members of the public and viewers at home Welcome to our regular meeting February 14 at the council chamber City Hall third floor let me wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day M clerk call the RO please yes Mr President good evening everyone roll call for municipal C regular meeting of Wednesday February 14th 2024 the time is now 7:10 p.m. councilman abdulaziz councilwoman cotton here councilwoman daver councilman Jackson councilman khik here Madame clerk councilwoman Mims here councilman Udin councilman valz happy valentine mad cler my vote is I'm not vote I'm here Mr President president president mad clerk thank you Mr President this evening's prayer is been rendered by Pastor Pamela pedford of the greater Bible Way Church of Christ which is followed by the flag salute which has been led by Miss L Williams our city of patteron Resident that's my pastor thank you it's on Amen I love amen we going to ask every heart please pray God our father in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ God we thank you for this day for this is the day that you have made and we will rejoice and be glad in in it father God we thank you for this opportunity to be here in your house one more time father God we thank you for the city of patteron and for everyone that is here and gathered together for the city council meeting on tonight father God we asking you to come into the midst of us on tonight be the center of this meeting and father whatever needs to take place father God let us bring unity and peace even in the midst of everyone that is here father God bless each and every council member that is here those that are here those that are not here father God bless the president and everyone that is here everyone that is in leadership bless the city of patteron tonight God there is so much going on there's so much division going on but father we ask you to bring Unity even in the midst of us right now in the name of Jesus Amen father God we ask you to bless the police officers tonight bless the firefighters tonight God bless the mayor tonight in the name of Jesus father God we need you tonight Satan you are a liar and the blood of Jesus is against you father God we ask it in the name of Jesus you said Lord you said come and let us reason together father God we may not have to like one another but God we sure got to love one another father God bring peace and unity even in the midst of this meeting on tonight father God whoever may come up God Lord let us get peace and understanding even in the midst of things that may be discussed on tonight father bless each and every heart that is here father God let them get understanding even out of anything that may be discussed on tonight father God bless each and every one each and every councilman on tonight father just give us Unity give us peace we asking for peace in even the midst of our councilmen and women on Tonight Lord we go away with the division Lord let us come together in unity that they may do the work that needs to be done in our city on tonight father we are crying out to you and we are asking you and we're claiming it and we are claiming victory in the name of Jesus Christ father God bless us and keep us in your care in jesus' name we pray let every heart s amen amen amen I pled ALG to the flag of the the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you members of the public now let's do a moment of silence for our troops for those that are lost a loved one for the city of pison and also for the mother of former second war councilman kilma CH that his mother just recently passed away let's do a moment of silence please thank you you may be seated so before we continue we before we start with the city um agenda that we have we have a uh presentation um so but let me just say thank you to the pastor Pamela thank you so very much for that prayer uh you really put G in the middle of this meeting let's have the statement of compliance before we do that yes M CL please statement of compliance with the open public meetings law for 2023 2024 meeting date February 14 2024 time is now 7:15 p.m. adequate notice of this meeting was compiled and disseminated in accordance with the open public meetings law in the following manner one the annual notice of regular meetings and workshop sessions of the municipal Council was compiled for the year 2023 2024 honorable July 1 2023 two a schedule of the regular meetings and workshop sessions of the municipal Council for the year 2023 2024 was duly transmitted honorable July 1 20232 the nor Jersey Herald News the record the Arabic voice the Italian VI voice the pay County PS Dominicana news Lisa International Lal the patteron press the city post news tap into paron the weekly Bangla Patria in addition to any other publication duly requesting such notices three the schedule of the regular meetings and workshop sessions of the municipal Council for the year 2023 2024 was prominently posted in the lobby of City Hall first floor in the place reserved for the announcements of this type four the schedule of the regular meetings and workshop sessions of the municipal Council for the year 2023 2024 was duly filed with the municipal clerk and five a copy of the schedule of regular meetings of the municipal Council was mailed to any person who requested and paid the fee authorized by the open public records act Mr President thank you mad clerk so before we get into payment of bills we have a presentation by councilwoman alar Dr Lisa M thank you council president so um it is befitting as we are in the month of black history uh there was a poem that brother uh Gillette spoke called just imagine um at the Islamic Center last weekend and I thought it was just powerful and I thought it would be great if he do that presentation on tonight so if you will come forward at this time um to do that presentation thank you okay do it right in the middle can you hear me out there yes yes sir thank you all um I first want to say uh you know acknowledging the fact that we are all here gathered on the part of the mty LPE people's land birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution and station stop on the Underground Railroad better known as Patterson New Jersey I'd like to thank councilwoman Ms the city council legal pardon me business City Clerk and great citizens and family here in the city of patteron for this opportunity appreciate sharing time and space with you all on this day that we uh in this month that we celebrate Black History Month even though it's made it every day um I want to share a peace with you all given the fact that we live in a time with so many trials and so many challenges but I want you all to just imagine who we can be what we can do like literally just imagine like imagine fully living the dreams of Dr King imagine America with no hate as I contemplate about what life can be and what life I see knowing that it's not I but we imagine we shall overcome came we came and won just imagine when the movement came they got it done just imagine we gave history respect taught history correct of the actions of the past and its effects imagine no malicious manipulations chasing for interest and gains causing stresses and pains imagine we commit the Justice as a matter of Faith imagine laws for the planet in Humanity's sake I mean imagine we didn't treat issues like Charities and we work towards a shared prosperity and disparities were closing by the day a full-on display the power of a communal array I say no more concentrations hoarding or control situations feeding resource deprivations just imagine democracy collaboratives used as comparatives against the power of a market-based narratives imagine we solved poverty and didn't fight the poor imagine we solve the core issues that caused War War just imagine instead of sending and dropping baby bombs we gave everybody's baby some baby bonds just imagine we care less about status and we practice erasing a human Hier Arco apparatus just imagine all the things we can do things we can pursue knowing that the atoms in the universe is in you Utopia is not real but a better world we seek a better world is possible and a better world is in just imagine [Applause] wow thank you so very much um Council men for this great presentation thank you what a bright young man for the great city of pison let's put our hands together one more time and this is what we have in the city of pison this is pison this is pison so um council member let's do payment of Bill councilman shaheim um thank you councelor president summary of dis department for tonight total is 1 1,884 379 cents we don't have a payroll or any payments to board of education of the county um majority of the payment is St statutory expenditure of 1.4 million um I recommend it get paid so move it second move by councilwoman shahim khik than by Council men roll call Mad clct on payment of Bill discussion discussion councilman Jackson I'm sorry madam clerk you were going to say something no I was about to say roll that's fine okay so council president if I may I know it may not be present on this payment of bills but I'm just curious on the process the new process actually and uh uh Madame Beav you can outline for me please I understand that there's some new positions that's been created oh she's not here um okay I'm sorry I understand there's some um positions that were created in within the PD I also understand that the uh new OIC the State State Attorney General appointed uh Poli chief police chief has the um perview or wherewithal with an additional $10 million that was added to the budget so these new positions that's created um H how how exactly are they being paid are they coming through our budget as all of the other uh employees or have these positions been newly um formed or what exactly is the layout for this proposed or these uh new positions that's that's from what I understand are already um been hired and and and now on payroll council president Madame please um I guess I would have to have more specifics on what what positions you mean because we the city does have certain positions that um are included in our budget in our to um most of the funding that when when you mentioned the $10 million from the attorney general that has gone to some initiative as directed by the OIC and that is been part of Theus that we have come in front of the council to dedicate for example last summer there was a certain amount of money that was utilized for overtime of our current officers as part of a summer initiative um I don't know if you're referring to the article that I also saw in the newspaper I believe there are people who are on the AG's payroll and not our payroll as part of their initiatives including the OIC the chief of staff um in the police department are not city employees they are on the payroll of um the Attorney General's office so I I can't speak to you know I would have to be provided with a list of you know who you're inquiring about and I can confirm with the AG's office um my understanding is you know at this point in time we're we're still hiring the positions we're hiring civilians working in cellblock police officers through Academy classes and the like but those positions are already outlined within our to I'm I'm referring to and I I don't want to refer to it by the individual's name one I'm not clear on who the individuals are but I also don't want to refer to it by the individual's name because there's no uh right notice but I I do I did hear and because I'm not um uh uh kept in in the loop or informed this is a bills list and and it may not be here today I do presume or I'm asking should we anticipate these new positions coming before the council to be voted on for our normal bills list well as you can see in the tonight's bills list there is no payroll so there's no City employee um payments on here again I would need some more specificity around what positions you're discussing so if you want to submit something to me follow yeah I'll follow up with an email and I hope that we can have a public discussion um with regard to the specifics on how we're spending the Public's dollars so I appreciate appreciate it council president very very good thank you Council um roll call M cler on payment of Bill yes Mr President roll call for approval of the payment of bills in the amount of 1,884 30079 councilwoman cotton thank you madam clerk um I just actually want to say to um this is about the lowest I ever see of payment of bills a million I've never seen it that low anyhow but I know we have um a lot of um Hardware stuff from the hardware companies on here um Grant Hardware we have a lot of um uh I know we have to do um um when you have retirees and and they're retired um the city has to repay them for their Medicaid Part B um that that theate a lot of the money too on on this payment of bills when I look at it um the tax refund as they referred to which is almost a million dollars um so to see that I know but that's the law that we have to refund employees that are retired that are on Social Security that take Medicare part be out of their check out of their social security check has to be refunded back to them and also what happens also that sometimes people they also has to refund their spouses too if their spouses are collecting Medicaid Part B if I'm correct M Madam CL U Madam ba come on right so I just want to say the the highest part the the the the the amount that's the most on here today is the repayment of the medic Part B that we have to pay back that we have to pay employees that are retired Madam clerk my vote is yes thank you councilwoman cotton councilman Jackson thank you madam clerk I'm not sure exactly which one you're referring to the Medicare benefit payment plan is only $132,000 there is a there is a uh uh dispersement to rental assistance which is that which is uh $180,000 which um the tax refund okay but uh um regardless of how much it is there there still this is the absolute this is what's required from the council to act to actually be um financially responsible doesn't matter if it's a million do or $100 million or $300 million which is our entire budget it is our job to be diligent on where and how the money is being spent and furthermore more importantly whether or not the Community is seeing a benefit from it or if other people are seeing a benefit from it so that's what our job requirement is and that's what I would stay diligent on and uh many of you know that I've been a starch uh Advocate against a former um uh uh garbage company which no longer exists and I feel comfortable moving forward Madam clerk was supporting his bills list my vote is yes thank you councilman Jackson councilman khik yes madame clerk thank you councilman khik Council woman Mims when services are rendered and goods are given out we have to pay those bills my vote is yes thank you Dr Mims councilman urin my vot is yes M thank you councilman urin councilman Val Soze normal every week uh when we have meetings we have to do the payment of Bill I just want to highlight that a solid wage collection to the new company we are paying $469,000 900 ,000 $900 for the new company of garbage that the city they bit the city won they won the contract and the city did a contract with it what I'm cing what I'm asking the administration that the next payment of Bill that we have to the company that's doing a great job because they only authorized to pick up garbage to come back the day six days of pick up in downtown and they could pick up the bulk too because if we could to have saving and look at the street that they look i' rather have pay it and have the street look better than it was before so saying that I going to pay I going to vote Yes on this one but I want to see Improvement regarding the bul and regarding the six days of garbage collection that's supposed to be happening in downtown uh moving forward my word is yes thank you councilman valet um councilman abdulaziz we're in the in the middle of payment of bills thank you madam clerk my vote is yes thank you um councilman abdulaziz Mr president um thank you madam clerk so so members of the public and patteron Resident uh yes uh the $469,900 is the payment for the new garbage company filco last month PRI prior to that so roselli was charging us $700,000 a little bit more over $700,000 a month and now we pay $469 900 yes we have a saving but we need the support of the community to make sure that they call and they escape scheduled the bowl pickup they scheduled the furniture pickup DPW they doing the best they can but we need to call DPW go in the website and and not taking those furniture out so we need the collaboration of everybody I see each council member going out there educating the resident but we need the community we need the leaders from the community to promote the flyer the website whatever message you want to put it out there but together we could make our city clean and better uh with that being said my vot is yes Madam cler thank thank you Mr President the votes are eight yeses one absent I it um the payment of bills in the amount of 1 million 884 $3.79 is hereby adopted council president council president um just a minute council member um so council member Les and council member Jackson thank you council president uh I don't want to rebut about the garbage collection they're doing a great job but they did a transition from one company to other in a weekend that was a holiday Jan January 2nd was the day that the company started a lot of people don't know about going and going to the website a lot of senior don't have the advantage of going on the computer and a lot of people that probably had problem with English and Spanish or going to the website whatever and putting the information there uh I think that meanwhile this really kicked off the right way they have to be a plan to go up and down our streets pick up any bul that is out there but still they thought was going to pick it up but pick it up and make sure the city looks cleaner because before we didn't had that problem if we going to have saving and the savings our city is going to look like a young Yar and garbage all over I rather pay a little bit more and make sure that work get done you know um I cannot sit here and say we need the qu I'm doing the qu I'm being going up and down my War advice in the residence I'm been going up and down giving Flyers even posting Facebook Instagram and doing a uh Tik Tok or whatever it is to advise my resident regarding how they should uh follow the uh the U the process the new process of The Bu and this and that and still resent don't get it because there was a wrongdoing before and I don't mean that the resident had to pay for it right now and our city need to look better the amount of money that they paying for the company to pick up the garbage okay it's a saving but the amount of residents that we have in the city of patteron the amount of people that we have in those multiwell building they have a lot of garbage they need to pick it up this is not a small city councilman Jackson thank you council president I have two two concerns council president if if you can uh indulge me for a moment the first thing is I think it's very important yeah got it that we give out the proper information a moment ago council president you said and then councilman B just reiterated that it's important for people to call for bulk pickup now I'm not on public uh uh DPW committee but from what been what has been explained to me and I could be incorrect and I think there something that we should clear up is that there the process is not to call but you have to go on to the website and you must put in the information on the website now if that's the case that could be part of the problem and why bulk has not been getting picked up I mean we have to disseminate I think it's we should be um putting an enormous amount of pressure on the administration to publicize exactly how and we have the director here who could probably outline what is the process further if we're promoting or uh uh uh uh getting ready to sign on the notion of paying this garbage company extra I would like to see the report of how much extra we've put into DPW we're asking them to take on this additional task have we been fairly compensating them because the reason possibly and I'm I can't answer this question because I don't work there but the reason we probably cannot consume the cause is because we haven't hired additional people to man the phones so therefore the call volume is UN is not um uh uh being picked up so one we have to be clear on our messaging here we are the municipal Council telling sending a message out to for people to call and in fact if it's not the the the requirement to call then we are failing the public just as much as we're failing them by not mandating that we put additional funds into DPW to fairly compensate these people who are doing the additional work as opposed to right away saying hey we'll pay this third party Garbage Company more money to do a service that we quite frankly have not given a fair assessment on our employees doing it internal so that's the first thing I don't know if you want to allow sure because that's a very important topic and and and before we move on the agenda because this item is not on the agenda it's just a payment of Bill but it's important this is a very important topic because it's been very very painful for the community people they're not there's not some people they're not computer ST it's hard for senior to get on into the website and add it that's the reason why Madame ba I will I open the floor for Madame ba and for the director as well because they planning to add an additional truck for the people that doesn't schedule the B pick up to make sure that they clean the city also as well um and also they've been um hiding in additional staff also in public work which is good for us because we got opportunity for more people to work in DPW which is a win-win I was very resistant to this situation because of that but um director hello few things um the sdl program has to be created by the person who's making the appointment we can't create that that's why we ask you to go online yourself and create an account once you create an account you can call DPW if your account is in there then we can schedule it in the future for you at that time but you have to create your own account at first that's what you have to do U we did add an additional garbage truck to the weekends for the bul pickup actually tonight's agenda uh on consent agenda we have a garbage truck that we're buying soon as we get the purchase order that'll be on the road is ready to come to DPW this past weekend we had 56 pickups um that were scheduled we did over 300 pickups this weekend in the area for um for DPW that's 4 40 yard containers of garbage that we did this weekend alone in the area we'll be out there again this weekend we'll do any on pickups that are scheduled already and then we'll do the whole area like we did Saturday and Sunday like we did the past weekend okay council president um just just just a minute councilwoman uh so Madame ba can you elaborate about the additional person you hired to take care of the phone I've been insisted on the phone because we need to be mindful and I've been knacking on doors and you all know me I'm out there like every other council member with my flyer are senior they're not they cannot get into the website and all that so we need a person to take out the phone when somebody called to request a ball pick up Madame ba we um we're actually uh interviewing tomorrow we have interviews tomorrow for that position so we'll be interviewing then we'll select the candidate from that for those interviews okay so so we have an additional person uh to take care of the line the phone and also an additional truck for the ball pickup yes all right thank you thank you for that so Council amendments and right after we go into a second reading council members please let's try to move just a recommend to the administration for the residents that do not have access to computers we need to establish kiosks inside of City Hall the libraries or Central locations that are near especially our senior locations and P the schools so if we can establish that layout and it could be presented before the council that needs to be done um possibly for the next Workshop agenda so that we can vote on that but we definitely for all the residents that do not have access to computers which is a lot of uh residents in our community and we also need to have people there at the kiosk to assist them with inputting that data until we get up to speed so Madame ba if we can get that uh presented and on our Workshop agenda council president for next week thank you Madame B thank you council president and yes we have been there is a team that has been um you know consistently working on this about messaging and communicating you know what people have to do um we're now putting together a report of the first month again that including some of the statistics that the director just said about pickups that have been scheduled unscheduled and so on um and and ways that we can do a better job of reaching seniors and and people who might not have heard about it um the form is already in Spanish uh we want to continue to expand the languages um we want it plug into our health and human services our senior center and have some staff be there to to help the seniors who are there arranging separate pickups with all the Housing Authority having the management companies right now some of the buildings are already doing that that the management company is essentially scheduling the pickup not individuals um so we are working to make that transition one thing I do want to note um just again going back to numbers because I always kind to go back to the numbers on this um the last the last regular contract that we had that included bulk pickup we were the final year of the contract our monthly cost was $374,000 the pay payment that you see right now is $469,000 without bulk pickup when councilman valz when you said it you know it would cost a little more to keep the the the uh bulk pickup and the business six days a week it's not just a little more it's a lot more it's about $4.8 million more if the bids that we got back had monthly costs instead of $469 for this first year the first round of bids had $810,000 a month the second round of had $759,000 a month so that really is we're looking at another $5 million that we could not afford in our budget without you know that's like a 3.2% tax increase so just just to cover that one expense so that's why we ended up doing what we're doing and really trying to find a way to provide a service with you know it doesn't look exactly like it did before but still be able to provide a service and have it be affordable within the city's budget so that's that's why we've gone through this whole process and unfortunately it's just the way that all municipalities have seen a marked increase in their costs in this area so we had to find a way to reduce our level of service just so that we could afford what you know the last contract for 5 years we were paying 20 million this contract now we're paying 25 million so there's no savings we're still seeing an increase in the cost it's unfortunate that we had to take out the same level of service but it is what we can AFF board right now M ba so council members right after Council jaon we going into a second reading ordinance that we have and I want to do public portion 8:00 it's Valentine I don't want to keep pison residing in the chamber for for too long tonight councilman Jackson please very good council president I'll be very brief I told you I had two concerns so Madame ba um I think everyone in in including the council body would agree that I've been an extremely harsh critic of you and um some of the decisions that you've made and um I I make no apologies for that and I think that I do it I want everybody to be clear that I do it for reasons that's not personal but when um when there's something that's been being done properly I must also take the time out to acknowledge uh when something is done uh properly and I I wanted to take this moment to thank you it was brought to my attention that the Patterson Housing Authority along with this developer uh royan who has taken total advantage of our residents has brought forward a a proposal to uh to change over the status um for 60 Temple and which would have uh evicted our tenants for the Youth Services Program and also increased what we were paying out to the developer and I understand that you know that you really held it down for Patterson residents and cut that extremely short which I'm extremely happy about and I'm proud of I wanted to take the moment not just to acknowledge you privately but to also acknowledge that work publicly because I think that is some of the things that need to take place we need to start holding some of these developers accountable for the money that they're making and the treatment that they are um uh uh in for enforcing on our on our residents so I appreciate the moment um uh council president I guess it couldn't come in a better day on Valentine's Day so I wanted to you know give you your flowers Madam ba and say thank you um and you know Happy Valentine's Day it doesn't mean that I won't continue to be very critical but I mean I definitely wanted to acknowledge some a job well done so thank you for for that all right thank you councilman um um item number two on second rating M clerk item number one on second rating yes Mr President item number one is an ordinance vacating the last block length of wall Avenue between 13th Avenue and Broadway it's a public works ordinance 24 006 so I guess we was mve by councilman Council councilwoman Ms councilman bless and council president Mendes and second by councilman shahim KH uh a roll call M at this a public hearing on item number one I'll move to close members of the public that wish to speak on item number one see not move to close just in case see no second move to close there's nobody on on the audience that wants to speak about this item move by councilwoman Ms and second by councilman khik roll call to close the public hearing on item number one roll call to close a public hearing and item number one councilman abdulaziz yes councilwoman cotton yes councilman Jackson yes yes councilman KH yes councilwoman Mims yes councilman urin yes councilman VZ yes Mr President yes M CL so the votes are eight yeses one absent it a public hearing and item number one is hereby closed thank you mad cler roll call Mad cler on item number one roll call on item number one for adoption councilman abdalaziz thank you madam clerk so I think this is a no Rainer uh for the logistics and operations of the Islamic Center for state county they currently own the entire block across the street I've seen it um especially with the upcoming month of Ramadan and it'll just assist on the operations and whatever the plans that the mosque has we do know the Islamic Center for SE county is a tremendous asset to our city and the services that they provide are for not just Muslims but um All City residents and I'm glad that this is the first step to address uh because doing this will address many of the community needs around there when it become for operations and Logistics and um my vote is yes Madam cler thank you thank you councilman abdulaziz councilwoman cotton thank you madam clerk I think that um and my Council uh colleague next to me out um said it that the that entire block is owned by the the mass uh which is about five or six homes in that oppos side of the street so um and I know how how they go down wall Avenue dorm Avenue how they I know you can see it it's sometimes they be flying it be very very dangerous this whole Community piece for you for 13th AV to Broadway I believe um well we make it safer for the master the the temple for you to do what you need to do so with that being said um cuz I went there and and my Council colleague next to me um told me what what you guys were what you me were doing so it's fine so with that being said Madam clerk uh my vote is yes thank you councilwoman cotton councilman Jackson yes thank you councilman Jackson councilman Kik thank you Madame clerk councilman abdulaziz said it he a no-brainer ICPC has been serving the community um couple of weeks ago we approved a project by ICPC the first Recreation Center in city of patteron is for the community it's going to have u in another site is going to have basketball court swimming indoor soccers and very and many other programs so I think from this ICPC center community will benefit and my vote is yes Madam K thank you councilman colleag councilwoman Mims so what can I say to ICPC I think you are awesome and I want everyone to hear it you here while you're present and the public any community that will spend 40 million dollars of their own money to build a recreational center to save the children and to save families has to be commended you didn't come to the city for money you didn't ask for a loan you didn't take a grant you guys are doing it out of your own funds and that's when I when I think about ICPC you're a solution based organization you don't come with your problems you come and present Solutions and then you fund the solution that has to be commended so when you come forward with a solution um for ICPC the community and especially our youth I'm always going to stand in support because you stand in support of our community especially with our families and our children I commend you and I am the fifth vote so even if they vote no it's already passed but my vote is yes thank you Dr mes councilman urin thank you mam Clark all right first of all thank you so much brothers from icpcs I can see uh president here and members of ICPC again thank you so very much for your service ICPC is not just providing religious services in our city but many other services that Community needs so I think we the city council is honor glad to support s such kind of ordinance and my votes you know that what's my vot is is definitely yes thank you councilman urin councilman Val thank you madam clerk uh the word of the night is love and Nob brainer so um even with your present or not presence here we always believe we do the right thing for the community we always do um I want to send a good shout out because when uh resolutions or ordinance comes first DPW committee that I'm the chair and I have a good members in the committee we take a no-brainer and release it right away to the councilman to vote uh we have a good cooperation Council when this came into the committee he gave us a real highlight of it he gave it an explanation and it was well enough to say let's take it to a vote and I and I think it was not necessary to be here but I just want to say that congratulation keep on doing a great job I know you do it this not only for the Islamic community you do this for the whole entire community in the city of Patterson and I going to say proud and I'm going to continue saying it every time when I use this microphone because when we approve something to benefit the Islamic community and the Arabic community or the Middle Eastern Community I always had to say L's free Palestine my vote is yes thank you councilman Vance Mr Mr President U thank you mad clerk um to the Islamic Center of P County I just want to say thank you for the outstanding job and the investment that you've been doing in the community you're not only impacting the Muslim Community you're impacting the entire residence of the city of patteron with all your investment um I remember we start this conversation with Mr hunchan was a traffic engineer he's not longer with us now and as Council Bless mentioned there was a lot of discussion on DPW effective discussion and now we're here and I visited the surrounding area and also the was no opposition have a dialogue with all the residents that out there so you've been a great neighbor and I'm very pleased to support and Endor and endorse this legislation without being said my vote is yes and good luck thank you m cler thank you Mr President the votes are eight yeses one absent item number one is hereby adopted thank you mad clerk um can we do the coet agenda Madame clerk council president um councilman Jackson I'm I'm very concerned and I'm hoping uh I know you skipping over a few but would like to address item number two is before the public portion know you just did number one item number two first no that's a first reading councilman um there's only one item on second reading so we will go we will address all first reading item right after the consent agenda councilman very good thank you thank you councilman uh Madame clerk consent agenda please yes Mr President cons the consent agenda all all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routined by the council and will be enacted by one motion the items listed under the consent agenda are numbers 16 through 46 any item may be removed from the consent agenda by the request of any council member and if so removed will be treated as a separate matter so move move move by councilwoman Ms and council president Mendes second by council member Les and Council cler on the consent agenda consent roll call on the consent agenda councilman abdulaziz yes councilwoman carton yes councilman Jackson yes councilman khik thank you Madame clerk um just to highlight couple of item U on this consent agenda we have a B soltion for Westside Park renovation as well as uh the cricket house at Westside Park also Overlook Drive um so I just for the information of the community uh Westside Park will be renovated the work will start this summer my vote is yes madame C thank you councilman colleague councilwoman M yes councilman urin yes councilman VZ so a lot of the things that councilman uh um collegia say the uh DPW items are in consent agenda and uh they all came to committee and I'm happy to see it that it's going to pass my vote is yes thank you councilman Val Mr President my vote is yes P cler thank you Mr President the votes are eight yeses one absent the consent agenda is hereby adopted thank you m clerk now we could take care of the first reading on um ordinance M clerk let's go to item number 12 on first reading yes with the first item on the first reading is an ordinance to repeal ordinance number 22-26 which authorized nonpartisan early voting in the city of patteron it's a city council ordinance may have a motion please move second move by move by council president Mendes second by Council discussion discussion Council M so uh thank you council president just uh this is I just want the public to know that last year year before we had early voting option on the day of election if people are not available or they can they can vote early and which is very convenient fast they have to stand on the line and I don't know why that change has to bring I mean if anyone bring uh present their rational why we are changing this that would be great council president council members council president councilman Jackson um um uh I'm um have a question for Corporation counsel uh uh Madame ba maybe you could provide some insight so before we get into that let me help the public understand the the uh process here the city council is the legislative body it is our job to write legislation that's best best suited for the public and in doing so uh you often see who exactly is the sponsor and that means a councilman you know in my case I would actually write it myself I would have to do my research and go home and put pen the paper and write it myself in many other cases they put a request through the corporation council's office and they prescrib the legislation so with that being said Corporation Council I'm I'm curious one who's the who's the sponsor for item number two and why is it being presented without sponsorship on on the item council president mayam Corporation Council please uh thank you councilman Jackson for that inquiry um that was discussed with several council members and I believe uh councilman valz had requested that we move forward with that item so who were the several council members that request made this request um I don't remember specifically um who the other ones were okay uh council president which committee has this item been discussing this item there was a multiple discussion on this item but this item was no I'm not on the committee that this item was discussed I was not present on that committee there was a mult it was removed from the agenda back then and it was back in so um so this is the right place uh for us to have a conversation it's on first reading um council members um I'm very open to um councilman D and any council member that wants to open the dialogue for me give me give us a minute give us a minute council members so I will open the floor it's it's an item first reading so um right after councilman Jackson I'll open the floor to councilman and the rest of the council members to give us their input on that if you feel that this is something that we should move forward or this is something that we should send back to the committee to go a little over um councilman Jackson so just for a point of clarity to the members of the public we just had uh an extensive show if you will of the approval of the P the last item how certain members talk about this is for the community Community here is an item that directly impacts or takes away the ability for the community to be to take part in the voting process and this is an example of members moving the gold post around for their own personal gain so here you have uh months before the next upcoming nonpartisan election when for the mayor's election this allowance was made mind you it's already put in place by the state listen to us but here you have here you have a moment in time a few months prior to the next upcoming election for certain people's specific benefit for them to try to quietly move this thing through and get it past while the Public's not paying attention mind you let's not negate the consideration every single time time when I have items when when when we talked about televising the the P the uh uh Workshop meetings you have various council members this item didn't go before the work uh uh committee we're removing it from the agenda the previous council president in support with oh actually I take that back cuz he was not in support of that move but you don't see it back on the agenda now so we don't want to televise workshops make government more accessible to the public and then we want to take your right away to be able to vote early so that we can truncate and minimize the the the uh the participation pay attention to what's going on and then here's the last part the Scoundrels don't even want to put their name on the legis on the on the uh on legislation it's been discussed by several members it's a public public item members of the council who have uh uh uh rallied or solicited for this item to come forward please step forward and be counted yes and councilman let me allow to the floor to counc thank counc councilman M and right of the council councilman bless and last but not least Council Council to my colleagues I hope because it is a long night we do have the public and it is Valentine's Day so I'm hoping after I address this this ordinance is you you can't it's it's null and void because if I'm looking at the early voting law and Corporation Council if you could please chime in every election you need to pass an ordinance to authorize early voting we're technically repealing early voting for the last mayor election that occurred two years ago so this ordinance is null and void it's not allowable what you what you have to do as a body is someone needs to bring up as councilman Jackson said he wants early voting I will co-sponsor it with you I I'll bring it up at the next meeting I will support early voting that item will come up to the council to authorize early voting and then the council will vote it up or down the current item that says repeal ordinance that authorizes not that was for the mayor election it already passed am I right Corporation Council every election the body is going to have to take that you Council Madam clerk is also counc that's a legal question let me just allow cooporation Council to answer that cooperation councel thank you council president uh yes and I briefly uh confirmed with councilman abdulaziz I know Madame Clerk and I the Law Department we actually went back and forth on this um we were looking into this issue and it does appear to be the case that for every uh subsequent election Council has to approve uh authorize early voting for that particular election and so that's why this this one is worded in a particular way that doesn't undo any previous ones but it's more prospective but uh councilman abdelaziz is correct and if Council wish to uh proceed with authorizing early voting for the next election we're happy thank you Corporation Council going back to your Council I'll make a motion to remove this item so we don't hold the public here for an N discussion and I'll put on the record Corporation Council um I will if you could bring that item I will gladly sponsor it put my name on it to allow early voting for The not part thank council members in order for us to move on because this is only the second item on the agenda we tbling this item um so we tely this item with that way we could minimize that way we could keep I really want to make sure that our public go home early it's Valentine's Day uh so very brief Council minut and right after that we move into it number three Council so um to the point that was made as far as placing it on the agenda as councilman abdil and councilman Jackson stated if we're going to rewrite the language to present it again I want it to have different um Extended locations we only had two and if we're going to do it myself and councelor moton had an issue because they were not conducive to every community so if we're going to rewrite it to do early voting I want early voting booths in the First Ward the second ward the Third Ward the fourth fifth and the Sixth Ward currently The Way It Was Written previously it was only in the second ward and the third so I'm putting that in the language so as we're writing it we can have all those locations identified thank you Corporation councel to close very briefly yes thank you thank you council president thank you Dr MIM for that uh comment I will work with Madame clerk on this but um this issue came up last time and the County Board of Elections are the ones that select the site so I can have further conversations with Madame clerk about this and see if we can make the council's uh wishes known to the county uh so that hopefully there'll be expanded sites as per council's request Cent so just I'm not done council president so just in addition to that so if you're say in the county then I'm asking the council members to send a letter with all our signatures to the county we have relationships with the county making a request that is not fair and it dis it it disenfranchises voters from other communities so as it stated I would like it know and I know it's public so they're watching I want a letter from this Council that will be sent to the county making sure that there are no voters disenfranchise if we're going to move forward with early voting if that's not going to happen my vote's going to be no I'm not voting for early voting only to accommodate the second and the third W residents only it need to accommodate everybody in the in in the entire thank you we sayoun president council members Council MC have not make any comment but Polie to move on I'll be very quick um councilwoman Ms a letter was sent last time okay asking for to uh for every Ward to have a uh a spot for early voting it wasn't signed by the they no everybody didn't sign it no that was what of the stipulation because this is only going to affect the Third Ward and the six the Third Ward and the second ward but the thing is that and we must understand and I need to tell you that's going to put so much pressure on our clerk's office for that early voting when we already short four people short four people it's like we shouldn't put this pressure on this woman and that office like that that's what I need to say that that would it's a lot of pressure we got one person retiring soon we short three already it's just we that's what we trying to do hire people right right but you got to remember they got to get trained you just can't throw nobody in no office and think they can do M of the thank you councilwoman I'm just saying we requested this before they did not do it we would like Council woman men said everybody didn't sign it so everybody wants to sign it that's what we want than council president so um knowing that my name was brought up and I don't have nothing to high uh so corpor counil to the chair so it's clear enough that we cannot do early voting for the next um May election unless the council bring another resolution uh ordinance saying that we want to follow with another uh orderly voting correct council president mayor counc Corporation Council uh yes um according to njsa 19 uh col 15 A1 the governing body does have to move by way of ordinance to establish early voting for uh the next election correct so because it was bought up he said you should put a name on the resol on the ordinance or whatever before this came up all the legal aspect of it was covered this right now don't mean nothing that's why we was repealing it so be able as Al stated if we want to move forward to do early voting a new ordinance had to come in to allow moving forward uh any municipal election uh locally for early voting now saying for now not least uh one of the second thing that I make credit on it and councilwoman Ruby Ken stated when the first early voting came in excuse me the first early ke voter came in we requested but the the the administration told us that the county is the only one that signed polling site so to give the benefit in that time to the resident to go out and vote early but it was managed by the county so we didn't want to block it to give not give the rights to the resident to go out and vote early so now we going to do it right now because it's our municipal election I think they should think think about our decision in the county and if they get paid high taxes in the county by the residents of patteron they supposed to uh allow other polling site this is not a a scar tactic whoever is going to win win The Voice is the people and the people have to go out and vote that's the only I going to sayk thank you council members for the next Workshop let's get ready to have a a a good discussion about this item because the clerk department is going to play a key role in this we got to make sure that they fully in Stafford I know by that time she going to have the deputy clerk we already have our clerk strong in the position so but that conversation we got to take place at the next workshop and if we could please move on with the agenda council members Mr President may I say something toward give me one second CC CL I am respectfully requesting that the council act with do dispatch on their decision regarding the early voting because the count is already printing the ballots they called in and based on what was on the agenda for um um dismantling the um ordinance for early voting I spoke with the county and I let them know that we were no longer interested in early voting but if it's a decision of the um Council now to revert to what they were before I'm asking that you accurate do dispatch so I can communicate with the county so that can put in place the actions for early voting because as it as we are right now there's no early voting that will conduct council member to let to to not delay this meeting uh tomorrow we got to be in communication and if we have to do a virtual meeting amongst all council members and to have a discussion about this early voting and take a decision as soon as possible because tonight we don't have any decision there's nothing on the floor but we have to take action as soon as possible but you say the count is printing ballot what B presid yes but we don't have nothing on the floor right now council members council president the municipal election ballot counc very good council president so I'll be extremely brief what what Madam clerk just outlined shows the intent now here specifically within the body of this legislation it does not read anywhere that it is required by njsa 1915 A-1 I'm going back now to read it but if the intent was in fact to fulfill a requirement then we would had mirroring leg pieces of legislation one to repeal and one to automatically reinstate if the clerk was not led to believe that we were eliminating she would have had the the county because her the requirement is not for us to fulfill the legislation the requirement is just to allow the clerk to observe intent it is if it's the council's intent to continue with early voting she would inform the county as necessary and they would prepare the documentation but because it was not and without even a vote but the council showed intent through Corporation Council through the the non-disclosed council members and that right there shows the the the the the the the the wickedness of intentions amongst this body here we are looking to dismantle people's rights when we we we've shown that the state the federal government has allowed allowances to to to open up early voting to to help residents get be more uh uh accessible here we are showing our dirty hand of intent so let it be clear what is the council's intent stop being misleading thank and untruthful deceitful and allow the public to understand what exactly we're trying to do because what I'm just hearing as the clerk he councilman valz didn't want to put his name on the legislation but Corporation Council said unknown members of the council so very quickly I'll close here I'll close here if it was in fact if it was in fact the intent for it to continue but that's what what was with if councilwoman Mims if you look at what's been intended let's remove it say we're going to do now she's already informing the county that we don't have it and then later on they'll say oh it's too late for us to ask early voting for this upcoming May that's dirty that's dirty pool thank you councilman and and Madame clerk so so what we're going to do is I know the time window what is the time window that we have to get back to the county with the response I I mean I could speak with them tomorrow okay so let so speak with talk to the county tomorrow let us know and tomorrow send us an email and if we have to do a meeting virtual meeting just to have a discussion about the early voting no other item on the agenda we will make it happen we'll point of order council president point of order if I may with all due respect we do not require an additional meeting currently currently we have on our books the intent to continue with early voting unless this Council informs the clerk of otherwise true then we will continue on councilman Jackson we're going to put councilman Jackson That's not just said you have that's not that's not correct but council members that's the reason why I want to move this dialog for tomorrow because we all have to be connected we need to hear the deadline for the county for us to have this conversation the entire govering body okay so so with that being said Madame clerk so we move um let's do item number three on first reading Madame clerk I no after right after item number three members of the public commission you have your name on the list um because right after item number three we're going to open the public portion item number two is staed yes B cler item number three after item number three on first reading we go with public portion yes sir item number three is a first reading ordinance designating Jefferson Street between Garfield Avenue and Presidential Boulevard as a oneway Street North westbound it's it's ordinance number three may I have a motion please so mov move move by Council second by councilman Jackson and and a roll call it number three on first excuse me you supposed to ask Reed this I'm sorry yeah but we it's not coming up yet Public public hearing is on for till I'm talking about on this issue right here I can't speak on this no it's it's on first reading Mr Freeman on second reading there's going to be a public hearing public well you know what you don't know what the hell you're doing I grew up on that damn street right there you make it one way you're dummies okay uh roll call man cler on item number three roll call on item number three for approval councilman Abes yes councilwoman cotton thank you madam clerk I just want to say this item has been on the agenda quite a few times uh and councilman Jackson um has surveyed it and he's recommended to all of us that this item be I'm sorry my vote is yes Madam clerk thank you councilwoman cotton councilman Jackson very good so all of the residents and I as I definitely respect the opinion of Mr Freeman he is not a resident of the First Ward know so I know know very well he doesn't have to walk multiple blocks and park on the hill where cars now have to jockey forward position as those as we know Jefferson and Clinton are very narrow there's been a great deal of accidents on the corner of North forth in Jefferson Clinton and circle the with with these these actions are to minimize accidents to create uh Public Safety we know that our boards the the uh uh Board of adjustments and the planning board has been Rogue and has given away property in Patterson where Now parking is now a premium where you used to be at a park in front of your house you can no longer my uh uh 70-year-old father has to walk multiple block his cars are ticketed tow so the the the need for these streets to be one ways to minimize accidents you can't see the oncoming traffic coming up right in the middle of the lane going up the hill down the hill I understand Mr Mr Freeman is a reasonable man once we can talk to well uh uh one second sir please Jefferson Street will be going down and Clinton Street will be going up okay so we still have the flow of traffic so we can accommodate the residents in the area and uh I I'll be happy to drive it with you since you're a professional driver Mr Freeman and we can go through it but I appreciate my Council colleagues for the support Madam clerk my vote is yes thank you councilman Jackson councilman khik he not your coun woman M I'm sorry so with this this item not not just this item you have three four five and six all of them are recirculating the traffic um in the past we've always had traffic studies attached I don't see them here so before it comes to the second reading vote can we make sure traffic studies are attached just to cover the city my vote is yes Madam clerk thank you Dr Mims um councilman Udin my vote is yes M CL thank you councilman Udin Mr President my vote is yes m cler thank you Mr President the votes are six yeses three absences item number four is hereby adopted on first reading second reading and public hearing will be at the regular meeting of Tuesday February 27th 2024 at 7 p.m. thank you madam clerk now members of the public we're going to start with the public portion um please um every speaker have 3 minutes you have a clock right in front of you that way you could be mindful of the time and use your time effectively to make sure that you send the right message out there so let's be my fa of the time after the 3 minute I will please ask you to wrap it up and allow the next speaker to be um to use the 3 minutes okay so we have a lot of speaker on the list and we're expecting to be out here a little early because of Valentine's Day uh Madame clerk how many speaker do we have on the list um we have 19 oh no 22 speakers 22 speaker first Speaker first speaker is Mr Ernest Rucker good evening Mr Rucker good evening um Ernest Rucker Patterson I'm going to skip all the way to your to your agenda before I make my main statements to item 52 now I'm look I was looking at the bid specs and how they bid it and the amount that they bid it for these contracts under uee well the company that came in at 159 $159,000 has about 67 blocks uh that he must cover and the work downtown Patterson and from Main Street all the way to Crooks uh other areas of the Madison a and he bid it 159,000 some chains it is impossible if the the payroll for five people to do 67 blocks would be $3,000 a week at $600 $15 an hour let's calculate that into 52 that's 100 and let's make sure we have it right here because you you guys like to okay that comes to150 some odd, just in payroll what else is in ECS they have to clean snow clean the streets salt Buy U uniforms for their for their uh companies for their employees there is no way in the world that bid that you're about to vote on for 52 can afford to do this contract and do it well at $159,000 is impossible no one in this place can tell me that you're going to have a payroll just as much as you're bidding for and that's with five people so when you get to 52 I would appreciate it if you just don't rubber stamp it but ask the correct questions that you need to ask and if you need to table it table it until we can get it straightened out let's go to your ordinances again this is election time so I'm going to everybody's attention everybody's eyes are going to be on me today because we know may is coming up li we we had a little situation with liquor stores in a certain area well we have over a 100 smoke shops which I understand legislation is being worked on now 100 smoke shops in the city of patteron they're not governed by anybody they can open when they want to they can close when they want to we have barber shops that are staying open till 3:00 4:00 in the morning who the hell is getting haircut we have some issues here that this Council should be pulling up those ordinances and fixing an ordinance to give it teeth and and you need to also fix the zoning ordinance so if the police busted like they did on Broadway and took out hundreds of pounds of weed thousands of thousands of dollars that zoning can pull their permit to operate why are we constantly putting ordinance on the book with no teeth it doesn't look good and this election that's coming is telling a lot of you we're not happy with it we're not happy with it on the back side of that and I see my my time is moving but I will do this in a closing motion so I still get my extra minute there is one thing I want to make clear this Council this election coming up you have two choices start doing what we ask you to do from the community start show us you're really for the community stop grinning smiling shaking my hand Pat me on the back talking about Community but everything you do over there is not nothing to do with Community I want someone to pull back up in this president Mr Mendes I think this is charged to you I want brought back on the agenda Workshop meetings to be televised and you're the president you have the power let's do itone know like we usually do in the 9s we can no longer afford the thank you no more you want our votes you want our support you want our money you want our time give us something back or it's going to be a lot of you gone in May and it's going to be one or two yeah at large y they may have to worry too and one is not here today so I'm letting you know this is war oh this is war This Is War don't think I'm just here talking today last last time I was here I think I came up here and publicly endorsed you Michael Jackson the tonight's endorsement is for the second W Mr Khan for second world councel we have to break up that United force that Marissa daver and others have with that vote where we're getting no money back for a return for our investment you talked about garbage no our problem is not the garbage on the streets we have landlords slumlords investors that come here to milk this city and closing to milk this city to milk it to take everything out of it leave us with no parking they don't clean it front of their own properties let's not worrying about the bulk garbage let's get them to follow the ordinance you already have on the books thank you Mr rocker that's speaker M clerk the next speaker is Jackie Williams good evening everyone good evening Jackie you come on Jo my name is Jackie Williams and I'm here to tell you guys about our um Ministry that we had um it's called Minds for the Lord we had five children which are all honorable students great kids of patteron and what we do we go around and we Minister my children minister to people children everyone and we're just coming here so you guys can know that there are some good kids and Pon we want y'all support we're having a a um a black his program Sunday 9 4:00 98 Straight Street we're asking everyone to come out so you can see our children minister to everyone and you we're going to have a great time we're asking for you guys support that's all we want is just support from you guys that's it that's not much to ask for and these children deserve it you understand because you have children that goes to church on Friday you have children that goes to church on Tuesday you have children that's out here ministering to grow people anyone everyone so we want the council people please give us some support please help us with whatever we need because these are our children our future you know so we're just asking you guys to you know come out if you want my phone number or Joanne's phone number my number is 563 349 4586 my name is Jackie Williams and I am Joanne Milton that I would like to bring the children to the next council meeting so you can also meet them but I would love for you to please come out this Sunday to watch the children they doing the black history program and this is something that we don't force them to do this is something that they love to do they have fun doing it and we go different places different churches um different events that we are called out so the children go travel different places we also was at the McDonald Gospel Fest last year we came in second place okay we was um we made it this year so we will be going back to McDonald Gospel Fest this year and we're asking for your support but I would like for you to meet the children and I will bring them to the next council meeting but please please if you can come out on Sunday at 400 p.m. and watch the children council president thank you so 0 3 or 4 p.m. this Sunday correct just just really quickly council president so for the month of February I'm in charge of doing uh flag suit and prayer it would be great if your the young people will come out on the February 2 February the 27th and do a presentation a dance or mind presentation um I'll make sure you have my phone number to reach out to me but right before our council meeting on the 27th cuz I already have someone that's doing the flag salute but it would be great if they could do a dance before the um than can you repeat the numers thank much repeat the numbers so 98 can you repeat yourself phone number phone numbers my phone number my name is Jackie Williams my phone number is 563 349 4586 this is Joan and my phone number is 862 888 5662 Joanne Milton thank you so very much thank you thank you see you Sunday next speaker Madam clerk if I may council president um 8 church if I may council president I just want them to know where 98 Church Street is you know Street Straight Street cuz that's the first war across the street is the fourth W but that's Edith Smith she goes there you have performed there many times I've seen you perform you perform for my church new am you you went to um you go to the um Mount sign in you performed there many times so I want to say wait a second council president I just want to say you need if you see these children perform they're they're awesome they will be they'll be performing here awesome and I want to say that you seen them perform many many times and they're absolutely awesome counc and you know I wish we could get our children back into church again because we need our kids back in church we'll be supporting you on Sunday and council members let's keep the comment for the end of the poly portion please next speaker M clerk the next speaker is Mr L Williams Mr Williams thank you for doing the CL good afternoon good afternoon afternoon hi my name is larney Williams and I have started a new business here in the city of patteron New Jersey I am praise break praise break is a business that choreograph praise dance in the city of Pon all over and the events um for the after school program I have a contract going in teaching the kids how to praise dance as well I attended the McDonald's Gospel Fest for 23 as well I was representing the city of Patterson um I have been reselected this year to attend the Gospel Fest and I would need your support I was a master Bo worker for over 11 years of the county of Pake and now I work for the board of education for over nine years I volunteer through the city of patteron and Pate I'm looking for donations to build up this Foundation of my business my goal is to send at least 10 kids to the McDonald Gospel Fest travel expenses material and garments for the praise dance in closing in my earliest in your earliest convenience and the councilman who can I count on for your support and I want to say blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called childr of God Matthew 59 my number is 973 356 843 and my email is LW theore in Christ yahoo.com thank you can you repeat your number 973 356 8043 thank you so very much do you have any questions thank you um thank you all right next speaker man clerk next speaker is Mr Elvis Duran must be outside oh it's here Elvis how everybody you doing good evening all right happy New Year 2024 my microphone on it's on okay um before I get into my announcements my name is Elvis dor 44 marus Street and Pros Street needs to be cleaned up it's very dirty Marcus Street and P R O P eect Street downtown Patterson New Jersey need to be clean up it's so embarrassing people got to come from other state and other cities to see that garbage this is the third largest city in New Jersey come on y'all we could do better um and another thing when is Victor Cruz going to start working on his restaurant y'all going to give him permission is he waiting for permits he's opening up a restaurant on Main Street in elderson street it's going to create jobs if if that was floral flal would have been had permits come on now this this um project going to create jobs people need jobs to pay their to pay their bills okay Ed n Productions Elvis dorm Outreach music productions presents black history celebration and award ceremony the Dee this year stepping out on faith it's going to be February 23rd at 700 p.m. and Saturday February 24th at 400 p.m. on February 23rd at 700 p.m. the speaker will be Dr W Dr Willam Henry on Saturday February 24th at 4 pm. the speaker is going to be one of my mentors the former councilman and former football player Anthony Davis and it's going to be held at New Generation Kingdom of power Ministry on 170 North Main Street 170 North Main Street in Patterson New Jersey Pastor Thomas Perry is the pastor of that church building for more information you can contact me at 862 823 3895 um I see a lot of people see a lot of councel what's not paying attention but it's okay I'm speaking to 25,000 people out there so this don't really concern yall if y'all don't want the information okay um Elvis dorm Elvis dorm Outreach music production presents a Memorial Day weekend getaway trip to Florence South Carolina and Mur Beach South Carolina Saturday May 25 to to Monday May 27 we stand for two nights only the bus ride is only $200 Ry TR everyone is responsible for their own booking their own hotel for more information you you can contact me at 862 823 3895 I would have more information at the next council meeting and all this week I would have posters and flyers okay um oh yeah a chicken and waffle soul food y'all y'all like soul food 25,000 people out there y'all don't have to pay me no more 25,000 people a chicken and waffle soul food it's located at 270 Broadway Patterson New Jersey on the corner of Summer Street for more information you can call 973 34510 on chicken and waffle soul food good food quality food you don't have to go to n you don't have to drive in that long Highway waiting on that long line you can stay right here in the city of patteron New Jersey if you want some good black woo soul food up chicken and waffle soul food 270 Bradway Patterson New Jersey I got the Flyers right here um can somebody make sure the council get these flyers I know some of y'all don't want don't don't want it but y'all going to get it anyway amen amen thank you wait council president everybody some people get a lot of times so I'm going to get that same treatment I am a community activist and a promoter that's right so give me respect I will be endorsing my Council woman Council woman will be caught in I will be walking the streets with her side by side and we going to win this election woo cuz we got Jesus on our side that's all we need sir thank you our next speaker M clerk our next speaker is Dwayne Elis sorry M CL next speaker Dwayne Dwayne good evening good evening I'm my name is DNE you can call me itch Troy on social media for those who want to follow me and my number is 973 653 6222 and I'm the Black Panther of wakanda and first of all I want to thank the almighty God for making each and of each and every one of us being here and also to acknowledge the ancestors who had given their lives and sa made the necessary sacrifice for all of us I want to take this opportunity to tell you guys that um I'm from Jamaica from a place they call O I was I did not choose where I was born but it was divine appointment for me to born and grow in a place called hope Bay because the most high God want to use me as a vessel of Hope for his people so right now I want to announce my my Ministry which is not just an ordinary Ministry but it's actually the military of God here on Earth I I'm not going to make it be like a regular Church my intention is to go out there and serve the people because based on my observations there's a lot of things that needs to be corrected instead of just pointing fingers and complaining I plan to use my mind and come up with Solutions because God has given each and every one of us a mind to think and be creative so my my Ministry is aimed towards leading people to the most high God and also to help each and everyone to try as much as I can because the Commandment is for for us to honor the most high God and also do unto others as we like them to do unto us so based on my observations most times I see a lot of things like people who go to their beds hungry and it pains my heart to know that there are so many people out there who are starving right and also there are so many homeless people here in the world today just yesterday we had a snowstorm and you would be be amazed by the amount of people who had to stay out in the actual snow they don't know if they would actually free to death or be covered by the snow even when I drive on Main Street by um a bus stop right next to the seat Town Supermarket when you're going towards St Joseph there's an elderly lady there that actually she lives there right and it pains my heart even when the snow was going on I kept praying please WRA it up right I want to give each and every one of you thanks you know so I I if there's anything else you can contact me on my number my social media and I hope to work with not just the leaders but everybody whether they're old young even the little babies because the babies are born super smart nowadays even the animals the dogs they're well trained so that's it for me and finally two of the Legends do I who I look up to Michael Jackson and Bob Marley they have movies coming out and I can remember some famous quote that they made Michael Jackson said take a look at the man in the mirror so I want each and every one of us to take a look on the person in the mirror and make a better change and Bob Marley said one love one art so it doesn't matter the complexion whether you're Hispanic black white or whether you're Muslim Jew is one love one art Amen to that and your cell phone number black panther respect 97 3653 6222 one love respect thank you so very much next speaker Madam clerk next speaker is Mr Eddie ales everyone good evening the last time that I was at this microphone um uh councilman Udin said that he was kind of concerned with how people will view him will r view you once you are a former councilman that was the concern I am here to offer a little bit of advice and I'm going to use myself when I was on the board of education I was a commissioner on the board of UC education my wife came to me and she asked me to talk to Eileen schaer the superintendent at the time to get her a job in the school I I told her no my wife I love her very much but I told her no because I would not be beholden to the wishes of anyone because of a favor that was done to me so but I'm going to give you something even more concrete something much more tangible the $4 million that we borrow every year uh to deal with the emergencies in the sewer system the only person that voted no for that project was Mr Jackson and so I am going to ask you since you voted yes do you know when that program was started do you know that my guess is no you're not really saying anything but my guess is no you don't do you know how much money is outstanding from the debt that we uh um uh get every year $4 million do you know how much is outstanding of that debt do you know of any area in the city of patteron that does not get flooded because of that $4 million that we we borrow every year and we all pay so if you don't know anything about the program I I would I I would ask you and I've said this to you before stop voting yes on stop you don't know anything about but you're not the only one I mean too bad that Mr abdulaziz is not here now cuz he when he speaks he sounds all knowing I assure you he knows as much as you do about that program he doesn't know uh Council woman coton do you know the answer to those questions you do when was the program started sure do you know how much money is outstanding she will respond at the at the end of the public portion miss about she okay councilwoman okay that's good and so I am going to move on Miss DAV is not here do you know how about you you you you have a PhD I assume that this is an exclusive educate you every day because you come to the mic and you're miseducated and uneducated based on someone else's opinion council members Mr oliv miv just give me a second council members Mr oliv I'll give you a minute to wrap I'll give you a second just wrap it up and they will answer you at the end of the public portion so stay tuned with that excellent but I would assume that everybody that's voting yes you know the answer to these questions you didn't ask me but yes I know okay you do yes excellent okay so I am going to be watching because I'm not going to stay uh the entirety of the meeting but I am going to be looking at those numbers I want to know how much money is outstanding from that debt every year we borrow four $4 million thank you I want to know the areas that now do not get flooded because of that money thank you and I want to know when it was started and I have over here Mr McCoy I I interviewed him I asked him he don't said no so I hope that you do thank you Mr so at the end so you could watch that question Madame B stay tuned with that because I want you to send that information writing also person let's continue the public question you answer themc MERS it's for you it's for you there's a rule right when the speaker comes and engage a councilman you have to get have the councilman to go back to him because then he's going to leave he dump everything to us pres can we can we have this conversation at the end of the M stay tuned they will answer you they'll answer your question please next I would I would like like you said I would like for you to give me the answer do you know how much is outstanding Mr they will give you the answer that the only thing is council president the floor I think you confus between emergency at the end the portion he will give it to you please let's continue let's call the next speaker let's be respectful yes members of the public let's be respectful of the time of the speaker that coming right after there people that wants to go home let's finish the public por effectively and at the end each council member will have enough time to answer all your question you could take note and come back next speaker mad clerk council president before the next speaker before the next speaker I just want to say this as the council president we should never allow members of the public to come to the to the microphone to disrespect any council member it is against the rule of the council and it it takes away from the Quorum some people are sent to the microphone by Council Members Only to discredit other council members to make themselves look good and when you don't allow us to respond because when he was speaking he had misinformation he was talking about sewer fees versus emergency lateral repairs there two different things we voted for emercy have voted councilwoman no Mr please now me members of the public so now if you allow me if you allow me and I will tell you councilwoman Ms you are 100% correct there's a lot of members of the public that they come here with misinformation but it's our it's our responsibility to responding now in order for us to have a effective public portion so we allowing the speaker and at the end we make a comment if we planning council members just give if we planning to change the rule of getting back to the to the speaker so we could definitely entertake that discussion I agree um that deserve respect deserve respect and we have to be respectful of each other you you know it you could you be a leader but that doesn't give you the right to disrespect a member of the council even though you don't support that person so with that being said with that with that being said so we're going to continue with the public portion and we're going to we're going to over mad CL let's go the next point of order council president counc council president point of order Council Jack the speaker was waiting there no please council president I I I called up for a point of order that means the point of order must be addressed I'm asking you you made allowances for various council members to speak and I'm asking for the same allowance councilman Jackson okay because there's there's accusations is being thrown around and I you agreed and I totally disagree obviously ly Mr olar said I was the only one that he named indifference of so for someone to make an an account that people are being sent that's insinuating that I'm sending someone but but with that being said the public has every right to come up council members council members councilwoman men's please councilman Jackson ask for the floor please wrap it up because I just want to finish public portion for us to complete City business counc Jackson to the public you as a taxpaying citizen you have the right to come to the podium and address your concerns you don't have to when a member comes here and rallies for and says you're phenomenal council president Council Council when phenomenal and you're great it doesn't mean because a person is not in approval with what you're doing that that's disrespectful I've often been accused of being disrespectful for calling People inadequate incompetent that those are not words of disrespect we have a job to do here and our job is to be accountable for and if someone doesn't call you awesome and they're calling you less of adequate that right there is not disrespect the public has the right to do so and council president if you're allowing for council members to interrupt their time because they have a displeasure with what they're saying then then that is not according to the process we we cannot we cannot inter members of the public because they're not cheerleading for us Jacks well well understood thank you council president I I requested earlier and I have to address that when I was directed question first council president just know this I was I was quiet because that's the decorum we cannot answer the question at that point now when you are allowing the other council members to respond to yes or no it make me look bad that why I did not respond it means that whether I do not know I'm illiterate or something like that so here's your responsibility that you whether you should you know uh keep this for uh you need in know rules for everyone that you cannot respond at the time wait for the end of the public portion and if you if you allow then just know this we are not going to ask you we're going to just throw your answer to the public councilman thank you so very much and now let's me Robert R Ru says that if the speaker and the the floor point of order pleas Council ask for the floor I would open the Flor president council president councilman vales um it's my understanding Robert rer rules says that is the speaker in the podium said through the chair and direct the the councilman the council has allowed to engage to answer back because he has to ask but he has to ask through the chair to direct the councilman councilman would answer back and this time because the council president not him not council president that we have now previous council members put a rule here that the PO portion was going to be entertained for at the end we're going to use our closing remark to address anything that's why I write everything here yes and and to address but that we know what we talking about yes we knowk let's move let's continue let's continue the Mr oliv Mr voliva your time is up now youve been disrespectful yes you've been disrespectful addressing me no no no your time is up I but you know what you could do a side bar with him up you know anytime so please the next speaker it's uh it's it's your first lady please say your name and address and you got 3 minutes okay can't hear can't hear okay so speak a little close to the mic get close you could translate to your [Music] wife she said she wants to speak about Dr King and Mr ol will translate in English she wrote it for me she wrote it for me and so I begin mad cler good evening M cler I recently became a US citizen in the process as you know you have to learn about the history of this country in doing so I learned about Martin Luther King and his life story I fell in love with the life story of Dr King and so I asked my husband that would be me to uh help me research more about the life of Dr King I learned during the research about his style of Peace peaceful protest to demand Justice for All Americans regardless of gender or race I learned about his dream of a better world for all of mankind I listen to his speech I have dream but I also saw an interview where he said and I quote my dream has turned into a nightmare in part his nightmare had to do with the poverty so many Americans have to endure well we have the parvy that Dr King was talking about here in patteron and so we have elected you to end that Poverty of the people of pison the administration you the mayor together do something about that poverty we have dirty streets clean them we have prostitution end then we have drug ridden addiction ended we have a lot of homeless people and that problem we have young boys killing themselves on the streets end it end it I know I know you guys did not cause this problem that's what my wife says you did not cause the problem but when you come to us at election time you tell us that you can take care of those problems well guess what you haven't sure so please I ask of you because you have kept alive Dr King's Nightmare and his dream it's gone in thank you Mr oliv and his thank you so very much next speaker mad clerk Mr Rodney Addison Mr Rodney good evening good evening good evening good evening good evening you know I had a whole other speech in mind for today but after hearing um how everyone is speaking uh I'm going change my tone up a little bit you know I'm going to give the counsil some Grace um individually they are all individually great people in their own respects and what they stand for yes yes we do know collectively they may not be the strongest body but individually they are a great individual so let's not attack them uh based on their own individual characters or lack thereof um the Patterson juneth committee we held a Patterson cook off at the Museum this past weekend which was an amazing event thank you to the two Council individuals who did show up to uh support truly appreciate you um this Saturday we are again turning the library into an escape room this past Saturday we turned the library into the Underground Railroad ERA this Saturday we'll be turning it into the Black Panther era for our youth to learn history in a much more creative and enlightening means uh on the 24th of this month we will be doing a Citywide scavenger hunt utilizing the black landmarks that are still in existence or not in existence as a means of educating our youth about Patterson history specifically Patterson black history um on the leges that were once you know incumbent of of of this city aside from that I wanted to just know talk again about my I think the last time I was here I spoke about how the Patterson juneth committee we had manufactured our own version of Monopoly called the patteron Jun the board game I want to also bring to the table our version of our coloring book that has aspects of those we deem Community Heroes here in the city of Patterson like we all know firewoman Miller we all know firemen Davis richan Davis we know officer gatew we know got officer Bruce who are black officers and firemen here in the city of Patterson who do distinguished work uh this coloring book can be found on the patteron j.com as a fundraiser as we prepare for the patteron juneteth Festival June 15th East Side park um also want to talk about my organization in which in which we're doing great work in the city of Patterson again my organization is Onyx repository foundation and we deal with economic development through technology and we've produced several Platforms in the city of pison for pisoni to help with the economic poverish areas around businesses and and um the economy for black people um as of today today we have hired 249 individuals on one of our platforms where 88% of which are pisoni what does that mean that means that we have created uh 199 new incomes for these individuals to keep their lights on at least one more month and how does this work by you the community utilizing our platforms my organization puts monies back into the community as grants low interest loans to start other blackowned businesses and the these are services and platforms we largely if you don't mind please rep um these are services and platforms we largely utilize at the corporate sense but now we own it as a community such as Uber Uber e grub up and all that well my organization has created our own versions of that which we call pullup here in the city of Patterson as well as our child down food delivery app amongst other platforms we are uh creating so just by recreating a service that we largely use corporate wise bringing it back down to community ownership level and giving it to the community as a resource a in a uh means of income generating we put back in our own communities to build up our communities it is our responsibility to do so all too often do we put too much stress on the city council when a lot of the times the issue is a lack of community accountability MH you need to clean up your own message before begging for something to be fix that was not created by other individuals right their job is to lobby and legis but before they can do that they have to be able to create the necessary datas and metrics to see what is going on based upon what the community is asking for but we if we are continuously griping the issue versus communicating the issue nothing will get done and I'm going to say it again individually they are great individuals as a body this this ain't it thank you thank you so very much next speaker mad clerk next speaker is Daniel mayia you Daniel good evening so my name is Daniel Mahia and I am the CEO of Silk City 1 uh the reason why I'm here today is because I uh was looking at the agenda and uh there's a agenda number8 18 for the consent it I'm not sure how did it go through or how was it processed because from what I remember the many out of the many times that I've came to the city uh it was during the election times uh for to uh for the people that were running for mayor which I myself was running as well the reason why I was running for mayor was because the a sheriff a Sheriff officer tried to implant illegal substance on me I told the I told uh uh Mr Sayed the situation and why I was uh why I wanted to become wanted to run for mayor and I explained to him also uh about Silk City one which was a platform to create more transparency for those who are running for Council for Council uh or are being elected by the people in general and all I all he told me it was oh you're just trying to take my position why don't you become a sheriff so now I'm looking at the at the agenda and I see that there's some there was a something called public uh I'm not sure it's right there on the agenda number 18 where public input and it's providing similar things to what I was offering from the beginning I was told by ba that uh what I was offering during that time it was I even sent her email on March 2022 uh that the city wouldn't want it because it's something that they don't need or and it's something that for it to go through a bidding process it has to be uh something that the city city needs and I'm not sure how did this make it here so yeah that's about it thank you thank thank you next speaker M clerk tan Wells isn't there a possibility at least for the remaining time I could get at least an answer for that um so Danielle so what we're going to do is we're going to at the end of the public portion Madame ba is going to be the first one to speak my time I've that many times that's the rule Dan that's the rule because if I open a m for one council member I have to be fair with entire Council body and I have to allow any other council member to speak so at the end of the public portion we'll address you and make sure that Madame ba also address you since you send an email to her okay next speaker mad clerk T Sean Wells toan good evening good evening tan Wells CEO and president of Wells cleaning company I'm pretty sure everybody knows I am right I want you to direct attention to the resolution of city of Patterson uh number 52 of the warden contract to talor Rico Building Services um my my question is well my statement is we put in a bid for the clean U zone for the streets commercial corridors it was deemed inside of the uh bid packet that it would be awarded to the lowest most responsible bidder looking at the scope of work 60 67 blocks a company came in at 149 the budget from the governor's office was 500,000 we came in second at 380,000 but this company tar Rico that came at 149 was approved by purchasing legal and it came through you guys one time but you have to vote on it what kind of service are they going to give for $159,000 you're going to get an inadequate service the same with some people have problems with the garbage and everything else they're going to come back to the bank and ask you guys for more money if you don't vote no and tables this and see what is the scope of work how many people are they going to have cuz just alone from my calculation and my numbers at $380,000 payroll was already at 312 so this is not a money grab for me but it's frustrating to come here and mainly all of you have been to my office we did the work for the city before as a pilot program now the money comes in from the governor's office and then now we have to go out to bid when all you had to do is just keep rolling out in $40,000 increments but here we are so it's a bit frustrating for you to vote Yes on this I'm asking you to vote no I'm asking you to table it until you see what is this company giving salt alone garbage bags it's a lot of different things that's in this package we've did the work before so when you say the word responsible what makes that company more responsible than us when we had to put out that program nine people out of work one lady just was getting an apartment getting her life back in order and she had to give it up and go to a shelter what makes that company more responsible than us they're not we are the best in patteron we're from Pon and for pon uh thank thank you s please don't leave don't leave our next speaker mad clerk Mr cor te good evening Council good evening commissioner Cory Teague Patterson New Jersey 65 print street I was coming here tonight because I wanted to announce publicly on January AR 3rd I attended a meeting at 111 Broadway with um officer in charge Abasi and um a couple of the other top brass over there and they proposed a question to me if I wanted to be a community advisor to Mr Abasi you know for the purpose of trying to find a way to bridge a gap between the community and the police department I thought it over for a while and I said to myself if I was always at the Forefront of attacking them and criticizing them at what point do we say that we have to find some common ground and fix this because it's very easy to always point out the problems it's always easy to point out the issues that's very easy but when it comes time to actually trying to fix things that's when you find out where the true leaders are at so we sat down we had a discussion and I'm working with him to try to bridge that Gap so I'm announcing tonight there there are going to be several uh Community forums that I'm going to host beginning in March it's not going to be the police department hosting it's going to be myself hosting it and it's going to be specifically to address some of the issues that have come to me because a lot of people inbox me every day text me send me videos and things of that nature and what I'm finding is a lot of them have the same issue and a lot of those issues can be addressed can be grouped together and addressed even though they say it different ways if I sit them down and I show them what their all saying they all find that the issues are the same and and what I find is one of the number one problems is miscommunication they'll grab a piece of a story or a piece of an incident forget about everything else harp on that piece of the incident and then storm around and do what they got to do with that so communication is a big part of what we need to do to bridge the gap look I'm going to be 43 in a couple of months I don't want my daughter to grow up in the same Society where activists in the police department are just steady at each other's throats when you have a community out there that really wants to see everybody come together and work together if the leaders are constantly fighting this is Black History Month right well there's there's an African proverb that says when the elephants fight the ants get hurt you hear me when the elephants fight the ants get hurt the people are going to continue to get hurt as long as the leaders are beating each other up and clashing so at some point the people that are on top of this mountain and the people that are on top of that mountain have to find out where the differences are and then meet at the middle because we can spend the rest of our lives fighting each other and kicking each other and hitting each other and we will leave here with not a legacy just a memory cuz whether you accomplish something or not people are going to remember who you are and they're going to remember your name so what are you going to leave when we leave here cuz none of us going to be here forever do you want want to leave a memory or do you want to leave a legacy thank you commissioner next speaker M clerk next speaker is Mr John deos Santos good evening City Council Members good evening I'm here to ask the city council for a status update on the Cannabis licensing process and the current resolutions um we haven't heard anything in the public at all I mean ordinance which is code 172 and that's code section 10 of that code states that the resolution holders will have three months then an additional three months by the director of law if needed it's a total of six months for them to uh approach the state and receive a con a conversion on their conditional license those uh resolutions were issued in July of last year year that's more than 7 months now so where do we leave those applicants like myself a 27y old resident which in section n of that same ordinance clearly states it's a requirement to receive a resolution as preference um none of these individuals are residents they do not pertain or have ties to the city uh that has been proven many times over despite the claims that were made now as a 27 year resident the first applicant complete applicant and having to fight off these same resolution holders that are trying to purchase or out bid me well try to commit me to commit some type of Errors to get my building to move their resolutions in there so how how long am I supposed to keep pursuing this while the council hasn't been very vocal with us you know we do have investors we do have licenses that expire I mean I will be at the state meeting tomorrow asking for their intervention if they can at all cuz it's gotten to the point where we need to live we need to move forward I'm a resident and I want to bring my business here the next step is another municipality thank you for your time thank you next speaker CL the next speaker is Mr Sebastian mayia good evening Sebastian good evening my name is Sebastian Mahia I'm a candidate for the fifth World Council seat here in the city of Patterson before I start today I would like to state that it has is the 2year anniversary of The Disappearance of Felix Joel De Jesus now I'm thankful for this televised meeting televised meeting as many of you know I alongside many other community activists and certain members of this Council Miss cotton councilman Jackson Dr Mims Mr Udin fought tirelessly to have all Council meetings televised only for it to be voted down against the will of the people now I understand we have a different we have different interpretations of what progress is now is progress the stacking and packing of people on top of each other overburdening our schools our sewer system and hurting our ability to provide high quality public services to the people for me progress is to encourage more home ownership more small businesses growth and Innovation that empowers citizens and reduces the burden on our taxpayers as I go door too meeting my neighbors in the Fifth Ward who I look forward to representing I'm hearing the same issues come up people are tired people are tired that every time they look around there's a new building popping up people are tired that they have to drive around the block over and over again to find parking people are tired that their homes are getting flooded but people are eager for new and fresh leadership decisions are being made in this city without regard for our youth I have to thank councilman Jackson Who tirelessly tirelessly ask questions in regards to Hench Cliff Stadium which at the end of the day is $100 million in taxpayer money however you slice it you're paying for that and at the end of the day our students in Patterson public schools are getting the short end of the stick while people make millions off of those deals now I can't say I could solve all these issues or all these problems but what I can say is I can do my part to be a voice to advocate for for my neighbors and to present new innovative ideas to address the many quality of life issues that all paronian face thank you my name is Sebastian Mahia I'm a candidate for the fifth W Council seat here in the city of Patterson thank you uh Sebastian next speaker mad clerk next speaker is Mr Joseph Hart want see a real birth certificate they don't make it like that no more that's a real birth certificate you'll never see one like that again cuz I was born here and I feel like this if somebody Ain born here in patter they really ain't by Blood they really I am there's a lot of things I hate that I see that's pleas stay your name stay me your name an address for the record and speak close to the mic okay my name is Joseph Hart I'm not here to bash any of you guys cuz I just started coming here last year you know I lost my job in 200 20 for 29 years of my life they dumped me when the co crap came out so I've been stressed out ever since then I got problems and one up but what I hate I see like pis sonian they care about everything else with a here how about people that's disabled people that's handicapped you got people parked with they they they supposed to park that I used to drive too but we used to respect that yellow line man you don't block that that's for emergencies that's for the buses to turn I'm talking about the New Jersey Transit buses you got too many cabs in this damn town you got too many Ubers or whatever and they don't give a damn where they park at and I hate that and when they block that crosswalk that's really a mess cuz one day I may be in a wheelchair my brother got to walk with a damn thing when he goes to the doctor and whatnot and people in Patterson just don't give a damn about us handicap people when they see this King rise up and I'm crossing or some of you see me already that means I'm going when that light turns yellow I'm crossing I don't give a damn because this is my city this is my town I was born here and ain't nothing going to let me ain't nothing going to make me move out nothing I took a lot of crap growing up as a kid so you know I know it's black history month but my birth certificate I'm negro that's what my that's what my race is cuz I'm not just black I'm chokee Indian yeah I'm a Chiefs fan hell to the Chiefs oh yeah and I'm Irish too but I've been picked on I live all over the damn hoods I was born in the hood hell people still call me Mr Fifth Avenue cuz that's why I used to like grew up there but the way things is going and you can ask any New Jersey Transit bus driver that I when I take that bus I don't call this a city hall no more when the mayor get it right it'll be back to the city hall to me it's called a shitty Hall that's what I call it ask any bus driver of New Jersey Transit that's all I got to say and I really don't have no I really don't have nothing for the holidays right now so it's just another day to me that's it you know God bless and um you guys be safe that's all I can say I'm out of here thank you let pick man CL key [Applause] Freeman sorry about that guys before again uh I would ask the clerk's office to pass out a little something that I'm going to read Alex yeah this should take 3 minutes it might take 3 minutes 15 minutes I don't know when I was on debate team it minutes uh this one here pass out last time my idea about safety I figured it out for okay all right chief police and whoever sh yeah can speak in a mic that way people could hear listen to he said before I spoke I wanted to pass that out come on man no no just said that no I just want to make sure I just want to make sure people listen to you at home you know just give us a minute give me three minutes so you gave ear 2 minutes for you to turn the clock I got table you want to play fair play fair I don't mind playing Fair get the rain my hand behind my back speak in the mic she need to type that's why okay soon as everybody get that paper I'll talk the last time you guys ignored me when I gave the safety thing out so now I had to write this I'll let Nancy read it first when everybody gets the copy I'll start reading it I want some people to read it before I even start cuz some people going to get upset and like my grandmother would say oh well somebody Ain even going to read it you don't have to read it but I'm going speak it into existence so sobody clerk please reset U Mr freemount time 3 minutes so we all have the uh copy of you Mr Freeman yes go ahead that's who I all right whenever you're ready yep we ready ready to the bathroom Kimmy Freeman P New Jersey I'm going read from the thing right here good evening Council and Kimmy Freeman I come before this Council once again to seek Justice and tell the truth I worry about my nephew Kevin who is serving on the aircraft carrier us uh Eisenhower now in the Gulf of Oman his grandfather my uncle was stationed in Osaka Japan during the Vietnam war where David Gilmore served with others my three uncles Willie Nelson not Willie Nelson one Willie one Nelson and Albert and Albert who married Al jeene my mother's grandfather fought in a civil war my father's father and grandfather fought at the Battle ADW 1896 I've been telling you about this battle long both battles won freedom for their country and their people my grandson will enlist in the Marines this June in our family tra tradition he will be a sniper thousand yard Master sniper we need to cease fire in Gaza I am tired of watching the fake news as my friend khik has said as I said before these billions should be going to Americans here in America with all the unemployment poverty inflation homelessness and drug abuse here in America our tax monies paid by Americans should go to Americans the US border crisis of undocumented illegally entering immigrants present a social and economic threat to our Nature's sovereignty and constitutional right of Americans to enforce and defend our nation's borders like every nation on Earth will these 10 8 to 10 million refugees replace the most V most vulnerable the most dedicated the most abused and most discriminated and the most likely to die in poverty and despair the black people in America the kidnapped and enslaved Africans Who Built America having spent not having spil not one drop of blood nor as my grandmother say nor paid one cent of taxes how can we allow these non-americans to continue to cross into our Southern borders we are they are not entitled to entitlement nor are we entitled nor are we entitled uh to provide such entitlements we cannot afford it blacks in Chicago have vile suit and are ready to protest the Democratic Convention Biden and camela are in trouble black men are considering voting for for Trump trump will close the borders now here's the killer the 2024 pis black history mon headed by Council women Ms has been one of the worst planned in decades yeah you going laugh where you want you ain't did nothing activities Crossing each other no printed calendar I went to Nancy yesterday and today I said Nancy where's the calendar that we had because our senior citizens don't know what's going on cuz there's no calendar we always had a calendar we don't want to look on Facebook we don't want to do all that we want to go back just regular stuff print 10,000 calendars okay and awards for fake people okay first one Anthony felon Davis received an award mim's daughter received an award Jerry Wy received an award I was talking to stretching them when you guys left when Rory I went up to Rory I went to school with Rory all right we talked about this all right Teddy felon Martinez appointed by the attorney general or Andre or uh mayor Andre hosted the black men's conversation which was a joke all right while Tedy Martinez was in prison real soldiers like Raheem Smallwood Anthony Wilson Nancy Greer Kevin Finley brother abbar and myself were on the battlefield Anthony Davis sell out for a few coins 10 million $110,000 and Teddy Martinez sold death drugs to the black community and other people Melvin Casey who was a friend of mine but when I found out he's with the violence inter uh interative committee intervention thing when rahem Smallwood told me he made $75,000 I mean with little or no credentials he make $75,000 you guys need to stop I told G Greer maybe I should go to prison so I get a hookup job please drra it up I'm doing this is the last paragraph with my college degrees National Deans List Alexander Hamilton Fellowship who's who International Societies in history and education and representing the city of patteron in the 1997 president Summit for America America's future I shook colen Powell's hand Barett a would say Kimmy Freeman is one of our best and brightest implementing project 2000 that I told those fools at the uh at that thing we had the library we've already done this and when Dr fulmore which you know me and him don't C ey no more but I still love and respect him he was in the back of the room I thought I was going to get jumped by the alphas I really did I had to look around and everything I was say oh but I had to tell him I said Dr for more you know probably 2000 the best thing we did and we dropped the ball and we haven't done it yet okay in closing like I said very Angel saying this project 2000 coordinating the milon Man March save our children program that served over 10 th000 patteron students as well as rights and passage programs Boy Scouts boys and girl club and I'm won 1978 young man a year also thank Mr his role not finished you know I finish M and volunteered as first responders during hurricanes Irene and santies I also implemented go to high school and go to college Alpha F Alpha lastly I'm going to say this I Nancy Greer has done more than you cotton or men put together and when ver saw me outside she almost leaped out of her a wheelchair cuz I've served her thank you Mr fow allow to you to I allow you and abar extra time brother was feeding people while everybody's watching the Super Bowl any brother in this town thank you I allow you extra time to finish this thank you m speak fet fake coun fake pre and fake Lisa Ms next speaker is Lisa Mims good evening council president it's a council members good evening um good evening Council councilman Mims just so I have three minutes just give us a minute Council Mims just give us a minutes there's there's there's one problem Council minutes I'm so we have no quotum if you go on the other side of the day no I'm still in the room so so I will allow you I know you want to speak I know there's been couple of members of the public that being addressing you directly so I will allow you the 3 minutes to speak and right after that we'll continue with the public portion go ahead councilwoman so to the viewing public good evening first of all let me say Happy Valentine's Day to everyone thank today is a day of love it is really unfortunate based on the weather that we had to reschedule our time to be here on tonight away from our loved ones away from our family to come here to do the city's business that's the great part because we sit here tirelessly fighting and advocating on behalf of the community when it comes to the city's business we take it very serious I am speaking as a resident we've heard many times that there's infighting on the deis we've heard many times that we don't do I am asking the community please bring your Solutions and any recommendations to the council I am asking you if you have any thoughts or ways we can do things better instead of coming to the microphone based on false information or misinformation that you will come and say Here's a a solution I have to a problem that's why I commend the the people that came from ICPC tonight they found there was a issue where there was lack of recreational opportunities so what did they do they put together they came together collaborated and they're building their own recreational center for $40 million not taxpayer dollars not of any of our dollars they didn't come here and Bash any council member some people will say I didn't hear them disrespect when you say to a council member you're supposed to have a PhD that's a disrespect if you want to get things answered or done there's a proper respect and there's a proper way to come to the council member to all council members Happy Valentine's Day and I want to say this in closing I did not spearhead the black history month program it was led by someone live it was led by myself councilwoman cotton and councilman Jackson the three of us together my daughter was not honored my daughter does not live in the city of Patterson please when people are giving out information let's give out actual facts in closing Patterson let's keep building let's keep moving forward do your homework do your research don't listen to sound bites don't listen to misinformation stop going into rooms where people are worrying about who will be the mayor in two years and then not focus on what's going to happen with the problems of Patterson today and or tomorrow if they have to fight go against people for something two years away that tells you their character and their integrity thank you so much council president Patterson I love you let's keep building and not battling have a great night everyone thank you let speaker M clerk next speaker is councilman William Bill McCoy good evening um council members um councilman William McCoy I'm here tonight to extend extend um a happy valentine to all of our residents tonight um love you I sit here on the 14th um uh married for uh 41 42 years in in um in July so the hottest day of the year but um you brought me out here tonight I just wanted also to to thank all of the residents of the third W of Voters that um endorsed and supported my run as candidate for the Third Ward a seat that I've held uh from 2000 until 2020 and you have all read that um account of the Attorney General as to what happened with that um but I'm here tonight as a candidate and I think an able one also we talked about history and and service to our community I had a chart made up I'm a five-time council president I've served in that office I understand the legislative process uh I'm an accountant by training and I've worked in that industry for a very long time so I understand budget understand Finance I understand how to analyze Financial records and information so I was I was heartened tonight to listen to uh gentlemen here that talk about having a responsible bid and for a budget of a half a million dollars roughly and for someone to come in and project a job at 159 versus the next level of 389 or something to that effect has to tell you that there's a problem and we really need to look at look at that I've done internal auditing I know numbers and how to analyze data and I think part of that is what I could bring to the to the municipal Council and bring some understanding and depth of accounting and finance to the program also we are opening our Campaign Headquarters on 635 Broadway on East 20 8 Street I welcome you to stop by on the 24th of this month next week Saturday at 3:00 we'll be hosting everyone there to give you some insight and our vision and the items that we have to uh to move our city forward let me tell you that Honesty Integrity trust and accountability is still important I had to create myself a little spread sheet to track the charges against one of my opponents who have been indicted by the attorney General and is still facing those charges ladies and gentlemen although he's telling you that those have been resolved I'm here to say to you that they have not and they still stand as a a a millstone around our necks we would not be able to move forward until we resolve that I want you to remember there also $25,000 cash purchase of a vehicle in Brooklyn it reminds me of a story of someone selling you the Brooklyn Bridge don't go for the for the f OK do vote for The Real McCoy God bless you and good night the next speaker is Mr Michael Taylor Mr Taylor Mary Taylor Mar tayl yes next speaker mad cler jir Norris J good evening brother evening good evening okay is the mic on yes first and foremost happy cook day to y'all I don't know if y'all know but whenever y'all get the chance just a quick history on this day today in 1776 there was a man by the name of James Cook and today is the anniversary to where is that he tried to conquer single-handedly a Hawaii and failed horribly doing so by trying to kidnap the ruler then of Hawaii there's oral portraits and paintings of all this you guys can look it up and unbeknown to him he failed miserably and at the results of that he ended up being murdered along with his enemy and his body was chopped and eaten by the people of that just a small little thing but I'm not here for that I'm really here to just really in more like in more ways the one or in a brief way try to make a statement really addressing you guys and informing the paronian including myself just to see where we at and just to put things into perspective okay so based off of from what I got here so and this is just this is not mine this is all public information you guys can all look it up so I don't know if y'all know but in 2020 under as of still currently the State Office of Public integrity and accountability identified not one but two of the right now sitting in front of all of us two council members council member first W Michael Jackson and council member Mendes which in 2020 MZ you were already under the indictment in the 2020 election fraud probe which in October they added nine more additional counts to that and as of now in 2024 all of those cases is currently right now delayed quote unquote and for you first W Michael Jackson those cases for you is questionable so leading all the way up to here on that note and on what we have now between all those months of last year dating I would say all the way to March all the way up until this point it's been back and forth between indictments you guys have been having cases pinning on you which currently two out of the four members who was already charged only two of you are sitting in front of me one of which is the council president amongst all of us and amongst all of your peers what he has done his legal actions all based on record is what led him to sit in front of us today so the thing of it is the statement that I'm trying to make is with both sides that we have had for months of exposing and arresting the so-called people who's been robbing us both with our trust taking our money taking everything that we have and the things that we're supposed to be standing for in conclusion the things that we were supposed to be standing for there is no more time there is no more talk and I can't help God forbid I can't help leaving here effective immediately what the people with the mind who don't have any any chains on them of how they're going to act and respond and coordinance to what we all been deprived with you guys have homes and vehicles and all of that stuff just like us and we can and we will make sure that we take affirmative actions with not even God's permission this is a warning this is the first and last it starts next speaker M clerk there are no more speakers to close so move I'm sorry can you came close to the mic it's off the Record but just give us a second this is a televised meeting after we close the public portion you will be able you will be able to address any council member on the side if you po coming you more welcome but there's a motion to close move by councilman AB president maybe she doesn't understand process you like to speak on the mic it's it's a or you would like to address this with a specific council member this is a televised meeting and this is the public portion you you could you could speak on the mic you have three minutes to speak on the mic if you wish yeah come on man huh okay okay no problem okay just this is the people's house democracy 101 so you want to welcome to speak but there's a motion to close move by councilman D and second by councilman bz roll call M clerk on the portion roll call to close a public portion of the municipal council meeting of Wednesday February 14th 2024 councilman abdulaziz thank you madam clerk um so I just want to take a few minutes to go over some updates and some concerns that you're hearing throughout the city U Madame ba I would like to and to our director of DPW I know the criticisms rain real quick uh once the snow isn't plowed but I want to commend DPW from our director and all the employees um for a job well done yesterday right it was a substantial amount of snow um you know you're looking six seven plus inches and they did a fantastic job clear and slow so kudos to the director because I know once the roads aren't plowed they're the first people always come come out the negativity um to the six W residents um I just want to give you upd some of the parks that we have the the new parks we are meeting with the engineers and uh the administration to hopefully get it up and running this spring once the weather goes design phases for the new dog park and the new playground uh and speaking of parks on one of the nice days I think it was Saturday um I was driving by Tran Avenue and I saw a group of about 14 kids that had one of those makeshift volleyball nets put them on on the grass field in school 25 which I've never seen that happen before and it shows you that Improvement is taking kids off the streets and just brought a smile to my face um mad ba the recycle coach app I'm looking at my February schedule right for the six Ward um recycling is the only thing on there right now garbage is not the garbage schedule isn't not say we call good I'm going to the the D iror just said he called so to the residents all residents but this message is to the six W residents please download the recycle coach app I'm working hard we're going to get the garbage schedule up there the recycling schedule up there and hopefully when we finalize some sort of bulk pickup consistency with that um it'll be up there so it's a One-Stop shop um and I want to commend the residents for being patient and actually downloading that that app um I've been surveying the ward in regards to bul pickup I will continue driving around and I most if I I will knock on your door communicate with you and let you know what the new procedures are um and speaking of door knocking I am running for reelection we are rocking and rolling I will be knocking on your door we already started we started yesterday let go let's go you know we we we started members of the public there's no rebattle please you got your time allow respectfully M to close the public portion we were out and about yesterday there's no better ways talk to Residents when they were out cleaning their cars and shoveling their sidewalks and and hearing the concerns I've never stopped going door too just well when you see me I will try not to uh knock on your door at 10:30 at night but sometimes we continue knocking right councilman McCoy so if you see us open up I want to hear your concerns you want to address your concerns and um we're out there d in and day out um thank you madam clerk my vote is yes thank you councilman abdulaziz councilwoman cotton thank you madam clerk I would just like to say to the audience that came out tonight even though we were supposed to have the meeting last night um today is Valentine's Day I want to wish everyone a happy valentine I'm not really a big holiday celebrating person um what I find is that and I could have my own belief that it causes us to spend money that we don't have and it causes us to buy things that we shouldn't be buying we need to take care what we need to take care of so but I want to say Happy Valentine's too to everyone there um there's a couple of things and the two ladies left Jackie and her sister Joanne they um they do have that dance ministry and those young people are really really really good if you just see them and perform um and I remember saying that uh for some we need to try to get our children back in church um I gone to um new Christian new Christian Tabernacle pack so many children were in church just pack and you love to see that you know cuz I think that people sometimes our children need to understand um and I think right now some of them don't think that if they do something wrong not going to happen it's like they not afraid no more for some reason and they need to get back afraid again and also Elvis I said what you said on Facebook Elvis you told people to come out here and and announce your business or announce your nonprofit and let us know what you're going to do and I was happy to see the two organizations come out here today the ministry for our children and also we have Vern Williams who has a a uh organization called Praise breast which is she was asking for donation um I want to also say to um Dwayne thank you for coming for the Black Panther uh he's also in the um Ministry you know he's what I find is that people um um you know God is really important some of us do not believe in God and some of you hear some people say they don't believe in God but I know one thing is that God will provide you may not see it right away but he will and I always say to people just sit and be still and you'll see it come so you do get blessings and I've learned in my life when I get blessings I know how to share my blessings cuz my ancestors said you keep your hand Clos you never going to get nothing in it and so you have to open up your hands and bless other people with what you have been able to receive um I want to say to Rodney Addis who came here and he talked about trying to create our own community and try to create more stuff that we can do um Mr Wells I I looked at that we're going to have our director here she's going to once we start talking about it she's going to be able to answer some of the question I just want to say also to um um uh uh who was the other last person that came on but um one thing I learned and I heard someone he talked about project 2000 project 2000 was from school number six and it was in the 2000 you followed these children from say third grade up to 8th grade until they went to high school my husband was part of project 2000 with um Dr for Moore and right now he has about I can he tracked some of them it was at least 20 of them that went on to college that are non Engineers that are non lawyers and you know I wish we could get a program like that back again because we need to stick with children from kindergarten through eighth grade once they get to eighth grade stick with them through high school because sometimes they need that extra person they eat they need that extra caring um for them in their life so I just want to say that project 2000 was a wonderful project my husband was part of project 2000 um the only thing is that one thing I've learned in my life is I don't disrespect nobody I'm not going to talk about you people you cannot and my ancestors would this not allow you to do some of the stuff and especially to black women you don't come out the black women like that my anest and he better hope I say hope but they were like how do you do that all these people here you just want to talk about Mims and cotton come on that don't make sense it really don't that's that's hurtful and for him to want to do that and actually when you really don't know us that well to say that you can't do that you know I'm not going to sit here and talk about none of my colleagues cuz I'm working with all of them and that's what we're supposed to do work with every last one of our colleagues and we can disagree and we can vote differently we have that that right to vote differently we don't have to vote the same but you don't get mad with me because we're not voting the same I just believe differently than what you what I'm reading and what I see so I just want to say to you everyone that came out thank you for coming and exerting you know and this and we have a lot to do yes we do but you know you can't um think that and and we get so many calls and thank you Mr nvis me you had we talked today with about 4 minutes and that's what I'm saying people want you to talk to them they want you to pick up the phone they want you to answer the phone they want to be able to come down to the office called me I called you memb all right no you left a message for me that's why you left a message and one thing I will do and my my ladies over here know I'm still oldfashioned my message that I need you to write it down because I can't go look at my phone every 3 minutes to see what emails I missed from phone calls that I've gotten so if I have a piece of paper in front of me and sometime I get to the office and I got 10 of them that people have called and they just need answers they just need something they just need where to go and and and we have to to our director DBW we got to get that that website going so people can do what they need to do for for The Bu pickup so with that being said thank you um one thing I said first of all if you're going to be an elected official you need to love what you do if you don't love what you do then you don't need to be sitting up here because there's too many people that calls that don't have no idea where to go who to call what to do they don't know anything and it's up to us to find where they need to go for the right information to get the right stuff cuz you know how hard it is to be switched from phone phone phone phone now sometimes we'll switch from phone phone phone but if I get the right one then we're going to make make sure we got the right one and we need to help and support when you call me it's for a reason you're not calling me just to be calling me you're calling me cuz you're looking for some help but that being said Madam clerk thank you for thank you council president all council members listening to me thank you councilman Jackson councilman M uh it was an excellent black history program so I don't know what program he was looking at cuz he sure wasn't looking at the one that we had and we had calendar and we had calendars we did so we had an excellent black history program I mean we actually have nothing left Madam clerk everything went the books the programs the Cs the the pens we I mean we had some wonderful giveaways that we gave to our community for black history month thank you madam clerk with that being said Madam clerk my vot is yes thank you councilwoman cotton councilman Jackson thank you madam clerk um um before I begin let me full disclosure put out a disclaimer it was an absolutely phenomenal um black history program and I take my hat off to both um my fellow colleagues councilwoman Mims and councilwoman cotton and just to be fully transparent I had very little to do with it They Carried the weight and they allowed me to um to take some credit um uh which I don't do I mean I I'm full disclosure I let people know exactly where I am with certain things and they they definitely carried the weight it was on me in fact Madam clerk staff and her and um Miss Alexander was on me heavily about being punctual with my my um uh person who I was uh acknowledging so with that being said I don't want to uh um shine in the light as hard as they were they They Carried the torch on that event along with the clerk's office so I take my hat off to them and I thank them for allowing me to um uh be a part of that but with that being said now focusing on some more um pressing matters uh there was a lot said tonight and uh first of all I want to point this put the spotlight on the recent study that was conducted at brother Wells I will be more than gracious to s you a copy of the study which I have made public and I will be speaking about this study at every single council meeting and every single live video that that I do because this study was put together to to talk about the distribution the inequitable distribution of of funds economic opportunities throughout the state of New Jersey where the black community Through throughout the state have been awarded 0.14% of State contracts Statewide let me let me say that again the black community and having access to public dollars which is supposed to be fair and Equitable which is supposed to have minority set asdes 0 .4% so those of us who took a basic math class right and if you had to round to the nearest number what does that give you zero zero 0.14% is equivalent as a whole number zero meaning that we had access to zero and when you look at patteron and how we level up with the state we're right on par right right so uh the stadium oh we got some Black Faces but the majority of the work and the majority of the money that was spent was allocated towards non- minorities we had six patteron people four Hispanic three black that worked on a $100 million of taxpayers dollars in patteron now to my Latino brothers and sisters who think it's anything different the Latino Community receive 1.6% of that those contractual uh uh uh permissions 1.6% which collectively throughout the minority Community is equivalent to $800 million over the last five years that we've been shorted out of the Arabic community as well we see we often fight against each other when we're is sharing the same disparities this disparity study which I can forward it to whomever is interested in seeing it proves so when you talk about crime when you talk about the conditions all of it is exacerbated by the lack of economic inclusion Millions we're talking about hundreds of millions of jobs now this ad ad ministration and this mayor was happy to hold you up as a trophy at various events and functions but yet we failed it was the recommendation of the administration to allow for your responsible bid and it was questioned by this Council and requested requested to be pulled I had to give Council woman uh mim's credit who also told the line and you already know where I stand now I was hoping that councilman McCoy would not have left because he had been a tenur council person and he can acknowledge as councilwoman cotton who has also been here for quite some time we have on multiple occasions Ste past the first vote which may have been the lowest vote but deeming it irresponsible because we're looking at to your point scope of work but yet for some reason or another the moment this thing becomes publicly accessible but see in nor they found it not robbery rise found a way to make sure through the same P open public bidding processes so see I don't let allow people to give excuses and me I don't call it disrespectful to call a spade a spade either you carrying the line or you allowing our people to drown and not providing a fight or access because when you get a seat like this your responsibility requirement is to fight for your community to have access and I can tell you quite frankly I I I have felt very lonely in fighting for these things when it comes to these opportunities these developers that's making handsome developers fees we've had a developer come to the podium and say councilman Jackson which the video saved it doesn't lie you'll be happy to know this is my last project why he didn't he didn't mention anyone else's name but now people want to insinuate I don't listen I have never since I've sat on this Council and I challenge anyone to challenge me on it not one vote have I compromised not one has there been a quidd proquo not one has I said oh you know I'll get meet you halfway if you do that here I'll do this here never and I've never required anybody to carry my water yeah I was a star player but I don't need a water boy for this these kinds of uh uh instances people come to the podium with their own Asser S I don't need to pay somebody to come forward and bring my my uh uh agenda forward I don't pull punches right so with that being said to the gentleman who had some concerns about my illegal indictment my man you don't have members of the public there's no re I have it you don't have to interrupt me I got I'm not interrupting you as a council president I have to bring the just please continue councils do is you you bring more discourse I'm sorry sir I you had a moment to speak and I'm just answering you back in which you require requested it doesn't require a rebuttal if you want to have a conversation with me I'm fully accessible 24 hours a day okay I so being illegally indicted waiting more than 5 years years for this prosecution false accusations let me tell you some of those who I Shar this platform with the the good brother Ruben Hurricane Carter who was ALS also falsely accused falsely indicted falsely charged and jailed incarcerated for 19 years uh the current councilman in New York City brother Yousef Salam who also part of the Central Park 5 who was falsely accused falsely indicted falsely charged and found guilty spent over 16 years in prison only to be let out with a I'm sorry how about a p how about locally the brother Isaac Wright who studied law in in while he's incarcerated only to free himself for being falsely accused you're more than welcome to come to that microphone every any day but what I've been accused of is a matter of four ballots and yet the Attorney General will not continue to bring his case forward against me so you can carry that torch if you like to but again just like him it is a false accusation I never committed voter fraud I never committed voter fraud I don't run a vote by male operation I've never have that was a all vote by male election and they went through there as an escort of the mayor's armed security guard trying to cherry pick on residents and yet they still don't want to bring that forward demanding access to my phone so I should trust them should Isaac Wright have felt comfortable with trusting the system should Yousef Salam should he say he should feel comfortable should Ruben Hurricane Carter should he feel comfortable with relinquishing his pass code so excuse me sir brother please please be respectful you have the we we have a process here I'm answering you back you don't have to speak over top of me I never spoke over top of you sir yet again sir I'm asking you respectfully to respect the process right oh man some people yet again absolutely I said it on the microphone I never never do I speak and regret what I've said yet again sir my brother you are ignoring the process there is a process here that everyone is asking for you to respect and as I respect your public right your your your right to come to the microphone and voice your opinion however you see fit I'm addressing you back you have the right to come back to return again but you should not just out of respect for the process and how we should maintain the Corum as respectful people we should not be blurting out over top of someone else as they're speaking but here you are yet again my brother yet again I don't need your apology now while I'm speaking you're continuously interrupting me so relative to the council being comprised of great individuals that should not be called to the carpet the fact of the matter is our community is in the condition it's in because of the actions of this Council whether individually or whether as a whole when we have individuals passed over for opportunities for contracts and the council refuses to take action what is that so to make a claim that we make up a a space of great individuals and then we ask for people not to be critical we take these positions for people to be critical on our actions and I've never had any issue with anybody that has come to the podium to be indifference of any action that I've taken I stand on that all the time and quite frankly you're a sports person if we're putting together a team the NFL they don't go out and recruit Sellar talent because they're talking about we're just looking for a great team no they they recruit great individuals that perform night in and night out and quite frankly the sum of the individuals make up the sum of the whole please drop it up coun Jackson accountability man accountability is is real so with that being said Madam clerk my brother I hope that you you hang around for the vote on on 52 and I can give you an example after example after example where these instances continue to happen and once once they stop once we make sure that the the economic Equalization remain in our community and we don't keep on carrying the flag for all these outside developers and outside contractors calling them awesome and calling them great the way we we we repair our community is by keeping the revenue and keeping the equity here this is an example of that so let's see who stands stands forward and stands firm for this Madam clerk my vote is yes thank you councilman Jackson councilwoman Ms so to the public that is present and to the viewing public first of all let me just say thank you for coming out sacrificing your time and your energy especially on a very frigid night it's cold outside it's snow it's ice in some spots and it's Valentine's Day and you're spending your time with us and I just want to commend you for that and also watching and I'm sure people will watch this on tomorrow there have been many concerns um Madame ba that were presented so as always please just follow up with the residents to make sure that every one of the concerns were answered it was stated by a resident um that we did not vote responsible when it came to the $4 million and here's why I disagree the $4 million that was voted on was foru Lateral Repair these are emergency repair jobs this H this is where from the main line to the curb there's a backup so if it doesn't get repaired it's something that just happens it's the small pipe it's not the main sewer line but it's a small pipe that's what the Lateral Repair is if it burst or break which happens you have to have money available to repair it so versus waiting all allowing there to be sewage backup and and feces inside of people's homes we're doing the responsible Thing by making sure that there is a cushion of money based on past practice of what money has been spent in the past when this item was presented to us we questioned how much was utilized so to be responsible we made sure that that amount with a little bit of cushion money was available in the budget so voting yes was the responsible thing to do as a homeowner taxpayer and just as a resident if a Sewer Lateral line or your sewer main breaks you want to know that the council members are being responsible and voting to say I voted to make sure that there is money allocated to repair that I'm not going to vote no so if it happens and then it doesn't get repair where do we get the money from then we have to come back to the council there has to be a vote you have to wait so a lot of times when we're voting even if you may not agree I always always tell people come and get the facts because there's conversations and then there are facts the fact remains we had a workshop full iny discussion then we went into the vote which is always the next week our packages we get them the Friday before I read every item if something I don't understand I don't wait to come here I call the directors I call or send an email to the ba or Corporation counsel and then I come in with follow-up questions to the workshop which is the responsible thing to do but when I hear people say no one is doing the right thing because we vote Yes or you vote no on the item is not true sometime people have difference of opinions or it's just the way they choose to vote but for me personally personally I would rather see money aside or set aside so no sewage or Fe are in your home who is going to vote against that if something breaks we had we out of the 4 million and I'm Madame ba we need to get a list because we've already utilized money from the 4 million can you provide the list to the council and just to have it readily available so when people come to the microphone and make these statements or false statements that we can really educate them on what happens um for example uh there was a sewer M break I think it was on Main Street right we had to do a lateral reptime it's at 2:00 in the morning 3:00 in the morning some of us are asleep some of us are at work or wherever we are right we don't have time to come to the council and vote on that item the money needs to be there so that DPW the engineer and the water company could come together and get it fixed that's our job that's the fiduciary responsibility of responsible legislators to make sure that we proactively help your concerns secondly when it comes to the issues and the concerns in the city we cannot stop people from shooting I ask the community to help some of these are your relatives your family members neighbors see something say something sometimes people are standing right at the vicinity of the in and they say nothing but you come to the microphone and you yell at the council members we were not there and we were not the shooters drug addiction has been a a a systemic issue for a long long time they need help and care but if you understand the drug addiction concern and order for them to get help they first have to acknowledge that they have a problem homelessness another issue that's been around for a long time it's not just in Patterson it's everywhere should there be some remedies and yes we've been voting on things and they're out there they're counting they're doing a wonderful job have they taken care of everything no but it's a work in process that's another issue you have some people we've been to them we've asked them come 60 Temple is open tonight the temperature is below 60 Temple Riverside fitab it's open for people to go in the warming shelter they don't want to go in there they don't want to go so how how can we make them go you can't force them to go anywhere they have to want to get the help we can put in programs we can vote on stuff the administration enforces this stuff they come up with these players that is brought to us and we vote to make sure that there are programs and processes in place to make our city better even if you don't like someone you can't sit as a council person and fight the mayor every chance you get even if you don't like him or her you can't sit here and fight because you're never going to get anything done for the city for your constituents for your ward or for the community you have to find a way to collaborate and work together it's called getting along and making things happen for the betterment of the community is important this agenda we have not even barely touch the surface it is 10:20 mhm and I'm going away so I don't even know how we're going to get through this agenda because we've been we've been here for a a very very long time and we still probably have about 40 items left on the agenda if not 40 a little bit more right and we have our directors here as well so Patterson I'll say this in Closing one I don't have have an issue with criticism cuz you could criticize me all day but I have an issue with disrespect very big issue when you can culate a letter written to highlight disrespect to call my me out to say that I was the head of the black history program not true to talk about me councilman cot and there are nine council members you you chose only to highlight two of the African only African-American females on the council I have an issue with that why that's election that's another process but my thing is we have to this this right here should never be allowed never we should never be allowed to come is one thing if you're coming we want you to do a better job that's different but when you write a letter and you pin it and you point out people's names with misinformation and lies and untr truths this is disrespectful and it should never be allowed at any cost no matter how you feel about somebody whether you like them or don't and some of this dislike is because of of the the mindset of what they think your future is no one knows what tomorrow holds you may not be here I may not be here none of us may be here any catastrophe could happen and none of us are here so we have to learn to get along today because tomorrow is not promised and if we don't learn how to do that we're never gonna get to the big picture and so I want to say Happy Valentine's Day to everyone it's been a long night because um I am going to be leaving shortly um because I need to get my stuff packed because I am going away but I want to say to everyone happy Valentine's Day and may you all have a peaceful night and I'll say this again let's keep building and stop battling Madam clerk my vote is yes thank you Dr Mims councilman urin thank you madam Clark good evening Patterson those who are watching us live and those who are here uh thank you and Happy Valentine's Day hopefully you're enjoying your time with your loved ones so uh many of our uh public shared their concern and I'd like to address few of them especially about the smoke shops and we all know that every day there's a new smoke shop adding to our City's list that's what happening as of now and I just want to mention that and I want to grab also our Corporation Council attention that with the assistance of a group of researchers from Monclair State University they came up with a resolution which is very comparable to many other municipalities in New Jersey and many other states that is uh you know covering the smoke shops and also the vaping and El electronic smoke licenses as of now the those who are selling bapes or or electronic cigarettes they don't require to require to have a license or pay any fee or there's no way you can control how many of the vendors selling the elect cigarettes or Vapes and this is why so many under raised children are occupying those electronic cigarettes and Vapes and I I believe that with the new uh ordinance that the Corporation Council is working on can assist us to limiting the uh smoke shops in our city and also uh vaping uh products selling in our city so I I would I would request our uh council president president that uh maybe in the next Workshop session I would welcome the researchers from monair State University to stand here come here and show their rationals that why they think this resolution should be passed and they come up with uh and and uh and and and this is what I I definitely will send an email to you and by the time if Corporation Council is ready with the wordings and everything so that's one thing we need to limiting the smoke shops in our city and also the vaping product that's are selling without without licenses without paying any fees in our city second thing about the um and uh brother tan who also I I saw him sitting over here so council members um so we have 69 us Cod blocks I believe in our city and I we we just received an email I'm not sure the council member members whether I got chance to uh take a look at or not from the um from the company that we are going to accept what's the name of it uh 1852 Tero yes so they they sent us some pictures and some of the explanation and how they are going to work in this us corridors um I'm not sure that how we whether we need to table it back and if you think it should be then I think we have to compare and contrast between our own pattersonan who's put the bid who worked for the city of Patterson before and and and also the company that we bit way lower than the our patter in one I think we should have a comparative judgment that who do you think would do better job on this purpose so I would I would request whoever responsible for this the administration I think can table this item back and reconsider this item again to whether uh it would be better for us to just welcome uh Wells cleaning one more time to do the job so this is my recommendation but again I I request you to take a look at the email that we just received maybe a few hours ago from now um that's all I cover again uh thank you director Billy RZ job well done the last uh snowstorm uh again I every time I request any small person left uh track was there was clean people are extremely extremely happy and we commend you for the job well done uh thank you Patterson and again um I might see you next well Sunday in the cof conversation somewhere and some part of the city with that being said my vote is yes to close the public portion thank you councilman Udin councilman valz I just want to say uh I apologize to my wife wife is counceling Mendes fault to be here today that's the first thing um you know if I going to if I going to entertain everything that comes here I respect everybody that comes to the public portion that's the Free Will that they have come here Express theyself I cannot go against any of the public portion um time right is this free of speech they have uh if it they are right or wrong I know I'm doing my work and the people my War knows me and they know that I'm real involved in the turnning that I'm being here I could speak about I could speak about my record of how to improve quality of life how to make sure the community is engaged how make sure the community is okay and my world is running smoothly so you know I I could say a lot but I want to take one subject Mr Ernest Rucker came forward talking about uh the smoke sh shops uh this past week um I was tagged in an email um myself in another individual in the city and that includes Mr Michael dorch uh the gentleman that is the director of zoning um Department you know and also the planner of the city in regarding that um he did some recommendation regarding to amend the ordinance of zoning that include uh smoke shop at this time smoke shop are not in the zoning ordinance and um I forward that to Corporation Council uh to start working on a um a ordinance that will regulate um smoke shops moving forward okay so for the my colleagues when that comes into the committee um they will have the opportunity to know what is amended how it's going to work and um and the requirements to open smoke shop when they open a smoke chop in front of U uh new Roberto Clemente school I got 12 schools in my ward I always say I got more schools than anybody here uh in the council I got 12 schools plus Charters so you imagine open smoke shop all the way around them right so we are the we when I say we the corporate is working on amending the zoning um um ordinance to include workshop with provision with um um regulation ETA and distance and everything so and amount of them that was going to be open um in the city of also uh we are working also to cap food trucks uh amended fees location and so it's not against business is that we had to put order in the house right they call us to do that when people call us giving complaint it opens our mind to see what we could do in our side to legislate and behalf of the community that's how we work not to uh read nice nice statement um on the podium and and and you know I want to thank black panther Hey listen I don't I don't take nobody for granted when they come to the podium you know they community members they got some as other they have good ideas people come up here and from whatever they say we have to turn into positive idea black panthers will come in and and and express itself what his his ministry is and um and what he wants for Patterson I have to give credit but anybody that comes here to the podium and want to give um positive thought uh I I canot I canot take it for granted somebody mentioned the podium um apulo potion about the lady that is sleeping in the bus shelter I'm front of s Mar s Mary Mary Street and Main Street um the offic of Human Services director Joel Ramirez he's here to gotest on that the case workers from his office P County uh Outreach charity Department patteron police St Joseph Hospital have give her the resources and she have denied it all of them all of them when people put pictures out there say what we doing listen we don't sit down you just look at the picture some of those people have my phone number and they just want to put the the TR the Facebook trauma right but we've been working if I'm not mistaken for the past two month when the winter started when we noticed this lady it was sleeping in the bus with a lot of her belonging so we not going to sit here and say that's not my problem but if we violated her rights we got a problems if she say no we can't do nothing she was removed from the about shelter and she was from the to take medical assistant and they take her to St Joseph she refused from St Joseph got out of St Joseph and went back to the bus bus again the patteron police and everybody that have been given assistant to the lady contacts her family and they say the same thing she don't want to get help so and still it stress us yes it make us feel bad because we want to help him but people don't want to get the help and that case is not only one you go around the city and we work with all of them but if they refuse what we could do you know they counc person aware this when we are on an an event for homeless and and activity out there they get the food they go back under the bridge they get the food they go under the other place over there in the steps of the church you know and we live in America right so you know we cannot lock them up because they just homeless um Mr Irvin Durham um we we we we acknowledge all your your your U your announcement and Etc um once again you know community we're here for you for item 52 I going to make my statement uh when we are in the item I don't want to violate any kind of rules that are already set forward but I might if when the discussion is open and we're going for vote on it then I could make my statement on it uh and in the item so Madam clerk um once again it's not uh my fault that my wife at least if I find a McDonald's open after 12: it's okay right I'm I'm not right yeah just in case I love you my love happy valentine my vote is yes thank you councilman valz Mr President thank you mad clerk um it's 10:33 I will try to be brief let me address some of the members of the community that came in front of the mic first of all today's Valentine we supposed to have our meeting yesterday but due to a legal matter I we choose to and I follow our recommendation of our mad clerk IL legal to have the meeting today because yesterday City Hall was closed and by having the meeting yesterday will be disenfranchising the rest the community to come into the chamber and have a discussion and go on a public portion this is democracy oneone and first of all let me just say thank you to Ronnie the great event at the at the pis Museum keeps speaking positive about the things that happen in pison and things that we could do Jacqueline Williams and thank thank you for the ministry that you're doing with our children I mean there's a lot of great things happen in pison and tan I I met you when you started your company when you came into pison when you start with your company when you start a pilot program in the city of patteron you are patteron you have a full support I I look at this legislation 52 and when I saw you know the same bit specification sem specification but the difference is too huge that we got to go over we got to look deep into and we're going to in a minute right after we're going to get into item 52 uh we definitely have to review double check that and and we're here to support our community and we're here to do the right thing for pison but it's hard sometime we speak so negative about our city that we refuse to see the positive things that happen in the city of patteron and we prefer to bash people and say that we doing things on our own and just because you're fighting all the time and going against everybody it doesn't mean that you're making progress it doesn't mean at all that you're making progress in order for you to get something done you have to be able to sit on the table and have a discussion with the administration and go over with Administration with the director with all the department head you have to be able to sit on the table don't don't follow that and don't listen to those people that say oh I'm the only one working that's not true in government you cannot do nothing alone and I'm sitting here um I have a lot of passion for my city there's a lot of good things happen in our city the people that have that we have in our community we have so many great kids great student in our school system great business owner people that really care about this community people that wake up every morning to do the best they can to have our city in the right place in the right direction and I believe that and I'm going to stay on the positive side all the time I definitely want to stay on the positive side it's election time let's be ready as a council president all I'm asking the the speaker to be respectful with the p with with the governing body be respectful with the public and use your treatment effectively I cannot stop any person and as you see I could get I could receive any attack that's not a problem they they free to you know make you know they statement on the 3 minute and after 3 minute the council have the right to respond back but there's people that they even refuse to respect the time with the council when council members speaking that's not the patteron that we want to show to our to the state of New Jersey to people are watching us in Texas Ohio and many the many other places that's not the P that I know that's not the city that I live in even though some people wants to be on the mic and be disrespectful uh and disrespect everybody and lie misinforming the public that's not the city that I know that's not the city that I live in I knock on doors every day and those that know me they know that I'm not a good or false racist but I'm good campaigning I know almost everybody in this city I knock on doors and I see how many great people live in the city of pisu and President Obama said when you go low we go high I'm going to close in by this I'm excited I want to say thank you to all the Patterson third world resident for the great support that I'm receiving I'm already certified to be your candidate in the third world election um I just want to say thank you and I'm excited I'm a fighter God is great and and I and I'm always run on my record I'm always run on what I have done in the city of Patterson on this position in my goal in the next four year that I'm planning to serve as your third world councilman that's my goal I know could make my city better I know I have a lot to give to the city and I'm the type of person that I could sit down in any table you don't have to like me I don't need to like you you don't have to get along with me so but we have something in common and is that we have to fight for our city so just this is a best example I'm so frustrated with what happened with the new bow pickup right now and the director know Madame ba knows about it but we saving a significant amount of money I don't want our taxpayer to pay more taxes so I have to deal with the situation I told the VA no I don't agree I agree that we should create route and organize the Department of Public Work to do the pickup on a scheduling time the same way as the recycling that's my op that's my idea I spoke with Administration they don't agree on that on that because the cost is going to be way more now we we adding an additional truck we hiring an additional staff Patterson resident to take care of the phone I'm working with the administration I'm driving around the third war in some of the area that I pass by that is not the third War I called the director you got to pick up here you got to pick up there I make my own sign I'm knocking on doors informing the public um making sure that they know the process that's what we need to do because together we could have a better patter yes a better P together we could have a better City trust me but make sure pay attention to those people that are with willing to work with everybody true and real pay attention but at the end let me just council member take this time to um to congratulate somebody very special um first of all my wife happy Valentine's Day my love I'm here doing the people's work but there's somebody so special in my life and it's my daughter Maya Mendes Maya Mendes she was announced that the nomination to be on the National Society of leadership and success at Howard University in Washington DC congratulation my love we love you Patterson love you and that's my daughter who is in medical school in Howard um so congratulations just keep fighting baby um and and let's pray for our city and definitely let's work together because there's a lot of work to be done and if we don't sit together we're not going to be able to accomplish what we have and this is one of the best city in the state of New Jersey we just got to make it better my vote is yes M cler thank you Mr President the votes are seven yeses to absences public portion of the regular meeting is hereby closed um thank you so quick break Council woman Mims need to go to the restroom so let's take let's take three minute let's take let's take five minutes break so so if there's any council member back there so because we definitely have to continue with the agenda so and if we have three council members so yeah check if we don't have anybody else there I want to see at least a piece of place is open H they not no okay so we could take um yeah let's take five let's take five minutes break um Rafael so we'll take 5 minutes break you need to use the restroom um perfect thank you Rafael me uh patteron resident and members of the public we're back on the council with this regular meeting uh so Madame clerk let's go let's move on on item 56 M clerk public work yes Mr President item number 56 is is a resolution authorizing the award of contract to Rich Tree Service Inc for tree trimming pruning and removal services for the Department of Public Works Public Works resolution 2403 move by Council M second by council member Les roll call M cler on item 56 roll call on item number 56 for adoption councilwoman cotton yes councilman Jackson two before I vote council president I would think or hope you have the gentleman sitting here all night we're already talking about closing this meeting down early I don't understand why we just didn't take item number 52 now while he was still waiting here and I understand the director is waiting but if these items are going to all these items are going to be moved table to the next meeting the gentleman should not have to wait for for the next meeting to hear a response from the council he sat here he spoke to the public portion he's been waiting for an answer that that that's uh in incredibly inconsiderate but Madam clerk my vote is yes thank you conman Jackson conwoman M so uh I love our director so uh two things first and foremost I want to thank uh director Rodriguez and to Madame ba um one of the concerns when this was first presented to us that the dollar amount was low and I wanted to ensure that an assessment was done across the city to do more trimming so I'm happy to see that we've increased it to uh not to exceed $400,000 so with that being said based on the increase I can support it secondly council president I did hear you say that we will take item 56 and 52 that's what you said that we'll do both of those and those that order so um thank you for that but director to you and your guys you killed it thank you for making sure and you know I wish sometimes the appraise or the applauds are as great as the criticisms when it comes to cleaning the streets and doing the snow and doing these jobs I I would love to see how our social Med you didn't get my street you didn't get this street I would really love to see that and I know some of you probably don't care about it but I would love to see um the community just take one day to say DPW we appreciate what you did in the snowstorm and I just wanted to say that and hopefully people are watching and they'll start shouting you out on social media Madam clerk my vote is yes thank you Dr mes councilman Valance um the community started shouting out and giving thank you to the to DPW and then we all started doing the same thing um I want to thank the committee for always lifting up DPW the DPW committee well always we all lift stuff the but we always work together for to make it happens um those are 4:00 in the morning out there you know then it was snow and storm um director um I know I is my understanding that um I know we're not going to go back and we going to vote but understanding that priority of this contract is to take the jobs that are not permitted by DPW to go over the wires you know Etc there you know electrical wires so make sure those trees are on the electrical wires you know under you know and clear them because um they could create more damage especially to properties if if they fall down whatever I'm saying that um satisfied with a $400,000 increase on it um thank you Council woman mens for always lobing for this my vot is yes thank you councilman Val Mr President um thank you Council M um everybody here that we we will take care item 56 and 52 and you still have council member making negative remarks my vote is yes p cler on item 56 thank you Council thank you and director president and thank you director great job director on the on the removals no and the B pick up let's keep working on that council member the votes are yes Madam cler five yeses four absences item number 56 is hereby adopted now council members on item 52 with me for a minute um we all hear the comment on item 52 um I respectfully requesting this item to be tabled and be discussed at the next Workshop I don't I I don't I I do believe that it's not responsible to take action on this item if you look at the sem scope of work uh sem scope of work the lowest bid the lowest bid uh the company tal building uh the bid was 159,160 second well cleaning 380,000 we have the differ of $220,300 I remember a few years ago advocating for performance evaluation reviews to be attached to all of contracts that are awarded in the city that has been done so for me for us to have that in place and not to have a review or report attached to the work of a IND of of a company that have been previously doing the work that was concerning two I asked for the rubric that was used to score these particular companies um that were presented to us through the RFP process I didn't see that as of yet and I also wanted to know who were the people that scored I understand when we say lowest responsible bid the first bid was like 178,000 it went to 380 and everybody else was like 400 or 500,000 but based on the fact that Patterson is 8.5 square miles right in totality but the area say it's 10 to 12 blocks it still requires uh uniforms it still requires a working schedule it still requires uh people to do the job it still requires a a great scope of work so I am requesting that the specs be updated and reviewed not just to table it we need to update and um amend the specs so it can go back out to bid because it would not be responsible on the council's part to remove it and to bring it back I think you have to in order for us to stay say within the realm of legality we have to remove it maybe amend the specs to ensure that there are some specific requirements that we're asking um in in pertaining to this I absolutely agree council president it should be removed um I stand in support of that um and so thank you for um making the request to remove it you Council mes so one thing one thing is is our witches and one thing is what the law says okay if whatever you guys are requesting colleagues are requesting is going to change the procurement process is totally different the law is the law and it's my understanding reading this uh resolution that nine vendors pick up uh the package six of them submitt it and when they open it they find there who was the responsible bidder now if it's not they'll go back and forth or you did this you did that they open the package they find out in that day now the whole process of this item was done correctly that the number don't like us we don't like the numbers a total different thing we could go tomorrow and do this all over again without justification and here comes a low bidder with 130 or 120 but if they follow the process by law there's nothing we could do now there's closures after is already awarded that it could be hold account able and then it could be resent it could be taken off and it could be probably rebid again based on the finding but to comply with the law and the procurement process that was done we need to take action we need to take action oh so he wants to v um we need to take action now the action means let's be real the action mean everybody would have vote everybody going to put their vote on the table and then good luck right now that I understand a process when it comes up to bid and and Etc I don't want to be myself be in court for a pro to to hold a process that it was that was already process already if I may Council just to provide some clarity just just one second director uh now director if you want to bring some clarity what I'm saying it it's okay then you give me more more more thre than to table it but what I understand about it this went through three process already is understanding that still the law better came forward so uh if you have something else to say that I could clarify my statement then probably we could Table after that but correct so okay so go ahead okay well first yeah good evening everyone happy Valentine's day just to provide some uh clarity as to what is actually happening this was done through a sealed bid which is different from an RFP process which requires a scoring criteria and different um a different scoring rubric that you're that you're having to follow and then score and rank each and every participant because it was done in a sealed bid there's a specification sheet that each vendor is provided that they must submit a bid to that bid is then turned into the city to the procurement office where it's then opened and at that time they're going through each and every submission the procurement officer who is a licensed qpa is then looking at all of the requirements to see if they meet that this bit did meet that and so they came in as the lowest responsible bidder based off of our procurement laws and if you look at the bid package which each vendor had an opportunity to complete the bid specification it states if you look at the notice to bidders the municipal Council of the city of Patterson reserves the right to consider bids for 60 days after receipt thereof an award will be made to the lowest responsible bidder in accordance with with applicable law okay so so director uh before so director before I pass uh the the uh the the floor to my Council colle let me just explain to you why what is the reason why I'm I'm recommending this item to be tabled to go back and if we if we need to go out to bid let's go out to bid let me just tell you I'm I I own a management company so I do real estate right if I if if I if I'm on on a buiding process and the scope of work is the same five company particip TR I'll be assuming that we only it's the same business you know you will have different numbers but look what you have here right the first the lowest biding the lowest bid was 9,663 th000 $220,000 differ from the second third and fourth now if you go to the second the third and the fourth the only difference on number is between the second and the third 36,000 the third and the fourth 49,000 which just makes sense those number that different makes sense 220,000 on the same scope of work doesn't make sense it look like we they beening on two different project that have nothing to do one one another one now the second third and four you see that 36 40 it it makes sense all I'm asking my Council colle to go back if we need to go out to bed Let's Do It um if that you know it's it's not going to affect the process all I'm looking for is to make sure that the city gets the best company to do the job and that we give a fair chance to the company the company that is here that's that's all that's what I'm we requesting now the fear that I have with this project is that sometime we choose the lowers and responsib biding but later on they come back to us asking for asking us for more money to increase and at the end we're going to end up to pay way more money than the second company that B on the project that's my biggest concern we we never had a a company that was cleaning that that came back so so so without that been said right after Council M Jackson Council K I don't think it doesn't hurt nobody for us to go back into the workshop and and have a discussion about this I do believe that number don't lie if you just do do this math is simple I mean the second third four the difference between 36 and $49,000 the first and the second is $220,000 it look like they Bing on to something in two different project um it just it doesn't even make sense and that's my business experience tell me that and all I'm asking is to for us to go deep into um this uh project and see what we what we going to get for this uh for this amount of money that we'll be paying directly I said that last I said it no understood and so the the vendor did provide um a breakdown in terms of what it is that they will be supplying and um just for the record I think it's crucial to note that the vendor has 39 years of experience they employ 170 um employees they've worked on similar projects in similar areas with the same amount of staff that they're looking to provide so there is somewhat of a compelling argument that the bid specs were sent out granted we do have a preference for Patterson residents however with a steel bid process it does not take that into account no and and director by no means I'm disqualifying the company that was the lowest biding all I'm looking at is that the number and all the five the five company that we have here four of the company are similarly closed one up one down about the specification the company that have the bid there's 220,000 it look like they bidding is something totally different not related with that what the other company are bidding on and that's really have to to concern me with my business background so all I'm asking is let's table this item let's go back into into the workshop and if we have to go out for a bit and if they come out as the lower and responsible B but be my guest but I think that we have to do our job in this in in the council based on the difference that we have on the number no understood right you so you want to say something go ahead councilman Jackson thank you council president first of all let me start by apologizing to you um brother Wells your family your employees um the the I have voted on many occasions on items where we did not take the the the lowest bid because we felt that it was irresponsible yeah it may have met the big specs but we have done it on multiple occasions before and uh you can consult with former counsil people we have there's people who have quoted but the law but yet have not told you what that law is point that law out right not by uh an assertion or an assumption but by the statute so you can read it for yourself because as I'm reading this law right here um with regard to an accusation that was made earlier I don't see anything with regard to the early voting I don't see anything thus far in the in the provisions of the state statute that prevents us from maintaining what we've already had so that's just an example most importantly did you have these issues in nor when you had to go to nor first to be awarded and this is exactly the same as I've said in the workshop that's why they don't want these Workshop meetings televised so they could duck behind it then come out here in front of the public uh uh televised sessions and and act as if they're voting in favor we don't need the table to item we can simply make an amendment to the to to to the action and take action tonight to award you the contract and if there's an issue let that be taken up then legally because we can we can say that yet again I'm not I never did you hear me speak over anybody talking and again we have voted on numerous occasions on items uh that we voted on the second potential bid because because there was such a disparity disparity in in the cost factoring it's it's it's common practice but around here around here when things are are trying to to when the wheels trying to be turned in a certain way you'll see people say we got to follow the process it's not me it's the law but yet you never have these problems any place else so again uh uh uh my apologies to you because sending this that back out to bid no guarantee you that that that supposed responsible bidder would change his pricing by more than $100,000 and then what is that saying about his previous responsible bid I can we can guarantee that we already know what's going to happen the writing is on the wall but what's irresponsible is the actions of this body and it's it's it's going on over and over again thank you councilman I'm not done I'm not done but it's midnight it's midnight I I didn't say anything any for hours and that's the reason why we cannot finish the agenda I did not speak for hours I'm still speaking please refrain from interrupting he want us to break law because as you talk about as you hear people comment on how we need to talk nice about what's going on they must not be viewing what's happening in our city cuz there's nothing nice that's happening here as we're being notated as being one of the worst communities in the state it's not just somebody's uh Viewpoint it's the reality and it's happening by actions taken by this Council so this is just another example of irresponsible actions by irresponsible people and again I apologize to you so P let me just um we are about to be without quotum because we have person we have council members that speak for hours and they feel offended if you tell them please wrap it up like you councilman Jackson now members of the public you don't have to be a lawyer for you to understand that we have resolution 52 to award a contract to a different company what councilman Jackson said no that we could change that and give it the war the Contra to a new company what is this it's so it's a sh it's so shameful so disrespectful Madame clerk the it will be Ted for the next Workshop motion to adjourn this meeting council president I ask move by councilman make make you come move by counc second by Council me roll call to close this meeting I do apologize coun woman make make you comment at the closing of the meeting roll call please need to talk Roll Call to um close the regular meeting of Wednesday February 14 2024 councilwoman cotton thank you madam clerk since I couldn't speak to about Wells cleaning um and some of my concerns was and I and I spoke to uh Madam VA today um I have not sat up here and vote on a contract that was $220,000 difference I have not so if somebody can find it that I did find it cuz I have not now may maybe the contract is 25 million and then the next bid is 26 million but not no 220,000 difference my only concerns and my concerns was you know what you you said you you said you don't be now come on counselman come on work no no but but when I look at the scope of work it's nothing that's why I'm saying it's nothing it don't tell you how I'm talking I'm talking so the scope of work don't even say how many employees they don't say no no they don't say to me it's it's not your fault and I'm not saying that it is I'm saying this this is so vague for the specification that they're requiring and maybe you added more stuff in there I don't know but this this specification doesn't have much and my concerns was the unbalance of the bid it was 220,000 you know you already got your business certificates you already have that my thing also you should also have um um when you when you're looking at a bid instead of us voting to to to remove this I mean to voting to for it to be down what's the name of this company they going to have us in court tomorrow and that's why councilman mandz said let's let's remove it and we have to revisit it because if we vote on this contract and we cannot give it to you they we would be in court tomorrow because there're so it's you know when I look at the specification this is nothing it's not asking you nothing it's not telling you to do anything making sure you got the quarters the 60 something quarters whatever it is blocks or whatever it's supposed to be right but I'm looking at this and you you had this right yeah but it don't tell you much it don't tell you how many employees you got to have it don't tell you uh uh it said working from 6 7:30 to 3:30 and it says uh why why they so worried about um break time why is that in the bed like when you take your lunch when you take your break why is that so in there you got to buy un you about the logo why is you know everybody should know you should have uniform sweep and pick up it's so vague in here this this explication is so vague that it should be in more details to me for for this and that's why when he said let's just remove it for now and see how they can come back with maybe a different specification I don't know what they can come back with but it should be something different this this specification this bed to me it it doesn't really ask for much they don't ask you to do a whole whole lot seem like to me I'm not sure how many streets is it that's what I'm trying to say to me the first thing you look at is when you look at a bed you look at how unbalanced it is unbalanced that it is so that's what I'm looking at that is so unbalanced you got everything you say you got your certificate you got your business certificate you have all of that you got Pro you know my main concern is too was prevailing wages I would no people pay nobody $10 an hour and they supposed to pay 16 and then now the only way you can file you got to file a complaint to make sure they they they're paying prevailing wages that's not that should be already to me that should be already included in there to make sure that prevailing wages are being paid to me those are some items that should be in there so he made the recommendation um that we removed it and I said that before we need to remove it and figure out what we need to do thank you oh I'm not finished we closing now I'm sorry your vote com I know I'm so sorry and you know he he didn't let me speak when it was time for me to speak but I understand um you know I I just I'm not going to like keep you know I'm keep going on I do want to wish everybody a Happy Valentine's Day again I just want everyone to know that I am running for fourth W city council and like I said before you'll be Sur surprised I come to this office every day every day there's there's so many things that is happening that um what I find is that people want to be able to talk to someone whether it's I I going show my director I don't know how many Texas I got already for people not cleaning up in front of their house you got garbage all in people yard I sent him so many textes so we all have to be mindful of of everything that we do um I do want to say that um you know people just need to understand and if you need help you need to understand somewhere then that's what we need to do um and I just want to mention too about the Sewer Lateral you know I voted no on the sewer fees because I got to pay the same amount I got four people living in my house and the house next to me got 12 and we have to pay the same fee we should pay by the volume that we use to me how much do I use how much water do I use H those are things to me are important but I had a bad sewer break Broadway East 23rd Street I think they were there for like a month I think it was that cost was $500,000 to fix that they were there for over 30 days to fix that that big problem that they had there so we do have quite a few um sewer main braks that and also now we're having a bunch of um U water main braks uh and sometimes if you see something you see water bubbling in the street or you see little puddles sometimes it's because um um uh the water line broke or they cracked or something um with that being said um everyone out there happy valentine day our stenographer thank you madam clerk Joan our ba um Corporation councel and also to my Council colleagues like I said before I'm not a big holiday person uh because we find that we spent money that we shouldn't have to spend or we shouldn't be spending with that being said to you all out there at TV Land thank you for watching us tonight um anything that we've said that we haven't done I just want to remind everybody again um I'm I'm partnership with Interfaith and we're having an art and essay contest which would be at the at the Museum last year we got over um 600 entries um what I like about this one is that we give out cash prizes um to our children with arts and Essay we go from third grade up to 12th grade high school so it's really we want to get kids more involved in doing activities and doing different things I know that and if you guys ain't busy this week this Friday night Friday afternoon 12:00 at the Fabian ther darl Jacobs is one of our pisoni guys who is now a sports caster with ESPN um fandel uh he was in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl he did some analyst for um NBC CBS he done did them all with with sports ESPN so if you're free on Friday at 12:00 anyone out there please um go to the Fabian Theater and you'll see San wimy um darl Jacobs he's bringing an ESPN guy in he's been an NBC guy in a sports analyst um for you to come so with that being said Madam clerk my boot is CH thank you councilwoman cotton councilman Jackson thank you madam clerk brother Wells what I'm going to share with you is one of the previous uh garbage um bids where it was a bidder that was well under and it kept being return kept being return I have copies of it I'll send I give I'll share that with you and I will I'm I'm reaching out to councilman Morris and previous council members I will get to you exactly I'mma find them the ones that we voted on in the past you didn't have the issue in nor I mean it's obvious it's obvious but you know people get offended when they're called out for their in in ineffectiveness but that's okay cuz I'm going to continue to do what I have to do change orders are are are obvious relative to the Sewer right another item that I did not support I didn't ask the gentleman to come here he came here and brought up a point which none of them answered the question which areas was repaired that have now resulted in a non-flood area now right so we do things this Council we we we chose to support the administration and voting and on the affirmative on the sewer tax we have people and and councilwoman cotton I mean you should be aware of this we have people if you have a a two family house you're paying 3 $80 per unit for a two family house for your sewer it doesn't matter how much volume you use okay 370 380 $10 differential but the people who have 12 units or 30 units or even six units they're paying as low as $69 per unit so how we exactly we're making it so easy for the large scale developers they're not getting tax the same as those of us who own one and two and three family homes so now you have instances where Madame ba I'm bringing this to your attention Corporation counsel I know that there was a legal opinion written on this and I apologize because I I I should have brought this forward I I at the next televised meeting I'll make sure I'll bring It Forward again if you have one sewer bill I'm sorry one water bill one sewer line but let's say if you have tow houses and they're broken up into three three of them where there's six units on one bill they're charging each individual building individually for the same bill they charging the six I mean they got six apartments in one building they have six Apartments where another person that has six apartments in one building is paying by volume so they may be paying SE this is sewer councilwoman all right we go de the debate of the all right listen man please be quiet stop heckling this is sewer that's being built by volume the H the houses that have four or less four no four or less units it doesn't matter commercial these are residential units if they have four or less units they're being charged a flat fee for each unit and if they have five or more they they're supposed to be paying on volume but if they break that five or more down and if there two buildings on one site and one space is hold housing three and the other is housing five which is five they should be getting buil on volume on a on a different uh criteria they're saying no because it's two separate buildings we have to build you as if you had three or two units there's one water meter one sewer connection I I'll show you the information I'll show you the information well I'm glad he's in the rush I'm going to just take my time people want to be disrespectful and continue to talk over me so I I'll just do what I have to do so yet again to the public the responsibility of what's Happening Here the $110 million in which we have never had accountability for now the the article comes out in the paper and you got individuals talking about oh I anticipated this but yet they voted in the affirmative for it people saying oh we needed it refurbished but we allowed them to extract all this money $110 million out of our community Fifth Avenue project $100 million extracted out of our community developers making 20 $30 million in developers fees while these council members right here continue to vote in the affirmative for those actions the buck stops right here if the council is not being responsible then what can we expect we expect this and we this the ignorance that we get right here this the ignorance he can't hold his water and it and it it would be more responsible for them to prove factual context where I'm wrong at but instead we Heckle like little children because this the kind this this and to the public as we move into this this new election season look at what we have here look at it be responsible because if the fifth world council person it returns that means the community is not concerned about making things better for those that make accusations about you got to get along no if something is wrong you cannot just get along and just vote for it because we got to get along that's not what we here for we're not here to get along we're here to do what's best and what's right for the community let him vacate I'mma continue till he does CU once he does the meetings come to a heart so I assure you you'll have that information uh tomorrow Madame clerk my vote is yes thank you councilman Jackson councilwoman Ms so Patterson we are exactly three months away from the election you're going to hear a lot of buffo yes a lot of fluff about what was done what was not done check the record everything that was done was not bad Hench Cliff stadium was a great idea first and foremost in economic revitalization Grant dollars have been given out all over the state it is free dollars to revitalize your community that is not a part of taxpayer dollars that money has been available for decades mhm and it took our Congressman pasel Senator Nelly Poe assemblyman Benji wimbley and assemblywoman Suter to allow to to Lobby bring those dollars and we applied for the first time in decades to get those 100 plus $138 million of tax CR credit dollar free money so to say not to vote for that would be ludicrous it was free dollars everyone over to say I will never forget assembly woman Suter at Kennedy High School almost in tears saying how sad it is to sit on the state level and to get the applications and was never Patterson so for us to sit here and know that we look when we say oh we support them but then we come here and vote no it's hypocritical because it is free to revitalize our community you may not agree with everything but we had an opportunity because it was not a one to vote you had an opportunity to Advocate to fight for some things to expand the project and do many things which a lot of us did and now I saw for the first time hint the Ecuador was here they had a a soccer game it was packed Beyond capacity why would we not want to revitalize are his Landmark historic landmarks and guess what it is a national africanamerican landmark to be exact so to take Jabs at people because they voted yes because you chose to vote no that's your choice I'm glad to see it revitalized my mother walked on the fields the first graduating class to walk on the fields of hinchliff I was on East Side March 100 I'm glad to see over but 30 years later it's revitalized that's why we're here Patterson we're here to make things better you may not always agree you may not always like it but I'm not going to sit here amongst my colleagues and take Jabs I'm better than you I'm the only one doing that doesn't help that doesn't help us as Council people doesn't help the community that is watching us as a matter of fact is disrespectful to our to us as colleagues because everything takes a vote of five and or six you can't do nothing by yourself I don't care unless you go out and change a light bulb you could do that by yourself but on this side of the day is you need other council members that's what you should take a look at take a look at the Times people voted no on the things that were really good for the community that will surprise you to look and see the things that were advocated on behalf of different areas in the community when others would not take a stand or support it that benefited the community as one thing to say I did something but it's another thing not to give credit what credit is due are there some things we could complain about yes do I choose to complain no we have to come together to build this city together I'm not up here to fight with nobody as a matter of fact excuse me as a matter of fact I miss Valentine's Day to take care of the city's business not to sit here and to bash someone or to be disrespected by anyone in the community or on this side of the day is we have to get it together and we have to do better I'm not going to allow anyone to call me ineffective because I challenge your response of how I vote for the community and for the people because you choose to vote otherwise never gonna happen you Mims ineffective will never be in the same sentence I'm putting that on record uh Madam clerk to everyone Valentine's day is almost over but Happy Valentine's Day I will be traveling going on vacation I'll be back next week um I'm praying for a safe journey as I go to see my daughter and my grandbaby um council president thank you for pushing everything to the following week because it's 12:00 midnight it's time to go home we missed Valentine's Day we came down here to be disrespected and to be called out of our names I think it's just it's appalling Madame clerk my vote is yes thank you Dr mes councilman Val thank you Madame clerk uh council president thank you uh you know to try to maintain uh this meeting in order but you know and Council woman men just stated now about HL Stadium I will not regret no my affirmative vote for HL Stadium you know why why the community was asking to re Revitalize the hle stadium they want to see something there to say that the je is not using it that the school is not using it that's a lie they using it there a schedule for them this a schedule for the public and this a schedule for for promoters they put together and they put together the whole organization Mr Wells is part of that cining crew also he was happy to see that for and he was happy also to clean it with proud because he say we want another event everybody that was speaking there uh talking about the event they was happy to to see that event there the vendor the people that sell the hot dogs and and whatever three months without doing revenues because there was no event here so for him it was a blessing and it's a blessing for pison you know how many people visited restaurants Wella restaurant that had permits restaurant that operating legally in downtown Peruvian Square all those restaurant was full after the event why that brings people people from New York people from all the way around from Connecticut was here people from Baltimore a whole family equ equatorian family came from Baltimore to watch that game and that's awesome that's great you have to be in the field to fill it and in the place to to make sure happens again and you know what that brings put PS on the map that they have a field close to the Great Falls close to the highways and make sure that no and and the good thing no incidents no incident no fights no nothing Patterson Police did a great job in do traffic control you're not going to brace that of course now if there was three shooting in the first W or five shooting in the first W now it will be another thing they brace that well the councilman there so one one thing I got to say is this um since 2016 I had a lot of Bandon property in the fifth War you could go down Pearl Street you could go Park Avenue you could go Market Street you could see how many new development have been been uh in the fifth W one and one one perfect example the Armory it took three Administration and I could name him Joy Torres Jeffrey Jones and before that to try to do something in the Armory and it fell they went I'm not going to say 100 couple times to RFP bit to see if they give him at least $800,000 for that property now here comes the administration put the best offer out there Here Comes Charles Florio give $3 million for the land the first thing they going to say say is he got to deal with Administration do you have $3 million $5 million any council member have $5 million here to invest in property no right so why we going to hate on those people that are doing development in our city I told my residents in the fifth War when they say why I cannot get a house we not Realtors we are the city of pison is not Realtors we don't have houses to give out to the people the only thing we do is sell tax lean making sure to go to the process and making sure to do the right thing okay and the bank ownes a lot of that yeah and you could go to the county on a Tuesday sit there right and bid for it but don't try to pay other people to get houses you know and and make yourself millionaire and and in the backs of others and and and let me say this uh I'm not I'm not going to regret how I see my word my word is developing the people in the residence of the fifth War knows who this councilman is you could talk whatever you want because as councilwoman says we in election time everybody's going to come here and say I'm not doing a job or list is not doing a job or men is not doing a job or Council woman c not doing a job I know who's not doing the job they had to take a district out of his word to put in my word because I was doing my job so that's a that's a good thing to say right so saying that Happy Valentine's happy valentine to everyone and I go to continue saying we need to be caution on this situation we going to make sure that we do the right thing just allow us to do the right thing that that was presented to us it ain't going to be him Madam clerk ain't good night my vote whoever is yes to close this beautiful lovely meeting thank you councilman valz Mr President uh council members members of the public at home um before it's 11:40 before the end of the before midnight let me wish you all a happy and a blessed than uh uh Valentine's Day um so we've been here um uh doing City conducting City business election was around the corner you're going to see a lot of you're going to see a lot of things happening in the council all I'm promise you is that I'm I'm I'm going to I'm going to do the best I can to keep the Cor in this chamber and to have respect every to make sure that everybody respect this chamber and we and and misleading the people and I I want to brother thank you for staying all the onto the on onto the end because you don't have to be a lawyer to understand that you have a you have a resolution to award the contract to a company how you not choose that company and and try to and give the Contra to another company we be in in court at the very next day I mean it's sad when people take this chamber for political reason listen uh I I will tell you I feel proud to sit over here and do City business because when I'm campaigning I do my campaign out there in the street I do my campaign in the community and I reach out to the people and I run on my record and a with a positive campaign we have to promote our city I go to hainon I go to Monclair I go to hwat and I see people people from pison in those restaurant I went to I went to an event in forley and I saw around 7 to8 people from pison and forley and jooy the Beautiful city that is forley why we cannot work together to make pison a for Le a Monclair by working together to clean our city by leaving the negativity on the side you want to win an election go out there campaign and run on your record but please let's respect this chamber let's do what we have to do we're sitting here to do City business let's leave the election out there I want to thank assembly woman shab something and assembly mji wimbley from fighting in trento to bring tax credit to bring money into the city to build the hin stadium yes I want to congratulate Congressman Bill pasel for fighting washingon to bring money to support our fire department our Police Department those legislator that we have in Tren today doing the work and our responsibility is to support them right there when they fight and they get the revenue to pison it's our job to say we got you back now we got to do our part here not bashing each other disrespecting each other and misinforming the public we're not here for that I am not here for that so with that being said patteron is a great City we just have to start do start doing the things differently and I hope and it's my it is my hope that we could put politics aside for the next three month and conduct City business out there let's campaign and in closing thank you to all the third world resident for all the petition that I got I'm certified to be your councilman for the next four year again I'm running on my record and as you all know I do I do my Clean Campaign and I just Knack it on door and people know what I'm doing people know who all it's mendous if you need to reach out to me my cell phone number it's 973930 1436 thank you to all the viewers that uh at home and also to all the resident of Patterson that came and speak uh to speak on the public portion last but not least once again congratulations to my lovely daughter Maya Mendes for being uh for receiving the nomination to the AL Society of leadership and success at how University God bless you baby and God bless the city of Patterson we're moving forward let's make our city Better Together my vote is yes M CL thank you Mr President the votes are five yeses four absences the municipal council meeting of Wednesday February 14 2024 is hereby adjourned good night patteron