okay good afternoon everyone we're about to get started if we can find our seats silence our cell phones like I'm doing greatly appreciate it okay good afternoon everyone we are on the record today is Monday the 8th day of April in the year 2024 this is a city council Caucus meeting of the Jersey City municipal Council we had a scheduled 4M start the clock on my cell phone is showing 402 PM may I have a roll call for the commencement of this caucus council person Ridley here council person priner council person bajano council person SLE here council person Solomon is not here yet council person Gilmore is not here yet council person Dees here council person Riva here and council president Wardman we have seven council members in attendance at 4:02 pm on behalf of council president Waterman and 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 posting on the bulletin board of the first floor the annual notice which is the scheduled of meetings and caucuses of the municipal Council for the calendar year 2024 and filed in the office of the city clerk on Thursday November 30th 2023 in addition at its time of its preparation the agenda of this meeting was similarly disseminated on Friday April 5th 2024 at 4:55 p.m. to the mayor Municipal Council business administ Ator Corporation Council and local newspapers and posted on the city's website so I can certify as to our total compliance with the Sunshine Law council president I'm going to turn it over to you good afternoon president Wardman members of the council I have uh seven items and director Shay had called me about an hour ago he's tied up in L A litigation hearing and he asked me to present one on his behalf uh his resolution is resolution 24- 251 1044 resolution will authorize the award of a contract to armch wholesalers Incorporated a federally licensed firearm dealer to provide 37 Glock model 45 9mm handguns with optic sights and frame mounted flashlights and enhanced security holsters in exchange for various weapons possessed by the Emergency Services Unit which are no longer needed with the pending opening of the public safety the training deescalation center and Analysis was conducted as to the weapons stored at the ESU Armory many of which were not applicable to enhan Tactical training ESU ESU officers presently received upon evaluation of these weapons we had an estimated value of$ 43,9 the acquisition of these weapons will ensure uniformity to the caliber of the weapons carried by all members of the Emergency Services Unit and provide enhanced accuracy and gun retention capabilities GRE do you agree with uh giving up certain uh uh uh areas of weapons I do councilman I I was part of the uhe that reviewing these I mean both of us were in the police department and we know how things go I mean is this a a good deal or yes it is it's a very good deal we had many weapons there it's as far back as old revolvers many weren't as far were on repairable or non-workable State uh right now the with the training that the ESU officers they they receive more enhanced weapon trainings than uh the regular Rank and file however that will a change once we open up the new training facility which is scheduled for the 15th if all goes according to plan so um it was a fair analysis and a fair trade all right sure thing is this thing moving on to mind we have resolution 24 263 10.56 resolution will authorize a water of a contract to Millennium Communications for the maintenance Network and it Cisco smart net coverage under the New Jersey state contract the total cost of this contract is $75,500 purchase and delivery of a Mac gr64 BR water tanker replacing a previous truck which is no longer operational due to age and condition purpose of this tanker will be used for transporting portable water and fire suppression total amount of the contract is $198,700 and is funded through the DPW capital account next is resolution 24267 10.60 resolution will authorize renewal of an open and contract ATT truan towing and recovery for light and medium city-owned Vehicles towing services total amount of the contract shall not exceed $2,816 with a temporary incumbrance of $5,000 resolution 24268 1061 resolution will authorize the award of an open-end contract to United Ford LLC for light auto repair services not covered under warranty through the sourcewell cooperative for the DPW vision of automotive services total amount of the contract is $40,000 with a temporary incumbent of 7500 and is funded to the DPW operating account resolution 24269 10 and heavy truck collision for the maintenance repairs of heavy duty Vehicles class five or higher over 15,000 PS under New Jersey state contract total amount of the contract is $400,000 with a temporary incumbrance of $220,000 and is funded through the DPW operating account resolution 24270 10.63 resolution will authorize the award of an open-end contract to Northeast auto and truck parts LLC for the purchase and delivery of fluids and lubricants for the city's Fleet for the sourcewell purchasing cooperative for the DPW division of automotive services total amount of the contract is $350,000 with a temporary incumbrance of $110,000 and is funded through the DPW operating account and the last is 24271 1064 resolution will authorize the award of a month-to-month extension not to exceed 3 months to Amber Air company LLC to provide agac boiler maintenance for city-owned buildings contract shall not exceed the sum of $80,000 with a temporary incumbrance of $30,000 which is available in the DPW operating account thank you very much council president before you call the next director I just want to record council person Gilmore present at 4:05 pm and council person Solomon at 408m so we now have all nine council members present thank youor Baker good evening council president members of the council I have two resolutions first one is agenda it's 10- 43 resolution 24- 250 it's a resolution ratifying the award of a contract to Millennium Communications Group for the yearly block hour support contract under State contract for the Department of Public Safety um it is in the amount of $68,000 this is the yearly support and maintenance for the 900 City cameras um next one is item 10.45 resolution 24-22 it's a resolution ratifying the award of a contract to Safe Weare Incorporated for radio maintenance repair services to the US community's government purchasing Alliance known as Omnia partners for the Department of Public Safety Office of technology and Communications this is in the amount of $58,700 I ask for figures from the police department I have not gotten them I do not have to go through the business administrator if I don't get them I'm going outside the city to uh hire authority to say I want to know the statistics I asked for I'm tired of asking for him and a lot of people and this Council should be aware that we're not getting we're not being told what the heck is going on and I'm tired of it all right so would you please give him the message thank you Mr it has nothing to do with you thanks thank you council president council members um I appear before you today on different resolutions the first is resolution 24- 264 agenda item 10.57 is a resolution to award an open-end contract to ask Cape L and construction for the maintenance of our irrigation systems um throughout the city's Park system I would just note that that the title of this award um has forgotten to use the term open end um but all the supporting documents and indeed the public bid of course did use the term open end and just consulted with the law department and um that title will be corrected just to include the words open end um and the next um item that I am before you is an additionally another contract that we seek to award excuse me this is resolution 24265 agenda 10.58 this is a contract for um uh fencing again through the department of recreation and Youth Development uh this was a public bid and open-end contract for fencing and all things that go along with fencing across the city question lucenda with regards to that fencing contract so uh there's there's some facilities right that I'm just speaking about baseball because that's you know what I know right back stops on the baseball there are some back stops throughout the city right that have the big chain link fence as opposed to the small chain link fence right uh I think we need to like make sure if we can look at that real good because the small chain link fence is the very expensive one and there's parks that have the entire park small chain link fence where that should only be for the back stops and the rest of the field could have the Big Chain l f we will certainly try to take a look at the councilman what we also did with the fencing contract um this year because we had it on a you know the third iteration um but what we did this year is we added in some materials to that like privacy screens things that we use as a city that are now built into the contract so we have some set prices so um we are continually trying to make sure we're ahead of the issues on the fence and and the noticing where the expense of fencing is makes sense councilman so we'll keep our eyes out thanks Lucinda hold on you have any further information about the Persian field ice ring I do not personally have more information but I'm expecting to learn some additional facts this week C what do you know about this PO uh down town where they want to extend the uh uh nework Avenue over to another Street and spend money on that I mean if money's going to be spent on that some money's got to be spent up in CN D because I'm getting tired of it and I think Yousef is getting tired of it too and a lot of things have to be done in Persian field um I agree that we have improvements to make all over councilman my first um notification about the potential for an additional playground um near The Pedestrian Plaza was by reading an article this this afternoon about it I can only say from a proximity that um van vorce is you know the closest playground there and it's certainly very heavily utilized by the community but I'm I'm obviously not in front of council to speak on that today all right thank you I had a question um this uh irrigation system I know can you just explain for our edification is this something that's a new initiative or is this something that like was previously done by you know maybe one person and now you're just like Outsourcing it so that it's done before the winter sets in a great question councilman so um the irrigation system contract um is actually something that has already was in place with the parks maintenance well before I came to be um so I've actually been in front of council for the past two years to reup a bid that was done three years ago this was time to do a fresh bid so um what we have is we have not every single Park not every single athletic field but many of them do have underground irrigation systems and they're all different depending on when the park was built what was included wasn't included so there's various different literally underground irrigation systems some have drip lines some have heads that might pop up and you know spray out water on a certain schedule um so there's always been an outside contract well always is a strong word but for at least the past five years there has been an outside contractor supplementing the ability of our city plumbers in that regard um an additional thing that we added into the irrigation contract this year is um we um made sure that the company coming in to take on the contract was also knowledgeable on drinking fountains both human and animal drinking fountains because that has been a really challenging area in our Park system from a maintenance perspective so we are hopeful that by um supplementing um with a vendor who is knowledgeable in that area we may be able to uh hopefully by now address some of the drinking fountain issues that are also evident in our parks and uh I see Riverview Fisk Park is here uh the two drinking fountains and park irrigation uh would you classify the fountain in the center of the um Park as part of that irrigation or is that separate or separate councilmen so those are decorative Fountains of which we have three across the city last year was the first time that the division of parks maintenance entered into a um a maintenance contract for the decorative fountains um which are present at Hamilton vanor and Riverview Fisk although to be fair The vanor Entity wanted to keep their own sort of fountain on there so we did engage last year with a vendor called aquatic Arts who did a very nice job um and actually helping us with some of the splash pad maintenance as well so we will be reupping on them the value of that contract is smaller so that is not something that I come before Council to ask permission to enter into thank you so much thank you Lind I have one more question I'm sorry going back to the irrigation system now so uh does do you guys have a a list of of parks that get the sprinkler systems through you know I I guess water the park the parks sure we of course know which which of our facilities have underground irrigation systems that require maintenance and which do not if your question is next going to be about Franco field and Enos Jones that that that field does not have an underground irrigation hence when constituents are asking us to make the grass greener um unless Mother Nature herself is paying attention and raining in that area we don't have that um ability at the moment at Franco or Enos Jones so serious chest pains just settled into my system now because there is a huge irrigation system there so I just want to know uh you know is is the are the Landscaping people that we are Contracting here are they going to look at the water pump that's there yes councilman so we asked them to do just that because it's our understanding that the water pump that's tied into the irrigation system currently in place was part of the as built design however many years ago that that water system um and probably what ever upgrades within the past 20 years are made that irrigation system from what I have learned has been living since then so there's no um no company that we've been able to speak with is can find a pump to replace that circulation system to make that existing system work a at this juncture so we are in conversations with um infrastructure to try to figure out what might have to be done there but to be very fair it's not a safety issue it's a you know it's not a safety issue we'd love to have green grass there um but it is something that infrastructure is aware of we are aware of and last summer we tried to figure out if it's something that could be financially within the wherewithal of parks maintenance or if it had to be a bigger conversation I and unfortunately I don't have a clear answer as to how to remedy that specific system and and and the questions is actually it it wasn't specific to Enis Jones or Franco I was just at I was concern about Persian field right but uh the concern that I have is because of the the irrigation system does not work the the turf on the field we don't have the best Turf on these fields so there's a netting underneath that Turf that pops up when it starts drying up and and athletes you know children high school students they're wearing cleats or rubber cleats sometimes it will get that netting gets stuck in that cleat and then it could cause a problem so I think that if they're not going to fix the uh the that boiler I'm I'm thinking we're going to probably have to retf a lot of fields uh next year have that conversation for sure counc got it thank you very much Council M good evening Council I have five items to present before you the first item is 10.35 this is reso 4242 this is a resolution authorizing the award of a contract to new pathway counseling to provide counseling services in connection with the employee assistance program this is a one-year period um from April 1st 202 24 to March 31st of 2025 not to exceed uh 72,000 next the next item is 10.36 this is resolution 24243 this is a resolution authorizing the award of a competitive contract to vital check Wellness or on-site Wellness services to eligible employees this is a new service to employees um it's important to note or to share that we encourage employees to improve their health and wellbeing um we know that early detection in any medical situation is is better um it could avoid you know additional medical costs um vital check Wellness um the benefits that they have there it's a primary care doctor basically coming to the work site yes um so basically just bringing the doctors over to the website um we know that it's a it's benefits to employees because some employees may not have Primary Care primary care doctors or some employees may not be able to take off work to attend uh a doctor's office so we think it's a great idea to bring the office to to the employee worksite um so we're going to roll it out as a pilot program uh vital Che offers a number of um services such as preventive care Wellness exams just annual physicals immunizations lab work uh Vision testing they offer urine and U saliva toxicology testing and also mental health it is a two-year contract that starts March 1st of 2024 and ending February 28th of 2026 with an option to renew three additional one-year periods question is is are these Physicians that are going to be coming or these like nurses and nurse practitioners that are going to be coming here that's a good question these are all certified healthare professionals that'll be on site and services in HHS downstairs so not necessarily what we want try the plan is to try to rotate and have each uh each city building um host you know host these services so we haven't uh talked about the logistics of it yet but that is the plan is to have them rotate at each city building so if I'm if I'm in DPW and they're not at my site will I still be uh able to receive um Services absolutely they have privacy absolutely that's number one priority any other question the next item is 10.39 this is resolution two 24246 this is a resolution authorizing the award of a contract to the union labor life insurance company to provide self-funded medical and prescription stop loss coverage uh for employees and retirees the RFP went out twice and ulo was the only um company that uh responded it is a one-year it is a one-year contract um $6 million for based on 5,604 lives under the contract what is the contract the contract is it's oneyear contract um six and it was only one bid what we we went out twice it's the same and it's the same people that's only been this company to bid on it twice yes they're our current provider um again we you know we went out twice and they were the only the only company that responded again first time we already we only received one responded and then that's why put it out again why you what like what how does that occur because I do like I do mentoring and it's a thousand mentors like I just can't imagine it only being I just can't imagine any Mark in a capitalistic Society being scarce like this yeah it's it's definitely concerning um I mean you know I had requested a copy of like a list of vendors who potentially saw the the RFP people looked at them but they have not responded I'm okay and the final resolution is item 10.40 this is resolution 24247 this is a resolution authorizing the award of a contract um to task which is total administrative Services Corp for providing thirdparty administrative services for retirees chapter 375 direct billing Cobra notices and flexible spend spending accounts for the office of employee benefits I do apologize I have one more yeah it is item 10.37 this is resol number 24244 this is a resolution authorizing the renewal of a contract with employee Family Protection to provide the voluntary supplemental benefits thank you good afternoon council president and council members immigrant Affair is presenting item 1023 resolution 24230 appointing Saia shadid as a new member of the Immigrant Affairs committee uh replacing Ahmed shadid who has resigned and before you in support is the mayor's uh March 18th appointment letter seeking the council's advice and consent and also uh copy of sopia's resume demonstrating her uh work and volunteer experiences sorry what do the committee do what is the I'm sorry the committee what do they task we doing uh they provide uh advice on the all the issues involving the Immigrant community uh they provide advice to the mayor and also the council okay recommend uh resolutions in support of the various demographics and immigrant uh communities and the issues they face okay thank you okay thank you good afternoon council president members of city council uh this evening HHS food and nutrition has two items for your consideration item one resolution 24253 agenda number 10.46 a resolution authorizing the payment of a claim submitted by witon food service for providing hom delivered meals in 2022 for the city of Jersey City and HHS food and nutrition just to give you context when the pandemic hit in 2020 we had 560 Meals on Wheels members within a few weeks uh the members went up to 1,400 that increases increased our financial burden by almost a million dollars so this is the last portion of those claims this is just paying an outstanding balance yeah this is the remaining we've been working since I took over the position in late 20 22 we were almost at a million dollars at one point I used to work M on where was doing the pandemic that was one of my punishments right there oh no they love me them seniors love oh they that's why next item resolution 24254 agenda number 10.47 this is the second portion of the claim uh these claims one is for the first half of 2022 and the remaining amount here is for the I believe the second half so same situation the title needs to be corrected right offer yes 2022 thank you council president if I could just give an update on um the other correspondents I just looked up information on the uh employee health programming uh councilman it's two medical doctors that will oversee the program but they'll supplement with uh nurses for more routine checks so it will be administered by doctors and then the nurses will facilitate just routine uh dietary stuff like that good evening council president and council members I'll be very brief I have resolution 24255 10.48 a resolution authorizing the J J City Department of Health and Human Services to accept Grant funds for the New Jersey Department of Health for the 2 2024 senior Farmers Market nutrition program this year we are receiving three thou we receiving $50 vouchers for 3,000 people instead of 2500 and they'll be available May 1st instead of July 1st and they will still be doing the QR codes like they did in the past good afternoon members of the council I have four resolutions for you today um first I'm going to start with 10.34 that's resolution number 24241 and it's a resolution um awarding the Community Development block grant of public facilities for program year 2020 2021 and 2022 unallocated funds to authorize the execution of a subrecipient agreement with st an's home for the age Corp for an improvement project that will be located at 198 o Bergen Road um they are undertaking a window project there they've been having some major in issues with the windows at that facility so we went out on site inspected we reviewed all of our federal regulations and this is a viable project for um public facility spending okay question all right the next resolution I have for you is 10.33 that's resolution number 24-240 and it's a resolution to authorize the business administrator to execute a discharge of the mortgage encumbering 150 Woodward Street in Jersey City this mortgage was for the defunct wh program program um the homeowner received $1,375 um pursuant to the mortgages terms um it should be uh indebted deferred payment no interest mortgage and upon the end of the 10th year after signing this mortgage it shall be forgiven in its entirety these are not what program these ones are in these are not in the um the 955 right no sir this is called the H program it's the homeowner repair program at this time um that program is now defunct it has been rebranded in the office as the Home Improvement repair program otherwise known as The Hip program um The Hip program is not currently accepting applications we are working off of our weight list the next resolution I have for you is 10.32 that's resolution number 24-2 39 and it's a resolution to authorize the business administrator to execute the discharge of the mortgage encumbering 27 bleer Street in Jersey City um that program was supported through the G&P and that's the golden neighborhoods home ownership program and the owner received 38,9 $15 and uh pursuant of it being a deferred payment no interest mortgage and at the end of the 10th Year from its effective date it shall be forgiven in its entirety the last resolution I have is 10.31 and that is resolution number 24- 238 um and it's a resolution authorizing the city of Jersey City to enter into a share Services agreement with the county of husen for the provision of rental assistance Services um a representative of the law department on 328 made a presentation in front of the affordable housing trust fund um which they did vote and authorize uh the allocation of these funds to be sent to the county for the purpose of emergency rental assistance it'll be a first come first serve program um and fully executed by the county on our behalf so so we the funds are coming from us and going to the county that is correct why um the county is in the process of executing their own um emergency assistance program um there was conversation in the past that the city would support the County's initiative with some funding and we are making good on that promise the issue issue that I have with here is that we've have several rounds of funding for um for our own residents and everybody who applied weren't able to obtain said resources and now here it is we're partnering with the county I would imagine that once this money goes to the county they can dispers it to seus we wherever whatever municipality need help at correct so if I could just backtrack a little bit I just want to clarify the separate pools of funding so for the Emergency rental assistance programming that was conducted by the city of Jersey City for Jersey City residents utilize funding coming directly from the Department of Treasury emergency assistance program These funds are coming from our affordable housing trust fund to supplement what the county is doing because a lion share of individuals who are being support Ed by the County's emergency relocation program are Jersey City residents sorry if I just J it says in the qualification of applicants the city and the county agreed to the following qualifications for this money and it says must be a Jersey City resident so while the Count's administering it this full of a million dollars only goes to Jersey City residents right and we approved this as a council last year we did the ordinance so this this has actually been over six months in the Mak from when we approved it for our residents only um to where we were finally able to get it approved by the affordable housing trust fund okay can I ask a separate question so there a few folks have reached out to me about csbg money I think a few of the nonprofits that are kind of waiting on the money and I wondered if you could provide an update on kind of the timeline for for that so csbg that's our state Grant Line that we receive um our application has been submitted to the state and it is pending us being in receipt um I believe at the last council meeting the resolution for the CSP dollars was approved by Council so we're waiting on the state then correct got it okay thank you all right thank you have a great day Christine good afternoon council president city council I have two items in front of you um first is item 10 67 uh resolution 24- 274 this is a resolution authorizing the city to execute an indemnification agreement with Liberty State Park and authorizing the city risk management to issue a certificate of insurance and that is to cover all of the city's events that happen for one year April to April um inside of Liberty State Park next is item 1068 this is resolution 24- 275 and this is a resolution authorizing the city to accept a sponsorship for the our Summerfest concert series from the Jersey City free public library so that's $13,500 that will go towards supporting this series thank you Cynthia good afternoon fellow councilmen um I'm representing division of injury prevention resolution 24-21 agenda number 10.3 a resolution authorizing the city of Jersey City to accept a donation from Nia a restaurant to help with the food insecurity within Jersey City um they are off they offered 700 food bowls at $12.85 cents each valued at $9,000 good afternoon Madame council president members of the municiple council I'm here representing the division of animal care and control I have five items to present to the council tonight the first one is resolution 24- 256 it is a resolution authorizing the execution of a memorandum of understanding between the Bergen County Community College of veterinary medicine and the City of Jersey City division of animal care and control this is for us to begin a lowcost medical procedures for our residents being done by the students at Bergen County Community College of veterinary medicine my second item is resolution 24- 257 this is a resolution ratifying a Professional Services agreement between East Orange animal hospital and the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services this is to give us our veterinarian of record which is required under New Jersey state law so we have a veterinarian of record who's responsible for everything that takes place at the shelter this is to authorize that contract right I apologize I didn't see the I didn't get a chance to look at it is is the vet anaran on site all the time or on call or just how does logistically that work the veterinarian of record is responsible for our Disease Control protocols he also uses his DEA license for us to order Controlled Substances to the facility he is not onsite but responsible for everything that takes place there and of course available for consultation my next item is resolution 24-25 this is for our traveling vet it's a resolution to ratify a Professional Services agreement between Adriana hordinski and the Department of Health and Human Services so this is a vet that comes into the facility and does our in-house spay neutering and microchip programming my next item is resolution 24-25 n this is a resolution ratifying a Professional Services agreement between the veterinarian emergency group and the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services a requirement of New Jersey state law is 24hour access to veterinary care so this is for a nights and weekends off hours agreement for that my final item is resolution 24-26 it is a resolution ratifying a Professional Services agreement between greenfields Animal Hospital Animal Clinic and Hospital of Jersey City and the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services this is for business hours medical care for our animals and that is uh all I have for the council tonight I have a question unrelated to the the resolutions but related to the animal shelter with regards to um our mou with Gutenberg I know that we pulled that off the agenda are we currently still accepting dogs from Guttenberg I had someone uh come up to me and thank me for taking their dogs but I I know we have accepted um a dog from Hoboken um if if someone has thanked you for us accepting a dog from from Gutenberg I'm sure we have um right now we're doing that as uh a public health courtesy and and a a good neighbor courtesy to be quite Frank after uh my first month at the facility I do believe we can take on both hoken and Guttenberg and not sacrifice the services for Jersey City I know that's not for this evening but what are you talking about eight dogs a year maybe from Guttenberg I mean what that's and it's and it's it's money we could then turn and put right back into the services for our municipality but take care of the animals I read on Reddit we're at capacity uh at the animal shelter is that true or is that um not true we are we are not currently at full capacity at the animal shelter uh we have worked out an arrangement to house some animals offsite at K9 de Garden uh which is where we we have taken some friendly animals and put there we are not currently at full capacity um we are also instituting a very exciting promotion 24 for 24 where we are adopting out our animals we have that are of course adoptable spayed neutered microchipped and vaccinated $24 in adoption for the next 24 days in an effort to put some of our animals in homes of our families here and of course to always make some room get it out on Facebook you have these animals and as people to adop them sir what's the current capacity at the shelter the current capacity at the shelter is approximately 35 dogs give or take that many that many cats also uh we have it the the the facility is divided up into multiple areas there's stray intake there's adoptable animals there's a a bike confinement area there's an isolation area for sick animals and we still have one trailer that we have not been able to use yet because we we're waiting for money in the temporary budget to put the kennels into the the one area of the facility that we inherited that we had to basically bring down to the studs and start over it so the what's the number the number for capacity is what total animals approximately 75 how do you say approximate how many cages are available to put animals in there are 36 six for dogs and I'm not entirely sure how many for cats to be honest sir I'm only finishing my third week here yeah just send him an email C some people because like Council Miss was saying is that some people are saying that we're we're at capacity and I don't know what the capacity is so I don't know if you know the if information that we're receiving is true or people people tend to put one on a 100 sometimes so I don't know so that's why I was just so I can know all right we have I don't know 70 available and right now currently 57 is being used or 508 Whatever It Is Well there's often a bit of hyperbole when the public is is sharing stuff in the rescue Community there are we always keep some Cages open for evictions and stray animals so that's that's why I don't have a definitive answer there on whether we're full or not can we take an animal this evening yes so um circling back to the whole Guttenberg situation right we we uh we tabled it and we said we weren't going to do theou to accept the dogs but we are accepting the dogs to be a friendly neighbor so I guess my point is we're taking them anyway and we're not being paid for it so wouldn't it be better for us to I guess sign thatou and then get some money for it but then in addition you mentioned something about a trailer do you know how much that trailer is and can that money be used towards getting that additional trailer yes I I believe we're waiting for around 40,000 for to to restore the one CA the one trailer room that was basically inoperable when we inherited the facility um when I first came on board and on March I was relieved that we hadn't accepted the the Hoboken and Guttenberg contracts because I wasn't sure what I was inheriting to be quite Frank but I think we can do them and and we should take care of the animals sir he should bring back the resolution right yeah bring it back right yeah Council I'll get more information on that one dog but uh um as the councilman suggested we did ask to take uh the council did ask the table for 6 months to get some more data um we're in our fourth month and it looks like we got one dog so um at least for Gutenberg and then we could expand the whole boken if there's an appetite director I don't have the numbers in front of me from last week but it looked like they're about 44 dogs adopted already in the past three months yes ma'am and and we we've only we have not had in all of March we took in 22 dogs 22 dog dogs went out there were two that were euthanized for safety one of them came in with multiple bites and actually attacked the shelter manager trying to work with it it's it's not an easy scenario especially without that extra room being available to us yet but we're we're we're doing we're doing good work there already and and we're already saving animals there councilman and this is the past week that you are on Petfinder you were not on petf finder until about last week which is yes so you ow many dogs were already adopted out without social media and everything so social media will enhance those adoptions so I know capacity is an issue but they are cycling the dogs and I know the dogs more than the cats I apologize I'm sure the cats are being you know adopted out well too but I know that the dogs are coming in and out in a healthy way and and based on the circumstances of taking the facility back from Liberty human and operating this ourselves there's been an air of building the plane as you fly it it's we we opened and successfully operated an animal shelter not as efficiently as we could but we opened and successfully operated an animal shelter now we've identified what we would like to Institute to move forward for the rest of the year and and we're on a good plan it's it's it's it's taking shape end time take care of the animals sir thank you thank you well I think rich wants to adopt a dog good evening council president council members uh I am Paul Bell and Boyer here for 10.72 resolution to pay our annual assessment to the Hudson Regional Health commission this is a countywide commission which provides Health Services which the M municipalities do not things like mosquito control air quality monitoring and a variety of services which is generally not efficient for any one municipality to do by itself the assessment is the same as it was last year and uh it's part it's our participation fee thank you Dan any say you want good afternoon council president council members for your consideration I have one resolution this afternoon it's agenda number 10.1 resolution number 24-28 and it's a resolution authorized in an emergency temporary Appropriations this resolution is necessary for um continuation of city services without any disruptions any questions thank you good afternoon council president council members I am here to present on item 10.71 resolution 24- 278 this is an amendment to the contract with h2m Consultants who is our consultant for the historic preservation master plan this is adding additional funding to accommodate the um extension of time that they've spent on this project that was requested by the council and the community and to accommodate for additional public meetings that have already happened I'm happy to answer any additional questions oh Magie uh that's your last resolution right I just want to ask you a question yes that's the last on Central Avenue which on Facebook all this week put that addition on top of building how did that ever happen Rich it's not approved it's what that is not approved um that R oh it didn't happen no oh okay that rendering um that has I have also seen it on Facebook I've been sent it many times um that rendering was a result of a conversation I had with an architect three and a half years ago um when the building went up for sale by Capital One um that project has not been submitted to city planning it has not been approved by City Planning and in the form presented on the internet would not be supported by City Planning okay thank you afternoon good afternoon council president council members I have three items on the agenda tonight first one is agenda 10 point 69 resolution 24276 it's a resolution authorizing an award of a Professional Services contract to meta Architects LLC in connection with uh preliminary design design development construction documents all associated with the rehabilitation of uh engine 10 ladder 12 on holiday Street what's the location the Holiday Street Firehouse well how how long if we approved this how long would that be before we start you know getting into the this this year I mean I mean the architect is going to need about three months to get the drawings together and the specs uh then we got to get permits and put out the bid but uh seems pretty likely that would be this year we started and well underway a second item would be agenda 10.70 resolution 24277 resolution authorizing a second amendment to a Professional Services agreement with tectonic engineering and surveying Consultants PC this is in connection with the licensed site remediation professional lsrp work environmental Consulting Services Phase 2 res War 3 and this uh additional work is just to provide additional investigation soil sampling laboratory analysis uh to continue to satisfy towards the next steps at getting occupancy okay uh third and final tonight uh agenda 10.73 resolution 24280 it's resolution awarding a negotiated contract ra pursuant to njsa 4A 11-5 to pmy Construction Corporation for the 16th Street Park renovation as you may know this project went out to bid twice and the third time we were allowed to negotiate uh we solicited up to I think 18 different contractors um and now we're ready to award and move forward I was going to ask uh do we have any rendering for the 16th Street Park renovation or uh is that to happen at a later date I can I can forward those to the council have some rendering thank you for your work uh on this no problem finally what [Music] happen this been a long time 16th Street Park very long time Mayar doesn't look like a park doesn't look like a park but it's a park yes good afternoon council president council members I have one item in front of you today it's agenda number 4.1 it's a second reading and final passage ordinance 24-14 it's an ordinance amending chapter 87 Amusement devices uh for automatic Amusement devices it's just to comply with the state law Mike afternoon council president members of council um Mike Manel here on the behalf of the division of traffic engineering to present item uh agenda item number 3.5 it's ordinance 24- 024 and it's an ordinance supplementing chapter 322 332 um to establish public parking for the McGinley Square Community or McGinley Square commercial District uh this is a parking lot at Fairmont and Boland it's a 20 uh parking space lot uh currently available to resident permit parking and we uh working with the McGinley Square s council person Prince AR's office identified an opportunity to have public parking during the day and permanent parking in the evening to add some much needed uh parking to the commercial District this this the um parking behind the old municip right yes oh so it'll be private in um daytime up to about 6 and then after that public parking so right now it's only open to resident permit parking holders um but this ordinance would change it to be open to public parking during the day until 700 p.m. and then have overnight resident parking in the evening thank you stepen Stephen Stephan Stephen yeah Chief just have me WR it so Council um I ask Chief joury if he would come for 3.4 um preri myself uh cman Rivera uh few months ago we were concerned about the lithium ion batteries that are blowing up throughout the city and um we had a big fire on Stegman next to oton Park uh previously a now in war B and someone lost their life so we've been working with the fire department to see uh what we could try to put in place to make the city a little safer and our fire department has done a great job with working on working with us on that and so uh the chief is going to present uh what we've come up with and we worked also we pulled Commerce in we pulled the Law Department in so this is where we are and any feedback that you all have or anything you want to add is certainly welcomed okay thank you councilman Ridley and uh councilman Prince for putting this together um yep so this is an ordinance creating chapter 276 lithium ion batteries prohibiting the sale second use lithium ion batteries creating a lithium ion battery business registry and charging regulations for those lithium ion batteries um and supplementing chapter 106 this is the fees and charges established and there'll be a fee for inspections of sellers of these lithium ion batteries and power Mobility devices I think a lot of people understand now we do in a fire service the concerns with lithium ion batteries we've been training and researching on this for a while we've changed the you know Sops are running assignments to meet the challenges that we have with that so right now our concerns are and as you mentioned we had that one fire and we started to document that so I think we have 15 actually lithium ion batteries in 20123 all right so our our priority right now at this moment and conc ER is the storefronts that now have these mobile devices in them the bike stores basically with a AP partments above those stores so that's kind of what this is all about safety of the people that are living living above so we worked on this and I have deputy chief Okana here from fire prevention and I have John tambini the Fire official we worked on it together and and with you guys that you you've been with us along the way so we've been working on this for quite some time and uh I thank you again for putting it out it makes our guys safe and it also makes the people in the streets safe so we recently did have a fire and I'll just point to the fire that they had in New York City and why this is so important right they've had numerous fires in their bike stores throughout the city one in lower Manhattan in Chinatown where four people died and it's exactly what we're talking about it's having a store underneath the residents above without the proper um suppression systems no sprinklers right these fires move rather quickly very quickly you know if you want to educate yourself and go to the videos you'll see that so that's what this will do okay but and um in in if you look read the resol if you read the ordinance you'll see in there the existing bike stores and this is where you may have people coming to you will be required to put a sprinkler system in in those stores to protect the residents above okay so chief aren't these issues more of a federal issue uh because the federal government is pushing these lithium batteries these cars with the batteries and everything and yet there's no control over California's having massive problems with this yeah there's a there's a big push around the nation for that New York City's pushing very hard for Federal Regulation that's part of it but what we're dealing with right now is is what we have and that's that's somewhere down the road but we want to be able to get into those stores and do our sections to ensure that they're properly charging these batteries they're not second using these batteries and that the batteries they have are U qualified batteries yeah but it does it when you look at all the incidences that have happened with these batteries I mean you can inspect them today and tomorrow they can go off and cause a fire uh there has to be a lot more done to this and the federal government should step up and start making regulations and stop pushing this idea of these lithum batteries I have absolutely agree and Rich there is a bill uh that is now at the federal level and a couple months ago the council unanimously voted to um encourage our local Federal officials to support that bill so I mean all we can do is kind of encourage them to do it but they're just trying to do what we can from our end because we can't I mean who knows when that'll pass at the federal level it's a shame that people are going to get killed before they act and do something yeah it's relatively knew the problems we're finding and uh you know the Fire official could tell you it's not in the code yet and that's why I feel responsible and I'm sure you guys do too for the ordinance to put it in place to help protect our residents in the city all right well that's a good idea Chief and I just want to give our uh fire department Kudos because they actually uh did like an all day training with uh New York fire department so they went over there you know to try to figure out what New York is doing how we could collaborate um and they've also been encouraging us to maybe possibly change some things in planning um talking to us about EV cars so I learned a lot dealing with them a lot of things that I didn't know so they're really serious about trying to um you know prevent as many fires as we can and in addition I know we always have questions about enforcement when we put these laws in place but the fire department has um you know committed that they're willing to do the enforcement on um these things related to the ion batteries I have a question if um you know a large apartment building or even a small apartment building if someone wants to know if if where they're storing uh this battery if it's connected to a device is safe are are they able to reach out to the department to see if it meets the criteria here how can we sort of provide education to uh Property Owners tenants who might have questions about safe storage yeah so the first thing that we did was educate our guys and now we've it's on the city website now there's actually a flyer that we put out that the the residents could look at on how to charge these things not at night you know no extension cords all of that kind of stuff typical stuff's out there so we're looking to maybe push that a little further and with your assistance maybe get out to owners all the owners in the city of the buildings that they post that in their buildings multiple dwellings especially um I'll let uh the Fire official talk to you on the actual enforcement okay hello so basically as Chief drenon was saying um the current fire code does not have anything that addresses lithium ion batteries um the new one that we're going to be switching to in about two weeks also does not address lithium ion batteries and that's going to be the 2018 code so it'll be years before we actually have any kind of fire code that will allow us to take any kind of action um from fire code stance so with this ordinance essentially it's being um proactive instead of reactive you know so try to get ahead of some of these situations as Chief was saying uh one of the things would be to require um sprinkler systems in the commercial spaces and also um when it comes to locations of storage for these bikes and charging uh not in the common areas for multiple family dwellings or in the basement and the reason being because if there's a fire and you're charging it in the hallway now people have to run past your bike that's on fire so can't have it in any common areas and the basement because not every basement is finished so it could light up the floor pretty quickly um and you were asking if they ask uh for safety basically we would recommend following manufacturers uh instructions and with the ordinance uh for the commercial spaces it would be getting building department permits for installation of certain things like the sprinkler system making sure they have a 1hour fire rated wall so that way the fire it buys time for the fire department to get there the real danger with a lithium ion batteries is um once they start you're essentially putting water on them to cool them down till the fuel is completely burned out you're not putting it out you're just trying to keep it from spreading to the next cell so having Sprinklers and just more time for the fire department to respond does help and and are they do I appreciate both of those answers that really helps the education piece and and the understanding just the last question is if someone does reach out and they're saying look I I think I'm doing this right but I'm do you guys I mean know there's struggle for capacity but do you have the ability to be able to say hey I I to take a look and see if if you're doing it the right you're storing these the Safe Way well they would have to register if they're going to be in a business with this so we would have to go out there and check out what's going on and we would basically advise them I need to see building department permits for the installation of this and just basically make sure that um they're following the ordinance okay how you doing dep Chief Sean OK Conor um i' just like to add um when these we do have a bike shop fire there are numerous bikes numerous batteries in these shops and it we're trying to put some responsibility on the owner to have proper disposal and proper Insurance because I like in New York City the problem they had one fire they had over a 100 bikes to dispose of and there was an argument who's going to take care of the cost of those bikes so it's important for the city to make sure that we cover ourselves for the cost and that the business has the proper Insurance to to uh help mitigate that and this this ordinance all also helps them require to have a vendor on record for disposal because recently last year about six months ago we had a fire in a Grand Prix Raceway and they had the battery one disposal cost was $177,000 just to get rid of One battery so it is a large cost and it's something that we can't absorb as a fire department with the city so that's one another important aspect of this law here finding the insurance and requiring a vendor on record obviously we're in the business of saving lives first and with the city changing and and and the increased use of micromobility devices such as ebikes E Scooters skateboards and such the increase of recreational use the increase of delivery service to increase the transportations these numbers are only going to grow and unfortunately as the numbers grow so we our incidents grow and dealing with such questions good thank you okay thank you afternoon council president and Council uh I'm here to discuss two resolutions the first of which is agenda number 10.65 which is resolution 24- 272 uh this is a resolution authorizing the uh execution of Jersey City uh doing a notice in lie of deed notice um for shg Jersey City LLC uh affecting 16th Street right of way between Mammoth Street and Cole Street so this basically puts the responsibility of any future environmental in case there's a a need for digging up the soils it puts that responsibility on the um owner uh it is an Institutional uh control that we've used similar throughout Jersey City any questions councilman boano likes my hair we can uh put that in the notes Sean dly noted second one is 10.66 uh that's resolution 24- 273 uh and that's a resolution authorizing the second and final renewal of an open-ended contract with power concrete um this is on call for all of the Ada ramps and the handicap ramps throughout the city uh they've done a wonderful job the past two years and we look forward to working with them one more year all good thank you thank you so much shirt you like to shirt lawence Pony [Laughter] here good afternoon council president council members um on behalf of Joy City Economic Development it's for item number 10.41 resolution 24- 248 this is authorizing the submission acceptance of a contract between Jer IC development Corp and urbanomics to develop our 5-year UE strategic plan this is mandated by the state and the U legislation to be submit to be updated and submitted and approved by the authority uh this will not exceed 167,00 and it will utilize uh Urban Enterprise own funds thank you have a good night I don't have anybody else I think we have uh director James Carroll evening Council I have a resolution 10 point uh 38 it's a resolution ratifying an award uh resolution 10.38 I'm sorry resolution 24- 245 agenda item 10.38 the resolution ratifying an award of a contract uh to caros soft technology this is our onboarding software for human resources it's the programming we use for the applicants that fill out their applications uh fill out their their taxation forms uh and their identification forms when we are onboarding them to the city that is a uh cost to the city of 88,000 48,000 68 cents um that's a two-year R option as well any questions thank you thank you Jimmy he GNA take it from the top council president on to our first reading ordinances item 3.1 city ordinance 24-20 is an ordinance authorizing the acquisition of a section of Hudson River walkway known as block 14502 Lot 4 formerly known as block 8 lot 5 from the Jersey City Redevelopment agency item 3.2 city ordinance 20 no one's I can I can explain it Bri I think Jason's also here from JC but there but there's a a small section of the river walkway there's no building on it it's just a walkway and uh about a year ago a constituent had a bike accident on the walkway and reached out to us cuz the um boards weren't you know they were spaced improperly and they fell and uh we found out that it was owned by the JC and it felt like it was better for it to come into the city's ownership for the city to maintain so that we could then go basically fix it yeah uh evening Council like councilman Solomon said it's it's really just a portion of the walkway that's most part owned by the city um so we kind of just want to make it contigous and have them um take ownership it's like 178 Acres um and yeah it's probably better off that they manage and maintain it can you just identify yourself for the record oh Jason friedkin I'm a project manager at the Redevelopment agency thank you okay any other questions on 3.1 all right on to our next second first reading orance excuse me 3.2 city ordinance 24- 021 is an ordinance granting an easen to the Linhurst Board of Education affecting real property owned by the city of Jersey City known as block 233 loot 11 as shown on the official tax map of the township of Lin hers next item 3.3 city ordinance 24- 022 so ordinance authorizing an amendment to certain dedication agreement along excuse me among 126-142 Morgan Street urban renewal LLC 134 Bas Street LLC and the City of Jersey City dated May 28th 20 19 for the certain land and Improvement located within the PowerHouse ARS District Redevelopment area at prover Street and Bay Street and Morgan Street items 3.4 and 3.5 were touched on earlier on to our second reading ordinances item 4.1 was touched on earlier item 4.2 city ordinance 24- 015 is an ordinance to codify the planting of native plants throughout the city of Jersey City item 4.3 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 Reserve parking space at various Loc ations throughout the city item 4.4 city ordinance 24017 is an ordinance amending the charter of the city of Jersey City to adopt rank Choice voting as a method to elect the mayor council and School Board subject to approval of this ordinance by the voters to amend the city Charter by binding referendum to up to be held upon the enactment of the state legislation permitting such Charter Amendment item 4.5 city ordinance 24- 018 is an ordinance naming the Miller Branch Library Cultural Arts Center Auditorium as the Dow David Williams Cultural Arts Center in the honor of D David Williams and our last second reading ordinance item 4.6 city ordinance 24 d019 is an ordinance amending chapter 175 food handling establishments and chapter 2 2 42 peace and good order of the code of ordinances of the city of Jersey City to establish regulations for third party delivery companies and food delivery drivers uh I'm going to leave it to council person Solomon just to go over the amendment that we're going to have at uh at the meeting um I believe the amendment is non-substantial and we'll have the law department just confirm that at the meeting on Wednesday but I'm going to turn it over to council person uh Solomon sure procedural question too on that but I think I've connected with most of the council members um the uh ordinance we reintroduced last meeting had some changes in it um another series of changes were requested uh We've made most of those believe those are non-substantial and so wanted to add it as an amendment um but we've received more requests for additional time and we're okay with additional time so I just want to ask if if maybe it made sense to just ask the council to um uh carry it to the next meeting uh the 24th and then uh if we make further changes we'll keep everyone updated but if we don't then make the non-substantial changes at that meeting that makes sense we can definitely do that Council um so I would say we'll make a motion um to carry it um without holding a public hearing um to the next meeting so we don't have to hold a public hearing great all right thank you okay so the next item would be the public hearing on the 2024 Jackson Hill Main Street improvement district assessment role and budget and you'll see that there's resolutions that coincide with it we we'll have a public hearing after the second reading ordinances and then we'll have our regular public hearing with our speakers which is now at 40 and any questions or comments on petitions Communications item 6.1 through 6.30 hearing none any questions or comments on office communic ation 7.1 through 7.7 any questions or comments on reported directors 8.1 through 8.11 our claims will be delivered tomorrow I heard from Council control and on to our resolutions item 10.1 was touched on earlier item 10.2 resolution 24-29 is a resolution proclaiming the second Friday in March as social emotional learning day item 10.3 was touched on earlier item 10.4 resolution 24-21 is a resolution authorizing the settlement of a claim submitted by kkf block 5B urban renewal LLC regarding the Redemption of a tax sale certificate item 10.5 resolution 24- 212 is a resolution honoring the 2024 PA CC Al women's History Month Awards item 10. 6 resolution 24- 213 is a resolution honoring Pastor Wendell rivers of Trinity Church of living God for the national woman's History Month item 10.7 resolution 24- 214 is a resolution recognizing Sandy Guerrero as the first ever National Collegiate women's wrestling champion individual champion in the history of the state of New Jersey item 10.8 res resolution 24-25 is a resolution recognizing the accomplishments of the New Jersey City University women's basketball team record 19 victories for the 2023 2024 season and items 10.9 through 10.22 are recognizing all of the Shiro uh Award winners moving on item 10.23 was touched on earlier item 10.24 4 resolution 24- 231 is a resolution appointing Lenor J Brown as a member of the Jersey City municipal liti Authority item 10.25 resolution 24- 232 is a resolution appointing miror prener as a member of the Jersey City planning board John there was no um resume attached are you sure about that I'll make sure you get a copy of that councilman I could have sworn there was a an attachment there but okay he might have deleted it council person prer um item 10.26 resolution 24233 is a resolution appointing Laura teresi as Deputy tax assess council members just so you know this resolution is required from the state uh we had John McKenna uh contact the State um division of tax assessors and this is coming strictly from them so they didn't like the way we had our first resolution done so we're doing this uh to to be in compliance with the state um next item 10.27 resolution 24232 is a resolution authorizing the execution of a license and gift agreement between the city of Jersey City and the friends of Van force park to allow maintenance and upgrades to Van force park item 10.28 resolution 24235 is a resolution introducing and approving the 2024 2025 budget of the Central Avenue special improvement district directing the city clerk to publicly advertise the budget and schedule a public hearing and directing the tax assessor to prepare an assessment role of properties within the district based upon the budget item 10.29 resolution 24- 236 is a resolution accepting the assessment role of the Jackson Hill Main Street improvement district of the city of Jersey City and 10 30 resolution 24- 237 is a resolution adopting and ratifying the 2024 budget of the Jackson Hill Main Street improvement district of the city of Jersey City these are the two resolutions that I was referring to that we'll be holding a public hearing on items 10.39 excuse me 10.31 through 10.41 were touched on earlier item 10.42 resolution 244-249 is a resolution authorizing leans against the properties listed herein for the cost of removing litter debris Etc in accordance with njsa 40 colon 48-24 Jersey city code section 287-4434 were uh touched on earlier item 10.54 resolution 24261 is a resolution ratifying the award of a contract to marketing LP for Microsoft license renewal under State contract for the Department of administration division of Information Technology item 10.55 resolution 24- 262 is a resolution authorizing the award of a contract to Millennium communication group for the installation of camera on the exterior of City Hall under the interlocal purchasing system for the Department of administration division of Information Technology items 10 56 all the way through 10.73 we touched on earlier and I'm going to turn it over to our Corporation Council for 10.74 through 10.76 sure uh we will have confidential memorandum for these three for 1074 through 1076 that I'll provide tomorrow one of our attorneys is on trial I'm just grabbing the last one from him and then we'll have our close session at 5:00 where we'll discuss all of them thank you Corporation acting Corporation councel that's a nice reminder for everyone um in attendance here we're going to be holding a close session at 5:00 pm in the caucus room downstairs on Wednesday so with that being said may I have a motion to adjourn at 28 motion was made I Believe by council person Gilmore or did I get that wrong okay and then I I worry when you say it that confidently and then seconded by council person Solomon on the motion to adjourn at 528 all council members and attendance by acclamation please say I we are out of here at 5:28 pm thank you so much everyone who was in attendance and everyone watching at home remember Teamwork Makes the DreamWork have a great night stay safe happy lunar eclipse Day Too solo eclipse and