okay everyone we're about to begin if we can silence our cell phones like I'm doing now I greatly appreciate it and if we can close the back door and any side doors that are open I great L appreciate that as well all right good afternoon everyone we are on the record today is Monday the 22nd day of January in the year 2024 this is a Jersey City Council Caucus meeting of the Jersey City municipal Council we had a scheduled 4 pm start and the clock on my cell phone is showing 4:15 pm and that's all because of your clerk being tardy may we have a roll call for commencement of this C is council person Ridley here council person priner here council person bajano council person SLE here council person Solomon here council person Gilmore pres council person Dees here council person rera here and council president Waterman here we have all nine council members in attendance at 4:15 p.m. on behalf of council president wman and members of the municipal Council in accordance with the 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 the bulletin board of the first floor of City Hall which is the annual notice is the schedule 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 20123 in addition and its time of its preparation the agenda of this meeting was similarly disseminated on Friday Frid January 19th 2024 at 4:33 p.m. to the mayor Municipal councel business administrator Corporation Council and the 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 afternoon our first director director Shay good evening council president council members uh the Department of Public Safety has one first reading ordinance on this week this uh bi-weekly agenda it is agenda item number 3.1 and ordinance 24002 it's an ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 3 administration of government article 11 Department of Public Safety sub article one division of the police and basically it is simplifying and removing what I've been told was possibility of a misinterpretation of the fee for the off-duty police officers eliminating a lot of what probably shouldn't have been in there in the first place and then simplifying just by day in time what the rates are it also adds the crossing guards and traffic people who we have um used in a pilot project for the last third of last year it adds their rates so that we can use them and bring the price down when the ordinance first came to us with the changes there was conversation about including a nonprofit price there was um conversation with the law Department about the interpretation of the ordinance and now it's coming back to us again so can somebody walk us through all of these changes because we're being told two different things we have a lot of groups that um quite honestly may not be able to afford these whether they are smaller nonprofits or even some of our SIDS that have had off-duty programs outside of the U funding that's now back they were just doing this on their own so I just I mean I I don't want to speak for anybody else but there's somebody please explain us why we keep going back and forth uh the basic changes and they're not changes they're just clarifying because again this is the price we've been charging for the last year consistently everybody has been charged exactly the same price for police officers or for traffic enforcers the big uh problem seems to be Saturday Sunday and City holidays which is page 12 of 15 if you want to take a look at it that sets the price at 11250 for Saturday and City Holiday rates and 150 for Sunday City Holiday rates uh off duty police offices on a Sunday or city holiday for uh 150 and then one 60 for Sunday and City Holiday rates after 4 p.m. which rarely happen uh I don't set these numbers you want to walk through it I'll walk everybody through it again I think we I would much prefer that we budgeted for these parades uh marathons all district bike tours all of these huge events that require uh I believe the last year we had it in the budget before we switched to having the people pay for it themselves it was about $2.5 million uh now probably a little more it would probably be a little more if we did it again but it was about two and a half million I would prefer that we budgeted for it and we just assigned overtime police officers to supplement the on duty police officers that gives us a lot more control over it and I don't have to argue with people about how much security they need which inevitably leads us to cutting it be to the Bone which in today's environment might not be a good idea but this is the way the city chose to go and this is the amount and I don't set these prices the market does uh this is what officers will come in for to the amount that we need for instance the marathon needs over 100 offices to run a marathon throughout all of New York City to get a 100 people to give up there Sunday or Saturday we have to pay this amount of money uh you can set the price at anything you want I'm going to step by in because again I'm agnostic about this and I don't want to stand up here be the defender set the price at whatever you want but no if nobody comes in for it we are going to have to supplement that event with overtime and it's going to have to come out of the city's budget because we cannot have an unsafe event going through Jersey City that includes the parades that includes the marathon the five Bike Tour several of um the religious possessions several of the ceremonies that go on and attract 50,000 people to Jersey City for three nights we cannot have those kind of crowds involving fireworks alcohol and everything without sufficient security we just can't so this is the rate that will get people in here for if you want to make it lower that's fine if I cannot get officers to volunteer they cannot be ordered to work off duty it's illegal if they don't want to work off duty well over time I can order them to work if I need them but cannot order an officer to work off duty so if we say you have to come in for $50 an hour and they tell us well then nobody's coming in we then have to replace them with on duty overtime people to make the event work safely and that's going to have to come out of our budget and that's just it that's the way it works I I mean I just think that if we previously set a certain rate for nonprofits that that's what we need to her to now have another conversation need to take place with the administration and Public Safety um then then so be it we we just voted to we just voted to do this yeah and if I could councilman that seems to be the source of the misinterpretation it was poorly written that nonprofit rate was always intended to be and it was actually the council president's impetus about 8 10 years ago to be for daycare centers little churches people having small little one-day events to make sure that they wouldn't get hit like an event on a block that doesn't leave that block we only need one or two cops that's what that rate was written for was never intended to be the weekend rate but apparently when it was altered last year it was written in a way that left it open to misinterpretation that's what I was told uh basically those little nonprofits that we carved out with that $50 rate we don't even charge them anymore if they're doing those little one-day events the nursing homes the senior centers the church the church is having a one-day event uh the community groups we don't we just provide them on duty police officers and they have their event and we move on that we're talking here about people masquerading now I'll say it they're masquerading large scale events as a nonprofit for instance we had an event I won't embarrass anyone to identify him it's been a for-profit event for n years I've been here it's been a for-profit event and they make a lot of money and it's a very very large multi-day event this year when they applied it was suddenly applied as a nonprofit and they had a nonprofit uh overhead group that was the official person asking for the permit even though the other people were still running this other event so it's impossible for us to distinguish between profit nonprofit I can't go into their books and find out whether they're making money for profit or whether they're paying themselves money or anything like that but again I'm going to come back to the the rate can be whatever you decide the rate to be it can be whatever we'll decide how many police officers we need if the city approves a permit for this event if the rate is low it's and this is what I'm telling you we know we can get people into to work these four if the rate is so low that no one will come into to work we have to then use police offices on overtime to replace them so that we can hold the event in a safe and functional manner without anybody getting hurt that's the City's liability we have to so have we have we looked into you know whether or not the state sheriffs or other towns um are at similar rates and do they come in do they come in to work if there are lower rates um even if let's say it's a nonprofit have you looked into those other neighboring towns we're still less than so like the sheriff and the state troopers and them sometimes people still prefer to use the state troopers because they're multi-jurisdictional and they can move from one place to another without causing a problem people always have the option to use the Hudson County Sheriff's Office which is also jurisdictional here or anybody else if for some reason they have people willing to work for a less price or the state troopers we never argue we never argue with anybody um if it's a major event though that's going to cause Jersey City to shut down streets and take responsibility for the safety of the people that are in active traffic Lanes it's very difficult for us to allow an outside group to assume that responsibility because we have all the liability if somebody runs a truck through a 100 people on the street and hurts them nobody's going to sue an outside security company they're going to hold Jersey City responsible so we can't give that we can't give that safety function away to an outside group I don't I don't want to encourage you know Jersey City to use outside Sheriff's or state police officers you know we we we're loyal to our Jersey City police officers so I'm I'm not encouraging that conversation at all uh but I I do know that uh I think that this ordinance in my opinion should for now be paused only reason why I say that is because there's entities that paid this astronomical you know feed that they incurred last year and they haven't gotten their money back from this city and so we need to make sure that that happens before we can even entertain this uh it's unfortunate but it's it's the truth uh councilman uh just we we're not aware of anybody that we owe money to uh the money that people paid last year was the cost by the ordinance uh we we have charged everyone exactly the same price as I said the only difference being toward the end of the year after Travis Ragland was able to train all of those traffic agents we were able able to start doing pilot programs where we were able to use traffic agents instead of cops but if they hired a police officer they paid the same rate as everyone else all last year we have quite a few entities that the city owes money that they they the city owes the money we have quite a few I think they can the the business administrator can give you that information but that's 100% but uh also uh in in in looking at this um ordinance I just have a question when it comes to admin fees that you guys are charging admin fees for this why are we charging admin fees if these are city workers that have to do this the administrative fee was decided by ordinance predated all of us and it covers the cost of running the program because again this isn't really a city program it's a program the state authorizes it's a program to make these people available to the the uh people who need the security but we are allowed to recoup the cost of the employees that run it takes four PE employees to run it and a supervisor to recoup the cost of any City equipment they use our cars our thvs any of those things that are use that's what the admin fee does and councilman we experimented last year again in our pilot program toward the end we were able to wave that fee a lot when we start using more TR traffic agents instead of police officers because it reduces the need for vehicles it reduces the need for they're a lot easier to get a hold of than you know running through the police program so we were able to wave the we were able to experiment with waving that fee and seeing how much it impacted our city budget and we're able to I I anticipate that we're going to bring the price down for a lot of people this year uh director I have two issues I want to bring up with you on MLK holiday which is a Federal holiday I had to go up to Journal Square because they were doing major Construction in the building up next to the Greek church and there was an off-duty officer there and I said to him what are you doing here said I was hired here for evidently the off duty Department doesn't know they're not allowed to do construction on the weekdays and I think we need some changes up there because this goes on constantly I'll look into that one I'll look that for you if it was it shouldn't happened if it was emergency it's an emergency but if it was not emergency it should not emergency I'll look into it for you I promise I'll get I get a hold of Ray Myers all the time because people up in my area are tired of it between the reservoir Persian field and everything else it's like getting out of hand now the other issue is on January 8th I sent to you and to director Moody and director Moody never got back to me about the issues on the park Authority I'd like to have some answers and a lot of people up in my area and I think a lot of people in the city would like to have answers so please tell her I I'm also being honest with you people say they call her up she never returns a call it's got to stop but I'd like a I'd like an answer to this I'd like this to be responded to this is January 9 what's today January 22nd this was sent January 8 and nobody got back to me this is a disgrace because they're treating this Council like we don't exist all right I'm not blaming you okay yes you are that's okay I'm I'm standing here I'm the person you're supposed to blame if you're not but uh really quickly just make sure that through the business administrator to me I'll make sure you get an answer all right thank you you you you said that um if we don't well we could set it at whatever rate we wanted and if they don't show up then we'd have to do it through overtime but the it wouldn't be not showing up it' be if they don't know in advance whether someone's willing to come in or not that that it would have to come through overtime from the city but then the ordinance says that no overtime is going to be paid on weekends or holidays that's overtime on these rates because the rate that that's $100 an hour plus you know on the weekend if you have to stay for over eight hours in an emergency we don't let you suddenly charge $100 you know we don't go to time and a half that's why it says if you accept the job you're accepting this hourly rate for however long we need you on the thing but if you don't accept a job and we have to order someone to work now we have to pay them overtime unless we have on duty people that can fill that J we should probably put that very clearly in there um I think this if you if you accept anticipate having the the purpose of this ordinance was I'm just saying the repercussions of if people don't come in because I've gotten a lot of oh the amount should be lower I just want everything to be very clear and you know and very remember uh I don't work overtime I'm the person who ended the overtime program once you know and a lot of people wanted it to come back I have no skin in this game other than needing police officers if if we're going to authorize major events of tens of thousands of people and massive shutdowns of traffic and opening streets in Jersey City it must be done safely that's my stake here and if I have to do it using overtime person using off duty Personnel then I need to know that enough off-duty Personnel will come in and accept the jobs and come to work or we're going to have to backfill them with police officers on overtime that we do not have any money in the budget to do right now I just I just think that it's unfair um because let's take an event like the marathon you just talked about those people make a great deal of money the they have to the runners have to pay there's vendors there and everything you're going to charge them the same exact rate as a nonprofit you're going to charge construction companies who are in the business of making you're going to charge them the same exact rates that you're Charing charging nonpr granted there may be some people out there misusing nonprofits but you don't penalize everybody because a certain group of people are misusing nonprofits there's rules set up for those nonprofits to receive consequences we can't am my opinion I'm I'm not supporting no legislation that's going to say that you're going to charge I'm not finished yet director I let you speak let me speak I'm not in favor of no legislation that's going to say you're going to charge all of these people who are making upwards of tens of thousands of dollars the same rate you're charging people who's barely making enough money to put on a event period councilman the only thing and councilman I apologize for uh interrupting the only thing I wanted to say was that marathon it's a nonprofit just like the other things you're describing every parade is a nonprofit every Festival is a nonprofit and Legally Legally I am not allowed to distinguish even though I understand your point 100% legally we are not allow to distinguish between one nonprofit and another what I would maybe suggest if I can is that you know the director says he's agnostic and and he also I think correctly and I appreciate says that the primary has to be safety right that we have to deploy the Personnel required to be safe but I think we all understand that we cannot charge the cultural groups that put on incredible events for our city the rates that are contemplated in this that that will severely diminish the vibrancy of the city so what I what I would recommend we do is is we pull the ordinance we meet with the law Department maybe there's an ad hoc committee that forms and we compare the rates across Hudson County so we have some comparison rates and what the market is and we work with a lot department on our options and how we can lower rates and maybe if this is the rate you have to charge then maybe the city is bearing significant cost for for these events or if these are the rates that uh we can we can charge slly different rates but I think we all know that this rate that this is going to shut down a huge number of the important cultural events of the city at this rate so we have to either either the rate changes or the city pays we have to figure that out as a as a group in the next like two months before the you know March hits and the seasons come yeah the only thing I'll say much sooner than that I mean our meeting on the marathon is tomorrow okay um let me ask the Law Department a question John let me ask you a question is there any way that we can distinguish uh different nonprofits because um I I I'm listening there are some nonprofits who are just small they just can't do it and if the marathon is classifying their as a nonprofit and we know that they're making you know a a considerable amount of of funds how can we distinguish it even if we come back and say okay um for nonprofits we decrease it but the marathon is still considered a nonprofit they will still walk away you say local what about if it's local nonprofits no you want to avoid that but how can we distinguish it because that's the issue here because we know there are certain organization that's classifying their as nonprofits but as a director say they are making profit there's ways we can do it um we can discuss this all probably outside of the can spitball I'm not Council I'm just gonna say counc I'm not aware of any way we can do it I mean we've struggled with this and are right now I understand everybody's concern but again those small local people we're covering them on duty right now they're not paying anything uh a lot of the bigger events with the new training of our traffic agents and stuff and uh councilman S I want to give him a thank you for working with me on this he found some volunteers to be our pilot to be our pilot people and try it but um with our traffic with our using traffic people instead of police officers and minimizing the number of police officers we were able to do it safely and bring the cost way down and we did that on multiple events in the last quarter of the last year as a pilot and we're ready to move that you know to move that forward now so we'll be able to bring the cost down but again uh the only problem is we're meeting with the marathon tomorrow and we need to tell them how much you know how much they're going to have to pay and we're be once once this uh Genie of possible misinterpretation got out of the bottle everybody became a nonprofit very quick you know very quickly including quite a few people who make an awful lot of money for nonprofits but again uh if anyone ask me to vote I'd wish it was all in the budget and I could just assign police officers you know off duty and keep control of it that would be the way I'd like to do it um John let me ask you this question for a nonprofit is it a way or we required that they um show their income only reason why I say that because at the end based on what you make there should be some way of presenting we um gross this much in this way you can tell who's really making the money I don't think you can yeah you I don't know I'm just asking because this is like a let's discuss this we trying to figure this out here let's discuss it outside of a a public meeting we probably wouldn't have to go to that extreme but there are some options that we we could is options okay than I'm not aware I'm not aware of any option yeah they can be Mis how they use the money within their own charity okay can cover a lot of bills and I think that's what the councilman was referring to when he mentioned like real nonprofit but legally that's not our yeah that's why we got the Law Department to show us something here director has has there ever been any parades that have used on Duty Officers you know for their parades all them use on duty and then we we give as much on duty as we can but we have to we have to police to rest the city at the same time we don't start telling them what like we come up with the amount of cops they need then we look at what we have on duty that the city can let them use on duty and then we say all right now you're going to have to supplement the rest with off duty that's the way that's the way it's been done that's the way it was decided by the city that we wanted to do it to make sure that we could that we save this money in the budget but it used to be we would go on duty and then supplement with the overtime that was judged to be too expensive so that's the where we are but again I just want to make clear to everybody if we leave here and this is not done and or we don't come to some kind of solution and we can't tell people what it'll cost we are going to have to pay overtime police officers to do it we can't shut down half the city without being able to do it safely but the current legislation speaks to this rate only thing this really doing is clearing it up so at worst case scenario they will still be paying what the other rate was right agreed councilman I think you're 100 that's going to be my stand that's going to be my stand when I meet with them that we'll do this and clean it up but like we already H disagreements here about whether we owe people based on that old old rate so that I'm sure will continue now also um I guess my last question is is there anything we can do like should should certain numbers of participants affect affect like um the rates because it's now that I'm listening it's it's going to be very hard to distinguish nonprofits from from from regular entities because when people just in the business of trying to get over they'll find a way and we don't really have the enforcement to really look into all that but is there a way we can say um if it's going to be x amount of participants at this thing then is I I sh thank you the problem the problem Becomes Of course and you know like when you say that it gives everyone an incentive to Sayes smaller event they under represent I mean we had one recently it was going to be less than 200 people it was over 2,000 when the people showed up and we can't hold people responsible if they say well I didn't think all that many people were going to you know we're going to come so that's why we took that out and just went with the one straight rate to remove that incentive to try to cuz we're better off if we know how many people are coming like it does us no favors for someone to lie to us about the size of the event because we end up caught short and having a replace on overtime when it becomes unsafe thank you director I was asked to read this from certain groups uh I read that already Council yeah well they want it public uh because they they they wanted everybody to know it that certain groups were asked to pay monies due from 10 years ago that's ridiculous three separate groups have been approached just days before their event with pass through balances from over five years ago I am also asking the administration to please add a stipulation that all copies of payments made to the off-duty police by these cultural groups be sent to the cultural Affairs for tracking purposes councilman Prince a is asking for a nonprofit fee to be established that is what the community is asking for don't hurt the churches the mosque and the cultural groups thank you the only thing I'll say to that councilman and I want to get out of here but the only thing I'll say to that anyone who owes money to the city the debt does not disappear because they don't pay it for five years if they if they had a pass du amount and didn't pay it yes they owe it and it's the city's obligation to recover that money there's statute of limitations basically thank you thank you thank you council president thank you Council council president before we move on the business administrator would just like to address miss one meeting I thought my microphone stopped working uh council president uh just uh the piggy back um included in that conversation might be the point that we've heard from several groups actually themselves um maybe we could work on designating uh smaller parade routes um based on population in size and that would give more predictable rates um example of that was when we organized the parade for the uh NCAA college basketball uh parade for St Peters we understood that the draw would be approximately x amount and we created a parade route that was seven to eight blocks uh long that we do know not targeting any um groups but we know certain groups do have that smaller amount and they still ask for the same designated route so so you know if you know it went as far as uh maybe considering like a festival like a four or five block you know block party if you will um of course they would have to entertain that but it's something that the the director and I could give a approximate amount that it would cost and uh maybe it's more predictable for their fundraising ability so just putting that out there as part of the conversation yeah thank you KS thank you evening president Waterman members of the council have four items before you tonight for consideration uh resolu resolution 2447 10.15 this resolution will authorize the purchasing agent to sell various vehicles at public auction resolly there 66 Vehicles located at the impound yard and are sold at Asis condition which one was that one director 10.15 10.15 that was 15 uh 10.16 reso 2448 resolution will authorize the public sale of 177 Motor Vehicles one dump truck two trailers one street sweeper One log splitter and one tile grout machine which are no longer needed for public use all proposed items will be sold as is and will be offered for sales with the Public surface.com Public online auction question why are they being put out is it direct radio cars all fire engines stuff that's no longer needed so usually uh councilman this is stuff that's like Beyond repair for us and we sell it and um usually entities will purchase it for a part or for you know certain equipment that's entailed but they're not going to use it for uh general purpose of what it's designed for you know they may need the salt spreader on the back of a truck have a purpose for anymore stuff like that do we get the money only after someone's bid and won the auction or public auction yeah it goes run through purchasing yeah whatever they agree on the auction that's it okay not to it's similar like to PayPal uh you know type of thing where if you buy something off eBay it kind of goes into a trust and then once both parties are satisfied the funds are released now now Greg all of these vehicles are not City vehicles on right the ones I just spoke of they're City Vehicles the 56 vehicles are impounded Vehicles oh okay so there's one's currently held at the impound yard councel okay and it's the same auction for all for different auction different auction yeah one is it by it's mandated by it's it's it's a uh run through the purchasing department it's there's certain laws that's in place how they have to do it the other one is it's a it's a a public auction it's an oncom a lot of the municipalities counties state government you yes okay um 1017 24049 resolution will authoriz the award of a contract to lease Services DBA National Co-op for the 5year lease of the following equipment five 2024 Ford Super Superduty vehicles and peripherals the peripherals include the snow plows and SS uh two Del Delio 850 mini vacuum sweep is to be utilized to maintain the city's bike lanes and pedestrian plazas proposed lease is $955,000 00 payable over five years with the first payment due on January 1 2025 with a zero purchase option at the end of the lease and the last will be 10182 2450 resolution authorized renewal of a contract with Gateway security to provide armed and unarmed security guard services in various City locations total cost of this contract renewal is 1,915 18219 great um and I don't know if we had conversations about this before but why don't we use our offices to man our buildings at these locations these are all City buildings we only the only place we have Jersey City police officers at the is at the public saf headquarters at City Hall no that's what I'm saying why don't we use our officers to man them versus uh the armed offic I think it's a cost cost yeah uh councilman just uh even even the armed guards it's uh it's at Cost but but um for a regular um security officer let's call their their post um the variance is about 22 to $23 an hour and that would be if it was a rookie officer so as you scale out the officers on their steps the the number grows um we are potentially looking at some kind of hybrid system where we uh kind of mirror what the county does um and we would pilot that in one building first and if it works we'd look to expand it um and we'd have a SORA license agreement that we would do our own in-house training but uh we'll bring that to the council with the introduction of the budget thanks thank you have a nice evening Danny council president if I may um Greg while we have you here cor if we could just run through the um the escalation Center purchase yeah uh just item 1012 um just for background um this is the final phase of outfitting the the escalation Center it does go through architecture because as the council had mentioned prior all P all furniture purchasing should be uh put in one location and the reason we do it through architecture is because the professionals are the ones that measure and outfit uh the location but uh director kir has been uh basically the director in charge of of uh building out the facility so just if there's any questions about that uh prior to us leaving yeah you'll see here uh it's uh item 1012 reso 24-44 uh resolution authorizing Award of contract to Krueger International for the purchase and delivery of furniture for the Jersey City police training facility through the Educational Service Commission of New Jersey for the Department of infrastructure and division of architecture um this building is going to be a training facility both for police and fire uh we also have the uh the two uh range one's tactical range and one's a port range which the plan is to to uh make available for lease to surrounding police departments and any other police agencies so the furniture we're speaking was basically composed of furniture that we use for an educational setting uh and desk and chairs for the offices um we intend to uh with all everything moving in the right direction we'd like to open the center by March 1st we've had numerous inquiries from various departments as there are no other facilities like this in the area and for that matter probably not state so I think as we move forward we'll be able to make a profit and pretty much run the operation based on the on the operability and the people that we have participating in it GRE uh could this be used as a police academy also as you say Academy yes um the councilman I think the problem is and this goes back to when we had the previous Academy the the PTC the police training commission for some reason only want to issue academ new Academy certificates on a county level moving forward if that's something that the administration wants to pursue I guess we could look into it yeah councilman nothing official but we have been talking to uh theem and hosting some of their um classroom uh time in that facility as well and that would be reimbursable to us whether it be per hour or when our recruits go for training they' be discounted yeah you know we had the number one police academy in the state of New Jersey and the former business administrator who hated cops closed it not you br not you you sure that back 10 years ago he closed it and what a disgrace because the cops we're sending them out we're send them toies outside of the city where they should be trained here in Jersey City by Jersey City police officers I can I can assure you this is going you know what I'm talking about Greg probably the premier uh facility of it's type around and I encourage and invite any of the council people would like to come down and see it oh I'm coming to sit on that furniture uh we're looking to get this open if all goes according to schedule March 1 can we uh do a little training session with the council as well if you'd like but you yes director is the clerk invited I'm one kidding thank you director Brian is Brian's invited good afternoon council members for your consideration I have three resolutions on and they're all routine resolutions um the first item is item number 10.1 res resolution number 24-33 and is a resolution establishing calendar year 2024 open space Recreation ation historic preservation trust tax rate okay next one is identical it's item number 10.2 resolution number 24-34 is a resolution establishing the 2024 Arts and Cultural TR trust tax rate and last but not least it's item number 10.4 resolution number 24-36 it is a resolution authorizing calendar year 2024 reserve for on collected taxes to be calculated using a three-year arage thank you afternoon C members I'm here for item 103 resolution 24-35 a resolution granting veterans exemptions from local property taxation pursuing title 54 column 4- 3.30 for two properties to 64 mam Street and 93 P Avenue Unit 2 property owned by 100% of disable BS are eligible for 100% disable exemption in their primary residents the total to be canceled between those two properties is um $467 40 thank you good afternoon council president members of city council I have one resolution for your consideration tonight resolution 24043 item 10.11 a resolution solution authorizing the city of Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services to accept Grant funds from the Hudson County Department of Health and Human Services in the amount of 40,000 for the peer grouping program the time period is January 1st 2024 through December 31st 2024 there's no required City match and these meals are basically equivalent to the hom delivered meals Meals on Wheels program but they go to individual homebound individuals that are not seniors on the last resolution I I seen some money for Mills on Wheels was being sent back and um I got a double check I think I seen on uh with that resolution with all the Departments um sending money back was Mills on whales on there so that was 2018 before ofer was here uh that was senior Nutri rtion it was $40,000 and we're waiting for Vivien has been out of the office since the last council meeting and she was my fiscal officer at HHS at the time and all of the paper files are down um that it's taking a while to get those so it was just when I get that back you'll get a report on every one of those items um going backwards cuz I think it dates back to 2017 so I just want to see the actual last final report that we submitted which is not in my files because the way our office is separated that is in the fiscal drive and I don't have access to them and um what's in the director's drive those documents aren't there and those are 7 years old now so I'm hoping that um there is some backup paper file so that we're we're asking about those so ofer would not have that information but rest assure we spend every dime um we have on food at this point Thank you Lee counil president before uh before we speak to Lee I just wanted on the record I know that Laura was here earlier and she was talking but uh I just would like the administration to I would really for you guys to consider promoting Laura as at to Loa retires I mean she's she's been in that department for a long time publicly advocating for her she's an amazing person and it feel great for that job I agree do we have any I mean I don't want to talk about Personnel uh publicly but um Ed does have a short amount of time left with the city so we'll honor him as he uh as he retires uh from a long career of over 30 I think he's longer than um almost 40 years okay so uh that's really impressive um it is but um no we're we're gonna let Ed uh you know wrap up he he's taken some time and he has a few more weeks and then um we are going to go through a competitive process but you know obviously Laura has been in the office for a long time and'll be considered I think it's great to always promote internally it just feel real culturally when we do that okay Lee about that Lee good afternoon council president and council members uh I only have one item today but before I get to the one resolution before you there should be or a report from The Immigrant Affairs committee uh that report will be presented to you during the council meeting on the 24th by the committee chair himo uh and she will uh walk you through the report and the um what they have accomplished uh the past year um as so I'm here to present item 10.5 resolution 24-37 it's a re resolution reaffirming the recognition of January 11th as the human trafficking awareness day and that day was originally designated by US Senate and also few years ago by the council uh to raise the awareness uh to the consequences uh the human consequences and the criminal consequences of human trafficking that exploits uh children women and men uh sexually and uh also in the sense of Labor uh take taking advantage of so it is important uh that the city once again proclaims and reaffirms the importance of January 11th as the human trafficking awareness day and two days from now during the Caucus meeting on the 24th another Committee Member uh Steven DeLuca he will be thanking the council uh for bringing attention to human trafficking and its consequences and we'll discuss with you more on the consequences and the legality of of anti-human trafficking thank you any questions thank you Lee thank you thank you Jennifer good afternoon council president council members um I wasn't here at the last council meeting so happy New Year um I have one uh item item 3.2 ordinance 24003 this is for an always stop conversion of the intersection of Westside and Pavonia um we have made several improvements in terms of safety at the intersection including installing a curb extension and installing R rfbs the flashing pedestrian signs but since then there have still been um five right angle crashes at that intersection so we feel that converting it into an all stop would make it safer thank you good evening uh council president council members uh this evening I'd like to present uh item 10.21 on behalf of the jcmua resolution 2453 uh essentially we are here to seek your authorization to executing a new bulk water agreement with the city of Hoboken for the next five years it's actually just short of five years uh because we began this negotiation earlier this year in August and uh we are here to have this ratified at this time uh you may or may not know but the city of Jersey City Water System Prov provides all of hoboken's water as well as various other municipalities and uh this one's due so um we have a responsibility to provide the water as registered with the njd if that is to change there is a big process that goes along with that we have no uh intentions of doing that hopefully you do not as well but as your operator we are here seeking your approval on that thank you see you all good afternoon council president council members um courtesy of Mr kirce I only have two items for you um this afternoon um first one will be agenda 10.13 resolution number 24- z45 it's a resolution authorizing an amendment to um a contract with Suburban engineering um this is regarding site and Civil Engineering Services for the reservoir 3 Bridge construction um the contract is not expired but we've encountered a few unforeseen situations um we needed a little bit more of their efforts and so that's the reason um we're verifying previously unforeseen conditions like Foundation elevations and dimensions of the historic wall because of the close proximity of the bridge Brian when are they going to open the reservoir I don't know that I can answer that question right now but we would like to open up the perimeter pathway with the with the completion of this bridge um but there are a few other safety related issues like the structures and the water uh being contaminated a little bit so it's an ongoing process can we look into like after this Bridges installed to open it temporarily so that people can see all the work that's happened and you know we we have to find a way to you know um basically allow for people to see it and that it's not all for not and for a waste yes absolutely I know you guys are doing a lot of work though so thank you thank you okay next one would be aenda 10.14 resolution 24- 046 and this is a resolution authorizing Award of contract to hand and floor cover Corporation for the purchase delivery of materials for the Joseph Connor Senior Center there's additional flooring needed to make bring that project to completion which is imminent right yeah uh Brian finish with that Brian one more question uh what are we going to do about uh Sergeant B Anthony's Park I had to leave the meeting you had it with Pam I couldn't stay because we had this meeting are they going to do something over there the the director wanted me to talk to you about that so I will help you with that do you know and Joe Connor Senior Center is g to be the senior center open when will the senior center open with uh I believe we have a deadline date date of mid-march is what we're looking for right now okay we should also talk about S anony I mean we would like to make it earlier than that because I know there's a heating problem and whatnot so there's a heating problem we we not with not with our building but with the other building we're looking to try to make it as fast talking about Central Avenue right yeah so we just have some finalization there that we're going to get the TCO on um we were just uh the three out you can correct me if I'm wrong but I think the three standing things are completing the kitchen to make sure they have uh the adequate resources for the the meals um some glass partitions to separate uh the items and some of the flooring is just being finalized but um it's five six weeks out and we I can give you an update at each cus if there's any questions or concerns just wanted to do a senior prom you know this this year so he to go to the prom no senior prom could even go to my own senior prom this year just want to know when it's going to get done it's it's it's imminent um yeah May June you know okay Brian okay also if we if we can uh loop back on Sergeant Anthony Park later uh with me and Rich and you please thank you s still wants to dance so I maybe that's it but um I do not I do not have a prom listed but I I will say the kitchen was installed December 28th um it is a comi oven uh and it is a commercial grade and that um we're really excited about that so I thought it was the elevator we're waiting for but um we're very excited about moving out of 20 a patter Street I am here to present a resolution at 1022 resolution 23054 a resolution authorizing the renewal of professional service agreement with lifem LLC uh that is our medical director Dr Gonzalez um he's been working in the clinic for the last 7 years um hiring a full-time doctor does not align with the hours of the city uh this is why we have difficulty hiring a nurse practitioner um and so we use contractors and this is one of our contractors that um provides us standing orders to provide not just the testing but the treatment um in the clinic hey taking it from the top right our first reading ordinances 3.1 through 3.2 were touched on earlier there are no second reading ordinances we have our public speakers and on to our petitions and Communications any questions or comments on items 6.1 through 6.24 hearing none there are no off s there reported directors 8.1 through 8.3 any questions or comments the claims will be posted and on to our resolutions items 10.1 through 10.5 were touched on earlier 10.6 resolution 24-38 is a resolution honoring the 1972 Lincoln High School football team 10.7 resolution 24-39 is a resolution to commemorate the past of Ralph William green sen 10.8 resolution 24-4 is a resolution reappointing PR Britney bunny as a member of the city cannabis control board 10.9 resolution 24- 041 is a resolution reappointing Sonia Dublin as a member of the Jersey City cannabis control board item 10.10 resolution 24- 042 is a resolution authorized in a lean against the properties listed herein for the cost of removing litter debris Etc in the coordinance with njsa 40 colon 48-24 and the Jersey city code section [Music] 287-4191 were touched on earlier item 10.19 resolution 24- 051 is a resolution renewing professional service agreement with the law firm of Cal Kenny and chesy LLP to represent the city of Jersey City in the manner of Luba Lubna maner versus the city of Jersey City hi Sean very quickly um for 1019 this is a final bill um this was resolved and then once we pay this we'll actually be reimbursed a significant amount for the council fees and then 1020 Is A continuing contract still in litigation if anybody has any questions I can answer offline e and the last resolution item 10.21 and 22 we touched on earlier item 10.23 is a resolution reappointing Cynthia Jackson as a full-time judge of the Municipal Court any other items or questions by the council hearing none may I have a motion to adjourn at 5:3 p.m. motion motion made by council person Cay may have a second second by council president Warman on the motion to adjourn at 5:13 p.m. all council members present by acclamation please say I we are out of here at 5:13 p.m. thank you so much everyone present and everyone watching at home remember Teamwork Makes a DreamWork have a great rest of the day and stay safe they they did uh they took what