good evening on behalf of the governing body of the city of Pake we welcome you to the January 25th 2024 city council meeting in accordance with chapter 231 public laws of 1975 Advocate notice and instructions for this meeting were provided via facts to The Herald News published on January 10 2024 posted on the city of Pake website at www. city of.com council agendas and placed on the city hall bulletin board by the office of the city clerk pursuant to the open public meeting act please be advised the city council of the city of Pake has rescheduled the January 2020 the January 23rd 2024 council meeting till Thursday January 25 2024 at 7 pm to be held in the council chambers first floor 3:30 Pake Street Pake New Jersey in person please be further advised this public meeting will be conducted in person the zoom stream is provided for viewing only and is offered to the public as a convenience instructions are also available on the last page of this agenda please be guided accordingly roll call please councilman monk councilman love present councilwoman Melo pres councilman Schwarz councilman Garcia councilwoman go monz and council president Sher president Sher we all please rise Heavenly Father we thank you for allowing us to meet tonight Lord Lord we ask that those are on their way that you bring them Lord safely we also thank you Lord for allowing us to meet to celebrate life the life of the late Reverend Dr Martin Luther King and his legacy tonight Lord we come with heavy hearts and we ask for a special prayer Lord for Sheriff bernick's family Lord may you comfort them in this time where it's so painful Lord for the loss that they've endured and we also ask you to guide us in the decisions that will take place this evening in your beloved name we pray amen we'll take a moment please Sher I pledge allegiance to flag of the United States of America stand indivisible tonight we have the privilege of celebrating Dr Martin Luther King day um we are going to do such uh by asking for the mayor to share with us uh his update as he does each and every time this Council comes together um and we look forward each and every time to that presentation mayor the mayor's update we will be taking approximately a 5 to 10 minute break the purpose of that break is so that the staff can put together uh the necessary elements for the Green Acres Grant applications program public hearing um after that uh we will go into the actual uh agenda for the evening right now mayor with your kind uh with your kindness I'd like to ask on you share with us what's going on I'm going to defer my uh report for the Martin Luther King program I believe it's first on the agenda it be first on the coming back I'm sorry would be first on the agenda after we I would defer to the Martin Luther King program okay councilman love you are the Martin Luther King Board yes I am how would you like to proceed sir I I would like to go on with the presentation sir the gavl is yours thank you council president uh first and foremost I want to just welcome the community here to our annual MLK commemoration uh program uh I want to take this time before we start to thank the mayor and the city council for for instilling this in me and allowing this this program to continue it's very important to our community not just African-American not just Latina um to the entire community that we realize and keep on the legacy of Dr k um we have our youth here I'm going to get it right out the way I think uh Mr Place Mr Place finds a way to find talent and bring our youth in these programs I want to thank Tuli in advance for her her commitment our program is going to be modified somewhat um just as things go on in life we keep going on with the program U we had some alterations and some changes Evelyn T Robinson who couldn't be here today um um she had some issues going on in her family and one of our students um I'm sorry um who was supposed to perform today his name was here I'm sorry uh Eric Hines uh he also had Co and then he had some issues so he couldn't be here today as well okay so guess who's going to do liation today all right got to step up right be prepared for nothing and ready for everything so um for those of us who are not aware it's not going to be long tell you that but for those of us who are not aware well first before I start I have to permission see yes is it okay thank so Li is one they [Music] Ser African-American culture thank you and two is to pay homage to ancestors who we stand on the shoulders of um sometimes it's easy to toot your own horn and think you've made it all on your own but the things that we able to accomplish is because of the people who came before us so liation is to also uplift those ancestors we what we do is we pour water into the Earth and in the symbolization of giving respect and honor so we pour water and we say out the name Dr Martin Luther King and we repeat by saying I okay so we'll try it again Dr Martin Luther King good The Honorable Harriet tutman brother Langston Hughes brother Malcolm and that's the tradition that I'm sorry and that's the manner in which we have so what we're going to have now is we're goingon to have individuals you can yell out names because ancestors and those that came before us can be family members what I'm sorry they are family members um but they they don't have to be those iconic names that you hear and that we learn about all the time they can be those that's important to you so yell out a name and I'll pour libation for I I I have one more so again this is a modified version of libation and again Evelyn t Robinson was there she'll give you a little more history of it but I just wanted to make sure that we keep the tradition of invoking one the dignity into the room before any celebration uh and also invoking our ancestors uh thank you and I'm going to go back to my role as moderator of the [Applause] program now we'll have a praise dance by theia tul Freedom oh Freedom oh Freedom oh [Music] [Music] and to my Lord and be free oh freed [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] be [Music] [Music] fre to [Applause] to and I think it's fitting to point out the fact that Leia is dealing with her own tragedy and her family felt it not robbery to come out and perform for us tonight so she deserves another round of applause thank you at this time we're gonna have Mr Kei place um the entire piss Academy school and um come up and lead us and Lift Every Voice we can all rise please and lift every voice and sing is on the back as an inside cover and I do want to point out that during printing johnon was cut off and it is by J W Johnson [Music] [Music] sing [Music] the [Music] let Sing full of the [Music] victory [Music] Lord [Music] [Music] the of the [Music] thank you thank you please be [Applause] seated and before we have um Pace University and Miss Place do a selection or two selections I'm sorry Pace high school high school I'm sorry High School I don't know why I said that I should know better PA high school I apologize we'll have them do two selections but we just want to do a few quick acknowledgements um okay first we wanna um and this no particular order but we want to point out that we do have our convers from Bill [Applause] P Reverend David R Willam Baptist [Applause] Church mayor Edward Garcia mayor [Applause] G blessed to have our board two of our board members here uh Danny Rodriguez [Applause] president sanche vice [Applause] president Diane MC from Housing Commission and our presume this Elder Pastor chess um CH and young CH Mohamed [Applause] here one of our strong Advocates uh Community Advocates and that's Renee Gregg [Applause] here Ashley lipstone we have our former president of NAACP Sean Allen here and I believe still the vice president um is that Sher GRE in we have Henry rhods Jr from cap please we will as we go on we will announce anyone we have turn it over to you Mr place if you can do us a favor can can you announce the students because or you want to do that later or why don't you stand up and why don't you that's that's even better just first and last and what all students [Applause] are got in the [Applause] univers [Applause] ready for performance and as my colleague pointed out I said Pace University I'm speaking into to an existence they they're all going somewhere right okay our first selection is just the two of us sorry be justed to of us by Bill [Music] [Music] Withers [Music] I see the crystals R fall and the beauty of it all is when the sun shineing through to make those rainbows in my mind when I think of you sometime I want to [Music] you of [Music] [Music] us is wasted water all that the [Music] late the two of us build in [Music] [Music] the [Music] [Music] just the of us way [Music] just [Music] [Music] but I see it in you so we going Walk It [Music] Out Walk It Out and iise up iise like toise [Music] up [Music] quiet [Music] feel I prise take [Music] to [Music] like [Music] I [Music] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] you you [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] after this next song we'll be hearing from Reverend hegler right immediately after this song okay thank you so [Music] much thank you for fing [Music] [Applause] it we also W to we want to recognize uh chis Christina Strat Robert board education [Applause] [Music] [Music] member [Music] [Music] joh [Music] [Music] go [Music] [Music] [Music] go [Music] [Music] your [Music] [Music] [Music] awesome job awesome job great job let's give them another round of applause [Applause] please this this is bittersweet because this young man thought he was gonna get away from us without uh offering us something to remember him by um let me tell you um if you haven't had had the opportunity to hear him speak then you need to get there before he leaves and you need to follow him wherever he goes um Reverend Hagler I want to take this opportunity um I know the mayor has done it and he'll do it in his own way but just thank you for what you've done to for Pake community and your tenure here and I mean it's fitting that that you're you're leaving so we're sending you off one of the other right or both um with you giving us um something to live by and I'm sure we will all right so no further Ado let's put our hands together for reg [Applause] H Grace and peace be unto you God our Father Lord Jesus Christ we honor the Lord for his goodness his mercy and his loving kindness towards us on today uh I pray that after tonight something is said and done that will encourage you and help you along the way uh good to see Dr David sit on tonight Pastor Roger Williams back to church let's give him a [Applause] hand oh let's pray God we thank you for this time and opportunity for Life health and strength speak to our hearts as only you can in Jesus name we pray amen amen I want to to talk about something tonight that I think all of us has either experienced is experiencing or will experience I just want to speak on the topic of the danger of division the danger of division if whatever thing if if for whatever reason you don't remember anything else that I say tonight allow me to give this entire lesson to you in one sentence Unity destroys segregation Unity destroys segregation Dr King says like an unchecked cancer hate corrodes the personality and eats way its vital Unity he says hate destroys man's sense of values and uh his objectivity he says it causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful and to confuse the true with false and the false with true love it the problem today is that we will cancel one another quicker than we would confront and console one another we live in a world we are easily Desiring to destroy one another by any means necessary but the truth of the matter is we resemble what we desire to destroy that's what we call today cancel culture I hear you I hear you what is cancel culture canc of culture is this phenomenon or it's a practice of publicly rejecting boycotting or ending support for a particular people or groups because of their socially or morally unacceptable view or action this cancell culture beloved has ruined careers but it can also make a public figure think twice before posting any controversial comments we have victims like Kanye West cancel culture Taylor Swift cancel culture John Stewart results of cancel culture cancel culture beloved is this new Prejudice and way of segregation and that we are okay with destroying versus finding ways to develop that we should not feel comfortable and find place pleasure and exposing the faults and failures of one another in CL in case I be accused of not bringing you some Bible James 4: 11-12 says do not speak evil against one another Brothers the one who speaks evil against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law but if you judge the law you are not a doer of the law but a judge for there is only one lawgiver and judge he is able to save and to destroy but who are you a judge or neighbor we are not judges we have no power to pass judgment but we have power of restoration and love as brothers and sisters toward one another here's what Dr King says we must learn to live together as brothers or will perish together as fools when you look at this destroying of division Christ should be the foundation of our culture which is love peace and Harmony beloved that we understand that we can't continue to be okay with walking together but living disconnected that our government can't continue to be one-sided privately but unified publicly that photo ops and reals work does not matter if all lives have no Worth to those who are in power let me stop putting Nickel in the Meer when I tell you that this type of culture is unhealthy for the growth of our society look at it cancer culture can damage a person's reputation even if they're innocent as a result people may be unfairly judged and criticized without the full facts of even being known for beloved if we're going to mimic The Compassion of Christ then we need to learn how to mimic the methods of Christ here it is Matthew chap 7 verse 1-5 read it when he get home judge that you not be judged but with the Judgment you pronounce you will be judged and with the measure you use it it will be measured to you why do you see the speck uh that's in your brother's eye but don't notice the log that's in your eye or how can you say to your brother let me take the speck out of your eye when there is a log of your own in your own eye he says watch this you hypocrite first take the log out of your own eye and then you'll be able to clearly see and take the speck out of your brother's eye I hear you I hear you y'all quiet I came to preach tonight I hear you I hear you hypocrisy is not the church or the pastor hypocrisy is not government or the mayor hypocrisy is not the White House or the president but hypocrisy is a characteristic that has a revelation of a character in which that person is willing to hold you to a standard than that they are not willing to live up to themselves hypocrisy is pointing out others sickness when you sick yourself here it is Ephesians chap 4: 29 let no corrupt talk come from you out of your mouth but only such as in good for building up as it fits the occasion that it might give Grace to those who hear carefully watch your thoughts for they become your words manage and watch your words for they will become your actions consider your judge and your actions for they will become your habits acknowledge what acknowledge and watch your habits for they will become your values understand and embrace your values will be they will become your destiny love it I'm done we must come together and leave the foolishness and fighting behind us we need to trade in our guns because we have traded our guns for gossip and it kills one another we've traded in our knives for social media posts and we slice each other's throat we are butchering each other's influence to promote an agenda that only benefits us and our people we we we can't be selfish we can't be self-centered when serving people is the agenda 2 Corinthians chapter 13:1 says finally Brothers Rejoice aim for restoration Comfort one another agree with one another live in peace and the god of love and peace will be with you why this topic why have the audacity on a day that we commemorate Dr King I talk about cancel culture why because the life of Dr King was one of unity and uplifting of all people it was his dream that Unity becomes a reality and division dies in the hearts of those who carry it like they crave a pacifier like a newborn baby the vision has to die and now beloved We Must Be watchful that you and I don't fall into the Trap of cancelling one another because not only is cancel culture unhealthy but cancel culture is dark Nelson Mandela said no one is born hating one another no one is born hating one another because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion says people must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love yes for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite I came to tell you tonight avoid the cancel culture it's unhealthy but then avoid the cancel culture because it's dark at its core cancel culture is about shame for the person being cancelled shame is a self-critical emotion in which a person displays a negative view of themselves feelings of Shame often come from what other people think these intense feelings grip a person's self-image and lowers their self-esteem cancelling often becomes bullying and this further creates feelings of loneliness anxiety depression in a person that's being cancelled the person who is the counselor is also putting their mental health at risk they might be finding some satisfaction that gives the counselor a false sense of justice or better social status but Jesus teaches us not to cancel one another but instead come together and be one in him I brought some Bible to back that up Romans 12:16 says live in harmony with one another do not be Hy but associate with lowly and never be wise in your own sight I came to tell you tonight Unity is beautiful Unity is strong Unity is peace Unity is integrity Unity is the absence of Pride it's the absence of selfishness it's the absence of fighting it's the absence of division as a matter of fact Malcolm X put it this way he says we need more light about each other light creates an understanding and understanding creates love and love creates patience and patience creates unity in other words let me put it where you can get it I believe it was DJ will tra who puts it this way Shine the Light on them put the birthday person in the middle and Shine the light on here's what he says here's the part I like he says make room let him [Applause] work don't discourage make room let them work don't sit in judgment make room let them work don't don't tear them down make room and let them work don't divide but dream I hear you I hear you I have a dream that one day the Red Hills of Georgia and the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of Brotherhood I hear you Dr King I Have a Dream that one day even the state of Mississippi a state sweltering with the heat of Injustice sweltering with the heat of Oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and Justice I hear you Dr King I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they not be judged by the color of their skin but the but by the content of their character I hear you Dr Dream I have a dream he says I have a dream and because I have a dream I can't be defeated that's why he closes with saying free at last free at last thank God Almighty we're free at [Applause] last thank you Pastor thank you we'll turn it back over to Pace High School and uh Mr Keith please make sure when you're in your car you rewind some of those words that Pastor said because it'll hit you a little harder once you you get it thank you Pastor was [Music] de [Music] me oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] s [Music] me in let see take some time and stay [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] with [Music] me we we [Music] take something with me [Music] me [Music] [Applause] you [Music] [Applause] well in closing I just want to first thank everyone who's here every single person who thought it not robbery to come down and join us in our annual um MLK celebration uh just before I go you know in order to stay in the house you got to take care of the lady of the house um I want to thank Weatherly um frez our city clerk for the wonderful decorations and as well as her office who helped out so thank you um I I want to take this opportunity also to thank the mayor and the city council for in for allowing me to continue to lead this um MLK celebration um Keith place there's not enough I can say not enough uh one text one phone call you get it done thank you year after year so please give Mr place there there's some behind the scenes people who aren't here ailla Woodson please give her a round of applause Evelyn T Robson she's somewhere [Applause] screaming and I'm saving a certain group for lives but I also want to thank Pastor um Pastor I I I know you're you're about to start a new Journey um you're a young man you can handle it you got a long way to go um but we want to thank you I said it earlier want to thank you for everything that you have done there's there hasn't been a time whether it's been an organization I belong to city or whatever that we called and you didn't open your doors for us I I I want to say thank you [Applause] okay we also wna W to thank um Eric Hines from um School 10 he couldn't be here he had he caught Co but he did practice and he wasn't he didn't feel he was totally prepared so let's give Eric around the and last but not least I want to thank uh Pace High School not University Pace High School you guys are phom and please make sure you guys get some business cards made because you should be hired at someone's wedding someone's anniversary or something fantastic job um and we know there's a high correlation between performing arts and academics already know where your grades are so keep up the good work and thank you for participating all right at this time we me turn a gther back over to our council president [Applause] thank you councilman love at this point we'd like to turn to our mayor for debate on the community um following the mayor's comments we'll ask for response from members of the council and at that point go into short break so that the public hearing mayor thank you council president however I notice the presence of our Congressman Bill pasc is here with his wife Mrs pasc and I'm not sure if he had a presentation or if he had some words but I I would ask with the council's Indulgence and the council president if our Congressman could be given the opportunity to say a few words regarding the ceremony the council would be honor thank you Council [Applause] [Music] [Applause] congressman come right here to the nice tie back Congressman nice tie it's always a pleasure to come to to say I always leave better than I came I mean that so councilman love great job right thank you president Sher young mayor like Laura he likes when I say that administrator B of our counsel I'll leave you a quick quick point in 1954 there was an author pastor and I don't know if you read his book Ralph Ellison the invisible man I recommend that anybody ever read that book here interesting not many people read it but it had an indelible mark on my soul after I did read it we've read a lot of civil rights books books about racial tension Ralph Ellison summed it up in that book The Invisible Man he talked about people who were looked at but never seen so the whole issue of civil rights to me the whole issue of voting rights to me comes down to whether we want to recognize everyone or whether we want to look at some and say I don't see anybody simple to the point Thank You Pake thanks to the mayor to the council bringing in our young people how can we not have hope in the future when we hear these folks play their instruments and sing with their vocal cords how could we not have hope for the future to the parents to the loved ones to the Guardians of our children I'm very hopeful I was born hopeful because if you're not hopeful it's tough to get up in the morning so we always think that the next day is going to be better we honor Martin Luther King because he shaked us he gave us vibrations vibrations in our body about what our specific responsibilities are We Are Not Invisible we are all equal and whether you're talking about voting or whether you're talking about voting rights you're talking about human rights we are all equal if you don't want to accept that you got a problem I suggest you pray thank you Pastor I suggest you pray and the human problems that we get caught up with and we trip over are small compared to the big ones which we never want to face this is a beautiful city this is a city of beautiful people right lot of differences here so what there's something that makes us all common to one another thank you forsake for recognizing the great leader Martin Luther King I'm honored to be here tonight and I'm leaving forsake happier than I got here thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you it is uh typical before Council meetings go into the agenda that I give an update to the community they're usually lengthy many details and I try to the best of my ability to convey the plans and future initiatives with the appropriate enthusiasm as I am always excited to work with my colleagues to see our city progress but I will admit to you that for the last couple days I have not quite been myself the loss of our Sheriff has impacted me deeply I'll admit that publicly I believe it has given us perspective so much so to reflect upon relationships and those things that are so important so my my update won't be long today I am so grateful to councilman Dr teren love to the students of pace and future attendees of Pace University to Mr Place who rhymes with Pace to the Board of Education commissioners to all of the community leaders to that remarkably inspiring Dance by the Shia that lifted up our Spirits brought us closer to the Lord to the poignant and deeply profound words of Reverend hegler reminds us the need to remain United to reject Division and segregation to reject the Winds of the times this Council quot culture that makes us forget that we are human that we are flawed for those of us driven by faith that we place that faith on a perfect God and that we understand that he is perfect and we are not I am considering my very first exposure to do Martin Luther King it was at Miss Harvey School number seven I was born and raised d going into the school kindergarten we got to play certain leaders and heroes and I got to be Dr Martin Luther King so excited that I had a line I have a dream staying up late practicing it over and over before my mother who could barely speak English and I wanted to get it perfect and in the morning when I came up with my little sign and the string around the sign that identified who you are and I came up and screamed to the top of my lungs I have a dream a little kid I was just happy I got the line right everybody laughed somewhat that's was my first getting uh getting exposed further as I got older I remember a particular episode of a show that some of our students may not remember but others will The Jeffersons well there was a episode where George had went back to his home was empty down and um it was when Dr King was killed he was in there with L the son and I remember he got so angry at the news they picked up a chair and threw it through the window of the building I don't know if any of you remember that specific episode and I remember not understanding but feeling anger anger at what was being portrayed they through the television this loss of this remarkable leader as I got older I studied Dr King along with so many other civil rights leaders and thought of him as a giant a hero a perfect man and it wasn't until I became an adult and a man that I realized that did not do him Justice see to to look at people through these lenses they are perfect they are without challenge without flaw to do a disservice to what they truly mean I realize as an adult that what made Dr King so remarkable is that he was just like us a man who dealt with issues in his home man who was rejected we often forget that he wasn't the Beloved Dr King in his time he was wrongly investigated malign lied about they tried to stop his ministry they saw him as a threat as a divider picture that the man we celebrate today at that time was looked at as a divider they hypers scrutinize every aspect of his life to hopefully expose something that would discredit his message what most stood out as an adult to me especially when I consider so many officials those in uniform and those out those old political office those who are Educators and those who are professionals and those who take the pulpit that we end up living this life trying to portray Perfection because that's the expectation but it is not perfect people that make a difference it is imperfect people that are so stirred up in their souls so unable to cope with the injustices of the day so unwilling to lay back or sit down when it's time to rise and fight it is imperfect people who go home and argue it is imperfect people that slip up with their words or react with a temper because they're made of flesh and blood or people who if you just watch them long enough you will see just how human they are individuals like this that decide I may not be perfect but I can do something people who join with other imperfect people and make a difference and today we celebrate the legacy of an accomplished man no doubt of a most gifted and anointed servant of the most high God definitely of an educated mentor and leader and an example for all people of all Races of all backgrounds rounds of all distinctions but I would propose to those here that what should stay with us always is to remember that there is no one perfect but God but Perfection is not a requisite to stand up and make a difference that our ancestors weren't perfect when they stood up courageously and fought against circumstances that were well beyond them with hopes and dreams and visions of d like today where young people would be able to freely Express their art and their talent and their Beautiful Minds without the fear of persecution a days that those looked forward to where individuals of different races backgrounds religious beliefs would sit together on a deis and serve people in political office that is a sobering thought to me it is sobering to me that a man who was imperfect could rise to become a national figure a man that was hated by some in his time can be so universally beloved in our time and perhaps that could Inspire us to always remember just because the people around us don't like what we're doing now doesn't make us wrong that sometimes right means that you're going to be treated wrong that sometimes standing firm on your conviction keeping your word and doing what's right will make people uncomfortable and say stop it just let us do whatever we want because it doesn't matter it has to matter maybe not for the day perhaps for the day we don't see the results but it must matter for the future and for the children and for the examples it gives so again Dr Love esteemed colleagues the city C Council amazing and remarkable youth appointed leaders Commissioners and to the remarkable Reverend hegler who I share that among the many losses that we have experienced this year I'm glad that you will move on to great things because you have a great calling but I confess publicly that I will miss your presence here I will miss being able to call you and bother you or Jo with you or go back and forth about what's going on in the area I thank you for your service in your heart and for your willingness to be a truth teller in the day that we celebrate liars and dividers gossipers where those people get the most likes in social media where truth makes it halfway around the world or rather a lie makes it halfway around the world before the truth can make it out the front door that's right I thank you Reverend H for being willing to be someone that will tell the truth no matter how people take it God bless you my report will have one event that I touch upon where I started we celebrated an event that every year Sheriff bernick was a part of three kings to give our toys to Children and Families I was found of always calling him the ubiquitous Sheriff because he made an effort to be everywhere from West Milford Ringwood blomingdale and helden and hathorne and Patterson and Clifton and B I don't know this circumstances that resulted in why he is no longer with us I would hope to the Lord that he could hear this expression of gratitude I want to thank this man who I spoke to who I got to know who was not perfect we kept to his commitment and word to serve and every time we called them whether dealing with heightened threatened alerts or hate crimes or concerns of the community he showed up provided resources and met with our people and today he is not with us anymore so our prayers our thoughts and our support to his family and to all of you community of Pake thank you for once again coming out for this most important ceremony where we never forget the amazing Legacy and the impact that is made by those who choose to stand up speak up do what's right thank you very [Applause] [Music] much the next item on the agenda is a public hearing Green Acres funding I know there needs to be some uh modifications made to the room so we will reconvene in approximately 10 [Music] minutes for its business session if you could please have a seat or if you're in conversation please have that outside of the Halls at this point if I can ask for a motion to reconvene please motion and second roll call to reconvene love pres councilwoman Melo present councilman schwar yes councilman Garcia councilwoman monz pres and council president sh present um at this time ladies and gentlemen if you're first joining us now or have not yet had the opportunity um you can get on the city's website and get a copy of all the material that the council received for this meeting from the administration um that includes background and resolutions ordinances and Communications that come to us if you would like to please get on that website it will help direct what we're going to be doing in the next few minutes we're up to Roman numeral five on our agenda this evening Green Acres Grant programs public hearing is required notice published in the Janu in the January 12 2024 newspaper or posted on the city paic website on January 9 2024 the purpose of the hearing is to obtain public comment and Park development Grant application to be submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protections Urban parks and Green Acres Program the city of pic is seeking funds for the improvements to Colonel Johnson Park located at 190 Harrison Street pic New Jersey situated on Harrison Street between vanwinkle Avenue and help Avenue the city of P proposes to create the following new facilities at Kur John Park installation of new spray pad bicycle racks new park benches rain Gardens along with low points and to revitalize the Park's praed surfaces the purpose of the hearing is to obtain public comment on Park development Grant application to be submitted to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protections Green Acres Program the city is seeking funding for improvements at Colonel Johnson Park located at 190 Harrison Street paic New Jersey situated on Harrison Street between van winkl Avenue and Hope Avenue the city of Bic proposes to create the following new facilities at Colonel Johnson Park installation of new spray pad bicycle racks new park benches rain Gardens along with low points trees recycling systems to reduce water consumption uh and waste to revitalize the cracked surfaces this is a public hearing we invite anyone who would like to address the Council on this issue and this issue only which is the proposed action to be taken at Colonel Johnson Park is there anyone who would like to address the Council on this issue only good evening Joe kenti 170 Broadway 190 Harrison Street Colonel Johnson Park that's been I'm glad it's being done because I'm because the reason is that used to be a hangout for gang members if you guys know from the past maybe five years a lot of cloths down there and a lot of cleanup down there so this would be good for Mr it's difficult to hear you sir could you speak a bit louder upgrade the system yes um my question was that that Park Colonel Johnson Park on Harrison Street used to be known for gang members until it got cleaned up so this would be the best thing for that Park um my really reason on this tonight is there used to be a plaque of Colonel Johnson I don't know what happened to it it we brought it up several times in the past so consider you're going to be doing this project which I know is going to go through um I'm asking for a new plaque to be put up of Colonel Johnson keep the name Colonel Johnson you can make it splash park whatever Park you want to make it but keep it colonel Johnson's park that's what I'm asking that's my question we hear your comments sir thank you thank you I'm informed that I messed things up which is common experience Mr Fernandez can you rescue me please uh never it was just I think it would be uh helpful if we went through the slides so that everyone can see what it is that exactly what we're doing uh right now as we're presenting it today there is no intention of changing the name of Colonel Johnson as The Last speaker uh had a question on um so just real quickly the reason that we had to read the public notice twice is because it's Green Acres breaks the programs up into two different funding Services Urban parks and then the Green Acres Program and one offsets the other so if we don't have enough in urban Parks they'll then do it on the Green Acres Program and that is why the council president read uh it twice and why it says New Jersey Deb Urban parks and Green Acres public hearing as you heard r that this is uh some of the improvements is a splash pad I have to tell you that that's the biggest understatement that you can ever hear uh made about a splash pad uh the mayor I see the mayor walking in he caught me in perfect timing it's like he knew I was gonna say that this all came quite frankly from a discussion uh that the mayor had with us and his vision for the changing of the park so without further Ado I will continue moving on uh obviously this came from the mayor's vision and uh with the council support this evening we're able to put in this application for this momentous park because mayor I think uh we looked around our entire area I don't think there's a single Park in municipalities like us that is entirely a water park complete water park now some may ask and I'm not sure if you brought it up business administrator why the idea and the reason why I came up with the idea of having a water park in the area is I realized that we don't have a park in that area conducive for our Lous kids we have basketball courts around the area even in that same area but many of our children cannot afford to take these summer trips to Disney World or water parks and to have the opportunity and look I grew up with the fire hydrant being turned on or the firefighters holes going on but this would be the very very first park with a complete water park which make back the question what happens when it's not summer well here's the thing because of the equipment that we're ordering or looking to order did you touch on that yet no I haven't I was just literally starting on the uh when the waterers turned off the slides are still there the climbing aspect of the boat we're sort of jokingly referring to our own uh Pirates of the Caribbean Park but picture kids coming from all over to get on the boats the water shooting out the side of the boats around the boats the slides having little tables for the parents making it conducive for smaller children you know sometimes we mix both of the parts together we'll have games and activities for older children and smaller children but with a small area like this it's not always conducive because those of us who grow up in the area you know that when older kids are playing sometimes the interactions are a little different and not the best for the smaller kids but to have a park that's fully for our youngest kids 12 and under not to say that we can't picture 15 and 16 olds or want jump on this man Dr Dr love and counil Schwarz taking the slide down watch while the water's on right somebody has to watch the kids but that's that's the hope when you consider the proximity to our elementary schools you consider how close it is to school number 10 when you consider how close it is to the Dayton Avenue complex to school number nine to some of our parochial schools in the area we think that it will will really benefit the community and then when you consider the small businesses in the area if kids and parents are coming there for the water park they're gonna shop in the area they're gonna St by the local store on Harrison or go around the corner to fortalesa maybe grab something to eat or a sandwich on the corner store so we look forward to the potential of having this application approved and receiving the funding to once again have a unique Recreation opportunity in our city it's actually made national news over the last couple of weeks because of the excitement and potential of a complete water park in our urban city of B thank you mayor I don't know how I'm gonna follow that but I can tell you that uh up on the screen is kind of the concept that the mayor has been talking about again it is a concept obviously things are fluid but some of the discussions if you look at the left hand uh part of the map you'll see that big boat uh we were having discussions and joking around about the other area a little bit uh right of that boat is maybe another mini booat with maybe some water features that can shoot at each other and play a little bit of the pirate games as we're talking about there's other areas as you start coming down towards Harrison for even smaller children to be safe and protected I think everybody knows uh the mayor is always looking at the ability for parents to be able to watch their children in a safe environment without them being able to run off and rubberized surface that's been the approach over the past six years to convert the surfaces of our playgrounds to rubberized surface it becomes more conducive for children with special needs and children not to be hurt in terms of play but I do want to demonstrate something business strategically the tables are strategically placed for parents and families closer to the entrance and exit because as a father four children two with special needs one of my biggest concerns in my wife as well when we go to the park is that our children run out when you're sitting at the end in many of the parks used to have the benches in the back and the entrance in the front so you would see parents running out to get their child who ran out the entrance well we're doing is making sure that all of the chairs or all of the picnic tables are at the entrances of the parks and the equipment behind in order for parents to keep an eye on their children so in order for a child to leave they have to literally pass their parents so we're looking to incorporate more inclusive equipment that is uh important for children with special needs uh children with certain developmental challenges and we're extremely excited about this application but I wanted to know this would be where the second boat would be and then the boat the water would be shooting out of the boat around the boat up and over the boat so it would be a water themed park for our residents all right thank you mayor so as part of the process these are the improved uh the improvements as you can see kind of a concept of the boat uh or multiple boats of different sizes that we're talking about this is just a few of the improvements that uh were shown in the concept plan so to say that we got to this point without including the public uh would be completely the opposite and multiple multiple events uh multiple forms of media and Outreach were taken as we were preparing these plans to share with you this evening uh as you can see there were posted notices are posted both in English and in Spanish all the way back since January 9th and on January 12th with these are notices that were put on uh the newspapers multiple times one on the 9th one on the 12th but that we could have stopped right there right now I know many of you would say uh in the past past administrations might have just left it there but I think all of you know that our mayor and his uh complete focus on making sure that the community has the information they need so we did not stop there we went to so many forms of community engagement to make sure that everyone 's voice was heard there were surveys that were put out so at this point I'd like to just take a moment of privilege and thank all the employees from the recreation department from Administration and all others that volunteered helping us put these surveys together and going out into the community to get the responses which if you be a little patient with me we're we're going to show you kind of what the outcome was of those surveys here is the survey that was put out again in fact if you go outside right now on the reception desk you will find the survey because we were even putting it out for everyone who came into City Hall to be able to take the survey it was put on our website so you could take it virtually you could take it on paper and then we took it to community events so these are just some examples there it is inity City Hall in fact the desk right outside you can go ahead and see it here is in one of the schools and one of the events uh on the bottom it was posted even on our monitors outside here's a list it was all recreation activities we're talking about soccer we're talking about volleyball we're talking about young old adult leagues that we put this out and shared this information to get community input again we could have just stopped at the Public Notices and it would have been sufficient but I think we all know that's not the direction any of us received so here are the results that we received when we talked about the current conditions that as the mayor was speaking and right before the concept plan you saw the current conditions which left a lot to be desired 80% of all the respondents said that the park needed some help as we started talking about the renovations and the support for renovations as you can see a large majority were very likely likely uh about putting a renovation of the park together so now we started getting into more specifics about the park okay and the features about the park so the splash paded the highest number of votes along with inclusive equipment sensory play areas and interactive water features and I think you know based on the mayor's uh presentation of the concept plan we have Incorporated every single one of those items as part of this project and I apologize I'm new to glasses and the screen is very little here um increase familyfriendly activities was 72% of the project one of the main things that the mayor told us in these meetings was about the diversity of usage in the park of all ages including parents right being able to enjoy your time there for children that you may have multiple children at many different ages that can enjoy the park so this is most definitely a friendly uh familyfriendly activity uh improved Community engagement I think um any of you that have been around here for a long time and has sat with us uh we went above and beyond to make sure that the community's voices were heard as we went through this project uh attracting more visitors obviously we want them to stay enjoy we we made national news so that maybe you can call your cousin from another town or a a family member or friend to come down and visit and see this new project having positive impact on property values well when you're redoing a park and you're there with children there are two M there are two main things that raise property values besides obviously the condition of the home uh those two things are schooling the level of your education and activities for the Youth to participate in and I'm happy to say that we have that in abundance here here we have um based on what the proposals were and what the responses were in your opinion would the renovation of Colonel Johnson Park enhanced the overall appeal for the people of different age groups in our community and it was a resounding 93.1% of the respondents said this project would the next question was how important do you think it is for Colonel Johnson Park to incorporate climate resilient features to withstand extreme weather events and promote environmental sustainability and when you look at it uh the very important and important made up almost 80% of the responses we are so excited to share this with you today probably none more than the mayor as you can see um the excitement we have for this project at this point council president if there are any questions can you can you can you address the issue of what these funds will be I loans grants so these are this is grant funding and I'm happy to report that they began this practice last year that any successful applicant right because this is an application this is to get us for the state to review it and give us the funding there is no longer a municipal match where in the past we would have to pay 25% of the cost of the project starting last year uh with the projects that we did in uh palaski park at extension which are hopefully we're going to start constructing this summer uh we did not have to put a match so this is fully funded by the grant funding from the state of New Jersey's Green Acres and urban Parks program if this if this issue should be passed is it preclude us from getting additional funds from Green Acres uh or the department uh the I think it depends on the project so recently there is a requirement that you finish out a project before you apply for new ones but outside of us not finishing out a project there is no limit to how many times we can apply for funds but there is I guess an approach by the state of how many times they'll give it to us and then we have to rely on potentially having an assembly men who lives in faake in the state who might visit an office in person and might knock on a door and say listen I was at the council meeting and the city wants more money but outside of that there is no limit to how much we can appli for as long as they're viable projects they make sense and it's one of the reasons why we look for Unique projects often times the community or residents will say but why not just have this field or this court and we go it's not competitive see the state looks at unique projects so they're gonna give them money somewhere else and someone will look at and say why a synthetic ice skating rink go because if we would have applied for a basketball court they weren't going to give us the money they would have given it to whatever City came up with the most unique project it isn't money we lost it's money we just wouldn't get not money that we have so when we come up with unique ideas to provide creative amenities for our residents it makes our application just a little bit more appealing especially when we explain that it provides opportunities in densely populated areas especially where individuals have less access to vehicles and can't drive to the parks but can walk and when we consider and we say it off in summer break and families that can't afford either to sign their children up for a program or to sign their children up to a camp or to take them on trips the idea that there would be a park where families can go and have the summer experience it makes for a compelling argument before the state in terms of our application were there any um downsides that were shared with the administration in terms of this with all initiatives or uh plans people get accustomed to what you already have so though you want to renovate sometimes you'll get family members go why not just paint the swings you know fix put a net on the basketball court at a couple benches and we'll be okay and the truth is we could do that but we would be doing a disservice to the community so what occurs and sometimes it's a legitimate push back individuals will be opposed to the plan and say well where would the kids play basketball and we'll say we have many parks School number eight we have uh multiple basketball courts that we have renovated School number 11 there's a basketball court that was put up right at school number 10 around the corner but we're looking to create Park opportunities for a broader range of children and we know the water in splash parks like when you go by School number 11 and you see the splash park right on Myrtle there are many kids that could play at the same time what parents are around if you go to Third Ward Memorial Memorial Park by Broadway the water splash area can accommodate a lot more children than perhaps just one amenity so we present it but the push back council president members of the city council is you know we'll like it if it's done but we know what we have right now we we definitely received a lot of feedback saying that they believe the enhancements to the project would be a benefit to the community but again I re itate anytime you want to present something new that has not existed before you get a little bit of reservation and as elected officials we understand that we expect it but we're hoping that if we get this application approved that the addition to that Park and the unique aspects of the recreation opportunities that will be developed will be embraced by the community as a whole because it's not just for that area First Ward or fourth ward nearby but for anyone who wants to come from any of the other Wards that's often ch travel around the city for activities okay thank you members of the council yes I have uh just a first a comment um and I think my fellow parents and grandparents will appreciate this um I think it's a great concept because when you have water park as well as activities right swings and things you're fighting with the kids to do one or the other you're changing them back and forth as soon as you change them one time they want to get wet again and go all over the place anybody I mean if I'm wrong you tell me and I think having something like this will will kind of alleviate parents right in particularly um parents who have multiple children because when you have one or two that you know you can raise your voice and they listen to rather than four or five right who's not gonna listen to anyone um it can make for a long day so so I want to appreciate you guys taking that into consideration the second thing is as we we're going to claim this right uh we're going to receive the funds what is the time frame how long will it take um for something like this to be done in terms of putting it out to bid I think next summer about a year from when we received the funds and actually put out to bid so we would say by next summer you can see we saw how quick dundy Island occurred once we received the funds the bids were accepted the problem is the process before that so dotting the eyes and crossing the te's and sometimes we'll receive a portion of the fund with conditions and contingent upon whatever they add to it but once we receive the funds and they've been allocated or put aside their encumber for just that project it takes about a year's time once we award it thank you thank you thank you for always for living outside the box and really thinking about the residents and the children because we understand the makeup of our city like as you constantly mentioned a lot of parents don't have the fund to take their kids out in the summer when they're home so this is definitely an opportunity for for parents to to relax and bring their kids to enjoy themselves um we know growing up what we went through our parents couldn't take us many places we were just bound to a regular Park but now that we have this this is going to be awesome for our city and for our children um because they're seeing the progress you're seeing that you know we're thinking about them for the future so they can enjoy and live live in Pake proudly and say yes I am from Pake so thank you again and I I appreciate that councilman I want to take the opportunity to highlight our business administrator Rick Fernandez and our engineer Yasin who's here present with members of the engineering department because his the face he gave me when I said can we do two boats with water shooting out and and he goes two two boats are they moving are we what's going on and and he came back with a couple of uh of renderings and I'm going no boats like a water park but we were having fun in our meetings as we were throwing ideas out and got this wonderful uh design and we're very excited about the potential for the funding and unique opportunities for the kids of our city any other questions from the council this looks like a great project there's a lot of creativity here and it's going to really make a really big impact on the area what did you have any guess that the budget for this item but I mean it's Grand money so doesn't so so the the maximum Grant amount is $1.9 million we want 1.9 million worth of it so that's what we did that's a lot of doors to knock on assembly but we are we are hoping that if we get additional funds we can explore charging stations because we know those have become extremely important where parents or children doing their homework maybe uh at some of the picnic tables can charge their phones or their devices but we are going to apply for every cent fabul one more question believe it or not I'm not a big talker but um while you're talking and while you guys are expecting and and telling us about the park I'm just smiling like if I'm going there maybe I'll babysit more of my grandkids but because I have somewhere to go right now before like she was saying when my kids were younger we would go to the park with pizza and you know what would they do they come back with big scrapes because there the cement or whatever crying we go home or whatever but thank you I I'm honored to be here and to be a part of all this you Council me brought up an interesting point where it's located is in the middle of a residential neighborhood literally there are houses on both sides of the park and behind so that's a additional We Believe benefit where parents can go go right to the water park while you're looking right at because some of the concerns for parents especially when they come home from work is the idea of I have to go drive to the park now but the proximity in such a densely populated area would make it so beneficial for grandparents and parents to say just go right to the park across the street or right next door and you can look out the window and see them play that's a great point I I assume that there'll be extraordinary uh High Line pitch uh lots of Lights yes and that always comes with our improvements to the parks lights you're correct council president becomes one of the number one requests because it enhances safety obviously it ensures overnight that there's greater surveillance for our police more visibility and it's just a benefit to the uh neighborhood as a whole the more lit a neighborhood is the safer it is good thank you sir anyone else like to say one comment um Council wo says go to a regular Park I promise you this is g to be the farthest thing from a regular Park you might not be left with any more regular par I think I don't think we're going to be left with many that you could say are just regular parks like Council woman um colog mentioned I mean going to the park we just come home with scrapes me that's I mean it was fun but now so it's funny she said that because immediately I lived around the block on Lexington and I would go to this park and I think there wasn't a time I didn't come home with some sort of scrape where my mom was like what are you doing over there anyway I just thought I'd make that councilman yeah just one other question in terms of um the funding do they allocate or allow or have allowance for uh money to be put aside to for maintenance and upkeep or you have to spend it no you have to spend it for the project itself okay thank you I think what's beneficial additionally Ben officials there's already existing pipe under this park so some of the investment will be more focused on the equipment maybe there's a little bit of infrastructure but a lot of it will be maintained by our Recreation Department no different than the other Parks will there be Laboratories if we can convince an assemblyman from the state to get 1.9 million to say instead of 1.6 how about 1 we could definitely look at it no but it's a good question because it's a water park you know the one on Third Ward in Broadway there's a bathroom in proximity to it and that's extremely important when children are playing with water as much as all of us scream stop drinking that because you're not supposed to there's a need to use the bathroom we are looking at it but it is significant money to add bathrooms so we want to make sure that we can get the funding and then perhaps explore right now there are no bathrooms the enhancement of the park is a priority any additional funds if perhaps we can move a few things around and create a bathroom we're definitely open to it excellent excellent good thank you mayor is there anyone uh who would like to address the Council on this issue and this issue only yes sir good evening council president council members and mayor lore um just wanted to if we can have your name for the sorry it's uh Ls I'm I'm not used to being on this side LS Daniel Rodriguez 489 Broadway in the great city of Pake uh as I look at this as a kid that grew up in that area um over on Vann and Jackson uh and went to school at number 10 School uh I can I look back and I remember that area and it and it was it somewhere that you really wanted to go to I mean to tell you the truth let's I mean anybody that grew up in 80s and 90s know that even during the day you're like your parents are like you're not going there why you there right um to see the evolution of that park over the years um is is is beautiful to see and I agree it's it's time for facelift and it's time for for for the idea the creative that mayor Laur and his administration come up with um adding to that to adding to that Park and making it something special unique that our kids can can can really enjoy and from all over the city because one of the things that we talked about was Unity right the the pastor uh today and I really like the message of that it goes all not just for that Ward or that's that area but kids from throughout the city um can go and enjoy their time there again I remember finally living in that area and grandparents living on Van Winkle it it to see it and to see what it's going to be because we have an assemblyman that's going to get us more money with the bathroom right with the bathroom no pressure no pressure um but to see that is is so beautiful and the only thing I wish sometimes I you know I know marur for a little bit of time now I look at this stuff now and I'm like ah why why couldn't my parents have me a little later in life so I would be able to enjoy some of these things because growing up we you know there's a lot of things that we didn't enjoy so I I really appreciate um seeing this seeing the ideas and seeing and where we're going with this not only this park but the rest of the parks in the city thank you Kudos thank you sir anyone else like to address the council Dr Edwin Garcia um 65 bla Street um I was listening to everybody speak and um one of the things that dawned on me was that how many high school students as a high school assistant principal at the high school a lot of our students take care of their little brothers and sisters and I've had plenty of conversations with them and it's they're like they're home all day I got to take care of my brother and sister why don't you go out to the park I don't want to go to the kitty Park this is something that I feel like that might be a little cooler for them to go and hang out with their little brother and sister because often times the the smaller Park and where the big kids normally play they're they're too far separated makes it difficult for them to go hang out and and enjoy the time and I think that this is one of those areas it's a big difference between I'm going to the P Kitty Park and I'm going to the water park when you go to talk to your friends about you know what you're doing after school today so I just wanted to uh bring that up I think it's going to be beneficial too for our teenagers uh who usually take care of their siblings thank you thank you Renee Griggs 23 Asen Place Apartment 60 where was this 30 years ago when my cousin it was we had between the three uh the four women we had 13 kids we would have had a good time down there I I think this is a good move for the city it's very enjoyable and I'm glad that we are doing something that's keeping on Trend with the big um water park and theme parks where kids cannot in some incidents afford to go with the boats and stuff like that and like I said I'm a little upset it should have been here 30 years [Laughter] ago good evening Parker Joseph Brown Jr from 247 Summer Street um I'm glad that we actually had a chance to present an image to what the park was gonna actually look like because I got a chance to go through the file the uh estimate the the engineering uh estimate right and I'll just staring at numbers and I'm like $460,000 good Lord that's a lot of money uh I was I was really looking around here I said I'm in the wrong line of work but as I see it did I'm doing the wrong thing but as I look at it and I and I see it and um I did I fil out that survey myself right and it was a lot of questions in there multiple choice reminded me of being in high school a little bit multiple choice um something that the Pastor said before about Unity stru right and I had a whole thing it's not me right I had a whole uh thing written and uh the spirit is moving me in a different direction right I asked him a question I said how can you have Unity without truth no no and not just truth but transparency when I felt out that survey it was very limited to the way that I was allowed to answer it so when I came and I saw that beautiful presentation which I I appreciate a good presentation that's my company like my company does production so when I saw that I was like oh they put some time into that I like that numbers don't lie but when you ask questions in the manner to which they were act you're limiting the input that the community can get so my question that I want to lead with is is the decision already made and we're just here for the formality part of it or is the community actively being able to speak about what that Park would look like because I walked through it earlier today and yeah it need something something got to be done to it it I almost stripped over some of the what do we call that Cobblestone I think that's called Cobblestone right that's what you call that brick stuff Cobblestone we gonna call it that and then I went all the way back to the basketball court and I'm looking at the metal gate and I'm looking at this tree that's just there's a tree in the middle there's a tree over here so I'm wondering um also with the the items that I saw in here I saw in line 30 the Landscaping forget how much is in there right what they're talking about is the insulation of landscaping but then when I saw that picture I was like where's the grass I didn't see Landscaping I saw what padded uh we're doing padding not asphalt so R Gardens we're removing the grass and all the dirt and things from there cuz the picture didn't it was up there for a second and I can't look at it again so I'm a little confused I I I believe sir that's Landscaping to today's definition be they're going to put the picture back up thank you if I may ask to your question and I'm not sure if you're if you're done with the questions in order to answer that was that was so I I think you you rais a very important Point especially when it comes to surveys so I wanna I want to be detailed and trying to explain our approach funds are limited as to what you can use the funds for we have an extremely creative Community now if you indulge me a bit if I was to go home and ask my family what do you want in the backyard I give me a range of uh options we want a roller coaster we can't do a roller coaster in the backyard we don't have the space for it the funding is Not Practical if I go home and say listen we can get a pool or we can put up a court because that's what funding and the space would allow for now that's a bit of a flaw analogy but I want to be clear when you're going after Green Acre funds when you're going after open space funds for recreation you understand that there's limited funds in our community and it's happened many of you would be familiar if we say what what kind of recreation would you like us to build nine out of 10 responses would be we want a pool City Pool that comes up a lot a pool is Not Practical it's not practical to dig a pool in the city we we couldn't apply for the money for the pool the liability in terms of maintaining the insurance the who's going to be around it's the reason Staffing it doesn't work so when we tailor the questions it isn't to limit the opportunities to speak it's to try to strategically guide people to what the funding are available for so if there's funding available for an amenity that can range from swings to slides to potential inclusive equipment because that's where the funding really is going now with New Jersey having the highest rate of children born on the Spectrum with autism inclusive equipment becomes extremely appealing for the application that if we were to leave open just whatever you want it wouldn't be practical for us to show the survey responses in order to get the application approved so to the best of our ability we we place the options before the municipality that we can actually go after so if we know that we can get funding for swings for uh soccer field for a racetrack for a water park then we provide those surveys with those options ABC D I think the last way I would describe it and I hope I'm doing it justice is it would be the difference between me going what color should we paint the council chamber and be here for five hours discussing every single color in the Spectrum or saying we have three paints we have blue we have red and we have white which one we we prefer someone say well what about all the other colors we don't have the other colors have the money to buy the other colors that when it comes to certain options and we would love Creative options but we have to be pragmatic in terms of the approach to provide opportunities so that the answers can fit with what's available in terms of the resources or the allocation of funds so the survey this is the survey that we're given to provide to the community because this is what lines for the application so and I'll conclude with this if we're applying for infrastructure funds we can do bridge we can do roads we do sidewalks we could do storm dreams use infrastructure for that but if we simply say what would you have us do and people say well we we want a new park give us we're going not allowed to use infrastructure funds for that we're Limited in terms of the usage of the funds so that often will determine how the survey is set so the options that were given were specific to the applications that were going to be made to the state in terms of the funding that would be made available for the renovations enhancements or development of new parks also to make it a little broader we also allowed in the public notice if you see the Public Notices if you have any written comments additional comments to the survey that you could submit them to our offices for our review so that was also included as part of it but I think it's clear why questions were kind of the way the questions were as the mayor explained but there is a comment section that you can and there's also this evening if there were any comments you know or suggestions okay um no there was a lot of information in there to unpack and and I understand that was that was that clear was almost if I may and I don't want to keep you examp but yes someone could have said we want a mini golf course it wouldn't have been practical for us to go after that in terms of the amenity and the recreation and the demographics in the area and the proximity to the school could we put in that application I think we could would we likely receive funding for it not likely so we try with the experience that we have to put in applications based on what they have awarded precedent in the past has shown and these are one of the options so we try to limit what could go in there so we can make a stronger application just the last question the other part was answer uh for this particular project right is this the last time that the public is going to be speaking about this or like is the decision already made about that being the final design uh and I think time this very very well done Artic I just wanted to know if this was the be the last time that we were gonna speak about this not speak about it you're free to speak about it at every council meeting or any public setting but in terms of the survey once the survey is out because of application deadlines we're gonna take the answers that we have the percentages and then we have to submit the applic we don't really have the um and I don't know what it canotes but I want say luxury we don't really have the Liberty to say we're gonna keep reviewing it while the application process is going because then they can award it to someone else yeah no no in terms of your question was specific can we still speak on me so let's say we put in this application and they award us to two million and forgive me I don't want to assume your question What if after the two million someone comes up with a great idea that can add to this could we tweak it a bit yes could we change a little bit yes so the conversations could keep going but if your question is specific are we ready to submit this design in this application yes because it's on deadlines and we put out the surveys we've met the requirements we need to put in the application in order to be competitive to receive the fund or if not they'll give the fund to someone else put in their application on time find the information about the Green Acres portion this is a grant right yes where can I find the information about the Green Acres portion because each Grant has its own set of parameters that you must fall into and this is two separate grants well two separate grants we're applying for right so it's under the same it's under the same umbrella of the Green Acres which is under the D so if you go to the State Department of Environmental Protection website it gives you the grant um guidelines for both Urban parks and the Green Acres I'm little I'm G be a little Annoying with y' until I get a link on that because finding things online with the p website is this is the state this is the state website sir no not the this is the state website we're speaking that one's even worse pass that down I'm so serious about this finding information when you're serious about finding something is a proverbial needle in the H stack and I don't know about anybody else but I got a lot of stuff to do so I don't want to be wasting time that's why when I ask that question about I mean if you're going to submit something and then later on we could talk about it well you're moving ahead no matter what is happening so of course if I if if I may clarify um this design and this concept it may seem simple it's not we have to pay to get it done so what happens is when individuals and it's fair to say hey I just came up with an idea and we go we spent six months with Engineers doing viability studies making sure that the space is conducive for the kind of equipment sometimes and I think input is important individuals who aren't privy to that process come and say well I want to add my ideas and go great but then we would have to start pay an engineer do the design set out surveys and the application process goes and we we miss the opportunity to get the funding so I go back to this when we put it out and we'll put it out on social media we'll send it to schools the presentation by the business administrator we'll take it to the different schools we'll go to programs we'll put it on the website inevitably it always occurs that some people say I still didn't see it and because I didn't see it I would like to start the process over with some ideas and we go government can't work that way because then we would never move forward it's important for those who are most interested in an area of government if someone says I'm really into Parks and Recreation to be involved so that at the beginning of the process that input could come because if it comes at the end of the process for preference not that this is the case preference but in general or something subjective installing the process will be the difference between us getting the funding or having to leave the park as it is so yes of of course we'll give you the link But please understand that we have the same process every time it's a public hearing it's an application process it's around the same time every year Council meetings are twice a month every two weeks individuals are free to come to City Hall and say what projects are coming up can can we be made aware but often and not that this is the case individuals may come to a meeting and say hey I'm I'm not familiar with how you came to this decision and we'll explain say well I I want to get my idea well that's great just not for this application because we've already paid got the Serv went to the community received the responses but for other parts um if there are additional ideas we welcome them because we want the input of the community but we need them within the time frame in order to do applications whether in the county or the state let me just add one more point to find my and that is I I don't want you to be going back home and saying that there's a some real flexibility in what's being done tonight and we can make some meaningful and significant change in the proposal to the best of my knowledge that is not the case there can be some cosmetic um certainly something from a public health point of view would change things around but this is the proposal that's been given to the state thank you thank you sir anyone else like to address the Council on this item and this item only good evening Sher Greer 77 Brook Avenue uh I think this is amazing idea I I really do love the whole entire concept but my question is more gears towards the survey um is there a total number of how many people had taken the survey and to you had mentioned that the survey was given to several schools and uh certain areas in the city such as City Hall I've never received the survey uh I know you had mentioned on social media sometimes I limit my my social media so whether other avenues that the survey was sent to such as churches or the where they mailed you know to broen survey EXC so they were at all the recreational events as well as at the recreational counter they were on our City website there were Flyers were put out so you don't get one in the mail that is not something we would do but each of these flyers that are put out around town you had a QR code that you could just take a picture from your phone and it automatically took you there uh and we put it in the places where most people from the city are likely to come right which is Recreation the recreation program so that only are the parents there with the children as they dropped them off or anyone else uh and City Hall which is the center of the government activity uh within City Hall but to say that and just so we're clear this is way above and beyond any necessary community outreach that the state requires so we've done every one of the items we could have done we did all of them right which was the notice which was the the the survey which was going out to activities and showcasing what it is I don't know if you saw in the pictures and I'm afraid if I start messing around with this it'll go back you'll see that we laid out boards as well as the survey so it wasn't like you just got a questionnaire and you saw that so it was put out in as many means that we could to get as much input and yes there is a number right off the top of I don't know but it was in the hundreds it wasn't like 10 people right if that's what you're getting at right um so it was everyone in activities and not only did we target just small children it was small children teenagers adult programs that the recreation department went to each of these programs and as people were there they were literally stopping them and look look we have the board here and do the survey um so once again this is at least well since the mayor's been here putting information out well above any of the requirements that are required by the state uh to put this application together quite frankly having this meeting and putting it out in the newspaper would have sufficed and that's not what we did and in the area where the park is going to be developed make an effort to ensure whenever we're doing initiatives that much like the 100 steps in the fitness park at the top that the surveys and the information and the notices go out to the immediate area where it will have an impact we will never be able to cover cover the majority of the city on any initiative Recreation initiatives we definitely use everyone who participates in our recreation department and every event that we're invited to in terms of the school events we put them out there some events aren't conducive to bring them out but our goal is to try to get as much input as possible especially by those that are going to be directly impacted by the initiative so those on Harrison those on Van by Jackson by number 10 school by that area we look to make sure that they have the information as well as and I think the business administrator shared on our rec department but no there's not a single initiative where we're able to Target The Wider uh population because it's just not practical it's not required in any municipality to do so okay if I can add one thing going back to the mayor's point if you want to be included on these surveys we have a recreation email list which in this case and I just got the text from um our assistant who was part of the program 3800 individuals are on our Recreation email blast that were sent the survey as well so if anybody in the public wants to be made part of it you can add yourself as part of the email blast and you'll get a direct email U but as you know we're not allowed to just send emails without your request Mr is an educator so I think you're also familiar with there are times where the schools send things to book bag home and parents still go I didn't see it receive it we often experience the same thing with the wreck and the social media and the surveys where someone says I didn't get it we sometimes wonder you didn't get it or it didn't pop out because you're bombarded with so much information from the school but we try to make every effort and we'll take any suggestion from the community if they say hey why don't you try this next time to try to get a different group or try to send I think the faith-based institutions are good suggestion and if we can try to add it especially with the uh different organizations like the Minal Alliance also the organizations of the churches that meet once a month City Hall we we share it with them so there's a meeting every month with different clergies and we share the information with them but we'll try to expand to try to cover more of the faith-based institutions all right thank you may we're saying that I almost I almost remember having a copy of the fly for the meeting we could share that is there anyone else who would like to address the Council on this item only see no hands I move to close the public portion second motion and second to close councilman monk love yes councilwoman Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes yes Council yes council president sh yes thank you whetherly how do we proceed here we've got two resolutions I believe they be considered we have to do each one separately we can do them at the end with the group I'm sorry we can do them with the group at the end if you would like we can do them at the end okay is it all right to go ahead yes we're all right okay we're back on the agenda ran numer six please minutes of October 24th 2023 city council meeting are there any additions or Corrections that need to be made to the uh minutes is presented by the clerk seeing none is there a motion please to accept the minutes so Mo motion and second roll call please councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilwoman Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes councilwoman col montz yes and council president Shar yes thank you we're up to hearing of citizens ran numer 7 on our agenda this evening in accordance with the public meetings Act njsa 10 col 4-1 at SEC the council opens every public meeting for comments of the public however in accordance with njs A1 col 4-12 nothing in this act shall be construed to the discretion of the public body to permit prohibit or regulate the active participation at any meeting therefore please be advised that the council will not entertain any comments from persons who communicate of seen material make statements which are considered bias intimidation in which a person intends to intimidate an individual or group because of race color religion gender handicap sexual orientation or ethnicity or makes comments intending to harass or speak any defensive language the person who makes these statements will relinquish their alloted five minutes for public discussion uh we look forward to your comments and concerns um would anyone like to address the council at this time good evening once again Renee Griggs from 23 aspl Apartment 6C first I just want to say to the mayor Laura and his lovely wife thank you once again for allowing want me to use your space on December the 16th to raise funds I do this program that I give kids who lost their parent or they well their mother to cancer last year I had 12 kids this year I had 20 kids so I want to say thank you unfortunately the women are still dying from cancer it's not a cure I started this program because I had a full life with my mother and some of these kids would never have that with their mother so I make sure that they receive some kind of gift some of these kids are getting bold now they telling me what they want for CHR um and I'm G to say the council president share so many years ago I think Teddy Evans was the DPW director and you had asked him about getting um better Christmas ornaments for the City I'm so glad you stayed oning that because our city looks mighty good at Christmas time with the ornaments hanging off the lamps I mean the light pulse and stuff we are one year I went through Patterson they didn't even have any and um Pake is looking mighty good and I know that was due to the Persistence of you talking about how they were getting discolored missing pieces is so I just wanted to say it is noted and it is appreciated because I'm involved in a lot of things and I do invite a lot of people to this city and for them to comment about it makes me feel good too so thank you for the opportunity to speak thank you m' evening all m 187 Howard Avenue um I'd like to address the city council and the city um on January 16th the city had a major storm recently and um I spoke to the mayor and several people um regarding blocks of ice my entire Street was an ice rink um two people in unfortunately my block was injured thank God they're fine but um I literally had to tiptoe across the street no salt was put down that I remember um and I contacted the DPW the DPW at that time was not um in office uh I know the I'm pretty sure the hours of the ppw is 9 to4 but um is there a emergency line to contact when there is emergencies like in this case um because people contacted um the police department even um to get these so trucks out I contacted them my neighbors contacted them um and I also contacted the city City itself and um nothing has nothing happened I'm and I was very frustrated and there were cars numerous cars getting stuck um that night and I was scared to get it um to get outside that night and thank God I was I was helping out um my neighbors thank you you're welome anyone else like to the council please good evening good evening my name is yose Wolf from 71 Spring Street um I want to ask about resolution 15 tonight um it's an emergency contract it seems for retaining wall um a quarter of a million dollars um at at the end of Acron Street where it kind of meets the properties on Spring Street I want to know if that's if that was bit out or that's an emergency um that's being s that's going without bidding and I want to ask the city when does it become illegal to park commercial vehicles overnight I know that they passed the resolution I wonder when that takes effect and when that officially becomes the law in the city I also wanted to stress that I know that it was I heard over it's not on the record but I heard over that someone approached one of the council members and he said that there have been a lot of robberies of cars and and frakin of cars and they don't feel safe and the member of the council said it would cost a lot of money to bring the the safety up another notch it's the city's pretty safe and to make even safer is going to cost a lot of money to the city and I want wanted to stress that I moved from Clifton to paciic a couple years ago and when I moved the rate of my insurance my car insurance on each of my cars went up a few hundred dollars a year and I imagine that's the same for many or most of the city as well and there's thousands of cars in the city and I think if you do the math a few hundred dollars for everyone's cars maybe $100 maybe it's $300 we're talking about millions of dollars that are possibly I don't know that's enough to make the city safer but moving from Clifton to Bic I'm paying hundreds of dollars more per car per year and I'm just wondering if the savings that the city is is thinks they're having my neighbor's car was broken into a few weeks later my neighbor's car was stolen A pretty new van a 2019 van was stolen in middle of the night from a safe Street and that I know that I'm going to be paying for my neighbor's van through the increase in premiums over the years and that's what I wanted to stress tonight I also wanted to ask that I know that there's been issues with zoom and people talking on Zoom um but the city chain the the council president proposed that maybe people call into the City and they say their name and their phone number beforehand and that was the proposition but the next the next meeting that came out it said that you have to actually submit your statement that was a little bit different than was mentioned and I'm not I don't know if that's I didn't see any resolution happened in the city that changed this format it seemed to have happened behind the scenes but what happened in the city council what was expressed to the lawyer to the attorney of the city was that it should be people should be able to attend on zoom and speak and the reason why I'm asking that is because it's very hard to know when people can speak the public hearing for Citizens tonight looking at my phone the city council meeting starts at 7 it's 9:37 it started around 9:30 if somebody wanted to speak they would have to sit here for two and a half hours not knowing when the public hearing is I think that that's an inconvenience to to accountability in the city I'm also questioning how a council member can attend online but people in the are not able to speak and I wonder if there's another Avenue that can work that there won't be issues like the council president suggested that people can actually say their name and their phone number beforehand and then they can have a chance to speak thank you good de uh let me try to address some of these issues Mr Wolf um the first is the effective date of the ordinance the commercial February 7th February 7th so as of February 7 or February 8th uh that will commercial vehicles will not be allowed to uh to park um except of course if they're going to be getting tickets Council yeah council president I just want to clarify one topic on the ordinance commercial vehicle prohibition has always been in our ordinance this was just to clarify for the police but commercial vehicle prohibition has overnight parking is always been in the city's ordinance long before I was born to the specific question the hours are from 10: to 6 from 10 P.M to 6:00 AM it has always been the case that commercial vehicles cannot park overnight they are allowed from 6:00 AM to 10 pm in the streets in terms of this issue um someone mentioned to me that the only municipality in the state of New Jersey that allowed past tense commercial parking on streets was p and that the other we never allowed it I think there was a confusion in terms of of what was included so some individuals if I may I'll give an example let's say Transportation vehicles that resemble personal vehicle use individuals go that was never an issue 30 years ago well 30 years ago they weren't being used to take students to school or Transportation about 10 or 15 years ago individuals started using Vans to trans for people to airports so municipalities had to addressed that these are commercial use not personal you're getting paid and you've applied for commercial license plate which allows the opportunity for tax writeoffs especially when it comes to gas mileage or any work on the vehicle commercial plates identify you as a commercial vehicle and you are subject to the same laws as Landscaping trucks as tow trucks as Vans and school buses the difference was in the designation because for let's say the yellow school bus you can transport over 20 individuals these particular vehicles their classification was I believe like 16 uh passengers or less the law that was placed before the council or the ordinance was to clarify that this designation is clearly part of the commercial license or commercial uh ordinance so it's always been the same law in the city of p as long and this law is the same in every municipality so it was more that Pake had to clarify what vehicles fall under the commercial ordinance so so Clifton does not make parking available no there's no municipality where you can allow your commercial vehicle uh to park over night you go through the city so there are parking lots where you can rent there are uh initiatives that you can make but the law is the same municipalities from Clifton to Garfield Bergen County commercial vehicles are not freely allowed to park overnight in the streets and I think for the community they understand that if that was not the case taxis uh people's Landscaping trucks would be allowed to take up the parking spaces in residential areas individuals can simply take any vehicle for commercial use and fill up the street with them and there would be no limit to how many can do because you cannot just make it for one and not enforce it for others thank you sir and your second question is in terms of the authority of the council president um the law provides that I have the flexibility as council president to make some of the changes which have been made U councilwoman I'm sorry councilman yeah I just wanted to um touch on Mr Wolf's comment about car Breakin um Mr Wolf I don't know if you're aware but that is one of the greatest phenomenons happened throughout the country um there's there's probably more car break-ins and car thefts in Suburbia than even urban city at this point they they have me mechanisms now where they are um putting up machines and they can start your car without even having the keys they're breaking into houses to take ours you made an interesting point about your insurance went up $10 or $100 a car um when you move from Clifton to pa um I clipton is our neighbor and sister city it's nothing against clipon but I I contest because I looked it up I contest that if you stayed in clion you probably would be paying three $400 more per car because their break-ins car break-ins is up 400% in Clifton from um a year ago so um I'm not sure what council member you're referring to or who to hear say said that but I can assure you this Council as long as I've sat on this city council are are willing to spend the extra dollar to keep our citizens safe and in fact we have done it um but I can tell you thev in particular those who break in cars they don't break in the cars when police are present we do not have the Manpower nor the resour to have a a police officer guarding every community and every car um it's an unfortunate situation it's happened to me I I will admit it um but it's that we don't take lightly but I I doubt I would I would be willing to bet whatever I had which is not much um that there's there's not a council member on this dasis including the mayor Administration would ever make a comment about finances versus keeping our citizens safe so I just wanted to make that clear thank you counsman thank you for the clarity is there anyone else who'd like to just the council please yes ma'am lenda wheeler 17 Vineyard place in Pay just want a clarification when we're talking about commercial vehicles are we talking about the school van vehicles that have the school van license place also and just for clarification purposes the the time is from 10 P.M to 6: a.m that they cannot park and this is effective when it's always I'm sorry through the council president I'm Morten uh in need to remind everyone it's a council meeting not a mayor's meeting so council president if I made the hours because I had the discussion with the uh the police chief the ordinance has been in effect always about commercial vehicles whenever you have a new I guess um approach to the law meaning if the law says I I work better with examples you cannot smoke in a restaurant and then when hookas came out there was that confusion whether that was smoking or not and then the law had to address it it didn't mean that it came up with new laws for smoking they had to explain the classification of hookah that it fell into smoking with that understood similar uh situation occurred with these new Vans because they're being used for transportation so when we presented it before the council in order to have that clarification once they passed it on the ordinance there's a period of I believe 20 days that have to go by so February 7th what's been happening and why there's so much uh I guess Communication online is because everyone's been receiving warnings police have been going out actively giving warnings letting people know you need to place these vehicles either in a lot or an appropriate place but as of February 7th enforcement will occur I have met with a number of individuals who I will share candidly are I rap at the fact that they cannot leave their commercial vehicles in the street however I've explained the parking is at a premium it is unfair to the residents because then there's no limit if you allow for 20 how do you know two months from now it's not 40 60 80 how do you prevent other individuals going I'm going to start my own transportation business you have delivery vehicles you have cars that are used for transportation to hospital to airports we cannot allow these vehicles on the road without allowing every other commercial vehicle so as of February 7th it will be strictly enforced however understanding that there are concerns I know there will be conversations with the council with our attorney with police to find out if there are ways that we can accommodate that will not create a burden to the parking opportunities in residential areas but I I will hold firm to that that we cannot allow these commercial vehicles to park freely on the street because we do not have additional free spaces that aren't being used okay so then I just want to make a comment um with regard to my Street Vineyard place these two School V van vehicles that park there they do have um their own garage which they don't park in the garage as soon as they see a free parking spot they will move that vehicle on the street which take up parking from other residents and I'm on a in street so I'm looking out for my whole block but it takes up the parking from the residence that's on that block because they're being so selfish and not using their garage for those vehicles thank you yes good evening Joe conen 170 Broadway I'm here with a banner at the last meeting I was here I told you about the four banners and the remarks that I got from that from Council president um these banners were put up for our veterans now we're getting the polls ping down God forbid if somebody gets hurt but my point is these are veterans that fought in the wars they did a lot for this country they they uh fought in all kinds of weather the remark was made that we had a storm so that's not important these things are always important every day I'm finding them on the street some people throw them in the garbage there's a lot of them missing um what needs to be done is I keep bringing this up to you encap this fits right on the endcap and I hold the banner on there and won't fall off in in the storm but I don't know how long is it going to take and another thing is what was bothering me was kind of strange that the the uh straps that were on there because they're screw on uh clamps that they're like you could call like a host clamp but they're a little heavier why they coming off I don't know they need somebody to go out and inspect these because somebody is going to get hurt with one of these Falls and it's a shame what's happening with these banners like I said again these are veterans they need to be more respected that's my first question my other question is uez why are you using funds for a uh holiday window decoration storefronts home home yards um since when they're using uez funds for that this is my questions I have in terms of your second question first U has been uh been awarding funds for that very purpose for a number of years purpose of the purpose of U the purpose of uee is to encourage development of business opportunities in the city and that is the rationale behind it their budget is approved by Trenton um as all U budgets are not to give out gift cards I'm sorry sir not to give out gift cards I'm not quite sure whether that is allowed or not allowed but I'm sure you've done your homework they did it council president was pre-approved the application was given to the state promotion that this Administration would do anything that had a breath a hint of of impropriety but on the record the state approved that it was an application request beforehand for the promotion of small businesses during the holidays and they approved it okay thank you sir thank you for the clarity on that anyone else like to address the council please seeing no hands I'm going to close the public portion second motion and second roll call please to close councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilwoman Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes councilwoman col monz yes and council president Sher yes thank you we're under communication ran numeral 8 on our uh agenda are there any questions please on ran numeral 81 and two hearing none at this time is their motion please to accept items one and two so move second Motion in second roll call thank you councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilwoman Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes councilwoman Gom monz yes and council president sh yes thank you all matters listed here under to be considered routine in nature items three through 10 is there a motion are there any questions please on three to 10 s at this time is there a motion please to accept three to 10 second council president I think that's Council yeah one quick question on item number nine yes sir so the there's there's a list of issue tickets and complaints and then there dis numbers of disposed tickets disposed means they were let go or they the tickets were um they were paid or they were um they were they were you know the judge decided that they were not guilty Mr V can you uh it's adjudicated so disposed does not mean that they were dismissed it means that they were dealt with and that could have been a fine it could have been jail time it could have been a multitude of things know was like we had in the month of December there were 3,874 parking tickets issued and there were 4,39 parking tickets that were disposed so obviously there was a carryover they don't won match I guess from the month before but do we know what percentage of parking tickets that are issued that are actually paid and how many are dismissed is there such a figure yes so so yes and I could um actually I mean I don't have the number in front of me but yes and every month at the parking authority meeting we go over the tickets that were issued in the the uh pain payments of those tickets and what the number was so the answer is that something that could be included in this monthly report council president or councilman are you referring to the the revenue or rather the fines the total of the of the monies that are coming in or how many of the tickets because as the ba mentioned one they'll never match up because some are carried over some go on to the next month but in terms of let's say the 4,000 that you're referring to are you speaking of a breakdown of how many are paid how many are dismissed or the total of how many are paid on a monthly bases no know I guess the breakdown really what what what number is this is paid and what number is is uh dismissed again just to get a feel of in the court system you know from the parking tickets that are written are 90% paid or 90% dismissed just get a flavor of of all the efforts on behalf of we can make the requests okay thank you that's all that's thank you again are there any questions on items 3 through 11 3 through 10 please see none is there motion please to accept items 3 to 10 second motion and second roll call please councilman monk yes councilman love yes no no counc love 3 through 10 yes 3 through 10com Melo yes councilman Schwarz yes councilman Garcia yes councilwoman col monz yes and council president Sher yes thank you on number 11 please vote motion please second Motion in second have a second please councilman monk yes councilman love abstain M councilwoman Melo yes councilman schw yes councilman Garcia yes yes Council monz obain and council president Shar yes thank you we're under resolutions please number 12 is a resolution authorizing closed executive session Susie do we need closed executive thank you Mr Fernandez no council president Mr Maris sir not at this time thank you sir members of the council um looking at our other resolutions before us items 13 through 34 are there any questions please on 13 through 34 question on 25 on 25 councilman the when did this contract start is this a renewal on the contract or a contract because the no so this is actually and we're actually I'm glad you brought that up we're very excited about that hopefully I can't see her face but I hope the city clerk is smiling uh because this came at her request this is for the parking permits not just residential but all the parking permits whether that's the commercial parking permits all the the fees for per right it's for all of it to issue the the permits okay um so that it automates the process right now I want to explain to you the process that she goes through to issue these things um quite frankly this is taken from other municipalities that do have it says the term of the contract is from December 2022 through 25 yes that's because it includes the initial setup is the software and then the maintenance of the software through the year so is this a new contract or is this a renew one no this is new this is we don't have this program says the terms of the contract are from December 202 that might have been a Mis print am I missing something um Madam clerk I don't want to miss speak but to me this is a new contract no it's new so so I think it might be a just a date issue item 25 yeah it might be the dates are off because it's a it's a new program okay because there was the contract up from December 1st 22 November 25 with an option for renewal of two additional onee terms through November 27 oh I see so our purchasing director just told me what she was referring to there was the national Co-op the national Co-op contract that allows us to purchase off of it is from 22 to5 but the contract is new for the contract of the software is a new thank you for the clarity any other questions please yeah just on 29 uh councilman mon uh just 20 29 um that additional cost what what was that for the 36,000 so there was a pipe that was found that had to be extracted from the thing that was not originally known at the time so they opened up they found it they had extract the pipe okay thank you yeah council president item 13 resolution awarding contract for automated payroll services are we currently using this company yes and what the the pricing of what's being proposed year is the same as last year or is there an increase and how much of an increase if there is same as last year same price okay great thank you and my last question I have is an item 32 what is this resolution in support of establishing adopting a complete streets policy in the city of uh so this is just a statement it's a policy statement that we support complete streets as uh has presented for this Council and the council's been extremely supportive of it I'll I'll give you an example the Hamilton State Street project that was presented before the council that includes multimodal Transportation so having bike Lanes having uh sidewalk uh items vehicular so it's a it's kind of a the the complete street is a marrying of all those things we've been already doing you know crosswalks 88 ramps you know everything that has to do with a street and the reason they call it complete streets is because you're combining multiple right pedestrian safety for bicycle safety it's a it's like a big buzzword that's been going around for many years called complete Street and complete Street policies and why now so I could tell you one of the mayor's directives is we're gonna win the gold so part of part of additional funding so we were we were granted uh silver for us to get the gold we can't get the gold unless we support the policy and hence why the resolution is here which adds additional funding mayor did I yes like most recently on Spring and Brook you will noticed that we added Ada ramps and crosswalks I had shared in the last public meeting that came a result as a Young Man Yakov has stopped me walking my dog and said we need a crosswalks on Brooklyn spring but we've been doing that around the city identifying areas and whether it's av8 compliant curb Cuts whether it's putting the lights in some of the signs the stop signs with the solar panels whether it's bike Lanes it's a sort of this holistic approach of stating that we need to create pedestrian safety uh traffic flow according to the studies make sure that we're providing opportunities for those who choose to use bikes instead of vehicles and then when this gets assessed maybe not as important as the funding but we get the designation of gold and we get we get to come to the council and say we are now designated as a gold complete Street City and if I may add if you're picturing a complete Street the best example I can give you is the the Main Avenue redesign if you look at our Main Avenue redesign that is the poster child for a complete Street any other questions members of the council Please be aware the item is number number 33 and 34 were discussed earlier in terms of Green Acres uh funding for the uh for the part proposal are there any other questions please on 13 through 34 s at this time is there motion please to accept 13 through 34 so motion and second roll call please councilman mon yes councilman love yes Council Melo yes councilman yes Garcia yes Council monz yes and council president sh yes thank you we are up to ordinances for introduction and first reading number 35 opposed ordinance amending the designation of restricted parking for disabled persons by New Jersey license plate number is there a motion please to sit down for second and final reading at our meeting of February 6 motion and second roll call please councilman monk yes councilman love yes yes councilwoman Melo yes Council yes Council Garcia yes councilwoman monz yes council president share yes thank you payment of bills please are there any questions on the bills seeing known at this time is there a motion please to accept the bills motion and second roll call please councilman mon yes councilman love yes councilwoman Melo yes Council schw yes councilman Garcia yes Council monz yeah council president sh yes thank you administrator's report Mr Fernandez none of this time sir I just a note to you personally Mr Fernandez and of course to the mayor and your staff um on a tremendous job on the uh presentation today Mr Mayor just very quickly because this came up in terms of recent storms through the blue Acres Program homeowners have the option to voluntarily sell their flood prone homes to the njd providing a path for recovery and minimizing hazards blue Acres offers fair market value and evaluates participants for supplemental Assistance or incentives homeowners can reach out to Brian Catu Brian Catu at 60995 4982 once again Brian catch you at 69954 982 I remind our community that uh we are taking applications for eighth graders and high school students to apply to become part of our Pake youth Council and then if I may add just very quickly council president I know it's come up a couple times in our meetings we have over 200 veteran banners over 200 veteran banners on May naav recently we had a number four that came down which means uh over 200 have weathered storms winds and have stayed there storms have brought down trees trees strong trees we expected some are going to fall but I just want to give perspective that we've put up well over 200 veteran signs this is a city driven initiative it didn't come at a request and Veterans have been ecstatic families have been very appreciative but again I believe that at one time we had a number four and at the highest about uh less than 10 but DPW gets on it we appreciate every resident if they find one much like if there's a storm and they find branches on the road the trees we cannot account for mother nature when forces are strong but we can respond and we thank everyone who assists us but I want to get perspective over 200 that are still up and have remained up since we put them up which is a testament to the dpw's hard work in terms of making sure that they put them up appropriately thank you thank you mayor I believe our agenda is done is there a motion please to Some Mo it second motion and second toour councilman monk yes councilman love yes councilman Melo yes councilman schw yes councilman Garcia yes yes Council yes and council president sh yes thank you very much and thank you ladies and gentlemen