##VIDEO ID:zWjZeYR20To## e e e spe ready good afternoon welcome to day two of the New York Municipal Council budget hearings on Tuesday August 13 2024 council president council member council members we have the health department first all right thank you so much Madam clerk good evening director it's good to see you again back in the chambers for the second time today do you have an opening statement for the council yes I do and I do believe you have a copy of the statement in front of you good afternoon Newark residents council's persons Council Crump the Silva Gonzales Kelly canana Ramos rree and to you council president mcgyver my name is Katlyn Baptist albrook director for the Nork Department of Health and CEO for its co- Affiliated fairly qualified Health Center the mar Mahoney Health Center for our viewing audience in particular fqc is an acronym for federally qualified Health Center which is a special designation granted us to the US Department of Health to support the provision of Community Health Services in the greater New York area besides me I have our CFO subie Vargis and behind me in the chambers I have with me members of our executive and management team including our medical director Dr Isaac O'Neal our Dental director Dr Marshall and our health officer Marsh mcgaan the Nork Department of Health is presenting to you a 2024 budget request of 8,679 41 our 2024 request is a 17% increase from our 2023 adopted budget of 7.4 million the requested increase of 1.3 million includes about 767,000 which is traditionally covered through the city's unclassified budget once the budget is adopted but we include it in our for formal request so that these costs are clear adjusted for that the increase drops from 177% to 7% and is due primarily to mandated increases in salaries clothing and travel allowance and the need to increase our lead inspection Workforce the mission of the Department of Health is to provide and advocate for Comprehensive Health Care access and social and environmental services to support the attainment of an optimal level of health and well-being within our department we have five divisions the director's office which includes Personnel fiscal and grants management the budget request is 1.4 million 16% of our total requests secondly is the division of medical care services which includes our adult Medical Practice Pediatrics oral health behavioral health and Women's Health the budget request is 2.6 million 30% of our total request the division of surveillance and prevention is comprised of communicable diseases Vital Statistics Wick immunization health education and emergency preparedness the budget request is a little over 1 million 12% of our total request the division of environmental health is comprised of Food and Drug animal and roding control and our lead prevention programs the budget request is 3.5 million 40% of our total request and last but not least is our division of health planning which Demands a small portion of our City operating dollars at 2% with a request of 166,000 the Department's total annual budget is 68 m844 1865 87% grants and revenue and 133% City operating the Health Department's operational costs are supported through 39 federal and state grants totaling 56 m165 124 these grants support the delivery of medical care and Public Health Services like our Wick program program that has enrolled close to 4,000 new clients so far this year and served over 45,000 women infants and children HIV services that has resulted in a vir load suppression rate of over 90% and funding to strengthen our Public Health infrastructure thanks to those infrastructure dollars we have saved the city well over $5 million in the cost of repairing our roof modernizing our elevators renovating our bathrooms removal of old carpeting that Harbor dust and dust mites painting flooring lighting ceiling all measures to improve the aesthetic and physical experience of clients our patients and our employees and hopefully you've seen or heard our commercials our radio drops and our Billboards that we hope increase our visibility and the Public's awareness of our services and we are actually now working on developing a website that will include a public facing dashboard of health statistics and resources and will have patient centered functionality like access to medical records and scheduling with respect to person now the Department of Health has 215 active Civil Service employees 55 vacancies and 46 CSS employees or precise I believe 38 of the 55 vacancies have pending new hires already in the queue bringing the number of true vacancies to 17 and 16 of our 46 CSS employees are part of that pool of pending hires bringing our CSS count down to 29 almost 70% of our Workforce are funded through grants and with respect to provision provisional employees 75 are waiting to be tested for their titles through the Civil Service Commission and five have recently passed their exams this year's top priority projects will carry into 2025 it includes the opening of our second school-based clinic at Park Elementary in the north Ward where we will offer family health and oral health care services to the students and families of the school as well as the neighboring Community we've purchased three Medical Mobile units which are deployed throughout the city in partnership with cbo's faith based institutions social justice programs and shelters one of our Medical Mobile units has already started serving our public schools and daycares bringing much needed vaccines to children that will ensure they are protected and not excluded from school as well as sports physicals to facilitate their participation in athletic programs we are very excited to have our Dental mobile unit arriving next week that will provide everything from an oral exam to cleanings fill-ins and extractions and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention our newly implemented Venture program which allows us to provide synthetic replacement of missing teeth to those that are uninsured and underinsured at discounted rates of over 60% and allowing those payments to be made in installments over the course of five visits and by the Fall we will Implement Innovative rat control measures that expand our current rodenticide strategy to include reproductive interference rats reproduce at a rate faster than lethal means can keep up with and a reproductive female uh can produce 15,000 babies in their one-year lifespan both male and females mature sexually 8 to 10 weeks after birth and they have a very short gational period of 21 days and can produce up to 20 babies in one litter so the effects of com contraception is is essential to our rack control response and this contraception will last at least two months but up to a lifetime if taken consistently vastly reducing our rodent population in conclusion esteemed Council I do not have a drone here with me today but hopefully my summation has painted a clear picture of our finances our human resources and some of the valuable work were being that have been being done by the health department here in the city of nework thank you thank you first of all thank you so much director and while you don't have a drone with you you brought 87% of Grants to your department so I'm going definitely CLA it up for that cuz you know how I feel about grant opportunities it is nice to have a department before us who you know are contributing to less impact on our taxpayers here in the city and to be able to you know you guys search for Grants get grants and you know make sure you fill out for them you you do a phenomenal job in that you and your team so the Drone was nice I take anything away from the director de who's gonna be here with public works today but definitely kudos to you and your team at this time we'll open it up for questions uh councilman Kelly um yes thank you madam president I I just want to say director osbrook you do an amazing job yes um you know um like council president said it's great to have somebody that come a director that comes in front of you and not only that that does the work but you know you eliminate some of the pressures to the residents by getting these grants that come into the office so we don't have to tax anybody or we don't have to apply pressure to the residents you guys do that in your office and I'm just thankful of it and I will say I'm not a real TV Watcher but I have this problem of turning my television on when I'm in the kitchen getting ready for work and I see the commercials all the time on the apps so I don't even have cable I just have apps so I see the commercials all the time and not only do I see them I see them in multiple languages so you know I I always turn around and say wow look at look at the health department so you know that's just one Kudos there's many Kudos and I want to thank your department um you know when I first became councilman I thought the rodent Department was you know in sanitation or somewhere but you guys have been answering the call um your your your team that handles the verment they have been answering the call and uh you know teaming up with um DPW the garbage the garbage cans have been reducing you know with the bait and the garbage can so I just want to thank you guys for answering the phone every time the westw calls in the city of thank you councilman Gonzalez yeah I'm a bit disappointed that you don't have a a drone drone here but I see that you have in the director's office you have salaries going down is that because you have new Personnel or is that what is causing that I'm sorry I didn't hear your question I'm sorry councilman Gonzalez say ER the director they say the salary went from 213 340 to 196 265 ER the chief of finance and accounts went from 120 to 97,000 so what is causing the decrease instead of going up uh thank you councilman um under the director's office there has been movement of Staff no one has been demoted in any way and it may be the result of a more senior individual leaving the department and being replaced by somebody new who doesn't have the same level of senority thank you thought that that was the case Council MCC thank you council president uh first of all thank you for this uh opening your opening statement you really answered a lot of the questions that I already had um and once again it's thorough and and appreciate what you do and what your team does but I I I do have one question and this may have been a question I should have asked yesterday with the ba uh regarding uh grants I understand that there's what based on what I read that there's going to be a centralized uh process of doing grants um how is that going to affect or is it going to affect uh your department I don't believe so um I know the city has uh recently implemented eics which is a platform that allows us to monitor our grants um in a way that we've historically done with papers and binders and so forth and email reports that go back and forth but this centralized system creates a repository of all the grants in the city it allows you to go in and track the movement across the legislation process how much you're expending you know whether you're meeting deliverables and it also gives you information about new grant opportunities that are coming out that may be of interest to your department so I I I see it as a value um having a committee within the city that talks about grant opportunities and how they align with each other's missions I think is also important all right thank you councilwoman Scott BR tree well there's not a lot to ask when it's right in the house you've been in the house the whole time and I just want to thank you as my colleagues have for being so thorough there's not a lot to have to ask when all of questions regarding budget regarding um employees uh regarding grants everything is right here spelled out for us and that makes um our job a lot easier than having decipher decipher through things and ask you so thank you director osbrook for all that you do and your Comm listen piggy back in off of our council president Lord I just hope that other departments can find a way to put some time into finding money or generating more funding so that our budget can be what it needs to be for the future once again thank you thank you he any other comments councilman Quintana M president and as a as a senior councilman in the city you know I've witnessed any budget hearings but you know when you see a director that every Tuesday every Wednesday sits there regarding you know some directors will walk in hear whatever their Department may be and just walk out and to see a director that takes time of her time if a constituent may have a concern and and addresses the issue I can't talk for all directors are because I don't know everybody has their own way but you have you have married yourself you know in in the professional level of this city and I be I would say in terms of what the council president talked about the grants I have seen directors have come before during coic you proved uh your ability were not the direcor but you were uh operating and running the operation a sometimes like some people like to be at the light then you're not that person that likes to be at the light in terms of community when there's community events which has that have to do with health you're there or whether it's a dental office that opens up on on U on brunal Avenue you're there so to me that means Devotion to a job I wish all the directors you know no disrespect to any of them but your devotion here it it's Merit and I just want to thank you for your professionalism thank you in your department thank you thank you councilman Quintana any other comments yeah Madam chair Council um one want to definitely thank you for the decrease in overtime and spot on with some some of uh what my Council colleagues has shared uh about your your presence uh and your focus on uh ensuring that we have you know one of the best health departments in the state of New Jersey uh I I am the the 7105 line of advertisement I don't know by way if um Communications if we can do more in terms of advertising I know we have some stuff that comes out on uh 94.7 some of it is is is old need to be caught up to date um but about services and programs um if if we can be able to find more dollars that can go into uh the communication line to get information out Visa just not uh on newspaper but also in the uh on radio ads uh to talk about the services and and and uh things that we have in our health department I think that is very important um to to the residents of this community so um I don't know I think you only you had it budgeted for $850 um but if there's a way to be able to to to move that and then second to really have some conversation around uh the expansion of of verment control and animal control um in that department what that looks like and especially in terms of I know we talked about um Equity across the board um with with in Pay um how do we begin to to monetize that and and and look at it in a way that as we continue to move along fi positions move positions how do we also grow uh offices and maintain them in in a fiary way thank you thank you councilman Council I will say that um thankfully this year through the public health infrastructure Grant we were able to cover a lot of the costs that went into our marketing strategy so the commercials the Billboards the the radio drops all that came from Grants and so we did not have to rely on City operating for that um and as for expanding the animal control and verman control team um that is something we're currently looking at we did place an emphasis on expanding our lead prevention Workforce this year um but it will it will be something I consider for the 25 budget request any other comments from Council Members I I will end by saying um that I think and this is to the ba specifically I think it would be helpful if our own Communications Department would be able to help your department out um I don't feel like they give much attention to your to your area for example you all have your own like Facebook and IG pages to do some of the stuff that you guys do around uh healthy eating I mean you guys are always doing like midday sessions I call them which are great because I'm usually tune in even though I'm not like um doing any of it like exercising for 30 minutes a day or all of the things that you all are talking about but I think it would be helpful to broadcast those the same way we do live at five and all of those other things we should be having your stuff broadcasting on our social media lives and you know Instagram all of the different platforms that the city of nework has like a department and have to start their own they they can do that but I think to reach a larger audience the city of New York page has over 10,000 followers like you all can be tapping into that so they really should be assisting more um and I know you guys do it on your own you know tape it record it um but but you should be able to um broadcast those things live on uh those platforms as well as 78 like I mean you know we should be utilizing that there's great work happening within your department and we should be using at least our local platforms to be able to promote that so Mr ba through your chair if you can definitely you know work that out and ask Communications to help them out um to you know talk about all of the good work that you know you all are doing I I do want to point out when you came to us last year you talked about the top priorities for the Department specifically some of those were around opening up these hubs um you know in each Ward to be able to bring Health Services directly to the you know blocks closer to Residents and I just want to commend you because thus far I've been to literally three openings um I was just in the East War last week um and beautiful location at East Side we were at you know in the west War at Speedway and to me that that is just amazing to be able to expand health services within the community where people don't have to always come down to University to be able to get services so amazing offices can't wait to see you know others you know other um initiatives that are happening but even your ability to partner with all of the other health progr PRS and health providers in the city um really speaks to your leadership and it it helps you know take a little load off to work with others and folks are not competing um to be able to do good work here in the city and service the residents so just kudos to to you and your team for that as well because I remember that being on your list of top priorities for last year when you came before us and half of it's already done so kudos to you thank you and I will say to that uh council president you know I I am the CEO of a federally qualif ified Health Center and sometimes people wonder why I go to all these ribbon cutting Ceremonies for other people's Health Centers and first and foremost I'm the health director for the city so anytime a new access point is created here in the city it excites me it gives me joy and I hope we can better serve the the residents of this community I'm part of this community so thank you for your time no thank you uh councilman Sila did you have a comment uh yeah it was just um mention what you had said about the East Side um I have a large large immigrant population in the East Ward and uh they live here now with Among Us here in the city and I only hear positive things from those uh communities in the East Ward how they get treated with respect and dignity by you and the people in your office uh they are now part of our American society they are here in New York New Jersey they are part of the fabric that makes up our city and I appreciate the way you guys treat them uh and give them the services they need thank you I'll share that with St James too because they have their footprint down there um I love supporting the fqhcs here in the city so St James even uh hoping esparanza who's soon soon to be one they have my support so thank you Gonzalez a quick question H regarding the ID card of the city are you the one that administers that no I do I do not because that let's say when you open the this H satellite offices that could be something that we can provide those offices to the Immigrant Community that's something to the ba because it's ran by Rachel who does that most Municipal IDs we have had them out in the community they come to every resource market we've had this summer and others we have something Atma flag but definitely we can relay that to Rachel who leads up that department um to see if they they're able to go to the health centers and be able to do the municipal ID cards that's a great idea not to you director though but for the ba to relate that message all right any other comments all right see you that I don't have any dinner to offer you tonight CU we don't have an event downstairs but definitely continue to be great director we really truly do appreciate you trust me we appreciate your leadership we appreciate you and your team you know I remember when you were coming to take this role and folks were like oh you know this person is in this she's not qualified be encouraged you are amazing okay you are amazing and you do an amazing job and no matter what folks say to be you know from this city to live here to be homegrown within the department keep pushing keep being great and as you do every Tuesday and Wednesday continue to walk in this Chambers with your chin held high thank you thank you so much thank you w next department is department of engineering te team team hey director wooden welcome back hello long time no see yes do you have an opening statement to the council yes we do yes we do thank you for the opportunity um okay uh good afternoon city of New York Council president mver members of the city council and colleagues it is my privilege to present a department of engineering um I'm sorry it is my privilege to represent the department of engineering in this hearing today to review the 2024 budget uh my name is lores Martinez wooden and I serve as a director of the department of engineering presentent with me today is the leadership of this department assistant director Ray concepion next to me and in the audience uh the division of inspections and enforcement director Michael uh uh Wilson uh Chief Court enforcement officer obum nans uh division of traffic and Signal supervising Engineers uh Sean Savage and for the division of uniform construction code building official George pone uh thank you for being being here um Newark is uh because of you um Newark Municipal Council received the Department's gratitude for your continued support every single one of you has in uh has been instrumental in our success as a department in the past couple of years ba Pennington thank you and your office as your support and consideration um have been second to none and of course thank you mayor Baraka for your vision your guidance and faith uh that you have placed in our department as we consistently face challenges and strive to meet the city's needs we understand the weight of our mission many depend on our Department's attention and support of residents visitors and investors alike rest assure that we will continue to meet this task ahead engineering department team is dynamic diverse and dedicated a dynamic diverse dedicated labor force that provides services to enhance the quality of life ease of vehicular imp indrian circulation and the safety of our built environment in court enforcement we find driven individuals that work to hold accountable all business owners Property Owners landlords and residents alike for maintaining our City operating with responsible business practices with satisfactory living conditions and forment a culture of unpolluted streets by taking ownership and pride in our city the hard work and education of the staff has proven accountability in courts as well year to date they have generated uh over 420,000 in court fines which in 2023 yielded only 62,000 commencing in week 21 and and 31 of 2023 that's when we started tracking in the Traffic Division the principal Engineers work diligently to produce design and execute projects that put focus on our City's Transportation Street safety and pedestrian circulation challenges the traffic team also actively pursues Grant funds to supplement our City's Citywide budget and maximize the amount of paven and road safety projects furthermore traffic and signals fabricates maintains and repairs all Street signage along the stationary along with stationary items to enhance traffic safety and W finding in our city the director's office carried out construction Management Services of 25 projects with an estimated construction value of 26.7 million the division of United construction uh code I'm sorry uniform construction code reviewed documents for building applications construction projects they perform inspections to ensure Builders and developers are here to the state construction code this division ensures development evolves into construction safely and responsibly no matter if we have to deal with one family home or a multi-story development also part of their scope is ensuring the structural condition of existing buildings all building control systems and building used group is held to state code in 2024 the engineering department has put emphasis on internal evaluation enh housing or current procedures and seeking improvements uh improving resources of revenue for example the CCC uh procedure realignment fomenting collaboration with divisions and working internally with other departments putting new workk at the Forefront of opportunity by galvaniz single relationships with County state and federal agencies and delivering projects timely um elevation of our colleagues merit-based experience-driven and Justified vertical movement minimizing the neww work temporary Workforce by transitioning into Department headcount and staff and also staff training uh keeping a close budget oversight cost savings practices and strategic operations to minimize overspending um for example in overtime uh for the 2024 budget we are requesting an approximate total of 9$ 19.5 million of this figure 42% of the budget total is attributed to salaries and wages inclusive of overtime and other personal service pay this is 4.3 more than the amount allocated for staff in 2023 this increase is due to Union races and new head counts this percentage Rises to 52.3 when you consider the 072 80 line for other Professional Services which houses the newer temporary Workforce which is uh uh in great part utilizing the fund to Temporary for temporary employee wages currently our department has eight vacancies and the in the division of UCC four in the division of inspections and enforcement and four vacancies in uh traffic and signals this tally 17 vacancies out of 110 budgeted employee count with this I would like to thank you for your consideration and the entire engineering team for the hard work and commitment to make this city of Newark the very best brief acknowledgement to miss deia Carney who retired after 25 years of service Mr Tomy McDonald who retired after 31 years of service a speedy recovery to miss Wanda black and Mr Trevor Howard and safe return home to Gabriel AR Roo cot from his military deployment with that I would like to open for questions and comments thank you so much director wooden questions from council members councilman Council yes did you say something or was it just me I thought I thought councilman Gonzalez had something to say that wasn't I was I was yielding but I I just wanted uh to know uh at at this time last year you said you generated 3,336 you know court dockets uh under uh the Municipal Code office uh how how many in 2023 was generated at this time and what was the the revenue uh from the the um the kpi that I okay so so today um we are at 420 420,000 about and last year when we started tracking it we're at 62,000 it was how much 420 it was 62,000 before it was so it's 422,000 at this point now with four months out with the remainder of the year last year in 2023 what was the number it was 63,000 63,000 yes sir so you would say that we're we're up in terms of Revenue in the code area and getting violations stuff through the court yes and then with uh UCC uh in in that number in UCC last year from this time what what would you say the difference in the number is I will have to get back to you councilman I I don't have the last year uh numbers I know where we are today and um uccc U but I do not have the comparable to last year so I that would be real interesting uh to to uh see those numbers the the 420,000 doesn't include UCC findes no no so the the 4 420 are Court enforcement only sorry Council M Council yep so um I I was asking that because one um some of the the uh departments that are under you are really direct engines for revenue and when you look at some of the dollar amounts although they may seem large we're not reaching the value or executing in a way to reach the value that we should uh in terms of of Revenue so I would love to see a a plan uh a more you know leaner and focused plan on how we you know maneuver to get to those levels of Revenue in terms of accountability um and systems uh that that that we put in place uh to to get to those numbers um I'm good um other comments and questions councilwoman Scott round oh yes I'm sorry I'm sorry just one one more question because I did look one one of the things that that that I did note um and and not just this for you but also uh probably for the ba and and I I'm not sure if I asked you yesterday about um folks forecasting from where we are now there are a lot of of of individuals and we're only I would say three months because I'm always a month ahead of everything right we're literally like three months away from uh technically closing out this budget year and there were a lot of expenditures in folks budgets large numbers uh that when you go back and you look at uh they haven't been doing the spending and so it it is not matching right and so you know we have many agencies and entities that are around here screaming for excess dollars and needs of dollars the library is is in need of tremendous amount of help and when we have folks who are budgeting 300,000 or 400,000 in a line and we're three months out for the year and you only spent 20,000 in that line that's problematic right and so we have to you know figure that out as as we move along so thanks for that he other comments or questions councilman Silva yes good afternoon uh uh director just a quick question so I've been part of 22 23 and 24 and in all three of your um budgets you've had the Ironbound roundabout on page 21 and the Ironbound ice rink AB abatement uh now for three of your um submissions of your budget and none of this has been accomplished is there any chance that this is the year it happens uh the Ironbound which is the asbes uh that's located inside of our recreation building uh the bathrooms not working uh the facility just in shambles since I took it over in 2022 and I was just wondering if any possibility that this is the year that uh we make it safe for the kids and the families that use it okay I'm I'm going to have hand over the question uh on the actual building um in uh in the iron bound and then I'll talk about the roundabout to um assistant director um good afternoon council counc president to coun M's point so for the um Ironbound ice rink with the locker rooms and the ement uh we will be working with the administration to get that aate it uh we going back and forward to try to find a plan either to either just a baate or to do a a full we have right now what we're going to be proceeding which we're actually doing it is the abatement previously we were waiting for the hockey season to be over to do the abatement because we didn't want to stop the operations although it's not suitable but we didn't want to stop the operation so now we're going to proceed with proceeding doing the abatement and then working with the administration to do the actual construction and work but just to your point we have did work last year for example we went out to retain uh design Professional Services so that they can do a complete design for the renovation of the locker rooms and so forth so we have that set aside but in speaking with the administration and to your request because it's been a a dear um request item for you we're addressing the abatement first now and then ultimately working the design professional aspect so then we could do the renovations for the for the locker rooms because I believe that you were part of a walkth through there at one time uh two years ago I would say about two years ago and we saw things that are pretty alarming and again I just think that that it's a place where kids are at every day and families go to every day and to have as best us in a building to have nonworking bathrooms um I don't think it's a good look for the city I think that we need to do better that's all and it's like I said it's been on 22 23 and now 24's uh budget understood I will personally keep uh keep your breast on the progress for that and as we move forward to do a bement in the repairs and the design all right thank you you're welcome councilman SAA when it comes to the roundabout um at one point in time we were sh funds for the volume of the project um those funds were secure they were actually approved in the last budget Council um we have sub supplementation for the njtpa we got their support for added funds so we're going to see a little more traction on the project now that we have more funds and the um design itself has been moving along so we either invite you to traffic and signals so we can send you some files so you can review what it's looking like but the project it is moving along and just for the record director and her and her team Sean everybody else do an amazing job always very receptive but I just was concerned about most of all the rec center which has been uh a problem that we inherited uh before uh we took we came here in 2022 so I'm happy with the response and I hope to eventually get that accomplished thank you councilman Silva councilwoman Scott Round Tree uh any other questions for engineering councilman cro yeah thank you council president I just have just a general question or specific question I guess it really is what what is animal Horticultural Services I'm sorry what is animal Horticultural Services can I bother you to tell me throwing me off maybe it is just flowers but I just not so that CU I'm and Crump that's a line item on the traffic and signals if I'm not mistaken correct yes so that line item usually they utilize it for um any upkeeping or any um Planters and um buying any plants and things like that that we do on the street Scapes so to maintain some of the streetcape that we may uh maintain and historically that was something that they did before so we utilize that line to if we are called to uh Implement uh any type of planting so forth on the street we utilize that line to to to address those okay cuz I was wondering I mean do you understood do you clean up dead animals on the street or something cuz I saw animal that title that's what threw me off kind of all right thank you thank you councilman Council just a quick question in your 71280 line um you you have uh allocated uh a million and 50 how how much have you spent up to date so fun to date that's um on the page 17 of the budget at least for some of it is for Prof to to pay CSS or newer temporary Workforce so for that we have spent um closely to $360,000 in addition to that you will see a drawline in that line of we have a Engineering Services because it is professional service line but the same line is being utilized to pay the new temporary Workforce but we are utilizing to pay for all Professional Service that we have uh in our department that we utilize and you can see that on page 17 the draw down and some of the expenditures that we have allocated for that line additionally councilman you can find the other divisions on page 18 so and and I'm on 34 of your document as as well and I'm just using that as a as a piece of synergy for you know our Council folks and and for the ba you know let you know that you know three months out this was probably about six or seven months of spending uh was allocated a million you only at 360,000 I I don't assume you're going to spend 7 7 to 800,000 in the next three months if if so that's kind of most of the figure that is coming from the 72198 over is based on the previous year like again it's mostly attained to salaries we haven't crossed that bridge but it's mainly attained to salaries and we make adjustment but we have also because we had transition some of the staff that were in New York temporary Workforce to City side that number was slightly adjusted as well okay well let's go to 94010 and in your furniture line you you budgeted 2023 10,000 this year 10,000 how much we spent out of that budget line this year we have not budgeted last year we did spend that the money we still haven't not projected to that but we have time to uh spend down the line I like that response I'm I'm good I'm good it's in the budget we have to spend it I suppose that's it and and and and and sometimes as well as we all know is that budgetarily speaking you know we typically get funded only a third of the budget when the year begins and then after that um we only get a 12th of it so to your to your question earlier how come Sometimes some Department have not expenditure we're just trying to be cautious because some of our projects require additional funding like for instance this year we had to request from om to frontload a particular budget line because we didn't get all the money ahead of time so sometimes we have to do something like that as well yeah be be careful Deputy because you just said you forecast your budget from last year and I do understand temporary budgets 20 26.2% half that draws down and so if you are monitoring everything that you asked for last year you know what point you are in that budget year or that period so that you know what your spending should look like and what your overages are where you are over to to be able to you know you know push out throughout the course of the year so you know I just want you to be on guard I am looking for money councilman Council um we know the nature of what we do is but you know we have a lot of unforeseen conditions as well so you know when we have things like that we we use our our budget to to the fullest and you know if if the line is we try like you said to spend our lines because we do need the budget um and and we have it you know we we use it as we can I know uh last year we we had uh a requested traffic and Signal they got the the five uh speed traffic lights as well as the five large ones have all of those come in yet and have they' been allocated out to the different Wards and then put up yes so so we have um whatever Council requests we have received we have put them up and now we have some spares um to work with NPD traffic um division when we have issues across the the uh the city we collaborate and we send you know we deploy them where um traffic finds them useful councilman Gonzalez yes director where are we with the the beeping lights ER so that the VIS the vision impair can cross the lights let's say without any kind of problems okay so um I think I I I believe I sent you the the the uh install today today um councilman Gonzalez um now that our budget you know we we can spend it um we have to work on whatever we have now and then plan out the funds that we have to see what we can um well what we can purchase at this point um I know that you know we deployed some of them where they're most needed um in the um the most populated areas the school areas um the art arts and education district and so on and so forth um so we're hoping that with the budget that we have now we can go a little more Citywide where they're needed thank you any other questions for engineering CNN thank you director W next department is the Department of Public Works you can do whatever you want but we good all right director team it's good to see you back again especially after yesterday's phenomenal presentation Dr I guess you ain't get no drone for a DPW huh just water department um do you have a statement for the council council president yes council president council members m s audience first and foremost on behalf of uh DPW we W to uh make sure shly for me apologize for the uh last four months the inconveniences that you may have seen around this the the city with us collecting garbage um um you deserve better the residents deserve better and we know here in the city of newk DPW can do better and uh hopefully moving forward we will be doing better uh part of that doing better is you know um looking at the vision and the administration and DPW is committed to moving things forward and overhauling DPW and giving our residents the type of services that they deserve our decentralizing of uh DPW um on free liing Avenue putting it out into the wards with those community service centers with the next one we hoping to open up our uh Veron the north W is open on Verona Avenue the West W is on South 12th Street and South w Is Earl Street and hopefully by the end of the month we'll be opening up our next community service center at 62 Wale Street in the East Ward um to that uh council president and council members we are deeply committed to making DPW a 247 operation in a big city like nework DPW show always be working 247 three shifts seven days a week provide essential services for our residents to have a environmentally safe and clean City at all times we're committed to that for our residents and businesses also so the steps we've taken lately to to address that is just you know uh rebranding a little bit with DPW you'll see this week as we put out Billboards doing our matches pickup uh reporting illegal dumping things like that and making sure we're more visible and more vilant in the community moving forward our priorities I mean I know we always ask this question in the budget book if we have any top priorities our top priorities is to provide a better service to our community that they deserve every day with that I'm I'll pause a little bit to uh take some questions here sitting with me is Kim green chief of staff and J Pew our chief administrator all right thank you so much director deem and hello to the staff here from DPW it's good to see everyone um first of all thank you director for that opening statement uh it was great for the public that are here and those that are viewing Us on YouTube and uh 78 so thank you thank you for that I'm sure they appreciate that as well um and more importantly look forward to the better services that you know they are expecting at this time I will open it up for questions or comments from Council Members councilman Gonzalez not that easy do you guys pay for the gasoline or who pays for the gasoline for the for the fleet of the city DPW DPW how much money is that is that fuel one second fuel I don't see that lineal to total is about uh 16 1.6 1.6 million on the gasoline that's Diesel and gas for the the whole Fleet and everything yes not water and sure though we pay a little bit for hours I just want to make sure you know that least 1.6 million I I I like the the new pumps that you have let's say with the have better control of the expenditure of the gas yes that was something uh director Thomas put in a couple years ago um to track fuel all right any other questions from Council Members councilman Council real real quick uh director Dean uh in in your booklet on uh PES to your pages and while I'm getting to your pages I know how much how much money do you have in your Municipal tonish Grant 1.4 million councilman councilman Council and how how much have been spent so far this year so far one second so councilman Council we just got the the grant um within like the last month I think the council just voted on us accepting again maybe about a month ago if I recall so we haven't spent anything yet and on I want to give you the page uh because it indicates 2023 expenses uh and and not what was allocated for 2024 it is in uh your booklet so I'm operating off of your booklet as well as our booklet uh and then your booklet it says that for uh the cleaning of the the garbage Vehicles page nine on your booklet it says for uh we spent $ 69,1 39 to uh in 2023 that was an an expense what what does that expense look like in 20124 right if you you coupled down uh and and some of some of your uh lines on page nine one second coun 718 12 vehicle cleaning services two page nine let me page nine so page nine you says cleaning services y page nine 71280 your division of Motors vehicle cleaning services 69 139 and it says expense 2023 but it has no 2024 expense page 10 same information uh and all of is is relative to spending and what was spent in 2023 uh and not 2024 so it would be interesting to know what was uh uh spent in 2024 so that we can be able to really look at uh how how those numbers or how the cost of spending uh is going and and then one quick question how much was allocated for snow in 2024 so cman your first question councilman council president councilman your first question I'll provide the uh the year to date and the um 2024 uh proposed propos for that uh cleaning line um and what we spent up to year to dat we'll get that to you we'll get that to the whole Council and and I do want to uh commend you for the reduction uh in overtime uh I think that that is uh good that we putting systems in place to uh be able to uh monitor the OT uh that is down if you can you know just get us uh that other information uh that would be good and and councilman just council president council members I didn't answer the second part of your question we budgeted $2 million for snow two million yes you know how much how much we spent how many events we had uh this year snow events I think we had three four snow events six six snow events you know how much we spent in those six snow events know that from what's her name c and I know that from just uh we didn't spend a whole 2.4 on Six North no I'm just looking for change spent about 171 in overtime and vend vender payment was another I think a little over three but I can get that exact number to you I just looked at it you guys definitely had some savings that may help a lot better you spent it on something else but when ain't come yet for 2024 council president we still here mon a in August if it is climate change or super he still got to get through December we didn't get through November and December yet so let's not be premature uh I'm sorry hold on councilman Gonzalez let's go to uh councilman Silva uh good afternoon director first of all I want to commend you on uh creating other avenues for people to throw away their garbage uh I've been begging the ba for something another bulk day or whatever it may be but this seems to be working in the East little by little we get the message out to the community uh Mr Green I've been working with you for 20 years going to meetings and uh he does an excellent job but director let me ask you a question um your guys have a tough job the guys who pick up garbage difficult this summer has been brutal on them uh and a lot of times I see one guy like I saw one guy this week on Monday behind a truck by himself is there a problem uh are people calling out do we uh uh is is are people discouraged about the conditions they're working what what what's the problem that sometimes I realize that a bulk day is difficult and the guys are probably exhausted on Thursday when I have another garbage day uh pickup in the East Ward uh do we have enough manpower is uh do you have enough manpower and the resource to to do the job that needs to be done or do you need more help I mean I can you can always use more help but do you need more help especially with the garbage pickup council president council member count uh Silva um first and foremost yes the summer was brutal on us two we are the the the Administration has started replenishing some of the workforce a part of that is making sure that we can pick up garbage in all hours of the day not just in the morning part of that is making our night operation be more efficient and effective when we using the resources that we have while we start replenishing uh the resources I mean while we start investing in human infrastructure and bringing more employees on we need to make sure that we're adequately using the current staff we have to the best of their ability you know a lot of times um when chains come in we may see an uptick of push back or or or not adapting to change and things happen um that's why first and foremost when I opened up I want to apologize for stuff you saying zero tolerance for fighting zero tolerance for calling out just to just because you don't want to work there's a lot of good people at sanitation and Department of DPW but there also some Bad actors too some of those Bad actors need to move on as we bring in new actors that's willing to do this work as we diversify our Workforce down there we're seeing a a different type of Workforce in the future right we need to adapt the city is growing um when the city's growing uh currently we're re-evaluating from our garbage pickup routes to our recycling routes to our street sing routes to how we just do everything every day right how just how we just operate every day our operation will be getting the overhaul and some of those things you talked about today um being able to come drop your garbage off if um you missed the pickup right or you're going on vacation you just want to get rid of it to you know you're getting refrigerator delivered but you may want to just go drop your old one off at our Resource Center or call us to come pick it up opening the customer service center so it's not just uh Manpower from picking up behind a truck but it's Manpower and it's our managers and making sure everybody's held accountable to do the proper job the right job and the more efficient and effective job we're here for the Long Haul we we live here I just want to say I commend you and your team it's not an easy job I can tell you right now the especially the conditions that your employees have to work under especially this summer in those hot miserable days I know it's not easy thank them for me they're doing the I know they're doing the best they can and I know you're doing a great job so I appreciate it and we thank you from me to the whole DPW we thank you for your support and understanding thank you councilman Silva uh councilman Gonzalez you had a followup yes I first I want to commend the director and the and the team because this this recycling is being picked up very early or late at night I I know that in the morning I I wake up and the the recycling is not there so I commend you for that and the other question that I have is you have a lot of provisional workers ER what are doing are they subject to test so yes thank you thank you again council president Council Gonzalez yes we um we are picking up garbage in certain areas at night the residents deserve better that's where step of deserving better we're seeing the results we're monitoring the data we have about 70 provisional workers um we're creating a path to permanency but most of the provisional workers you see on here right uh most of us don't talk about Silver Service was behind for the last three years due to covid they're just starting to send those certifications and update people and calling for exams I think every month you're seeing exams called and in last two months I've seen certification lists come out not just for DPW but for the city as a whole so as those lists come out we start checking the boxes and looking at the budget we're moving people into the proper positions and the other question that I have in terms of a ER mechanics how are we doing with the mechanics usually you have a let's say some vacancies in the in the shop where are we with that we currently have two vacancies but we're currently interviewing three mechanics what what's the salary for mechanics it's about 56,000 starting up to about 74 okay councilman Crump thank you council president uh let let me also say thank you and appreciate the work that is done from DPW because you know in a lot of cases uh you hear just complaints but I think it's important to to know that we appreciate what you do also um in all aspects whether it's sanitation or or uh uh those that clean the building here or or work for us or or do the uh bring tables and chairs cares and do whatever else that's important and it's important for our community um I just have a few questions one piggy backing off of a little bit of what councilman coun uh Gonzalez said uh regarding vacancies there there are a number of vacancies I believe it was 29 or 30 total vacancies what is the overall I guess I know specifically talked about the mechanics but what are you doing to fill those other vacancies so those so is a total of 29 vacancies in the department um we're we're we have a path to permanency we still have like uh temporary workers or permanent workers we're interviewing we've created an office of the director at DPW we're interviewing our current staff and new staff that may be coming in to fill some of those positions that need to be filled and you expect to fill those positions by the end of this year or when do you expect to fill those we expect as we get the best candidates they selected to fill those positions I don't I can't promise you that it' be the end of the year but we need to make sure know not just filling positions that we're getting the best qualified people to come into those positions understood understood uh additional question I have is regarding tree pruning last year you spent a million dollars I think a little over a million dollars on tree pruning and this is this is less of a a a let let me ask this this is less of a a uh budget question but just a question how do you determine what trees get pruned I I know you do it around uh signage that's blocked and things like that but what what is the the impetus how does it start so uh council president councilman Crump the city the city of nor hired the arborus maybe Arbus maybe six months ago his name is Ryan Mets when we get calls the tree department manager sends out Ryan Mets and the tree team they go out there and look at the trees and look at the area also the city is also in coordinating better with pscg and cable vision people that own those type of uh electrical lines that may go around the tree and just making sure that we're maximizing the resources that they supposed to provide around pron but our arborus goes out and does an inspection um and he's been on board I want to say a little over six months and is there a number of people can call if there are trees not if there are sign particularly signs that are blocked i' I've been some places where stop signs have been blocked and I know I think councilman Council dealt with it on Madison Avenue and uh is there a number that folks can call to report or is it just 4311 sure you can call 973 733 3644 973 733 3644 thank you one additional question I had was regarding uh I I believe I read that it was you had a between 2023 and 2024 it's a $3 million decrease in your budget what what is that attributed to that was Council council president councilman Crump that's contributed to proops the city's not the proops came off of our budget now they with Public Safety the security that monitors all the public buildings so we're not incurring that expense anymore it's with the public safety now all right thank thank you councel any additional questions or comments got to have one more you have one more comment no no one more question you have one more comment no I want to thank you oh looking forward to your support and helping us turn DPW around yes I Just Want to Thank You director oh I do have one question what's the status on finding us a permanent director for DPW are you looking for your replacement no that's with the administration that's that's a little above my pay grade before I I do have a question over there about the the garbage containers they say when can we expect those to be given to everybody council president councilman gonaz I think that's an excellent question to end this with I came before the council maybe a couple of months ago say we're developing a new website we're rebranding uh DPW first quarter of next year will be the final phase of the garbage cans but however when the website is put up probably the first or second week of September you can type type your address in there and see when you're expecting to get a garbage can or if your garbage can was already delivered okay right all right well thank you director so much thank you to you and your team I do want to say to the uh managers uh some of them who are here I won't start calling out names because then if I don't call everybody name I don't want folks to feel sad about it um but I want to thank the managers um the supervisors who respond immediately you know we we're not perfect we do have situations where folks garbage might get missed or you know have a matters different matters happening um but when we reach out to the managers and the supervisors they respond right away um literally there's you know not all the time we have to bother you specifically um we'll bother you about the water stuff but specifically for DPW they get back to us right away they're very responsive and I think councilman Silva said it best you know it's a very very difficult job people are very critical but there are a lot of people that would not do this job and cannot uh do the job that you and your men and women uh do at DPW so on behalf of this Council we we've know it's been some um troubling times we know that it's been some changes and you know different things that many have had to bear in the department um but I want to thank you for stepping up for you know leading the charge in DPW and doing the work that you do on top of the work you already have and had and and thank you to your team and your leadership team and those that are working for the job that you do do even with the challenges we appreciate it thank you and I just want to um thank um council president I want to thank councilman quantana because area as we started picking up at night that we was having trouble with and his context has made it a little easier for us so we want to thank you for that too thank you for being accessible thank you so much the department is excellent and we should program something uh this coming year at the end of the year we should host uh what we used to do years ago uh have a a Christmas gathering at Motors because these are the folks that sometimes those small things mean a lot and if we could do and set up a lunch in uh amongst us uh the nine of us and and the mayor uh to do some kind of thank you uh because as councilman Silva indicated the hard work of being out there but these men women deal with rodents dealing with people screaming at them because something that a didn't take you know that because I called you num of times and people have claimed that they didn't pick up by garbage but it was something else they were putting out that was construction but again we should look at and it's not a budget uh matter is an issue that we should get together and do I remember one year we did that in 24 uh we did a a an event in 2013 uh and that was it's never been forgotten by men and women who work every day who go to work hard and and and and conditions not not of air conditioning like some others who have a great jobs of uh not not being cold and not being hot because these these folks in your department Motors too so I just want to say thank you to the men women and especially to you thank you for always picking up that phone I don't know if you got you're on overtime but we're on sometime on sometime definitely not overtime M Madam chair councilman I I just checked weather works is it's not going to snow until uh February the budget that budget year will be ending so Mr ba you you know what to do well we know council president I mean the councilman being the former DPW he know how the weather can play games say it ain't going to snow they get a blizzard councilwoman Round Tree thank you council president council president director adem and team I could start calling names U of how great uh the contact is for each of you I'm not gonna say who and what but every time I pick up the phone to call for a problem all of you know who you are and there's never been a time that there wasn't a situation it for a constituent no matter whether it was a tree whether it was garbage whether it was I know y'all don't handle rodents but there's been some situations where people weren't doing what they were supposed to do with their garbage which then attracted some other issues so I want to thank you I know that you're just there temporarily but in the time that you have been there um in all the Departments you handle you've been very effective so that makes our job a lot easier when constituents call us and they have major complaints and we can call and say and you could call back or text back or email and say it was evad that means so much it means so much and it just means that you know I often say that um if the mayor has directors and we have to go to the mayor then they don't need directors well you're not one of those so we thank God for that and continue the great work with your team thank you council president okay thank you thank you so much director sorry I don't have any dinner for you tonight but you had some yesterday is he looking for the they would open the door the Drone com all right have a good night everyone and next Department next department is Recreation cultural Affairs and Senior Services all right C all right director welcome thank you so much for being here tonight with us do you have an opening statement for the council yes council president uh great afternoon and great afternoon to this distinguished coun ccil members on behalf of the Department of recreation culture Affairs and Senior Services I director Dell reading will be presenting the budget for the year 2024 the goal and mission of the Department of recreation culture Affairs and Senior Services is to Pro provide Optimum programming events and activities that engages academic support Community Development that provides services and Health Fitness family orientated activities and which promote education Recreation and Community engagement in all of our five Awards to manage and provide reliable cost effective Recreation culture Affairs and Senior Services in such as a manner that emphasizes safety customer satisfaction Integrity teamwork and Steward the ship thank you all right thank you so much director questions and comments from council members councilman councel good afternoon uh director writing in your uh 71280 line from the director's office there was a thing that 234,000 for for food stuff is is is that Senior Services food or what what was the the food line there uh that food line consist thank you for the question councilman Council uh the food line consist of um our four departmental meetings we have in addition to uh Senior Services we have a new vendor uh for our meal programs that's from Monday through Friday for our seniors that cost went up astronomically uh about 85% so we was using some of those funds to C cover those costs as well so yeah I'm just a little confused why that cost is coming out of that 71280 line and then over in uh Senior Services you have another uh food line and in Senior Services with another high cost there are are those the same cost yeah they actually the same cost uh once again we have a new vendor and with our new vendor um just like I I mentioned earlier that cost went up 85% for example if we was uh paying $50 I mean $10 per plate for uh our senior uh activities which is Monday through Friday that amount doubled by uh 100% well 85% excuse me so we are actually trying to compensate that cost until we can uh get uh additional Financial costs into our budget to uh kind of uh diminish that or support that in your 71280 line and cultural Affairs you you had proposed 300,000 how much have been spent up to date currently up to date uh it's $1,377 and 95 uh that's for culture FS what was that number again 10,000 10,377 195 and 71280 and the recreation line how much have been spent uh so far and our 1606 our 71280 line at this current time is 73,000 5264 has been spent at this current time uh as of August 13 73,000 yes this round 73526 14 and vehicle rental how much has has been spent so far this year on vehicle rental for uh Senior Services line services uh at this current time is 7 $7,250 70,000 yes $7,250 okay and 71280 Senior Services you budgeted 250 how much has been spent so far uh 71280 for Senior Services uh the cost is has been the expenditures has been $158,200 182 158,000 yes 8,243 182 okay I'm good next question councilman Silva uh yes good afternoon director just a quick question one of our permit holders wants to um use the field for a season what do we charge them they're a city from the city of nework what do we charge them right uh thanks for the question councilman uh we don't permit out the fields for the whole year we permit out the 90 days maximum okay and for nework residen is $150 and for non- nework residents is $350 why so cheap for non- nework residents it's because we have to come back to council uh with a um uh a change of of of the Coster permits and uh we're working on that now to come up with a different cost for our the um nonresidents usage so that's something that we're in disc conversations and discussions about to uh upgrade that that cost yeah I'd suggest that we do that as soon as possible because our fields are coveted people will use them I don't care uh we raise them another $200 they're still going to come the hockey rink what do we charge for the hockey rink wow the hockey rink is the same as our permit users which is 150 I know ice time is $450 an hour but we're going to come back and visit that and in doing such we're going to need your support as well yeah because just let me say something about the ice rink it is Coveted by every city surrounding norc I get calls from Bloomfield I get calls from Nutley I get calls from Belleville if you charge them a higher fee they will still come yes we at this particular time keep it just exclusive for our NK Partners uh and our uh different other collaboratives that's uh only from newk so uh we did entertain that in time at some time a couple years ago we did entertain that and then uh that uh perspective turned out to be ownership from Glen Ridge and Nutley who feel as though this is their um ice hockey rink so it was pushing out our NK residents our NK youth so we decided to uh make sure we ensure our with hockey in New Jersey to promote hockey throughout our five Wards I just think that there's enough time in the day seven days a week to collect some money from those other towns give them their ice time but have them pay and I don't think they're paying enough I think that whatever you have to put forward through Council here the sooner the better because uh I think looking at other comparisons I'm what uh they charge in West Orange per hour uh is nothing compared to how low we charge here in the city of New York I realize we're trying to build relationships but if we do that they're going to come anyway no matter what we if if we raised at a substantial amount they're still going to come they don't have an alternative per perer request last year uh we went over to presedential center to see how much that cost was it was $450 an hour right and then in the summer it was $350 hour so I totally concur with what you're stating we just have to kind of put this together and bring it back to council thanks direct I just wanted to ask councilman Silva you mentioned about West Orange hourly rate what do they charge I'm sorry you mentioned West Orange hourly rate what do they charge $800 wow okay Council mccrum thank you council president just piggybacking off of councilman Sila I know we talked about this before but but additionally I think we need to raise the the the a Fe for um Community pass for yeah for recreation and uh you know I think it's $15 for non-residents and you know folks come to JFK particular and probably to other facilities and use the pool etc for um everything from I've seen scoa diving classes uh to um just coming there and there their swim teams are there and using our facilities because going in their town is much more expensive H you know so I think it's important that we do visit that as soon as possible and if there's something that that the council should be pushing forward I'm all for that in terms of drafting or amending the necessary legislation because I think it is important we do that uh it it doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to generate Revenue enough Revenue to change the world but it but what it does it it brings in some Revenue that can make a difference in some of the things that we do so I think that's an important aspect should be same would actually recommend that the you know that the people the council members who sit on the recreation committee I know it's led by councilman Council work on S getting the amendment to the council and changing the fees I mean uh the council should be able to walk and do that very fastly in order to you know change the fees on it but it should definitely go through the recreation committee councilman Gonzalez I'm sorry Council mccrum you had another question yeah I'm sorry I just had a couple other questions uh one is regarding the increase in uh there was a $90,000 increase for for temporary labor force um I forgot what page it was on are you CSS precise workers employees Senior Services there it is uh 7209 page n so you know and I think in a time where we're discussing how we're getting folks off of temporary onto uh either permanent or assessing of whether they're necessary or not what's the justification for increasing um your temporary labor for well um the precise employees uh most our precise employees are uh drivers they do transportation for our senior service program and uh a lot of those uh employees uh don't really want to come over to the city side because of how much they make as a CSS employee which is $25 compared to $17 of course they don't have benefits if a CSS employee comes over to the city Side so now you're talking about pension you're talking about health insurance you're talking about $17.50 an hour so that becomes a problem when it comes to their finances and taking care of their families so saying it's more cost effective for the individual but also for the city yeah it's more it's more beneficial to those that's on precise employment versus to those that if they come over to the city because really um they would actually losing uh finances they could benefits but you know that's that's what the global perspective is right now okay my my last question is regarding dog parks so there's a dog park that you're planning to put in and I forgot where location is but I believe it's in the C James Street Central Ward yes Central w I said Central Ward I did say Central Ward didn't I everybody I just wanted to be clear are there any uh discussions of of other dog parks in other areas of the city uh you know curbing your dog is is a huge issue all over our city um uh uh incredibly so the the question is is there any uh possibility or are you working on are and the spirit of transparency um at this particular time is just one and uh thanks to uh council president mcgyver for um you know giving us that idea to look at hey let's let's create a dog park so that's where we're initially U moving forward and we're in conversations and uh talking to contractors to see what that looked like so it's projected to be like a $100,000 to to finance a dog park but um that doesn't end there as we evolve we look at to kind of put some in other WS if it financially makes sense as well I mean some of our current Parks could have some space carved out to use as a dog part some of them are extremely large and space is not always being used in some of the green spaces throughout the city in the different Parks so maybe it's an option to look you know how some other towns have like a gated you know gate little it's nothing you know fancy about it it's just some type of material that goes down on the ground and is gated to be able to do some of that and some of the additional we already not creating new ones but specifically you know um adding them to the parks that we already have for space I do want to say that just because there is a dog park doesn't mean you still don't you know you don't have to clean up after your dog you still have to go into the dog park and clean up after your dog you know the dog park doesn't eliminate that um but I think you know definitely there's a need as you know folks love their pets they're getting more and more dogs in the city I know that some of the newer developments have implemented some dog park options you know on their properties we have about three of them in the central war that have dog parks literally and dog washing stations if you want to get really fancy um in some of the new buildings already but um definitely it's something to look at as you know the city grows more residents are here to give you know more Recreation spaces to you know residents with dogs that's I will say the dog park specifically on James Street there has been vacant land there for decades you know actually the idea Rose from councilman council at the time who was the director um of recreation who was leaving out to become the councilman and we were working on it as he was going but this is something that we spoke with the community about something that they ask for um and it's they already use it as that like this space it's a city owned a piece of land um they use it as a dog park they clean it personally the residents there they mow the lawn everything um and now they just you know want to use some of the grant dollars that we have to actually make it actual dog park so that's the situation in this particular Community um but I I think it's something worth expanding to see how we can carve some space out of our current parks to make dog parks and I would definitely have that conversation with the nework municipal Council uh Recreation committee to see how we can expand uh those particular services and projects councilman uh uh councilman Gonzalez and then Council M Kelly yes h on the food budget that let's say that you said increase 85% was that a bed contract I I didn't hear you councilman was that a bed contract the the one for the food yes yes that that went to council actually you you guys are um voted on it and it was passed for our new food contractor is that a you only one supplier or do you have more than one bit no we don't have a co-op with that we just had one supplier and that contractor was just that uh supplier so we allowed that contract to to be to increase by 85% well we actually didn't allow it unfortunately uh when it went out to uh bid uh there was the lowest uh uh provider so we went with the lowest provider which was actually the highest uh bidder meaning that they had the highest cost and it was the lowest uh return if they were the lowest how could they be the highest no no no I didn't state that for the record I said they was the lowest bidder they came in at the lowest number but they their their cost is higher than our prior vendor that we had and that prior vendor that we had now well uh it's an 85% increase higher than the last vendor we had and that was the only B bidder or you have more than one bid it was more than one b uh bidder yes and we was also looking at uh not just bidding to because our last um contractor was uh from New York so the whole intent was to make sure that we give our mom and pop vendors the opportunity to bid as well so uh we focus uh totally on that and um we have uh someone from the community actually providing Services instead of outside uh support May certain that they get paid on time that's that's a problem that we have with the local providers that we contract with them and then we don't pay on on time and they cannot provide the services to theity well Cony councilman Gonzalez to your point uh we haven't had a problem with them getting paid late so thank you so very much councilman Kelly yes how you doing director um it's good to see I'm glad kaboon Park is up here we finally right um the question though do we have one last thing to do before the ribbon cut into Kaboom is there something that had to be done oh the only thing uh the last thing to do is uh get the ribbon and get the uh scissors oh that's that's good I was hearing something from the fair Mount were calling my office about something so I'm glad um uh in the spirit of transparency they wanted us to provide some sort of uh um entertainment so we have a band we also have some cheerleaders and stuff like that that's that wasn't what they were calling so that's good but but I'm glad to see um you know uh boand Recreation who Senter on the top nine it's up here now right and and I see that we're talking about phase four are we good with phase one uh that's uh that's very interesting that you asked that um we was able to uh solidify uh that initial uh cost for the rendering for the facility right so uh from that perspective once that uh rendering goes to council because it has to go to council as well then we're able to go out and to start uh getting proposals for the total cost on the first uh project well actually it's it's four stages and that first stage is a new facility that's s that would be at the basketball court that's that's great I just wanted to make sure we I we didn't lose you yeah wait with you thank you you're welcome mam chair councilman Council Ju Just real quick one how how much do you have in your Recreation trust fund put that up not the open space the recreation TR um at the top of my head our our open space is uh 6 million and our uh Recreation trust fund is like 56 57 I'll give you that EXA accurate number but that's right there on the ball ballpark probably couple hundred dollar short or a couple hundred dollars more yeah I'm I'm because that that's important as it relates to your Recreation trust fund for additional dollars that you can be able to utilize for programming because part of the problem is when you look at your salaries and wages which is almost a million dollars it is exploded um then you look at your other services you only talked about 1.8 million uh dollars that's throughout your entire line to provide other programmatic stuff doesn't matter if it's for the buses the property rental or whatever it is and so you know at some point you probably want to look at how you begin to work to phase to bring that number up for other services um so that folks are not looking at we're almost at a million in salaries but the services and and and programs that go out is kind of low and then how to maximize the dollars that you have in a recreation trust fund to be able to help offset some other programmatic stuff I think is good I mean you know looking at the price and costes of the the fees is good I mean the $450 for ice time I don't think is bad um but I I just we just need to you know being a proponent of recreation we need to figure out how you know you build up you know these other services uh to get other you know dollars to to get out here and do what you need to do I I totally agree uh once again from the spirit of transparency yes that that number accurately is um went up to $81,000 for $256 uh yeah I I totally concur with you in terms of personnel increasing but also in addition to that we uh I you know looking at hey why more money and why more money is because we also took on a new facility which is now as we know is the Temple of Hip Hop which uh included Staffing in addition to that we're also looking at a a new uh or a collaborate to provide us a senior service addition location uh at Bing Street right Recreation Center because our services has expanded with our senior services up by 250 additional seniors so we was out looking at a new facility which would also give us a cost just as much as bethney uh senior services that we pay for that facility as well and then in addition to that events that's projected for the facility and uh the food cost that went up astronomically by 85% yeah what What's the total number of that food cost and those dollars need to be attributed into a separate line it should have shouldn't be in the director's office representing 234,000 and then another half that that you said was in Senior Services because it really gives a a skew that there were different items especially both of them are different right one may say 71280 and one may say uh 7160 which are different kind of services so we we we probably need to to to figure out what that looks like and what is the total number is it is it a contract 700,000 600,000 500,000 600,000 600,000 yes and so out of the 600,000 you said 234,000 came out of your account outside of providing lunch and stuff for the for the managers 234 came out of that account correct and then there's another 200 and something that was lodged in Senior Services account that's correct so that right so even in terms of budgeting that just befuddles the world that's happen yeah you have to yeah please yeah we're going to line line that up so Mak sense and then even when we talk about the uptick of why you need it you know the salaries and wages that still speaks programmatically so that's why I'm I'm encouraging at 1.8 at some point it needs to to go up like if you're really studying and looking at yes on the budget and then there were some pages that were cut off page six seven eight there was some missing pages and things that were cut off uh from other lines they just had you know the major lines about me ship registration other Professional Services um that was just cut off that you just want to probably try to rectify and get in there I'm I'm good all right well you are you talking about the our budget hearing book or you talking about the actual budget hearing your book yeah your book you the larger the larger binder has those pages yeah you said six seven and eight yeah 6 seven8 n so if I if I look at six it just tells me the director's office you little main things seven it just tells me Recreation eight it just tells me cultural Affairs but it yeah and then it stops on other stuff because there's other budgetary lines that are in there if you look at the larger the larger book right so not just from the seven lines there's six lines yeah but the request was only for service lines so we only uh put specifically what was requested that's why you had some of the eight lines are service lines too hardware and Equipment trophies and all that other stuff equipment those are service because we service with other vendors or or utilize other vendors I'm good we're good we're good okay Council M Gonzalez you had a followup my last question this you indicated that the let's say the dock Park would cost $100,000 more or less more yeah more or less in terms of Maintenance of that Park what would be the annual cost uh well we will have to lean on our lean on our sister Department to actually get a cost because uh having this conversation with councilman silver with with with um discussing the parks and the um the cleaniness of the parks we lean on our sister S I mean sister Department to do such so they will actually do a contract to see what that would look like or they have enough manpower to uh keep that Park clean do we have any experience that county has some dock Parks have we consulted with them to determine how much it cost annually well we in in talks with uh several contractors that actually uh have dog parks that's around exus County and other different uh cities that do dog park so we in conversations with them that actually builds them I I I understand when council president MCA stated that we could use some of our parks in and not to create a dog park but expand some of those different um little areas to create a dog park as well talking about say the annual maintenance have you checked with no no you haven't checked I have not okay any other questions or comments all right CNN I was just going to ask do North People's assembly fall out underneath your department uh no council president because you have the employee listed on your list of employees and then do you still currently have two assistant directors or one uh we have uh one assist two assistant directors actually yeah we still have two assistant directors that's under our uh umbrella in terms of our budget two positions or two people two people okay all right no vacancies okay all right seeing no other questions or comments thank you so much to you and your team for being here this evening with us thank you thank you council president thank you distinguished council members next department will be the office of the mayor and agency I don't see anyone here from the mayor's office we're a couple minutes early Museum trust me I would call on you if it was you um Mr ba all right let's go to the next one time is of the essence so we also have is the museum here yep the more Museum here right the museum all right Museum realiz I don't have no all right Miss director Harrison it is so good to see you it's great to see you do you have a opening statement for the council yes um thank you and um good evening Madame um council president and the esteemed Municipal Court um M Municipal council members um um I am Linda Harrison the um director in this CEO of the New York museum aard and director Harrison can you speak directly until the mic it's hard to hear okay um is that better uh joining me uh this afternoon is Shirley Thomas Ward um and she is the deputy director um at the New York museum of art um so on behalf of the staff Trustees of of the museum we want to thank you and the City of Newark uh for your relief in our mission uh to welcome everyone with inclusive experiences that spark curiosity and Foster uh real Community uh more now than ever your investment enables us to deliver on our mission uh to be a museum of the community and a destination Museum in the region through a consistent and intentional focus on the measurable impact we have on those who live work um and visit New York as we continue to transform in a alignment with a revitalized city the museum has not wavered in its commitment to the community we have recommitted to our founding vision of inclusion and community in both word and deed one of the main goals of our strategic plan is to increase attendance and make the museum matter to a 21st century audience this process is not just about the numbers but about making the museum a place that truly resonates with the community we have looked Inward and evaluated these systematic issues that lead to how we have historically approached um acquisition and presentation of our art collection and the programming surrounding it aiming to serve our community better and I'd like to um have my colleague Shirley give you uh just a quick example of what that really looks like um at the Museum and in the community Shirley sure uh good evening Madam president EST St Council uh one of the uh things that we do to relate to the community more uh we do host 10 Community Days throughout the year uh kicking off the year with our MLK Day MLK Junior Day uh and during that day uh this is a day of resources to the community one of the things that uh we pride ourselves on is being able to serve uh our community on various levels um this past year uh we invited several uh Community Partners in uh to hand out free resources to our community everything from uh free mental health um free mental health workshops we had uh the uh n the water Coalition come in to talk about uh lead in the water and show uh residents how to clean their water uh we also had um free blood pressure and um cholesterol testing we do mamogram testing uh and we not just focus on one area of the family but we like to focus on the whole family and that includes pets uh we partnered with St Hubert and animals Animal Care was also given uh at the Museum where families were able to receive free vaccinations uh for their pets and free food for two weeks uh for cats and dogs uh we had the Spong M Clinic um partnering with ICC to come in um and these type of um free services we offer throughout the year uh kicking off with MLK day and then transitioning into the summer with our preschool night which is another uh preschool uh which is another Community Day uh we provide resources to prevent the summer slide in three and four year olds uh they receive free books uh there's workshops for parents uh there's um uh SS County College comes out uh and talk about free classes that parents can take uh so that they are also uh receiving uh educational experiences uh and we carry this throughout the year uh with our community days and as well as with our art after darks uh we try to have as many local presenters as possible but we have listen to the community and we are providing these resources to them for free than so in November um of 23 we opened we reopened the first phase of our campus transformational project the Ballentine house um and which is a National Historic Landmark uh from 1885 with a new um interpretation highlighting Untold Stories of New York's diverse communities and that's the past and the present so combining um the freshly installed and reinstalled Galleries and period rooms with new interventions welcomes visitors with engaging experiences and expanded repes uh representation the reimagine Valentine house is a significant change in our interpretive ethos our strategy and our educational programming aligning with the Museum's Mission and this framework aims to enhance the visitor the visitor experience and create an environment where people feel represented create positive memories and connect with the newer Community we appreciate mayor mayor Baraka and the city council reviewing this year's application for crucial funding and weighing the vital role of our resources and activities uh that play in enriching the lives of New Yorkers we eagerly await um your decision and hope for your continued support in the 2024 25 uh fiscal year we want to thank you again for your steadfast support of in the past and reviewing our requests um and we request A Renewed support of 4 million to ensure the museum can be an impactful and reliable and cultural partner of the city of Newark got it thank you so much um director Harrison and thank you so much M sherle for that information as well I just wanted to uh jump in real quick just to ask a few questions so one I'm happy you told us that that's your request for 2023 budget the $4 million yeah oh or the 20 um 2425 uh fiscal year yes for the new project that you guys have for the $112 million transformation transformative um campus project how much revenue have you brought in from that project this year to the museum um we haven't um brought in we expect to um bring in approximately um 7 million by the end of this year we haven't brought anything uh in yet we still have um uh waiting for the I want to thank you for the uh tax abatement we are now in the process of putting together and finalizing that deal but you expect bring in 7 million by December yes okay and moving forward what's the expected revenue for the museum I mean let's just say for the next following year what's the expected Revenue to the museum from that project we we won't um have any revenue from the project during the next 18 months to um 20 months that it takes to build it nothing um uh will happening then uh once um we we've done two things um we have developed now a um uh development uh philanthropic strategy um so that we can actually um uh secure donors uh to uh support the operations of the museums and so that is our um ability to um have naming rights and um um Underwriters uh to help um with the operation uh of that project as well as the museum so that will start but we won't really Garner any um revenues from that for um at least at least a couple at least 18 months to two years okay questions and comments from other council members no council M Gonzalez so the $7 million that you're going to receive is a one one shot deal he said they say you sold the land for 7.5 or whatever the price was so you are not getting any any other funds from that transaction um we we will be getting funds um with regards to support for building out the um um glass uh Contemporary Art Pavilions the the galleries um and then once it's done then we will be receiving um dollars um for um just ongoing um from uh the project um that is approximately 100,000 then we will receive um what we um uh hope to be over the course of five years um we are looking at a uh campaign uh to receive um approximately a 100 million to support um the efforts of the museum yeah but that would that's philanthropy that that's not related to the project itself right but it's philanthropy that um because of the project we're able then to ask uh donors uh for their Monies to support the museum and and I I just wanted to add um the um our budget operational budget is approximately 17 million but we have a capital budget um that's much more than that that's where you see the 112 um that 112 14 of th 14 million um helped us in 23 to really restore the Valentine house this year we're restoring the South wi of what you know as the South wi Educational Center that's another five million um to restore um uh the South Wing which will start in October and then that balance is the building of the new um construction that will ultimately that full campus transformation that's what's going to help us to raise more money over the next five years thank you Council mentana in terms of the fire Museum will that stay in place the fire Museum because that it was talked that it was going to be moved somewhere else I think it in my thinking it should remain there uh I mean there's a lot of history uh to that Museum of firefighters and with all the things that have occurred I mean that museum is very crucial I mean the the fire museum is very crucial to that museum so I don't know there was talk about moving it somewhere else they were talking about moving it to the Man Pleasant uh area and I I was saying why you know was this has been there this museum has been there for as long as I remember as a little as a young kid in the city so I it's important that I want to make sure that we we we do keep that museum in place I I appreciate um uh that comment um councilman um because this is a perfect example where these physical buildings are falling apart and it costs us money to actually um repair and restore and for us we have to it's a restoration it's it's not just a rehab um so this is where it cost us um like the Ballentine house it costs 14 million the fire Museum we've emptied it so that we can restore this Museum however this is going to cost us a minimum of about six million to be able to do that and that's why we need the infrastructure of the transformation of the project Museum Park that allows us to raise money then for someone to say I'll fund the um fire Museum I'll fund uh the carriage house to the Ballentine house all of those little houses that we have on the campus um which is 4 and a half AC campus it costs us the money to do it and then the money to M maintain it any other questions before we move on okay seeing none thank you so much director thank you Miss Shirley for coming out thank you thank you thank you newk Public Library good evening Madam Council good evening how are you guys doing doing great thank you so much for having us here today yes thank you so much for being here with us um can you do you have a open statement to the council I do thank you uh it is an honor to speak to you today as the Director of the New York Public Library we are an organization that is much like our city in a time of growth we offer a historic and deep collection of treasured artifacts and history and we do it hand inhand with Innovative programming and public services npl is the most significant public library in New Jersey and has historically been one of the most important in the in the Northeast we are the poor persons University the poet's furnace and the titanium crowbar that anyone can reach for to lift themselves out of a morass and into greatness we are all over the city while we love to have huge events at our glorious main library in the heart of Tubman Square we also have locations all over the city of Newark doing quietly important work every day they're out there chugging along supporting entrepreneurs helping people being a safe spot space for kids and elders and offering our people wherever we can and and offering our people wherever we can to Eng engage improve and Delight them if you're looking for something for kids we got it want to help the on house we're on it need to support job Readiness we got you small business support come on in do you want to help seniors we your spot our library campus is spread out and our spaces are lovely but we still have visibly aging buildings we have families of squirrels that move in during the winter and roof leaks that we plan for every time we hear Thunder Rumble we fight like heck to keep our libraries open during heat waves and we worry about the chill in the Winter's cold despite good progress the loss of Clinton Library remains a gap in that community and Roseville has been closed for so long that it is faded to a forgotten Spectre of a space of public service for the neighborhood still for all that great progress is being made we are renewing and refreshing our buildings more than half the of the public spaces at Maine are being renovated in a series of projects that will be complete by the middle of next year our Springfield Branch will be renovated in time for spring of next year and we have plans to get a bookmobile on the road so we can bring Library Services everywhere in the community we need your support to continue and expand on this growth we need an increase of 2 mil 556255 for a total budget appropriation of 13,469 th000 the main the vast majority of this goes to our staffing we average about 84% of our budget from the city going directly to Staffing costs the city is how we pay our people we need more people and we need to be competitive with how we pay them I tell people all the time that 10,000 books neatly ordered on shelves by themselves is a big pile of books but 100 with dedicated staff becomes a library we do a lot we want to do so much more it's devastating when we have to close a library because of emergency staffing issues or because the heat or AC is out on those days nobody wins no kids have a safe space no Elders have human contact what's more if they find the door locked and don't come back we need to have the um what's more what if they find the door locked and don't come back we need to have the people to do more and we need to be able to pay them to grow with us as an institution we are offering an increase in services and hours with this request if we're granted these additional funds we will be able to expand our hours this budget aspires to six day a week service across nework with two late nights at all locations and Sunday service at Maine we can get the staff to get the mobile services up and running and we can do more um over more time libraries are a 24hour service even when our doors are shut between our online offerings our teaching programs and the books and other resources we share there is always someone benefiting from your library 247 365 a year thank you for your consideration and your support and I'm very happy to take count questions thank you thank you so much director uh questions and comments from Council Members yeah Madam chair councilman Council I I I do um know that when you talked about the the Clinton branch of of the library we're also having problems uh on the Osborne branch which maybe experien some some closure and and I'm you know after hearing a lot of the movement and and things that is happening with some of these budgets I do want us to to really you know consider asking the ba to find some additional funds to at least help support the library um and and and what it is that they're doing they've been doing a y's job at trying to hold stuff together on a needle and thread budget since probably 20 10 or 18 and and so um if there is is some attempt uh to help them you know find some additional uh funding I I would think we need to uh ask the ba to uh explore that possibility now I know we may not have you know five million right or six million because we're we're lean but if we make an attempt to at least be good partners uh in in in this thing I think it would it would go a long way um in in in providing Library services and and not trying to be the city that encourages reading and then don't support reading yeah absolutely well they didn't ask for five million just two yeah so doing some change okay councilman Gonzalez yeah I Echo the the the comments of my colleague and I believe that we have an opportunity we have vacancies H in the budget and I believe that if we vacancies that are funded so I believe that if we were to eliminate those vacancies that are funded we can find some money for the library I believe that it's imperative that that we do something for the library ER we proud pride ourselves of being an educated city and I believe that being an educated city we have to provide the services for the people that want to continue educating themselves and the library is a great source ER for for us to educate ourselves er er Mr ba I direct this to you whatever we can do to ER to provide some funding Maybe we cannot provide the $2.5 million but we can provide some monies H for the library so that they can continue functioning as they as they have maybe 1.5 councilman Quintana no in terms of echoing with my colleagues you know the library is very instrumental you know to this community to the city I remember as you said you're going to get a mobile unit I remember the summer programs the those mobile units would come and and children would get their books and you remember those days right and it was that kind of and it was a lot of communication even with with the Speedy program at the time they would encourage you to take a book uh there there's a need on New York City you know they were about to you know a budget where they cut their budget of the library the library is something that's very ental to this community I mean to uh to see the the mo we have lost libraries we had one on First Avenue that's gone there was libraries back then so again we we should be able the salaries of the staff don't compare to other salaries of people who are so dedicated at this Library who worked every day women and men Librarians who are there uh the The Compassion what they do in terms of it's important uh you know I said I said we were at Branchburg I bought some books and uh said to you but there's a way and I think to the ba the business administrator through our lobbyist in in in DC uh you know making sure see where there can be some funding where can we get some funding uh there's someone we have all these corporations in in in our town are the big giants the credentials and Etc we need to reach out and see how we can help this Library they do whether it's a whether it's 5 million whether it's 2 million it has something has to be done because again the conditions of libraries of keeping up these books keeping up the archives archives are very costly if you know about archives I know about archives because archives are very for collectors are very ex very it takes time you have to have the right temperatures you have to have everything has to be correct so again the library is the center of this community of this city for the five Wards of the city that mobile unit will be very good I'm so happy that you mentioned that thank you so much thank you all right okay I know we have some other comments um I know folks are going to say some of the same thing so let's just be mindful of the time because we have a few more departments waiting for us councilman Kelly um I was going to say some of the things that my colleagues already said you know so um just to full out you know I support you guys you know especially you know just seeing the Alexander branch in the west W you know being there with and witnessing the hole in the the the wall and the ceiling in the winter time cold and you know if it's not attractive then the youth and the people who would like to visit the library are not going to come so I and and going there actually going there myself to have a meeting and it's closed and I call and they say well today we have to give them off you know our employees off I think that you know we've already discussed the matter I think the ba gets the point and uh you know if we can find it we definitely are in support for you to receive it thank you very much uh councilwoman Scott rree thank you council president well actually I've had the um I wouldn't say fortunate was unfortunate for some of the employees of the library to actually some of them came one came crying um about the conditions and about how they're trying to live uh with a little trying to make a lot out of a little so even though council president said we've all uh stated the same thing I just wanted to go on record that I support whatever we can do to increase of the budget for the library employees of they have families to feed just as we do and I'm praying that we will be able to find funding and at the same time those who are around you will also be able to see whatever recommendations you can make to assist us in doing so thank you for your service director and your team thank you very much mop yeah I'll be very brief my my family is a library family we go to the library uh whether it's in we've gone to the ones in the North and the Central and and in the South um so it's important that we continue to make and and my family is not the only family there are a lot of other families that you use the library for uh important uh uh reasons not just to read books but for safe to feel safe to feel secure for so many additional reasons and so at the last time we tried to go to the osor Terrace Branch it was closed it was a whole family we all got out the car and then fortunately the gate was locked and well there's a sign and we couldn't go in so it's important that and quickly I agree with everyone else here who's saying we need to make sure that there's more funding and particularly after I think this morning something was said about even when we have um and I'm paraphrasing even when I think budgets are are are tight that we provide arts and education etc for folks that this is an important part of our city an important part for the people of our city an important part for the residents those who visit those who come those who need a location to be safe to be secure to read and to uh uh just feel part of the city thank you any other comments councilman Silva yeah uh I met with the library on Van Beren last month yes sir uh and I actually committed uh something to him a donation when I heard they hadn't bought a new book in years um at the end of the day you have people there that love what they do uh how they're making a living it's got to be very difficult in this uh day and age but they love what they do they love the community they love the city and uh that's where their hard is uh but again I think other problems are going to continue to evolve I believe uh I'm with my Council colleagues in definitely looking to help you guys out but your buildings especially the vanan one are very old yes and uh in the foreseeable future I I see problems that are probably going to uh come about in a building like that it's a big part of our community people go in there uh to learn how to read English to learn the classes that you offer and everything like that so it goes beyond Just Books at vanir and and other libraries so your the service you're providing uh I don't think uh uh a lot of people know uh because they haven't been in library in years including myself right uh with today's technology uh but you provide a service uh that people really really do appreciate so I want to thank you and your staff for uh dedicating uh uh your days and your time to helping out uh the residents of the city wonderful thank you very much thank you councilman Silva any other comments before we end from Council Members I will end with saying first of all thank you for being here um thank you to your staff and everything that you all do I think all of the council members enjoy uh the services that the library offers and I know of me personally at the Springfield branch and the main branch we do great program in there we have you know a great time and it's always packed and filled uh with residents of this city I would recommend and I it be I don't know if you were here last budget season I think it might have been day two for you on the budget season I think for me in seven years I'm on the third director for the library yes maam and um I constantly say all the time that the library has to evolve yes ma'am you know you guys have work to do it's you know you can come here we can I I definitely support more funding definitely think we should do what we can in our budget but we're thin too here like everything is thin like monies are thin it's the same thing I explained when I met with the Union um literally when I talk with you all the time it's the same thing and you guys have got to start to get creative when we had the last director we hired here your predecessor we talked about philanthropy opportunities and what that looks like and how can the library do better um in that and I don't know if it's a mesh and I hate to do this but we're all one city and we all should working together but perhaps there's some way you can hook up with the museum and see what they're doing because they do it well they do I'm be very honest they they do it well and even the idea of how do you go into the 21st century of what libraries are doing around the country to collaborate to to get you know funding for your buildings all of those things need to be looked at you know and there's some great opport some great examples already out there of what you can look at to you know be able to look beyond the tradition Library it's time yes ma it's it's just we can't stay here like it's just not going to do it cuz next year you're going to be back in the same situation and while you're in two million now and while there's been a big increase for over years right from previous administration that we're trying to catch up with it's just not going to substain like this and so you got to start looking at you know other ways and we had these conversations with the previous direct especially when it came to Bergen Street branch that's been closed for some time of what we can do different you know how do we like transition so all of those things need to be just picked back up and really have to start thinking outside of the box of how you create revenue for the library so and and and how do you go out there and get more funding from the state and other entities um to be able to sustain as well so I just wanted to leave that with you all um I I know I've said it multiple times before but definitely you know it's it's really time to get to that point yeah we definitely hear what you're saying we've actually brought on a a deputy director of development with been looking very aggressively at philanthropy at grant writing um at really any resources we can and I I welcome those conversations and I thank you yes and walk right down the street to uh Linda and them I mean big inspiration to me Linda is a big inspiration to me the museum I mean I'mma Be honest you got to give kudos with we we love both of you like I mean we enjoy working with both of our partners in the museum in the library and definitely in our new arts and culture District um but we we're only successful if we're all thriving it can't be one space that is growing and booming and then you know you look down the street in the library is like you know struggling we can't have that so definitely work you know with the entities within the district that's why we created the district that's why the mayor created the district to be able to work together and Thrive together for the residents of this city so definitely you got to reach you know down the street to to all of those Partners in that area and find a way to to make it work for the library yes ma'am all right thank you so much for being here today we appr appreciate you all thank you all it's a pleasure and an honor thank you very much nework Municipal Court good evening it's so good to see you all thank you so much for being here with us today always good to see you uh judge do you have an opening statement for the council uh I do Council woman uh uh very briefly uh good evening council president and distinguished members of the north Municipal council with me this evening I have the court director Miss Jessica Kaku to my immediate right and I also have our finance director Miss Diane Raley to my immediate left we have submitted our proposed budget along with answers to the budget questions I've also included copies of my opening statement so I will not read itba them for the most part our budget tends to remain the same year to year and any request for additional funding is Sate around salaries is sing around salaries which account for Approximately 80% of our total budget requests with that being the case I relying Upon Our written submissions currently we have 101 employees 13 of which happen to be full-time judges as an independent branch of government we are entrusted with the responsibility of providing a for for fair and just resolution of disputes the Court's primary goal over the next three years is to return to pre-pandemic backlog numbers biggest obstacle in that regard is trying to address the more than 250,000 parking tickets pending in our inventory having said that in the interest of time I will certainly welcome any Comon questions or concerns you may have about day-to-day Court operations okay thank you so much questions or comments from Council Members have a question yes councilman Gonzalez go right ahead hi George how are you I'm good councilman Gonzalez how are you I see that you have a lot of provisional employees can I I didn't hear you I see that you have a lot of provisional employees yeah about about 48 I believe of the 101 out of 101 48 so what are we doing to move those individuals to permanent positions well most of those provisional employees are are recent change of titles so they're not people who've been sitting in those positions for four five six years but the Court directors actively uh interviewing uh prospective candidates to see if we could obviously fix those provisional titles I don't have any other questions don't be afraid of the judge you you mentioned about the revenue What's the total revenue you all have brought in this year thus far thus far $7.9 million gross for the city budget it is about $4.7 million um as of June 30th so 7.9 million you all have collected in revenue and you said you give four point back to the general budget correct okay what was the number 4 point what 4.7 the difference goes then to the state or correct councilman Gonzalez other questions questions comments y'all know I'm not going to say what I usually say so I'm just G what time is 6:21 I'm BS all I ain't even going cuz folks know what I'm going to say so I ain't even going just going to hold it and swallow it okay councilman Sila I'm sorry I'm sorry judge I just have a quick question judge um personally myself I reach out to code enforcement a lot to issue summonses and all that stuff uh garbage and other things are those case what's happening to those cases are they getting dismissed for like technicalities a lot of them or or do we prosecute a lot of them and issue the summonses the cases where people show up the court where the the owner of the property shows up to court I think process works perfectly fine they come in they speak to the court enforcement liais on officer they speak to the prosecutor and those matters are are dealt with on the merits the the issues we have I don't want to say we but the issue in the process is having people served with a copy of the complaint obviously when those inspectors go out and they inspect properties they issue violations those those violations have to be properly served and so the court has no ability to move on those complaints if they're not satisfied that service has been effectuated so when those cases come to court two three four times if no defendant appears on those complaints then what the court does is put the prosecutor's office and code enforcement or notice look we don't have perfect service here if you want me to move on these complaints and you have to provide proof of service and it's put on up we call a dismissal list a 45 day rule list and if they don't perfect service within 45 days the only real remedy on those cases is dismiss them so to answer your question yes there are a great number of cases that get dismissed off of technicalities for administrative reasons yes in in your opinion just in your overall opinion uh how many cases like say a month or after the 45 days or would you have like a number yeah I I don't I don't I don't have amount there is a substantial amount certainly more than you would like no doubt no doubt about that but as a court I think our job is to deal with cases on the marit right and so if people don't show up and there's rules in place that require us to follow certain rules and procedures in the event that those rules and procedures not followed then we do the next thing and that's put them on the list service isn't perfected then we take whatever action we deem appropriate thank you judge and in those instances to be clear you can always if the violation still persists you could always go out and reinspect and reissue the violation if you're able to establish who the the appropriate responsible party is so just just one last question so the person uh the building doesn't come back to anybody comes back to one of these llc's and all that stuff uh is that where the problem exists it's a myriad of problems you know changing titles not having sufficient and and identifiable title registered on the record you have vacant properties abandoned properties um you have multiple you have insufficient contact information uh to get people in to address these matters so it's it's not one particular thing there's a number of things yeah can you issue a summons to an LLC or it has to be an individual now you can issue it to an LLC okay we do that all well I don't want to say we but code enforcement does it all the time okay thank you yes other questions councilman Gonzalez do you have the full compliment of the the judges I do we have we have 13 full-time judges the only slot that's open right now as a part-time part-time position it's not really impacting our services in terms of service let's say if there's lack of service you they say the cases are dismissed who is supposed to serve those individuals well the Court's position is is that the code enforcement the issuing agent is supposed to serve uh the notice of the complaint um the court does in certain instances depending on the age of the case will send out regular and certified mail in certain types of cases but the court is is a neutral understand what our role is we're neutral in the process so we're not for prosecution or for defense we provide the forum for these cases to be resolved on the merits and it's no different than a police officer issuing a parking ticket or arresting somebody they generally do that in real time they provide the service of the complaint um and so oftentimes it's code enforcement's responsibility to make sure that these complaints are being properly served in event that they don't do that there are times when the Court will take it upon itself to do that but it's not primarily our role or their role it's kind of dual dual responsibility thank you other questions comments council president I I know I know I know what you're thinking I'm not going to say anything we're here we're here feel free I'm not going to say anything if you to hear the responses that you want to hear but no I mean honestly I appreciate your transparency here today before us I I know that we've constantly had a conversation and it's taken me seven years on the council to figure out where some of the items are broken right and I think while we we're always saying like oh the courts the courts because that's the final stop but at the end of the day you just explain about some of the challenges is with the process it's obvious that the pro the process is broken somewhere there's some cracks and some leaks in it is it the Court's fault 100% no it's it's obviously not because we have some breakdowns of how we're processing these but for the life of me I'm sitting up here thinking instead of me complaining and doing how I usually do of all of the revenue we could use all of it I've been seeing it all week just dangling in front of us it's just like dangling on the Christmas lights and we won't do what we need to do as a city and administration to fix the Brokenness to get funds due to us in the city and this is not for you to say I'm saying this because as you said you I want the courts to stay neutral right I want people to say we have a biased Court uh system here in the city of Nork but it's like out of so many years of the same Brokenness of the process not to you all but to the administration I'm talking to the ba I'm looking at the ba we just will not fix it I mean in a time where we could be grabbing Revenue just dangling there paying for salaries paying for raises paying for you know a more better Ro whatever we pay the to the general fund right that is what we should be doing and we just won't do it we will not do it to save our lives and I just can't understand that and that once again not saying that to you all I'm just saying in general because there are multiple departments that play into the execution of it get into you and actually you know making sure that these people are held accountable that that's the point of it it's more than just about getting money let me be clear before somebody goes and quotes me in some paper somewhere um about me saying something it's more than just the money part it is holding people accountable for our residents here in the city and we have to deal with so many complaints I keep saying in the council's job probably 80% of our time is spent on holding people accountable landlord problems cold violations I promise you our emails are flooded with it we go to meetings you can't get out from just complaints regarding landlords so it's most of our time and it's most of the city's time and we're just not doing anything to fix the the Brokenness of the system so I will rest there but I I appreciate you judge for coming because I think this like the first time you come before us to say this because we are we had like the prosecutor here before and some other staffers here trying to like you know debate back and forth of whose problem it was in front of this Council not too long ago but you weren't here your your office wasn't here so I appreciate you coming to say what are some of the breakdowns of you know cases coming to you all especially when it's you know within the prosecutor um and and those are in violation and code enforcement so definitely I think that's good for the public to hear and definitely good for this Council to hear Madam chair Council and just real quick UCC as well so we have to figure out what that disconnect is when someone comes in they have a code violation but they also had a a stop work order and so the court recognizes what the Cod violation is and so the person says oh we handled that we abated it we're fine but yet there was a disconnect and saying well wait a minute you just had an illegal conversion and we need to deal with it and that person walks out of court and we don't we don't deal with it I know that happened in many instances uh because I was around it but that's why I thank you for that kind of you know openness but we have to be able to to figure this out understood yep right councilman and judge that's why I bought it up because here we are trying to figure out how to raise more funds and how many tens of thousands and thousands of dollars we're losing because of the disconnect like the council president says between code enforcement the courts you know so I think it does I've only been here two years but I think this is something that needs to be addressed sooner than later and just just to make a comparison we have a similar issue with addressing parking tickets right there's no real tools or mechanism to really get people into court to address these tickets right you can't really issue benchmarks your motor vehicles the state is not really suspending driver's licenses right so these tickets are just in our inventory we have no real teeth to get them in the court to address these matters so they're just sitting they're just sitting they're just sitting so what happens is they they they rotate they rotate they rotate and then eventually they end up on a report because now they're two years old they're three years old there's no activity that's not a court problem there's nothing we can do about that and so often times if you take the tools away from us to address certain cases the end result of that is eventually they're going to end up getting dismissed now they issue so many parking tickets that you don't really notice that because there's nobody complaining about it because they keep issuing and issuing and issuing so the inventory keeps Rising but uh the reason you hear about code enforcement is because they're real victim to that yeah and people complain to you but we have the same problem dealing with in addressing parking tickets it's hard to get people into court to either address them or hard to get people to pay yeah I was going to ask one thing um you guys are still 100% Zoom right for court we're more 95 96% virtual okay four or five% in person the model the Statewide model should be 80% virtual 20% in person we're we're more virtual than in person that's that's most municipalities who are still virtual it's a it's a Statewide it's a Statewide directive some towns may only have one or two sessions a month so they have a little more freedom to do what they want so they may have more inperson activity but obviously we're the largest Court in state U we have 16 sessions a day most of what we do is is zoom so the only people we really bring in the court of people who are having trials or or or facing DWI cases and things of that nature got it got it all right uh councilman Gonzalez you have one last more question I follow up on that they say I have a ticket I am on Zoom how do I pay the the fine I sell the money to you or no no no you you get to come in you go you go online you at njcourts.com or you come into the courthouse Monday through Friday and pay that to Wes they've been paying do we have do we have the say any kind of delinquency on those payments let's say I was speeding I get the they say the ticket I I get fine $50 now you they say you they say penalize me with the $50 I don't pay the $50 what happens well during Co they suspended our ability to to issue bench warrants for people who fail to pay um and so that that money just sits in the pipeline until people are ready to pay it or they decide to pay it we don't really have a collection agency anymore don't say that too loud that the reporter is here so you you asked the question so I'm just trying to give an honest answer but yeah so that money just sits in the pipeline until uh depending on the amount if it's a substantial amount obviously you have the ability to maybe issue a bench warrant but nominal amounts it just sits there until somebody's ready to take care of and it keeps increasing like it goes up like $10 $20 each time so the you just keep having a bill that's growing you obviously haven't gotten a parking ticket in a long time oh they say do you have the ability of charging interest or penalties on that amount no there's like a miscellaneous fee of like $10 I think that automatically is assess the computer does it it's nothing that we have to do individually y but pay a tiet kids folks because at some point if they say you you know start back issuing bench warrants you don't want to get in a situation for those who are tuned in we're not saying that you can just get away from you know not paying your parking tickets or your moving violations please pay I don't want anybody to write that and say you know nework is not keeping up with the tickets and it's just going unclaimed monies are going unclaimed but anyway thank you so much for coming out today have a great evening we appreciate you all hey thank you all have a good evening affirmative action I don't even think I have one for affirmative action it know it work yeah you guys have one yeah oh oh that was that right come on up Mr Baptista good evening it's very mad president hey Mr Baptista thank you so much for being with us today we appreciate your patience thank you do you have an opening statement for the council uh no they told me to make it short all right well you're first not to have an opening statement all right any questions for affirmative action no oh yes Council Miss Silva yeah Mr batist how you doing hi good to see you so you have no vacancies correct I was reading your you have no vacancies do you have uh all the Personnel that you need because I know we in our first meeting that we had uh I believe last year and I got to meet you on the affirmative action committee uh there were some issues has all that been straightened out with with your with your team there um councilman we still have the same the same number of employees um we have six and um at one point we used to have 10 and um we have six the total including me and right now we have um a lot of constructions going on right now and um we are doing the best we can to make sure that now we do side visit with what we have but the last time we spoke you know and that's why I'm asking because all the development that's going on here do you have enough Personnel to effectively go out to all these job sites that are going on on a consistent basis no uh as a matter of fact you know I have requested two more um employees or so far no I don't have I'm still waiting for your response okay I think it's imperative that we that we get you the uh the help that you need to be able to uh you know AB do do do your job thank you thank you okay so the answer is no Mr Baptista you do not have enough staff councilwoman Scott rree so so councilman Silva and I have met um with you sir and have we yet dealt with the position of administrative assistant or someone to assist you with the files is that still vacant as well still vacant yes all right so Council Sila was just stated that we have to do an update with the meeting because we've had this meeting we first came into office we did yes and we had another meeting after you came into office remember the administration and I can't see why we haven't moved further because there is a lot of development going on and while people is saying that we're not losing out on being able to keep up with um people who are not in compliance and doing what they need to do it's just almost with five people and they all have different assignments I don't see how it's humanly possible and we're trying to find funding and councel and Council talks about it all the time there's money just dangling out there um and some of that money we need uh for our budget and absolutely we'll be calling up for another meeting and please be a ailable yes and um I do not have um an open statement but what I can say we have about 87 projects in our office not all of them active but we have we still have to go to the job site to make sure if they start or not and um last year we collected about not about we collected $465,000 finds contribution the money goes to nework WS this year we have already collected $365,000 from developers general contractors who did not do what they're supposed to do and that's the only way the only thing we can do is to sit down and uh negotiate um it finds or we can call it we call it sometimes contribution this year then we are so far we at $365,000 and the money goes to newk works there so many people who could help in this department yes Mr ba there so many bodies that can help in this department I know you agree I know we could pull two people from somewhere throughout this city to be able to help I mean I could help you pick somebody out because there got to be some staff that could go to affirmative action and help out with the monitoring of these projects and I only say it because we bring it up a lot I know that with all seriousness right that a councilwoman Scott rry and councilman Silva definitely brings it up from the affirmative action committee but when we're in tax batement committee as well with councilman Gonzalez and councilman Council we constantly talk about this about the issue of keeping up with these projects making sure we're doing full monitoring you know uh just making sure we're not letting anything slip through the cracks and so as more development comes online we we have got to have some staffing um to be able to assist I think that we have done a really good job in uh finding uh developers and doing some of that work that we done around um a affirmative action specifically around a tax abatement committee but also making sure on this Council that we make sure that they're paying their their full share um into you know uh the coughers that help some of the programs within affirmative action as well as pouring into nor Works um but we they definitely need some more bodies there and we talked about this last year too um during budget season so it's something we should definitely look into councilwoman Sky someone still being paid out of another budget that should be working in affirmative action yes we have someone that we have to fix because that person each need to be paid out of the budget of the department they're working in so that we can put what you need in that department because for years the person that was doing what we need done retired which means you and everybody else have to do what this one person did that someone else is now getting paid for in another department yes and we're got to revisit that yes all right any other questions before I know we're 42 minutes after the hour 42 any other questions or comments from Mr Baptista before we move on I think we have two more departments two more yes two more that's why I was trying to tell y'all I'll be listening I'll be giving y'all the eyebrow and everything like come on we got another department see and then he gets up and leaves me after saying that all right uh thank you so much Mr Baptista thank Youk you all right Madam clerk nor Works nor works and then who who who do we have after nor works okay clerk's office that's important oh man all right hello young vibrant team look at them good evening council president and council members hello welcome thank you so much do you all have a comment for the council or opening statement yes um so I would just start off by saying my name is Tariq Rola I am the director of operations for Workforce of our employment and vocational training services um our M goal is to ensure that the mayor's and administration's mission and vision is moving forward right which is providing noris with equal with with equal and equ opportunities to employment uh educational access as well as as well as vocational training opportunities that can help them skill up and become the best version of themselves we don't only want to tell right us each other locally that ners are moving forward and leading the way we really want to show us locally and globally um and Jason will talk to you about uh where we are where we want to be and how we get there and I have Keana dun stor here for our Summer Youth Employment Program all right thank you so much um questions and comments from council members does the municipal ID program fall underneath you all uh we uh support some of their operations as part of our moette budget okay the the the total Grant funded programs that you guys operate currently we uh in program year uh 24 which started July 1st 2024 we were awarded 6.6 million in total from our uh weoa and wfj programs and that still focuses on I know we talked about the re-engagement center but other individuals that may be looking for employment opportunities uh re-entry uh uh component as well all of that is reconnected at uh 375 now yes so we totally don't have any other services at 900 bro we're all flush 375 maart Highway um because we're one stop and our estate partners are located at 990 Broad Street we still do do we don't do programming there but we still do occupy a small space there and we still do uh have access to the facility to serve as residents but we we don't do any referral based information so if there's individuals who are coming to look for employment if they go to 990 will they be serviced there or will they be directed to 375 marara we've partnered with essis County we have a wave uh Transportation vehicle so there's a direct transportation from 990 to 375 and our office service Residence at uh 375 mcarter gotta I'm good I just wanted to go back to clarify so you guys get 6.6 million in Grant funds yes and your total budget is what uh so we get 6.6 million in Grant funds and 2.5 uh from our our our municipality from the administration so total of uh 9.1 all right yeah I like that I like when folks come up here with grant money the ba no I like I love that yes um yeah we are also though uh as director rolon will soon discuss we have a lot of new initiatives that we are are putting on you know this year we did our very first Raise Your Voice Leadership Academy we engagement Center the re-entry Council so as part of our acts we you know we're working with the administration and these Civics to find additional funding to continue to support these initiatives but we are seeking a u some increase to help funding new initiatives we're launching got it any other questions or comments from Council Members I I do want to say that this department specifically are they're doing amazing work um I want to thank you and your team um and even you know folks that are not here of the entire n Works um Staffing because there are great things happening I think it goes back to we were talking with um the department of uh health and wellness earlier about the great things that they do and how the Communications Department should help Elevate that I think sometimes there are great programs happening but we might get the flyer like that week or you know residents to tell us they don't know about it and and I'm not blaming you all for that because you can't be and do everything and so that's why the different departments that are within here in the city like Communications should be helping you all Elevate what you're doing um and telling a story about what you're doing and and how you can be able to get that out there to Residents because there's some great things happening but sometimes people's number one responses are we didn't know about it like you know how do we find out about it what do we do so uh definitely uh try to work through the ba I'm seeing this to the ba through his chair to make sure that Communications are supporting these departments in the work that they do if not no one is telling a story we don't know about it and then folks come to us here you all see and they say nothing's happening um and you know we should be doing a better job at telling the story of the work that we do yes and we do plan to use leverage some some of our Ooa dollars to get some who are into that field that's what the mayor was talking to us about realizing that social media is the new platform so we're going to leverage some of those resources to ensure that we have folks to help us put out the uh information with the communications go ahead it uh councilman s you want to end us off yeah I just want to um congratulate them on the 375 mcarter Highway facility it is the East Ward and every time I've been there the classrooms are full uh so I just want to tell you guys that you're doing a great job uh the couple of times that I've been there um I see the look in the people's face and there is hope so I just want to congratulate you guys on on the job that you're doing he thank you well thank you guys so much for being here with us today have a good evening all right Madam clerk you're up so thank you council president council members I will be brief uh I sent a summary this morning because I learned yesterday how late the day goes but the office of the city clerk does two important main functions open public meetings and open public records those are the two ginormous uh work functions that we do it is our hope to continue to be transparent with the population that we serve in addition the only request that I have for the budget is to continue to grow over time because we use that money to support the council events and activities to staff to make sure that the council has everything that need other than that everything else remains flat all right questions for our clerk yeah because of the just one question about the uh open public record act Oprah because of the the state's mandate have we changed up on that as well is there a new system that's going to be implemented thank you so last year we asked for money to purchase our gov QA platform and that has proven to been inv valuable to help us now that the laws are changing we will have more strength in the things that we release and the things that we offer we plan to grow that platform so that everything we release will be online so that we don't have to have multiple requests for the same type of documents so that um program that the council approved last year I really appreciate it because it's helped us a lot councilman c yeah just one question regarding lar it seems to have uh doubled in fact a little more from 2023 is that the reason why and are there more users on it now and if so who are more users more licens we are going to um think of creative ways to level that out I'm still getting my hands wrapped around the whole legar process so just a followup to that every time someone every time I new person is trained and gets a what's it called authorization I think it's called that's that's an additional fee to this to the clerk's office it's an additional usage of the platform okay thank you we we also need to scrub the system we definitely need to scrub the system we need to remove people but I don't we need to remove the people I'll say it we need to remove the people who don't approve stuff who don't use the system either so we need to definitely do that that's so we're wasting money we're wasting our licensing fees for mostly city employees who don't do anything with the system or don't use it you know they give requests I mean even it might be some sta of our staff too that might have access we've asked for Access and they're not frequently using it they shouldn't have it because that's a cost to the city so that's something that we need to look at too to really determine of our staff who really needs it and that's uh Citywide you know especially some folks who are just sitting on let your start not doing anything with it yes other questions for our clerk I just want to say you've been doing a great job Madam clerk we delighted to have you I will say some of the great initiatives um that we've done this year it was in the works for like 25 years I'm dead I'm serious lots of things we fix some items you know we fix some asbest we People's Furniture stop falling on their labs and I know people don't want to hear that but the conditions that people work in that's very important like you know people should be working um in decent conditions and not subject you know to uh dangers you know in their work environment so I want to commend you and your entire team um you know for all of the work that you do uh for this city for us for the administration and for the residents so thank you so much um and I know that you know we have some progress to make um but I believe you and your team have been excellent um and always available always responsive and we're extremely thankful for that thank you okay all right well thank you all for joining us for our uh second night of budget hearings uh we will uh of course announce soon when the budget hearing will be um but we'll also need to be talking about follow-ups to some of the conversations that we had here with the administration with our business administrator and we also have some follow items that need to come back to us for review of course uh council president council members the anticipated public hearing on the budget is September 5th all right September 5th all right that is the that is the proposed date as of today all right thank you all for being with us we look forward to seeing you again have a great evening THS e e e e e --------- ##VIDEO ID:0LHsvBTyl2w## e good morning welcome to the special meeting conference of the New York Municipal Council on Tuesday August 13 2024 in accordance with New Jersey Law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to The Star Ledger the Jersey journal and the public at large establishing the date time and location of this meeting in addition the agenda for this meeting was deiminated on August 9th 2024 at the time of preparation and posted on the website of the city of nework roll call please Council absent Crump present Gonzales absent Kelly here King an here Ramos absent Scott rree present Sila here president MC Iver presid council president council members we are on page three of the agenda public hearing second reading and final passage 6 sfas is an ordinance to amend title two to Define vacant Lots clarify various definitions and establish registration required ments and fee schedules for vacant Lots sponsored by councilman Council second by councilman Crump is there anyone present wishing to be heard on this ordinance before we have public comment can we have someone from the administration explain this item for the public uh good morning council president council members Allison lad director of Economic and Housing Development uh the ordinance before you is a companion piece to an ordinance this Council approved last year regarding assessing fees to vacant buildings this ordinance is requesting your consideration to allow the city to assess fees to vacant land and we would use a similar protocol that we are currently using to register and assess vacant buildings in a way we which we would register and assess vacant land the fee schedule uh for uh that's being proposed is um for smaller Lots it would be $50 a square foot the first renewal would be $1 a square foot and the second would be $11.50 uh per square foot and for any subsequent renewal it would be $2 a square foot we'd be happy to answer any questions thank you any questions for uh Council CNN public speaking thank you Lisa Parker um every time these ordinance come here that you're amending uh it's nothing more than word salad because clearly there's vacant Lots here that the city is not um charging any type of fees to finding the owners of these vacant lots and they aren't expressing what changes you made from the original so how is the public supposed to be informed about what changes you're making and it's coming here today and you asked the director to come up here to explain this word salad on the ordinance public hearings are for the public to have an understanding of what you're voting on and why you're voting on it up to now you continue to disrespect and have contempt for the public by continuing to bring these ordinance forward that no one knows what you're talking about and what it applies to next speaker good morning Council Felicia Austin sing Singleton okay um when you say in vacant land and you have a construction site that was built or started to being built in 2017 and to this day is not even completed isn't that still vacant a shell of a building you have sat here and amended the amendment to the amendment to amend another part of the amendment and y'all don't even know which part we talking about at this point you sit here and think you're creating legislation create the legislation that needs to be done create the inclusionary Zoning for for these vacant lots that on onsite dig let's get to that right right um councilman um Gonzalez breaking of ground automatically supposed to have 20% these vacant Lots should be contracted under that the io said once you start and break ground is already guaranteed 20% set aside but you could set you could set the bar higher if you want at the end of the day no one is following the rules but you want the residents to follow the rules rules were made so that we can go by law bacon Lots is not just a piece of parcel that's standing there with dirt or grass on it vacant lots are them just deplorable houses that you had stand sitting up there saying you got affordable housing in the city room is filled with a whole bunch of developers and lawyers today waiting for these tax abatements but I don't see none of them setting aside 70% set aside with a 30 to 40% of the Ami why are they here they're concern is not the city of New York their concern is to get anything that you give them and and and get the vacant piece of land that yall trying to give them so that they can make money it's not better for the citizens of North nothing they they don't even give back to the citizens of North and yet and still you'll all say yes say no say abstain until they come to the table and bring something that's better our city government does not help help developers is to hear the residents for us to have a seat at the table and for them to explain what's going on they guaranteeing up in here see if you pass some vacant Lots nobody's stupid I'm GNA take a picture of everybody in here and I'mma send it over to you know who next speaker good morning council president um I'm a little confused right now because um of a statement that you made concerning these ordinances um on the last meeting and I also posted your comment about these these ordinances not being in play anymore because um they were written before you got elected and some of the other Council people got elected so so this ordinance that you're talking about right now has to do with the same ordinance that you said is not in play anymore we're talking about land cells it falls under the First Source linkage program which was written in the year 2000 before you became a council person it's still in place it still has to do with econom EIC incentives on page three it talks about one tax abatements two federal state or Municipal grants or loans three city property which is Coveted at a private sale City contracts for services Madame President these laws are still in place everything you do falls under these laws unless there's been an amendment there has not been any amendment to these laws when it comes to the N Employment Commission which you said was no longer in play and I would like uh to I would like you to respond to that to what did you mean when you said that these laws are no longer in play so until we get a clear understanding of how this government is functioning under these economic incentives we should not be giving economic incentives even this land cell falls under economic incentives if you don't know the legislation I encourage you I submitted it to the council it is a part of our laws it is in play Madame President the newor resident employment policy it's in play Madam president president it needs to be enforced it also applies to the use of these sales economic incentives so I would like to know which part of this ordinance is not in play can you please answer that at the end of this since you commented it on me when I came to this mic before so could you please let the public know what you meant by these laws no longer being in play thank thank you very much next speaker seeing no other speakers public speaking is now closed U Mr Tillman in reference to what you're talking about it's we're not talking about that on this item we're on 6 psfa that has nothing to do with what you're talking about I just want to tell folks for the rest of the public hearings or the the second reading's final passage we're on the items of this agenda where you talk about the items on the agenda specifically for those items there are there's an opportunity as it is at every meeting we just had this same discussion on Wednesday when you can talk about what you would like to talk about on public comment we have that opportunity for you here today as well everyone who is here is free to come up and speak about that but we're talking about these items on second readings and final passages which these vacon lot registrations have nothing to do with what you talked about Mr Tillman so with that being said roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brry yes Silva yes president MC Iver yes 6 psf BS is an ordinance granting a 25-year tax abatement to ADL 605-607 broad urban renewal LLC for project to construct 84 residential rental unit units consisting of 71 market rate residential rental units 13 affordable housing rental units in the central Ward is there anyone present wishing to be heard on this ordinance good morning Madame President again economic incentives do apply to what I spoke of as again as I said to you if you don't know the ordinance if you don't understand the legislation it's up for you to go and look at the ordinance in the legislation you we were talking about land sales when you're talking about land sales it falls on the economic incentive you said that this it doesn't apply these laws don't apply no more and it has to do with econom we talking about tax abat talking about the tax I'm tax abatement you're disrupting me dis I have pleas talk to the ordinance please talk to the ordinance you're disrupting me Madam president please talk to the ordinance I'm speaking to the ordinance I'm speaking to the ordinance because the ordinance it applies to the law my disagreement with the ordinance has to do with you not applying or um being in compliance with the law I have a right to come here and speak of the ordinance when the law applies to the ordinance so how is it that I'm not speaking to the ordinance Madam president again I disagree with any tax abatement any land sale any government contract that falls under economic incentives these laws are in place whether you choose to abide by them or not when a citizen come up here and discusses these laws it's up to you to do your due diligence to go look at the law and see if the administration is in compliance with it you spoke out on behalf of the administration when I asked that question of the administration you the one said that these laws are no longer in place the administration didn't even say that when I spoke with the business administrator to discuss these ordinances he said that that NK Employment Commission was going to be put in place enacted it was going to be a matter of time that the administration we sat down and some things that we were going to discuss to make sure that this ordinance that was written in 2000 before you was elected is enforced so again I disagree with any tax abatement any use of economic incentives that this Administration or this government is doing until this commission that oversees all of these these economic incentives are in place including the no Employment Commission which council president said is not in play and we know it's not in play but it's according to the law it should be in play thank you next speaker fly Aon Singleton so right now we're violating our tax abatement um or um ordinance and we're violating inclusionary zoning ordinance the inclusion Arizona said 20% set aside 20% eight 10% of 84 is what eight So 20% would be 16 who can't count up in here and we can't do plus five you add one more because it's four so where's the 16 Apartments they're not in compliance with the inclusion every zoning how can you let them get a tax abatement where are the laborers that's on that project where is the compliance fully coded for the for the new um new nework residents where's the presentation from this developer before we got up here to say why they were doing this now you want a tax abatement because it's sitting over there down by the Housing Authority Griffith building are you kidding me if you you vote on this you will actually violate your own compliance law under the tax abatement but also your inclusion AR's own it what is going on here where did you did any of you miss Civics classes it teaches you how to construct government it teaches you how to obey the laws the very laws you set in place you're not even governing and and answering them to what it is oh now you want to throw 40% in there that's good I'll give you that that's good but the numbers don't add up can a developer tell us why the numbers aren't adding up where's their presentation why isn't the developer coming here to EXP explain why we're getting cut on the inclusionary zoning New Jersey Supreme Court in 2018 put it in and mandated every city in the in the state of New Jersey to give their fair share of affordable housing the leas will be 20% at the end of the day we are the largest city in the state and we should be going at least 50 to 60 to 70% set aside with our area mediate income being 30 to 40% and I don't know what Allison lad was up here talking or what Miss um mcgyver wanted to say about it because that's not true Google New Jersey Supreme Court decision on the Mount Laurel Doctrine next speaker Lisa Parker once again you're using affordability um in a way that looks like and sounds like it's benefiting the residents when it isn't because if you don't make between 87,000 and $12,000 a year it is not affordable you have Municipal workers relying on housing vouchers just to supplement to pay their rent you have all of these developers coming here not paying their fair share when they don't give 10% or 20% to load a moderate income to pay into a Housing Trust Fund we have had no accountability for all of these developers that didn't comply with that you have the Halo building on Washington Street that you gave a 25-year tax abatement to that one didn't have a project labor agreement to hire union workers for living wage and benefits health benefits you also have the people that are suing them because they didn't pay their vendors the plumbers they didn't have enough money to complete their project but you didn't resend the 25e tax abatement you gave to them while they owe you in 2023 and 2024 $188,000 in taxes just land you ain't even charging them assessment and 24,000 for this year and yet you turning around and giving Property Owners like me a 3.9% tax increase with no justification nor representation from any of you in this Administration and next year you'll be giving us a revaluation to up out taxes again what benefit is it that these developers can come here not live up to the compliance sence ordinances that you have on the book and Halo is a classic example of that you should have never let them do construction without a project labor agreement they aren't even paying assessment taxes they're only paying land taxes so explain to us why you continue to give Outsiders cuz let's talk about that I'm a native New Yorker you're always blame New Yorkers for coming here taking over the land but you're not talking about the people that you're selling land to from Lakewood from Israel from other parts of the state why are they benefiting and the people that develop and created these communities you're pricing us out next speaker next speaker seeing no other speakers public speaking is now closed any comments from uh of council members any responses from Administration all right seeing none roll call Council yes Crump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brre yes Silva yes president Mac Iver yes six psf CS is an ordinance granting a 30-year tax abatement to WT JV urban renewal LLC for a project to significantly rehabilitate an existing 17-story apartment building consisting of 279 affordable housing rental units for senior citizens in the north Ward sponsored by councilman Ramos second by councilman Gonzales is there anyone present wishing to be heard on this ordinance before we have um public speaking I believe there's a comment from the business administrator okay I'll try good morning council president council members Eric Pennington business administrator with respect to the uh application in front of the council today I know there were some prior questions raised about the precedent setting nature of this particular tax abatement I just want to clarify this is not precedent setting in that we have done other retroactive tax abatements in the past and we are likely to see another one uh in the near future one of the prior tax abatements that was approved by this Council that was retroactive was for the FBI building and Claremont was the developer it is highly likely that they're going to come back again and uh have some retroactivity embedded in that particular tax abatement request because they already started the process um and it is likely that the administration will support it and hopefully the Council will approve it the administration supports this particular tax debate but for several reasons not the least of which is it's a 100 affordable senior project in the north Ward and we want to make sure that there are adequate accommodations for our senior citizens throughout the city including uh on Mount Prospect Avenue this particular project will benefit from the tax abatement because there will be a significant rehab uh which has been on the books for uh on the planning stage now for several years I bring up the fact that it's been on the planning STV for several years because the request for this tax abatement was timely but because of several issues uh with covid postco and with the administration quite frankly it took a while for this matter uh to get forward uh get moved forward um I think that those uh those facts ought to be um known to you uh when you vote for this project the administration supports it and we encourage you to vote in favor of it um if there are additional questions with respect to that that I can answer I'm happy to do so okay any comments or questions from Council Members CNN thank you Miss ba public comment good morning Council Felicia Austin Singleton so I just want to read something to you real quick it says this is the third tax abate that has been terminated for non-compliance under the Philip Administration furthering the mayor's effort to reform the payment in Li of tax pilot program to to establish a greater transparency more widespread development localized employment opportunities and the PRI to prioritize residence over Developers developers residents over developers you never prioritized within the last let's just say eight years you never prioritize the residents of the city who vote you in over a developer you want to amend an amendment to amend the amendment to amend the amendment and sometimes I get I think you all forget what what's the amendment when you have develop that cannot even come and do a presentation and I'm not talking about a presentation to the council or to your tax abatement committee I'm talking about to the residents of the city of newk transparency what will we get out of that 100 affordable seniors Apartments when you guys sit up there and if the seniors don't do what you say you want to evict them around election time let's talk now oh we going to make it 100 affordable wol for seniors when you Badger the seniors at election time and tell them that they will be removed from their Apartments if they don't vote for you what's so good about that collaboration of residents localized employment mayor isn't step Phillip your friend take some notes from him brother you had the power you could cancel a tax abatement at any given time and not only Gonzalez has something to say rter you have something to say quintan you have something to say and Crump you have something to say too on every project that goes across this board you are many mayors you can go into any w you want and we need your voice to be heard because the only voice we hear up there in every board is Louis you don't have to wait on the current Council that's at seat you can come and make a decision is is in a tax abatement you get um Gonzalez to come sit with this man because what he's speaking is facts because I read it next speaker Lisa Parker let's have full transparency about what this is because the business administrator never articulated it here what you about to do is give somebody a retroactive tax abatement that owes the city $1.5 million in taxes that they have not paid the same entity went to the county and lied about the tax batement that they had and got rejected the same entity received 50 years worth of tax abatement and still had the seniors living in deplorable conditions so let's talk about what this really is you are rewarding somebody giving them a retroactive tax abatement that was a bad actor and treated our seniors deplorably now they're using the excuse oh we want to rehab the building and if you give us this we'll pay you $440,000 not the 1.5 million that they owe and let's go even deeper these developers fund your campaigns they fund your events for you to give them perks and and tax abatements what about University Estates homeowners association whose tax abatement expired I didn't see y'all up here doing any type of wrangling legislation or anything for the people who live here that are now retired that are struggling to offset these tax abatements that you're imposing upon the working class families but because the developer and the owners of these properties fund your campaigns your parties your event and not have responsibility to pay their debt and yet you turn around for property owners like me and everybody else out here you season our properties in tax Lanes but you're not enforcing a law against the developer but rather giving them perks then you have the nerve to have the seniors come up here to support this thinking that if they don't support it they not going to have a place to live how dare you they supposed to pay their fair share like you demand all the residents to pay their fair share you should not be giving them a retroactive tax abatement 1.5 million that they owe make them pay their fair share and give the residents whose tax abatement expired give them a perk next speaker George Tillman Madame President this is why it's so important that we have the nework Employment Commission to be imp acted to be in place and for us not to say that these laws are not imp play this developer owes the city $1.5 million now at the end of this this whole hearing whatever um the the business administrator gonna come up here and say that number has been adjusted if even if it's been adjusted to 400,000 500,000 nework residents didn't get that relief see there's a different standard and I want the nework residents to see it when y'all vote on this I hope you do say yes all the way across the board so they can see exactly who you are see who gets the relief and who doesn't get the relief because new residents water was shut off homes were taken licenses are being suspended all sorts of of Taxation being done to no residents without no representation so today we want to see our [Applause] representation we putting you to the test today we want to see what this 1 Point $5 million mean to you is that more important to you than no residents because we want that same relief because if you do Grant this $1.5 million tax abatement or this tax abatement them alling $1.5 million trust and believe we're going to come in here and demand that you give us the same relief $1.5 million a piece because we deserve the same relief that you're giving them because you you represent us not them because well I'm not understanding what's going on because anytime I owe something my lights got turned off my water got turned off if I didn't pay my rent I got I got evicted or got some sort of letter about my eviction we come here these these developers get card blanch that developer got almost 60 years of an abatement he got two extensions he got his County and school tax paid by the city that's what a part of that $1.5 million am I right Council councilman Council I don't know why you're not speaking this time but I'm the reason why this information came because of you I would have never known about this $1.5 million I thank you for that I thank you for exposing this Administration for what it's doing but stay on them don't don't I'm with you that's why it got I we here right now keep that same energy because I'm going to keep the same energy until a new residents are working until we benefiting from these economic incentives that you continue to give out but go ahead vote let's see what you do with this 1.5 million that this developer owes and see what relief we get in in response thank you next speaker come on morning s tman p the mic down we go these tax abatements are for nor residents and when you talk about nor residents you're also talking about the youth I'm 16 in 30 years I'll be 46 so if we're not Ben benefiting from these tax abatements now 30 years from now is still poverty it still will be kids not working it still will be parents not working and the city will still be poor a a tax abatement is a tax break for these large businesses to hire norc residents to work but we're not working or benefiting and every year the amount of kids working is decreasing it's not increasing and every year and every day is the same kid Still Standing Outside the shop right when I came here the last time they and I spoke about not getting paid for four weeks they started throwing a card and number like just a number at me and they said a check was cashed with my name on it and I never got a check and I never cashed it so I wonder how many other kids got a check that didn't get paid for 4 weeks or two weeks or whenever they didn't get paid but a check was cashed so I want to know what's going on like where where are these kids money going and why aren't we getting paid but you're way like you're trying to give us tax payments like I don't understand but we're not benefiting people are starving like suffering not working and we're still you're still trying to pass this tax abatement thank you next [Applause] speaker Donna Jackson the children will rise up with this madness you have caused in this city it's pure Madness how many houses has the city taken during Co to now for non-payment of taxes while you sat there with Accelerated Tax sale and put these people out of their homes how many seniors didn't even understand the game that you were playing you're not giving the seniors no relief if you had a heart if you cared every senior in this city would have a tax abatement not big boy not LLC not fund my campaign the audacity I want to know how much they owe in water CU see we only talking about taxes today so I know there's other bills at the city that they have not paid how many they trucks was parked out there that got tickets that they didn't pay all your boys how the Halo Builder not paying no taxes and y'all sitting here all right with that you played the game you set off 50 buildings water because they hadn't had the water bill paid the people got smart the people got energized called down to the state the state had to come in here and tell Raz what the hell are you doing and that's what the governor told him y'all keep putting us in the way of your nonsense that's why we say you don't care cuz we know you don't so stop saying it stop getting your panties in a bunch when we say it because we know your actions speak louder than any word 2.6 million they oh not 1.5 they ain't paid the county tax School tax and I'm sure they haven't paid water you let a North resident not pay their water bill y'all right out there up turn it off turn it off turn it off people coming down here with their last $100 $200 attempting to make water payment agreements came down here and attempted to negotiate their taxes on their property and you didn't let them you didn't let them you haven't done a tax amnesty program in this city or a water amnesty program in this City for the homeowners ain't nobody talking about Mr Money bucks here and all the other ones you got you do have a upcoming thank you Mr pen you do have a upcoming another waiver that you want to do for what you keep giving people that got the money to breaks what about us what about the people you got the union down here today took them long enough took them long enough yeah I said it long enough they've been out of work forever all this building in this city and people working on these sites don't even look like us how's the Halo building bankrupt how much campaign money did they give y'all what everybody got 5 million a piece what Ras got 15 and that's why it's nothing left y'all have to be held accountable for this nonsense and you gonna go up to $95 on a parking ticket I wish I would lock somebody up suspend the license while y'all that thank you Miss Jackson next speaker Mana Elman all I could just say seniors homeowners newers aren't you sick and tired of being hoodwink and Bamboozled by Black Faces in high places that ain't doing anything for you are you sick and tired newers seniors and homeowners you should be outraged you should be filling up these seats from top to bottom outside downstairs on the second floor we on the second floor wrapped your arms around his office and demanded demanding demanding uh monitor a independent monitor over our tax abatement program all the seniors in this city the buildings we've been coming up here about all the buildings that you know they get tax abatements we got buildings throughout this whole city that we done wrapped our arms we done rallied around you gave tax abatements and none of them and and none of them are in compliance of the tax abatement ordinance this clearly show you that these individuals are not working for you it clearly show you that you got failed leadership no other way to describe them it's all about the chaing chaing it's all about the developers paying money into their uh fund campaigns and them giving them their benefits now if you allow a $1.5 million uh debt to be burdened on your on your backs then you got to be out of your mind seniors to allow this this is unacceptable I don't know what she talking about in terms of ordinance don't apply but what ordinance do apply where's the 51% of the jobs that's supposed to go to the newans of the city what happened to the project labor agreement what happened to the housing why are you giving our money that is paid into a fund to reorganize uh uh uh uh what What's the new new um thing that brick brick City Corporation I invest know you gave $3.5 million that's supposed to go back into the community to reorganize reorganize and vest no when is you going to get back to the city thank you and the residence of this next speaker next speaker saying n public speaking is now closed any responses from Council councilman Crome thank you council president so the last time I was here for a vote for this matter I abstained and the reason I abstained is because of the uh because I felt like I needed more information to make an intelligent decision on this matter what I have done now is I've met with the deputy mayor uh had the opportunity to go over it in depth and detail and ask questions that I believe were important to be answered I believe that at this point with with with everything that's happened between and let's be very honest as I think the ba said there have been issues on both sides um as to why this tax abatement did not happen years ago as it maybe should have happened but what I'm saying now is and I and I want to use the phrase that was just used and I believe this is important is residence over developers and I think in this case we are doing by voting for this matter we are voting for residents over developers because at the end of the day it's going to put seniors in a position or in a much better position and we always talk about our seniors and their lives and their condition of what they're living in and what this will do is will enhance their their condition in their lives you know I believe 150% that councilman uh Ramos and the administration is going to keep the developers feet to the fire on this matter and make sure that it is done because we're not going to come back here for another issue like this you know I believe when the city makes a mistake we need to fix it and I believe in this case this is well when the city does make mistakes and we all make mistakes we need to fix it and I think this fixes this matter um and I think also we can't just say this is a one-off this is something that and I agree with some of the speakers out there we have to look at other matters going forward um there are other issues that may arise that we need to address uh um in a similar fashion uh whether it's uh what what Miss Parker was mentioning the the location U or others and so I'm in support of this at this point I and I'll say this I'm reluctantly in because as much as we may want to discipline we have to also think about our residents and these are our senior residents and you know I always part of the senior committee dealing with seniors on a regular basis I believe at this point we must move forward and I am supporting this matter thank you councilman Crump any other comments from uh council members yeah Council councilman Council yeah I I just wanted to uh first say a couple of things because one of the speakers uh insinuated that we threaten seniors uh to to to vote or kick them out and and I don't uh definitely don't want to be on a record uh as being somebody who threatens seniors uh when I'm an art and supporter of seniors and have worked with seniors uh for the last 14- 15 years to organize to provide programs uh to Monitor and check on them during the hype uh of covid uh and so I I don't want any uh senior in the city to believe that there is some adversarial thing against them second um to uh Mr Tillman I I absolutely uh agree with everybody exercising their right of democracy uh and being able to locate discover and find information I think that's valuable I think that um for you to say that is what I pointed out that is what people um elected me to do right point out information bring up tough conversations uh and be able to get to the table and resolve this stuff uh and make sure that uh as a city that we're going to move in the right direction uh to be prudent and diligent in what we do um and and and hold all of our feet to the fire as many of you do when you come up uh to speak and give information uh but we we want to make sure that everything that we're doing uh is moving in the direction of helping to grow uh this city uh and provide individuals with living opportunities and you know I'm I'm quite sure that this is uh not the end of the situation and it's definitely not the end of me gathering information and holding people feet to the fire uh to make sure that situations are looked at changed uh and brought up and so uh I'm I'm uh proud that I was able to do that uh and bring light to this situation to the residents of the city to our coun people to our Administration so that they can dig their hands uh in the mud uh and be able to uh figure out how we get through all of this stuff together uh as residents in the city because it's going to take all of us you know uh ultimately and and and even uh these individuals who are moving forward uh we still have an obligation to go in and make sure that whatever work is said to be done it is done and and if not we have that same opportunity to come back and voice democracy again you know um and and I say that because again uh you know uh Donna made a comment about you know folks turning off the water when all around this city many of these owners uh of these buildings which is a fact uh believe that they don't have to pay water bills because the city will never turn off water on their residents and so in the height of what they do is they accumulate massive massive water bills uh and and so I'm not in disagreement of what director de did uh but I do want all of us to continue to hold all of these people accountable when we go to these buildings when we're Facebooking when we're challenging these people to pay what they owe the city for the betterment of our residents across the board you know so I just wanted to you know make that clear uh today thank you thank you any other comments from Council Members councilman Ramos yeah thank you Madame President I just want to start off by saying that you know I do appreciate and respect you know dialogue around this um extension of the abatement I think it's healthy I think it's important for the public to be well aware of um items that we're voting on I also think it's unfortunate that the council's put in a position um years after developer filed a tax abatement application to to approve um abatement for a building that provides 100% affordability for seniors uh we recognize that in the city uh senior housing is at a premium especially affordable a senior hous uh to to depict this building as a uh having seniors living in deplorable conditions is not knowing Wesley Towers it probably has one of the largest waiting lists for seniors to get Apartments there because of the affordability and the quality of life and and at the same time it doesn't tell us the fact that this building is in need of investment you know there they water leaks uh the units are outdated uh there are a whole host of issues that the seniors in that building despite the fact that they're paying affordable rents you know they they deserve a high quality of life and and I believe that the action that this council is taking here today will result in those improvements that that building desperately needs and I agree we have to hold uh the developer accountable as part of their commitment uh to getting the rehab work done and I'm hopeful that the city through its monitoring process ensures that as they hire contractors to rehab units that that we have representatives from organized labor that we have ners who are participating uh in the renovation of that of that uh building and the last thing I'll say is that we vote on tax abatements here at every Council meeting for market rate projects without the blink of an eye and the fact that uh we provided the level of scrutiny for for 100% affordable senior building I'm hopeful that we start looking at every abatement uh with the same tight lens moving forward thank you thank you councilman Ros councilman Kelly uh thank you madam president um I too also want to just say I want to thank um my Council colleagues and the reason why want to thank them I want to thank uh Patrick Council councilman Council I want to thank councilman Ramos because when you cause when you cause a conversation that's tough like this it makes you take a deep dive in what's really needed for this city and what the facts are and we took a deep dive as a council I know I did because on one hand if somebody owes this city money we want to be paid our money but then on another hand depending on whose fault it was and how the issues arise we cannot blame senior citizens you know we always have to make sure that's how I was taught that we have to make sure that we protect our seniors and you know by if we take this away then the seniors lose even though you know in in a lot of Senses in a lot of instances yeah we're it's right that we are owed this money but we have to be mindful of seniors and and that's that's my view on it now is that I will be going with the seniors over the developers in in this instance right here thank you councilman Kelly any other comments councilwoman Scot rry thank you council president um going forward um as councilman councel councilman Kelly councilman Crump um I to did a in very indepth investigation I hope going forward when it is the fault of another party that we look just as close as we did to this for the future of not just our seniors but all of our residents um I do U know that that this project started or this abatement request was made quite a few years ago and the ball was dropped and both parties I should say on the administration side on developers side there was an issue um but once you have all of the details and you put everything out so while people are investigating please investigate the whole story and not your portion of the story but going forward um I just want to be on record stating that for every project that there's a developer that there is an issue with whether it's the developer or the resident that we air on the side of making sure that our residents I thank councilman councel uh for the information that he shared with us but I do understand the in-depth of the entire process that took place beginning back in n in 20221 so um I just thank you once again and uh prayerfully this is the seniors over the developers in this case and across the city we have seniors that we have to pay close attention to and projects close attention to and residents close attention to to make sure that this isn't a ones shot deal that we will go forward paying very close attention and developers we are going to hold you accountable so in this instance where we are supporting or whoever is supporting this particular ordinance of this abatement trust and believe one phone call Will Make a Difference so thank you very much council president for allowing me to make those remarks thank you uh councilwoman Scott rry any other comments from Council Members all right seeing any responses from the administration okay roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes Pana yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Silva yes president Mac Iver yes 6p sfds is an ordinance amending traffic by adding the west side of Fabian Place between NY and Lines Avenue and the east side of Fabian Place between Shaw Avenue and lies Avenue in the South Ward sponsored by councilman Council second by councilman Kelly is there anyone present wishing to be heard on this ordinance good morning again morning just a question because I know recently you guys changed the street sweeping at the lower end of the West war and gave out no notification so first and foremost have these residents in the entire area that this is going to affect me notified I know it's a serious parking jam and I understand why you're removing the parking on one side but have you notified those residents have there been a community meeting up there to discuss this the changes I mean I know you're the legislators but you guys just do stuff on the Wind without talking to people I don't I haven't heard any Buzz coming out of that area and I know that's going to be a parking nightmare as it has become across this whole city if you now tell people they can't park on fan place the people who own the new people who have bought there and the residents that live there we are no longer living uh me and my daughter in the same house it's me my daughter J Lisa and Felicia all in the house and there's four cars there for one apartment are we making allowances for this as you continue to keep building and letting people rehab and I and I want it done trust me these abandoned houses are killing us but you guys are not taking into account what is what it's causing this this city is dangerous this C is dark nobody wants to park on haor Avenue and Leslie and walk all the way up to Fan place to go to their house because that's where they're going to have to park so if you think this is going to alleviate something on n Avenue and something on Fabian place this is going to do nothing but push out to the other areas so you already got homeowners you already have residents who can't park across the city parking is a issue but as we continue to build you guys are not doing traffic planning you're not you're not doing traffic planning at all that traffic around 78 that traffic coming off the L uh off the lon Avenue exit going on the chancellor and line that is crazy y'all got to do better I know we don't have the people we need going out uniform construction Cod watching this that traffic studies we're not doing that you got to start doing that and you have to start talking to the people that live here instead of waiting for the backlash after how about we do some pre-planning and I just want to say one last thing because the owner doesn't get a tax abatement does not forgive them of doing the necessary repairs and what y'all just said was they ain't got to fix nothing to you give him a favor next [Applause] speaker did odonna because I was GNA fle sh of Singleton I was going to come up here and say when did you conduct a traffic study and how much um will the fees be that is it changing to the 95 or is it going to stay the 55 also in your ordinance it say 2,000 this was changed in 2022 and then again in 2023 so what part is still 2000 it says on on the ordinance what part are we actually talking about the description is I shouldn't have to go on the website to find the whole thing put it in the agenda let me say this the ad you're you're not giving any for the visually impaired which I'm visually impaired at this moment in time and you're not giv any sign language or interpreters in here to view documents online and to see what they need to see you want us to come comment on the ordinance then let me see what you're talking about you don't even have a a book booklet or a pamphlet out there but yet again when when did engineering do a traffic study when did engineering cuz they have to do them for the planning and zoning boards when did they do one and why wasn't it bought before here you gonna have a lot of people that's still parking over there and I guess you gonna get them them 55 or maybe 95 y'all probably Jack that price up too y'all need to learn that everything you do in this city because my kids are some of you folks age up there you're treating it to your kids when they come back to nework they will not be able to afford it your grandkids our grandkids won't be able to afford it are you really trying to create a legacy that your people can look back on and say we this is what my my people did and yes it did Pat throw people out of the housing authority and threaten them during election time I didn't say you personally but this Administration has and I will continue to put it on record you know better next speaker on 6ps 6 psfd good afternoon or good morning George Tillman so going to take a moment to gather myself and my thoughts because we all matter we all nework residents we all matter to say that you're doing this because of the scenes as though we don't matter because people lost their homes with babies in them with seniors in them too I saw no compassion for those no residents and those families who lost their homes Mr tman we're talking about the traffic relief I did not see any of that Mr Tillman we're talking about the traffic item I don't like this traffic item I'm gonna continue to talk about the traffic item too I don't like that these laws were written in 2000 and they're not in any play anymore I don't even know if um it's going to be enforced I don't know because these Developers they owe over $45 million already but we're going to continue to trust that they're going to do the right thing and say that we're doing it because of the SC is in that it's the world we talking traic item the sky is falling mrman we're talking about the traffic so forgive me if I don't understand why no residents don't matter we work can not matter my daughter is the future we're talking about seniors yes we love them we're talking about the future you want to keep these children in poverty you want to keep these families in poverty you want to keep imposing this taxation on our people and think that it has no emotional effect on us so sometimes you have to come to this mic and just be silent and let people feel understand next speaker next speaker regarding this item we're on 6 psfd as in dog seeing none public speaking is now closed any comments from Council Members yes Council just quick comment uh chair uh to Miss Jackson's point there uh is a study that was done and this is uh the first part uh of a larger plan on the Fabian Street area uh we've been up there extensively meeting with the residents they've been having a lot of issues uh with trucks hitting their cars they've been parking on the sidewalk we've been having a lot of conversation around that uh and so this is the first part of it to identify that we've also uh put in information uh with the uh dot uh to put signs on 78 to indicate uh that truck should remain on the uh Lions Avenue side and not enter off on Fabian as they try to use that as a cutof point uh to get to Irvington and NY a lot quicker and so there are a lot of things that we're working on with the uh department of engineering I thank them for this uh and we'll continue to meet with the residents in that area uh as we continue to work through uh all of these issues but this is the first and trying to provide relief for the are for the residents in that area thank you thank you councilman Council any other comments seeing none any comments from the administration all right seeing none can I have a roll call for 6 psfd Council yes Crump abstain Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brre yes Silva yes president MC Iver yes 6 psf is an ordinance amending traffic multi-way stop intersections by designating 14th Avenue and sou 6 Street as a multi-way stop sign intersection in the west ward sponsored by councilman Kelly second by councilman council is there anyone present wishing to be heard on this ordinance any public speaker on this item seeing none public speaking is now closed roll call Council yes Crump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Silva yes president MC Iver yes resolutions 7r1 as through 7r1 CS are all resolutions from the Department of administration a is a co-op to purchase wheel loaders for sanitation B is a CO op to purchase computer equipment and C is an application acceptance of Grant fund to New Jersey Forest Service council is a hold to adopt roll call Council yes Crump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brre yes Silva yes president MC ier yes 7ar 2s is the land bank to authorize invest newk to acquire maintain and dispose of certain city-owned properties Madam President yesterday there was some discussion uh I know council members had multiple questions so we'll just follow up on that to make sure we have all the information that we have or if there are any additional questions or comments uh councilman Ramos yeah I I I have a a number of questions you I looked at the backup um you know there was no conversation regarding some of the properties that the administration selected as part of the transfer to invest nor um you know my understanding when the land bank was established was that one of the goals was to move some of the properties that are um kind of been sitting in the city inventory for a long period of time that the city has not been able to either transact through an auction or Lois um there are a number of properties in the north wart that are included that are highly marketable properties that if the city were to sell the property they wouldn't have any issues um you know identifying potential developers and at the same time making sure that those properties were developed that the city would keep the ratables as opposed to having in bestn um keep the ratables for an extended period of time and then some of the properties in the north Ward are identified as um uh rear properties to a particular address so I I don't know if the administration could explain um some some of the uh technicalities that are included in the in the list are these undersized lots that um the city is looking to transfer to invest nor uh who would have rights to some of these U lots that are identified as rear or side lots are they developable Lots you know so I just have a bunch of questions dly noted councilman Ramos uh uh director Randolph you can come on up with Deputy Mayor lad uh we'll also take some additional questions and comments from other council members any other comments councilman thank you council president just just a question regarding and and I think councilman Ramos uh touched on it is the the UN unbuildable undersized Lots I I know um in reading the information that we that you sent and thank you for that information that for instance in the first trunch it's 31 of them are uh un unbuildable or undersized Lots but only eight have future sales development what what is the plan for these uh unbuildable undersized Lots sure members uh um councilman Crump I'll answer that one first that's a little easier so yeah all those lots that we called unbuildable they're too small to build a house on them they're less than 2500 square feet so what we try to do um is sell those lots to someone who owns a property that's adjacent to it so we try to get the homeowner next to it to purchase the lot but we don't want to have is someone who say lives across the street or down the block decided they can get this lot and park their car there that doesn't seem right so we try to sell those they they are a little tough to move um you know sometimes the people who live adjacent just simply don't want them they can't afford them there's you know some cost associated with it but uh but yeah that's that is the situation so they they take a little time to to move through um and then uh councilman Ramos yes um those rear lots are similar to uh this what we call the side Lots but they're generally unbuildable both you know over years Lots get chopped up sometimes they're behind a row of houses one house uh you can't do much with it um some of them you might be able to do some parking but but similarly they're not big enough to build any structures on them M so I I I just want to say I think um for this particular item just in the sake of time I think one we should defer this today and I think that you and your team should schedule meetings with the specific war council people and any at large Council people too who want to have more information on these items and talk about the specific properties and the awards and what the attent is going through them one by one and this type of dialogue it's just honestly kind of unfair to council members to be able to digest that especially for some of the uh properties that are within their wards that they've been dealing with certain properties for quite some time and know them you know like the back of their hand so I think that's what should happen prior to it bringing into this full body to digest a list of properties um I think that gives the council also to some opportunities to discuss further what was discussed yesterday at our budget hearing about properties you know what some status has been with you all try to help council members understand more about the bidding process all of that stuff that you know we kind of really have in touched on on prior to us introducing the land bank so that's really should what happen because we can't do it here like we can't have a presentation and go one by one with each council member about it so that is what I recommend not uness another council member has a a different uh perspective or you know wants to entertain a different model a second okay so we're gonna defer this item and then you can reach back out make sure you reach back out to each War councel person each council person really and follow up with them we can absolutely do that thank you okay uh roll call to defer uh second by councilman Kelly Council yes Crump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes yes Ramos yes Scott round Tre yes Silva yes president mcgyver yes to defer 7 R8 as is waving special event application permit F fees I'm sorry for the tillen has block party sponsored by councilman council do I have a second second second by councilman Kelly roll call Council yes ch yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kinana yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Sila yes president M Iber yes Communications item 8 as is an ordinance adopting the sixth amendment to norx River Public Access and Redevelopment plan okay um any questions or comments from Council Members regarding this item seeing n Roll Call Council yes Crump yes Gonzales yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott gr tree yes Silva yes council president advance and adopt on this please move forward so we're in the middle of a roll call um Madam clerk yes there's a motion to advance and adopt on first sponsor by councilman Silva okay do we want to redo the roll call is that proper yes okay I'm sorry motion to reconsider yeah that's what I was asking what's the proper way so it would be a motion to reconsider because we're in the middle of a roll call my apologies I'm sorry I'm just making sure yes motion to reconsider okay motion to reconsider roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott ground tree yes Silva yes president MC Iver yes okay good okay one of just check in understood and much appreciated item 8 BS is an ordinance authorized in the mayor I'm sorry we have to vote to have to vote again we considered it now we have to vote that was a motion to reconsider not to accept the reconsider to advance let them talk it out y'all please it's too many people in the mic talking like let them talk it out right here all right so a roll call to adopt adance to advance and adopt on first the with the movers with councilman Silva I believe a sponsoring do I have a second second second by councilwoman Round Tree roll call Council yes Crump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott Round Tree yes Silva yes president MC Iber yes please if there any other requests let us know in advance before we get to Rolling the uh vote um next item 8B is an ordinance authorizing the mayor and or his design to enter into and execute an amendment with bygones LLC for the sale and Redevelopment of city property hey any questions or comments from Council Members regarding this item this is 8B Sienna roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott Round Tree yes Silva yes president mcgyver yes 8 CS yes councilman Gonzalez can we get the physical address instead of the block and lot on this property yes um Deputy Mayor lad do you have the physical address for ab8b or Madam clerk do you have it9 what's what's it for the record that's is that I didn't I didn't have access to this but it says that is for development of 57 North Street 59 North Street 61 North Street 63 North Street 65 North Street 67 North Street 69 North Street 71 North Street 7375 North Street 77 North Street 79 nor Street and 8185 nor Street the entire block of nor Street okay have their City all right any other questions councilman Gonzalez that's all right uh next item HC is an ordinance amending zoning and land use regulations by adding a section dealing with storm drainage and another section dealing with Street designation perhaps we can get a detail information regarding this item HC good morning council president council members Allison lad director of Economic and Housing Development um I I know the council may recall this when we first brought it to your attention about 45 days ago uh this is a small Amendment uh that we're asking for your consideration on the first reason for it is is that when we amended the Newark zoning and land use regulations last year one thing that we did is that we were not allowing residential development in commercial zones and it was it wasn't intentional uh because we know we had some projects that were already advancing forward that were residential and when we made that change it actually unfortunately impacted the projects that were already um approved for financing and to moving to permits uh the second item is is that there is um an element around um parking um that we wanted to allow for in uh one of the industri zones this was discussed all of last year as well during the public meetings and it was just an Omission on uh the city's part so it was an error and we're just asking for your support to correct that the I'm sorry just the third part um Madam president is just there were some administrative changes that both the engineering and the Water and Sewer Department asked us to modify and so those are some administrative amendments okay sorry about that Deputy Mayor lag questions from Council Members councilman Council yes ma'am can we advance and and adopt on first because there there are many people that have projects that that have been waiting okay is there a second second by councilman Quintana okay any other questions or comments from Council Members regarding this item seeing none thank you Deputy Mayor okay roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brry yes Silva yes president mcber yes 8ds is an ordinance amending the tax abatement granted to Oak Tower's urban renewal LLC pursuant to the long-term tax exemption law to extend the time frame for the developer to complete construction of the project and to revise and add additional necessary Provisions for the the project consisting of The Rehabilitation of two existing buildings containing 76 affordable housing rental units okay any questions or comments uh from Council Members regarding this item councilman Council yes can we uh advance and adopt on first okay do I have a second second second by councilwoman Round Tree any other comments or requests regarding this item all right C roll call Council yes Trump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brry yes Silva yes president mcgyver yes 8 EES is an ordinance amending traffic by changing the permit parking hours on various streets in the East Ward sponsored by councilman Silva and 8f is an ordinance amending traffic again by changing the meter parking hours on Ferry Street in the East Ward sponsored by councilman Silva okay questions comments regarding this item I'd like to advance and adopt this but I also want just want to make a quick comment so we did a study and and any given week Monday through Friday uh there were anywhere between five and 600 vehicles that were parking between Penn Station and Merchant Street where the resident didn't live there they left their car there to go somewhere else either jump on a train or take a uh a vehicle to go to a job in another town and after multiple multiple Community meetings with the residents um we decided the residents and myself to implement permit parking so the permit parking right now it's a pilot program it's going to be from mcord Street all the way down to Merchant from Lafayette to Market um it's going to reach 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. so when our resident gets home from work they don't have to park three four blocks away or have to look hours and hours for parking um they'll be able to find a parking spot close to home as far as the um changing the meters a lot of the businesses in the Ferry Street Corridor were complaining after a u meeting with them that uh their customers cannot park in front of their business because the meters were 4 hours long and uh they were just losing business to uh to these Park these vehicles parking for four hours and so we're reducing that down to two hours but numerous meetings took place uh it was a community always uh taking their uh lives and how difficult it is to find parking we've discussed it here today and discuss it every day from now until I don't know when that parking is becoming more difficult so I'm hoping I'm hoping that this will at least help a little bit it's not the answer I always believe that Municipal parking lots and other parking uh development will eventually happen in the East W uh but this is the start of trying to make lives easier for our residents thank you so much councilman Silva any other comments all right do I have a second for AE second by councilman Quintana what about 8 8f okay second by councilman Gonzalez all right roll call on AE and AF to advance and adopt Council yes rump Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brry yes Silva yes president mcgyver yes council president council members just for the record the ordinances adopted today on first reading will be advertised in accordance with law and a public hearing will be held at the regular meeting on September 5th or soon thereafter as practical and just to double back items 8e now becomes six I'm sorry item 8A now becomes six D item 8 C now becomes 6 e item 8D now becomes 6f 8 e becomes 6G 8f becomes 6 h council president council members we have two added starters of course of course both are involving the uee Urban Enterprise Zone the first 7 r4a ass is the UE administrative budget and B is application to the Urban Enterprise Zone Authority for funding to create an updated preliminary Zone development plan okay any questions from Council Members regarding 7 R4 a andb CN none roll call Council yes Crump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brre yes Sila yes president mcgyver yes council president you want to have public comment before the conference yes we can do our 30 minute uh public comment um session now we are now in a 30 minute public comment portion of this meeting where each speaker will have 3 minutes to speak please state your name for the record is there anyone wishing to address the council boy um you can go Miss Parker Lisa Parker number one all of you that made commentary about how you care about your seniors University Estates homeowners association are seniors the 40 homeowners that was the Catalyst for society heal when our tax batment got expired you did nothing when the society h when the seniors that live there in Society Hill you did nothing let's talk about what these 30 year tax abatement mean and translate to because let's look at your combined budget from 2022 to 2023 that you have $680 million in a deficit that you have not reconcile for two years that's not including the debt the money that you bought borrow through bonding all of these tax abatements translate on to the residents that live here that you have no no interest in creating anything to give help and assistance to the homeowners and the residents that live here you're saddling Us in debt I already checked my homework and did my homework from DCA and got your budget so any of that nonsense that you talking after I leave because you're supposed to address the residents that come before you while they're standing here at the podium so no I'm not waiting until the end I'm I'm leaving because if you don't address me here then you have no interest in in addressing the public in your role as an elected official to represent us uh Kelly you did nothing to re send the tax abaten from L&M that have people at Georgia King Village living in deplorable conditions this young lady here thank God for her that she got an interest in Civics but 30 years from now she's going to be she's going to be paying in taxes the debt that you created today and while you all sit up there and talk about you care about your seniors no you really care about what the bottom line is for you who's paying for your campaigns and no interest in assisting or creating any legislation to help the people that are here you can't even reconcile a budget that you're on a calendar year why are you introducing a budget in August that you should have presented in January right now you supposed to be presenting a budget for a 90day review by the people in sep setember for 2025 you are saddling us in debt and have no recourse for the 680 million you thank you Miss Parker next speaker Felicia Austin Singleton well Lisa you took you took my lines September what of what we're coming upon you supposed to be introducing the 2025 budget for us to have a 90day review and then you introduce it in January every year we go through the same thing Gonzalez ask when we going to get a budget you have spent the money that you're now out here saying that oh what we're going to put in and approve it was already approved y'all taking one budget to consolidate the last year budget you did that last year and you're doing it again this year and you're going to keep on doing it you're taking money that you already used already used to sit back and now pad the 2023 budget y think people are stupid but I'm going tell you one thing and that goes for all of y'all you see my name it's my family shirt this my name get it right say it right cuz I don't want to ever have to call somebody something that's not their name and we'll do you sat up here and y'all messed up the Housing Authority you messed up everything and then y'all want to come act like we're the problem no you're the problem you exactly know what I mean when I say that they intimidated the seniors you exactly know what I mean how how how yall got the seniors at the voting pool or didn't even want them to go on the boat ride until they voted for L Monica come on stop playing with me they couldn't even go on the boat ride y'all gonna stop playing because I will bring the seniors here who who said it now if we gonna play that game I can guarantee you you do not want to tiptoe with me but at the end of the day your developers is getting over on the residence they didn't F the stuff right with the c they lied on the paperwork and all y'all do is say yes yes yes because y'all getting them back kicks thems and we know about them and guess what when I start coming to this mic to divulge in the information everybody don't look shocked just say yeah I did it C you did we all know how it go down what you think Joe just got caught Victor Santos just got caught they was facing 30 years in prison they got one yeah you know who you who you fooling at they talking to 30 years to one year y'all got a lot of Shame with y'all if you don't like it if you don't like what we say we have a right as residents to stand at this mic and say whatever we want to say you don't like it get up thank you next speaker yes good morning morning Veronica hennet I'm a senior I've been a president of the city of nor over 60 some years I live in nor housing I've been there close to 30 years I recently had a situation where they relocated me from my comfort zone to a bed bug roach infested building something I'm not used to doing I don't live like that and all I ask from housing is to put me back in the ward which I came the address that they put me in 58 Evergreen Lane stepen crane I slept there three nights and was tore up by the bed bugs the district manager of that building told me in order for them to transfer me out of that building I had to get a note from my doctor why should I have to get a note saying under these deplorable conditions I can't live who in their right mind can live under circumstances like that and then they had the audacity to do a treatment they did three treatments three Mondays in a row they did three treatments since the treatments I've been going to the apartment I haven't slept in since June the 18th was my last night sleeping in this unit I've been staying with my children but Saturday just passed and what do I see soon I walk in the bedroom bed bugs again but they won't relocate me I don't know what the issue is I done did my part I done worked all I want is peace and enjoy my comfort in my own home but this building cold enforcement I went to them I to the Board of Health I don't know who who else to go to I just went out of that building and they they're not helping me housing is not helping me I done talk to Spicer I sent him an email no response Miss Motley no response nothing from the city of Noor I don't know what my reources is what else can I do yes please I've been staying with my children and I know I'm not a burden to my children I just want to be in my own I want them to have their own I want my own I want to comfortable in my own dog and I was good where I was at 165 Elizabeth Avenue I was good there I never had an issue none no bed bugs no roaches no nothing ants yeah but I could do with ants the bed bugs is other stuff I couldn't do with and I'm just asking for help um thank you Miss hen for your concerns I'm going to ask someone um some code enforcement as well as legal and the health department to meet with Miss henned in the back of the somebody meet you in the back Miss hen as well can we take um Miss henn's comments and make sure that they are forwarded to noren Authority entire commission board I know councilman counsel is here but can we get a remarks directly to them as well okay thank you so much thank you thank you so much missant next speaker hi good morning my name is Aisha Homan mother of aiz Williams I'm just here to let you guys be aware of the hiring process is for North police my son aiz Williams was working for Speedy in 2015 and the arm guard left his gun in a bathroom my son got every person out of there at balding Street Recreation Center at the time KH Thomas was over all the recreation centers my son then decided he wanted to be a North police he passed everything except the sight test to come to find out that the woman that was doing the sight test is a racist that she fails all black applicants and passes all the other nationalities I think this is unfair I'm not asking for any favors I'm just saying do your investigation get Keystone psychology out of there they're not doing anything for our city me my son was born and raised here he's a good kid a good young man stand up son H honors in school mayor rasar aiz Williams all I'm asking for you guys to do is get an investigation going on a lot of black children was turned around and your investigators are aware of it because two of them came to me and told me this was the issue so thank you for your cooperation and hopefully you guys do what you need to do because these are the kids these are the future thank you thank you Miss hom for those [Applause] comments M El buman I just want to uh continue to say that black and Latino faces and high places is not going to save you noas you got to get up and save yourself it it is a shame it's a shame what you politicas do to the elderly it is a crying out shame you know they vulnerable and you take advantage of them that's what you do and you've been doing it for years ain't nothing change what need to change is the family members need to take better care of their elderly Affairs that's what the that's what the family members need to do because you continue allow these people to whisper and your elderly parents a and take advantage of them you part of the problem just as well as they are 90% of the developments that received 30% tax abatements were not in compliance residents came here and got one right here but that's the House of Authority but we had a whole slew of residents talked about you giving tax abatements and the developments dilapitated residents after residents came here complaining about that uh lack of repairs the maintenance problems and you just sit up there and you do nothing but pass tax abatements so we the citizens of no need to petition higher authority like I'm always set to uh investigate and place a independent monitor over our tax abatement program that's what we need to do and we need to stop playing with you if we really serious the issue about hiring ners it clearly shows that they don't have a plan to address our racial housing economic crisis that we face in this city it clearly show that when will the people of the city of New wake up and stop supporting these fail elected officials when are you going to stop supporting it what do you plan to do if we don't uh agree with the ordinance that's Tillman talking about you sit on the Equitable Equitable growth commission what is that about what is the Equitable you're talking about what is the Equitable in the housing where is the Equitable in the jobs next speaker next speaker next speaker next speaker I'm sorry there's a long line behind you and we're on a time limit next Speaker John gold John Goldstein 171 vanen Street uh I have some comments about the proposed changes to the uh Newark River Public Access and Redevelopment plan there's a reason why this proposal is unacceptable and that's because it started with what the developer needs from this project instead of starting from what the community needs from this project there has been no meaningful Community input into this proposed change so it's clear what the developer wants they want resoning of key Parcels to increase the value they want closing streets they want a view of the uh Riverfront Park extension and I'm sure they're going to want a m massive tax abatement so in return for all this public investment here's what the community needs we need an aggressive affordable housing provision that goes beyond the minimums required by the iso we have a housing crisis in our city we have to get serious about it rent increases are the highest in the nation we have to stop pretending that we're addressing it we need a realistic approach to the additional traffic that this project is going to cause not just a parking study but an actual traffic study because we know that those streets are already congested they're going to close streets and we need to actually look at the full impact of that not just how many parking spaces there are and not a traffic study paid for by the developer by the way we need a legally com binding commitment from the de developer and psng to complete Riverfront Park this thing about uh resoning the land so that psng can get an assessment so that they can sell it and all this and all that uh it's uh it it's land it's open space land it should continue to be open space land and we need to just be sure that that riverfront park uh can be completed we need Provisions for affordable commercial space for local businesses we need other local amenities to be determined by our community engagement process and we need a local hire requirement not just for construction but for the permanent jobs that are created there the property maintenance jobs that are created there the commercial tenants need to also be hiring local residents it's an enormous project not for just the East w but for all of Newark we talk a lot about Equitable development now is the time to act thank you so much Don next speaker uh good good afternoon everyone so on uh 2013 uh this ordinance was adopted for the Newark River Public Access and Redevelopment plan in order so one of them it mentioned that it was supposed to be connecting existing neighborhoods to the riverfront through through harmonious and walkable development provided designed guidance to protect view corridors and create appropriate setbacks for The River's Edge and Ure inclusion of public assets along with the river and all Redevelopment projects in order to implement the public trust Doctrine then in 2017 they changed the district mixed use from um 10 stories to the maximum of 25 then in 2019 it went from five floors to 40 floors now in 2021 an ordinance amending ordinance 6 psfi adopted on August 7th to adopt the Fourth Amendment to the new's River Public Access and Redevelopment plan by creating a a new District Valentine Brewery mixed use District an area bounds by the Ironbound number one how does this project create Harmony ensure inclusion of Public Access to the along the river number two why was B time Brewery included in the nework River Public Access Redevelopment plan by creating a new District in January of 2021 I had a meeting with IC chrit Wason and also Valen time developers in regard to the site development I requested that affordable units stay on site in a community meeting which was scheduled on April 27th unfortunately the city and the developer did not attend our Zoom meeting we had over 20 participants we had a plan and the city did not allow us allot our voices and ideas and our concerns so this is why it's important for our community discussion that is truly valued and respect it the master plan is a collaborative effort in the city and the residents not for devel not with developers that are changing the face of our community Ironbound is one of the lasting gemms in the city of newk and environments is Justice impacted by bad smells so that's why we requesting for it to be U deferred again and that we have a a meaningful community meeting and an understanding of how this is going to affect the whole city of Newark and I'm requesting this as um Tanisha Garner um which is the homes for all co-chair and we also like to have um IC and other um uh Advocates and other organizations to be able to come together um with silver and also um with the city council and a developer to really understand what we need to do to move forward as a collective thank you thank you Miss Gardner next speaker good afternoon good morning Donna Jackson you know I find it so funny you know you guys are I don't know what North you live in it got to be Delaware you can't live here no way downtown booming building all all over the place South Orange Avenue Grove still empty uh let me see this all over where we live at particularly the dark and brown where we live at looks like hell ain't fixed nothing haven't made steps to improve anything in our areas the need for low income housing I'm not going to talk about affordable housing anymore because I don't want to hear it the people that live here don't make 85,000 so y'all can keep saying affordable if you wna affordable doesn't apply to you ners so stop listen to the lingo that started here in 2017 with this boy who got y disillusion to think that affordable housing was lowincome housing that you could move into now five years later you see it does not apply to you so you have priced us out of here you haven't legislated anything in this town against evictions that have been illegally done since the pandemic because people in North were getting put out I came to this Council and I told you that I told you we at over 500,000 land lord ten eviction cases right there in N County Court the majority of the north residents they're doing the mass exit of the blacks in Monclair East Orange because you guys are building all of this train housing for these people that are out of town to come in zip in sleep here Monday through Thursday and go to their Loft in Upper New York on the weekend this plan is not for us so the people here we are causing this folks we got to come out here you know we are disrespected in this meeting because we don't agree with the things that are going on here we have militarized our Police Department to come in here and attack the citizens you now are the only Municipal City Hall that somebody got to sign into in the country are y'all crazy why are you making a sign in and show ID to come into City Hall you have said nothing you forced these folks that work for this city to get the CO shot are you prepared once they understand what their rights are to sue you for the unconstitutional act that you and the mayor agreed to for all the people that died all the officers we lost all the firefighters we lost all the clerks all the sanitation guys are you prepared to pay the cost as you are right now killing these guys that's working on sanitation you killing them you're not giving them the proper protection the proper protocol so as you're doing all this building where's all the new workers where's the new garbage trucks where's the new slow plows you're not even thinking about that you have done nothing to fix this infrastructure but you keep building building well God is sending the Hurricanes I pray that we make it through it thank you Miss Jackson next speaker good morning Council good morning when I come before the council I am very concerned name I don't come here often but when I do come my complaints are legitimate name for the record my name is Janice re for the follow I am representing homes for nework I am directing my concern to councilman Silva councilman Silva when we had the community meeting for the Iberia development you and I had a sidebar and you made that commitment that you would ensure that there would be another community meeting with the developers after the first meeting to my dismay upon coming back from vacation and having 15 or 18 emails or texts saying that this was moving forward one thing anyone who knows me on this Council I hold each one of you accountable so when you make a statement to me I can't speak for the rest I'm holding you accountable you did not keep that commitment to me it is also my understanding that you enter a CBA a community benefit agreement for the Ironbound Community or the East Ward councilman you can't do that without your community these are the people who put you in office so therefore you should have embraced them there is so much wrong with this project it looks like it's not even a part of the fabric of the neighborhood that I am bound or the East Ward has structured I understand we have to do development I understand that gingerification is going to come into our city but we have to think about what we have before us and that is the community ICC is a very Powerhouse in the East Ward so I understand that they were not even invited to any additional meetings with the developers the developers made that commitment that they would meet with us again before so let me get this straight before we go for the planning board or the central planning board or the zoning board and that did not happen so I am not happy taking my time coming here to address and hold you accountable councilman Silva thank you thank you misso next speaker uh hello Council my name is MIL Zang I'm a lifelong New York resident and uh I teach intr uction to urban planning and urban history at the University of Michigan and I'd like to speak today as a PhD candidate in in urban planning in opposition to the proposed up sounding of the Ironbound uh neighborhood um and the reason I'd like to speak a POS is I'd like to you know speak as a historian and to say that new Yark has the capacity to support a lot of population growth and a lot of economic development but certain neighborhoods are overburdened and certain neighborhoods are underburden if you look at the at the capacity of what Ironbound is able to support in terms of population and infrastructure in 1950 when New York's population is at its height iron bound's population is about 65,000 and that's about iron bound's population today is about that same number 65,000 give or plus five or 10% population change and so this project proposes to build a several four to eight 30 story structures in neighborhood that is currently zoned foru between five and 12 stories so we're adding thousands of new units in capacity in the neighborhood that is least able to support that kind of population change now where should we be de encouraging development in downtown Newark if you look at the Census Data from newark's height in the 1950s to where Newark is today the nework neighborhoods that have experienced the most population loss are about 200 to 300 blocks in New York's Central War that is the poorest neighborhoods of our city the neighborhoods with the most underinvestment have also seen the most population loss if we're looking at the neighborhoods that can support population growth particularly of affordable housing it's in those neighborhoods of newerk central Ward the goal of City infrastructure development should be to provide the highest quality of city services that is police fire utilities public schools libraries at the lowest cost to New York residents as we know New York Ironbound is the most diverse neighborhood it's it's the one of the best neighborhoods in New York it's also the neighborhood that's most overwhelmed in terms of its library system that is heavily used and schools that are overcrowded the traffic on faery street by contrast Newark Central Ward a neighborhood that experienced a population loss of about 100,000 people from the 1950s to today is the neighborhood in New York that is most equipped for the construction of new affordable housing the goal of our master plan and the goal of Economic Development should be to equity equitably distribute new construction across the five Wards and not concentrating it in one neighborhood and one place in one downtown and that is the goal of our master plan and fundamentally this project undermines that goal because it is spot zoning upzoning a single lot in a single District because one developer requested it thank you thank you thank you so much next speaker good afternoon Council white CEO for I am bound Community Corporation I'm here to address a few comments on the Iberia project which is the uh Redevelopment plan and Amendment to the uh our Riverfront Redevelopment plan so uh touching on a few topics right one is the community engagement there was one meeting in November and we've been silent since then I amound Community Corporation is requesting that there be more Community engagement more meaningful Community meetings which allows the community at large to give their input I also want you to reference the master plan on about page 224 of the master plan there's a note about a climate adaption plan as we know the I inbound floods we know that we're on the coastal shorelines we're seeing how climate change is happening right this is where in the master plan where we talked about looking at the environmental issues before we move forward with development in the Eastward it's stating in the master plan so I've touched on the climate issues I've also touched on the community engagement I've also touch I'm also going to touch on the give back to the community when you're looking at at stories that's five stories and 12 stories and you're increasing them to 30 stories I understand that the Ico kicks in but what else is to give back to the community are we going to put more affordable housing in there are we only doing looking at the layouts of the apart Apartments we want this to be apartments for all new workers and we also want it to include families when you're constructing one bedrooms and when you're constructing uh Studios you're not open opening up the market for families right families is two bedrooms and three bedroom apartments so we want more Community engagement we want to be involved in any Community benefits agreement Community benefits agreement are not siloed they're not done at the table with one individual or business owners they're taken to the community at large so the community can say what they want right the community can say what are some of the things we want to see in theun Community these are the points that I'm going to address folks behind me are going to address more I want to thank you for deferring it and ICC is requesting and also would like to be engaged and we can also help with leading getting leading and bringing Community together so therefore we can really get the thoughts of the community on this right as you guys remember back in 2013 ICC was very involved in this Redevelopment plan um that's my comments thank you so much for listening thank you thank you so much that now concludes our public speaking I'm sorry Mr Jacobs we're done with public speaking um that is our time limit on public speaking at this time we'll have responses from Council Members regarding any comments councilman Silva yes uh good afternoon um regarding the development of Iberia we did have one meeting uh there is another meeting scheduled for August 27th of this uh in a few weeks at 700 p.m. at the Portuguese Sport Club where the last one was located we didn't have a meeting over the summer because uh I was advised people are away people are not here people are on vacation so that's why we scheduled it late into the summer uh to make sure everybody who wanted to be there was available uh yesterday we had some meetings on the budget and the budget here in the city is very very tight uh currently the Iberia project the whole property pays couple hundred, a year in property tax these new buildings are going to bring in an extra four to5 million into our budget that's going to help the ENT entire city not only the East Ward it's going to help hire more police to keep everyone safe hire more firemen fix our infastructure get the things that we need I've always said from the beginning that the community will always be involved in any development this is the second meeting that's taking place I don't know many other developments where the community's got two meetings to give us their input one of the things that we learned from the first meeting that the community was not happy about and we took it off the table was a pedestrian walkway closing down Congress Street from ferry to uh Market Street this project will provide 300 affordable housing units this project will provide two and a half years of work and labor and we'll make sure Affirmative Action Council round tree is involved to make sure our residents here get those jobs we're going to make sure that all the retail that's involved in these buildings that the jobs go to new workers I realize the IC uh is advocating for certain things but as councilmen have a responsibility to the entire Ward to the entire East Ward to all the people who live there now somebody made a comment about uh negotiations or something was agreed to the only thing that was agreed to was 150 to 200 Municipal parking spots in a garage that's it for the business owners for the business Community for the residents that was the only thing that's NE negotiated now they applied for Aspira so we are going to get a community benefit of over 2 million do and that's where I'll be holding meetings to make sure that those that money goes to benefit our community but no other negotiations have taken place that is 1502 200 parking spots were announced at the first meeting at the Portuguese Sport Club it's no secret it was made public there that it's something that we needed Municipal parking because again by changing ordinances I did earlier today I'm giving my residents my business owners more parking that's probably one of the number one issues uh in the East Ward and so I realize the IC uh has an issue with this but as a council person I have an ultimate responsibility to look at the bigger picture and so I'm willing to work with you guys I'm willing to uh have another meeting which we're having on the 27th a fly will be put out this week notifications will be made this week and you'll get an opportunity I want to give um praise to the developer who who who has to agree to this and did agree to this and wants what's best for the East W like we all do thankk you all right thank you so much councilman Silva councilman Kelly uh thank you madam president um just a quick um statement there was a statement made that um I think I Believe by Miss Parker that said councilman Kelly did nothing when it came to the resend uh resending the tax abatement in Georgia King Village and I I just want to say that as absolutely not true um I think if you watch the council meetings you have witnessed us fighting for gkv um going through a a plethora of problems when it comes to the ownership of L&M and and in being fair to L&M as well we have took them through the process um you know through the court system um the Administration has been very you know gracious as helping us deal with this problem uh corporate counsel but they did not win in court so we still didn't give up though we still fought and fought for the residents of gkv um with the Advocates over there at gkv with the community Advocates with the residents at gkv to try to get them some resolve L&M they continue to come and answer uh a lot of our requests the resident still said it was some of some of it was uh bandid and we still pressed them and pressed them to to fix things so much so that we got them to uh consider new ownership and management of the facility so I just wanted to say that that that statement that says that I did nothing is like I mean you can watch these tapes you can watch our Council meetings that is like absolutely not true and I I still stand with the residents of of gkv to this day because there's issues we're still dealing with thank you thank you councilman Kelly any other comments from Council Members all right seeing none any responses from Administration oh good afternoon that's right Eric Pennington business administrator I think with respect to the Iberia project councilman Silva set forth the administration's position fairly well uh as well as his own so I didn't really have much more to add to that other than that we are supportive there are you know some complicated uh development but overall we do think it's going to be beneficial um there were a couple of other comments that were made however one indicated that uh the current proposed budget uh has a budget deficit and that's just not accurate um we have proposed a budget that is a balanced budget it's going to require us to do uh you know some belt tightening and certainly it will require us to work with the state to make sure that it is um as least impactful to the residents as possible and we'll continue to do so we also recognize that next year in 2025 uh we're going to have to continue that belt tightening because one of the areas that has given the budget some difficulty is this Equalization ratio it's going to continue to be an issue until we have the reval which will not take place right now until 2027 we are doing our best to to expedite the reval at some point we're going to have to give I think a full explanation of what a reval revaluation of property does the revaluation is not intended to uh increase the amount of Revenue that comes into the city's budget the purpose of the revaluation is to reallocate the funds that come into the city a in a more Equitable way the area of the city that have increased in value um are going to have to have their properties reassessed at a higher rate uh but it's a zero sum game so that means that somewhere else the properties in the city are going to decrease the assessed values will well there'll be a relative decrease in the assessed value of the of the property um and so there are some properties where the taxes the actual taxes will go down and in other cases they will go up but it'll be a zero net U increase to to the to the city's budget uh one one last point there was a speaker who talked about the uh the process for evaluating police recruits and there's a she made a fairly serious allegation which I think we have to look into and that is that the U psychiatrist that our police Department uses is racist I don't know exactly what that means but I will certainly look into the data to see whether or not there is a disparity between the uh candidates who are excluded from the psych evaluation based on their race and if the data supports that allegation uh we'll address it and deal with that particular um psychiatric company I think she said it was Keystone Psychiatric so we will look at the data and see whether it supports that because we can't have a process that is um uh racially discriminatory on his face and if that is the case it will be taken care of I have anything else Lester questions from the council any additional questions for the ba CNN thank you so much councilman Gonzalez I am going to reiterate my my request for the budget for the Latino festival I respect you and your office and I believe that we should get the same respect I believe that we are deserving of having their information we are entitled to that information and we should get that information with respect to that council president to councilman Gonzalez I did look into your request to find out what uh the source of funds was for the festival and for this year a good uh focus of the festival is to um spread the message of antiviolence and and to make sure that we continue uh the mayor's and administration's efforts and the council's efforts uh to reduce violence in the city and to make sure the violent crime continues uh to reside at an historic low uh and because of that uh significant portion of the funds for this Festival are going to be coming from what's remaining in the ARP funds uh that we are uh available to be allocated we have um gotten confirmation over the last several months from White House directives that those funds can be used for antiviolence measures and that's what we intend to do the specific request for what the exact budget is line item budget I don't have that yet but we will certainly get that to you uh because you are entitled to it and uh hopefully I'll get it to you in the next day or so okay all right thank you so much Mr ba uh councilman Crump did you have a comment no okay thank you all right Council mcom yeah uh if we're finished with it I just want to do a sorrow sorrow and regret sure for uh Eddie Porter um he's he was a a resident of uh South 13th Street for a very long time been involved in the community um those who know him know that he was not afraid to speak up and he was actually in my district as a district leader and would come to the meetings on a regular basis and talk about issues that were affecting our community uh a faithful member of St James am and to be quite Frank and around good guy who was very supportive Community unfortunately he passed uh July 26th um and his presence and advocacy for our community especially our children too he Sunday school teacher as well we'll be will be missed thank you so much uh councilman Crump uh councilman I mean sorry Mr ba Yes again Eric Pennington business Ministry I apologize olz that I neglected in response to councilman Gonzalez's question about the budget and his prior comment that we are facing um budgetary constraints and budgetary issues and so we shouldn't fund these festivals um I did want to address that briefly I think that um often when there are Cuts in budgets in school budgets and County budgets and City budgets uh the sports and arts are hit first and they're hit the hardest and I one of the reasons for that is they're not viewed as being essential to um the community and to the uh life but what makes the city a good city but we believe that arts and sports and other entertainment uh are critically important almost as important as some of the other infrastructure uh initiatives that we have need to make sure that our residents have an opportunity to experience uh culture some some of the culture uh cultural events we've had here in the Eastward for example have been amazing and they have been in in large measure due to some of the things that councilman Silva has done he's invited the entire city to come to these festivals to experience uh the culture of Portugal and of Brazil and of Ecuador and that is uh part of what this Administration wants to continue to do to make sure that we understand our residents and diversity here and uh to the extent we have to cut the budget we have to cut it everywhere but there should not not be a disproportionate cut in the arts and culture uh when we look at the budget we have to cut it everywhere uh to the extent we can but we will continue to support arts and festivals and parades because it's important to the fabric of this city all right thank you so much Mr ba councilman Gonzalez follow up on that is said I couldn't agree with you more they say I agree that festivals are important and that's why we have the poran Day Parade the Dominican parade we had the Ecuadorian parade we have the Portuguese parade so I believe that the city funds can should not be used for those purposes because the entities that sponsor those events do pay for those so I believe that we have a great exposure to culture ER from the Brazilian Ecuadorian Portuguese Dominican and puican parades I I don't think that we need another one understand your position Council all right thank you uh any other comments from Council Members before we move on to the yellow sheet council president Council still have that here just any other we do okay before we move on can we get a roll call for councilman motion we can't hear you my apologies council president council members can we get a roll call for councilman crumps oh crumps motion yes uh I'll second it roll call Council yes Crump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes Sana yes Ramos yes Scott rry yes Silva yes president mckyer yes and if we're moving on to the conference can we get a roll call to adjourn this special meeting yes roll call to adjourn Council yes Clump yes Gonzalez yes Kelly yes kintana yes Ramos yes Scott brre yes Silva yes pres mver yes we are now in the special conference portion of this meeting where we'll have two I'm sorry council president council members we have to cancel one of our presentations so we'll have two presentations today the first presentation is from The Nature Conservancy okay welcome thank you thank you for having us uh good morning council members my name is Phil I am the director of government relations for the New Jersey chapter of The Nature Conservancy I want to thank you all for giving us the opportunity to present today to really give a more formal introduction about the nature conservancy and the work that we're doing in New Jersey before I turn over to my colleague Katie Rose and brano who is the director of our City's program I wanted to mention that the nature conservancy Prides itself on not only being a community partner but as a science-based resource and collaborator with all of our elected officials throughout the state we strive to bring science-backed policies to our elect officials to help improve conservation efforts throughout our state after our presentation if you feel like there's anything that we brought up that you would like to discuss further we'd welcome a further conversation more in depth but with that I'll turn over to my colleague Katie Rose and briano who is the director of our Ci's program thank you thank you good afternoon council members I want to especially thank councilman Ramos for inviting us to speak today and I also want to acknowledge councilwoman Scott rery as well as Council Council who has assisted us with the recent tree planting as my colleague uh Phil aaria said my name is ktie Rose IM briano and I'm the director of cities programs for The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey The Nature Conservancy is a global organization that works in over 70 countries and every state in the United States to address our two major issues of climate change and biodiversity loss and I can say with confidence that is issue that you all know and the people gathered here is an issue that is experienced here in Newark you've heard our partners at the office of sustainability probably present when they did their leafing out grant that we are a city that has the second worst heat island effect in the nation and we are specifically impacted by the urban heat island effect that's predominantly because of the amount of built environment combined with the low amount of green spaces we also know that nework has a low tree canopy relative to other cities of its size we did research with Rowan University to see that it's under 15% and again I know my colleagues at the office of sustainability have already presented to you about some of the initiatives that they're doing but I'd love to be able to share with you today some of the other work that we're doing in and with the city of nework and ask for your continued support of our efforts as we work to make Newark more sustainable Greener and a healthier place to live for all residents so in the last year we have undertaken tree planting efforts in branchbrook park we pl planted 200 trees as volunteers and the branchbrook park Alliance we have a relationship with the mayor's office of homelessness Services I was actually very pleased to see though I know he's sick lisis Olio um the director of that office on the agenda after me speaking because we have a partnership with that office to ensure that our City's most vulnerable residents that is people who are unhoused or at risk of becoming unhoused have a green cool and safe environment in which to live when they're in transitional housing we've also done a partnership with organizations across the city to develop something called a green print a green print is free open access environmental data that any person any community group and especially our elected officials can use to inform environmental decisions and citing new projects so I know that it goes without saying that we would love to be able to continue our work to ensure that all of New York's 300,000 plus residents are able to benefit from the work that we do and that we're committed to doing that work equitably one of the biggest projects that we're going to have coming before you is something called the Newark tree canopy initiative back in 2023 our office I'm sorry our organization served as a convenor for multiple organizations across the city some of whom were present here but including the city of Newark as well as partners in each of the wards and in our institutional relationships to develop a systemic plan for addressing issues with uh tree canopy and you will see anou and a resolution coming before you at some point in the fall but I want to let you know that we have put together a project that aims to address the city's low tree canopy and reduce extreme heat the urban heat island effect and improve the Health outcomes for socially and economically vulnerable people I just want to leave you with the five key elements of that program so that it's clear what this project is as related to the leafing out Grant which I know already came before you in the in a previous um agenda item um together the nature conservancy and its Partners including the city of Newark we've received $8 million for this initiative together with the office of sustainability we'll be developing an urban forestry master plan we'll be planting over 2700 trees Citywide we will introduce a long-term maintenance program to optimize tree health and most importantly we'll be launching a green Workforce Development program to ensure that the benefits of this project are felt equally by all people across the city and we ensure that the next generation of young people have the ability to get one one foot on the career ladder one foot on that Bottom Rung and be able to enter careers in the environmental sector so again I look forward to working with each and every one of you on advancing this initiative and Greening initiatives in the city if you have any questions or if you have an idea for something that you'd like to pursue in your Council District I'd love to be able to talk to you thank you so much for your time thank you so much any questions from Council Members councilman Gonzalez yes I heard that they say you planted 200 trees at Branchwood Park yes sir there's a lot of trees there there is are you intending to do some planting on the streets absolutely so one of the things that we are doing is there are several tree initiatives underway in the city one is that this city has been the recipient of funding from the state and two different pots of funding one is the regional greenhouse gas initiative another is through the New Jersey leaping out Grant again was on the agenda before those two projects together with the Newark tree canopy initiative is focused on Street trees but I want to make sure that you all know that we do other projects in addition to just Street tree planting the project at Branchburg Park came to us because of the branchbrook park Alliance reaching out to us and we're continuing our relationship with them one of the really key parts of how we do our work is community-led community owned we are not an NGO that is going to come into this community take a picture with you and then leave we really believe in sustainability in terms of the process and the system so when the community comes to us and says this is what we want to do this is their idea for it we're going to leverage our technical expertise and our resources to be able to make that happen they say we have a lot of trees that are inappropriate for the some of the areas and are breaking the the sidewalks and the and the streets going into property individual properties so I suppose that an expert are going to be appropriate trees it's a significant issue and I do see that we our city Forester was here previously Ryan Mets um he's put together an urban tree canopy manual one of the slogans in our profession is Right tree right place and I think that what we have experienced is wrong tree wrong place we also acknowledge that trees are not always viewed as a benefit people are concerned about them breaking their sidewalks uh branches falling on their homes potentially breaking water pipes and so we want to make sure that the benefits outweigh the perceived um concerns that people have thank you no thank you for that question councilman Quintana in terms of we have an ordinance in terms of uh this Council we were instrumental in terms of you remove a tree you have to replace it so what happens is uh folks go out and try to get some kind of other tree and oak trees are not as you know they grow and if you go into the Forest Hills you see the huge trees that I've really as councilman Gonzalez talked about but with the new conserv years ago uh there was a program where the newk conserv would go out and tell folks oh this is the kind of tree you need to put in front of your house because sometimes people waited and waited for the program and and and again uh someone decided let's get some trees done and they decided to put trees like you take for example in Belleville they decided to put cherry blossoms in on new Avenue and then they that people try to do the same in Newark cherry blossoms are not a side I mean for Street for sidewalks they're not that kind of tree so we need your input in terms moving forward and also when uh the planning board and a board of adjustment approve certain plans that sometimes they come before and they say we're going to put the trees the project goes up and you never see the tree right do they pay into the trust fund the tree trust fund yes and then but you know with the new conserv I don't know what's going on with that but we need to you know that's that that conserv is important they are because for many years I remember if you go to um Franklin School on Park Avenue I was instumental in getting purchasing the two trees through their effort to for the children to plant the tree so if you see the trees they're still there but it was a tree that was was easy to uh maintain versus a tree that grows up and then the PS and GS of the world and Verizon don't come in and train MH so you you know we want some trees but the the condition of trees are very important in in terms of a community we don't have enough trees yeah and that is a problem for asthma that is I know Senator Booker uh had uh um say he brought some funding in for the trees I know we we were supposed to have received but again uh your input is very important for especially planning boards to let them know what is a tree that not what they decide to go to Home Depot and pick up a tree just to please someone uh what kind of tree we need to have absolutely um councilman Kitana I just want to address a couple things that you stated one is that the Urban Tree manual that I referenced before that was recently developed by the office of sustainability was developed with the intention of being able to provide that guidance so I think that's going to be a wonderful resource moving forward how it's deployed I'm not sure but I think that will be the tool that we're looking for the other thing that you brought up with the New York the greater New York Conservancy I know our names are very similar they're a trusted partner of ours they are going through a leadership transition but the way that this grant this new tree canopy initiative Grant is structured is that we're doing the convening the facilitating the administration all the back of the house we're also fronting all of the money because we're reimbursed for it I mean it's a reimbursement Grant and the our partner in the central Ward is the greater newer Conservancy in the East Ward it's the Ironbound Community Corporation in the South it's Southward environmental Alliance we actually don't have an identified partner in the north and as I talked to councilman Ramos about in the westward we're working with uvso we also have institutional Partners but one of our aims is to ensure that people who know their own communities are able to have the resources and the capacity to be able to train people that they know so we they don't want an NGO they don't want me coming and telling them what to do in their Community they want a trusted Community organization to be able to teach them about right tree right place care and maintenance and the third thing that I want to say is that this grant is providing funding to the city of nework and specifically to Public Works to be able to pay for the tree maintenance because that costs money labor is is we're talking about a budget here labor is a very big line item so we understand that it doesn't matter if we plant a tree if we're losing two more and maintenance is a key thing so I appreciate you bringing that up because that is so critical okay thank you councilman Ramos any comments no I just want to say thank you um we met a few months ago and you know wanted them to have an opportunity to come here and formally introduce themselves to the council and definitely bringing some good resources into the city they've been coordinating with our office of sustainability and um you know I think it's a win-win so thank you great thank you councilor McKelly hey how you doing um when you say that you're working with us uvso in the west War what does that look like so that's just on record the people know absolutely understand so we're providing funding directly to them to be able to hire a tree planting coordinator a coach and a trainer to work with young people and when I say young people I mean it could be really anybody under 40 to be able to learn about the skills of planting trees and then to go and plant and maintain trees in their community so the nuts and bolts of it is that we received a grant from the US Forest Service The Nature Conservancy is going to provide funding through a subgrant agreement directly to uvso and they're going to hire a tree tree planting coordinator a coach and a Workforce trainer to do that so this work hasn't started yet so the in order for us to begin this work we're going to need to bring to this body anou as well as a resolution to accept the funding not unlike the leaping out Grant but it's important for us that I give you a background on what that is so that's not complete news to you but that's not this is not the only thing we do we are totally committed to being in nework and doing projects not just around trees but also around flooding and storm water nature-based solutions of all kinds are really important and we want to make sure that you know that we're here as a resource for not only tree planting but other kinds of nature-based solutions and when it comes to that the uh the flooding and storm yes sir are you working with uvso as well because we have areas in the in the west ward that constantly flood in the Ivy Hill section so yeah I'm sorry go ahead continue you can continue yeah um so we don't have a partnership with them on that specific issue however we're one of our other partners is doing infrastructure green and we are hoping to be able to support the implementation of some of the green infrastructure sites identified in the west ward through the um information that's just come out I believe from HDR who is the um consulting firm that has identified how new can meet the green infrastructure requirements of the long-term control plan so we are committed to being able to support the implementation of some of those projects obviously not all of them but it's something that's very important to us they've really done the the whole rain Ready New Jersey that um nework dig is doing that's where we want to plug in and be able to provide support and Technical Resources can you make sure you we uh just stay in contact so that I'm included we can include my office and some of those things that you're trying to do absolutely and I appreciate meeting you today and I'll be glad to send you a follow thank you very much okay uh any other comments councilman Silva uh yes I just want to uh elaborate on what councilman Kelly's saying I think you need to engage us okay I appreciate the IC but at the end of the day we're the ones that get the complaints and the concerns regarding trees people wanted them planted people wanted them cut down because they're damaging their home or the sidewalk so I think it would be imperative not to include I don't know about my other Council colleagues but to include me in East Ward in any engagement that you're doing or anything that you uh uh you're planned because obviously you can't tell us everything here in 15 minutes of the entire of what you're all about uh you've touched on several points but at the end of the day I think you need to engage us a little more and just let us know what's going on absolutely and I'm happy to start the conversation today but I'd love to take you up on that invitation to meet thank you so much all right um okay well I think that oh Council woman Scot R do you have no no I just want just wanted to thank her because I know that councilman Council myself couple of others have had conversation with you I've even put a shovel in the ground council president and planted a couple of trees myself with um the initiatives that have been going on with this so they say that helps us to improve the air and we look forward to any further information and working with you as you go forward happy to do that with those beautiful green heels on no all right well thank you so much thank you so much for your time have a great day all right next up we have vo nor go where you going hopefully all council members had the opportunity to look at the updates because I definitely don't want to spend another um we definitely don't need another presentation of the same I know we're like on our 50th presentation with this particular program and I mean that with all due respect so I don't want to have another same convo and lingo I I know we want to address some of the issues that we're currently still having so I'm going to ask council members to um jump in um and let's get to some of the problems that we're still having like good data all that's great but but we we all know that we we're still having some issues regarding rer safety as well as the collection of the scooters uh so I'll kick off any I know this this was um right so I know we're losing some of our body because they have other events um that they need to get to but uh any questions from council members here regarding the bike and scooter share program and the report that they gave us um councilman Silva yes uh we've had uh several meetings with you guys here and I'll be honest and this is just my opinion Within These two glasses here that I haven't seen any Improvement in any of the commitments made at this Podium and I could take up many more minutes of this uh meeting today but I think that my Council colleagues uh will also comment on certain things um in the East Ward they're just all over the place all over the place I mean they're left there for days upon days upon days dropped on a sidewalk leaning against people's cars uh you name it that's the issue in the East War they're just all over the place I know this was intended to be something positive uh for the city but I can only speak for the East Ward because that's who I represent and those scooters just it's Havoc going down down one way streets I know you're not responsible and and the Riders should uh be held more accountable Nork police unfortunately uh is busy doing a lot of other more important things in keeping our residents safe uh but it's just chaos uh in the mornings in the afternoons uh We've read of injuries and accidents and I'm surprised honestly it doesn't happen more because this this is a tick and time bomb and one day the things I see are are going to come back to haunt us if we don't make a smart decision today on this again this is just the East Ward's opinion and I think I've read before that the East Ward has the most use out of any uh of the wards and really it is out of control and I'll just say that thank you thank you councilman Sila councilman Kelly thank you madam president uh this afternoon yet uh good afternoon everybody um yeah it's time to um just just real quick you know um I know you guys have been in front of us numerous times um one of my concerns is the dropping stations right you know I'm the councilman in the west W so we have couple of main corridors South FR Avenue Central Avenue and I don't see any I don't see any dropping stations around those corridors like it's nothing it there's actually nothing in the west as a dropping station and we have South Orange Avenue Central Avenue Styers Sanford 18th Avenue main corridors so there's not like one designated dropping station in the west War that's that's concerning to me very concerning especially when I had a friend whose son lives in Virginia come up to visit him and they went out riding on on uh the scooters and he died he got hit so you you have a you have somebody who's coming to visit his father and there there's a death in the west ward the scooters are everywhere I actually like the scooters that that they're able to get around I just don't like the that there's no the functionality of of putting them places and uh dealing with our underage and I know I know that you guys are talking about underage in this you know um the underage ride of prevention in here but we still have to do something more because the there's underage they're going to ride they don't have helmets uh just like um councilman Silva said they're going opposite direction of the traffic but one of my biggest concerns it you know I won't go into everything because I know everybody's trying to get out of here but there's no stations in the west ward at all you know and that's very very concerning to me especially when we have four or five main corridors thank you so much uh councilman Kelly councilman CR thank you thank you council president just a quick question well at least for the for the folks in front of us right now is um I'm just reading your uh presentation you talk about uh Rider incentives to encourage parking and and marked Corrals what are the incentives that you're providing generally what we would do is we would oh sorry I'm Austin marshburn senior director for bird um we would work with newart go and ve to partner on exactly what those incentives are but generally those incentives are something like uh a free unlock on your next ride so that's a dollar off your ride if you park it in the correct in the correct location um you know that's essentially 30% off your ride generally um when you park it correctly that means so currently there aren't any incentives it's something that you all are discussing and may do in the future is that what I'm hearing once we put the parking Corrals in place in those locations yeah we would put those those incentives in place and so that doesn't include the and what council M Kelly was talking about the locations where you have have determined where the the the the I want say go-karts where where the uh and I'm drawing a blank why a long day uh where the scooters excuse me that's where the scooters are lo you locate them so that doesn't include that yet um good afternoon um council member Crump um just wanted to to share with you that as um my colleague said we've been working on setting up these locations working with the data we just got our striping contract approved uh in the last council meeting so um now that we have the data with the locations we're going to um start treating these locations as we would with um not necessarily a traffic study but just observation of which location physically would work for that node that gets a lot of um ridership um you're going to start seeing and I'm sure that you saw some of the pictures in um in the presentation um some delineated areas um that we have some in the city but they're not as preminent and there's not as prevalent all over the place yet um now that we do have our contract in place for striping um we're working with traffic and signals to do um uh uh quick build projects to put them in areas to see how they're received and um the good thing about that is that if if it doesn't work we could always um take out the marking and put it somewhere near that would be better for the community so I I would suggest that before you find analyze that that you discuss or provide it to the council members particularly the the ward council members of those locations um I had another question regarding Public Safety and I'm not sure if the director is here well we'll stick with this I guess Council I don't see oh oh the director's here yes the director's here so I if if I can ask yeah sure so with regards to uh I guess a couple questions number one what are penalties what are uh uh laws that could be broken by the ridership of these scooters the writers could going violate the title 39 statutes I couldn't hear you there are no city ordinance uh that are currently on the books for those writers but there are title 39 statues they're writing in the streets has any have any summonses been issued at all for writers I don't believe so I can check if for those writers and I understand that you all have a a bigger job at hand too but so I'm just asking this any other questions councilman I'm sorry I thought he was is there an expectation that there will be I won't say a task force but some kind of police or Public Safety Force that's going to continue to Monitor and and and possibly if necessary provide summonses to uh there are monitor during to regular traffic enforcement when they're there if they end up on the street cutting car vehicles off they will get stopped or regular traffic stops uh there should be some city ordinances that could be written which makes it a lot easier to uh to follow up on instead of title 39 because these vles only go about 15 more than likely the council or the administration needs to come up with some kind of city ordinance ordinance that's going to provide summonses for those all right thank you I just wanted to ask a followup question have someone from direct I'm talking to you director for has someone from you either you or someone from your team ever met with Engineering in the scooter companies yes we've had conversation engineering referen this matter and one is because some of when they leave them places how long are they there are they public nuisance those are topics we had conversations about but they're usually GPS tracked and picked up by the end of the day and sent back to the location of dispatch so we've had conversations discussing on this uh there hasn't been uh there's been some scooter acent but they weren't throughout the city I have to check if there's anything as far as accidents or something that's written specifically for for these uh scooters that are giv throughout the city okay uh councilman Crump you had a followup a couple followup questions one one is for and I'm sorry this is for actually director or yeah for the director wooden um with regards to are are there any penalties Associated to the owners of the of these uh uh scooters um and this is a general question are there any penalties associated with something that they do not do properly or correctly um so through through looking through the questions and concerns from the council we we found a couple of things um The Gap that we found with assistant direct I'm sorry with director F on for Public Safety is that the local law that we have right now is based on the state law which is only apply applies to bicycles so you know we found that Gap um in which um you know uh allows us to enter legislation um that will open an opportunity for us to implement um like a fine system because we don't have a schedule of fines at this point uh for these kind of um uh units um the other thing um the only thing that we have implemented by the programs is a um uh you know uh suspension to all the way to a ban of services that's all we can Implement right now but um again through conversations with Public Safety we're finding that legislation does need to be uh updated and within the body of that most likely we will enter um a fine system that the police officers can enforce and also with that though regarding uh I guess Bo and bird are there any penalties associated with them that no this is a question to you director with with with their compliance or lack thereof in certain situations I I don't know if there's something specific towards maybe the time in which the V the the the scooters need to be picked up are there any penalties Associated to vo or bird if certain things aren't met or certain conditions aren't certain things aren't complied with okay um I will have to review the cont contct um councilman Crump to be honest with you um and again this is an Ever evolving um um kind of a technology and and service um if if it comes to that point that the companies themselves are not being U compliant to what the city needs then we will move towards that at this point we're collaborating with each other um and and just holding writers ship accountable because most of the issues uh are mainly um with with the writer responsibility and I'm sorry one more question just regarding uh do we have any data and and I'm you know we're just getting this so I'm looking through it do we have any data associated with uh uh the timeliness of picking up these uh scooters in terms of you understand you know over the course of okay I'm gonna hand it over because I know that we have plenty of data and and and the companies can it's on one of the on one of the last sides Austin Marchman again can't hear um sorry uh on one of the last slides you'll see that our idal scooters have gone down to 2% um so that means that both beo and bird have picked are able to make sure that we're getting to each of those scooters um prior to the idle time uh 72 hours uh on 98% 98% of the time one this is one of the issues you brought to us uh in January of this year both Veo and bird have increased our um increased our employment to make sure we uh by 50% to make sure we can hit those numbers so whereas before we were picking up something like 90% of our scooters on time we're at 98% now and we're going increasing ever higher even with greater deployment during the summer thank thank you thank you Council M crom councilman Gonzalez your mic is off your mic's off your mic is off I what I see is I see this service as a quality of life ER affecting quality of life more than benefiting quality of life we have a lot of uh kids uh running these vehicles on the sidewalks running these vehicles in between traffic against traffic ER and you have GPS and you have control of the speed you they say these individuals are doing more than 25 miles an hour hour on on the sidewalk so why don't you control that why don't you let's say ER put some kind of restraint on the speed that they can that they can have on the sidewalks ER you have control over that and I believe that the technology that you have would allow you to do that very very easy again if you see someone in the middle of the street with a GPS you should have some kind of signal sent to the individual that he should be on the let's say by the sidewalk not not on the sidewalk but by the sidewalk ER and not in the middle of the street I believe that let's say we have a proliferation of this vehicle not only yours but the ones that people are buying to they say to operate in the city and every day you see people let's say on at lights going through the red light with traff comment so I believe that we are we are just waiting for a lot of people to be injured and if not killed operating these kind of vehicles thank you Council M Gonzalez um to your point uh uh the units uh operated under newer go um have a speed limit of 20 miles per hour um and they I'm sorry oh 15 I'm I apologize ol 15 15 miles per hour um and um ridership on sidewalks is prohibited um and this is when we um team up with MPD because if they are seen on the sidewalks a police officer can give them a ticket um the other um thing that I wanted to share which is another pinch point that we have with MPD is that a lot of the irresponsible writers I would say most of the irresponsible writers are personal uh scooters personal bikes delivery bikes um you know not necessarily provided or branded by these companies um we have data on it um and and we a traffic and Signal actually keep Taps on um all our traffic incidents and accident reports we we communicate with MPD um not only for the safety and what we need out in the streets but to make sure that the companies behind me are being you know are being hand able if there are U major accidents so we do have data on that and unfortunately um it's it's it's a challenge for our city to have to um enforce scooters when the privately owned ones are just being driven very responsibly across the board yeah but if the police is going to enforce the law I suppose they're going to enforce the law against anyone that is doing the the wrong thing H do do we have any statistics as to many how many tickets have been issued for people that are running on the on the sidewalks zero zero zero so we have we have a sense of lawlessness in the city H when it comes to motorcycles when it comes to the electric bicycles when it comes to H to the mopeds when when it comes to cars running the the lights ER you can go to Any Corner in the city of nor and wait there and you will see at least two or three cars going through a red light so I I believe that they say we have to enforce the law because otherwise H people believe that we don't let say that we are a lawlessness City and I tend to agree with them that we have a lot of violations that are not being enforced including the ones that just mentioned about the say writing the the AO and the birds on the on the sidewalks we have to do better uh any other comments all right um none of this is new right no right no you could shake yes is it new is this new information to you all right you just come back again and we're saying the same thing over and over again it's honestly it's it's honestly kind of tiring today to for you to be back here before us and we're seeing the same thing over and over again I think that folks here want to support and we've been supportive like we've shown support to the rise share program I think it's very beneficial to Residents I think um those who are using it properly who are getting from A to B around the city um enjoy it I I think they enjoy the cost um of it I think that it's you know something definitely uh helps us be you know have Equitable Transportation here in the city U we support that 150% we we love that I love that I was the first one to hop on one of those scooters and do a demo with many companies we had before that came to us but the implementation of it has failed it doesn't work that's why folks are complaining not because we just want to spend pass our 12:00 hour just so we can come back here in another 45 minutes for Budget hearings to complain to you about how it's not working it doesn't work no one's enforcing anything no one is doing anything rather it's your Scooters or the private scooters that people are riding and that is a problem like engineering along with the police department along with law need to get together and come up with some uh ordinances and a strategic plan on how to address the riding this includes the Uber Eats which I was with councilman Silva you know a couple of weeks ago um at one of his uh locations and they were complaining about Uber Eats and folks who were on bicycles and uh you know automatic you know um Vehicles you know that are delivering food sitting out in crowds all of these things are new things to our communities all across New Jersey not just a norc thing it's all over and we have to find some way look to see what other cities are probably doing to bring it to nework or create something that we can address some of these things before we continue to have folks get hurt you know folks are call our office complaining about people riding on sidewalks about the about the scooter still being left for hours and days because you guys have not hired more people to pick them up it's not happening we still see them there and you come back here for a followup and you tell us the same thing you give us this print out thing and it's still not working today director when you have your budget hearing correct when you come here today I want you to come to talk to this Council about what and I asked this so you should probably already have it because I asked it meetings ago what is the option for the docking system here in the city what is it that we can do to have that how much does it cost because leaving them all over the city City isn't working doesn't work because you don't pick them up so we need that information because that is the only way one one of the ways because we have many issues but one of the ways on how we can control these bikes left all over the place and no one picking them up because they don't have to return them anywhere councilman Kelly talked about the docking locations we don't have them you don't got them here you this a dockless program unlike when you go to other cities they don't have dock list because it doesn't work they want you to park the bikes back to where they go and because of the constant complaints because we up here spend a day with us we can show you people email call talk about it at the community meetings about how you don't pick up the bikes and the bikes are just left all over the city so that today when we come back we're going to be talking about that I want to hear about what are the options the financial options for us to continue to have the program but have a docking station at at multiple locations and then once again I'm going to reiterate it again director you you along with a director forj and the law need to get together to put some ordinances in play you can't just come and keep talking about the program and you have no you not you know adapting to 21st century of what we're dealing with right now we have to address those matters and work with the councel and the clerk about getting something passed immediately because it is a severe problem when you tell me oh you know we we we I don't know we have state law but we we're not issuing any summon that's a problem that's that's crazy like they even say that out loud we should not be doing that we have to do better like we're the largest city in New Jersey and we should be doing better on that note I'm going to dismiss us because it is now 1 o'clock and we have a budget hearing at 4 thank you everyone for coming out look forward to seeing you at the budget hearing that for now e e