Council - Regular Meeting

Do. It's a little weird though to look at you guys now without the glass, but it's a nice look, something different. You know, it's really hard because the person was banned from not speaking here anymore, and it just realized that I don't think you guys realized. People didn't just run to just run against you. Your constituents are suffering, and I don't think we understand the urgency of what's been going on in this community.

People come up here with their concerns, but yet we're not getting the responses. And I wanna ask going forward because someone stated to me, well, since you lost, are you gonna work with folks? I've been trying to work with folks and make suggestions. I just don't come up here with just things that I wanna talk about. And for those who are parked in the front, 08:00, they're giving out tickets, so make sure you move because you guys put in these special events in place, which I don't understand.

Why? Because many people can't afford to park in the parking lots, but yet they wait till 06:00 because we still have four to six towing, which I still don't understand why that has been a rule and it's still a rule when businesses are trying to get money. But yet, everybody's getting ticketed and towed from four to six. That's a very prime time. So I would ask if we go forward to look into why is that a rule, and why is it still in effect.

And then after 06:00, we have till 12:00 the special events when you don't tell people. So people like myself who come to the meetings and have nowhere else to park are getting tickets. So then when you get a ticket and you don't report it right away or it's fast track to hurry up and suspend you, you know how much you just paid to talk up here for two minutes? But I just ask you to start looking into things that will help benefit because you already raised the tickets to $85, and it's like, why? That's hurting the constituent.

You know, how is that benefiting? I know we need to bring money in, but can we find other ways? You know, people don't understand that now we have good debt going on, but when all these people talked about the debt before, I never heard of good debt, but that's a new term. I want us to go forward to maybe start having real conversations and making real solutions. We can't do it in the five minutes.

We need to have real town hall meetings where you come and talk to the constituents with their ideas, not your prepared agenda. But if you don't engage with us, how do you expect to lead us? Yes. You got back in, but do you realize how many people spoke up about their concerns? But yet, no one's following up with us. People are taking out time to come here to say something to you. But what are we gonna do? How are we gonna resolve it? I get it. You have the position, but we still had a power too.

So I wanna remind folks, yes, this election was different. I wanna thank Youngblood for coming out because you brought the spark. We didn't lose. We just didn't get in at this moment. Your mayor before this, he went he keeps saying twelve, but it's like sixteen. But I just wanna say this, we need to work together in order to get things done. Yes. You have the position, but yet you're not engaging with us to go forward. If you want North to really move forward, start talking to the people and start finding out why we're bringing these concerns. We're not just here to be complaining because I would like to know how do you put a landlord on the slum list because my door been illegally locked since March.

But what I'm gonna say again, illegally locked out since March. I'm not gonna put on blast who knew about it, but it's not resolved. And we supposed to have a meeting next month in June, but that's not on the books. I wanna thank you. Have a good evening.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Darnella Lee.

I do not see miss Lee.

Marilyn Sowell. Marilyn

Sowell appearing. Hello.

I'm Marilyn Sowell, Newark resident my entire life. I'm here today because I feel I wasn't clear at the prior meeting. I'm in a horrifying situation that threatens the welfare of my family and I.

I'm sorry, miss Old. Before you continue, can you pull the mic down a little bit so we can really hear you?

Okay.

Thank you.

I'm in a a horrifying situation that threatens the welfare of my family and I. This situation will create serious problems for everyone, everyone's future if this is not rectified immediately. Last year, North Airport air towers lost control for a total of six minutes. My jaw dropped when I seen this on the news. I knew instantly how that happened. I have witnessed cyber control and is a victim to their attacks being performed cyberly. Each year that passed, the control grows.

I'm sorry.

Cyberly, each year that passed, the control worsened. I can't take much more of this. I really need some relief. I do not want to be the first person to have a loved one die from someone using AI maliciously. Now NORD has a criminal cyber unit.

The definition, to investigate crimes over the Internet. Can anyone tell me why they kept pushing me away? If they knew and heard about the things that I was suffering from, Cyrus Talkers was doing this back in 2019. When the court shut down and resumed from COVID, I was there all the time, written many letters. If they had done their job, my Cyrus Talkers would not be targeting my 76 year old sister.

She almost died with their with their malicious controlling. It continuously manipulates her medical devices. I'm afraid to go to the doctor myself because I know of their control. We're living in different times which promotes different crimes. I'm a be brief on their control. I'm restricted from using a oven. My refrigerator is turned down. The moment I'm get off work, I come home, my ice tray is filled with warm water. My washing machine stops on one second in attempt for me not to unlock it and pull the clothes out. My bathroom bulbs, they last two years.

Mine lasts every four months. I'm restricted from watching certain episodes on TV or the news. My microwave, I can't even I can't even cook a beef patty. I I did some recording Tuesday on what it's like to use my microwave. Sabotage is their motive. If that's not if that's not criminal, maybe this is. My job, my paycheck's cut in half, restricted from my dollar raised as issued every January. Vacation days, sick days don't exist. Federal taxes not being withheld in attempt for me to owe the IRS. My PSE and G bill is is at a shutoff point because of the cyberstalking.

They even stopped distribution of certain items from getting to ShopRite and Walgreens. My home is where they monitor everything that I say, and then they use that against me. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Felicia Austin Singleton.

She's not gonna be here. Not appearing.

Robert Purnell.

Robert Purnell appearing? Okay.

Thank you, councilor, having me here. My name is Robert Pinnell. I live at Saint Mary's Villa. Councilman Kelly, I'm sure you're that Saint Mary's Villa was sold in January. We have new owners, new management. This management company, worse than the other one ever was. We finally got wedded them, and we need some help. We have no social worker that did away with that. We have one elevator only for one. I've been out of order for a whole month. One of the fire doors on this a side, second level does not work properly. Heaven forbid if there's never a fire. I told the new manager about it. Even went upstairs and showed it to her a couple months ago. She said, thank you, mister Pinnell.

I tell her to the superintendent. No. We pay A cop in the building smells got stains all over it. It smells like crazy in in the building. I know you have the you and other council lot have COVID and force need to come up there, councilman Kelly. Appreciate what you can do with aids and start issuing some issues to these new new management company because they they don't care. They told us they took away all the benches in the lobby area. We have no place to sit. That's a violation of HUD rules. They don't have to make accommodations. I go down there. Oh, we're working they don't I can't get an answer

from them. We're working

on it. They refuse to meet with the residents, have a meeting with the residents, tell them what their plans are for the building. Nothing happens. I mean, some of the old ladies have cats and dogs. They came up to me crying because they're changing the rules around.

Come June 1, I'm telling you trying to help them out, but they're old and I mean, I can't help nobody out unless I have some help from this council. And you, mister Keller, I believe that you have the power to do something about it. You and the council people at large with COVID for me to having the meeting there with the residents, with the new management and owners there present and find out what's going on. But, really, code enforcement needs to get start issuing some, summons for these people. I mean I mean, packages are being sold. I had Amazon package sold. They they sent me a picture where it was. I called up the police department. The police officer came there. He went down.

The security cameras don't work, and I have a documentation on that and everything else. Before I leave, I'd like to leave that with you, councilman Kelly. We have no extermination service. They cut back on that. We used to get extermination service once a month. Now they don't even come. I had exterminator come with with the superintendent two weeks ago because I complained to the manager. She wouldn't even wanna talk to me. And superintendent came in with the guy from the seminary company. He goes, oh, I'm sorry, miss, and I have nothing to kill the roaches with.

I mean, you have nothing to come with roaches. What good is it? So he had used my combat gel and just had a little 50¢ glue traps he put down. And I don't have no trouble with no mice because they got door sweep and everything, but you can't get nowhere with these new management to try and ask some questions that comes right through the air. Oh, we're working on it. The senior said there's always every some springtime, they were allowed to go outside and sprank plant gardens. This year, they tore up the garden, told them seniors they cannot plant garden this year. They took all the plants out of the building, threw them and dumps it with the benches. No benches outside. What people who sit?

I mean, I take the link program. I mean, I'd walk with a cane sometimes, but some of these people in wheelchair and everything else. But heaven forbid that fire door on 2nd Floor, something happens to it. I mean, some people are gonna panic and have them forbidden that something happened. And that's been like that since last year, I complained. But management seems not to wanna do nothing. That's why we need to, mister Keller. Appreciate it. You get there with your staff and have a meeting with this new management company, with the residents and everything, and find out what's going on. Let us know what's going on.

Because now with the Haitian population, it's very bad, but but some people have started to speak up and wanna complain now. One lady, they raised and write rents on people because the old management company messed up paperwork real bad, and new management company calling people down saying they owe a couple thousand dollars, $400. I mean, it's a mess with the old paperwork. And they only two people in this management office, the manager herself and the unit secretary has been there. They're overwhelmed. They don't wanna hire no help. Like I said, we only have one maintenance guy. We've gone through two cuts. They don't they need more help. There's 300 some apartments here.

I mean, it's a it's a mess. I mean, I appreciate any help you can do for us, mister Kelly. You are the councilmen. You've been back there. You've been at Saint Mary's, but it's okay to come out and get food, but you need to take some action. I mean, I'll be 72 next next Wednesday. I wanna enjoy my life, not come up here and fight with these trying to get something fixed or not anything else. They make one round in March with new maintenance companies saying what need to be fixed in departments, and they'll fix nothing yet.

Mister Panelsa, thank thank you for your comments.

Can I bring this up?

Sylvester, if you can get that.

Yeah. It's paper. I don't need it back. It's copy of extermination and the rules and everything else that you can do.

Thank you.

And back of the police report says

It's for council McKelley.

Thank you very much.

It's for council McKelley to make copies. Alright. Thanks. Next speaker.

Opal r Wright.

I don't see miss Wright not appearing.

Miriam Bay.

I think I saw miss Bay appearing.

Good evening. My name is Marion Bay.

And,

I'm an investor in Newark. I'm a owner in Newark, and I work for the city of Newark. And I just wanna say, this the sister, Nadira, happy fiftieth birthday. Okay?

I think she left.

Be happy. Where are you, Nadira? Oh, she left? Okay. I wanted to tell her happy fiftieth birthday because April 6, turned 75 years young. Alright. That's right. God is good. Okay.

I said that last meeting. Right?

Because I'm so grateful to God. The reason why I'm here today is because councilor McKelley, you probably saw the pictures that I posted up on Facebook, with the slumlords and why and and how the block look and also councilwoman Rountree, you know. And guess what? I posted up again when they cleaned the streets and it looked so much better. And that you know why?

Because we gotta stop letting them be slumlords. And I met the the the owner next door to my home, and so I told him, why is the garbage garbage still in front of the house? Right? And so he said, oh, well, I'm gonna move it because he had to get rid of someone. I said, oh, okay. I said, well, I posted the pictures of he said, are you the one who posted that? I said, yes. I live here. No. I don't I don't support slumlords.

But he said something that was very interesting. If you go in the post, you'll see some of the responses. And one of the things he said that was very true is that tenants are responsible too. So when we sit down and have meetings about the slumlords, we have to also understand about the tenant's responsibility too. You know? So but the key thing is that when you see the street, it looks so much better. Like it looked when I first moved on the street, and I've been there for thirty four years. Okay. So now the reason I have this young lady up here and her daughter, I know that she's not gonna be able to speak, but I met her today for the first time. And with many of the clients that I have, they have housing issues.

And when I refer them to different places, the places don't have any money. And so now I'm starting to bring them up here so that you guys can talk to her or them so that we can know how we can help this young woman. She also needs employment, so what I did was I also did her resume for her so we can help her to get a job. Because she's a very intelligent young woman, and her name is miss I was

Haria Pritchett. No. It's not. No. That's okay. Just me I'm

just meeting you too. Haria Pritchett. Haria Pritchett. Okay? And you're in the which ward are you in? I'm staying with my mother down in the East Ward. Oh, you're in the East Ward. Okay. So someone from the East Ward should should should speak with you. Okay? And I just wanted to bring her up so you guys the ones who who councilman Silver. Right? Eastward. Okay.

She's not elevated.

Oh, okay. Okay. Great. Okay. Because see the key thing is is that housing is very, important. We can't be having our brothers and sisters, and everybody know that when I say brothers and sisters, I'm talking about black, white, and Latino. It don't it don't matter to me. They're Newark residents, and we can't have them out in the streets the way that they are now. You know? So, that's why I wanted to bring her up and let her know that we're going to be supporting her. Alright? Because she's going through some things. Like, most of the clients that I deal with are going through a lot of things. Alright? Okay.

So having said that, I just wanna say thank you, and, looking forward to working with you and keeping these turning these slumlords because I had a very nice councilman Kelly had a very nice conversation with the, person that had all the garbage in front of their house, and he's definitely willing to work with us. So that's a good thing. Yes. Mhmm. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Deborah Simmons.

Deborah Simmons. Appearing.

Hi. Hi. My name is Deborah Simmons. I have came out of the Conservated Prison with Marion Bay helping me out. And I'm at this point of now at work.

I'm doing the right path for citizenship, and I have got honored with Barack Obama, mayor of a lot of rewards. The problem that I'm having right now is I'm in the YMCA right now for shelter. I was staying in my car, living inside my car. I had to get denial from the welfare, and they kept giving me the runaround with the denial paper. But, eventually, they eventually gave it to me.

So I went to 110 William Street. The lady named miss Weathers, she's help helping me out too to get about you. So I goes back. She said, be on them, Gave her all my information and everything. She said, be on them because it goes to a next person in 10 William Street. I said, okay. I get there this morning. So the lady said, oh, you're miss Simmons. I was trying to get in contact with you. She said, you're not eligible for a voucher.

I said, why is that? She tells me, you have to be disabled or on drugs or hit, mental illness. I said, I don't want none of that, So I won't be commodified for that. So I said, oh, I gotta stay in Hawaii for two or three years to order get eligible for anything, housing that goes underneath my income or my work. I am a productive citizen of working and trying to go the right path and not go down that road back again, and it's very hard to do that.

It's very hard out here. I just asked for just for a little help. That's all I have to say. Yes. I I have my sponge meat. I do have my sponge meat, and that took that took a long time. Mary Ann Bay helped me with that. That took, like, ten years for me to get. And then I still, it was a process. And once I got that of this year of 2025, I got a job.

I couldn't get no job with that that sponge made up of my head. It was living hell for me, and it seemed like I'm going through living hell again without sheltering. And as long as I ask, it's just for that little bit of help. That's all I have to say.

Thank you for your comments. I was somebody one of our officers will come and speak to you, miss Simmons. Okay. Next speaker.

Helene Freeman.

I do not see miss Freeman. Oh, you're in the corner, miss Freeman. Can't see you. Appearing.

When I become mayor, we become mayor. I'm still the mayor, Freeman. Once again, I'm placing on the public record my ongoing complaints regarding catastrophic consequences of this administration and the prior administration. Booker don't get a a free ride. Deliberate failure to enforce housing, sanitation, uniform construction codes throughout the city.

And I've been complaining for over twelve years. On May 17, a one stable one family home that had been illegally converted into a dilapidated, overcrowded, slum filled with itinerants surrounded by accumulated refuse caught fire in my neighborhood, and the property had been repeatedly reported to the city. Children visiting the neighborhood saw the blaze, and before emergency responders arrived, the children attempted to put the fire out. They went door to door knocking on people's doors trying to warn them, and the itinerants refused to respond. When they applied water to the flames, the fire intensified, placing them in immediate danger.

And, yes, mister counsel, I filmed everything. And, for approximately eight minutes, the children were forced to risk their own lives attempting to contain the fire that should have never occurred and had this city enforced its laws. You have endangered children who attempted to stop the blaze. The undocumented and volume vulnerable residents forced into unsafe crowding housing, adjacent homeowners and surrounding properties. The entire neighborhood now subjected to repeat repeated fire hazards, flooding, rodent infestation, biohazards, and collapsing infrastructure.

This is the second fire in less than two months. Another illegal converted, house caught ablaze, and, it had to be attacked by two sides of the street because the, the overcrowding and, parking prevented the firefighters from getting close enough to the building. Residents now dealing with illegal overcrowding, persistent flooding, like I said, rodent infrastructure, rodent infestation biohazard, fire hazards from unlawful convert conversion, parking shortages that also impeded response to the fire, public urination and defecation linked to the overcrowding and transient people, that I've caught on tape and submitted to you as well. Accordingly, I demand emergency in, inspections of illegally converted and overcrowded properties. Immediate enforcement of the uniform construction code and fire safety regulations, public disclosure of all complaints and violation and enforcement action connected to these properties involved in May 17 fire and the fire prior to that, A moratorium on approvals for additional high density development projects until infrastructure, sanitation, and enforcement capabilities are independently review reviewed independent if it's investigation of the systemic failures with, code enforcement and housing oversight.

Public hearings specifically addressing illegal overcrowding sanitation collapse, fire hazard citywide. You had a homeless woman saying she's living in her car when you get millions of dollars to take care of the homeless. You have supposed to have some type of housing program that's supposed to prevent homelessness. Why is this woman here having to talk to you and all of you looking disinterested, Ramos, except for, reverend Rountree. And a little bit from Kelly, I'm surprised.

Like, he had a little bit of emotion on his face when she came up and spoke. This is unacceptable. And mister Purnell, you weren't paying attention to him. I've been in his building. Saint Mary's is is a rodent infested, vermin infested rat trap where you go and house, go and wrestle votes away. Get these people to sign your petitions so that you can come back over here and sit. You're holding these old people hostage, and you give them nothing but stale cookies and Vienna sausages. And then everything is dirty and filthy. I wish I had smell o vision because I I recorded all of that and sent it to HUD. This is unacceptable.

And you sat up there and you heard him plead with you, and you're like, oh, we'll have somebody talk to you. You should have had people when you were over there trying to hustle those votes and get your petition signed, you should have people talking to them. I know that they complained to you. Unacceptable.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Sharonda Allen.

Sharonda Allen. Not appearing.

Munir Richards.

Munir Richards. Munir Richards. Not appearing.

Reginald Turner.

Reginald Turner appearing.

Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon, everyone. This is a incident that happened. I'm in 1060 Street. Oh, my name, Reginald Turner. Incident, I'm at 1060 Broad Street. I'm a resident there, so this altercation that take place like this, like, the third time. The staff or the workers, should I say, pushes the trash on the elevators while with our residents, while we're on the elevators. So I asked him respectfully, can you wait to the next elevator? Which I was informed is the elevator in the back he's supposed to use.

So he said no. So he tried to pull it on. I have the documentation of what what happened afterwards. So through my emotions, I had just came from the emergency room. I had got a a pneumonia shot, and I had some something on my lungs. So I had medication for it. So now by by this taking place at the same time, this happened on the thirtieth. But I'm breathe by me breathing poisons like secondhand smoke, different type of things get me sick because my immune system is down. But getting back to the point, I did I I pushed it. I pushed the dumpster off the, what you call, off the elevator, which I could've dealt with it better, but going through my emotions of my sickness. Now I don't

see

how days go by. I also went downstairs, explained the matter right after it happened. I went to the office. Two days later, this is in my door. Note notice of lease violation, disturbance. It was reported that on 04/3026, you verbally assaulted one of our maintenance staff members and pushed his cart off the elevator. I did push it, but he verbally came at me first when I asked him respectfully. He he he he he's I'm not racist, but he's Hispanic, and he he had no professional way of dealing with the situation. He's already been working there probably for years, and it's like that's it's not even the only thing that's going on. There's a lot of things.

Well, I'm gonna come back here with a list of things they do the maintenance department. It's a lot they threaten. I don't watch them threaten. Some people said, can't smoke out here. I'm a I'm a write you up. I'm a evict you, and there's a lot of things going on. So getting back to the point, I respectfully asked if this is a way that they could use another elevator because it's not only is it a health hazard, but you got people older than me. I just Monday, I turned sixty sixty four, and it's people older than me. They have breathing problem. They have a little oxygen tanks.

But for this for me to get this warning for the violation or or or or threat to be evicted if if I just but you have staff members that's very disrespectful there, and I wash them. I wash them on the side talking like to to the residents like the animals, but I'm very quiet. I just walk through because I don't disrespect nobody, but I'm a stand up for what's right. And sometime when I speak, I'm speaking for them too because some of them can't even come down here. They're in wheelchairs.

I'm grateful to have the limbs or whatever I have at at 64 years old because I was athletic, and I took care of myself a lot of my life. But getting back to the point, they're very disrespectful. I'm I'm not trying to touch what you do, but it's like, I don't know if you're the supervisor or manager, but they got their little thing going on. They plant fear in the fear in a lot of them. They're seniors. It's like yeah. Because they're seniors. And some of them would love to come in because they tell me a lot of things, but by the time I get upstairs, I'll be wanting to write it down, but I forget. But I'm gonna have a list next time I let y'all know what they're doing because it's disrespectful. And it take more than that to fear me. You know? That's all I gotta say. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for your comments.

And this hey. I'm I'm I'm calling to miss Bay miss Marion Bay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker.

Deborah Sanders.

Deborah Sanders appearing.

Good evening, council president, council members, and members of the administration. My name is Deborah Sanders, and I wanna thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here because I need your assistance. We need your assistance for in addressing a serious and ongoing issue involving best management. I am not only speaking for myself, I'm speaking for my neighbors, many of whom are seniors, disabled, long term 10 tenants, and people who are afraid to speak publicly because of how they may be treated afterwards.

What we are experiencing is not simply poor management. It is a systematic intimidation through neglect, passive aggressive harassment tactics, a pattern of deliberate nonresponse, and institutionalized disregard for tenants and and where they live. Best management behavior has created fear, confusion, and unsafe living conditions. Since they took over management, four of my tenants, four of my neighbors have moved out because they became emotionally exhausted from the constant phone calls, sometimes four and five calls before 11:00 in the morning, asking them to move. I have also recorded conversations, which I am willing to personally provide to counsel where representatives from best management discuss wanting a tenant removed from from the property.

No resident, especially seniors, disabled tenants, or long term Newark residents should feel pressured out of their home through repeated calls, intimidation, and psychological exhaustion. I have a neighbor who's a paraplegic and has an 89 year old mother in his apartment. They've lived there for approximately thirty five years, and best management has called them almost daily wanting to know when can I get my apartment back? His sister is trying to find another place for them but has been finding it very is finding it very difficult. This type of repeated pressure on a disabled resident is not professional management.

It is psychological pressure placed on seniors and disabled residents. They have offered different amount of money to different tenants, Some 0, some 2,000 to 4,000, and even $9,000. There is no clear explanation for this behavior. No consistency and no transparency. Parking has also become inconsistent and unfair.

For the first time, tenants are being charged different amounts of money. Best management in my case, I wrote a letter about the cars being parked along the fence and making it difficult to park safely. This management arbitrarily restricted me from paying for parking. I can still pay my rent, but I have been blocked from paying from the for the parking which was included. This is not normal business practice.

This feels retaliatory to me. Other neighbors have been restricted at different times from paying their rent altogether, some from October of last year, some from January of this year. This is not normal business practice. Other neighbors, when a tenant is willing to pay and management blocks payment or manipulates payment access, this creates unnecessary fear and confusion. There are serious maintenance concerns.

We have had snowstorms, and my son and two other neighbors have cleared this huge parking lot, not Best Management. Since Best Management took over, our hallways for two months were pitch black, and they would not, repair the problem with public service. For two, recently, I took my car for an oil change and was told that a rodent had eaten parts of the engine cover. My other neighbor over here, her wires were eaten up, from rodents. Rent increases have been unreasonable.

One neighbor was char not one. Many neighbors were charged $400 for a rent increase. I went to rent control and was told and and got the information which was showed the allowable amounts that Newark has rules for. Tenants have rights, and management companies should not be allowed to ignore the law and then pressure rent residents who question them. Respectfully, I dispute best management logos.

We do the best for our customer. The best for customers is not ignore ignoring calls. The best is not pressuring seniors and disabled tenants. The best is not blocking payments. The best is not leaving hallways dark. The best is not forcing tenants to clean common areas or pay out of pocket for repairs. Thank you. Rest of it, I have given you all a copy.

Thank you. Miss Saunders, I I I don't know if you said what building.

Which building?

Yes.

38384 South 6th Street 16th Avenue.

Okay. Several so several buildings you're referring to.

Yes. Several.

Alright. I believe somebody's gonna speak to you right behind you from one of councilwoman Bay's office.

Yes, miss Sanders. We we will take care of it.

Thank you so much for this.

Yes. Thank you. Next speaker.

Donna Jackson.

Alright. First of all, let me say congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations to you. I I think I think you'll be sitting right here when you come up next month.

Head in the middle? Okay. Sounds good to me.

I think I'm you're you're close here in here.

Let's get the

let's get the fire started. Amen. Amen. What god has for me, no man can block. Amen. Three hundred and sixty years this city is this year, full circle. It's time for the dynamite to come, and I'm on my way. I came to work Wednesday, the thirteenth. My clipboard, my pad, I walked around. Didn't like nothing I saw. This building is out of control. I don't even know who was working and who wasn't working, but I got notes. I got notes. When are we gonna let the employees know they're gonna be laid off? Because y'all know that's coming. Councilman Raymose, thank you for the questions yesterday. Thank you. Y'all know what time it is. Let's stop playing. Stop playing.

Right? Because when I get up there, I got

the book now. So when

they ask how much something cost and how much you spent, I'm a flip to the page and tell them. Ain't gonna be no go to the clerk's office and over it. It's not that's it's over. So the jig is up. God sent me, and it's over. It's fully over. Y'all are complicit in these budgets not being done. You are complicit with these employees not making money. You are complicit with people running out of this city. You are complicit with slumlords, managers that abuse people in this town, and you let them because they give you money.

$1,900 against 15,000,000 crushed you. You never thought on your brightest day that I'd be standing here. Got my shirt on. Got my shirt on because I'm ready for work. And let me tell all of y'all that I need a suit. I need to get my hair done. Oh, I can't even say it no more, but you already know. I'm coming in uniform. I ain't coming to be cute. It's nothing cute going on in this city. Desperation. People dying. People that's working, sleeping in their car. We do nothing. How did y'all let two whole buildings get closed down over at Crechement?

How is the legionnaires in this building since September of last year? Ain't nobody impressed with y'all new video. Uh-oh. We got the code enforcement out. Uh-oh. We're gonna pick up the trash. Oh, we're doing a neighborhood cleanup. Who cares when people can't breathe? Who cares when people go to the hospital with pneumonia? These fires is out of control. You still do nothing. You say nothing. The silence is over because I'm here. It's not gonna be swept under the rug anymore. It's over.

Y'all are letting firefighters get killed, get sick. You're letting residents get killed, get sick because you letting these abandoned buildings sick. When you got 15 people in here, they're gonna ask you, can they buy the abandoned building? No. You're not in the club. You got people living next door to abandoned buildings. Been here since y'all been sitting here, since this administration been in, since Corby administration. And you gotta invest what? Invest in yourselves, not invest Newark because we have invested in no one. Where's the emergency plan?

If I had not gone over to Crestmont yesterday, them seniors probably still be standing outside today. It was 90 degrees yesterday, and I did a lot. And I don't care what the restrictions of this office are because I'm still a person. I'm still an advocate. It ain't gonna change. Stop calling me, telling me who gonna be my staff because I don't need no help. See, I already had my team when I was running. That's why I only needed 1,900 because I got the people on my back. The people on my back. I wear my city. I put on for my city. Nobody else don't put on for this city like me. Nobody. And guess what? I'm international now.

Got a call today from Ghana. Said, go girl. You go girl. Ghana. Doing food pantry. I told her send the garbage trucks back though. Send the garbage trucks back. Demolition happening. No water. No permits. Y'all letting all this asbestos and stuff go in the air. Y'all killing people. I don't know who the new code enforcement director is, and there's no disrespect. But is she licensed? Does she have the uniform construction code badge? Y'all just hiring people. Stop it. And it's not personal to the young lady because I don't know. Or maybe I do. I don't know.

But y'all gotta stop this. Every department is a failure. Everyone. Oh, we doing good over here. We're doing good over where? Where? Where? Tell them which. Shut up. Tell the workers when the layoffs are gonna come, how deep the cuts is gonna be. Because let me tell y'all something. When you start laying them off, they're gonna be on my back too, and y'all gonna be gone.

Trust my word.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Jocelyn Moore.

Jocelyn Moore. Appearing.

Good evening. My name is Jocelyn Moore.

I

said good evening. My name is Jocelyn Moore, and I'm an assistant at 224 Sussex Avenue. And I'm an activist. I'm speaking for the people. But when I was talking to them today and yesterday before thank you. Okay. Before I'm a little short one. Before leaving, my answer to some of those statements was this. If you have a house or an apartment and you are redecorating and the wall is really messed up, you don't even like it. Your wall is just a straight wall, plain wall, but the wall is like a brick.

Do you tear down the wall, or do you change your decoration plan? And what I I'm saying that to say this. As far as changing the administration's concern, I just don't see it right at this point, although it's not for me to say. This man, this mayor, I have to honestly say that because the topic of my, speech was to be, do we need a new mayor or do we need a new city? And the reason I said that is because just like you wouldn't destroy a whole wall, you would just decorate, fix it up, because this man has a vision.

And like I was telling some of the people there, when you have a vision and like he has a vision, we're part of it because we're here. Let's give it a chance and let's just see. I'm not vouching for or against. I'm speaking for the people. Think about that. But what I do wanna say is this. As being an ex landlord for most of my life in order to even survive, I was just kind of thinking and looking at High Street and some of the other streets that you have. And why not, for once, be on behalf of the landlords? Because I was a landlord. Some of that money you're spending, why not put it in some of those buildings?

Those are very good buildings, although they're old. We need homes. The people at two two four asked me to speak. We need some place to stay, and we do not want our families dismantled and separated anymore. Please consider that, chairman Ward and mister mayor. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Cesare Adams.

Cesare Adams. I don't know if I saw him. Cesare Adams, not appearing.

Jake Holter.

Jay Colter. I don't see oh, there he is appearing.

Mister president, I know you're not there right now. So whoever's assuming the formal role as vice president, I would ask the person to speak step up at this time. I'm gonna elect Quintana to do that. So I'm addressing mister Quintana as the president. Mister president, Jay Coulter.

Jay Coulter, I'm talking to you, president Quintana, since the president mister Trump has stepped away. I'm coming this evening to address you as a parent, father, and a citizen of Newark, the working class Newark. First, we wanna salute the fact that Donna Jackson has exercised her civic right to return to a formal representation in the at large capacity. We need her service dedication, commitment, persistence, and legislation to work with all other eight of her colleagues. In addition to that, we wanna look at not only the issues of the budget, but be squarely good evening, mister president.

Good evening. So we'll surrender position back to mister Crump from mister Quintana at this time since he's back present with us in terms of robbers, rules, or order. I'm here, mister president, this evening to address your counsel that this government we hold these truths to be evident that this government is broken and out of control, and thank god for sending us a sign of miss Donna Jackson being duly elected and formally elected by the citizens of Newark. I come today rising I rise today as a father, taxpayer, working class Newark to both congratulate miss Amina Bay on her victory. And although I was on the other side, I want to encourage you on working across and collaboratively to encourage a better administrative science in this next term.

I'll congratulate mayor Raz Baraka on his reelection. Although, we know that there is better programmatic thrust and administrative functions that we need to service all 500,000 Yorkers. We are putting the South Ward residents on due notice that you are in fact entering a runoff election. We have business to still complete. Residents, I'm talking to you moms, I'm talking to you dads, I'm talking to you, mister president himself.

We have uncompleted homework in the South Ward in the form of a runoff, and we want to not only elevate a spirit of passion for Newark, but we don't want it to end in a spirit of hate. Our changes and our choices of changes on the menus of political elections are the rights of the people, prerogatives of people, and the tradition of the people. We were freed as slaves in 1865. Why are we still conducting ourselves as slaves in 2026? I wrote a speech, but I threw it in the trash.

Because the one thing that I wanna see out of this out of the mayor in congratulating him in the new election is for him, Donna Jackson, and Louis Scott Rountree to go meet with the president of The United States regardless of his political thing because I think and mister president, you can come with them too if you're still the president. But we got stuff to do with New York housing authority. We can't be feeling no kind of way against Trump. We need some people in the room that's gonna sit across the room from him, save the nonprofit, nonviolence money. If they're saying Trump's gonna take it off the table, you gotta take people like Don Jackson and Louis Scott Rountree and Amina Bay in the room with you, mister president, to get it done.

Fine. Trump don't understand Newark. So it would take you and mister Rountree to take him around Newark to explain why we need the money. You don't wanna have mister Penson up so late at night. And I'm speaking in the mic, and thank you, sisters and brothers, Deborah, Sheila, everyone, Alif, everyone. I appreciate all 500,000 residents. And I came here from work, and I want y'all to remember the working class knocker. I know my speech is not so formally structured this evening. Next time, I'll come with it written. But mister president, I want you and the mayor and miss Rountree and miss Jackson to go meet with president Trump, irregardless of politics, to save the programs and the funding of the programs, that's my concern.

And for us to do what Ken Gibson did and what Sharp James did, whether it's Reagan or Bush, Clinton or Obama, Trump or or Biden, that y'all will represent all 700,000 of the residents, and we're up to a million at some points in time depending on the pace of traffic. So I'll conclude with the fact of, please don't treat the public safety budget like an unwanted stepchild next year in next year's budget. Can you not treat the public safety like an unwanted stepchild? Because what you do is you drive crime higher, and then we gotta deal with crime before we call the police. That's what I'm asking you to do, mister president. Don't treat public safety next year like an unwanted stepchild. Get serious about it.

Listen to Sylvia. Get in

these meetings. Find out from Gonzales what we need tax base wise, and work with our big sister, Don Jackson, in this new elective season. Thank you, and to god be the glory.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Oneera Elgamani.

Manor man Manera. Not appearing. Oh, there she is. Okay. Appearing.

Let let's let's have let's have some quiet in the chamber so we can hear speaker.

You really wanna hear?

You wanna hear so bad.

Still gotta come in, don't we? Oh, I got a new name for y'all. Good riddance council eight. That's y'all new name because we ain't gonna include that one council person. Newark residents, you've been coming here thirty years.

The fight continues. Though we fatigue, exhausted, bitter, angry, the fight continues. Newarkers, four more years, I said it yesterday, of slavery. Because that's what they run-in this, city hall like a plantation. Plantation politics is what you call it.

Corruption, mismanagement, poor municipal services, and the list could go on. Y'all ain't gonna get no better. You got people, what, thirty, forty years? You only got 3,000 in the last two years. You went from almost 5,000 to three.

North Ward ain't even pleased with you, but they settling, and they ain't even coming out for you. Newarkers, we gotta please make the call because you said it in that text, ballots. When you say ballots, it's the ballots. Make the call for a ballot investigation, and I guarantee none of y'all ain't here. You just stole the election again.

And that's what y'all been doing, and I'm gonna get to how you're stealing it. Also, to end the mail in ballots and call in for voter identification and also make sure they're legal because somebody just went got diet the other day. Right? It wasn't even legal voting. It's a lot of this stuff been going on for years.

Term limits is a must, and there's a a movement, on term limits. Anybody interested, we're join a movement. Fiscal mismanage fiscal management is desperately needed in this city. Now Ron Rice left out, and I Ron was good with legislation. Oh my god.

I miss him daily with that, but all that other Kubayah stuff he talk about on the Internet. He he created a budget advisory committee for for the residents so we could sit on and be a part of the budget. Right? And I I wanna talk about the budget. You got somebody making $300,000 a year and haven't delivered a budget in all those years that he'd been here in a timely manner.

Late budgets. A 300 k salary with no return on investment, a budget deficit, no revenue generating ideals, no nothing. A billion dollar budget and nothing's in it but lifelong knockers. It is just a crying out shame. And y'all just sit here and disallow this man with a 300 k salary.

We called on the state. We called on everybody to look into our budget. And we warned you, Newarkers. We warned you how many times we came up here and asked for a forensic audit on our budget. How many times we called on for his removal? And y'all did nothing. So what is four more years of nothingness? Barack, are you going down the history as the worst black and Latino administration in the history of Newark. Your leadership is a void though you are selected. Show us your accomplishment for the residents.

It's nothing. It's nothing. Or you gonna get you on this with your Kumbaya speeches on on Facebook and social media. Rock my Kumbaya speech. Tariq Tucker, Kumbaya speech. You, pet counsel the other day, Kumbaya speeches. You have somebody coming here that you sit on Newark Housing Authority as a commissioner crying out to you about 130 Chancellor Avenue and all you came to say is what? Oh, oh, send it to my representative.

Thank you for your

deserve another seat.

Next speaker.

Asia Norton for sophomore. Run them out of

Say my name, Keisha.

I was

just saying yeah.

I'm sorry if you didn't hear me.

I did say Cassandra. I didn't hear

it. Appearing.

Okay. I'm here. Cassandra Dock. Congratulations, miss Jackson. Let me congratulate your campaign manager. Oh, but you didn't have one. Let me congratulate your street team then. Oh Yes. But you didn't have one. Well, let me congratulate God Amen. And the 6,000 or more people that voted for you. I didn't ask for your comments. What do you wanna work

We're gonna vote.

You wanna work back there again? Okay. Alright. Great, Eric. So anybody that know me knows that I like to talk about all levels of government. I want us to be engaged in all levels so bad. I want us to know what's going on with all levels so bad. So tonight, I'm gonna talk about federal and state and something that they're doing that's gonna affect both. So but the problem I have, because I don't know who really did it, But who did they ask? So most of us know that the president is elected due to electorial college votes.

So now they got this new thing going around in the NPVIC law, where they wanna do away with the electoral college vote. Some of us want that to be done, but you gotta ask the residents do they want it to be done. So I don't know if Murphy did it. I don't know if Mikey did it, but about 18 to 20 states have bought into this new law. New Jersey is one of them.

So most of us know that with the electoral college vote, how that works is you have each state has two senators, and that's how you have the 100 senators in the senate. So Cory and Kim are ours. And then we have the 12 New Jersey has, like, congressional well, every state has congressional districts. So New Jersey has 12. So you take the 12 and you have the two, and that's what make up the 14.

So now with the new NPBIC law, instead of giving that those 14 to, the democrat or the republican, whichever the delegates decide they wanna do, they're now deciding to give that to whoever got the popular vote. So at one time, Hillary would've won because she had the popular votes, and I think Gore would have won because he had the popular votes. Trump would have won because he had both. He had both the popular vote this time and the electorial votes this time. The problem I'm having, again, is who did they ask?

Why do we sit here, as somebody said earlier? Why do we just allow anything to go on, not inform the residents about what's going on? Don't let us decide whether or not this is something we wanna do, something we don't wanna do. Why? Why?

And why do we let people that manages these buildings disrespect us? Because that's what they're doing. If Donna didn't show us nothing else, she showed you that elections can be won off of what you do, off of actions. No money. So guess what? She ain't got an answer to nobody. So if they call her, a manager of a building call her, guess what? She don't gotta meet with them. Just get over there and fix it. Right.

Here you go. That's it. That's it. As a matter of fact, I'll meet you over there. Fix it. That's what you should be telling them. Fix it. Now okay. Cassandra said it right. Let me say blacks. It's gonna be six blacks, three Latinos. Who we gonna blame? Who we gonna blame? Because they're the minority.

Who

you say it right, Cassandra. Black people, who you gonna blame? If it's f ed up, if we homeless, if we don't have employment, who are we going to blame? Blacks. Blacks. I wanna call you something else, but blacks. So then from now on, you don't need the donations. You don't need the money. You don't need it. Fix it.

Thank you for your comments. Negroes. Next speaker.

Deborah Salters.

Appearing.

Good evening, Newark. Deborah Salters. So I'm not going to congratulate any of you because you've done a terrible job with the city. To Newark, you did not show up for yourselves. You had an opportunity, like the sister said, do we pick a new mayor? Do we pick a new city? If things don't change, you're going be kicked into a new city. So you've been warned. You've been given all the necessary information, and you did not show up for yourselves in this election. I'm going to say shame on you district followers because you surely are not district leaders.

I don't even know that you know what your job is in the community, because we see five and it's a a bunch of you out here. And part of your job is getting the information to the community, encouraging the community to vote, translating the necessary information, and it is a travesty. So, Newark, you failed yourselves. To the acting vest and the 735 of you that jumped out here, decided to get your name and lights and out here making noise and in the way, congratulations. You played yourself.

Because who do we have here? You thought you were gonna force a runoff. What what happened? Because you don't study and you don't listen. And this is why the administration is still here. The ones that you complained about repeatedly, the things that you said you wanted fixed repeatedly, and you did not show up for yourselves. So don't blame anyone but yourselves Because now what are you going to say? What you gonna say? They have been consistent. Consistently wicked, consistently wrong, but they've been consistent.

The inconsistency comes from we, the people. Period. You had several opportunities to show up for yourself and you did not. So worrying for the people is gonna be fighting a little differently, because I will not be standing here yelling at folk that you put back in office because when you don't vote, you vote them back in. And as Donna has showed you, your vote counts.

Those of you who said my vote don't count, they gonna do what they wanna do. Blah blah blah. Well, do you think they wanted Donna to just I'm be just saying. So that shows you that your vote matters. And to those of you who have told the people not to vote, shame on you. Because instead of encouraging them, you help their demise. So when you can no longer live in this city, blame yourselves because you've had plenty opportunity. So stop your complaining. Stop it. Just stop.

And also I want to say something. Gonzales, thank you. I asked you not to be a lame duck on the way out. Yesterday, very poignant questions. I like how you put Allison Ladd on the spot. Ramos stepped in. Oh, and you, mister Trump. I was like, oh, did he forget she's the the man's designee? Because you were like, wait a minute. Because you're missing the point. She was very disrespectful and she was very rude. So don't take back the disrespect and make it cute as in, you know, no. She didn't show respect. Leave it as it is, not a courtesy. She doesn't get to have a courtesy.

You don't work for her. Understand the power that you possess and use it. So I was glad to see that you made her stand up here. Now I don't know what happened after the cameras went off, but I'm glad that you checked her yesterday. Roundtree, stop letting these men overtalk you. And every time you go to say something, it's like, oh, I I didn't hear you. I didn't see you. Speak up. You're the one doing the work. You are the at large that's doing all the work out here in the streets. So I need you to speak up. I don't know what deal was made. Bump that. Okay? Stand 10 toes down on business.

You up in here. Now things can be done, Newarkers, but are you willing to follow through to get it done? Because guess what? You know, I'm a work on the things I've been working on prior to the election, but as for you and your house, you better decide what you're going to do because pretty soon you're not gonna be able to live here if you don't make some moves. Now you've been told this over and over. So I don't know if you're stand up or lay down, but either way, you're have to do something.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Betty Crockett.

Betty Crockett. Betty Crockett. Not appearing.

George Tillman junior.

Mister Tillman is appearing.

Good evening, council. Good evening, council president. Congratulations to all those who won in this election. This war on poverty that we started back in 2025 throughout this campaign for central war. One of the things we talked about was these tax abatements in these economic incentives.

It was very surprising to me that the governor got involved in this nonpartisan election. This election showed a lot of things, and it's still ongoing. It shows that this war is still ongoing. There was voter interference that was lit by the state because the governor represents all of us. There was no need for the state to get involved in our local politics when they also represent us, and it's nonpartisan.

But with all that with all of that, with all of that rally and all of that money that was spent to bring all of that in, you still lost the seat. And you still gotten the runoff because of some organization, some organizing that's going on in this city. See, it wasn't just by chance that miss Jackson won that election. It was the work that she did for over the years in our community, and it's still and she's still gonna keep continue to work, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to the South Ward, that runoff over there.

It ain't nothing personal. It's all about team Baraka. I told you, you know, team Baraka, you know, this this dismantling of this administration, it all starts, you know, one step at a time. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. And, you we took one step. I'm about to take one more step in that South Ward. And it ain't nothing personal. Like Donna said, this is God intervening in our local politics because we ain't got no money. We got no money in that South Wood. We ain't had no money in this whole entire election.

We just been in them streets letting people know that what's going on in the city is wrong. They they understand now that through those tax abatements, we've been losing over two to 3,000 jobs a year for the last twelve years. We've been losing over a half $1,000,000,000 for contracts to local contractors annually because of the non enforcement of our Newark resident employment policy. How many South Ward residents benefited from the last twelve years under this administration? All that development in the South Ward, how many South Ward residents benefited, worked, made those jobs at $65 an hour and was able to take care of their households?

How many of them became entrepreneurs? How many became homeowners? How many local contractors over in South Ward benefited for the last twelve years from all that development? I can tell you, as a sworn employee, a whistleblower, From the mayor's office of employment, mayor's office of affirmative action, a senior program analyst, I can tell you that we've been losing. I've been coming to this microphone.

We still you still haven't, and I stayed away for the whole entire election. We still haven't addressed this Newark resident employment policy. We still haven't addressed why Newark residents aren't working, why we're not getting no contracts for all these economic incentives. So, yes, I will continue to be in the South Ward. I am supporting Asia Norton as I've been supporting throughout this whole campaign, and it's nothing personal. It's that we have to get a change. We have to change this whole demographic of everything that's going on. Thank you. Thank you

for your comments. Next speaker.

Deborah Dawkins.

Deborah Dawkins. Deborah Dawkins. Not appearing.

Council president, council members, that concludes the hearing. Ordinances on public hearing, second reading, and final passage. Six p s f a is an ordinance granting

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Before we get there, anything from the council? Councilman Kelly. Thank you, council president.

I just wanted to just address some of the things Robert, Penel, believe I'm saying his name right, Penel, addressed. Just wanted to let him know we were, myself and my staff, we went to Saint Mary's Villa. I believe it was the end of February or the beginning of March. I have to look to see what exact date to speak with the new management, new ownership, find out which what some of the things that were going on because we have we have reports from the tenants that they were mad about the benches being removed. I don't the elevator is new.

I know that if they were working on the elevator, it wasn't an elevator down when we were there. The main problem that they had when I when I addressed it and they said they have a new exterminator was the rodent problem that the the building was infested with rodents. That was the first time that I heard somebody complain that the building was infested with rodents. They said they were dealing with that with the new exterminator. Also, we're gonna address I'm gonna have another meeting with them to set up a resident management meeting so you guys can address the concerns right in front of them.

The packages being stolen, we're gonna address that as well. I did speak to them about cameras not working. They assured me that the cameras will be working, but just saying that they're still not working. So, we're gonna address them. But I just wanted to let you know some of these concerns that you brought up, we already addressed probably like the the end of February or the first week of March, and I will be going back to this time. I want the residents to be at the meeting. Thank you for, bringing the concerns to us.

Thank you, councilman. Councilwoman Scott Bay.

Oh, Scott Bay.

I'm sorry. I

I actually have a friend This got back.

I just wanted to know How

are you?

Going forward, like, to my council colleagues because I am at large and sometimes I miss some of these meetings. So I'm just gonna request, that when these meetings are set up throughout the city with the five ward council people that I as an at large, think my other colleagues would like to be invited. A lot of times, things happen and meetings are done and we're not privy to the information. So just as we move forward into this season, if there's a meeting with any landlord, any problems, slumlord, if I don't get the email or councilman Kelly, councilman Quintana, or councilwoman Jackson at this point, she probably had the information, but just the same, I would like to make sure. So reference to Saint Mary's Village, that was in February, I think that maybe we should try to see whether we can meet with the management.

And they're saying they're not allowing the tenants. They're not, like, having tenant meetings. So I don't know who the tenant person is, the new tenant person, or is it the same person? Maybe we might wanna try to put something together after you meet with management or after you meet with management and then get a chance to hear from the tenants and see if we go down a checklist, to see what they did repair and what they did not so so that we can have a better relationship with the tenants and their concerns. Thank

you so much.

I did that too, councilwoman.

I wasn't there. So I'm just saying like

Yeah. No. We we we, they have a new tenant association.

Right.

The past tenant association is no longer, and they kinda had a rift with each other about

what's new tenant association So, is gonna

you know, we're dealing with a lot over there between the Haitian population, the old regime, and the new regime, but we are we are approaching it and and it's it's not as bad as as, people think. We they are ready to talk.

Thank you. Councilwoman councilwoman Bay.

Yes. Thank thank you, council president.

So yes. So a follow-up to councilor McAlliance, councilwoman Scott Rountree. Miss miss Sanders and her her comments about best management and the issues going on. My office has been receiving multiple calls and people showing up, from different places talk about this predatory practices that's been going on that landlords and and building owners are literally trying to harass people into eviction and harass them into vacating the property for whatever reason. And we've been working with them on this.

And, again, my staff met with just miss Sanders. So these are there are some things that really need to happen legally to make sure that these landlords and these building owners cannot push people out arbitrarily because they wanna go ahead and get larger rent and more rent for different things, whether they're seniors, whether they're disabled, or whether they're, you know, able-bodied people going to work every day. It is legal, and you cannot push people out. So that's something that we're definitely working on, and I agree with you. We will be working together, all of our council colleagues and miss Moore, regarding 2, 224 Sussex Avenue.

We're definitely gonna be following up and working with you on the situation there. Thank you.

Thank you, councilwoman. Anything else from the council councilman Ramos.

Yeah. Thank you, mister president. I I just wanna, address a matter that miss Freeman brought up. And, you know, I I I do agree with her that the issue of illegal conversions in in the city is is almost at a crisis point. And I would ask through your chair and the clerk if we can bring in the relevant departments that are involved in doing these inspections so they could explain to us from a very basic standpoint, you know, what the inspections entail of, what kind of right of entry do they need access to.

You know, I I I identified a property. There are numerous properties in the neighborhood on Montclair Avenue and Highland. It's it's a one family. It was supposed to be registered as a one family. I believe the city was able to get entry, and they determined that the property wasn't in violation.

But if you drive by that property, they have illegal doors that are visible from the street. They have about 12 vehicles that are parked in the parking lot. They have at least 10 different garbage cans that are identified, you know, through a magic marker listing different apartments in this allegedly one family home. So, you know, if I could see it from the street and I'm not trained as a city inspector, I I don't know how our folks are not able to flag some of these clear violators in the neighborhood. And this is just one of dozens of properties.

And, you know, in the case where you do have a fire, there's there's safety concerns. There are parking issues associated with these, illegal conversions. You got people living in basements, people living in garages. You know, we we have to figure out a way, to to deal with these, operators, and and we need to understand what the process entails. Does it die when it go to court? Like, what is it that that's allowing all these illegal conversions to get away with this practice?

Thank you, councilman. I definitely agree. At the next opportunity, let's bring in the departments. Anything else from the council? Administration?

Good evening. Eric Bennington, business administrator. Just really two two issues. The first of which I'm gonna ask Ben Guzman, the finance director, to address them while he's coming up about the deal with the second issue, which relates to what one of the things that councilman Raymond just said. There's only one department, for the most part, that's involved with this, and that's engineering. They have both the UCC and code enforcement. An ancillary department is fired, they could come as well. We're happy to have that presentation, but UCC is the one that addresses illegal conversions for the most part. But your concern about having a legal door and those types of things that can be seen from the street code enforcement can, address those as well. So we can certainly have that taken care of.

The new code enforcement manager was referenced as perhaps not having the appropriate qualifications. And quite frankly, she has all the qualifications necessary for the job. She's a tiring police officer with twenty five years experience. The certifications, I think, that were alluded to are UCC certification, subcode officials, which is not required to be the manager of code enforcement. We think she's doing a fantastic job.

She's been zealous. There's no no question about it. But she's been in zealous in ensuring that businesses are in compliance with business licenses, fire inspection certificates that they have to have appropriate health inspections for with food. She has authorized the closure of businesses that have been out of compliance for years in some cases. I've actually met her at one location on Bloomfield Avenue where the the business owner had spoiled food in his container, and perhaps people think that we should give them a break and let them stay open.

Those are not the people who would take any of that spoiled food to their families. Those are not the people who would have rodent infested fruit and and vegetables taken home to their children, and we don't want anybody else to have to deal with that. And that manager that we have is gonna continue doing that. I think one of the things that we have to do a better job of is alerting the public and the business owners that we are coming, and we're not giving them a grace period. There is no grace period for the potential infestation that will occur to people to their their children and babies who may ingest baby formula and other items that are expired.

So there's no grace period. So every owner should know from this microphone and elsewhere that they are subject to follow all the rules and regulations of the city of Newark and the state of New Jersey, and we're certainly going to continue to be aggressive in enforcing that, as well as councilor Rainbow's your point. We're gonna do a better job and a more aggressive job with residents as well. We have not done as good a job as we should. And to to your point, I think I know about the place you're talking about, but we'll follow-up on that as well, but but others as well.

In fact, I actually responded to an email today that about a property that was brought up by a, public speaker at the last meeting indicating that it was a firefighter who owned the building. Well, we that that home is going to court. And I'm also gonna follow-up with, UCC to ensure that they've been cited appropriately. There will be a discussion as to whether or not we're gonna make that property return to the status quo ante, and that means take the 3rd Floor down. Don't know if that'll happen because if the work was done and it looks like it was done in compliance, we may give them an opportunity to have architectural drawings, open up the walls, look at the plumbing, look at the electrical.

And if it was done properly, we will probably allow it to go forward, but they'll have to have a certificate of occupancy, and all the code compliance standards will have to be met. And so that that's the approach that we intend to take. So everybody out there who's listening to this voice and what the council people have to say, you're warned. You all notice that we are coming. If I could, if I can have, Ben Guzman speak about, the comment about Moody's, I'd appreciate it. And I'm also saying that miss Freeman is not the one who tells me when I'm done. Council president, if you tell me I'm done, I'm done. But miss Freeman doesn't get to tell me we're not finished talking ever. I could just say whatever it is I need to say unless you say, stop. Except when I'm finished, and now I am. Mister Guzman? Mister Pierre.

No. No. I said thank you. Okay.

Good evening, council president, council members Benjamin Guzman, acting director of finance, to the BA's point regarding, the recent, Moody's Investor Services, rating update for the city of Newark. Recently, Moody's released a rating update for the city after the city had sold some monetization notes. They had decided also to update since we were approaching the one year anniversary of the last ratings update from the city. This Moody's has maintained the city's rating at a b double a one, but they have changed our our outlook from stable to negative. The reasons behind that negative outlook is a number of reasons.

Primarily, it's increases of inflation, cost of products, not just for the city of Newark, but also within the region. Primarily, one of the the areas that they identified in their rating was the cost of health care. Due to those increased costs and particularly the cost of health care, it has taken an effect on the city's reserves year over year. And due to those declining reserves, that is what poised them to change our outlook from stable to negative. They did point out as well that there are factors that can help us turn that around from negative back to stable.

One of the areas that they identified is that the city of Newark, for its size, has a moderate to low level of debt outstanding. And also notice that within the last five years, our outstanding debt has been declining. Given that, that puts us in a position where our we continue to pay off our debt and reduce our costs for debt service year over year. They also pointed out that we do have the ability and the possibility of increasing that rating back that outlook back to stable given that we are an anchor to many industries and many job opportunities, primarily the airport, the universities, and other large organizations within the city of Newark, and the increased development over the last few years that is increasing that development and that increase in revenue. They do recognize that there are some difficulties given the current financial struggles that the city is facing.

But, again, that's something that, again, is regional, not just specifically identified to the city of Newark, something that is shared around other municipalities around us, but that we do have an opportunity to correct that even as soon as some point throughout this year.

Thank you, director. Councilman Ramos.

Yeah. I I mean, this is

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Hold on one sec. Let's get the the BA to come up this time.

I just Ben to talk about the, gross debt relative to net debt, the 640,000,000 and where it comes from. Think that's important.

Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. Again, the the rating also mentioned, the, of the outstanding debt of 640,000,000.

That is the gross authorized debt that is currently outstanding for the city Of Newark, but that also includes, debt that the city had issued on behalf of the school district and debt that is issued on behalf of the water and sewer utilities. Now due to the fact that the school's debt is qualified under state law and state qualified bond act for the schools, that is deducted from the gross net for the city of Newark. Additionally, the debt issued for the water and the sewer departments, being that the water and sewer utilities are self liquidating, means their revenues exceed their expenses annually, you can deduct a 100% of the utilities debt from our gross debt. If we were to deduct that those, numbers, both the school and then utility debts from our gross debt, the city currently sits on $260,000,000 of net debt, which is what, the city is, at this point, truly responsible for because the qualified debt is guaranteed and covered by the state of New Jersey.

Thank you. Councilman Ramos.

Yeah. I I mean, this is an item that we could be here all night just going back and forth. And I think at some point, we definitely need to add this to an agenda for a special meeting because I'm sure there are a lot of questions. The email that the reporter sent to us followed like a conversation with representatives from Moody's. And one of the things that was stated by whomever that individual was that one of their concerns was the fact that we were late consistently with with the audited financial statement. Is is that an accurate assessment that they made in the e in the email? And if it is, then what's being done to correct that?

Absolutely. Historically, well, not the last few years, the city has been, late in filing their their audited financials. A lot of that had to do with due to the COVID period, which extended the time frame, and we've been fighting to get back on track. The city has filed their 2024 annual financial statements. We are already starting on the 2025 annual financial statements and excuse me, 2025 audit, correct myself, which this year, the state of New Jersey has extended the due date to August 31.

And then, therefore, it will be August 31 every calendar year after the close of the fiscal year for us. So we are working on completing the 2025 audit. We are shooting and striving for it to complete it on time and being had to file with the state of New Jersey by that due date.

And when we have that that conversation, can you break down the the overall debt in terms of what what percentages or what amount is allocated towards school projects, you know, water sewer capital projects. I know the city borrowed money in order to pay the county share that they owed because our rebel was late. You know, I'd I'd like to see a breakdown of that 600 plus million dollars in terms of where is it parked. You know?

Absolutely. Yes. We could provide that information

for you.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Gonzalez and then councilman Sullivan.

What is the the due dates on the on the debt? I believe it's more important that, how much we owe. Let's say, we have to pay that within five years, ten years, twenty years?

Well, councilman Gonzalez, your question. It varies depending on when the bonds were originally issued. Some of the bonds that the city has issued have a life expectancy of fifteen years, twelve years. Some of them are twenty, twenty five years. And based on that payment schedule, that's when the city that's when we pay our debt services out.

Can you can you send us the detail by, let's say, by due date? Let's say

Yes. Yeah. We we could definitely provide that to you with all our outstanding issues. We could provide you when they're due and and and when when the city pays those.

Mhmm. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you. Councilman Silva.

Yeah. So, I don't know if you can answer this question of the BA. I saw a couple of things in the article that said that either we get state aid or raise taxes. And I'm just concerned with a reval next year. Are our residents gonna see any changes or significant increase in their taxes for 2026?

Thank you. Eric Pennington, business administrator to, councilman Silva. Reval, again, is a rebalancing of the budget. It does not increase the budget at all. There's a $0 increase associated citywide with the revaluation.

What it does, it it looks at the property values and recreates the assessment based on what the actual values of the properties are. So it's a zero sum game. So that means that there are some properties that could go up, and there's some properties that could go down. What will also have to be taken into consideration is since the last revaluation, we've had tremendous growth in industrial properties being built, warehouses being built, and other commercial properties, some of which are not in the tax base at the appropriate level either. It is highly likely that those properties will be assessed at a higher level, and so the residences are not going to take a particularly significant increase in their taxes.

The tax rate will be the same for everybody. Businesses, commercial, individuals, the tax rate is gonna be what the tax rate is. So it will make a determination as to whether or not your house has improved in value relative to your neighbor's house house's value. So that's what's gonna happen, but there's not gonna be some huge increase in one location versus another.

So I have a question. Anything else from the council? So has the city performed any analysis or or let's just say analysis on revaluation is how it may affect different regions in the city?

No. We have to get information from the revaluation company, which we expect to get in the fourth quarter. We will have that information, and it will lay out, where the changes are, in in the city. And but, again, if if we have a you know, we're expecting 500,000,000, a billion dollars in tax revenue, that's not gonna change. Yeah. It's just a question of where it's gonna come from, and our expectation is that more of it will come from the nonresidential sector than the residential sector.

Alright. Mike, any other thank you, the BA. Thank you, director. Alright. Let's go to the agenda.

We are on page four of the agenda item six, ordinances on public hearing, second reading, and final passage. Six p s f a is an ordinance granting a twenty five year tax abatement to ten eighty Bergen developer Urban Renewal LLC for a project in the South Ward to construct a new five story mixed use building. Is there anyone wishing to be heard on this ordinance?

Good evening. George Tillman junior. Good evening. Yes. This is in the South Ward. Correct?

Yes. Okay.

It's 66 residential units, and 53 of these units are market rate. Can you please tell me why are we giving this this entity a tax abatement when the majority of these units will be market rate? It looks like what we're doing all over with this affordable housing because this is only a form of gentrification. There's no way you can build 80% anything in our city, and it's gonna be market rate. And you're gonna say that you're gonna do the other 40% at this and that.

That does not help our our our our housing crisis. This is exactly why we need such change in leadership. When we talk about these tack abatements and these economic incentives, first, the benefit to our community is not getting there. The jobs that are promised through these tax abatements aren't reaching our community. The contracts that are that are promised in these in these tax abatements and these economic incentives are not reaching our community.

Why? Because that affirmative action review council that I I don't know if you have mantled it, if it's functional. There has not been any update to what is this entity that is a part of these economic incentives for you to be able to give out these tax abatements if it's functional, but we're still giving them out. I keep saying we're still giving them out, but we're not in compliance. But now, councilman council, here we are in the South Ward building more development in the South Ward, and here we are as market rate.

And still we're asking why are we giving out these tax abatements on market rate projects. So still looking for answers to why we're giving out these tax abatements on market rate. We shouldn't even be giving them out right now because we're not even in compliance, councilman council. So please help me with that. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Cassandra Dock, of course, you already know we're against tax abatement in the way that you all do it. It's just horrible. But now I need to know, when you do the breakdown, 40%, 60%, 80% of what? Just from now on, include the medium income in the ordinance so that we could get a better look at what you want people to make in order to be able to live in these apartments. So in other words, a studio. How much is a studio gonna cost on Bergen Street? How? How much? How much? Fuck.

How much? And I'm only trying to be careful with what I say because miss Jackson, because other than that, you know, I say what I want because that's how I feel. How much? How much do y'all want a studio to cost? And then put yourself put yourself say for instance, if you were not elected officials.

Say for instance, if you did not even, you know, have the income, but you lived here. Right? Let's say you were, someone that just want to move out of your parents' house. Put yourself in your shoes when you're talking to the developer. Include please include, so we'll know what you're talking about, 40% of what? 60% of what? 80% of what? So we can get a better picture, so we can see the games, and we can see we don't care. Bottom line. We don't care.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Manira El Bumani. And I when are y'all gonna answer? Because I think I'm trying to Google in the that's that's that building of Kabore Tucker development. Right? Somebody say, yeah, because y'all know.

Wasn't this the Kabore Tucker project across from the ice cream cream parlor in the Aisha's Halal Chinese restaurant? Hello? Hello? And then someone, also proposed that whoever purchased properties or redeveloped that they come before the council.

Oh,

hello? Hello? Did they come before us? Hello? Then somebody say, oh, let's go out. Let's put a moratorium on tax abatements. Hello? Hello? Y'all there? Y'all somebody said that? Which one of y'all? Hello? Hello, Gonzales? Moratorium? Before you leave, hello?

Hello? We haven't gotten a return on investment yet. Hello? Council eight, is this the Kabore Tucker project? Did it change hands? Is he a silent partner? Hello? Oh, y'all don't know? Who live in South Ward? Council?

You're not gonna answer? Is this the Kabore Tucker's project? You live in Southwood? You still there? Oh, y'all ain't gonna answer. Is the person coming before the council? Did they come yet? Hello? Didn't you say something about that yesterday at the pre? Got your head down. One tapping. This one doing that. That one doing this. Well, he got his eyes shut. No answers.

We're we're not against development, but we haven't received a return on investment. Former affirmative review council person got kicked off of it. Answers was getting too deep. Y'all gonna answer? Kabore Tucker, where are you? I'll see you at the meeting.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

So, Deborah Salters, So you all talked about a couple of you, having the developer show up here. Right? I mean, it's respect. It's called being respectful. You wanna know what's going on in your wards. You all said that when Allison Ladd was up here trying to push y'all to do what she wanted you to do and fire sale real quick, but I need you to push this through. So we're the developers. We need

to see

them in here explaining what's going on and why they're getting what they're getting and the community benefit. Now Newark, unfortunately, this is what you're stuck with for the next four years. Thank yourselves because you didn't show up to vote. Because clearly, they've shown us that they're going to push these things through. We get up here and we say why the tax abatement shouldn't be given. We're not against development. We say it all the time. But how does it benefit We The People? But We The People didn't show up. So guess what?

They really don't care now because all they know is you talk and complain, but you don't do anything. Yeah. Because Trump said very confidently yesterday, I ain't going nowhere. So, Newark, they've told you where they stand, And you did this because you didn't show up to vote. So get used to more of these because no matter what we say, they're gonna say yes, yes, yes.

And, I don't know. You might find yourself on a curb in another town because you can't afford to live here anymore. You complain all the time, but you didn't show up. And another one.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Good evening, councilor Lamont Vaughan, city of Newark. I just wanna talk to the residents not about this particular issue in the the bill here, but in the overarching sense of the issue with respect to affordable housing in this city. I said it on my social media over and over again throughout this election process that the entire process is rigged. Right? Here it is. We're calling this affordability, but what is affordability? Right? We haven't even defined that here in this community as a people. We, the people of this community, or you as the leadership speaking, re representing the people in this community. Right?

Secondly, we're excluding a lot of people in this community, large segments as a matter of fact, people that live in this community from the affordability process because you have to have a six fifty credit score. You gotta pass these background checks. You gotta have all this other stuff in place that a lot of the residents in this city who need affordable housing do not have, cannot attain low income housing. Right? Right?

So so we need to start talking about low income housing, building that up, And listen, like some of the speakers said, I believe in the in the development thing. But if we're talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, let's really stand on that business and diversify these developments, include all of the people in this city from every genre, walk, and all of that, and and and and and, diversity, equity, and that will show the equity in the process to the people here. And we won't have the issues. Our seniors are living like you don't give a damn about any of them. But they're at the chicken dinners that you give, the giveaways, and all of that stuff that you guys throw and still have to go back to the

one

elevator, wheelchairs waiting for the one elevator that smells like piss with hallways that smell like piss and crap. Literally, I don't wanna get kicked out and banned anymore.

Let's speak towards the ordinance. Closer towards the ordinance, please.

Yeah. We're speaking about affordability and and all of that with with respect to the residents in this city. That's the ordinance. I believe I'm speak been speaking to that for the last minute, and I just actually, don't charge me ten seconds because I'm responding to you. Mister Crump, lastly, I'll say, with all due respect, the way that you did me at that last council meeting where you kicked me out, sucked the police on me, downplayed my entire candidacy before the public, ended up on top through it all, and I ended up on the bottom through it all. That will be rectified by paperwork hitting your desk soon. You shouldn't have did that, and I'm asking

you Thank you for your comments.

That course Next week. Administration going forward, brother. It won't be good for Newark.

Mister president, my comments are very pointed and very specific.

Mister mister Colter, state your name for the record first, please.

J John Tucson Colter here to speak before you on six p s f a. The ordinance granting a twenty five year tax abatement, long term abatement. It it it reads to ten eighty Bergen developer, Ergen renewal. My concern is not in the opportunity of this deal because I understand that opportunities are something that people prepare for and then go for. So a contractor has put their skin in the game for building affordable opportunity.

My concern is on the incentive. The incentive to provide a twenty five year tax abatement without consulting are two two particular entities, the fiscal advisory board, which is supposed to exist in the finance department. It does not exist. We're hopeful that after Donna Jackson is sworn in, the fiscal advisory board is something that's that's implemented under the Faulkner government former government that city of Newark has to support our at large formal members formal elected members in evaluating these tax abatements and getting more skin in the game from our school district. By that, I mean, not the superintendent.

No. No. No. Let Roger Leon stay at his office. The legislative elected members of the school board are able to, by their oath and obligation, participate in the repayment of tax abatement, technically called pilot programs, and how that money is gonna fund our local school system.

I know this seems like a foreign language that I'm speaking, but I'm speaking as English as I can get it within three minutes. But mister president, speaking to you as one parent to another and a special education advocate, under God, this is highway robbery. One this is Exit 144 robbery or how we know it. If you need to see it on body cam, check-in with Silva. She can show you what robbery looks like in real time.

Okay? The taxpayer, the homeowner, the senior, and those who have yet to be born should not be robbed through legislative ignorance. The inaction is complicity to Wall Street wolves coming into Newark and circumventing our school board to get the correct payments that we should have for a long term sustainable school system for our young boys and girls. 11,000 of Newark's children are being raised by grandparents, and these abatements forced the state to have to continue to subsidize us when we could fund ourselves. My god.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Donna Jackson, three quick things. We know when they throw these buildings up because nobody's watching. Plywood, plaster. The structure is never sound. Question I have for you, you're given a twenty five year tax abatement. How long is it gonna take you to put that tax abatement on hold? Because you letting people get away with murder. How long is it gonna take you? Every building that you have going up in this city right now has that pressed wood. That is not legal. It's been raining. It's storming out there now. Some of that house is gonna be down the street, especially that stuff on South Orange Ave. It's gonna be down the street. 13th Ave, that's gonna be down the street.

The stuff in the South Wales gonna be down the street. Everything they building right now. You ain't checking them stairs because they got 40 stairs. What person is coming home from work with grocery bag walking up 90 stairs? Who came up with this dumb design? Nobody wanna be walking up them stairs, especially if we got two, three little kids. Y'all got twenty, thirty stairs in front of these houses. Who what urban developer y'all hired came up with that dumb plan? Right? So I just need to know how long is it gonna take you to enforce the law because you're not doing it now.

Teachers Village, I remember when the man came here six years ago talking about the mold in Teachers Village. You did nothing. I don't need an amen, sir. You did nothing. We're not holding anybody accountable. How long is it gonna take? Now when this building go up, people move in, how long is it gonna take for you to enforce the law? Because these buildings leaking out that they just opened. Foundation settling because they're not putting it properly. They filling in the ground. They throwing sandbags in there. And you know why they're doing it? Because nobody's watching. I appreciate mister p's explanation of the new lady at the director. Excellent.

But who's watching? And I'm questioning the credentials of the people that are watching. She could be fabulous. What about the people working for her? They don't know the law. What good are they? Because if they're doing what they're supposed to do when they write these buildings up, we should be rolling in the dome, but we're not. We just had a situation on Clinton Place. Code enforcement went in, turned electricity off via PSE and G code enforcement in the North Fire Department. And guess what y'all did? Walked away and left from there. Children and families. 279 Clinton Place. We left from there. So I just need to know how long before we're gonna enforce it, and how long is it gonna take you to change the AMI.

Because everything else that you've built, you gotta make 85 to a 120. I dare you. Change this one. Make it from 20 to 50. Make it from 20 to 50 so some real families that's here suffering can move in, including some seniors who want fixed incomes. Change the AMI and force the tax abatement, and I'll be impressed.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Seeing no one else, public hearing is now closed. Is there anything from the council? Councilwoman Scott Rountree.

Yes. I I just want to address AMI based on federal guidelines, that we're dealing with here in the city of Newark. I know I've heard comments in meetings before that the municipality can, create whatever they choose based on our governance. I'm gonna be talking with our council president and my colleagues in regards to how we deal with the tax abatements. There is committee meetings that are held public.

The public is always as a matter of fact, there are two people in the council chambers that are all when they haven't seen them in the last couple of meetings, but they are open to the public. I don't know whether people are getting the notifications that it's the developers come before us. And if you're not, then we might need our officers contacted to find out why you're not getting the notifications because you are entitled to come because it's a public meeting to meet with these developers and hear them when they do their presentations. We're not at liberty to tell them legally as council elected officials what they can and cannot do when they come before us. But the committee, the public can speak at these meetings when we have them.

Mister Tillman has been to them. Miss Salters has been to them. I haven't seen a lot of the people that are speaking about the tax abatements at since I've been on the committee at any of these meetings. I've met with mister Tillman regarding to his concerns about the issues in the ordinance. As a matter of fact, the entire administration representative was sat around the table and I said I was addressing that ordinance being corrected because if it's a law that we've created and we're not following, that's a problem.

So I've asked for that to be addressed as well. And this is gonna be a different four years. There's some things that are gonna change. So I know that if there's something that has come before us, you can best to believe that we're not gonna be talking about it in six months. If the lord makes it possible and we're alive, they have to be addressed.

But once again, the tax abatement meetings are public to have these developers. If it's requested that they come before the public here, they might not be able to make it to the meeting, then we need to probably make that available to speak to the president, the clerk, how he would like to address that so that those things can be done. They were coming before. But we can't we cannot do this and make it comfortable and convenient for them, and then we have to hear the public say what they're saying. We we we're making it convenient for them not to show up for you.

They do show up in the tax abatement committee meetings, which you're invited to. They do. But if it's a request from the public for them to come and let us see their faces, I don't know why that is a big issue if the public is asking for it. So I don't know how we could deal with that, madam clerk and by the president. But let's see how we can address that issue because I don't want you for the next four years to hear the same thing, and I'm sure you don't either. So if we can address it and see how we can rectify some of this stuff step by step, then let's try that. But once again, the tax abatement committee meetings are open. I just wanna know whether the public is getting the information so that they can show up and hear these developers when they're doing a full presentation. Thank you very much, brother president.

Thank you, councilman Scott Rountree. Councilman, council.

Thank you.

One more

thing. I'm I'm

I'm not we're not gonna call out miss Mobani. We're not gonna call out miss Mobani.

All of that can be addressed. That will be addressed with the council president and the clerk, The Times. I also wanna ask because the general public does not have access to charts. They might not be familiar with federal AMI, and these these are things that people that might be watching are not aware of. So when we're talking about AMI and federal and all of these things, they're like, well, what's the chart?

What's the income? Where do we find this information at? So I'm asking for each project that comes before us for tax abatement, maybe, madam clerk, president, we can find a way to put a little chart up under the project to address that particular project and what the cause of the resident would be. At least to give the the public that's sitting here with an agenda that doesn't have access to Legislature nor the project details. Thank you.

Thank you, councilwoman. Councilman, council.

Yeah. Council president, I'm I'm not clear on on on what what that was, but let me be clear about this project. One, someone keeps mentioning the name of someone else that does not own this project. This project is the old CMB bank that sits on a corner of Bergen And Lyons Avenue. It has been blighted for a long period of time.

It's been an eyesore. We have had many community conversations around this project, which is privately owned and was purchased by another private developer. And when they came to get the abatement, mister Tilman was at the meeting, and he spoke at the meeting. So I'm not clear, about, the the questions or concerns about it, but I know that the community, fought at the planning board meeting, and we stood with them. They organized around what they wanted this facility and building to look like in in that community.

And the economic and housing development worked to ensure that they met the IZO criterias of of the facility. There were pre and post job fairs. And it's my hope and always my hope that affirmative action does the job that they're supposed to do that they've been hired to do. But to speak to councilwoman elect Jackson's point, I'm at the site every day because it's my ward. I'm visible.

I'm present all around the ward all of the time from laying concrete or to bricks. There's no wood that's being laid at the site, and we make sure that they're meeting the mandates. I heard mister Vaughn mention something about people wanting tax scores, and miss Dock did a wonderful job trying to explain why we need to engage in federal legislation because of the Fair Credit Housing Act, which allows these individuals to ask for your credit when you're looking for an apartment. And so we have to navigate and agitate on all levels of government for proper services to make sure that it happens. Do I agree with most people who come at the table and wanna try to develop and do things in the city?

No. But I'm gonna fight for the benefit of what is needed for the residents of this ward and make sure that they get those things that are needed here in this ward. This is a development project that would hopefully spur what is happening on the corner of Bergen Alliance and push traffic out from Beth Israel Hospital that they can possibly explore with this 5,000 square feet of space that we can turn into something that will bring people along the corridors, create density and walk in traffic to draw economic development in our community and our wards. I just wanted to, you know, point those things out, and let and let folks know that I'm I'm always, here to ensure, that the city is doing what they're supposed to be doing to meet the mandates. Been allowed as critic about it.

Been allowed as critic about illegal conversion since I've got on the council in 2022. Been at sites, been in areas, and been speaking about those things. So I look for all of those, you know, challenges and, you know, don't see a problem with this particular project. But there are individuals, again, as councilwoman Rountree stated, you know, can come to all of the tax abatement meetings and can ask a plethora of questions around the abatement issues, what questions they have, what does it look like in terms of how many projected construction jobs may be there, what is the role of affirmative action to assure them, what is new at works, doing to make sure that the back end of those jobs are happening, when the jobs get posted, how are people getting the information, and how we are getting out into those spaces. Right?

And our job is to make sure that we're putting the right people on those jobs to do the job, and then not trying to go and create a workforce and paycheck for ourself, but to make sure that we're doing it for the residents of of the city and putting them on the site and not looking for, as most of our folks in the crowd say, backdoor deals.

Right. Thank you, councilman council. Anything else from the council? Roll call.

Council members, Faye? Yes. Council?

Yes.

Gonzales? Yes. Kelly? Yes. Quintana?

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Rountree? Yes. Silva? Yes. President Trump? Yes.

B and c are amending the rent control ordinance, b is for corrections and additions, and c is to revise the definition of an income eligible individual sponsored by councilman council and second by councilman Kelly. Is there anyone wishing to be heard on these ordinances?

Before you come up, miss Jackson, can can we get so to make it easier for everyone, let's get an explanation on on those two ordinances, please.

Good evening. Randy Daniel, legislative coordinator for economic and housing development. In regards to the two ordinances before you, six p s f b, basically, what this ordinance is doing is it's combining the two rent control ordinances so that it allows for everything to be handled out of the rent control office in regards to landlord registration. This would stop duplicate registrations on parts of the landlord and would allow the rent control office to control this, which would also make it easier for them to issue the certificate of habability to the landlords once they have been inspected. So that is the only changes for six PSFB.

In regards to six PSFC, what this ordinance is doing, and this is in regards, to legal services, in regards to, evictions, our office of senate and legal services. What this will do is increase the eligible residents annual income from 200% to 300% of the official federal poverty guidelines as published by the US Department of Health and Human Services. So it's increasing the actual priority guidelines to assist more residents with assistance in eviction note, issues. Thank

you. Alright.

Let's

let's hear from the, residents public hearing.

You're welcome.

Donna Jackson, I know you want to say peanut gallery. Right, counselor? I know. It sounds good, though. Really does. I'm only messing with you. Okay. So two things. On c, because we are we doing both together?

Yes. Yes.

So on c, I'm glad we're changing the income. The legal service is not helping nobody over at landlord technical. I'm over there. They're not helping anybody. Right now, we're doing 400 to 430 cases a day, Monday through Thursday. I'm over there. I've been over there for three years. They are not legal service is not going to those hearings. The legal services is not sitting in when people are signing agreements. It's not happening. They're not doing it. I'm just telling you. And all them people you got on the 1st Floor, they're not going to people to court either. You know what they do? Oh, just tell the judge.

And when the tenants walk into the courtroom without representation and the LLC boys had their representation, the tenant, 90% of the time, is not heard. I'm there. I'm telling you. So, I I mean, we should change the income. I don't disagree with that, but legal services isn't helping anybody. They're not. I'm telling you. Just do a random check. 400 people a day over the last four months. That's a lot of people. Landlord registration, habitability. Let's just talk about that real quick. The apartment I'm talking about on Clinton Place, the lady been in there six months. Six months. Who inspected that?

Lady on the 1st Floor Section 8. Lady on the 2nd Floor pays full rent. Lady on the 3rd Floor is in the illegal conversion. Who's paying for that? Who who who inspected that? They got water running through that place. So I'm telling you, if the lady had not gone downstairs because the lights went out, because they had the air conditioner on, because it was 9,000 degrees, we all agree with that. Thank you for turning the air up because it was getting hot. And so the sparks, they'd still been in there. So who inspected that? Who gave them a habitability letter? Guess what? The lady on the 3rd Floor doesn't have one. But guess who's paying the owner? Section 8.

We gotta work together. DCA gotta get it together. North Housing Authority gotta get it together, and NORC has to get it together. I know we have a new director. Give a little breathing room, but you need a whole crew to deal with what's going on in housing. People are really living in situations that are life threatening. People think when the breaker goes out, they could just flip the breaker back on. Doesn't work that way. That's where the fire comes from. So I'm just saying in terms of the registration and the habitability, there should be a way for the tenants through the rent control or whatever we're doing here to make sure that the certificate is given.

And we need to make sure that it's properly given because we got a property on 19th Street in our area, sir, that they said had a escalator and elevator on the inspection report. What what, four family house was that? So I just want us to be careful. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Cassandra Dock, I just want us to when we use this, kind of language here when we say income eligibility, just include around about the income so people can get an idea. And I know you were talking about, you know, the guidelines for HUD for AMI. Most some of us know that. Some of a lot of us don't. But also, you know, tell what the AMI stands for so that people will know that.

So put it in here so that people, would know exactly what you're talking about and they could follow you. Because even with me, sometimes when I'm talking and I'm talking about all levels of government, sometimes if you're not into it, you can't even follow me because I'm talking about something that you really don't know about. So, again, if you put it in there, it'll be a little easier for people to follow.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

To, councilman council's point, with respect to the credit people, giving them the authorization and the right listen. You guys are the city council. Y'all have the power invested in you all to determine the destiny of this community. The people who come in and do business, the developers that are invited in.

Miss miss mister Vaughn, we're talking about the rent control ordinance. Right? To that, mister,

president. Trust me. Rent control will be addressed in my three minutes, But I wanna, you know, respond to something that the councilman did mention with my name in it and correct the record.

This is the time to speak to the ordinance though. I will. Okay.

Can I speak to the councilman for

two seconds? Yes.

About the ordinance. Okay.

So so so, you know, you guys run this city, period. Let these people know when they coming in what you guys expect, what the people expect. That's the bottom line. See, do they wanna play ball or they don't? That's your ordinance.

Listen.

South Ward, Patrick Council, let's get them back in June 9, man. And let's get this stuff passed for the South Ward and develop that South Ward for real because it's looking that what you talked about on Bergen And Lyons, crazy. We got a couple of more edifice. Crazy. Get it right, Pat. You're doing that. I like that.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

So,

Donna, you was right about legal services because I done dealt with them. I gotta deal with them again with the habitability. But you got judge Spencer. She does the Marini hearings. Now I had a issue with a door, and they try to say that it wasn't a part of the habitability.

Now if you got a door that you could put your hand up there, your hand around the side, your hand what what is it called? Flushing. Isn't that considered habitability? That's and and then and then you don't your your your locks and everything. But, anyway, who do you address with the habitability stuff?

Because if you got judges that are allowing the property managers to get off the hook With that, what steps do we go when the when the judge, you know, she don't offer you rent abatement, she don't offer none of that? Who do you go to? Do you come back to the city? Who do you go to? And what is considered habitability?

Because she's she's saying that it don't apply to the doors. It don't apply to leaks. But when you read the habitability, it applies to all of that. But you gotta judge that go both in the in go in the interest of the of of the landlord. Ramos, this your ward.

And I got a habitability issue right now. Leaks every day in my in my living room, destroyed everything, which I'm living in now. I'm just bringing this up. This is, like, the third time with this property manager. Slumlord intensified in your ward.

And this is exactly why they harassed me and they towed my vehicle illegally, which is going through the court system with a suit because I keep making these complaints. Debris, garbage, trash, which I sent you a email. Right? Gonzalez, you sent the COVID enforcement people. But my whole thing is is that what do the city do with the habitability, in regards to holding these, slumlords accountable? Ramos.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. No other speakers appearing. Public hearing is now closed. What I will say before you come up first of anything from the council.

I will say I have been the landlord tenant, miss Jackson, a few times, and I have not seen anybody from legal services tenant legal services, but I I don't know if there's a schedule where they do come. And it just so happens that judge Spencer was there both times. But maybe through Madam Clerk, we can get some kind of information on whether legal services does appear. And if so, when do they appear in landlord tenant? Madam oh, you're patting your head.

Waiting to talk.

Yeah. Yeah. Deputy mayor? I I didn't think so, but they did. If not, it's okay. I think we're we're we're comfortable to move forward. But

Good evening, council member council members. Allison Ladd, director of economic and housing development. Yes. We are prepared to provide some information, and we can let you know first on the office of tenant legal services. The one of the reasons why we cannot represent everyone in court is because of the federal poverty level restriction that we placed when we originally created the ordinance.

It's just we can't help everybody because we had a 200% of federal poverty level before. So increasing it, we know we'll be able to do more. So on that, I would tell you though the cases that we've have based on application, we have 206 active cases. And we've had to refer 17 to other legal services. And we've also had to unfortunately deny 27, and that's just this year. The overwhelming reason for, someone working with the office of tenant legal services is for nonpayment of rent.

Thank thank you, deputy mayor.

And I could tell you the federal poverty level.

Go

ahead. So the last part was is that the federal poverty level, I do agree that a percentage is is not digestible. So so we apologize for that. 300% of the federal poverty level for one person is $47,880. 300% of federal poverty level for two people is $64,920.

And for three people, it's $81,960. And for four people, it's 99,000. And I'll just close with mayor Baraka also felt similar about the number of people we were serving, which is why he asked to increase, from 200 to 300% of federal poverty level. So thank you.

Thank you, deputy mayor. Roll call.

Council member Spay?

Yes. Council? Yes. Gonzales? Yes. Kelly? Yes. Kinkana?

Yes. Ramos? Yes.

Scott Rountree? Yes.

Silva?

Yes.

President Trump?

Yes. D is an ordinance amending solid waste management by amending collection and removal of bulk waste items when creating hazardous conditions and associated penalties. Sponsored by councilman council, second by councilman Ramos. Is there anyone wishing to be heard on this ordinance?

Why don't we do the same thing before you get up, miss Jackson? If we get a brief explanation of what the amendment is.

Kareem and Dean, interim director, DPW, council president, council members. This ordinance is, limiting the, ten day waiting period to two days, to removal of, I'm sorry. Bulk. This ordinance is clarifying the amount of bulk that you can put out 10 pieces, and anything more than 10 pieces is $250 per piece. But it also is eliminating the two day the the waiting period for us to abate it from ten days to two days. And if we see that it's causing an immediate health hazard deemed by the department director or I will, remove that thing the same day.

Thank you. And At the owner's expense.

Yeah. Mister chair.

At the owner's expense.

Alright. Councilman Councilman.

Yeah. So and and also the ordinance speaks to the fact that if someone has more than 10 pieces out, that they would be responsible for removing the remainder pieces so they would have to find a private hauler or put the things back in their yard and still be charged for it. So I just wanted to talk about the extensive component of it. So there's only, 10 items that are supposed to go out for ball. If someone puts out 30 pieces or put out an entire house, that, the DPW department will remove the the 10 pieces, then they will come and site, the house, and then ultimately, a fine will be assessed.

Those individuals will have to get a private harbor. And if the DPW has to come back to remove the stuff, then the owners of that facility will have to pay the fine, for removal as well. So all of that is under the the addition of this ordinance.

Yes. Council president, council members, in addition, we do see people lately, the last several months, have been putting out their whole apartment. They're they're dumping almost three or four dumpster loads on certain blocks of apartments during the first of the month. Right? Doing that first or second bulk pickup.

Mister Thank you. Councilor Ramos.

Oh, yeah. I definitely support this. I applaud the department for coming up. You know, I think we we regulate and create a lot of different ordinances to to empower, you know, your department. I'm hopeful that some of this revenue can be utilized so you guys can hire some weekend and evening enforcement because that's typically where you get your biggest violators.

And we still have those same apartment building owners in the North Ward that have Monday garbage pickup and they put out hundreds of bags on Sunday morning. So that stuff is sitting out there twenty four hours before pickup. Same building owners are the ones that are putting out bulk garbage pickup. We received an email from 515555 complaining that the city's not picking up, and you guys gave them a dumpster for them to put out their garbage two dumpsters. So, you know, I think this is a step in the right direction, but some of this revenue needs to be reinvested in the department as far as, like, manpower and equipment as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, councilman. Anything else from the council? Thank you, director. Public hearing.

Cassandra Dock. Now Kareem did address it, and I wanna thank him very much for addressing it. But I do like the fact that the city has opened up various I think they Kareem said they still have three places where you could take bulk to. I think it's Monday through Saturday, and I know one is on 12th Avenue and 12th Street. But, also, I also I brought to Karine's attention that he had a one particularly an employee who were kinda, like, harassing residents when they came to bring bulk there.

She even made a statement that, to even to me, oh, you can't come back here. Again, Karim did address it, but I want the staff at these different facilities to understand that these facilities and maybe people I don't know if everybody is aware of it. You have three facilities where you can take bulk on your own too. And we don't need the staff members to harass people when they're utilizing this service.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Donna Jackson, just a couple of things. Agree, but we can handle this different. I'm not gonna let you penalize no seniors who have their grandkids come over on the weekend, clean out the garage form, and they put it at the curb. Right? So we also know to create a service and possibly charge for it. Right? Because we I I I know who the LLC boys and the developers are and those that's doing construction. We know who those are that are dumping. But we also know that we have some older elder folks in the community still. You know, you let three of them keep their houses, and they were doing some cleaning and may not understand the 10 piece rule.

So we need to work that out because I don't wanna see them over there in court. Because I have a neighbor on my block. He tore the garage down by himself, and then he was back and forth in court, $10,000, $15,000. I thought I was in East Orange. That's what they do. So I I understand it, but we need to make it easier for our elder homeowners, and we know who they are. We know who the elder homeowners are. We also need to help the homeowners who these drive by night drop off at the people's house need to help them too because we don't do that. You penalize the homeowner and not gonna do you because you're the counselor. And the young lady right here comes with her truck and dumps in front of my house.

Right? So I didn't put it out there. I might have had a piece out there. Somebody comes with a truck, and they're doing that as well. So the it it you know, everybody doesn't have the ring doorbell and the cameras, etcetera, but I think we need to make it easier for homeowners. Now director Dean and I had a conversation, last week, and I wanna include it in here. Since you're doing hazardous waste, I'm talking about recycling. I'm tired of us allowing, and it is illegal and against the law. Y'all letting these people steal the recycles out of our cans. At one time, we had the police arresting those folks.

I don't know what's wrong with you guys. We was over in the South Ward. These people got a garage, a house, a garage full of plastic bottles and cans. What we doing? What we doing? You know the tonnage? I was on, Melrose Montrose. I don't know. And thank you, mister Dean, for answering. Why aren't we tackling that? Y'all see it? You see the people pushing the cars around with 15 plastic bags on it with all them bottles. Y'all don't even stop them. I come out my house. You're not stealing no cans on Telford And Smith. It's not happening. It's not doing that. They stop them in the storage. What's wrong with enforcement in Newark? So there's a simple solution.

Just like I said, hire the traffic officers. It don't have to be police officers. You need to hire trash officers. And then mister Dean doesn't have to send the supervisors out because we're handling that. And, also, lastly, create the program for the elders. Let's think, duh. We could do it with the trees and you're talking about generating okay. I'll take care

of it. Thank you for your comments.

I'll I'll take care

of it. I got you.

Next speaker. No speak additional speakers. Public hearing is now closed. Anything from the council?

Roll call. Council members Bay. Yes. Council.

Yes.

Gonzales.

Yes. Kelly. Yes. Quintana.

Yes. Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Rountree? Yes. Silva? Yes. President Trump?

Yes.

E is an ordinance authorizing the acquisition of property for a new water and sewer utilities complex sponsored by councilwoman Bay, second by councilwoman Scott Rountree. Is there anyone wishing to be heard on this ordinance?

Down to Jackson, not what you were expecting. Let's make it happen. Let's go. I'm serious. Let's go. And let's look at the rest of the buildings and make it happen. I don't need to see more critters running around in our firehouses, police departments. We need to get these buildings done. And guess what? This is why we're telling you to stop the tax abatements. These folks coming in here to develop, they should be building new facilities for us. Bottom line. Bottom line. Then we don't have no arguments. Let's make this water facility can I have some input on the drawings, sir?

Yes. I'm sorry. Director of the council, like to have some input. Right? Because we have emergency situations, and we may need to make sure that we have

some

rooms when we got water main breaks so our staff can stay because they might not be able to go home. Another winter storm, pipes breaking like we had the last couple of years. We need to think that into whatever new it is that we're doing. Right? As we're having this low water pressure with these fires, we may need to keep staff on. We need to train staff. So where's the training facility? So we're building a new one. What we're doing at the old place? Right? Because we should be training our residents, male and female, in pipe fitting. I don't know why we haven't been doing that for the last ten years, but it's okay. It's never too late to start. Okay? So, yes, let's get that new facility done, but can I see the drawings first so I can make sure we have the appropriate rooms?

You know, I might wanna come over there and hang out a couple of nights with the guys and ladies. You know, I might wanna put some pipe down myself. Amen? Because I'll be like, Donnie, you you can't do that. You can't go down in the ground. It's all love. It's all love. Have a good night.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Seeing no other public hear hearing is now closed. Roll call.

Council members Bay? Yes. Council?

Yes.

Gonzales? Yes. Kelly?

Yes. Quintana?

Yes. Ramos? Yes. Scott Rountree? Yes. Silva? Yes. President Trump?

Yes.

Resolutions. Seven r one a through h are temporary emergency appropriations. A is for the operating budget, b is for federal highway safety grant, c is for the innovative community crisis response partnership grant, d is for the Immunization Program. E is for the Firefighters Memorial Park Climate Resilient Community Space grant, sponsored by councilman Silva, second by councilman Kelly. F is for the distracted driving grant, g is for the youth boxing program grant, sponsored by councilman Kelly, second by councilman council, and h is for the water monitoring program.

Council as a whole to adopt a through h with sponsors, please.

Roll call.

Council members Bay? Yes. Council? Yes. Gonzales? Yes. Kelly?

Yes. Quintana?

Yes. Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Rountree? Yes. Silva? Yes. President Trump? Yes.

I through q are purchasing contracts. I is for the bucket truck for license plate readers. JIs in emergency emergency vehicles for public safety. K is for repairs on the Bay Floor of Engine Nineteen's Firehouse. L is for the maintenance and repair service for the OEM and non OEM vehicles.

M is for the firefighter protective gear and supplies sponsored by councilman Kelly, second by councilman Quintana, n is for the tire removal and disposal services, o is for gas, cylinders, and related equipment, p is for ammunition, and q is for locksmith services. Councils will hold to adopt I through q with sponsors, please.

Roll call.

Council members Bay. Yes. Council.

Yes. Gonzales. Yes. Kelly. Yes. Quintana.