good morning welcome to the special meeting conference of the New York Municipal Council on Tuesday April 30th 2024 Council council members we have two presentations today the first one will be e Denise p senior manager of community services for New Jersey sharing Network thank you madam Clerk and good morning everyone who are who who was here with us in the chambers this morning and those who are viewing online welcome good morning happy Tuesday um at this time we will have Miss peoples for a quick presentation to the council good morning Miss peoples thank you for being with us this morning good good morning my councilwoman good morning everyone my name is e Denise people's new uh from the New Jersey sharing Network we are the organization that procures organs and tissues for transplantation for the state of New Jersey it was uh years ago not that many because I'll tell my age I was born and raised in Patterson New Jersey and came to nework after leaving New Jersey for college and came back home and has I've been a resident of uh nework for 22 years so this is home I see a lot of faces that I remember from being chief of staff for assembly woman Grace Spencer when she was the assembly woman and it's a lifelong love for Newark in my position at the sharing Network I had to bring it back to nework because this community needs it the most I needed it this is me uh gosh almost 18 years ago you can play the this is me 18 years ago 21 years ago I was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis no one in my family has ever had it and of course over time uh people who get certain illnesses it changes but back then it was an older white male smoker disease I've never smoked and I think you can tell I'm not an older white male so with that being said we were totally floored my family and friends could not understand what in the world happened but needless to say I started a journey that I will never forget and I don't want to forget a journey to transplantation and because of that my path ended up at the New Jersey sharing Network there in Newark are many faces overall across the state of New Jersey of donation as you can see it does not care about your age your race your income status it just does not care these are the faces of some of those waiting right here in Newark we have more people waiting for a life-saving transplant than any other city in the state of New Jersey 162 residents and because of our Hospital Partners Advocates donor families even those who are waiting we are definitely taking newer by storm we have to get this information out to our communities and I must say the leadership of Newark has definitely been doing that uh Reverend rree often uh speaks about the New Jersey sharing Network she partners with us if you look into your folders Council uh you will see a magazine and if you pull the magazine out and look all the way to the left you'll see a Dapper gentleman that you know because councilman Crump has been an advocate and a spokesperson for the sharing Network so many of you have spoke about it councilman CA came in today to tell me he is definitely an advocate for it and we need that in Newark people think oh it's on my driver's license like I did that oh yeah I'm going to be an organ donor unfortunately that is not the truth because if it was we would not have 4,000 people in New Jersey waiting less than one tenth of 1% of all deaths actually go on to be organ donors you must be in a hospital on a respirator or a ventilator and either be pronounced brain dead or cardiac death there are so many myths and misconceptions that surround this that we are out here really really giving out information and letting the public know the truth because it is not uncommon for someone to say oh I'll never be an organ donor but if they needed an organ it would be the first thing that they would want and we have to make that plain and make people understand the truth we are in the community we have lived healthy and move and it will be this summer in August here in newart we have different events we are part of the Hispanic heritage celebration and so many other uh things that happen in New York we are definitely a part of and because without the organ donor there's no story no hope no transplant no e Denise but when there is an organ donor life Springs from Death sorrow turns to Hope and a terrible loss becomes a gift please play that I grew up in the church and as a kid I sang all the time until I got sick and I could not sing now because of a 19yearold from South Carolina in a double lung transplant on October 2nd 2006 I sang the national anthem at every [Music] 5K what so [Music] proud at the Bright Stars through the per or the ramp we were so gly streaming and the rocket the bombs bur in Pro through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that star Spain the hand of the free and the home of the I ask you today to please have this conversation with your families it is necessary it is something that we need to talk about not at the bedside but now thank you all for your time thank you councel thank you councilman Crump and everyone breathe easy be blessed thank you so much Miss peoples we really appreciate um we appreciate your testimony um and definitely the information that you presented and it you God is good definitely to see you here standing presenting before us at this time we'll take any questions from Council Members or any comments councilman cromp thank you council president and I just want to say it is indeed a pleasure to have Denise here I know she goes by E Denise but I know her as Denise and uh um you know through her I've learned a lot about organ donations and the importance of us as a community to not be afraid to check that box and become an organ donor because of her I I checked that box and I'm I'm officially an organ donor um you know a lot of folks you know get get get their transplant and then go on with their lives and do whatever else but she has been come after her a double lung transplant has become an amazing advocate for uh our community particularly um Nork and surrounding areas but around the state and I think it's important that we think about and learn more about what oringer donation means to our community and how we can help save lives I I I don't know what the world would be like without Denise here but I'm happy she is and I'm very thankful that she is and and I've learned from her and I will continue to learn from her but I also urge my Council colleagues as well as those who here who are here and in the audience and those who are watching on TV to think about it consider being an organ donate donor make the necessary if you feel like it Go and and do some research there are a lot of myths out there that that are um that are just straight myths and aren't reality go make your own decisions but think about becoming an organ donor because you not might not save somebody you may not know you may save somebody in your family so I just wanted to urge everyone to do that and thank uh Denise and New Jersey sharing Network yes thank you Council mcro councilman councel yeah I I too want to thank uh e Denise peoples you know when I was the uh director of recreation culture Affairs and Senior Services we did a lot of work uh together I still have my Donate Life pen you know that are wear um and I think it is uh crucial and critical to get information out uh so that people can know uh you know best practices and also can hear the testimony of other individuals right and and so um it is essential that you know we continue to uh make sure that information is being circulated uh around the city and whatever we can do um to host and have that you know it should be uh Paramount to to what it is that we're doing uh to let folks know uh that being an organ donor absolutely save lives you know even in the most critical um and transitional stages of others uh that this is you know a needed and necessary step thank you thank you councilman Council councilman Kelly thank you council president um Miss peoples thank you for all of the great work that you do um you know donating organs are definitely definitely you know they definitely save lives and definitely important but um like councilman Crump said there are a lot of myths out there that people just don't know no um I I used to be hesitant to to check that box on on my driver's license and um when people donate do they have the option to donate um to some a family member or friend do they have the choice to to say where their uh Their donation should go what happens is if by chance someone unfortunately is uh in a hospital brain dead on a respirator ventilator or cardiac death one of the things that we do ask the family is do you if the if the kidneys say if the kidneys are viable for transplant we do ask the family do you have anyone in your family or your community that is waiting for a kidney so that is an option if they say no then that won't of course that won't happen but somebody else's life will be saved understood thank you thank you thank you so much any other comments uh councilman Quintana Miss peoples thank you so much um we know each other a long time 10 years ago I was involved with one of the C your your walks up and supporting at the time the walk and then I went up to your office and there was a newker uh I'm not going to mention the name and he had lost his life on a motorcycle and his father had invited me with the family that received um from the donor I mean the donor and and it was so um the testimony was so impressive you know and I have then my young people my my children were driving so as I they went to Motor Vehicles I said could you do me a favor can you check that box whether you're young it could be anyone it could be any age um and and they did check the box and I've always checked the Box uh because I believe that especially in urban settings our people are not giving as such as the Suburban Knights do and they do I don't know why but there is a difference but to me I I believe in and when you the parades the different parades you you have participated has U given a lot of awareness of what can be done and there is a there's a need uh and also you and I appreciate in bilingual in in many languages what you have done about 10 years ago it was an experience um of a nker that had just had a motorcycle accident and um that family it was really uh generous and again I just want to say thank you for you and New Jersey shared there Share work because of the work you do it's it's a very good the only thing it's a little distance your problem I said you got to get a satellite sometime somewhere in new Yark we'll get the council there if they would like drive up that way with those truckers on SE uh 78 it it's just a commute but uh sometime in the future I think there needs to be something more towards this area than up the hill oh yeah we have the live healthy and move it's a festival a free Festival where our Hospital Partners join us give out free information cotton funeral homec comes to talk about pre-planning healthy eating uh music it's it's a whole festival so we have that in uh August and more information will be coming and you see the 5K walk R the 5K yes sir if it can be done in New York someday oh you want a 5K in New York okay we got to talk then thank you okay any other comments councilwoman Scott rry my my apology thank you council president um real sensitive uh because I've known Denise a very very long time I too want to thank you U being in the hospital by the bedside of it's such a difficult thing I I had to tell my pastor of course worked for the Shar Network before you had your um encounter um with your second opportunity on life and to hear the stories um from the parents and the families and the husbands council president I realized that when I close my eyes for the last time I won't know whether I have my heart or not or my lungs or whatever could be of use and the seminars that you give and the messaging that you sent out probably just needs to be done just a little bit more if we have 162 just here um we probably we can partner and do some more seminars some more get more people to realize that it's okay um I had a relative that they used his eyes something in his eyes cornea cornea uh to assist and now what I do want to ask is they weren't at one time letting you know who the person was that gave it because of whatever connection now some of that has changed right well it's it's got to be um they have to agree on both ends the Doner family and the recipient have to agree that they want to me which then has brought a bond between oh my something that the person was able to donate to that family it's like more life for them to say well I know that I helped someone and I think that messaging is is so important because that assisted me in making the decision 20 years ago to be a donor because I know that if something happens uh that someone will be using something if it's of any um good because some people you can't even use I do know that you can keep them on the respirator to keep the organs alive but it's just amazing I can't I'm not gonna need I'm not gonna need my eyes when I go to heaven you know and if somebody can use them they're still living and that's what I want to the messaging to be and when you come and you speak um at the various um events that we have it is just amazing um how you present and your testimony so God bless you thank you Miss peoples and anything that we can do I am sure we're ready for the 5K run and some more seminars based on the share Network I Lou canana brought it up but council president we just have to find a location and make sure that we get that done along with educating individuals on this sharan network and how we can help others to have another opportunity um with their organs to help another family get through the process of loved one transitioning God bless you and thank you Denise thank you thank you so much councilwoman Scott Round Tree any other comments councilman Ramos uh thank you Madame President I do apologize for walking in late to your presentation you know a meeting upstairs but you know I just want to Echo the sentiments of my colleagues uh my my late Uncle uh Willie was a beneficiary of or orgegon donation some years ago he was on a waiting list for number of years and thanks to that Anonymous donor you know it extended his life by by 12 years and my mother before she passed actually through New Jersey sharing network uh she was she was a donor and everyone in our family has as a result of that you know make sure that they committed themselves uh to be donors as well so just want to thank you for for your work and your organization um definitely saving a lot of lives and and providing opportunities for for individuals who in some instances you know don't have any other hope so appreciate what you're do and congratulations thank you thank you councilman Ros any other comments seeing none thank you so much missles for being with us this morning we really appreciate the information and we know those that are watching online as well as those that are in the chambers appreciate the information as well so thank you thank you so much Council thank you okay council president council members our second Pres presentation is by Mr Gary Williams Regional public affairs manager at psng thank you so much Madam Clerk and I see we have Sarah Pena in the house who is no stranger to the city of nework it's such a pleasure to see you miss Pena this morning thank you for being with us good to see you council president and council members my name is Sarah Pena I am the director of external Affairs for the Northern Service territory for pscg and this morning I just want to wanted to formally introduce you all to the new Regional public affairs manager for the city of nework Gary Williams thank you Miss Peno and hello Mr Williams another no stranger to the city of nework good morning good morning uh uh council president mcgyver and members of the Nork city council thank you for having me uh my name is Gary Williams and I serve as the regional public affairs manager uh for psng I come into this role with over 10 years experience that's worked on Multi levels of government which intersected with a variety of sectors including energy infrastructure Economic Development social justice and sustainability I began my career very humble as just an intern for our late lieutenant governor Sheila Oliver where my where my experience with that experience spark my passion for public service policy and government in this role as as the RPA manager my primary responsibility is to be the bridge between the company elected officials government businesses and the communities that we serve as a company additionally I'm responsible for developing implementing strategic plans to Advocate and gain support for critical company initiatives and priorities which include the distribution and transmission projects uh which commonly commonly known as substations uh gas system modernization which is to upgrade the infrastructure of our gas systems in Energy Efficiency with all of our projects what's Paramount is to minimize Community impact at PNG we are unwavering in our Pursuits to show how a utility can be an example of excellence in the community and for Community Partnership we are steadfast and committed to safety it is Paramount we will never sacrifice that Integrity we do what's right and customer service we always keep the customer at the heart of everything that we do so for me personally not only is nor home it's the home of this company but it's also the place that I call home that I've called home for over a decade it's the place that my my grandparents migrated from from Royal Alabama um it's a place where I bought my first home it's a place where my daughter was born and where I'm raising my family currently so my commitment to this city Run Deep and some of you probably know my mother who's been a fixure in the North Community for over 30 years in her role at Ruckers University so um as I said my commitment to this city and the progress runs deep so in my short time in this role for for only about about four months um we've done some very proactive engagement we've done some field visits in the East Ward where we where we talked about lighting upgrad to councilman Silva we've had payment assistant programs in all five Wards and we're part through some of the partnership with your offices so thank you for that effort um we joined May barocco and his Facebook live a couple weeks ago to talk about the lighting and and how to upgrade that and how to report those outages um I've even held a training seminar for some of your staff uh on our new lighting infrastructure reporting mechanism and for those of who could not make it we want to do another training in the subsequent weeks coming up as well um additionally our senior leadership team has met with the mayor a couple weeks AG we discuss some very pertinent issues um and again we're also members of the nor safety collaborative which uh is through Ruckers University and is a partnership with the nor as well as other critical Community Partners um so again I I'm grateful to be in this role and I'm grateful to be a partner to the city as it's as it progresses thank you thank you so much Gary thank you for being here for those who remember Gary is our new Michelle as Michelle was our new Calvin um we it's just nice always to put perspective of who did what so then we know what you're doing and many of us of course work with Michelle um and had the opportunity to work with Calvin as well um at this time we'll turn it over to the council for questions or comments councilman Quintana just welcome and know nework is special I know to you and your family uh to Mrs Peña too um my concern is the there's a lot of lights that are out and they're Antiquated lights and we we need to look at the whole there's lights that are been there in po for a long time some that are not working and my question is that you know we're being charged for lights that are not working sometimes and some of those lights are so yellow that they've been so long there that they're yellow you can't you know and uh again if we can up scale that a little bit uh the and this been speakers have come before the city council have talked about that I know the council president talked about uh at the last meeting that some of the constituency are taking the numbers and calling it in on the poll but again I think that there needs to be some kind of um cooperation between the city and pcng in terms of working collaborating uh in terms of making sure that we we highlight some of these and I know there's four light on two lights on Mon Clair Avenue that have it uh that the lights are so yellow you know that you can't really see much so can we do better yes and I don't want to just put it on you because you just got but in terms of you could help us with this would be ideal because the citizens of the city have complained at many times at this Podium about their service the lights in the neighborhood upgrade lifting them up a little bit more uh right here on Broad Street it's those lights are just so dark I mean you those lights are not that powerful and I know that that was a project that came here before you about 15 years ago those lights were put on on Broad Street but those lights are really are not fit for Broad Street uh they're not it doesn't light up up the the the street it's dark so those are the concerns that I wanted to bring to you and and to say that we we going to work together I I work with Miss Peña many of things with Mr thick pen and you know we can work together but it's just make the city of New York light let's make let's put the lights on New York thank you thank you uh councilman Quintana um definitely G if you want to come back up um Mr Williams to add any responses that' be but I'm sure we'll have other questions too okay no definitely um first of all councilman thank you for that and I I definitely first I want to say we we have sometimes we we we can we can do better we definitely can do better we want to do better um so we can definitely look into upgrading those lights to some of the more brighter ones the LEDs um I'm happy to I'm happy to view those lights with you and bring our new lighting team out there to give you an to provide an assessment to see what we can do to get that area brighter also just want to note terms of the downtown area we we do have a couple strategic Partners within the city norc specifically ntown down downtown district they do they send us a lighting report for all the area that they monitor every other month additionally uh we have another strategic partner um in the Department of Public Works Mr Dexter cobs who is a very critical partner of mine who keeps me informed in terms of the lighting um but again we like I said we can do better we want to do better okay councilman Crump yeah thank you council president oh D that sound kind of loud uh just want to thank you for uh uh uh coming before us I you know I think we've had good relationships with the uh the regional uh public affairs managers in the past with Michelle as well as Calvin and I know but from knowing you I I know and expect the same from you you say that uh no no doubt that you will do a wonderful job at this um I I just wanted to say two things I concur with um councilman canana um I do get some complaints about broad about the area broaden Market being too dark um and I don't know if it's uh you know it's already been talked about so I won't go into detail of it but I just wanted to throw that out there and secondly um I do appreciate when you do another um uh uh seminar regarding how to um to uh uh uh what was the word to report report report thank you I couldn't think of that word report I got my coffee but I need to drink it report the lighting uh uh lights out uh I'd appreciate it if we could do that uh when sooner than later because I would definitely want not only myself but my staff to be on and and maybe in the future and maybe you've already done this we can do something with the community in terms of a zoom of some sort definitely thank you councilman Gonzalez then councilwoman Scott Round Tree your mic is off good morning uh this a psng and everybody wants to save H energy and we have a lot of lights that are not preserving energy I believe that it would be wise to revise all the lights in the city of newer so that we can bring the up to dat and save energy that is the the the object object of a not only psng the governor everybody is involved it wants to to be proactive in in Saving energy and and using the resources in a better way I believe that we should explore that possibility here in the city yes we should have definitely that that would be to our ba as that comes with the cost so yeah looking at you Mr ba thank you council president I just want to respond councilman uh Gonzalez to that is um the mayor has been actively working with pscg in creating a plan that will brighten up this area in in collaboration with working with nework downtown district your traffic and signals department so there is a a conversation happening right now in regards to that so I did want to mention that thank you Sarah thank you councilwoman Scott rre thank you council president um thank you for that Sarah I do agree with all my uh colleagues regarding the lighting and the outage um I did just heard you reference downtown and better lighting but some of our neighborhoods in in each Ward um could use that um investigation as well for you to look and see because there are many blocks that have two or three lights out in all of the wards so I don't know how you actually track um the lighting I know we get calls that the lights are out and I say well that's not traffic and signals that is public service and I ask them to please reach out to you and sometimes I will reach out so on that note I'm hoping I know I heard someone say something about a report um so I GA that she be going through the city or or have a team doing that that's number one number two I'm glad that there is someone that um we do know your mother and um we do know um how serious she is and how effective she is and what she does and we believe um not because she's your mother but because you're your own man and you've proven yourself to be very efficient in every assignment that you've had so we look forward to working with you and having a conversation being able to communicate with you being able to put our hands on you if something does occur and um that you will expeditiously handle the issue to the best of your ability so thank you Gary we're looking forward to working with you congratulations thank you so much uh Council woman Scott round tree and some of the members are asking who's your mama which I'm surprised they don't know H but it's Diane Hill Diane Hill Dr de Hill Dr he probably wanted to that secret Dr Di here um councilman Council he probably wanted to leave that councilman Kelly yeah Gary they're exposing who your mom is you probably wanted to leave that secret but so C couple of things here you know um one as all of the My Council colleagues have talked about you know the the lighting issues around when the old lighting gets changed over the LEDs if you can talk about that that process um and how that works because I know that there were certain areas uh even prior where we did tours around the South for where there were old light lighting fixtures and bubs they were switched over to uh LEDs but then there were also some areas uh around the South where uh not only did they need um the the light fixtures changed but there were some areas where spotlights should have been put so one example is um Evergreen Dayton Street when you're going across luto right behind the back of the cemetery going straight down by the back of the golf course right we requested to have a spotlight put up there that shines along that kind of stretch way because of illegal dumping and darkness right in the four corners three of the lights were fixed uh there was never a spotlight put there but part of that was uh because of the conversation that was had through uh some of the other Public Service Representatives that it is about the city's uh responsibility and wanting to add uh these kind of poles or lighting uh to that area so if you can talk a little bit about that as well uh that is important to know what our role is as a municipality and helping to get extra light fixtures and and and and helping to brighten us up and then uh secondly uh you know I know Miss uh pen talked about some some initiatives uh that that they were working on but we definitely need to turn on a light initiative uh in the city of n that runs through uh you know public service and uh all of our uh residents in the city about how to report what we need to do and then making sure that we get these things back on about usage and voltage and then if you can talk about the amount of voltage uh that we utilize uh as as a city and what does it take uh to increase lighting capacity uh in in the night hours okay um so just on the first point um councilman the process in terms of upgrading a light whether it's LED or even getting a flood light is similar same if you could talk until here because it's hard to hear same same process generally uh you you would through put the requesting through me I would bring out a new lighting consultant we would then canvas the area put together a propos proposal that would be then sent to the department of engineering as well as the ba for consideration for implementation um that's pretty and if everything goes accordingly the install generally would take about anywhere between three to five weeks for for once everything is signed off and paid for to be installed and I can even try to expedite that if I could my division probably kill me but I could try um to the second point off the top of my head I do not know the amount of wattage that that the city utilizes but I can get back to you on that if that's acceptable to you um just off the top of my head I I would have to do some internal digging to figure that out um right councilman Council I just want to add to his comment about um putting up the new LED lights that we did and you're absolutely right thank you for bringing that to light is our collaboration with the nework public safety collaborative we were able to change close to 2,000 lights upgrade them throughout the city of nework where we identified with that group hot areas crime and it has really made a change so we are continuing to work with that collaborative and ensure that we are following the numbers ensure that newer studies are being done so that we can continue to work together to ensure that the entire city is is being addressed so thank you for that councilman Ramos uh yes thank you Madame President um just just a few uh informational pieces that I think would be helpful to to the council and I know we had engineering department here last week and just so that we better understand what the protocols are to report you know outages and I know in some municipalities we have to go through our local engineering department um in the past we've just reported those outages directly to psng so you know through your chair and the clerk just some clarity from the administration in terms of how you want us to handle reporting outages and then uh another informational piece that would be helpful to the council is that we we do have residents in our city because of the affordability issue and you know the impact of of inflation and other costs that you know are faced with with shut off notices and sometimes they seek um assistance and I know through the BPU and PNG there are different programs such as New Jersey shares and and other resources that are available to assist those families that face you know some kind of CR prices and and maybe just need some assistance to catch up uh with their psng bill so if you would be able to share that information as well through the clerk and and and the individual Council offices so that we can you know better assist uh residents that that are um confronting those kind of issues and and the last PES I I just want to thank Sarah uh for her assistance um she knows I got a little annoyed with with Rick and the folks at psng because some years ago they did this big infrastructure project which went right through um our historic district and and it was the installation of these really big uh utility polls that were supposed to assist with uh you know redundancy and and resiliency and as a result of that there were some conversations made uh about doing some things that would benefit the community that was impacted because of this big infrastructure project so because of the large utility polls a lot lot of trees went down you know a lot of our neighbors were a little bit upset because this project and locally they really couldn't do much to fight it right because because any kind of infrastructure work that psng does is really authorized directly by the state and the municipalities don't really have much leverage so um for a number of years none of the things that we discussed occurred and and thankfully uh recently through through Sarah's involvement and and Rick um re-engagement I think we we're at a better place where we would hopefully address some of the issues that the residents brought to our attention some years ago so I would just add that to um you know just a followup I know there's some information that we've been trying to get engineering to find because one of the conversations that we had when this project first occurred was to make some improvements along the heler parkway mediums uh the in the city came up with some design options and the person who worked on that is no longer with the city and we're just trying to find and maybe Eric could help us U locate uh where those designs were I mean someone in the city authorized it whether it was done internally or they hired an outside consultant but I think that that that information would be helpful to psng totally not councilman R MOS and definitely I think it would be very important for you to explain to us what's the process about the reporting light so that we all hear it together and then also to the public can hear it it's been a lot of conversation around that and I I just want to thank you again for hosting the how to report lighting seminar that you did um I think it was very informational and very helpful and it's a very easy easy friendly user tool um even for residents to use so definitely um I think explaining that to us would be good yeah absolutely thank you uh council president thank you again councilman Ramos so reporting a a light first of all we we do strategically canvas areas to make sure lights are on but we we can't catch them all so we really look at it from a from a Community Partnership robust plan that's why we have targeted strategic Partners such as those entities that I named earlier but also the biggest partner is the community which is why we want to empower them and give them this tool that's easily accessible on how to report that outage and typically what what happens once you report that outage you will get a confirmation email that the light has been reported and through BPU we are required to fix this in 72 hours if we cannot fix it that means it is generally an underground issue or something structurally deficient with the poll which do does take a little longer that's a rabbit hole that I won't go down but typically we try to respond and get that light turned on within 72 hours and so when residents go on and they use the portal that's right on psg's website they don't need a poll number they just need the address correct if you put in your address it'll pull up a map and then you just being knowing your neighborhood you'll know which poll it is if it's in front of your house you type in your address you pick the poll you hit report it sends you a a confirmation email and our division gets it and again they have 72 hours to make that repair again if it's a general maintenance repair again if it's something where there's a a little bit of an issue that takes typically longer okay and sometimes we get residents that call or we report lights that have been going out for a while um and they don't get repaired like you know we're like oh we reported them they didn't get repaired what do we do then because usually I know from what I do but let's say what's the right thing to do because I usually contact Dexter cob and you and whoever else and I'll be like oh this poll is still down and we make sure we get the poll numbers because some point Michelle Gonzalez was telling us oh you need the poll number you need the poll number so we always try to work with getting that um so what's the process after like a someone reports it through the regular process online with the street address and everything and it doesn't get fixed what should we do then if it doesn't get fixed please send to myself or Dexter and we will find out and get the information again because it may be a something a little bit more than just replacing the bulb or the header so if it's some so just let myself know or Dexter we'll get to the bottom of it and then communicate to you what the issue is so we can set proper expectations got it and Dexter cop for those that don't know he works for us that's our employee that handles the lighting as well as potholes so just want to make that clear and I will share with the council I know Gary on April 11th you had sent out a payment assistance guide um for residents for us to share with our constituents um which I thought was really helpful was a brochure um talking about the different programs like councilman Ros mention I'll recirculate that to the council so that you guys can have that at the top of your email Bo of the um just a nice friendly brochure of how residents can tap into all of the different programs out there to get assistance with lights being repaired um I do want to swing to councilman Kelly who I want to apologize to he was supposed to he asked and requested to speak like 35 minutes ago but you know I am drinking coffee and half breakfast and everything and I still forgot that so please councilman Kelly for Su don't worry about it thank you thank you um a lot of my colleagues you know they already uh spoke of some of the concerns and issues that I wanted to discuss and I I do I just so basically I just want to say thank you g you know um you have been very responsive and I want to thank um Miss Sarah Pena you know you guys have always been responsive to our office um my staff actually took the course I wasn't able to take the course but I still want to take the course as well I don't want my staff knowing how to do it and I don't know how to do it you know um so I just want to say thank you to you guys because the West W um Miss pya spoke of some of the hot zones and and partnering with some of the stores the some of you know the initiatives the safe programs I think that you know it definitely deter crime when when the area is well lit so thank you guys and I look forward to updating those lists as well you know hot zones coming come and go and uh we have a few hot zones in in the west W that that we still need to take care of but for the most part you guys have been excellent on receiving the calls taking the calls and actually getting those things done so thank you so much thank you councilman Kelly councilman Sila uh yeah hey Gary good morning how you doing uh we met a few times we actually walked the entire length of Ferry Street Market Street all the way up to Wilson Avenue on a cold night back probably like in January or February and my leg still hurt yeah um we saw a few things that um uh I think that we didn't understand right so a lot of this first of all those lights on Ferry Street that the ndd has as well uh I think if they can go back 15 years they wouldn't have put those lights there uh although they look great and they're very pleasing to the eye and they're aesthetically pleasing um when one of them goes out or one of them gets hit like there currently is it takes a lot longer to replace those lights and you were talking about um underground and those lights when weever have a tractor trailer or a large vehicle going down Ferry Street uh the lights go out because of I guess the electric underneath the conduit underneath them is not as deep as regularly the poles that PSC C has so um those lights it could be the supply chain now that it takes a while longer to replace than the 72 hours that you were talking about but um I again those lights I think if any other business improvement district is looking to do that uh they should look into it a little better because somebody mentioned that it just doesn't give out any light as well outside of all the other issues I'm talking about uh taking a while to replace uh taking a while to get the parts in uh they don't light up the area so now we have to think outside the box another thing that I noticed when we were walking was back in the day I guess they put those poles down in the East Ward all on one side of the street they weren't even on the other side of the street so if you go down any side street in the East Ward the light poles are all on one side of the street we noticed that when we were walking back then those lights might have been good enough to um illuminate the other side of the street today they're not we only noticed if we walked down Jefferson Street there was six or seven lights on one side of the street the only one that actually gave illumination was one that was replaced recently by you guys but the other six is dark the other parts of the sidewalks are all dark and my question that night was why wouldn't they just replace the entire area if they're going to replace one uh why not just replace the entire Street and so uh that's why I think that U we the city needs to look into with psng why there's only lights on one side of the street and why when we go fix one or two lights that we just can't fix the other ones in the area because the entire block was dark between Ferry and Market except for that one light that had the new the new light put in no definitely noted and I think the light that you're speaking about that had that was more brighter than the others that that was newer uh typically if the light is can be replaced by what it currently has they they would do it but if it's at something at the end of its life cycle and there's no replacement or there's no manufacturer for it we have no choice but then to put in a newer LED so I think those ones are still in manufact are either being manufactured or we're still able to service but we're happy to upgrade that entire area as I said I as I bought the team out before and put together proposal and share with the relevant folks within the city to see if we can get that going so again thank you yeah quick question though the lights on Fair Street um I was saying that we need to think outside the box uh those lights just don't work um in the ibit area those black lights that we see on Broad Street they look great and all that stuff but is there a a way to illuminate them more or we're stuck with what we have are you talking about the black decoratives yeah the black light [Music] tip I think those are we had a conversation before with nor downtown district those are they are as bright as they go that's why like we were talking that's what councilman Quintana saying like the black pole it's nice it's cute but it doesn't give off brightness and so you would have to change the pole itself to get the brightness that you're looking for because those black pretty things don't shine bright so you know that's the problem you would have to upgrade the entire light not just not just the bulb the entire housing and fixture itself would need to be replaced um if that's a conversation that you are looking into please consider us to be a part of that who pays for the upgrades the city the city of New to be clear the city of newk we could always charge some developers to upgrade just saying don't you know don't shoot the messager we can always put that out there uh councilman Gonzalez we are talking about hot spots and going to hot spots but what we're doing I suppose is transferring the hot spot to another area that is less light or less lit ER so I believe that it's important that we do the what I said at the beginning we have let's say we're what we're doing is moving the the let's say the the crime areas to some other areas because now we have more light in this in this side so why not do a story of the city where let's say where crime is prone to happen and not where it's happening uh and upgrade the lighting in all those areas because what we're doing now is moving the crime from one side of the of the city to another toly noted councilman Gonzalez what I would ask Gary um is that I I don't know how long it would take you know you um to get it together with the team um but if you can prepare a proposal budget of what it would take for us to upgrade all of the city lights to LED because we hear we keep hearing that I mean most Council people have said it we are in approach of budget season Mr ba whenever we could get the budget um but you know it would be good time if you can pull that together for us and that's something for this Council um to consider during the budget season um if that's something we would like to do if we want to look at that this Council has the authority to do that of course in collaboration with with our Administration but I think the sooner you can get that to us the better as we are just begging our ba over here for our budget so that we can take a look to see what pennies we can squeeze out and what we can do regarding Lighting in the city ail said what tomorrow may I mean I heard April for the budget but you know it's already May so you know Mr ba we just waiting maybe it's gonna come at by the end of today councilman Gonzalez I hope um but at that rate any last comments or questions for Gary okay cing n thank you so much Mr Williams we appreciate you thank you Miss P for coming out today we appreciate uh the information and I I think the council is you know prepared to you move forward as we continue to discuss Lighting in the city so thank you Madame clerk council president council members that concludes the presenters today thank you before we go into public comment um any remarks requests or concerns from Council Members before we have public comment yes councilman Council so uh one if if we can get an update uh from the uh director of Public Safety on how many tickets have been written or issued for the clears own ordinance we have an incident uh on uh Osborne uh and Shephard the other night uh in front of a bodega so we we continue to talk about the importance of ordinances and laws that we pass and the need for them to be enacted because uh most of these adults and individuals who other indiv folks are looking for are standing right in front of these bodegas convenience stores and variety stores and they're causing folks great harm when we have a law in place uh that states that they should not be in front of these places 10 to 20 feet and uh you know we really should take this in consideration I know a lot of people you know believe that this is some kind of joke about enforcement uh but at some point uh we we really need to begin to hone in on what's Happening toly noted councilman Council let's definitely make that request to the Department of Public Safety uh councilman Kelly I just want to add on to what councilman Council said um not only find out how many tickets have been issued but find out where they have been issued like how many is South for how many in the North and the west and so on toly noted councilman Kelly uh to add on to that request anything else from Council Members councilman Silva uh yes I don't know if you want to do this now or later I requested that B7 uh someone from B17 be up here today Mr ba I requested somebody from B7 to be here today are they here today okay yeah I mean you can definitely just I mean we can still send a letter and request so my my request was that um the East W again I only speak for the East Ward uh are being overrun with vendors I went downstairs last week person personally myself I left my personal cell phone number down there and my office number and that was Thursday till today I'm still to receive a phone call an email anything from B7 my question to them and I'd like to get an answer for this do we do any F when somebody comes down to B7 and requests a permit uh I'd like to know what are the requirements what are we asking them uh and is is there any followup and what I mean is that I had an individual with an open flame on a public sidewalk where kids where seniors where people used to exercise and walk around and literally an open flame with a large barbecue and I sent NPD there and the individual had a permit given out by B7 now are we asking these people what they're going to do with that permit are we is that part of the application process do we go back out there and say Michael Silva is getting a permit to sell fruit on the corner of Lafayette and Niagara or Lafayette and Ferry and now I go there and he's selling meat do we do we follow up with things like this because uh tomorrow ends is a critical day in the East Ward uh an ordinance that councilman Ramos and I passed it uh last year in February that he uh supported and I SP I sponsored it with him uh in business Improvement districts and what happens is that's not even the worst part someone's taking advantage of these people and we need to find out who they are we have people out there in shopping carts we have people out there selling soup uh on 85 Degree Days on street corners we have people with machetes out there cutting up fruit I mean I I I I can't even explain to you how bad this has gotten and I'm assuming that uh it's probably going to get worse as the weather gets better uh but I need I need B7 to at least uh let me know what the process is and what the followup is with these people because if you go down Ferry Street on on a week forget about a weekday on a weekend there's 2030 vendors out there there's 2030 if you're a business owner and you're doing the right thing meaning that you're paying your taxes you're paying your payroll taxes you're paying rent or if you're own the building you're paying you know what needs to be done and you're doing the right thing and the guy in the corner is competing with you selling fruit and vegetables I mean we have to stand up for those people and what these what's going on in B7 is they're just filling out forms and filling out applications and approving them without really looking in depth to what's going on so uh I'm sad to see that not here again I went down there personally myself Thursday I left all my information and today's Tuesday and still no answer okay Mr ba yes council president uh through you to councilman Silva uh couple of things I went down to B7 myself after U communicating with you and didn't have the best experience either so I fully understand that there are some issues that have to be addressed one I went down there at 3:40 and it was closed or the door was locked it wasn't closed but the door was locked so I've instructed them to keep the doors open at least until 4:30 um so that we could accommodate residents with respect to uh your question about how the application is taken B7 um response to the application as it's written so if somebody writes something on the application they look at it if it meets the criteria they issue an appropriate license to your question about followup um there is supposed to be systematic followup by code enforcement with respect to uh whether or not the licenses are being used properly but with everything else they're they're short staffed so they will get there um uh much more likely if there's a complaint from you or somebody else directing them to a particular location and we'll follow up on that I am surprised that nobody reached out to you because I spoke with that office and its leadership and was told that somebody's G to reach out to you yesterday in fact I was told that somebody did reach out to you um the person that you were asking for they told me that they spoke with your staff and that they explained the circumstances the right now that office is uh renewing licenses so they're up on Mount Prospect um and are that's one reasons why they're not here today I also spoke with um U the council staff to let them know that I would make them available for the next special meeting and that they would come to the next special meeting I was advised that that would be the best place for for them to come I'll follow up I was told again that the U leadership of that office was going to reach out to you by yesterday afternoon I'm surprised to hear that didn't happen I apologize and I'll follow up on that personally and see what happens okay counil you have another followup yeah I have another but it's okay go ahead let's finish with your followup that's fine so this this one this this one I get hit with every day no matter what I do uh coffee in the morning lunch in the afternoon I'm out and about doing my personal business I get hit with the crumbling streets that we have in our city and again I speak for the East Ward if anybody else wants to speak for their Ward every ward has its own issues right now it's my crumbling streets I think we need we we've reached a crisis here I'm I'm going to request and if it's possible that we uh engineering does a great job on a lot of things I don't want to uh just pick on on the street uh the conditions of the street they do other aspects they've doing an amazing job for the resources and the amount of people they have but um I think we've reached a crisis right so I have them coming out and putting something in a pothole that in two weeks we're back at the same situation again uh my request and again we passed legislation here and maybe things have to change maybe we have to look into the budget when it comes out that this today or next week or whatever and more money is allocated in the next years to fix our streets because I mean I know you see it because you you drive down the streets in the East waren I see it every day I hear it every day um I think uh I I've seen again new at this I've seen emergency contracts go through I might think that it's time for a third party to come in and we do some type of emergency contract to fix the streets um whether it's in East Ward whether it's Citywide whatever it may be uh I have an airport I have a sea port I have big train station where people come in and travel every day I got trucks and tractor trailers coming off highways and my streets are just in a crisis mode they are crumbling as we speak there's no street that you can go down that doesn't have an issue could it be the water pipes could it be other things that created this as well and added to it yes I agree but to keep fixing one hole at a time here and there is not the answer we need to get people who know what they're doing and it's not uh dpw's fault um they're sending out what they have but we need people companies that know what they're doing to fix these streets because this cannot continue the way it is um you go to other towns and they've started their street Paving programs you'll see it when you drive through other towns tomorrow's May 1st yesterday was 85 de you know people listen my constituents listen to when people come up to the microphone and speak whether it's the head of engineering whether it's the head of another department and then we take that information with us we trust in you we take that information with us whether it's the garbage cans whether it's brand new garbage trucks whether it's something else we take that and we pass that along to them because we trust what you're saying and all along we've been hearing the street Paving program the street going to start pick these streets pick those streets and nothing gets done that's it I can go on but it's not you know thank you councilman Silva Mr ba do you have a comment before we move on to other questions I I do actually Paving is going on and uh to your point uh Paving through engineering is the responsibility of the entire city not just the East Ward and I do understand that that's your concern um you know the entire city is my concern and we are working on on it there are issues in every Ward no question about it first street by 280 is horrendous I drive down there that's been put on a list to be taken care of um this Paving season um there's Paving going on on Central Avenue right now off of Sussex Avenue um in other areas in the city the paving has started the requests to council to identify streets has gone out but if you reest the street I'll be honest it doesn't mean it'll get done it means that it will be put on the list and then will have to have an assessment by engineering as to how they will be prioritized given our budget you mentioned the budget the budget is a concern um I had hoped to have that budget to you by now but just yesterday we got the um uh the new budget information from the county and it's going to be an additional cost to the city with respect to our decreased ratio so now we know what that is I'm having a meeting with our budget director today at 3:30 and hopefully that'll help move this uh this forward I suspect that the budget for Street Paving is not going to be up to what you want it to be but as the council president indicated once we get that budget to you you have it's your budget and uh you can make uh uh changes to the budget at that time uh I don't mean to um undermine your concerns they are valid what I will say is anything I say at this microphone when I say it I expect it to be true I expect that you can rely on it um I expected when my director say something to you that you can rely on that as well and when you can't I address that as well and I will continue to do so um and I'm not going to give you misinformation I will give you the information that I have and I'm unfortunately sometimes more blunt probably than I should be um but I want you to be able to rely on what I say and even if you don't like it I want you to uh believe that it's true and I'll continue to work toward that and make sure that that's the that that is the case when I leave this meeting today I will follow up with engineering um to see where we are with the paving to address the concerns that you have I met with him yesterday one of the topics that we dealt with obviously was Paving and I'm assured that we are moving forward with the resources we have to address the concerns from all the council members councilman Remos yeah thank you Madame President um going back to you know M uh councilman Silva bought up a lot of good points um few years ago we we missed the opportunity to do Paving because there was a mishap in how you know the city bided out the contract so as a result of that you know every year we vote on approving uh Grant applications to to the state that identifies X number of streets that are to be paved so the north ward has a list of streets Central Ward South Ward um what's the status of those projects those projects are not tied to this year's budget those projects were identified some years ago as part of the Grant application we're supposed to conduct Paving as a result of that application and I remember that a few years ago since we fell behind that one year you were supposed to double up the number of streets that were to be paved in subsequent years so you know to to councilman Silva's Point like here we are in May you know you see Paving activity and other towns um can we at least get an idea of what's supposed to be paved this year connected to those grants and when do we expect that Paving activity to happen and can we get noticed by Ward so that we can inform residents that you know this street that was listed three years ago is finally going to get paved uh in 20124 you know and I just have a few questions about the vendor stuff but I don't know if you can shed some on the paving plan connected to those grants yes and Ros through council president I have assistant director raunda conpon who can address those questions better than I and it's tied to the municipal Aid grants uh that we get from the state for Paving and I'll turn it over to uh assistant director concepion so I just want I I want to be clear because I I'm not going to run through a list here um because I asked for for list on behalf of this Council two meetings in a row so I'm not going to sit here on my time to hear a list here I ask for a list for all of the council members and I know folks remember because I did and I asked for it twice for this Council to receive an email po per ward of the paving projects happening in the city when they would begin in addition to ones happening underneath water and what psng is supposed to pay for us to this day today three weeks later we do not have a list so I think it you know we can keep coming up here but the bottom line is we need the list like we don't want to come up here and hear the same thing when is you know you for you to run it down it would be helpful if we just get the information we ask for two times multiple times like so just tell us when the list is coming I mean when director Aden was here he talked about his section I know he only has one portion but he told us we would get it about whatever day that was when he was working on his list but we need a combined list from those three Paving things that are happening so that we know when it's going to happen and when is it predicted to happen director good morning council president council members in terms of the originally requested list um originally we provided a list of the three streets that we were Paving previously that was provided that was uh Avenue P mlen and the Remis that was the project that are currently ongoing that going to get paid uh in response to cons rimos um the ma uh projects uh the 2022 application that we put in um there's a delay on the dot aspect on approving the project hopefully once we get it approved this year we're going to start that those Paving streets um to get done in addition for the ma23 project also we hopefully to get a approval from the dot by the end of the year and once we get those approval those streets are going to start Paving in the 2025 year so some of this Ma we're waiting for the so the dot to give us the approval so this the state DOT yes is it so usually when we reached out Eric to anyone in the like Essex delegation or the governor's office to help because you know based on what the assistant director is saying the the the only Paving activity that we can expect is connected to those streets that were identified in the 22 application for this year because he's saying that the 23 would be at the end of of of this year which means 25 you know in nor spe that's on the project so just to clarify when when to your point for the grants typically in a hypothetical I'm not no given year when we apply for the grant on a particular year usually that process from the moment of Grant application Street selection by the the governing body and then once we have the the streets and we put it in usually by the time it starts it's a two-year period that's really the on the Grant application we're currently working and coordinating with the administration from a Citywide uh working with our operating budget to do some Paving on our street as well which we're putting that together as we speak and we'll share that as well and to president mcgyver we're collaborating with the other department so that we can render that combined list of the streets per the last meeting request so that we could share with you as well from the ones that we're putting together late y'all y'all are late with the information like I'mma just leave it at that we wouldn't even be having this discussion if you send the list like this is like not not specifically you I'm not putting it on you but have asked numerous times we would not be here if you just send the list or at least update the council via writing about it like it makes no sense to have to keep on asking for a list like every other town is started like they sent the list they've already met with all of the different departments talked about the paving swap streets with psng water all of those things are happening in other towns and y'all sitting here talking about you trying to pull together a list like we need a list and we wouldn't be going through this right now if we just get the list like to understand the grants all of that like all we we understand the different programs that's what I talked about just a couple of weeks ago they're different programs like if we could get the list that would help us and we wouldn't you would have to continue to hear the same old things if we could at least get to get the list and understand that like I just I don't understand like it's it's like super easy like just get us a list I mean just get us a list like that's what we need because still everything you just said is not helpful to any of us because we still don't have a list we still can't tell residents like hey you know this is getting paved or this not getting paid but for me I know I like to be transparent just like any other council member you don't want to have residents believing that things are going to be getting done or just because they gave you the request you put it on the list they thinking it's going to happen before the summer is over or Paving season is over like we want to be able to deliver that so we can say yay or nay and they don't have to keep calling to have the expectation hey when is my street going to get this X Y and Z so at the end of day like we just need the list like it's that's it's really that simple the list hopefully people not here today they maybe they working on the list I don't know but we need the list that's it that's it the list for us Council councilman Ramos yeah in addition to the list though did you guys bid out these projects and have vendors lined up to do the actual Paving like that was a problem a few years ago where the city failed to bid this out properly and for that year there was no Paving or limited Paving do we have a vendor queued up to do the paving before we go out to bid C I'm in Ramos we have to first have the approval from do the moment we get the approval is when we have to go out to to bid because of the grant because of the grants and for those for the grants yeah okay so that's another month and a half two months before you can execute a contract correct um just a followup and and appec I always appreciate your your feedback assistant director you're very helpful um the with the with the Peddler vendor licenses and and besides the ones that are receiving approval from that office to to actually go out and and vend we're seeing and it's just not unique to New York I mean New York City's struggling with this right now it it's it's it's a a plethora of of vendors now in County parks along uh the other day when I was a council M kintana at the St Michaels uh procession U you have people selling fruits and I guarantee you a lot of these vendors are not licensed by the city so what what's the plan to address that because you have people like like councilman Silva said you know selling soup you know like 90 degree weather that's going to be a problem uh you have people selling fruits um it's just like a lot of quality of life stuff that's that's you know really impacting residents from the Pres you know four-wheelers um mopeds on city streets Peddlers all over the place you know we we extended the hours for the barber shops and at call Council mcana we we had a one barber shop on Bloomfield Avenue and Fourth Street on you could hear the music a half a mile away at 10 o'clock at night you know it's it's it's just a lot of things that you know they don't show up in the stats but the average resident is frustrated because they see things out of control a little bit so in terms of the vendors um we are working with um the New York Police Department with code enforcement specifically just this morning we have a conversation via email about uh tackling Ferry for example in the central War for instance when we have issues with the potential Center that has event the PED comes in we know those schedules so we work to schedule our corner forance to go out there and move the vendors out and we address those as well if we're having issues in the north war and if we hear it from the west or in the South we will gladly you know put a plan together to have code informance to also go out there and assist but we have worked with conman C I mean as he's aware we uh we did it with um pet Francisco Park where we had a an ongoing weekend activity earlies in the mornings on the weekend with CT en for to try to get the vendor if fit in my understanding that to this point we haven't had seen any other the issues and again like I stated earlier just this morning we just having communication with the nework police department requesting our assistant for court enforcement to walk down Ferry Street to deal with these vendors that don't have any license that are not supposed to be there and tackling so if we having these issues as well please I I open the request from the west and also from the south so we can also address those locations as well Council woman Sky Brown tree thank you council president um five minutes ago I had a question and I think some some people have already asked that question but in regards to the vendors that councilman Silva speaking about uh the um process does include also the health department when they're doing food because they must have a food handlers license yes so when code enforcement goes out to these different vendors um if they have a food handler's license and they have a permit that should all be on the first application that they're going to be handling food and they should be directed to go to the health department I think somewhere what he's saying about flames and and grills and all of this being on those streets is the process being followed from B17 and I know that they're going to be making a presentation but the health department has to be involved with food no matter who's doing it so how do we follow up as he stated on that and that's a question I think that think you asked for them to come before you council president D7 yeah oh no I didn't ask that I mean that's that councilman Silva brought that up today about them coming before us I mean at the end of the day I mean we how are we enforcing I mean we we could all take a ride out I mean I mean we could I literally I will take every body on here everybody in here you know let me borrow a city van and take us around and there's multiple vendors out I mean up and down I mean you could talk about Fairy Street we could talk about Central Avenue from the West to the broad I mean every I mean literally just take a right a right right here on Broad Street and walk down take you a nice you know Sunny walk down to Broad and Market and it's multiple you know vendors I mean so I just think it's a Citywide plan every Ward is tackling the same issue like every ward has the same issue with vendors that are out that do not have licensing um but it's like councilman Ramos was saying this it might be an Enforcement issue altoe because as we talk about different stores barber shops councilman Council talked about clear Zone like it's just a bunch of quality of life issues that I think like you know we can beat the dead horse on but there's an issue you know in regards to it to all of this so something just needs to be done I don't I we can come here and get a pretty presentation but sometimes I'm just always worrying about how does that pour out to the actual process to the streets of things actually happening um so you know that's that but we can definitely have them come here and you know sing to y'all you know that's what you like but for me it's more so let's get outside um and you know tackle this it might be even helpful to see like maybe the business department can send us a list of vendor license that have been issued you know help us with that information um you know kind of give us a report on those that have been violated or given a ticket or whatever the case might be maybe information like that would be helpful uh for you know Council people and it's all of the Departments connected rather it's health for food handling you know a license a vendor license itself that might be helpful for council members to take a look at as well okay councilman Quintana yeah in terms of the potholes you know again the they'll foill them right now and when you're filling potholes and the temperature gets hot and cars run by them they're going to just come out there has to be something that will you know we have to do these more earlier than later because that the problem with with tar and anything when heat hits it it melts starts melting it when a car passes through it comes out it happened on M Prospect they did a pothole an hour later the stuff was almost out the the crater was still there you know the hole on the street the other thing is in terms of the vendors that are coming there's people that are bringing people here to Newark and I want to put this at uh councilman Silva there's people coming out of in trucks and vans and they locate these four individuals with mangoes oranges bananas I mean it's like a Fruit Stand and right by uh Penn Station uh there is under the The Pen Station there is a um Market there's a person selling their mangoes oranges and socks I don't even know what else is selling but again we we have to be I know mayor Adams and as councilman uh R was talkinging about in New York he tried to deal with this whole issue because they would if you we continue to allow it it's going to get bigger and bigger these individuals are not from here these are not citizens that live in our city these people are bought here and by vendors who are bring some someone who has a truck brings them in and says here you this is your stand Co coconuts right here you know we got coconuts we have all kinds of other things and and again it's uh it's hard man to see that because then then they're doing it where the folks that are coming to Peter Francisco Park they're feeding the folks and then these people are selling on top of the sidewalk or you know they just don't no permits or whatever no license and just come and do whatever they want to do so again on the other note um I met with the Pentecostal clergy on Saturday emergency because they at an emergency uh the permits they come for a permit to to to preach apparently uh they're saying that they're being harassed when they don't have the permit Madam clerk I spoke to Mr Herman Elma Herman if we can together with the law Department in terms of the permit for for for the clergy that we should make it seasonal because they have to come every two weeks to get a permit to preach so just like in a baseball a little leagues that you know you got you go to the field you get a seasonal uh uh uh permit that we do seasonal for those that are preaching uh on our street but they were two two two reverends gave me the information they were removed by the police because the the permit had expired so we need to they Hey listen we talk about curfew we talk we need these people are helping us changing lives around you know preaching and and and we're saying look we're going to you don't have your permit you got to move from here and again we should make it a seasonal a seasonal permit where it it starts from uh March 1st to September the 30th I don't see a problem with us giveing a permit for people who are trying to help us who are you know who are preaching out there the word of the Lord and I know there separation is church to state but there's not separation of us on understanding that people are trying to help us too so if we could entertain that um and look into it Mr ba uh because again these folks uh I met with them and we're going to meet with them uh they have invited the council to a meeting with the police chief uh so we could talk about the issues that are affecting them uh as they you know they're out there um and again this about I met with about 30 of them uh it was an they call for an emergency meeting and it was Saturday uh and it was just off I went there after the Little League opening and and I I spoke to them I said look we we're here to help you so again if we could look into that appreciate itk you Council MC Gonzales if I can follow up on that it's a they have a First Amendment right to be on the street and preach so I don't I don't see how they can be let's say told not to not to to do it because if they go to the street to the corner and they start preaching they have a First Amendment right to do that so I don't know why the police is involved there a permit process councilman but there is there is no need for a permit if you have the right by the Constitution of the United States to preach in the corners the the permit has been for years you know I mean if we're going to cancel that we cancel but there is an issue that there's a permit and it the permit gives you two weeks what I'm saying make the permit from September I mean from from March 1st to September the 30th Council woman scy I don't know who these 30 pastors are normally when they call our office to the mayor's office or even when they call me because I meet with the clergy so I'm not sure if this is Frank Martinez's group when you said 30 Mar yeah because he's the only one that would have that that and the truth is the permit gives us some type of control over the use of just being in the street because if we open it up to the whole faith-based Community everyone will have their churches on the streets which is not a I'm not saying it's a bad idea just like I don't think it's a bad idea for entrepreneurs to have to be vendors as long as they're following the rules um they put in the dates of all the dates they're going to be on the street on that permit and that permit is approved so they don't have to come back every two weeks if they want to be there for two months then they include that on the permit and that's included in the letter down in the office of Licensing or wherever the permits her through um I don't know if Miss Jordan now or whoever but they come back and they say we got our permit to be on the corner because it's still a city street it's not you know so yes they have a right to do that but because of this ordinance that's in place they just need to include all of the dates so when the police do come they can say we're supposed to be here not just one week if they know they're going to be there for six weeks and that gives the city a record of these people being on the sidewalk no one would ever I believe no one in the city or the council wants to stop the word from coming forward in the the ministry of helping people there's got to be some order because once you say you can go out there every week then we'll have the churches have to they do that they block off whole blocks they come and ask me for permits to close down three blocks and I have to call uh Mr Bennett or call the ba and get them involved to get the approval because that part so just have them include all of the dates I understand it but the what I'm saying is if they could do all those dates they still have to get a permit right so let them do get a permit with all the dates that they're going to be out on what street and what location I agree but in the existing ordinance it does not say listen we have had an issue with this ordinance years one on this Council we had to take a permit that the police department at one time because there was a previous administration that did not believe that they were going to issue the permit and then it became a property of the city clerk to issue the permits because of the issues are similar so again if we could do and I take your suggestion if we could do a seasonal where you you know seasonal means that I'm going to do March April May June August and September and may they may not be doing them all but just if we could entertain that I gave it to Elmer Herman if Elmer and uh the business administrator can look into it can we um can we just look into the matter if they even need a permit with our legal department and Elmer as the councilman Gonzalez said it's a freedom of speech we have the Five Percenters and different groups all around the city who is right across the street from the Metro you know doing everything every day um if we can look into if they even require permit and then get back to this Council and writing and if they do require a permit can we look into the seasonal matter that the councilman Quintana has mentioned um in response to this Council and writing if that would be good so we can move on from this topic is that okay and Madam clerk if can send a letter a reminder for them as well thank you councilman Gonzalez oh thank you madam president I believe that's a that's the route to follow I believe that we have to find out if the ordinance that we have is constitutional or not it's say you are interfering with the right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States fly noted councilman Gonzalez anything from councilman Council or councilman Kelly seeing none another here councilman Sil I just wanted to uh finish off on the um on the paving so you mentioned three streets that aren't even residential right Avenue a you said Avenue P what are the three streets mlen I think was one of them uh that are being mlen yeah Avenue P and theis those those are project three nonr residential streets right I understand you understand so our Focus here is on our residents our constituents I'm not saying that we don't have to take care of those industrial areas or those business business corridors or whatever we do but again our priority at the same time and a little more is our residents who I think deserve a little better the second thing I wanted to mention was Council Ramos mentioned to you about um about uh getting someone to pave the streets a contractor whatever so we're waiting right we have the contractor we're waiting for him to start okay uh meantime that contractor picks up another job in another town between the time he's given the you know uh assured the job here or whatever it may be to the time he starts what happens then that contractor ends up going to work somewhere else because Newark is still debating on who the you know cman Silva we we have not picked up a contract that year we don't award until we don't have approval from dot on the ma projects my and my last my last comment is this is it I sat down with the dot commissioner who is now the chief St after Governor Murphy several months ago and she had told me uh thator leaves a lot of money on the table to pave our streets either the application's not submitted correctly the application's not submitted on time and that money now goes to other municipa other towns who do submit those things on time so could be something that we're doing wrong that we need to look at maybe the city and Engineering or whatever there's some blame to go around here because to tell me that my next Street's only going to get paved in 2025 that's not acceptable to me and it shouldn't be acceptable to anyone up here that's it I'm sorry that's okay councilman Silva thank you uh any other comments no okay thank you public comments now Madam clerk certainly we are now in the 30 minute public comment of this meeting where each speaker will have 3 minutes to speak please state your name for our records is there anyone wishing to address the council good morning good morning asalam alaikum uh alif Muhammad Court Towers ex commissioner of the House of Authority and like Muslims say may Allah Grant you Heaven Louise I mean okay I'm here uh we got a report and the report is what I want to explain to you real quick is that when you go into trouble status they sent out HUD sent out from Washington DC 10 people and they did a report and this is the report I'm not gonna give you this report right now I'm going to leave it to your colleague that's on there to give you the report I'm just putting out a piece of paper but I will give it to you and if it's not given out but I'm leaving it I'm respecting Pat in the in the I want to name something with handn it came up with a conflict of interest interest and in the conflict it said Norma had a conflict Norman Gonzalez and Pat counsel now I'm surprised about Pat and the reason why I'm surprised about Pat is because in the New Jersey statue it allow uh a city work or a city polit politician to be in but you know HUD is federal so it supersedes am I right Gonzalez it supersedes the uh whatever the state is now it says about the conflict now I want to read this slowly it says the another commission is say about the nor field office in NH was informed by the of the conflicts of interest and asked some appropriate steps but it say another concern I'm going to the paragraph is inappropriate interfering with day-to- data operation of the need Pat Council had nothing to do with that he never did that that's Norman Gonzalez uh board making direct referrals the contractors Pat Council never did this Norman Gonzalez now if Pat and Pat gonna do the right thing I pray if Pat don't if this report once you see this report if he gives it to you when you see this report if Pat don't put spice out there it's receivership and let me explain to receivership is they come in they remove the Ed they come in they move the council and HUD becomes the Ed and the council you can read more about it and stuff like that but I remember the first meeting that I had with the federal authorities and I we was talking at my office and I said Norman galz and the first thing they said she works for invest no so they on her already what I'm telling y'all which I done told certain people here already Norman Gonzalez has a criminal investigation against her I asked the oig to let me go at him I didn't ask the other agency I'm not gonna say their name because I'm not allowed to I asked the oig let me go out her because when she became Che I couldn't hold a line they said no Muhammed it's a criminal investigations watch out for conflicts I don't have a fiary responsibility no more I can say what I want to say asalam alaikum let me go to work thank you Mr Muhammad uh councilman councel yeah Madam Madam chair I you know F first of all there was a a report that that came out uh many of this body uh is aware uh was one of the reasons why uh we moved expeditiously uh to change the executive director uh of the organization uh at Housing Authority uh to ensure that the systems and structures and the movement of Housing Authority was going in the right direction uh which is important uh and so because of that um when you do go through these things it is correct that um when you're in troubled status that a report is issue um internally uh to discuss some of the same issues uh that was related what was uh kind of odd and strange was this issue of conflict of of interests as uh Mr Muhammad uh just pointed out uh because title 40a uh-12 a17 does talk about the creation of Housing Authority and does give the authority to say that no more than one member of a Housing Authority uh May an officer or employee of the municipality or the county by which the authority is created and so sometimes when you have individuals who write these reports who are not from this area uh they tend to lean to what is happening where they are instead of doing the investigation of where they are currently the Federal Register part three Department of Housing and Urban Development 24 CRF part 964 that speaks about public housing agency and organizations required residency membership on board of directors or similar governing body which is a Hut document states that there are a number of jurisdictions in which certain local elected officials may also act by virtue of these elected offices as members of the public housing governing board for example city council may also act as a local PHA governing board in cases like these when a person is elected to the city council they are also automatically elected to the PHA governing board so I just wanted to say that because uh even as we move you know through all of these things I wouldn't see uh where conflict of interest stand on this body uh and I wanted to share that with our colleagues or the administrators role and being able to select and choose uh someone from the council to uh as a commissioner on the Housing Authority what I do uh believe is that the individual that did the report did not do their due diligence looking at New Jersey's law uh and as it relates to uh the Federal Register of what the department of of Hud uh inquired I do believe that we are moving in the right direction down at Housing Authority there's still a lot of work uh to be done I'm not going to get into the weeds uh about uh commissioner did what or who said what or who spoke to uh employees but I do believe that we have to you know ensure uh as the Housing Authority is a different governmental agency uh from the city of Newark so as the nework Board of Education uh that uh folks are held uh accountable to making sure that systems and structures are in place and that people who are uh acence to do the jobs that they have set forth are doing that work and making sure that the work work is getting done for the benefit of the residents of the city uh specifically when it comes to uh New York housing authority and so you know our hope uh is that as they you know move forward and lend back and provide whatever recommendations uh is needed that housing authority continues to grow and wrap itself around some of the challenges uh that it has had uh dealing with some of these uh issues you know and so I just wanted to bring that up because it's it's still quite ironic that you know the same uh person that is no longer serving as the Housing Authority director is down in Atlantic City hosting and doing clinics and classes to Housing Authority members and many of them are probably from the city of nework who are sitting in these classes so uh it it it leaves a lot to desire even with HUD understanding their own protocols and procedures as it relates to this but I believe that our job um you know as a representative of this body and this Council and based on what title 40 uh says about municipalities and counties uh in the creation of Housing Authority is to make sure that we approved it and all that we're doing to provide the best Services uh for the residents in this city thank you thank you councilman Council any follow-ups from Council Members seeing none next [Music] speaker okay seeing no other speakers um that concludes today's special meeting um I'm sure all minds and hearts are clear so with that being said have a wonderful day e e