##VIDEO ID:xaj_oI6Cvug## [Music] Mr Garcia Mr Garcia on your call Madam president Trenton city council meeting October 3rd 5:30 p.m. this meeting is officially called to order let us stand for the flags loop I Justice [Music] for adequate notice of this meeting has been given in accordance with the open public meetings act pursuant to public laws 1975 chapter 231 this agenda is complete to the extent known and was sent to the Trenton Times to Trentonian newspapers posted on the first floor bulletin board in City Hall filed in the city clerk's office and posted on the city of Trenton website formal action will be taken Mr Garcia certainly roll call councilwoman Edwards pres vice president Figo kenberg pres councilwoman frisbee present councilwoman Gonzalez pres councilman Harrison councilwoman Williams pres be presented council president presid Feliciano pres myself Brandon Garcia cler present Mr Ki legislative councel and in for Mr West Bridges is Palmer Richardson thank you and Madam president if you'd like at this time I can read the invocation yes almighty God who holds the fate of man and Nation we most humbly beseech thee to bless this our city these deliberations and these thy servants that they may act with wisdom and understanding for the good of our community and thy greater glory amen amen and Madam president as I understand it is your wish to go into executive session yes may have a motion to go into executive session so moved second roll call councilwoman Edwards yes vice president Figo kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Gonzalez yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Fel councilman Harrison to go into executive session thank you council president Feliciano yes motion carried thank you uh we shall go into executive session to the public uh as I understand that we do anticipate votes coming out of executive session this evening thank you yes and if a a message could be put up on the monitor for the those watching Zoom that we are in executive session it would be appreciated thank you for and I didn't need a minut can I have a motion to come out of executive session please second roll call councilwoman Edwards yes vice president Figo kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Gonzalez councilwoman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Bano you carried Madame President moving on with the agenda at this time uh we've reached a point of public comment we can have the public comment clipboard please and well we sign second seven and Madam Madam president it appears we have eight people listed for public comment uh for that matter public comment will be 5 minutes long in for each individual you may address any item that you wish please understand the council is not obligated to respond our first individual for public comment this evening will be Lawrence white oh in addition please state your name and address for the record when you approach the microphone and please press the red button or the black button to turn the thank you yes ma'am thanks good evening council members and City professionals my name is Lawrence swi I reside at 15 renway in h New Jersey and I'm here this evening on behalf of voter Choice New Jersey which is bringing rank Choice voting to the Garden State so I got involved with this effort four years ago because it's a fundamental election reform that will allow us to have better elections than we're experiencing today and I'll explain briefly why first of all another name for RCV is instant runoff election each election guarantees a majority winner for every candidate race and the way that that happens is is that you get to rank your choices on the ballot and say you have five candidates running for mayor you get to rank them in your order of preference can rank one you can rank some or you can rank all the candidates and then when the votes are tallied you count everybody's First Choice votes if no one wins a majority then the person who got the least amount of votes of the five candidates is eliminated from the race but the people that voted for them are not because their second or third choice votes are then repopulated into the remaining candidates and that process continues until you have a majority winner the system guarantees a majority winner in every election and that's why we have bills in the state legislature right now that will allow permissive use of rank Choice voting for local and School Board elections because we have right now the only way you can run an election in the state of New Jersey is for a plurality winner so these bills will allow us to expand those options so that we can Institute rank Choice voting for local and Schoolboard elections and we'll have a better way to vote now I will say finally that this is new to us but Ireland and Australia have been using this system for over a century and they're standing democracies of some vibrancy so I think they got it figured out all we have to do is jump on the wagon and join them that's all I'm going to say because there'll be others after me who will give you more insight thank you for your [Music] time how T Hamilton Jr uh it is my understanding that councilwoman frisbee is in the process of reposing an ordinance to Institute ranked choice or instant runoff voting in this city as an inhabitant of Trenton and indeed of Sir if you would please state your name and address for the record sorry Hal Hamilton Jr 415 Clearfield Avenue Trenton as an inhabitant of Trenton and indeed of council when Frisbee's own West Ward I would like to express my support for that system of voting unlike the standard simple majority or first pass the post method it eliminates the need for separate runoff elections such as the city has experienced recently and allows each voter to vote his conscience in an election that has more than two candidates without wasting his Vote or being accused of spoiling the election I hope that the system will be implemented ran is that bellaa understood Renee [Music] steinhagen good evening everyone and thank you for allowing us this public comment my name is Renee s t n h a g en I'm a resident of Jersey City 77 Hudson 1405 the executive director of New Jersey apped public interest Law Center which is supporting um and helping to organize voter Choice New Jersey in promoting rank Choice voting um other people will be talking about the benefits of rank Choice voting from the perspective of the voter and also from the perspective of candidates in terms of ensuring that when you get elected you're elected with over50 50% of the support of your residents um a I think it's a4042 and S1 1622 um are the bills that we're promoting and they would enable municipalities to adopt rank Choice voting this is not a mandate this is not anything coming from on top the bill is only an enabling bill you're a locality you're a function of state law and you can only do what state law allows you to do so the bill specifically is enabling it is only regarding um Municipal elections and Schoolboard elections it is not involving the primary okay if you have primaries um my understanding is that you're a non partisan uh municipality and you have runoffs so as Larry has explained one we obviate the need to have runoffs when you use rank Choice voting which saves quite a bit of resources it also addresses the low participation that often happens in the runoff the bill also has a very unique feature it requires the approval of the voters and the reason it has that is because we want the voters to decide that they want to use rang Choice voting we don't want this to be imposed so we are going around to municipalities and asking for their support to in send a message to the state legislature that you as the a city council supports offering the right to use rank Choice voting to your members right now we have resolutions or what we call trigger ordinances from Hoboken Jersey City Red Bank Princeton which is also in Mercer County and South Orange Maplewood and Montclair so we're really looking forward to see if we can get your support and then get your state legislator's support to enable Trenton to offer its citizens the right to use rank Choice voting thank you [Music] Veronica auma thank you good evening Council my name is Veronica azua AK AE zuu wa I live at 48 popper Street in Jersey City New Jersey and I too am here tonight to speak about rank Choice voting uh I am also a member of voter Choice New Jersey which is a nonprofit nonpartisan organization dedicated to rank Choice voting education and advocacy uh rank Choice voting is is not an effort I want to just call this out it's not an effort that helps any one political party it doesn't necessarily help Democrats or Republicans it does not play into a partisan divide it's really about electing the candidate that has the most support from the voters and because rank Choice voting rank Choice voting empowers voters a lot of people like this a lot of young people like this a lot of young people who have been disillusioned or disengaged from local government or politics are really seeing the benefit of rank Choice voting people can vote uh they true uh preferences uh without a fear of wasting their vote on a candidate who they like but they don't think can win for whatever reason so rank Choice voting uh allows people to vote uh their true heart uh rank Choice voting also levels the playing field for candidates uh often when you have elections with more than two people running a third candidate is a threat in throwing their hat in the ring because of the fear of vote splitting taking votes away from one of the other two candidates and because of a lot of people who are not participating in elections and in New Jersey a lot there are uncontested elections and that too um is not good for a healthy democracy we want people to run um and we want voters to come out um and express themselves uh some of my colleagues have talked about uh the benefits of the instant runoff uh feature which means that governments don't have to they can save uh taxpayer dollars by not having a second election which costs millions of dollars for very low return on investment you have very few people who come out to that SEC second election and then just a small number of people are making a decision ultimately who is going to lead um in that jurisdiction uh another big benefit of rank Choice voting is that it reduces negative uh campaigning um candidates are incentivized to build Bridges or to um align with other candidates instead of disparaging their candidate why because these people want to earn earn the second choice second preference votes from constituents so it's no longer a winning strategy uh to tear down your opponents and there's a lot of data on this because rank Choice voting isn't some new idea uh rank Choice voting has been adopted or implemented in over 60 uh cities in the US it's used in Maine it's used in Alaska uh some of those cities are San Francisco New York um there are a number in Utah uh in Vermont uh and so this is really uh A system that is gaining momentum and traction I also wanted to mention uh that uh Senator Shirley Turner um who represents this District uh is a sponsor of the state legislation of the state Bill she is firmly behind rank Choice voting um and we hope that uh the state's capital can also get behind rank Choice voting uh part of the work we do is not only coming out to Council meetings um or working uh with organizations um to build awareness around ranked Choice voting we also hold voter education workshops we do rank the beer at a local bar or restaurant we do rank the sandwiches we do rank the ice cream we go to university and we engage with the young people and teach them about rank Choice voting uh if I may I'll use my 5 seconds left to pass out some information may I approach yeah certainly okay we have our next individual for public comment is is that Vern Walker Vernon Walker good evening everyone uh my name is Vernon Walker and I'm currently uh residing at 84 Paramount Avenue here in Trenton and I'm a relatively new Resident actually just been here for 2 days and relocated from the wonderful city of kingbridge Massachusetts and the reason I bring up kingbridge Massachusetts is because kingbridge is a city that has proportional representation or rank Choice voting it has had rank Choice voting since 1940 and essentially what we have seen in kambridge is that there is a uh diverse representation of elected official and I'm so uh I'm elephant happy and hippopotamus glad to see that there is a diverse representation here at this city council uh representing this uh wonderful city of Trenton uh and during my time in Massachusetts I worked on the uh ballot campaign in 2020 uh which of Voters which ultimately didn't pass but in some cities and towns in Massachusetts we have ranked Choice building and the reason that we have rank Choice building and the reason that I'm to support this effort uh and I'm glad you all are having uh this hearing dedicated to understanding the importance of rank Choice voting is because we know that rank Choice voting will lower the toxicity in our politics certainly we see even on the national scene that there is a lot of mudslinging and toxicity uh in the presidential election and in many of the different uh us elections across the country and it really does not serve our democracy well uh and I think the fundamental change that we need to address those issues toxicity is rank Choice voting I've seen it in kingbridge where C Cates work together uh that have similar values and similar ideological positions and realize that I may not be your voter's number one choice but I can fight to be your vote your your voter's number the voter's number two Choice uh and I simply simply put that's one reason I think that this great City should adopt rank Choice voting another reason that I think that this city should adopt rank Choice voting is because of of diversity we know that during the preliminaries when we have this first pass the post system it's easy for voters to get tuned out and turned off because one of the reasons is because they may not feel like they vote counts or matters well rank Choice voting would address that and would deal at the heart of the matter to and indicate to voters that every yes your voice matters and your boote counts uh so we know that rank Choice voting will ensure that there are no throwaway boats another reason why I'm supportive of rank choice boting in general is because we've heard it mentioned uh by one one of my colleagues here that the city that cities can save substantial money by dropping the preliminary we also know that uh there's a real concern of Boat Boat splitting uh boat splitting will go away when voters can rank their back their backup choices we also know that rank Choice voting as we alluded to a little bit earlier uh that it encourages candidates to run more positive campaigns uh because we have far for so for so long have seen the toxicity in many many different elections and simply put we know that the state of Maine and alas York City uh in fact there's a hearing next week in the city of Boston uh we know that this around rank Choice voting and we know that this is a growing movement and there's an appetite for rank Choice voting to to be implemented across uh in many different cities and in many different towns and I think this is a great opportunity for this city uh there's a there's a saying on this on the bridge here that Trenton makes the world takes well I think this is a great opportunity for for you all for this city to be a Shining Light a city a sit on the hill a shining star if you will and I know that rank Choice voting is passed in a few different cities here in m in in New Jersey uh New Jersey City H broken H broken I think that's how you say it but any rate I'm going to close with this that I think it's is a great opportunity to fundamentally change not only representation but fundamentally change the engagement of Voters and historically we've seen across this nation how vot preliminaries are low usually have lower vote turnout well I think R rank Choice can be to Panacea for that and want to thank you all and thanks again cania Torres good evening mayor council members and fellow Trenton residents my name is Candia Torres I stand before you today to address a pressing issue that has plagued our city for far too long the rampant sale of properties to landlords who often neglect their responsibilities in just one week September 23rd to September 29th about a staggering 57 homes were sold in Trenton while this may seem like a positive sign I cannot help but question the standards being upheld by these landlords are we truly benefiting from the influx of new Property Owners how many of these homes were purchased by firsttime buyers eager to build a future in our city or were they acquired by real estate companies with a history of neglecting their properties if the latter is true why are we allowing these landlords to continue purchasing homes while failing to meet basic standards of Maintenance and occupancy while we have an opportunity to trans transform our city to create a thriving Community where everyone can feel safe and secure yet we continue to allow substandard housing to persist why are we not knocking on doors offering classes to help residents invest in the abandoned homes that litter our streets with millions of dollars in grant money why are we so afraid to empower our residents to take ownership of their neighborhoods some may argue that residents should be more involved in these matters and meetings I agree but also I cannot ignore the Deep seated mistrust that exists between many residents in our city government the resell properties raises serious concerns about the city's priorities and its commitment to the well-being of its citizens we cannot afford to ignore the consequences of this neglect are alarmingly high and the decline of our housing stock only intensifies these challenges broken homes violence drug addiction and homelessness are all symptoms of a deeper problem a few weeks ago we gathered to celebrate the legacy of Mayor Doug Palmer his 20-year tenure was marked by challenges and triumphs but he never wavered in his commitment to Trenton today however that torch torch seems to have been dropped we need a leader who will pick it up and continue the journey toward a right future it is time for us to demand accountability for our landlords to invest our neighborhoods and to rebuild the trust between our city government and its residents let us work together to create a Trenton where everyone feels safe value and Empower Miss Torres Miss Torres could you give us your address please into the mic Hy so it could be on record thank you 239 Highland Avenue thank you Howard Cook good evening my name is Howard Cook I live at 36 North East Field Avenue in the west W I'm here to inform the council that I lived in tritan all my life and I work for the city at various places but the other day I was going through the park at West Trenton and I had an altercation with one of the park rangers and it escalated where it shouldn't have went uh he tried to make a left turn without putting his blinker on and I went around him and and then he swung in to make the left turn and almost hit me so I told him I said he told me watch learn how to drive MF I said whoa bro who you talking to and then it just escalated and kept going to your mother this your daddy and suck all kinds of unnecessary thing so I told him I said look you're a you work for the city you a Public Employee my taxes pay your salary I shouldn't have to you shouldn't talk to me like that or any person and you're in a public uh position and he just went on and on so I asked for a supervisor there's no supervisor available in the Park after 5:30 so I I was his uh coworker wouldn't give me his name so I was told to come to the council meeting I'm not saying that I want anything severe but he should learn how or be trained how to approach the public because he's in the public figure because like I said I worked in on the Bridge Commission on the uh uh uh Delaware Bridge Commission and I know sometime people do get you fusted but you got to learn to swallow that take it in take it in the uh your own private entity and then cuss me out you know so I you know I just wanted the councel to know that I didn't appreciate and like I said I he should like I said learn how to post the public that's all thank you madam president as all the indiv idual I have for public comment listed at this time if it's your wish you can start with any council person for civic comment thank you councilwoman Williams I have no comment tonight thank you okay councilman Harrison I have no comment either thank you okay councilwoman Gonzalez good evening everyone thank you for being present um just a really quick uh things everyone that spoke today thank you so much for being here and speaking um to Mr cook um I am sad to hear that that occurred to you um as you said no one should be treated that way at all and hopefully I see someone over there talking to you so hopefully that we can um get that taken care of not taken care of but just more so of more training um because we don't want I know for all of us we don't want to be spoken to in such a manner so I would hope that none of our employees are doing the same thing so thank you for speaking up and apologizing that you had to go through that experience um just a quick couple of announcements um October 12th is Trent Heights homecoming we will be doing an unveiling for Sharon Grady renaming the athletic complex after her so if you are free to come out please join us at 10:30 a.m. at Trenton High's parking lot also this Saturday at Mount Zion we will be having a voting machine demonstration for anyone who would like to um make sure you properly know how to cast your ballots in this upcoming election um we will have handson training and experience um if you'd like to show up at Mount Zion this Saturday from 11: am to 1 pm again thank you for all for being here this evening have a good night thank you good evening council president thank you um I was hoping Mr cook was going to stick around um but so I'll start with the rank Choice voting I want to thank all of those who came out especially Mr Hal Hamilton I want to thank you a representative for the city uh rank Choice voting is something that if we had had it in play uh two years ago we would have been saved from the days the weeks the hours the months that uh we had to endure the financial situations that it took out of so many pockets um during uh our election so I'm hoping that um we'll be able to present this at our next meeting and um we can move together in this uh so again thank you and thank you to uh Larry and all the others that came out this evening I wanted to also speak to um Miss Torres I'm sorry for your experience that you um had and I am hopeful we we are trying hard to change what how city has been doing things over the years um we are very aware that there are folks who come into our community and they want to do nothing but buy up our property but they are not looking to enhance it we are looking to change that so that the um people the res of this city actually get to invest in their city and we want more homeowners than we want renters so we are moving in that direction we are aware of it and we are doing our best to change that it is going to take a little bit of time though be um please know that we are um aware of that and we are doing our best to get that taken care of so thank you for coming and um talking about that this evening um again even though Mr cook is not here I just want to say I am sorry that he had that experience no one deserves to be dises respected like that and we anyone when you're in office when you're in your uniform be it mentally or you you're wearing a uniform when you're in uniform when you're in your place of business you lose the right immediately to be disrespectful to anyone if you're home and you're doing whatever you shouldn't be disrespectful then either but if you are in if you're in your place of business your job is to be professional even if the people in front of you are not professional so I'm sorry to Mr cook who had that experience I wish he had stayed and um I wanted to get more information from him on that I neglected to say on this past Tuesday I want to just thank all of my colleagues again for helping um being in um solidarity and passing the Doug Palmer resolution um I'm so excited about that and I'm grateful for everyone's support um the hundreds of people who came out and just how that just went through seamlessly uh with that said I had think that I am done I'm going to read a portion of the city's mission statement which is recognized oh no one other thing this Tuesday October 8th at 5:30 I will be having my westw community conversations at 5:30 um so and that is at the um police station on artisan and Hermitage at that corner so please come out if you are available there's a lot of information that is going to be coming out and it is voting season it is the time to vote I see a lot of young faces in the audience tonight hello to all of you I hope all of you have registered to vote if you are 17 years of age I love it all thumbs up that you are registered to vote I applaud you if you know of anyone who has not October 15th is the last day to register please tell somebody drag them to over there talk to nj.gov may make sure that they register but please we want to make sure everybody comes out and November 5th November 5th did I say it November 5th November 5th we need you to come out and we need you to take like five more of you with you and I want your voices to be heard your voices that's your power don't ever give up your power don't sit down on don't sleep on it don't say I'll get it to you next time every time you vote it's registered people know your voting reg record whether we know it or not it's public record if you don't know it now you do every time you vote it is it is documented and anybody can look that up who you vote for that's not documented we don't that's not public but who when you if you vote that is documented so please vote please vote please vote please register somebody else to vote and I'm running out of my time so oh I say please vote October 15th is the last time to register our City's mission statement portion is recognizing that the people of Trenton have made us Guardians of the public trust we're committed to governed with integrity and fiscal responsibility to seek excellence in the city's operations and to serve all the city's people with respect and compassion thank you all for coming out and have a great evening thank you councilwoman councilwoman Edwards good evening everyone I just want to first start my comments off on uh some of the public comments that were made today regarding rank Choice voting um this is something that is new to me as of like a year ago um there was a political Guru I like to label him as James G who talked to me about this about a year ago but very few municipalities have it in the country less than 50 out of over 19,000 so little information to research but I'm doing my due diligence because Council women frisbe did bring this to my attention to ask for you know our support and due diligence to do our research so I am also doing that but I hope that you know in our talks that we're communicating to the County Board of Elections and some of our local um how can I say political organizations to see how they feel about it they get a consensus of troni so I do want to engage more with our res to see how everyone feels and do my due diligence to do my research to learn more about it um I want to say that uh councilwoman Olympia from Lawrence Township is hosting a rally to support Haitians against some of the anti-semetic remarks that were made by um former president Trump and and about eating the cat and dogs this will be happening this Sunday at the Tron war memorial from 2: to 400 p.m. and I believe this is with assembly assemblyman herb herb I can't remember how he is running for um Andy Kim Congressman inim seat right now so uh if you have time this Sunday to come out to support the unite with Haitian event the stop the hate Rally from 2: pm to 4 P.M with councilman from East Orange Bergen I can't pronounce that I'm sorry thank you and um thank you Council woman FR um homeownership there is uh something that the city is working on right now that the mayor and our interum uh H director Arch listen had mentioned to us several times about um the hopes of design and getting the support to designate the as a rehabilitation Zone and what this does is it allows uh more opportunities for Trenton residents to partake in purchasing home ownership um property I'm sorry City owned properties for home ownership purposes not investment purposes even though we can't restrict our property sales specifically for our Trenton residents but this Rehabilitation designation would allow them to fairly be able to compete against investors who are coming in and turning a lot of our properties into rental properties so to help with home ownership I I would strongly encourage that we move forward with designating the city as a rehabilitation zone so that Trenton residents can participate in our economy and and be protected against price gouging with um our rental rates that we're seeing here even though we just recently amended our chapter 222 to cap rental rates but there isn't a New Jersey law that protects that so our city ordinance is going to do is due diligence and we're doing the best we can to get that information out there to protect our renters from being price gouged and out price of our community um so I just wanted to speak on that a little bit about home ownership and some of the things that we're actively doing and um lastly of course um Eon wi the sentiments of councilwoman frisbee register to vote I want to go deeper into that because um we have a habit of only voting in presidential elections and if that's the only time you're voting is every four years chances are your voter status will be put to inactive and sometimes you will go to the polls and you won't show up in the register to be able to vote because you are considered an active voter so there is a tool online that you can go to Simply Google check my voter registration status in New Jersey and you can look up your voter um your voter information to see where you're registered at you may have moved you can change all of that online not just register to vote but check your voter status to make sure it's up to date so when you show up at the polls either doing early voting from October 26 to November 3rd or on Election Day November 5th you won't have any problems thank you and have a good evening thank you Council vice president Figaroa cber thank you CP good evening everybody um just a couple of quick comments um first of all like I I believe in wholly giving people credit where it's due um the city of Trenton you know we they they take a salary to do um jobs within the city um but sometimes they go above and beyond and when they get things in I just want to make sure I'm recognizing them I just want to thank the city of Trenton for getting the the no parking yellow lines in front of engine 3 to on South Broad Street the fire department that was very important and something that the firefighters have been asking for for some time and I also want to thank city of Trenton for getting the lines put out in front of South stokeley Avenue again we have elders and um differently challenged in that building and people don't block where the ramp is there so I want to thank the city chart for getting those things done and also um there was a pole on the corner of um Leo alley in Cedar Lane there was two poles one was leaning over and there was a bunch of wires hanging and that had been like that for about two years and I just want to thank psng and Verizon for finally getting those things done um it did take a phone call personally to Verizon but they did come out the very next day and they have gotten the job done so I really want to say kudos to some of the work that's being done and that's that's in part to some of the relationships that we are um having with different individuals who can get these jobs done you know in in a beneficial manner for our residents which is what's so important um so kudos to them um also I wanted to I wanted to kind of touch on the rank Choice voting um I I definitely want to educate myself more on it I think that it where it can be a really great idea and where runoff elections are tedious and um they are Financial draining and nobody wants to have to go through a runoff I do think that with some of the lack of voter education that we already have it's going to take a lot of education for voters moving forward to kind of understand this concept especially when you have people on a ballot who are in an order like one underneath the other and you're asking them to rank first second third fourth choice some people can just be confused and just kind of Mark the the top three four people that they want or whatever just in any order not realizing you know you know that they're supposed to be ranking in order that they want this person to be elected so I think um definitely needs a lot more education moving forward um especially in a city like Trenton with low V voter turnouts so um but I'm definitely curious to hear more about that and thank you for those who presented that um this evening um other than that uh Miss Torres I did want to address you thank you for bringing that to our attention I too agree that a lot of these properties or these properties don't need to keep being accumulated by llc's who are just going to rent them out and be slum Lords I am all for um taxes being collected in the city yes but I do want strong investments in the community um and I want our City's Futures to be encouraged and I do want more people within the city who have invested in the city already that are not already homeowners I want them that to be educated and versed on opportunities to purchase and invest in themselves and the city so thank you for bringing that forward and I do agree um you know llc's are purchasing way too many properties and they're not caring for their properties appropriately not held to the same standard because a lot of the their actions are unidentifiable sometimes so thank you so much for that um other than that um yes homecoming is coming up next Saturday if you are tchs alumni please contact me or just show up for the parade on that date um next Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and fall in line for the parade uh I will be there representing the Alumni Association but also class of 99 and anybody else wants to come I encourage you to do so and on October 16th um I'm hosting a resource Fair along with the city of Trenton and the county of mercer at mck school from 6:00 to 8:00 pm um which would be great there'd be a lot of information to be had um so I encourage people to come out and um get those resources that are available um and a lot of them mean money in your pocket um you know a lot of resour are not known to us that exist um with that being said thank you all again for coming out and have a wonderful evening thank you good evening everyone thank you for coming out tonight thank you to everyone who has spoken I believe that my Council colleagues have adequately addressed everything that everyone had said that being said I am finished Mr Garcia let us continue certainly mam president moving on to Old business we've reached a point uh if you want to ask for a motion to approve Communications and petitions yes we have a motion to yeah I have a motion to approve Communications and petitions so move second noted roll call councilwoman Edwards yes vice president Figo kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes counc councilwoman Gonzalez councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams council president Feliciano motion carried and moving on Madame President we have an ordinance for second reading ordinance 24- 063 ordinance amending and supplementing chapter 14 of the code of the city of Trenton traffic oneway Street as it applies to Gerard Avenue and Avenue are there any members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time go right ahead ma'am state your name and address for the record you will have five minutes to hello address hello Council I won't be five minutes I won't be long cherelle Snider 410 North Olden Avenue um and I'm also a community organizer with the East Tron collaborative so on this ordinance I just want to start with a story of a little girl that I was walking to school one day and once I get there principal is out there um principal perer and Freddy alberon who's the school liaison and as I'm standing there the traffic is crazy we have parents coming in flipping the bird to other parents um and it's a two-way street and it was terrible so the principal said that he tried to get help with the city of Trenton to no avail so East Trenton collaborative gets involved with the help of the city of Trenton we were told that we needed to get a petition um and get people's signatures from these streets hton and Gerard Avenue to make one way and to also have speed bumps so myself and my colleagues we did that we got the petition signed we handed them in and today we are here but I just want to say that the principal was really adamant about doing something in front of darling C mcnight I remember one day he calls to the office Sherelle it's crazy over here one of my students just got hit um and this is an elementary school I mean um I don't know if it's intermediate or Elementary but one of the students got ahead and because of this we are trying to make it safe in that neighborhood and we also have other residents here may I stand that's in favor of this as well and I just want to say one other thing October 12th Trenton's second annual Le awareness day and community barbecue thank you are there any members of the public do wish to speak to the sword and set this time my name is Faith Anne Pearson I moved into the neighborhood around 2011 and I saw this happening I've been pushing and pushing since 2015 when we had a a meeting with the uh mayor at a mayor's Forum at the East Tron collaborative I'm also on on a lot of others by the way I'm sorry I live at 83 clag Avenue um I have been trying to push to have the one-way street so the school buses would open up their doors on the side of the street where the sidewalk is closest to the school that's why Gerard needs to be from Courtland Avenue to St Joe's and hton from St Joe's towards courland because the school is in between between the two this way the children will get off and get right onto the sidewalk and straight in having them one way you have it's only a 50 foot Street you have 15 feet on one side 15 feet on the other side you do not have 25 feet in between in order for two cars to come across so you have one pulling over waiting and like the lady said there's people screaming and bl blowing horns I think this ordinance is fair fantastic now and now we will push to try to see if we can't get speed bumps also to also incre uh decrease the speed and allow for more slowing and more safety for our children thank you are there any other members of the public that wish to speak to this ordinance at this time seeing none Madam president if you want to ask for a motion to approve may have a motion to approve so move second roll call councilwoman Edwards yes vice president figuro kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Gonzalez councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Feliciano yes motion carried and Madame President if you want to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda this evening motion to approve the consent agenda so move second roll call councilwoman Edwards yes vice president figuro kber yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Gonzalez yes councilman Harrison yes Williams yes council president Feliciano yes motion carried and moving to resolution 24- 421 resolution authorizing settlement of a civil action in the matter of Pamela Bush Allen versus city of Trenton and a total amount of $100,000 may have a motion to approve so moved second roll [Music] call councilwoman Edwards yes vice president Figo kenberg yes councilwoman frisbe yes councilwoman Gonzalez yes councilwoman Harris yes councilwoman Williams yes council president Feliciano yes motion carried resolution 422 excuse me resolution 24- 422 resolution authorizing settlement in civil action in the matter of Shonda Williams versus city of Trenton in the amount of $50,000 so moved roll call councilwoman Edwards noted vice president Figaro kenberg councilwoman frisbe yes councilwoman Gonzalez councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams council president Feliciano motion carried uh coun excuse me resolution 24423 resolution authorizing settlement of a civil action in the matter of Patricia Peters versus city of Trenton in a total amount of $75,000 roll call councilwoman Edwards yes vice president Figo kenberg yes councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Gonzalez councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams house president Feliciano yes motion carried and Madam President we have an ordinance for first reading and introduction ordinance 24- 064 ordin sorry understood and I see it was included on the consent agenda it was only pushed until Thursday yep yep we got it um I can always ask that though Madame President we have resolution 417 which was revised um is that an item that you wish to roll call it was included on the consent agenda thank you ordinance 24- 064 ordinance amending Trenton city code section 2- 23d relating to powers and duties of the City attorney and Madam president if you want to ask for a motion to approve that ordinance I'm saying it at the same time may have a motion to approve so moved second roll call called councilwoman Edwards yes vice president Figo kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Gonzalez yes councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams yes counc president Feliciano yes motion carried and Madame President I believe those are all the items that I have on this docket if it is your wish you can ask for a motion to adjourn ma have a motion to adjourn so moved roll call councilwoman Edwards vice president Figo kenberg councilwoman frisbee yes councilwoman Gonzalez councilman Harrison yes councilwoman Williams council president Feliciano yes motion Carri good night