good morning welcome to the special Conference of the Newark Municipal Council on Tuesday February 27th 2024 council president council members we have two presentations today the first one will be by the essis county surrogate aliq Kenny your mic is off right that's a first good morning everyone um I do not see the surran present in the chambers yet so um we can go ahead to New York Housing Authority certainly Leonard Spicer executive director of New York Housing Authority good morning director can you hear me okay yep thank you so much for joining us today it's a pleasure to have you before us welcome um welcome to your new role and welcome to the city of nework I know that you're not a stranger to the city but it's great to have you in the chamber is with us today I we'll go ahead and turn it over to you for your presentation and then we'll have some questions in between and at the end okay sure so if I can have uh who's ever in control of the slide deck to move it to us I know it's still in Essex County right now I can proceed without it if you all like I think you all have hard copies yes you can start okay while Tech gets it geared up yeah we yes we emailed you the presentation we we'll keep it moving okay um I believe you all have a a hard copy of the slide deck in front of you so I'll just run through that with you yes so the first page I have a a biography just on myself to give you all some background on who I am uh where I've come from and what I believe qualified me to step into this role uh some quick housekeeping items I thought uh have come up in some of our public meetings at the house and authorities I want to say them out loud to everyone just so we're on the same page uh not the tallest person so help me bear with on this one um the housing authority of the city of New York is not in receivership so what I've had a lot in my conversations with residents and tenants uh in my prior role before coming to uh New York Housing Authority I was the um public office director of The Office of public housing for the state of New Jersey with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development one of the things I did in that capacity uh was receiverships uh so when a Housing Authority was declared in default when the federal government would take possession of the asset I was one of the individuals that would come in and run the agency uh until we were able to transition it back to local control or until we had a contractor come in to run the day-to-day operations so I wanted to be very transparent and very direct with everyone of that is not the case now uh the Housing Authority is not under Federal control um I have not been replaced I have not been placed at the Housing Authority as a recovery administrator or receiver the Housing Authority is very much in uh local control there was a competitive process that the Housing Authority had to select an executive director I applied went through the interview process was awarded the position so I am not an agent of the federal government in this capacity add it before you move on any questions from Council about that before we move on okay seeing that okay uh the the third page is what I called simply a a PHA report card I can always go into the details and the minutia of things but to keep it very high levels uh I wanted to just give a very broad Strokes for you every housing authority gets a report card every year we kind of look back at what you did uh US Department of hous and Urban Development looks back at what she did in scores you uh they score you in in physical conditions and your financials uh your management your Capital funds it gives you a total of a 100 points right and I I kind of broke down that system for you all on that slide um and it lets you know what points you can get in each one of those areas if I move on to the next slide uh it will shows you that uh if you score between 9 91 and 100 you're considered a high performer uh if you're anywhere below 90 but above 60 you're considered a standard performer uh if you're below 60 uh in any sub indicator which is the physical financial management Capital fund program uh you're designated a substandard Housing Authority uh if you are below 60 and you have multiple areas for subcategories uh that you score at less than 60% you're designated troubled all right so going to move on to the next slide uh so what you have in in front of you is a clip from the 2022 PHA score for the Newark hous Authority um and as you can see for the physical conditions the Housing scor Authority scored 22 for the financials the Housing Authority scored a zero for management 12 uh for Capital fund five which gave us a total score of 39 so if you refer back to the last slide we mentioned uh if you're below 60 and you are uh below 60% in any of the subcategories you're declared substandard if you're declared uh substandard in multiple areas then you're declared troubled so look back the housing authori is now considered troubled right what does that mean a high level it means that there are areas that the Housing Authority has to improve on uh there is an independent assessment that the US Department of Housing and Urban Development conducts they come out and they do a uh an assessment an audit of your housing authority that happened to us last week actually uh they then come up with a a corrective action plan that the house and Authority has to agree with that gives us 24 months to turn the agency around uh we have 12 months to um complete 50% of those milestones and we have another 12 months to complete the other 50% to bring our score above 60 if we fail to do so uh the the federal government can come in and take possession of the agency um I feel that we're in a good position to make these changes happen within that time period the the last slide I have for you uh talks about the short-term goals uh short-term goals I clarified first 60 first six months really uh when a restructure and streamline organization uh there's a number of positions a number of of layers that uh have been at the agent have been at the agency for a number of years that we kind of need to peel back um technology has advanced since Co we know things can be done remotely uh since Co we understand that we may not need five people uh to do one thing we may need three people right so we're going to re restructure continue to restructure and streamline the organization to make sure we are being as efficient and Nimble as possible one of the concerns I'm sure you all hear um is about inspections or the lack thereof inspections during covid uh housing authorities were not going into units as they're required to so typically we have to do at least one annual inspection uh in a a unit every year we have to physically go into the apartment and say what's going on what's right what's wrong and make the uh necessary repairs beginning March 1st our managers have been directed those inspections have to begin as they were done before covid uh equally so we are in the process of uh creating a centralized work order Center historically uh a resident would call down to the manager and say hey my toilet's wrong something's uh the refrigerator is not working and the local property manager would then generate a work order that goes on to the maintenance staff what we have heard once again anecdotally from uh residents is if there's a a rub with that manager or someone in maintenance they feel as if the work order isn't being generated right or the work order doesn't the work doesn't get completed um I'm not trying to relitigate things that happen five years ago or try to understand what the relationship is between those individuals I just want to get the job done the best way to do that I feel is to bring it inhouse to 500 so that there's uh a bank of staff that are centrally located that here the call they put the work order in the work order then gets shot out to the the site to complete it then comes back to 500 where our Central offices to close out into QC and make sure whatever uh relationship whatever rub it was with the tenant and the manager is no longer part of that because there's an objective individual that doesn't know you that's now taking your work order that's now going to ensure uh that the work is completed so we're trying to take the subjectivity out of things and make it very objective uh equally so we are doing a physical needs assessment that will happen this spring a physical needs assessment is when someone comes out an architect and Engineers come out to the agency uh and go through building by building uh unit by unit and tell us what's wrong to tell us what the total Capital needs are for the particular building that allow us to then begin to make the necessary changes uh based on yes thank here uh based on what they have have seen uh so that's going to begin uh in the spring of this year so next 60 days those should begin uh the ultimate goal of that of course is to house more families by making units ready we have close to 600 vacant units which means that's 600 at least 600 families uh that could be receiving our assistance that could have housing that do not have housing that are are living check to check to pay the rent so we want to be able to assist those families as soon as possible uh so we're working to do that now and and lastly in the next six months we're working on customer service again what you all hear often uh is individuals calling your office saying that they did something they conversed they had a communication with someone in the housing authority and something didn't happen they talked to that person that person smiled and Nod and said mm okay and went on about their day and the work was never done that has to stop we are a business we are not a social service agency and as such they are our clients and then when you go to a store when you go to a business you expect customer service I expect the same thing from our staff to treat our residents like customers and clients because that's exactly what they are without them there is no us so we are working to give our staff training to implement controls to ensure that we have quality control mechanisms to ensure that our clients our participants in the section 8 program um our residents in our public housing units are being treated like customers and that we are doing the work that's needed to make them feel comfortable uh in the home that we they have that we provide um that's the last slide I have for you uh but individually I definitely look forward to meeting with each of you uh to go through what's going on in your specific War I understand there's uh a number of items that that touch on a number of you and I didn't think it'd be a good use of the 15 minutes you provided me this morning uh to try to go through all of those I'm going to miss some and and all of your issues and concerns are valid so I feel the best best way to address that is to sit down with you one-onone um and have an opportunity to dive into the details of your ward of your particular area of interest uh to talk about what we're doing with our staff uh what we're doing with Redevelopment what we're doing with some of our our vacant Lots um how we're going to improve the physical conditions um what are some of the asss that we're going to have uh to work collaborative with you City to make some of these things happen uh and how can we reduce the number of calls that you are receiving on a daily basis from our res and our participants uh because you can be assured that there's leadership at the Housing Authority now that are taking the helm uh that are about the business of the housing authority and making sure that everyone lives in safe sanitary and decent housing and I'll yield my time for any questions thank you so much director Spicer for that information very um helpful and Direct in 15 minutes um do I have any questions from Council Members councilman Gonzalez mic is off I see on this ER the score that Financial has zero what does that mean that you don't have any accounting records or no so specifically in this case that meant uh the Housing Authority did not turn it in in time so once again I try to make it simple and say hey look at a report card if you you don't turn the assignment in you get a zero uh the Housing Authority had a deadline to turn it in the Housing Authority did not meet that deadline so we got a zero so it's technically called a late presumptive failure but airgo it is a failure so you get a zero and you get aied every year by an independent auditor we do councilman Ramos uh thank you madam president I apologize for my voice this morning but um uh I had the opportunity last week to uh talk to director Spicer for the first time and you know just want to say that um on my end you know we're definitely encouraged uh by your appointment we know you have a very difficult task ahead of you you know housing authorities in general become a very difficult organizations to manage you have to balance the interests of um your tenants and and the the financial the finances that allow you to rehab units and and provide you know the quality of housing that your residents uh deserve um one one of the questions that I have is uh as far as managing the organization you you listed one of your priorities of streamlining and making sure that the organization manages itself more efficiency more efficiently and you know recognizing the housing authorities sometimes become um kind of like dumping grounds for for political hires and you know other kinds of um patronage uh how do you plan on addressing uh some of those challenges as far as the organization is concerned and Staffing and recognizing that every dollar you spend on uh Staffing is one less dollar that you have to rehab units to provide security to provide maintenance you know those kind of issues isues thank you for the question I think that's a a fine line that we have to tow um objectively um there cannot be patronage positions there cannot be no- show jobs here you full stop um it's a an honest days wage for honest day's work simple as that we are custodians of federal tax dollars that we all in this room have to pay um and at some point in time my regulator comes in and takes a look at how I'm spending that so I need to be able to justify every dollar that I'm spending uh to that end we are in a a very competitive job market right now um unemployment is below 5% Nationwide uh so what that means is we do have to come to terms with the current job market uh which means we are going to have to be competitive with our peers um that's hey people here in City Hall that that's credential down the street um that that's local Schoolboard everyone needs a finance clerk everyone needs procurement specialist everyone needs someone in finance these are jobs that you're going to find in any other company uh so what we're trying to do is a uh bring in talented individuals that have the prerequisite skill set to do the job we're doing uh to that degree we have hired a a deputy executive director uh who's Miss Mard Motley uh We've brought in a new development director uh We've we've started to make some significant changes uh at the leadership of the agency uh to allow accountability uh and to ensure that there are fresh sets of eyes that are looking things um in a very objective manner uh equally so we have instituted uh new protocols within our agency we just redid our our handbook uh to ensure that HR understands roles and responsibilities and how the process should flow for bringing people into the agency and when necessary um taking disciplinary action for various individuals right so it's it's about accountability uh but it's also about as you mentioned balancing the dollar amount that we get from the federal government that pot doesn't get significantly bigger every year uh so we have to come up with creative ways uh to be good stewards of the dollars we get because the our first priority is to take care of our units and if we are failing at that then we are failing at the money they're failing at the purpose for the money that they provide us councilman councel I'm fine I just want uh again to uh thank um executive director Spicer for coming and sharing the information as you know as the council person I sit as a commissioner uh on the Housing Authority board uh and have been very pleased uh about uh the movement of resetting uh the organization in terms of system and structure uh to ensure that uh the New York Housing Authority is one of the most elite housing authorities not just in the State uh but in the country I believe they have uh the bandwith uh to be able to uh ensure that these things get done uh and that the organization comes out of trouble status and more importantly begin to move in a different direction uh to not just be standard uh but to be a high uh functioning uh organization and so um I I don't know if if if you shared enough about the the current health of the organization and then ultimately how we're working to get healthy if you can um just explain that uh to our colleagues and those who are are listening because I know our focus is on repairing uh you know Apartments but also it's it's on collection of rent right and so we we don't want to miss that as well because we have to be accountable in in all stages right we need good residents we need good tenants uh and then we have to be good stewards uh to the work that we do to ensure that uh proper maintenance and and timing and efficiency is happening with them uh but it is a a circular thing and so I don't want anyone to miss the totality of responsibility that we have of repairing the breach what we call Housing Authority you want to go a little bit into that sure so what I did was provide backup documentation for you all um I didn't want to come up here and give you a a rainbow picture of everything that's going on without giving you your backup right I'm I try to be as transparent as possible so in in the attached documents you'll see a my resume for those that have questions about my credentials you'll find a a pamplet directly from our our regulator that explains uh how we are scored uh and what those various metrics are uh you'll also find a letter uh from our regulator and actually from the Housing Authority um responding to our regulator of what actions we're going to take to get out trouble status and a c copy of the report card which is called a f score right so I'll leave that for you uh for your edification whenever you have an opportunity uh big picture from what uh the councilman just stated um anytime you have a troubled agency many things have gone wrong and and and that's okay things happen things happen in life things happen in business we've all uh been part of businesses and things flow smooth for 20 years and there's a little hiccup in a rogue uh you have to change course right so that happens uh happens at all large hous and authorities across the country the reality is everyone has a responsibility uh we have a responsibility uh to ensure that the units are livable for people who actually want to live in we have a responsibility uh to ensure that we are paying payment in Le of taxes we call it pilot to the city that we are are are also responsible for ensuring our utilities are upto-date things of that nature our residents and our participants have the responsibility once again our income is is our excuse me our rent is income based um they have the responsibility of informing us when their income changes there go if you if you're an individual that's on SSI you're collecting um retirement from Social Security uh your rent's going to be a certain percentage of what you receive now if you decide you want to go out and get a job if you hit the lottery and you want to stay there then your your income has changed so your income will see your proportion of your rent will increase equally so if your income decreases your rent will decrease but is the resident's responsibility to convey that to us so we can make the necessary changes so that they are paying no more than 30% of their adjusted gross income right if and when that fails to happen we get into the rub right and then there let's be very Frank that happened during covid that's happened across the country during covid where individuals lost their jobs and they didn't come and tell us so the rent stayed the same we've have individuals that have gotten jobs and moved on that didn't tell us so the rent stayed the same so we do have a have a responsibility to convey to our residents and our participants um that this is the these are the rules of the program you have to abide by them so everyone can be on the up and up we have recertifications annually which gives them the opportunity to let us know any changes that have happened that year equally so if any hardship happens in between we can do inms which allow us to adjust their rent uh accordingly so we have various mechanisms to make sure that people are paying what they can pay we need that so we can make up the Gap the federal government does not fund us at a 100% we do not get a dollar Ford dooll um spending ratio it's about 89 89 cent on the dollar that we're getting from the federal government and they're expecting that we're going to make up the 11 Cent on a Dollar by rent so when people aren't paying us rent it short term you can you can bear with it longterm you start to have a deficit and that's when you start to get into situations of people saying well you didn't fix certain things I'm going well if you haven't paid me rent for the last five years where am I finding the money to fix these things so we have to work collaboratively so that I can tell my regulator Miss Jane anecdotally um her her income has decreased so her rent is going to decrease which means the federal subsidy is going to increase but if she doesn't tell us that then the federal subsidy stays smaller because they're expecting her portion uh to be larger so then we get in the rub when she can't pay me that because I haven't been able to get the money I need from the federal government to supplement what she can't pay and then I start to have def deficits and but holes in my budget to make things happen the way they should happen thank you thank you for that we have a few more questions councilman Quintana then councilman crom M and welcome and and I just want to say thank you for your call yesterday and you know I've sat here many years and I've seen directors come and go but you're you're you're extending your a message to get together and talk to council members I think that's commendable one of the things that I'm concerned is about this whole Security in the Housing Authority before we put a break or we put we got to secure the security there needs to be a better training instead of people sitting around on a desk or for eight hours and doing nothing I remember the days of the Housing Authority where security would go around the different facilities and check and it was a checkpoint today is not so uh is you go to some of these buildings and and there's no one security is on the phone with someone or or having breakfast or having dinner we need to change of that look too since you've been talking about customer service that's one of the most critical things that I've seen I've seen the Housing Authority from its years from the days of Columbus homes as a youngster uh remembering that there was a carpentry shop that would take care of the cabins there was a plumbing shop there was all kinds of things that would uh Advance different public housing throughout the city today there's none they have to go out and reach out to someone to come by the time it comes by the time there's a contract it takes forever so there needs to be something that in terms of security that people walk around there a checkpoint and making sure that everybody's safe okay and and in turns and with the New York Police Department working together but that has gone this way okay and we need to bring it together so under your leadership I like to see a study is done in terms of bettering the security of our citizens because that to me is important and that is a human Cry of the citizens of New York in public housing understood thank you thank you so much councilman Council M CR thank you council president um just a couple quick things I think uh thank you for for appearing before us uh executive director um I I do understand and appreciate the issues of uh dealing with income based Rent U in one of my my past lives I was compliance officer for Patterson housing authorities I heard many cases and quite interesting cases I may write a book one day about some of those but in in the interest of I believe you said you provide you provide us with the PHA score um and I know you said that there's some backup documentation that we have received but but for the the general public that's hearing it and and watching it on TV on a high level could you explain the what the defic what are the deficiencies uh in the different indicators for the nework Housing Authority sure yes uh anytime a Housing Authority doesn't get at least 60% in each category they're considered deficient um so looking at our score um we received 22 out of 40 yeah uh which means we're below where we should be for the physical conditions what that plainly means is we have not been taking care of the physical unit the way we should should there's no other way to put that and right I I hate to interrupt you real quick but when you talk about that you're including specifically elevators because I know elevators have been an issue we've heard from many residents about that and that's part of your your plan going forward inspection but it's it starts on the door it really starts before you get to the door because it starts with the the the sidewalks it starts with the parking lots it starts with the curb appeal those before you get even get to the elevator right um it it truly is encompassing of the person's unit where they're living at right I don't disagree with you elevators are a major issue um that is something that we have planned and budgeted unfortunately there's a a five to six year plan uh to modernize all of our elevators uh it's it's look you all have four elevators here in this morning two are working so you completely understand what I'm going we very here so you came on a good day you said it I didn't um so we're going through the same issues okay um that doesn't make it right it just the reality of it is it it they're expensive they're older it it takes time um but I do hear from our seniors when I go out very often of how long it's taken and what the ramifications of that is so I'm very sensitive and cognizant of that uh but we have to work on the physical conditions of our properties in the in the lobbies the elevators the mechanical electrical Plumbing Systems uh to bring that up to at least a 25 period uh the financial conditions as you articulated it's a zero we have um I believe put in place good safeguards going forward to ensure that the reports that we need to get in are in on time to ensure that doesn't happen again equally so we're working to ensure there's Financial controls in place uh to make sure alarm bails go off before the deadline so we are able to plan a accordingly you can always ask for an extension once again to make it simple you look at school you can't ask for an extension to a project after the project is due you need to have those conversations beforehand our regulator provides us that opportunity uh same thing with management it's a 12 out of 25 so we're still less than 60% uh that speaks directly to occupancy we have to occupy the units that we have we have to collect the rent for the people that are living in those units it there's no other way to put that very simple um and capital fund is really grants that we get so it's just about expending those grants in a timely manner um and ensuring that the backup documentation that's an administrative process uh but we are working on being able to dot the eyes and cross the tees on that and give individuals the appropriate training they need uh to be able to do things of that nature so it's a lot of things going on at once which makes it challenging because it's not like you just focus on elevators it's not like you just focus on customers service you have to do everything in tandem to make sure things are moving forward or else something is going to fall by the way side thank you I I I look forward to meeting with you I have a I have a lot of questions in the interest of time well you you guys meeting will be fruitful uh councilwoman scy rry and then councilman Silva so I'm Gonna Save my questions um because most of the questions that have been asked thank you council president I've been asked by my colleagues um and so when councilman Crump since we at large I I think that we will try to do some of these things together to meet with you but I just want to say this because been around for a little while and I'm very um thankful for the presentation and the um guess the indepth you've really done your due diligence uh to present an Excellence to this body and I know there's a lot of work left to be done and you just got here so you've seen your previous report cards but you're going to have another one coming up so we're just going to put our faith in God and our confidence in God that you're going to do whatever is necessary to move this agency forward in excellence not just for the res I mean not just for those who are performing their responsibilities but more importantly for the residents of this city and resident of New York housing authority to assist in improving their quality of lives thank you so much thank you council president thank you councilwoman Sky Round Tree councilman Silva yes good morning um director sorry I was a little late and you might have answered this uh the complaints I'm getting from my residents at Pennington court and ha Court are the disconnect between them in management the manager on the scene uh they're never notified of anything they have poor relationships with the manager uh the manager uh at times in both locations uh is not that friendly not that courteous and you were saying before how important it is to you know have a Rel reltionship that the tenants are you know are important uh so uh and there was other things councilman quana touched on security but I don't even want to get in there but it was just a point that uh we need to have a better relationship between the managers and the tenants and uh better line of communication understood and we're working to address that but we'll definitely talk well with that um we want to thank you for coming out we could probably spend the rest of the day with you um to talk about everything underneath the nor C Authority um but we are hopeful uh we were definitely faithful after you know meeting with you even many of us who had the opportunity to meet with you before today's um full presentation but I'm sure each council member looks forward to meeting with you one-on-one to get in depth with many of the concerns um and issues and even the uh future plans um for some sites in specific Wards um and different areas definitely I'm sure they look forward to meeting with you about that um we are praying for you um seriously um all jokes aside uh for this role and for your team um to you know tackle a very difficult job as many have mentioned up here um we just want to see the Housing Authority go forward and many of the issues addressed and you know you have to do that to get past some of the foolishness too um because it's lots of that as well that takes up takes up a lot of your time um takes up a lot of time on your team to have to deal with foolishness so you know they are real things to address um and we are one to be good partners um of you to be able to do that so please feel free to reach out to us um call upon us as you you know need to and you know we'll look forward to working with you uh before you go perhaps you want to introduce the team members that are with you today yes if I could I I appreciate that um to my left we have um our director of communications Mr Terell McCoy uh we have our Deputy executive directory Mrs M Malley our general counsel uh Mr Ellie om Mena and I believe we have our chief development officer Miss as you all know uh basa Taio I'm gonna get that right yep yes we are no stranger to that face back there um uh Beauty and Brilliant and good to see B on your team it's good to see all of you um and welcome um as well here thank you guys have a great day thank you council president council members our next presentation is Alter Kenny as its County surrogate yes I believe Mr Kenny is here I hope he brought some donuts and coffee since he you know came a couple of minutes late do you have something for us perhaps a draft will Mike do you have any giveway please Mike has some giveaways oh wonderful I knew you had something that's just like the county bringing us some good stuff a good a good morning uh to to nor Municipal Council um thank you very much it's a pleasure and honor uh to be in front of many friends and family um to talk about some of the more important things that happen in life uh unfortunately um this conversation can go two different directions one this conversation is about life the other part of it how do we manage um death and so uh we have a presentation that we wanted to uh bring to your attention but before we go to that direction I just want to give you a little groundwork as to why this conversation is important uh onethird of Americans in this country unfortunately die with the will which means the vast majority of people in this country do not have an estate plan in place that estate plan could take multiple uh plans it could be a will it could be a trust it could be something that you have in place ensure that you literally speak from the grave if something happens to you or happens to a family member um one of the other things that we also noticed during covid um at the peak in the county we we experienced over 11,000 deaths that happened in the county maybe two years ago last year we reached almost 10,000 debts and majority of those deaths unfortunately was managed when people didn't have any estate plan in place what that actually means is that this state by by way of our Court steps in and try to help manage those Affairs to ensure that those assets go to the family members um as a result of what the state recommended one of the other things that we also notice is that um it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter if you have a name if you're a celebrity um you do great work as a public servant unfortunately death meets us wherever we are in the county alone we've experienced you know the honorable Sheila Oliver passing uh Mike Carson who was out of the the north w we also experienced people like Kenneth Al Gibson our former mayor there were so many deaths that happened over the last four to five years it became important for us to ensure that we actually go out into the community to talk about Estate Planning and having something in place and I don't want to do a test because typically when we have these conversations in public I bless we actually have a conversation we say well how many people in this room have family most people raise their hands how many people have children people raise their hands I people have a house people raise their hands the question then becomes do you have a will but majority of the people in our audience do not have anything in place to ensure that their assets and their family taken care of they no longer here and so I just want to give you a little brief overview of what we do not sure if we okay great so just to give I know most people don't know exactly what we do this is um a publication that we put out uh in collaboration with the tdg group and so last year we had almost 10,000 cases that we dealt with and those cases can be guardianship matters so guardianship um is a few things adult guardianship steps in place as if somebody can't talk in their talk or operate on their behalf so if you're incapacitated um it could be at any moment in your life um someone needs to be appointed to be your guardian so they would come to our court and we work with Superior Court to ensure that person is appointed guardianship so this is just give you numbers about the budget and revenue there was another slide presentation that pres gave to councel I don't know if they have it or not um we were able to uh because of our Outreach efforts we were able to reach almost 22 million people in this area through multiple platforms whether it's online print or TV um we wanted to make sure that not only are we able to provide information directly also we decided to go on a public campaign um whether it's online social media using um platforms like Facebook um YouTube talking to people wherever they are to ensure that people were informed about what our office does also decided to uh we were lucky enough to be on WPIX we wrote A Few articles online to inform the public about estate planning related issues and all these articles can be pulled down from our website on surgus Essex surgus dcom and if you pull that information down you should have um more information about why estate planning is important why guardianship is important as well we also have uh Pathways in where you can help use certain documents to protect your financial assets uh we also decided to make sure that we spoke in every language possible U we actually have a bilingual clerk to speak to people where they're most comfortable speaking with regardless of their language we want to make sure we eliminate all barriers um sorry uh we also uh in our on our srog Corner uh we put down we have a number of content information that give you again more information about what we do who we are and how we service the public uh and just just give you an overview of the surrogate as you notice we probably are more active uh surus Court uh throughout this region some reason this went off okay and are we back on did I do anything wrong hold on one second while we're doing that we'll pause for any questions while we get the uh the PowerPoint back up councilman Crome yeah thank you council president so the question I I have is in terms of and you mentioned it adult guardianship um with regards to particularly children becoming adults with special needs sure what's the process in terms of I know people have come to me and asked and I'll be honest I just refer him to your office directly what's the process in terms of U what what is that process I should say soone answer the two questions I'm actually to have my my Deputy step in as well so two things um we actually had a conversation with north public schools and uh it was interesting uh we were we noticed there were thousands of children that have IEPs 504 plans and at some point in their lives they're going to need a guardian to be appointed to help them manage their Affairs because once they become the age of majority they're actually adults and when they they can make decisions on their behalf and so uh one of the things that we decided to do was talk to newor Public Schools talk to school districts as I know when I was a board member that wasn't a conversation that we had you know how do we talk to parents about using what's currently existing in their situation the IP through the school district and maybe a um a physician to help uh create the sort of recommendation of actually having a guardian but I'm actually have our Dey come up he's actually a science high school graduate and he's going to also give you greater details okay good morning so to answer your question as AA indicated one of the things we do go out in the community and talk to people about the importance of State planning can you pull the mic a little in one of the things we do is go out in the community Asus said and talk to people the importance of Estate Planning and part of that estate planning relates to adult guardianship so if you have a proper plan there's no need to do adult guardianship if you happen to um have an issue in terms of capacity as an adult but in terms of children who have capacity issues who don't have the ability to make such plans you know in terms of a durable power attorney or or or Advanced Care director to tell people what they want to be done with their finances if they have any or what to do if they have some medical needs so what happens is the parents generally I say the Guardians of the the minor who turns 18 as the surrogate said once you turn 18 in the state of New Jersey you reach the age of majority and you can care for it's it's presumed that you can care for yourself and take care of your Affairs however that's not always the case when someone has some developmental disabilities um when they turn 18 so usually the parents will petition the court when they petition the court they file a what we call a verifi complaint Order show caruse and they're asking a superior court judge to do two things first declare the individual in um unable to care for the S so incapacitated and then the second thing is to appoint somebody as the guardian to care for them so it's a two-prong process um the beautiful thing about the process today is that the um aocc the office of of um of the courts have decided to put together a packet that will make it easier for parents and guardians or potential Guardians to do it on their own as opposed to get of attorney because many people um feel as though they can't and some of them really can't afford an attorney so this packet that we actually have um at our court but also can be found on njcourts.com it allows individuals to apply for adult guardianship for their for their for their loved ones and so this packet as the Ser said would allow them to to use the IEP plan if they have a IEP plan which most of them will have IEP plan or 504 plan they can use that along with a doctor certification that is the most important piece because the judge is looking for clear and Convention evidence that the individual should be declared and capacitated and that's the evidence they're looking for we can go and say you know if I have a child who's who who needs a garden I can I can go anybody El can go oh judge they need my help but that means nothing to the judge they need support and that's the proof so this packet that you can get on nj.com or come to our office matter of fact the young lady in our office um that that is excellent at what she does U I'm a little biased I'm gonna say she's the best in the state at it it's Tara Wilson you can always call out joural number 973 621 4901 and ask for Miss Tara Wilson and she will be glad to guide anyone that um calls about the adult guardianship process and one just one follow-up question with that with when should a guardian or parent start that process I know after 18 it's too late but so prior to I mean is there a certain time how what's the time length it may take to get it done six six months before they turn 18 you should go ahead and start the process because there's a um there's there's there's timelines in terms of how old the doctor certification should be but six months um is when you should you should start that and just just to be clear um adult guardianship is not just for children you ask for children but just regular regular folks um you know we're all getting older our parents are getting older and they have some capacity issues the requirement for them is are two doctor certifications and when I say doctors it could be psychiatrist um it can be it can be a regular physician a therapist um and it's one or two other exceptions but the adult ghip is for anyone at terms 18 if you want to make sure that your loved one continues to be taken care of all right thank you you're welcome thank you so much um any other questions before we go back to the presentation seeing none did we get a queue back up that was the last page did it's fine so our office it covers three areas obviously we just D just shared as guardianship second one is validating Wills the third one is adoptions adoptions probably the one of the few times in court where all parties are happy and throughout the state of New Jersey uh we found that to be something that we we utilize as a court to ensure um that we work with some of our local agencies um to ensure that we have either domestic adoptions or adoptions through foster care and as of this moment 400 ,000 young people are currently in foster care 117,000 are waiting to be adopted and so you know I know I'm talking to the council but I'm also talking to the public we also encourage people um that young people are looking for a home and so if you're able to provide that sort of asset to increase the amount of you what you can do um you can actually provide a home for a family but the other also thing with adoption as well you also have Blended situations where we have people who uh join families who have have children from a previous relationship and they also go the process adoption as well because adoption simply means that all children are equally treated and looked upon under the law and so that's one of the things that we we do in our court we deal with the adoptions matter and we we talked about the uh matter regarding a guardianship as well and so uh that we actually had a slot station I don't see it but that concludes our presentation for what we do in our court but what I will also encourage the council to do is that we are we're sort of begging the public to use our service see we means that we would love to talk to groups of 10 to 20 to 40 people right where they are and we normally do is we actually work with attorneys who can answer questions and give legal advice because as a court we can't give legal advice and we like to talk to whatever constituents wherever they are it could be a coffee clatch it could be at a church it could be at a community room wherever people are we're willing to talk with people because we realize that even in this court estate planning is important because we found that families are disrupted if we as adults we have parent as parents have not put put together a proper plan in place right Upon Our passing we also realize that and I just saw uh just heard from uh Mr Spicer that even even if you live with someone you can't get access to the home if someone passes because if you're not on on a lease you need to go through this particular process process and so we want to encourage uh anyone in the public group of 10 people we will talk to wherever you are we have enough giveaways to give out but we simply want to inform the public about what we do and have estate plan in place upon unfortunately our departure thank you so much Council woman scy Round Tree yes I am so excited um uh brother brother Tariq brother Ser Al Tariq we've done some things with you in the past when you first received this assignment and I am definitely interested in helping you set up some groups and some workshops and some on-site planning um been involved with doing living Wheels as well um which is separate and apart from while people are probably setting that up they can also prepare to do what they need to do for after they've transitioned so I'm definitely interested in meeting with you again and seeing how we can reach out to setting up some workshops or some meetings or some some presentations not just in the houses of worship all of us represent a circle of influence and communities um senior population there's a lot of seniors which you just spoke of not being able to get into the apartment if they have not left the proper next of K of the proper next proper individual in charge so they call our offices actually trying to get us to circumvent as you know I've called you uh the process to get in which we cannot do legally yeah yeah can be done so if you have a television or a piece of cake that you want left to someone that needs to be in writing and we want to help people get that done so I'm thankful that you're making sure that this word gets out and that it's how important it is to plan and I've have people running around trying to figure out what to do how to do it and um I'm going to do whatever I can to assist you in moving forward apprciate you have my office's number we can set up some meeting as soon as next week appreciate everything that you've done because I wanted to also Echo what you shared because you actually put us in front of the ministers throughout the um the the city of nework um but one thing I want to mention is that g for me is not in estate plan oh yes that's a crisis plan absolutely and so we want to make sure that we want to ensure that we you create a actual literal plan um to help your family the other thing too um we also want people to know that we want to take proactive steps because death doesn't have an age that's right it doesn't have a category it doesn't say because you're young you're going to live and you're older you're going to we may not get to that age and so we want to make sure that we have all all types of plan in place that mirror what our interest is and there's also other tools that we may use that meet our particular needs we have speal we may have special needs children uh we may have older parents we may have certain vehicles that we need that meet our particular uh situation so we want to make sure that we have those direct conversation with with attorney to leg advice thank you councilman Gonzalez yeah thank you very much judge uh in terms of uh let's say planning some of the assets that we have go outside the let's say the planning process they say if you have a house between your you and your and your wife and you di the house goes directly to to the wife without having to go through through your office and the same with bank accounts and all stuff so even though the planning is important in some cases it's not necessary because the assets are already in the they say in two names one one passes and the asset goes directly to the other person ER more important I believe it is I and I don't know if your office does it is trusts oh yeah let's say if I have minor children and and I have a substantial assets and I don't want my child when they gets to 18 to get that money and buy a Ferrari or whatever I can write a trust that says you're going to get that money when you get to 35 or when you get to 40 or when you get to whatever so do you handle those two so we don't handle trust per se but I just wanted to I guess whatever your needs are we want you to meet it as of right now councilman there there are few Financial or uh plans in place in our communities and so whether your need might be a trust because you have large assets you might have that Ferrari that you may not want that child to have um over a period of time whatever that need is we want you to have something in place and that's where the attorney comes in you'll talk with that attorney one1 to figure out who you are what you need to put something in place um and and that's the sort of conversation you bring the attorne you bring the attorneys to we do okay oh yeah can I add to what the surrogate is saying so the Surrogate Court is a court of limited jurisdiction we do not we cannot and we do not practice law so what you're talking about terms of trust as he said is for an attorney to help you and I want to be clear the attorney you want to use is one who's specialized in state planning yes you know attorneys under the court rules can do anything as long as they learn them but the more sophisticated your situation is you want to have somebody with experience you know the same thing when he talked about special needs do not do Special Needs Trust on your own because unbeknownst to you you can be causing your loved one to be learning any losing governmental benefits so that's why we bring attorneys as a surus said we bring attorneys with us so you can ask some questions and it's our way of making sure that you know what we sometimes we bring two or three with us if we can and we tell people ask as many questions as you can because that's probably going to be the last time you're going to get a two or three attorneys to talk to you for free so we do that because because we we we you know as Al said I went to S I grew up in New York actually Mr Michael white back there that's part of our staff we all are from New York and so this for us yes Al week was elected to be surrogate but for us this is family we're from New York we grew up in New York friends and family you know we've gone to um councilman council's church as Al week said um sorry sorry get Kenny says we go we go anywhere so but definitely get an attorney anytime that you want to do your plan because as councilwoman Scott rry talked about was living wheels that we call that in New Jersey you know we call that durable power attorneys and Advanced Care directive so if same thing you hear those terms because I know many of us see Susie Orman same same thing but definitely talk to an attorney specifically for your situation yes councilman uh uh councilman Gonzales yes very important what you mentioned they say if you have a real estate attorney doing your financial planning you're not getting the best service that you can get so you have to get someone that specializes in that area of the law because mistakes in that area of the law could be costly correct Council yeah two quick things one um to go back to the point where there were many individuals that may not be married right there are individuals where uh young people parents pass away the child is 18 or 19 or 20 years old and now they have to bear the burden of trying to bury that parent without the parent leaving a will or any information behind accounts all over the place that has to be reconciled right can we speak to the notion of that and then coupled upon that can we speak to this misnomer that we have uh that is predicated throughout all of our communities that well we really don't have anything so why do we need a will uh yes um that's uh excellent excellent topic to point out that many people have a misnomer that I have nothing we all have something I mean the fact that we all sitting here we have clothes on our back even if it's sentimental um you know surrogate often tells a story about when he was a kid how you know his family fought over weights like weights that you lift I mean some things have sentimental values the the best way I can say it is and I had a professor that taught it this where he would have a psychologist come talk to his law students because he said it's important for you to understand the faning dynamic because and I'm sure all of you have seen this personally or just in your positions people fight over the minor silliest things and you don't have a plan in place because this is a tragic time one of the worst times that people lives they lost a loved one and and things that happen as kids get escalated but we all have something I mean it doesn't matter you know a car many most to be honest a lot of times people come to our court over a car you know and it could be you know worth a few thousand dollars but for them it's something it's holding on so we all have something we all have the clothes on our backs the jewelry that we have so technically under the law until somebody's appointed to handle that then it doesn't get dispersed until somebody's in charge of it um as as a as a councilman talked about um just making sure that you know talking about trust that can be a vehicle but if you have kids with special needs you need a trust if you have a house you might want to have that house you know pass on to kids you might might want to put it in a a real estate trust um so there there we definitely have things and when when you talk about um kids now having to figure out what's going on and especially as you said the 189 you know they're although legally they're adults as we all know they're Tech still kids and they're still trying to deal with the loss of their their parents and of course if you guys are like me my mother and father wasn't telling me where their things were they matter of fact the family don't tell nobody my business and that included me right so so so of course the kids don't know they have to figure it out and and what i' like to tell people when they come into the office before they take on this role is that or before you even appoint somebody as an executive in your will um is to make sure the person wants to do it because this is a task this is job in itself we met a lady I think Mike Mike was Mr White was with was there that day um we met a lady who came to us and said that she was the she was she was the executive or the administrator of her parents estate she was the guardian of a mother and she was working and she had three kids and I don't know how she did it because being an administrator or an executive of an estate is a job in itself it's timec consuming and you have to understand the the laws as well and so many times I would always recommend the people although people um say I can't afford it but sometimes they come to us and ask for legal advice and we can't give it we have to recommend that they go see an attorney because you have to understand the legal aspects of it you have to understand if the tax implications so it's a job on to itself and so we always will recommend that surrogates Court you know speak to a financial planner speak to an attorney to help you if you decide you want to be the administrator or Guardian any other kind of fiduciary to handle somebody else's um Estates and Affairs okay any other questions Council mccr yeah thank you council president I just I don't have a question I just have a comment I just want to thank uh surrogate for what he does you know and not to disparage any other surrogates but I've never seen a surrogate be so proactive and out in the community and I think that's important for us to know uh because he provides information that is essential to to us uh you know the transfer of wealth in our communities and and and and how it affects our families and it's and it's very important that we understand what's going on and how to uh address the situations particularly like when a loved one is passed um so I just wanted to publicly thank the surrogate you know he's actually always been responsive even come out to uh my district meeting um which is always right in early in the morning so I appreciate that uh so I I just wanted to say that thank you councilman Crump uh any other comments any questions all right well I will say thank you so much s it's been great to have you and you know I councilman Crump was nice saying he didn't want to offend any other surran office but exus county has the best um surrogate on this side of the universe and honestly a lot of people always tell us and I've said this to you and publicly that people did not even know what a surran office was or what they did and probably some people today that are watching us that are viewing that are here never knew you know what a surrogate office you know did that they had to vote for one and all of that good stuff and you know having you be at the helm of that office and getting out there and just you know preaching to folks about having their Affairs in order let me say that again having your Affairs in order um is very important so thank you for all that you do and we continue to work with you and partner with you appreciate you thank you very much thank you have a good day enjoy your day as well all right any Matters from the Council before we depart councilman Council yeah Madam chair just a couple of things one the uh update on I'm sorry well yeah that's okay he can we can do the comments and then we'll go into public comments right after Y no these are concerns and matters that the update on the fire and review of the internal standards we talked about we talked about that uh to make sure that we we have we we you know get that information to see how that is moving along and then I know we talked about prior and we requested a a update on this whole benefit situation oh um that is you know going around I think is important um you know to the uh employees of the city and probably to all of these uh bargaining units who who are out here in times of negotiation and see an uptick in some of these benefits that we really need to have a conversation about what is going on uh around there and then um if we can get information from the public safety director about how many citations have been given for like commercial uh vehicles so that we can have that and then how is that moving through through the court dly noted uh councilman Council we need a vote for that right Ren you want to vote for that or you want to comment are you gonna comment now corporate Council oh okay sure good morning uh Ken store city of North Corporation Council so just to break down some of the ask um I will ask the ba to uh consider bringing a executive session for the next council meeting and reference to the benefits and things of that nature I do know that there's some folks asking questions need some clarity and I know you all probably run into the question themselves um I know that the deputy director was here earlier probably stepped out when the surrogate began or finished up his comments uh but I know that the public safety director will make sure that you guys get the information as well okay if we can just have I know these were already motions that were requested before so we can send a reminder back to those departments as well for that information that'll be helpful anything else councilman Council anything else from other council members any requests comments okay seeing none we are of course in a public meeting so we have to have public comment um so Madam clerk certainly we are now in the public comment portion of this meeting where each speaker will have three minutes to speak if anyone wishes to address the council please approach the podium and make sure to announce your name is there anyone wishing to address the the council seeing none um thank you all for joining us today for today's special conference we look forward to seeing you at the next public meeting thank you