please stand for the national anthem Pledge of Allegiance in invocation by Reverend Dr Johnny D Brooker pastor of abidan Baptist Church s what f I pledge allegiance to the of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice all pray gracious God we're so grateful and thankful for another opportunity to come together as your people so now God we ask that you will Tabernacle with us in this space that you call City Hall God we ask that you continue to touch all of our leaders keep us together as one body and God we pray that your presence will be made felt in this space Have Your Way in this space and God we will give your name glory honor and praise for certainly you deserve all of it do it like you do it and we'll be so appreciative it's in your name we do pray Amen in accordance with New Jersey Law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to The Star Ledger the Jersey Journal and the public at large establishing the date time and location of this meeting in addition the agenda for this meeting was disseminated on January 19th at the time of preparation and posted on the website of the city of norc roll call please counc pres pres pres presid K I'm here Scott Brown Tre present president mber presid council president council members we are in the hearing of citizens portion of the meeting where each speaker will have five minutes to speak when your name is call please approach the podium and address the council V first speaker is Lisa Parker good evening criminal cult that's running our government I'm speaking tonight to newers not to the corrupt Lawless Council because they don't represent the people they formulate Corrupt Practices and policies that only benefit them the corporations and donors they serve last week ended a Six-Day public hearing by the US Coast Guard about the senseless death of two firefighters in a cargo fire chief Rufus was a self-appointed liaison to the New Jersey fireboat task force and failed to show up to the meetings failed to participate in the trainings when he showed up on July 5th he never took command this level of incompetence and negligence Rises to my opinion criminals that's from the international firefighters Association Mr sad we will pay two unlawful death suits for the incompetence in negligence by the N mayor's appointee why is the school board president's son of a councilman that lied on his disclosure form for three years not terminated as president why wasn't Tommy Luna sworn in to see on the school board why was a vote taken to se the council person's pick the same people that appointed to these boards work for elected to continue to give contracts and jobs only to their people how many in the state of New Jersey there's case laws in this regard that has been sent to the Inspector General in Washington to investigate how is that that council members in a part-time job make a 100 Grand and hold full-time noshow jobs making over 150 but not serving the interests of the people salaries exceeding 250,000 a year that's a quarter of a million dollars to do nothing office of violence prevention how are you um giving Tia Yuri a promotion no now one sustainable programming has impacted the community using 10% of the police budget for 24 hours of foolishness ice skating Broadway plays baddi's University t ass and twerking 90k you gave them Jerry got over 300K to record artists in every W the grant is not for this BS good feel moment why is it this office being used to prevent crime for those in need of housing food and for survival how many relatives work for yorri why is her bestie being awarded 600k why why is kyisha Hill and individuals that fund raise for the mayor and the council president why are they being given these jobs who is who is qualified in these positions Yuri is paying unqualified people from outside while staff from new are overlooked and work for comp hours most of these llc's have no experience no office space no business phone number no mailing address or a location to determine how they are serving the residents how are these LLC selected the mayor said give them the Grant and let them play Mentor cops for kids where's their money Shawn McCrae 25 years won a state championship proven established groups that are not given funding newers we've had nine and a half years of nothingness no accountability from these people up here last year we had another scam plan with the city the sister city that Fox News is calling us dumb as a brick this January they had another scam plan vat 16 so they could manipulate our children and the books to do home cooking to steal elections newers seniors our children everyone here deserves better than what we've been given which is nothing more than corruption and callousness towards the people and content thank you for your comments Miss Parker next speaker Madam clerk Felicia Austin Singleton not present Miriam Bay present good evening good evening everyone and happy New Year happy New Year and my name is Marian Bay I am an investor in norc I'm a homeowner in norc and this evening I'm going to continue my conversation about slum Lords and what I brought with me to give to you is the fact fact that in 2023 this article shows that norc was number two in the dirtiest City so I want to give this to the clerk whoever gives this please give it to the council members and also the ba my concern is this and I want to thank Council woman at large um I'm sorry I was going to say I'm sorry um councilman Round Tree I want to thank you and I have to thank my councilman um Kelly because you both helped us on our block but guess what it's worse now so the pictures that you have that you're getting today you are looking at the garbage that is on our street today yesterday was collection garbage collection so this is today I'm giving it to everyone because I want you to see what we're going through and the whole idea is that my concern is this why do we have to let our children think that because we live in a black City that it has to be dirty I'm trying to I'm trying to figure that out why are we allowing this to happen I want to give a shout out to the brothers and sisters who work in sanitation because I know they do a hard job because I've been working with them okay but here's the deal if they see dirty garbage they should report it okay and the next thing is this I had brothers who are coming home from prison that I work with and here's the issue the the slum Lords owned some of these shelters and what is going on now is the fact that they are not getting heat so I called code enforcement to let them know that this that this particular shelter was not uh getting heat well I what I was told was that I have to give the name of the person who is is um reporting that I can't give the name of that person who's living at the shelter because they will retaliate against him so if I have to visit the shelter I will because my concern is the fact that these people are getting some of norc's money so why are we paying them to um to not provide heat bottom line for me is that I came to this city when I was 15 years old that was and that was 57 years years ago okay this city has never been this filthy I have never seen it look like this before so I want to know what are we doing what are we saying to our children you said that they could vote as 16 years old okay that's fine if that's what you pass but what are we telling them when they walk outside their doors and they see filth outside their doors what are we telling them I am really tired coming up here talking about this and someone said well miss bae you can move you know what I could just move but here's the thing is that part of the plan to get us to move so they can get the uh get our houses is that is that part of it because since since these slum Lords have taken the four family homes I live in a two family one side is two family and the other side is four family since they've taken the four families it is filthy it's worse than when we had the drug dealers on there okay filth here's the thing we need to get something in place that's going to hold the the landlord owner accountable and not just that the people who live in there because I've said to some of them that's your garbage that's been sitting out there okay so we have to do something now to be number two and then another friend told me that we were number five as well but you guys are our leaders okay and as our leaders is necessary for you to show that you care for our children and that you want them to live in a place that is clean and healthy because for those of you who live in North you know what we're going through you can't go up to South Orange and let it look like that you know you can't go up to Montclair and it look like that so why does it have to look like that here in nework okay so I want to say this final word to the brothers and sisters who've stayed in Nork and we've been been here and we kept it up I want to leave you something with what Tupac said we're going to keep on doing this and we're going to keep our heads up so please keep your head up because I'm hoping that our leaders are going to make sure that this stops thank you Miss ba for your comments next speaker Madame clerk Shay Colter Shay Colter not present M elani present so much to say here just stop the Pirates that's what what you are so I want to say peace and Grand rising to all the woke lers who are not brainwashed and falling for the okey do coming from the out of the mouth of this dysfunctional corporate sponsor government officials that we have here the puppets for the slave masters no other way to describe you majority of them are in collusion with the crimes against humanity the extortion the fraud the embezzlement and the corruption that is taking place in our city that's why they turn the Blind Eye and look the other way to slum Lords to the human rights violations and the corruption that's going on in our city slum Lords let me start with you the people of no you should rise up you should do do a rent strike across the city and a class action lawsuit against every last one of them for the inhumane conditions that you are facing we got to do that you got to rise up everybody across this city rent strike and a class action lawsuit like what happened in East Orange and they won receivership about the housing conditions let me just talk a little bit about the budget this Administration as I'm always say is incapable of managing our budget and Grant dollars treating our tax dollars like it's their own piggyback personal piggy B and what we must do as a people we must demand fiscal accountability and an independent monitor I don't know how many times our Elder uh Miss Carter gonna come up here and talk about checkbook n and y'all just turn the blind I as if y'all don't know what she talking about fiscal accountability is what we need to demand in this city and that got to come for the people now we gonna go on with the housing crisis and I'm gonna say putting 20 or more people in containers with thousands of more doers homeless in shelters all around the city and thousands of more waiting on the eviction is not the fix in this city and we're not going to accept that building those 16,000 lowincome units and jobs at a liable wage is the fix I don't know how many times brother Tillman is GNA come up here and talk about the disfunctional affirmative action office and also the deputy of of of Full Employment it it's nothing but a hoax just a hoax and you need to go reorganize that department you need to get rid of everybody in that office and you need to enforce the First Source hiring practices that's on the books if you serious about hiring noras local contractors for noras that's what you need to do you're training people to Nowhere containers to Nowhere shelters to Nowhere billions of dollars came into this city under the Trump of Administration and now the Biden Harris Administration you think we going to settle for your 40 cont 40 people and 20 containers un acceptable and we're not going to accept this you're giv us we're not it is our text you're going to stop treating our money like it's your own personal P bank and give us what we're asking for in this city we shouldn't have to come here every council meeting and call you sters if you're not going to do your job take a bad face and get up at the city hall get up at this city cuz we are sick and tired of being sick and tired now to the residents call Biden call Murphy call DCA call Secretary HUD to ask them to put a moratorium on these evictions and foreclosures that is is an eviction tsunami have any of y'all been up to the county to see the eviction have any of you traveled across this city to all these shelters to see that they are filled to capacity do you live here do you understand the state of emergency that we're in get on this it's Pat your back on TV thank you miss bonami your time has now expired next speaker speaker six is not appearing the next speaker is Linda McDonald Carter presents everyone Hi greetings everyone and as usual but I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it uh the question is how are all the children no matter their condition so today I want to and I'm going to send this I sent it to the city clerk but she didn't get it in time to send it to all of you but it's the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation activist report on the city of nework regarding fiscal Justice analysis basically the report starts with New York's history um you know when black people started coming the soul of America between 1940 and 1960 the rebellion of ' 67 don't get it confused it wasn't a riot or Riot is what people do when they drunk they destroy property and the police don't arrest them in recent decades complemented by norc's upgraded airport which was the best kept secret the city's black leadership has incentivized major corporations and colleges to build headquarters Regional Offices and campuses in attempts to expand the tax base and revitalized downtown however many of the norx black and Puerto Rican communities remain underserved 78% of the population and these figures are 2022 so they may change a little bit but we'll use this 78% of the population rents a quarter of the city lives in poverty versus 11% on the national average lower property tax revenues than its neighbors combined with higher infrastructure and educational costs due to the historical inequitable distribution of resources as evidenced by the recent school segregation lawsuits of prior to 20222 norc is a black City paying the cost of being a black City what does fiscal Justice look like in the city of nework to pull itself out a Decades of divestment and white flight the city of nework has relied on various forms of non- reoccurring revenue from a Reliance on fines and fees corporate tax subsidy to accumulating debt from the state of New Jersey in some a city with 27% poverty rates is a half a billion dollars in debt which carries a greater expense considering interest which has been proven to be higher in majority black cities such as North the stigma being black and economically depressed City like Nork results in higher accumulation of debt due to the lack of tax base and then charged a premium on Capital uh unlike wealthier communities Nork is not able to use debt in this way to invest in areas with positive returns such as education this lack of access to Capital perpetuates the cycle of poverty and being underserved uh they actually did a report and again you'll all get a copy of it in 2016 the city of New York gave away $10 million in tax credits subsidies and abatements to corporations the number doubled in 2017 to 29 million uh in 2020 was $68 million of potential revenue for indebted norc was allocated as corporate tax abatements norc has continued to use base of tax abatements using one-time deals AB Batman's tax increment financing districts to better the itself rather than addressing systematic opportunities such as educating the population to increase their earning potential and collect occupational tax revenue these non-recurring revenues and extractive expenses because it takes from the tax base are functions of racism as a black and puter Comm communities are commonly targeted for these designation nor spent $69 million Public Works parks and grounds and public libraries combined equally about 15% of the tax revenue for the city however this is also tantamount to the 68 million giv away to TA corporate tax tax subsidies the same year accordingly what is listed as a miscellaneous revenues on norc's comprehensive annual financial report these revenues were actually debt vehicles in the form of Appropriations that the state gave to the cities I don't have a lot of time to read it but this will be available to you I can tell you that um in the event of a trump Administration and the state is not able to supplement nework we're in trouble and the taxpayers cannot pick up the cost um and so that's important so you know I wanted to leave this to you but they also had a solution um you know everybody wants to do Solutions of course let's see oh my time is G okay all right so fiscal Justice credit adjustments factors that could lead to an upgrade of the ratings Universal basic income which the mayor I think is looking at inclusionary zoning affordable housing trust fund sustainable school bond factors that could lead lead to a downgrade of our of our bond in our credit rating Reliance on abatements and stack state aid disproportionate Public Safety spending School segregation lawsuits uh which happened before so I'll leave this but you know I just want to tell you guys be careful when you pass these ordinances because you know we have a history of passing ordinances resolutions and laws that are discriminatory you don't have to be black you don't have to be white to engage in thank you so I'm so sorry your time has now expired thank you next speaker Madam clerk theera Brown pres good evening Brown North New Jersey Miss Brown can you bring the mic up a little bit so we can be able to hear you thank you thank you for that because I didn't know did we get a new system did they change it yeah but you have to talk into the mic okay thank you now brown my time has started can you hear me hello everyone happy New Year I'm not really sure what to say you know some of the time got interrupted and the five minutes goes too quick I've been coming up here next month we make about a year not every month because you know you take off for the Summers we had a little interrupt last November but I just keep asking if you come and reach out and talk to the residents we can't give you everything in five minutes right here I know recently the mayor and the council people gave us those 360 local meetings very cute you always want to push your agenda but I need you to take out time to come talk to the residents you took a oath to serve the people but lately a lot of agenda has been only for what you're interested in and if I don't understand understand it I can't take my five minutes here to try to learn about it you know most jobs since this is a job you getting paid we usually get evaluations maybe reach out to people to get feedback so we could come together and understand why we feel the way we do and why you feel your agenda is so important I mean it's a lot of topics we could talk about only have a couple minutes don't have on day and looking at this agenda you could have gave us a few more minutes because you didn't even fill up the 25 again but I asked last month who all got banned why did they get banned was it according to the NJ Sunshine Law or just because you had the power to do it but we don't know as the people and it should be public information because this list should be filled but at the same time I just want to make a suggestion give feedback talk with your staff everything you did since you've been in office has it been for the people who did it benefit was it your Personal Agenda or was it for the people as the mayor stated in one of the meetings in the Southport you can't help a hundred people I understand you can't help everyone but I guess I keep falling in at 100 because I keep asking what's being done we have a lot of programs here I'm not going to take away from the things that's being done but why don't you start looking at who are the people that you're helping is it the same group can we stretch it you have people that come up here every month it's been almost a year I haven't had feedback from anyone how do I get feedback do I email do I call you know I work too so I can come during the day or there evening hour set up you know maybe once a month maybe once every couple months try to adjust you can't help everyone but everyone can't get the food distribution during the day I got to go to work now you want me to take off from work just so I can open up my trunk to get some food I would love to because I need the help but I'm not the only one everyone can't come here and ask but we haven't even come together even talk because why can't we have Town Hall meetings in the community I can't come to your fundraisers my pockets are not that big so how else do I get to talk to you you have events yes but look at the times and dates that you have them everyone can attend I can't stand in the long line for the book bag I really want to but at the same time let's be feir I need to have a real conversation we can't afford to live here and I have a job but we're being pushed out it's not really funny but it's serious I'm glad everyone is established and sometimes when you're not in my shoes you don't understand but you got to get out here you got to get your G AIDS out here to really talk to the people can we know who they are because again I asked you please introduce yourself you got into office but we really don't know who to even contact or how to contact if we didn't have social media how would we know what you're doing thanks for the pictures but seriously how do you get the word out to the community if I'm not in your circle how do I know I really don't and that's why I'm here I'm fortunate to to find out about the meetings and I'm too old to find out this late imagine how many residents don't know that's why they're not hear but I want to thank you for the time I can't talk about everything in five minutes but I do ask reach out it's in real communication so we can understand each other CU since you got it to office many got these big eagles I'm here you you got to wait for me to talk to you stop you supposed to be serving the people but I just want to thank you for the time it's 2024 let's try to do things different we focusing on 16 year olds but you don't even know their concerns in the schools but you want them to vote thank you thank you Miss Brown for your time next speaker Madam clerk opal all right present good evening Miss right yes good evening thank you my name is op I reside at Bill Street in North New Jersey and our concern is with the implementation of this law that is um cited uh the laws the title of the law is God Frank Wall Street reform and protection act I would like to just start with title two which is Bly liquidation Authority in section 25 study on secured Predator haircuts the study require that the council shall conduct a study uh evaluating the importance of maintaining the United States tax payers uh protection and promoting Market discipline with respect to the treatment of full secured preditors in the utilization of the orderly liquidation Authority authorized by this act in carrying out such study the council shall not be Prudential to current or past laws or regulations with respect to secur creditors treatment in a resolution process entirey s Wall Street transparency and accountability and there are number of products services in uh paragraph one and two i' like to just read that there's a treatment of similar products and entities and it states that in adopting rules and orders under this subsection commodity future trading Commission and Security and Exchange Commission shall treat functionally and economically similar products or entities in a similar manner in this law title one which is uh titled Financial stability there is some of the um factors well I would rather start with the study there's a study of the effects size and the uh complexity financial institutions on Capital market efficiency and economic growth and this study includes explicit or implicit limits on the medium I'm sorry the maximum size of banks Bank holding companies and other large um financial institutions there's also requirement for occupational uh separation between business units large financial institutions in order to expedite resolution in uh case failure there's a limit on risk transfer between business units large financial institutions requirements in carry contingent capital for similar mechanisms thank you Miss bar I'm sorry your time has now expire thank you for your comments next speaker Emily Akens not present Deborah Salters present good evening Miss Salters good evening de sal to City of nework warrior for the people um and Miss aens is not here but see when things happened like the last meeting when you all flooded that list on purpose with the uh Institute of social justice to come and talk about these 16 year olds voting now the night of I call 8:30 in the morning the next morning after the meeting because you don't allow us to sign up at night for the next meeting we attempted to sign up 8:30 the next morning nobody answers the phone till 8:40 but there's no way that the list can be full by 8:30 in the morning if someone emailed in or called in so I'm telling everyone to Oprah request those documents because it has a Tim stamp on it I guarantee you those those people on the list that did not even show up your hand walked in so just like I said they make allowances for what they want to make allowances for that list was filled and half the people didn't even show up for that meeting so you flooded the list so the regular citizens couldn't come here and voice their disdain for what you were trying to do now we don't have a problem with 16 year olds voting but when our children can't read beyond the third grade level that's a problem because then who is manipulating these children and telling them who to vote for now if they were children like myself who are not anomalies but the norm between 15 and 17 we were on uh uh State uh boards and things like this and you know getting president's Awards because we were reading beyond our level because we were engaged and uh educated about the things that are going on but if our children are not educated how are they voting and and and and shame on you Institute a social justice because you showed up for that and you don't show up for the the life situations that we're in on a regular basis but you show up and flood our list for your nonsense what fight have you stood with us in our water our housing our homelessness our joblessness you haven't showed up for any of that shame on you sit down and stay out of our counsel now let's talk about I looked at this ordinance U that you all at e that you're removing event parking from a certain space do I have this correct after I came up here multiple times showing you the proof that we need parking decals for the residents in a particular area who keep getting ticketed for this event parking and you don't give two cents about it but you're going to look past that and go somewhere else and remove event parking is this what this is saying for somewhere else and how long have I been coming here with the proof showing you that we had the petition signed you yourself council president told everyone that this should not be an issue silver turns around it's his W says there's nothing he can do but then you're sponsoring this if I see it right you're removing event parking but guess who the event parking is hurting the residents because the people who come here from New York and everywhere else are smart they walk from the uh down in Harrison they walk up they don't use our streets anymore the streets are empty the residents suffer because you know why we don't know that there's parking an event because no one tells us we come outside or we come in from work or from church or from the store and we find a ticket on our cars because no one notified us so it's entrapment but you all know this and you don't care because you have your personal likes and dislikes your job is to represent of the citizens of the city not those who you want to represent you took this job we didn't tell you to take it and the votes will tell you that by the numbers that you got when you got back to off we weren't rooting for you to be in here so you know and then let me tell you about the dumb stuff that y'all do I don't know who said that it was okay for the police officers downtown to take up 13 parking spaces that the residents now you have made it available for the the dummy police cars now the residents further have to walk to park when they're supposed to park in the parking dead and walk not only do they do that with the police cars they they put the police cars there and then they Park their regular vehicles in the the residents need people who sh one of them saw one of them walk oh what you doing man he's like no I need to walk they're fat they're lazy they sit in their cars I took pictures they watch four people turn right on red Running Red Lights doing whatever they want and no one gets out of their cars so what are we paying for thank you Miss stter next speaker George Tillman Jr presid good evening my name is George Tillman again I'm just going to continue to enter into the record the same ordinances that we seem to be having a discrepancy over but the law is very clear uh 6s in FA which is the First Source linkage program and 6s and FD which is the New York resident employment policy and the nework Employment Commission we've had several conversations going going back to December 20th when uh these ordinances were entered into the record councilman Council we had a discussion you said you read the ordinance and if you read the ordinance the ordinance is very clear on its language about the damages if you go to section five of 6s and Fa page five section five it talks about damages the city reserves any other remedies it may have at law or Equity including but not limited to the termination of any economic incentive such as the recalling of loans repelling of tax abatements or cancelling of contracts for non-compliance of the resident uh employment policy the commission 6sf andd which is the governing body that monitors andfor the new Resident employment policy is not enacted councilman so if it's not enact enacted how is the policy being monitored and enacted how is nework residents being hired how are we being ensured that nework residents are being hired we're not because under the law it clearly states that there's two governing bodies that should be enacted and they're not but you're still granting these tax abatements knowingly and willingly that the the government is non-compliant it clearly states that there's damages for non-compliance the administration came up here and clearly stated that the the developers are non-compliant but the language was vague this V this language is not vague it's clearly states that the tax abatement can be repelled that not has been one tax abatement that has been repelled since you've been giving out tax abatements there's been almost 99.9% of the developments that have been non-compliant with the resident employment policy you cannot continue to Grant these tax abatements and giving these developers these economic incentives these long-term tax abatements without New York residents being hired that's a part of the ordinance ners are the priority not the developers if you continue to Grant these these economic consenters knowing that the government is not compliant I gave you the ordinance you can go look in in upstairs in the clerk's office and see if there's a a nework Employment Commission it's enacted so how are you giving out tax abatements when there's no enforcement no monitoring of the nework resident employment policy I ask for someone to give me an answer to why you're doing this the only one that has responded has been councilman brre who is who is conferring with corporate counsel corporate Council has not even responded the Administration has not responded knowing that I've come here since November citing the same ordinances about their non-compliance it's up to this governing body to put pressure on the administration to do their due diligence to make sure that no residents are protected and their civil rights are being protected because our civil rights are not being protected right now we being sold for tax abatements and we're not getting nothing in return you're not working there's no economic uh growth that you can see in our community you see more homeless shelters being built you're seeing more Social Services more programs more Social Services we're not asking for social services we're asking for the newk resident employment policy to give us the jobs that we deserve that's all we're asking this should not be a fight we didn't fight you when we voted for you we didn't fight I supported a lot of you up there but for me to come here and to have to to to to do this is is thank you Mr tman thank you so much your time has now expired thank you next speaker Donna Jackson not present G kuron not present patience Roberts present General Secretary patience of the new African Black Panther Party right now our chairman Africa is downstairs they're denying him entrance saying that the he can't be in the same space as the mayor which is untrue we already went to court there's a transcript the judge say what he can and cannot do the mayor is not even in this chamber again nor Police Department is under consent decree for a reason because they continue to violate residents rights under the direction of the mayor I have a court case with Dawn Haynes the president of the school board she said I cyber harassed her yet she responded to my Facebook post with laughing emojis I don't understand how someone can feel harassed and attacked and comment back because her husband put hands on chairman Africa during the men's meeting this past summer these people use the courts and weaponize it against activists the mayor basically put a head out on chairman Africa talking about anything was to happen to him no one would care now he's downstairs surrounded by police denying his right to speak at the council I just want the public to know this is what they do I'm going to read a speech um it's called This is a class struggle godamn it by Fred hamson because we got to understand these people represent the class the oppress oppressive class they don't work for us or the people you know a lot of people have hangups with the party because the party talks about class struggle and the people that have those hangups are tunist and cowards and individualists and everything that's anything but revolutionary and they use these things as an excuse to justify and to Alibi and to bonify their lack of participation in real revolutionary struggle so they say well I can't dig the panther party because the Panthers they engrossed with dealing with oppressor country radicals or white people or hung or what have you they say these are some of the excuses that I use to negate really why I am not in the struggle but we're not dealing with white people these are black and brown faces it's called neocolonialism they just took the place of the oppressa they're The Gatekeepers I'm going to continue we got a lot of answers for these people first of all we say primarily that the priority of the struggle is class that marks and lenon and Sh overa M song and anybody else that has ever said or knew or practiced anything about Revolution always say that A revolution is a class struggle it was one class the oppressed those other classes the oppressor and it's got to be a universal fact those that don't admit to that are those that don't want to get involved in a revolution because they know as long as they're dealing with a race thing they'll never be involved in a revolution they can talk about numbers they can hang up they can hang you up in many many ways but as soon as you start talking about class and you got to start talking about some guns and that's what the party had to do you can't trust these people up here you can't trust their authors of legal tenant Services because they have lawyers like d Moxley that will literally create a rent lger for the landlord instead of advocating for the resident you have people like Yolanda Davis that is looking for money for the slum Lord for months that's not even have nothing to do with the case we are talking about kabari Meyers that don't know how to return phone calls and keep her employees in check we talking about cop City how does public School properties get sold and traded and transferred to make to build cop City yes we have a cop City $300 million project yes North police need more money while they violate our rights and put in a community center in a cop city does not make it okay you all should be ashamed of yourself all of y'all again nor police continue to violate race and you continue to do nothing about it Roberts Your Time Is Now expired next speaker patience Lewis patience Lewis present good evening everyone I'm patience Lewis I'm also a member of the new African black panther party here in New York um when scheduling my appointment today for today's council meeting the clerk asked me what did I want to speak about and when she asked I responded I wasn't sure yet but not because I wanted to waste anyone's time but because I understand the purpose and importance of public speaking and organizing and that whatever I have to say would be purposeful today I'm not here to complain because I get the Dynamics of politics people voice their Community issues and politicians who are supposed who we're supposed to trust represent us often Overlook these concerns or making decisions that impact Our Lives daily my point is given my obvious distrust in our politicians our government it is up to us to come together to organize especially by utilizing these meetings to share our message in the new African black panther party we conduct weekly political education classes as we aim for self- Liberation without relying on the government we address housing problems where our general secretary assist t facing abuse from landlords we provide meals because we acknowledge the financial struggles in nor we have an after school program some of the kids from the after school program where we teach them self-defense through boxing the message is clear while it's challenging we don't solely rely on the government to fix our problems because we know that they won't help us and I just want to say that our ultimate support lies within each other thank you Miss Lewis next speaker alif Muhammad present good evening Mr Muhammad good evening okay thanks man oh good evening again that means I swear to Allah that I thought I was finished coming down here I had told Pat I said I'm not coming down here no more didn't I say that I said I'm not coming down here no more but guess what how they saying to Godfather soon as I get out they pull me right back in I got four months left on my turn four months left on my turn and why I'm back here is because they want to make Norma Gonzalez the chairperson Norma Gonzalez is a political bag lady now some of y'all haven't been born in 50s and 60s with me back in the day the number person that wouldn't pick the money up was the bag lady am I right okay now it is I waited a whole year I went with it I laid we got rid of Victor but see if Victor was Clyde Nama was Bonnie like this what was I gonna come back out here and say heos uh we Zer zero it's not the same unless you're talking algebra am I right gazis that's the only time a minus means something in alible got in real life three of the things we did was z z who you think was in charge who you think was in charge with Victor he been there for two years but she's the P she go get that money now what I'm saying to you let me explain something to you about Al Muhammad you know I got three hours of DJ midi talking to me so everything I'm saying I could prove now when the federal authorities came to me when I made my first complaint that I gave you I made 30 since then and I met with them 30 times they came to my hours came to my office three hours then they told me next week they wanted me to come to their office I went down to mberry Street and then when I got down to mberry Street they said to me we are I can't say what they said but they said we have Federal agency and this is a criminal investigation you see what she say right there that she be joking they said the same thing to me they said Ali your whole town is corrupt I'm like what you talking about he said everybody you can't get nothing done in L unless you pay for it believe it out of Street you would thought I lost my girlfriend in elementary school believe like I believe that I want the better no I want to how it used to be all I want so now I got four months and if it get down when it get down see p up from a little Bri we tell you we don't sneak you told you I was coming didn't I told you said I'm coming brother and I'm G come every meeting but let me tell you what I'mma do I'mma call names out see we can't have people that on on the commission of the Housing Authority that have efforts called hatch collecting money for a politicians we can't have people on chairman of the C commission being civic association president that's driven strictly by money that's the money now they say love somebody up there got two people I love more people that the missing one right section about 50,000 and every one of us listen to me every one of us got two people want it so 200 talk about 200 about me falling out no more they got us you can't nobody that's a commissioner collecting money it gives us in trouble now when I come back deals do bro s you the deals and show you the [Applause] Corum Mohamed president council members that concludes the hearing of citizens thank you so much Madam clerk at this time we'll have responses from Council Members if any any responses from any council members Council M Kelly uh thank you council president I just wanted to uh respond to to uh mother Bay you know we we go through Underwood all the time every time she ask us to clean up the area but she's right you know um every time we clean it up it gets right back dirty so cler what I want to ask is that can we get the corporate counsel and and talk about what legal actions that we can take against uh these landlords who own these buildings and the tenants that are that are in them I witness it myself just from being up there soon as we clean it like almost immediately the next day it's it's back to how these pictures look and she's right we have to do something about it because otherwise we keep spending taxpayers money would just keep cleaning up the block and that's not really been the solution so we have to figure it out and I'm asking for uh corporate counsil to figure out some legal ways that we can take action just like we do against the big big owners in their buildings these are four family homes so let's figure out how we can take legal action against them as well doly noted councilman Kelly any other comments from Council Members Council mcom thank you thank you council president I I agree 100% with um uh my colleague M Kelly you know we love the city we don't like it being dirty none of us do um every day you know we see something a lot of us call it gets removed it but it comes back so hopefully there's a way with with councilman Kelly's uh uh leading the charge not just and and I a say not the West War but throughout the city that we can find some ways to uh maybe uh address the landlords and even tenants to a a stronger degree and possibly higher fines because it doesn't seem like is working right now thank you councilman Crump toly noted any other comments councilwoman Scott rree yes thank you um I too agree with um the steps that need to be taken regarding the slim Lords in the city of New York uh but I want to address actually Mr Tillman uh there was supposed to be a meeting that took place on the 18th of January I don't want him to think that his comments are being are going unnoticed you know that so we are scheduling another meeting next week's informative action committee um along with Mr Stewart Corporation counsel and I have those concerns with the administration regarding those ordinances I just want to be very clear on what steps were taken after and before um those ordinance were put into place so when we meet with you that we all will be in one Accord to go over all of those concerns that you have and see how we can move forward um to possibly a bate or fix so whatever it is that we can do legally and ethically to address those issues that you speak of every month thank you counc thank you councilwoman Scott rree any other comments seeing n any responses from the administration yes thank you council president Eric Pennington business administrator um I'd like to respond to the recording was played of a person who reported to be a representative of the International Association of firefighters and his unfounded castigation of Rufus Jackson the city of Nork and Ru Jackson continue to mourn the loss of our two firefighters Wayne Brooks and aak kabu the Nork fire division has existed for more than 200 years and in that time Rufus Jackson is one of only a handful of African-Americans who have been elevated to Chief it's unfortunate when folks are used as pawns to further the objectives of a union that represents no one here in the city of nework and spreads misinformation and disinformation about our fire leadership for their own ends it takes a self-hating self-loathing individual who would knowingly spread false information to slander Rufus Jackson and to use the deaths of two of norc's Bravest to further that objective is Despicable Rufus Jackson has demonstrated his competence during his nearly 30-year career in the nor York fire department during which time served in nearly every rank in the department his experience certifications and test scores make him imminently qualified for the position he held as fire chief indeed he scored number one on the chief's test prior to his elevation and clearly support his rep recent promotion to assistant director of Public Safety comments to the contrary are unfounded and totally inappropriate thank you please excuse me Miss Parker Miss Parker do not call out it's not your time don't call out okay um to the agenda Madam cler Madam clerk m madame president Miss Parker um excuse me officers can we help Miss Parker um be escorted out please Madame President I'm sorry give me one second councilman Ramos I'm gonna ask for those in the chambers please do not call out when it's not your time at the mic please let's be respectful to everybody everyone has a chance to talk here it's excuse me I'm sorry councilman Ros not a problem council president um I I had an opportunity to listen into part of the hearings last week I was just going to ask through your chair and the clerk um to see if if it's possible for us to have copies of the transcripts available to us I don't know if the Administration has access to that information um you know it's a kind of difficult to log in on certain dates so I'm just curious to see if you would have access maybe the clerk can figure out how to get that information I know we have to wait till the investigation is complete to get a full report toly noted it we do Council maros Madam clerk if you can assist us with that thank you any other comments before we move on to the agenda okay CNN next to the agenda we are on page four of the agenda ordinances on first reading 6fa is an ordinance regarding five-year tax exemptions and abatements a motion to return this item to the administration roll call to return Council yes pum yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes K yes Ramos yes Scott Round Tree yes Silva yes president MC Iver yes public hearing second reading and final passage 6 psfa is an ordinance granting a 20 year tax abatement to Washington 303 urban renewal LLC for a project to renovate a five-story commercial building into a 10-story mixed use building consisting of 74 market rate residential rental units 18 affordable housing rental units of which four units shall be restricted to tenants at 40% of the area medium income Ami five units shall be restricted to tenants at 60% Ami and nine units shall be restricted to tenants at 80% Ami in the central Ward is there anyone present wishing to be heard on this ordinance yes de sal to City of NK or for the people I see that this has been deferred three times so isn't it after a certain number of times it goes back to whomever has it it's been deferred three times no action taken but the point that I'm looking at here is that okay so these people are from New York again because an apartment three room apartment in New York right now is going for $6,000 so of course they're coming here and taking our property and renting it out for less money because we're cheap half the price so it says to renovate a five-story commercial building into a 10 story mix use so where did this extra space come from are they tearing the building down that's there and starting over because it says renovate not reconstruct so did the space all of a sudden get bigger because what's happening is we're condensing us more and more like sardines in this city and the people with this new ordinance that you all passed where people could put an apartment anywhere garage right upside your wall all of these things is this another one of of these things but then we're giving out tax abatements and a tax abatement is supposed to benefit the area where the property is going so if it's 74 market rate because again we talking about we need 16,000 units of affordable or let's say lowincome housing that nkers whose area median income Max is 35 to 36,000 so the area Med income here is not that because again we're told that you're using the HUD rubric so then we're giving them 25 years on 74 market rate and then the 18 affordable are not so affordable for the residents and what they're building for affordable is one bedrooms and I don't know that you all know this like the urby they have nothing above a one bedroom and then they're smaller than the market rate Apartments so again we're getting too little for too much that we're giving away but I don't know that you all go in and ask ask these questions and actually go into these buildings and walk these places and see that your residents are being disenfranchised by these people that were giving 25 and 30e tax abatements to 74 market rate residential rental units 18 affordable again we go through the four units restricted to the Ami of 60% again but it's not the area meeting income to support ners like with the 360 plan that you all been going around selling these people are not doing this for the residents who live here but you're not investigating this and you're not going into these places and holding them accountable thank you Miss Salters next speaker regarding this item we we talking to the residents because we know they don't they ain't listening but anyway residents um and also individuals who watching that understand and and relate to what we talking about now I've spoke several times about the tax abatement ordinance needs to be having a uh Fe Federal monitor a independent investigation into this tax abatement program residents it is it is we who have to do this it is we who have to put a petition together and be serious about demanding some kind of accountability with the tax abatement because we know it's not that we come with so many different solutions for them I even talked about addressing the area medium or ordinance you you don't pass the legislation for what y'all want but how about P for what y'all want but how about pass in the area medium income that meets the need of the residents of the city whatever happened with that legislation whatever happened to going back and looking at a a congresswoman Evette Clark who discussed area medium income and housing for the residents of of the city now you was charged to do 16,000 lowincome units in this city from the workers clim report what what's the upate on that how many of the 16,000 can we get a breakdown or a list of how many of those low income that that that was included with that 16,000 that was recommended any y'all can tell us can you give us a list or breakdown because I know Ruckus clown report say you have to build 16,000 whatever happened to the uh the statford uh uhh right see what see when it comes out mad up here you think we just come up here just to want just keep on fussing and fighting with Y all right but nobody setting aside no funds we don't even get a breakdown who's ad ministering this tax abatement program we don't even know who's administering how y'all tallying up giving out the uh the the the the the rental properties for none of this stuff but then you wonder why somebody's out there that could do something independent like we got to monitor it over the police over our budget over this tax abatement program over how you giving out the uh the money cuz like you gave $3.5 million of tax abatement money from from the tax abatement reorganize your time has now expired thank you next speaker good evening good evening newk um my name is did you hear me okay my name is Stephanie Atkins and um I want to speak out um on behalf of workers and and people who really need affordable housing on this project um so um don't know if most of you know but the same developer who is putting this building together is also responsible for the old St James hospital um which is being converted into a uh school for the Board of Education there were several instances on that project where people weren't getting paid Department of Labor showed up issued stop work orders for the contractors because they weren't um registered to do the type of work so that's number one um again the Indigo Hotel which is you know just down the block um another issue where and I saw this in the news I believe or like tap into but um they were converting the hotel into a micro unit apartment building um and apparently I guess there were six workers who hadn't been paid for weeks and it basically came down to them the developers fell the pressure and then kind of just showed up up with an $118,000 check for these six workers like that like in a day um and then my third thing and I still have time um so the same developer on June 21st 2022 um there was an ordinance put before the council um for the transfer of an apartment building of 45 William Street and the way that it read it was very confusing and I think I'm not sure who it was but one of the council people actually asked the deputy mayor to come up and explain it and at that moment when she came she said that um during a compliance review because the property I believe was being sold during a compliance review what they discovered was that the developer was in default and had not and was not complying with the io because they were supposed to have six units on site and then the six offsite so when the project was being sold I guess they came across that during the compliance review and I know the developer I believe they paid a million dollars to not have to do it basically to get out but I mean if you're going to set things like that like it's basically like pay to get out of jail you know what I'm saying and for the workers like if the workers aren't getting paid they're not making money they don't have income and if developers aren't actually building the affordable houses that they're supposed to be affordable units rather then there's nothing affordable so now you have people who are being taken advantage of vulnerable vulnerable people you know they're already people who are having issues and now it's like I don't know I just don't think it's cool and you know with all that said I just implore you all like think they take five minutes and just think about thank you so much for your comments next speaker hello how are you Nar Brown n never hear this long but to look at this ordinance I'm not going to beat you down about the tax abatement you hear that all the time I just want to bring a point of view that you may not really get out of this yeah you set aside 18 Apartments that's affordable for the last couple of years we've been playing on the words affordable low income housing I want to tell you it's the same but we keep trying to make it seem like it's different so you set aside 18 Apartments that's affordable there 74 all together but what about people like me can't fit in the market rate or the affordable where do we go I think that's the part where everybody's not understanding we're putting out affordable but everybody doesn't fit in either category where do the people go that don't fit in the market we don't make enough to pay the rent we make too much to be unaffordable I need you to take out time to get a team to understand this is great though for aable but we're counting people's gross not n what is the Ami when you look it up you get three different amounts going on for the city of North are we at 30,000 24,000 or 115,000 not sure but you got to understand we're putting this out every month we always talking about affordable affordable who's it affordable for so the problem is what about the people that can't fit into the market people are really suffering and silent pushed out can't afford but then this Ami right here what is it though give us the amount thank you thank you Miss Brown Next speaker good evening Mr President Council uh CH hter just speaking on uh this ordinance um in reference to this 25e tax abatement this particular vendor not only did a shotti construction work uh for the New York Board of Education where the state of New Jersey had to come in and essentially put a stop order on their building it'll be the textbook example of the opposite of first class construction but we see that they're being given a someone call it an economic incentive but an opportunity on this side there's three things Mr President you and your colleagues we would suggest that you take into consideration um one is on any and all of these abatement deals the county gets the majority of the tax payments when they do come in so not only is the Board of Education getting short changed the county gets most of the tax payments for the abatement payments so that's something that I don't know if y'all can speak to the developer or speak to the state capital about but our school district lose out from a calculated perspective every time y'all vote in the affirmative n uh five or more on your nine member board so there must be a hon tax calculation because predicting what y'all are going to do is like predicting the weather for last week we can't figure out what you're doing with your budget what you forecast is not what you do so in theme with that we want more of a common sense approach to the abatement deals the the local Source hiring the labor components for this particular application and I took a very informal glimpse of it because I was doing something for a CL client before I came here y'all have the nerve to let them double the size of the building almost without a pla or without other aspects that are going to Source local Blood Sweat and Tears so that we can put more meals in in in a local family's uh table so the the nor first agenda should be in the forfront of all nine of y'all with these deals again the school district is not calculated to receive tax payments once this comes in you nine have heard Mr Guzman from the finance department testify with clear English-speaking language that the state kicked your last budget back you had to go back and do your homework the same way my son does for ninth grade you resubmitted a budget fine but part of that is directly align with the fact that you didn't even collect the abatement payments that you would do to collect El in 23 24 my grandmother up on Linux AV Harlem or my aunt here would have told me that's like a chicken with a headcut off fiscal Insanity so in conclusion Mr President happy New Year but these abatement applications our school district ends up last and we're trying to put nor first thank you nor wake up thank you Chay next speaker good evening George Tillman so uh I'm glad that a lot of the residents have done their due diligence on this developer that is 155 jeffersson street is the the development they're talking about that was a a stop work order for non-compliance for not paying the workers and all kinds of violations um this project is almost completed so I don't know how we just um voting on this tax abatement now not only has is it almost completed but there there was an incident that when I was working with the city of n because that was my project there was n residents that was fired from that that that that uh 303 Washington Street and wages weren't paid it's very very bad that's a very very bad development going on over there so it's very very bad that's a very very bad development going on over there so without us having the law enacted the nework Employment Commission that oversees these tax abatements all these economic incentives this that's not your job it's not the affirmative action job it's not the tax abatement committee's job it's not even affirmative action committee's job it's the job according to the ordinance of the nor employment commission if you vote to affirm this tax abatement without doing your due diligence on the just a developer alone that's what the commission is all about they do the whole the whole uh vetting of any any developer they do vetting of the construction developments that they did prior to their applications do you have any history of the compliance of any of the other developments that this developer has done the whole process of these tax evad Ms and the granting of them are supposed to be done preconstruction how do we almost into the Final Phase of construction and we voting on a tax abatement the process how how is this process of governing going on this is not the process according to the ordinance and unless we do something to change that Council men and women new residents are not going to be benefiting from these economic incentives to continue to Grant these tax abatements without the enforcement and components uh attached to them is a grave disservice to the nework residents thank you thank you Mr tman next speaker seeing n public speaking is now closed any responses from Council Members before we have responses from the administration yes councilman Gonzalez yeah I saw that that we receive a payment of $75,000 regarding the non-compliance of hiring new residents and I I tend to agree with the speakers in that respect because 75,000 benefit the city of New York but the salaries that the employees were to be to make in that project would have amounted to much more than the $775,000 it's good that we penalize them for not complying with the ordinance but I believe it's more important that we ass certain ourself that the ordinance is being followed and that people from the city of New York are employed in this projects and always when we have the tax ayment committee meeting we have H the representative from H from affirmative action indicating to us that they have complied with the the affirmative action requirements but in some cases ER we go after the fact and I I don't like the idea of going after the fact because we are not allowing the the residents of the city to make the money that they should be Mak making in these projects dly noted councilman Gonzalez any other comments before our Deputy Mayor comes up cing n Deputy Mayor any responses good evening council president council members and uh nice to see you this evening Allison lad director of Economic and Housing Development uh I wanted to uh speak to a few items that were mentioned by the speakers um one uh 45 William uh that project uh was something that was financed and was supposed to have 10% affordable onsite and 10% offsite uh during our compliance process after construction is where we found they were continuing to be in non-compliance so the request that we made was to have the developer pay $180,000 per unit or put the pro put the units on site to comply with IO in the end today the property actually meets inclusionary zoning 20% onsite and we do have the units that are associated with that compliance and it varies by bedroom type uh second um the hotel the hotel was mentioned uh the hotel was um a change in ownership so there was a sale and this developer did purchase the hotel to modify it from a hotel to residences uh there was a situation where the city it was not a city matter at that time where the uh employees did need to be compensated properly and that was remedied but the change from a hotel to residency was because of a change in ownership and it actually was sold and so that's why it was moved from a hotel to residences uh third 155 Jefferson was mentioned uh this project project again is the same developer um the reason that the city is even considering 155 Jefferson as a project is because of the the school board and the work that's being happened so that it can become a high school and so we're really excited about this and we're trying to ensure that we can have a school for our youth um that's needed um and 155 Jefferson uh next on this project in particular uh the the affordability here is in compliance with inclusionary zoning and does span inclusionary zoning by law the Ami levels 40 60 and 80 so those are actually set by law as we know but that's just more for those that are listening um it's not an arbitrary amount it's actually set by the inclusionary zoning ordinance um and it also does stratify by bedroom type for Studios one bedrooms two bedrooms based upon Ami levels uh second I wanted to just reference another comment for this project in particular about the taxes uh here in this project the taxes actually will be almost double from what they are today today the taxes collected on the project is $3,948 after construction it'll be $239,200 the city actually gets a larger portion of that tax revenue than if done um as a typical rateable so there's a benefit to the city for this tax incentive um and we're glad about that so in closing uh we would agree that Workforce Development is a key component of how we look at First Source and compliance of our incentives and that's where we're working with the office of affirmative action and the deputy mayor rakan Muhammad to make that happen I'll close by saying that I know our tax Abate commit tax abatement committee um made up of our council members um our esteemed council members uh you asked that question of the developers not just the administration that they are in compliance with local hire First Source and um all of the rules around Workforce Development and I know that that's a key component of what each of you ask when we have the tax Amit committee um for all projects that are considered and at times um there are delays in us moving a project forward because of non-compliance and I think that that's important for those that are listening to hear that because it's a really key part about how the government is working in support of what's important for our city which is the residents thank you uh Deputy Mayor any additional questions from Council Members councilman Ros yeah thank you Madame President uh Deputy may could could you address the timing of the abatement you know I I I agree I drive by the site regularly and and it seems like the project is pretty much underway like why is the abatement before us now uh yes uh council president council member Ramos's question um the part of the process for us as an Administration to bring a project to tax abatement committee is for us to review the compliance of other projects and so at times there could be a delay of a project being brought to the council tax abatement committee because of non-compliance in other areas so um and I know uh council member Ramos you were you heard what I was saying about 45 William that was a problem for us as a as a city as an Administration and so we needed the developers to get in compliance with 45 William even though they own other sites and they do want to do development in our city we do not want to support it if they're not complying with our laws so 45 William was something that had to get resolved before we were willing to bring it to committee and then even when we brought it to committee the committee asked and this is under our uh chair council member Gonzalez along with council president and council member of council they were asking us well why would you bring a new project to us if 45 William is not in compliance so the time delay was to make sure we got 45 William in compliance so that we could have this conversation today and it would give us all more comfort that we were able to have compliance in areas that were important if I can Madam president um it seems like they're building this almost assuming that the abatement is going to be approved because you know they have a lot of and um pretty sure a lot of money invested in this construction project you know what what would happen if the abatement wasn't approved today like does it put the project at risk um you know how that that's kind of a risky move on their part um yes council president to council member Ramos's question um we give all developers the information at the beginning that says what the law is uh to your point that says you uh should not start construction and cannot start construction before you get your abatement passed or you are at risk of not uh having the abatement because it's still is an approval and it has to be an affirmative approval by not only the administration but of the council and so we do tell them that it is a risk that they take uh for starting any construction prior to a tax abatement approval um second I would say that um the for us it's still a but for test um as you know by law through the long-term tax exemption law all tax abatements must meet the but four test so that it needs to be without a tax abatement the project does not happen uh so the third part is is I would say that it's possible that if a tax abatement is not um approved that the construction can stop last point if I can Madam president um councilman Silva and I had an opportunity to meet with the the superintendent about a lot of the issues around the um Old St James hospital the the new high school and you know there's some real significant um inspections that were done by the state and findings that they had on the site is is this project subject to any labor agreements prevailing wage agreements and you know who's going to monitor this this uh developer that had a lot of issues with a big project that the uh Board of Education authorized so with that I would uh so council president it's that would be the collective City so there are uh checks in place from engineering regarding all of the permits and the construction Code Compliance there are then checks with water and sewer about any development that has to impact water and sewer and any construction associated with that then there's also Finance checks as far as making sure that they comply post and prior to paying taxes as well as submitting their financial agreements um and then for affordable housing elements that check is done by the economic and Housing Development Department similar to the way we did with 45 William and so in all of those aspects um and I shouldn't uh leave out Workforce Development they do have their own verifications and certifications um but I'll end by saying there are always other oversights that happen um we've seen that happen with the state that will come in whether it's the Department of Labor or other inspections by DCA or hmfa that come in to help hold any developer and land owner accountable to all of those rules any other comments or questions from Council Members seeing them thank you uh Deputy Mayor thank you roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana Ramos obain Scott rry yes Sila obain president MC Iber yes resolutions 7r1 a through 7r1 D are temporary emergency appropriate ations from The Office of Management and budget a is to provide medical care and supportive services to the city of nework and surrounding areas B is a cash match cash match for the 2022 njd Volkswagen mitigation project C is to provide funds for pensions until the adoption of the 2024 operating budget and D is for the bike Nork downtown connector roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes canana yes Ramos absent abent Scott brre yes Sila yes President Ma Iver yes 7 r1e is an extension of an emergency contract to extend the emergency contract to provide the services of negotiating and setting up payment plans and providing the software platform for payment processing for water andure account holders with outstanding debts roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes Kitana yes Ramos um yes we're on 7r1 E councilman R Scott rry yes Silva yes president mver yes Madam president yes councilman Ros I apologize for sneaking out of the room but I'd like to be noted as a yes for a through uh D totally noted councilman Ros 7r1 f is a bid contract to provide lead paint analyzers roll call Council yes Trum yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes Pana yes Ramos yes Scott rry Yesa yes president M Iber yes 7r1 G through 7r1 M or contracts with subrecipients to provide communitybased violence intervention and council president council members I'm going to go through each of them because they're different dly noted G is inspired by U LLC vote on we might have to break these up because um some some of them are being deferred so we'll vote on this first one because it's going through so and then we'll take the others that's fine council is a hold to adopt 7 r1g Council yes Grump yesalis not this one no they came in yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos stain Scott rry yes Silva yes president M Iber yes 7 r1h Council as a whole to defer so can we do 7r1 h i and J and K because they're all being deferred sure they just have sponsor some of them sure 7r1 H is to defer 7 r1i motion to defer by councilman councel second by councilman Gonzalez 7 R1 J Council as a whole to defer 7r1 K motion to defer by councilman Council second by councilman canana roll call Council yes Trum yes yes Gonzalez yes Hy yes to defer yes Ramos yes to defer Scott rry yes go yes president mver yes to defer 7r1 L is for Bessie May Woman's Health Center Council is a hold to adopt roll call Council yes yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes Gana yes Ramos stain Scott rry yes Sila yes president mckyer yes 7 R1 M motion to defer by councilman Council second by councilman Crump roll call to defer Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes to defer Keana yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Sila yes president mber yes to defer Madame President yes councilman Ros yeah I I just wanted to add that you know we spent a lot of time yesterday going through these and um you know I would go through your chair and the clerk and ask the ba to to get involved in this process a little bit more you know the recommendations that came to us um and the score grid that we received was was pretty unclear there were entities that weren't recommended for funding that actually had higher scores than some of the entities that were recommended for funding and and I really think that you know that division um needs to do a better job of presenting justification uh for funding you know one of the groups that they bought to the meeting yesterday discussed their scope of service and when the representative from the Department came they talked about a totally different scope of service so you know those are the inconsistencies that um you know led to my extension you know I I want to be supportive of these groups and and initiatives because I think they're helpful uh for the city but I think I need to feel more comfortable that the recommendations being made um have been vetted out properly doly noted councilman Ros uh any other comments Cenna next item 7r2 a through 7r2 I are private sale and redevelopments in various Wards I'm going to go through them individually but just not repeat private sale and Redevelopment 7 r2a there's a motion to return to the administration roll call to defer me sorry roll call to return to Administration Council yes Trump yes alz yes heli yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Silva yes president M Iber yes 7 r2b is to provide new construction of an affordable 24 unit apartment building with 20 parking spaces and a commercial space in the central Ward uh yesterday I asked a question to the administration I believe assistant director dor Geral was here and I know our Deputy Mayor is here tonight but what is the pleasure of the administration regarding this item as it's been deferred twice good evening good evening council president council members Alison lad director of Economic and Housing Development um at this time can I ask you to return it to the administration so we can make the best decision and then provide it back to the council duly noted roll call to return to Administration Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes Tana yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes yesid M yes see is to construct a new two family home and sell at market rate in the South Ward roll call Council oh I'm sorry can we do the next one too forgive me Ren I'm sorry the next item it has sponsors but we can do the next one sure 7 r2d is to provide for newly constructed vocational training facility consisting of 18 affordable housing residential units 24 on-site parking spaces and Commercial and community space in the west W sponsored by councilman Kelly and second by councilman Ramos roll call Council yes Trum yesz yes hel yes yes Ramos yes Scott rry Yesa yes president M Iber yes 7r2 e is a motion to defer by councilman Kelly second by councilwoman Scott rry Council M Kelly yes I want to take away the defer and move okay uh since we're doing that um also too with 7 r2f um there was a motion yesterday made by me to defer but after speaking to my colleague councilman Ramos is actually in the north W um and he had an opportunity to look at this project and meet so councilman Ros it's okay to move forward for the Clark Street sure okay um and then also so I see 7 r2g is a go and 7r2 H so we can do those sure so 7r2 e through 7r2 H correct Council as a whole to adopt roll call um what there no sponsors okay roll call I'm coun with saying sponsor there's no sponsors notless someone wants to sponsor some of these now does someone want speak now or forever hold your pece I'll sponsor okay which one Kelly sponsor um e and G okay e and g i second okay and I heard councilwoman round Tre said she was going to second one so let's do Kelly for E uh round councilwoman Scott round tree for E so councilman Kelly sponsored second by councilwoman round tree and then we have uh G councilman Kelly is sponsoring second by councilman Crum got that got it you sure oh I'm sorry Rena is looking at me doing her um her yes okay sar2 2 e 7 r2e is sponsored by councilman Kelly second by councilwoman councilwoman Scott rry and then we have 7 r2g G sponsored by councilman Kelly second by Council um councilman Crump f is going through it doesn't have a sponsor now let's Council M what you want to sponsor it a council is a whole fun okay great all right we good all right perfect roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes I may have stain on H heli yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brry yes Silva yes president M Iber yes Madam president yes councilman Ramos yeah as you mentioned earlier we we did have a little bit of confusion yesterday regarding these Lots on Clark Street um it listed on the agenda there were Central War property when I left the meeting actually um had a meeting schedule with the proposed buyer um they they are two small City own Lots the um the person that's purchasing them owns a a warehouse near there and they're proposing to possibly buy a privately owned building on the corner in order to develop this site so you know my question Economic Development and doesn't have to answer it here is how much time are you going to um Grant the buyer in order to potentially assemble all the properties that they need to assemble in order to build uh this project because the two city owns lots are undersiz they own a substantially sized warehouse but there's a private piece of property that they would need to acquire in order to possibly assemble all the lots that they need to put this up so just a followup with our office and then you may want to get your staff some updated word Maps so they know which WS um these slaughtering Dy duy noted um okay next item 7ar 2i there's a motion to defer by council president mcgyver by councilman Kelly roll call Council yes pum yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Silva yes president mber yes to defer 7r2 J is a Professional Services contract to provide on call environmental Consulting and Management Services and 7r2 K is an investigation for an area in need of Redevelopment authorizing the central planning board to undertake a preliminary investigation to determine if an era area is in need of Redevelopment council is a hold to adopt J and K roll call Council yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes seven r R 2 l and m will be taken individually because of the public hearing 7r2 L is a reading and adopting the 2023 annual budget for the partnership West incorporated business improvement district sponsored by councilman Kelly second by councilman Gonzalez is there anyone present wishing to speak to this budget seeing no speakers public hearing now closed roll call counil yes yes Kelly yes yes absent Scott rry yes yes yes 7r2 m is reading and adopting the 2023 Bergen Lines Clinton special improvement district sponsored by councilman Council second by councilman Crump is is there anyone present wishing to speak to this budget my name is Shakir McDougal uh I'm in the South for um I guess uh about the budget um I guess I got to bring some stuff to your attention because I'm out in the streets I'm on a I'm on the a you know and I noticed that the the South Ward seems to be treated unfairly you know I know that that Ward doesn't make the most money for the city which means that's the like the poorest Ward you know and I'm noticing how you know there's all these Municipal cold drivers like I'm right there on Clinton a you know that's our little Clinton a in Bergen right there next to the police precin and there's really not there's all these businesses but there's no place for people to park so you got businesses and then you got people that want to patronize the businesses but then somebody makes a call and then the guy comes out and starts ticketing people you know and I find that very unfair you know also I would love to be able to come to your office right over there off the app I don't see I always see the I see the the locks off but it's never open like I wish that there was more spaces where we feel like we could come talk to you you know in our communities when we do see stuff that we feel like is unfair um as far as the budget as long as it doesn't have anything to do with with more tax in our people who are already poor which I feel like is is I mean the poverty is real the mental health issues is real you know and if there's no budget to if there's nothing in the budget that's going to help that situation if it's only just going to be the tax people who are already like they gave a ticket to the the laundry mat lady you know I remember you used to at least be able to get some courtesy they'll go in and ask like is this anybody's vehicle they don't even give us courtesy in the South world because they feel like well what you gonna do who you GNA tell at the end of the day we gonna do it and you were wrong not that you know things could have been handled differently I mean that's a business owner and she got ticketed she wasn't even given you know the courtesy to even say man move your vehicle I just noted that things are different in other areas a lot of people are given you know leniency and I don't feel like it's happening in the award I feel like you know it's sometimes it's a little targeted and you know I'm just hoping that things change so I hope changes in the budget thank you for your comments any other speakers regarding this budget for the BLC Sid the budget speaking to the bud good evening good evening everyone so I am the executive director for the South for special improvement district and I appreciate everyone taking time out to review our budget as everyone would probably know the Sid budget is probably the smallest budget and so some of the things that the previous speaker spoke about and not some of the things that the S actually addresses but we be able to assist with and so again I thank you all for taking time out to review our budget and hopefully it'll be approved thank you uh director ranise good to see you any other speakers regarding this item all right seeing them public speaking is now closed any comments from Council Members councilman Council any comments no I just want to just share with Mr moule real quick that um South water is not poor we're we're we're rich in spirit and some folks over there rich in finances you know South W spends in the weekway section probably like a hundred million dollars outside of the city that we need to start investing inside of the city and so you know the longer we try to you know push this narrative that that we don't have and try to channel in other people we shouldn't one thing I do agree with you though is that there is a law an ordinance called the clear Zone ordinance uh where our police enfor officers should be enforcing that no one should be standing in front of stores 10 to 20 feet and so those areas should be clear at all times and business owners have uh the wherewithal to Ure sure that that is happening too and if they're not they're included in the law that they will be ticketed just as well as those individuals who stand in front of commercial spaces along the corridor so we want to follow all of our laws out here in the city thank you uh councilman Kelly um yeah thank you council president I just want to say uh thank you to um Caesar viso who actually runs our um our partnership West Inc um which is pwi when it comes to business Improvement you know he's been putting forward some some great ideas and plans um like with the retail PODS of assisting people with getting businesses and if they don't have brick and mortar they can uh register with with pwi to start their business from these pods which I think is a great idea that gives business entrepreneurs an opportunity um and just building the relationships up down our corridors we know that uh we have some of the the corridors in the west war that that definitely needs Improvement and he's been open and having these conversations so I just want to say thank you and um uh 2024 I just hope we continue the movement that we've already started by improving our business uh improving our business district and um I look forward to continue to work with them thank you uh councilman Kelly uh before we take I'm sorry councilman Gonzalez yes the only thing that I I see these budgets are for the year pass yeah so we should be in a position this year to have this budget approved before the year is over because this a historical document at this point in time yes um I was just going to say that um something that councilman Council had already addressed but there's no like Richard Ward like than other Wards you know when we talk like that that's like it's so offensive to the city to to you know each ward has something to offer they a value each Ward this entire city um people are paying taxes um there's rich in spirit rich in culture rich in so much um so you know saying that the you know South W is poorer um than any other Ward and you don't get the attention I mean I just those types of comments we have to respond to because it's unfair to residents that live in the south it's unfair to anyone who lives in another W or and lives in a city so we just shouldn't be you know making comments like that um putting value um on our entire city because each ward has something to offer we we all frequently visit many different Wards for many different reasons um no matter what we're there for whether it's a cultural event a business we we we go all around so definitely you know that comment is just it's very offensive to the people who live here roll call Madam president councilman Ramos yeah related to the business it's not not to do with these two in particular but um I did receive a number of calls at the end of the year related to um you know the M Prospect bid where there was an error made by someone in the administration regarding the the calculation of what the the tax should be like um you know unfortunately it was it was a lot higher than what that assess should have been um so I'd like to find out at some point from the administration like what are they doing to correct that because a lot of the contributors are obviously upset because they saw a substantial increase and it wasn't what the bid even requested as part of their budget I think someone just miscalculated uh the assessment and the bills went out and you know I'm not sure what was done to correct that problem doly noted councilman Ramos Madam clerk if you can get a letter to the administration for response to councilman Ramos as well to the entire Council roll call for this item Madam president I'm sorry councilman Silva uh the ibid in the East Ward is the second oldest bid in City behind the the norc downtown district and what I'm doing on February 13th is I'm having a meeting with everybody that's assessed by the ibid uh because I go to the ibid meetings monthly and there's only six or seven people there so what I'm doing is I'm opening it up to uh anybody who wants to come that's assessed by the ibid first time in 20 years that this is happening because I feel they should have a voice if they're paying for a uh a service and so uh February 13th for all the in the East Ward uh everybody who pays into that is invited to a big event uh that I'm having and uh any complaints because I'm always getting complaints that they're paying for a service their streets aren't being clean or the snow removal or whatever it is that the company does and they do a great job but this is their opportunity to show up and express their um their voice and their concerns and also you were saying about poor and rich in the East Ward we don't have a parklet and councilman Council does have a park L on Bergen Street so I just want to make that clear oh man um roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Sila yes president mber yes 7r2 N is a resolution of support to provide support for the submission of an application for tax credits sought by developer from New Jersey Economic Development Authority browni Redevelopment incentive program roll call Council yes yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brry yes yes President Ma Iber yes 7 r3a is to return to the administration roll call to return to Administration yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes 7 r4a is establishing petty cash funds and 7 r4b is confirming Bond sale roll call yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes 7 r5a and 7 r5b are applications Andor acceptance of Grant funds from the Department of Health and Community Wellness a is to provide grant funding for the health center program and B is to provide Ryan White HIV AIDS related health and support services roll call Council yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes 7 r8a through 7R 8 f are appointments to various boards a is the reappointment to the central planning board of council member Scott Round Tree B is a reappointment to the board of adjustments Charles aant sponsored by councilman canana second by councilman Ramos C is an appointment to the board of adjustment Pamela Greer hindes sponsored by councilwoman Scott rry second by councilman Council D is an appointment to the board of adjustment sioban Harris sponsored by council president MacGyver second by councilman Crump e is a supplemental Zoning Board of adjustment appointment Malik abubakar sponsored by councilman Council second by councilwoman Scott ground tree and F is a supplemental Zoning Board of adjustment appointment Jose Santiago sponsored by councilman canana second by councilman Ramos roll call Council yes yes yes yes mber yes 7 R8 G is a resolution of support to support the creation of a food and Security Commission sponsored by councilman Kelly Council as a whole to adopt roll call yesz yes Kelly yes yes R yes yes yes yes 7 r8h is a ceremonial Street designation Iman Hassan Sharif sponsored by councilman Kelly second by Council and councel roll call Council yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes 7 r8i is an exception to public billing to provide for the award of a contract for proprietary computer systems for the legislative management software J is to provide for the website hosting support upgrades manage services and maintenance of the archived record management system in 7 r8k is recognizing and commending resolutions Council as a whole to adopt roll call Council yes yeses yes key yes yes Ramos yes yes yes yes seminar 8 L is expressing profound sorrow and regret council president council members there's a motion on the floor to amend this item to include Mary V aagra sponsored by councilman Gonzalez and Sergeant Kenneth T brown and Sergeant ra Rael Ramos sponsored by councilman Silva I'm sorry Council M quana so if we can amend my staff sent to your office today Domingo Fuentes who was a developer in the city of Newark who started economic development in a central Ward Domingo Fuentes if we can put him also down and do we have anyone else to add council president councilman Crome can I add I'd like to add uh for the passing of Miss Effie Simon excuse me a longtime resident in the city of North um uh and a member of Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church and uh one of the members of the Bethany Senior Center eie Simon eie y e ffi e Simon s i m o n okay any other additions okay roll call to amend on the floor Council yes grum yes galez yes hel yes yes Ramos yes Scott brre yes Sila yes president M Iber yes now roll call to adopt as amended Council yes Trum yes gonalez yes key yes yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes yes president M Iver yes yes 8 a through 8 C are reappointments to Newark Municipal Court Judge a is the reappointment of Judge Gibbons B is the reappointment of Judge Williams and C is the reappointment of Judge Williams as the chief judge of the Newark Municipal Court council's a hold to adopt roll call Council yes Trump yesal yes hel yes yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Silva yes M Iber yes 8D is an ordinance granting a 20-year tax abatement to five Merchant management urban renewal LLC for a project to construct a new five-story multif family Residential Building consisting of 19 market rate residential rental and two affordable housing rental units both of which shall be restricted to tenants at 60% area medium income sponsored by councilman Silva second by councilman canana is a motion to adopt and Advance on first reading roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes heli yes yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Silva yes president MC Iber yes this item will now be known as six FB item 8 e is an ordinance amending title 10 Finance in taxation chapter 22 motor vehicle parking taxes and SE charges to amend special event parking to collectively remove Lincoln Park both sides between Broad Street and Clinton Avenue Clinton Avenue both sides between Lincoln Park and Dr Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard and Dr Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard both sides between Clinton Avenue and State Street motion to advance and adopt on first reading sponsored by council president mcgyver second by councilman Gonzalez roll call Council yes from obain Gonzalez yes Kelly yes Anana yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Silva yes president M Iber yes this item will now be known as 6fc and ordinances adopted on first reading this evening will be advertised in accordance with law and a public hearing will be held at a regular meeting on February 7th or soon thereafter as possible item 8 f is an ordinance adopting the Fourth Amendment to the Waverly yards Redevelopment plan by authorizing parking as a principal interim use and amending two of the maps and deleting two of the maps within the Waverly yards Redevelopment plan sponsored by councilman Council second by councilman Crump roll call Council yes Crump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes yes Ramos yes Scott round Tre yes yes president M Iver yes pending business items 9A and 9B are both to be deferred roll call to defer Council yes Trum yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes Tana yes Ramos yes Scott round Tre yes yes m i yes added starters 7r1 N is a Cooperative purchasing agreement to purchase eight electric re refug trucks for the Department of Public Works uh there is a request from the administration to defer I'm sorry put it on the next agenda oh it doesn't need it doesn't need a defer oh okay Madam clerk take care I don't know I'm waiting for somebody to tell me what to do is pushing n o'clock now so so nothing right okay so woo that's like uh 20 minutes we can't get back from yesterday let's go to the next one Jesus I'm sorry it's okay 7 R8 m is an appointment of Dr her to the supplemental Zoning Board of adjustment sponsored by councilman Kelly roll call Council yes Trump galz yes Kelly yes yes Ramos yes yes yes yes council president council members that concludes the agenda for this meeting all right motions all right motions motions motions councilman Silva any motions tonight uh yeah just my um request from the last meeting to get somebody here that can advise me a little more of regarding the handicap situation uh I'd like somebody from uh I believe it's traff engineering traffic and signals that does that and I'm being overrun with handicapped parking spaces in the East I believe that most of the residents in the East are complying and doing the right thing but I do have a big issue and uh it's getting to a number where uh it's getting a little ridiculous well over 600 handicap parking spaces getting closer to 700 in the East Ward and we know parking is a problem there and a lot of places in the rest of the city so this is something I just want to make sure that uh if it's an audit or how it's done how I can assist but I'd like to have an audit done by uh traffick and signals yes can we follow up on councilman Silva's request um I know there was a motion that went out so can we send another reminder and hopefully maybe a director is watching tonight to be able to just follow up thanks okay thank you direct Wen you're in the Back le you're here waving we know you got it uh second for that motion second second by councilman Kelly roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Sila yes president mber yes councilwoman Scott R Tree motions yes well I have a couple of things okay this is very unusual that um when we express profound sorrow and regret that the families are in the council chambers we have a young man that transitioned um that did business since 19 thank you council president since 1959 um he was a pastor since 1986 he ran a barers shop called mathys barers and his daughter and mother when I did the resolution at the um homegoing celebration um when I mentioned how you all supported the resolution how the entire Council uh recognized and commended him prior to um his transitioning but also wanted to make sure that his name would never be forgotten so Reverend will mattis's daughter is in our audience she has been here since 6 o' and we want to let her know this is her first council meeting God bless her um she's sitting there recording for her mother um us paying tribute tonight at the North Municipal Council to a man who ran a business on Orange Street for over 60 years and pastured since 1987 so we all once again express our profound sorrow and regret and are grateful for the work that he did the uh mentoring that he did from that barber shop all that he paid forward we still continue so that you your mother and all of those who are attached to his family know that we the north mpal Council um love you are here for you and we'll continue to make sure that Reverend Willie mattis's name goes down in the history of the city of North God bless you and thank you for joining us this evening outside from that we have and Lady matthys by the way is just one of those most amazing I just have to say that she your mother is amazing and for you to endure um and don't make this your last meeting don't your dad was in the neighborhood for many many years come and join us and um and help us make a difference in moving YK forward as he did on Orange Street and Springfield Avenue 587 Springfield Avenue um the next thing is just a couple of announcements January 27th I had a young Minister come to me it's part of the nor to Faith Alliance that also um works with councilman Kelly I'm with the community garden Church he's a Church Without Walls Pastor Alvarado said he wanted me to work with him on um a documentary teaching folks about the culture of Christian hip hop now I don't know how all of a sudden I did this little rap thing with councilman councel for the nor car Housing Authority event and everybody's coming to me about promoting things and if it's if it's religious I can do it but I did ask councilman Kelly to join me on this initiative because that is his expertise so we will be presenting documentary open mic on Saturday January 27th it's a free event at City pl we invite you to bring your young people um this we're not we we're not religion religious we do Humanity we do people uh so it's important that New Yorkers understand that we deal with all cultures all genres of music all types of arts and we invite you to come out to City Plex on January 27th to this free event there will be some discussions Stephen Strickland has been chosen by one of the ministers to be a host and um we're looking for whatever our councilman Kelly is going to bring to that event on once again January 27th which is the Saturday beginning at 4 p.m. um anything else I think I'll be announcing Madame President at our February 7th meeting but just for the record there will be a save the date for our next women's meeting which will be held on February 8th 2024 watch out for the flyer or the announcement for our financial women empowerment sessions January 31st will be the fa first training if you are interested and registering for these courses we're inviting you to please call my office or councilwoman MC IIs office my office is 973 733 3794 speak with Robin or Demetrius or yella and they have all of the information where you can register through a QR code we're trying to reach a thousand women or more to help them with I know that I can use it um just because we have a paycheck does not mean we're managing it properly so we're inviting our women to please register for this 9 to 12 week free course free well no course to the materials and I it's an hour to 90 minutes per session once a week and then you will graduate and be certified or get a certificate and completing the D free course which is being spearheaded by first lady Linda Baraka this is an initiative and it's come out of the of the board of or I should say the committee for the women's meeting which is Lady Baraka myself council president mcgyver and Miss Shana Paige our re's office policy advisor thank you so very much norcas once again thank you I love you thank you for letting me serve you and we look forward to seeing um what's going to happen next thank you Council councilwoman Scott rre do I have a second for the sorrow and regret second by councilman CRM roll call please yes Kell yes yes yes yes yes yes councilman Remos any motion no motions today right councilman Ramos councilman quintano yeah president in terms of the lights in the city look we have talked about PS andg but we don't need a day meeting with PSC and because the five ws of the city are dark I mean there's lights that are there from the 19 uh 60s are yellow so yellow that you can't even see the street and the five Wards of the city PSC and G must take some priority uh I I to the business administrator the department your the your director of engineering and all of us need to sit down because this is not this is not acceptable then no other community would accept that that lights are out that the city is dark look at the city at night it's so dark the city of New York we need to do something with that the other thing in terms of the department of engineering at 4:30 4 o'clock from Clark Street to Clay Street parking on both sides of that street does not allow traffic to move forward it's just one lane going northbound into Broomfield Avenue buses and all that we need to do a a signage bring signs up that from 4 to certain time there's no parking uh the parking is just atrocious getting through that area there's double parking there's all kinds of cars parked there's no we need to we need to address that and that is our priority the traffic leaving the city of New York so if the director of engineering if you look at that and we could get some signage I know it's a County Road but we need to we need to do something with that street which is Broad Street between between Clark and Clay I'll second second by councilman Ramos roll call for those motions councel yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brre yes Sila yes Pres mver yes madame president Council Ros I just want to shout out my friend Phil for joining the council meeting here so I didn't even see Phil there welcome Phil it's great to have the county here that means watching a C Hall game you know now is the time councilman quintan already got us started on the county Street complaint all right councilman Kelly thank you council president um and I do apologize I was just waiting for the correct spelling but I do want to add a a sorrow and regret to someone um in Bradley Court Teresa we all know we call her Mother Teresa she lost her her daughter last week who actually lived in um Reservoir um Miss Serenity Cavin so we just want to send our sorrow and regret to Teresa and her family um who Teresa actually lost her her sister two weeks ago I'm just not sure of the correct uh pronunciation of her name the spelling of her name but I do know her daughter because she was a reservoir resident uh Miss Serenity cabinet so I want to send sorrow and regret to those individuals um also I W to I want to reiterate and make it an official motion um what I asked for for investigating the landlords on Underwood you know uh by having corporate counsil deal with those landlords just as we would deal with a landlord from a much bigger complex because you know I keep I continue as well as councilman Crump to send my my staff and contact DPW and and um code enforcement up there and they continue to do the job but almost literally the next day it's back the same way and I know that that it takes some accountability from the residents but also the landlords too it's only one landlord that I've spoken with up there who actually is in compliance and who actually uh tries to mitigate the matter so um we we have to step up our approach with the landlords you know who only owns a a four story or so so I wanted to make it official motion and and um contacting these landlords I know we have them in court but court takes forever so we we have to figure out another way to approach these landlords to get things done because uh seeing seeing miss uh mother Bay as I call her Miriam Bay's side of the the street which is about two families on each household it's Immaculate and then when you cross the street like she said it looks worse than when we had the drug dealers in that area so we have to figure out a way and and that's the most that I'm asking for and and the last thing is I want to say thank you I want to thank everybody who came to the cookies coats and Coco coat drive today up at Westside Park Recreational Center it was flooded uh I want to thank UCC I want to thank all of the partners that were involved um it was a really really good good uh function because it's it's cold out there it's been 20° frigid weather for the last week or so and we gave away coats that I actually would purchase you know and that's the way we have to do we have to give everybody um the things that we would wear ourself that we would give those people in need and not only did we give out coats but we actually gave out resources and and I have to salute to the city of Nork just for being there and showing up with the resources you know you hear a lot of people saying that there's no resources so there's nothing to do and today at Westside Recreation you had everybody there and I'm talking about when if there were health concerns if there were um Public Library was there it was so much so much information if you missed it you really missed out on on a a great event and I just want to thank everybody involved from the administration to all of the the uh advocacy groups and um everybody who showed up thank you thank you a second by councilman Crump roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes KY yes yes Ramos yes round Tre Yesa yes president mber yes councilman Gonzalez I I'm going to request a letter to the administrators of the mly buildings H because we approved an ordinance here allowing people to park on the on Bloomfield Avenue but nobody knows and nobody's parking there so a letter to them to inform the tenants that they can get permits from the city of Newark to park on Bloomfield Avenue Madam president yes councilman Ros yeah I just want to add that those signs were recently put up by engineering we we do have a meeting set up with the tenants from the buildings just to inform them about the process they got to come to City Hall to apply for for residential parking permit and we we also want to notify them that they can't park on the sidewalk anymore you know the Street's wide enough now where they should not be encroaching on the sidewalk and we have spoken to the captain of the second precinct and they will start enforcing that pretty soon but the signs recently went up uh we're coordinating with director wooden um to have a meeting uh with the residents there I did have an opportunity to visit the site um about a month ago I spoke to the ownership and management so so they're ready to put the tenants together in view of that I I take back my motion no problem you could come to the meeting with me any other motions councilman Gonzalez okay thank you uh councilman crom thank you council president uh just a couple of quick things um number one I wanted to thank and congratulate South W promise uh neighborhoods uh neighborhoods their annual wrapped in uh warmth coat popup which was always a very good event um they they go partnered with Macy's and provided over 800 coats uh brand new coats to Residents throughout the city not just to South Ward um there was a dance off and there were some other things going on there that was a lot of fun I know councilman Council was also there also um uh I'm drawing a blank on that organization Jack and Jill um uh of Essex County was there and the kids provided back new backpacks and and replenishing school supplies for for kids um and that was it was a very nice event every year it seems to get bigger and better I just want to congratulate them on that second um and this we may have asked for this before one of the other one of the council members but can we get a list of all the tax abatements that are in violation um or any violation um and if there has been any disposition to their violations what were they uh what are they um just so for I think our own personal edification so we know I know we hear numbers about how much is in violation Etc but if we can actually have something on paper I think that would be good for us to uh respond intelligently to others as well as as I said for our own personal edification third is I just and I know councilman uh Gonzalez uh mentioned her yesterday um just in terms of Mary aagra um you know she was a a a an extremely important part of our senior committee um you know and and if you all went to the senior fashion show you know she was our first MC and she always um um ran a tight ship I'll say because I've had her finger in my face a few times and we were able to myself my chief staff and uh Walter were able to go to the wake and and actually talking to her sister and her daughter and we were able to laugh and joke about some good times you know and and just as how how Mary was and I think her her sister's the same way you know rest and maybe even her daughter is similar um you know we we lost her um and we also lost Miss Leighton who was also another major part of our senior committee um and like I always say you know and I'm saying a lot lately and a lot more because I think that in January I don't I can't tell you how many funerals I've been to for weeks so I keep on saying this and I just really mean it you know hug on your loved ones you know tell them you love them let them know don't don't wait till it's too late it's important that you do that now while you can and while they can hear you uh with that being said that's all I have know that second second second by councilman Kelly roll call Council yes yeses yes Kelly yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes yesid mcber yes councilman Council yeah good evening um can we have a a motion to uh the Police director to enforce to clear on ordinance and if it has been uh enforced what uh are the numbers behind the violations more specifically in the South Ward and probably all over the city uh enforcement and this ordinance that the Council voted on also a motion to DPW uh to get an update on the uh garbage can distribution uh so that we can have some uh information uh circulating uh around there I think we really have to begin um as a council uh to begin to start having some deep dialogue about the direction and movement uh of our city uh as it uh relates to convenience stores variety stores and both odas and the placement of these stores all along our Corridor as they're hugging our corridors and we're trying to really have this kind of conversation about how we move our city along this whole notion of the 360 how that was designed and best practices about building up and the nuzzler and all of these kind of conversations um to only be bombarded with uh individuals who are owning property uh who are just uh renting these storefronts out to anyone and when you go along most of these corridors specifically in the South W Mr McDougall uh you will find a convenience store a variety store and a bodega all next to each other compromised by a Chinese restaurant and a liquor store which none of that promotes Health Wellness a mindset of wanting to live hope uh and prosperity uh in in our communities and we have to begin to have have conversation real conversation and not be afraid of that of how we begin to change the Dynamics of what that looks like so I I I I really want us I don't know if it comes from zoning uh or or um if that's a conversation that that can be led by way of our business administrator um and I hope we can do that and second I would uh like a letter written to uh tap into you know there there was an article uh that came out I'm going say this now and I'm never going to open my mouth again but I just want people to understand that fair just incredible journalism uh is essential to enlightening and providing valuable information to our community and when it is not researched and factualized and based it misses the mark of real journalism and it becomes trash in tabloid writing and that was an experience uh that was uh held by a poor misguided article that was written into tap and to uh and my hope is that they would write a retraction uh that came out uh because it does not give cruden to uh fair and upright journalism you know that such as people like Ed Bradley and Max Barber and Gordon Parks and Roland Martin you know uh all of these individuals who take journalism serious and and getting factual information and and having information that when their readers read it that they're not just only intrigued by it but they understand the necessity and value in it because it helps to move them and when we become a community uh that is driven by false narratives and bad writing uh and we look at that as factual and we begin to you know throw that information out in a community we begin to impune not just the person that you're writing at but you impune the entire Community uh because now you are attacking uh the very nature uh of their mindset to be able to go out and understand real information and so uh you know I would hope that every journalist that comes in this quarters uh in City Hall understands the notion of what that looks like in terms of wanting to be a journalist in terms of wanting to get real information uh because if we're just interested in writing Tablo and trying to appease uh real life tele real life television then this should not be the place for it because we're in a society now that has become very dangerous and we have to recognize and realize that so if we can uh send a letter to tap into I would greatly uh appreciate that and that is it thank you I have a second second by councilman Crump roll call Council yes Gonzalez yes hel yes Ramos absent Scott rry Scott Scott rry yes Silva yes president mber yes uh really really really quickly I just want to make two announcements one we are approaching February which is Valentine's Day in Black History Month um we look forward to Great celebration um in the central Ward um kicking off our celebration we are starting up to run our Valentine's Day rap for our seniors um many folks say what is a senior a senior is someone who is 55 years or older for those who are tuned in um and those that are here um this is open to all Central Ward seniors um we ask that you call our main office at 973 733 5870 from the hours from between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. to register for the raffle um the closing date for the raffle is 2 is February 9 9 um so hopefully our seniors that are still tuned in at home if you're watching um definitely feel free to join our Valentine's Day raffle we invite you um to join lastly um we are hosting I am hosting a free vision screening um this Saturday uh January 27th in partnership with University hospital um you know it's 2024 it's time to start the year off right and that means getting our vision right um many people don't take Vision Health serious so I'm super excited to partner with University Hospital to offer our free vision screening once again happening this Saturday January 27th from 9:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. it's open to all norc residents no matter what w you live in um you can join us at 205 South Orange Avenue on the first floor and once again that's between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 300 p.m. and we'll also have other health screenings like blood pressure blood glucose uh diabetes and HIV screenings as well so feel free to join us this Saturday um to get a free vision screening with that being said I want to thank everybody for coming out to our January 9th nth meeting thank you to the administration to the directors that's here with us and definitely thank you to um our council members and the public that came out tonight with us have a good night motion to adjourn Council yes yesz yesy yes yes Ros Scott rry yes yes president mber yes good night everyone get home safe [Music] the time get up one