okay everyone we're about to get started if we can find our seats silence or cell phones like I'm doing and also if you can close any doors that are open I greatly appreciate it okay thank you very much good morning everyone we are on the record today is Monday the 8th day of July in the year 2024 this is a city council Caucus meeting of the Jersey City municipal Council we had a scheduled 10: a.m. start the clock on my cell phone is showing 10:02 amm may we may I have a roll call for the commencement of this caucus council person Ridley council person priner is not here council person Bano council person CLE okay here yet council person Solomon thank you council person Gilmore is not here council person Dees is not here council person Riva here and council president wman council president wman here here thank you and I see council person preri and Kevin Lions is here we have six council members in attendance at 10:02 am on behalf of council president wman and members of the municipal Council in accordance with New Jersey public laws of 1975 chapter 231 the open public meetings acts Al also known as the sunshine adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the posting on the bullettin 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 2024 and filed in the office of the city clerk on Thursday November 30th 2023 in addition at its time of its preparation the agenda of this meeting was similarly disseminated on Friday July 5th 2024 at 3:35 p.m. to the mayor Municipal Council business administrative Corporation Council and the local newspapers and posted on the city's website so I can certify as to our total compliance with the Sunshine Law council president I'm going to turn it over to you good morning um first one good just raise the mic I'm Elizabeth Kane I represent The Exchange Place special Improvement District um and I'm here for any questions for a 2425 budget quick review if you'd like um I have the wrong one but there's an SAT assessment given um as a special assessment to the tax commercial taxpayers in the district and then we usually have some rollover left over and a lot of our budget does go to um Capital Improvements as you saw you know we finished up Exchange Place the plaza looks great for those who have been down to visit on the docket in the upcoming years would be um a Cultural Arts Center the Peninsula Park we're going to redo the playground at Nathaniel Green Park and various other places does I have any questions so these are items 10.20 and 10.21 on your agenda sure um Elizabeth good to see you uh quick question um right now are there any um off-duty patrols that the alliance is uh you know doing with either the uee funds or anything else right now I know we were approved for the U funds I'm no longer the managing executive director I'd have to check into that but they knew they did discuss it at the last meeting okay got it yeah if you could do that that'd be great because I know they're operating with the downtown Sid but I wanted to know if they it started with Exchange Place as well I'll check on that okay right for the record who is the new uh managing executive director deer Crockett thank you questions thank you thanks guys before we move forward council president just want to Mo council person Cay present at 10:04 a. so we now have seven council members present at 10:04 Call's made morning I am Char ma Jr from the Jersey City Health depart Department of Health I am division director of environmental health I'm here to seek authorization for a uh our 2024 childhood Leb Leb program Grant which is done every year at this time he said the council councilman Rivera said how about them Steelers and also I I mean how about them Giants but anyway Mr Mays uh the item that you have on the agenda do you know the agenda number yes I do it is 1022 thank any questions for Mr ma thank you good morning council members I'm here for two resolutions both of which are contracts for the same typee of service and the same amount um those are the two proposals that are C receive in the response to the RFP um the first one is um resolution number 24- 544 item number 10.5 a resolution authorizing the award of the competive bid contract with associate appraisal to provide Appraisal Services in support of the jity tax assessor in proper evaluations and in defense of the assessment of the tax Appeals since we have a higher number of commercial appeals at the County Board and the tax C Level in aaal expert support is necessary to create reports to defense those appeals the tax assessor will request aaal reports based on the property type that is under appeal currently we have 2,471 properties spending at the tax cor level and in 2024 we had a 1,443 appeals at the county Bo level for for the 1,443 we have a 40 % of those were for commercial appeals therefore I'm seeking the municipal Council to award a contract for 75,000 per year and the other resolution is for the same service uh resolution number 24 5544 item number 10.5 H that's a resolution authorizing the competitive award for the give me on or a integral realy resources of New Jersey is for the PR Company for the same services for $75,000 it's renewed annually you said annually yes a year okay so we'll see it next year too yes it's usually a year thank you thank you congratulations thank you have Ace appoint council president before you move on I just want to um Mark council person Gilmore present at 10:08 a.m. so we now have eight council members present morning council president members of the council we have several items today for the Department of infrastructure we'll start with uh traffic engineering so I'll ask Jen Wong to come up morning council president council members uh first is agenda 3.1 ordinance 2460 this is an ordinance to designate the intersection of vanor street and Morris Street as a stop controlled intersection uh vanor is a one-way Street northbound but when it once it hits Morris Street it becomes a two-way um there currently isn't any uh stop control so this is just designating this intersection as a stop control intersection next is um I'm just going to jump around um agenda item 3.3 ordinance 2462 this is for Reserve parking all of these addresses were reviewed and approved at the June 12th committee meeting and then the next one is 3.4 ordinance 2463 this is an ordinance to extend parking Zone 2 to include Newark Avenue between Senate place and tonell Avenue this was requested by um councilman Boo's office and then the last one is ordinance sorry agenda 3.2 ordinance 2461 um this is an ordinance to remove the Limited duration parking along mallerie Avenue at Williams in front of Carm mines um and then also in conjunction with that is sry I'm looking for the resolution it's item 1033 resolution 24572 and in place of the limited duration parking would be a loading zone from Monday through Friday 9: to 5:00 p.m. thank you Jennifer before you go I'm on the phone this morning with Paul Russo and too many streets are being closed at one time it's got to stop we don't have any police Traffic Unit and it's a disgrace uh it took me almost 40 minutes to get down here from Magnolia Avenue to city hall because Newark Avenue was backed up all the way mamama street was closed uh Third Street was closed 7th Street was closed it can't continue like this people are just tired of it so we have to start you know these construction people these developers have to stop because I'm tired of hearing the complaints and I'm tired of the fact that we don't have a traffic division in our Police Department to handle traffic we don't have motorcycles we have nothing so please Jennifer do me a favor please do something about it stop half these streets from being closed at one time we'll do thank you morning Council I have two resolutions to present uh the first one is uh 1026 it's a resolution authorizing the E uh execution of the city of Jersey City for the termination of the deed notice uh affecting portions of various public streets um and it's actually a new notice uh that's affecting FIS greet and other public streets uh by Honeywell International this is an existing notice in lie of deed but because of the tax map being changed and updated we basically had to remove the existing um notice in laded and start a new one but it's it's basically an amendment to an existing uh notice uh the next one is 1027 and it's a resolution uh approval to submit a Grant application and execute a grant contract with NJ do for monacello Avenue roadway Rehabilitation project uh every year we put in a municipal Aid we like it to be a a main uh Corridor along Jersey City uh and this was one that hasn't been done in a long long time and was in dire need um so hopefully we get a a good chunk of money from d uh and we could start this project uh within the next year to oh is this for the um entirety of Monella Avenal it is indeed so we don't know what we'll be funded for but we asked to be funded for the entirety of monacell and um I don't know if uh infrastructure handled this but I know recently they've done some work on Emory um I think they replaced the pipes or whatever but they they dug the street up and they've never repaved it back in fact they've caused more damage because of those machines that they have sitting in there and that's constantly rolling on street so now that block is like this you're going up I can get you an update it I I don't know exactly where that stands but um sometimes we don't do this street until everything's complete so there may be other utilities that are coming up behind it also there's a settlement period so when you dig these trenches for underground you let them settle for 90 days otherwise you come through and pave it and then you have a depression as things settle so let me get you the specific on Emory and I'll I'll shoot you an email councilman all right thank you that's it thank you oh have three more items so for transportation planning agenda item 10.28 resolution 24- 567 this is a resolution authorizing an amendment to the contract that we already have in place with a firm called Street plants collaborative this is for transportation and Design Services for various projects throughout the city we've worked with them for the past three years um basically as a form of staff augmentation for the scope of projects that we have currently okay the next one is agenda item 10.29 resolution 24- 568 this is for the division of architecture it's authorize it's a resolution to authorize the use of competitive Contracting for an on call Professional Architecture Firm to provide Consulting Services again this is to augment staff capacity um in order to keep up with the number of projects that we have going on um following uh recent you know retirements and resignations from staff that we haven't been able to fill I'm sorry I can't hear you can we fill those positions we're actively working on filling the positions because ideally we want to have the in-house capacity uh but it's been taking a long time to give you an example we've had a Chief Architect position posted for probably 8 nine months uh we've been interviewing whenever we get candidates it's just been hard to fill the professional uh license positions in that division what what what's what's the hold up you said you get candidates okay yeah sometimes we're not getting candidates who are qualified for that level of a position so we're hiring for a Chief Architect in that case which is the highest level of architecture in that division that you would have uh besides the director they need to have a number of different types of skills and experience level to be able to work on these projects so in some cases we've interviewed people who just haven't had the qualifications we need in other cases we've interviewed people um who have uh required other accommodations that could be anything from a higher salary to work flexibility the ability to work from home things like that which we obviously don't want our Chief Architect um to be working from home because it's a very uh involved on-site kind of position so we're still interviewing um I think the salary ranges are competitive okay uh but we've had a hard time finding people and so we can't promote within no one in that division can come up to that level and then you move there is one uh there's one person on staff who is working on getting their license so that they could qualify for that position okay um but they do not have the professional license yet there are exams that have to be taken and they're working on that um besides that person because of the staff that we've lost there's really no one else who would even be eligible for a promotion we were already working with the lean staff and now it's even less so we're hoping that something like this augments for a short period of time maybe nine months to a year but in the meantime we make sure that we build up the in-house uh capacity and we just use one resource based on HR to send out information when we hiring how many um do we use LinkedIn do we use other um I'm you're not you're not I'm not sure I personally advertise through um networks uh institutions I'm a part of of universities Etc I know HR does their own uh publication I just don't know what that is exactly um and and I will say it's this is a pretty common practice that other cities use even if they have adequate staff because um you won't have every type of expertise on staff that you may need for example as we're working on uh specific types of projects now we're having a need for more environmental um uh uh expertise and you may have an architect on staff and that person may be great at structural and landscape and other things but just may not have that specific expertise where as with the firm you get the entire firm and you can pull from you know whatever you need for a limited time period so it is pretty common practice just as a stop Gap measure um and then the last item is 10.34 resolution 24- 573 this is a resolution authorizing the award of a contract to Ado Brothers Construction for the Pavonia Marian Park Renovations which have been in process for a long time um and this is also through the division of architecture hey um a barker I I'm trying to think if you were there um we we did the walk through on Randolph Avenue and we um identified some safety measures that we would take for that intersection um I was wondering if we had any updates on it I know I forget who was there and I know they said that it would be relatively um easy to accommodate that area with those updates okay council president is that something you'd like me to answer right now or okay um I I was not on the walkthr I do remember it happening with the transportation staff so I'll find out what the update is before your meeting on Wednesday okay thank Loa when is the pool going to be opened up on pavon yet council president is that a question you'd like me to answer you just want to know when the pool is going to be open okay um that's not part of my department right I don't know the answer the what that's not that's not part of her Department the full hours and and um opening and closing is not something my department handles so I don't know the answer right the recreation all right before you before you leave I just want to ask two questions I just want to piggyback a little bit on what councilman oiano said with respect to this to the street closings right do you guys have a conversation with Public Safety before you close these streets because if you do we'd like I'd love to be part of that if it's thread or meeting because it seems like nobody's connecting because the traffic is abysmal you know throughout right that's number one uh number two I know you guys have this pilot over at uh Manhattan and uh and Anin Street love the pro that that the the pilot where you know just a uh bike Lan pop popup bike Lanes yeah my concern is like we didn't I I think that the conversation was limited when they had the con when they did the the changes on Grand Street with the medical center I mean I was part of a couple of meetings there and you know it slows down P it slows down uh ambulances and firefighters which I was always concerned about so on Franklin Street there's a cardiologist there that serves a lot of constituents from Jersey City a lot and I'm sure that you know we've seen videos of ambulances trying to get to that Cardiology office where the time is actually being it's it's it's they're slowing down the the the response time for these patients uh I've been in contact with that Cardiology office and it's happened a substantial amount of times is there a way where we can put the the uh instead of instead of having it go you know East Meets West if we could have it going the other way you know so at least the main thoroughfare is Central Avenue so if a bus is coming from Baldwin into Central all they have to do is make a right and they hit that that cardak olist office you're actually making the ambulance go a whole load of way around just to get to that Cardiology office uh C president I'll just add if anyone's confused I was just told that I'm supposed to confirm before answering questions about things that are not on the a agenda that's why I'm asking but if you'd like me to address these things I'm happy to okay so so I mean I don't know why who told you that that's like I'm I'm so confused on that okay so you know if we if we ask you a question we're expecting an answer I'm happy to answer I just always want to make sure I'm following the rulle right so uh to answer the first question every month there's a utility coordination meeting that happens to specifically discuss closures that will that are either large in size or impactful in scope the reason we do that is because we've been having these issues with too many streets being being en closed in one small uh geographic area all the time throughout the city as a function of the utility work that has to happen which is all emergencies because the city's infrastructure is aging and falling apart um other you know Telecom and gas and electric and other upgrades that have to happen the city's own Paving and striping jobs that are happening and then private development work that's happening so every month there's a utility coordination meeting which includes representatives from not only our department which is traffic engineering transportation and Engineering but also OEM uh Public Safety the Department of Public Works parking quality of life essentially any agency that has anything to do with this type of work that's happening in the public RightWay whether that's a permitting function or a closure function or an enforcement function these meetings have been happening for a while so the answer is yes public safety is involved I think the bigger issue that you're bringing to light which I agree with is that the volume of work that is happening in the city is immense and in a lot of um circumstances we're not able to keep up with it on every front so we may have the ability to permit work but we don't have the ability to constantly be checking on it doing inspections maybe enforcing it and I'm with you on that but but the short answer to the question is of whether there involved or not is yes because they're part of that monthly effort that we started in the department because we were also overwhelmed with the number of requests that were coming in of work that had to happen and also when we don't approve things within a reasonable period of time or at least review them we then open ourselves up to liability of neglecting um applications and requests that are coming into the department it's a very fine line um that we have to navigate so that's one thing on street closures um we have a a standing rule in the department whenever we're reviewing permits that we never do um more than two major streets or especially if they're parallel streets at a time in terms of permitting but the reality on the ground is a different thing because we are still finding contractors closing things um without having proper permits they're hiring their own off-duty uh police officers who are then enforcing closures beyond what the permit States because they get on site and feel like an additional Lane needs to be closed like all these things are daily Logistics that we're working through um but it is a challenge I completely agree with you and what I can offer is that we can open up um those meetings if there are things happening in specific neighborhoods to you and to any of the council members if you'd like to join those or listen in for part of it um or we can you know run more of the applications that we're getting in the neighborhood by you and make sure you're okay with them before we issue approvals with the understanding that that will slow things down more and as long as everyone's okay with that we're happy to do that I mean we we can't approve it right we don't get involved into the dayto day but at least we we can get your right we're not in the we're not in the dark you know sometime at least a lot of council members here in the dark of what's going on well as an example um our city engineer holds meetings and runs every single approval for a development that has to do with the RightWay by the councilman and his office in Ward SE because there's so much development happening and they meet in the in the field they discuss Logistics with residents and community members um and they try to do the best they can to balance the pressure of if a developer has pulled permits from from um construction code then they're ready to start working and so we're holding them up then that puts us in a very difficult position so we're happy to do more of that if you would like um as long as the administration and others understand that that will slow us down a little bit um and I'll follow your lead on that on the second issue uh the pilot was done as a test which is being removed tomorrow um the signs have been posted today and the pilot on Manhattan Avenue and Franklin are both being removed tomorrow and both streets will return turn to their former configuration as two ways we're then going to have a community meeting um to discuss the results of this test um you know there were some positives there are some negatives so we have traffic count data that we're going to discuss we're going to have people share their daily experience and that will include the cardiologist office and all the other businesses if they would like to join what I would say is um yes we know that the fire department had hesitations about the pilot they have not reported to me um instances where you know they were responding to a fire or an emergency and and they had been slowed down because of the pilot but I understand it affects their Roots um on Grand Street when we initiated that project which you mentioned we held with the traffic engineer at the time several several meetings with Public Safety with the fire department with OEM with the medical center understanding of course that not everyone was supportive of the project so I won't argue with you on that but there were several meetings there were several conversations we tried to accommodate as much as possible we striped that Center median with the yellow hatched lining all the way down Grand Street understanding that if there was ever a backup emergency vehicles and fire trucks would be able to drive down that median and there there's a reason we didn't put anything physical in that Center space like a Ballard or concrete curb and left it just paint so that it can be driven over but there's nothing we can do about the fact that cars are driving over it as well so you know yeah that's my answer on Manhattan and Franklin the test is going away so your recommendations about the two-way and what to do on Manhattan we if it ever becomes permanent we would take that into consideration but for now it's not becoming permanent it's just going back to what the street was formerly which is a two-way thank go director uh for the record the uh bike Lane pilot was um is it a part of a bike lane master plan did you guys dream it up in like a a fever dream one day or where did this derive from um it is part of the bike master plan and it's also part of it's also a response to the requests that we've been getting from the community who are seeing the bike infrastructure that's been implemented in downtown um in all across Ward e and starting to extend into Bergen Lafayette and Ward F and saying that's great that that's happening in downtown but our neighborhoods are being neglected by the city so we owe it to um the residents in those parts of the city to at least try something we understand that not a 100% of every single Ward is is on board with bike lane projects but we also can't ignore the requests that are coming in that are saying you're doing all these projects in downtown and not anywhere else when there's a lot of demand for this in other neighborhoods so a test is the best way to see whether something will work functionally as opposed to just presenting you know a plan on a piece of paper at a public meeting and asking people to react to it you're never going to understand if it's really going to work on the ground unless you do a test so that's the reason why we did the test in the Heights because there is no protected bike lane at all all in the Heights and there are several in the other Wards and other neighborhoods um so it was part of partly in response to that criticism which is fair and it's part of the larger vision of the bike master plan which was a yearlong process trying to figure out where the bike Network should exist in the city what year was that the bike lean master plan was created um I believe we started it in 2018 and completed it in 2019 was it approved by this body as well so a planning document like that does not require uh approval by the council um if it's amending the S the master plan it requires a hearing by the planning board which we did we did also present it to the council but not in any sort of formal uh capacity that would require a vote just as a courtesy presentation okay thank you so Barker before you go um yeah that's me hi so you said that you had these like meetings you know with Public Safety right and so when you had that meeting with all these other divisions and entities and you said some of them were not favor you know in favor of this so when did they say they weren't in favor like did the fire chief or anybody from the medic from the uh police side say it's not good to do this and if they did say it's not good to do this did we do it anyway without asking no they they it was more about asking questions about how this would work so they would say well this is our route to get to X so if you do y how is this going to work it was it's more about figuring out logistics um if there was you know like explicit uh disapproval expressed then I I don't want to speak on behalf of the fire chief or on behalf of the public safety director um so you know I'll I'll just say that in the meetings the conversations are more about the you know this department is trying to test out this idea here we want to meet with you to get your feedback on it because we want it to be as strong as possible what do you think people obviously have personal opinions for or against certain things but in their capacity as a fire department typically they're giving us um their professional feedback on how something may or may not impact a route and they're asking asking questions so that they can also adjust if they need to thank you thank you thisal cord Stacy good morning council members um my name is Stacy Dix Kowski I'm from Jersey City Municipal Court with the community Solutions program and I'm here this morning presenting resolution 24- 564 I item number 10.25 uh a resolution to ratify uh a submission of a Grant application for a fiscal year 2024 Community Court initiative grant for an enhancement from the US Bureau of Justice assistance um so the resolution um is to ratify an application that was submitted last week on July 1st uh if we had not submitted it we wouldn't be eligible um and if we are awarded the amount of $900,000 over a 4-year period this resolution would Al also authorize the city to accept that award um The Proposal is to increase staff um if we are awarded the money um this would allow us to serve more participants in the court and we would also create more specialized services for young adult population where we see there's the greatest need to try to complete the program and increase access to employment and education services you discuss what the program is exactly like what uh who they treat is it you know sure so the community Solutions program is also known as the community Court um so we have been operating since 2017 um it's a problemsolving court that addresses individuals with low-level nonviolent offenses you know coming through the municipal court and it offers um a diversionary track where they can connect to Social Services based on their individual needs so that's employe education mental health uh substance use treatment and um it directs them into that sort of service planning and and Connections in the community and if they complete those and that's taken in consideration with their matter before the court Stace you guys are doing a great job over there thank you very much thank you so much your support uh good morning Council members um K and I are here today to uh talk about items 10 uh 40 10.41 we are hoping to conclude the 2024 budget um adoption and its amendments for the season so I know earlier this year we started much earlier than years prior we got a lot of details we asked for your comments and recommendations um for this amendment and so turn it over to you if you any additional questions or Kyle or myself um thank you um director and Kyle just a couple just quick questions first is a process uh if if these um resolutions are passed does that conclude the process or do we need still to hold the hearing on the Amendments or if you guys could just explain the process that'd be great as the amendment currently is presented it wouldn't require uh public hearing got it we could adopt those um amendments and then there's a separate resolution to adopt the budget uh as is okay um so we're still we're getting confirmation from the state today that we can proceed this way we give the clerk everything he needs um he knows it doesn't require public hearing or anything like that worst case scenario if it did it needs a three-day uh advertisement um and then we will just adopt the budget at a special meeting or the next meeting but that's not the way uh Council just for clarity uh think I have this stuff memorized by now uh any item that's from the introduction to adoption as long as it doesn't change by more than 10% of the original allocation it doesn't call for a uh public hearing so and the public hearing if it were to be triggered would be for those specific items not necessarily for the entire budget again and um it's passes um State review prior to us being allowed to act on it so they are confirming that it doesn't trigger the response and then we're allowed to adopt got it okay um and I know we had reached out so we're meeting later today so I don't want to labor the points but I I understand what you guys are trying to do there were a couple of line items that I that I was hoping to to see some investment in and I think we just talk about it on Monday and then share it with the or sh about this afternoon and then share it with the colleagues around what what we may or may not be able to do so I think those are my questions thank you council members 40 you marked up here in 10.21 yes I can hear you 10.40 Carl you Mark here are you speaking on that or this is all included yes so 10.40 is the Amendments right and when that's adopted we proceed with 10.41 adopting for that minimum the amendments will be on the meeting thank you I just want thank 10.1 is also associated with the budget that would that would only be um it should be approved just in case we do have to have uh a public hearing on the amendment once we get confirmation from the state um we'll move forward but just in case that resolution 10.1 um allows me not to read the entire Amendment into the record so if we do have to have a public hearing I won't have to bore everybody with each line item line by line John I thought that was your resolution that's why I didn't say anything that's standpoint it's my favorite resolution so you we did that favor for you I don't know if we should vote for that one thank you Cinda 23 good morning Council president city council I'm Julian Wright the director is the administrative clerk I'm here representing her today I'm here to present resolution 24- 562 item number 10.23 this is a resolution authorizing the city the Jersey City Department of recreation and Youth Development to apply for and accept Grant funds from the governor's Council of sub substance abuse disorder for the fiscal Grant cycle July 2024 to June 2025 and to distribute Grant funds for the delivery of Substance Abuse Prevention and education um I have questions with regards to Recreation as a whole so if lucenda um answer these questions you should come up with all due respect with all due respect if y'all have any questions for this one because he's this his first appearance all right oh yeah yeah with all due respect counselor if you guys have any questions for me I can answer those questions I'm representing the director what what are the plans for how you're going to use these funds we're uh partnering with Barnabas Health to do team mental health we're ABS uh we're administering uh uh education through our own department and we've reached out to other substance abuse counselors to come in and uh give education to us children and our teens this is going to happen during the summer programs it's gonna happen throughout the whole year it's actually happening now from last year's Grant and it's G to keep on going through next year okay thank you I'm sorry before you go the I'm here the clerk yeah oh sorry that's okay um the item that you were speaking on is uh the item number 10 point 10.23 thank you so much thank you oh I still have wait so I'm confused just changing the rules in the middle of the game because now you gotta ask the council president can you answer now you're sending representative now we ask representative some they might not be privy then they got a call a direct like what are we doing we the council we have to be able to ask questions because we have constituents asking us questions and now everyone is is is changing the rules like what's going on the rules the rules hasn't changed I don't know where Barker made that you know got the information from because normally the council do ask the directors questions and the directors do answer now um this gentleman here he was on this resolution 10.23 so it's up to him to answer that question now if lucenda she's here to give him support that's why she's here okay he's supposed to represent this resolution now if you want to question lucenda what you guys could do is just kind of wait till the end and see if lucenda will have time to answer your questions but it was never on that so the rules really haven't changed they didn't it's just that sender was just giving him support but we got to be able to ask questions about things because for one you don't know if they might leave for two why up here and since we're talking about parks in general why don't we talk about the park that's having this deficiency or if we're talking about pools why don't we talk about the pool closing so I mean it's a perfect opportunity to express your questions comments and concerns to the director of the department you're 100% right no no like I said only I'm saying he cannot answer those questions he for that resolution understand there we didn't even get to the parks resolution yet on resolutions correct he's just here to answer that one lucenda will answer your question there's other resolutions concerning Park but he is not here for that one that's all I'm saying thank you Julian that's all he's not here for that she no no no I know that and he was only speaking on that I was just saying that's why I just want to make clear with that because I he he's not the director of that department she just really came to give him that support but y'all definitely can act as director questions that's it let's call her up okay so is there is there more for for the Department of recreation to cover Department of recreation does not have other items on the caucus and it's so no there are not other items if Council would like me to stay around at the conclusion caucus to speak with you personally about what you would like I will do that that respectfully for the council member you should be able to answer our questions I know Frank and I have the same questions rich rich rich but she just said answer them that's not answer them I know she just she just said she was gonna answer the questions like let's be respectful rich rich yeah she gonna answer them Rich she says she's yeah yeah yeah yeah I I understand but when someone says they're gonna answer the questions we that let's say thank you don't say you know thank you Linda all right we clear city is no no no she's going to answer the question is just that he was here for this one yeah a lot of times y'all want to go out a turn and that's just what you want to do but he's only here that one if you have a new representation from a department he may not know all the questions he is not the director of the department the director department is here she will answer your question she says she will stay around and do that so let's keep following the agenda that's all she's going to be here she's not leaving I'm just saying he's here for just this one here it has nothing to do with the parks he will not be able to answer but she only came to give him support Joy she's here I'm tired of hearing problems from people about the pools and about the parks and everything I don't care it's getting disgusting Frank you're absolutely right gonna be here he's not she's gonna be here there is order in a meeting all right she will be here so lenda thank you for staying and he will you be able to answer the question that's it I get it all right it's just nothing on your whip Park she's going to stay to answer it it's not a problem Stacey HHS Joyce she's gonna answer it rich all right just drop it she's gonna answer it just wait till she get time to do it good morning Council council president I'm here to uh accept additional funds it's a resolution authorizing the city of Jersey City Department of Health and Human Service to accept funds from Jansen under the national opioid settlement um this is additional funds uh that we're coordinating with Recreation to extend summer youth programming number the item number uh director 1018 resolution 24557 do we have any data on um you have the I don't know if this is any related I'm just gonna see um the opioid the Naran um vending machine that you guys have if you have um I can send it to you I don't have the most up to date today but as of last week when we presented to the governor's office uh we had approximately um like 200 users I can I can give you a full breakdown I'll send it out this afternoon based on everything up to this date uh we can yeah those are potential lives saved and I think it's uh you know it's a something we should High absolutely and I'm obviously in addition because this is just a pilot in one location the opioid funds once the the meeting is over then I get an account to open up the grant that I brought to you several meetings ago because that's how this works um we'll be finalizing the RFP for the one in every Ward that's the vision um and that's based on sort of what we're hearing and based on the ZIP codes of the individuals that are coming to the machine so for Narcan we don't track demographics but for the other testing items we track demographics and this uh this settlement that we are um getting money out of you're saying it's for educational purposes or so the opioid settlements there's a hundred different things you can do with them um so every other one I coordinate with Recreation to see where we can in intervene in prevention and prevention is very wide so there's been several grants to date so far I think a little bit over $200,000 that's gone to Recreation the next pot of money is this Jansen and the last Jansen that you passed and as long as we um identify one of the areas of Engagement under each area of Engagement we have like s to 10 evidencebased initiatives that we can choose and a lot of that in prevention is youth engagement so then we so we carve out some for intervention we carve out some for youth engagement and then direct um Services thank you director your good morning council president and members of the council I have two items before you first one is resolution 24574 item 1035 resolution will authorize the award of a contract to Reep Incorporated DBA fleeto for the purchase of Fleet Management maintenance software for the city's gas and diesel fuel system for the DPW division of automotive services total amount of this contract is $ 34,2 15 is this the is this a Divergence from the typical Fleet management software is same one renewal of the contract a renewal thank you second item is 24575 10.36 resolution will L the award for openend contracts to Central poly bags Corporation for the supply and delivery of polyethylene bags for the Department of DPW sanitation division total amount of this contract is $4,560 which is available in a DPW operating account this is for the garbage bags across the city correct okay thank you thank you okay good morning council president good morning council members the Department of Public Safety has one resolution for your consideration this morning it is file number 10 or agenda number 10.24 it's resolution 24563 it's a resolution awarding the award of a contract to the soft Warehouse international corporation and New Jersey state Corporation for Cisco smartnet annual support for security updates it is for our 911 uh phone system it's mandated by the state we have to have it and it's awarded under State contract it is in the amount of 67541 1550 and the money is in our operating budget any question Cor have any updates on um my goodness the feasibility study uh no sir not that wasn't on the agenda I'm not prepared to speak about that today I've updated several councilmen privately and if you want I'll speak to you on the Su is there any way you can send an email you you've been promising an email for the last two months and the director it's still in flux it hasn't changed in the last two months when there is a update to give I'll send it out immediately we're still negotiating with that company we're still unhappy happy with their original product we still have not paid them a penny and we still will not pay them unless they provide what we believe the council authorized when they authorized that study that's where it stands it hasn't changed since the first time we're still negotiating with them oh so the email we was supposed to receive that was like it just never made it then you were going to go back and talk to toana you going to make sure she send it again then it just never came now is we don't have no update I talk to people individually would you guys just doing what you want to do over there again councilman um I'll circulate to the to the group so everybody has the same information what was presented prior to today I I was going to ask about the uh software contract is this for the software that's going to be used inside the new public safety building is this going to be used at Bishop Street like what's the plan if you can yes sir it's both it's required to protect the phone calls and the um information because calls to 911 contain a lot of sensitive protected information so we have to have this there so it can't be hacked in and people can't obtain the identity of callers etc etc it will move to the new system without additional cost when we move from 911 to the new system thank you sir okay director look I just want to say something we're losing a lot of police officers leaving the job I think you and your associat should get out and speak to the cops and find out what's going on because morale is horrible and a lot of them are really disgusted they're calling me they're coming to me because I work with them I taught a lot of them and it's a shame and one of the problems is that you moody and anybody else has to get out talk to these police officers find out what's the problem is and it's a shame we're losing what another 42 cops when I came on I think we had 1167 cops we're down to what less than 800 now about 800 so please go out there and speak to them find out what the heck is going on okay director thank you good morning city council members and council president we have a few items for you today uh we're going to start with Community Development they have items 10.13 10.14 10.15 and 10.16 I'm going to turn it over to director Anderson thank you director good afternoon members of the council I'm going to start with resolution 10.13 um that's the agenda item number the resolution number is 24-55 2 and it's a resolution for the municipal Council um to award Community Development block grant public facilities dollars coming out of our program year 2022 unallocated funds and additionally to authorize the execution of anou between the city of Jersey City and the department of recreation and Youth Development for the an improvement project at persing Fields um as discussed this is the lights project at Persian field as soon as this was made aware to the Division of Community Development we have been working on this since about February to qualify the project we've also hired an environmental consultant who has gone out on site and completed their review we've submitted this um review to HUD and we've received our notice to proceed and we are now eligible to allocate These funds just for um for the lights at Persian field when when do you anticipate the project will commence and also complete so first up is that once you approve us to go into this mou between the city of Jersey City DCd funding this money to them um they will move forward with their contractor we've had a pre-construction meeting we've already met with the contractor and we've discussed the additional Federal requirements of income um minimums that are required for the employees of the subcontractor and we've also negotiated a time frame where we will be going out conducting inspections while the work is commencing awesome thank you I know it's a project that's very near and dear to councilman boano so yeah between that pool the other pool like what see is you know it's it's unbelievable I started him up sorry I'm sorry I started him up no no no what are you talking about I know this a good project this stuff should have been done I know this stuff has should have been done a long time ago and theia after this can I please speak to you for a moment again we are working closely with the administration to try to identify projects where Community Development funding would be a good um place to fund it and use our funding uh towards those projects where there are capital Improvement projects that are appropriate and can uh you know use the Community Development funding we've been trying to do that so this is an example of that where we can use our HUD money towards a worthy project such as the lights at persing field we're working closely with infrastructure Recreation Health on any project possible to use our our and have it stay you know here um use it for specific City projects that can hopefully um offset budget uh budget issues so this is an example of that and it's a great project I think we're all um supportive of and uh Community Development is doing everything they can to move it forward as fast as possible all right the next item that I have for you is agenda item 10.14 that is resolution number 24-55 3 and it's a resolution for the Municipal Council to authorize the business administrator to execute the discharge of a mortgage encumbering 67 Bidwell Avenue in Jersey City um this property received $ 39,45 in a horp grant that is a home improvement repair Grant all conditions for the mortgage have been satisfied okay the next is agenda item 10.15 that is resolution number 24-55 4 and it's a resolution for the council to authorize the acceptance of a remaining fiscal year 2023 allocation under the Community Services block grant that is our funds that come from the state um from the State Department of Community Affairs so annually when this state csbg funding comes to us it comes to us in two tranches we have already received the first tranch of $47,552 so the balance for our trunch that we need to be um accepting via this resolution is $632,000 um please note this resolution also includes that the state decided to give us additional funds on top of this allocation so it is also authorizing us to accept an additional $993 from the DCA is this um typical of the amount that we usually get or is this like um an increase from prior years or oh this is typical for the amount that we get our total Grant award for this 23 year is $985,000 to us awesome thank you for your hard work and the last resolution that I have for you is agenda item 10.16 that's resolution 24555 and it's a resolution for municipal Council to approve the sale of 71 North Street in Jersey City and authorize Ali Habor and Raja Oran to assume the city's mortgages encumbering the property um unfortunately the homeowner that originally purchased this property has passed away um so this is a business action of the of a Daniel Rivera not to be confused with um a member of our Council um this has a 30-year restriction that will not expire on the property until 2043 um the home originally received $175,000 in home funds and $ 33,333 in affordable housing trust fund dollars the new owner has been income qualified and is eligible to purchase the property in the amount of $188,600 so the idea here is so 71 North Street the original original owner passed away and this was a program and our affordable program so when the new owners get it are they subject to the restrictions and everything all over again that is correct that's why this resolution is authorizing us to authorize the sale and allow the new homeowners to assume all of the restrictions that are currently on the property so those restrictions are a contract with the city and the homeowner so we're changing the homeowners names so the 30 year do they start it over or is a continuing it's a continuation they will not start over they are assuming those restrictions and when how so how longer the Restriction is left it's a 30-year restriction and they expire in 2043 um they fully aware the terms and everything yes they are and they've gone through counseling from our office so we are trying to hedge against some of those issues that we have heard from community members by requiring them to sign off on additional certifications um just one blank sheet of paper that specifically States this restriction the requirement and when it expires so that we can kind of hedge against um Future Property Owners saying that they are unaware of their obligations I think this is great I think we this this this is what I would like to have seen with the with the other units um versus that Fiasco that we're in now I think this is a great idea right here it checks the boxes that you preserve the affordability the city still wins from the Restriction standpoint someone and their family get a house at a reasonable price like this this is what these programs Were Meant to do I I think this is a good one here thank you councilman thank you next item we have for you today is item 3.6 this is actually actually councilman Bojo's item but it is an amendment to the item that uh Tanya brought before you last council meeting so T and I are here to answer any questions I'm not sure how the councilman wants to Da One on I read this first and then no they explain it I've been working on the affordable housing Amendment to the 2060 Journal Square Redevelopment plan for almost two years Municipal Council and I began with a resolution in October of last year and we have worked with City Planning and several versions of an affordable housing amendment I am grateful for working with the Journal Square affordable housing task force for their research all the time we would have not gotten this far without their help so so just to recap I am asking the council to join me in voting no for the second reading of the ordinance and vote Yes on the first reading which I would like to in September's council meeting because I will be absent in August I I am I didn't even know that uh uh so we got to vote on this we gotta you know oh he wants an amendment it's got to be it's got to be done we it's been going on for two years and Tanya we've worked with you we've talked to plan uh to the law department and they agreed that this is what should be done now I think you might not be we okay we we received this this morning from Pam a lot of the council people are confused what people don't realize is when we getting ready to vote especially when it comes to affordable housing we voted on the first one two weeks ago correct now we've said if there's any Amendment or any changes there should be conversation during that time so we'll know what we doing we walking up five minutes before the meeting they handing this out to us so some of the council complain that they're just confused with exactly what's going on could you just give us some insight and I want the public to know sometime we get these five minutes coming up and it's not fair to the council sometime and people want us to just vote on it and there was a two weeks period in which they could have reached out had conversation all those type of things before we get ready to vote on the final uh vote of an ordinance okay now explain so the the one that I reviewed was the one that was available on the digital agenda okay is that the same one so I don't I know you got five minutes ago right go ahead so I I just want to be so the last time you came here correct me if I'm wrong you said at the last meeting you said that we could not exempt districts in between correct that's that's what you stated but I we got something here that says that it's so think that it's okay to amend the districts and that you are on board with this that you know they spoke to you about this I I I don't I don't I I hope it's so just to clarify City Planning had a version of the ordinance that they were ready to put in front of the city planning the planning board okay that ordinance was changed by the affordable housing task force and the ordinance that was put in front of the planning board so that that ordinance let me just step back included exempting all of the lower rise districts in the plan that comes from understanding what has mattered in the past by councilman boano and what we've heard from community members by not wanting more density and bulk outside of the kind of more inner area of Journal Square so the version that City Planning had written did exempt every other District other than one in three what wound up going in front of the planning board was the opposite it didn't exempt any districts it was including all aspects of Journal Square 2060 plan after the vote last week that included that version it's my understanding that the councilman then understood that all districts were in and wanted to make a change to go back to only exempt the smaller lower rise areas and allowing for the amendment and the the affordable housing um in one and three because that would mean more density more bulk bigger buildings that's my understanding councilman right yeah that's why they can say it was supported by the city planning staff because their original version was written in this way it only had it applicable to one and three the one before us is all in inclusive correct well there's two there's 4.1 which is all inclusive and6 would allow us the one for second reading allows the affordable housing bonuses or accommodations to go everywhere in 2060 the one and that's the one they're asking you to defeat the one that is for first reading allows it to only happen in zones one and three I think the confusion may be because last time I was here I talked about being arbitrary to exclude some and not others right right so um and that's because the the version that we were first sent to from the original resolution only excluded 4 and 4 a so our recommendation was kind of like you can't um exclude somewhere in the middle but not on the outside because the outside was further away from the core so if you want to have consistency and you want to talk about increased density and that reasonableness to create the affordable housing you can either have it at 1 and three or everything but you can't have this kind of half middle kind of thing so that was our our recommendation actually to the planning board was it's either one and three or it's the whole shebang and planning board voted for the whole shebang so to say one in three supports for planning yeah that's our original proposal was uh one or the other so we believe both of them one and three or everything meet the the standard that's needed Pam I understood that most of the council was notified on these changes am I correct oh of the council members we talked um in person um there were many different versions up until 4th of July and so the email um that went out this morning was and what went Friday out on the digital agenda was what was agreed upon but I we sent out an email just highlighting what some of these conversations we have been having so we had um a a few conversations mostly with um the people that we've been working closely on the council which is council person Prince AR and council person uh Yousef s councilman um Solomon councilman um uh Gil more I don't think we managed to get to everybody because of the 4th of July holiday and also Tanya was out which we wanted to make sure this was um all inclusive and approved by city planning so it was really Friday morning that we got a full approval of everything but uh I apologize that we didn't get to everybody but it is almost everything that we saw and have been talking about and the councilman has been um very adamant in excluding districts 4 and 4A and so this is City planning's version it includes everything that they wanted I think there is a one um minor uh addition to uh add for the administration to add and exclude District 9 which is open space but um this is everything that we have been working on for at least a year um it is very complicated and I apologize that uh we haven't been able to handhold everybody but the councilman does have a second amendment coming okay yeah which we'll deal with because everybody came to all the council members with I okay all right all right are you going to include every every council member on the Second Amendment yes D no the the the amendment the new Amendment we're we're amending it on the floor or is there a new version in addition to these two versions that are on here now so it's actually a new version of uh the the 3.6 if you introduce 3.6 the recommendation is to defeat item 4. one but they said there's another amendment that's coming right 36 no not now the amendment is 36 that's what they're saying Rich she's shaking yes oh okay there's another amendment coming in addition to in addition okay so he's got something cooking that we don't know about yet this is what confusing us the councilman telling us it is she's saying is not it the other one he's talking about is about it's not about affordable housing it's about something different right the stuff that the councilman has talked about with the other council members about like trying to increase parking in Journal Square has nothing to do with what's been front of you today let's leave that out of this discussion I think that's just complicating things the one that is on for second reading my understanding is the councilman wants you to defeat the version that is there for first reading other than this one comment about adding in zone nine should be the text that as as he would like to have it sure okay he wants to add that in this one into 36 he wants to add not there we waited long enough hold on it's not in there it's not in there right so he's going to amend three to add like and Zone nine gotcha all right and that's not a substantial change no but this change the reason why it's up for first reading again is because the the one that's sitting there is second reading is a substantial change and that's why it's going back for first reading gotcha that's why we're trying to defeat the other version all right so you're you're not anical to 36 correct correct we are fine with it we will review it again make sure um you know Tanya just came back from vacation today but she did get a chance to look at it briefly we'll make sure and if there are any other minor things we'll we'll do it as floor amendments awesome thank you for clarify but I just need Clarity the one that's before us the planning board voted on and they said that was right one that's before you 4.1 agenda item 4.1 for second reading okay that went to the planning board and was voted on yes this would be different than that but um the council has the right to to make that change but the planning board thought this was sufficient enough I'm I'm just trying to get clarity because before the biggest change differences are about whether it's just one zones one and three or all zones um the planning board did vote for all zones um I mean really up to the council I I'm just curious why did they vote for oil zones and now you want us to amend it here instead of letting it go back to the planning board and let the planning board amend and um exclude those zones yeah because does this change then go back to them do they have doesn't it does doesn't see that's why I want planning board makes a recommendation to you all but as the governing body you make the final decision but but and what T is basically saying is that the planning board and correct me if I'm wrong because I don't want to be misquoting what you say but I gather it that you're basically saying the planning board said the the entire Zone correct but they still would be be okay with one and three say that officially right the planning board voted on something they cority to but I can tell you that staff um presented them with both options which was one and three or everything and they went ahe for everything there wasn't any very specific reason that was put on the record one and three oh okay so one and three will not receive affordable are are other ones won't one and three will liting Li yeah I'm saying it's still limiting limiting portability yeah but there rich rich point is that certain areas don't want all of the identity right that's right we're tired of high some one and two Community oriented family oriented environment versus in other places right so so for example there was a project up on the planning board it was off of Bergen Avenue they wanted to go to 10 St Stories the Coptic community in the neighborhood in general did not support that so basically what they're saying is for these lower rise places they don't want to go up to 15 and 20 stories next to some of these smaller projects correct it's really a choice about preserving Community character more affordability that's a decision that you know the Cil has to make but there are pros and cons of both right so yes one gets more affordable housing absolutely we will admit if you don't exclude anything you'll get more affordable housing but you are going to more dramatically change character that's there today so it's really a choice that you that you the council can make one and three basically either way they're fine they'll be fine either way that's really right around the core um it's the development you're seeing today maybe a little bit bigger in three one doesn't have the limits anyway um so it won't change that um but three it will be a little bit bigger but I we don't think there's any negative impact it's the ones beyond for and and on that are lower rise now they do have like Tanya mentioned last last meeting there are some Corner bonuses and things that allow for properties to go higher but in general most of it is pretty what we would consider low to midrise everywhere else maybe in New Jersey they consider that mid-rise but here it's kind of on the lower to mid side so it would change the community character more so that's the question that's really today but the planning board didn't see that I'm concerned why they didn't vote on it I'm just because both options was presented for them that is my concern so they have transcripts so it should be in their transcripts why they chose this one over the other one correct or you may know it off hand I don't know resolution is attached to 4.1 I mean I was there and I was present and I think the conversation I you know I don't I don't want to speak that's why I'm saying the they got transcripts that's why it would be good to include that so we'll know exactly why because now you're saying both options is okay and both options were presented to the planning board but the plan board chose um this option which it was everyone was included now we're taking out some so I just want to know why and both options was presented to them that's all that's fair before I vote right John McKenna do you have anything to [Laughter] say no not gonna let I think Solomon had questions dets than we do that's why I want to know why well I mean I guess in the I'm looking at it in a grand scheme of things that if they're okay with putting the highrises across the entire Zone then I would imagine they would be okay with just going here and here they're for more density across the entire zone right the the planning board because that's what they they voted on right yes but we have had extensive conversations with councilman boano and Tanya and her staff are very familiar with that neighborhood neighborhoods and feel that that would not be supported by those neighborhoods that's why City Planning staff's original recommendation was to not include those neighborhoods so I understand that the planning board did vote on that but staff felt that one and three was more appropriate because of the community feedback and and conversations with the councilmen they've had over the years over time when you work in neighborhoods you get to feel for what their opinion is and city planning to the best of all of our ability we tried to represent that um you know in meetings so could I get the transcript okay thank you next one one more question sorry just add one question sorry before you guys go what you may have said this but how much kind of future development like what percentage of future development are in the zones that are being excluded in the first reading compared to the the one that included every Zone from 100% to 43.7% right I mean easiest and I don't want to like tell you to go into your own homework I'm not trying to say that the easiest thing would be to pull up the Journal Square development map or or interactive development map and you can kind of get like a lay of the land to see what's kind of left um there's still opportunities and three and one if that's what you're concerned about I guess you're concerned like we're going to write this and it's not going to go anywhere corre as far as we believe that there's still places within Zone 3 that are going to be developed probably utilizing this okay I think though that by including all areas of Journal Square 2060 that is going to incentivize development in four through right eight whatever so it is all of a sudden creating an incentive yes it's an incentive that it results in affordable housing but it's also an incentive that results in more development more aggregating sites more tearing down buildings right so and I know that that's been a big concern of the councilman all along so it's it's you know it's hard to say what is the right thing to do here because there's a lot of different outcomes based on what the council does I think I I don't want to speak for the councilman but I I my understanding from this whole process was that at some point the affordable housing would roll out to other areas in the neighborhood but with height limits uh so as to not drastically change the the character of the neighborhood maybe I'm just like making an assumption you don't have to answer I'm just throwing it out there I'm you know but I do think you know your original recommendation for one and three is uh what we're coming back to is that correct you know our just so just so there's transparency in our recommendation when we put back in zone four our cap was 10 stories whereas in zone three it was three stories we did do an analysis to see again when we would get that 3 to one three Market to one affordable so we were creating realistic opportunity and in zone four the cap or the additional height kind of petered out around eight or nine stories which is why we put the cap at 10 I I just want full transparency that was our recommendation wasn't to do 20 stories in zone four okay thank you Rich you good thank you look I'm just trying to preserve C certain section of the city you know before they talked about the infrastructure one of the reasons the infrastructure is falling apart is because all these giant buildings are going up who's making the money these developers they're screwing the people of Jersey City people are moving out people are tired of it I'm trying to preserve certain sections of the city for one two family three family four families and keep people here in the city and I've had it you know come to uh Ward see us disgraceful what's going on and it's a shame and what are these what have they done for the community nothing our restaurants are gone our stores are gone everything's gone and they've done nothing for the community nothing for the people of Jersey City and that includes all the wards so I'm just asking that let's do it this way let's get it passed in September and do it the correct way and preserve certain sections of the city including your section down where you are you know we've got to preserve our neighborhoods council president very quickly just procedurally like we did a few weeks ago with um councilman Solomon the reasons um that we are um going away from the planning board recommendation they do need to just be placed on the record um before we vote on it if we vote right it need to be placed on the record right and there's five votes to introduce you choose that one over the other one Michael are you gonna follow that Mike but Michael you don't want to come up Michael that's gonna be a tough one thank you thank you Council um I actually am here uh representing Ron Simon C from the Jersey City lift the mic up oh sorry taller my name is Michael gos thank you Council um I'm here sorry Michael your last name sorry your last name gos gz is in zebra thank you uh so again here uh representing Ron Sim C and the Jersey City Property Owners Association uh Ron wishes he could be here but again I think like everybody else we just kind of found out about this uh very early this morning or late last night um and this is he would like to submit a record a letter of record okay um say no no you you're not an employee right no I'm not oh okay no you you can't speak to Okay I can't speak today oh all right thank you am I allowed to submit no they just gave me this they said housing AP housing area Wednesday not employee no corre they cannot thank you right just send send what you're going to say to everybody so we have it yeah I can s thank you I appreciate I my apologies counselor that's okay no problem luender the employes thank you for sticking around um councilman yes um I I just had um a few questions regarding the the pools and um in the splash pad um I I don't know where it begin when it start with these splash pads because at some point I don't know we gonna have to get a whole new system I just know that as a taxpaying outside of elected capacity as a taxpaying CI to see a brand new park and a sprinkler system not work for three consecutive Summers is is just mindboggling to me it's the most expensive Park in the city I think and to not have that portion of the park operable it's it's just mindboggling and people have been complaining rightfully Souls especially saying that we just had that Heatwave of um what two three weeks ago um so I just want you to give a update on a record what we stand as it relates to are we revamping are we putting a new system um what are we doing I agree that the community should be frustrated with the situation at Barry Lane and the splash pad um I am not an engineer I am not an architect but from my role in the conversations to hold people accountable for a nonfunctioning system it's my opinion that we basically have admissions from both the Builder and the park designer then that specific Splash Pad should never have been installed in an outside environment at Barry Lane hence why for three years we've been trying to fix it and repair it we put new pumps in new circulating things we've changed the feeder access for the um the chlorine that feeds there and none of it is working we fix it it breaks immediately right after so we are in right now in the process of obtaining units to literally sit right on top of that concrete Council because it's the fastest way way to get water access on site and we're working with um within our means to make sure that we can run water lines underneath that existing concrete pad so that there aren't like hoses that people are tripping over creating a different Hazard while we're trying to solve the water access issue um in a the Unicorn timeline uh the units will be arriving from The Entity that excuse me the enti items that we're placing on top it's not going to be a beautiful like complete full system we're buying three um Splash Pad systems uh sorry it's not Splash Pad system three sprinkler systems I guess councilman they're um individual uh items similar to what you might see at Enos Jones where there's the OR at 22 park where you see the um like the whale and the seal and there's like spray coming out of them but it's a it's a it's a non-moving structure so we are purchasing three items just like that that are intended to be placed wherever you need them and they do connect to a hose so we're building in hose connects inside the existing concrete system on site um and we will have three different hose connects and each of those features has like a 20ft radius of the the splash coming out so we're going to do the best that that I can in terms of where those three units should go and hope best best case scenarios in the next two weeks uh it's up and running and as a stop gap on the fourth of July this past weekend and the weekend coming up we have rented a large water slide that was on place at Baran for folks um who need the water relas um and two I would just recommend um with regards to Lafayette pool I've been down there um about five or six times so far and the we need a better system as it relates to checking people in because what has been happening and I've sat down there like the entirety all way through um I think the pools opened at two or three and they will begin to signing people in at whatever time it was that they open but the lines are so long by the time they get to the end the people at the end have already lost an hour and 15 minutes um so I did recommend that we had some type of like those wristband thingies and while people online if we can start signing them in let's say if it open at 3: you can start signing people in as early as 2:15 so that way when it's time to go right in so as long as though the person have this wrist bin we know one they're signed in two if they were required to pay that they have already paid now the catch to that is you need more manpower and then you need supplies because some people will try to get in twice with the same rist color and stuff like that but there has to be some order because the the scheduling I think is three- hour slots they're so they're so scarce councilman respectfully you've been around the pools as long as they've been open and every single person in this city has opined as to what an appropriate solution is to move the line faster at Lafayette we can't move the line faster at Lafayette we need to get people in the pool safely we need to have them checked in we need to know who's in the pool we have people who leave children at the pool on a daily basis we have children who go missing from their parents on a daily basis at the pools we have people trying to being weapons into the pools on a daily basis we cannot stop being safe just to try to move things along a little quicker we want things to go quicker we've already inquired from the um like a credit card use can we just have people swipe and not wait for the receipt to be printed and then they signed it and then we have to keep it as a city because I submit that adds more time we've been advised from the fiscal team that's not possible it doesn't protect the city's situation if we allow credit card payments to be made like that so we're not doing it um I observe pools everywhere I go I was at the county park in raway the other weekend and their pool had a line around the corner of people waiting to access it and that's what it was so um councilman I will make I will pass your suggestions on along to our Aquatics crew um our aquatic crew is constantly evolving and trying to meet the needs of the community um not withstanding everyone telling us but we're not able to do it we have two-hour sessions on the weekends because it's a 500 person capacity we want to get as many people in as possible we finally now have even sessions between a morning and an afternoon um for the outdoor pools on the weekdays and people want to say we're not opening long enough in the afternoon I mean I mean we are doing our absolute best to get people in and keep them safe and we will not be sacrificing safety so I will pass on again I know everyone all of my aquatic staff is fully aware of your suggestions councilman and we suggest them to ourselves all day long and we tweak as we move along to try to make it function better nobody likes being hot and bothered right and that's what our staff at the aquatics they are trained and they are paid to deal with people who are hot and bothered all day long and to keep them safe um we have been successful with some support from the police department with regards to some um presence specifically with the line atla yet because it does get out of control um and so we're doing our best to continue safety and service and we'll share your suggestions c m okay the swimming pool at Persian field the swimming pool at Pavonia Avenue the ice ring the reservoir people are tired of it with tired of hearing excuses from over there from you and everybody it's got to stop these things have to be taken care of the people Ward C and Ward D are tired of it and all these issues are going on we see things going throughout the city and other areas being done we want we want these things corrected and I'm tired of talking about it I'm tired of going to people in the city and seeing nothing done if this Council doesn't understand it believe me the uh people are tired of it cman the lights at persing field which um DCd was in front of um the council for approval today for that expenditure is a $198,000 investment in ping pool uh to accompany the functioning retractable roof worked in 20 years the liner at P at ponia excuse me which is certainly taking longer than anybody ex expected and we are all frustrated by that is a $100,000 Improvement the Pavonia Pool that will have to be made again for the next 10 years it is very frustrating that the STA that the team is I feel like working kind of slowly right and we had to deal with storms and twigs and branches flying into a a new liner that we're putting in so we have to get the job right I am also frustrated by the timing but I can't make it go faster we need the job to be done right as a fix to that we opened persing pool on the fourth of July which we would not have otherwise been operating on a holiday but we opened it on the holiday to make sure there was two available sites for Aquatics well the people on West Side are driving me crazy the people in the w w seup by Persian field had it and something has to be done this is going on for months and months and months and we're tired of hearing excuses so please do something all right director since everybody else is jumping and you know where I'm going yes councilwoman do we have the uh written up date for um McGovern uh I don't have a date to go but I do have a date that the funding arm of the DP the today is July 9th and I I was told on July 9th we become their focus on all of our submissions and on Friday I resubmitted all four sites that we've been discussing to try to to to move and securing those funds um along with a discussion um some of the conversation today has been how how long environmental reviews take with regards to the persing field lights and if you were paying I know you are paying attention but I heard um Deja advised that that process has started in February and from February till July that's how long it took for that environmental review process to take so I'm very also very hopeful that the information we've included will allow the D to allow us to foro the environmental review in line with executive order I believe it's number 215 um which would allow that in certain situations Linda listen you know I'm not GNA you know beat you up you do a good job you know with what you had I'm going to go I'm going to date myself back you know I can't date rich but I'm going to dat go back back when I was growing up you know uh certain blocks used to come to City Hall and I remember myself as a little kid they were I guess those were the committee people right and uh they would ask the uh Department of recreation and the fire department right to Pro to provide hoses that we have a hose unit right and maybe if we can go back to that be being that we have so many closed pools maybe if we can you know maybe have conversation with the Department of Public Safety to you know post an officer in specific areas where we can block off the area and put sprinklers out there you know when when these hot back in the day if we didn't get a sprinkler we were going to open up the fire hydrant and the all you know the women used to complain because the water was black right before they started to cook right it is what it is but that's what we did you know to survive the heat back in the 70s right in the early 80s but uh you know I sitting up here watching you explain how you explain your hands are tied and you could only do what you can you know and you do a good job you know and uh circum the the the circumstances of the pools they're not your fault I've been to ponia pool I see what's going on there the construction that's going on there you can't help that but maybe if listen I'm really thinking that you know maybe Recreation to should team up with you know the fire department see if they can give sprinklers to a whole boatload of committee people and just you know block off the area to protect the kids you know not you know that's just New York does it you know so councilman we are actually working with the fire department to use the water access at a fire um hydrant that is within bar Lane in order to retrofit that site even to be able to use the three units that we're purchasing uh two weeks ago if we had had this conversation I would have had the hydrant key and a 50ft hose in the back of my car because that's exactly how we've been trying to put the pieces together and make things happen recognizing the um limits on just things across the city I would also like to say that what we don't say enough about is that we have 20 splash pads in this city 20 that is something that other municipalities can't even understand that we have 20 spots with water flowing across the city aside from the three pools so we do have and technically we have 9 operating um splash pads because barilan is not functioning but we do have 19 splash pads all across the city so we could maybe we could be more often share those lists out because there certainly are misting towers and things like that are that are operational in all the wards of the city and all across um and councilman again that creativity we've that's how we get things done at Recreation we are creative and we recognize where the skill sets are across the city and we try to bring those things together the fire department has been very helpful um especially in the past I imagine we're going to turn to the fire department and ask them to fill the pool at Pavonia as soon as that liner is done because it will take a lot quicker if the the fire department does it for us lucenda if you can give us I think I think at one point you did have one made up with the list of like the different uh sprinkler systems in the parks that we can share absolutely councilman I will also ask social the social media team to maybe put that into circulation a little more often thank you hey taking it from the top uh items 3.1 through 3.4 were touched on earlier item 3.5 city ordinance 24- 064 is an ordinance amending ordinance 23- 093 and authorizing the execution of Three Financial agreements uh Council just briefly on this one uh this does not have any material changes on the ordinance that was passed 20 3 -93 um it's just that when it was submitted to the state they requested that we break it out into three separate agreements rather than just one complete agreement in an ordinance so we're just representing the same ordinance uh separated into three tranches um I also it's not on the agenda um I I'd like to do a late ad it was supposed to be um but it didn't make it before it was published the um holiday parking ordinance that I called you about it didn't uh it's not on here but um you know if we could you know what because at a certain time the system cuts down because it has to be 12 days before and so they being really quick with that so it'll be on the next one that's what probably will happen because it's supposed to be 12 days before okay I mean I can't hear you council president it'll make the next one so it's going to go on the next meeting okay he he approved it late uh later than um it was in Q and I think Metro was at the airport and then that's when it got it was it's fine whatever it's not it's not life or death okay so item 3.6 was touched on earlier and Council min's ordinance will be on the August meeting as a first reading next item 4.1 city ordinance 24- 056 is an ordinance of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City adopting amendments to the general Square 2060 Redevelopment plan regarding inclusion of mandatory affordable housing requirement along with updates to some bulk signage and use standards so just to reiterate what was discussed earlier if the it's the council's intention to introduce item 3.6 ordinance 24-65 it is recommended to defeat ordinance 4.1 ordinance excuse me item 4.1 city ordinance 24- 056 item 4.2 city ordinance 24- 057 is an ordinance of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City adopting amendments to the Lewis Marin Marin Boulevard Redevelopment plan regarding the use in bulk stand ards to District Two of the Redevelopment plan and other Associated standards item 4.3 city ordinance 24- 058 is an ordinance authorized in the acquisition by purchase or condemnation of a portion of a private easement located between City Block 9905 lot 9 and a portion of block 9906 lot one that traverses the Brunswick community garden and item 4.4 city ordinance 24 059 is an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic article 9 parking for the disabled of the Jersey city code designating Reserve parking space at various locations throughout the city we'll also have a public hearing on the 2024 2025 Exchange Place Alliance special improvement district assessment role and budget we'll have our public request for hearings any questions or comments on petitions Communications items 6.1 through 6.32 any questions or comments on office communication 7.1 through 7.3 there are no reported directors we will have our claims and on to our resolutions item 10.1 was touched on earlier item 10.2 resolution 24-54 one is a resolution authorizing the renewal of a contract award to fifth asset Inc um for the annual subscription for debt and lease management software under the national Cooperative purchasing Alliance for the Department of Finance division of Treasury and debth management item 10.3 resolution 24542 is a resolution ratifying Award of a contract to car carish soft technology Corp for an annual subscription for a grant dashboard through the US community's government purchasing Alliance known as Omnia partners for the Department of Finance division of Grant Administration items 10.4 through 10.6 were touched on earlier item 10.7 resolution 24546 is a resolution of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City demanding comprehend on yeah um I what um for for Barbara what um where at in um in in uh 39 cury it's it um so we're occupying the uh conference room adjacent to where the council oh so the one that used to be corner what was that um was the conference room yeah but they yeah there always a conference there was a conference room and uh you know with some of the expanded services within the area it' be best to have a state representative there and uh we did work in agreement with the uh State uh the city will be receiving $3,200 a month which is consider close to market for that particular area 3,200 a mon yeah it's too much what you say thank you I'm a good negotiator and any improvements that are done to the uh location will also be offset by State dollars okay this FYI use that office on Tuesdays and Thursdays Barbara from 10 to 12 so let me ask you a question will there have to be any type of Renovations because it's just a conference room now yeah uh council president we're just putting up a a wall to separate uh the representative from the staff and the uh state does pay for any services rendered and uh in the event that it has to go back they'll also that as well and it's also furnished by the state okay thank you I just want the um the city to take note that they give they representative 3,200 a month for space okay item 10.7 resolution 24546 is a resolution of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City demanding comprehensive environment impact M for the New Jersey Turnpike extension and the rejection of the draft environmental assessment from the Turnpike Authority item 10.8 resolution 24547 is a resolution granting access to New Jersey Department of Transportation real property owned by the city of Jersey City known as block 287 lot 5 as shown on the official tax maps of the town of Cony for the purpose of constructing Drainage Systems along Route 7 item 10.9 resolution 24548 is a resolution honoring Frank lamparelli upon his retirement item 10.10 resolution 24549 is a resolution recognizing Linda Wade for a contribution and dedication to the community item 10.11 resolution 24-55 is a resolution ratifying the month-to-month extension not to exceed 3 months for a contract to aquasure LLC to provide the city of Jersey City with insurance consulting services and to be the city's broker for record for obtaining and maintaining the city's medical benefits prescription and stop loss insurance plans item 10.12 City resolution 24551 is a resolution ratifying the first of two renewals of a competitively bid contract with unicorn HR LLC for payroll and Human Resource Services for the Department of Finance and human resources can I ask something out John uh I got calls from people saying that there's still problems with the payroll with this organization is that so councilman the any questions or concerns they have pertaining to the actual payout would be an HR matter unicorn is simply a mirror of what's put into it it's not there's no uh if there's any issues with someone's paycheck or benefits it's no result of the system that's being utilized it would be the data that's being input or output so so you could direct those to me personally and I'll happy to have uh Mr Carol or Mrs Rosa sit down with them and discuss it I know the one of the unions was here at the last meeting uh they had a formal meeting and uh discussed any concerns they had and had to do with scheduling it had nothing to do with the Unicorn system okay items 10.13 through 16 were touched on earlier 10.17 resolution uh 24556 is a resolution awarding professional service agreement to beamo and defano excuse me to provide defense Council Services related to workman's compensation plan petition claim petitions filed against the city of Jersey City apologize for that item 10.18 was touched on earlier 10.19 is a resolution 24-55 is a resolution introducing and approving the 2024 2025 budget of the McGinley Square special improvement district directing the city clerk to publicly advertise the budget and schedule a public hearing and directing the tax assessor to prepare an assessment role of properties within the district based upon the budget items 10.20 through 10.29 were touched on earlier item 10.30 resolution 24569 is a resolution authorizing the payment of a claim submitted by environmental system Research Institute for providing support services for consulting services and preparing data and deploying The Arc GIS Urban item 10.31 resolution 24- 570 is a resolution authorizing the payment of a claim submitted by Dell for providing support services for the annual support of spotle data logic uh software license on state contract for Department of administration division of information Tech technology item 10.32 24 dish Sean can I just do we just have an explanation of why it's a claim here yeah councilman we were renewing the contract so in the in the interim phase they did continue services so we're just paying as a claim okay item 10.32 resolution 24 dis 571 is a resolution of the city excuse me Jersey City Council advocating for Federal prohibition on the purchase of one in two two one to two four family homes by hedge fund private Equity corporations and institutional investors supporting the hedge fund fund control of America's Home act um just real quickly um I along with councilman Solomon councilman Gilmore are sponsoring this um because a lot of the one to four family homes are being purchased by institutional investors and according to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs uh their study was done in 2020 at least 15% of the homes purchased in Jersey City are done by these institutional investors hedge funds private uh Equity um investors and essentially it squeezes out the little guy I think after the pandemic a lot of of the home purchases accelerated um by these institutional investors private Equity hudge Funds corporations um the absentee landlord they're AB they are absentee landlords it increases the amount of trash in our community the um the neglect they target um areas that are um lwi income and they end up raising the rents so so you have a affordability crisis you have a supply crisis when it comes to homes and then the rent and the trash that comes with it and we as a council should be pushing for a federal ban on these entities from purchasing the one to four family homes Nationwide uh now now uh the South Side uh the the majority well they there are a lot in the heights but they have been targeting the south side of the city um targeting the whole city they targeted the whole city but you know um Southside is on their menu so the heights is a victim of it and um our elected representatives in Congress uh should be fighting this tooth and nail because um more and more people are unable to afford rent they're unable to purchase homes the American dream is more and more Out Of Reach every day um that we are alive and for the first time in our country's history our children will not be afforded a better future than you know the one we had so that's not right and we need to fight against this okay items 10.33 through 10.36 were touched on earlier item 10.37 resolution 24- 576 is a resolution authorizing the award of competently Biv contract to Avenue for the monitoring and compliance enforcement of short-term rentals item 10.38 resolution 24577 is a resolution amending professional service agreement with lent Gman and Spitzer to provide legal Council Bond Council to the city of Jersey City hey SE um if the ba can address um 1037 um we had uh with the the these are the Airbnb um compliance I know we had um that other company and now this this is a new company here yeah so it went through a competitive process and then uh this was awarded based on that process um it should be documents but I can provide backup on the scoring as to how uh we went to from one company to another but some sometimes the former company doesn't bid so but we'll get you the details on that okay these companies do they go through the process of the diversity inclusion council president and they also receive points based on their diversity uh ownership okay item 10.39 resolution 24- 578 is a resolution authorized agreement for energy brokerage services with energy procurement Partners based on informal solicitation of quotes for a concession pursuant to njac 5 colon 34- 9.4 G1 uh councilman just so you know I did receive confirmation that the former company did not bid on this procurement process for the host short-term rentals items 10.40 and 41 were touch on earlier item 10.42 resolution 24- 581 is a resolution authorizing close session of the municipal Council on Wednesday August 14 2024 at 5:00 pm to discuss issues related to pending litigation for the STI six Street embankment item 10.43 resolution 24-5 A2 is a resolution to commemorate the passing of John Jack henin Jr item 10.44 resolution 583 is a resolution commemorating the Grapevine Tavern 90th anniversary of receiving the city of Jersey City's first issued liquor license and with that being said may I have a motion to adjourn at 1201 second PM motion was made by C person rera seconded by council person SLE all in favor of the motion to adjourn at 12:01 p.m. council members by acclamation please say I I we are out of here at 12:01 pm thank you everyone present and everyone watching at home remember Teamwork Makes a DreamWork have a great rest of the day stay safe Rob Back fire yeah