##VIDEO ID:guCSwPXq0g8## good morning welcome to the pre meeting of the nework municipal Council on Tuesday I'm sorry on Wednesday September 4th 2024 council president council members we are on page three of the agenda item five reports and recommendations of City officers boards and commissions thank you so much Madam Clerk and welcome to everyone in the chamber happy September and first day back to school and Labor Day and everything else that we have uh missed we missed you guys alrighty um any questions from Council Members regarding reports CNN next item 6fa through H are all ordinances on first reading a is an ordinance amending the facade Improvement program by amending eligible facade improvements and forgiveness or repayment of the facade improvement loan sponsored by councilman Council second by councilwoman Scott brry any questions regarding the facade improvement loan CNN B is an ordinance amending the closing cost program to increase the term of the loan and accordingly decre increase the percentage of the Forgiveness amount sponsored by councilman Council second by councilman Kelly any questions from Council Members regarding this item CNN C is an ordinance granting a 20-year tax abatement to 369-378 18th Avenue urban renewal LLC for a project to construct 11 market rate residential rental units with one affordable housing rental unit which shall be restricted to tenants at 60% of the area median income located in the central Ward questions or comments from Council Members CNN D is an ordinance granting a 25-year tax abatement to Riverfront quarters urban renewal LLC for a project to construct a 64 residential rental unit consisting of 51 market rate residential rental units 13 of aable housing rental units of which three units shall be restricted to tenants at 40% of the area median income Ami three units shall be restricted to tenants at 60% Ami and seven units shall be restricted to tenants at 80% Ami in the East W questions or comments from Council Members Cenna e is an ordinance amending parking prohibited at all times to prohibit parking at at all times on beer Street on the east side between West Kenny and Hy Street and the central Ward sponsored by council president mcgyver second by councilman canana questions or comments regarding this item CA f is an ordinance amending parking or standing prohibited in certain areas at certain times for street cleaning to prohibit parking at certain times on Beacher Street on the West Side between West Kenny Street and Hy Street in the central Ward questions or comments CNN G is an ordinance amending and supplementing the Cannabis ordinance to permit and regulate adult use and license cannabis establishments uh perhaps we can have a explanation regarding this item this is regarding 6fg G I mean let's not all you know run up all at one time to talk about cannabis good morning uh kinat Stewart city of North Corporation Council I will reach out to Joselyn right now I think she's running a little behind the council will give us a few minutes okay I I believe councilman Council were you gonna add some yes uh this this ordinance was to add uh additional uh cannabis locations um moving from five to 15 oh okay did this come through your committee to discuss we have a committee meeting uh that is coming up there were some other issues that we wanted to discuss around it but I don't think one of the main issues was the extension of it it was more uh along the line of the uh security uh that was attached to it and Miss Whitfield did forward us uh an email around the uh necessity uh in need to make sure that we maintain the amount of security uh at these locations uh what is the pleasure as the chair of the Cannabis committee what is the pleasure of I would like for us to move this forward okay any other questions from Council Members councilman Crump thank you council president I I I do hope that Miss Winfield comes up so we can get a better understanding but I because I was um trying to wrap my head around the issue of a a legacy owner and what that means and what that entails as well as my assumption is some of the the the Amendments including labeling and advertisements are based upon State Statute that or or maybe I could be wrong but the labeling are based upon State statutes of what necessarily needs to be included in um cannabis advertising and locations so okay I know there as far as uh Legacy is concerned I know there are some uh individual entities that want to go from say I know a pocket versus and going to something else they might want to go from being a distributor to be something else Etc so those are some of the like categories that folks are trying to expand to uh there are some folks who as you know had the medical and now they want to get into you know the personal use type of situation a part of what's going on but again I've just text her to actually make her way here as Council uh councilman Council indicated that the the bulk of this is about expanding um as you all know when we first started this process we wanted to have it at a minimum uh you know to make sure that we at least be able to start off and I use the word start off slow uh essentially we are in a space where a few places have opened uh I know you know one place did a soft opening a few weeks ago and they're think they're gonna be doing a more of a public type of situation now uh and just around the state folks are wrapping their hands around this process as far as advertisement one of the things that we made made sure that was mandatory here was that folks don't have a big old weed plant like you know on the awning and things of that nature we wanted to make sure that uh you know other businesses and more importantly uh Young Folks aren't enticed to go into these places and of course more importantly for us we want to make sure that that people are not just walking by seeing all type of items that will entice kids to try to sneak in um as to the security aspect of things I do know that one of the issues that we were concerned about I know I think councilman Gonzalez may have been concerned at one point was about how much money it costs to have security um you know it plays a big part as to uh folks overhead on the other hand we're balancing safety within the community and of course the safety of the actual business and we also want to make sure that we maintain that type of situation unfortunately you see on the news folks breaking into different businesses jewelry places and things of that nature uh so one of the things that we want to make sure is that these places aren't targeted okay councilman Council Ju Just to add to that from the financial perspective um the the city of nort uh is way behind in terms of Revenue generation uh as you look at it we only have three uh cannabis locations that is open uh in the city with multiple uh applications the uh extreme uh necessity of what what the state is doing uh to allow openings and their monitoring processes uh is good and in itself but when you look at a place at New York who was probably over 200 million now uh in terms of Revenue generation I think New Jersey in and of itself uh is probably over a 100 million but the city of nework uh we we're not really competing uh at the rate we should be competing at uh in terms of using this value to get U extra Revenue in here and so even when we talk about um the the competition variable around it um and opening some of these places up as uh micro and and having the stringent kind of restrictions that is on it it still gives us an opportunity to you know be able to compete for the resources and dollars that is needed to help offset you know funds that we're going to ultimately down the line thank you councilman Council Council Melly no I agree with everything that that um at council is saying councilman council is saying um I agree with this too and I want to see this move forward for the revenue of our city you know um like he stated there's other cities that's way ahead of us and for us to be the biggest city in the you know uh the state of New Jersey I think that we deserve to be able to uh make more locations you know make more licenses so that we can generate the money that is being that is coming in for the Cannabis business okay thank you Council McKelly any other comments from Council Members I definitely um would say that we it would be nice to see like some data on what's already open it's so hard to talk about expansion here when there's so many uh places in limbo right now of getting open we don't really have a lot of play um into this thing to understand like how what how good is it working what's working what's the traffic like any security concerns any incidents at the we have like none of that has been provided to us I think that would be helpful to give to the council as this makes its way through um I mean hopefully we can get something soon um as you know we're moving you know through with this ordinance but I think that would be helpful for folks to see um I think one of the things someone was mentioning in New York we we have a a serious problem without with with cracking down on those who are selling cannabis illegally um in locations uh specifically there are two locations that I sent code enforcement to in the central Ward um they were selling cannabis illegally open being advertised as a smoke shop we close them down and they open back up and for the life of me which I'm going to really delay on here because I want to get everybody out by lunchtime um is I cannot understand why places violate by selling illegal products in their store that they're not you know uh licensed to do and we allow them to open back up I I just I don't get it like I just don't get what is the issue and they were on in New York praising about this last week of how they cracked down on all of these places destroy all of the Cannabis they had Clos the places permanently and for the life of us in the little city of New York we can't do that here like I I just don't understand it so for me it really is a problem when you have people who are not going through any of this process nothing and they are allowed to sell cannabis and sorts of cannabis however you want to put it rather it's in a brownie or lollipop or whatever councilman Gonzalez they allowed to do that and nothing happens to them or they're allowed to keep going so I think we really like you know it's kind of a a real serious issue that we need to kind of crack down on and talk about maybe perhaps the Cannabis committee can talk about it but that is an issue and one is open right now that we just closed before school year ended they're back open lights on you know it's just a little walking distance you know you go walk on down a Broad Street and they're open next door to the Chicken Shack so you can you know it's right there if you want to stop by but they're one of the entities that we close for illegal cannabis who are back open councilman Gonzalez I believe we have to streamline the process the process takes too long to get a license and and then we have to do enforcement they say I believe that that falls in the C category of lawlessness that we have in the city of New York with traffic with the parking double parking people running the lights the motorcycles doing what whatever they want to do I believe we have to enforce the ordinances that we have we cannot continue doing business as usual when people are violating all the laws that we have and nothing happens thank you councilman Gonzalez councilman Kelly um just to add on to what you were saying Madam president uh I had the pleasure of of visiting a a one of the Cannabis spots that are opening in our city amazing place um but they had concerns they said why you know they took we took them through the process like twice and then it's a shop right next to them that are just running illegally like uh council president said was closed down and now open back up and they're they're asking me as being on the council how could you guys as the city let this happen when you guys took us through you know the gauntlet for twice so so without I'm sorry go Council cut you you had another comment no I I just wanted to to to speak real briefly about the data points that you talked about and because we only have three open the the probably most information that we can probably get is from the the vendor that is in the uh East Ward uh at Urban they would probably have the most data points uh as trie otics and City Leaf is just open and so we don't we don't really know the data points behind that as you spoke about which is interesting and then the back piece of what you talked about is all of these places that are being allowed to be open as convenience stores and smoke shops you know the folks you know in and Zoning their their take on it is that as long as a zone for it you know they don't have nothing to say about it it doesn't matter about saturation it doesn't matter about issues and so I do think that we need to take a real hard look at what is happening I've been talking to uh our business administrator about it uh and trying to wrap our arms around this stuff and and really going to come up with uh some some legislation towards this and it may be unfriendly uh but we have to understand that we are a city and we should be in control of our own city um and let people know what businesses and things that we want along our corridors and not be stuck in this kind of Mantra of that well we're just zoning and we don't go out we don't look at businesses we don't look at the amount of bodegas or convenience stores that are saturating areas and we just sit around and we just give out licenses and when there's problems we just want make to sure that you know folks are opening back up stores we can take that approach you know during this time and especially as a city that needs to move forward in so many different areas so I I concur with with all of my counsil colleagues up here okay any other comments before we move on councilman Silva yeah just one thing um being on the Cannabis committee was the councilman Council before they come to us people spend an exorbitant amount of money to try to get this done for sure you know and for us to be stringing them along or taking so long and we're talking about six figures or more people have spent to get to the point of meeting with us uh City residents uh individuals that grew up here and want to put a a successful business here and so I think something has to happen because uh I have people texting me that uh they have secured a location they've have invested money they've done all that and they're still waiting for appointments to get to meet with the Cannabis committee so we need to work with Joselyn to make sure that uh this happens these these um uh meetings with the Cannabis Comm happen more often because uh like councilman Council and the ba will tell you we need revenue for this city uh I know my place in the East Ward that switched from medical to recreational uh and he's doing okay but uh touching on what C uh council president says I know we have a lot of Loc that hurt those type of businesses and so we have a responsibility to those businesses to make sure that we're uh enforcing the laws here in the city um I I will say that uh I did hear back from Joselyn she did have an unexpected kind of situation I don't call it an emergency but an unexpected situation she did plan to be here she say she's on her way now uh but we we agree right we do recognize that uh there is an issue uh with dealing with the state and also going through our process uh I think it's a probably a good idea for us to have more of a dialogue with the state in reference to some of their hold up um I do recognize that Joselyn I mean I've spoken to her on several occasions and she has explained to me that you know she's made phone calls uh to people to follow up on where they are with their state application that is some of the issues but you know the harsh reality is that as you said folks are folks from this city are investing their money hard-earned money into uh aam Dre of doing something different and we need to make sure that we continue to push them forward with like any other business making sure that they get through the process um as I mentioned she'll be here in a few minutes uh to address some of the council's concerns and if you want to have her come up afterwards we can or we can speak to an executive if you want to as well okay thank you so much uh Corp councel I do want to make a note to um for the Madame for Madam clerk as well as to the administration I would like a write up to find out what happened with Exotics smokes to be exact on Broad Street I want to know what how do we determine people who are doing illegal things in locations that we give businesses business license to and then they're allowed to open back up that would be really helpful and hopefully we can get that by tomorrow certainly okay thank you councilman Kelly you had something to add um just one last thing I look forward to uh actually hearing from uh Miss um Wingfield but just like councilman Council said I'm willing to move this forward and I actually want to sponsor this okay councilman Kelly wishes a sponsor do have a second a second second by councilman Council all right next item thank you cor Council thank you so much H is an ordinance authorizing the mayor and or his design to enter into and execute an agreement with bygones LLC for the sale and Redevelopment of city property questions or comments regarding this item yeah M chair oh I'm sorry I was go to councilman Gonzalez yeah and that was my point councilman Gonzalez I know at the last meeting he talked about adding the addresses and not the the lot numbers yeah uh councilman Gonzalez the question here is how much land are we selling and what's the square foot the price per square foot on on this this land seems that to me that that's a the whole block good uh good morning council president council members Alison lad director of Economic and Housing Development um regarding the item before you uh we did do a public solicitation for the locations um that are for sale they are adjacent to one another on Newark Street we received two applications and um the uh selection before you was for over $4 million um is the price that they're going to acquire the property for uh as far as the development they will be doing residential uh mixed juuse development on the site but they will also be replacing uh Hope Village 1 which is currently located on the corner of Newark and Central Avenue and they will be adding inclusionary zoning units um at the site uh to ensure that we have um a mixed income Community there as well so I can and just in closing I can get you the square footage um number um but it was done based upon a process of um submitting a bid for how much they would pay for the property you say replacement of H hope one yes what are they going to do where are they going to put it uh so as far as that's concerned it hasn't been decided um but we are working with the office of homeless Services um I'll pause for a second and say the selection committee uh included the representative from the business administrator's office the department of engineering office of homeless services and also our planning and zoning office I would love to see ER more information regarding 's say what's the intended uh you say home housing and mix use er do we have plans for that do we we do we know how many units they're going to be building yes um the full uh proposal and submission is included in the legistar folder as well um but I'm happy to explain um what the project is so the proposal was to develop 500 units of mixed income residential uh rental housing they'll also provide 30 units of permanent Supportive Housing uh and they will replace the 20 units of transitional housing on um Hope Village one how many was the total units again 500 units total 500 yes ma'am and of those they're going to provide the 20% affordable uh yes sir the um project will comply with inclusionary zoning um and it'll have 20% affordable on site um and that's in addition to what's been stated here oh so it's 20% plus 30 plus the units at Hope one uh yes and that was part of the solicitation that we released was that it would be more affordable housing and and the replacement of Hope Village one in addition to complying with inclusionary zoning at one point in time there was a there was a plan to transfer H let's say DPW to that area there is to see how does this conflict with that well it's not DPW definitely is not going to beat it it would taken up this whole lot that was the plan I mean I don't a long time ago not even a long time ago last year be clear it was plans that this would be the home of the new DPW site so that's obviously not happening anymore correct not it's not my understanding in coordination with RBA Madam president uh yes Council Marine Mo yeah um this this is a lot across from the the the city pump right the the gas pump yeah so so Gomes has pretty much transformed that norol Corridor um and and I guess this is in a addition to the various um Housing Development that they've done along Northfolk do we know how many units they've they've built along that Corridor so far all of it it's like four different buildings right uh yes council president to council member Ramos's question I I don't know the answer offand but I will get it for you and send it to you I do know at a minimum it's at least three buildings um that have been built there um all in and around um this location as well and they've been complying with the uh inclusionary on the other properties no let me answer that no they have not um they they don't let me just be let me be let me be clear let me stop playing they are not underneath IO with any of their properties so I just want to be clear they have no abatement on their properties they you know have been you know Adam and about not having that um you know afford having that opportunity to have a tax abatement so they're not underneath the io on any of those properties along the corridor of North Fork yes council member uh council president you are correct the developments that the goms uh company have developed were done without tax subsidy um I can say that one property has um requested a five-year tax abatement and it's been going under review through the finance office and if it was to be approved for the the fiveyear tax abatement that one project would have to comply with inclusionary zoning and that's the amendment that this Council approved um earlier this year yeah but the the bottom line is that the transaction before us today is the property sale they they are going to comply with the 20% affordability and they're going to replace whatever units um you know hope Village one will lose as a result of this project correct yes correct thank you okay any other questions for council members Sienna thank you thank you 6 P SFA throughh are ordinances on public hearing second reading and final passage council president council members we need to defer items a through C until a special meeting on September 17th before we go to that is the developer here or a representative for 6fh a attorney oh my God it's you Calvin I almost guessed it just wanted to see if you were you know you were here we would like to say hello this is a huge uh sell from the city to a developer one of the largest we've done in a long time so yes we just thought it would be great for the people to see you and for the council members uh to see you as well even though we see you all the time it it'd be nice to see the developer too yes so Mr Gomes has uh who who is the developer here I think we all know he is a a born and raised York resident uh building in this area I I'd like to also note a couple of other things because we are we are very clear on what the city's desires are as we look to redevelop certain areas and this particular area was significantly blighted uh despite the fact that Mr Gomes has not come to the city for a tax abatement and prior uh developments in the area I will note that his average rent is below 80% Ami which in theory would make the entirety of what he's built in that area affordable housing for that area um so he's not charging what we're seeing in some areas downtown um you can get a two-bedroom unit in the low 2000s in some instances for $1,800 so despite the fact that he hasn't come and asked for that relief um he's still very much so within the spirit of what the city is trying to accomplish here um and we have also begun and looking at that area there are several other pieces of property that have been purchased uh by the Gomes group with the desire to help the city with its mandate to have another thousand affordable units within the next 24 months um and Mr Gomes believe that he will be able to contribute to that significantly does this project include parking yes it does I don't have the exact number of it would be nice can I get some information on this yes in the packet that was sent over to the city with to 500 units um you you'll see in there there is a breakdown of the other buildings that he has there's a a breakdown or some of the additional benefits There's No Business Zone uh business improvement district over there but he's basically created himself hired the folks to to to do all of those things it is all laid out in the proposal that went before the the committee on this particular project so I would love to see a detailed proposal about it I this is the first I'm seeing this today um and I'm pretty good about it today I'm in a good mood um but I I don't have any information about it so if you can get me whatever you have on it in terms of details on parking and thus far this area itself and the reason why I Circle back to it even though we were moving on this area is slated for at least another 2,000 units that have been approved through the zoning and Central planning board over the next probably 24 months so it's going to be a very heavy s uated area of new housing which we already have a couple of projects that are already done and ready but in that main travel cor door of Central Avenue and North Fork and norc Street there is a lot of units coming so we need to be mindful for the engineering department and everyone of how we're planning for the uh congestion that's going to happen there um and and all of the new housing that is coming so uh and it's not like it's housing that's been knocked down and we're no it's been for decades um and so we need to really under not to you but to the administration about how do we plan for that for all of the housing that's coming there councilman Gonzalez you had a followup question for Calvin my question is not my question it's an observation they say the price that they're paying is 4 M77 77777 cents so they hit the jackpot any any other comments from Calvin um all right thanin I did want to just uh note that that infrastructure piece is being discussed by the several developers there's about three developers key in that area right now they are having conversations with the city's engineering water sewer around the traffic pattern um the underground infrastructure Etc um so there are discussions dealing with that specific issue sounds good as always thanks for joining us thank you Calvin it's good to see you next I'm sorry madam clerk next item you were seeing we're deferring uh 6 psf a b and c correct correct all right any questions from Council Members regarding the deferral seeing onone D is an ordinance adopting the Sixth Amendment to the norc River Public Access and Redevelopment plan sponsored by councilman Silva second by councilwoman Scott rry any questions regarding this item CNA e is an ordinance amending zoning and land use regulations by adding section 17 storm drainage and section 23 Street designation sponsored by councilman Council second by councilman canana any questions president yes councilman Gonzalez back to the H we are adopting the six Amendment H this is the one that allows buildings to go up to 30 ER and what area is included in this other than the the lot that that is intended to be developed okay I don't know if councilman Silva do you have that information would you like for Deputy Mayor lad to come up um if Deputy Mayor will come but I would like to say uh too that it's the back end of the Iberia from that area Congress Prospect as well as across the street along the riverfront where the uh Horizon brw cross boo Shield building is uh that it's a square map I'm I'm sure the U Deputy Mayor will explain it better but just for the uh for this meeting we did have another meeting on the 27th uh like I promised and uh Council colleague was there along with councilman Crump uh so we did have that other meeting but in regards to the exact map probably the uh Deputy Mayor would uh have better information would that include let's say the nor part of let's say of that lot let's say where the FBI building is and up um let's say up to the north Ward let's say let's say there's a lot of buildings in the north Ward that could benefit from that uh I understand uh council president council members Alison lad director of Economic and Housing Development um this sixth amendment is related to uh three areas um and it's located on Market Street so one is the project that council member Silva mentioned around Iberia uh the second is um an item on this agenda U related to Jersey uh Street um and that will also be included in the amendment and then there's a third uh that pscg owns but they're all immediately adjacent to Riverfront Park um Market Street Raymond Boulevard area in that like one and a half block area it's it's not um sorry and in closing it's not the entire Riverfront front um footprint so it does not go all the way up north um or along marter Highway okay any follow-up questions all right Cen thank you so much Deputy Mayor thank you f is an ordinance amending the tax abatement granted to Oak Tower's urban renewal entity LLC to extend the time frame for the developer to complete construction of the project and to revise and add additional necessary provisions for the project consisting of The Rehabilitation of two existing buildings containing 76 affordable housing residential rental units questions or comments from Council Members M CH want to sponsor that it okay councilman Council wishes a sponsor of a second by councilman Crump any additional questions comments okay Cenna G is an ordinance amending traffic by changing the permit parking hours on various streets in the East Ward sponsored by councilman Silva question second second by councilman Gonzales do we have any additional questions or comments CNN an H is an ordinance amending traffic by changing the meter parking hours on Ferry Street in the East Ward sponsored by councilman Silva second by councilman Gonzalez do I have any additional questions or comments Sienna ordinances 7r1 a through 7 r1e are temporary emergency Appropriations A is for the childhood lead exposure prevention program B is for the immunization project C is for the Ferry Street intersection safety Improvement Project D is for provide funds for the operating expenses until the adoption of the 2024 operating budget in E is for the STD testing and followup questions from Council Members comments CNA 7r1 f is a Cooperative purchasing agreement for the purchase and installation of a safety netting in pictures Mound at Jesse Allen Park okay any questions or comments CNN next item G is to adopt n's Community energy plan questions or comments seeing none H is the Second Amendment to the interlocal agreement between the Newark parking authority and the City of Newark oh what's this you know every time I see New York Park and Authority I get excited anyone clear um you know want to provide some explanation regarding this item I see the director here oh I see Mr uh walr getting up too good morning uh good morning uh Madame President and members of uh Council the uh legislation that you have uh before you uh essentially restores the uh distribution ratio between the city and the nework paring authority to where it was before you passed the ordinance I'm sorry pass the resolution in uh November of uh 22 increasing the fine fees and pill ities before that increase went into effect uh the ratio was 60 in the favor of the city 40 in favor of the New York parking authority after that increase was passed the ratio changed from uh change from 6040 to uh like 69 31 uh perc so what we're trying to do is to restore uh you know that uh that ratio in order to provide uh the uh New York parking authority uh with uh the increase that they were expected to realize from that increase in fine fees and penalties and the additional Revenue that will be going to the New York parking authority will be used for uh number one to uh absorb the increase in their uh debt uh that uh you the debt service charges that will take place in uh 2025 also to establish a uh fund Capital fund for meter uh maintenance and replacement as well as maintenance on the garage and the third uh way in which this additional Revenue will be uh used assuming that it materializes uh will be to uh contribute to their uh pension uh you fund to help uh reduce their their pension uh liability so we are basically giving them more money what's happening they they they would again they would end up getting more money as a result of the increase in fine fees and penalties that you uh passed in November uh 20 uh I think it was November uh 10th of uh 22 okay and since then all of that all of that Revenue the benefit of that uh increase is being acre uh you know to the uh to the city and again if you go back and look at and again this this uh this uh uh local agreement went into effect in uh you know 2008 I believe when we transferred responsibility for parking uh enforcement in the city to uh you know NPA I think there was a an amendment I believe in 2010 uh you know changing uh you know that relationship uh to some extent but again historically that relationship has been uh 6040 uh split has the city did done a financial audit on a nor parking authority uh uh or requested one a copy of their own well the the city doesn't do a financial audit although the parking authority is required to have a financial audit done uh you know annually again I I think that the one that I've looked at I believe was either 2021 2022 have not received one for 2023 yet but I did have an opportunity to look at their budget for uh 2024 that they submitted uh you know to the uh to the state and uh for 2024 they're in good uh in in good shape uh but again going forward again there are going to be some uh increased cost uh that they're going to have to absorb you know for example my estimate is that uh you know given what's in their budget they submitted to the state is that they're going to be looking at an increase in debt service of about $450,000 in uh 2025 okay and with that being said I'm going to go to questions from Council Members councilman Council yeah Melvin thanks for that but the the what is the actual number you said 693 31 but what it what will that number be that that's the first question is it 6840 is it what 6040 you know for example the so it's 6040 6040 60 City 40 porking Authority I got it again and if you project out and it's very difficult to project out uh because again there are a lot of factors that go into this number of tickets written number of tickets actually paid and one of the areas where we need some improvement is in the percentage of tickets paid you know for example if you go back and look at the original agreement the Assumption was that we would collect 80% of the tickets that were actually written we're collecting about 68% of the tickets that are actually written so we have some improvement to do on that regard but having said that again if you like I said project out taking all of that in consideration uh the 6040 would be $2.7 million for the uh City you know based on the last 12 months and this is before you know that increase went into fully went into effect and about 1.86 $1.86 million for the parking authority right so I I don't think that the battle is is about the 6040 to to me I think you've expounded on it what the challenge is during your conversation one uh about the uh receipt of the financial audits right that we may not do what someone else does that we should be receiving a copy of so that we can look at the models of best practices and the alluded to uh the parking authority being able to be better business agents right so we have a building that's down the street that still today doesn't have any functioning um organism that is in rental place or retail space that we should be looking to create some kind of business model down there that will help to create and generate revenue and income to help sustain that building right one and then probably some of the larger kind of challenges um that you know Parking Authorities are trying to deal with nationally that we need to assist or probably lend expertise with with this parking authority right one and probably trying to help um with all of these things that we have going on with uh Towing and all of these other kind of additional concerns that we have in the community as as well as looking to create other kind of models where they can help to sustain themselves with parking you know garages since we've done all of this wonderful stuff with the zoning ordinance right to be able to look at that as it was one of the things that was brought up even by some colleagues up here uh but they have to have some kind of long and you would even find that kind of work in the audit process some long kind of outstanding uh goals that they would want to achieve and and make achievable so I mean because at some point then you you may come back and then say instead of 6040 5050 instead of 5050 4040 I mean so we have to we had to get to those points well just let me let me respond to that council member Council again I will not be coming back asking for 5050 again again 6040 as it as far as I'm concerned with respect to uh generating additional Revenue uh we've had those discussions with the uh housing I me with the par Authority I think they're very aware of where we stand uh with respect to that we've talked about the fact matter of fact just had conversations with director Mack last week in terms of what's happening to that retail space we've also had discussions about how we can get more people into uh you know the parking garage parking paid uh you know people parking uh you know in in the garage we've also talked about you know Towing and other Revenue generating opportunities that may be available to the parking authority and were and whether or not they're sufficiently uh exploring uh you know those uh you know opportunities so uh again thank you for for bringing that up I think that you're right on uh course uh with that uh we have a a meeting the ba has a meeting with the paring Authority every uh two weeks a bi-weekly meeting and those are the kinds of things that we discuss and we will be pursuing uh you those things more aggressively uh let me uh you know say this also uh based because of a lot of development that's going on in the downtown you know area around the city uh the parking authority has lost uh you know Revenue generating you know parking uh you know spaces so that has uh to some extent suppressed uh you know their uh you know Revenue as well but we are certainly uh aware of the need for them to generate uh additional uh you know Revenue and so that's one of the things that we discussing with them and we expect plans uh that they're going to be coming forward with plans uh in order to do that okay let's go to some other questions um councilman Gonzalez the change is prospective and not retroactive I suppose uh yes it's perspective council member and the other question is for the director in terms of employment at the Newark house parking authority how you compare comp to other similar Parking Authorities in in the state and throughout the United States uh good Morning Anthony Mack executive director of New York parking authority uh when you say uh employment in what uh aspect say how many employees you have and how much revenue you generate compared to other authorities in in the state and they say Elizabeth if there is one in Jersey City how do we compare with them in terms of employment and revenue um well I think well we we actually have 38 employees now at the parking authority at one point we were at about 50 so we're down as a result of some retirements and uh some people moving on to other opportunities uh we pay a competitive rate we probably pay uh we want to pay a living wage we we pay a competitive rate compared to other Parking Authorities and I think our budget for for our size of agency is comparable to any uh agency in the in the country definitely in the state now around the state cities like New Brunswick that have significantly more uh municipally owned parking and garages and and lots are going to be able to produce more income but you may you be all aware that the beautiful garage that sits behind us here is the first municipally owned and operated uh parking deck and office building of its uh in the city of Newark um so we we are comparable to other agencies of our size the other thing I'd like to point out is that um the parking authority is an independent Authority we do generate I think Melvin's number was a little uh modest actually I think we generate about $2.7 million to the city uh the city does not give the parking authority any money all the money that is that we raise a portion of that uh the 6040 split in favor of the city for the summonses is produced by the parking authority there's no liability for the city on that obviously not paying for any employees or any health care or any insurance or any of that so it is a a windfall for the city uh this I really don't think this amendment is in my humble estimation anything controversial uh I know that it was we've discussed it somewhat but it it's only fair and Equitable back in 2022 the park the the city realized the count you Council people realized that uh a summons rate needed to go into effect because our uh rate was Antiquated what happened and and I will say was it was our our fault that we didn't simultaneously amend in a local agreement to adjust for the summons rate increase so it would be inequitable for the parking authority not to receive the benefit of the summons rate increase which was what you intended to do by increasing the rate of summonses in the first place you know and and quite frankly I I think it should be retroactive back to the date that the summon was passed but it's not sorry direct me let's kind of stick to the questions because we we got a lot of people who want to say something why 68% collection of the summonses what is trigger what is triggering the say the 32% loss right so that's a big a big issue in primarily it's as a result of not is summons issue it's Collections and and where the collection happens in the municipal court so we we find that there's a high rate of dismissal of parking tickets specifically by the Municipal Court um that that just doesn't happen here it happens all around the state but it is something of big concern why why are they dismissed the tickets most be let's say deficient no no sir the tickets is a result of scofflaw offenders and people coming to the Municipal Court having dozens and hundreds of tickets tickets and uh you know basically pleading for mercy on the court that you know let me I have a 100 tickets let me pay 10 and you dismiss 90 and oftentimes that request is granted I think that the court needs to uh have a a more strict adherence to complying because not only when those tickets are dismissed is the parking authority losing Revenue but the city's losing Revenue because the city's getting the majority of the summons Revenue so it's really a bigger loss for the city as a result of uh those dismissals and so this has been confirmed by the court they they they acknowledge they need to do a better job on it um you know we've had these discussions with the business administrator so it's ongoing and that I think the culture of that is ending the 40% that you receive is based on collections not on tickets issu yes sir collections although we do pay the company uh that issues the E tickets we do actually pay them for every ticket that we issue so we're losing money every time the Municipal Court dismisses a CA a ticket that we actually issue and our accuracy rate of of valid tickets is is extremely high in the high 90 percentile even though you may hear claims from individuals that they're not they are thank you okay I just want to make a record on something that was said because I want to be clear for this um this session I don't want to get us in a situation where not any disrespect to you director but saying that our court has acknowledged that they should do a better job like I have a problem with that because basically we are or you out of your mouth is saying that our court has admitted that they're going to do a better job at making tickets stick for people like I I want to wipe that off the Record and be clear that we are no one here from our court is speaking number one our our chief judge is not here nor is our court counsil speaking of that type of comment so I I want to be clear for the people that are viewing that's not something that this Council promotes to say our court should do a better job at making tickets stick we don't that we're not the judge judge of that I mean no one in his Chambers is and certainly director you are not as well so I just want to be clear about a comment like that um before I go to the other council members I think one and hopefully councilman Silva talks a little bit about it because I know me and him we deal a lot with situations with the parking authority with residents um in the areas and a lot of times there some assessive ticket giving and giving tickets when people shouldn't be giving tickets and they go to court and they're fighting their cases and obviously a judge is saying you know what you have a point residence so we're going to throw this out or who whomever for that matter where we see literally and you notice because I send you copies of some of those tickets or some of those matters that happened and they are not legitimate like so I just want to be clear about that that's just not hypothetically people are just throwing out cases because just the on nor parking authority I I just want to say that Council M Kelly any comments um I just want to how you doing director I'm good thank you what what were the receipt were the receipts in the red for parking authority um last year for um no no I mean we did complete our 2022 audit and we're starting our 2023 audit that's public record it we can provide the council with our audits uh we just completed 2022 we have to submit that just like the city the DCA uh as well as a budget um so there's no getting around state regulations for us but no we're slightly in the black but we definitely are operating uh very close CL so the request for this increase is not because you're in the red well no the request for the increase is because it what was it it is what was supposed to been have been done back in 2022 when the summons rate increased in order for us to get our Equitable share of the summons rate increase so this is not a request from the city for money it is to adjust the other uh legislation that accompanied the summons rate increase that we failed to so essentially we went a year and a half not receiving the revenue that we should that you intended for us to receive when you passed the summons rate increase um and one other thing I would say is that with respect to legitimacy of tickets tickets are often dismissed um by the court for various reasons Administration it's part of the plea bargain process being an attorney I I understand that have done that for clients in the past but when we talk about legitimacy of a ticket a ticket can be dismissed a parking ticket uh even if it's sufficient and it's legally issued uh I don't I would I would say that the parking authority is not out legal illegally issuing tickets and we get calls uh regularly councilman counsel and Kelly text messages about residents actually requesting that we issue more tickets for people who are illegally parking during street cleaning hours mostly um so you know as I would say I probably get more calls about will you please issue more tickets than we do about issuing less tickets well I'm not going to go into like a debate here honestly about it like I know because I speak to Residents each and every day so I'm not going to go back and forth with you to have a debate out here in front of everyone to tell you about how we get complaints from people all the time which we legitimately see from people that it's wrong so you know all of that back and forth I'm going to pause there and go to my other Council council members because the people that we work for they tell us we see it we deal with them each and every day so I'm just going to leave that there councilman Quintana any comments in terms of the any studies on the traffic studies uh director you conducted yeah have you conducted any studies on traffic throughout the city as the parking authority yes we have can I can I get a copy we provided that to you some time ago but I I'll provide it again yes sir please thank you hey councilman Ros uh thank you madam president I think for for tomorrow Anthony and Melvin um what would be helpful we're not the only parking authority in the state right um what what kind of funding agreements do those municip IP alties have with their Parking Authorities you know like what's what's the typical breakdown is it similar to what you're proposing um you know one of the things that I talked to Anthony about the other day is that our commercial corridors are are desperate need of Municipal parking so so I'm hoping that one of the things you guys focus on I know you focus a lot on enforcement U but it's also identifying whether city- owned Lots or or privately owned lots that could be potential sites for um Municipal parking you know we talked about a lot located by Lower Broadway um Bloomfield Avenue there there's a lot of potential and need and you know other authorities around the State Mont Clair in particular have been very successful over the years in identifying Parcels that they convert into whether it's residential or or municiple parking um but but get us a breakdown of what other towns have in place with their Park Parking Authorities you know I do want to commend you on one thing I I've always been critical of the authority because I I feel like it becomes potential for a patronage right like a lot of non enforcement hires you know people who work in you know all kinds of different functions that have nothing to do with enforcement and I've seen that at least in your tenure you've tried to get a better handle on that so if you can provide us with a list of all the staff that you have The Authority by function and and more importantly what kind of salaries are these folks making um I think that will be helpful thank you okay thank you so much councilman Ros councilwoman rree any comments no I think you all have covered pretty much anything I would have asked okay other other than the fact that and I said I wasn't going to say anything um I was very interested in that percentage um you say we had legislative legislation uh that went along with something that you did not receive so I'm I'm trying to figure out um we vote on this legislation for you to receive this percentage um we do get a lot of calls and a lot of complaints we do me I know myself and Mike Silva um we do especially in the East Ward so I'm probably going to do some little research on the legislation and look back into the traffic study as well but I'm truly not not in agreement with the percentages without an explanation further explanation thank you councilman Round Tree councilman Silva yeah um Anthony how you doing good uh we go back like 40 years of all the way back to St Benedict's prep he and I but um anytime I need Anthony I usually have meetings with him so I'm not going to do I'm G to exactly convey my feelings like you said council president I don't want to go back and forth I've had multiple meetings with the parking authority in the East Ward there's certain things uh that I like and I dislike about uh how they operate uh I believe sometimes that um they're a little overaggressive shall I say in issuing summonses to people uh there should be a little more discretion involved uh we don't want to hurt our residents here and that's the bottom line uh but there are tweaks uh director Mack that uh I'm going to suggest to you and um walking privately uh that I think will benefit the city and will benefit our residents and benefit the parking authority as well but this I don't think this is the place I want to do that right now yes sir okay any other questions thank you thank you next item 7r2 a through L are resolutions from the Department of Economic and Housing Development concerning the sale Redevelopment and or transfer of property a is to create a side yard for the adjacent owned property at 140-142 Leslie Street in the South w questions or comments regarding this item councilman Council mam CH would like to defer this item councilman Council wishes defer do I have a second second second by councilman Kelly next Item B is new construction of a three family home to provide one affordable unit and two market rate rentals in the west ward questions or comments from Council Members seeing none next item C is to to use existing lot to provide parking to jent property in the South Ward questions or comments from Council Members m'am CH I like to defer this item councilman Council wishes to defer second by councilwoman Round Tree next item D is to rehabilitate a three family home of which one unit will become owner occupied and of which the other two units will be rented at market rate in the South Ward questions or comments from Council Members not like to move this item forward okay councilman Council wishes to move forward do I have a second second by councilman Crump next item e to rehabilitate property and sell to an owner occupant homeowner at 80% Ami or less in the central Ward questions or comments regarding this item actually I'm going to ask for this item to be deferred again second by councilman Quintana next item f is to renovate existing retail structure and Lease out property to retail users at market rate in the South Ward questions or comments I'm ask for this item to be deferred he doly noted councilman Council d a second second by councilman Crump next item G is to provide an office space for hcj construction with three residential units above with parking two units will be market rate rentals and one unit will be affordable at 80% Ami in the South board questions or comments I'd like to move this item forward he councilman Council wishes to sponsor and move forward second second by councilwoman round Tre any other comments CNN H is to authorize invest newk to acquire maintain and dispose of certain city-owned properties okay any questions or comments regarding this item Council May Council yeah Madam chair there there were some items that I thought from the southw perspective that needed to be taken off in trunch 3 so I would like to have that kind of conversation I know we were asked to have conversations earlier with some of the folks and we were having those kind of conversations about determination and about um you know other things that that was in that template that I think that in some instances can be done faster than what invest Nork is trying to do okay um I know Deputy Mayor lad and director Ren off is here any other comments or questions as they approach Council M Kelly um yeah I had a great conversation with the land banking comp uh land banking Department as well and Deputy Mayor so um I'm I'm looking at the same thing that that councilman uh Council was talking about when it comes to certain um properties in the west W and throughout the rest of the city okay Council Deputy Mayor lad good morning council president council members Alis lad director of Economic and Housing Development um as the legislation is part of Economic and Housing Development we will work with the respective council members along with invest newwark to provide um documentation for an amendment on the floor uh for tomorrow and but we will circulate it to the council members uh today okay any uh additional questions or comments regarding this okay thank you um and Madame President if I could just say I did want to just note that appreciation to Marcus Randolph the president and CEO of invest nework I know that he spent uh much time reaching out to every council member um and was able to make time to meet with almost everyone and still has a meeting today scheduled so uh I know that we're working to address any questions that the council has on the landbank okay thank you so much Deputy Mayor and thank you so much um president well director president director CEO Randol thank you okay next item I is to provide for new construction of a two family home and rehabilitation of a three- family home to sell at market rate to the city of Nork employees in the South Ward questions or comments regarding this item okay counc counil wishes to defer do I have a second second by councilman Kelly next item Jay is to rehabilitate property and sell to a NK firsttime home buyer at 120% Ami and to construct a new three family home to provide affordable rental units at 60 to 40% Ami in the South for questions or comments I Like to Move It Forward M move forward yes um do I have a second to sponsor this item second second by councilman Kelly okay wishes to sponsor this item Kelly next item K is to rehabilitate a two family dwelling for rent with one unit at market rate in the other unit at 80% Ami in the South Ward 7 r2k any questions or comments councilman Council so Madam chair a after um going through the the information um and looking at the designation the actual property sits in the central W okay there's a correction to the ward all right any other comments or questions regarding this item seeing none we can make a note to change the a absolutely L is to is to authorizing the execution of a settlement agreement with 50-58 Jersey Street LLC questions or comment questions or comments regarding this item 7r2 l president I'm sorry Council mccom thank you if we could just get an explanation of this matter uh good morning council members council president Allison lad director of Economic and Housing Development uh this item before you is to resolve uh litigation uh associated with the site on 50-58 Jersey Street uh we worked with should this be an executive session yes I'm sorry councilman Crump I can't hear you this be an executive session this I didn't realize it was a if it's a settlement is this a legal settlement uh it's yes okay let's take this to Executive sorry about that thank you councilman CR next item 7r3 a through 7 r3d are amending application acceptance of Grant funds regarding the New Jersey Department of Transportation A is for the Mars Canal bike I'm sorry I thought someone said something no it's my apologies A is for the Mars Canal Bikeway Project B is for the bike way program for downtown connector project C is for the fery street safety Improvement project and D is for the five W Paving Improvement various streets questions or comments from council members Gonzalez yes can someone explain to me let's say the Ferry Street Improvement six million dollar okay director won good morning council president council members um I'm sorry councilman G can you repeat your question please the Fairy Street what is it what are we doing on Fairy Street that cost $7 million okay so um this is a connection to the um fery Street traffic circle that we're doing um but this is uh more of The Pedestrian uh portion of the project um through the corridor Fair Street what are we doing that there a what what cost $7 million and the circle is different the circle is the Wilson Circle there's a $1.6 million associated with that so we are talking about $9 million between Ferry Street and the circle on on Wilson Avenue so what are we doing it's my question yeah sure um you know I can send you the details on the actual project um but it's pedestrian improvements from the beginning towards the circle so um looking at Fairy Street um doing studies of what what would uh work uh best and then um anything from pedestrian to um traffic calming um to um Street it's like they call it um along the corridor of Ferry Street um if you would like more information and detail I can definitely send it over tonight I would love to see what we're doing with the $9 million yes sure sure right any other additional questions comments yeah and just so councilman Gonzalez understands it's not fa it's East Ferry uh a part that was never done and completed so it's going to go from Merchant uh all the way down to Lexington Street so it's not fair like know Ferry the cour the main quarter it's actually the main quarter has been completed with bump outs and all that stuff this is the connection that was never done uh from Merchant all the way down East Ferry Street okay it's not it's not they say what we know from fence station to no Circle no okay any additional questions comments yeah I would love to see what we're going to do and where but uh that clarifies a little bit of a concerns okay any other questions comments Cena next item e is a bid contract to award Nork Ironbound roundabout safety Improvement Federal project questions or comments I'd like to sponsor that counc presc councilman Silva Wishes the sponsor do have a second second by councilman Kelly next item 7 r4a is approving the form of sale of City secured bonds okay is Ben here yeah in the corner hi Ben good morning council president council members uh this resolution is authorizing the sale of uh secur Bill Bonds for the uh green infrastructure project uh this had previously been approved by Council and we are submitting application to uh sell $450,000 in bonds to uh New Jersey infrastructure bank which again offers uh zero to low cost uh interest and there is some principle forgiveness at sometime in the future okay questions from Council Members CN thanks Ben you're welcome 7 r4b through 7 r4l are applications for Urban Enterprise Zone funding B is for the clean and green project C is for the Fairy Street streetscape and Improvement Project D is for the public safety and Retail Patrol project e is for the collabor square renovation project F is for West Market cleaning and beautification Project G is the Orange Street streetscape Improvement project H is a South Ward streetcape Improvement project I is the exterior improvements incentive pilot program J is a shuttle bus service project K is a South Ward small business loan pilot project and L is a facade Improvement Grant pilot project questions or comments from Council Members council member Remos yeah I'd like to sponsor the um collabo Square which one collabo square I second that yeah I'm looking for the number now I think it's a 7 r4e e right yes okay councilman Ramos wishes to sponsor second by councilman Gonzalez I have a question on the on the shuttle bus okay yeah what what route will that have okay um director Randolph I hopefully you heard that question I did thank you good morning council president council members uh thank you Council uh M gonzale so this shuttle bus the intention of it is for it to bring people from all the wards down into Central business district but sessen the Arts and education district and then shut them back so literally this morning there was a call trying to figure out what that uh what those roots would be and so either they'll figure out a way that this specific amount of money can be used to cover a specified period and routs or there'll be a a bigger uh I gu say more expanded shuttle service in which these dollars can be contributed to it but the exact roots are still being figured out but the intention is all the wards downtown and then back home so we will have more than one boss because oh yes absolutely yeah we've actually already been doing this for the past two summers um yeah we we actually had Miss Walker who came before us not too long ago to talk about a longterm I don't see her here but talk about a long-term plan to try to get residents across different WS to attend different events happening um throughout the city not just the central W specifically or the East um with events but uh the different drop off locations usually leave from a landmark place in the wards and bring them to the event and take them back home and it kind of runs all day like a regular bus um for families to get on and off uh councilman gz I can't hear you yes how many bosses you more or less estimate that you will have because let's say to bring people from the five Wards is going to be let's say complicated to say the least and then to bring them back I suppose correct that's right that's right ER all of these individuals are going to leave the the see the venue more or less at the same time so you will have to have enough buses to to take them back and not have them waiting let's say for the for another bus or for the bus to come back so how many do you think you will have let let me speak to Miss Walker and and I'll send you an email she's had a call on that this morning okay thank you appreciate can I same to all the council M it will be to all the council yeah that's a given um any other questions for Council Members Council Sila yeah i' like to sponsor 4C 4C do I have a second second by councilman Quintana any other comments regarding these items I'm CH four 4H and 4K I would like to sponsor 4 H and 4K hold on second flipping through councilman Council 4H and 4K you have a second cor second second by councilwoman Round Tree any other comments all right seeing none thank you thank you next item m is a stipulation of settlements for tax appeals questions are comments regarding tax appeals CNA 7 r5a is a contract with subrecipient to provide Ryan White HIV health and support services yeah I'm sorry madam chair can can we go back to uh the tax appeals piece I'm I'm not sure if Frank hit the the I remember asking before how much have we paid back in tax appeals and and we never got that that information can we have a follow follow up uh Madam clerk to the department for something in write into the council regarding the total amount is that just for this year of councilman Council yes for this year and the tax appeals how much we've paid back yeah good morning Benjamin m Department of Finance I'll have to check but I believe we did Supply that information as requested from a prior meeting to the clerk's office that deated to you what the total amount of refunds were for the year and how many uh credits were given to those properties because of these uh the from these tax appeals okay if we can just send it to the clerk and then clerk can get it over to the council thank you Ben welcome all right back to 7 r5a any questions seeing none next item 7 r5b through 7 r5e or application acceptance of Grant funds B is to provide support for STD testing and patient followup C is the childhood lead exposure prevention program D is the IM communization Grant of 2025 and E is the lead Grant acceptance program questions or comments from Council Members see n 7 r5f is a gift donation from Fidelis Care to provide funding to Def Fray costs and provide sponsorship for National Health Center week questions or comments CN n 7R 6 a through D are all Professional Services contracts with Law Department I'm sorry go ahead Madam I'm so sorry that's okay a is litigation defense B is for labor and employment matters C is for litigation defense D is for litigation defense as well and e is a loan agreement to authorize the execution of the 2024 transitional Aid loan agreement questions or comments see 7R 8 a is authorizing the reading of the city of nework 2024 Municipal budget by title only okay questions or comments regarding that item yes councilman Gonzalez I'm going back to 76e the $22 million loan what's the interest on that oh yeah we actually um I feel like we skipped over that go ahead I'm sorry I'm losing track yeah U good morning Eric Penning to business administrator I I don't know if you got there yet but the interest is Z get to it say z% loan okay thank you I just want to say Madam clerk we we did skip over 7R 6E oh did I that's the kind of that's what uh councilman Gonzalez just asked about did we or did we not oh okay all right forgive me just want to make sure I mean you know I would say it's past lunch so I'm like kind of like you know brain not functioning all together but it's not even lunchtime yet okay um before we move on can I just want to go back to page 18 for 7r2 E I had asked for that to be deferred but I'm actually going to return it to administration because we deferred it last time 7 r2e returned to Administration I had requested that and then councilman Quintana second it councilman quana are you still okay with s in the back okay toly noted okay back to page 46 page 46 7 r8b through 7 r8f are ceremonial Street designations B is for Mario teeria Jr sponsored by councilman Silva do have a second second by councilman Quintana next item 7 R8 C is for Anna Dolores valz sponsored by councilman Ramos do you have a second second by councilman Quintana D is for senior Bishop Coy Edwards and council president council members this is sponsored by councilman Council but it needs to be amended on the floor to include the date of September 20th at 5:00 p.m. okay do I have a second second second by councilwoman round next item 7 r8e is a ceremonial Street designation for americ newspaper sponsored by councilman Silva second by councilman Quintana lerico Luso Americano my apologies we're butchering next item F is for Angelo Elby sponsored by councilwoman Scott rry second by councilman Kelly Madam chair yes councilman Council I I do want to speak to the issue because this is in in my ward of the the age restriction piece and that we have to monitor this right I mean supposed to be 80 years old and this individual is not 80 okay supposed to be 80 years of age and or veteran uh the person who served and come back uh basically there uh there should be uh some kind of way that we can sit down and do some waivers on certain uh items but I don't think this is the right time to right I thought there was supposed to be a committee or committee getting together to discuss one person we're gonna move forward I think we need to look at some benchmarks waivers for the future so that we don't get caught up in this okay a councilwoman Scott Roundtree okay so I spoke to um I guess the majority of the council I spoke to councilman Council first um we spoke councilman Crump on I guess for the last five months if not longer and councilman canana I know we set up a couple of meetings councilman Crump to um you being the legal mind in this committee to adjust amend this ordinate ordinance first of all everybody did you know is good but everybody 80 there are people that are maybe 60 to make contributions it's about contributions and what have we done in this city what are we doing and that's something I believe councilman cannis and Council Gonzalez stated like what are the contributions we did melbour Moore nobody had a problem with that street dedication just because we cooked a few chicken dinners does not mean that we should do a street dedication but if somebody's getting ready to donate proceeds from their book that was raised in the South Ward that have traveled this world um doing things making new um I should say um yeah the the platform of what they do uh this gentleman has written a book and is everyone else is doing the release and then they came uh to nework and asked since April would we at least host a book signing for this nework resident and um while he Now does not actually reside in nework he still is talking about doing things in newk he has P partnered with pastor Kevin Taylor um the njc s njc building they're getting ready to donate the proceeds which would have been announced which will be announced um if this is aborted um by the um the proceeds will be going to the lgbtq community uh to provide housing for our youth so in and this has to be done expeditiously um councilman Crump counc in canana we have to amend this because to have somebody have to wait for 80 and they've done some out understanding things in this community and I keep saying that we're going to run out of street signs soon just by naming people street signs because they're 8A dead but there should be some something that goes along with um us saying that we're going to pay this honor or pay homage to someone who has done something for the City of New York or contributed to the city of New there's some I just want to say that because we've been talking about the street education since I've been on the council we haven't amended the ordinance and so I gather this is a good time to really make sure this happens before our next meeting to get something to the clerk Law Department to the whole Council to review first to say it's okay with you guys and then go forward with it so I just want to make a note before we go to the other speakers like we can't spend this meeting talking about Street dedications absolutely we had this come before us when we were dealing with the situation with the kns way y a while ago a couple of meetings ago and councilman Crump a councilwoman Scott rry and whomever wanted to was supposed to work with the clerk's office to have a meeting to have an amendment come before this Council for us to consider each time another item comes up we're back here again having a dissertation with everyone saying what they feel like the committee or the folks who have raised their hand and who W like doing these items you know which is really all of the council have to work together to put an amendment on the floor of what we feel like we want to do but we can't use the meeting time to talk about that for everyone to have a dissertation every couple of meetings when one item comes up that folks don't necessarily all agree with or there's some situation where doesn't go with the current Amendment so we've been constantly constantly talking about it so just like last time I said Madam clerk can you please work with the folks who said they wanted to do it to please make an amendment because it's it's not it's not wise of our time to just keep coming up here bringing it up over and over and over and over and over again and we're not doing anything to correct them so please if we can just get to some type of amendment among this wonderful group of people to say this is what we want to do instead of wasting the time to do a dissertation again each meeting councilman Crump and then councilman Kelly real quick I was just saying I'm working on putting Amendment together to circulate to the the body and I I'm committed to having it done and working with the clerk's office by early next week to sub to to sit to the council to review to see if it's okay so great that's music to my ears councilman Kelly I foro my time just to scre it up but I just say that I know who Angela Elby is and he's a he's an icon in the industry and he comes from North so I mean I I just like canana said you know I think we need some waivers and all of that and push it forward but I I won't speak any further yeah and this is no this is no disrespect to anyone who's on list this is just about process and making sure we bring things up to par okay next item if all hearts and minds are clear seminar h g and H are both waving special event application permit fees for the annual back to school celebration both are annual back to school celebrations sponsored by councilman canana do you have a second second by councilman Kelly next item 7 r8i through j a whole harmless and indemnification agreement I is for Kasa Cabra J is for the end of summer senior barbecue I'm sorry item I is sponsored by councilman canana do I have a second second by councilman Gonzalez next item J is an IND summer senior barbecue sponsored by council president mcgyver second by councilman Crum next item K is declaring support for healthc care workers to establish minimum staff to Patient Staffing standards sponsored by council president mcgyver do I have a second second by who councilman Quintana L is an attestation of review of the city audit any questions regarding 7R 8 L see n 7 hour 8m is recognized in and commending resolutions that need to be amended on the floor to include Susan M clearly okay said and 7 r8n is expressing profound sorrow and regret which also has to be amended on the floor to include Mr lores Johnson okay any questions or comments seeing 7r9 a is application acceptance of Grant funds funding for overtime to address violent crimes questions or comments regarding this item page 537 r9a CN seminar 11a is a memorandum of understanding with Ironbound boxing Academy to inspire youth to develop life skills to succeed academically and to create relationships through the sport of boxing questions or comments regarding 7R 11a councilman Silva yeah I just want to thank the ba for making this happen uh this is a program that's very important not only to the kids in the East Ward but the entire city so I just want to thank the ba for making this happen of course would you like to sponsor councilman Silva yes councilman Silva wishes a sponsor do I have a second second by councilman Kelly next item 7 r12a is a Professional Services contract for design and construction administration of the improvements to the petty ditch questions or comments cn9 Communications item 8A is an ordinance amending rent control by making various Corrections okay can we get an explanation regarding this item good morning council president council members Allison lad director of economic Housing Development uh thank you for the time to review on the recommended amendments to the rent Control Ordinance uh so I just wanted to start by saying that I know we know that rent control has been a large topic um in our city um and especially over the last year and one of the things that the city's been able to do in the last year is we were able to hire a new rent regulations officer um her name is Tammy pit and she is present um in the chamber so I didn't want let you know that she's been with us for about nine months I keep thinking it's longer because she's doing a great job um but she's been really um active and working to administer the program so just a few statistics and then I'll get into the changes um this year alone we have 648 properties registered we've had 931 properties sent notices of violations of non-compliance how many was the number 931 okay um we've had six uh requests for new construction waivers um that have been processed and also through the board meetings that have been held this year $78,750 we've been able to understand the operations um of rent control and try to be practical about the development that's happening here so the changes that we're recommending um we did work with outside Council like dama and they are present in Chambers also we worked with an Anthony zakos and also Victor afanador they were key in helping us address this uh not only because of their work in Newark but because they have a perspective throughout the state of New Jersey uh to the changes um and they are brief um so bear but I'll won't belabor Madam president uh one we wanted to clarify the powers of both the rent control board and the rent control officer so that's something that was not clear in our opinion um in the current law so we asked so we're asking to make some changes so that they're more clear um not necessarily changing Powers but just making it more clear about what the powers are uh second um this is really a practical issue we found is um as you know with uh the new construction exemption the requirement is is that developers have to submit a certificate of occupancy as they submit for the exemption this is for new construction projects but now in our city you're seeing development that has multiple phases and so they may get a temporary certificate of occupancy but per the current law they aren't allowed to really submit for the exemption until they have a CFO which means they're delaying the ability to lease out the units and even are affordable units so what we're asking for is to allow a TCO that will be specific about which buildings and which units would be falling under that so that the owner can actually lease up those units and then they still have to get a formal co uh to be able to get the full exemption and we just found this to be a practical recommendation because we're seeing it too often now now as development is occurring in the city the third is is that um the vacant building standards and the renovation standards were different and we thought that was unusual because a vacant building is a renovation so our suggestion is to make them the same and so that's what you'll see here is that they both have to meet the same bar uh for following uh rent control rules uh the next item is rent rebates um our recommendation is to limit the rent rebates to two years um currently the amount is um well it's unlimited and so we found that that may have been something helpful especially during covid uh when we had a rent moratorium and then we had to address some issues with non-compliant owners but we believe that now we should be more consistent with what we think is just a reasonable application that two years um is a reasonable time frame of course we're willing to have a conversation with anyone on that topic uh next is fees and there's only the fees and the last one is violations so the fees we have not updated fees since 2017 um and so we looked at when we were looking at this section well what are other cities doing and so what we're looking to do is be more consistent with uh neighboring jurisdictions like Hoboken um and also uh Jersey City and so we're asking to increase the fees um on some of the items under rent control one item in particular um is that we want to have a annual registration fee of $50 plus a $10 fee per unit and that's something that both the other two jurisdictions do currently right now it's just one flat rate what's our flat rate um I'm sorry I just it's $250 per building okay so our suggestion is is that it should be more all-encompassing so it should be per unit um but there's also an amount to register the entire property uh second um we're looking at late registrations uh to be updated to be um $100 per year uh plus $20 per unit the third item that we're looking at is um new construction vacant property um substantial renovation substantial rehabilit ated vacant unit applications we want to increase it from $25 to $250 um the last item is related to violations um we want to allow us to assess higher violation charges currently the amount is $500 and we'd like to have the maximum be 2,000 um and that concludes the summary of the um recommendations that we're making under the rent control um or uh we do again have both our legal counsel and our rent control officer here if there's other detailed questions um we're also happy to meet with you between now and the next consideration of the law uh to answer any questions he thank you deputy mayor uh councilman Gonzalez the question is not related to what you just explained is what is the rate that the rent can be increased oh thank you so it's related to CPI um so right now I want to say we're under what is it it's 4% is where we are at this point 4% is the maximum is the maximum but it's also a calculation of CPI plus um a number so is either the CPI or 4% whatever is is slower or Miss pittz we can welcome Miss Pitts up as well I was going to ask Miss Pitts to stand so everyone can see her and meet her but this is Miss pittz our new rent control off good morning my name is Tammy pit I'm the rent control officer for the city of nort and the CPI changes every 15th of the month so at this current month and last month it was 4% but it can go as low as 2.9 but never exceed 4% so is the lowest of yes oh okay thank for as four as the highest thank you okay councilman Ramos yeah Madame President um you know I just want to thank the the rent control office I know we refer a lot of individual cases there um what one of the challenges that I see in the city is that we have a lot of tenants that you know English is not their primary language and I often find that you know amongst that Community they they tend to be victimized more than than other tenants because they're not even aware sometimes that we do have laws in the books that um you know restrict the amount that landlords could increase rents um then this is probably more for deputy mayor uh are there any efforts on your part to include some resources so that we can do some kind of public relations campaign get information out in multiple languages uh you know we had a a French Creole family that we recently helped um you know his landlord was pretty much imposing double digigit increases on them uh and they weren't aware that nework was a rent controlled City so I I think we got to do a better job of getting the information out uh in a manner that our residents could understand yes I council president to council member Ramos's question um we do need to expand um the language access that we have in our department um we know that we often have our paperwork um and marketing materials and communication in English Spanish and Portuguese but to your point it's not regularly translated into French Creole but um i' close by telling you though that in our department we are very diverse and so we have a lot of multilingual um employees in the department so we do have people who could translate um if there was a person that needed that or a family that needed a different language um but I'll close by saying uh we agree we need to have more um of our paperwork translated into multiple languages and we'll commit to doing that even like digital ads like you know get creative and figure out a way to reach out and let people know that we do have these laws to protect them and sometimes they're not even aware the only people that are going to reach out to your office are people that may think that they're uh you know they have an illegal increase but for every one person that reaches out there's like 10 residents out there that have no clue so understood all right councilman Kelly um thank you madam president councilman Ramos actually asked a question that I wanted to ask but but I do want to say that um thank you to uh Miss Tammy pittz for helping me in the west ward with with just those things um getting um owners registered actually uh some people were being overcharged uh for their rent they were just raising their rent and she stepped in and helped us you know mitigate those situation so I just want to say you're doing a good job you know thank you for assisting Us in the in the west and I know you're probably doing the same thing around the entire city so thank you okay thank you councilman Kelly councilwoman Scott Roundtree I too want to thank you for not just um Citywide actually with the evictions that are taking place by landlords who are not registered so that that education piece is so very important because with the eviction rate being as high as it is some of the tenants don't even know their rights um they have illegal lockouts property owners are not registered and you have been very instrumental in providing those residents with protection by giving them the proper information so I too want to thank you for that okay any other comments or questions I I do want to say thank you to miss pit as well um very responsive we are grateful for your leadership in that department and you coming on board and all the work you've done it's a really heavy load in rent control um each and every day because we do refer but as I have been saying for years the same thing that councilman Remo said we have to promote more to let people know how they are being violated if people do not know there are so many people out there in the city of Nork who are just not even aware of what a violation is all the way down to if I don't have any heat I can get a rebate if I don't have any running water I can get a rebate there are so many residents that are dealing with that each and every day and they have no idea to call a rent control office or their council member for that matter um to refer them so at the end of the day you know we really need to put more information out there and then another thing I was thinking in closing is that we should list the rent control buildings every property that is rent control underneath R control all of those that have waivers we should list those on the website um we got like a couple of um emails this week like people just ask like hey is my bill control because they're not familiar with like the law if it is or not so we should have that listed for residents so they know hey like you can't do this to me or whatever the case might be which goes hand in hand with the resources part like you know of letting them know what violations are such and such but definitely agree with this you know you know my motto um very on the amounts you know to me when people are in violation you know I don't really have much sympathy of there but you know we'll take you a little bit at a time right with that being said I would like to advance and adopt this item to first second by Council Melly thank you thank you Deputy Mayor all right raffle licensing yes approval the raffle license any questions regarding raffles seeing none council president council members we do have one added starter added starter yes you're kidding me with 56 Pages all right who's the added starter this is item legis star file number 24- 0810 concerning the Ironbound roundabout the Ironbound what roundabout roundabout yes who does it belong to this is an engineering item I think it made it on the agenda it's on the agenda good afternoon council president council members um this particular uh line item is a requirement so that we can get um ahead on the construction um for the project um we need to have this approved uh and the construction on the way um there's a deadline that we have to meet December 31st so we want to put it in front of council so that we can have um it in front of um do as soon as possible okay councilman Silva want to sponsor that okay councilman silver wish is to sponsor do I have a second second by councilman Kelly all right any other questions from Council Members what is the item oh it's a the Ironbound roundabout it's for the construction what is it that we're doing the roundabout they say what what are we approving so um The Bu budget we had an original budget and when the bids came in um I'm the limits okay um I I have to send you the limits councilman because I don't have um the item in front of me um to be honest with you uh but um it is in front of um the um uh the firehouse um on the on on ferry like when you go down F I have to give you the the the the streets that it meets because it's about like five to seven Street study this other starter we are approving let's say more money or what is it that we are approving Madam clerk do you have it no no okay anytime we do added starters or we request add a starters to this Council we have to come with everything we need here because it is a ask of us to consider something that we don't have in front of us so we can't come to this mic I feel like it's like deja vu I feel like we had this happen in the last meeting with something I don't I don't know not to you director but we come and we don't have the information that doesn't really help us here because what are we doing imagine it in our head what it is so we need to have some information here with us when you're presenting it to the council to consider I mean we're going to definitely you know I think councilman Silva helped you out about 75% by wanting to sponsor it but still this Council the other eight we do not know what it is that we're talking about so perhaps you can go and find us the information get it to us so that we can see if we're going to consider it tomorrow absolutely Madam president I do apologize because it was one of the items that was in the last steps in leg justar and you know it made it through um so I'll make sure that the council has all the information um but it is it is because of a deadline to in jdot so I do appreciate your consideration okay is that okay councilman Gonzalez I just want to see I mean I don't know if it if it it got to be okay because it's not here so I just want to see what what what is it that we're approving underst councilman I'll have that information to you today okay thank you so much any other added starters no okay moving on okay we are now in the 30 minute public comment portion of this meeting where each speaker will have three minutes to speak please state your name for the record okay good good morning still is it morning this dragged me out Felicia Austin Singleton um Jose RAR I first wanted to start off by saying thank you to councilman my councilman for our community meeting in the west ward I hope you heard and understood the concerns of that part of the West Ward also to councilman Silva who gave his community meeting on our barberias I hope you heard and consider the residents um um responses to that I just want to say y'all are some greedy low down don't do nothing counsel you it's unacceptable that you let your directors come up here unprepared yet they open stuff up in this pre meeting and a public meeting and never bring it back to the community so we can know the answer or response to whatever the questions you asking for information because if you don't have it that means we don't have it okay also I want to say dealing in debt and Stealing In The Name Of The Lord y'all better get it together y'all better get it together these orders are serious y'all don't know 60% and 69% to 31% who getting what when and where y'all just ciphering money ciphering money the iberus project and these two over here laughing I'm going to get them tomorrow I can't wait to get them cuz their law license should be taken away according to this iberus project the residents don't want it this is nothing but a developer gift okay nothing but a developer gift first of all I want to know do you have air taxes on those buildings or maybe that's something you should look into you got too many problems when did I tell y'all about the drainage problem of the sewer did haven't not been talking y about them sewer tapping lines all this water flooding in the city clean the drain catches I kept telling y'all when you push water in push water in what happens it's going to flood back you don't have a proper drainage system and this all goes with housing so I ain't Crossing no lines in engineering when you the city of North y'all keep saying oh we doing this we doing that it wasn't no lead pipe line service it was you guys up there at the water shed who didn't mix the chemicals right let's get that straight but the P River was what are they going to do about that Phil Scott said some o over um storm dreams and stuff like that no the East war is known for flooding listen to the residents they don't want that they wanted to keep their restaurant there look for the air taxes on them two buildings and the property that y'all talking about the riverfront park that's psng get it back from the for the city or if they got it back then use it correctly don't have the Developers talking about what they going to redevelop on that land for open Green Space when they should be doing it in their own buildings thank you next speaker de Salter city of nor Warrior for the people I have to defer my agenda for today till tomorrow because I have to address uh this Parking Authority business uh with Anthony Ma so thank you council president for setting him straight um because I doubt very seriously I know when I was in court about those uh bogus tickets still thousands of dollars worth um given by SoDo who is an abuser a stalker a harasser um and uh nothing was done and he still has his job so these tickets and the parking authority is a mess the machines they've made some of them only card only where you can put your credit card if you don't know that by the time you find out you come back you have a ticket it's a scam we didn't need them years ago we don't need them now because they're hurting the people so now uh Mr wardr gets up here and he's telling us about their problems that's a them problem okay we gave them that parking lot for a dollar and we are paying $249,000 a year for the next 30 years for five spaces per council person that don't even get used so their problem is our problem how and where's the revenue that you're saying that we receive so if we receive 2.1 million or 2.9 Million where is it because when I Opa requested the funds that's given to the city I was never given those documents okay so the parking authority wants to bleed we the residents dry why he wants to recoup 2022 weren't we still in Co or coming out of covid even when covid was happening and you all told us to stay inside they wanted to ticket the cars that were on the street how greedy and in just just irresponsible these people are and do we run them or do they run us who runs this city for real then uh with Hope Village uh K uh Gonzalez the day that the opening was I and Mona had a conversation with you that you know about us owning that property that entire block so hope Village one through five could have gone there but no Gomez started parking his trucks there uh they built the little uh uh garage and uh restaurant lounge there so are they paying taxes to the city or did we sell that part of the property to them but you uh uh acknowledged that we the city of New York own this property so now we're selling it when it could have been used and I spoke to you about this then it could have been used if you were going to do the Hope Villages they could have all gone there different infrastructures put there right or affordable housing 30% and Below could have gone there and now we're selling it for for what I asked you then and I asked you to speak to your Council colleagues and let's come to an agreement about our people and how we are going to live and now it's on the agenda to be sold to Gomez who already has it thank you next speaker good afternoon good afternoon president and members of this August body uh Kim Gaddy executive director of the southw environmental Alliance I will be speaking on 6 psf our ordinance regarding the nuzzler um and one part it states whereas the Department of Economic and Housing Development wishes to modify section 44-3 permitted uses in Industrial Airport and Port area districts to conditionally permit truck tractor trailer and heavy vehicle parking or storage in the industrial area you know we've been here before southwater environmental Alliance partnered with ICC and 20 different organizations 600 residents for the norcas organized for accountable development we can't keep being disrespectful to the community too many things are going and being presented before this August body things and deals are being cut behind the scenes and Community don't know about it our South Ward and I our councilman he does things a little bit differently he reaches out to the community he have meetings so we know what is going on there is transparency and so when you think about issues like this and especially our Port our Port is the economic engine for the Tri-State region but is the diesel death zone for all of us who live across right in close proximity of that airport um and the port we do truck counts on a yearly basis between Freeland heis and Avenue six different locations we count 400 trucks in one hour these are the oldest dirtiest trucks you know that our residents are suffering and dying from premature cancers kidney failers heart attacks we have more students now where we're having a cluster cancer cluster that is developing you know my story had three children who had asked my lost a son to a premature heart attack this is not stuff we need to play with when we're talking about truck traffic pollution sources that is killing us and then you're talking about the backyard that Freeland heisen Avenue where we have probably 2500 to 4,500 senior citizens who when they step out their door this is something that is directly impacting them when you come down Freeland heisen Avenue and individuals are coming out of dialysis center this is something that is directly impacting them we want to have a seat at the table our lives are at stake and our lives matter and we have to stop letting the economic development office push these things through without individuals being able to express our concerns so I thank you for this opportunity we'll be back tomorrow my staff um but I just really want you to value our lives peace and blessing thank you Miss Gaddy for your comments and concerns next speaker Good morning George Tillman um Madame President uh Municipal counsil corporate counsel and the business administrator I've been coming to this microphone now for almost one year and we've been talk discussing 6sf the First Source linkage program which was instituted in uh October 11th of 2000 and 6f and F the New York Employment Commission which was instituted until uh law 1118 2002 along with the nework employment policy and the nework resident job policy office so um as much as we continue to give out these tax abatements as much as we've I've come here and as much as the administration and the ba corporate counsel deputy mayor has come to this mic and said that the nework Employment Commission is non-existent and inactive as much as the council president has also stated that this commission is no longer in play anymore this is still a part of our law these laws were written in the year 2000 and the year 2002 under the ordinance uh the tax abatement committee the office of affirmative action Economic Development nor the web is in that law law as the ones who Monitor and and uh and enforce the compliance of these laws the Administration has come up here the business administrator corporate counsel has come up here the deputy mayor has come up here both Deputy Mayors the uh um council president has also stated that these components of the law are non-existent in our government which is non compant to our laws we do not have compliance revenue from our tax abatements from these developers have not been uh coming in from these developers or paid we just gave out a tax abatement to another developer who owes the city $1.5 million so I don't know why we continue to have these tax abatements going out without this n Employment Commission that oversees all of this so as some point um I would like to have a definitive answer to when we're going to have this Nork Employment Commission instituted and acted into our law as per the ordinance when the newk job policy offices will be um placed into each Ward as per these ordinances because this is the law whether you choose to abide by the or not this is the law thank you thank you Mr Tillman any other speakers seeing none public speaking is now closed any responses from Council Members seeing enough responses from the administration good morning Eric Penning to business administrator but actually before I respond that uh added starter that we were uh asking to move forward we're going to withdraw that and just move into the next uh next council meeting so there'll be no added starters on this agenda okay great this is a inder to the council president and yes that that makes me happy my absolute desire to make you happy so we've done that um in addition um there was a comment that the uh water and sewer department has improperly mixed chemicals at the Watershed and that's just wrong it's completly false it's dangerous it sends information to the public uh that is I presume intended to put them in a panic and they should not there has been no ISS with the turbidity levels chemical levels or other issues with the water that's coming out of our water treatment plants that suggest to any degree that there's a problem with mixing chemicals so that information is I'm I'm loathed to to call something a lie but I I I presume that the person who made those comments has some information to know that it's false and so to me that's a lie a blatant lie and it just can't uh uh sit without some respon response and I will continue to to do so if there is more information that that individual has about some uh improper mixing of chemicals uh I am available to receive that information but I promise you it won't come forward because it was a lie and the water is uh mixed properly okay thank you so much uh Mr ba any questions for the ba all right I just want to um ask the council to just bear with us we have uh our director from nor cin Authority who was here who has a quick presentation for us hopefully you had an opportunity to review this nice PowerPoint that you got earlier um in our meeting about two hours ago and um hopefully you had the chance to take a look at it and uh there are some questions I know that uh Council uh members have regarding some sites uh but we welcome our director Spicer here with us um this afternoon um and we'll turn it over to you director good afternoon uh I apologize for uh holding lunch up so I'll try to make this as uh fast as possible and while we're waiting for the PowerPoint to come up real quick I just want to remind council members too that we need to go into a quick executive session as well so please pretty pretty please with an extra smile stay with me I might be able to treat you to a slice of pizza if you stay temp just one slice though onor so hey I understand um everyone in the Administration has been getting calls comments and questions regarding what's going on with the houseing authority um I thought it would be incumbent upon the housing authority to come before this body uh so you go hear directly from the house and authority of what we're doing uh you all can get a little uh presentation from us and have an opportunity uh to ask any questions ideally this is saving you and your staff some time uh trying to not kill as many trees uh so we can all be on the same page at the same time uh so what I've been doing is is taking an approach of crawl walk run fly right so it's just about uh understanding what we need to do uh taking the appropriate steps to put the things in place to make those things happen and then try to follow those things through and sequence everything I'm gon clicker presentation okay I think I'm the click okay there we go all right okay there we go okay uh so I'm not going to go through every single slide just in the interest of time uh you all have it in front of you uh what you have here is our annual plan and our Five-Year Plan so every year the Housing Authority has to submit an annual plan to US Department housing Urban Development saying how we're going to expend our $23 million of capital fund that we receive every year uh so we receive a specific pot of money that we're supposed to uh invest in our public housing stock um and this is the plan of how we're going to spend uh those dollars uh high level uh we kind of broke it into seven major categories um in no particular order this isn't by uh importance but just seven areas uh Plumbing underground uh steamline replacement and there's a dollar amount under there which is uh rounded up uh to the nearest hundred thousands of dollars uh elevator modernization of elevators agency wide cycal painting which is painting the interior of people's units Who currently live in public housing uh vacant unit rehab which is turning the empty units to make them ready for families to how for to live in uh roof repair kind of self-explanatory uh replacing floors so are as you all are aware you all have lived here longer than I have uh tow houses specifically have uh history of having weak floors so putting money into uh ensuring that those floors are stabilized and then site beautification the next one here we go uh you have a high level of how we are spending every dollar for the next five years by development on the next page right so each year uh we have allocated exactly how much we're going to spend to that specific development and for the next five years going forward every year we're going to take a look at that see if we need to reallocate uh but this is the plan as of today as of this year that we're going to put to our Board of Commissioners uh equally so on our website uh as well as at 500 Broad Street uh all this is there we have a 45-day public comment period uh that is open now that the public has to comment on our Capital fund plan our fiveyear plan it's an 842 page document so I did not provide you the full 842 Pages uh but we did try to give you the the gist of it very high level but for anyone interested uh you can access it through our web page or into 500 Broad Street we have that packet there if you want to go through all 800 some odd pages okay so then we go to these specific areas that I touched on that the Housing Authority uh is going to be focusing on uh for the next year uh you can see some of the steam lines that need to be replaced uh we gave you the specific addresses this has been a bone of contention in the community of which elevators are being done and when we when we say elevator it's not singular it's a bank of elevators so on average it's a cost about 1.5 to 2.5 million for two elevators the bank of elevators so you're able to see exactly what properties that we are going to modernize those elevators which year we anticipate uh being able to modernize those elevators uh we talk about cyclical painting again uh as you all are aware there's been a number of units that people have lived there for 10 15 20 years and we just haven't been in to paint the unit uh just normal wear and tear things happen uh we need to go in and and paint those units uh because people have lived there they pay their rent they deserve to live in a nice unit that they are paying for so we need to make sure we're actively putting money aside to do that and actually doing the work uh as always vacant unit rehab uh our mission is to to House people so it doesn't make sense for us to have uh large numbers of of vacant units uh so for 2024 we have and we have turned and we're in the process uh of making ready 300 units little over 300 units actually um to house more families so that was focused on our senior properties uh but we kind of touched on the entire portfolio including Family Properties for 2025 our focus is going to shift to uh the town houses um to our family properties of course we'll still touch on the portfolio which will include uh our senior properties as well but the focus for 2025 is really on the tow houses Our Family Properties uh roof repairs again it goes without saying as as some of you all uh have pointed out to me we do have a roofs that need to be replaced uh roofs that need to be repaired there's tarps on some roofs uh it's it's not an easy process in some cases because it is H an insurance claim that's pending so there's been a little bit of a delay in addressing those as the insurance company starts to ask questions we don't want to uh move too fast by which we can't collect insurance money uh but neither here nor there if water is seeping into the unit it's calling causing further problems so we're making sure that we take affirmative measures uh to ensure that doesn't continue to happen and to uh mitigate any water damage water intrusion that it has happened equally so as I touched on uh floor replacement especially at our town houses with weak floors and then site beautification um I know it's a a fancy term uh but to really drill down in that we're talking about uh the community rooms uh so setting aside a significant pot of money to uh revamp each of those Community rooms uh to create spaces outside specifically of our our senior properties but of all all of our properties where people can actually congregate in a safe manner so creating uh picnic benches um redoing the the benches that are out there uh gazebos things of that nature uh equally so our our trip hazards want to make sure that uh we aren't in current liabilities and people are able to Traverse their homes uh safely uh with those trip hazards and just about done for you uh going back to the original report card that I showed you all uh you know about eight nine months ago uh and and how we are trending right so that is the report from last year uh what we have done since then uh to improve is a we've submitted our un audited which is our financials uh which was accepted by the US Department of hous and Urban Development um our arit is expected to be completed uh by September 30th so we're we're rapidly approaching that which will significantly improve our our financial score uh which you could see was Zero last year so the the exam will be completed on time so actually agre this year uh equally so our Inspire our reactive physical scores for the inspections have been significantly higher uh this year than previous year so we anticipate an improvement uh in our physical conditions uh so we feel it is very likelihood that very likely that the Housing Authority uh scores will be close to 60 if not above 60 uh by the end of this calendar year which would make us a standard performer uh doesn't mean there's not other places that we need to improve uh but as always you triage you start where you have uh the biggest problem s where you see the biggest blind s sites uh and you start to improve in those areas again crawl walk excuse me crawl walk run fly same taking the same uh procedures short-term goals uh again you continue to restructure and streamline the organization uh we have to make sure we are being the best stewards of taxpayer dollars and making sure that as much money as possible that we receive is going into the units um continue to ensure that inspections are done of every single unit annually uh we crossed off the creation of the centralized work order Center because we have completed that uh we have a physical needs assessment that's started in the spring they're continuing to do that that's where Architects engineer engineering firm comes out and takes a look at each site to tell us uh what the condition of the site is are the mechanical electrical Plumbing Systems good how much is it going to cost us to maintain it how much is it going to cost it to bring it up to current conditions uh of course we're trying to house more families uh by by making those units available as we mentioned always trying to improve customer service uh this is going to be the an ongoing uh area of improvement a we have to ensure that we are providing adequate customer service internally to the employees that work in the agency but equally so ensure that we are uh providing even better customer service to those individuals uh that are paying us rent and that that live in the properties uh that we have under our care uh demolish Trail homes uh that is a goal that we anticipate completing before the end of 2024 uh that has been a a blight on the agency we committed to doing something that the Housing Authority has not been able to fulfill that obligation we are going to fulfill that obligation to demolishing the remainder of the buildings that are there so in 2025 we can start to have robust conversations about reconstructing that mixed Community Development increasing the density there so it is no longer a blight we're able to follow through of our promise and also create more housing for those that needed uh in the city of nework equally so um have the conversations about repositioning specifically Bradley courts and Hyatt courts uh we know collectively here uh that these properties have outlived their life expectancy so it's really about what is it look to re-envision what those two communities look like in the future right so the housing authorities process is always to bring the professionals The Architects the engineers out to come and tell us what's wrong how much it's going to take to fix it to make it better uh at that point we'll then of course sit down uh with our partners which is the city uh the administration uh to talk about what does that look like to work collaboratively uh to re-envision what this mean what these properties could be and then to go back to the community to find out a if what we're thinking actually fits with what they want uh hear their needs and desires and then kind of go back to the table to make sure we take all those things into consideration but what we are doing is having monthly meetings with our resident Advisory Board uh which is the fourth Wednesday of every month at 6 pm at our building which we go through all of our policies and procedures as we revamp them every year we hear from our the public on what needs to change what hasn't been changed and where we have The Blind Side so we hear from them every month um to address something I know that's come up a number of times in the last couple weeks uh the Housing Authority is not closing down Bradley courts uh we had specifically 12 families that were affected uh by a building that there was a gas leak so the gas had to be shut off in that building uh there were those 12 families uh we provided gift cards because they could not eat because there's no cooking gas uh the water heaters are are gas as well so we provided them gift gift cards so they could eat while we were figuring out what we could do in the short term uh we offered them uh the ability to stay in a hotel again if you have kids you should be able to have an opportunity to have a hot meal to take a shower for the kids it was hot outside uh equally so once we determine the scope of work uh we determine that for that property that we do need to reposition that six to eight weeks at close to a half a million dollars that wouldn't be the best use of taxpayer dollar so we sat down with each of those 12 families and asked them where do they want to move to they identified properties that they would like to move to we since it was an error on our behalf uh paid for the movers so we had movers come out and move them to the property that they just they designated that they wanted to move to that was not an a a development wide move that was a problem that the Housing Authority owned that was our problem uh with copper gas pipes that are you know 70 80 years old um that we then move those families this isn't something that doesn't happen often in the house and Authority as you all are aware um Steven crane Village uh we had to move families there often times as things come up the Housing Authority makes administrative mov moves emergency moves for families we don't make it a public uh scene we don't make it a public anything because it's really happening between that family and the agency there no need to broadcast those things uh equally so the Housing Authority is working to have a comprehensive plan um with all our stakeholders as it relates to repositioning assets and when I say repositioning assets uh it's a fancy way of saying a property has outlived this life expectancy we have to do something with it right so the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has process that we have to go through but equally so anything that we do affects the county affects the city it affects the residents so it's our responsibility to have a conversation with everyone as we're kind of starting to Envision what those things will look like uh to ensure that we're all on the same page we all have the same sheet of music and we're able to dispel any rumors myths uh that may be out there uh we are continuing to work with the city and the county for anou uh memorandum of understanding with mainstream vouchers uh awarding Project based vouchers uh for affordable housing uh homelessness uh as well as assisting families that are transitioning from shelters into permanent housing uh the Housing Authority has created a CDC a Community Development Corporation Called the Newark Phoenix group uh that entity is created or has been created uh to allow the housing authority to be the developer of its own assets housing authorities cannot as they're structured um be a developer for their properties they have to partner with others uh however we do have the capability of doing so so the Housing Authority has created that so we can be The Driver of that kind of the conversation you all had earlier uh with with a a split from the parking authority how much the parking authority gets how much you get when you are your own developer it's a lot easier to have conversations about what that split looks like to ensure that the money is staying inhouse to then create more affordable housing uh in the city of New York which is our mission is to be the provider of affordable housing in this County in this city um so that that's all I wanted to present on this afternoon I could have taken a little bit longer but again my stomach is starting to Grumble as well uh but I didn't yield the floor to any questions that you all may have okay thank you so much director a first question up councilman Kelly uh good evening uh afternoon director um so it's good to hear that Bradley courts is not closing down that's been a rumor around the city for like two years um just for the record how many units does Bradley Court have 326 and how many units are vacant 40% give or take last report I ran it was about 40% of the units are vacant 40% so I'm asking these questions because for me in the west War Bradley courts is is a problem when it comes to um crime and things of that nature it stems out out across the entire city just from Bradley Court um recently I just just had a a conversation with the with the young people who live in Bradley courts literally two days ago and one thing that I noticed is that it's not being maintained right the the grass is up to my knees and when you have a problem already with the youth that are there and the property is not being taken care of if somebody's living in squala then there it's going to reflect how they deal with Society their neighborhoods and all of that so I shouldn't have to do this but what I did is as of today I asked DPW to give brooms shovels bags and all of that to help so I can have the youth who are part of the problem clean up Bradley Court so a cleanup started today at noon in Bradley Court by the people who so-called start the problems but I shouldn't have to do that right like and I'm asking can we maintain Bradley Court a little more or if we want to keep uh the Civil you know rest there is there a way that we can give them a stiping of people who probably can't get jobs or anything the people who are living in Bradley Court to give them a stien to help clean up that Community long story short um a the Housing Authority can do better job of maintaining br courts um I'm always conscious of the the conditions I was just there last week as well having a conversation with some people when I was walking at property as well so I I hear some of the same concerns that you hear uh we will do better period full stop um how we go about doing that I think that's a different conversation um I would say we need to have our people who are already on payroll uh who are supposed to be there maintaining at eight hours a day uh ensuring that they are doing the job that we pay them to do and if there are gaps in coverage then we have managers who should be communicating to us what their need is so we can get them that as always my methodology is uh you tell me what you need and I will provide you the tools to do the job that I hire you for and hold you accountable for that so if I'm asking you to be a manager I need you to tell me what you need so I could get it to you if that's not happening then I need to have a conversation with the people who are there who I don't want to do is then work around those people to then hire other people to do the job to manage who don't directly manage it sounds convoluted but we can do a better job we will do a better job and I will'll sit down with that team this week to understand what the complexities are there to make sure that doesn't continue to happen I I appreciate that because it's definitely not happening I I would love to for you to sit down and address that issue with management and um I think if if that's done we should see a difference because right now we're not and I I appreciate that um and I'm sure that the Bradley Court um residents would appreciate that too and another question um the 40% that is vacant in Bradley Court when it comes to the the uh the work statement in that first year of the 1.16 million that is going to be spent in Bradley Court how are we how are we utilizing that toward fixing and rehabbing some of these vacancies so that people can uh move back into these apartments right so for 2025 you'll see uh a lot more units being turned at Bradley Court the consternation the trouble with Bradley courts is some of the mechanical and Plumbing Systems are Beyond repair they are at the end of your life expectancy so again I understand there's a always a difference between what people want and what people need um I can't justify dropping four to five million dollars into units if I can't heat those units if I can't make sure uh we're not addressing uh the rodent festation in those units so it then becomes a better conversation to say hey um how do I then begin to identify buildings that we can repair you can live in as we then build more units there that are new that are up to Cod that have AC that have all the amenities that we have in 2024 that they didn't have in 1948 or 1952 when they were constructed and that's the conversation I anticipate having with you all in the city really about 90 days but more robustly in the beginning of the year I I definitely I definitely look forward to that to see where we can go in increasing um you know getting rid of some of those vacancies also uh clar Mount I don't know if it's called another name on on your um breakdown in dollars but it's not on the list is is there a reason so it is on the list in we use terminology that HUD has and HUD has like five different ketchers and six different Seth boens so I would have to go back to our office and tell you what is the AKA for Claremont because I assure you it's on here uh but I can get that over to you oh please because I get a lot of uh calls from claremount in in the four different parts you know the sites are broken up and um I definitely uh I get calls about garbage I get a lot of calls about the parking lot issues and how um the garbage is picked up um I get I've just in our community walk that we did last year uh excuse me last week with occupying the block there was a lot of calls about who's supposed to handle the tree situations um that are on the on the uh property and some of the branches I I witnessed myself as as we had some increment weather last week some of the branches are falling onto the the tow houses um so those those claremount I believe 16th Street 15th Avenue around those areas 16th Avenue um I would love to see what we're doing with that as well and I can have another conversation with you offline about specifics in that nature but I do like the answers you gave I I do look forward to seeing some of those come to fruition and um thank you for your time all right thank you so much councilman Kelly councilman Ramos yeah uh thank you Madame President um just want to say um director it looks you know like you have a daunting task before you so you know we'll keep during our prayers but but similar to councilman Kelly I I just want to say like last last week I had an event over at Riverside Billa and just the upkeep of that complex um you know it runs adjacent to marara Highway Route 21 and it seems like you haven't had a landscaper out there in a long time so you know if you can follow up um for us and also give us a sense of what's going on I know when we met you talked about how you were bringing in individual contractors to do some of the upkeep and Landscaping is that still the approach um but you know some of the properties are starting to look like they're neglected and um you know the seniors and residents are complaining so I'm hopeful that you could follow that up for us we'll do thank you okay uh councilwoman Round Tree no man okay any other comments councilman Silva uh good afternoon director like councilman Ramos says you have a a tough very difficult job just regarding higher Court um you're going to spend a little over $4 million in the next five years you've seen the conditions there correct $4 million is just a Band-Aid agree and the sad part is that the residents there have to live in these conditions you know I I think there has to be a solution to this um than us just you know fixing something in 6 months from now it's broken again and here we go are spinning our Wheels um you talked about Bradley core and that's councilman Kelly's um Ward but High coure I mean is there is that salvageable in all reality is is that complex salable because those people are living in from the curb in it starts on the sidewalk from the curb in those people are living in deplorable conditions I mean what's what are we doing here we're spending $4 million and still these people are going to live in deplorable conditions so what in all honesty what do you envision going on in hayatt court if we're having this meeting five years from now right so if we're having this conversation five years from now hayatt Court doesn't exist as it currently exists so as I mentioned uh the two things that we're working on uh our Bradley Court and Hyatt court right um to reposition those so I think Bradley's in a an easier situation because we have the the football we have the fields adjacent that are ours uh so yes uh we have to maintain the asset as long as we have it so we're going to put the money into it uh but really we need to talk about um beginning to build on those vacant Lots where the football field is and the acreage next door to it so that we have new units that people can move out from where they live now into the new unit we can knock that old building down once every once is vacated and then build more there right so the conversation that we will be having again in the next next couple of months is how do we begin that what is what is needed there um and how can we start to transition people out of hayatt court um into the new units that we start to construct so it is feasible while people are living at ha Court to build on that field at the same time correct and once those once that's done we just move them from one spot to another correct so it is feasible yes okay so for Bri for Bradley Court high level um and we'll go into the details in the next couple of months uh high level for Bradley Court and Hyatt Court we are anticipating there not being any relocation so no families will be displaced because there's enough excess land for us to start construction without anyone having to leave so it really will be uh a resident who has lived there seen the new come up being able to move into the new and seeing the old come down so the residents will get priority the res residents always have priority okay yep all right okay I know we're moving moving moving I still need you all for executive session any other comments from anyone who hasn't said something already first councilman Crum I I apologize council president I re ni on my pizza too but just real quick um just several questions just rapid fire kind of questions and I'll ask them all real quick how many units as the parking dep par excuse me does the Housing Authority uh manage number two is how many vacant units and I don't know if there that 400 number is actually more than that um I see what your plan is to do with those units and what is your plan I guess high level plan in terms of increasing the number of units that the par that that the Housing Authority uh manages controls so we have there are about 7,300 units physical units that we own um if you start talking about own but not manage we're getting close to 8,000 so that's I'm like um our occupancy overall is about 88% so I don't want to try to do the math in my head real quick so I'll probably get it get it wrong right um would we anticipate doing what we have to do is expand the number of units that we have uh so we have uh what they call Fair claw which is the the unit cap that you can have of public housing units uh but outside of that you can build as many units as you you can sustain uh so there are a number of housing authorities across the country that have expanded their footprint significantly from 5,000 to 12,000 units we doing tax credit units we've doing uh public housing units doing Project based units so there's a a a formula uh that exists that allows us to expand our affordable housing footprint which is what I would like to do as always uh we understand there's a a 16,000 plus unit uh need affordable housing need in the city of New York um and I Envision the Housing Authority being the key provider of of providing those affordable housing units uh to bridge the gap all right thank you hey uh any other comments councilman Kelly you had a follow up a quick question U followup uh what is the timeline to start the work on those vacancies and and all of the issues you need to do in Bradley Court so we have more than 300 units that we're actually in right now so all those units have to be turned back over to the Housing Authority contractors are doing those uh no later than November 10th so that's 254 November 10th yes that was 256 units that we put under contract for $ 4.84 million uh also we are internally turning units with our our four-time staff uh so we're going to start there and then as we look at the the money for 2025 where Capital funds always a year behind town houses are more expensive uh so we won't probably be able to turn two or 300 tow houses uh but we're going to then start to tackle the three four three four bedroom units and then sprinkle the twos okay well thank you the last thing I will leave you with is have you had an opportunity to speak to our health department about James C white seniors not recently but we have had some conversations in the past perhaps we can connect there we're still getting a lot of reports there regarding mold issues with residents um and now um many folks out there in the atmosphere is connecting or of trying to connect I'm going to say trying or allegedly because I don't have a lot of detail information on it per se of why people have passed away versus if it's related to mold uh but many have come up to this mic and called our office as well to talk about the possibility that people are passing away because of mold um and that is a very scary uh situation to have that out in the atmosphere rather true or not true it needs to be addressed of that so if you can possibly follow up with with that and let us know definitely connect with our health department who did a full inspection here just a few weeks ago um that would be great we'll do I appreciate right thank you so much thank you thank you all right with that being said Council we're going to go into executive session can I have a roll call yes yes yes yes yes yes thank you so much for being with us today for our pre-meeting we look forward to seeing you back tomorrow for our regular scheduled meeting starting at 12:30 p.m. sharp for those that are needed for the executive session discussion will be upstairs in our Council conference room and the first person that beats me there I got a treat for you for e for