##VIDEO ID:a_0buf1GDZs## e e e e e e e e e e e e e good morning welcome to the special meeting conference of the Newark Municipal Council on Tuesday January 14th 2025 in accordance with New Jersey Law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to The Star Ledger the Jersey journal and the public at large establishing the date time and location of this meeting in addition the agenda for this meeting was disseminated on January 10th 2025 at the time of preparation and posted on the website of the city of newc roll call please present present here president here president council president council members we are on page four of the agenda 7r1 a s through 7 r1b s are emergency appropriation temporary emergency Appropriations A is for the housing opportunities for persons with AIDS and B is the emergency Solutions Grant Council as a whole to adopt a and b roll call Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly absent kintana yes Ramos absent Scott Round Tree yes Sila yes president Crump yes 7r2 a s through 7r2 b are all for on Call environmental Consulting Council as a whole to adopt my apologies 7r2 a through 7r2 CS roll call Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly absent Pana yes Ramos absent Scott rry yes Sila yes president Crump yes Madam clerk that was through CS or through DS I forgot to include D my apologies 7r2 C and D are all planning consulting services for economic and Housing Development councils a hold to adopt C and D even though we did A and B okay roll call Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly absent kintana yes Ramos absent Scott rry yes Silva yes president Crump yes seminar 3 A and 7r3 B 7r3 A and 7r3 Bs are both regarding Professional Services contract and Engineering a is to provide Engineering Services to prepare design documents bid documents and handle construction management for the renovation of the new NK dropin resource center and B is to resend the professional service contract award to drg Architects council's a hold to adopt a and b roll call Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly can I come back to that uh I didn't hear it just walked in my apologies you can come back to me mam CL okay Gonzalez yes Ros absent you uh you skip canana oh I'm sorry kintana I'm sorry yes we look Alik sorry sorry hey hey Ramos absent Scott rry yes Sila yes president Crump yes Kelly yes okay we're at the final voting items beginning on page eight 7 R6 as through 7R 6is are all Professional Services contracts for the Law Department regarding litigation defense Council as a whole to adopt a through I roll call Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos absent Scott rry yes Silva yes president Crump yes yeah well before we go to public hearing I just want to wish our councilman from the west ward a happy birthday today beat me to it congratulations you know every day every year is a beautiful thing that you go another year and you're like me a old man with a young kid now so yes congratulations a happy birthday thank you one Mr chair yes coun in response to uh uh 7r3 as the uh design of the droing center can can we get uh some more information about um the abatement process when it's going to be up um when we look to begin to uh have resources and uh a Active Center in place uh it was it was you know my assumption that when we first went into this that the uh individuals that we were renting or leasing the building from was going to handle the design and construction and that we would be able to you know be up and running with this um Drop in Center at some point last year so I don't know where we are and where where the expectations of where we going to be moving forward we get somebody here right now you want to get something in writing later but I believe uh all right count director right good morning good morning council president council members Lewis uh director office of Home and Services uh the the the the space was actually purchased last year um is a brand new 8,000 square feet space that the mayor is designated for a new 247 uh drop in and Resource Center uh that's going to focus on unsheltered population but we'll provide services to our city uh in in general uh so there was a delay unfortunately we had a design firm that was on board last year um they uh eventually you know dropped out because they could not agree to the terms of the contract um and uh you know something that was really out of our control we were set in moving forward we had design meetings with the community uh but they unfortunately decided to not move forward so we had to then you know choose the next uh firm that you know responded to the RFP which is the the one that's before you uh we had conversations with this firm and they are excited and ready to move this forward uh to your point the timeline is aggressive uh we are starting the design phase this month uh and the goal is to open this uh Center by the end of the year thank you director anything else councilman you you wouldn't have this the expectations is by the end of the year right I'm saying putting out there in the public yeah put the person on us um the it's a it's a Redevelopment so we're not building this from the ground up uh we did a lot of due diligence reports it is a matter of changing the new systems and of course renovating the space uh which we feel you know it you know can happen uh this year councilman Council the design layout is going to be similar to what was had by the the previous architect or is there going to be a new design layout and if so is there going to be conversation with the community about this new design layout what that plan looks like yeah to to your point uh we you know the first design you know was informed by by the resident so we're we're going to try not to steer away completely from it uh we we did as uh you know engage the community spoke to our stakeholders uh and we do like the design of the for plan that was proposed and we're going to try to stay as closely as we can to that design moving forward thank you councilman Gonzalez I have a more or less a comment word for the director of engineering more than Mr lario good morning good morning the other day you presented us with the I de started to contract with the inspector and I was thinking they say there are inspectors around us that might not have the same amount of work that we have let's say towns like Belleville Bloomfield Harrison East Orange Irvington that may have a available inspectors that we can contract with if we had a let's say a sharing agreement with those with those H towns so I don't know if you have investigated or at least a say think thought of Contracting with this neighbor neighbor town so that they we can use their inspectors instead of having to to a contract with private companies to do it um good morning Dolores Martinez wood and director of department of engineering um thank you uh councilman Gonzalez I will take that into consideration as you see um the item is not in the agenda because we are putting together more information for the council and you'll see it in the next agenda and um this will be part of what we address okay thank you okay thank you anything else from the council public we are now in the 30 minute public comment portion of this meeting where each speaker will have three minutes to speak if you have an issue to address the council please step to the podium good morning morning George Tillman um council president as you know um I've been coming to this mic for quite some time and throughout that time I've not disrespected or called anyone out of their name even though we've differed in me coming to this mic I've not called anyone a criminal I've not called anyone corrupt I've not done any of those things I'm going to ask going forward because what I do when I come to this mic I don't consider myself a complainer but several times I've been addressed by people of the ministration or this Council as a person that's coming here complaining and I've not addressed any of you outside of what your title is only thing when I come to this mic I come to this mic and I bring the issues of social justice and when I come to this mic I ask my representatives to ask the administration to correct the things that are incorrect those things have not been corrected since I've been coming to this mic almost two years and I'm going to continue to come to this mic until those things are corrected again we had a special meeting I ask that n works the deputy mayor come to this mic and give a plan of action as to how they going to get n residents to work knowing that the administration is non compliant with our Municipal laws I've also asked that the administration come and present to us what is the action plan to address the affirmative action review Council that is to Monitor and enforce that law none of that has been done so I'm asking again as a as a advocate of social justice this Administration come to a special conference or a meeting to explain what's going on with our state of affirmative action why is it that we're still giving out tax abatements when the administration is unable to supply the demand that they said that they would through new works there is a there is a a a serious need to recruit and get the the the talent and the workforce that we need in this city the administration had over 10 years to do that now we asking for accountability of all that has not been done for 10 years I'm entitled to that as a New York resident I'm entitled to that as someone who is affected by these these these things that aren't right in our community that's all I ask you council president thank you thank you for your comments next speaker Deborah suters um so this Drop in Center um the two Community meetings that were had uh the businesses said no they didn't want it there they gave every reason why along with psng and others um the mayor's answer to that was about the homeless and the unhoused being out there and the different things that were going on was well they're out there anyway so when you all say that you have Community meetings and you talk to the constituents and when the constituents tell you no you do it anyway because it's what you want to do and I've been watching it um you know they started cleaning it up and then nothing I mean there's nothing else more that they could really do with the design because of how the building is and this was before we purchased it um so what it is is what it is I mean what are they going to do build out into the street that's not going to happen I mean the building is what it is but when we say no you all look at us like it's gonna happen anyway so I don't care whether you say no or not so why do we need you why and someone stopped me several times on the streets and was like why is the city don't have no money and when you look at the agendas every year it's a temporary emergency appropriation before we have a budget that's why we never have any money because we're borrowing from what we don't have so what do you think is going to happen we're going to have to take bonds out for 22 million 220 million 10 million 110 million for bridges that were supposed to be a part of an initial uh you know plan in the first place to recover those funds it's like you cannot I mean the day used to be when you had a checkbook before everything became automated well I'mma postdate this check to get this done no you can't postdate the city's money emergency Appropriations all over the place and then when it when the budget's pass the money spent already it's the definition of insanity you all keep doing the same thing over and over you don't expect a different result but the residents do they better wake up and see that you all are just continuing to spin the hamster wheel when are you going to do something different good to see you dpri you missed several meetings uh before New Year's I did notice you were missing um but the people are not priority to you all and it's evident every single time time so I want you all nkers to reimagine n with a mayor who actually cares about the people and a council who actually works for you whose salary you pay thank you for your comments next speaker any other public speakers speaking from the Public Public Speaking is now closed and anything from the council anything from the administration I have something just for Mr Tillman uh the affirmative action review council is going to meet January 27th Monday at 5:00 pm and like the last time you're invited to attend if you can uh make it I know the last time we invited you but you had something else that you had to do but you're welcome to come Monday January 27th at 5: M and just for director L'Oreal director uh just a Qui quick question regarding the uh the D couple of things like I wanted to talk about uh councilman Council uh when you guys are designing the interior of the building what what is the what kind of amenities is the interior gonna have is gonna have showers is gonna have What's it gonna have beds yeah no no no beds okay it won't have any beds but yes it will have showers it will have a kitchen uh to serve food it have spaces for them to receive counseling uh meeting rooms to hold meetings there um I mean you name it so that's what you're talking about the interior design of the not the exterior the interior design of the building most of the design will be offices uh other things that will help us assist our people with that addresses that's correct okay let me follow up on that are you going to have dryers and and washers yes yes I'm sorry yes that we will ALS have that there okay I mean it's the idea is to provide really all the services under one space you know uh not just to pull them in so they can you know uh you know meet with counselors and case managers but also to meet their basic needs right that they are struggling right now to to uh to to request so thank you anything else we move to adjourn Council yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ros absent Scott Brown tree yes Sila yes president Crum yes meetings adjourned and we're we're going to change the order of the presentations yes Madam clerk council president council members we' like to change the order of business for the special conference to begin with an up from the Department of Public Works Madam clerk I don't know what it is your mic seems kind of low I'm having trouble or is it just can you hear me now that's better better okay council president council members we'd like to change the order of business for the special conference to begin with an update from the Department of Public Works thank you oh good morning council president council members um good morning Tariq Rolan interim director for Department of Public Works um before I start talking about um our plans for the cleaniness and beautification of the city I just want to thank my team was here from DPW over the past couple months right they've been in the trenches grinding with us and we all know um what we've been up against as it pertains to recycling and refuge in the city uh before I talk about where we've been um or where we are where we want to be and how we get there I just want to address some of the issues and concerns that we've had over the past two months as it pertains to recycling of refuges um we got hit very hard I provided a report um for everyone here um as it pertains to recycling and refuge the week after Thanksgiving is the highest volume of tonage right just looking at um so we collected the data for 2023 uh the week after Thanksgiving and last year between recycling bulk and refuge we collected 3,8 80 tons this year we collected 3,350 tons the first four weeks we averaged uh as it pertains to refuges of November the first weeks of four weeks of November we averaged 1421 tons of refuges 487 tons of bul and 225 tons of recycling the fifth week of November this is right some of the things that we've been dealing with we picked up 2289 tons of refuges 741 tons of boat and 320 tons of recycling so we that last week of Thanksgiving we were actually doing two weeks with worth of work within one week um and dealing with you know uh we're collecting trash at night time gets colder Miss pickups a lot of things I just want to address that right and let the community know that these are some of the challenges that we were facing and you know our our the folks who pick up are actually human beings right and they've been giving us their all rain sleep hell snow um now I'll just jump into any questions before I move on so yeah let's let's let's let's talk about this for first for a moment um I'll speak first other council members can jump in so I you know you and I have talked about and let me let me first say I think this is one of the most it's one of the most important and also one of the most least un least understood departments and and I appreciate what you all do and I want to say that publicly because it's not easy to do that and it's and and the process is not a ninto five process it's it's a it's a it's a there's a spotlight on you because God knows if something goes wrong that you're blamed but you need to also know that we appreciate what you do because what you do right which is 90% of the time 95% of the time no one's perfect um and I wanted to say that first and foremost um I I don't know where and and and I'll say this this way I'm it's not a disconnect but there's certain pockets in the city that every time recycling day com and and you and I talked director it seems to get missed um and it I you know like clockwork my my phone goes off at about 11 12 o'clock to say my recycling wasn't picked up whether it's bottles and cans whether it's uh uh uh cardboard and I reach out to you and it gets addressed and I appreciate that but the question is do you have your supervisors or anyone else just do you have enough is the question too supervisors to go around just to to do spot checking to make sure that certain areas that we know are seem to be areas that whether they're Miss like Madison Avenue because because I and I assume and I could be wrong that the the trucks go across South 13th and then come back down South 12th and South 11th and they kind of Miss what's in between on matters in between South 12th South 11th South 14th in other streets maybe that's that's part of the issue they just miss that but do you have inspectors that go around and and or have enough inspectors to go around and just double check particularly those areas I know I'm gonna get a call about James Street I always get a call about James and Bernett I always get about uh uh but I just mentioned Madison Avenue and those yeah so I think that some of the things right um when we brought recycling in the house in April 20203 and I'll talk about more of this later recycling I when we planned earlier uh uh before right coming out of covid recycling isn't the way it was before due to how people shop with Amazon just looking at some of the numbers in 2022 um basso collected 10,525 tons in 2023 from April until December we collected 12,538 tons then 2024 we collected 12817 tons so we're working with the administration the mayor and ba are extremely supportive in understanding right that we need additional Manpower and Equipment because things are changing right and I think that we need to take the same model that we did with ovp and MPD right and addressing this issue right there's a direct correlation between cleanness and crime so we're working at it um and I'll dive into some of those things how we plan to move our scheduling right because we were pretty much building the plane and flying it at the same time right and learning and and trying to provide our residents the best quality of service yeah councilman Council yeah so even when you look at that correlation there is also a correlation of misp pickups uh the amount that people call out uh as it relates to the overage of of of trash in in the streets and communities and so even when we talk about uh the growth of of the city and preparing for that growth and how it looks garbage days are still garbage days recycling days are still recycling days and when we miss those days the people in the community still put their garbage out on garbage days so fundamentally I think we have to begin to look at because the South for is a mess right so fundamentally we have to begin to look at the systems that we have in place and every time there's movement a change over holistically just can't come in and bombard kind of systems because of situations and problems one the policy of the city uh says that a task day and the definition of a task Day is when every district is complete is that is that true yes right and so if I work from amm to 2: p.m. but I complete my specific area or what I consider a district at 9 a.m. and there are other districts that are still laying that are heavy individuals should not be leaving work at 9 to 10 a. because their specific areas are clean and we can't find them uh leaving other areas of the city still without trash because the definition of district is when the entire city city is clean is that correct yes absolutely right and so because of that we don't have any kind of measures in place of accountability to hold these people accountable especially when the council president talked about supervisors who are assigned to each specific District to ride these districts to make sure that they give a call in to the the the the main headquarters at Freeland High to say hey this district is complete this district is complete hence knowing that when all districts are done then the city is clean that is that that's correct absolutely okay so we're missing the breakdown between the supervisors who are supposed to be Manning and making sure that each one of these districts are complete before we give this all call to make sure that things are right then we have a situation of morale where individuals are being underpaid overpaid without any kind of you know situations that's going on that's kind of controlling because if I'm in a situation where I'm getting underpaid and and not getting paid on time I'm not going to come to work is that correct that's been happening then there's times where people are down there that are getting overpaid and have to turn back in what their payment is so that means there needs to be some kind of payroll audit put in place to make sure that we are working in in this kind of accordance so that people who are actually working and coming to work are rewarded for the work that they're doing and not the people that are coming out the system with street sweeping because it is also engaged in what is happening with Street pickups and cleanups hence having an adverse effect on ticketing from the police or parking authority working together in a collaborative manner because we all have to put these systems together is failing us as well uh because we argued that we need more tempos or bigger machines to get up the trash but there's still trash in the streets doing street sweeping because of training not the actual apparatus so I'm just trying to break down some things so that we can walk through this because I looked at your plan the dates and the issues that we have so we have to have accountability for folks not doing work and we're burning folks out that are doing the work and part of your plan speaks about trying to ensure that DPW becomes a 24-hour operation which I totally agree with in the 21st century DPW cannot work Monday through Friday from 6:00 AM to 2 PM in the largest city in the state of New Jersey it just can't happen that way so we have to make sure that those things are happening then we have an operation where we have a dump that is open 24 hours a day where we have to make sure that the trucks are getting to the dump and dumping many times even in the evening if you ride down on Pennsylvania Avenue and vandero there are a lot of trucks that have a tremendous amount of garbage still laying in those trucks and we have to find out a way to make sure that those every truck or apparatus that we have is getting to the dump the new amount of trucks that we brought because the council voted on a bunch of trucks a couple of years uh ago uh and every director that has come down there has ordered new equipment so the the problem may be not just the investment in the equipment the monitoring of it how it's being monitored who handles those systems the checking in and checking out of them and the accountability around them of who's handling them who's what what happens when they're at air bre for a long period of time or at another vendor for a long period of time trying to get fixed so those are some really internal kind of things that in order to make this operation go and what you've envisioned on a document there really going to have to be some kind of systematic changes that sometimes may not involve the same kind of people yes uh and councilman councel you and I have talked uh you've nailed it right um the one thing that I do want to address is the the situation with the garbage trucks that are Park we dump them actually every week and because when you get off 78 people who are living someone is dumping in the back of the hopper but we constantly but everything else that you said was extremely correct and I'm optimistic right uh and my team is optimistic that everything that that you spoke about will be will be coming into fruition in the next couple weeks months and years to come the the the area where you talked about refuge and bought recycling pickup if if we can add another column that talks about the amount of illegal dumping yes that is put in there because we also pay for for the amount of illegal dumping that happens and and and I think that'll be a good indicator and a good Bells point for us to even when you go out and talk to communities to let them know this is how much Refuge that we collect a week this is how much it costs this is what it looks like this is how much Buck we cost this is the amount of illegal dumping that we' have collected because some of our own community members may be culprits uh in uh dumping illegally and also allowing other people to come in and dump illegally and then we also have the individuals who are outside of our peripheral who comes into the city that dumps illegally we should be able to attach a cost to that because that cost attaches back to the taxpayer of the amount that is picked up in in terms of what we pay for for uh refuge and tonage yes I agree we're working on completely separating our legal dumping to be able to track it right and be able to find out exactly how much we're spending because those tipping fees are extremely like taking a tot on so you're right on councilman Council you finished I'll come back I okay councilman canana you know it's it's one of the Departments that really um Everybody Praises other departments but this is one Department that during kovic hardest days of kovic these men and women were out there mhm I mean we had Public Safety out there but the other arm to the city uh was the the the Department of Public Works uh from from it you know from recycling to every aspect of uh they were out there and sometimes you know as coun P Council councilman Council said the morale is sometimes you know is not there because it's how we treat the people that work for us we get back when we don't give back for an example at Pake Valley as a commissioner we do a Christmas party with the local union for our employees at that facility there have that creates a morale we need to create a morale moving forward Christmas Comes Thanksgiving comes all these days our recycling there was weeks two weeks in a row that the can the the cans and aluminum and all the other stuff were and and the boxes and all that were not picked up in other cities in the Northeast Carter what they have done is they they know because by the time you take a truck and you ride it down with all the traffic going down it's impossible uh would would be possible if we had containers right in every Ward dumpsters where that department would come and load up these containers and then move them out later so that you don't it's cold out there the conditions are horrible if we could pick all this stuff and put it in containers and then move it out in the evening or whatever time then then take the garbage because that's essential and that brings rodents said whatever if we could do look at that possibility I spoke to the ba about the possibility if you would take five locations and put and have a a truck or a pickup truck or or Buckle load or whatever it may be and put it in it would because by the time you get into traffic down when you go down R uh Market Street to go down to the it is horrible we're competing against New York City that brings all their garbage to the incinerator we're competing against every city around and it's not fa fair for our folks because it's easy to say well they didn't do their job they they did the problem is that we have to find a way and make it easy for these men and women who work in the Department of Public Works it's not easy working out there in a cold day with it's freezy people throwing out stuff I mean the garbage we should have inspectors too looking at the mix of recycling that's mixed with the regular garbage the oil that drops on these guys and and you know and the equipment uh the uniforms the coats all these things are are important and essential to these the people who work for us and I think that the the every elected official knows this that the arm of a city is Public Works yes I understand people say what it's public saf I do believe that too because I I understand that but what's essential to the citizens and and matter of fact the calls as you alluded uh the calls were just going off oh my boxes didn't get picked up my recycling did not get picked up this they didn't come so again we have to find a way doing if we know that there's Christmas and thanksgiving's coming so what we do is put containers yes in different sites that we have and just start taking stuff in pick up truck throw it in there because if you're going to load up a truck by the time you load up that truck it goes down to Market Street or wherever it goes we're wasting our time and these women and men are out there in this cold weather uh where they don't have a heating station they don't have a heating place to get warm and it is cold so again let's move forward I think also recommend that we do a committee of the council are we have a Public Safety Committee we should have a committee of Department of Public Works so we could in terms of moving forward find out what is it that we have to do because again the Department of Public Works men and women work hard there I would never say nothing negative because I've seen them out there I see the conditions in cold and rain and sometimes the equipment they don't have the right uniforms out out there the right hats and whatever it may be so we got to treat them a little and then in terms of the trucks this Council has appropriated we were pay put money into it previous administrations have put money into Department of Public Works we got to treat it well and move forward we should be we should meet more often than we wait till a crisis occurs to deal with with issues thank you yeah I agree thank you I do know that we are looking at that same model and the data shows um that during our spring cleaning when we put the dumpsters out there weekly it it's actually working so we want to kind of work with our team and look at that model uh again the administration is extremely supportive in and helping us we're just trying to figure out how to do it right where do we put the dumpsters is it every other week is it every week and then how do we Implement that system so we're definitely looking at because it's extremely effective and you can also see that the data shows that more people are recycling and bulk is going down right councilman Gonzalez your mic's off the night pick up of the recycling is a by 11:00 in my area the recycling has been picked up so I like that however what I don't like is the inconsistency of the pickup let's say the two weeks ago ER the recycling of carton wasn't done for two weeks ER the same is happening with the street cleaning this is inconsistent I believe we have to be more uh more aggressive in in making sure that what is supposed to happen happens because if somebody supposed to clean your street or to sweep your street that person should be supervised to the effect that in fact the street is is clean is sweep the same with Rec recycling I don't have any problem with let's say the the regular garbage the problem that I have is with Recycling and I don't have let's say a form of communicating with you I as a matter of fact I communicated with ER the previous acting director Er When the garbage wasn't picked up because I I didn't have a way of communicating with you because we don't get the information as to who is or who isn't the director of this departments they say these directors change but we don't get the information at least I don't so the council president may get that information that Mr Tyre rolon is the director I don't know Tye rolon from from Adam if I see him on the street because he has he hasn't been formally introduced to us as the dep the acting director of the department I believe that the that the administration every time that there is a change in the in directors should come to us and say by the way this person is the new director and here is his telephone number so that you can contact that person in case you need to do that I apologize let me say I hate to say it's councilman gonzal Gonzalez he was introduced I think you were sick that day but he was introduced to us by at the podium by the business administrator but I I do agree we all we all need phone everybody's phone number too and I actually had to I asked but I think it's important that's maybe something that we should look at Madam Clerk of having a directory of all the directors and having their numbers so we can contact them should we should have a group on of the directors so that if we want to communicate with all the directors we can send one text and every director gets it so let's work out a system and we will figure that out absolutely M Madam clerk councilwoman Scott rry thank you council president well everything that my colleagues said councilman counsel um everything that they've stated I ditto but I just want to address I did hear councilman Council speak of training and um I've had some encounters with some individuals and and as council president stated these men do jobs that other people won't do can't do and will not even think about doing so I want to start off on a positive note um stating that I'm thankful for the gentlemen who do the work however with them doing the work and us praying for them working in all these conditions um rain sleep snow hail whatever it is they have to be out there um I know there's sometimes is a shortage of Manpower but that being said a customer service is still in place yes even though they are doing a job that is not the cleanest job uh how they deal with the public is important so that training piece and that conversation that never engage with residents on a negative note um if they throw the garbage cans out in the street after they dump them that people have to get out and put the garbage cans back on the curb so there's not an accident uh garbage falling out the back of the truck being left in the street um there was a time when there was a director that and this this is time consuming but there were trucks that used to have rooms in I don't know they still do but I don't see folks get out and do it no more I think um the current the previous director and the director before him made sure um I witnessed garbage falling all out in the street and I called the director and I got the number of the truck and and I reported it because you know it just wasn't right for them to leave all of that garbage in the middle of the road and keep going when I tried to stop I wasn't a council person then it doesn't matter who I am as a resident of the city if I say wait a minute you just dropped all these bottles and you just dropped and the bottle shouldn't even be in the regular garbage that's a recycling item but once they put them in there and you dump it in there because you didn't see it so that's something that I would really like to see as part of the training that the gentleman realized not to engage in the negative some of them not didn't have a good day so they didn't have a good day and they out there picking up the garbage and it's smelling and they got to deal with people yelling at them that's not an easy place to be but they still have to real realiz that they're public servant for the city representing the city of newk and um to not leave garbage in the middle of the street and we're praying for the entire Department of Public Works because they have a very very tough job so just try to um deal with that training piece the councilman councel was speaking about to I don't care what truck they're driving the guys on the back of the truck if they're dropping garbage in the street they're contributing to the problems that we're trying to do by keeping us clean thank you so very much director thank you thank you council president councilman birthday Council I can't think of your name for a moment birthday councilman thank you council president um I just want to Echo what my colleague said you know um I speak to you guys a lot about different things in the west W you know the managers the supervisors and I just want to thank you um for always uh attacking the issues and the concerns that we have just one thing how is your engagement with the public safety and what I mean by that is when we pick up recycling or when we pick up um the garbage is there someone that that cont if the cars because there's a lot of cars in the West for that don't move because they believe that recycling or the garbage hu is not going to happen and they don't get ticketed so there's no enforcement is there uh a a communication between Public Safety and the Department of Public Works if your garbageman or the driver drives down the block for recycling and he sees the cars or the street sweepers and he see the cars do they just go around it and not contact anybody or is there a phone number that they can call a St um the death Sergeant or they can call a lieutenant or they can call a captain and say cap or lieutenant or Sergeant let's get a car over here you know it's it's recycling day or it's street sweeping day and the reason why I'm asking that because they just go around it then the people will just continue to park there and in the west W down in Fairmont we had this conversation a couple of days ago I had an event and it was it was just terrible and that's only because the car stayed there and probably the street sweeper did not come or did not have um the space to clean the the car of the the sidewalks or the streets because of the vehicles were there yes we do work in tandem with uh a parking authority one of the things that we're doing to combat that is getting all of our supervisors sworn in as code enforcement officers and have the ability right you know because there's there's a plant amount of resources so we want to be able to do is we have our supervisors and drivers on the ground so we're working with the administration to get them sworn in as code enforcement officers that way they can actually take the picture cite the violation you know Tim stamp it and then we can actually get some of those things back in court as councilman Council spoke about um so we're working with that trying to get it before June it's a very strenuous process but that but those are one of the things that we're trying to do that we will do not try we will do so by June we we should see a little I'm optimistic you got I'm I'll give 110% to that and thank you too once again for all of the work that you guys do man you do you do amazing job just trying to be a little more proactive absolutely thank you councilman Silva yeah uh good morning director morning good morning uh I speak to you I don't know how many days a week every day right every day if that's what you want to it's a it's a truth um I see things in the East Ward that I haven't seen in over 50 years and one of those things is that a lot of garbage is now picked up on the same day large chunks of the East Ward Ironbound aren picked up uh you headlined your report here the city's growing there's no Ward that's grown faster than the East Ward in the last three years none not even close the amount of garbage that's out there is alarming that residents are putting out uh when I see one of your garbage trucks and again I don't think there's anybody in this room that would switch places with one of your guys that's right okay there's not anybody in this room uh but when I see one driver and one sanitation worker behind you are killing these guys they're burnt out they're not going to get as much accomplished as you would like them to and I don't blame them it's a lot of garbage on both sides of the streets to ask one guy to do that work it you just can't justify that you I know you need resources I know you need Manpower I know that we know that everything that everyone set up here is correct it's not a lie they see it our constituents see it uh and you're in a very difficult situation but we're here to support you but there has to be I've always said in the past since I've sat here outside the police department and the fire department you're the most essential Department in the entire city for sure you are the most essential Department in this entire city and and we've had conversations we actually met last week with the business administrator uh prior to this and we highlighted a few things and just so the public knows we have kanta or wherever they're they're called now which is where we go dump and I was able to get you a run number or a run time I know you said from the scale what's happening is our garbage trucks are going to unload at a location in the our city and still having no wait 2 three hours to unload the garbage meantime that dump site is in our city why we aren't getting preference and treated better than garbage that's coming from New York City and Staten Island and other places is beyond me so I know the ba was going to look into possibly getting us expedited when we get in there because then that will get more of our garbage picked up to touch on something uh that councilman Quintana said I think by putting places like weell Street and Earl Street like you have the dumpsters gives our residents other options to go dump their garbage which will then leave a lot of the work that your guys are doing right if we can give residents another option maybe they'll go take the garbage themselves to that dump site and drop it off in a dumpster and the difficult task of your guys you know uh a lot of it might be you know gone uh but it's something that we definitely have to look into we have to come up with other Solutions when we don't do anything that's where the problem exists councilman Council touched on a lot of good points a lot of good points um and we need to make sure that and I'll say this now we have a tax reevaluation coming up we're going to ask our residents our homeowners to pay more taxes but meantime our services aren't what they're supposed to be how do you justify that how am I going to look somebody in the ey one of my residents that their taxes may go up but their garbage can't get picked up and that's not your problem that's our problem that's the city's problem so we need to improve the services that we provide for our residents and I'll tell you in my perfect world I look in the back of the room I see our police officers I know who the supervisor is why he's got a different color uniform I think we should give our uniforms perception as everything we should give our men and women who collect our garbage the proper attire that they need in the winter in the summer to keep them warm in winter but also maybe something that specifies who they are what they do I think that will go a long way in the perception that we give because right now my biggest complaint East W is not crime is not anything else it's quality of life garbage and again if we don't come up with a solution 50 plus years I've never seen it like this in the East Ward from a kid growing up the garbage men always had two three guys uh behind the truck loading up the garbage uh they were friendly with all all our neighbors and spoke to them and talked to them today I sent you two uh I sent you a a video of a ring doorbell that the guy doesn't have his garbage can this morning he don't know where went the garbage guy just dragged it down the street and never got it back or the garbage cans are thrown all over the street an example is when we have garbage on Thursdays the garbage guys leave the cans on the street so now the sweeper can't come by the sweeper can't come by down the street because the garbage cans are lit over the street that our garbage guys can't even take them and place them on the sidewalk and that's where training or education uh is part of the process but again they have a difficult job you have a difficult job as much as I complain here I always tell you in my text messages I am a big supporter of you and your men and women thank you thank you I do just want thank you let me let me add one I'm sorry what you gonna say something I so I do just want to say thank you but I also want to highlight that the administration is fully behind us knowing our needs we're working on it this plan that you see the mayor and the ba has and we're working on getting the Manpower the uh uh equipment director redeem actually put together a great Capital Improvement plan so all of these things are not only just a work in progress but will be coming soon right I just want to highlight that okay and thank you and one of the things I just want to add and I'm something to you councilman what uh councilman Silva was saying I think the dumpster program works very well I think it really helps alleviate some of the stresses that may occur with the with the your department so and I know it's not on a regular regular regular regular basis but maybe it can be more consistent and do that more often just something suggest councilman councel yes one I'm not a proponent of the dumpster program so I want you to know that without heavy supervision because the dumpster program allows other people from other cities to come in and dump without proper supervision so if there is someone that as the at the dumpster and is taking the the information or the person that's coming to dump the stuff is a resident from the city I'm a proponent for it too many times I've been witnessed because I'm out on the streets an entire amount a lot so many people come in from outside of the city of Newark when they know that the dumpsters is going to be out because they watch the advertising probably more than the New Yorkers right and they dump and they you know move on and going about their business from the Border Lines of Hillside Border Lines of Irvington Border Lines of South Orange Maplewood they all come into the city utilize our dumpsters put information in there along with illegally dumping right to to do those kind of things but I wanted to go back to the to the plan part of the new plan talked about the 6:00 pm to 2: am um recycling collection but you know that the ordinance states that uh Refuge can be put out from 6: pm to 10 pm I don't know if you're gonna have to make an adjustment to that right to ensure that we start at 10 pm because if folks will get getting home from work at 6:00 or 5: or 6:30 the the ordinance says that from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. you can start putting your garbage out I'm saying that for the residents out there as well so they know that your garbage should be put out between the hours of 6 to 10 prepared to be picked up and it should be garbage in the bag bag in the garbage right and so we have to rectify that we also have to deal with a longtime problem that we're having that is internal and external the staging of garbage has to stop right that is a large problem and the garbage on the islands have to stop our people have to stop telling the residents that is okay to put the garbage on the islands our islands in the South Ward and other Wards in the city are considered Parks under the state rosi and so when you're putting garbage in these islands it's equating to illegally done and if we're telling residents that it's okay to put the garbage in the island so we can be easy to pick it up then what we're really sending a message to is it's okay to illegally dump and it's not right the garbage should be in the bag in the can in front of your property making it easier for the person to come and pick up the garbage and so we have to look at that um and this whole issue around staging and then just the ordinance piece because I know you want to start from 6:00 p.m. to to 2: a.m. but the ordinance says folks can start putting out garbage at 6 P between the albums at 600 p.m. and 10 p.m. so we just want to rectify that I think you know holistically is a good you know a good plan um and around you know trying to acquire and get more equipment we all need you know more equipment to continue to do that work um I know we did that prior we had like uh 10 trucks and 20 laborers that was specifically designed to do these kind of night collections not sure what happened to that don't to really dive into it but I I think we have a perfect opportunity to get back on the right foot and we should use every advantage that we have to be able to do that and not sit around and procrastinate not become reactionary but get in front of these things in in a very uh strategic manner uh in ensuring that the residents as councilman Silva said at least know that the services that they are getting provided is there for them doesn't matter if it's sanitation if it's Police Service but that the services that they have are being provided today so want to thank you thank you anything else from the council Just One Last Question councilman Sil garbage cans yes any any delivery date on the next set of gar I get ask this every day I'll provide you with an answer sometime this evening let me get back with my team me the time all right thank thank you director council president council members next presentation is the dockless vehicles nor go program oh yeah good morning council president council members the lores Martinez wooden director of department of engineering we have the newo companies here to address your concerns and as requested thank you good morning council members I'm Austin marshburn senior director for morning good morning council members my name is tianis Kofi and I'm with vo as the policy and partnership specialist thank you for having us morning um Austin span so also an Austin withb bird I'm sorry I could not hear you uh Austin span uh also with bird okay you have anything you want us opening or do you want us just to get right into it I think we might as well get right into it all right councilman Council I'm I'm going let councilman Silva go first I think it might be a ping was one of you good morning I'm the one who requested that you uh gentlemen ladies be here today um again what comes out of this glass comes from my mouth no one else's this is my opinion whatever's going on with these bikes is a failure it could have been an idea that had good intentions like I've said before but from what I see the multiple times that you guys have been up here when we ask how many employees you got how quick do you pick up the bikes um I I I don't see any of that it's become worse week by week by week the bikes just sit there in front of homes including mine for days upon days um the failure uh of picking them up on time of them St sitting there the chaos that it creates for the for these men in the back of the room nework police uh the violations going down the wrong way street I I I just believe in my opinion that this was something that was worth trying but again is not working in this city and at the end of the day there were responsibility and I uh commend uh our engineering director because she has stood up there and and vouched for you and all stuff but I see it every day in my community I drive around every morning I drive around every afternoon I drive around every evening and what I've seen this program has become a failure it's become a nuisance to the city and it just doesn't work coun yeah one again if we can find out how how many employees do you have that that are working in the city of newk uh around the the dockless vehicle uh component then second we had asked a tremendous amount of times I believe the my entire Council colleague about docking stations because the docking stations cannot be in front of people homes cannot be in the middle of the streets and then we asked about the monitoring of the systems right there are a tremendous amount of 15 16 year old young people who are out here riding these vehicles uh all over town uh and and and and and using them uh in a way uh that is not uh sufficient for what was supposed to be provided for the usage of Transportation uh for the residents of the city so if we can know the the amount of individuals that you have that are working and then what's the T around date and picking these devices up from locations and why can we not provide centralized docking stations all right I can take those questions one at a time um I'm sorry can you hear me or actually if you guys want to keep going then we can no answer his questions and then we'll go here okay um I believe we circulated a deck uh to the to the council or director okay I believe director wooden circulated a deck to Council um that goes over each of those questions specifically uh bird has 35 employees in nework I believe Boo and at BO we have 31 employees as well um we go through the kpis which are uh meeting uh newor Go's uh requirements and exceeding them and then also becoming improved over time specifically in terms of how quickly we move uh Vehicles when they are uh when they've been idle for one day so less than one day I believe we're at over 90% of those vehicles are moving but those are all updated in the deck that was circulated to you uh and then as well uh we're working with them to design those docking stations or the the stations the the parking Corrals that you are you're speaking about we have to work through um both them and DPW to make sure we can choose uh the correct locations that work for the community so it takes a bit more time than any of us would like but you mentioned that you had uh 31 employees how many apparatuses do you have throughout the entire city so we have a excuse me so we have a thousand Vehicles currently through the program all of which are serviced depending on where they're located so if there's a vehicle that is in the way we do have a 247 um customer Ops team that responds to calls to pick up those Vehicles if the vehicles are um inoperational then they're taking back to the warehouse to be rebalanced and then they're put back into onto the streets well not onto the streets excuse me but they're put back onto our Corrals specifically um we were we walked your award sir uh council member Silva last week uh we missed you there but we would love to walk all the wordss with you to understand like where do these Corrals need to be uh but as well one of the things I observed you asked about underage people riding these these vehicles um we have another issue in in Newark and that is privately owned vehicles that people use scooters that are not under the authority of Newark go that do not have uh that do not have speed regulation on them that do not uh have Geo fencing on them that do not park where you want them to park and that can be owned by anybody uh 16y olds 15 year olds 14 year olds even uh what I observed in the Ironbound was those were the ones that almost hit me on the sidewalk right and those are outside of the purview of this program itself all of Theos belong to you correct the here right here right and so I'm I'm not aware of the the private components that individuals have that may be another you know law- biding issue but I'm definitely aware of the Vos that are all around uh the city laying on the ground laying in Parks laying in front of people homes um without being picked up in a timely way that's why we're talking about the monitoring of these kind of systems and how that that looks because they're also in front of people businesses for a long period of time and so just trying to figure out what that looks like in tracking the the uh the brevity of time that it takes to get to uh individuals to pick these up I'm not sure if the 31 individuals that are working for you are they new residents are they coming from the outside to get the location or is there a base in Newark where these 31 people operate at a fundamental office that someone can go to and knock on the door and say there are five apparatuses that have been laying in this area for this period of time or I notied five Vos on this stretch of a road that no one has has picked up is there a a office that that people can go to to provide these complaints absolutely so we do have a local Warehouse in Newark so we have our operations team leave from that warehouse respond to those um complaints so generally we try to keep it within one to two hours if there is a vehicle that is outstanding we prioritize getting those Vehicles off the streets or wherever they are and bringing it back to the warehouse um if you don't mind just repeating the other questions that you had is there a a number that the public can reach out or actual location I know you talked about the warehouse but can a resident go to the warehouse and actually knock on the door to provide information about where these apparatuses are laying around the city or what is happening with them so we do have a number that customers can call we also have an app where if there is someone that sees a scooter and they want to report it they can just let us know via message and then we'll respond to that and in terms of if the public can go to those warehouses they cannot however they can call us and we'll respond to that as well and that number um that number I can provide uh later I just don't have it memorized but um the vo app you can still access um via the Apple store or any uh Google Play Store you can get that there so maybe by the end of this uh presentation you can get that number to us absolutely we can say it out loud councilman uh canana yeah in terms of your company I see they pick up these bikes these vehicles but it's not it's a rented truck that comes around picking up the can't you guys get a truck that has a name of who you are identity and a phone number you know I the other day I witnessed there was a Hearst truck uh picking up I said well who the these people you know you have to have some kind of invest in some kind of vehicle that you could put a name on it and a phone number I mean I I don't think you would do this in another neighborhood I know in San Antonio they have a s similar company and they have a truck with the name on it if you need something if they're hiring they put it on there and here it's just you you you know you go rent a truck somewhere just to pick it up and please us but again when people drop these at the parks the county parks the city parks as councilman Council said uh they drop it on people's driveways and you got to go pick it up because they left it on somebody's driveway and then then people say what do I do with it some people get frustrated they just like to take it and put it somewhere else I'm not going to tell you where but uh that's how they feel and the other thing is to you know doing school hours a lot of these kids that supposed to be in school are driving these things around you know they're not going to school but driving this again uh under WEA bad weather I almost h a young person the other day by you know it was raining I could not even see who was they just went right against towards same thing is there a way that when there's bad weather you put these things to rest you know rest it for a day a charger for the day because again I don't understand how somebody is going to ride these vehic these things on boomul Avenue next to your car and you don't see who they're coming because you your your wipers are on you're driving as you're going on and these folks are go just zigzagging and we're GNA and this going to create more problems of Public Safety so again I know there's other other people that have these similar devices but I don't see them laying them around maybe put lay them in the garage but I don't see your company has to a invest in the trucks with a signage on it uh you know with a phone number on it so that you could go and the public can see that you're doing something but I seen your y this yellow truck at branchbrook Park picking up the these vehicles all these scooters and it's just not I don't think it's right invest into New York make you know so we can have some you know we deserve it I appreciate the feedback I think there's this is something that we have to explore further it does make sense in terms of being recognized in the community that there's a truck that people can easily identify the number identify the company and also if people see something they can instantly report it um so thank you for sharing that and in regards to the bad weather so when there is inclement weather we actually do remove scooters so that it is safer for everybody um in terms of riders not using Vehicles when it's snowing or when it's heavy rain we also do notice in terms of ridership that um users tend to use the vehicles less for safety reasons um it's something that we can continuously improve so I do thank you for that c councilman uh uh What uh Kelly and then just quick question so you said you remove the scooters in bad weather M so there's nobody riding the scooters when it's snowing raining so depending on the amount of snow let's say if it's very heavy snowfall then we remove the scooters but if it's not too bad then there are always going to be users who will feel amongst themselves that they can use a Vehicles it's hard to stop users um and tell them specifically you cannot ride when it's not as like uh heavy snowfall but it is something that that we do still see people not using the vehicles as much when it's um the weather is poor but there are some few people that do use it so rers still have access to be clear if that's important to you we can work with director wooden to say hey this is going to be the rules in Newark right we haven't done this yet but we're hearing this is important to you yeah it's definitely important it's important like so we can say if there's going to be snowfall like the first step we can do is just make the vehicles inactive right so they can't use them and they open up the app and it says sorry you can't use these today that we can do immediately and then you go to start picking up the vehicles usually you know when snowfall is happening you know in advance um and so you're able to start doing that yes yes definitely the the safety of the rid that's what I'm hearing from the council is that's important so we can work with director wooden on on that I appreciate that I think it's important to the safety of our residents yes definitely um another thing uh also is there an age limit for the Riders so in in in two parts to that question is there an age limit for the Riders and how is that age limit detected uh my colleagues from uh councilman canana to councilman counc we we all see the youth flying riding against traffic riding through traffic right it's really a hazard sometimes and we know that they can only r Ed if they've registered or have a card but how is the a what is the age limit and how is it detected is the I I heard in one of the presentations you talked about facial recognition is there a better way to detect the youth that are riding hour um not just to detect them but to protect them from uh any uh harm riding your vehicles absolutely so the age limit for our uh Vehicles is 18 and above and in terms of how we're monitoring that we have um ID recognition and to your point about the uh facial recognition that's something that we're building up and we're still testing and in terms of [Music] um excuse me I forgot the last question yeah um just the age what's the age limit you said 18 um the facial recognition how do we detect um who's riding our vehicle and and stopping them can we make it inactive if they don't meet the age requirement and and how do we make it full proof because a mother or a father or parent can give the credit card to a young person but their name is registered to it and it allows the youth to still probably which is happening anyway allows the youth to ride the vehicle so how do we combat that how do you combat that as the company so that's a two-part um solution one is that we are working with schools to educate um users and the staff there that students are not allowed to use the vehicles another thing is that during I mean near schools we have uh no ride zones which doesn't allow users to ride or Park the their Vehicles near the schools and in terms of ongoing users who are underage while we do get reports from time to time we also do ban users that are identified to be underaged as well hey it's uh Austin um I'm your sort of more boots on the ground person in nework from bird and to your point uh there is no perfect technology because you actually identified exactly what can happen right and and so that's where even with technology if they're using their parents information their parents obviously above 18 so they can get around it the only way to effectively deal with this problem is to proceed to an instant ban which is what our operations team is now doing so if a driver is to see somebody that's clearly underage riding one of our devices do not pass go do not collect $200 instant ban it's uh irrevocable and it's at the device level so they're not able to create another account on that device um and it's highly effective in fact you know I've been uh in in in nework from you know time to time and and seen the actual enhancement of this Hardline approach to just Banning the individuals and something that's important for Council to know is it doesn't just have to be our employees that see this Behavior to implement a ban if you give us a time a location ideally a photo it's not even required we can actually identify who that rider was and proceed to it ban uh so we're happy to do it uh offline uh you know after the fact through through a report either from you know one of the residents in your Wards or from you directly um if somebody gets in contact with us with that information um we're happy to ban you know people breaking our terms of service so if someone if if my my elderly Aunt sees a bunch of youth riding while on your vehicles they call that number that we're still waiting for yeah and it was 8 o' Saturday this intersection is when I saw it you know there's some time required on our end to try to like basically find that ride but we can find it and uh proceed with disciplinary action against the Riders and that and that phone number that they called oh yes and and so on that just to fast follow I have both of our contact information I think we'll also need to circulated through newer go to council just so everybody has it handy but uh two separate phone numbers uh you should know that these are on each of our devices they're stickered but bird is 866 205 2442 and I I think we'll email this just so you know everybody can have it digitally in case uh of a m type but 855 836 2256 for vo so that's both of our phone numbers 836 what was the last uh 836 2256 and also just want to highlight that it's all all our contact information is on the nework Go website Council M Gonzalez you said that you had 31 employees and you have 35 are those full-time employee employees or part-time employees um so we have a mix of full-time and part-time employees so how many full-time equivalent employees you have instead of the 31 or 35 how many full-time equivalents so I would have to double check that but I'm happy to report back and what's the salary that you pay those individuals do they make more than the minimum wage so I would need to just get some confirmation before sharing that yeah I would like to I would like to know what what salaries if you could provide a list of the employees with their salaries that would be even better I think we can absolutely follow over we can't know how much people make I'm sorry let me let me get Council Round Tree first and then I go back thank you Council I just want some clarity I keep hearing these two numbers 31 and 35 so is it 31 or 35 or 31 and 35 31 two different companies have two sets of employees and I think councilman car Carlos Gonzalez asked how many are full-time and how many are part-time so that information will be provided for both companies how many are full-time for you and how many are full-time for you and part-time Vice we we can get this say their salaries you file returns for them quarterly returns and all that stuff so if we want the information we can get the information I I believe is would be much better if you provided the information to us and ju ju uh just to follow up on that different roles have different salaries so we can give a breakdown of what those roles look like but they're all not minimum wage they're all significantly above for C councilman uh Council yeah I'm two things one I mean there is a state minimum wage and you just indicated that they're below minimum wage above above significantly above they're minimum wage or below minimum wage okay so at any given time how many of the Thousand vehicles that we talked about that was actually on a ro are actually being used do you have you have data about that so you're saying there's a thousand we have a thousand vehicles are out here at any given time out of that thousand how many are actually being used on any given like on any given yeah because you said that you have the track and and monitoring systems in place to be able to know what is moving around the city obviously throughout the day it changes right in the in the commute hours you'll see a lot more used in the then you will like in the middle of the day necessarily what's your high point numbers the high point number would probably be like 5m and probably about half of them will be in us and between 5:00 P pm to what time what is what what does that look like in terms of ridership five thou 500 people riding 700 people yeah from four to seven we'll have almost all thousand of our Vehicles will move um sometimes multiple times so you'll have that would then say you have on a normal day 1400 people using the scooters just just during those periods we're got we're going to wrap this up so but let me ask let me ask a couple questions too um you spoke about the ralist zones are those ralist zones where are those Rital Z let ask that question where where the where you said it shuts off or am I am I incorrect in saying there were zones where I I believe it was said from vo that there were zones that the vehicles don't activate right and where are those zones um so we have a list that I can provide later on I because yeah I appreciate that because I believe the conversation was revolving around schools and having underage and so we have a number of schools which in the area in the city of North excuse me and so that would mean a lot of rer zones that the vehicles would not work and I just want to confirm that that's the case because we continue to make sure that we want to make that our children especially are are not doing things that are going to hurt themselves and be involved with that I also wanted to ask about how many do you track the number of rides per year how many rides in 2024 so of 2024 we saw that there were about two million rides taken with over 100,000 users and 100 and what about bird was about 1.75 million rides uh with about the same number of users and W with over almost four million rides how many uh Riders did you ban um I think we're at uh about 120 on our side 120 okay and is that from and the ban the Banning is from residents informing you or is what what were the reasons for the ban to be perfectly honest right now it's driven primarily by our staff catching it but we welcome more resident feedback to help us uh you know ban the bad apples okay speaking of no ride zones um you can always see it on the apps themselves but um there are a lot of schools that are on that are on this app right now I'm sorry I really can't hear you sorry speaking of no ride zones which is what you were asking about you can see um on on both apps where uh scooters will or Vehicles will stop um just come to a come to a slow stop and many of those that are on the app right now are in schools or in the Ironbound area all right many are all of the schools most Okay so we may need to look at that again you know let me say this I think the concern that we have as a council is is really about our residents and about the safety of them we we want to make sure and and I think uh what's prevalent is that we understand there's a benefit for the ridership for those who don't have vehicles but we want to make sure that that benefit outweighs any detriment and that's the main concern that we have here that what we're doing in and is is going to be best for the residents of our city for our safety because you know and and in the previous meetings we've talked about um and and I don't necessarily was coming from your vehicles but we don't want something to happen to someone you know we don't want to have any uh we had deaths occur that didn't have anything to do with your vehicles but we don't want that to be the future we want to make sure that and God forbid it' be a child or somebody young but we want to make sure that we do it that this is done in the best way way for our residents and for their travel NE that's necessary for them but also to make sure that we don't allow what shouldn't be happening with that being said unless somebody wants to say one more thing we try to wrap it up because one more speaker all right yeah how many of the employees live in the city of nework or from nework all of them it's been a priority for us yeah at least on the bird side we we hire locally Nobody Knows the streets better right so that's the priority for our driving team I just wanted to put that on real quick it's also the same for same thing all right last comment from councilman Silva so when I call those numbers and I don't know how long this has been going on but this is the first time I've ever heard about a telephone number being accessible to us to me or to my residents I did not know that all the times you've guys been up here I've never heard that that you had a phone number if if there is a uh a bike left in front of a home that we can give that number to to one of our residents this is the first time I'm hearing so I call the number what happens is it a live operator is it a live person and you're going to give him that information or do I have to press seven for this you know what what happens when I call those numbers and is it 24 hours questions 24 hours and what's the response time then from the time I call to the time they come pick up the bike what is the response time so it is 247 and as soon as you call you get a live operator once they take down your information the area in which the vehicle is being reported they send that over to the operations team and then from there the operations team will go out so given that it is a big team they do have a number of tickets so generally they'll go in the order that was received but it's usually between one to two hours or less depending on how much tickets are in that day and then uh the issue is resolved then okay and all that is on the app correct corre all the numbers a 1800 numbers a 1866 whatever it is all that information is out there laid out for easily for our uh one last question do you have multiple languages does somebody else speak like a Spanish or Portuguese on there so our app as well as our website and we have um our operators who are multilingual okay same thing with bird and then uh I should mention it's on the nework Go website as well for both companies somebody was looking for either company's contact info all right great thank thank you appreciate very much council president council members our final presentation will be director James director of the office of emergency management it still morning yes good morning yes good morning councel glad to be here I'm John Sharp James director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management I first wanted to have my my staff uh stand up and acknowledge themselves I have my Deputy coordinator du duber Dell stand up I can't see yall Deputy coordinator Craig Smith all right all right the mesic preparedness planner Tanya Frasier Peter pikney finance and Tara Rouse uh executive secretary also am assigned a police officer to five fighter idell Robertson is from nework police he's not able to be here now but I do have firefighter uh Antonio pad in the back all right thank you all right um we work directly with the police department and fire department we are under Public Safety so every day uh we are in their meetings and their conferences on their Communications primarily we respond to fires major fires we relocate residents uh we provide them assistance and we work directly with the Red Cross uh we have set up three shelters uh in the past year and a half since I've been here uh we have also uh assisted with blankets food or what have you uh making sure that residents who are traumatized by fire uh you know get the safety and the care of the city because we're there with them um we we've coordinated training with the Port Authority Essence County uh state representatives we also have a city of nework emergency operation plan which has been approved by the state uh since we're the largest city um so we're doing a lot of things on a daily basis and you know we just want to make sure we're here uh to represent Public Safety uh today I want to talk about our um Community Emergency Response Team um that is a madeup of community residents we're going to have a class in April or May so we want to get the word out early and that is a way for residents who want to be informed or prepared for emergencies to come and participate it's voluntary uh but it's some good knowledge for those who really want to be involved director I hate to interrupt you though but kitten we get Flyers so that we can disseminate the yes we will get the Flyers out as soon as uh we get the specific dates we're to trying to determine whether we're going to do it on weekends or after 6 PM so once you have that date and we also are going to try and it at the new police facility on Bergen Street so once we have that out we will get that out to you thank you um during the course uh they will learn about elements of disasters basic life safety skills CPR bleeding control how to assess injuries psychological imput impact of disasters uh fire safety identification of fire extinguishes and their use and different uses uh different uh basic responses to hazardous material whether we have a spill in our neighborhood but they come upon something that might be uh detrimental uh there are requirements this training is physical so uh we want you to be at least 18 years or older we want you to be able to to pick up something uh 15 to 20 pounds and um you do have to go through a police check you do have to have a uh background check um I'm I'm not sure whether you have to do uh fingerprints but you do have to also sign a confidentiality agreement now I'm going to be honest um not every city has this uh in some cities this has not worked because uh people in this program just voluntarily interfere with the police or whatever emergency is going on Jersey City discontinued theirs so we just want to make sure that ours is done the right way individuals know that they can only act when they are authorized to do so and they don't just get involved D and and take over crime scenes or incident scenes uh improperly but that is what we have to present and I have other things will be discussed in executive session and I believe I sent you several emails of information detailing our projects in the city of nework another thing I don't know about Emergency Management is we recoup all the money from storms Hurricane Sandy Ida covid our department uh reached out to the federal government FEMA and says hey our DPW department is sent millions of dollars cleaning up debris or what have you that money all comes back through OEM so we're doing our best uh we have all those records if you guys need them and we can discuss that at a later date thank you director councilman K yeah director in terms we have had uh constituents who have come before us and they want to know where is the shelters uh Miss McDonald talked about where do we go where where there was these signs in the past that would tell you where to go they were blue and green is that correct or black um but there were signs back in the day but moving forward where are these in case of a disaster in say's where's the shelters where's the food water um uh in terms of where would people would go uh where is is there a plan in case of the disaster yes so in terms of let's say there's a disaster where years ago there was a plane are that crashed on on K Street right on springful Avenue and there were some people that were concerned what would happen we don't want that to happen but we're so close to an airport we're so we we have an arena where where terrorists can also try to do things to our Arena our train stations and Etc what where where do where do we do we have a plan for shelters Citywide is it schools what schools is it churches a basement so councilman and Council colleagues uh what we've done under my tener is we have had uh the Red Cross in who we work with heavily they are the ones that administer our shelters we've had them visit schools gymnasiums we've had them visit all of our rec centers and certify them as shelters so right now the city of Nork all of our rec centers are certified by FEMA through the Red Cross as shelters um depending on the incident uh we also have rooc calls and we also have Geographic communication through the state of New Jersey it's called ever bridge and if there is any incident in the city of Newark which uh is a detriment to a loss of life or severe injury the state will geograph that area let's say it's around credential Center and that message will go out to any landline and cell phone within that geographic area uh electronically so we have that with the state on the other matter too I'm concerned and I councilman Gonzalez has talked about we were always very concern concerned about the Watershed because everybody says well it's far away from here but that's a that's a safety matter for us too I know the department of of of water and sewer and our director but again I think that we need to look at that aspect I know councilman Gonzalez talked about one time about Thrones in that area uh because that is that is essential to us if someone that's a vulnerable place for something to occur something to occur that would and our water would uh be contaminated would be an issue for this for our citizens and it's very critical and also the other stations like in bille where there's a holding area the mains where the main up on abille Avenue is that no geran on geran but again we need to uh look at all those uh working together with those departments in the future absolutely uh just so you know also uh the city of New York is attempting to purchase two drones uh actually the federal government is holding up whether we're going to be able to buy them uh because uh there's some privacy issues they want to get their uh regulations regarding government-owned drones perfectly down before they award that to us so that is the only hold up on that but we have the operators trained uh and we are ready to go with them as soon as that lifted thank you any any questions for uh councilman Sila director good morning um so I just have a question because we are seeing it live in front of us on TV uh what's going on in La um uh major city like ours um no water uh God forbid we have something uh a fire where there's high winds and now you have 10 structures uh on fire will we ever run into that problem here where we don't have the resources meaning the water to to to put out whether it's a chemical fire whether it's uh a huge residential uh fire that's out of the norm do we have to worry about something like that here where there's not ample water at the fire hydrates okay so luckily um I might be speaking out of line but our fire department has mutual agreements with fire departments throughout uh the state so when we actually had the uh water main break in the in the park branchbrook park on Mill Street we activated that and other fire departments sent their water units to our stations because we did not have water pressure in the hydrants at that time so that was example it affected one-third of the city but we didn't take any shortcuts we had a pumper unit at each station we did that automatically I also had water trucks sent to our hospitals uh we're trying to work that issue but no we would not have that because of mutual Aid agreements thank you councilwoman Scott rry thank you council president um so we talked about the water shortage many uh constituents have come to the podium to talk to us about um their concerns pertaining to preventive measures to educate the public in advance of a crisis um I believe u councilman Catan was talking about that and we hear that quite often I know one of our constituents sitting out um in the um Gallery Today l McDon um is one of the right people that always address if there was a crisis not just in Airplane um look at what happened in La we we pray to God that we don't have to ever but in the event of another Katrina another Sandy um how do we if we know it's coming notified with the exception of a robo call um and what do we do to make sure that we have something in place other than shelters at JFK or the other centers those are they only hold up to so much you know um I know this isn't Russia or any of these countries where we got to go underground but maybe for the future we can see what we can put together or OEM can look at some preventive measures to make sure that we can notify the public in advance and prepare some things for our residents so they'll see at least we have some type of evacuation plan in place well thank you Council well believe it or not since you know my title is actually Emergency Operations coordinator it's because of that I mean I have to work with other agencies on the county level on the state level uh we have a system set up where if nor exhaust all of its resources we reach out to the county if we the county exhausted resources we reached out to the state so at the same time that we had the water shortage in the park um I had already contacted the National Guard they were ready to bring in water trucks to bring us water and that would have been for the community but luckily we had enough water on hand through uh portable pole water we had cases and cases uh which we need to order more of um also I I want to say that the Red Cross is a and FEMA the number one agencies that deal with disasters I'm not going to sit up here and present myself as an expert so I work with them and I have their website and it's going to be something added to the OEM City web page it's going to include Red Cross apps suggestions because Emergency Operations don't begin on a city level they begin at home do you have flashlights do you have batteries do you know in your own home how to get out in case there's an incident or or situation so that will be put out as soon as it's approved uh by The Police director and people will actually be able to click a link so it'll be interactive download that app they can Google on the app whatever the disaster or situation is occurring get direct information from the Red Cross from FEMA uh right at their fingertips and I I I think that's a good pre-planning resource along with the temporary shelters of course a large city like the city of nework there's nowh we can evacuate 300 people 300,000 people too plus you know our population swells to maybe 500 600,000 during a regular workday the only hope is we have isolated incidents Public Safety to respond immediately CAU an off an area give warnings not to go to that area and then respond accordingly great thank you anything else from the council so let let me ask you a couple questions uh uh director if I may um I know you you refer to I guess it's called a reverse 411 or reverse 4 311 if a disaster happens they can be rooc calls individual is there any information that you have in terms of a flyer form or or some form that we can disseminate to the residents about if a disaster happens what should you number one what should you already have in place like you mentioned flashlights other things that may be necessary because I know personally I bought one of those disaster kits I hope I never had to use but you know I got I got the the disaster kit for family of four so I got enough for everybody hopefully includes water Etc but but seriously is is there some information that you can disseminate that we can use and disseminate to the residents or or the administration uh regarding what we should have in place before disaster hits uh you know you remember uh uh um covid I was in line at the grocery store you know outside around the block you know trying to get little groceries at in the morning that I could get or whatever necessary is there something that you all have or can put in together or in place that we can share with our residents so that when a disaster happens we're not caught flat-footed um that's my first question my second question and kind of it's two-part is does the city have any PA system or this or the city hall have or or OEM have a PA system that will announce a disaster and and then what we should should do for that disaster for instance back in the day with air raage you hear the siren go off and everybody would go under and you know you hunker down and do whatever is necessary um and and the second part to that question I'm sorry throwing a whole lot out at one time is regarding um City buildings in terms of uh uh it's not called emergency Evac what do you call them EMC evacuation plan well evacuation plan but then drills uh do we do we do drills are going to continue to do drills uh let me start with one I mean we could go over 20 or 30 disasters which might happen in the city of New York I mean we could print uh responses to that on on paper millions of pages we would print so that's why I want to try and go more technology driven to sites through the apps through the Red Cross then people can look at what they need to look at and when we send out an announcement through the rooc calls or what have you then they can pull up their app the Red Cross they have it down by the book and um you know stuff changes we're learning new things and we had the uh incident down in New Orleans uh which OEM whenever you see a community event which we have 40 or 50 out in the streets uh every year we are the ones that put up the barriers the concrete barriers the Meridian barriers the Delta barriers uh uh that's what we do so we try and prepare so as far as information in advance unless you want to print all day I suggest we use technology use the app everyone generally has a cell phone and they'll be able to pull up that app and say Hey you know the city of New York made an announcement this is going on so I'm going to click that for flood I'm going to click click it for uh earthquake I'mma click it for what have you and get direct guidance from the red Claus uh and and let me I just want so we go to the app each one of those is what that you just explained is in the app and what we would need and what we would should do yes what you should have at your home and what should happen if you're out in public an incident occurs uh secondly you asked about um a loudspeaker what have you some kind of message notification uh again all we have is through the state we have calls but if we do have an emergency um the Communications Department gets involved we might put something out on a cable TV uh City network uh everyone would be notified it wouldn't just be uh expected to come out by City Hall we would notify all of our partners and agencies on the county and state level and federal level that hey uh we might need uh assistance preposition assistance because we know we're going to get hit with something um and the last one what about emergency uh evacuation drills or any evacuation so once we establish emergency operation plan which we're working on now because we haven't had it in some time uh then the drills will follow but I want to applaud uh I believe the director of health is here Mr osro still here yeah the health department has already been doing it they are probably the only Department that has their Emergency Operations plan and effectually does it every year um so I I just want to give her Kudos uh I have a one template but I'm working majority off of her template City Hall we're also doing digital mapping City Halls already mapped so we just need to designate individuals in certain corners of the building uh fire happens you're guiding people out this way another end you're guiding out the other way but we need to do that for every city building and there's probably 60 City buildings so uh we're working on that now and earthquakes cuz we have yes yes very good uh councilman was that canana I mean Gonzalez your mic is off yeah there you go Miss Carter here always ask about the plan in the case of evacuations let's say we have to leave the city where do how people know what route to take out of the city if an emergency happens do we have that okay so we have that in the plan but again that's going to depend on where the emergency is we have to have signs I believe throughout the the main streets in the city of North leading to other places other towns yes not only signs but with traffic a signal we can change the signs you know Green going One Direction that kind of guide people at that point remember remember you're going to have full participation from the entire nework fire department and New York Police Department we're going to be coordinating people and sending them out so uh that's what would happen I know the county puts up signs on the county roads but the full Public Safety department would be involved in that and we would we would guide people o we only have about three signs you see them up whenever we're going to have an event you know event this weekend detour uh but everyone it would be all hands on deck if emergency actually happen all right Council and thanks uh all right one more we're gonna wrap this up councilwoman Scott rter drills for senior citizens to evacuate so I gather um there would be com communication with the Department of senior services and all of the buildings in the city of nor that house our seniors um is there anything in place I I I don't work that closely with the operations of the senior buildings but is there anything in place that OEM has done just like we do the training with the guns and all of that is there anything in place for our senior citizens and all these high rises throughout the city I'm going have to reach out to uh the Housing Authority I mean those are their buildings uh they dismantled their community relations team uh recently so actually they call me when they have uh evacuations that's why we recently had uh the power outage up at uh Stephen crane um they they called OEM so we we assisted the best of ability I mean I brought in a Red Cross and we set up a uh shelter down at the waterfront and we had uh about 28 residents there for about four or five days but that's the maximum just about I can I can run a shelter for right and that's in the event that the power grid goes down so not all the senior buildings are Housing Authority I do believe there's some privately owned as well so getting that information um to find out what plans they have absolutely to evacuate in the event that something occurs especially if the power goes out because that's a whole another circumstance okay okay thank you last last comment Council M and just years ago we had we had the administration council members the different departments go down to Texas councilman Gonzalez uh the coun the leate councilwoman M Crump we all went down to Texas and we stood there for two days and we would be in scenarios where they would stage it from policy you were there too right no I don't think he went with so you should take a ride there uh but it was great because director Isaac at the time and he rest he encouraged us to go into see what would happen in a crisis how we were going to and we would go into these teams and we would discuss from police fire and the whole situation how we were going to deal with the policy how we were going to buy things right away because when Crisis occur you have to really be ready when the state of emergency to be ready to purchase whatever you have to do we were a that was very instrumental because we were able to uh learn a lot uh and bring it back to the city so I'm looking forward to seeing how through the Department of Homeland Security uh or through a grant that we can send some of your staff and some other folks and CI and residents that want to learn about this whole experience because it was a great experience that we learned we sat there for two days and we didn't go shopping we didn't go none of these things it was strict day the next day and then F back from it was in Austin Texas if I don't if I don't I don't I'm thinking it was Austin right Council Gonzalez no it was Austin College college town so we we had an experience and and it was really we came back and then they came back to us and then they had something on Bergen Street uh where they they they were try to through a crisis if something happened at the arena how would we react and we were it's it's it's to prevent a to learn prevention yeah can I just add I I think that was a great program I I did I went to Texas to the tis with te and uh we we did learn a lot about different disasters and how to how to uh uh respond and whether it's legal versus actual on the boots on the ground and then they came up here and did did another kind of refresher training on Clinton Avenue which I thought was very good and maybe there's something that can be incorporated into the program that you're that you're talking about with uh residents from the city to incorporate some of that because I thought that was eye opening in terms of everybody understanding all the different moving parts that take place it's not just like for instance what's going on in California it's not just the fire there are a lot of other parts that we don't even know about that are uh uh facilitating putting out the fire facilitating dealing with the housing issues with people losing houses dealing with the insurance part dealing with the enfort deaths that have occurred so there a lot of part moving Parts in in with regards to any emergency that occurs so I think maybe that's something you make think about including into it and before I forget I just wanted because I you know we've been dancing around the name for the most part but Miss McDonald Carter that's right has been talking about this for a while so it's important and and she was right and no one ever there she wasn't but it's important that we all know what's going on and make sure that our residents are safe in case of an emergency council president oh I'm sorry councilman I I just got one quick thing to to end off assuming what uh councilwoman rry was talking about but you know every building uh in the city should have an emergency management plan and it should be our responsibility as OEM even to work with EHD to send message and information out to all of these facilities be it housing author buildings privately owned buildings to be able to say you have to have an emergency management plan and it should be turned into the office of OEM and if not then they should have it posted in their building somewhere any the event that something happens you'll be able to know where it's posted and can be able to grab a copy or get the information from it and know what is happening or what these individuals uh indicated now um along those lines we do have an emergency plan for any company which has hazardous materials that also falls under our our department we have that that document and electronic we report to the county and the state with that so if there's a company that has hyoc chloric acid this about certain amount uh they have to have a plan which they submit to us which we submit to the fire department uh what their plan is in case a gas escapes or what have you so we do have that documented in the uh in the uh in our department and we should encourage that more of these facilities have fire drills as well so that they know what happens when you go out move out I know we have fire drills here in in in this building uh but we should ensure that there were fire drills that helped in in each facility and as far and as far as the tees I did price that out as soon as I took position they want like $250,000 um the fire department um because I did not include tees was able to buy a vehicle which is rare it's a special apparatus that's the only way we're able to buy it because the federal government and uasi does not allow vehicles or cars to be purchased but we a we're able to get that for about $225,000 which I can discuss later in the executive session thank you so I just wanted to men councilman Gonzalez quick it's imperative that the buildings that have senior citizens that are might be disabled ER let's say be listed and be that that person should have special treatment because the other day we have a a drill at the county building and there was a lady that was on a wheelchair visiting and the let's say if the fire had been the real that lady would have perished there because nobody thought of that lady as a visitor so I believe if it's important that we ER that we not only know but that we record H where this the the say people that with these abilities are in the in the building we do have a list along with PS and G of every resident in the city of nework which is on a special medical device electronic device oxygen or what have you we do have that list and during storms or snow what have you we share that with ESU uh special unit for the police they can go out actually get that person yeah we should do the same with people in wheelchairs yes okay so let me let me add this and then we're going to wrap it up so my my Kenny through my office he uh works with the fire department and and does fire works with them to do fire inspections and then to do fire drills for the senior buildings so we we we it's been off a little bit but we're going to go back to doing that we were doing that on a regular basis to make sure that it's safe with that being said director I want to thank you for your presentation today uh it was very thorough we appreciate it and thank you and your staff for all that you do um I believe we've had a nice thorough presentation and and I don't think unless you really say we have to go to Executive session that we need to go to Executive session at 1205 okay the only reason for that was people discussing funding we could go into that but we could have it at a later time I'm I'm I think I think we're good right now we can do it at a later time I thank you so much for what you're do we going oh you have something else to say something an hour more presentation yeah we're GNA we're g to skip that hour long good do some sco here by yourself councilman that being said everybody have a great day again thank you everybody for your presentations and your and water department said they got their emergency planor director okay which one oh yeah let's everybody no no no we got food for everybody yeah just for like for like because we never got to celebrate as a counsel so this F upstairs e e for