##VIDEO ID:HcOJUdZxTfI## all not you okay Phil wouldn't take I don't want are you back councilman pres Zano I'm waiting for Paul but oh here he is I would like to advise all those present that notice of this meeting has been provided to the public in accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting act and that notice was published in the Jersey Journal City website copies were provided in the record and orar Ledger and also placed on a Bolton board in the lobby of City Hall objections if any shall be made to the city clerk rise for the states America stand Mr con here Fisher here Mr Jabor here Mr President Zano pres Mr Cano pres Mr Ramos pres Mr Russo present vice president Dole pres thank you Jimmy so uh we have a little housekeeping tonight there are for those of you who are looking at the agenda agenda we have a number of things that are that are carried or pulled um A3 ca1 CL L 3 and four tx1 uh what's what's that one oh uh okay all right all right tx1 is fine I apologize for uh ordinances for first reading number six uh is carried and the the resolutions that are listed as ordinances number uh number 11 is is the companying one that two was carried because number six is carried so um so if you're here for one of those we're not going to be acting upon those this evening um so so uh you want to first order of business we have a resolution authorizing appropriation transfers in accordance with NJ sa 40a colon 4- 58 uh can I get the pages to see if anybody has signed up why you start with the ordinances well I doubt there's anything councilman councilman sorry Council F1 needs to be adopted before second reading F1 needs to be adopted before second reading ordinances okay uh I'm just looking to see if anyone signs up to speak on on f11 C4 so yeah it it's helpful if you can identify what you're speaking on uh Mr rentel can I guess what you're speaking on you'd like to speak on Jimmy uh is it F1 no it is not f i don't believe so cl4 okay and Manny you haven't identified anything but you there's no one signed up for F1 so um motion to close on motion all those in favor I okay so we're voting on a resolution yeah it's just a resolution we're voting on The Resolution all right on the resolution council president F1 question question on on F1 yeah um director in that in F1 we're moving a million dollars into Capital yes and what is that for the down payment on the bond that is for for second reading the first second reading tonight okay thank you you're welcome oh no okay anyone else Mr Rea call a vote Mr con I M Fisher uh yes Mrs Jabor yes Mr President xano he just left Mr Cano I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo his no vice president Doyle uh I so you have Mr President's zor was absent correct yeah I'm want to Mark him absent that's right okay he's absent okay um elain did you want to identify okay all right so ordinance for hearing hearing on an ordinance Bond ordinance b719 authorizing the completion of various water system Capital Improvements including public art acquisition installation and capital facility improvements allocations related there to and for the city of hobok and County of Hudson New Jersey appropriating a sum of 11,752 52 there for authorizing issuance of General obligation Bond or Bond anticipation notes and for the city of Hoboken County of hon New Jersey in the aggregate principal amount of up to $8 m5076 are making certain determinations and Covenants and authorizing certain related actions in connection with the foregoing okay could someone provide me with the list I'm sorry go ahead Manny took this is a public portion right you can leave that over there for now I suspect 719 uh okay so uh Manuel Rivera Solair b719 lower it a little bit thank you uh Council uh vice president president protm I guess right uh well I appreciate the opportunity to speak this evening uh just a quick uh question for members of the public some of us that might want to be interested um we I guess members of the public would like to understand um the reasoning why we're bonding again uh such a high uh amount again I'm sure if you could explain to members of the public is for the reasons that um usually are given uh the credit rate and the opportunities to pay it now but still this is a a bond once again uh obligating the residents of hobokin again to pay for something uh that the sum is so high but anyway if council could explain to members of the public why at this point in time why at the end of the year uh we are continuing to bond and should it not be um I guess I wouldn't say held back but better explain to the people uh council president uh proem I would hope that someone could explain it again without uh giving us the same reasons of course uh I appreciate it and I will yield back thank you sir thank you Mr Solair um there's no one else from the public signed up to speak motion close second all those in favor I uh director Gonzalez I I mean there's no reason that why it's at the end of the year versus the beginning of the year the bounding happens when we need money but um but if you could just give I I know it's in the packet and it's on the line but we because of the because of the the Cyber attack there were there's less time for people to look on the website so if you could answer Mr Rivera soler's question sure a simple summary is that we are bonding for Capital Improvements to the water uh water system through the water utility so this debt service will be paid by the Water Utility meaning it's paid for by the already approved rates that were approved in the rate study through the end of 2025 so this bonding uh The Debt Service authorized by this Bond ordinance is supported by our existing rates with no no rate increase it has already been planned for um and as for it occurring before the end of the year um this will fund projects through 2025 um as our approved rates are thank you very much president uh so this is going to be funded through the water utility correct we just voted on a uh transfer of a million dollars into Capital how does that so explain that as far as the fun that's just to make the down payment the initial down payment on the bond but now with that million dollars how much is in the capital L how much is in there right now yeah I'd have to go and look I have to look for you can you so my concern is that if if there's significant money in the capital already we could have taken that million dollars and we could have put that directly toward uh a tax reduction in the city of Hoboken by transferring that much money so I'd like to know what's in that Capital if it's $50,000 okay it makes sense but if there's $5 million no no no the reason the transfer has to happen was because there is not money to make the down payment okay and then that's going to be reimbursed by the Water Utility that the the rest of the bond will be paid off by the Water Utility what about the million dollars that is I will get back to you on that but generally speaking we put anytime we Bond we put in the capital fund and that covers the initial down payment but this is a this is a circumstance where we're dealing with the utility and that utility is going to pay for the bond itself corre so I I'd like to see if in fact we could make sure the down payment is repaid as well because that could that could go directly to a tax reduction for res residents in the city so I'd like to explore that thank you thank you thank you councilman anyone else Pina call the vote Mr con I M Fisher yes Mr Jabor yes Mr uh cantero hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo no president vice president oyle I hearing on an ordinance amending chapter 190 dash n entitled stop streets designating to add multi-way stop control to the intersections of Grand Street and 8th Street Grand Street and Fourth Street and Grant Street and Third Street there no members of the public signed up to speak close all those in favor I okay anybody give me call a vote Mr con i m fiser yes yes sorry Mr Jabor yes Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi vice president Dole I hearing on an ordinance b722 Nance amending chapter 190-11 titled loading zones designated to add a loading zone to Ford Street between Jackson Street and Harrison Street uh no members of the public actually miss Markle what does what what have you signed up for on or Oran es oh resolutions so you want resolutions no no ordinances is that correct okay yep thank you motion closed public portion motion all those in favor thank you anybody Mr frina call the vote Mr con I Mr fiser yes Mr Jabor yes Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi vice president o i hearing on an ordinance B 723 amending to the hobok city code section 19659 Sony officer to clarify the assigned Department Mr uh Manuel Rivera Solair thank you once again Council vice president much gracias uh I would say in this one because of the incidents that been occurring in the city um I would hope that members of the public could get a better picture or a clearer verif um a clearer sense of what you are clarifying in this department because the zoning officer um carries a lot of weight um in the city um it would behoove the people the memb of the public residents of hobokin if we can have a clear definition if you're changing anything if it's more duties less duties um honestly I couldn't read it all but um if you could be so kind members uh the council and give uh members of the public exactly what is being clarified because it is a little light on the details so with that I thank you and I Y back thank you no no other members of the public signed up motion close public portion second all those in favor I thank you coun pres lying on you um go ahead yes um director we're changing the structure of the department so that this is the zoning officer now is reporting directly to the director of uh Community Development rather than the business administrator that that has been the case for a while so there's a few there's two clarifications on here here um in section um a it's updating it to correctly identify the structure that's been in place for as long as I have been here right um B it's adjusting the director again and the rules and regulations are set by Civil Service rules and regulations of the state of New Jersey and then in section c it refers to qualifications where previously for some reason it said you have to have an associates degree or equivalent in either training or experience is required and that is being updated to the zoning officer shall have such qualifications as required by applicable Civil Service rules and regulations and New Jersey state law and that's and that's all dictated by the state correct just want to make sure thanks director the the stricken text does refer to the administ the business administrator correct I think there was a it was been done wrong okay thank you so it's it's just one sentence change okay um Mr finina all the vote Mr con i m fiser yes Mr Jabor yes Mr Cano I Mr Romas I Mr Russo hi vice president Oro I hearing on an ordinance amending chapter 192 parking for persons with disability no members of the public have signed up second all those in favor I I anyone Mr frina call the vote Mr con I Fisher yes Mr Jabor yes Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi vice president oy hi that's it for Resolutions um ordinances ordinances thank you ordinances um Miss Thomas uh you've signed up for first reading of an ordinance which we don't take public comment on but there is the public portion is so I'm we'll put you on for the public portion okay um just assuming I remember to do that uh all right so we have Solutions wellex you're going to take us through the um the public comment for agenda items I'm sorry so can I get that and could you bring up the public portion as well so that I can add Jerry okay um Rosemary marle good evening um I'll try and make this quick ca6 there's an increase of 25,000 just for license renewal um I'm assuming this is going to be a yearly cost or these licenses for more than one year and if it is the one year how come they weren't listed in the original contract ca7 is uh funded by the American Rescue plan is this money that will get for forever or is this just a one-year shot deal because then who covers the cost of this because there's a 10% increase for next year for this one and who covers that cost if we don't get it from the American Rescue plan cc2 original contract was for 15,000 it's now up to 60 when does this end I haven't seen a legal contract that hasn't been amended I believe the legal spending is really out of control someone needs to I mean I just picked that one but all of them have been increased for the past years T1 engineering contract was originally 50,000 it's up to 140,000 how much more will that be increased that's a big chunk of change when we set it out for one amount and now we're up to 140 T2 curbside management contract increased by 90,000 on the backup everything is blank no reason listed for the increase no mention of the amount of original contract seems like we're kind of trying to hide something here Devils always in the details was this a contract that stated not to exceed a certain amount and how much is the total now for that contract I think we would all like to know that one um ordinance first reading is second section to speak about no public comments when you that be public com at the end then I have to wait to I have my name on the wrong list then I know you do I'm Okay Kevin Davis city council at your January meeting you approved a contract for kimley horn to do a curbside management study for the city and now they're back again asking for more money but they haven't even delivered deled on everything from the original contract that you gave him money for so on there they have a list of deliverables um including they were supposed to give a presentation to the city council by October they didn't they were supposed to give a draft plan in September they were supposed to give final recommendations by November and then they were also supposed to do a bicycle Network uh stress level analysis by May uh as well as come up with an action plan uh by August and then one interesting thing of note is and I don't remember this being discussed at the meeting is they talked about doing um a quick build for protected bike Lanes um so I'm interested to you know to find out from them what sort of pilot programs they're looking into for protected bike Lanes I bike uh if it's doable it makes it safer for me but let's have an open public conversation about it uh cuz all I see is that they're asking for more money but they haven't even told us uh the results of the survey their analysis of it so if I were you I would just vote not to give them the extra $90,000 ask them to come back here give a presentation and then if we if you like what they hear you can then give them the money because frankly uh you guys control the pur strings now I've opra many emails between the consultants in the city and I found a lot of interesting things most notably uh on on uh March 22nd uh the Consultants had a meeting with the Hoboken business Alliance and I'm just going to take it out so I can get the exact quote of what was listed in the me meeting minutes uh they had a question which was what is one big idea we should consider as part of this planning effort one person said said can we bring back scooters in a more orderly way I thought that was an interesting observation because I thought when the city did the scooter sheer pilot everyone was scootering on the sidewalk um seems like if we do that there's more work for the Hoboken sidewalk associate safe sidewalk Association uh one person brought up whether protected bike lanes are the best option on Washington Street why can't we have an open conversation about that why does it all have to be hidden because they're afraid that a bunch of people are going to show up speak against it and it won't happen um one person suggested a gondola to lower Manhattan but there's a silver lining one person had one big idea I really liked they said no ebikes on sidewalk so you know I can go on for days about this but you guys should just uh delay giving him the extra money and have them come up here to the public and let us know what they're up to thank you Mr Davis um Mr Mr brgh and Mr rentel you've signed up for something that is no longer on the agenda but if you want to come up and speak now uh or you want to wait till public portion okay thank you so uh he wants to go now so you you want to go now okay uh Yan rentel uh representation for for the Sixth Ward is important and very little effort was made to find someone the general public was not informed of the process a search was not publicized and now a vote is not being taken I ran against Jen getino last year and I've run against Jim Emily Joe and Paul previously your political allegiances make no difference to me only what you are doing or aren't doing for the residents of Hoboken and I'm not alone there are several other six sword residents who wouldn't be on one side or the other I've reached out to all eight Council people by phone by text and by email to at least talk and discuss my qualifications receiving very few responses but it does not need to be me it's just important that someone is appointed with two factions on the city council it seems difficult to reach a compromise about anything but in this case there are obvious qualified sixth W residents who are not aligned with either of the council factions it seems as if nearly everyone was only willing to accept someone who was likely to be an ally rather than choosing someone who could best represent their constituents you've put your own political interests above Hoboken residents thank you Mr rentel Manuel Rivera Solair you've signed up for the consent agenda hold then I believe Mr Intel's time is still cooking there don't want to thank you council president uh Council vice president uh this consent agenda I do have a couple of things to say before uh uh I yield uh I would like questions to be uh I guess answered or given answers to um um ca2 ca3 ca4 ca2 the grants we receive a lot of Grants and um many of the times in the packet it it it says a few things but it doesn't say where exactly I mean we don't have hours and hours but if if members of the public know that is going to the exact location where it was um designated to because sometimes I don't feel that um the money gets to the place where it has to get quickly enough not saying that it doesn't just that it doesn't get quickly enough then those increases amount in in A3 and A4 then I'm going down to climate action Innovation um if you could explain of course um in favor of safety of course for Church Square Park and CA 2 CA I believe it's ca4 um but just concerned or um would like to have more information as a resident of the Sixth Ward and a person who um lives close to the park um how is this I know that it has um uh who is paying and how is it coming but um being that it is such a hot button issue was were the contracts um because they're the same company is doing both jobs I believe it was it is is it rushed is it uh uh vetted correctly those are just questions I'm sure they are but those are questions that members of the public are interested in in uh having answers to uh I also believe that um again was mentioned before CA 6 ca8 why I'm just going to say why and of course I'm going to go down two are very interesting because it's Community Development and corporate Council there is two here cd2 and cc3 um one is uh for uh special Council um is there any way that U members of the public can get more information in that special Council being the amounts and being that it's the same firm is there any conflict of interest between uh the the two ordinances and the hiring of the two of the same firm to to uh work on uh an issue that might be done Elsewhere for Less uh again that is just my question and uh if if you could help members of the public understand and of course um as was mentioned before I'm not even going to go into it the the um increases uh they are constant and you know I would like to have uh a little bit of explanation of why is is it constant like that I understand that it's already been allocated and such but there could be a way that members of the public are feel more comfortable in knowing um they're being increased because was their complete contract was for so much and that way members of the public could understand and feel more comfortable now I believe that um uh T T1 and T2 were very eloquently um asked for so I will not add any more to it just that I would like if someone in the council could explain um the prior questions for prior members of the public of why the contract is becoming um higher and uh again why so I will go back now because I still have some time I would like to understand council president vice president did you remove cl5 CL what cl5 uh resolution for the vacancy of the Sixth Ward it's cl4 yes and yes yes s is the answer me personally or there was no sponsors and there was a placeholder and so the answer is it has been removed okay well first and foremost it's a it's a shame that it was removed but I will reserve my comments for um a public portion that way it'll give it more emphasis because I see I'm losing some of you no I'm not uh but anyway thank you council president if if we can get questions on any of those I would appreciate it thank you you back fer yeah I I'll just respond quickly on the um questions about the lighting for church squ Park as I think everyone's know knows um we've been focused on trying to improve safety around the park and actually we have a long-term vision for the park and so at the last meeting director Gonzalez mentioned that we would have a contract on here for um for new lighting and um so that is the contract in the interim we received $100,000 uh uh gift from yeah a grant from the County um open space trust funds specifically to fund this so um that's the majority of what you're seeing here there's some additional electrical work that has to be done in the park to support you know improve lighting separately um as we look at the overall plan uh we are doing a lighting study to understand what the appropriate lighting upgrades are needed in the park it's not something as simple as just putting a light in it's literally looking at the electrical looking at how the lighting Works how it works within the community and requires kind of an analysis which is uh um what this is funding thank you coun um all right are we going to move on to consent items agenda items anybody wait there's no one else speaking on resolutions that is correct oh great I mean there there's Public public anybody T2 T2 yeah cl5 okay is that it so uh Jerry or Jimmy I printed out an agenda at 3 o' today and it's not the same as this one so when I I yeah I I get that but I I'm I'm concerned that I when I said we were pulling uh one of these um I think you match up you were right on all them yeah okay well A3 I said and it's A4 that is carried so I I was mistaken in that regard no it's fine I but I just want to so so obviously you know the ones that are gone are gone and we are pulling uh cl5 and T2 and the rest is on consent we already that's what I'm trying to confirm A4 ca1 cl3 C4 and T1 are all pulled right elimin eliminated from the from no no not not no no no no not T1 it was T2 that you asked right two two I ask and that's just pulled for discussion oh T1 just for discussion and cl yes I I get that okay you guys are making me look bad although although I'm doing a pretty good job it's a group effort great um all right so Mr F call the vote Mr con hi Mr fiser yes Mr Jabor yes Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi vice president D hi all right so cl5 thank you council president um you know I had I had this resolution on for the uh the idea of that excuse me that permanent Park solution uh for our police department and and asking the administration to ask the police department to make sure that we did that um I still think it's a great idea however if if the chief is here I just wanted to ask him a couple question questions cuz I know we kind of shifted a little bit from our original intent of 30 police officers uh now we're talking about 10 police officers Chief I you know I I love this idea of the community policing and the parks Patrol however my understanding is that 10 police officers are not going to they're not going to achieve that overall goal right now am I am I misinformed on that or or did I misunderstand that when we talked about it in the committee no in in the committee meeting I put forth a comprehensive plan of uh an entire command structure along with the amount of officers that I believe I can accomplish that Community Services Bureau community policing Parks Patrol uh throughout the entire city uh and 10 officers would be insufficient to to accomplish that so we we wouldn't be able to really Institute a community police in Parks patrols very specific and very permanent Parks Patrol corre the officers that we proposing the 10 officers that we're proposing uh would be more of a a almost like what you're doing now as needed in those Parks things like that right correct it would be supplementing our current our current patrols okay so then what I'm going to do is I'm I'm going to ask the clerk and the council president to remove this from this meeting because I don't want to I don't want to put that burden or even ask to put that burden on you when we know we can't do that and and I pledge to commit those if the ten officers do come to fruition our best Patrol efforts to try to accomplish uh the goal of this particular ordinance but it does not accomplish the entire vision of what we're trying to do with the community services Bureau yeah okay I I understand that and like I said I don't want to put that undue burden on you so I'm going to ask that we just remove that from from the agenda tonight pull just pull it off y can I ask and and then when and if we get additional officers I'd be more than happy to bring it back because I think we all want it collectively just a quick question assuming that we approve tonight and at the next meeting like what when when are those officers hired and actually on the ground how long will it take so the earliest we think we could on board 10 new officers uh with the backgrounds uh and our new list that just came out uh would be the first Academy class within County would be June July uh six months of an academy they would graduate in December and then about four months approximately for field training so they probably would be come on online of 2026 April April 2026 give a take thanks thank you thanks Chief got start start somewhere yeah absolutely okay thank you um T2 yeah that uh just want to support what Mr Davis said earlier regards to uh measurables not being delivered and so uh maybe you want to consider pulling that as well until Kim Le horn I either sends us a memo has those one-on-one conversations I know it may have been discussed in committee has been discussed as a whole or that information has been disseminated to members of the public so if we want to hold off on this one tonight uh i' i' like to see that happen or you know we'll call a vote on it I'll vote no so I can kind of answer your question um not in full because I think Jesse probably can answer it best um but some of the reasons why there was an increase was actually in response to requests made by this Council in terms of additional scope for this contract and you may call we had a conversation about thinking about um whether that could incorporate additional needs in terms of um like a parking assessment that would be Citywide in terms of like recommendations around parking garages I think was the coners one of the aspects of the conversation um and I did say to councilman Fischer actually we spoke offline um about having kimley horn actually come to the next Transportation subcommittee so we could have a conversation with them directly uh I'm not sure if there's a timeliness factor associated with this um but perhaps the the director could best address that I don't know if you want to come up it can I just add to the question it would be great if if you don't mind coming up the some of the and I correct me if I'm wrong but when we originally approved the kimly horn um scope we did it in in two contracts we did the original one in December last year and we approved that with the intention of expanding the scope in um um to basically do a an existing conditions assessment of parking because if we're going to make recommendations that take away parking spots then we need to have an understanding of how what the the parking needs are so that that was already in that second part of the scope so I don't know so what um councilwoman Jabor mentioned is definitely familiar to me but I don't know what we asked for that was beyond that scope that we would need to expand this without and and I know Ryan's gone and you've picked it up and and all that and th those are valid points right like if if if that is part of it but it was a half a million dollars and probably one of the most important studies that we've had in Hoboken I think um and we really other than maybe the subcommittee has gotten a little bit of a taste the rest of the council's just not gotten anything so struggling to understand how we expanded 20% was still not getting anything yeah let me give you a little bit of an overview so first um I want to note that we still have $70,000 left in this project but the contract expires on December 18th and so we need to do an extension as part of that and Kim leorn requested additional funds in order to complete the whole project but we haven't expended the full contract amount to date we just are looking ahead to say you know as part of this contract increase we're going to request as part of this uh the time increase we're going to request the fund increase at this time as well um kimley horn has done very extensive data analysis and data collection as part of this project we have digitized the entire curb throughout the ENT the city of Hoboken um we did Community engagement we had a public event that I believe you were at back in the spring um and we have a foundations report that is not yet public but is nearly ready to be released that documents you know that existing parking analysis looking both on street and off Street looking at you know Park mobile data enforcement data um our meters all of that information and so this has just been a really extensive data collection effort um and so in order to kind of get to the end of the project what we have left to do is finalize the recommendations do a second round of public engagement I think one of the comments from the public was like you know we want to weigh in on these options so that's something that is in the scope but given the extent of Engagement we did in the first round around existing conditions we're anticipating that kimly Horn's going to need additional funds to do the level of Engagement that Hoboken really expects right so we are scoped to do um additional public meetings and an additional survey and we want to make sure that we really do that right and so these funds will allow us to kind of really hit a home run on the rest of the plan is there a time sensitivity like I I love everything that you're having that you've said with one tiny exception which is 7,000 the B what 70,000 no I I I I I just think that there's been a ton of work that's been done that's been very critical that we it would be great for them to come or for you to just give a summary of of what that is before we move to that next phase because um it's just it's it's it seems like there's a lot of work so like is there is there a time sensitivity or do we have the ability to have like let's have a conversation about what the findings have been so far before you go into whatever the next uh phase is it's timing sensitive that we extend the piece of the contract another year I mean we don't anticipate that it'll take another year um the funding is not immediately time sensitive but if the funding were not to be approved we would need to think wisely about how we use that remaining fund so we wouldn't want to wait much longer because kimly horn is continuing to do work on the project and we would need to reassess how they would use those funds if it were they were not to be approved but is is there is there an increase in in the scope I mean what specifically what what's the the increase in that scope yeah sure so some of this is that the data collection and Analysis was more than anticipated which is not necessarily A change in scope I maybe a a misunderstanding about the level of effort that would be there so that's on them yeah no I understand I'm just explaining um and I think the community engagement kind of similarly we want to make sure that we do the level of Engagement that you know residents in the council expect and so while there was engagement originally scoped as part of this project what we learned from the existing conditions analysis or the engagement that we did under existing conditions is that you know we really want to put more into this project than was originally anticipated and so making sure we really really reach you know a representative cross-section of the public a large amount of the public that we um you know engage both digitally and in person so that's another piece and then in extending the project um over additional months you know there are some project management costs associated with that more meetings more coordination and so that's you know an additional piece that they're looking for some funds for I'm I'm sorry right the only the only comment that I would have is I mean two of those pieces are they're not necessarily an increase in the scope right there that was in the original bid right that we we know there was going to be Community engagement we know that all of that was there so I don't see why we need that significant increase in funding when I at least as as one council person was expecting that in the original bid specs right so I wouldn't be in favor of increasing their uh their dollar amount for those specific things now I do take your point that we've extended the timeline a little bit so that might be a small increase because we need to in increase the management uh cost there but but ultimately I'm concerned about that large increase I and go ahead no it's I just want to make sure I heard correctly 70,000 that was allocated not yet spent correct correct so how how long would it take them to spend that 70,000 when they work on the project is that a month two months I think it'll depend on how they choose to use those resources if if the additional 90 is allocated to the project then it it may be different than if we only have 70 left to compl would it wouldn't be now to the end of the month they spend $70,000 is it it wouldn't be the end of this month no so maybe we could wait a little bit see where that $70,000 spent then we could add the additional 90 as needed and it is it possible I I would support that is it um so we have an odd this is a little bit selfish we have a a slightly odd process up here here where a small group of four council members are the ones that engage on this and so those of us that are not on that committee don't engage on it so in general um and when you talk about going back to the public and getting more feedback like it's there's nothing that says let's go back to the five council members and get their feedback as well so is it possible to set up um and we've done this before um director Gonzalez like when we were looking at some of the studies had set up a couple meetings where we're a few of us get to join and just get an update um we did that with like the container study remember so maybe can we um just extend this for now but can we set up a few of those meetings we can't have a quorum we can't have more than four people on it but maybe a few so we can just you know have them talk us through what they've had get some of our feedback and maybe some of our feedback is either new different additive or whatever into the direction it's such a it's such an important analysis that I really think having our all nine or all eight input um could be really helpful yeah that's we can definitely do that and and Council and would you be okay with just extending for now having some of those meetings and add my only question is whether the 90,000 if that's $24 like 2024 that need to be allocated before we get to the end of this calendar year if that affects our ability to then in the Surplus they go the Surplus yeah yeah it I was sure if that was ding you know we acknowledge that some of our projects May over go over budget and we do have funds left in the budget to cover this $90,000 in 2024 um because these things do happen even though we don't want them to um but given that the work would be some of the work would be done in 2025 if it needed to be 2025 that is something we could do as well well let's carry this for now then and have these conversations set up and then if we need to we can revisit it for the next agenda the part of it the extension right just with zero dollars okay so as so like as amended just the extension the end contract and then we can revisit whether that's possible for the next yeah okay is that all right and then set up those meetings if we could I I look forward to it so do we have to do we have to take a moment to edit this and vote on it a little later or is it just lopping off we we can make the I I understand the adjustment we can you can vote on it we can vote on it as amended extending it one year okay extend it one year with no dollar increase perfect okay Mr frina call a vote Mr con as amended yes visher as amended yes Mr Jabor yes Mr President Zano as amended I Mr Cano I Mr Ramos I as amended Mr Russo as amended I vice president DL I ordinance for introduction an ordinance to for an amendment for the Hoboken code section 196 31.1 cannabis cannabis to clarify applications of the 600 foot rule which one this first reading first you claims and okay can IE wait wait wait on the what on the consent to genbi all out fine it's already done yeah yeah it's already done so on the on the wait so we're on the ordinance for one yes number one Mr con I Fisher no me no say you don't hear me Mrs jaor yes pres Jano noo I Mr Ramos no Mr Russo hi president oy no okay that resolution that ordin is fails introduction uh number two introduction amending to the Hoboken city code to add chapter 158 currently reserved to be titled proh prohibition on uncontable rent increases to deem any increase over 10% unconscionable point of order uh I'd like to ask councel uh something here go ahead yes um on this is there any memo that you issued that you guys or that Council believes that this will not be challenge that you fully back this ordinance we have not yet issued a memo but we plan on issuing a memo uh to the council just to advising as to the ordinance advising that you approve or you disapprove our opinion which wouldn't be a public thing would be a private thing it's just not true legal opinions to the council are definitely not private that's not true attorney C attorney C privileg is a real it's not not I believe the councilman's asked me if I'm going to provide legal advice and the answer to the question is yes we can wave it and and release it if we as a body want to but it's not an individual decision but anyway is would it be that's ridiculous I mean I know that some memos are not right so would this be because of potential litigation is that why it becomes more of a we were going to advise on the strengths and weaknesses of the ordance understood all right right are you done call the vote call a vote Mr con hi M fiser no Mr Jabor yes Mr President Zano no Mr Cano I Mr Ro Ramos no Mr Russo I on first reading president vice president Duro I okay number three ordin for introduction amending chapter 192 D4 parking for persons with disabilities to add and to remove Reserve parking spaces Mr fro call the vote Mr con I Fisher yes Mr Jabor yes president anano Hi Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi vice president o i Bo for introduction amending Hoboken city code chapter 192 D1 D and 192 d4a to use initials instead of names Mr prer call the vote please M Mr con i m fiser yes Mrs Jabor yes president president xano I Mr Cano I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I vice president Doyle I ORD for introduction amending hope amending and supplementing an ordinance establishing a schedule of classifications and allocations of titles for hearing mentioned positions in the city of Hoboken Mr fan please call the vote yeah Mr con i m fiser yes Mr Jabor yes president Zano no Mr Cano I Mr Ramos no Mr Russo no vice president d i okay six is off uh seven uh an ordinance of the city p prohibiting the sale of and private use of private use of second use lithium I iron batteries and new or existing businesses and additional to multif family dwellings to establish inspections and guidelines and require requirements of selling and using Len batteries powered mobile devices and and Proper Storage Mr please call the vote Mr con I Mr fiser yes boore yes president xano I Mr Cano I Mr Ramos I Mr Russo I vice president Ole I hey J that was correct my name on all these which is it eight or nine eight is the at least according to I outdated now n no it's end city code an an ordinance amend to amend the city code city hobok chapter 59 entitled Department of Public Safety article 259 a-a establishment of division to increase the table of organization Mr PR please call the vote Mr con i m fiser yes Mr Jabor yes president Jano I Mr Cano hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo should be 30 I vice president o you knew I was going to say it ordance for introduction amending chapter 190-11 en titled loading zones they had a loading zone to First Street between Willow Avenue and Park Avenue Mr F please call a vote Mr con I Fisher yes Mr Jabor yes president Jano hi Mr hi Mr Ramos hi Mr Russo hi vice president o hi 10 and 11 are both got 10 uh 10 and 11 are both off Mo right no no need got resolution CD3 resolution referring no that's that's move that's what we're talking about no more that failed on first reading so there's no reason to send it to the plan CD CD4 CD4 is is off new business uh comment public comment comment um Eduardo Gonzalez this is a great idea what what Edo was gonna say uh dardo Gonzalez hoken resident um just going to talk today um as a parent uh or someone that has students at or kids at the uh allegian Public Charter School I just wanted to bring something to everyone's attention um as everyone is very well aware uh the rebuild by Design is going on uh alian always used the park right across the street right on 15th and uh Park um and the the administration of Alan know the director uh and with Caleb and the City uh we spoke about kind of where where might we do recess um the solution that they came up with was again right on the corner of parking 15th um used to be a like a little section that was a dog park um the city said all right you know you guys can use that for recess um they have a sign up that says you know no dogs allowed um but like a lot of things uh people don't pay attention now the door says push people still pull um what happens is the the principal the director has reached out um and she was told well if you see somebody there with their dog uh just call the cops um and in light of kind of all the public safety issues we have I don't think police resources should be you know move to go tell somebody you can't have your dog here uh at the at the park um and also it shouldn't be on the school right the school has a million and one other things to take care of um and and even what happens at night you still have people going with their dogs and sometimes again it's grass so even though if the dog poops and they clean up there's still stuff that's left the next day no and you don't want kids running on kind of grass that's filled with all types of uh manner excr excrement thank you councilman yes um of course so the the one thing I I was going to suggest as a potential solution is that Park is going to be torn down anyway the park has fence around it right now and it has a gate so why not just get rid of the fence and the gate as a kind of a first step no um again people might still bring their dog the dog's going to have to be on the leash they won't be able to to take it off the leash um but that's one possible solution the other one is you get one of those big A-frames and uh kind of like the Ghostbusters Just put a dog you know kind of through it so people know not to have their dogs um and the other one is I mean during the day there was all always an officer there because of the rebuild by Design and they're I think most of the time standing on the corner of parking 15th um if they just literally turn around and obviously they see somebody with a dog there they can always just say hey you can't be here like please get out um the issue would still be at night is how do you enforce it and how do you make sure that um people don't go with their dogs uh still there at night but it's just something I wanted to bring up um something hopefully we can address and again that that Park is going to be taken out so I would suggest at minimum just getting rid of the the fence as a first off but that was it Council vice president just quickly I support that idea okay maybe take it back to your committee yep or Joe's committee or it's my committee is it no it's probably it's probably rebuild by Design so yeah all right Zachary King hi everybody uh so I'm Zachary King I live here in Hoboken I'm a member of Hoboken United tenants um not speaking for the whole group just speaking for myself um so as you know Hoboken recently defeated the uh referendum that was an attack on a rent control here uh by huge margins uh one of the main reasons I wanted to speak is to thank the members of our Council for their support in that fight um so I wanted to thank you I wanted to thank uh mayor Bala I want to thank Joe cantero uh Emily chabor uh Tiffany fiser um Jim Doyle and Phil Cohen um and uh we got a statement of support from Mr Russo as well so thank you for that um and of course 75% of the voters of Hoboken there are still issues that are unresolved right of course defeating that referendum isn't the end of the story um one of those is that while the landlord Lobby tried to use uh underfunded public housing as a way of dividing our tenant community in Hoboken uh they they failed in that but nevertheless um the needs of people in hoboken's public housing are are still there you know I did a lot of canvasing in those buildings I saw firsthand really like deplorable conditions I spoke with residents there that are are living with situations they shouldn't be in some cases it might be easy to help people like where they're living with lead paint peeling off their ceilings I believe there are programs in place to pay for cleaning off that lead paint that residents just might not know about um but there's a lot of work to be done there so I I really hope that Hoboken can come together and uh make sure that we are funding public housing as much as possible and I want to keep working on that issue as well uh second kind of loose end is it's our understanding that um Ron simonini and the landlord Lobby that tried to attack our rent control laws in Hoboken failed to follow the law and to publicly file their campaign expenses um I don't know if anyone on our Council here is following up on that but I I would really appreciate it if we could follow up on that because people that uh engage in politics in Hoboken should have to abide by the LA right I think we can all agree on that um and then in uh in the course of the campaign one thing that we heard a lot was that uh landlords need to increase rents so that they can pay for repairs otherwise properties are going to get neglected uh we don't think that property neglect and repairs should be used as a political bargaining chip or a bargaining chip to increase rents uh we think that this is a serious issue of course landlords can go to our rent board today and request a rent increase to pay for repairs but I don't know if tenants can currently go to our rent board to complain about neglect to complain about properties falling apart and not being repaired so I would love for members of our Council to look into this if possible I would love to help if possible um the right of a tenant to file if there's neglect of the property the right of a tenant to uh to repair things themselves and get a refund perhaps out of their rent um and then the next issue sorry I've got a few that I want to talk about thank you for hearing me out on those um if you haven't heard Marine View residents just got slammed with a major rent increase uh Mr preso I understand that uh Marine View residents are in your ward uh they just got hit with a 99.8% rent increase we're just in time for the holidays um and as we understand it this building is supposed to be subject to the city's rent control laws and I am not sure that the owners of Marin view are following the law uh that they're supposed to be following so I really urge the city to listen to the tenants there we're we're currently uh some of our members are talking with the tenants in Marine View about what they'd like to do about the situation but we would love for the city to uh make sure that the owners are held accountable to the law that they're not increasing the rent beyond what the law allows um and that this rent increase is stopped uh if possible um and then finally to that end I want to extend a big thank you to uh council members Cano and Jabor for defining unconscionable because we know that in New Jersey Law uh you can't do unconscionable rent increases but nobody bothered to define the word unconscionable so it's great to be doing that work and defining it um but I I would like to say personally I think 10% is still a little high uh we're looking at Marine View 99.8% increase is drastic and yet are we going to say that that's not unconscionable right so personally I would urge for us to lower that number to something like uh 5% um I I if anything that seems reasonable that seems possible that's that's what I would urge thank you for your time Council thank [Applause] you thank you Mr Mr King uh Ernest Boyd good evening Council Ernest Boyd Marin View Plaza I too want to thank the council members all those who were in support of us and our struggle um and for those who were less than effusive in the immoral words of Tupac I Ain't Mad At You I I'm here because I do live in Marine V Plaza and we got a deeply unconscionable 9 8% rise in our rent that's due in January so my question to the council is under what jurisdiction is Marine View Plaza today because we're very confused and we need some clarity does the fact that we're not under rent control does that I don't know what that means you are you are under rent control how so I'm not going to thank you very much sir you're very welcome I'm not going to take your time but I'll stay around maybe I can talk to someone after and we can clarify all this because the management seems deeply deeply confused um but they seem confused about everything so I'm going to leave it there thank you for your time and we'll talk later thank [Applause] you okay um max Thompson [Applause] good evening council members Max Thompson theas dispensary at 620 Washington Street so first I just want to clarify for the folks that are with us because I think there's some confusion there was a resolution on tonight that opposed this ordinance and that would have allowed you all to speak but that resolution was pulled I don't know why that resolution was pulled so we didn't get the chance to speak before this was voted on and that sucks but I'm going to read a portion of my comment anyway because I think you all should hear it in August 2021 this Council approved a cannabis ordinance that did three important things it clearly zoned where cannabis dispensaries could exist it clearly included a rule that said no dispensary could be on the same block corner to corner as a school and it clearly said that you must start the application process by applying to and being approved by a new type of board the Cannabis review board when you adopted those rules it sent a signal to potential applicants that Hoboken was open for cannabis business and that invitation stayed open exactly as it was written for over six months as applicants began the process but then even though we and other applicants had already secured our properties spent months developing our applications and had already begun the local approval process exactly as you had prescribed it this Council changed the laws the time of application rule is a state law in New Jersey the law says towns should not change the rules on businesses after they've already applied but Hoboken did something different it was the first city to create a cannabis review board a necessary First Step which each applicant must endure before moving on to the planning board the Cannabis review board acquired property control and a full application addressing each of the Cannabis site plan requirements in the ordinance the hearings were public applicants testified and took questions from the board and from the public and the applications were voted on you can imagine the amount of work that went into getting that approval if the appell at court rules against us Hoboken will have figured out a creative loophole to that time of application rule you can have a restaurant review board or a hotel review board and you could tell those applicants to spend months applying to that board and after being approved by that board you can change the rules on them as well or that board could carry the hearing for those applicants which is what happened to us and delay them further while you change the law that is a pretty clever Tri brick and if that Court does rule against us what happens to Village it's indisputable that they are within 600 ft of the Middle School the planning board's engineer confirmed it do they lose their planning board approval as well or does Hoboken simply allow that inconsistency to exist I think you're all quite knowledgeable but some of you on this Council are more familiar with land use issues than others and to those members I ask does any of this sit right with you is this what you intended and do you think this situation is meeting the expectations of your constituents the resolution that was put for tonight opposing the rule change cited cannabis School proximity laws of various States however even a cursory review of those laws reveals a more clear picture for example Illinois allows municipalities to reduce that distance buffer down to 100 feet and many towns have done so and in New York dispensaries cannot be on the same road and within 500 ft of a school which means as you would expect for dense cities like New York a dispensary can exist right around the corner from a school Koken is the fourth most densely populated city in the entire country in order to meet New Jersey stated goals of increasing access to regulated cannabis for adults and minimizing that access for minors Hoboken needs to ensure that legal stores are easily accessible in such a dense area so even if we do look at those other states for guidance we have wound up exactly where we should be thank you thank you Mr Thomson Elaine Thomas [Applause] thank you thank you for hearing me I'm uh the Reverend Dr Elaine Ellis Thomas recor of All Saints Episcopal Parish here in Hoboken and although the first reading was um voted down on the Cannabis ordinance I did want to speak to it for a couple of reasons one uh being that it was the last issue with which I exchanged text with gtino and um she was very much opposed to changing the 600 foot rule um in uh in this cannabis ordinance my concern at this point knowing that this this uh amendment has not made it past a first reading is that I don't know how to trust this Council and the process if you can come and put an amendment that says what your intent was but you never put it in an official ordinance and if I am not a mind reader so I took it in good faith that 600 feet was 600 feet and then the next thing I know there are places opening that are in violation of that what I am asking you is if any other considerations are giv if if there are intentions that you have that you'd be very explicit about those and put them in the ordinances rather than letting two and a half years pass with what seems like endless litigation about opening cannabis dispensaries in places that are in violation of the ordinance the other comment that I wanted to make on this particular Amendment even though it was not approved is that it had an a whereas that said Hoboken residents have expressed their desires to keep these businesses open I'd love to know a little bit more about who those residents are and what their um investment is in this process and how many and wait quiet down please and how and how many of them there are and what and and but we need to have you cannot just have this vague number uh statement that says Hoboken residents when I know that there are plenty who never even knew that this was going to be a question until this ordinance uh amendment was brought forth so I'm just asking for you to consider how it looks from those of us who TR trusted what the ordinance said in the first place and then came to find out that that was not exactly how it was going to be enacted it has really has the appearance of being a disingenuous effort to change the rules after they've already been implemented so thank you for your attention and I will be paying closer attention as we move forward thanks thank [Applause] you Ma Johnson is that Matthew Johnson sorry for that good evening ladies and gentlemen I appreciate you all taking the time and allowing me to speak here uh my name is Matthew Johnson I've been a resident at Hoboken for the last two years uh and I've come to you to speak today on behalf of blue violets and the recent Canabis ordinance so they were granted approval um from their application everything they went about to needed to start up their business and it wasn't until a year after that this ordinance was come about to now affect how they originally approved to go about their business um correct me if I'm wrong I believe there is a New Jersey Law the time of application rule that prohibits the changing of rules um once an application once an applicant has begun the process in addition to that I would like to comment on the two other uh dispensaries in Hoboken that appear to be in similar um vicinity of these uh schools this 600 ft rule um and they don't seem to be under the same scrutiny that blue violets does um personally I live uptown and blue violets is the closest um location to me this makes it the most convenient for me and other um Uptown members of the community I just want to ask that we take into consideration um that when we're we're considering this with within the 600 ft of how densely populated Hoboken is and how many other countless bars liquor stores and smoke shops that we all have within the vicinity of these schools and the streets that all of our kids walk up and down um I completely understand the concern of wanting to not allow these miners to get their hands on any type of you know substance um however there is clear guidelines towards you know the rules of how you go you go through the door you wait in a waiting room your license gets checked um we've created these um safeguards these processes yes these safeguards these processes to ensure that from not happening um lastly I'll just finish by saying um I'm asking you to resend this 600 feet Rule and support blue violet as they conducted to conduct their business as they were previously approved to um you know they're a small business family run and that's uh all I have to say I appreciate you taking the time to listen with me thank for [Applause] everybody pby Olen thank you good evening Council uh my name is Colby Olsen I've been a Hoboken resident here for three years now uh it's my first council meeting that I've been to so thank you for having me tonight um I did want to speak on the on blue violets and um I don't know the people of blue violets the owners personally um I came here out of my own will and I've been a customer of them a few times but um I just come here and talk about common sense a little bit which this issue to me does not have it has a lot of common sense to it you have a building that is yes it's within that 600 ft radius but it is adjacent to the school across the street you walk by it you would never know it is there if you weren't seeking it out right you walk by though that same street and across the street from the school is a massive smoke shop l up bright and white and there's Jewels there's Vapes there's katom there's CBD there's all these things that young people actually can get their hands on right I don't see an issue with a dispensary where as as he said you walk in the door and your ID is getting checked you have to go through so many security um so much security to get into there right and then you have a building across the street that I actually think poses a much greater risk so um I just come here and ask for a little bit of common sense in this issue I also am very passionate about small businesses and think that um Hoboken being the community that it is should be in the interest of lifting small business up um and that if we start to destroy small businesses in this community then the community goes away really really quickly um so yeah just to finish off I I just asked that the council um try to not comment sense but try to try to not push people down um in this community and and think about what's fair and and common sense so thank you Stuart Rosen thank you so everybody knows the story and I'm not going to repeat what everybody else said but I've been owning and operating restaurants in New York City since 1979 probably 14 businesses over those years to open a restaurant you have to apply to the state liquor Authority you have to get approved by the department of buildings the fire department the health department and finally you're allowed to open the store it's a rigorous process never have I heard of a restaurant retroactively being shut unless they are public nuisance or they have liquor license violations I've been here for 25 years I've seen some bars shut down because they were unru there was fighting but these people run a good business and it's completely unfair that retroactively you change the law on them I've never seen it happen in New York thanks for your time officer could you close that window just or until this am I the only one who can hear yeah okay uh Emily wch sweating what you mean it's hot all right I'm short all right hi Council my name is Emily W we're acquainted hobok and Resident I'm here to talk to you guys tonight about a couple items firstly as a member number of Hoboken United tenants uh speaking on behalf of myself I'm here to emphasize the urgency of the situation at Marine View Plaza I want to reiterate mainly that a note under the door of over or nearly 450 tenants with only one months of notice of a nearly 10% increase is absolutely unconscious unconscious if y'all can say that Kudos that could equal over a $100 increase for many tenants while some privileged folks May scoff at that number being low I'm not here to remind you that many folks have fixed income and hourly wages and I also think we can agree that in the year 2024 an extra $100 in many folks budgets is asking a lot of them even more so right after a holiday season filled with a burden to provide gifts and possibly travel did you know that Marine View ownership is also claiming to be offering a discounted opportunity to buy units but is it really a discount per the letter given to Residents they're saying that Marine View uh tenant uh units are worth $600,000 our our greedy corporate little brand are rotted by that number one of the things that Hoboken United tenants is working towards is creating an environment where tenants have a seat at the table of rent negotiations the note given to Marine View tenants mentions that the ownership is working with the city of Hoboken so let's discuss that um and how do we include tenants in that process I will remind you that being a renter doesn't mean anyone should lose autonomy over their living situation the council person in Ward one has said that they will find a fair solution so I believe that that process should be extremely transparent to Marine View tenants and the city at large if it even happens at all I would also appreciate Clarity on what the process the city has available to them and when it comes to countering a rent rent increase such as this the city says Marine View is rent controlled the building owners owners argue otherwise so how do we decide who's correct I will reiterate that we thank many of you who fought to save rent control but I'm asking you to remain consistent to the affordable housing cause the city's tenants in the World At Large is showing that corporate greed has no place in our society so we will fight even through the holiday season on behalf of Marine View and I'll hope you join us so now I will pivot to talk about blue violets because I am guess I am nothing if not a woman of the people we want a cheap rent and we want access to weed certainly from our friendly small businesses it's not such a crazy world that I'm asking for and I'm leading from a place of solidarity for small business not an outdated ego trip I'm tired from my friends Lauren and Max here I spoke on their behalf well over a year ago and somehow they're still at risk of closing their business I'm not sure who else in this room is a small business owner but as one I can tell you that the mountains to climb in the city are difficult for bootstrapping folks the increase enclosures of small businesses and increaseing corporate tenants in this town only proves that I'm quite sure I don't have to prove that there have been zero incidents of crime in relation to blue violets they're not breaking laws and they're under there are no underage children suddenly skipping class to smoke a spliff at least not from blue violets um if anyone in this room needs to know what a spliff is I can provide clarification I wanted to urge you guys deeply to please accept the car clarification as presented by council members Cohen and cantero Lauren and Max have proven themselves Beyond a doubt that they should remain open as a vibrant business in this community I wait for the day when you can tell us how cannabis tax revenue is being used to improve our city we're all waiting for that as a previous confused speaker proved the situation is steeped in GRE area when it comes to blue violets and I believe that the clarification was fair I believe it's not even about the 600 ft at this point truly you guys aren't paying attention to me some of you but you know it's not even about the 600 ft you just want to let your objectivity and your ego rule over a tangible small business and very real human sitting here week after week you're letting your ego get the best of a situation that the city's citizens think should be laid to rest in favor of blue violets and the city will remember this come mayoral electoral season once again we live in a world with so much more to worry about than a legal plant but hey yall do you thank you for your time thank you very much John [Applause] bright uh good evening John brigh 734 Park Avenue I'm here to speak about the vacant six W Council seat two weeks ago I heard a lot of tributes and reminisces here about Jen though I never could expect anyone to fill her shoes I would have expected someone to have been appointed to take her place in representing the Sixth Ward which apparently is not going to be the case there is a principle in our government regarding Taxation and representation the most tangible thing that each of you could have done to honor Jen's memory would have been to have selected her successor to serve her constituents all eight of you up there have failed two days ago I emailed the eight of you on this issue two of you bothered to respond to me five votes five votes is all it would have taken to have selected someone you could have put partisans ship aside in this one instance in order to serve the interests of the residents of the Sixth Ward five of you could not find whatever compromises were needed in order to have selected someone I count at least four of you who ran on the mayor's ticket and who I would considered allies of the mayor you couldn't have reached some agreement amongst yourself and one other council person and selected someone seriously why is that I wonder while likely I would have been dissatisfied with your choice at least the ward would had a representative to serve them for the next year there's a meril race starting up in in all of a few months some of you up there I expect will be running I hope the residents of the six Ward will remember the big fat middle finger that you've just given us I think Jen would have wanted better thank [Applause] you Eric vulpi all right um I got about three things I want to speak on I'm not sure if I'm going to fill the whole five minutes but uh that' be better I guess anyway the first thing I want to say I you know I want to recognize U um I could think getting getting a little stage fright here um I want to give credit for job well done credit where credit is due I would like to thank even though I've been at odds with probably everyone in the city council sometime or another I would like to thank city council specifically uh councilman Russo councilman cantero councilwoman Jabor councilman Doyle councilwoman fiser and councilman Cohen for their support in the recently concluded uh ballot question so thank you very much it's very very much appreciated also the mayor also supported us and I also want to thank the mayor for that and uh so thank you um all right now the other thing was the um or another thing is the six Ward we just had a speaker on that and several others I think it is unfortunate I don't live in the Sixth Ward I used to live in the Sixth Ward many many many years ago but I think it's very unfortunate that the six Ward is now going to be apparently unrepresented for the next year year I guess and I think that is terribly unfortunate um I am a little biased uh I know someone who I think would make an excellent fill in um Cheryl phallic has served on the rent leveling board for many years and also his extensive experience in the workings of the city government so I would have certainly liked to have seen her been represent or chosen for the position but apparently that's not going to happen the last thing I want to speak about is an issue I've was speaking about quite a bit before the whole rent control uh situation cropped up the last whatever good part of this year and that is the vaccination program I noticed I checking the website I hadn't looked for a while but on the city website we still have covid-19 resources mayor B hobo Health division continue to work with the state of New Jersey and Hudson County to roll out the covid-19 vaccine utilizing guidelines issued by the state of New Jersey now once again thinking sitting there thinking about it I know this is more of an executive issue the website I'm sure is under the executive branch of government and not the city council so I should be taking it up more with them but be that as it may um I haven't had much of a chance to investigate as much as I'd like to but I have read some studies gone over some studies that show that the vaccination program and I'm not sure it should even be called that as I've spoken before not even a vaccine I mean they changed the definition the CDC changed the definition of a vaccine to fit this particular injection so that's a misnomer right there I know this is an executive issue with this municipal government it's only municipal government like it even says in the uh in the thing on the on the website you know it's in conjunction with the state of New Jersey the H Hudson County so I know it's very limited to what one municipality could do but still to me it's disturb and Beyond there the study I was looking at was one I just recently and I didn't get a chance to go to over it in detail but covid-19 modified M mRNA vaccines Lessons Learned From clinical trials Max V Mass vaccination and the biopharmaceutical complex part one there's another part this is written by Dr Peter McCulla and six colleagues Dr Peter McCulla is one of the most published cardiologists in the world so I mean this is not like you know it's not a bunch of lightweights this is serious stuff and there's disturbing information in here and once again this is like a 40-page study it's got I believe about 290 footnotes extremely well in researched and detailed research and just pulling a quote out of it based on fire fiser trial data for every case of severe covid prevented we estimated there were at least 16 serious Adverse Events caused by the modified mRNA products within a 6 we period a disparity that logically must increase over time furthermore for every life that was theor theoretically saved by these vaccines there was nearly 14 times more deaths caused by the injections and at the end of their conclusions they say we urge governments to endorse and force a global moratorium on these modified mRNA products and the lipid nanoparticle delivery platform unless until all relevant questions pertaining to Quality residual DNA and aarant protein production are resolved Mr V could you wrap it up are I done okay yeah I'm done anyway okay thank you for okay thank you Alex Garcia Alex Garcia 6 Ward um I emailed all of yous regarding a um the parking issues on Sunday and um first of all I want to read it so the public could hear it when I send you guys good evening all dear city council I hope this email finds you well and that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families as a lifelong resident of Hoboken currently residing at Wasington Street in the six Ward I'm reaching out to express my disappointment with the recent approval of the Sunday parking ordinance this change has added significant stress to my daily routine as I now need to worry about paying for parking on Washington Street seven days a week even when parking in front of my own residents Sundays were the only day I had the privilege of parking on on the street without having to pay a meter but this exemption has now made has now removed it for all residents along Washington Street from Court Street to 6th Street while I understand the intent behind the parking ordinance and the goals it seeks to achieve I strongly believe that Hoboken residents should not bear the blunt of this charge to address this issue I would I would like to propose two potential potential resolutions the HPA attendants could use henel readers to identify residents license place exempting them from the fines from paying the parking meters ultimately the parking app could be implemented allowing Hoboken residents to validate the parking every four hours without charge if a resident forgets to refresh the app it'll be our responsibility for the fine personally I prefer the first option as it offers more seamless resolution for residents but I'm open to resolution being considered thank you for your attention to this matter and I hope you consider a resolution to address the concerns of hobok and residents secondly regarding cl4 I couldn't come to the last C council meeting for this reason dear Jen thank you for always being there for me you're always an inspiration to me you always picked up my calls and address my concerns I called you my Wonder Woman I said of my w woman thank you for your thank you during the hard times in Co thank you for all your advice you gave me I am in disbelief you touch so many people's hearts you always there you always there for everyone and everyone hok has a lost of beautiful soul as a public servant anyone who runs who runs to fill your shoes is going to have a big obligation thank you and we will miss you with that being said um I got a question who do we go to regarding six World issues now everyone that's that's that's an honest question I have no clue and I guess I address you individually to Ward residents this is kind of hard for all of us especially me Hope born and raised instead of going to the city council and bashing them regarding picking a candidate like Barack Obama said you know don't boo vote so with that being said ladies and gentlemen go to Y city council address their issues go to them they're open they're open-minded they're going to hear you out regard they know we don't have a council woman anymore so instead of going here and complaining be something about it all right ladies and gentlemen my my name is Alex Garcia six Ward thank you thank you Mr Garcia Lauren Thompson hi good evening council members Lauren Thompson blue violet suspens at 628 Washington first I want to say thank you to all the people who have reached out to this Council demanding that this situation be fixed it really means the world to us to have that endless support from so many in this community every single day our store is open we are helping people these people are your family your friends your neighbors your teachers your First Responders your elderly your sick these are the people you represent and every single day we've been open I've spoken to all of my customers about this nightmare it never ends it is enduring every day we explain to them what happened how we and others started the application process and how this Council had also advised us that we were be able to go through then the laws were changed on us we tell them about the lawsuit and the person who sued us and we explain to them how this could be our very last day they express sympathy and immediately ask how they can help none of them have expressed concern about nearby schools because they know that stores like ours are the way forward again I am not across the street from Hoboken Charter All Saints there is Frank's smoke shop as well as the liquor store right across the street each one of those businesses have clear glass you can walk past my store and you cannot see inside I have frosted Windows some people come by and tell me oh I walked by three times I didn't realize this was the storefront to those of you on this Council who have supported hoboken's cannabis industry I'm happy to tell you how right you were and the confidence you had in us we are doing it right my operations are safe my customers are happy I am also being told every day how some high school students are getting pre-rolls from non-regulated entities so it is not minors through my door and walking out with product to those of you who oppose this measure I'm not sure what else you need to see on this issue of safety we and other dispensaries have proven the point we're safe we're discreet and again I'm keeping cannabis away from miners Hoboken is one of the most densely populated cities in the entire country which means that businesses need to be easily accessible and that's why there bars and liquor stores on every corner right a stone store away it only makes sense that dispensaries should be just as easily accessible my customers comeing out the conversation pieces are very much like a pharmacy experience it is Apothecary it is medicine I'm not here just trying to get people high if you are that's great but we're looking to do it safely again so many of my customers are everyday people who walk up and down your streets they educate your your students your children they come and respond to fires they come for a safety call everybody is coming to tell me how safe and they didn't even realize we were here half the time because there is no rowdiness there's no people lingering there's no smoke outside my store some of you have said that this is a special interest rule change and yet hundreds of your constituents have been asking you to do something via email some of you have also said this rule change were only benefit us and it should not be passed but Village is also within 600t of a middle school and even if you believe this rule wouldn't benefit Village doesn't that mean that the 600t rule only impacted us why then could you not change the law one more time to help us and meet the demands of your constituents or maybe you're okay with this inconsistency we're only small businesses are the ones that lose because we're easy to bury in litigation thank you for your time Rohan [Applause] r hi there Rohan Sixth Ward um I don't have any thing written out or just have some ideas but I want to Echo with a lot the people I work with in hobok N tenants I want to thank those of you uh that offered support to the no campaign in particular you know just on personal know I want to thank Joe Jim and Phil for coordinating with me on canvases um onto the Marine View issue uh I think it's you know uh really a testament to a what seems to be a big issue of uh landlords and investment groups or whatever not being on the same page with the Council on what is or what is not rent controlled and um I think that something like this uh cap on or or definition of what incontable means uh would be very beneficial on just laying something out uh I was a uh I interned in the city hall of Jersey City a couple years ago and I remember seeing like 30 40% uh rent increases during uh kind of the aftermath of covid um and the fact that the state didn't recognize that as an unconscionable I think really illustrates the deficit that we have at the state level and it shows a role that the city can have in uh kind of patching that hole um so yeah I'm totally supportive of of you know kind of Def defining that and I think you know 10% is a is a great start um I think newor defined it at like 5% and I think that's still on the books there so I I hope that a 10% cap here uh would be able to uh kind of stand any legal challenges or whatever um and yeah uh in the you know this coming year and stuff I I think those of us on the tenants and stuff we've noted who has and who has not been supportive of tenant issues um but into this next year I think that you know this Marine View issue and whatever uh policies people want to talk about next year I think will continue to be noted um and if you didn't maybe make your voice heard uh during the campaign uh this this November um maybe you can make up for that in the future all right thank you thank [Applause] you Matthew Velasquez Jerry hello council members as many of the speakers here today I'm a member of hobok United tenants and would like to speak to the uncontable rent increase ordinance I believe as prior speakers have voiced this is an excellent first step in addressing increased cost of living within our city however 10% is still too high and as displayed by 75% of Hoboken residents who voted in November 5% is reasonable within within the ordinance there are exemptions by evidencing that expenses warrant the increase as proven by the owner and or landlord if the landlords are as distressed as they claimed to be this should be easily provable moving on to the rent increase that Marin view was facing Hoboken voters supported saving rent control now rely on the city to hold true to enforcing these protections as the counter has stated today Marine View is under rent control so there is no need to find a fair solution as there's already one in place thank you very much thank you Mr rosarie marle I'm not here to thank anybody but that's okay find that one funny h Michael okay so about the um unconscionable rent increases so who decided that 10% is good was it a committee or was it just the two council members and how did they arrive at that why isn't 5.1% unconscionable for these properties like it is for myself a small landlord that's only allowed to maybe get 5% of the CPI is that if this passes who's on the hook when we know this is going to wind up in court because you can't bring them down to the 5% because now you're putting them under the rent control laws that I and many other landlords are under and the state put this in place so that they're not that's that one now I'm on to the 14 new job positions most are in the office of climate Innovation what is the justification for these positions I see that we're going to to hire Yogi and Boo Boo for $190,000 does this include a picnic basket seriously a far Street division just hire some more Park workers and train them how to take care of the trees I know it's part of a grant but when the grant runs out who's on the hook for it taxpayers again a full-time landscape architect why I would love to know the reasoning behind any of these jobs what could that job possibly entail and where we already have landscapers plus some part some workers in the parks department this money for madeup positions can be put to better use now I'm going to move on to what better use it could be used for 10 new police officers I believe that's wonderful do I think that's enough no there should be way more than that and what's more disgraceful is we have a problem with recruiting police officers and here's one reason why does anyone know what the starting salary is for a police officer it's $46,000 a year $24 an hour well we have clerks making $70,000 a year uh minimum wage is $20 an hour mechanic helpers $36 an hour keyboarding clerk $35 an hour am I the only one that sees a problem here I we need to recruit more police officers we have lots of parks not just Church Square they're going to move from there and onto the next Park um I think it's time to go back to the drawing board and do something for our police officers and my last comment is when was the first public meeting with kimley Horn uh because she kept mentioning that there was one public meeting if somebody could just remind me when that was cuz I I obviously missed it maybe I was on vacation it was last spring it was when it was last spring at the multi-service center fairly well attended actually thank you Manuel Rivera Solair mistake thank you Council vice president I appreciate the opportunity to speak this evening uh I've been sitting here stewing and waiting contemplating what I was going to say um because it's hard I don't like to put myself in the position of speaking in a public meeting for public service about myself but this evening I'm going to make an exception a small exception and I'm going to try to be brief and quick first I want to thank um the office of the city clerk I would like to thank um city clerk Farina deputy cler cler lore and Mary Beth rundi and all the people who work in the clerk's office for their help and letting members of the public understand whatever the process was for someone to try to convince four of you or five of you or eight of you to occupy the vacant space that was left by the departure of a great councilwoman gtino now while nobody could fill her shoes someone has to step in the Gap I have asked all of you to give us the opportunity those who have applied and those have spoken to you have sent you texts I personally thank all of you for attending my calls and responding to my texts thank you very much it is important also to let members of the public know that is it's not so difficult to select someone that is just going to be there as they say a stop Gap someone that's going to be there just to be as neutral as possible but to push forward the interest of the Sixth Ward I for one am horrified horrified that in America and the United States now we can do this we can have taxation without representation we could have anything that goes on we could even perhaps have some a dictator this is wrong and you know it you ran the clock I don't want to point fingers but it's hard it's hard not to have representation you should have selected someone even if you had to hold your nose and vote for them you know that there are qualified people myself included that could do the job that know all the issues that has gone or has been in every meeting for the last 3 years of every commission and every board and every uh community meeting spoke en many many times of course I don't like to take up too much time because it bothers folks but you have to you have to let members of the public know of all the things that are going on so I appreciate again you all speaking with me but I am still pained that there is no representation in the Sixth Ward how are we going to do this a member of the public asked who do we turn to well there are three of you that are at large so I'm assuming you will fill the gap for now I hope and I'm sure I'm looking at one that I'm sure she will um because you all do that's your responsibility to represent the whole city so I will be reaching out to you if I have an issue in my street my sidewalk and stuff like this as well as we also have a mayor who we could also call has a constituent service office so members of the public of the Sixth Ward I asked you you don't have to accept this you can call and you can say we need representation how it's not up to us it's up to the administration the council and even the state perhaps because we cannot live this way you will now have the opportunity to say okay we want someone in here this side doesn't like this person that side doesn't like the other person but just pick the person that is knowledgeable the person that is going to know from day one how to get along with all of you because most of you know myself most of you know other members who have applied to you just say okay let's go with this person I would hope it would be me but I would be satisfied with representation no matter what because I would hold anybody who's in that seat responsible and I will speak to them and I will call them and I would come here and say to them hey what's happening here what's happening there so it's not a matter of just picking me and again I had many things to say I wanted to say saava Ukraine herim Slava so I thank you all for listening God bless you God bless you all God bless the Sixth Ward and God bless Hoboken and I hope we get representation soon thank you thanks thank you Manny Jeremy mola if I got that right I like how this is automatic uh Jeremy aola um ward 3 um and I originally signed up uh Jerry said I can speak about whatever I want CU I gu run public comment but I originally want to talk about the gov contract I'll get that out of the way um and then I'll have I came up with some other things uh I was looking at this because the Cyber Ransom and so I Jerry said come to the next meeting it might be interesting uh sorry if I'm outing you there and I was digging through and I only got time to go through this one contract to peek my eye because we do we do contracts do Tech work uh and it was 100 110k I think 100 came from the ARP funding so most of it's not our money um uh but I was looking at the itemized thing to try and find out how is the money being spent because in Paul's email it just said web hosting and it didn't say the name of the company just started digging uh and thanks for sending everybody tends to send out different newsletters during the week I appreciate yours giving me it's like doing my homework and Cliff Notes for this meeting um there was nothing on the website that I could figure out what this was and it's just a big it's 75k out of 110 um and so I know there was probably someone in the city that was responsible for negotiating this contract uh but just looking at it and seeing that well at least 75% of this is this one line item and if nobody up here can explain what that is then just owe it to yourselves to find out how we're spending that money um and because it's it's an annual contract presumably we might just roll into it next year uh Marine View Apartments uh this just happened a few days ago and this was pretty interesting um uh the building I live in now used to be rentals and it turned into condos uh and I'm sure this may play out differently but I was intrigued by this and I would hope that any of the residents there that decide they might if this offer of like a 20% discount takes place know what you're getting into you're possibly leaving rent control protections and hopefully that gets clarified uh but it's an old building there could be assessments you're at the mercy of property taxes uh hopefully our Board of vet is better than Jersey City in that respect we won't get blindsided um but solicit advice from your friends your neighbors before you go into that that kind of purchase uh I was just at the hokan Education Association they're doing Bingo night at will mcbrides it was a great time and I was struck how many teachers there uh both went to Hoboken they did the Amo Moor which I didn't know existed uh and they live in Hoboken and that's a lot of that is owed to historically the initiatives for public housing uh and so places like Marine View we don't build a lot of these anymore um but they serve like they're important to community I hope that we look at Marine View Church Towers Etc when we think about new developments especially how to the the school system we want to think down the line about how we make that better part of that is Affordable teach affordable um uh housing for any of the city workers both the cops with their starting salaries the the teachers Etc uh blue violets local business Max and Lauren they live in wehawken uh I've gone there a couple of times I gone down to the station uh as my understanding the station uh the owner of that is the same person from the antique Restaurant Group that owns some buildings it's a bigger operation uh these are two local people from wehawken um and whether or not the ordinance goes whichever way I think their perseverance uh is just incredibly encouraging and if this doesn't work out they would have mentors of like how to help other people start a small business and get through the rigar roll that anyone has to go through and whether it's zoning or all these other things uh sorry 1 minute 50 okay I'll be out here soon um going down here uh the Uptown uh Farmers Market I'm glad that's still saying I know it was more of a Hudson County thing I'm looking forward to trying Emily's uh hot chocolate uh cinnamon buns uh and then Church Square Park changes uh I spend too much of my time there uh walking our dog uh and I do the compost bin uh I open the compost bin on just had to been a a couple weeks ago but definitely on Thanksgiving I opened the combo Spin and there were rats all over there and because 3 weeks ago they added an extra bin because the bins fill up that's great but now the lids don't close uh and I watched this for several weeks and I thought maybe someone from the city will fix this they did not I went on the sdl App instead of tagging uh Emily uh Jabor on Facebook uh and the sdl app itself I'm dealing with that for registering our our condo and it's a you're Paul's shaking his head here because it's not good software and so because the sdl app this week is not good sof software I read the Goos contract CU I'm like maybe they're spending money on bad software um I already have a job I'd like to write some software if I ever get fired from here maybe after my boss sees this um let's talk about that but I just like the bins this is one hand of the city not seeing that like we have a rat problem but that was that was a few months ago so now we're on ebikes um so let's add the compost spins but we need a holistic approach of somebody should see that in the city when they go they go check that and they say like well this is bad for the rats uh so I hope that gets repaired now that it's an sdl issue maybe I'll get a response on it um or maybe not like our when we report broken light bulbs to my HOA uh Hoboken High School has an aquaponics class I learned this at bingo night um that would be great to be at a farmers market I didn't know the high school was doing this this is a class the kids do the teachers enjoy the lettuce I would like some local lettuce if we can get Hoboken lettuce uh and lastly I know the city council or the the city already acknowledged them I was with Nick linday with lto brothers and I think actually Jim finina was there I saw him with a lot of cash uh In God We Trust all others pay cash is his line um and I just thank them for their service to the community uh if anyone wants to go there they sell out early they erase stuff from the Whiteboard and I believe Sunday is the last day but thank you to lto family and at the very least no more sandwiches but we got some cops out of it so uh we need those I'll Take Care thank you thank you and Patricia waiters thank you council president president I like you as council president seem like we get our full five minutes so I hope I get the same courtesy um thank you I want to thank Mr Manuel cuz he almost got me a ticket doing 90 to get here y'all know I would have not have missed this council meeting thank you to Mr rentel Ian rentel I want to talk about two serious topics where three with the yes no vote you can explain to them but even my opposers when I was out there fighting that yes vote it looks so hypocritical to get them letters in Marine View Plaza in your ward where they got an increase whether they got anything to do with the yes no vote that's what I be talking about when I come up to this microphone and you throw any language to this people out here you know what I'm saying in the time of need you tell them anything the sky is gray no it's green and they go for it you know why they trust y'all when they vote for y'all they trust y'all and I'm laughing when I saw it cuz I'm like wait they're going to blame the rent leveling board and wasn't that it oh it was the rent leveling board that changed the legislation you text me Miss Fisher P maybe the yes no vote you got it wrong your explanation was totally out of content because some of y'all same Council people was playing both sides against the other okay yes y'all was you Mr Paul you seen me outside fighting that same guy that was up here talking in the park I said hi to you too Paul you walk right by me cuz you was Voting no it didn't matter please y' if y'all don't ever learn learn one thing about Pat waiters I don't take sides I take the people's side the residents that live here that put y'all there I get on them whoever the 4,000 people is I love y'all dearly and I'm begging y'all to continue to vote for me cuz I do what I supposed to do that brings me to Jen's seat and I love you Jen it's sad cuz it's emotional even when the young man just got up here and break down because we know she was a good counsel person y'all all know me and Jenn ain't see eye to eye okay and it's sad a sad situation but what's even sadder you using that seat as a political crutch I waited to see who was going to be honest enough to take these two candidates and whoever else ran for that sixth W and give them the seat people voted for them I waited to see do any of y'all have an ounce of Integrity left but you know what the problem is the mayor's seat I got to put my papers down for this one if the mayor's seat and none of you guys wasn't contemplating on who's running for mayor you wouldn't care about who going to vote for you for that Sixth Ward or not not only it's not fair to the people that live in the Sixth Ward cuz y'all got a political motive you it's illegal go talk to other municipalities they laughing at us but y'all don't care about our reputation here you got to fill the seat guys please don't use it as no political crutch or we need Jen's husband because she was the husband to the late Jing jentina no no there's people that ran and wasn't successful and still interested Manny getting almost worse than me I came here with chemo and cancer on to meet the meeting to let the people know I care I lost so many elections why do y'all meet with the losers in the election and offer them something I've been running 27 years n one of y'all called me n one of y'all wanted to talk to Pat waiters but we got to got to defend her because she get 4,000 votes instead of working with me that's Manny and that's Ian we're here to work with everybody we don't care who we ran against and y'all not going to stop me from running I'm going to run all I'm running for everything besides the Border I'm going to be right here I'm asking y'all tonight and I'm serious do not all of y'all gave them nice little wonderful heartwarming speeches about Jen give us respect even when Jen was alive and she left and it was a big controver about her moving out of the sixth W I stood up here and spoke then I said don't do that replace somebody in that Sixth Ward please with respect for not just the community and no Mr Quint uh Joe because you're counsel at large no council at large that should be your motive anyway to take care of the whole city even you Michael or you ruber whoever got an individual award as a council person take care of everybody so you got to understand night when you vote put please it's only temporarily till you have the 90day election put a candidate that ran for the Sixth Ward that's capable of doing the job and care about the residents I'm wrapping it up cuz I see the clock on but I got to talk about blue violet the uh the Cannabis spot I walked down there and start in trouble I'm not going to lie I didn't even know it was in there and I'm telling the truth guys you know I opened the door I said what is this and they looked at me and they laughed and when this young man walked out the back I said oh my God the city council did what's right I did I gave y'all credit I was like you got a place right across the street you got bars you got a liquor store and they they they establishment is down further so the other ones is nowhere near he is he was in full compliance I wanted to cry and then I get here tonight and y'all want to drag them back in court guys again Integrity I'm I'mma put it in big letters every time I put it on my my petitions when I run everybody else put the word integrity but they don't have it please show me guys thank you too for the extra minutes Mr Doyle and maybe you will whisper in their ear do something but just please protect this man's establishment would all do if it's personal if it's personal while you changing the language rethink what you doing thank you thank you m Waiters so that's it for public comment um uh well this let this woman um yeah could you tell us your name absolutely Laura Matlin Laura excuse me Laura Matlin m a t l i m all right I'll put put this on the the bar and they can sign up thank you yeah just uh housekeeping we're going to going to close session uh once we get through new business to have a discussion with Corporation councel with regard to um Marine View it'll be brief correct yeah so it'll be at the at the end of the meeting so the public will be asked to leave the chambers but there'll be nothing happening thereafter no action thank you thank you okay thank you so much for allowing me to come up and speak last minute I'm Dr Laura Matlin I've spoken up here before on behalf of blue violets um and I actually was not really planning on speaking today because I've been under the weather and I was fairly confident that the council was going to do right by Blue Violet but that confidence seems to have been a little misplaced and I'm really disappointed by that um as I said I've spoken here before and I've introduced myself but allow me to reintroduce myself I am um am quite possibly one of the only if not the only resident of Hoboken with an advanced degree on the topic of cannabis I received my masters last year but prior to that I was a clinical audiologist I received my doctor in 2015 and worked as a pediatric audiologist for many years so I really go for uh working in what is the best interest of the people and children particularly I've had a lot of insight on this um I've emailed you all on this topic Mr Cano is the only one whoever took the time to respond to me despite the fact that I live in the fourth ward um I've never heard back from my councilmen now if we put aside for a fact this the fact for the moment that Hoboken for Two Plus decades has really prided itself on having one of the most bars per capita in the country you can put aside for a second the fact that studies have proven that legal dispensaries in an area um pull the illicit drugs off the street we've seen it happen the studies have happened we can put a for a second that legal dispensaries in any given area are correlated with drops in opiate use and opiate deaths let's forget all that for a second because that is stuff that's based in fact unlike a lot of the unlike the 600 foot rule which is based on no study at all but again put all that aside I'm just really disappointed in Hoboken I've lived here I've been a homeowner here for eight and a half years and I'm just so hurt by this Council and what they are doing to small businesses this is not what Hoboken is about out and we see we have chains come in and that's fine everyone that that's capitalism everyone's allowed to exist but diminishing our small businesses by not allowing them to thrive is not what Hoboken stands for and that's just the morals of it but again the science the fact this is all backwards none of this makes sense I'm so frustrated I'm so angry and I've reached out to all of you like I've said no one has gotten back in touch with me I just wonder what is the knowledge base on cannabis the is making these regulations I would love for to know who the professionals are what were the studies cited that made these rules because I just don't get it I don't understand how we make rules based on nothing and then punish the small businesses that come in here that make Hoboken Thrive that make Hoboken special I'm so frustrated but I emailed you all in February by all means feel free to email me back I'm waiting thank you [Applause] Enrique could you state your last name your penmanship is that oh I apologize I was kind of just getting through it Herrera it's h e r r e r a there's a separate one too thank you uh I would like to just comment on two things uh in terms of the Cyber attack I'm really sorry that that occurred there are a lot of um hacker groups that have frankly compromised our structure of and there are no Cyber attack squads that actually can counter that kind of um Cyber attack I am a victim of Shadow Banning um I don't know if Emily jebber understands I am on social media and I always contact you that way I know you don't really know who I am and it's not I'm not like blaming you for not like responding but it's an obvious Shadow band that's occurred with this Council on regards to what I've been exposing and my expose involved um technological roofies that students used to cheat on tests amongst other things uh I frankly am alone on that issue I have mentioned uh you know what my ex was about I have been professional about it and um there were instances where certain inake facilities like uh RWJ tried to intake me on behalf of what I've speak or I've spoken about involving devices that are indistinguishable from schizophrenia um but that kind of alludes to the disinformation campaign and IND and uh illegitimize of my freedom of speech and expression um again I've done the same thing with Ravi I'm not necessarily wanting to annoy you you know like but if I have to speak louder I will and I've already reiterated that I am under Secret Service watch I have sent emails out I was correct about the neuralink scare um I've communicated with police officers and everything about that if anything if you have any questions about it you can always reach out to me on my social media Enrique Herrera 87 I have extensive knowledge on both the cyber attacks going on and the commun uh Communications breaches involving that communication magnet which is real-time communication it's faster than your walkies you know it's it's like that um the second thing I want to talk about is uh cannabis and how we should be prioritizing you know keeping these business these businesses open and um making sure that they give us that cannabis not illegal gangs that ran this sector for the last 20 years um this PATH station has a lot of illegal activity a lot of people bring in from the city there were a lot of illegal storefronts in which I um frankly uh utilize my skills as a vigilante that was caught by frankly walking into these establishments and making sure that they understood they were illegal storefronts and not legal license dispensaries um I would just go with a simple illegal weed out legal weed in leave these dispensaries alone and if you are going to continue it would always just bring more illegal drugs in more drug dealers in with the capability of disturbing the p in this town thank you thank you Cheryl phallic Cheryl phallic 6 Ward I wasn't going to speak but listening to what some of the folks said here I do think that the city council needs to be spanked hard not because you didn't fill the seat although that was your obligation to the resident of Hoboken but because you're all too cowardly to let people know what your vote would be for Mr ventel Mr Manny Manny or I guess Mr Garcia um I actually had backed into because initially I wasn't even I think all of you know that Jen give me a sec I'll get there Jen was a dear friend of mine so I wasn't even thinking about the six W seat but I did have people call me and say Cheryl you're obvious now that's friends of mine um but I did I wanted I wanted my friend to weigh in on this and I'm going to let her dear friends and neighbors it takes me back to when I first got involved in local elections the 2009 kids first Board of Education race the race epitomized a Grassroots campaign regular Hoboken folks wanting to be involved in Hoboken for the sake of hobok that's who independently together are I first met Cheryl phallic that's me in 2011 when I ran for the first time to be your Sixth Ward Council representative Cheryl drilled me with questions now the word should have been grilled but those of us who know and love Jen know that writing wasn't her best Forte but anyway Cheryl drilled me with questions and I thought what could I ever have in common with this woman it wasn't long before I realized that we both want what's best for Hoboken and that although we sometimes have different approaches it turns out our goals are extremely similar Cheryl has a deep compassion for people and an in desire to help others she notices details that no one else sees and looks for Solutions she has been a constant voice and contributor to the city council on important issues that Hoboken has faced Jen then goes on to talk about Sheila Brennan and and councilman president honor who is now on the council what makes this ticket inspirational is that they are Grassroots hoken will always come first all three will listen and solve now I'm one of those three I am so excited about this ticket that in capital letters I will match any donation given today voter Outreach is expensive and unlike competing machines the independently together slate is not using outside money but rather relying solely on the generosity of friends family hobok and neighbors like you to help them get elected any amount will make a difference and remember today your donation counts twice thank you for being generous for supporting Cheryl that's me Sheila and Paul and voting 9h 10h 11h for all three independently together candidates to be our next at large city council representative for those who have received their vote by mail ballots already you can vote today and make the right choice for you and for Hoboken stay safe and healthy Jen with a phone number now honestly like the gentleman who spoke earlier wasn't really necessarily important for me to get a seat on the council but was what was important to me is imminently important to me that the seat be filled I've reached out to all of you I actually have a text from one of you saying that you don't even ever want to talk to me again literally so I'm not NE I I have to say there is one council person who's been returning my calls but that's it he's going to get dumped on and I'm sorry councilman con you're if really nobody can fill gen suits and we know that you can try um with that said I'm sure everybody who submitted it uh who who raised their hand would have done the best they could possibly do knowing that nobody nobody could ever ever rise to what jeni atino meant to all of us but all of you are too cowardly to let them know and me and I'd love to know I mean I know how some of your votes would go cuz I did speak to some of you but I'd love I'd love my friends to see how the rest of you would vote when somebody put forward the resolution I nominate I a second I nominate Manny solar I'd love to see I'd love to see somebody say I nominate Ian Rell sure and see the votes I'm almost done and lastly and and Mr gcia I think he put in it I'm not sure but I think he did I withdrew you withdrew okay run I respect okay um I would have loved to have seen the vote for me because I vote and a lot of you are running for mayor thank you have a good night and may Jen rest in [Music] peace okay we have to do a do we want to do new business before we go to close session I think we go right into close session motion to go into close session second mot okay all right thank you Jim the death but come on Jim right so why do we have to do public portion again he's saying we have to do it if we go into again e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e motion to come out a close session all in favor I thank you motion to close motion to adjourn wait wait wait he's got to be on first you good motion closed who's second second I nice work there Jim I thought we had to go go back into uh public portion no yeah