okay I like that everyone is nice and quiet so with that being said we're getting ready to start so if we can silence our cell phones as I'm doing can I just have a slack that's good thank you greatly appreciate it and if we can keep the back door closed and the side doors closed i' greatly appreciate that as well okay good evening everyone we are on the record today is Wednesday the 20th day of March in the year 20124 this is a regular meeting of the Jersey City municipal Council we had a scheduled 6 p.m. start the clock on my cell phone is showing 6:04 p.m. May we may we have a roll call for the commencement of this meeting council person Ridley here council person priner here council person bajano here council person s here council person Solomon here council person Gilmore council person Dees council person rera here and council president wman we have all nine council members in attendance at 6:04 p.m. can we kindly rise for a moment of silence please India J Edwards India J Edwards Wayne Taylor re tired Jersey City firefighter thank you very much on behalf of council president wman and the members of the municipal Council in accordance with New Jersey public laws of 1975 chapter 231 the open public meetings act also known as the Sunshine Law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the posting on a bulletin board of the first floor City Hall the annual notice which is the schedule of meetings and caucuses for the municipal Council for the calendar year 2024 and filed the new office of the city clerk on Thursday November 30th 20 2023 in addition at its time of its preparation the agenda of this meeting was similarly disseminated on Friday March 15 2024 at 6:47 p.m. to the mayor Municipal Council business administrator Corporation Council and the local newspapers and posted on the city's website so I can certify as our total compliance with the Sunshine Law okay council members before we move on to uh the order of the agenda as per the Caucus meeting we have some I'm sorry if I'm going in and out we have some late items that we need to add to the agenda officially starting with item 3.4 city ordinance 24- 017 is an ordinance amending the charter of the city of Jersey City to adopt rank Choice voting as the method to elect the mayor councel and School Board subject to the approval of this ordinance by the voters to amend the city Charter by binding referendum to be held upon the enactment of State legislation permitting such Charter Amendment motion oh sorry the other ones also item 3.5 city ordinance 24-18 is an ordinance naming the Miller Branch Library Cultural Arts Center uh Auditorium as the David Dow Williams Cultural Arts Center in honor of Dow David Williams item 3.6 city ordinance 24- 019 is an ordinance amending chapter 175 food handling establishments and 240 chapter 242 piece in good order of the Jersey city code of the city of Jersey City to establish regulations for the thirdparty delivery companies and food deliv delivery drivers and then we move on to our resolutions first addition is item 10.37 resolution 24-2 205 is a resolution of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City recognizing April 1st through April 5th 2024 as National Community Development week next is item 10.38 resolution 24-26 is a resolution authorizing the city of Jersey City to accept a gift of a bronze statute from the family and friends of the late Michael Young and last but not least item 10.39 resolution 24-27 is a resolution authorizing a closed session of the municipal Council on Wednesday April 10th 2024 at 5: pm to discuss issues related to pending litigation council members I need a motion to add items 3.4 five and 10.37 38 and 39 I'm going to give the motion initially to council person Cay and I'm going to give that quick second to council person ver on the motion to add all of those items that I read into the record to the agenda council person Ridley I council person priner Hi council person Bano let's make sure our mics are on council person SLE hi council person Solomon I council person Gilmore I council person Dees I council person Rivera I and council president Waterman motion carries 90 to add the items 3.4 through 3.6 and 10.37 through 10.39 to the agenda so if you would council members I will read the first readings into the record starting with item 3.1 city ordinance 24- 014 is an ordinance amending chapter 87 Amusement devices article one automatic Amusement devices item 3.2 city ordinance 24 de 015 is an ordinance to codify the planting of native plants throughout the city of Jersey City item 3.3 city ordinance 24- 016 is an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic article 9 parking for the disabled of the Jersey city code designated to reserve parking space at various locations throughout the city item 3.4 city ordinance 24- 017 is an ordinance amending the charter of the city of Jersey City to adopt rank Choice voting as the method to elect mayor councel School Board subject to the approval of this ordinance by the voters to amend the city Charter by binding referendum to up to be held upon excuse me the enactment of State legislation permitting such Charter Amendment item 3.5 city ordinance 24- 018 is an ordinance naming the Miller Branch Library Cultural Arts Center Auditorium as the Dow David Williams cultur Arts Center in honor of Dow David Williams and item 3.6 city ordinance 24 d019 is an ordinance amending chapter 175 food handling establishments and chapter 242 peace and good order of the Jersey city code of the city of Jersey City to establish regulations for third-party delivery companies and food delivery drivers council members are going to be taking a vote for introduction on items 3.1 through 3. six council person Ridley I for introduction council person Prince AR I for introduction council person Bano I'm G to abstain on 3.4 and yes on the rest council person SLE I for introduction council person Solomon I for introduction council person Gilmore I for introduction council person Dees intruction council person r I for introduction and council president wman okay items 3.1 through 3.3 are introduced unanimously 90 item 3.4 is introduced 801 with council person Bano abstaining and items 3.5 through 3.6 are introduced unanimously 90 council members since oh do we have she sty you have the resolution you please to the clerk thank you so what we're gonna do we're going to defer to resolution 24- 170 motion to defer motion was made by council person SLE may I have a second second second by council person Rivera on a motion to defer the resolution 24- 170 council person Ridley I council person priner council person bajano I council person SLE I council person Solomon I council person Gilmore I council person Dees council person Riva I and council president Waterman motion carries 90 to defer to resolution 24170 okay I'll just read it quickly it's a resolution honoring the life of Mike Ma M Manara whereas Mike mmana has been a vital part of the city of Jersey City Community since moving here in 2001 and whereas together with his wife Allison they welcomed their Jersey City girl Scarlet Ray in 2012 and whereas Mike mcera has been a pioneer of the city of Jersey City Arts playing an integral role in the cultural landscape of Jersey City whereas Mike mcam professional and accomplished photo photographer and artist photographed the city of Jersey City and its people places and events over the years including an official City portrait of Mayor fulli as well as photo documenting mayor Flip's inauguration and whereas in 2004 Mike McNamara co-founded the non-for-profit Fort Street Arts promoting music and festivals as the Forth Street Art and music festivals The Village block party and and the ball at City Hall and whereas the Forth Street Music and Arts Festival became a hit attracting art and music lovers from all over the city which ran as an annual event for over a decade the event was open to all including children showcasing live music bands art performances comedy acts DJs local Cuisine and street festivals now for there be resolved the city council of the city of Jersey City hereby honor the life of Mike m council members may I take a vote on resolution 24- 170 council person Ridley uh I just want to say reading through this resolution there's a whole lot um that has been accomplished and we appreciate all that's been done for Jersey City with that I vote I thank you council person priner Mike will be truly missed um we attended many of the events with my in-laws even before my husband and I officially moved back to Jersey City um so with that I vote I and thank you for everything council person bajano vote I council person soay Mike will truly be missed and I recently visited the offices for you know the team and um I saw his desk and um it was really just a sad moment to see um all the all the work that he had done for the city and the service that he did and you know we definitely lost a star that I vote I council person Solomon um I I feel like I um by moving basically to the same neighborhood where Mike had lived for decades I was sort of the very personal beneficiary of the extraordinary work he did for Jersey City you know all the work he did with the village neighborhood association the work he did at PS5 the work with the uh Brunswick community garden um the Arts in the village you know his sort of impact on my life and my family's life uh you know to help build this extraordinary Community was uh you know real and felt uh and obviously his his passing is so uh you know devastating devastating for Jersey City uh and I know for uh Allison and Scarlet uh as well and so uh you know this is kind of the honor is the least we can do I want to thank director Flanigan Evelyn for really you know uh ensuring that we got this resolution before us I know that the village is going to work to restart the village block party that he uh you know helped create uh years ago and so his legacy will continue to live on and uh we're just very very grateful that life brought him to Jersey City and he did so much for our city so with that I proudly vote I thank you council person Gilmore I council person Dees I vote I just we're still feeling the loss of his death and but very happy that he was able to be a part of the rekindling of the arts and culture movement downtown council person Riva a True Legacy I vote I and council president wman City resolution 24- 170 is approved unanimously 90 BR Flanigan would like to address the council uh Council um we invited Allison and Scarlet here tonight along with some other members of the uh neighborhood um who supported Mike and Mike supported so I just wanted them to come up to receive the resolution and get the official signed one later this week after the meeting the camera can't be in the middle excuse me she's setting up it can't be in the middle have people have to walk thank you director frenan sh video s okay council members while we're making our way back to our seats as per the Caucus meeting on Monday we talked about um we introduced actually the new first reading ordinance for the um chapter 175 who handling establishments um and through delivery drivers so may I have a motion to defer to ordinate 24-8 motion motion made by council person SLE may have a second second second by council person Solomon on the motion to defer to ordinance 24-8 council person redley I council person priner council person Bano Ste out council person Budan on the motion to defer to ordinance there you go council person SLE hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore council person Dees hi council person Rivera hi and council president wman motion carries 90 to defer to ordinance 24-8 council members I need a motion to move to defeat ordinance 24-8 without conducting a public hearing based on introducing or um 24- 019 motion motion made by council person Cay may I have a second second second by council person Solomon on the motion to defeat ordinance 24- Z8 without conducting a public hearing council person Ridley defeat right so I a motion to defeat yes I next one we're not going to say I council person Prince jry hi council person bajano Hi council person SLE hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person Dees council person Rivera I and council president wman motion carries 90 to move to defeat ordinance 24-8 without a public conducting a public hearing on ordinance 24-8 council person Ridley no council person priner no council person bajano council person SLE no council person Solomon no council person Gilmore no council person Dees no council person Riva no and council president wman I haven't had that many knows since I was an infant all right city ordinance is defeated with zero n all council members voting no for ordinance 24- 008 okay thank you so much council members Sean yes Sean can you just explain real briefly what just happened um because I'm looking in the face of some of the people on a stance and they was sure little confused so if you get explain absolutely so ladies and gentlemen what we and people members at home what we did we introduced a new ordinance replacing the second reading ordinance because the second reading ordinance would have had too many substantial changes and would have required me to read vertise it anyway so the cleanest way to do it is to introduce the new ordinance with all of the Amendments that are in there it contains all the Amendments that were discussed with council person Solomon um and the community and that's why we introduced it first and that's why we went to defeat this ordinance because we introduced the first one so the second Reading had no meaning um and uh we had to defeat it for the cleanest way to introduce the uh new ordinance does that make sense good council person Gilmore well we still a little confused but um explanation is on the record so we can have some first unless councilman Solomon wants to uh chime in we're good okay all right on to our second reading ordinances item 4.2 city ordinance 24-9 is an ordinance of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City adopting amendments to the polus hook Redevelopment plan and creating the block 11606 Redevelopment plan this is a public hearing on this ordinance any member of the public wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record motion second motion to close a public hearing on city ordinance 24 009 was made by council person Rivera seconded by council person stalle on the motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 24-9 council person Ridley I council person priner I council person Bano hi council person SLE hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore I council person de I council person Riva I and council president wman motion Carri 90 to close the public hearing on city ordinance 24-9 a final consideration and Adoption of city ordinance 24009 council person Ridley hi council person priner Hi council person bajano Hi council person Cay I council person Solomon um just wanted to say you know uh a couple things I said this briefly at the caucus but um like anything um you know nothing is ever perfect but there are a couple things here that that lead me to vote for yes um on this um the first which is so important is is we just have a desperate desperate need for affordable housing in downtown um and it's been a priority of ours to to get that um and this will we deliver 90 units um some with rents lower than $1,000 um and truly uh create you know opportunity for 90 families access to Great Schools Transit um things like that um desperate need for open space we're going to get a 12,000 s foot Park uh through this including a dog run which we don't really have a public dog run anywhere in the vicinity of the neighborhood um and then uh full taxes no tax abatement um and that will help deal with the to the tax burden that's being put on property owners so all those things get me to a yes and so that's why I vote Yes council person Gilmore I council person Dees I council person Riva I and council president Warman city ordinance 24- 009 is adopted unanimously 90 on to our next second reading ordinance item 4.3 city ordinance 24- 012 is an ordinance of the municipal Council of the city of Jersey City adopting amendments to the Liberty Harbor North Redevelopment plan regarding use and bulk standards on tax block 15907 also known as block 24 of the Redevelopment plan this is a public hearing on this ordinance any member of the public wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record good evening council president council members Mr clerk Gerard P my name is Gerard pillo I'm an attorney with Jova Burns I'm appearing this evening on behalf of uh an adj adjacent property owner lhn owner urban renewal LLC and LH and2 LLC um and we're appearing before you to ask and respectfully uh defeat this proposed ordinance um although it comes after a recommend and referral from the planning board I think there are still legitimate concerns and issues with the proposed height of this building um and despite the limiting language in the resolution because of the existing language in the Redevelopment plan that will remain even if this amendment were to be adopted the proposed structure would be greater and a lot larger than what's really intended and it would adopting this proposed Redevelopment plan uh would essentially pay the way for an as of right building that is a lot higher than really what is anticipated for for those reasons we would respectfully request that this board or this Council uh reject the proposed amendment and defeat it thank you is still a public hearing your name for the record good evening Gregory asadorian from the law firm of uh dtas Fitzpatrick Cole Giblin I represent the property owner Liberty Harbor North Partners LLC um couple things I want to say firstly this property has been vacant for over 20 years the Liberty Harbor North uh reone plan was adopted in 2001 it's now been over two decades and this property remains vacant um this Council has approved the redel plan and several amendments to it and what was permitted there for all these years was a hotel it was a hotel 16-story hotel with a with a height what we are proposing is that the hotel remain a permitted use and in addition to the hotel a 32 story Residential Building be permitted not to exceed the height of the hotel um I know you just heard Mr braillo tell you that this building is going to be taller it is not it's going to be the same exact height of the hotel the only thing that we're asking is that in addition to a hotel a residential building also be permitted with the same height so the Shadow or the height or the structure of the building the footprint it will all be the same the only thing we're saying is ADD residential to the use now if the residential is added I think it's important for this body to know that the Liberty Harbor North Redevelopment plan has been around since 2001 it's 84 Acres out of those 84 Acres there are zero affordable housing units this project is proposing for 15% set aside which is 45 units that means 45 families that cannot afford or live in the Liberty Harbor North District Revel plan will now have an opportunity to live there and if you look at this City's master plan and the housing plan the master plan land use element November 2021 and I need to just bring this to your attention to show you how this proposed project complies with the master plan your master plan says on page 45 nearly half the land in the Liberty Harbor North and Grand Jersey is vacant or under improved this will develop it Division of Community Development Works to preserve and increase Jersey City's affordable housing stock that's page 52 this will propose 45 affordable units where zero exist Redevelopment is a key land use tool to promote revitalization that are unlikely to be addressed by existing Market forces that's paid 79 of your master plan that speaks specifically to this project over 20 years no development this will help develop this project page 85 construction of housing is booming but cannot keep up with regional demand that's what this will do it would help keep up with regional demand and probably most importantly page 17 6 of this City's Master PL I'm thank you may I just add says city has a significant need time is up that's it this is still a public hearing on this ordinance good evening this is my name is Ralph salermo I am a principal in Liberty Harbor North Partners the developer of uh the proposed amendment this evening um I appreciate the council's time and allowing me to speak um this is a classic story of uh David and Goliath you know have JP Morgan trying to block this development um that is basically no larger than what would be permitted if it were a hotel and it is much shorter than the properties that they have towering over this vacant lot that's set for 20 years um I've been working in communities I'm a minority developer I've been working in communities like Jersey City and have worked in Jersey City putting minorities and residents to work and this is a tremendous opportunity for affordable housing in a Redevelopment area that has none um and I'm committed to this project and I appreciate your support thank you can I get a better understanding liby Harbor North is that going in from Johnson Avenue down into liy Port is that where we at on that side or is this on the other side downtown back Grand Street this Le it's near the it's like a block away from from Where the Boys and Girls Club is if you know where the boys and girls it's like about a block away from that yeah so this is the group that brought the boys club out and move them down from where they was on Grand this ain't the same group not not the same group it's just near there but not the same group it's near the new boys club at where they mov okay so the plan is they don't want no affordable housing down there but we going to put some down there you understand that that's that's the next we don't want my mouth no more tonight okay about that project thank you thanks Leon this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 24- 012 any member of the public wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record evening council members evening my name is Dean maretto I'm the architect for the uh applicant uh I just wanted to say that this block down in Liberty Harbor North uh is a regular 200x 400t block there are two 45 story Towers on the Block and there's a third footprint for a tower as the lawyer had said Greg uh that there is a hotel plan for this the hotel is allowed to be 340t tall and it's a 16-story hotel they anticipated taller floor Heights I have two exhibits this is a scale model of a 340t hotel show 16 uh 16 stories this is a model of the Residential Building we're proposed it's exactly the same height and feet they're both 340 uh feet tall the difference is that the floor to floor Heights here are residential they're about 9 fo8 or 10 foot feet 10 ft floor to floor so I can fit more floors in residential use in this box than the floors that are allowed in this box just by making the floor to floor Heights more like a normal residential floor to floor height changing the use from hotel to residential without increasing the height um and by doing so the additional floors will allow us to provide 45 units of affordable housing thank you thank you this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 2 4-12 any members of the public still wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record motion I just wanted to correct myself Dean moretto again it's not that we're changing the use we're allowing an additional use the hotel can still go if a hotel developer comes after 20 years no one has come to build a hotel we're just saying that besides the hotel we would like to be able to choose residential which would allow the affordable housing nothing's changing motion second thank you motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 24 day 012 was made by council person Riva and thank you seconded by council person SLE on the motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 24- 012 council person Ridley I council person priner Hi council person bana hi council person SLE I council person Solomon I council person Gilmore I council person Dees hi council person r hi and council president wman Hi motion carries 90 to close a public hearing on city ordinance 24- 012 for final consideration and Adoption of city ordinance 24- 012 council person Ridley I council person priner I council person bajano Hi council person CLE I council person Solomon uh is this the final vote Yes okay um yes we voted on this once before for and we've been asked to do it again so I vote I council person Gilmore I council person Dees council person River hi and council president wman Hi city ordinance 24- 012 is adopted unanimously 90 on to our last second reading ordinance item 4.4 city ordinance 24- 013 is an ordinance supplementing chapter 332 vehicles and traffic Article 2 traffic regulation section 3328 prohibited right turns on red signal to prohibit turns on red at all times at multiple locations in proximity to schools and parks in the Heights neighborhood this is a public hearing on this ordinance any member of the public wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record I am Chelsea Pleasant sir just give me one second Chelsea I'm sorry just got to get the camera on you set the clock ready my name is Chelsea Pleasant are a mom of two kids and a member of the JC Heights parents who represents the community group's interest in improving Street safety for all Road users we want to sincerely thank the department of infrastructure director Patel mayor Philip councilman Sal Solomon and bajano and jcpd North Captain Peterson for working with us in this mission to make our streets safer since our campaign started two months ago and working to pass the no on red ordinance in the Heights we also want to thank the 1,400 plus residents who signed the petition and countless organizations and local businesses who Amplified our call for change we want to make this clear this is a matter of urgent Public Health crisis while we appreciate this ordinance this is a call for more between December and January there were four hidden runs that we know of two in the Heights one was fatal one involved a child and one was witnessed by a fellow mom who was inspired to start this campaign there are countless near misses every day this ISS issue hits closer and closer to home two weeks ago a mother was hit downtown dropping off her daughter at school by a car who simply couldn't see the stop sign due to cars blocking the view later that evening a mother Parks park car was hit as she was unloading Groceries on Summit Avenue in the Heights traumatizing both her and her daughter in the process truly our worst fears are coming true we want to set all Road users up for Success because guess what we're not only scared for our lives and our children's lives but we're afraid of being the cause of someone else getting injured or worse this is a public health hazard we're parents seeking Solutions not experts in short we want to see the following we need more resources put towards Reckoning with growing with the growing epidemic on the infrastructure side we need to increase Staffing and project budget with dedicated resources per Ward and employed a tiered system level response to residents requests for intersection improvements so a level of safety can be provided immediately on the enforcement side there's a large discrepancy between the municipal budget allocation and the level of patrolling Personnel to combat issues of traffic violence which we urge you to look into while we believe we should focus on enforcement as the last line of defense and double down on effective traffic engineering as a first enabling a Traffic Unit would be key to a zero tolerance policy on offensive Drive driving and parking behaviors to change our toxic driving culture we need an we need your unwavering political backing to raise this issue on a priority list you need to set the bar of what our road should look like feel like and where the negotiation should begin should there be push back as an example hobok New Jersey was able to achieve unprecedented results in their Vision zero program due to their firm commitment you have the real power to amplify this conversation and seek what will take our vision strategy and all of the amazing things we have been accomplished thus far to the next level thank you thank you this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 24 d013 Mandy Spangler I'm sorry your name again Mandy Spangler okay good evening Council I am a mother of two a Heights resident for8 years my husband and I are greatly invested in this community today I put my aversion to public speaking aside for my family and my fellow neighbor I support ordinance 24-13 and encourage you to implement the same in all Jersey City Wards however this ordinance is a drop in the bucket in terms of what is required to meet the needs of your constituents this is what I experience as a resident in the height every day red lights are broken with alarming frequency and predictability Vehicles barrel down our populous streets at hazardous speeds stop and no turn on red signs are treated as a suggestion crosswalks are blocked and obscured by Vehicles parking or idling irresponsibly no passing zones are not observed you must assume the rules of the road will not be followed and you must achieve ion contct with drivers prior to availing of your right of way the toxic driver Behavior has led to my husband and I experiencing near misses that are disturbing both independently and with our children in toe what we encounter is a shared reality for the pedestrians in the heights I believe the issue stems from multiple factors ineffective Road design and traffic engineering setting even the most responsible driver up to fail lack of a holistic approach to change and peacemeal implementation of improvements insufficient levels of enforcement creating an anything goes environment although Jersey city has led the way with adopting Vision zero implementation seems to have stalled so now I stand here and I plead with you to use the power afforded to you to not just do better I implore you to drive the momentum needed for a swift transformation to the face of pedestrian safety in the Heights and all of Jersey City I fail to see the downside of making Jersey City a safe place to walk lastly to quote mayor FIP it is our duty to protect the lives of all residents employees and visitors of our great city thank you still a public hearing good evening uh my name is Maria kinberg and I'm the president of the Riverview neighborhood association the Riverview neighborhood association we're Association in w d in the Heights and our mission is to work with community members to improve quality of life in the Heights neighborhood so we um we support the no right on red ordinance um and we want to thank the JC Heights parents group for bringing this up and advocating for Safe Streets and we also think that we also want to support adopting this as a Citywide initiative um that seems like something that council could do we also endorse the petition that the JC Heights parents groups put forward um there are so many things that we can do to improve the safety of our streets uh some of the things that were in that petition that we support as well traffic lights stop signs speed humps um changes to the speed zone to reduce traffic fatalities um no parking on crosswalks and as was stated enforcement enforcement enforcement enforcement if we do not enforce the laws we and we Implement them then we're not doing anything and I think that's what we see in the Heights every day when people go through stop signs don't go you know don't stop at red lights this happens const l so we absolutely have to work with the police force and get them on board when we're making these changes to ensure that these changes are actually enforced and we can see the improvements and quality of life um and then you know to exactly what was said in terms of you know continuing with vision zero and making sure that we're implementing that plan as quickly as possible um we're here to improve quality of life in the Heights and unfortunately when we do not have Safe Streets we're seeing fatalities as was as was said as as well so we want you to do as much as you can as soon as possible so thank you so much um for this opportunity to speak this is still a public hearing hello uh I'm Jonas uh from the heights Jonas stankovich uh I live on Palisade and Franklin in the Heights and uh Palisade is Avenue is a really really busy street it's like a it's like a zoo especially during rush hour and I walk my dog all the time and um uh people making right on reds it's got to be the most dangerous uh uh traffic violation traffic issue um because what'll happen is uh people don't stop at the white line they'll go past the white line into the crosswalk to look to make their ride on red and so a lot of times especially at night I'll be trying to cross in the crosswalk and they won't see me uh and I've had so many near misses I I hope I'll still be around to see this pass um but it's very very dangerous uh and I can only imagine what it would be like for kids you know people who are who are not as easy to be to be seen by drivers um and so um I think this is a great first step uh the other thing to think about is I mean uh uh following these these traffic rules is largely an honor System here I've noticed um and I see people all all the time go through stop signs go through red lights uh go over the speed limit they have really loud Vehicles sometimes too and they just barrel down Palisade um so just keep that in mind uh it's great to pass a a a law to do this um I don't know how well it's going to get enforced though uh because obeying the traffic laws in this city is an honor System and some people are really good about that some people don't want to follow the rules um so I just urge you uh to pass this uh to think of it as a first step and then uh to start the hard work of thinking how we can make the streets safer thanks thank you d a public hearing you got to come a little closer to the mic and raise the mic and state your name for the record please hello I'm Crystal Pickins I'm a resident of Ward B and I have been for over 10 years um I have two kids ages seven and three who we walk to school and around the city every day on January 17th 225 p.m. my husband Pat was hit by car it was a clear and beautiful sunny day although we'd recently had snow the roads were perfectly clear Pat was pushing our stroller on his way to pick up our youngest child from school when he was struck in a crosswalk on Westside Avenue when he called me after he was hit I was shocked and scared and I honestly didn't know what to do so I called one of my best friends whose husband was hit by a car several years ago also in Jersey City because she'd been through it I knew she would know what to do what are the odds that a close friend has been in this exact scenario in Jersey City these days it's starting to feel more and more common that this would be the case we probably all know at least one person who has had at least a close call with a pedestrian and car incident if not worse this is not okay physically my husband is now mostly okay though he's still not comfortable walking our three-year-old to school our stroller was broken from the impact and there's a lot of spiraling that we can go through as parents when something like this happens and we think about the details our family experienced a trauma that day and we are still experiencing the effects and I imagine we will be for a while we need to have better systems in place to slow down drivers to make drivers more aware make pedestrians more aware increase visibility and make our community safer we need to FasTrack any plans that will help us achieve Vision zero across all areas of Jersey City there are some ways that we can do that first I'd like to say I'm in full support of this ordinance for no turn on red and I would love to see it expanded throughout the entire city as soon as possible second if we can create comprehensive daylighting at the approaches to intersections this can be extremely beneficial to increasing visibility at crosswalks third some of our lights have automatic crosswalks signals when you come to the light but many of them don't we should change this so that they're all included and lights um and inter sections where there aren't lights should include flashing push buttons for pedestrians and finally we need more enforcement for both parking violations and moving violations around inter intersections and crosswalks when we start regularly having some consequences for these types of issues we will likely start to see a change in these behaviors in closing I know that people make mistakes and things will still happen but with better infrastructure and better systems in place to support our community we can all feel a little safer when we're walking around our neighborhoods thank you okay next speaker good evening my name is Megan Carolyn I am also uh a resident of WBY and I'm the friend who received the phone call because I have also been through this before my husband was hit by a car at the intersection of JFK and sip about four years ago um that car was making a left turn he was crossing the car was turning left both had the green the car should have yielded and he didn't we were told at the scene that thank God the driver stopped because if they'd continued going my husband likely would have been seriously injured or possibly killed Crystal's husband was struck while the car was going I believe straight right on red and getting rid of it in select or even all neighborhoods is phenomenal and I'm largely you know so in favor of this ordinance but I really just want to drive home the the point that it is a first step it's a drop in the bucket um highspeed impact are what kill people and when people are able to hit higher speeds on straightaways like JFK which is not designed like a local Road those uh crashes are more and and more damaging I know that when we talk about you know JFK for example it's this hot potato right it's a County Road it's so much harder to make change there but when we look at really where people are are injured and killed JFK is a spot that needs a lot a lot more uh intervention I also just want to give an acknowledgement to the JC Heights parent parents group because you all did tremendous tremendous work that's giving all of us momentum in the community now I knew that you all were working on this but to hear that in two months from a petition we're here today with an ordinance I mean just really incredible incredible work for all of you there's really there the best time to have made these Road changes was yesterday the next best time is right now and seeing this starting tonight is empowering and I hope the community continues this momentum to move forward through throughout the whole city thank you thank you our next speaker hi my name is Alexa W Bell uh and I'm here to support the no right on red ordinance because it feels like my life depends on it I moved to Jersey City a few months before my son Sebastian was born in 2021 I loved my life in Brooklyn I'm an editor at the New York Times and a DieHard New Yorker I'd never envisioned moving to New Jersey but I had friends who lived in Jersey City and they encouraged me to come visit and I fell in love with visions of life here with my family strolls overlooking Manhattan at Riverview Fisk Park Saturdays at Liberty Science Center the convenience of a smooth commute to Manhattan a lovely city with diversity and activities in history and Beauty I've been mugged at knife point in New York City and assaulted another time when someone punched me in the face and ran off with my purse but on a day-to-day basis I feel more unsafe walking on the streets of Jersey City and specifically my neighborhood in the Heights then I did overall in the streets in Brooklyn I've been clipped pushing my stroller around as someone raced through a red light at a corner next to persing field I live on JFK Boulevard also known as the boulevard of death and I've heard more crashes than I can count on one hand in the three short lives that years that I've lived here I wrapped holiday lights on my son's stroller for the holidays in late November and only begrudgingly allowed my husband to take them off 3 months later I was comforted by the idea that they might increase visibility and keep Seb safer offer a tiny bit of protection in their glow other parents followed suit admitting they felt safer with lights on their strollers I feel like I need to wait to excuse me I need to wave and make obvious eye contact with drivers before I step into the street even at crosswalks and stoplights because I've seen so many drivers drive so recklessly rolling through stop signs whizzing through red lights and speeding around corners My overall experience becoming a proud inhabitant of Jersey City has been wonderful we found a loving supportive community and we've made the routines we dreamed of and have found joy culture and Community here but neither this city nor its inhabitants can Thrive without some basic expectation of safety we shouldn't live with fear to cross these streets please pass the no turn on red ordinance and continue to make pedestrian safety a top priority because our lives depend on it thank you our next speaker good good evening my name is Dr Jennifer Maron and I am here to support the no write on red ordinance I have been a member of the downtown community for 13 years and I am coming up on my 10-year anniversary when I was struck by a car at 6 and Marin luckily I was okay um it was really scary but I feel like in these past 13 years crossing the street has just felt more and more safe I support this ordinance when I heard about this rally it just felt like it was a really good reason to bring my daughter for to justify why she sees me get really angry and yell at at people on the streets when we're crossing um I guess it's just my weird mom guilt but this is not enough it's going to take a lot more I don't have a ton of solutions to propose here um I'm just here to just share my support thank you next speaker good evening my name is Karen vop I um in 2001 I um was crossing the street uh for where I used to live to go the wide street that is uh by the H tunnel and I had the green and the other person had the green as well but he was turning and he just didn't look at me he was watching where he was going to take gas so that's that long ago and then I fear that not only has nothing changed it got so much worse um another example a Montgomery seems to be the street although it has the um uh tra um sorry bike lane I'm on bikes a lot where I get most into trouble I was going to the post office and um where you are at to turn to go into um St Peters uh or St Peter prep I was going straight that lady of course had a green but she turned and she almost ran me over and I told her she had her window down and she's like what are you doing I'm like I'm going straight I have the green and she's no you need to look for me I'm like I do not that's not how that works you can go once I pass and too many drivers just they feel like they're in the car and go first that's it and today I was on the opposite direction Montgomery going towards Bergen Avenue I got hit I didn't get hit luckily but it came close twice in like minutes um the second time was the worst it's in a street I can barely pronounce tourist Avenue I think it goes um and it was early in the morning um and a and a Truck just ran I don't know how fast like I'm I'm surprised that his his wheels didn't go up and I just have to make sure that I didn't land under that truck that just shouldn't be the case I'm so glad that this is happening I'm glad for the parents and in the Heights that something is getting done and I'm glad that they're advocating for the whole city for things to change thank you this is still a public here ing next speaker hi Tony belli vice president of bike JC I'll just briefly register our organization's strong support for all of the measures under consideration here tonight and also for all of the uh more comprehensive and widespread measures for which you've heard unanimous support here tonight thank you evening uh my name is Brian Sue I'm here with my son Jacob I'm I'm sorry your your your first name Brian Brian Brian Brian um Jacob was uh struck by a hit and run driver about two months ago at Grove and grand um this is an update he's recovering well he finally got the cast to taken off in his in a boot back in school doing well um but I also fully support um any changes that improve traffic safety pedestrian safety in Jersey City um I hope that we can have a no right turn on red ordinance throughout the city um and I'm just fully in support of this thank you this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 24 d013 our next speaker evening my name is jav Ares I'm a resident of the heights thank you very much for uh for allowing me to speak to you today so I'm on support of the no right turn on red uh ordinance I think it's a terrific program um however I think we have to do more the the heights um Traffic Safety is horrendous uh walking to the central and going to a restaurant is just an ordeal but um I think there's a bigger problem um and the utility companies are just destroying the streets you pave the streets they come in this so please do better because you know safe that's a big safety concern the cars are going faster they lose control I mean there's so many things but anyways thank you very much I I think we have to do more um I understand that the department of infr infrastructure is here we would like for you to call on them to hear from them what they have to say thank you very much thank you this is still a public hearing on city ordinance 24 is 013 all right my name is Sam Ortiz you can see I'm a school C School traffic guard for Georgia city it becom increasingly difficult and I we need your support uh I support the oran of no turn and red and uh no turn on rate at all school zone must be must be at join School sections majority of drivers are all over from new from neighboring City borderline out of state that comes into Georgia city Main Street JFK commun Montgomery Etc from Union City sarus KY Beyond and New York City especially ghost tags vehicles that have temporary PL paper plates attached that are the majority concerned of driving behavior through Jersey City neighborhood pedestrian they have no regards to traffic laws or yield safety regulation let alone failures to yield failures turn signal or no indication no seat belt texting while driving under influence upon driving in intoxication while driving underage driving non-elderly handicap Place drivers do not comply upon complete stop and most importantly International Drivers unable to understand traffic rules the lack of visual display on street sign and need speed indication bumps on every school zone inter intersection again thank you for your time and courtesy Amy Gano rman thank you this is still a public hearing our next speaker hi I'm Rebecca Sanchez um and I'm in the Heights and I just wanted to get my support here for everything that needs to be done to make our uh just our city better um it's hard because I'm a stay-at-home mom and I I walk with my kids all the time all over and um even with the lights it's hard for me to really trust that cars are going to actually stop and you know take and actually wait for me to cross the street with my kids um and I always tell my kids I we you need to be so close to me because I'm just that I I've Seen It All I've seen it like countless times where drivers will just go and think that they can just you know basically almost run you over um and I just wanted to put my support for this and anything we can do to move forward uh would be great thank you thank you this is still a public public hearing on city ordinance 24- 013 any member of the public still wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record hello I'm Talia Schwarz I'm h president of Safe Streets JC I want to thank the council for pushing forward with the no turn on red ordinance in the heights this is a great first step uh like everyone else here I want to support that and I want to say it's not enough um it's it's just not enough to address the driving behavior in the city on my way here I watched a pedestrian try and cross Christopher Columbus Drive he had a green light uh when a car turning left honked at him for being in the way and then he scuttled back to the corner uh and did not cross the street he was bullied by a car driver things are getting worse every single person including I'm sure all of you sitting in this room has a story about driver aggression we had four deaths and many injuries caused by cars on city streets last year all on streets that are well known to be dangerous and have not received Vision zero improvements as a reminder to this Council fewer than 40% of the people in the city use cars to commute to work so the vast majority of us are walking the streets and we are being terrorized by dangerous drivers I live on the west side and thanks to councilwoman Prince and the city transportation and planning teams Duncan a was utterly transform this year this is a road where a teenage girl was killed by a car just a few years ago and is part of the high Injury Network if studies were done now on Duncan AB it would be clear that cars are driving the actual speed limit and you can watch kids safely cross the street thanks to design changes including daylighting bike lanes and other intersection management I'm here to ask for this treatment throughout the entire city across the entire High Injury Network first near all the transport ation hubs parks and schools this no turn on red light ordinance will be helpful but we need to shift resources to the planning and transportation team so they can make more improvements quickly as the president of Safe Streets JC I get emails from residents asking for help to make their neighborhood safe often they've already tried other things and are desperate for help calls for more enforcement removing violations have gone unanswered from the police saying they don't have the Manpower with 900 police officers Jersey City definitely has the manpower to address this public safety crisis finally we ask that our Council recognize the danger cars are to everyone who is walking the streets and take the problem more seriously we should make no turn on red throughout the whole city we are highly Urban and pedestrian environment we need the city council to push for more improvements like Banning left turns lowering the speed limits and create one-way streets we are a busy city with a lot of people using the sidewalks and the streets not just the cars thank you thank you our next speaker how you doing Greg Nadler um just want to share our personal experience so for the last seven years I've been living in the heights for the last two of those every morning I take my son to daycare uh I have to cross Palisade AV one time there are two crosswalks one of which I don't even use because I don't trust cars to stop it's right in front of one of the lights that one of this band is uh proposed for uh and I'm just worried cars are going to try to catch a light and hit me and not care uh the other one is um typically blocked by some sort of delivery van uh this morning was the first time I had to take my daughter who's five months old to school once again there was a delivery van parked uh not just blocking the vision from the crosswalk but literally over it uh so I went around the van which meant I had to jwalk and then I was yelled at by a vehicle for jaywalking so I don't know what the answer is I just know there's a problem specifically in the Heights and I think this ordinance can help thank you good evening council president members of the council uh Jimmy Lee on the board of Safe Streets JC um I want to express support for expansion of no turn on red this is another Common Sense Improvement it just makes sense something turn on red is something appropriate for rural areas and not appropriate for a busy City with many people we've all experienced it you want to cross at a stoplight uh from the right but a car is already pulled ahead blocking the crosswalk the driver's looking left and doesn't even notice you trying to cross but as you can see from the comments tonight we need to go much further and this only begins to chip away at the problem statistically that makes sense left turns for example are very dangerous and 17 times more dangerous than right turns drivers are not yielding on green left or right um drivers are all running stop signs or intersections with no stop signs and folks standing in crosswalks we need accelerated Safe Streets improvements and I reiterate those calls for Universal daylighting that's something that's accessible simple cheap and just blocks people from doing something that is already illegal in nowhere in New Jersey is it legal to PO to park within 25 ft of that intersection um that daylighting can be the difference between uh life and death um I also want to just rear calls in order to achieve these accelerated improvements I I think we need more staff and funding to build those quick build improvements uh I asked the council look into um uh improving the the budgeting for the transportation department um and second I also want to reate all the calls for traffic enforcement I especially thankful for all the crossing guards around the city uh and and for the crossing guards that are here with us tonight they're often disrespected uh they don't have enforcement Power by themselves and uh I I would ask for traffic enforcement and traffic enforcement paired with crossing guards in order to uh increase uh compliance with with their important directions so yeah I stand in solidarity with uh all the folks in the Heights um this is basic dignity and a basic right for us to travel safely from point A to point B in our city thank you hey guys my name is Tina NOS um I was just actually just going over this what I had did no turn no right turns on red um I'm not from Jersey City but I've been living here for a long time I know that we created up on the hill big bump nasty Ro nothing have ever changed since then education and G you know um Jermaine I believe was here cuz his son got killed on boss with I believe Kim her son got killed too because of what happened and stuff I don't know exactly what yall going to do if it's going to make sense of making no right turns or which way that y'all could do so some of the kids and some of the adults won't get hurt and stuff like that so this is a good touching of what's going on in our community a lot of kids and a lot of adults are getting hurt so we just need to find another way of what it is and I believe it's just so much it's like many New York look how New York is a lot of people came from New Yorkers over here and they all speeding and stuff this not the community no more like it used to be for housing and family and stuff like this this is like now many New York not Jersey City so I don't know what we're going to do and we definitely overpack with all the cars here in Jersey City I'm in F so I defitely know and you know thato in war f as going around with the bikes look atson Avenue you even ride P we got the people riding the bikes and we got the cars I mean when they designed this they designed it some kind of way so I don't know what y'all going to do and I pray that y'all do the final things and make sure everything is good so families and everything can get the help they need motion this is still a public heing on city ordinance 24- 013 any member of the public still wishing to be heard please come up to the podium and state your name for the record motion so motion to close the public hearing was originally made by council president Waterman and I'll give the second to council person Riva on the motion to close the public hearing on city ordinance 24- 013 council person Ridley hi council person Prince hi council person budano Hi Council person SLE hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore council person Dees hi council person rer Hi and council president wman Hi motion carries 90 to close the public hearing on city ordinance 24- 013 a final consideration and Adoption of city ordinance 24- 013 council person Ridley I council person priner I just want to thank um all the advocates for the work that you all have done here it's remarkable um I want to thank our department of infrastructure you guys do an amazing job with coming up with short-term and long-term solutions to the problems that we have here on our streets we're a growing city we have over a million cars come through on a regular basis because of our proximity to New York not just our own residents that live here um and thank you too for those that Shar their stories that were very painful we app appreciate that you took the time to do that I know that that takes some courage as well um and for those on the west side we are working on improvements on Mal not only mallerie and Westside but also coming up along Bergen and monacello so if you have other ideas please do reach out to me you guys live on your streets you know what's best for your Corners the same way that I know what's best for mine with that I vote I council person bajano I agree with everyone that got up here and spoke and I'm going to tell you something the real problem is in the police department we we don't have any motorcycles we don't have any walking cops and when I was on the police department we had close to 1,00 cops but they were out in the street issuing summonses now you see a radio car sit there a person runs a red light they don't do nothing because they're told not to uh some of the politicians in the state have got to start having laws enforced and stop this BS I I speak to most of the cop and I feel sorry for them uh as I said I spent 36 years in the Jersey City police department and never never never saw anything like what's going on today so I vote Yes council person slay so tonight I want to thank my friends my neighbors my residents um everyone in Jersey City that came to advocate for this I want to thank the department of infrastructure for their hard work proposing this this was something that was in the works and being discussed but without your support without you guys coming and saying we want this done you know it would have faced a lot more resistance and that's why we appreciate when the community comes out and they voice their support for measures it makes everyone's job a lot easier and we do need to see this Citywide um because people's lives are at risk I know for myself and I know a lot of people shared their stories when I was five or six I was crossing with my dad um on Central Avenue and Congress Street so a drive a car a sports car was coming up Congress Street makes the right on red and back then there wasn't no right turn on red sign it exist and then he hits me and my dad and my dad um literally cursed him out and then he cursed out my dad and then they get into a fight and then he they're ripping each other's shirts and punching each other it was just like it was chaos this was when I was five or six years old and um my sister got hit by a car on Congress and New York Avenue this uh this car just drove through stop sign um going down New York Avenue and then hit another car jumped the curb pinned her to a tree while she was a pedestrian um and then the firefighters came out to save her life and this was before she was supposed to get married um these are really pressing issues and your advocacy today can make the difference in someone living and not living someone having a life of disability and someone being able to see their next child's birthday because people come to the heights to you know H raise their families to plant roots we have a lot of long-term residents there but we also have a lot of newcomers uh that are coming to the area to raise their families and it's a very very diverse Ward and you know this is one of the measures that we need to get done not just here but Citywide um we also need to discuss lowering the speed limit near the school zones um and I know the department of infrastructure has brought that forward and I bring that to everyone here and I propose it and I let it out into the universe to bringing it down to 15 miles an hour around school zones we need um better mass transit we need um possibly bus lane or light rail on Kennedy Boulevard because the less cars we have on the road the safer it is for everybody we need more daylighting and it should be um built into every infrastructure project that we have Citywide if they're doing a sewer project they got to tear up the roads we should automatically be installing these uh larger curves so that people don't park and reduce visibility for other people um we need more enforcement uh as Mo kinberg said and um I agree with everyone that said we need more enforcement especially boano um we need I I implore everyone here to go to their Captain's meetings and to make their voices heard because the heights parents group they went to the captain's meeting they're getting 24 summonses a month for traffic infractions and that's gone up to over 300 in the north and we need more of that we need more enforcement on the local level for these infractions that's the only way there was a hit and run on uh North Street and Webster um near the park and that necessitated um we we did a traffic study around there but we asked for more enforcement after the parents went to the captain's meeting and then they put two undercover cop cars there and they they were giving out summons it's left and right to everyone that was going through the stop sign I think crossing guard should have body cameras and they should be able to write the tickets remotely as well so that's that's just some some of the ideas but I know that we could achieve this safer streets if we work together and we bring our Collective energies to the four and then we Advocate like this we can accomplish so so much and this is just the beginning of the beginning uh I'm going to realize this dream of safer streets with you we're throwing in more speed humps more stop signs we're doing more of the flashing beacons we're going to do more of these policy proposals as well with that I vote I thank you council person Solomon for um I'm gonna proudly vote I um for thank my colleagues councilman Council Bano for working on this for the heights thank the department of infrastructure for their work um I try to meet with them so much that they sometimes tell me I can't meet with them because I keep wanting to meet with them on streets and they restrict my time but I understand why because they have a whole city to take care of but most importantly a thank you to the parents who have really elevated this all the community members in the Heights downtown Westside and across the city uh because as you say and 100% right is lives are at stake um and every time that we're able to put these safety improvements in we don't know who what family is being saved but there's a family being saved IMM men's trauma um over the course of of years so you know I think some of the proudest work that I've done is is at times taking streets that I know people have been seriously hurt or killed at and putting improvements in and making those safer but also knowing and listening and hearing from residents downtown and across the city that way way more has to be done yet um and so count me fully on board for the list of initiatives that were discussed here whether whether it's enforcement whether it's additional uh daylighting whether it's additional Road diets whether it's lowering the sleet limit to 20 M an hour whether it's a Citywide banon right on red I'm fully on board with all those initiatives I want to serve as an ally and a leader so reach out to me and thank you all for your work and glad to see this change coming and many more in the future council person Gilmore um just want to thank everyone for coming out voicing their concerns as it relates to streets safety in this particular ordinance um but I guess for me the reality is we can put as many laws on a book as we want to if you don't have any enforcement it's not going to work people are not stopping at stop signs they're not going to care about no right on red the issue is enforcement enforcement enforcement and L and until we have have real serious conversation about enforcement this is just going to be ceremonial that's it so I vot vote I in light of all that and I just in my heart I just really hope we can really get around to some enforcement council person Dees I proudly vote I I want to thank the groups that came together and not only presented this to the council and to the right departments but petitioned and organized for it I think going throughout the city city is going to take some work but this does need to happen in more neighborhoods and I look forward to continuing working with those groups and the great departments that put the work to good use and make sure that our streets are safe sry about I council person Rivera yeah through everybody that came out here I mean you guys are amazing um we hear you 100% uh to the to my Council colleagues who uh who helped write this uh this ordinance you know uh thank thank you you know councilman boano and uh councilman Kilmore really touched up on something that's very very serious here and I I really want you guys to hear us out here we don't have a traffic division just don't have it so you know my point in saying that is the same way you advocate here make sure you send emails to the director the police department and make sure you let them know to put the motorcycle Squad back out put more cops on on you know foot beats you know and your voice has to be heard you know we we would do it we will do it on our part the same way you guys came out here with that same you know with with that same drive you have to do that because like councilman Gilmore said you know we're going to vote on an ordinance that's not going to be enforced because we do not have a Traffic Division I don't want to you know damper you know the you know the the atmosphere here but I'm not going to lie to you either you know we have to make sure that that happens we can help out here but once again you guys have to make sure that your voices are heard and make sure you tell the director we need a Traffic Unit with that I vote I council president Waterman um I want to thank the parents for coming out and expressing um their concerns of what's happening in Heights I want to thank uh my director um Patel cuz she's here and her team and I know since we put that team together they've been out in the streets trying to make sure pedestrians are safe so I really want to thank them because this is a serious issue um um for you who don't know I got hit by a vehicle years ago and uh my three-year-old son got hit and died so uh when you come out and say that you want pedestrian safety believe me I understand it and I'm fighting for it all the time I meet with the director to see what else we can do but just like um councilman um Rivera and councilman Gilmore say it is an Enforcement issue we've been trying to get a traffic division um ever since about four years ago really that's how long we've been trying to get uh Traffic Division sometime people don't understand the role of a council uh our role is really to write legislation to get things passed but then there's the uh portion of the administrative piece that creates divisions for the city to function and so just like you come to us and I appreciate you coming because I do listen to public speaking and I welcome it I wish you have that same energy to go to some of these departments and protest there um to their directors so they can see that we're not the only ones you know that would like a traffic division this is four years out we've been trying to get one all right and like I said um we all up here we we get it we really understand it we're not fighting it if anything we trying to improve it as much as we can with the power that we have we are definitely trying to do that so um I proudly vote I uh don't give up fight for the traffic division because without enforcement you cannot break people habits you cannot you cannot so we do need enforcement okay thank city ordinance 24 de 013 is adopted unanimously 90 okay ladies and gentlemen now we're going to be approaching our public speakers list so if you can please pay attention to your agendas I'm going to be calling the number and the first name of the individual all right excuse me Sean sure can I just speak before we go before councilman Rivera gets up um I would just like to give a very brief update on the port side litigation and um update on the recalculation um I just want to make clear um to everybody that it is at my and the side council's urging that the council not engage with tenants or landlords or anybody related to the litigation as the litigation is ongoing that is at my request um so I wanted to make that clear in terms of the updates about the calculations um just a few dates on February 7th of this year the bureau received document attachments from attorney Neil marada after uh he realized that his December 22nd 2023 communication did not have any documents attached they were sent to the bureau on February 7th on March 14th of this year um just last week the bureau has received documents from uh the landlord via our outside Council these documents total approximately 40,000 Pages uh they are under review as well as the documents that were submitted um by the tenants as well and they're using these documents to determine the 527 individual rents they need to be um determined individually there's no other shortcut um the ba to his end has committed additional Personnel to get this calculated as quickly as possible people with audit backgrounds people that can assist in the calculations they're going to be working with the director to get this done um as soon as possible and then lastly um on Mark Mar 7th the bureau was provided for the first time with a document from a tenant um From The Towers which contained an email from the landlord speaking about uh limiting rent increases to those permissible under the rent Control Ordinance um and on March 19th our office of landlord tenant responded and sent a letter to the landlord instructing them because the board's determination requires the bureau to recalculate the rents for the building there was no legal base rent established for increases at that time they reminded them that they would be subject to VI um to issuance of summonses and fines should they violate sections of uh chapter 260 uh there was also a letter issued to the landlord requesting their delinquent 2024 rent rolls and that they be provided by March 30th or that a summons would issue for that violation again there are still two lawsuits pending the city is a defendant in both lawsuits I did provide the council with an update a confidential memo if you have any questions about legal analysis or the litigation will have to speak um about that offline so that I don't get in trouble either but just wanted to say that thank youney I don't believe this is in the the litigation piece but if you I'll just say it and if you don't respond totally understand you're coming from just just on the the importance of getting the calculations of the base rent per the rent leveling decision um and really trying to get get a timeline that we can communicate um you know the ruling was obviously in the fall uh we're now into the spring I know there were some we had to wait for the documents and all that things but but you know you said that more resources are coming um but uh you know I think from a council perspective and and communication perspective we really need to you know prioritize that if we need resources you know Council can authorize um and just really prioritize getting those calculations done we know there's 527 but you know that that is U of the utmost importance ba go ahead thank you councilman so uh sorry my voice still a little sick um yeah councilman so we we have um allocated four additional members from our internal audit team to go over it and it's important we pick them because they do have accounting and and and uh uh Finance backgrounds and um if we have to we would engage additional outside accounting firms to try to get it done what we're doing over the next two days is having the team work on a set that we've recently received to better understand what the expectation is week uh daily and we could build that over the 500 some OD uh um numbers so we'll know within the next two business days how many we could do daily and then we'll multiply that out till we get to the 500 email Brittney um I do have a question too if you can answer for me so if if the the um document what at what point does it freeze that so where they where are they not how does that work at what point so is it from the leases from last year that would be something we have to discuss offline okay okay Sean ready let me just straighten out the camera all right like I said I'm going to be calling the number and the first name of the individual so with that being said first speaker 5. one Le bur I think she left okay I think it was probably that long explanation you asked me to do um next one is 5.2 Gina Gina's here good evening Justice for Drew Gina Davidson w f as always I I want to thank you all for your time attention and advocacy I'm speaking tonight in support of item 3.4 ordinance 24-17 rank Choice voting just makes sense and this ordinance seems like the first step in making it possible in our city if the state allows for those of us who care about representation and voters rights we support this kind of progress I ask you not to underestimate your constituents the main opposition we have been hearing is concerns that voters will get too confused by this Con concept ranking candidates in order of your first second third choices and so on instead of being limited to picking just one is straightforward enough that with a little education and public discourse we should be able to trust our voters to understand suggesting that we would not be able to understand and conceptualize this is frankly a bit patronizing if the State legalizes rank Choice voting we should not have a problem providing adequate education we have many social media digital Avenues print and other resources that we can share in in an accessible manner to educate our constituents mayor Philip has lauded our city as a progressive Innovative place and so instituting rank Choice voting would be yet another way for Jersey City to set an example to other municipalities and in our our country because of this I urge you all to support ordinance 24-17 and give voters a chance to decide on rank Choice voting if the state allows power to the people thank you our next speaker 5.3 Tina hey guys Justice for Drew I want to talk about the nonprofits I'm a nonprofits you know I've been doing this for 25 years it's a shame that Pix 11 News had to come from New York to do a article about me to let people know that I need funds to continue to help out Jersey City you would think that would be my leaders or my mayor they actually said they're going to reach out to my mayor to find out why I don't have a space and why I'm back in my living room to do that and in my truck I told them to let me know cuz I'm still waiting for the mayor to respond back to me I want to say thank you um Miss Waterman for the war that I received last night I had to leave early because I had a family that stays at the hotel and they go to The Pantry but the pantry don't give them hot food they cannot cook the food inside of the microwave that's a issue we should know that because we be in the community as we say also the development y let all these developments come I was actually at a meeting with education Gilmore um about what the deel the development on boss I believe the developments that come here to Jersey City they should give something back to the community they should do some type of resource they should do some type of help that we'll be able to build to to build up on our community not keep making it look the same way I've been in war f for almost about 15 years and it have not changed they still stand on the corner it still look a mess but you would think that we would have some type of resource but we celebrating everything else but not the community and the area where I live at we definitely need help on our block I'm still waiting to find out what's going on with the Martin place we was able to build other stuff around there in my community but no one's still telling me about the Martin place um I just wanted to say thank you for everybody that been helping me Jeffy Walker education Gilmore Chief staff Africa for taking out the time on your busy schedule Chief staff Africa coming out on Fridays to show me how to continue to fix my paperwork so I can get money you don't understand how many people said they was going to help me and have not helped me I should not be funding Jersey City to make it a better place you would think my lead is going to do it but that's okay cuz 2025 is coming and we going to show them what to do and how to run the community thank you our next speaker 5.4 Edward I don't see Edward okay thank you next speaker 5.5 Phillip I get started would like the um the leaders on this side or the employees on this side to give their names the lady spoke I don't know what is her name and the business administrator so the need to let the public know what the names are and we shouldn't have to J to guess I need um here well I I could give them to you so the business administrator is John Metro well I know the name I'm just saying it wasn't said I don't know her name I know who spoke that's Britney Murray she's the acting Corporation counsel oh he is gone ready I'm CH uh yes yes I am counc president members of City councel G my my name is Phil Carrington I want to speak again on the issue of the business district uh Improvement um last week I made I spoke and I had some problems and somebody had have a little bit more um power than than Jim mcgrey Jim mcgrey needs to go some way I me he's as ridiculous as hell how in the world a person is dirty as him come run a city again come on man come on I just said what I got say anyway but the the complaint was made and the captain came out and W and did really walked the beat captain of the West District I got to give credit where credit is due because if this Captain have shot somebody black I would be on the front line condemning him so I got to give credit where credit is due and black folks got to do the same thing when they are the police is wrong I'm being the front lines condemning them and then they're right I Ain see nobody supporting that but again and what I'm basically saying is that he came out he gave some some summons some summons and the problem really subside a little and then the next Wednesday he came on the n on the seventh the next you have a captain from somewhere else his name was uh Kramer and and then so what I'm basically saying is that assistant is needed then we need to the the police need to continue to uh to be on the beat now on the issue of the Jackson Hill improvement district I I'm saying I don't see the need for them none of them I I don't really understand exactly what is their purpose for an example they have been in existence for 13 years or whatever isse I run three businesses and four different locations on MAR Luther King don't you know my name my none of my businesses register with them and they did nothing for me I ran the family Collective D Center remarkable M youth Council and uh Cafe construction 453 450 I was in the bathoon center for 12 years 127 and 153 none of them so which means they have done nothing for me that is taxation without representation so after 13 years they did nothing for me there is no need for them so I know the last last week we had the uh Central Avenue uh improvement district I I I meant far field my problem really is I don't see the need for them Gilmore has a new thing uh for the uh Al but War for I think that yes whatever it's something for what and these are the things that needed uh that needed that they shouldn't be doing and they're not doing and so I I I make these complaints asking for them to come out to give some assistance to me they do they don't do that I don't see the need for them to just drive past the problems that I have of course Tina have the same problem like a stunt dummy and pass it and does not address it the problems need to be addressed by Jack thank you thank you Phil our next speaker 5.6 Amory good evening and Marina zaro Our Lady of sorrow's Parish Ward F and Jersey City together Public Health Public Safety Committee I want to celebrate Jersey City I'm an Alum of St Peter's College now University and tomorrow spu team will play in the March Madness series can we say they're going to win what else they did it two years ago they've made it pretty far we celebrate this achievement and even more importantly the abiding work of St Peters giving students and I was one of them who are the first in their family to attend college this valuable opportunity and teaching us to be a person for others Jersey City is poised to celebrate again Jersey City can implement the program to send Crisis Intervention teams in response to mental health or addiction crisis Jersey City can save lives and honor Andrew Washington Andrew Jerome Washington our Drew with this program to the business administrator and the council we at Jersey City get together emphasize there are three sources of funding New Jersey can amplify our Jersey City budget dollars with they are the arriv together the Attorney General's initiative M Court the mental health and Addiction Services Initiative for 988 mobile crisis Outreach respon response teams and most recently the opportunity for funding that can come from our New Jersey legislature enacted SE Brooks Washington community-led crisis response initiative we understand from our Jersey City together Public Health Public Safety chair Bill Lis that in the meetings with council members and in Communications with you a state funding channel is actually being considered and looked into we request this evening that a viable and we've said it before that a viable program be announced or indeed be implemented be in place by May 25th 2024 the 4th anniversary of George Floyd's tragic death and the end of that month May will be N9 months since we lost Drew Washington this brutality against George Floyd catalyze getting 9 911 programs let's get one here please thank you our next speaker 5.7 Crystal she left thank you next speaker 5.8 Julie she left as well okay next speaker 5.10 Charlene good evening Council I'm here to talk about the historic preservation office um right now you know the master plan historic preservation master plan is undergoing revisions but it echoes what's already in the master plan itself which all of you voted for creation of more historic districts by Outreach to neighborhoods identifying more historic resources identifying landmarks in the city um finding more grants to help with these these activities but effectively right now we have a historic preservation office that's only one person and when you have four historic districts in downtown Jersey City one up on the hill and another one that's coming online within the next year one person cannot handle the amount of work that is required just in what goes before the historic preservation commission let alone all of these other identified activities that this office is supposed to do now all of you should be pressing the administration for getting that budget to your desk so you can evaluate where additional funding is needed this is one of the offices that is is not just needed it's critical critical for this city to continue to preserve its past and effectively have enough staff to do that effectively so I really encourage each of you particularly those of you that oversee a historic district or historic landmarks or particularly buildings that should be on that list well you should be pressing the mayor and the administration to make sure that that office has more than just one person who's doing all these jobs right now I know they're hiring somebody for April but what if that person doesn't work out what if that one person we have leaves out of frustration or burnout where does that leave us you need to really look at what the salaries are and competitive salaries in the area and if you don't make those salaries look good enough well you're just going to have an office of none and that's not going to be very helpful to us in preserving our history and our important buildings that should be preserved and our neighborhoods that really want thank you Charlene want your support thank you thank you our next speaker 5.10 Sherman Council thank you for the good work that you do and the great work that you did tonight thank you to city planning for updating the JC historic preservation master plan as the president of McGinley Square community board historic preservation remains at the heart of what we are about and very core at the very core of our community group's earliest days of formation tonight I'd like to reiterate Charlene burk's request that adequate funding be allocated towards our very lean historic preservation office Jersey City's HP office needs to become a CLG certified local government ASAP to become eligible to apply for $50,000 in annual state grants right now that opportunity is just wasted they also need more Staffing to be able to keep up with the applications for buildings already in NH HD and also to be able to effectively survey and add new resources to our existing inventory it's a lot of work it's too much work for just one or sometimes two people I have learned that our hpo would ideally have one staff member on board for each 500 historic buildings since we can't simply CL Maggie O'Neal that would entail hiring four to five new people when you do please include qualified beige caramel brown and black candidates too please also consider hiring someone from JC landmarks conserves Board of committed knowledgeable local preservationists New York City's hpo has 80 employees let's Empower Jersey City's hpo we can preserve and protect our City's valuable assets if we invest in and grow the HP office also I wanted to ask specifically if some protection might be put in place for the building that's slated to become the pompo museum in case anything happens there and also uh the last thing I would request is the notion of starting a to require a notification letter and hold a public hearing when there is a demo application for buildings that are over 5050 years old thank you you Sharon could you okay uh next speaker 5.11 Chelsea I believe she left right yep she spoke earlier um 5.12 Mana not here 5.13 Kevin hello everybody hi Kevin hi I'm going to uh swap out the first part of this um to address what happened earlier um just before I wish Britney Murray could be back in the room at this point um first I really appreciate that dialogue I really appreciate hearing that update that is actually very helpful um I also agree with Britney Murray she could hear this if you're in here um we actually don't want you to talk about pending litigation we don't want Britney Murray to talk about pending litigation when we ask about ordinances uh we just want hear about the ordinance and not about any particular case um one thing that's a little concerning and I think you'll get a flavor of that tonight is they're talking about putting a small army of people to help do the recalculation that part's okay um but there's a lot of evidence to suggest that recalculation won't be done according to what the ordinance says and if that happens then all of that work is actually a really long waste of time and there's no sense in wasting that time it would really be great and we're willing um to get together and see if we can figure out what the ordinance says can we get a consent and then perhaps the recalculation can happen and be done once and that would be good also we're okay with less pending litigation if we can line up as to what the ordinance means and we are in agreement we will have a lot less pending litigation we would actually like to join forces be on the same side for ordinance enforcement against the bad actor landlord it doesn't have to be a bad actor city as well and we are more than open to that even if it results in less litigation that would be great okay now we'll see how much I get in the council led by Council people Gilmore CET and Waterman have asked us to bring forward proof our landlord has been violating rent control since the 2022 and 2023 determinations one thing that was also interesting about what Britney Murray said only just recently did a tenant bring forward evidence okay that's one thing that's true there was an email that a tenant sent um but we also have opras so we know that the landlord sorry that the city has been in possession of considerable proof uh for at least 11 months so we didn't know we had to bring more forward um until we were asked specifically to do so tonight you will see um one after another evidence that the bureau has already had for at least 11 months we received a letter yesterday finally received a letter with chyron Richard's name at the bottom of it it was an amazing letter um however I don't think that he perhaps wrote it um this is a letter that pushed the ordinance right out the window as if we would somehow wouldn't notice it um I say the letter says these things because I don't think again like I said that Richardson wrote it the letter attempted to grant our landlord a free pass to increase rents for years the landlord had no authority to increase rents the letter also ignores other aspects of the chapter thank you Kevin Kevin you'll hear the rest of it from everyone else tonight thank you thank you next speaker 5.14 Elizabeth hello everyone thank you so much for having me tonight my name is Elizabeth Mido it's actually my first time here um I should be at home with my kids I haven't seen them yet today probably won't but I think it's incredibly important for me to be here to expose a blatant violation of our City's rent control laws I'm here to present irrefutable evidence of illegal rent increases at 100 Warren Street specifically unit 1113 which occurred after The Binding determination by the Bureau of rent leveling on September 19th 2022 on September 2nd 2022 a new tenant moved into 1113 days after the August 25th 2022 determination that the building was subject to rent control shock ly the rent for this unit was increased by 43.9% 43.9% over the prior tenants rate the increase is not only far beyond the allowable limit but it was implemented without any legal authority to make matters worse the new tenant was never informed of the prior tenants rent which is a clear violation of ordinance 26-31 the proof of this egregious violation has been sitting in the hands of the rent leveling Bureau since April 2023 nearly a year ago when Equity residential themselves submitted the current rental rate yet despite having the Smoking Gun the bureau has taken no action to rectify this Injustice the council has been bid made aware of these ongoing violations at every single meeting and now we're asking you to please act I'm going to quote this gentleman over here earlier where he says we need to enforce the laws stop the BS we want Equity to please stop the BS yes enough is enough the tenants of 100 Warren Street demand Justice and I think it's clear that we will not rest until it is served we've provided the proof and now it is time for you to please act the time for excuses and delays is over please learn more about our cause and help by searching Portside Towers on GoFundMe follow us at rent control JC on X formally Twitter and email us at rent control J gmail.com if you are press a Jersey City or Equity residential whistleblower or with any questions about rank control in Jersey City personally I will speak for myself here I have two young kids at home every single month when I rent that write that rent check I am essentially giving Equity an interest free loan and I use the term loan because I know that I'm am on the right side of the law here and eventually they're going to have to give me that money back the Injustice comes in is that that money could be going into my retirement it could be gaining uh in building and a 529 for my children but instead I'm giving it over month after month to equity whether it's $200,000 or $200 a month or $2,000 a month it's just too much thank you our next speaker 5.15 AB HIV good evening everyone my name is abav Manu a first time speaker here and thanks for all the support from the group first time speaker because I have to take care of this young one right I'm coming here before tonight to expose yet another example of the blatant disregard for our City's rent control laws I'll present a evidence of illegal rent increases in 1001 Street Unit 1209 just days before after August 25th 2022 determination that the building was subject to rent control and nant moved in the unit 1209 on September 2nd 22 despite the clear ruling rent for this unit was increased by 4.7% over the priority tenance rate exceeding the allowable limit this increase was not only illegal but also implemented without any proper Authority furthermore the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenant's rent violating ordinance to 60 the rent leveling board has been in possession of the proof of this violation since April 23 when Equity residential submitted the current rental rates however the bureau failed to take any action to address this Injustice the council has been informed of these ongoing violations at every meeting and it is time for you to step up and take action the rent leling boards in action in the face of overwhelming evidence of rent control violations unacceptable director Richardson letter dated March 19th 23 is a clear attempt to defy the rent Control Ordinance and give our landlord a free pass to increase rents without proper authorization the bureau's failure to request necessary documents such as 2016 leases to calculate rents and their delay in complying with rent leveling board's order from 5 months ago is a direction of Duty we demand that Council investigates this matter and take immediate action to ensure that laws are enforced and ten are protected the tenants of 100 War Street have suffered long enough I we all have suffered long enough we demand Justice and we will not back down until it is delivered the proof is in your hand and it is time for you to act thank you go our next speaker 5.16 yan yan hello everyone my name is a Kos and I'm 11 years old I'm a firsttime speaker here at these meetings I live here in our beautiful city and I really love it but I need to talk to you about something super important to me and my friends rent control so I've had this awesome group of friends for like forever or at least it feels like forever to me we've celebrated birthdays played countless games and had many sleepovers but then something sad started happening in 2022 five of my friends had to move away because their families couldn't afford our red anymore and then two more friends left in 2023 just 2 months ago my very best friend moved out of the city it's been really hard because every time someone leaves it's like a piece of my world goes away I've been trying to make new friends which is cool but I'm always scared they'll have to move away too after my mom passed away last March something really amazing happened our neighbors and friends here became like a big family they checked on us brought us meals and just made sure we were okay it showed me how amazing our community is and it's made me feel safer and less alone I don't want anything else to change around here because this community support has been a light during the toughest time in my life last November they told us our building is now under rent control which sounded like great news it meant my family and I wouldn't have to worry about moving or losing more friends but then I heard that the people who own our building aren't following the rules of rent control and that has me worried again I know you all have a super tough job figuring out all this rent stuff but I wanted to ask if you could please make sure the rent control rules work like they're supposed to for grown-ups moving is just a big to-do list and a lot of stress but for us kids it's losing our OG friends our schools and feeling safe and happy so could you help make sure our community stays a place where kids don't have to say goodbye to their best friends all the time like I had to thank you for listening me listening to me today I really believe you can make things better for our for us and our community I just want to say there's it's a lengthy speakers list but I don't think we're going to get a better one than that one amazing job by the way that's not easy to do well spoken uh 5.17 Anna understood so Anna and Lucy are not here so we're going to 5.19 members of the council uh I'm Renata sari and I come before you to shed light on a flagrant violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 155 Washington Street Unit 2213 the evidence I'll present demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred at after The Binding determination by the rent leveling board on November 6 2023 I am the tenant leaving in this unit and I have resided in the building since 2020 I faced a rent increase of 13.7% on November 11 2023 after the November 6 determination this increase was not only implemented without proper legal Authority but also exceeded the allowable limit under ordinance 26-3 Equity residentials submitted a current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April 2023 along with a new lease providing clear evidence of this egregious violation yet the bureau has failed to take action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of this ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken no more crumbs we're not stupid we see what's happening the tenants of 155 Washington Street have had enough we demand Justice and will not rest until it is served the proof is in your hands either Equity complies with the law or pays fines no more excuses no more delay lays no more privileged treatment to the big landlord it is imperative that director Richardson issues a corrected letter that aligns with the rent Control Ordinance and the rent leveling board decision the current letters misalignment with these legal requirements has caused unnecessary confusion and distress among the tenants of Portside Towers who have already suffered from the landlord's ongoing violations and you could just from our lovely Child by failing to acknowledge the landlord's non-compliance with rent roll filing requirements under 26-9 e and the landlord identity disclosure provision for 263 J the letter gives the false impression that the landlord had the authority to increase rents we demand that director Richardson Rectify this error and provide a clear statement affirming that the landlord has not been in compliance with the ordinance and that four has no right to raise rents the tenants deserve a director who upholds the law thank you our next speaker 5.20 Joel Yeah we actually approv we did go ahead Joel when you're ready good evening everyone my name is Joel rothus and I stand before you to expose another clear violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 100 Warren Street Apartment 1807 the evidence I'll present that I presented to you demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred after The Binding determination of the landlord tenant office in September of 2020 my family and I have been residents in the apartments at Portside Tower since October of 2019 and we have resided in the west tower apartment 1807 since June 19th of 2021 we were forced to accept a rent increase of 4% on June 21st 2023 nearly one year after the written determination that at least as of August 25th 2022 the West Tower has been subject to rent control laws of Jersey City as evidenced by the documents I've provided to you our land land lord has violated multiple rent Control ordinances in relation to unit 1807 at 100 Warren Street remember on June on January 29th 2023 Council for Equity residential Derek Reid claimed that Equity never raised rents illegally since the determination of September 22nd and October November 23 all proofs presented here tonight occurred after those critical dates referring back to Kevin's points about the letter that Derek Reed provide or uh I'm sorry that uh iron Richardson uh provided yesterday um it pushed the ordinance right out of the window as if we wouldn't notice I'm going to say the letter said this or that because I do not believe director Richardson wrote it the letter attempted to grant our landlord a free pass to increase rents for years the landlord has had no authority to do so the letter ignores chapter 26-9 related to when a rent roll is deemed filed it ignored chapter 26-3 J related to compliance with the landlord identity disclosure requirements even though Dina henden testified in court that this requirement is well required in order to increase rents at all finally um the reference to base rents and looking at 2016 as Kevin mentioned waste a lot of time if we don't go back and look at 260 what a base rent is the base rent is the first allowable rent when the unit was first rented and any allowable increases under chapter 260 as we have shown and we've tried to show we have no evidence that our landlord has ever complied with all prerequisites to increase rents from 1998 so the rents the roll back versus base rent are different concept cepts we must be looking at what the legal rent was in N in 2016 for our roll back but the date is the data is established in 1998 thank you J our next speaker 5.21 Tara evening Council I stand before you tonight to expose yet another egregious violation of Jersey City's rent control laws I will present clear evidence of an illegal rent increase at 100 Warren Street Unit 319 which occurred after The Binding determination by the Bureau of rent leveling on September 19th 2022 on September 30th 2022 just over a month after the August 25th 2022 determination that the building was subject to rent control a new tenant moved into unit 319 shockingly the rent for this unit was increased by 28.4% over the prior tenants rate far exceeding the allowable limit this increase was not only illegal but also implemented without any proper Authority furthermore the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenants rent violating ordinance 263 the rent leveling Bureau has been in possession of the proof of this violation since April 2023 when Equity residentials submitted the current rental rates however the bureau has failed to take any action to address this Injustice the council has been informed of these ongoing violations at every meeing and it is time for you to take to step up and take action the tenants of 100 Warren Street have suffered long enough we demand Justice and we will not back down until it is delivered the proof is in your hands and it is time for you to act the time for excuses and delays is over it is unacceptable that mayor FIP and the rent leveling Bureau have allowed our landlord to continue extracting illegal rents even after The Binding rent leveling board determination this blatant disregard for the law and the rights of tenants calls into question mayor Philip's commitment to affordable housing and his ability to effectively lead our city let alone our state we have made hundreds of speeches pleading for help and intervention and now we demand that the council and mayor do everything in their power to end this illegal situation immediately the tenants of 100 War Street will not be ignored and we will hold our elected officials accountable for their inaction the rent leveling bu bureau's failure to request necessary documents such as the 2016 leases to calculate rents suggests that their Omission is intended to delay the process and deny tenants the Justice they deserve it is unacceptable that 5 months after the hearing the bureau has not requested all the required documents as ordered by the rent leveling board we urge the council to investigate this matter approve resolutions to enforce law and find the landlord for these blatant violations the tenants of 100 Warren Street have made over 400 speeches asking for your help and now we demand that you take deci of action to end this unlawful and unjust situation thank you our next speaker 5.22 David good evening I'm Dr David Mason this is my second time speaking directly to the council I'm here with my wife antonina and our son and daughter obviously council members I come before you to shed light on a blatant violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 100 Warren Street Unit 1712 my unit the evidence I present clearly shows an illegal rent in inrease that took place well after the Bureau of rent levelings binding determination on September 19th 2022 despite the building being officially subject to rent control as of August 25th 22 when we moved our family into unit 172 4 and A2 months later on January 7th 23 we entirely unwittingly faced a rent increase of 16.4% over the previous tenants rate far exceeding the allowable limit this increase was not only illegal but also implemented without proper legal Authority furthermore we were not informed of the prior tenants rent a direct violation of ordinance 26-3 I Equity residential submitted the current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April 23 providing clear evidence of this egregious violation however the bureau has failed to take timely substantive or sufficient action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken the tenants of 100 Warren Street have had enough we demand Justice and will not rest until it is served the proof is in your hands and The Time for Action is now no more excuses no more delays please learn more about our cause and help by searching Portside Towers on GoFundMe follow us on Ren control JC on X formly Twitter and email us at rcontrol JC gmail.com if you are press a Jersey City or Equity residential whistleblower or with any questions about rent control in Jersey City what would you do follow the mandated recalculation to what legal 2016 rates should have been and Equity knowingly stole at minimum $115,000 from my family they still continue to steal at minimum ,000 a month claiming in writing that they're waiting for the courts despite the binding board ruling with no stay honestly if you had two kids and a partner struggling to find employment in the current market what would you do wouldn't you be down here demanding action with us we heard a lot of talk about law enforcement a moment ago I'm not even talk I'm not even the tip of the iceberg here these folks behind me constitute a fraction of the hundreds who are owed more than hundreds of millions of dollars wouldn't you be standing down here too we've got plenty of room down here come on grab a sign we got plenty thank you our next speaker 5.23 haroi uh good evening council members uh my name is Haruki and this is my second time speaking at this meeting I stand before you tonight to expose a braen violation of Jersey City's rent control road laws at 101 Street Unit 308 the evidence I present clearly shows an illegal rent increase that took place well after the Bureau of rent leveling binding determination on September 19th 2022 despite the building being being officially subject to rent control as of August 25th 2022 a new tenant moving into unit 308 on February 25th 2023 6 months after that decision face a rent increase of 16.8% over the previous standard slate far exceeding the allowable limit this increase was not only legal but also implemented with our proper legal Authority furthermore the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenant's R rent which is a direct violation of ordinance 26-3 I if anything this new tenant was actually deceived by the landlord who presented inaccurate information as part of the lease the amount stated in their lease that the new tenant lease as the land of the PRI the rent of the prior tenant was actually higher than what the previous stum had paid based on the information Equity residential provided to the city Equity residential submitted the current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April 23 2023 providing clear evidence of this egregious violation however the V has failed to take any action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken the tenants of 1001 Street have had enough we demand justice but will not rest until it is served the proof is in your hands and The Time for Action is now no more excuses no more Del thank you thank you our next speaker 5.24 Tasha good evening members of city council my name is Tasha Sati and I come before you to shed light on a flagrant violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 100 Warren Street Unit 1815 the evidence I will present demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred after The Binding determination by the rent leveling board on November 6 this past year the tenant in unit 1815 who has resided since May 17 2019 faced a rent increase of 3.5% on August 24th 2023 this was despite the rent leveling board's determination on November 6th this past year this increase was implemented without proper legal Authority as the landlord had no legal rights to raise the rent further as Equity residential submitted the current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau on April 2023 along with the new lease providing clear evidence of this egregious violation yet the bureau has failed to take any action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken the tenants of 100 Warren Street have had enough we and Justice and we will not rest until it is served the proof is in your hands as we have said over and over again tonight and it is time for action and that time is now no more excuses no more delays further you have the authority to act under the council's broad statutory Authority Under the municipal Charter law the Falkner act which grants the City full power to act for the Pres ation and promotion of the public health safety and Welfare into to enact ordinances and resolutions for the protection of persons in property this Authority empowers the council to take decisive action against landlords who violate the law and exploit their tenants we urge the council to use this Authority and to continue to use this authority to its fullest extent to defend the rights of Portside residents and to ensure that Equity residential is held accountable for their egregious and ongoing violations by adopting this resolution to enfor enforce the rent Control Ordinance and the rent levelings board determination the council sends a clear message unscrupulous landlords who seek to flaunt the law and exploit tenants will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law this action reaffirms the council's commitment to protect protecting the rights and well-being of all Jersey residents and demonstrates that the city will not tolerate predatory behavior from landlords we call upon the council to stand firm thank you thank you our next speaker 5.25 Judith is Judith here okay I see her good evening my name is Judith Fury Rogers and I am here to expose a blatant violation of Jersey City's rent control law I will present unquestionable evidence of an illegal rent increase at 100 Warren Street Apartment 48 this occurrence this occurred after The Binding determination by the Bureau of rent leveling on September 19th 2022 on October 15 2022 just a month after the August 25th determination that the building was subject to rent control a new tenant moved into unit 408 astonishingly the rent for this unit was increased by 19.6% over the prior tenants rate 19.6% exceeding the allowable limit this increase 19.6% was not only illegal but also implemented without any prior Authority any proper Authority sorry moreover the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenants rent violating ordinance 26-31 the proof of this is obvious the proof of this obvious viol ation has been in the possession of the rent leveling Bureau since April 2023 April 2023 when Equity residential submitted the current rental rates despite having this clear evidence the bureau has taken no action to address this Injustice the council has been made aware of these ongoing violations at every meeting every meeting and it is time for you to take action enough is enough the tenants of 100 Warren Street demand Justice and the tenants will not rest until it is served proof was provided now it is up to you to act the time for excuses and delay is over thank you our next speaker 5.26 Derek evening Council back again uh it's really nice is that the word of the tonight seems to be enforcement which is a great segue for my topic it's going to be new for you guys tonight it's um yeah that's right some more illegal rents and leases by our landlord so if you could bear with us uh I'm returning to speak tonight to present more evidence of yet another legal rent increase at 100 warrant unit uh 715 this particular occurrence happened after the binding determination by the Bureau of uh rent Lev rent leveling on September 19th 2022 on October 29th 2022 two months after the August 25th determination that the building was subject to rent control a new tenant moved into unit 715 shockingly the rent for this unit was increased by 18.5% over the prior tenant rate far exceeding the allowable limit this increase was not only illegal but also implemented without any proper Authority wor yet the tenant uh was not informed of the prior tenants rent violating ordinance 26- 3 l two violations and one illegal lease um props to equity they're pretty efficient in that regard the rent leveling board uh has been in possession of uh the proof of this violation since April 2023 when Equity residential submitted the current rental rates however the bureau has failed to take any uh action of substance uh for far too long so with that said um I I want to point out the uh quote from council member Gilmore from earlier tonight which I thought was was awesome um and I hope I got this right but he said if we don't get serious about enforcement this will all continue to be ceremonial don't think it can be said any better than that um I'm looking at the faces of you guys we've been saying this a lot you hear it a lot tonight we all have better things to do you guys have more pressing issues to take care of than a slam dunk thing that's been a problem for years and can be done if we just enforce the laws so please look forward to helping uh however we can to help you guys your job let's work together let's get this done no more half measures no baby steps let's push this across the Finish Line get it done and move on thank you our next speaker 5.27 Gabby welcome to the movement members of the council my name is Gabby bwe I come before you to shed light on a flagrant violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 100 Warren Street Unit 16007 the evidence I will present demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred upon the binding determination by the rent leveling board on 6th of November 2023 the tenant in the unit who has resided in the building since 1st March 2017 faced a rent increase of 4% on March the 7th this year after the determination this this increase was implemented without proper legal Authority as a landlord had no right to raise the rent Equity residential submitted the car on rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in August 20 sorry April 2023 along with a new lease providing clear evidence of violation yet the bureau has failed to take any action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken I'm actually going to turn your attention to the investor report for 2023 for Equity residential one of their clear goals says let me read this out the the corporation of equity residential is committed to creating communities where people thrive let's see how they're doing this Rising rents forcing families out of Jersey City due to rental increases elevators not working Plumbing issues where for the last two months I've had black gunk in my basin and in the toilet wall front entrances remain unmanned due to lack of resources management not responding to emails I've been waiting 12 mon months for an email for someone to sort out my lost post no response to that as a corporation Equity is making profit year upon year if I look at your seal it says the coroporation of Jersey City so let me ask you this question is this the type of cooperation that stands back while its constituents are fle through illegal rent raises or do you make good on his goals to do good to those who elected you thank you very much thank you our next speaker 5.28 Nick good evening Nick deas wall it's my first time speaking uh here to members of the city council to shed light on a flagrant violation of the city's rent control laws at 100 Warren Street Department 904 the evidence I will present demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred after The Binding determination by the re rent leveling board on 11623 my wife and I have lived in this unit since May 24th 2019 we faced a rent increase on June 6 2023 of 4% after the 11623 determination this increase was Implement without proper legal Authority as the landlord had no right to raise the rent Equity res presidential submitted the current rent rates to the rent leveling board in April 2023 along with the new lease providing clear evidence of this egregious violation yet the bureau failed to take action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken the tenants of 100 Warren Street have had enough we demand Justice we will not rest until it's served proof is in your hands and The Time for Action is now no more excuses no more delays thank you next speaker 5.29 Shannon good evening everyone my name is Shannon McGee and this is my first time speaking to this Council first as a tenant of Portside Towers I am here to expose another shocking violation of jerse Jersey City's rent control laws I am bringing forward indisputable evidence of an illegal rent increase at 100 Warren Street Unit 1111 which occurred after The Binding determination issued by the Bureau of rent leveling on September 19 2022 on October 31st 2022 over two months after the initial August 25th determination that 100 Warren Street was subject to dur rent control a new tenant moved into Unit 1111 astonishingly the rent for this unit was increased by an egregious 35 .2% over the prior tenants rate this increase is not only significantly above the allowable limit but also implemented without any legal Authority Additionally the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenants rate violating ordinance 260 section 3i the proof of this blate and violation has been in the possession of the rent leveling Bureau since uh April 2023 when Equity residentials submitted the current rental rates despite having the clear evidence for nearly one year the bureau has taken no substantive action to address this Injustice the council has been made aware of these ongoing violations at every meeting and it is time for you to take decisive action enough is enough the tenants of 100 waren Street demand Justice and we will not rest until it is served we have informed you of these violations we have provided the proof and now it is up to you to act the time for exuses and delays is over anyone who is interested can learn more about our calls by searching port side Towers on GoFundMe and please help if you are able you can follow us on X ront control JC and email us at ront control JC gmail.com if you are press a Jersey City or Equity residential whistleblower or with any questions about rent control in Jersey City second I am also here as a resident and registered voter of New Jersey to Mayor fup as a candidate for governor it is your fauler act responsibility to enforce the laws of Jersey City and to protect the rights of tenants however your unwillingness to act in the face of these flagrant violation calls into question your commitment to affordable housing and frankly your ability to Be an Effective leader of our state the fact that you have allowed our landlord a corporation to continue extracting legal illegal rents from us your constituents even after the binding leveling board determination is a clear dereliction of your duties the tenants of Portside Towers make up an significant number of Jersey City's voters and we demand that you take immediately action to address these violations and to prove that you are not just a progressive and name only thank you thank you our next speaker 530 Connor good evening Council and thank you very much for the opportunity to speak in front of you my name is Connor Butner I last spoke before the council in February 2023 to discuss safety port side the vast resources that our landlord's disposal to fix that issues and the erosion of trust in the systems and laws meant to protect us as tenants I'm here tonight to expose yet another violation of Jersey City's rent control laws byed landlord uh my neighbor J just brought up clear evidence of an illegal rent increase at 100 Warren Street Unit 1411 which occurred after the bonding determination by the Bureau of rent leveling on September 19th 20122 October 20 uh October 31st 22 over two months after the determination that the building was subject to rent control a new tenant moved into unit 1411 the rent uh in this unit was increased by 25.9% over the previous tenant rate obviously exceeding the allowable limit per usual this was implemented without any proper Authority and the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenants rent violating or 2060 -3i rent leveling Bureau as you've heard has been in position of this evidence since April 2023 and it's not acted um the council has also been informed of these ongoing violations at every meeting and we obviously appreciate your continued advocacy on behalf of your constituents so I mentioned safety resources and Trust Equity residentials resources being deployed not towards proper upkeep but to Shield them from their illegal acts as they continue to break the law I also asked in 2023 whether our trust in Jersey City's government was misplaced is it the rent leveling board's determination uh happening this past fall the bureau has continually failed to act given despite the necessary documents need to calculate rents as we're continuing to prove out equity on a daily basis continues to break the law in writing to the detriment of Jersey City's residents the extent that there's any concern as Equity residential Senor management said in their quarterly uh earnings call that they might withdraw from the market uh if God forbid they're forced to follow the laws they're actually breaking um I would point to the fact that tishman Spire is currently building 2,000 new apartments at 50 and 55 Hudson Street this demonstrates that other large sophisticated landlords are willing to step in and deploy Capital to meet the needs for safe affordable and legal housing that's also in line with Jersey City's laws we obviously appreciate your focus and effort and if you can push the bureau to do their job we' greatly appreciate it thank you very much our next speaker 5.31 rihan good evening council members I'm Rihanna MCO I'm speaking to you for the fourth time and I stand before you tonight to expose yet another egregious violation of Jersey City's rent control laws I will present clear evidence of an illegal rent increase at 100 Warren Street Apartment 1014 which occurred after The Binding determination of the Bureau of rent leveling on 91922 on November 5th 2022 over 2 months after the determination that the building was subject to rent control a new tenant moved into unit 1014 shockingly the rent or maybe not shockingly at this point was increased by 19% over the prior ten rate for exceeding the allowable limit far exceeding the allowable limit this increase was not only illegal but also implemented without any proper Authority furthermore the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenants rent violating ordinance 260 the rent leveling Bureau has been in possession of the proof of this violation since April 2023 when Equity residential submitted the current rental rates however the bureau has failed to take any action to address this Injustice the council has been informed of these ongoing violations at every meeting and I do respectfully submit that it is time for you to step up and take action the tenants of 100 Warren Street have suffered long enough we do demand action and we won't back down until it has been delivered the proof is in your hands and please it is time to act personally when I moved into Portside Towers in 2020 we were enticed with a 15-month lease realizing later that July is a much more expensive time to renew we asked the following year if we could sign another 15-month lease which would have led to a less expensive October renewal guess what it wasn't possible at no point during the process were we told that we wouldn't be able to sign another 15mon Le this is so indicative of equity's practices with lack of clarity and transparency we currently anxiously await our renewal for July it ought to be dropping into our inboxes in May my six-year-old daughter daughter recently asked if we will have to move from the place that she has called home since she was two I fear what is coming next as this is what we experienced the last time we tried to negotiate when they gave us a 10% increase that is your 12 month offer and just so you know a new Resident would be paying at least $200 more with your apartment if it were available today which puts you far below the market rate due to this we're unable to offer any other discounts to your current off we are still offering you a very competitive rate that is much lower than the current value of your home and we hope you will take time to consider renewing for another year exclamation point the leasing offices are faceless entities who are at pains to remind us of how lucky we are in reality their practices are immoral illegal Inc conscionable please take action our next speaker 5.32 Daniel good evening City Council Members I wanted to shed light on a blatant violation of Jersey City's rent control laws this one occurring at 100 Warren Street Unit 603 the evidence presented to you demonstrates an illegal rent increase that took place well after the Bureau of rent levelings binding determination on September 19th 2022 now despite the fact that the building was offici officially subject to rent control as of August 25th 2022 a new tenant moving into Unit 603 on November 11th 2022 was subject to a rent increase of 6.1% over the previous tenants rate this increase not only exceeded the allowable limit but also was implemented without proper legal Authority the new tenant also was not informed of the prior tenants rent a direct violation of ordinance 26-3 Equity residentials submitted the current rent rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April of 2023 providing clear evidence of this egregious violation and yet the bureau has failed to take any action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations at every meeting and as of today there are 15 units at Portside currently on the market if a new tenant were to apply to any of these tenants any of these units today they would have to agree an initi to the following statement in order to live at Portside we hereby notify you that the premises in the community are exempt from the provisions of any rent Control Ordinance instituted by Jersey City Hoboken or West New York as the case may be in said premises and Community will be exempt from any rent future rent control rent stabilization or rent leveling ordinance instituted by these municipalities for a period of 30 years following the completion of construction at the community so if any of you council members decided today that you wanted to live at Portside today you would have to agree an initial to this blatantly false statement that Portside is exempt from rent control how are they getting away with this and I received a renewal letter from Portside yesterday March 19th with a rent increase which as you hopefully know by now they aren't allowed to do because they aren't allowed to increase rent at all because they have no authority to increase rent until recalculations have been finalized and they said I needed to reply by March 14th which I am unable to do because March 14th is in the past and I don't own a time machine and I don't know how to build one at least not yet council members we have provided you with an overwhelming amount of evidence that Equity residential plays by their own rules and doesn't follow the law it is up to you to act thank you our next speaker 5.33 vet good evening city council I'm inet aen Hall I reside in uh 100 Warren Street I'm here to present a concerns um about the uh unit 305 at under the Warren Street uh they had an illegal rent increase uh that was imposed and um termined on 919 2022 and nearly three months after the building was officially subjected to rent control a new tenant moved in to unit 305 H this tenant was charged 15% higher than their previous tenant and that is obviously a clear violation of the allowable limit um moreover this increase was implemented without proper legal Authority as they were not uh advised about the increase in in the legaly behind it um I would just simply just line it up with the rent leveling Bureau has um had evidence of this violation of their possession since April 2023 when Equity residential submitted the current rental rates yet uh despite the council being made aware of these ongoing violations at every meeting the bureau has not taken action to address the Injustice um the tenant of 101 Street demand Justice and will not rest uh until it's served so Time for Action is now thank you thank you our next speaker 5.34 Mark members of the city council we meet again I'm Mark boes I come before you to shed light on a fragrant violation of Jersey cities rank control laws of 155 Washington Street in unit 2513 the evidence in front of you demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred after The Binding determination by the rent leveling board on November the 6th 2023 unit 2513 um I've been at since February the 15th 2021 faced a rent increase of almost 3% on March the 12th this year after long after the November 6 2023 determination this increase was implemented without proper legal Authority as the landlord had no right to raise the rent equity res residential submitted the current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April 2023 11 months ago along with the new lease providing clear evidence of this egregious violation yet the bureau has failed to take action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it's time for def div excuse me it's time for decisive action to be taken divisive maybe but decisive definitely the tenants of 155 Washington Street have had enough we demand Justice and will not rest till it's served the proofs in your hands right now and the time for Action is also right now no more excuses no more delays the potential consequences of the city council failing to act on the resolution to enforce the rent leveling board's determination and the rent Control Ordinance cannot be overstated if the council does not take action during this meeting on March the 20th the tenants of 155 Washington Street will be left with no choice but to exercise their first amendment rights to hold public officials accountable this may include social media campaigns press Outreach and a strong Presence at the state of the city address the council must understand that in action on this matter will not be tolerated and the tenants will use every available means to ensure that their voices are heard and their rights are protected thank you our next speaker 5.35 Sean good evening council members again um I'm attended at 155 Washington Street Apartment 504 and I've been here before and explained my I think it was a a couple meetings ago that I explained my situation and here's the proof of it that they're handing out to you and after October 19 2023 hearing Equity residential refused to provide me with a legal lease that was within the parameters of being rank controlled they only gave me 24 hours it was a 10% um lease that they offered me and they gave me 24 hours to sign it which is in itself is illegal as well instead they converted me to a month-to-month and imposed an outrageous 60% rent increase this action is not only a clear violation of the rent Control Ordinance but also a blatant disregard for The Binding determin rendered by the rent leveling board it is important to note that month-to-month tenants are protected under rent control and the 60% increase imp posal me is entirely illegal Equity residential continues to charge me this exorbitant rate even though the binding determination renders it 100% illegal this treatment is nothing short of a disgrace the landlord's actions demonstrate a complete lack of respect for the law and a callous disregard for the well-being of their tenants this must stop immediately the proof of this violation is clear clear and indisputable Equity residential's own rent Ledger which I have provided shows the illegal 60% increase imposed on me after the October 19 2023 hearing we call upon the council to take immediate action to rectify this Injustice and to hold Equity residential and accountable for their egregious and unlawful conduct the time for excuses and delays is over and we demand justice for all the tenants of Portside Towers thank you our next speaker 5.36 Danilo good evening Council today I also will present evidence of a serious violation of JC City's rent control laws 1001 Street Unit 1504 my wife and I faced an illegal rent increase of 14.4% well after the Bureau of grent leveling Bing determination from September 2022 far exceeding the allowable limit this increase is not only illegal but also without proper legal Authority Equity residential submitted a current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April 23 providing clear evidence of this agrees violation however the bu Bureau has failed to take action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed it is time for decisive action now no more delays also Equity not only charges illegal rent they are clearly not qualified to manage the building our lease randomly showed as months to months in the E portal despite we were on our yearly normal lease the end date of the period shown was before the start date when they sent us the renewal notice the date when we were supposed to respond to their offer was one week in the past Equity clearly not is not only able to perform um uh illegal um rents they clearly cannot perform date and look back calculations of any kind and let's not forget why uh an important aspect why we are here we fight for all renters equity and others filed lawsuit trying to remove rent control all together arguing they would lose control over their properties I fought for free market economy in the streets of East Germany but it simply doesn't work for human rights everyone needs a roof over their heads therefore people cannot simply not buy or not rent when it's too expensive this was confirmed in a very reent ruling to lower realtor fees here a quote from the New York Times there's also broader significance it's a case study sometimes businesses can amass enough economic power to squash competition and that is exactly what happened here in Jersey City with the rental market even mayor fulop is under their control President Biden in the State of the Union announced a Crackdown on price fixing in rental market mayor pullup state of the city address is tomorrow will he announce to enforce renters R in German cities we in expect nothing less for 70% of his constituents thank you our next speaker 5.37 Sonia council members I stand before you to shed light on a flagrant violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 100 waren Street Unit 711 the evidences present clear I present clearly shows an illegal rent increase that took place well after the Bureau of rent levelings binding determination in September 2022 a new tenant moving into unit 711 on December 6 2022 nearly three months um after the building was officially subject to rent control was subjected to a rent increase of 24.8% over the previous tenants rates far exceeding the allowable limit this increase was not only illegal but also implemented without proper legal Authority moreover the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenants rent a direct violation of ordinance 260 d3i Equity residential submitted the current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April 2023 providing clear evidence of this gracious viol yet to this day the bureau has failed to take sufficient action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed on these ongoing violations we have had enough we demand Justice and we will not rest until it is served the proof is in your hands and The Time for Action is now no more excuses no more delays talking about delays where is your investigation about mayor full censorship Mrs Waterman you have promised us to do that 10 weeks ago where are the roll back calculations the first illegal rent increases filings were done in May 2022 where is your outrage this is happening to your constituents you ignored us for almost two years here in this chamber and talking about excuses I honestly think you have no excuses you've been knowing about people being forced out of their homes about them becoming homeless about altered forms about all these things the fogner ACT demands you to investigate for one year I ask each and every one of you please ask yourselves what have you done to stop this do that right now I'll finish with a quote by a very smart man Albert Einstein the world is D is a dangerous place to live not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't and do anything about it people were forced out of their homes on an absolutely illegal and evil basis people became homeless and displaced they still are to this state by our greedy landlord our voices were silenced on this issue by Steven fop and still are it's our current state and you what did you do our state should and will be discussed tomorrow when the mayor talks about the state of the city we are the city our next speaker 5.38 Drew members of the city council my name is Drew kochanowski and I stand before you today to expose a clear violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 100 Warren Street Unit 306 the evidence I will present demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred well after the Bureau of rent levelings binding determination on September 19th 2022 on December 6th 2022 almost 3 months after the building was officially subject to rent control a new tenant moved into unit 306 astonishingly this tenant faced a rent increase of 5.8% over the previous tenants rate exceeding the allowable limit this increase was not only illegal but also implemented without proper legal Authority moreover the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenants rent a direct violation of ordinance 26-3 Equity residential submitted the current rental rates to the leveling Bureau in April 2023 providing a clear providing clear evidence of this egregious violation yet the bureau has failed to take action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken the tenants of 100 Warren Street demand Justice and will not rest until it is served the proof is in your hands and The Time for Action is now no more excuses no more delays it is crucial to discussed the implications of the landlord submitting the same non-compliant document year after year in 2022 Equity residential simply sent in the same document they had submitted in 2021 completely unchanged this blatant disregard for the rent Control Ordinance and the required annual updates demonstrates their lack of good faith and willingness to to comply with the law by submitting outdated and non-compliant documents the landlord is attempting to evade accountability and continue their illegal practices the council must not tolerate this behavior and must take action to ensure that the landlord submits accurate and compliant documents each year the landlord's repeated failure to provide the required information in the rent rle of submissions renders these documents invalid by emitting essential data and failing to use the official City forms Equity residential is not only violating the rent Control Ordinance but also preventing the rent leveling Bureau from effectively monitoring and enforcing rent control regulations this lack of transparency and compliance is unacceptable and must be addressed by the council immediately the tenants of 100 Warren Street deserve a landlord who operates within the confines of the law and provides all necessary information to ensure fair and legal rent practices I want to call out that a base rent determination is separate from a roll back base rent doesn't equal the 2016 level which is also illegal thank you for your efforts in this matter and I'll mention this once again let's make some good news together thank you our next speaker 5.39 Aaron good evening council members my name is Aaron Kent and I'm here to expose a shocking violation of Jersey City's rent control laws I will present indisputable evidence of an illegal rent increase at 100 War Street Unit 706 which occurred after The Binding determination by the Bureau of rent leveling on September 19th 2022 on September 30th 2022 just over a month after the August 25th 2022 determination that the building was subject to rent control a new tenant moved into unit 706 astonishingly the rent for this unit was increased by an egregious 50% over the prior tenants rate that's 50% 5 this increase is not only significantly above the allowable limit but also implemented without any legal Authority moreover the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenants rent violating ordinance 260 the proof of this flagrant violation has been in the possession of the rent leveling Bureau since April 2023 when Equity residential submitted the Cur the current rental rates despite having this clear evidence the bureau has taken insufficient action to address this Injustice the council has been made aware of these ongoing violations at every meeting and is time for you to take decisive action I am also here to bring to light a flagrant violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 100 Warren Street Unit 1912 the evidence I will present demonstrates an illegal increase that occurred well after the Bureau of rent levelings binding determination on September 19th 2022 on January 26 2023 nearly 5 months after the building was officially subject to rent control a new tenant moved into unit 1912 this tenant faced a rent increase of 11.4% over the previous tenant rate exceeding the allowable amount this increase was not only illegal but also implemented without proper legal Authority again moreover the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenants rent a direct violation of ordinance 260 Equity residential submitted the current rental rates to the rent leveling bu Bureau in April 2023 providing clear evidence of this egregious violation yet the bureau has failed to take imminent action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations again repeatedly it is time for decisive action to be taken enough is enough the tenants of 100 Warren Street demand Justice and we will not rest until it is served we have provided the proof and now it is up to you to act the time for excuses and delays is over please learn more about our cause and help by searching Portside Towers on GoFundMe follow at rent control JC on both Instagram and ex formally Twitter and email us at rcontrol JC Gmail if you are press a Jersey City or equ Equity a residential whistle blow whistleblower or with any questions about rent control in Jersey City thank you our next speaker 5.40 Shannon uh good evening very happy and grateful to be here tonight with my chosen family this group has helped me through a divorce from an abuser illnesses and professional reorganization that left me without a job I'm also so grateful to this Council for the support and uh for your continued help to enforce the bureau's actions um councilman Rivera I see you and I appreciate you being on your feet for us um I am also here like so many of us as we were charged with doing to provide you evidence um to expose a clear violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 155 Washington Street Unit 402 the evidence I will present demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred after The Binding determination by the rent leveling board on 116 2023 despite the tenant in unit 402 residing in the building since December 6 2022 they faced a rent increase of 6% on December 12th 2023 after the 116 2023 determination this increase was not only implemented without legal Authority but also exceeded the allowable limit under the ordinance 26-3 Equity residential submitted the current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April 2023 along with a new lease providing clear evidence of this egregious violation yet The Bu Bureau has failed to take action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken the tenants of 155 Washington Street demand Justice and we will not rest until it is served the proof is in your hands and The Time for Action is now no more excuses no delays mayor Philip's failure to address these ongoing rent control violations and protect the tenants of Jersey City raises serious concerns about his priorities it appears that the mayor is more focused on his gubernatorial Ambitions than on the needs of the very constituents he was elected to serve the tenants of 155 Washington Street along with renters across the city and the state are struggling to make ends meet in the face of illegal rent increases and a lack of enforcement by the city we demand that mayor Philip prioritize the well-being of Jersey City residents over his political aspirations and take immediate action to address these violation mayor Philips inability to effectively protect renters in his own City calls into question his ability to lead the state of New Jersey thank you our next speaker 5.41 Gracie okay next speaker 5.42 Alyssa good evening Council woman Mrs water Mrs watermelon um my name is Alyssa ltis the last time I spoke was that the end of 2022 15 months ago when I was a resident at Portside due to the wild increases on rent we received we chose for our financial security to move when we moved out on April 2023 we were paying 81% more rent than when we had initially moved in a lot of evidence you've heard today have started with a new tenant moved in all for all of those new tenants there was an old one that was forced out due to the non- enforcement I am one of them as mayor Philip sues has horn on how much affordable housing he has provided over his term it is a slap in my face every time I hear it because I submitted for unconscious rent raises to the office of landlord tenant relationship in May of 202 too he has chosen no action for affordable rent for me for all of us standing in this room and for thousands of Jersey City residents who are renters the length of this process hurts thousands of Jersey City residents every single day last council meeting you asked to Pro prove for the of violation since the rent control determination has occurred here a blatant example of a violation of Jersey City's rent control law at 155 Washington Street Unit 508 the evidence I will present demonstrating an illegal rent increase that occurred after The Binding determination by the rent leveling board on November 6 2023 the tenant in the in unit 508 who has resided in the building since December 10th 2021 faced a rent increase of 4.3% on December 15 2023 after the November 6th 2023 determination this increase was not only implemented without proper legal Authority but also exceeded the allowable limit under the ordinance 206-323-1768 providing clear evidence of this egregious violation however the B buau has failed to take action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken I thank you our next speaker 5.43 Jessica good evening city council um you've heard a lot of evidence presented thus far and believe it or not we're not done um and I would make a suggestion that perhaps we would consider freezing rents as of 2021 as these re calculations are performed and I'll give you an example of why that might be very important um I'm here to share the story of a disabled tenant residing at 155 Washington Street in the building owned by residential his experience exposes the egregious and ongoing violations of rent control laws and tenants rights by the landlord on October 19th 2023 a date I think we're all familiar with now the Jersey City rent leveling board unanimously determined that Equity residential was not entitled to the claimed exemption from rent control for this tenants apartment in the entire Portside Towers uh set of buildings the board's written determination served on all parties on November 6th 23 conclusively established that his unit has been subject to the rent control provisions of chapter 260 of the Jersey City municipal code for the duration of his tency despite this binding determination Equity has continued to pursue a baseless eviction action against him seeking to collect rent and fees that have been deemed unlawful by the board they have filed a verified complaint alleging that he owes over $5,000 in unpaid rent which is directly contradicted by the board's findings and equities Equity residentials own rent Ledger the landlord's attorney certification and landlord certification filed by Griffin Alexander PC on March 14th 2024 further claimed that the tenant now owes 23,453 which appears to include the same illegal fees and charges disallowed by the board these actions constitute frivolous litigation outright harassment and retaliation against this tenant for exercising his legal rights Equity residentials attorneys have also made material misrepresentations to the Jersey City municipal Council and to the court regarding their clients compliance with the rent Control Ordinance and the board's determination this tenant has endured a Relentless campaign of intimidation and abuse from Equity all while struggling with the challenges of his disability they have refused to provide him with a legal lease instead converting him to a month-to month and imposing an outrageous 60% increase this is a clear violation of the rent Control Ordinance I'm really here today again over a year and a half after we first showed up here to demand Justice on behalf of this tenant and to call upon the city council to take immediate action to hold Equity accountable for their unlawful conduct the proof of their violations is clear and indisputable we're only showing you 35 of them tonight we could show you more please stand with us please give us your attention on this critical matter and I trust you will do what is right and TW take Swift action to protect tenants like him our next speaker 5.44 Tom good evening council members my name is Tom Miller and this is the second time I am speaking before the council I stand before you to expose a clear violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 100 Warren Street Unit 1105 my unit the evidence I will present demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred after The Binding determination by the rent leveling board on November 6 2023 as the tenant in unit 1105 who has resided in the building since October 20th 2010 I faced a rent increase of 3 and a half% on January 3 30th 2024 after the after the 116 2023 determination this increase was implemented without proper legal Authority as the landlord had no right to raise the rent of course this was on top of all the other much more significant and most likely illegal annual rent increases for my unit since I moved into the building Equity residentials submitted the current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April 2023 along with new lease providing clear evidence of this egregious violation however the bureau has failed to take action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations is time for decisive action to be taken it is crucial to emphasize the landlord's failure to take the actions detailed by their lawyer Derek Reid who falsely communicated to the council that the landlord would voluntarily follow the law and had not imposed any illegal increas es despite substantial evidence to the contrary this blatant misrepresentation is a clear indication of the landlord's lack of good faith and willingness to deceive both the council as well as the public we call upon the council to recognize these false statements for what they are a deliberate attempt to mislead and avoid accountability for the landlord's ongoing violations of the law the council misrecognized the landlord's pattern of bad faith tenant harassment and utter disre regard for the law is demonstrated by their ongoing egregious violations of the rent Control Ordinance and disregard for the rent leveling board's determination Equity residentials actions make it clear that they have no intention of complying with the law or respecting the rights of their tenants we urge the council to take decisive action to hold the landlord accountable for their unacceptable behavior and to send a clear message that such conduct will not be tolerated in Jersey City the tenants of Portside Towers deserve deserve to live in peace and security without fear of exploitation or retaliation from their landlord the tenants of 100 Warren Street demand Justice and will not rest until it is served the proof is in your hands and The Time for Action is now as we've said many times tonight no more excuses no more delays thank you thank you our next speaker 5.45 John hello again excuse me uh I'm here to shed light on another flagrant violation of Jersey City uh rent control laws at 155 Washington Street this time unit 1811 the evidence I present demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred after The Binding determination by the rent leveling board on November 6th 2023 the tenant in unit 1811 who has resided in the building since February 10th 2023 faced a rent increase of 1% on February 20th 2024 after the 6th of November determination this increase was imple implemented without proper legal Authority as the landlord had no right to raise the rent even by that 1% Equity residential submitted the current rental rates to the bureau in April 2023 along with a new lease providing clear evidence of this egregious violation yet the bureau has failed to take action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken tenants at 154 Washington Street have had enough we demand Justice and will not rest until it's served the proof is in your hands as you know and The Time for Action is now no more excuses no more delays whilst the city's letter to equity yesterday regarding freezing rents since the November ruling is a welcome step we won't be Hoodwinked this the bureau continues to assist Equity as much as it can to not enforce the leveling boards determination in full this is the same Bureau that was a last minute noshow at council member Gilmore's recent Town Hall anything to do with Kevin and Michelle being present shameful but hardly surprising we presented you with a resolution to consider on enforcing the rent Control ordinances should this move forward we look forward to your backing it in full I feel I need to add though how has it come to this asking local government to vote on whether to enforce its laws or not as always we welcome any assistance you can give us to have this situation put right uh the next speaker is due to being my wife who might come crashing through these doors at any moment but probably too late but she sends her best to council member s who ask for this documentation so thank you so shall I ask if she crash through the doors she's not here yet again you can [Laughter] oh my not her right if if if that would have happened I definitely would have played the lottery All right so so 5.46 Mel's not here 5.47 vasi I may be mispronouncing that if I am please correct me that's me uh my name is vasiliki flanger I did all right uh good evening everyone uh it's my first time that I'm speaking in front of the council and as everybody else I'm here to expose a blatant violation of Jersey City's rent control laws I will present evidence of an illegal rent increase at 100 Warren Street Unit 424 which occurred after the biic determination by the Bureau of rent leveling on 919 2022 on November 4 2022 over two months after the 8 August 25th 2022 determination that the building was subject to rent control a new tenant me moved into 424 astonishingly the rent for this unit was increased by 27.1% I was thinking I was getting great deal at this point well that's what I was told anyway uh significantly exceeding the allowable limit this increase was not only illegal but also implemented without any proper Authority moreover the new tenant was not informed of the prior tenants rent violating ordinance 260 the proof of this violation has been in the possession of the rent leveling Bureau since April 2023 when Equity residentials submitted the current rental rates despite having this clear evidence the bureau has taken no action to address this Injustice the council has been made aware of these ongoing violations at every meeting and it is time for you to take decisive action enough is enough as everybody else said the tenants of 100 Warren Street demand Justice and we will not rest until it served we have have provided the proof and now it is up to you to act the time for excuses and delays is offered on a personal note I'm college professor I been teaching at State College in New Jersey for 25 years I moved I chose to move to Jersey City when I got the job I know that when I retire I'll have to move away from the state and away from Jersey City because despite the great benefits great salary it's not going to be enough to live here thank you thank you our next speaker 5.48 Michelle tonight we've provided irrefutable evidence of the ongoing violations perpetuated by our landlord it is beyond infuriating and frankly it's criminal that the bureau has had in its possession possession all the same documentation and yet the burden once again was placed on Portside tenants to prove themselves for the past two weeks we've essentially acted a surrogate Bureau staff compiling evidence that should have already been acted upon by administrators who are compensated by taxpayer dollars to enforce the law hold them accountable dock their pay and investigate everyone who has their hands in the operations of that office now that you have the proofs I'm looking forward to director Richardson making good on his word to find my landlord for its blatant violations as he noted he would as he noted would happen in yesterday's letter sent to Derek Reid chapter 260 section 17 leaves no room for interpretation the director has no choice but to mandate punishment for all violations committed by equity and you bet that after we did cleanup for City administrators who haven't been doing their job we will be following up to ensure fines are issued and paid you should do the same followup do it as part of your investigation into the evident back room Shady dealings of the bureau and City attorneys there are obviously there are obvious deep issues at play from Dina's bogus determinations to Jonah noell's letters demonstrating a lack of basic math skills from the general deliberate obfuscation by Corporation Council to Britney Murray refusing to answer a question of law having to do nothing about our pending litigation and yesterday's letter signed by director Richardson and address to Derek Reid was rif with more inform more misinformation aimed again at stalling and favoring our landlord no one in the bureau has the authority to tell Equity that it that what it's submitted in place of legal rent rols can serve as legal substitutes council members root out corruption investigate who really penned yesterday's letter and fire them director Richardson you are being used by the city's attorneys who are selling your name and reputation Port Siders are on the right side of the law I believe everyone from the city council to Corporation counsel to FIP knows it I urge you to reflect on your role of the Injustice being inflicted upon all Port Siders that is happening in your name I pray that your moral Reckoning happens very soon because in the end Steven FIP will not be able to offer you protection just like he's no friend to us or the tenants of Jersey City I believe that he's no friend to you thank you our next speaker 5.49 suina good evening council members my name is sopina and I'm a firsttime speaker I've come before you today to expose a blatant violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 100 Warren Street Unit 1706 the evidence I will present demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred well after the Bureau of rent levelings binding determination on September 19 2022 despite the buildings being officially subject to rent control as of August 25th 2022 a new tenant moving into unit 1706 on December 1st 2022 faced a rent increase of 7.7% over the previous tenants rate exceeding that allowable exceeding the allowable limit that tenant was me this increase was not only illegal but also implemented without proper legal Authority furthermore the new tenant was not informed of their prior tenants rent violating ordinance 26031 Equity residential submitted the current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April 2023 providing clear evidence of this egregious violation however the bureau has failed to take action to rectify this in Justice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken a little background on me and what's brought me here I had been a Pediatric Intensive Care nurse at NYU for several years and worked in the epicenter of the covid crisis putting my health and the health of my pregnancy on the line while working to care for the most critically ill in New York City in August of 2022 just a few weeks before my son was born we moved to Jersey City for respit hoping to start a new life here we were lured in by a reasonable rate when we and when we first started renting within one year we were dumbfounded by the exorbitant increase and we were paying we are paying well beyond that rate at this point our hard-earned income is being is feeding the pockets of corrupt entities rather than towards our own families and well-being it is atrocious that we have all been taken advantage of in this way it is important to discuss the landlord failure to comply with the rent roll regulation requirements as outlined in ordinance 269 e by not properly registering rent rolls the landlord is not only violating the law but also making it difficult for the rent leveling Bureau to enforce rent control regulations effectively this non-compliance is a clear attempt to evade accountability and continue exploiting tenants with illegal rent increases the council must take action to ensure that this land the landlord complies with these requirements and faces consequences for their deliberate non-compliance thank you our next speaker 550 Emily this good good are you ready for my Mad Lib here we go good evening everyone my name is Emily wingert and I too stand before you as a resident of Portside to expose yet another is it going to be egregious or blatant my word is clear clear violation of Jersey City's rent control laws at 100 Warren Street for this one it's unit 1205 the evidence I'm presenting demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred after The Binding determination by the rent leveling board decision on October 19th 2023 at this point you know these dates and numbers the tenant in unit 1205 who has resided in the building since July 10th 2017 faced a rent increase of 3.2% on October 31st 2023 after the October 19th determination this increase was implemented without proper legal Authority as the landlord should have had no ability to raise the rent when those rents were already determined to require recalculation going back six years from when the first petition was fired filed Equity res presidential submitted the rental rates to the rent leveling board in April 2023 along with a new lease providing clear evidence of this there it is egregious violation however the bureau has failed to take Swift action to rectify this Injustice despite the council being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations it is time for decisive action to be taken the Portside tenants Association submitted a draft reev resolution this past monday it only in is meant to ensure that the law is followed you all have this resolution in your hands tonight please bring that resolution to a vote at the next council meeting if anyone thought we Port Siders would go away let today remind everyone that we will not for countless Council meetings in a row Port Siders are here if anyone thought maybe we were just overblowing what was happening let Today show you that we have not we were asked to bring evidence to this room and we have in droves if anyone thought this was just a few noisy people over there in Portside that Kevin that Michelle let Today show you that it is not we brought more people today than ever before and there's hundreds more we speak for if anyone thought that partial enforcement of the laws of the city would be enough let Today show you that we will not rest until full enforcement and complete Justice is served the proof is now in your hands please support our request to follow the ordinance completely not partially based off accurate base rent determinations no more delay thank you our next speaker 5.51 Mandy is Mandy here she left okay next speaker 5.52 Elvis is Elvis here he's left the [Laughter] building that was a good one Sean can't take credit mckenny was actually turning around and telling me that 5.53 Greg it's Greg here I think he left too next 5.54 brandan thank you next speaker 5.55 hura Brendan Doan thank you Coretta right W Neils a lifelong resident of Jersey City St Peter's prep gr and I'm here to talk about the certified living certified artists that live in Jersey City and the particular ones that live at 150 Bay Street um I'm addressing this to the mayor City Council the City Zoning Board Jersey City housing this letter represents the eight apartments that are controlled by the City Zoning Board and assigned to the Quality qualified Jersey City artist in the Waldo District under the 2001 zoning law the Jersey City artist certification board has controlled and set the living rage rent for the certified living workspace is defined by the Jersey city code 35 33 45-11 zoning law that remains as today the zoning law was established to create live work opportunities for artists to reside in jury City creating a revitalized downtown Warehouse District the landlord at 150 Bay stre has attempted and has succeeded to skirt this law by increasing the rent of the certified artist departments without following the established procedure the nature of the law has in precedence required that artists has a potential to qualify and submit a robust portfolio of work that indicates an active career long with tax information to to Jersey City artist certification board the Jersey City of artist certification board would then receive the portfolio and determine if the artists including performing artists would be assigned a certification number if the artist qualified the artist would enter a pool of artists available to qualify via lottery for a live work unit in a newly developed Waldo neighborhood when a number of qualified artists are chosen via loby they would have to present their tax and appication number pay stubs recent 1040 or similar tax forms for approval to Jersey City artist certific Point upon approval the J City artification Board would assign an existing certified work live work apartment in the artist based upon income levels determined in the review the procedure above has been the same since in session in 2001 and the certified artists are familiar with the procedure and understand the basis of this law as it is in written and maintain their records to reflect any requests and pertaining artist portfolios interview requests and tax submissions the landlord at 150 Bay Street was able to renovate existing warehouse and Achieve an additional floor of resal construction along with extensive outdoor space adjacent to the additional floor and Terraces and so on the improvements of the building and renovation followed the 411201 Jersey City Land Development ordinance zoning law and the Jersey City AR Council uh overs the regulation use and distribution of the eight total Jersey City certified apartments in this location I want to conclude by saying um we collectively signed this letter to request a formal meeting between all parties this meeting should resolve the conflicts of interest between the various agencies signed to the task of completing with a Jersey City artist certification for was created to maintain thank you I can just say Mr we'll uh reach out to set up the meeting our next speaker 5.5 six Elizabeth hello council members I'm a resident at 150 Bay Street and everything he just read to you is something I was going to also say so I don't have to read it again we just need help we need to have a meeting between who's in charge now the artist certification they're requesting tax returns different things that are very important obviously we want to make sure it goes to the right parties so if you guys could just help us get a letter from whoever's in charge of the JY City artist certification now and give it to us and then we'll comply like we do every year giving our tax returns and just have the program keep going along as usual right now we're being a little strong armed into giving um some people would talk to us we don't really know and they want our tax returns and say you have three days to give it to us it feels like we're being strong armed and um we really are just artists we we don't we've always complied with the Jersey City Board by letters they would send us a letter telling us what is needed and then we'd give our tax return and everything they would need and we'd perform and everything we do every year to prove we're artists bringing art to Jersey City we love it here we don't want it to change we just want some help clarifying who's in charge where do we send this material so we know it's in good hands so again I'm Eliza Neils I'm at 150 Bay that was word Neils my husband we represent a lot of the artists in the building they're not here tonight but we're speaking for them all pretty much thank you very much thank you our next speaker 5.57 Mo Mariah good evening um so I'm here um representing the nitty-gritty Jersey City Social Club um I'm on the organ izing committee we started out as a group of women in 2017 to keep resisting and persisting and we've grown as a group to work on pro-democracy initiatives to engage uh people in voting and not for the status quo of democracy but to expand democracy to create a more inclusive democracy um so um our group The Nitty Gritty um is in support of the rank Choice voting trigger ordinance and so we're asking the city council to um pass that ordinance at the you know at the next city council meeting uh rank Choice voting is a way to increase voter turnout and the diversity of candidates um it R it also reduces the expense of runoff elections because you don't have them and it acts as a runoff election when you have the rank choose voting um it's also very important right now because there is State legislation for Jersey City to show support for rank Choice voting so that we could have state legislation passed um and then Jersey City could be one of the first cities to enact rank Choice voting here um it has enacted in other cities in other states like Maine and Alaska it's very simple uh we participated in a rank the beers uh event recently um again it was just a very simple way to do it it shows that your vote counts no matter if it's your first or second or third choice um and so y just want you to take it into consideration and hopefully that you will pass it at the next city council meeting so that we can have ring Choice voting in Jersey City it's a needed reform to expand our democracy and to get engage more people and to get more candidates running for office um as somebody who has run for office and knowing how toxic that can be when it's a zero sum game rig Choice voting is a way to change that um because you want to be someone's second choice you want to be their third choice um so you're not trying to tear people down in that way so thank you so much and yeah our next speaker 5.5 58 brandan so this was the brandan we were looking for but he's not here okay can't do that next 5.59 David just when you thought it was safe uh we're back uh good evening everyone my name is David Wilson uh this is Mary Solomon um I've been I've been Jersey City resident since 2005 she's been Jersey City resident since 2002 uh this is my first time speaking for the council um I stand here tonight to expose a clear violation of Jersey City's wind control laws at 155 Washington Street Unit 708 the evidence that we just presented demonstrates an illegal rent increase that occurred after The Binding determination of the r leveling board on November 6 uh 2023 the tenant in unit 708 who's resided in the building since January 16 2021 faced a rent increase of 2.3% on February 6 2024 after the November 6 2023 determination this re this increase was implemented without proper legal Authority as the landlord had no right to raise the rent equity presidential submitted the current rental rates to the rent leveling Bureau in April 2023 along with a new lease providing clear evidence of this egregious violation however the bureau has failed to take meaningful action to rectify this Injustice despite being repeatedly informed of these ongoing violations I'm also tenant on 155 Washington Street in unit 301 and right now Equity is offering us a renewal lease with an illegal rent increase of 3.1% and and also a an a rent control addendum that falsely states that our unit is not subject to rent control and it's not separable from the actual lease which is also illegal anyway they reiterated this tonight this very night after receiving the letter uh yesterday of March 19th um I was also a tenant of port side uh from 2005 to 2007 and I had to leave then because of outrageous rent increases but I'm not going to get into that here because I'm not bitter about that so I do need your help to make the rent leveling Bureau file the ordinance um but I'm not asking this just for me there are a lot of people in this city who are in units they're subject to rent control and they may not be here tonight and uh they may many people I think don't know that they're in rent control units because maybe like like me they believed what the landlord put in the lease that it wasn't subject to rank control but it was so um it's very important for you to to press the bureau to take action on this and I have 10 seconds so please learn more about our cause search Portside Towers on GoFundMe follow rent control JC um if you're on the former Twitter and then get off Twitter and um email us at rcontrol JC atgmailcom thank you our next speaker 5.60 Veronica I like how just the first name does it good evening Council my name is Veronica azua I'm a Jersey City resident and I'm a member of voter Choice New Jersey I'm here tonight to urge the council to vote in favor of passing the proposed rank Choice voting trigger ordinance at the next city council meeting this ordinance would put a ballot question to Jersey City voters to decide whether they want to use rank Choice voting in local elections the ballot question would be triggered when the state passes the municipal and School Board voting options act and that act permits municipalities to adopt rank Choice voting it's it's taken one and a half years for Advocates working with council members Gilmore and Solomon to get this ordinance onto the city agenda and so at this time we can't wait any longer to get this passed we are on Route to getting support for our rank Choice voting State enabling bills from the complete State Legislative delegates that represent Hudson County that's state senators and assembly members in legislative districts 32 and 31 in fact uh assemblyman John Allen is the primary sponsor of our state enabling bill in the assembly okay so there is momentum for this uh within Hudson County Hoboken passed a trigger ordinance and with Jersey City passing this ordinance as well both municipalities are poised to implement this if the voters decide to adopt it simply just let the voters decide there have been concerns raised by the council around voter confusion uh respectively I I respectfully I think we've demonstrated that we really are committed to voter education in Jersey City uh we have already hosted six uh mock election uh events in several Wards we have worked with colleges and universities as well to educate the youth population I didn't mention that two of our uh rank it events were tailored to the seniors uh in our communities if this is passed we are going to continue to educate the public uh because they stand to benefit in a time when the countries uh when American democracy is really under attack and a time when the state's undemocratic practices are coming to light I'm talking about gutting Oprah and the negative effects that uh the party line has on candidates and voters it's time for elected officials to stand up for a pro-democratic reform I say let the voters decide thank you our next speaker 5.61 Linda hello I'm Linda V West I am in BO f um I'm here to speak up about rank Choice voting and to encourage everyone to vote for it when it comes up um it's helps our democracy it encourages more people to run more people to vote um it is automatically uh um a runoff so you don't have to spare the time and expense for having runoffs it encourages um polite uh elections so that people don't have to fight they want to encourage people to vote for them um so if they maybe they're not the first but they want to be the second choice so they don't want to tear anyone else down who's running um next Wednesday from 12 to1 at St Peters University we're going to be having a rank Choice voting event where there'll be a presentation explaining it um someone will talk about their personal experience in rank Choice voting in Jersey City and lunch will be served and um the dessert will be four different types of cookies where people will then rank Choice vote their favorite cookies so you'll have an experience of rank Choice voting um which is the favorite cookie um so I would encourage everyone to come that's next Wednesday at McIntyre Hall at St peters's University thank you our next speaker 5.62 Barry good evening Council my name is Barry bender and I don't live in Jersey City I come from Ocean County town called forkid River uh but I consider and I've said to many people Jersey City is my ancestral Homeland because this is where my family settled when they came from Europe so this is Like Home to me also anyway I'm the uh live Outreach lead for voter Choice New Jersey I've been here in New in Jersey City numerous times various Parks various events where we're ranking whatever um and I've found the people of Jersey City to be very open and understanding of what rank Choice voting is about my introduction to rank Choice voting uh came I'm I'm a member of the green party and in 2017 uh when I first joined somehow I got grabbed to uh participate in the elections of the leadership of the party which has been done with rank Choice voting forever and now ever um I had never heard of rank Choice voting before and they brought me out and said you're going to be the one doing the counting um I made no mistakes and I found it very easy to understand and to say that people would have a problem understanding rank Choice voting you can look at the percentage of the polls that were taken in New York City after their primary to me rank Choice voting is um a large step to increasing democracy for voters of this of this country country um it as mentioned before decreases the hostility between candidates because if I'm going to be saying bad things about someone obviously their voters aren't going to pick me as their number two choice and rank Choice voting will calm things down um there'll be more civility and another guarantee of rank Choice voting okay and this is a big this is my biggest one is that you're guaranteed that the winner of the election has approval by more than 50% of the voters meaning a majority and I can give you an example I can give you an example this past year in this past election the mayor of Carney was elected with a 37% plurality which means 63% of the people wanted someone else to be their mayor rank Choice voting guarantees that the winner of your election will have the majority of the people supporting them and I think that's a critical thing and I thank you for your time tonight all right we have our next speaker up hi my name is Jack and I'm a new resident of Jersey City which is great and this is the first time I've ever spoken to a city council wait a minute Jack Jack Cunningham it could be John Cunningham not yet oh I have a couple other speakers before you I'm sorry are they here 5.63 AOS no not here 5.64 Adrian okay all right jack I'm sorry wow I was clear about that from the beginning all righty so uh my name is Jack Cunningham I'm a new resident of Jersey City and I'm a volunteer for voter Choice New Jersey and uh I want to talk to you about why I want I support this rank Choice voting trigger ordinance when New York City was given the opportunity to vote uh in favor of rank Choice voting they did so with 70% of the vote 70% of Voters supported rank Choice voting and what proceeded that was the most competitive election that New York City has seen in generations and as a result it had the highest turnout in 30 years rank Choice voting is incredibly effective in its most recent poll 77% of New Yorkers currently support rank Choice voting and to be clear this is not just a New York City thing in the past three years rank Choice voting has won every single time it's been put on the ballot and that includes liberal cities all the way to small Republican towns in Utah voters are desperate desperate for more choices and more change we're asking Jersey City City to commit to ask the same question to Jersey City voters uh if Tren let them do Jersey City voters want to end spoilers do they want to replace low turnout runoffs and have more choices on their ballot we deserve to find out thank you our next speaker 5.66 we hello uh my name is way Zay and I'm a new resident of Jersey City this is my first time speaking at a city's council meeting and I'm here to show my support for the rank Choice voting uh trigger ordinance uh I have attended several events held by the voter Choice New Jersey group and had the chance to learn about what rank Choice voting is and participated in the mocked elections using this different way of voting I think a lot of the attendees myself included uh were able to quickly pick up on how rank tro voting Works since at the end of the day we are just ranking our first second third and so on choices on the ballot if people are uh only have one candidate that they like they can still choose to just vote for one that that one candidate uh but for people who have multiple candidates that they like on a ballot then they can list out all their preferences and really have their voices heard I think this is a simple change that makes voting better and I urge members of the city council to vote in favor uh passing a rank Choice voting tricker ordinance for Jersey City thank you next speaker 5.67 Renee good evening um my name is Renee steinhagen I to I'm a relatively new resident of Jersey City but I'm a member um the executive director of New Jersey apple seed and one of the lead of voter Choice New Jersey I urge you to vote Yes on ordinance 2417 that we would enable we're enabling voters of Jersey City to Adopt A Rang Choice voting pursuant to a referendum that would appear and the next general election ballot following the passage of a state law that would enable any municipality regardless of form to employee rank Choice voting for The municip and State uh School Board elections I'm not going to discuss benefits uh other people have spoken about that today but I'd like to focus on the validity of this ordinance why a trigger ordinance and the role of this Council as representatives of the second largest city in New Jersey what you can play and what is really a Grassroots campaign of voter Choice New Jersey to secure rank Choice voting for all voters in the state uh first this ordinance is not premature one doesn't have to wait for the state enabling legislation to pass for you to put in an ordinance a directive that the legislation um to be adopted can be uh on the ballot this is a process that's consistent with uh change in government questions Charter changes which under the Faulkner act must always go to the voters second others have talked about that we understand that you believe that the trigger ordinance or RCV are confusing but neither is and as we have talked we have been doing events and people not only understand rank Choice voting but they enjoy using it secondly we explain the trigger ordinance and why it's necessary to do a trigger ordinance because the state current law in state only allows uh the candidate who gets the most votes to win so now it's time for Jersey City with its neighbor Hoboken to lead the way really to let our state legislature know that the voters of this state want to have the choice as to whether to use RCV in our local elections this is going to be a chair a change emerging from the voters themselves and not one imposed on us by our legislature thank you our next speaker 5.68 Warren Warren's not here next speaker 5.69 Alexa I think she left next speaker 5.70 Harris not here next speaker 5.71 Cynthia not here next speaker 5.72 Richard not here and last but not least 5.73 Jeff evening um my name is Jeff Goodwin a Jersey City resident and uh I've been a professor of political sociology at uh New York University for the past uh 33 years during that time I've had the opportunity to study electoral systems and party systems across the globe so I'm just here to say that uh what you've been told by previous speakers is indeed born out by the social science largely political science literature on what we call the single transferred vote system as what is that St TV rank Choice voting is just another name for this well-known uh form of voting and as previous speakers have mentioned uh it does increase the choices available to voters it does increase All Things Considered voter turnout and it's just common sense that people when they have more choices than two or more likely these days just one name on the ballot that they're going to be more motivated more likely to go to the polls to vote and I don't think it's been mentioned yet uh that among many of the benefits of this system is the elimination of the so-called spoiler effect that is a lot of people would like to vote for a third or fourth or fifth party if they had the opportunity but given the Electoral rule of our own single non-transferable vote system really once two parties have become institutionalized it's very difficult for a third party never mind a fourth or fifth to find its way to electoral strength and the reason is quite obvious voters fear that if they vote for a third party they're going to take votes away from from a party that they might otherwise vote for and make it possible for an absolutely horrible party that they would never vote for to win so uh this has been the bane of third parties in the United States this fear of actually empowering the worst sorts of people the worst politicians so um the single transferable vote system rank Choice voting eliminates this so-called spoiler effect just one of the many reasons why it enhances voter turnout across the globe Ireland Australia Canada many cities and states across the us thank you Jeff that concludes our public speaking list and on to our petitions and Communications council members any questions or comments on items 6.1 through 6.30 hearing none any questions or comments on officer communication 7.1 through 7.3 hearing none any questions or comments on reported directors 8.1 on to our claims and addendums number one two and three so council members are going to be taking a vote on claims and addendums number one number two two and number three council person Ridley I council person priner I council person Bano has left council person SLE hi council person Solomon hi council person Gilmore council person Dees hi council person rera Hi and council president wman claims and addendums number one two and three are approved 80 with council person bajano absent on to our resol Solutions council members are going to be taking a vote on items 10.1 through 10.12 with the exception of 10.2 which was approved earlier council person Ridley on uh 10.1 resolution for former councilman Michael selano I we did uh make sure that his family uh knows that this resolution is on here but I ask them to let us know when they're comfortable with coming so I'm going to ask if my colleagues would allow them that space probably next meeting for us to read through that resolution but I didn't want to rush them to uh attend the meeting um and then on 10.4 I'm going to abstain and vote I for everything else and that is in no way a reflection of Mr M I just haven't been following the story and and not familiar with his background but I believe that um you know no one should have to go through any extra uh scrutiny based on uh you know their religion or their outward uh perception or be discriminated against for race religion sex anything um so I hope that he uh does succeed um you know if he is qualified for that position so I'm going to abstain on 10.4 and I on everything else okay council person Prince are hi council person Bano is absent council person SLE want to um remember the life of Michael uh selano and thank him and his family for his service and for lending him to Jersey City for the time that he was with us um I for 104 uh is very hard being a Muslim American um nowadays it feels like not just post 911 but 1950s 1960s with the McCarthyism and the way that Muslims are demonized um in open public it feels like it's open season on Muslims I am proud to work with councilman Solomon on this um adal mie is a renowned lawyer and he should be confirmed and the fact that they are a handful of people using islamophobic attacks to discredit his literal Stellar legal career is absolutely abhorent I call upon the Democrats to grow a spine and for the Republicans to grow a heart or get a heart um and find a moral compass because although a lot of Muslim Americans are the younger Generations might be Democrats a lot of the older ones also very conservative um so I I thank the Senators and Joe Biden for putting this forward but they need to seal the deal and they need to protect the deal um and he is a resident of Jersey City and we must stand by him and ensure that his name is not sullied in the National media and that we make sure he gets confirmed with that I vote I and thank thank you councilman Solomon thank you council person Solomon yeah um v i for all and then just briefly on 10 for is uh counc said and appreciate him his partnership on this you know Mr manie's a Jersey City resident and he would make history with this nomination he would be the first ever Muslim American on an appeals Federal appeals court um and he has the most impeccable record you know possible and so what they've done is they they've done the McCarthy guilt by association so it's like you've never done anything that anyone could ever object to so we're going to find the most distant connection and try to pretend that that is related to you and that does not happen to you know uh you know white men when they're up there you know this is specific uh because of his religion um because he would be historic skin color because he would be a historic nominee and and the fact that there are Democrats wavering now on his nomination is just you know kind of the worst of politics so you know obviously as a Jersey City resident we want you know he's a history maker in our city we we want that there we want to express our our view that what's happening uh is awful but we should be focusing on the positive of that this is again you know the most impeccably qualified nominee possible the bar association rates him you know as high as possible uh he would he would be history maker in our city and and uh we thank Senators Booker and Mendez for moving this forward but we need every single Democrat to push this nomination uh through and get him on the bench so that's why we have the resolution here and voting I for all council person Gilmore I council person Dees I council person Ribera I and council president wman okay city ordinances 10.1 through 10.3 are approved 80 with council person bajano absent uh item 10.4 is approved 701 what council person Ridley abstaining and council person bajano absent and items 10.5 through 10.12 are approved 80 with council person bajano absent on to our next set of resolutions items 10.13 through 10.23 again that's 10.13 through 10.23 council person Ridley hi council person priner Hi council person SLE hi council person Solomon hi council person G more I council person de I have to abstain on 10:13 I'm an employee there and I'm in the uh memorandum I'm very excited for this I do think it'll be great for the shelter um and our students had some excellent ideas but director Flanigan in Brook put together something that was really great for high school students and out of school youth students I think it's going to start to revamp the volunteer program at the shelter so I have to obain on that but I would vote I on the rest thank you council person River same I vote I and I'll abstain on 10:13 thank you and council president Waterman okay all right so item 10.13 is approved 602 with council members the G and R abstaining and council person Bano absent items 10.14 through 10.23 are approved 8 Zer with council person Bano absent uh before I call for the the M um the balance of our resolutions I just want to confirm with our ba that we GNA we are going to be withdrawing 10.31 since we're going to have a close session yes that's right Sean that's the settlement that we're going to be discussing at the close session next week two week hey thank you so much God bless you all right so on items 10.24 through 10.39 with the exception of 10.31 which has been withdrawn council person rley I council person priner I council person ban oh excuse me council person SLE you're saying this is for the balance of it's the balance yes sir okay um I want to vote I for all for um 1038 it's um you know our solemn Duty and I know my Council colleagues worked alongside councilman Michael Yun it's an honor for us to be able to push this forward the anniversary foure anniversary of his passing is coming up April 6th and um this bronze statue I don't know if you saw the attachment it's going to be a welcome and beautiful presence in the Heights Public Service is very hard you know I don't have to tell you guys that and you know his family sacrificed a lot m Yun sacrificed so much for this city um and this is a beautiful way for us to remember him he is the he is the shining example of the American dream and um may he be an example for everyone else in Jersey City and inspire all of the any anyone else to not just start a business but get into public service and serve their community and with that I vote I thank you Council Solomon Miss Michael alot I vote I council person Gilmore I council person Dees hi counc person rera if Michael was here he would say I scratch you my head but uh I vote I on all he would also be asking more questions and about the budget and the cost it's all true and council president Wardman 10.32 and I on all the rest okay motion wait wait wasn't here to vote no on it second give me give me one second guys sorry so 10.32 where I get there so 10.24 through 10.30 are approved 80 with council person bajano absent 10.32 is approved 7 01 council president wman abstaining and items 10.33 through 10.39 are approved 80 with council person bajano absent so may I have a motion to adjourn at 10:17 second PM motion made by council person Rivera seconded by council person CLE all council members present by acclamation please say I we are out of here at 10:17 p.m. thank you so much everyone that was present and still present and everyone watching at home remember Teamwork Makes a DreamWork have a great night stay safe your CH aren't any better so if you want to no yeah don't mind the rest but it's got to be like measured out I I like the handr but they should have measured it like