancestors and all oppressed peoples including here in Jersey City call for permanent ceasefire now and get our tax dollars out of genocide thank you our next speaker Kevin 5.68 evening I try to do this a little bit little hybrid some of what I wrote and some just from what I'm hearing in the room we have in common here that there's there are a lot of bad things that are happening in the world and we come here because we want to try to make some kind of difference and we hope that you can help make some kind of difference sometimes it's symbolic because there's only so much that you can do from where you are and sometimes it's more than symbolic you can make real differences in certain ways I would say bad things happen when people could do something but they don't and sometimes you're faced with really big things and sometimes you can ship away and make some contributions in some ways over time and I think you guys this Council has the opportunity to do that related to many of the things that you hear tonight I'm here because I can do something and many of my neighbors come here because we think we can make a difference in one area related to housing one area related to the way this government in this city treats people who live here people who rent here people who rely on the city and their laws to be followed so we can feel secure in our homes so I'll switch gears to the local issue I'm sure everybody knows at this point that we're here to talk about rent control we know that we had a determination that was in our favor on October 19th and that was good and we came here and we were discussing how we're on the same side of the law and we hope we manage to stay there this week we got a letter from the landlord tenant office about our matter and it opens fine it acknowledges that we won but then it deviates from what the board said it switches gears it could be because they don't have experience in enforcing the law and we've called them on enforcement and there's some training wheels there I hope that's what's the case and I hope maybe they can find their way but the purpose of the letter is to obtain information so they can enforce the law and then they switch to figure out how they can extract the maximum amount of money for our landlord giving them access to increases for years they don't qualify which is kind of mindboggling at this point didn't really get to what I had to write but I think it was important generally what I said and I hope you guys can make a difference where you can thank you thank you next speaker 5.69 Jessica good evening Council I think um You probably felt like I did that I could breathe again on October 19th because we'd spent the last 18 months and 12 of those 18 months coming here talking to you about um how we were experiencing a plethora of emotions from incredulity to shock anger to surprise and again and again determination and I was incredulous when my landlord Equity residential raised my rent by 40% 2022 I was shocked when the city's office of landlord tenant relations put the onus on the tenants to file illegal rent petitions about these egregious increases which required really tedious unitby unit enforcement when in this digital age it's really easy to know the answer since only about 130 exemptions have been granted by the city ever I was angry when it took over a year to get a decision from the rent leveling board that thankfully rightfully overturn returned the erroneous 2022 determination and I felt like I could breathe again when the board unanimously voted in favor of the tenants that night last month but what I've seen since is the followup from that meeting does not align with reality the reality is the rent leveling board decided both Portside buildings have been subject to rent control since their certificates of occupancy were issued in 1992 and 1997 respected they acknowledged two separate and really important points and I think that the letters the determination the letter we got this week are are confused a bit there's two pieces one is rent roll backs rolling back the rents to a base rent and second a period of damage is awarded that period of time over which uh to award rent over payments back to the tenants both of these things hinge on the determination of a base rent Believe It or Not figuring out the base rent is pretty straightforward it turns out Equity made that job really easy for us because Equity residential never complied with the necessary steps outlined in ordinance 260 to achieve any rental increases in any year since they purchased the buildings in 1998 what does that mean for us now the rent leveling board determined the period of time for damage re payment would start six years before the filing of the first illegal rent petition so I and my fellow tenants should be awarded back over payments we made from 2016 to the present day and the base determination I'm sorry the base rent determination should be it was in 1998 and you might think that this is unknowable but it's actually not thankfully there's a record of these base rents via equities 10K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission we therefore know exactly what rent should be for each unit on average from there it's really simple math a c a simple calculator Excel she can handle it it doesn't require machine learning or artificial intelligence you don't need an advanced degree for this math and it doesn't take a long time to do in fact we've already done it quite quickly over a year ago and can provide that sheet that Excel sheet to the office of landlord tenant relations thank you next speaker 5.70 Tim dear councilman uh councilwoman um my name is Tim J uh I'm a resident of a 155 Washington Street City uh I'm joining my uh my neighbors tonight um so um I'm here to State a few facts because when um um when my neighbors asked me to come and speak uh on behalf of myself and of others in our neighborhood I I I feel I cannot say no because they have um fighting a good battle for all of us um so um the fact number one is I was um in the same room with my neighbors on October 19th uh we were in the rent leveling Board hearing and uh the determination was issued that our landlord uh the equity residential has been raising the rent illegally uh for um since 1998 um fact number two is since the October 19th as a tenant uh no constructive Communications or next steps or timelines of adjusting the rent of reissuing the new lease no communication at all uh constructive communication was coming from I landl Lord uh Equity residential nothing has been done since the October 19th Hearing in terms of correcting the course those are the two facts um a fact number three I think this is my I think this is probably uh something that I I'm seeking help um from from the city is when I was talking with my neighbors in the building we were celebrating this great news but at the end of it there is always a whisper a question among the neighbors people asking uh is this really going to happen people were even they just law it is determination uh loud and clear coming from the city uh people still have a whisper like is this really going to happen I think that's the battle we're up against so we're seeking the help uh we want a a lot of confidence uh to make this city better um thank you our next speaker 5.71 Gracie thank you next 5.72 Mark good evening um in March 2014 Portside Towers sought an exemption to city ordinance 28-1 specifically section A which mandates 24x7 presence of a uniform security guard on the premises for multiple dwellings of 100 or more units section D outlines a process for exemptions but requires an annual security inspection for premises granted such privileges the requested exemption to the security guard requirement was issued 9 years ago August the 14th 2014 recent developments have residents questioning the security of our homes in a meeting with John mcin the supervisory assistant Corporation Council for Jersey City it was revealed that the only security inspection report for Portside Towers is dated June the 12th 2014 astonishingly no subsequent inspections have taken place in the N9 years that have followed Mr mckin also confirmed that because Portside Towers owner Equity residential had an affirmative duty to have the buildings inspected on an annual basis and they did not their exemption has expired I'm perplexed questioning who is responsible for ensuring compliance with the annual safety inspection Portside Towers has ignored this crucial safety measure for over eight years the building concierges cannot be considered uniform security guards a they are not uniformed B they have a completely different job and C they would not be able to leave their post to make the ma patrols mandated by ordinance 28-1 section B I would like you or the Corporation Council in the chamber to explain to me how Equity residential will be notified that the two Portside towers are no longer exempt from having uniform Security in each Portside building as is required by law thank you next 5.73 Sylvia not here okay next 5.74 you hang not here next 5.75 Judith Judith Fury Rogers senior citizen 100 Montgomery apartment 3A Why move to downtown Jersey City diversity breed job market Waterfront views quality restaurants location who would move to Jersey City professionals young families developers corrupt politicians developers some honest some corrupt there is one developer who has a major investment in the Waterfront project pH residential is another developer Equity Residential lefran brookfiled Properties and more corrupt politician s such as past convicted Mayors such as ha whan and there's much more County Executive januski and Jersey City Council president Vega many of these corrupt Sinners accepted payments and gifts from greedy developers to look the other way or give approval to projects or contracts how can the 2023 greedy developers control Jersey City without help one example is I had a first my first inspection July 13th the building department Russo 30 days to fix violations nothing happened September 27th second exp inspection inspector Daniel's Code Compliance issued a notice of violation dated 929 I followed up with Council Solomon's help I was staying with relatives 5 days a week I wasn't able to go into my home the inspector for 1026 reinspection was inspector Roco he conducted a reinspection he had Management's plan of action before he arrived he wanted to give them two more weeks I was shocked I followed up asking for his reinspection many times councilman Solomon's office helped me and I received the reinspection on November 2nd Rocco called me in the morning and asked if work was finished I was staying with relatives why was this man asking me this and why was he so confirmed he already did the reinspection and didn't put it in writing who is paying Rocco is he falsify he falsified my record where is the 1026 reinspection thank you our next speaker 5.76 Ashley thank you next 5.77 Suzanne thank you next five 78 Carol she's here okay good evening council members my name is Carol Cho it's uh the first time I'm standing here in front of you and I'm honored to do so as I'm very inspired by what this group has achieved in our community I was born and raised in New Jersey and Portside has been my home for almost two years now and I live in Jersey City because it embodies the vibrant spirit and diversity that is so important to me Jersey City is more than just a location for me it's a community that Fosters connections and a sense of belonging and I believe that ensuring stable controlled rents is crucial in preserving this unique atmosphere for everyone that's why it's important to me to rely on the full enforcement of Jersey City's rent leveling boards determination it's my understanding that two important things need to happen now one I understand that new base rents need to be established and two damages for overpayments need to be awarded related to that I find it important that you and all tenants in our community and of Jersey City know that one our landlord Equity residential never met the requirements of the ordinance to be approved for any increases which means base rent was never approved by the city to increase ever and two that Equity has not complied with the ordinance or statute at all so far we don't understand why the base rent has has not been set at that last known date yet which is reported in the SEC 10K filing of 1998 this at least seems like an easy thing to do for equity and I really wonder what is holding them back further delaying the enforcement of the rent leveling board's determination further diminishes our trust in our landlord and also in our city Administration with all due respect we ask you to assist us in getting Equity to comply thank you our next speaker 5.79 Anna thank you and 5.80 you can just imagine that Lucy's not here either right that's our favorite speaker that's right it's 10:36 school night uh next 5.81 Sonia good evening I almost did not come here tonight they are much more important topics than ours in the world we feel that but Injustice as well as disrespect of democracy and existing law need to be discussed always that's why I decided to come and speak in my town where this is happening right now still and one more thing before I start just for the record as my fellow speakers I also haven't received a new lease nor a refund for my overpayments for the illegal rents Equity has charged me for 10 years what I have received though are multiple threats and mistreatments by the company that we all hear our year-long customers of that's right customers of a multi-billion dollar Enterprise we made their revenue we made their success we pay premium rents for what they call remarkable living I'm not sure if threats against our existence and years of loyalty fall in line with anybody's definition of a remarkable experience but never mind mind maybe that's just a matter of taste let me share with you what we did hear from our landlord in the last couple of weeks I quote from the complaint Equity filed against the city and its rent leveling board the board's enforcement of the ordinance on port side will constitute a physical taking of ports side's property as a matter of law because port side will be unable to prevent unwanted tenants from physically occupying its land and further by forcing it Portside to operate on unacceptable terms the board's decision has resulted in thousands of tenants occupying Port site's proerty even though Portside did not and would not have agreed to permit them on its property under those terms thousands of ten that all have signed contracts with this multi-billion dollar firm but are now portrayed as squatters just by applying existing laws thousands of tenants who overpay month by month into the pockets of these greedy people thousands of your constituents I don't know if you know pppy Longstocking the Bold name Giver of a well-known Scandinavian children's book um she famously chant and I translate I make up the world as it pleases me why is piy able to do that because we let her do it we admire her imagination why can Equity make up a world that it as it suits them because the city has led them in the past but we hope that has changed now we have an unanimous decision by our City's rent leveling board we have your confirmation that you are on our side and we trust that you now will finally put an end to this far thank you our next speaker 5.82 danillo good evening if it wasn't so sad it would be funny indeed I know my wife and I'm sure you heard her giggling too when she spoke about unwanted occupiers as if we were quarters you know us by now you know that we are not spoiled rich kids as we are not Lefty marxists we are not anything of the things our landlord calls us you know us you know we've been coming here for over 1.5 years our drivers are neither ille illegally occupying others properties nor indulging in vast luxury just as a side note I know people who have squaded houses after the war came down in Germany after we had accomplished the goals of the peaceful Revolution and after the tough times actually continued for many of us especially for the people who stood up and lost everything in the process they had little choices they would have ended up on the streets ended up on the streets sounds familiar we have these people too lost everything because of greedy multi-billion dollar companies also back then during this often painful transition for entire countries I was not okay with people just taking what they felt was theirs I always had the thing for capitalism believe it or not I studied economy right after the wall came down and right before that I deliberately chose to fight for democracy in eastern Germany and this is about democracy that's why it's unbelievable to me that Equity is still able to delay the execution of the rent leveling board's determination has still not complied with the ordinance continues to charge 40% increases of unlaw for lease renewals if you had told me that this was possible in a democracy and under the rule of law when I Mar the streets of leig in Eastern Germany in '89 I would have laughed and I would probably have believed that this is the last attempt of Russian propagandists as you know I'm deeply grounded in Democratic Values we talked about it a lot here and that's why I trusted you City Council Members all single one of you will do the job you were democratically elected for and hold Equity accountable to set our base rent to the last known date as filed in 98 in the SEC 10K form and explain to them that they never met the requirements of the ordinance to be approved for any increase ever I trust you can do that also in the name of people who lost everything thank you our next speaker 5.83 Aaron not here next 5.84 Joel hello council members let's review the November 27th letter we received from the rent leveling rent rent board Bureau it opened affirming the rent leveling board's determination in favor of the tenants that part was fine next it explains that the purpose of the letter is to request proofs necessary to ensure Property Owners future compliance with requirements of the ordinance this is also on target then it calls out a very important requirement quote in order to qualify for a rent increase a landlord is required to register the rent roll with the bureau the ordinance provides this in regard uh to section 26-3 the landlord shall register rent roll with a rent leveling Bureau in order to qualify for any any rental increase this is perfect but here's where it falls apart the letter that is supposed to be about obtaining proofs necessary for enforcement of rent control switches gears to try to find ways to award our non-compliant landlord as much illegal rent as possible the board ruled in favor of a six-year look back from our first petitions which was a look back to 2016 this letter drops two years and only considers 2018 to 2023 was that a clerical error again did they read or did they even read the determination then despite quoting the requirements related to the filing of rent roles as a prerequisite to increase rents at all the letter gives Equity residential credit for three years of rent rules which according to the ordinance referenced in the letter failed to fulfill its requirements they should not have been accepted for example Equity was given credit for submitting a rent roll in 2021 despite the fact it was filed 10 months after the deadline it was not on the official form it did not contain the required information the bureau needs to enforce rent control at all it also was not accompanied by any appropriate supporting documents let's review the ordinance requirement together slowly section 26-9 States no rent roll registration will be deemed filed with the board unless and until submitted on the board's official forms and accompanied by all appropriate supporting documents that's very specific if the 2021 role of suspect 2022 is worse we sent the exact same rent roll missing all of the same information and still not on the official form and all the data was identical we do not believe that the there was no year-to-year rent increase in at that time especially if people were moving in and out of Apartments the reason the ordinance identifies what qualifies as a rent role is to prevent exactly what the bureau is allowing here there's more and it gets worse would the independent Council call this fraud I would get independent legal advice thank you next speaker 5.85 Shannon neither neither are here neither Shannon nor Michelle or Michelle okay thank you appreciate that that goes to 587 doid 5.87 no next 5.88 Pak help of the I the first I will I I pray my word should come out right and bring peace for everyone my name isil Pak resent of J City w f I would like to bring out our appreciation for our council member Frank Gilmore and the whole city all for all the service every individual receive from here we come here to the first I would like we standing in a troubling situation the holy land when we see massive Bloodshed from all sides and every one is suffering there the world Demands a ceasefire and unfortunately there is massive propaganda that demanding a ceas fire is anti-Semitic and anti-Semitism this should not be accepted I'm here as a Jew to say that according to our religious the whole occupation have to stop and come to our end this is in big favor of Jewish Community as the the whole occupation should end because we leave in peace before the start of Zionism movement with all the Palestinian people and since the Zionism movement started we see a endless cycle of Bloodshed and in the name of humanity and in the name of Jewish religion we ask the politician to stand up for what is Right demanding a ceasefire at last let's pray for the time to come when every creation will understand his creator and peace will be Saed for everyone thank you thank you our next speaker 5.89 salof with the help of the Almighty I hope I'll have the right a first I want to thank for the beautiful city here all the everybody helping out everybody it's a very beautiful place uh we are religious Jews and we believe only in God and the toan and there's people who talking in our name and they say that whoever is fights against Zionism is like he talks against Judaism but it's totally long wrong and I see that people thinking from a CI they say it's anti-semitic but it's not true we are religious Jews and our religious is that we have to be in Exile now since the destroyed of the second temple we have to be in peaceful and all where we are in the whole world peaceful under all nations not killing not stealing not do anything against all the nations we have to be under all nations no it's it's in the US it's in Palestine it's everywhere we're not allowed to make an own survivant we hope it's going to be a peaceful dismantlement of the Israeli State thank you thank you our next speaker 5.90 Edward no next 5.91 bill good evening Bill Lis I'm a parishioner of Our Lady of sorrow's church and also a member of Jersey City togethers public health and safety Committee just want to take a moment to commend the council for your decision to reject that RFP last month to hire Outreach workers to go out with with the Jersey City police department on crises involving mental health and substance abuse issues rejecting the RFP was the recommendation of Jersey City together and Marie my colleague she's going to follow me and she's going to address some of the concerns we had with that RFP and how we need to go forward I also again want to commend the council inviting jurries we City together to be involved D in the process this time around and putting an RFP in place that best serves the needs of Jersey City residents as evidenced by Jersey City's togethers participation in providing more affordable housing on the Bayfront project and our work with the Jersey City Board of Education to provide adequate funding and even to get water fountains at our schools I think we've shown that we're willing to work we're willing to talk we're willing to negotiate and I think in a very real way we represent the interests and desires of many residents of Jersey City on that issue of providing good Services I was a little well let's just say I'm concerned now that this Tomahawk program is once again being brought to the four so in terms of process how that happened we would like to know more about it we'd like to know how the program was changed and we'd like to know how it's going to weave in to a program that we've been promoting for the past couple of years the other issue of concern we have is the budgetary process it's quite clear that the Safety Committee is getting the safety department gets a a considerable amount of funding and we at Jersey City together want to make sure that there's adequate funding for years to come for that RFP so these are not only our concerns we've also been in contact with the Washington family so again they are very much in our hearts they their needs and desires are part of what we need to do to go forward on this issue so I thank you for your time and look forward to working with the council thank you next 5.92 Amar hi an Marina zaro and same as Bill Our Lady of sorrow's Parish and Jersey City together I'm looking forward to working with we're looking forward to working with councelors Rivera Solomon and Gilmore on creating an RFP request for proposal or indeed creating a new program that will get this Behavioral Health response to Mental Health crisis in the city and I just want to share tonight some of the points we're going to be stressing as we move forward in collaborative work on this project the broad objectives of this program need to be to decriminalize mental health substance use disorders in Jersey City to achieve a shared recognition that any community members with mental health or substance use challenges have treatable disorders not jailable disorders and to develop as we said a gold standard program that will be a model for all of New Jersey and indeed we have the Pride to say a model for our country the elements of such a gold standard program have to be employing Behavioral Health and Outreach workers to be part of a crisis intervention team and on that team there needs to be working alongside the Outreach workers police officers who are specifically identified as being inclined to this sort of work who have the empathy for this sort of work they are not every police officer they are identified police officers with this propensity and we also need of course the training of the 911 responders so they'll know how to make use of the crisis intervention teams and deploy to them when that's the important Outlet deescalation training in crisis situations for every Crisis Intervention team member including the police officers training together in deescalation will be critical to this gold standard program and also the crisis intervention team members have to learn how to outreach to the family members the faith community members and other community members who know the person in crisis and who could be very helpful in the deescalation process when there's a situation these are some of the core elements thank you thank you our next speaker 5.93 Jamie Jamie here oh next 5.94 Elena hi good evening city council my name is Elena little and I'm a resident of Jersey City I read the resolution 23- 92 which calls for a cessation of hostilities in Israel and Palestine and a safe return of the hostages I join these calls and further call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire which I hope the council will have the courage to say I do feel the resolution is thoughtful in that it acknowledges the grief felt by the diverse communities here in Jersey City we have Palestinian neighbors who have lost loved ones and we have Israeli neighbors who have lost loved ones the images we have seen of civilians and especially children being killed are horrifying I hope I hope we can agree as a city at the very barest of minimums that killing civilians children and vulnerable hospital patients is wrong always no matter their religion or nationality it is disgusting to see the dehumanization and devalue devaluation of innocent lives so I am glad that the council brought this resolution forward and I joined the many calls tonight here for a ceasefire I also want to make sure we stand against hate at the local level I'm horrified at the increase in anti-semitic and islamophobic Hate crimes throughout the state of New Jersey there is no place for hate here and I urge the council to also condemn islamophobia anti-Semitism and hate on a on a different topic last meeting a resolution awarding a contract to Jersey City Medical Center for mental health or that would have awarded the contract for mental health first responder Services was voted down because many felt it was inadequate I reiterate my comments from the last council meeting and urged the city not to delay in issuing a a more robust RFP for mental health first responder Services hopefully work is already underway on this um but it's important to get this right but it's also important that it not languish on the back burner I also like others uh would like to question the tomahawk contract on the agenda tonight and seek more clarification on whether it is the most effective training possible uh given all that has transpired so I Echo the calls from the Washington family the community and Jersey City together Justice for Drew in in my remaining 39 seconds uh I also want to say that I'm deeply troubled that even after the rent leveling board's fair and lawful determination on October 19th clearly affirming port side tow Perpetual rent control status many tenants have continued receiving exorbitant rent hike notices exceeding 40% I stand in solidarity with PS side Towers how can this be allowed when The Binding ruling explicitly restricts the owner to only authorized increases uh either the bureau has utterly failed communicating the implications to equity residential or more distressing Pathways exist enabling willful willful circumvention we implore this body to investigate and halt this willful extraction unsupported by the rulings are order thank you thank you next speaker 5.95 Albert good evening first time up here um I'm here for my adopted City Jersey City not here to discuss the resolution before you I'm here to talk to you about my adopted City I love Jersey City you know that you see me around I just love Jersey City I love the people of Jersey City I have friends from all over the place I see see this city splitting based on the war in the Middle East do you think a resolution like this is going to help it will not it will exacerbate the pain you need a way to find to bring this city together not divide it what can you do to bring us together not separate us most of you know me as a reasonable person I would gladly sit with anyone here and discuss how we can make this city better in instead of voting on a resolution that will divide the city do something proactive for the city what if we organize the sports game for all our children to play together a scavenger hunt for us all to enjoy what if we organized a meal for families to come and mingle and get to know each other we are all here in one Jersey City Let's help each other create a space we can all feel safe Thrive and flourish this should be our Focus thank you our next speaker 5.96 niton 5.9 6 5.97 Phillip I don't believe he's here next 5.98 renina sorry if I'm mispronouncing that name I'm sorry it's pronounced Ria Ria thank you okay yep well first I would like to start by thanking the city Council for hearing all of us out um and I would like to thank my brother in particular for staying strong in the midst of all of this horrifying news and um even the racist attack that you that you face today during this meeting um so thank you for staying strong I'm here today because some how a call to end genocidal violence against Palestinians has been equated to advocacy for terrorism and has people losing their jobs for standing up for what is Right criticizing Saudi Arabia is not islamophobic I do it quite often as a progressive Muslim and I've never been called a self-hating Muslim or islamophobic criticizing Israel is not anti-semitic the years leading up to October 7th hundreds of gazin children have been killed just recently over a million gazin have been displaced by the IDF and over 20,000 civilians had been killed by the IDF somehow calling to end all this violence is anti-Semitic somehow calling to end the occupation of the West Bank is called anti-semitic South Africa has recently called its delegates back from Israel and denounced its genocidal Slaughter of Palestinians I think South Africa has knows a thing or two about AP paride bringing it back to Jersey City I stand against anyone trying to use what the Israeli government is doing to justify any form of anti- anti-Semitism towards Jews I disagree with the notion that the city council has no place in passing a resolution and the even more absurd and racist notion that the only reason the resolution exists is because there's a Palestinian on the board the city council represents taxpayers in Jersey City and our tax dollars are going towards the wholesale Slaughter of Palestinians when it could go towards investing in our community w f has been mentioned a couple of times maybe we can start there thank you all for listening to me next speaker 5.99 Abdul good evening my work as you know is in the area of forced displacement and evictions I've published on International war crimes international law and today we call for an elected Democratic body to follow the will of the people it's that simple follow the people follow the law whether we talk about Justice for Andrew Washington proper training and not having empty rhetoric around black lives matter when it was impossible to state that just a few years ago we say today there must be peace peace is not divisive peace does not divide us standing for justice justice for Drew following the law in the way that tenants at Portside Towers advocate for following the law that's Justice that does not divide us we ask that we follow the United Nations the World Health Organization the center for constitutional rights Amnesty International and laws here so why Jersey City why should Jersey City talk about international law and policy the Council on Foreign Relations issued an official report saying that the forum for international law has now become cities why is that since the 1980s when we talked about rightwing Wing regimes in Latin America cities became the Forum we talked about South African apartheid why were universities in the US a forum so much scholarship supports University support and protest as being instrumental in being able to create the South African state that we have back when thec and Nelson Mandela were considered State terrorists by this government this matters your vote today matters and that cannot be emphasized enough your vote next week your vote today your ability to amend this and reflect the will of the people is not something that is inconsistent with how we perceive civil rights in the past when you sit and learn about history and say what would I do today your moment what will you do thank you next speaker 5.100 Jordy here 5 101 Andrea good evening Council thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight and thank you to Evelyn and Isaac who've been so steadfast in their Community work as a Jersey City resident I'm here today because I'm disappointed and ashamed at the rhetoric that has been espoused regarding the ongoing violence against pal Palestinians recently council members expressed concerns over the use of the word ceasefire to which I ask are we confused about what's happening we know that Palestinians are being murdered in scores and we are asking for a cessation of all of it it is a literal definition and I am confused as to what is offensive about it and why it is not exponentially more offensive to imply that the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians should go on indefinitely I bring this up because your voice matters Council not only in general but to the community when we cannot speak openly and honestly about issues such as these or when we stay silent those choices have repercussions outside of this room Sunday night mamza was jumped simply for being Palestinian and wearing his cofa V various community members have also been verbally attacked and counter protesters have been allowed to come to our protests and call for our deaths unchecked by any Authority it is hard for me to believe that there is malice at play here it would be almost impossible for me to believe that this Council wants residents to feel unsafe rather there is perhaps a lack of cognizance about the enormity of what is happening in palese so Council are you aware that there are over 1.7 million displaced Palestinians that is the equivalent of every single Jersey City resident being displaced six times over are you aware that approximately 7,300 children are dead or missing in Gaza that is roughly 14% of the child population in our city how many more people have to die before we call for a ceasefire how many more children must be incinerated maimed amilies broken apart mothers fathers and grandparents trapped under Rubble for days what is a justifiable number of people denied access to Food Water health care and human rights who are we what are we if we can't even say that innocent people don't deserve to die to quote the late great Dr Martin Luther King Jr Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single Garment of Destiny whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly thank you and I would like to use my last moments to observe a moment of silence for all of those killed in this incessant violence here 5102 is a duplicate of 5.64 so we're going to move on to 5103 which is unas uh hello my name is unis Baruch um and I'm here to encourage you guys to try to work on on a resolution right now um I don't know how many hours we've been sitting here but I think this is one of those sessions that can be called Community input uh I think you've got a lot of community input on both sides um in regards the Palestinian Israeli conflict and I think one of the council members I know it's a difficult decision but instead of kicking the can down the road to next week or next month or whenever we might I think someone should motion to amend the resolution uh someone should second and I think with everyone in the room here tonight we should try to make history and try to show um you know global leaders uh State leaders on how to create legislation how to uh involve the community in in in certain decisions um I I I ask you um to please you know motion to try to amend the resolution please try to re I'm here to ask you guys to recognize you know not only the Palestinian side but the hostage situation as well right you have everyone in the room here you have the opportunity to listen to them listen to them right we're we're already here this late why don't we make the most of it right why don't we get it out of the way we pass a resolution that's going to satisfy the people in this room who are still here at this hour not because they have to speak necessarily but because they care and they want to see what decision you guys make um I know you guys are in a difficult position right um as a board of education member I know that they're um you know many constituents that you deal with that you know an average constituent isn't even aware of but at the same time you have a responsibility to make the hard decisions right um as another speaker said previously um the World Health Organization the United Nations uh they've all made a decision on what this is exactly and what it is is an atrocity um in the resolution that you guys have it says that um innocent Palestinians that were killed that is not the case if anything Palestinians are being murdered at a ratio of one Hamas terrorist uh to 200 Palestinian citizens um so please try if if we can get it done right now that would be amazing um and then in all honesty I I I don't really I'm going to take uh the lead of the last public speaker and have a moment of silence for all the victims right um everyone who suffered thank you our next speaker 5104 Ramy not here okay thank you next speaker 5.15 Devon good evening and thank you guys for being here so late everyone um my name is Devon a Austin I live in wart D with my partner and my child I am also a small business owner there today I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian community and as a humanitarian who dreams of a world where everyone's humanity is honored and human rights are respected for the past few weeks now I have been experiencing Vivid nightmares where I'm unable able to save my son from various life or death situations one in which I witnessed my child choking to death as an invisible force prevented me from helping him the pain of losing him was visceral and lasted in my body for hours though these jarring images only haunted me for such a brief moment and even worse nightmare has been the real life tragedy for too many families in Gaza and the West Bank since 1948 this humanitarian crisis the genocide has stolen countless precious lives displaced and erased hundreds of thousands of families and destroyed infrastructure and the environment still it is not broken the spirit of these resilient people it is their strength and hope that empowers me to take a stand beside them since October 7th over 15,000 Palestinians excuse me 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza and over half of which are children 1.5 million people are now displaced during the current humanitarian pause Gaza remains under the blockade as the military continues to prevent food fuel Aid water is Israeli forces and settlers continue to kill and ethnically cleanse Palestinians in the West Bank they continue to Target the Palestinians fleeing and they continue to arrest Palestinian adults and children unlawfully to call for a permanent ceasefire is an invitation for diplomacy for a release of all hostages and an opportunity to let in the necessary Aid fuel food and water it is a show of faith in the inherent good of all people and an acknowledgement of the ity of the Palestinian people let us unite as individuals and guardians of a collective humanitarian Spirit by signing a ceasefire resolution we can so seeds of peace and help cultivate a world where everyone can flourish please choose compassion solidarity and Lasting Harmony your actions today will resonate for generations to come thank you our next speaker 5106 Robert hi good evening and uh thanks for staying up and listening to all this stuff it's given me this my first city council meeting and it's given me a greater respect for the uh the job so um my daughter is uh a third grader at lccs and very shortly after October 7th uh the school sent an email and and you know said we're a very diverse Community we're just not going to go there uh Visa discussing this crisis people have very different feelings they have family you know it's just very divisive and as far as I know as far as what I hear from my daughter and and can tell that's that's worked very well and that's kind of the approach with all due respect you know you you guys are smart people I have seen some drafts of resolutions I know you're you're um very conscientious about it but I just would would not go there you know um it's just very divisive I mean um you know I've heard I'm on the frankly on the largely on the Israel side of the the equation I've heard a lot of stuff that I found very offensive and believe is untrue and could argue with but I don't know if that does any good really you know if if you all want to hear me do my rebuttal or whatever um you know I just think uh I know it's tempting to quot unquote make history and be heroic and be on the right side of history but it's just very divisive and um you know one can in one's private life or whatever make statements go demonstrate I mean Federal authorities are the people who control this this is a municipal Authority and you guys have a lot of important stuff to do I've learned about for instance you know addressing the uh deescalation when their Mental Health crisis addressing good way of doing that that's important stuff I would just respectfully request that you guys stick to that and uh disengage don't get into the international Affairs it's inevitably going to be very selective as people have pointed out there's a lot of things in uh unfortunately it's very unedifying and depressing hearing what people do to each other uh being reminded of that you know in in darur in Afghanistan and Iraq and whatever so so uh that's basically my point Thank you next speaker 5.07 Stephanie I don't see her next 5.08 now no NE Nur sorry nor thank you hi everyone I'm Syrian and I'm a proud Jersey City resident I live here with my husband and my two babies like many households in Jersey City mine is biracial bicultural and multilingual we are secular and we have cultural ties to both Christian Christianity and Islam every day when I hold my own children I'm thinking about the Palestinian children who are exposed to the wars atrocities imaginable while the world cheers for their death like they're watching a game of football or pretending to care but deeming thousands upon thousands of Palestinian children to be acceptable collateral damage well they are not every single one of them was somebody's everything just like my own children and yours here in JY City their blood is on all of our hands as American taxpayers it is absolutely our businesses talk about us and I'm very thankful for you taking the time to listen to us today civilians especially children are never an acceptable collateral damage not even one of them not an Israeli child and not a Palestinian child there's no world where I would think that it's acceptable to kill Israeli civilians and children and I'm so disheartened and scared to see people in this room brush off the horrific death of Palestinian civil civilians funded by our tax dollars is acceptable and fight it in their heart hearts to oppose a ceasefire or consider it none of their business or point to a whole side of the room and assume that they know their beliefs this is dehumanizing and this is how you fuel hate this is not the spirit of Jersey City I am scared to speak Arabic to my kids in public I am scared to speak it I'm I'm scared to speak in here but I want to be able to tell my kids that I didn't just crawl past the pain of Palestinian children that is funded by us we cannot be silent about what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank children are being killed injured displaced and left parentless they are left to slowly die in horrific pain under the rubble of their homes there's extremely limited Medical Care the limbs are amputated without anesthesia there's horrible horrible things that are happening and this is all blood on our hands as American taxpayers we cannot just stand in silence and say let's talk about all the other things this is just International going somewhere else this is is all funded by us traumatizing an entire population in the worst ways possible collectively punishing them for something they did not ask for is not only a war crime but is extremely dangerous not only for Palestinians but for Israelis as well it is time for adult to stop being silent and take action please fire now thank you our next speaker five 5109 son I think she left no next five 5110 yuy left and lastly 5.1 11 Monica she left she's coming right okay yeah oh okay even now I thought I seen somebody approaching so good long evening everyone and thank you for this opportunity um I'm a mother I'm a grandmother I'm a sister I'm a daughter and I've heard a lot of things here this evening that are very disturbing to me um I initially came because I wanted to be in support of a better Humanity a safe Humanity for everyone I am of a mindset if you think about this a hypocrite is a person that uses the truth to cover a lie a liar is a person that changes the truth silent vience is violence we have to speak up and we have to do something and if you're not able to sit in this room this evening and feel the magnitude of the importance of creating a safer space for everyone then you're sincerely lost and I don't mean you per se I mean anyone um the other thing is I know that there was a gentleman that spoke about their being vience in schools and it not being discussed that's understandable because children don't have the magnitude to carry the space within themselves about what's going on but when adults do that it's something different and that is unacceptable so um initially when this meeting started I was going to ask for silence as well because one of the things I noticed at the beginning you all stood in silence for some of your colleagues so the lives that that have been lost and the lives that are continuing to be lost are no different from that right right right so I yield to silence now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of all man kind okay ladies and gentlemen and members of the Council that includes our public speakers just want to go through which I didn't do before um petitions and Communications any questions or comments on items 6.1 through 6.30 hearing none there are no office Communications reported directors any questions or comments on 8.1 through 8.3 hearing none the first order of business that we have to take care of is resolution 23- 891 which is 10 34 so I'm going to be taking a vote on item 10.34 resolution 23- 891 council person Prince are on We Ready did yeah um we asked you in the beginning not to block the middle hour yeah guys got go good job please we at the end now so everybody was following the rules don't let him block The Middle on resolution 23-8 91 council person Prince AR hi council person bajano council person SLE I council person Solomon no council person Gilmore no council person Dees council person Rivera hi council president wman Hey Okay resolution 23- 891 is approved 521 with council members Solomon and Gilmore voting no and council president Woodman abstaining and council person Ridley absent all right I'm going to turn it over uh to council person select I want to thank everyone that came out to speak on the resolution speak on the Israel Palestine conflict I've discussed with my Council colleagues and we will be having a special meeting next week to vote on this we're not going to vote on this tonight uh we're going to take the feedback that was given to us tonight and we're going to have discussions and we we'll have the vote on next Wednesday at 4 pm and with that I am going to motion to withdraw the resolution and um if I get a second so we have a motion to withdraw item 10.45 resolution 23 902 from the agenda by council person C may I have a second second who made the second who can't I can't hear it's going to be next Wednesday but let's go through the motion first and then we'll get to that other part on the motion to withdraw item 10.45 resolution 23- 92 from the agenda council person priner council person bajano council person SLE hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore hi council person Dees council person Rivera hi and council president wman um I'm gonna abstain because I I just believe that we could have voted on this and the reason why is because excuse me please because I know what councilman Cay has been going through I see what he's been going through and I think we just um we're on an issue that I don't see both sides agreeing to at all to be perfectly honest and so I'm abstaining because I just believe we could handle this tonight that's that's why I'm abstaining it okay that's why but he wants to do this because he wants to I guess have another conversation this is why okay that's his choice to have the conversation but I just feel a little different I think we could vote on this one way or another because that it's such a is it's such a passionate issue and I just don't think there's going to be such an agreement with it based on what I've seen from both sides and from the very beginning when the situation happened I did meet with both um leaders from both communities we were all practically about four or five of us was in that room and so we knew that this was going to be a a difficult task so don't think we're taking this slightly we we see what's going on in the world and so uh councilman Cay he he took the lead on this and so our whole desire is really is to support him and whatever way we can because we do all work together just like you work with your colleagues you try to support them and so this is what we doing with him you don't have to agree with us okay everybody has a right to agree to disagree all I ask is just for respect and so this is what he wants to do and so that's why we're doing it that's why I'm just taking the time to explain it but that's why I'm just abstaining that's it because I can't see where either side is going to agree I can't see it now I and I'm listening to both sides okay so I'm he wants to and this is what we doing you don't have to agree but that's his right as a council person so you got to respect his right too you have to you have to respect his right and this is what he wants to do and so that's why so respect him okay motion carries 701 with council person I me council president Waterman abstaining and council person Ridley absent so are we going to step St we Sun I'd like to ask uh the council president a sunshine a meeting Wednesday December 6th at 4M sure a special session have a special meeting at four four Wednesday yeah Wednesday four December 6th correct that's the day you want it at 4M please don't yell out respect him he I'm asking you just to respect him okay this is what he want respect that you don't have to agree but just respect it that's all I'm asking you to do Wednesday at December 6 2023 at 4M correct correct okay I will send that notice out no questions back and forth now so with that without anything else motion to have a motion to adjourn at 11:36 pm. motion was made by council person Riva may I have a second second by council person priner on the motion to adjourn at 11:36 PM council person priner council person bajano council person CLE hi council person Solomon council person Gilmore yeah hi council person Dees hi council person Rivera and council president wman motion carries 8 Z to adjourn at 11:36 p.m thank you so much with council person Ridley absent thank you so much everyone here and everyone watching at home remember Teamwork Makes a DreamWork have a great night stay safe that