Council - Regular Meeting

Good morning. Welcome to the special meeting of the Newark Municipal Council on Tuesday, March 24. In accordance with New Jersey law, adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the Star Ledger, the Jersey Journal, and the public at large establishing the date, time, and location of this meeting. In addition, the agenda for this meeting was disseminated on March 20 at the time of preparation and posted on the city's website. Roll call, please. Council member Bay. Present.

Council absent Gonzalez.

Present.

Council president, council members, we have one item for consideration today that inadvertently missed the deadline last week. It is six I'm sorry. Seven r nine a s, which is an acceptance of grant funds for police officer overtime to reduce motor vehicle crashes, injuries, and fatalities from traffic offenses. Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council members Spay? Say? Yes. Council

Yes. Yes.

Absent. President Trump.

Yes. President, if I may.

Councilman Gonzalez.

Yes. It I hopefully, this, it will reduce the accident between police officers because every every day we get emails that the police officer has had an accident. So maybe we can train them how to drive, with this kind of money.

So, hopefully, councilman, maybe in the future council meeting or or conference, we can have the, maybe not the director, but someone from his department to come in and

We have

someone here. Oh, is he? Oh, I didn't even see you in the corner. Alright. Sorry about that.

Morning, council president, council members. I'm, captain James George from the Department of Public Safety with the police department. I second that, that that sentiment. Totally agreed. There's too many accidents. We are taking steps to, to retrain and advise our people when the appropriate response is to reduce the amount of accidents Yes. Department of Public Safety gets into.

Captain, is that, every day is we get an email indicating that there has been a police involved accident. And some of them are very stupid accidents. Some others are, let's say, a little bit more serious, but I believe that, the younger people these days don't let's say, don't think that they need a car so they don't get licenses. So I believe that we have to intensify the training because they have this is probably the first time that they drive.

That's some of the problems. Yes. That that's correct. That's a good observation. There's other things that and measures that we're taking just to make sure they know when to respond with urgency. And then sometimes when it's not needed, why why bother? So we're taking those steps. But the grant isn't intended for that, but we're that's something we're working on every day. I'm just as frustrated as by the emails as you are.

Thank you.

Alright. Thank you, councilman. Thank you. Yeah.

We are in the thirty minute public comment portion of this meeting where each speaker will have three minutes to speak. Please state your name for our records. Is there anyone wishing to address the council members?

Anyone wishing to address the council? Now's the opportunity. Going once? Only twice? Three times. Alright. There's no one. Public speaking is now closed.

I'm gonna adjourn this meeting.

Yeah. Let's, motion to adjourn the meeting.

Council members, Bay? Yes. Council absent. Gonzales?

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Quintana?

Quintana? Yes.

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

Yes.

Council president, council members, we are now in the special conference portion of