e e check one two e e e e how you do good morning good morning welcome to the pre meeting of the nework municipal Council on Tuesday June 4th 2024 council president council members we on page three of the agenda item five reports and recommendations of City officers boards and commissions thank you so much Madam Clerk and welcome everyone to today's pre-meeting um it's a little much of a shallow staff today in Council because today is election day um so we do want to wish everyone a Happy election day it's a good day great day and those who are tuned into us already this morning we encourage you to get out and go cast your vote for whomever you're voting for um but get out there and do it and you have until 8 o'clock pm to do so um but you'll see our council members rolling in rolling out um throughout today's preting because today is election day I don't know how we missed that on the calendar today hosting a pre- meeting but it's all right we're going to do what we need to do hurry up and Host this and then uh get out there get back out there to different activities that we have going on today any questions or comments regarding uh reports from commissions seeing none next item ordinances on first reading 6fa is an ordinance authorizing the mayor and or his design to exercise Its Right of reverter in connection with the property commonly known as 204 peshine Avenue questions or comments regarding this item seeing none 6fb is an ordinance amending title 23 traffic stopping or standing prohibited at certain times to include fines for violations any questions or comments regarding this item this is 6fb CNN second I'm sorry public reading public hearing second reading and final passage 6 psfa is an ordinance amending title 8 businesses and occupations to create chapter 41 Intermodal container lot license and establish rules and regulations sponsored by councilman Council second by councilman Kelly questions or comments councilman Silva I'm so sorry councilman Sila it's so hard to see you how you doing um I know this has been deferred multiple times um not that I'm taking um a side here on this I I I know there something has to be done um but I think that in the end uh is this even legal to pass some an ordinance like this are we going to face litigation in the future from all these business owners that deal in this container business I've always been an advocate and I think I said it to the ba about a year or two ago uh during the um the hearings for the budget does the Port Authority pay its fair share should we should they be paying more money and in this uh ordinance the Port Authority is not even affected uh by this ordinance uh I just think that uh we need to come to a solution to this to have a sit down with those that are affected um it didn't give us enough time and I think the feedback that we got was that uh the city was going to go forward regardless of any meetings or anything like that but I think we really need to look into this and see um what the overall outcome is going to be right are we going to lose businesses to the city are we going to lose payroll tax our businesses going to leave our communities uh how many people does this affect uh overall and I think really that we really need to have a discussion and a sit down and try to come to a solution to this uh ordinance where everybody uh comes to the table and it's a fair playing field okay um before we have questions from the I mean uh comments or responses from the administration any other Council comments councilman crom yeah I well I I think you just said it I I was going to ask for uh because we've received several uh emails and letters regarding this matter if the ad Administration can respond to those definitely so I I think um if if anybody doesn't mind we'll let the ba or the Corp counsil come up and uh make some remarks councilman Ros did you have an additional question yeah I do I you know I I I agree with my colleague councilman Silva uh I know the version we're voting on today was recently Rewritten right because this had been deferred a number of times and then we had a more current version which was presented just a few meetings ago and and I had asked at some point for some kind of legal opinion which which shows that the municipality can in fact enact uh these container fees because some of the correspondents that we've seen over the last few days U from various groups and attorneys are are basically uh stating that that the city does not have the authority to enact these fees uh the second thing I had asked for when the last version was presented was whether or not the Intermodal Association was consulted or at least uh The Operators uh were were given the information regarding the fees and the impact and and we were told on the record uh that in fact they had been having some conversations with the association and if you saw some of the correspondents that came in yesterday that doesn't seem to be the case um you know I really believe that U many times we legislate we create rules and regulations and then the people that are impacted are never consulted about the um fees and and how those fees May in fact uh uh impact north- based businesses and like councilman Silva mentioned the other thing I don't understand is how is it that the uh containers at the Port Authority are exempt from these fees but the operators within the north I mean within the East and the South W are are subject to these fees so so I think there's a lot of questions councilman Silva at the last meeting asked for uh 30 days so that we can convene The Operators and have an opportunity for the city to present the ordinance and I don't think that's even happened so thank you so much councilman Ramos uh councilman Gonzalez yes referring to the emails that we received yesterday I would like to see a an answer in writing to the points that are addressed in this letter from ER sales comments and growth ER they have I believe very good arguments why we shouldn't uh proceed with this ordinance and I would like to to have an answer in writing from The Corporation Council indicating that the points that they have are not valid points okay thank you so much councilman Gonzalez if there are no more comments we'll give the administration the floor thank you council president council members Eric Pennington business administrator um there are um I think several reasons why the administration in this City intends to move forward with this ordinance not the least of which is we have had several discussions with uh Intermodal Representatives with interport with hars Mountain uh about this uh legislation they have made comments and have requested some changes to the ordinance some of which we've adopted because we thought that they were appropriate uh some of which we have not because we didn't think they were appropriate we are obviously moving forward with legislation that we believe we have the legal Authority part to do um these operators and others have the right to challenge it and I expect that perhaps they may but they have the right to challenge any ordinance that is put forth either by the council or the administration and we have to uh respond to it um there's a saying I think that is most appropo to this ordinance and that is that we should not let the perfect be the enemy of the good the good in this case is we want to regulate uh in the first instance the safety of the operation of these containers um I have heard anecdotally since none of these entities have contacted me directly other than ones that I've spoken to uh that they don't believe that there's any evidence that safety oversight is required I think that's ridiculous I'm not make saying that any particular individual is ridiculous for making that argument but the argument itself is a ridiculous argument the containers are uh dangerous inst mentality and if they are not uh properly uh legislated uh the likelihood of injury is great indeed we do have evidence of at least one container falling onto Freeland high and Avenue onto the street missing a vehicle by less than two feet uh I don't think we need to wait until one of these containers crushes a car and kills some of our residents or visitors before we Implement safety measures uh to protect against that that is the most fundamental basic right and obligation of this Administration to make make sure that our residents visitors uh and employees are safe when they come into the City and we regulate them we regulate bars we regulate ice we regulate um meat cutting we regulate weights and measures all of those things are for safety we have health uh legislation and regulations we have the absolute right uh to uh implement this legislation and there is uh no legislation out there we don't need State enabling legislation for us to protect the safety and Welfare of of our residents if the challenges come we're just going to have to uh to deal with them they have good lawyers those comments is an amazing firm we have good lawyers and we will uh address it um and we'll deal with it um I just heard today that councilman Sila requested 30 days to meet I didn't hear that before but I wasn't at the actual council meeting I was away um you know we are certainly available to meet and discuss uh I'm not inclined to wait 30 days now given that this has been on for months and all of these entities have had the opportunity to raise their concerns no concern that has come to my office has not been reviewed looked at and considered not one and we have had goodness at least three meetings with interport we've had several Communications with the intermot container uh lobbying organization um I have exchanged information with hars so to the extent that anybody says that we have not taken into consideration their concerns that's just untrue um and the fact that somebody just said today that I misdated something that I didn't meet with people but those of you who work with me on a daily basis know that we don't agree with everything but I never ever give you misinformation intentionally sometimes I'm I make a mistake but I have not represented to you that I've met with these people and have not because it's not true and those people who say that I have not met with them or have not made myself available they're misleading you so to the extent that somebody suggesting there's some misleading information it's not coming from this Podium it's coming from elsewhere they have a period uh where they can uh they have had several periods we can challenge this and I should also say the principal uh uh difference in this legislation is that we're moving it from one chapter in our ordinance to another the the legislation that these entities register and that they be monitored has been on the books this Council passed it over a year ago none of these entities complied they thumb their nose at it they believed that we would not enforce it um we have now strengthened that the mechanism uh to make sure that they comply and it seems like at least at this time they're not just going to blatantly thumb their nose at it they're going to challenge it which they have the right to do but the ordinance that is on the books none of them have complied with not one of these entities and they will comply with this ordinance if this Council passes it and we'll have the enforcement mechanisms in place to do so I'm prepared to address other questions that uh the council has and and tomorrow if there are other issues that come up we be prepared to address those as well we think that this a strong solid legislation that will protect the health welfare and safety of our residents uh it will give us a better opportunity to have roads in the East W that desperately need uh to be fixed potholes and otherwise um that as our Port grows and the number of trucks and tractors go through it is there's a direct correlation between the increase in truck traffic and the decrease in the quality of the roads we need to be able to do something about that we don't have the resources otherwise so this will uh uh help address that I think I addressed all the questions that the council had but I'm happy to deal with more follow-ups councilman Ramos yeah thank you madam president and and Eric I don't think anybody up here would disagree with the um importance of safety I think the the question here is whether or not the city has the legal right to to impose the fees uh the ordinance that's before us was Rewritten and presented to this body on May 8th which is a little little less than a month ago um and then secondly the the issue of whether or not you know the The Operators and and and the affected parties have been um you know have have had an opportunity to meet with you to discuss the impact of of the ordinance and the fees uh is something that that I raised the second thing is are you anticipating any revenue from this in the in the 2024 budget and if so what is that amount that the city's anticipating collecting that will be included in the budget uh you referenced you know road safety and Paving are you saying that any fees that are going to be collected through this ordinance are going to be dedicated to infrastructure or is that going to or is that money being projected uh to be included in the city's budget for this year the money is being projected Council Ramos thank you for that question the money is being projected to be included in the general budget but as everyone knows we have had difficulty in budgeting for uh Road repairs um throughout the city but particularly in the Eastward in the area of the port so no this will not be a dedicated trust fund that goes to fixing streets uh but it will certainly give us a better opportunity to address those concerns with respect to your question as whether or not we're anticipating some Revenue yes um we expect it'll be in the million dollar range and we have anticipated that in this budget going forward uh for this year so it is in the budget that hav seen you have not seen it yet you have not seen the budget however you should know we have sent a draft budget to the state so what happens if this is be uh if if if this is pass and then the The Operators take us to court and we lose where do you find that million dollars that you're expecting that's that's part of the Miracles that I have to come up with every day in order to make this city work got a few million that you can we do the best absolutely get it get it out of your pocket you have that money I can't say that it's in my pocket right now but uh with this AUST body and the team that we have in place we will do our level best to make sure that the city moves forward in the fashion that it has in the past few years under the leadership of guidance of Mayor Baraka and this esteemed Council any other comments or questions yeah Madam chair council do do we have an update on how many of these companies have registered uh zero oh wow yeah yeah can give you that update councilman councel yeah none of them are register as part of Prior ordinance part ordinance that the council had put forth that these companies would register and do their due diligence and good faith to be a part of this Metropolis that we call the city of North presid as I follow up to that let's say what effort has been made by the city to have them register because we pass ordinances er every in every meeting we have ordinance here but we don't have enforcement of those ordinances so I believe that is is behov the city to enforce the ordinance that we pass because otherwise the they say the burden shouldn't be on the on the people the burden should be on the city making sure that we follow up with let's say compliance people are going to believe again thank you for that question councilman Gonzalez through uh the chair to you people will believe that I set you up there to ask that question to make the administration look good because we established a task force led by wiita Jordan that includes she's in uh Texas's license fees uh along with code enforcement and health officers they put together a task forest and actually visited several of these container companies interport was one of them uh to determine whether or not they were in compliance and to make them aware of what the registration would be at least 10 of these companies have been visited and have been sent letters to make sure that they comply to date they have not done so I expect that they will and that this ordinance will uh strengthen that but uh unlike in some other cases the enforcement mechanism here has been utilized has been in place I actually went on one of the enforcement raids myself so we uh are diligently pursuing it and we'll continue to do so and I'll continue to make myself available to go out periodically to make sure that the enforcement is being done the way it should be and I didn't ask him to ask that question so yes any other questions before we move on council president yes and Mr VA there was Amendment submitted to the council this morning I'm not sure that everyone had an opportunity to re view them but there are a couple of amendments that was submitted at 8:49 this morning we another amendment um Can someone talk to the Amendments I don't I not a familiar I'm willing to do that there are two general amendments and they come as a result of questions from these Intermodal container operators one is that there are several of these containers that literally don't even sit on the ground for a full day and the uh operators have been indicated that it's not really fair that they be charged a fee for the first day because it really is throughput so what we are doing is we're changing day one to Day Zero so that the very first day that these containers sit on one of these properties there won't be any charge uh so to be treated as a zero and then the next day it'll be day one if they're here part of what we're trying to do is encourage these businesses to move these containers out they are a nuisance as an isur uh as well as some of the other things we believe by making it a day Zero it takes into account some of the concerns that these Intermodal container operators have raised and it demonstrates our commitment to making sure that we have legislation that takes into takes into account reasonable concerns um uh of these uh of these operators the other change is to make sure that not only uh pnct is exempt but other on Port container companies any other on Port Container company would be exempt from this legislation and I think counc Ramos brought up that issue one of the reasons for that is the Port Authority which is not impacted one way or the other from this legislation has uh safety oversight already in place they already uh have mechanisms in place to address uh uccc oversight police oversight and other safety oversight so we need not uh replicate that or duplicate that by having our oversight on Port um so those are the two changes uh uh with respect to what came before the council the slight change this morning okay any questions or comments from Council Members regarding the Amendments Council mccrum thank you council president just just a quick question so the just in terms of process and procedure so the amendment now becomes uh if if the amendment is voted on tomorrow then we go back to Second reading at the next has to be re advertised again well we think we think these are dominous but if that's the council's position every time we change it in the second reading this is what happens like we've been here before with the same one already so iine yeah I mean it's unfortunate we don't want to do that obviously look how many times we're looking at it um but you know it has to be read vertis that's how that's what we do not unless we do something different Madam clerk you're more than willing to you know correct us up here but we send things back for you know read advertisement in another second reading like so I don't you know we can at it but that's what it is right now any other questions or comments before we move on from this item all right seeing none thank you so much Mr ba you're welcome thank you 6 psfb is the bond ordinance in the Department of Finance has requested that the council defer this item okay 6 psfc is an ordinance authorizing the mayor and or his design to enter into and execute a directive deed for the Essex County Improvement Authority questions or comments from Council Members regarding this item okay next item 6p sfd is an ordinance amending title 23 traffic by designating Orange Street in North Fifth Street as a multi-way stop sign intersection in the west ward sponsored by councilman Kelly second by councilman Gonzalez any questions cnna 6pf is an ordinance amending the capital ordinance questions or comments c n 6pf is an ordinance amending title 23 traffic regarding parking prohibited at any time for trucks truck cabs truck trailers and buses exceeding four tons to increase the fines for violations sponsored by council president mcgyver second by by councilman Council any questions Cena 6p sfg is an ordinance granting a 20-year tax abatement to SPG 2013 Mara Highway urban renewal LLC for a project to construct a warehouse distribution center in the north Ward sponsored by councilman Ramos second by councilman Gonzalez questions or comments CNN resolutions 7r1 a is a contract with subrecipient to provide Community violence prevention through youth mentoring programs questions or comments regarding this item I'm gon ask for it to be deferred okay councilman Council wishes to deferred do have a second second by councilman cromp next item 7 r1b and 7r1 C are both temporary emergency Appropriations B is for the recycling tonnage grant program and C is for the Summer Youth Employment Program questions or comments see n council president council members before we move on do you want to hear about the Summer Youth Employment Program now um no I think we'll wait until the end yeah okay no worries 7r1 D through 701g are all contracts through our purchasing department D is to build a new playground at Nat Turner Park e is to purchase new playground equipment f is to provide revaluation of all real property and G is to host family fund day hey thank you madam clerk I would like to be noted as a sponsor for 7 r1d have a second second by councilman Council I would like to sponsor 7 r1e as well second 7 r1e for Council Council sponsor and second by councilwoman Round Tree any other questions or comments before we move on I just want to say happy birthday to councilwoman Reverend Louise Scott Round Tree it is her birthday today y'all we can't even wait till the end cuz she looking good and here and here on her birthday working on her birthday so happy birthday Council woman um next item 7r2 a through 7r2 e a private sale Redevelopment agreement a is to rehabilitate industrial property utilized for light Manufacturing in the central Ward okay any questions or comments seeing none next Item 7r2 B is to renovate and expand manufacturing business in the East w questions or comments CNN C is to provide for new construction of an affordable 24 unit apartment building in the central Ward questions or comments CNN 7 r2d is introducing the 2024 annual budget for the Newark Downtown District Management Corporation any questions or comments regarding the annual budget for ndd Madam president yes councilman Remos I have a question but it's uh related to appraisal systems I don't see Eric here but I just want to get a sense of how how long is it going to take for them to to conduct the the rebound and um just for clarification like how many times did the administration ask us to um defer action on the rebout I believe there were two resolutions um dating back to like a few years ago so um be it that the contract is back on the agenda and should hopefully be approved tomorrow like what's the timeline is it 12 months is it 18 months look like Frank was GNA ra it up but I got it Frank I got it I got it let you relax Eric Penning a business administrator uh we anticipate that there are about 53,000 lines that have to be assessed and that'll take about two years to get done in total so right now we're looking at a completion of 2027 we are working to see if we can't get that shortened um at the moment this particular uh assessment company has other work so we're not uh overly confident that it'll happen before then so we're setting it outside date of 2027 for completion what's what's the what's the ratio now in nework like as far as like the assessments are concerned the equalization ratio is about 55% right now went from 88 down to 55% um I've had an opportunity to speak with the treasur the state treasurer there are some things that we can do to address the equalization I haven't spoken with Frank about it fully yeah Frank delesio but we're going to meet with the state assessment team to make sure that we do a better job of challenging the properties that are included in the equalization analysis and that's what we're going to have to do going forward at least for the next couple of years to increase our uh ratio so and your opinion if if the um request wasn't made to defer or delay the rebal from a few years ago do do you believe that we would be in a position where our ratios would be so low right now um now that's a a hypothetical question that really is uh you know impossible for me to answer uh the requests for deferrals were based on other reasons um which were apprpriate for the time we are at a place now where we're ready to move forward we have the money to do so um we have uh I think the resources to make sure that this is done the tax maps have been drafted haven't been finalized but have been drafted and that wasn't the case before thank you Eric you're welcome any other questions coun mccum hey not on this issue uh Madam president but I just want to be a sponsor on a 7 r2d do I have a second second by councilman Kelly I do want to go back a little bit not to the ndd budget but I do want to try to get some clarification regarding the bids and SIDS and the Residential Properties that are included in the bids and SIDS I know that we had a lot of conversation in regards to um removing those Residential Properties from the bussiness which I 500% support um and I think many Council people up here um support as well I know that we've been spending a lot of time talking to the tax department and talking to Michelle and I just wanted to know what are we doing to notify those residents that they're going to be removed out of those you know sectors I think it was like July one I heard they're coming out of them and then what are we doing to address properties that are like like we have for example I'll give an example for better Clarity where we have a property owner who's paid their taxes like up to date everything's paid but then they ended up getting a letter and a new bill for the assessment from the bids bid and Sid saying hey you know you pay your property taxes up to par but now you owe like 600 bucks extra you know based off this you know assessment from the bid and Sid not this specific one but I'm just saying giv a hypothetical example and because they hadn't paid the $600 their property is now been moved to the tax lean sell they got a letter stating that what are we doing in cases of that because we can't allow that to happen we have to do something we need to notify them we need to get these folks off of the list of that because they didn't pay that little extra piece you know for the the bid and Sid yes council president Derek Pennington business administrator uh no residential property owner who has been assessed a fee on the S of bids are going to have any risk associated with loss of their property we are working now to make sure that the uh each of the citiz and bids re submits information to us without those Residential Properties they will be removed they we're our hope is that it's going to be done by July 1 so it'll be reflected in the next quarter's Bill and any payments that have been made will be refunded uh for that portion that was paid based on the SIDS and bids it may happen in the next the subsequent quarters billing but that will happen that's awesome can we get like community to put something together for those resid only because we're a lot of calls to our office about it um and we really need to relay that message out there to those residents who are like having a panic attack right now about this whole little matter like you know so if we can you know work together to put something out there that might be good for those those homeowners sure that's Fair Point again U I don't know if I said my name again Eric Pennington but the um the administration and this body we have the right to assess residences that are in the consider a bid uh but the mayor took a look at it and listened to some of the concerns and he made a decision even with the budget crunch that we're in that it's not appropriate to try and solve any of that budget on the backs of these residents who happen to be in a city or bid and so they will be taken out and we'll get the communication together to make sure that the residents are aware absolutely and we support that here so no question for sure any other comments councilman Gonzalez com on to C ER sale of uh we're going back okay 6169 Orchard Street ER Orchard Street seems to be in a very nice area of the city with a lot of development and we are giving away I believe ER 7,600 square feet at $9 a square feet when the assess value of the property is $413,000 so I I again ER if the assess value is not correct let's say this doesn't look good and I believe that it's important that whenever we have a sale the in which the assessed value is that different from the selling price we should have some sort of H explanation I saw the picture I saw the picture is a it's a great lot in a great location and I believe we could have done better I just wanted to add to this project because I've been well well versed in it it's actually a local artist from the north W um who's getting this project with the new with the um partner per se but they're doing this project 100% affordable so that's one of the reasons why the you know the fee or the selling square foot is lower than usual because the whole project is Affordable um but we can have the deputy mayor come up and talk you know more about it I don't think M council president there's nothing to add I mean you have uh I think you have clearly iated why it's appropriate to to sell the property at the rate we're selling it given its 100% affordability we don't have anything else to add to that yeah I think the AI Ami levels are like at 40 50 and 60 or something like that yeah well no everybody definitely doesn't do 40 and 60 at all not in my areas um Council MCC yeah thank you I I do first of all I think this is a great project to work on but I have a question because in the backup information that we received received I think this morning or yesterday it says $8 a square foot and then on the agenda it says $9 and I just want to clarify clarication thank you uh Deputy Mayor lad maybe you want to add some clarification or look into it and get back to us regarding if it's n or8 council president okay yes one question for the ba yes sure go um regarding the SIDS and bids uh just a quick question you were saying that you're going to remove residential so six families families that are considered commercial here are being removed no uh it's from one to four families one to four oh okay because we don't have because what happens in the East Ward and I'll give you an example you have five homes that pay into the ibid those five homes pay for the entire block which the benefit goes to the people who own one two and three family homes because they end up cleaning the whole street so I want to make sure that we're still uh given four are above correct uh are paying into the uh SIDS and bids four families and Below will not pay into the not pay five and above will pay that's right okay any other questions all right seeing them moving along in the agenda seminar 2E is a resolution of support to provide support for the submission of an application for tax credits in the central Ward questions or comments regarding this item Cena 7R 2f is a need for housing project to determine whether the proposed project will meet an existing housing need in the central Ward questions or comments seeing none 7 r3a is an amending resolution to change the funding source for the modernization of elevators at multiple public buildings questions or [Music] comments councilwoman rree you must see it in my face council president talking about these elevators again yeah Okay so we've been talking about them for a few years now people are still getting stuck what does this mean a new contract does that mean we have to wait how much more time uh Madame engineer um if you don't mind me addressing her council president and Madam clerk to find out what is the timeline because every other day there are elevators that on staff have to go down and help the elderly to take care of their business in these municipal buildings not to mention the other buildings I know that I was stuck on an elevator here for 45 minutes and I thank God nobody was there with me so I didn't have to panic and go crazy but that's not everybody's story so can you please answer what this will entail please I guess you I guess you see which council member had to take the stairs this morning so and you can yeah what happen come on up run don't walk good morning council president council members um Council woman around tree very good to see you happy birthday um so we will provide um um the timeline uh right now what we have going on is repairs while the uh renovation design is on their way we expect the design by the end of the summer um and then we see the Reconstruction the brand new cabs and City Hall um that's probably going to commence at the end of the year so first we need to have the design in place and then we're going to start the actual construction work so that means at least until the end of the year we might still be faced with some of the same issues regarding the elevators in City Hall and other public buildings yes ma'am unfortunately you know all we can do right now is maintain them when they break down make sure that they're bring brought back and they keep in operation um the proper operation you know the Fright for fright and and the passengers Etc um while we make time for the um designed professionals to continue with the work and um later on to procure contract to to be redone but they are going to be um reconstructed I'm thinking we will have brand new elevators in City Hall I would say by this time next year or towards the end of next year for sure this actually says to change the funding source for the modernization of the elevators at multiple public buildings does that mean that the funding source has been already identified for this work to start yes so um just just going back to to when we started this um we're supportive of DPW um in in this effort um due to the expertise you know the project manager and everything in engineering um the original funding source was allocated for us to move on as an emergency and for us to move on with the design at this point this transfer set to a Capital uh funding uh to continue with the work so it's all things remain the same except for the funding source itself okay any other questions regarding the elevators all right CN n thank you um director next item 7 r3b is refund monies for overpayment of construction permit fees questions or comments CA 7 r4a is tax collector to issue estimated tax bills for the third quarter questions or comments yeah Madam chair yes councilman Council again I know that theba talked about the re-evaluation process but you know it looks like uh in terms of this estimated tax rate Levy that will be experiencing some kind of tax rate if we can get up and give some uh explanation on how this came about and uh you know our um you know wherewithal to try to you know beat this down and then hopefully um I know as we're looking to project to move the budget forward uh what are some of these uh departments doing uh to uh tighten up their belts in terms of downsides and some of the activities thank you great good morning again Eric Pennington business administrator uh with respect to tightening our belts the first thing we're going to do is cut out all revenue for the city council just kidding just kidding no just Ju Ju Just Kidding on that uh no we have H as part of the prior discussion with respect to the equalization ratio that was unanticipated and that is causing uh this Administration the city to have an increased payment to the county in the you just explain that to to the viewers that maybe some folks that are watching and again an understanding about the equalization ratio what happened how that incur absolutely it's the assess valuation of our properties relative to the actual sales one of the issues that coun Gonzalez brings up on a fairly regular basis where the assess value doesn't really match uh what the sales are when these sales take place the state treasurer uh through its taxation uh board looks at those properties and makes the determination as to whether or not uh what we are actually paying based on the sale the value of the sale of the property relative to its assessed value is correct um and it's not it's uh we're off by a bit uh I think in response to cman Ramos's question last year our Equalization ratio was about 88% which is close to the one to one that means that the assess value of the property is what we're actually selling it for we have it's hard for me to hear with yeah I'm so sorry over there sorry about that can hear myself if everyone could just be a little bit more quieter thank you so much yeah appreciate that uh so it is our objective we want to strive to get to a one to one once you have a reval at the reval it should be one to one ratio uh we're not there yet but what we are going to do again in connection with our tax assessor is look at those sales to make sure that the sales actually accurately reflect uh what our ratio should be based on we'll be able to challenge some of that and talk about the reasons why um the sales should not be included in the ratio analysis for example so we can keep it uh lower and closer to the assessed value and keep our Equalization ratio at a better level that Equalization ratio is what determines how much of the County's budget that we have to uh uh how how much we have to pay relative to other towns um in the county um I don't know if I made that more understandable or not but that is the answer so the state the the state steps in and says there's a a Equalization process that the municipalities have to follow city of New York was once 88 we're at 85 we're not around that ratio where we would be to one if we were in re-evaluation unfortunately document that we see today says that we're going to hire someone to start reevaluation will not be completed until 2027 that's right hence the city has some deficits that we have to draw down on and try to level off we see a possible tax increase for residents in in in the city uh I don't want to call it a tax increase I think the explanation you gave up to that point was better than mine by far uh but it doesn't necessarily relate to a tax increase it is likely that it will uh but I'm working with the state now uh to see if we can't get assistance to address uh an offset that deficit if we don't get that then yes it has to the funds have to be raised somewhere but we have consistently kept that um the municipal Levy increase at less than 4% we are uh working hard to maintain that continue that again and that's our plan and the the the dollars that that come out of this those dollars would go then to who the county the dollars that come out of what that that if we don't stabilize the the well whether we stabilize it or not we have to we have to contribute our uh Equitable share to the county that Equity changes based on the equalization ratio so we still have to make contributions to the county all municipalities have to U we don't want our share to increase more than it should all right any other followup questions councilman Council no I'm good councilman Gonzalez yes uh SBA the 3996 compared to last year what would what the the increase in percentage terms the percentage increase it is less than 4% the actual uh increase in in dollars I think it's 12 cents I don't I don't have it in front of me I think it's and that includes all the they say the the school the county and the city portion of the of the tax rate no the 3.99 6 is the municipal Levy so I said I suppose the we are going to get a substantial increase because last year was like the total was like $379 I believe it was I don't think it will be a substantial increase we have uh the overall uh tax rate which includes the school the county and the municipal Levy uh will likely not be more than 4% that's our anticipation um I don't know the actual number yet I'm still working with the state to figure that 4% increase but let's say in the previous year has been like 1.2 two point something percent increase in the taxes it was closer to 3% um last year overall on the municipal Levy the effect to the residents was a little bit less than that though and the the the other question that I have when we compute the let's say the the rate that you mentioned that is 55% do we use all the all the sales or we use sales that the say may affect that drastically like if you go to the let's say to the Forest Hill some people some houses are assessed by let's say 200,000 are selling for 900,000 if you take those right then rate is going to be much less so do we what do we use it's not a number that we use it's what the state what the state uses we believe that they used sales such as that inappropriately because it did not reflect the Citywide difference in sales uh we have to do a better job of challenging that to make sure that the uh overall uh base of houses the sample is representative right it has to be representative what we're looking for think that it wasn't representative of what the overall sales were in the city and we're uh attacking that going forward yeah I I believe that's a is is I believe it's a logical thing to do because if they are using houses let's say in the most deseral areas of the city the prices have increased dramatically yeah yeah in the in the north Ward and in weake section of the South W and some areas of the West that has been a you know fairly significant disparity but that is not repres representative of the entire city yes and so we're working to correct that thank you you will okay any other questions or comments councilman Ros yeah so so Eric the the the tax rate here does include the school and County the 3.99 6 correct yes okay and and what what is that you said the increase is three and a half% over last year that's what I saw in the chart is that well it's not finalized my expectation is the estimated bill is going to go out with a three and a half% increase well it's go out with 3996 which which is going to reflect about that that's now I expect it's going to be closer to 4% that's my expectation this doesn't factor in the the issue that that we have with Equalization and what that deficit number could be you know the the the money that's payable to the county and how you're going to kind of figure that out with the state yeah it well when you say it doesn't Factor it in um that's a that's a fair point I don't have that that has not been finalized working on that's not in this number it is not okay all right so three and a half% based on where we are right now not including the additional money that may be owed to the county and how the city's going to pay for it that is right but I still think that we're going to keep that at a relatively minimal level uh given what we're doing now working with the state and how our budget office and finance is working on that so I still think we'll be in a good shape and I'm prepared to give updates uh regularly I hope I'll get the budget to the council very soon we're waiting since April yeah and to councilman council's point is you know the later this budget is presented to to the council you know you you're talking about you know requiring departments to make Cuts or you know it's a few months left in the year so proportionally you're not going to be able to really benefit much from some of these Cuts because you're doing it so late in the year that's true well that's why we're taking some steps right now in anticipation of uh uh what will uh ultimately be the budget so yes your point is well taken any other questions all right thank you Mr ba you're welcome thank you next item 7 r5a through 7 r5e are all contracts with subrecipients to provide Ryan White HIV health and support services A is for AIDS Resource foundation for children B is for future Bridge Business Solutions C is hian AIDS Foundation D is Nork Beth Israel Medical Center and E is New Jersey a Services doing business as Edge New Jersey questions or comments regarding these items CA 7R 6A is the companion resolution for the container ordinance which is going to be deferred okay 7R 6B through 7R 6K are Professional Services contracts for the Law Department B is for the consent decree litigation matters C is workers compensation matters D is civil litigation matters e is labor matters f is civil litigation matters G is civil litigation matters H is labor matters I are labor matters J civil litigation matters and K civil litigation matters okay any questions regarding the law Department's items CNN 7 r8a is supporting Airport Service workers supporting Airport Service workers for increased salary wages and benefits sponsored by council president MC Iver second by councilman Kelly any questions CNN next item 7 r8b is ceremonial Street designation for the Newark kns motorcycle club sponsored by councilman canana there's an amendment on the floor council president council members the changes the date from Saturday June 15 to June 22 and it's seconded by councilman councel counc I didn't second it matter of fact mam chair I'm G to ask that it be deferred oh okay M president yes uh I respect the councilman's uh wish to defer but uh there is other streets within the city of Newark that like the tribe Masters there there is a group this group has been in the city for over 30 some years and to defer it it would be just uh they're preparing uh the former uh Police director Sheila CI who's the president of the New York Knights the nework knights have done a lot of work in this city uh and they have been just like the tri Masters and other groups motorcycle groups so I I cannot def I I will not defer this because with all respect to the councilman um streets are just sometimes when people come before us and say can you dedicate something a street on people who have in nework uh we grant that wish Prim Masters we did the same on Barona and and Broadway um so I would say we take a vote uh and and see what what we go but I I'm not going to get into a tassel of a street when this is a a a petition by the New York Knights who said can we get this done like every other group within the city they have been at the trases event and they said can we get the same so again it's I would like to just place you know tomorrow if whe whether it goes up or down and and see where it goes okay do noted any comments um yes councilwoman Scott rree I'm not sure I know that um as a as an this is just me speaking as an at large person that there's not much I do without speaking to the ward council people just to make sure that we don't end up in meetings like this having this discussion so um I I don't know whether Council men uh Council had that discussion with councilman canana however we myself and councilman Crump we're going to have to find a way to uh let the public know that we have been working on a process for Street dedications there is an application that is on its way to legal right now for them to review within the next 24 hours um today is a very busy day it would have been probably a month ago but we've been really inated because there has to be a process for Street dedications um and and people we know we are friends of North Knights let me be clear um we love them we love the work that they've done they do a lot of community work and they have been around a very long time I just believe that there should have been a little bit more discussion because I don't want to be um in the seat that I'm in as at large to take the um initiative to do something without the conversation with South Ward North Ward West Ward or east ward council people before I go forward so um I'm going to um just ask and that we follow the process and have a discussion about Street dedications before we go forward with the ward people that we're going into those WS for um at least they will know if they choose to defer it's not like we did not have the discussion but it's a courtesy and to look at the process because I have people coming to me asking me to name streets because their family member might have been a teacher for five years well we've got a whole lot of teachers in the city of nework which means you going to run out of street blocks just because of teachers so there's got to be a process and if actually I could make the recommendation which will never fly so it's not going to be but if we put a cost on people's names being on a block for the next 45 or 50 years I'm sure we wouldn't get as many requests um depending upon what that fee might be so we're going to try to keep it people Centric and people friendly and fair to the constituents that have given commit made commitments and done things but there's got to be more than a process than just a request and right now you either got to be 85 or dead I don't even know what the organizations um in the ordinance I'm going to go back to look and see what ordinances say regarding which I've read it just to deal with the 85 or dead or 80 or dead so that we need to go back and look at by the way I'm the author of that changing of that 85 80 years wa not 8580 and I'm the author of that uh situation because we have had a lady by named ramonita Rivera who deserve that and sometimes people deserve to smell the flowers while they're alive that's why but this is but this is an entity not an individual right this is an entity that's been around 30 some years or plus within the city of nework who have do done toy drives different events and what they're doing in their anniversary they want to do something in recognition of what they have done and marking the mark in the city that they have lived and the City they have worked so that's simple in no disrespect to the councilman of of the of the southw no disrespect to no one it is a petition that was requested I I I again want to say this uh we don't I don't want to take too much time Madam president discussing this but I I Let It Go as the vote has to be taken place M Madam chair I'm sorry before we go let's just bring ourselves back together okay because we got agenda still on and we got presentations before everybody get up and run out of here on me we got presentations but let's do this councilman G Gonzales councilman Kelly and then councilman Council go ahead yes I believe that let say the intent when this legislation legislated body was created is that the the Council of the W has should have some difference but I don't think that the councilman of the war should have veto power over over any kind of legislation I believe that's why you have the council people of the Ws and four councilman at large so that if there is a let's say an item that needs to be approved the four councilmen at large can interfere and and vote for the item so that any discussion or any animosity between councilman of the word can be resolved so I I don't think I believe that we should give Defence to the to the person of the W but not beat or power over any kind of legislation okay thank you Council McKelly I I agree with with councilman rry that there should be a process there should be a price I mean any Walk of Fame anywhere you know it's not really a age thing but people have to pay a ticket to get their name and you know cemented in history right and I think that there um like councilwoman rry said if there was a certain price tag attached to it there will be less people trying to get certain names you know and there's been mistakes made right there's been there's been drug dealers who've got their names on city blocks in the city of nework um I think that the the ward councilman should have difference should have uh enough say so because they frequent those blocks they frequent those areas they frequent those communities you know more so as of right now than than um at larges so I and like councilwoman rry said I love nework Knights my cousin is in nework Knights um and I think they've done amazing work in the city of nework but we also got to remember that there was a murder you know that happened um in that Community with that organization and I think that you have to ask the community are they even healed from that yet before we go throwing their name up on signs around Community he councilman Council yeah I mean I definitely respectful to what councilman Kelly just said and you know all all due respect to to councilman canana right it it it is about difference and respect right I I didn't know anything about this until it it showed up on the agenda right there was no conversation I mean if we wanted to you know bring all of this out you know that's being Mindful and respectful right the organization that that he spoke about trinit they're not in the southw there no uh name of any organization that is listed in the South Ward and to do this even if you do it before name in a block after the international Youth Organization that was run by James and carollyn Wallace or other prominent organizations would be kind of factious in a backs slap without having that kind of conversation with the ward councilman about what has happening and what is occurring and so that's why we ask for a simple deferment so that you can be able to have this kind conversation but to allude to allow a vote to go on is is in a sense to me kind of causes uh division uh amongst the the body to allow something to happen when we could have had a deferment and conversation about some of the uh things that even councilman Kelly has just brought up about healing in that Community uh about instances and incidents that have happened around that place right which is still traumatic to a lot of people uh that's why there's some velopment that is happening around there and just a conversation uh about what's going on and that is what we've been doing I'm not against the nework knights but we've been working vly with them to try to get them engaged with the community again so when we talk about people doing community service in a community because you do community service it doesn't necessarily have to be in the community right and so we have to be uh uh uh ensured that what we are doing is prudent it's pragmatic and it shares the total vision around that area especially that Springfield Avenue area District 4 where there are a lot of community members who are in that area who are still trying to work and get through some of the issues and challenges that they're having over there right so you know I'm not I'm not sure about you know the the whole contention uh of where that is but when we have conversations with each other right it makes things much better thank you uh councilman Council um councilman Crump and prayerfully that's the final one I I'm sorry council president I just feel a need to say a few things uh number one I think it's it's it's becomes problem and this is not just for this is not a trike Masters I mean not trike Masters a uh nor Knights concern my my concern is two things number one naming an organization a street after an organization doing that opens up a whole Pandora's box of a lot of things I've had churches come to me and ask for their streets being named and I said no because our ordinance does not allow that it it doesn't allow us to name uh organizations it just is allows us to name people so one that that to me that's problematic number two is I I believe there is a difference between deference and disrespect and I think as a councilman at large I would never go into a ward council and and do a street education in the east in the North in the South Central West without a convers and I'm from the West I inan South excuse me I like the West too but without having that conversation when I do this when I did my mother's Street dedication I talked to councilman Council first uh I didn't just put it on the agenda so I I think it becomes an an issue with with the conversation not being had and I give pause to doing to voting for this one not because it is uh nor kns but because of the process that we're not following and because and well because of the process in general and that's my feeling okay thank you so much councilman Crump I'm happy we had that fruitful conversation I just want to remind everyone here again that we have presentations after this so don't y'all try to get up and leave me after you took your time talking about this today okay we want to be clear um I think one I I definitely agree we we've been talking about Street dedications and everybody knows it's it's definitely like a Hot Topic all the time but I think we should go back to what we said over a year ago about creating a committee to be able to address Street dedications like it should go through a review process and I know councilman Crump and councilwoman Scott rry and I believe councilman Quintana was working on that so Madame clerk if you can try to help them pull that back together and get some you know Concrete Solutions around it I think it will help so much around just communication um to be able to talk to one another because that is the basis of this this conversation today so with that being said there's a um a a motion on the floor for councilman Council to defer it do I have a second second by councilman Kelly all right next item 7 r8c is waving special event application permit fees for the brown Mill anniversary block party sponsored by council president mcgyver questions or comments do I have a second second second by councilman Crome next item 7 r8d is Professional Services contracts for our election attorneys questions or comments regarding this item seeing none 7 r8e is recognizing and commending resolutions and 7 r8f is expressing profound sorrow and regret any questions comments c 7 r10a is acceptance of Grant funds for the 2021 recycling tonage Grant questions or comments cnna Communications 8A is an ordinance granting a 30-year tax abatement to 746 765 South 14th Street urban renewal LLC for a project to construct three town home style buildings consisting of 30 market rate residential rental units eight affordable housing rental units in the South Ward questions or comments C 8D is an ordinance granting a 25-year tax abatement to ADL 605-607 broad urban renewal LLC for a project to construct 84 residential rental units consisting of 71 market rate residential rental units 13 affordable housing rental units of which four units shall be restricted to tenants at 40% of area Med medium income Ami four units shall be restricted to tenants at 60% Ami and five units shall be restricted to tenants at 80% Ami in the central Ward questions or comments CNN 8 C is an ordinance amending title 23 traffic chapter 15 stop intersections by designating 14th Avenue and South 6th Street as a multi-way stop sign intersection in the W questions or comments okay councilman Kelly Wishes the sponsor do I have a second second by councilwoman Round Tree okay next item that concludes the agenda we have several added starters but they are um in various stages of preparedness so I'm just going to announce the department and they can explain okay hold on one second let me just get my notes together okay all right let's do it let's talk about the ones that are ready let's start there okay so there's one from the Law Department regarding the office of administration item 24- 0854 which is a memorandum of agreement to provide the New Jersey Department of military and veteran services with office space to serice service veterans oh this is wonderful yes this is councilwoman uh Scott round tre's efforts okay councilwoman do you want to talk a little bit about it for the rest of your colleagues yes thank you I'm council president for several years we've had an a nonfunctioning um Veterans office but uh the council people I know my office uh get a lot of requests after they've gone to 33 Washington Street For assistance with veterans they have a lot of Rights they have um some things that they're not aware of so so thanks be to God we've been provided with um a staff member that will not be taken out of the city's budget to work in that office a veteran service officer along with an administrative assistant uh to work in that office to assist there will be a soft opening prayerfully um if everything goes well on June 12th for individuals to uh realize that the city of nework now has an Office of Veterans for Veterans Services veterans resource office myself and councilman Ramos serve as the uh committee for veteran services so I'll be forwarding all of this information to him in regards to the memorandum uh that was just uh actually uh cleaned up to make sure that there's no liability to the city uh for this office to be here nor are these individuals that will be working of course my staff and those there will be a couple of volunteers that already have veterans um services available to them that will come in um to work in that office but I want to thank um assemblywoman Cleo Tucker and her efforts as the one who represents veterans across this state uh for the state of New Jersey for actually pulling me in some years ago not knowing I'd be chairing of the committee for the New York Council not even knowing I'd be a council woman at that time so this is going to be something good for the City of New York where they'll have a One-Stop shop they could come into City Hall and get the services or the information and they won't just be given an application and said go fill it out and bring it back someone will actually be there to help them fill out their services or get the services that they need whether it's regarding trauma whether it's regarding taxes whatever those needs are we will be able to provide them right here in this building from 9 to 4 Monday through Friday thank you council president that is great and councilwoman if you can send that out to um all of us um the whole Council that'll be great and kudos to you and councilman Ramos on this I know that we used to have office a long time ago and bringing this back is really excellent and um with an agreement that we don't have to pay for staff and that's even great so that that's wonderful thank you so much any other questions all right next added starter second one under Administration is 24- 0841 oh wait 24- 0841 okay and this is an extension of emergency contract for temporary housing services okay someone here to talk about that good morning good morning council president council members uh lisis arario director of the mayor's office of homeless Services uh this is the um we hope the final uh extension of the Declaration that was issued last year uh this extension will allow our office to award formally the contracts to the vendor that are listed here uh and also uh you know give us more time to finalize the long-term plan for the Riviera Hotel um we are working really hard on you know um finalizing a plan that will take us moving forward on creating a space there long term for our residents and also finding different ways to of course lessen the cost burden to the city okay so which vendors you mentioned is multiple vendors that are t to the tell us which ones cuz we don't have it in front of us oh I'm sorry oh yeah we don't have it it's that's why it's the added starter okay I apologize for that uh so the vendors are newly destined who uh newly destined they're located on Broad Street okay uh they're a smaller shelter uh and then you have the uh the owners of the reier hotel which is 169 Clinton development urban renewal just number two on this list here and the part partner that provides uh Supportive Services Catholic Charities number four is real house uh that provides uh beds for women United Community corporation that provides beds for women and men number six is the YMCA of norc uh located on bra street as well um and finally helping the homeless that also provides beds for women and men and they're located on on Broadway okay questions or comments from Council Members councilman Council yes um council president I know at some point you you requested a a conversation around the issue about Supportive Services uh in all of these kind of facilities which I think it it is needed and so we just want to figure figure out the date when that when that needs to happen because there are a lot of conversations uh and questions that I have about Supportive Services and the need of Supportive Services and I think it will go a long way and and helping to uh get these shelters to understand that they're not just placement centers but they have a role and responsibility of getting people uh trained for employment out for Job Services mental health uh uh uh counseling and a plethora of things where you know if we do these things then some of the concerns or complaints that we are hearing on a daily basis we may not be getting uh because we're trying to make our community responsible and accountable again for uh what needs to be happening at some of these places are any of these vendors here today yes um for the Rivier Hotel I did ask uh Catholic Charities and Property Management to to come here before you to present okay on what they're doing so we'll hear from them there I think they're part of the presentation part right clerk we don't have any of our yellow sheets my apology well because it's not a special I guess right that's why we don't have it okay I'm sorry it's okay um any other questions regarding these this item councilman Ramos how many beds total will you be able to secure through the emergency uh well in total right now we're managing just under 800 beds across the in this contract I mean uh with this one here is a total of uh let see here I do not have that in front of me I'm sorry I you can just send that over before tomorrow yeah I can do that today okay any other questions as mentioned uh Catholic Charities is here today regarding some of the questions that we've been getting regarding in the project management I guess is here from um Catholic charity so we'll be hearing from them um today so okay thank you Louis if there's no other questions next item um Economic Development has added starters the first one is 24- 0742 which is a private sale Redevelopment an agreement to to subordinate the city of new's reverter Rights by entering to a First Amendment to the agreement for the sale and Redevelopment of land and a subordination agreement in order to permit the redeveloper to obtain financing okay Deputy Mayor yes uh you give us the legar number again yes it's um 24- 0742 okay it's um this is a subordination agreement request the developer who purchased the land um has a loan from popular bank and popular bank is asked that we subordinate uh for the financing so the project can start construction uh the reason why we're requesting an added starter is that we had started this file some time ago and pre-planned so it's been advertised for tomorrow and so that's why we're requesting the consideration what's the what's the address oh yes it's 2-24 Mount Pleasant it's in the north Ward okay any questions or comments from Council Members council member nework Interfaith [Music] oh yeah this was approved the the city sold property to this group I don't know how many years ago like what what's happening with that with that site are they waiting for this agreement in order for them to build uh yes so the developers needed to get financing so the financing now has been secured by and popler bank is going to provide the funding for the project and so the request is to do the subordination so that they can get their construction loan and start construction how many years ago did we sell that property to to the group I would have to check but I want to say it was over a year ago oh definitely over a year ago what what are we subordinating oh the reverter Clause okay okay uh any other questions Cena next added starter file 24- 0839 is a need for housing project to determine whether proposed project meets an existing need in the South Ward this project um is a Spring View Development Group um the project is uh applying for New Jersey hmfa financing and there's a deadline that they need to submit the resolution of need to New Jersey hmfa so the request is so that they can compete for 9% tax credits what's the address oh um the address is 559 - 569 Springfield Avenue in the South Ward okay any other questions regarding this item I do want to say do you have other items up here that have the same dilemma with the funding yes okay good if you could explain a little bit I mean I heard about it this morning in detail I think I got a dissertation on it but can you explain to the rest of the council The Dilemma at the state level um regarding these you know HMF funds sure um um thanks council president so I apologize I also didn't State my name for the record Alison lad director of Economic and Housing Development uh so two of our added starters the one that you just heard and also another one which is 24- 0798 um this one is for a project at uh 297 Clinton Avenue which is at the corner of Clinton and Stratford and both projects are um competing for 9% low-income housing tax credits um the New Jersey housing Mortgage and Finance Agency does competitive rounds annually and their deadlines are strict and so the reason for us requesting the added starter is so that the two applicants can meet the deadlines and apply and compete for 9% tax credits and create 100% affordable housing projects in the city yes okay can you give me the leg start number on the Clinton Avenue one yes ma'am uh 24- 0798 okay any questions comments yes Council M Gonzalez what's the deadline for the for the to apply the 20th I believe it is the the deadline is in July yeah but it's before our next meeting June June 20th I believe it is I apologize oh we have to submit sorry forgive me um I had to get a little assistance there uh so the applications are due um for financing by the end of June but then there's further information that has to be submitted in July so the reason for this uh resolution of need is for us to be able to um have them at least considered for the full application process and as you know we're in summer months summer schedule um so the reason for the added starter um okay is there another item yes ma'am okay we have one additional added starter which is 23-1 1335 um this is a 30-year tax abatement for Wesley Towers which is located in the North Ward it is 279 affordable housing rental units for seniors located at starter is that we'd like to really move ahead with this tax incentive has been under consideration for many years um over the last six months maybe a little bit longer we've been working with the applicant to resolve some taxation questions um that was one major outstanding um item we needed to resolve and then the second item was related to um the request that the administration is making for it to be retroactive the retroactive Nature has been uh considering a that's allowed through um a legal opinion that we received and the reason for it in this case it's it's Unique and it's occupied and seniors are currently living there there is a hap contract on the property and we want to maintain the affordability for the project and not negatively impact the operations all right questions or comments councilman Ramos yeah uh thank you um um Madame President and and to the deputy mayor I know they've been working on this for quite some time this is probably the largest senior building that I have in the ward U close to 300 affordable units and um many of those units need investment desperately you know you have leaks that are coming in through the front windows the kitchens are outdated and um I believe that the request for the extension on the abatement is going to allow the owner to to make the Investments that they need to rehab those units so I was just in the building last week and um you know many of the tenants there were aware that this was potentially going to happen and that their Apartments were going to get fixed at some point and I know they've been waiting for about five years and I'm sure it's a very complicated process as to why it took so long um but I would ask through your chair Madam president if I can sponsor this if it if it does make it on the agenda second okay uh sponsored by councilman Ramos second by councilman Gonzalez any other questions I mean I have a a plethora of questions from the um tax abatement committee uh about what has been happening and transpiring with this I don't know if we want to get into the exhaustiveness of it you know today with with with with more than happy you know more than welcome councilman Council to so one one of the issues and and not just that you know that the property May uh need to to be renovated and and definitely upon what uh councilman ryos has said um and and given respect to the building I'm very familiar with the uh the building being one of the monitors of it during uh covid but some of the issues is one uh this these folks have already had a tax abatement for over 50s something years in the city um which do you know they the law provides and then they've taken um you know other names of entities and begin to transfer those names over on the same documentation it was a process where they had owed the city $634,000 that the city waved their interest and fees around uh all of these costs uh back in the day they additionally got an extension of a five-year tax abatement addition of another uh three-year uh tax abatement uh and also um they still owe us $1.4 million that they have not paid us um and there are several other entities not just this one uh that are not meeting their obligation as it relates to paying uh their tax abatement pieces I've asked for that information uh to be forwarded uh but to ask for uh retro uh I think is is is harming and damaging I don't I don't uh foresee if you move forward without the Retro component to be able to do that but to uh ask for a retro uh tax abatement um I think it it is dangerous and I think we've done uh way over our part with due diligence based off of factual information right it is a fact that they've had a a 50e tax abatement since uh uh the duration of time is a fact that we wave interest and fees for them on $634,000 that they've owned um it it's a fact that we've given them additional uh tax abatements and uh these individuals went to the county uh and indicated that the city was giving them a tax abatement when we did not uh so that they can be able to you know stay listed on a road so that was unfavorable uh to what they have done uh some some of these issues should have been worked out and should continue to been worked out uh in uh the uh abatement committee before they came to the floor but there is an exhaustive amount of you know issues surrounding us especially with individuals who reach the 50-year capacity of a tax abatement and uh know that they cannot go any further based off of of the law and then take other entities and names of other individuals and then ask for an extension of a tax abatement we should be lery uh about that information um and and and what's happening uh with that I don't know how you know we're going to uh you know move further with it but I'm not in favor of giving someone a retroactive tax abatement I said it in in the committee and I'll and I'll say it out here publicly uh it is dangerous it sets a bad precedence uh and with all of the detail and factual information about what is happening here uh and knowing that uh those individuals at at Wesley Towers need that help and care that uh these folks should be better Partners to what is happening um over there because that that is uh you know a a building that um you know as the councilman says um has a a large amount of you know residents in there that that are living um you know lowincome and and moderate uh but there are too many extensive things uh that have been floated out about this uh project that we should have been put our hand on and stopped and I'm I'm I'm sort of um you know taking a back that we're trying to you know move this thing forward especially this retro piece uh which is which is really you know um pounding pounding and pounding on on what our role and responsibility is as you know caretakers and fiary agents um and even to you know hear um from some of our folks that we have hired to represent us as Council but is you know leaning and working towards you know other type of vices which is uh you know uh lary as well but I just want all of us to take and concern all all of these uh things that uh this company has already exhausted the maximum amount of tax abatements they can get they're over 50s something years old uh they still owe us $1.4 million that have not been remedied or fixed and we're still uh awaiting that because we did pay for their uh school taxes and County taxes that we did not get uh you know uh money for and so I'm I'm still looking for the 1.4 1.5 million from there uh and removal of this uh you know retroactive cost and and then be able to move on from there because I I I know that you know the councilman you know this build is is De to him but there is so many other things that if you walk into we're not going to be able to come back out of Madam president councilman Ramos yeah and you know I I hear some of the concerns councilman Council raised I I I I do believe that the um Deputy Mayor can address some of the resolutions that they made you know the bottom line This is a 100% affordable project uh we've done uh extensions of abatements on on affordable projects in order to allow the owners to make the Investments that they need to make especially as it relates to senior housing and casamia is one example where they renovated every apartment they put brand new elevators and the new owners came before us to seek an extension on the abatement to secure the affordability of that project you know norc is in a crisis when it comes to affordability seniors are are most affected by the affordability crisis uh you know we should be very passionate about when we sell properties at $4 a square foot and there then there is no affordability requirement attached to those property sales here you have a building that houses more than 500 seniors most of them on fixed incomes and you're going to threaten the affordability of that project because of um you know some concerns regarding the extension of the abatement which is going to allow the owner to invest money in that building okay council president um I will try to respond to some of the comments made I did not hear a direct question but I will try to respond to some of the comments made so um first uh following immediately following the tax abatement committee meeting that was held in the fall the administration um by that I mean economic and Housing Development submitted volumes of information to the tax abatement committee around all of the questions that were asked during the tax abatement committee uh we didn't followed up a second time uh regarding that same information as it was clarified and as the applicant was working on it and that included payments that were due to the city and included the affordability and included uh the renovations that were expected included what happens to the project if the abatement is not considered and is not retroactive um which would mean that the project would not be affordable and would not be able to um get any Renovations and so we did submit that information to the tax abatement committee so I want to make sure that's clear and on the record that we did follow up as the committee requested so that we could answer all of the questions that were asked during that meeting um second the reason for the um request for extension um and which has been discussed with our business administrator and our Council and so we do have um a legal opinion that allows it is that this project has been as people have stated happening for five years the approval process took an inordinate amount of time and it was many people people's responsibilities to make it go faster and everybody who was at re involved with this project knows what their responsibility is from the developer to the developers attorney to the City Hall to economic and Housing Development we all know what our role was and that we could have done better to help make an affordable housing project move more quickly so in that conversation we are requesting the retroactive piece because we believe that is a joint responsibility it was jointly uh issue which we could have resolved sooner and we did not and we were not able to third on the taxes we did work with the ba along with our special taxes our tax collector and tax assessor especially over the last 30 days to resolve that issue here is the resolution um there has been uh over $400,000 payment made for um 2024's payment due um that is now being held until the consider of this tax abatement is resolved if the consideration Is Res if the tax abatement is approved then that $400,000 plus payment is sufficient to resolve the tax amount due second if the tax abatement is not approved and not approved retroactively the developer will pay the additional $1.5 million that's due to the city uh because the tax abatement was not approved so those two things have been agreed upon it is stipulated actually in the legistar file I know you haven't seen that yet but it will be in your file soon um but it is stated by both the tax assessor and the tax collector that that is the statement that they are comfortable with to resolve the taxes issue so um and the ba I know is here if he wanted to add additional information about that matter that taxes matter has been resolved and is cleared and gave both tax offices the Comfort to provide the certifications required to move the project the last piece I just want to say is is that um it is not unusual for projects when they uh change ownership for additional investment to occur and for tax abatements to be either extended or granted in a new form in this case it is a new ownership and we wanted to move forward to provide those Investments and um update the apartments where our seniors are currently living okay uh any followup questions yes counc coun the 400 ,000 was in L of a payment for retro so it wasn't it was them issuing money if they receive retro it it it wasn't the 1.5 that they owed us that they should have paid upfront in good faith so we had this conversation even early today with the container kind of piece when we talked about individuals who are not registering and it it is it is really confounding me that we allow uh uh folks not to be good neighbors right but then we want to try to be the best of neighbors and that we want to do everything to push Revenue away from the city instead of attracting Revenue into the city right so hence we have to uh put stuff on the taxpayers that now they're going to have to uh at some point uh pay more in their taxes but we want to give somebody a retro tax abatement then at some point we want to make sure that these container holders and individuals are good neighbors and responsible for helping the city to generate Revenue we have to figure out what it is right uh across the board regardless of where we are where we stand and and to say that you know um someone who wants to change a company or do something and who only takes the names of family members and push it over on another document and say that it's a new company because they know that after 50 years you can't extend the tax abatement or get nothing else but you have to do it I'm I'm not you know in in regard to say that's wrong or right for the condition of the building but then you know because we always use people as the product to to to get what what what it is that we want so in this case you know those uh poor individuals that live in this facility are are being utilized to uh get to the end result of what someone else needs but it's still not in the best interest of the direction of the city right and so the 400,000 that is waiting that downstairs on hold for something doesn't preclude the 1.5 million that these individuals still owe us because of the money that we've already paid into property uh school taxes County taxes it doesn't preclude the fact that we've been good good stewards to them when they owed the city $634,000 to wave their interest and fees and to allow them to work out a payment plan and then to extend uh abatement after abatement that now they're at 55 years and they still haven't shown any kind of payment and good faith and we're at a decision where you're asking this body to to do something that's unprecedented there's never been a vote in in this entire body where someone has voted on a retroactive tax abatement counc pres so let's so let's I'm so sorry that's a fact I'm so sorry because once again we are going on 12:00 and we still have two presentations and public comment so let's do this it's on the floor it's going to be considered tomorrow folks have to you have to vote your conscience on what you want to do okay that is the bottom line Let It Go for a vote if you want to support a retroactive tax abatement and whatever whatever do that tomorrow but we're not going to sit here and have an hour debate and this is no disrespect to anybody I think everyone's pleaded their case talked about their um you know their stance on it we understand but we can't spend another 35 minutes y'all to go back and forth about this it's up for vote not unless someone is saying something different vote your conscience on it tomorrow like that's really that simple I mean I don't like we can't do this councilman Ramos I just want to say that we routinely vote for abatements for market rate projects after those projects have been constructed after the fact you know months and years later here we're talking about a building 100% affordable senior citizens on fixing incomes and we're over here arguing over an extension of an abatement but we're willing to sell property at $4 a square foot everywhere in the city no affordability requirements at times and people don't seem to be outraged about that so I I I'll just add my little piece to it really quickly as another member on the tax abatement committee with councilman Gonzalez and councilman Council some of the things we heard during the hearing are very concerning I will say that um we heard from from you know the tax folks we heard that stuff was put out there to the county lying on the city I mean there were a lot of things that were troubling but I will say as a person representing the central Ward and I've had situations you know actually one of the largest tax brackets in the central Ward um who had lost their abatement and you know we couldn't do anything for them and then other properties that didn't have the luxury it is very concerning to cast a vote for something retroactive that's just is just my my experience how I don't is someone playing a video please can you silence your your cell phones for us please thank you so much um in my experience it's just it's very you know it's uneasy because we have other which I know I can run a list of folks that were not offered the same luxury so I'm just giving my perspective as a central W representative and folks who were underneath the same situation I think what would be helpful to us is one we should get the document to us right the backup I think two we should get the legal perspective you said that you have Deputy Mayor lad to the entire Council and then thirdly perhaps you can give us some examples of when we did this before exactly like this for other council members to consider to take a look at at other entities we've G given the same opportunity to um you know as this particular project that might could be able to help council members individually you know decide what they're going to do tomorrow in terms of supporting this okay and then also too those projects that have requested such like this that were not granted the same um opportunity understood all righty thank you so much that was the last added starter unfortunately not oh Jesus okay so the law department has file number 24- 0852 which is a license agreement for the installation and maintenance of food lockers on city property okay essentially uh uh shoppr has been given an opportunity to get a grant for $250,000 that would allow uh the folks in the city of norc to have the opportunity to use the food lockers it would be installed at the shiny baraca Center they will wave the fees for people when they're going through that process I think it's very very important okay any questions regarding that item councilman Crump just try to just to understand um when you say wave the fees what are the fees that would be associated with that so essenti the I don't know the details of what the feeds are supposed to be but it won't cost the community anything the grant pays for the installation the grant pays for anything that comes with that process so normally when people have to go to Food lockers throughout the state there's some type of like agreement and a fund that comes with it the state is going to pay for all of that but basically this is a this is a added starter to accept the grant yes okay accepting the grant F what's the Fe I'm sorry shop right is accepting the grant shopright has already been given the opportunity to do it this is going to allow them to install Lockers in The Shining Baraka Center the grant was for $250,000 so there's no cost to the city no cost at all okay councilman Kelly you had a question regarding this item yes um I think that's a um a great thing that shot right is able to get the grant um but the westw is a food desert as well will this have the opportunity is it just for the shiny Baraka Center or will is for a shop right so I mean will shop right shop right will shop right just be putting Lockers in the shiny baraca Center exhausting the entire $250,000 Grant right or is it availability to come to the West H so essentially what happens is the Food Locker Grant is per district for lack of better words so essentially if as I mentioned to you earlier if there is a vendor that wants to apply for the grant to have the same opportunity in the west w they can go through the process and have the same opportunity and to be in a location hopefully Central for the folks within the community so so that means that the the entire $250,000 Grant yes will be spread around to per applicant no no no it's 250 250 what have you understood it might be helpful if we can get the backup certainly any the information for each Council to um understand it certainly all right is that the last added starter unfortunately not oh my God is this one more file 24- 0816 is a bid contract for the rehabilitation of the panic aqueducts man we're we're really over the limit yeah we're over the limit so right now it's like a begging session right now because we we over the five I mean well we have some council members that are sponsoring it so one we have councilwoman round tree has when you know our y y'all know our rule is so I I mean everybody looking at me like sad it's the same thing it ain't just different today so I just want to be clear on that we do have councilman rainow taking one out as well um so that's another one but I mean we're over the threshold what what are we doing here but you know what let me take that back today is election day you know it's a blessed day we woke up and plus we know that the deputy mayor gave us the information regarding the Dilemma we have at the state so maybe we can be a little bit more courteous based off the situation that we have going on with the state and we need to get those 9% tax credits so perhaps we can allow yours director Dean so why don't you tell us a little bit about it council president council members good morning thank you uh this is a uh federally federal and state funded project to do Rehabilitation on our twin aqueducts they're 140 years old this is Phase One of a long phase project um we were held up by the state controller it's finally released uh we're ready to put it out for bid and because of the fiscal year closes for the funding uh June 31st we need to move forward and get this on the agenda okay any questions all right looks like you're good thank you what a what a blessed day for you and make sure everybody get out and vote yesk that's right thank you thank you so much director Dean all right anything else Madam clerk I'm scared to ask that concludes all right so with that being said let's have public comment um and then we'll go into the quick updates that we have from the folks here um who want to address the council it's just too quick um I'm saying really two quick um items that are after public speaking certainly we are now in a 30 minute public comment portion of this meeting where each speaker will have three minutes to speak please state your name for the record is there anyone wishing to address the council good good morning it's still morning wow okay de sal to the city of North worri for the people um I want to address a couple things um first of all happy birthday to uh councilwoman round Tre and um so there's been yet two more deaths at 516 Bergen Street in New York the the jamesc White Manor um and with all of these repairs and people are dying left and right like what are we doing people what are we doing and I'm speaking to you at larg because the only at large I ever see work in these streets is councilwoman round what the rest of you are doing I have no idea um and nor does the rest of the people so it's election day and to those of you who are saying you're tired of the regular same old things that's going on what you have a chance today to make a difference um Amir Jones is Leroy Jones's son who is the Democratic State chair who was the regular chair and I'll ask you what has he done for us what have they done for you lately that's what I want to know and if you have no measurable facts of the benefits of these people governing your lives it's time to do something different so I say Gary Nash for Essex County Sheriff um 30 years of experience and a lot of other things uh M Jones is the unders Sheriff interestingly enough the unders sheriff is the one who directs the day-to-day operations for our safety and there have been too many times with the sheriffs who have very cushy jobs that people are recklessly driving through the parks while they're sitting there talking they're profiling us every fifth car um trying to have a conversation so if this is what we are receiving as him being the undersheriff what will we receive as him being the sheriff you can like who you want to like but it's the one who gets the job done okay that is what we need to start looking at what is benefiting our quality of life stop picking the same people because you were told to what is your quality of life you hold it in your own hands so the two and three% of you that are voting the same way all the time do you not see our living conditions and let me also address the the uh these scooter boys that I told you all about last time um who are terrorizing our neighborhoods someone told them it's okay to loiter outside where we live it's not okay and you all need to get on that because uh councilman uh Sila East W is out of control our streets are dirty disgusting and these guys are doing whatever they want had to call a cop several times my neighbors had to call the cop several times I've text you pictures I've sent you information nothing is being done if we have to regulate it ourselves what do we need you for we are doing the work ourselves so elect those who are going to protect you and give you what you need stop voting the same way thank you Miss Salters I do want to bring up one thing I mean I'm not going to get into like who you voting for because that's not our thing here we're not like having a session about voting and who you should go out to vote for who you support we're just telling you to go out to vote we don't that's not the dialogue here even though people like to come here and use this as sometimes as a rally for elections we're we're not having that discussion here in the chambers but I do want to bring up the comment about the scooters and about the food delivery folks we really need to take a look at that with Public Safety and the law department and even your department uh business administrator because we do have and and this is not just nor let be clear because sometimes when you go over and you're walking in other towns and you're in New York having a good time paying $100 for parking and doing everything over there um they have a lot of folks who are gathered outside of eer too and we're starting to see it here in the city where folks are gathered out on the scooters in front of entities and some of these entities have residents that live on the top or it just it's just dangerous altogether because of these big scooters that are outside so we need to link with Public Safety and legal and VA to talk about what we can do what we can regulate in terms of that because that is a a high issue right now as you know food delivery continues to you know be popular and folks are ordering so it's it's all over the city and definitely all over other municipalities as well so if we can get some followup to that to the entire Council um regarding that all right thank you next speaker good afternoon George Tillman um what was kind of on display today is indicative of how important the newk Employment Commission is because exactly what happened today is the reason why this this commission is so important because these things what happened today with councilman Council giv a report card on these developers is what's supposed to be done all the time but it's done by the new Employment Commission that oversees these tax abatements before they come before this board for to be voted on so you shouldn't have this discrepancy going on during the vote because it's very important to have this report card because yes someone that owes us money and has not complied on a tax abatement should not be granted another under any circumstances whether is affordable housing or not because that developer has no respect for nework residents they have not ever hired new residents to comply with the ordinance and did not even pay for the abatement when they had the abatement this goes on has this process as we talk about let me just back up because we talk you talked about a lot you talked about how a process that is not being followed councilman Crum processes are very important and if they're not follow we come to this chaos this is chaos this is not our government following the law when the law is followed we don't have chaos we don't have confusion things are followed through a process and you're absolutely right councilman counsel I I I applaud you today for the way you were very adamant about the way this tax abatement should not go forth and the reason why it shouldn't under no circumstances under that report card you're absolutely right so I hope that we've learned a lot today about the importance of this commission that we've been discussing because there's a process the law is not being enacted under this right here that's why we're here talking about these tax abatements and it's not just the tax abatements it's economic in all of them under this scrutiny so what happened today should not happen tomorrow there should not be a vote tomorrow on your your your uh what did she say I want to use that word your conscious it's not a conscious decision it's the law what the law states is this right should this tax abatement go forth under this report card thank you you thank you Mr Tillman next speaker good morning Miss mapson good morning good morning DEA mapson Newark first let me apologize um today's election day I went out to vote so I was late um I usually get here way before um council meeting start so um for the directors that are here and assistant directors and law enforcement and AIDS we all love each other so all the highs and the hugs was a bit loud okay moving on councilman Ramos thanks again um for your question at one of the council meetings um LS said that we had 700 beds in the city or a little over now he's saying 800 or a little over um I'd appreciate a good number I think we would all um appreciate a good number um for that so it's good to see Catholic Charities here um in Property Maintenance I was hoping they would talk first um so you know we can hear what they have to say and then address it during public comment but I signed up for tomorrow's council meeting and although I wanted to address some comments about our chief um Mary Baraka who I love I'm in full support of him I may have to take some of that time depending on um what's being said here today I'm also happy to see Sanders I don't know him personally but I guess he does security at the building um I've gotten a lot of complaints you know you get one complaint from a woman it could be isolated you get another one okay maybe but when you get two three four five and six we got a problem um so uh women are being spoken down to women are being harassed some bad comments are being made um to them um some of it is recorded um so I do want to hear what you know he's going to come up and talk about as well um but that's something that's that's going to be um that needs to be addressed and again you know when you have four five six possibly seven women saying the same thing Security's job is to secure the building to secure everyone in the building to be decent and be respectful and derogatory um comments and you know other unprofessional comments um should not be said um to the women in in the building so there are some people here from Rivier again this is what they wanted um I don't stop anyone from coming to talk I ask them to limit it um because you know there's other business on the council but I know yesterday I came in for a meeting the meeting was postponed I went up to council chambers just to check in on you guys I was there three hours um I was bombarded with people coming up to me needing help A lot of the AIDS was there's Miss mapson go talk to Miss mapson I'm not going to refuse anyone um and there's a lot of lot of issues going on in terms of um the need and this why it's so important that Shelt to provided do the right thing when people come into the shelter assess them give them adequate case management all right um and help them move on to employment and apartments um thank you so much God bless you all happy birthday thank you Miss mson next speaker good afternoon Council my name is Kristopher legara my office serves as general counsel to Renaissance Towers condomini Association over on mberry Street uh the reason I'm here today is because a lot of the residents reached out to the board in management and uh they were concerned with the tax bill they received I believe we previously mentioned it before regarding 7R 2D a lot of the owners were hit with a varying tax bill of 300 to upwards of a thousand doll and I know you guys mentioned that it was going to be rescinded I believe so I was just seeking a little bit of clarification as to that because each owner within the Condy Association is owns their individual ual unit so I'm not I'm just seeing clarification as to whether they would fall within that one to four family uh protocol that we discussed before that that's all that's all I okay great U someone in the audience from the administration could help you and give you more information I mean there magnitude of people from the Ba's office who can be able to you know get you more information that you're looking for next speaker hi hi um Nicole gibbings I am a resident at the riv hotel and the concerns are just changing more and more and becoming redirected or unfocused on behalf of the services provided by the hotel um every level of command that I've gone through has not fulfill their position it's almost like it's cash cow because I know my residency there is paid for because of the service that I need I get no service there are no wraparound Services we hear I heard in the walkie-talkie yesterday why is EMS on site for the second time I mean there has to be a medical need if it's not for mental health what's the problem security standards in particular follows me in his vehicle and the last time that I saw him following me I was with somebody was in my car witnessed I pulled over allowed him to drive past me Then followed him to the front of the building and I said to him if you keep following me I'm gonna keep following you it's then stopped he takes pictures of me if I take pictures of him he stops once he's addressed he stops but why is he doing this we're outside of the building things are being said that we have no services for you we have no vouchers for you but yet if you don't go to your casew worker be it because of appoint are scheduling you can be discharged um if you need a roll of toilet paper unfortunately a lot of us do you have to sign for it we don't know what they allow the rules change as the days go R are R disrespect me right in front of the building manager when I asked for the pillowcases to the sheet and nothing was done the whole focus of the performance of Hotel Riviera I'm pretty sure Catholic charities does not know what their employees are doing with us I'm not about to give up my self-respect dignity any type of knowledge that I attain and everything that I do is documented videotaped voice recorded and then sent to other people because I'm not going to hold this important information um on my own to myself all we keep hearing is about long-term projects five-year plans all kind of stuff but we're here now and we're in compliance to to the level that we need to be but nobody else is held accountable for being in compliance for their positions thank you thank you next speaker you I was about to let you go speak monira El buman just uh poter information to the individuals at the hotel Rivier there's an agency that you can file a housing discrimination complaint with you could go to the New Jersey Department of Civil Rights which is on what is it 31 Clinton Street right here in nework and you also can uh file a housing complaint with the hous the uh h and also do a class action because if you think you going to keep coming up here talking to them and get a resolution we gonna keep coming here we've been doing it for almost 30 years so that's just uh a point of information for you also Pat counsel now we want our fair share for every uh agency that owe us money I just want to ask you a question did you pay Carolyn Betty shabaz her money that you owe her in that lawsuit sit there and ask yourself that question to newers I want to know what newers union members or Community advocates in their right mind that will sit up here and listen to the deputy mayor of Full Employment listen to anything he say the higher new plan was a sham the pla project labor agreement First Source hiring and the affirmative action review Council board boards and commission all are dysfunctional and useless we got commissions where are they what are they doing what are they saying ask yourself the question the housing crisis this city received over almost a billion dollars allocated to address New York housing and homeless crisis no transparency oversight breakdown or accountability from DCA or the State comproller Recycling homelessness and mismanaging home homeless dollars is baraka's Administration first and most accomplishment that's what you've been doing here recycling homeless did director lad Ras baraca and the city council I asked y'all to pay a visit up there in landlord tenant court did any of y'all visit landlord tenant court every day that they dumping people into the streets ask yourself that question hey thank you Miss punami next speaker good afternoon good afternoon I ain't very good at this type of thing so I'll just speak from the heart um listen I've been out of prison since October I did 18 years we won't get into that but you know when I got out my whole intention was to get my life together I'm 48 I'm done with the crap right so my son sent me the money for a $4,500 or $2,500 mountain bike I thought because it's they they will not let you come in there with a lighter they will not they follow dud I'm a resident there and you won't let me sit in front of the building you make me run across street how does that work but so I go to sleep at night I wake up the next morning my bike is gone now they're supposed to be locking this gate so so I thought somebody else stole it so I was going to handle that accordingly I was wrong turns out they let somebody they let the gate open all night let somebody walk out who doesn't even live there with my bike now I have no Transportation I lost a job inter job interview because I couldn't get there and they want to preach to me about policies where was that policy when my my B disappeared where was that when they got people walking around through the building going in the rooms stealing cell phones but they won't look at the cameras for that what if it's one of their cars I bet they scorched ear for that but we're not important we're human right so they got food now I understand that it's donated I got food poisoning from that sh that stuff you just Feed Us Poison like it's bad food you taste it before you know what I mean don't give us crap that anyway um the people that run this place or hire these people you could do better than the security they're going to ruin your good name that's all I want to say uh thank you so much for your comments next speaker how's it going Council how you doing good afternoon good afternoon my name is D Michael Dennis um 24 years old I'm really not from nor I'm not from Jersey at all I'm from Atlanta Georgia I came up here because I have two twin daughters I'm taking care of with my baby mother I'm not currently with her but um I had got into the uh Riviera from since last year when 224 was like uh um like shut down or whatnot for renovation and whatnot and since I've been at the Riviera I haven't gotten any help no case manager or anything like that the first time I had a case manager approach me or say anything to me like that has been this year around May around my birthday um also just had an incident I've been uh I've been um discharged because I had been attacked by my roommate and I had got uh like I said I had got kicked out but he still remains there to this day and he's way older than me they put certain people in the same room with you that shouldn't be like they if they have like a mental disorder they'll put them in somebody in a room with somebody that's stable that's trying to actually get out the situation um staff is very rude very rude it's not everybody but the main people are the the ones that actually have the power to change things those are the people that's making us feel belittle and I am one of the youngest I'm I probably am the youngest person at the Riviera and I feel the most targeted like I don't game bang I'm not a felon I might have tattoos and dress but that don't mean nothing you feel me I'm B rules I haven't had no incidents with no staff there anything like that but I just find that the things that need to be done is not being done there feel me that's all I really got to say I appreciate it thank you so much for your comments next speaker hello good morning good good afternoon my name is Barry b and I'm also a resident at the Riviera I was put out of the Riviera for a so-called threat but I'm back in the Rivier and the staff did not the staff but the people that's the supervisors that directors that run the building are extremely disrespectful they you go to them with issues and they don't address the issue they switch it to something different and then when you get an attitude you're not supposed to have the attitude you you told not to talk over me but you can talk over me that don't make no sense at all to me it whatsoever this woman Miss Tyler Milo I don't know what her job is there but it's not being done period she don't she disrespect the residence on a daily basis she downt talk people she disregards everything that someone say to her and turns it around and make it seem like we're the bad people when no one's disrespecting her and I hear it in day in and day out yesterday example there was an issue with a young man in room 301 I was stand waiting from the elevator from coming from smoking his business should be talked about in private not in the hallway in front of other residents or nobody else but it happens and it needs to be addressed because I really don't think this woman is professional at all she's just down talks everybody there and it's rude she throws people out for no apparent reason they don't try to resolve the issue there's Grievous being written no one knows what's going on with these Grievous then when you ask for a grievance you can't find none none of the Grievances are being addressed not one I've written several of them and I have not heard nothing from none of them now my stuff got packed up by one of the raas there and there's a bunch of stuff missing who do I get how do I get my stuff back I don't know where it's at because you're not allowed to go pack your own prop your staff has to pack people property stuff get missing in that place constantly I've been there since June of last year and I've seen stuff get missing and it's it's not right I have brand new stuff that just walked out my property that Monday when I was thrown out so and it's not being addressed and I it needs to be looked at very badly thank you thank you next speaker good afternoon good afternoon my name is Ellie qu from Georgia King Village um I'm here to give update on um my moving I've been moved I've not been able to come to give update on that but to say where I've been moved to but it's the same I still have water problem I'm moving there my basement was flooded it looks like I've have been moved from the same thing into the same thing the only difference is when it rains it doesn't come in there every day but that basement also get flooded so I think they have to do something about the pipelines or whatever need to be done they have to take care of that because we can't leave in the house that you wake up and the basement is flatted with water thank you thank you Miss Ellie uh next speaker morning good morning uh my name Reggie Reginal Turner and um I'm going address like three major things that uh I spoke about before and I think it's like a really waste of time keep coming because nothing changes nothing changes my point is this the room has a deadbol right this is how I sleep this is how we sleep at night well then again I don't sleep it's a deadbol that stays on all night now now not only the wind boom boom boom boom shakes me the keeps me woke but you got people walking back and forth and it's like I'm not trying to like really get comfortable which is used a lot I just want to get by to get to where I'm trying to get because it's like a few like the needs that I need it's it's it's not really Mee me right so I know I have to have patience but I want to say one thing like it's and it's like the water's still cold I'm still taking cold showers and the doors like only the doors open you our personals it's no way you can't can't lock nothing up so if I go to work or if I go looking for work or if I do anything to go out everything's open seasoned my phone was taken and I was informed days later that uh it was in Union somebody found it in Union Bus Stop in Union I I ain't never been a union in my life but I personally feel somebody took it and went in it now they trying to return it back to me I don't know who it was I don't accuse people but my point is this it's just sad to keep coming up here repeating these same things over and over when no one's when you don't have a person in the position that have a little care in them it's not nothing's going to happen there nothing's going to happen so I must say that yes I'm G be honest I'mma speak on both sides like I spoke last time about the ra I was disrespected but now I don't know if I set off the wrong energy because it's some brothers that don't have psychological problems being disrespectful to our a too and I I don't accept that I don't take sides and I'll be going you know checking them speaking to the brothers I don't me check speaking to him because I'm the type of that's the type of guy I am I like peace but my point is this I don't know what it takes to get these things to change because it's like the legal work I'm being assisted well with that by the uh uh uh I forget the sister name but I ain't gonna mention but I just want to say that you know I'm like fed up like I I just deal with it I deal with my own demons inside we all know we got our own demons but but when you trying to uh move around and make things happen for yourself and you need some little assistance and that little assistance is like ra you can't it's no respond you need like the communication is Major in the community as well as here the right communication to me even if there if anything Gonna Change there it's no communication it's like is it a power thing or I don't know what it is but I know things somebody like me from what I see with the snap of the finger I can fix all that but I'm not in a position for that I got to try to get myself right but I could like I'm the type of person like I said from experience I can see things all right thank you so much Mr Reginal next speaker L fall SLE good afternoon uh good afternoon Douglas Freeman south of north um I have a few concerns here uh one is your Oprah process um has come to our attention that when you put out your RFP and Community organizations the community people who um just want to help out they put out their information into this portal then it's opened by larger organizations or other organizations they get your budget they get your plans they turn around and then they submit it later on for another RFP in a similar uh format what is your process of protecting the information of community people who come before you that may not have the resources to hire lawyers and all these different things that these people have um are we transformational or transactional because that's what we starting to see now when they look at these organizations um just because you have years as an organization you can't say that the younger folks that's coming up that their plans and their ideal do not exist um their work do does not matter how are you keeping the archives from 68 on because it seems like it's stopping that one generation and because you know this generation and and you've been 50 years with this same uh tribalism that's been going on other groups don't matter so I'm through your chair Madam president I'm asking for more research when you look at crime intervention crime intervention is not something that you can just sit in on a chair and say I'm G write a plan for there's people who died doing crime intervention there it started with a circle of a group of residents now it's done turned into where you done broke the circle and then there's just everybody in their uh organization is just sitting there looking at it as a money grab right they used where's the people when we did uh bury the valance where was where was the people when flag got killed on Chancellor Avenue and this is the brother who was hiring um people from out of prison he was going into the homes and he was doing his own uh uh what you call uh uh Furniture movement and then having hiring them and all these things right so you you're looking at people that can't even tell you what they did though and I watched these I watch these Council meetings right because there's something that I'm touched with and I have yet to hear y'all say what did you actually do I hear you in you you've been in business for years I'm G say business all right thank you Mr Freeman unfortunately your time has expired I'll be back so much we'll see you to then okay that concludes public speaking as we're at the 30 minute Mark of public speaking um with that being said any responses from Council Members or the administration um councilman Kelly yes uh thank you Madame President uh this is the first that I'm hearing from Miss Ellie after um we have taken several steps to make sure that she was taken care of from moving her to to other things that that's private so I won't um get into it but uh I will follow up I just text management over there and and just to let people know too there is a process that is going on to uh switch management management is being switched out from uh or sold uh to another company so we're going through that process with gkv to change the entire system over there from all of the managers from security all the way down to to um their their um extermination companies so to make sure that the things and the problems that we face with gkv during this um during this year and I want to thank um corporate Council to for the law side of it that we dealt with with getting them in court that these situations um have the opportunity to be resolved um when you talk about the infrastructure we all know what it took to to fix the infrastructure in our city there is a infrastructure problem that is admitted over there um and having meetings with them over there the infrastructure problem is not going to be easy fix right away so that is something that we're still dealing with but the other concerns that they have from security from uh just maintenance issues those are being addressed those have been being addressed um from you know in person and from the legal aspect so I would love I'm definitely gonna sit down with Miss Ellie again and find out what's going on with that uh yes that's say any other responses councilwoman Scott rree I I just have responses thank you council president um regarding um I sit as a commissioner for the homeless um and my concerns and I believe there going to be a presentation today I don't want to speak ahead of the presentation is that correct comments not a presentation comments from Catholic Charities yes to address some concerns but not a presentation got you so I gather that at some point I do want to address a timeline on wraparound Services I actually have myself contact with individuals who have been in several shelters and I do reach out to director Lewis regarding the time and the um attention that's giving to these clients and you know I hear the concerns of those residents but I am very concerned about a person who says they've been somewhere for a year um whether it's on them or whether it's on the service service provider which is the question and some cases we know that residents might not move the way they need to move to move but for someone who's really trying to get out of a situation whether it's on them or whether it's on the service provider my concern is if the service provider has done all that they're supposed to do with the wraparound service why is someone here with a complaint a year later about not being provided the service so as a commissioner I am working on some things with director yio because I am very concerned about the service provider the treatment of the constituents because I know that sometimes constituents can be belligerent as well because my staff has to De deal with individuals that are hurting and going through but at the same token we're sitting on the other side that so no matter what they're going through even though we demand respect and require and request respect we must at all times not bring our personal or our issues or our attitude to those individuals who are already in a position of not having somewhere to live of their own where they're paying rent so I'm very very concerned about those wraparound Services council president so timeline is so councilwoman if you can they're going to be coming up so you can you have to say all that all over I mean probably they're going to be coming up to answer questions right now as I mentioned multiple times we have Catholic Charities here that we're not leaving here unfortunately it's you know going on one o'cl but we're not leaving here until we hear from them so definitely if it's in regards to different things that speakers have said about Catholic Charities and questions I just ask that you hold them until we can get them up here to you know answer some questions um any other responses to public speaking councilman Silva uh yes just in regards to the scooters I think we need to have those companies back here because it is not improved it's actually gotten worse and this is out of control I mean um whatever they promised here when they were here they haven't uh kept up their end of the bargain it's actually gotten so much worse I don't want to add more to the plate to than nework police has already I really don't but now you have these scooters uh the delivery drivers they just they're just all over the place they they violate so many traffic laws that that we have here going through intersections on the sidewalk uh and I just think that we need to revisit not only one the the scooters that appeared before us but these new scooters that are appearing as our delivery drivers um I think we might have as a body have to pass something here uh to give uh nework police a little more um uh Power uh over these scooters to confiscate them because uh first of all I don't believe they're operating legally um the drivers I don't believe that they're abiding by the title 39 I think we should treat them as vehicles and I think something needs to be done because the summer is just beginning and I I I'm only projecting that it's going to get worse thank you councilman Silva and perhaps Madam clerk you can bounce that request to the Public Safety Committee to be able to take a look at that initially any other comments regarding public weekend any requests from Council Members as of right now before we have our guests come before us any OT I'm sorry oh I'm sorry back up a little bit responses from Administration forgive me it's my brain is still trying to function from 10 certainly understand that Eric Pennington business administrator very briefly uh in response to the council for Renaissance Towers they will be Exempted from the SIDS and bids um oh great that that'll that'll happen going forward um the other there was a comment from a speaker saying that there were two people died in a uh in a property Public Safety is unaware that there was any Foul Play associated with any any of these two deaths two people may have died we're unaware of whether it was by natural causes or something else but there's no report of any Foul Play associated with any of those deaths if they occurred at all um so just wanted to refute that and with respect to the speakers uh the scooters they have an obligation to come back here again I'll make sure that I engineering director has them come back and be prepared to address this and obviously it'll ultimately be the council's purview as to whether or not um they should not be allowed to uh continue we make them aware of the issues and have them explained to the councel and I'll make sure that we get that on on an agenda soon um finally I think there was a president of the Riviera Hotel who said he was from Atlanta and we certainly welcome anybody to come from that estate but for social services the uh location from which they came is responsible for providing those wraparound services and uh he does not have to go back to Atlanta but that is the location that is responsible for providing any services to which he believes he's entitled and not the city of nor or the county of Essex I I did I I did want to say one thing about the whole thing with the scooter so in the last meeting or the meeting before last I don't know I can't really keep up with my request um I asked about providing this council with the um information in regards to what it would mean for us to cancel our contract with the two scooter companies that we have because we specifically said when we had approved the initial contracts um that if it was not getting better and I think we had 30 60 90 I mean we're at 90 now um days that we we need to can or possibly looking at some options for a actual docking station for those scooters this is specifically regarding the scooters that are rent scooters I think there are two different things we're talking about here obviously we're talking about the riding scooters but also we have an issue with people who have their own personal scooter which many people have nowadays just like a moped folks got their own scooter too that they're riding um in different places and I think that's a larger conversation but in terms of the companies we ask for that information from the director and from the Department because at some point we're going to have to like stop talking about it here at the meeting and actually um have some action because it's just not working out with the scooter situation for those companies that we have things are just not getting better and we can talk about it at another time but those were the things we asked for the deliverables at the last meeting for this Council to consider understood and and I guess to councilman Silva's point about delivery scoo there obviously the delivery scooters and the uh riding uh ride for higher scooters the delivery scooters they um you know anecdotally do violate the law police do have re I don't want to say resources but they have legislation in place to confiscate those scooters that aren't uh abiding by the law they may not have sufficient Personnel to do it to the degree that we want um but they have certainly have the tools at their disposal to do so and those uh ATV three-wheelers four-wheelers to the extent that they fuel up at gas stations and they not registered uh the gas stations can be fined and so but that requires public safety U to intervene and take care of that so I will bring that to their attention as well and let them know that it is a real concern yeah and perhaps more conversation in Public Safety Committee yes all right thank you Mr uh ba any uh request from Council Members before we have our two quick presentations Council m uh thank you council president um I just wanted to to state when it when it came before we do the presentation um that when it comes to homeless services and social services and things of that nature I'm I have to thank somebody because if I get 10 you know 20 calls a week this person actually handles 10 of those calls for me and actually gets them service and I just want to thank um Deborah mson you know um she really comes through for the people who call my office you know I look I I find myself now calling her phone a lot because she actually gets the people placed and gets the services whether it's homeless or whether it's people who are just living in hotels who who''s been kicked out by these landlords you know she's really has has come through so I just want to say thank you and it's and she doesn't get a dime for it so I just want to say thank you for uh her help that she that she does and just one thing I just wanted to answer um uh Mr Freeman when it comes to the the antiviolence groups um he mentioned bury the violence and that was uh something that I organized years ago bury the violence um you know we've we've done it a few times and um a lot of the people who helped me organize that are some of the groups who have morphed into these new companies so they were there they just were under my company to 11 at the time and now they're more of to these these companies that we voted on to get these rfps so I don't want him to think that these companies just popped up out of nowhere they were working under you know other companies who were doing the work in the community I moved up to an elected official and those who were under my nonprofit organization have moved up to their own nonprofit organizations all right thank you councilman Kelly all right at this time we will have Catholic Charities thank so uh council president council members I just want to introduce to uh Representatives uh Melissa Burker she is the property manager uh of the Rivier hotel and Mr John Westerfield executive director of Catholic Charities uh Arch DIY of norc I also want to mention one last thing uh we are we we have secured a space on this floor uh we want to bring residents who are here today along with uh Catholic Charities and the property manager to facilitate a discussion so we hope that we can do that right after this it's also my understanding that uh Tariq Roland and his group has some resources for them as well so I don't know if they're great involved or able to go back as well the re-engagement center but you might want to welcome them as well sure um I will ask Melissa Burker to come up good afternoon good afternoon my name is Melissa Burker I am the property manager at the Riviera Hotel when I took over the position last year at the end of June the owners alongside with myself devised a corrective plan to address several maintenance and operational issues as of today 10 months later we have made significant strides towards ensuring that the building is not only safe but clean and operational there have been extensive repairs made to the building piping and electrical components as well as cosmetic repairs due to years of neglect we have grown our maintenance staff to two to seven daily maintenance workers our current 24-hour security team consists of 13 guards eight unarmed guards and five armed guards we have created a twice a month extensive extermination schedule handled by Terminex which also includes bed bug treatment as needed we have completely renovated our new dining hall to provide a clean and comfortable area for clients to dine we have painted and updated all the hallways on each floor and the lobby the plumbing repairs have consisted of replacing major Plumbing lines flush valves valves for hot and water hot and cold water in the rooms and steamed valves for the radiators we have updated all the outlets in each room to GFI outlets and fix all not non-working light fixtures as well as updating fluorescent lighting in the hallways to LED light fixtures we have just completed cleaning and servicing all the air conditioning units that are currently being placed in all the rooms we have recently updated the way the work orders are submitted which has improved our turnaround time addressing all maintenance issues we have also an on call 24-Hour maintenance worker which allows us to handle emergency maintenance issues 24 hours a day although we have made significant progress I do acknowledge that we still have a lot of work to do we take the complaints of the residents very seriously and address them immediately we have envisioned this building becoming a state-of-the-art facility in the future and will continue to do everything in our prior to accomplish this goal for me this isn't just a job it's more personal I can remember a time when my children and myself we're also in a similar situation as some of the residents find themselves and fortunately for us I had a family member willing to take us in until I got on my feet our immediate and only focus will continue to be to ensure that our residents with out addresses live in a comfortable clean and safe environment and I would also like to address some of the comments that were made in reference to the building and security um as far as any clients who feel targeted by security or have had any type of negative interaction we do have a grievance process that goes directly through me and I investigate each situation so I encourage the clients who spoke to hopefully meet with me afterwards so I can address any issues directly and um see that we have some type of action plan in place and as far as any water issue um I think one of the clients spoke to not having hot water this is the first time I'm hearing of it so I would also like to meet with him afterwards to address that issue okay so just a couple of things I mean just in regards off the top that we've gotten like videos of and pictures of like specifically everyone on this Council has gotten them so just so you're clear it's not just like me um we've gotten pictures of like massive leaks happening in the building um that are occurring constantly we get you know list week after week we get pictures of leaks happening in floods and then the rodent the rodent situation there is definitely another high priority many folks are complaining about you know mice rats um definitely bed bugs and whatever other you know living species that are you know moving through um the Riviera but that is a large complaint are you guys having any you know assistance with addressing the rodent issue you have there I mean we have increased our um maintenance schedule as far as the extermination one of the biggest issues is the amount of food that is brought into the rooms which attracts the mice so we are working with Catholic Charities and the RAS to try and monitor you know eliminating food being brought upstairs to help that issue as far as the bed bugs we can only treat when it's reported we can't prevent them from coming in we do have chronically homeless people and people from all walks of life so I can't prevent it from happening I can only treat it when it's reported to me okay let's do this um and then I'll open it up for questions in regards to for the property manager um director Wooten is director woen still here oh okay if we can have an emergency complete inspection of the building through code enforcement so let's notice their building and get them out there to do a full complete inspection as well as um the Department of Health um Baptist I can't I can't even think of my my director's name albrook director albrook I always want to say Baptist albrook always get caught up um but if we can get the health department to go there as well and inspect for the bed bugs and the roadin situation that would be helpful let's try to do that immediately to see so we can get a report back to this Council about what is the findings there at the shelter itself um so that's that at that at this point I'm going to go to questions councilwoman Round Tree well I don't really have any questions about that because you've handled the the building it's myself but um my question was to wraparound Services I gather Madam Clerk and council president I just want to I know every case is different uh but the majority of the people came up and said I've been there for a year so so my question is how do you stay somewhere for a year so is it them or is it the services um but I do know someone let me before I let you speak not at this particular one because it's Catholic Charities it's here um there has been someone I know some people that I have referred to a couple of um the shelters and what was brought back to me as if they're not being seen by the by the service provider um on a consistent so I don't know if you do it once a week they say they're on site every day that's what I was told by Catholic Charities but by the residents I'm told that they're not being given the services so that's a big problem because if they're not seeing and then some of them do speak to how they're treated um I don't want to speak of a inance I had over a year ago which has nothing to do with you but I actually had to have a meeting with Ed or the person one of the people representing Catholic Charities over uh a resident being treated a particular way and and I'm going to say it and and I'm before I take it back I'll add some more to it that we can't have a bad day and take it out on these people that might be having mental illnesses drug addiction domestic violence they all have issues and don't have a house to live in and we're providing that service for them so I and maybe some of us are having those issues and not being acknowledged so we treat these people the same way we're feeling so this is for Catholic Charities it's not directed at you and I'm just making a statement but I do want to requ request a timeline of what you do if you do um intake and then from intake how often do you see the clients what is it based on if they have mental illnesses whether the referrals if they have different uh funding sources to be placed what and that's a lot of paperwork but there should be a process in place for each of those areas that you deal with clients and I believe that would come from Catholic Charities itself correct service provider so I'm requesting that for the whole Council as a m brother clerk I was G say Madam but brother clerk Madame council president if I request noted um that definitely that's for Catholic Charities I'm sorry what's your name again Melissa B Melissa Melissa is actually dealing with the actual property while the service providers who run the shelter are the gentleman I'm I'm I'm assuming is in the back of Miss Melissa but in terms of council president yeah sure Melissa's dealing with the property but she has to have some interaction as to how that service provider is carrying out their responsibilities is that correct yes okay so all this is for them then the responsibility unfortunately you know has to come to you as well just like you said some things came here today they didn't come to you with but they got to us today okay um Council mccom yeah thank you council president and I agree 100% with uh the uh inspection that's necessary I mean we ow videos of of real time of what's going on in the properties so I I'm I'm very happy that you did request that uh my my question is uh just a general one in terms of you you mentioned what you've done so far in the building and that it uh hope for it to be a state-ofthe-art facility and you said there's some room for improvement and you need to do some other improvements what are those improvements that you think you need to do I mean or or planning on doing I should probably say it is an old building so we are working on updating plumbing and things to just make it more up to dat so we have less daily issues with leaks and things of that nature um the owners are working on a plan with uh Lewis they are planning on renovating he can kind of attest to more of that plan I'm not part of those meetings but we are working on updating a lot of the things in the building so we have less issues related to the building being sold all right um well let me ask another question then you you heard and I might have missed this and I apologize if I did so there were concerns from the residents about the fact that their property is not locked up uh can you explain or detail what that so their rooms that they reside in the doors are not locked due to the fact that an RA which is a resident assistant there's one on each floor they are required to check in on the clients every hour due to the issues of having frequent overdoses and things related to health issues and health episodes so the RAS do check in on them every hour so that's why the doors are not locked and security do does security do sweeps I'll say of the building and how often are those sweeps every hour and how do they check in to make sure that they are doing those so security has um a walkthrough checklist so they write down the time that they did the walkth through the security guard writes his name and then they leave comments on each post so if they saw that there was a resident in the backer Cas and they weren't supposed to be they write that down if they observe something else throughout their walk they write it down and then it's handed in me and I sign off so that's done every hour has there been any have there been any in in incidents in which the security has not has noticed and responded to something uh uh any thefts or anything like that yes there security has responded to um thefts of phones I believe once or twice um uh clients do come to security if they find something missing in their rooms security does an incident report and then it's also handed over to Catholic Charities because they investigate anything pertaining to the clients and has anyone been removed based upon they have been caught stealing or um I let me let me let me back the question why have why have individuals removed from the premises what are the different causes it's usually due to um violence or some type of threat made and you keep records of those Catholic charities does Catholic charities does I'm I'm good thank you councilman Council uh thank you uh council president that many questions um because I I I know just by um looking at the attempt to have code enforcement going I is is going to be good but I think on the back end of it what we really need to concentrate on with with Catholic services and and the residence that are there because it's a dual responsibility right folks are fighting through challenges trauma trial tribulations that they have have in their life but they also have to understand that they have accountability and responsibility step up as well to be change agents to want to change your organization has that opportunity to be able to help and lift them up to do this that's where programming comes in right programming can't be the Martin Luther King Park right next to the complex right that's not programming everybody in the park smoking a Black in the mouth smoking a cigarette you know drinking a nip that's not programming programming has to be orchestrated by Catholic services from the time someone gets up to the time that they go to bed if it's not if if the individuals are not working they need to be programmed job services they need to be uh uh talking about life skills and job development opportunities they need to be in dactic groups during the course of the day that if they want to hang around all day they have to be involved in in a a proactive activities that is going to lead to systemic growth uh uh searching uh and looking at where they grow in terms of peer development uh and growth all of these things can be done by your organ gation and by other Partnerships that is one of the reasons you know why uh we believe that that you have this contract to create larger Partnerships uh and and work with different partners to ensure that these things are happening in the facility and if we uh work together to do these things then we can be able to change the lives that are in these buildings to be able to get them out uh to to to be more functional to have more uh uh energy courage to do the things that is needed to to help lift them up and move them out so I haven't heard you guys talk to anything about programmatic structure what that day looks like breakfast this time lunch this time in the middle how does that work Char come up and okay I don't work for Catholic Church no just even in in your facility yeah they're gonna come up and explain all that actually before we go on to Catholic Charities of specifically that answer some of councilman council's questions councilman Gonzalez do you have something to know if you have cameras in in in the facility yes and because this this was there was an individual here that said that his 2500 bicycle was stolen from from the facility do you have any way of verifying whether that ha let's say when that happened and whether someone from the inside or the outside had the the ability to do that so we are looking into that matter the issue with that bike situation we do allow them to keep their bikes in the back parking lot which has a locked gate which opens up when people come in and out of the facility but we do encourage the clients to make sure their bikes are locked and if they're not locked if someone comes in comes in and grabs it we're there's no way for us to prevent that from happening so we tell them constantly make sure your bike is locked a lot of them do not like lock the bikes and they just place them back there you have cameras in the in that space yes but we were're trying to identify who the person was okay we don't know who the person was at this okay okay thank you councilwoman rree well councilman Council was asking a question and I believe that those questions those statements that he was making I requested that information um from Catholic charity so I was so I know that they're going to be submitting a report to all of us for the food the services the timeline and the programs you have in place because there's no way that we're putting out that kind of money for an organization that's supposed to be providing Services over this many years and people are still stating I've been there for a year and haven't seen nobody now we know there's some folks that don't move like they supposed to move they all can't be do so let's have cha Catholic Charities for in a sick of time thank you you can you can stay close but let's have Catholic Charities here he is Brother John good afternoon my name is John West El I'm the CEO of Catholic Charities of Newark just to give you an overview I'm not going to I know we have some time like here but I just want to go over a few things that I wanted to bring to the council today Catholic Charities has been providing services for over 50 years throughout all the four counties of the arch dasis of nor uh we were asked by the city of Nork uh Lewis and before Lewis desar to take on active role at Pathways to housing which is at 47 Miller Street which is 164 bed facility when Lewis came on he asked us about the Riviera and he said that he' like to take the same services that were provided at the pathways to housing to the Riviera we first opened the Riviera in June of 2023 there was roughly about 80 residents assigned to the facility about four or five months later when 224 was closed we received about 275 residents at the facility uh of during the time this past year we served over 542 residents and I just wanted to be clear on the type of residents that are at the facility there 41 chronically homeless 64 active substance abuse users 76 domestic violence survivors 102 residents with chronic illness 110 with mental Health diagnosis 96 residents with physical disabilities 32 clients with developmental disabilities 16 veterans and five Ryan White clients again over the past year 40 clients have been transitioned to permanent housing or temporary housing one resident transitioned into housing and a transitional side due to the level of Engagement we've also placed 22 residents into detox or rehab center Case Management Services are available to all residents but several residents are reluctant to participate in case management meetings and fall in uh to scheduled meetings and don't come and don't show up takes a lot for the residents uh to follow through so we have even brought residents from pathways housing with doctors and nurses as you know 47 Mill Street is a multiservice building that has mental health services has uh Food Services has a lot of different services that could help with all the residents at the Riviera we have currently with 11 actually residents living in the Riviera now coming to services at Pathways to housing every morning a van shows up in the front of the Riviera and take whoever is available who wants to come for services down to Pathways to housing inside the mental health facility that Catholic charties runs we also every two weeks bring in counseling and have group meetings at the new facility at the river area on the cafeteria side we've also provided some substance abuse counselors to come to the Riviera as well and we've just recently have three people interested in coming to substance abuse counseling Catholic Charities again service has been servicing a lot of homeless groups throughout the years and we feel that the services that are provided at the Riviera are just like any other services that we provide at all the different 750 beds that we run throughout Hudson and essis counties the barriers that we see our res population faces s significant barriers when beginning their housing Journey we do not we do not have enough vouchers to be given out for people to move on through the shelter system as we all know affordable housing is has been very hard to get together to get people out of the shelter into portable services but again we can't forget about the wraparound services we've run a lot of different housing projects throughout Catholic charties and the wound S Services are the most important by putting people out of the shelters into a into a permanent housing you have to have wraparound service Associated Catholic Charities continues to follow the residents once they go into permanent housing to follow up to make sure that they get the services that they need so if I could just jump in um when you can provide all of this in writing that you're talking about um today but let me like try to make it a little bit plain you know for everyone here and I I really am trying my best it's very exhausting you know it's it's I feel so exhausted probably because I've been here since 10 but even more of what you're saying because when we go to these locations and people come here it's exhausting it is weary of us to continue to hear the same thing and multiple people we spoken to I mean I was just there a couple of weeks ago with the councilwoman and we spoke to a lot of people that are not even here that were there gathered together who talked about the lack of services how no one has approached them about anything past hello what is your name um it's not happening so I'm not I'm not sure like where the breakdown is or what's occurring but it's it's exhausting to hear you up here telling us one thing but when we're talking to folks that are there there saying something else like it's not adding up like you know what what you're saying the math is not mathing for for who we see and when we go there so something else something's not occurring like it's just it's not happening look we we appreciate and this this doesn't take away from everything that Catholic Charities has been and everything that you do I don't want you to think like oh you know because folks usually when they leave out of here as soon as I open my mouth folks leave out of here and say oh my God you know she didn't like us it was mean it was horrible I'm not saying anything personally bad about the work that you put in in your organization and the dedication but we have some type of breakdown happening at Riviera as well as we've hear we we've heard some complaints at Miller Street as well about the services being offered and I get it we have some chronically difficult situations Case by case with folks that are coming in and that's kind of it's like the you know the the pro and the con to the Services we offer here in the city um you know sometimes many council members bring it up all the time about all that we do for our residents without addresses and then some to don't don't do anything they're not contributing to anything of it and then you get towns like nor cour who really are beat up on a lot regarding our services and other Shares are not doing anything like we're not getting any assistance we're trying to do as much as we can so it's really a given a a a a I don't know like a curse a good curse a bad curse kind of situation but at the end of the day our job here as council is to continue to help people come in here as you heard no matter where they come from because we we get folks from all over they're not all displaced here from the city of nework they're coming here from all over different walks of life but at the end of the day the purpose for you being here right now is for you to understand our frustration about the lack of services and some of the complaints we hear about the conditions of the building which we'll handle on our end regarding the conditions of the building but specifically the services and and tomorrow you are included and you have been included as you know in a list of funding that we give out which makes it very difficult for many up here and those who had to leave to say hey I'm going to vote to give you more money tomorrow and services are not being trickle down to the residents there to help them you know move forward and get the assistance that they need whatever that may be so that's a problem and we're telling you is regardless of what you're saying regardless of all of this you're talking to us about today we know because we have spoken to multiple people not folks who've came here just today but we have gone out and we have personally spoken to people at the location and they have told us all of them cannot be lying we all know it's five sides to a story sometimes but those individuals are not all telling false information about what is happening here so you got to go back and revisit that with your people and then write to us in specific some detailed you know plans of how are you going to address that do you have what you need are you getting enough of this and that to offer the services that you need to offer at the location because it's just not happening here another thing I'm going to say before I open back up for questions and we depart on your piece some of the things are basic human like you know um basic human common senses like so for example a lot of stuff that we get to us it's about how someone treated them how they said it how they reacted like you know and I it's just like all the time councilwoman and and councilman Crump knows this all the time when I go into my buildings I'm always like if to the manager or whoever's you know in charge if you don't like this you shouldn't be here you you cannot you cannot work in this field and don't like it you don't like people they're aggravating you you don't feel good don't be here you can't do this job then because every time you're going to have people like me coming in because it doesn't sound nice all the time you know getting on you about how you're treating the people there which causes conflict so while they're already there in their situations the way you're responding to them and servicing them those those I call those low hanging fruits because the least you should be able to do is treat people with respect and because we don't have that then you have the situations trickling down that are happening like it it just that that's that's that's I would say that's 60% of the problem no I'm dead serious I mean talking to people and councilwoman you could jump in talking to people 65% of the problem is what somebody said to them or did to them or the just the characteristics of the folks you have employed through Catholic Charities and probably some people that are employed through the property management rather that's security or whomever but that's an issue so at the end of the day look we don't want to hear something that we know is not happening we're not calling you any false information you're not there every day like you might not know what's happening but at the end of the day we have to do something because it's it's not what you're saying is not happening it's not and we are tired we don't get paid for your shelter we don't get paid to run it we that's not what we do so we don't want to continue to have 20 to 15 people coming here to our meetings every you know meeting for us to sit here and talk about the issues that are happening at your shelter like you guys have to do something to fix the problem like something like you have to so you can submit all of the things you talk to us about writing us like the and things that you know you talked about with us but at the end of the day like we just have to do better we have to do better because because we're we're exhausted councilman Gonzales yes H thank you very much for being here ER I believe that say being the CEO of the entity you are far ER from the from the actual happening of the place so I believe that we should have here the person that is actually managing the building so that we can ask that person why the things are happening you might get reports to your level but those reports might not be accurate of what actually happens at the building I believe that the next time that you come here that you bring someone from the actual doing in the building so that we can ask the questions directly to that person they're actually here right now yeah yeah so he's councilman is absolutely right if we can get that in you know in right to us that would be good I think one we're going to follow up with the whole inspection of the building because that's a lot of a problem too for us so we'll do that on our end but in terms of like the Ser we you can give that to us in writing about what's happening what's occurring or what what's going to what's the action plan right better how do we address that right again we agreed to meet with the residents after meeting as well that's great love to hear that and and Louis to our homeless Cesar like like I'm I'm pointing to you back there because these are folks underneath your umbrella like I mean we have to they I mean it should never be a time when they're here with us but more importantly like we gotta do something a little we just got to do better like I mean that's all I can say at this hour Council mccrum yeah council president not to believe at a point but I I just think it's important that we know on paper because I'm and I'm tired of hearing this and hearing that what are you doing what do you need to do next and what what's or what aren't you doing right and how are you gonna fix the problem because we've gone down this road months and months and months and you know we're frustrated I I feel for the residents and we hear from them so we're frustrated we know that they are frustrated with what's going on and things have got to change we've given Catholic Charities money after money after money and we're not seeing the results we always talk about you know we hear from our res our people that speak here about us doing things like that we and we're not getting the deliverables that our people deserve and I that's the biggest problem that we have here and I understand you got people here will say X Y and Z but as the council president said it's not matching up okay it's not and it needs to be changed and it doesn't need to be a discussion we have here it needs to be something in writing of what you're going to do so that we can follow up and say you did X Y and Z maybe it's a checklist or whatever that's that's where we are at this point that's how I feel we can do that councilwoman's arounde CL my birthday the last thing I wanted to be was sitting in here all day long but this is what I signed up for so council president I'm sorry to belb the hour with this but I do want to get know what um councilman Crump and council president stated it's a trickling effect Melissa gets to Bear the burden of what does not take place with Catholic Charities and she does her best I'm sure as any manager would to manage the property and all that goes with it but what is even more exhausting for someone who's managing a property is to have to carry the burden of the services that are supposed to be provided to the residents because she gonna wear some of that too and it's not really her responsibility to do the intake to do the all these things that she has people are supposed to be doing and so I feel for you sir because again you're at the top and there's a whole lot of steps so people people can give you all kinds of reports is that what's happening which we all have said you know we don't know we're not there and neither of you so we just want to make sure our residents are get and the city's money is getting the best for what they're paying for that's what we want too I know that's what you want we just want to make sure they get it okay bless you with that being said we're going to end there I mean we can hopefully I don't know how long you need to get us back the stuff and writing it would really be helpful for tomorrow uh Louis the funding that is on the agenda for tomorrow for added starter you that's your C to um skip on up here um what how long does that stretch into like that's from what period what time period through the end of the summer through the end of the summer end of like SE August August yes okay month all right that's helpful for the council I know we're going to get the stuff for the backup for the added starters but at least the council knows how long they're extending funding to for this case it's only the end of the summer yeah um okay that's good all right thank you we look forward to the information love what you do I mean you love what you do get to loving it not not me all right I know um Mr Roland I know I know to I know Mr Roland one of our directors who've been waiting so patiently with his amazing people young group of wonderful people over there he has with them you got about 10 minutes of Thunder he only need two I just need to good morning uh council president council members um super excited to have the opportunity to meet and discuss with you and see if we can get your Buy in and support around uh our initiative re-engagement on the corners um I think that you have the presentation I don't want to like put the numbers out there but as you know that uh in the month of March uh I went to an event with o opportunity youth Network um and found out about the numbers of disengaged youth that were unemployed in the city of nort um and not working so we kind of huddled um and our reached out to president uh to a council president ask if we could do re-engagement on the corners with your uh council members um and we plan to have kind of like a block party style as the mayor's Mission we want to go to them not have them come to us and just to let you know what we've been doing uh since March 27th we've opened up we have engaged in and applied 126 applicants 26 of those are on the pathway to get their GED with alternative education starting in July 13 will be going back to nor evening school getting their high school diploma um 19 are returning back to Traditional High School and then we also have 19 ESL students who are currently working with NPS to um put put together modules that way they continue their education we plan to work with NPS to get their system all way back from 2011 so if you have been enrolled in a nor public school and have not graduated that number that you see that's in that presentation we plan to engage you with employment that is well education which is the first track the second second track is employment and vocational training through our office then the third track is emotional and social support we have one of our young men Tamir who was disengaged who is actually currently at the re-engagement center getting his work done led by uh our team and uh ctia or we have another young man named Javin who's from west side which ultimately means that they will not be held back in a Grade they're getting their work done it will be graded they're back getting attendance um and they'll be back in the proper grade and attending their new schools in September but we would love to have you come out um we want to again in the uh Central Ward on June 11th um we'll provide everything the resources the wild bus will be out there the mayor will probably be out there we just wanted to let you know what we plan to do and if you want us to spin the block or the corners in other areas um we are more than willing to do so but we'll send you additional information um on what we plan to do so I just want to first of all thank you for the amazing work that you guys are doing this is not the first time you guys had the re-engagement sessions I know that they're starting back up again but my office had participated with uh people's assembly before through a walk through for Nat Turner Park um had went out there and you know kind of engaged in and so it's a amazing you know program I commend the work that you guys have already done and those who do not know this is a new partnership that we have in in partnership with nor Public Schools um in regards to creating the re-engagement center we spent a lot of time talking about it when we talked about the new curfew well not new but the curfew um this season for young people in our city and how the engagement Center would play a part in it so definitely it's it's important work we need to engage our young people and this is you know going up to like age 25 folks can get re back get back re-engaged in the educational process and as you said through GED or ESL programs and thus far so definitely I would ask that your office definitely connects specifically with each W council person in advance okay not like 24 hours and let them know about the you know where you guys are going to be at and how their office can participate in the you know the block party or whatever it is that you guys are having because I'm sure each council person would love to be able to do it and I'll ask council members even those that are not here clerk we can send out a request to them to point out some areas where a lot of young people you know are gravitating or large crowds of young people um that are not engaged in school can be able to you know get engaged with the re-engagement center for those who are watching us I mean I I don't know how you're still watching us from 10 but if you are still watching us from 10 can you let the public know how they get in touch with the re-engagement center to be able to contact you all yes I'll just give out my phone number I think that's the best way 97358 4338 again that's 97358 4338 but we are also located at 375 maarta Highway on the third floor most folks know it as the Easy Pass building so it's 375 maarta Highway third floor we're open every day from 8:30 a.m. to I think 7 p.m. to to at 7:30 p.m. um we'll take Walkins if you call me shoot me a text some we'll get right back to you um and we're ready to do the work all right questions from Council Members Council Gonzalez yeah the disengage students come from all walks of life like Latinos black Portuguese in your staff do you have all those components they say what the ethnicity of your staff absolutely Latinos uh African-Americans we have people who can speak Creo we we understand that our folks need to show up and look like the folks the community so like whether you are disengaged we have opportunities for you right um so we are extremely diverse we are trying to hit every neighborhood every cluster in each community and we want you know our entire city entire folks to have access to us how many members on your staff we have currently right now about 10 right so just the re-engagement center is 10 that consists of five social workers well five academic counselors many of them have social work backgrounds already many of them have programming background already um and college um experience in case management experience I congratulate you on your success up to date and hope that we can engage every one of the let's say the people that are disengaged in the city yes we ain't gonna stop till it say zero so these are some of the staff here right yes yes so you have or who's our manager Monique Campbell uh Tamir is actually one of our students who's catching up on his work Britney and uh Joslyn and Cody pigot all right oh Cody okay it's good to see you Cody all right yes a councilman Kelly um just a quick uh thank you T I I appreciate it U I was out there with couple of your engagement crew in front of Westside about a week or so ago and um with the van out there uh trying to get people in from the community engag it went it went really well your team was was uh really into it and really looking to do the work you know I I agree with council president if you don't have anybody that that likes what they're doing or the job they're doing they need to be doing something else because they have to encounter you know different type of residents from like councilman gonzal said all over the city you know um and I also thank you for the summer youth uh Employment Program piece for the family that you helped for me in the west I really appreciate that you're doing a good job and anything that that the West what councilman office can do to assist you guys to help you continue to move forward please don't hesitate thank you thank you you councilman councel yeah real quick so you've seen today just an example of why the re-engagement center is important young man gets up he's been in the shelter for a long period of time 24 migrated from another area but he's been here really probably for about two and a half years or three years so he would be considered one of these 7,500 individuals who are now displaced right without any kind of Engagement that is happening and going on and so this is like critical for us to either begin to get back into some of these shelters to sweep through them to find out the ages of the young people from 18 to 24 that that may be in there that uh should be mandated to go through these Services which are which are critical and then to find out how we provide you know alternate resources and programming for them to to get out there I'm I'm always excited about you know the work that is happening with the re-engagement center the energy um for the the the growth and development of the city and what's happening we just have to you know continue to to turn the volume up just a little more and we need to just find people who uh want to share in that same kind of energy of turning the volume up of saving people and solving problems and and and and as we continue to work towards that will be will be great absolutely thank you and we let our team know especially if they're working with me that we all about to you know we don't care how you do just got to get it done right empathy sensitivity and we do everything through love um you know we just want to produce everything that you all want to see and what the mayor wants to see so super excited councilman Gonzalez last thank you madam president it a when my wife was the deputy mayor of community engagement in the city ER she was able to connect some of the youth with let's say h the the schools that that of the Arts the school the like say mechanics because some people don't want to go this they say the the traditional route they want to to to be to do something different and they have abilities that perhaps they don't even know that they have and do we have that connection with the school system in in nework the MPS H to be able to sendual that may not want to be through the traditional method to go to the say a shop a mechanical shop or to go to Art side or to go to a a community center that specializes in other than the traditional H methods yes so superintendent Leon and his team has been extremely helpful but one of the best parts about uh our office is that we actually have certification programs to where any certification that a youth young adult or adult wants right we have access to be able to get that always tell everyone we always tell everyone is that if we don't have it it is our duty and obligation to find it um so to your point yes and if someone wants to transfer there is a process that nor Public Schools will have to oversee but if they want to we will work with nor public schools and superintendent Leon has given us you know full Authority in that partnership to be able to access you know any opportunity that a youth or young adult would like thank you okay all right with that being said I just want to say you all leave me hopeful after a four almost 4H hour meeting so I just want to thank you all for being our final of you know final folks that come before us um it's always you know great to hear great news and um to hear about great programs so thank you so much Tariq and keep doing the great work that you all that you're doing thank you I appreciate you appreciate you all let's say teach your students to dress like you yes yes yes yes yes yes yes we need to give him something to model so as long as I keep watching my folks they'll keep watching me so we good thank you thank you Tariq thank you thank you so much that concludes our longest preting of the year um thank you so much for coming out with us we look forward to seeing you back at the regular meeting tomorrow at 12:30 p.m sharp shout out to our two directors who stayed here with us the entire time the wonderful director of health and wellness and our director of engineering who stuck it out have a great day everyone don't for get to vote polls Clos at 8:00 p.m. out to vote get out to vote get out me go vote e for