City Council - Regular Meeting

it's now three minutes after the hour I would like to get started we got a long agenda and I know we got a lot to discuss so city of Newburgh City Council meeting August 10th 2026 so we're going to take a brief moment of silence And then after the brief moment of silence, we'll commence with the Pledge of Allegiance in our agenda. We do have a request. Detective Christopher Thompson from the town of Newburgh lost his life this week. So we could keep Detective Christopher Thompson and his family in our thoughts. He was a young man taken from us in duty. So please, if we can think in our moment of silence. have that in mind. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Roll call please.

council member martinez present council member mclemore council member monteverde council member shakur council member stewart here council member zoria here mayor harvey here so carried

Thank you very much that was item number 3. Next we move the communications and under communications we go to item number 4 and item number 4 we need an approval of the minutes from the City Council meeting on July the 13th 2026. So move. First motion is set up by Councilman Shakur. Do we have a second? Second. Seconded by Councilman McLemore. Roll call on the motion please.

council members Martinez I Macklemore Monteverde Shakur yes Stewart yes Zoria yes mayor Harvey yes so carried thank you very much next we move to item number five under communication and that is the city managers update mr. Jason Morris Thank You mayor

On Tuesday, August 4th, the city of Newburgh held its annual National Night Out event with participation from local organizations. This family-focused event featured music, games, free food, a dunking booth, touch a truck with the city's public works team, community resources, and more. The event concluded with a spectacular fireworks show along the city's waterfront. Thank you to the city staff, community organizations, and attendees who participated to help make this year's event a success. The City of Newburgh Recreation Department is working to restore several neglected areas in the Delano Hitch Park. Over the last two weeks, the recreation team has focused efforts to clean up and restore the baseball stadium concession stand to be fully operational. After years of inactivity, the facility is being fully cleaned out, plumbing is being repaired, new equipment is being installed, and the concession area receiving a comprehensive safety and operational inspections. These improvements are intended to return the space to active use for youth and families who visit the Delano Hitch Baseball Stadium for games and to transform the area as a revenue generator for the city. The Recreation Department also continues to transform other recreational facilities with focused improvements in cleanliness and appearance. Recreation staff has completed a comprehensive cleaning and reorganization of facilities, removed debris, and inventoried unused items for future auction. prepared athletic fields and public spaces to be game ready and improved overall site conditions to better serve residents and visitors. This work reflects the department's dedication and vision to delivering well-maintained facilities and quality recreation environments for all visitors. The sanitation department collected a total of 977.68 tons of solid waste during the month of July. A total of 91.65 tons of recycling was processed supporting the city's sustainability efforts. Additionally, 50 sanitation warnings were issued reflecting ongoing enforcement of waste management regulations and community standards. The Department of Public Works staff has identified a deteriorated section of concrete sanitary sewer main on John Street that required immediate repair. DPW staff excavated and repaired the failed sewer and resulting sinkhole in the road, restoring system integrity and preventing further damage. This repair was performed entirely by the Department of Public Works personnel, eliminating the need for third party contractors. The Department of Public Works identified several deteriorated catch basins that were compromising the surrounding roadway infrastructure. DPW staff promptly repaired the failed catch basins and rebuilt them with new components and concrete. The deteriorated catch basins were located on South Street, South Williams Street, and at the intersection of Park Place and North Montgomery Street. This repair was performed entirely by DPW personnel, eliminating the need for third party contractors. On Tuesday, July 14th, the City of Newburgh Water Department identified a water main break on Liberty Street. Despite the summer heat causing roadway temperatures in excess of 100 degrees, Water Department staff successfully located and repaired the break on the 12-inch water main within several hours. As a result of the water main break, a precautionary boil water notice was issued by the City to the affected customers along the Liberty Street corridor. subsequent laboratory testing revealed that the water was safe for consumption and the precautionary boil water notice was lifted we appreciate the water department's commitment to restoring service quickly and safely we thank our residents for their patience during this repair On the afternoon of Saturday, August 8th, the city's drinking water filtration plant was damaged by a lightning strike. The lightning strike damaged several electronic devices that typically provide automated control of several plant operations. The water superintendent responded to the scene and brought in several water department staff along with a control specialist to assess the damage. Once the full damage assessment was made, the county health department was notified of the issue and water department staff took over manual control of the damaged automated functions of the plant. Replacement parts were ordered, which will be delivered and installed on Tuesday. No interruptions to the city's water supply occurred during this incident. The land use boards received the following applications in July. The planning board received four new applications and issued five approvals. The zoning board of appeals received five new applications and issued six approvals. And the architectural review commission received four new applications and issued four approvals. Six informational requests were received in the month of July. The Cosmos Restaurant Group is scheduled to break ground on their expansion of Hudson Taco and the Pizza Shop located at 27 South Water Street in September of this year. The existing building will be converted entirely to Hudson Taco and the new building will be constructed to house solely the Pizza Shop. Project renderings are shown on the screen. The city of Newburgh's police department fielded 2,985 calls for service in July of 26. The city's crime reduction strategies continue to produce results. Preliminary part one crime data through July 31st shows a 27% decrease compared to the same time in 2025. This includes a 26% decrease in violent crime and a 28% decrease in property crime. In the month of July, the Code Compliance Bureau issued 160 construction permits with a construction value of roughly $29 million. They completed 1,263 inspections, of which 735 inspections passed. They issued 372 notices of violation, issued six notices of violation in the Broadway corridor, sent seven violations to court, received 356 complaints, closed 130 existing complaints, and issued 29 stop work orders. In July, emergency medical services responded to 471 calls resulting in 478 dispatches and 290 patient transports. Average response times fluctuated throughout the week, with Friday recording the longest average response time. The busiest day of the week was Wednesday, which saw the highest number of emergency calls. The fire department received a total of 299 calls for service last month. Four of those calls, or 1%, were for structure fires. For all other fires, seven calls were received, or 2%. 80 calls, or 27% of calls, were for non-fire hazard calls. 101 calls, or 34% of all calls, were for non-fire calls for service. Lastly, 36% of the fire department's calls in July were for false alarms and false calls. There are several vacancies on the city boards and commissions. At tonight's meeting, I'd like to highlight the current vacancies on the Arts and Cultural Commission and the Newburgh Housing Authority. Individuals interested in applying for the Arts and Cultural Commission or the Newberg Housing Authority or one of the other city boards and commissions are encouraged to apply. You can apply via the city website at cityofnewberg-ny.gov by emailing a completed application to boards at cityofnewberg-ny.gov or by hand delivering an application to City Hall at 83 Broadway. For the latest news and announcements about the City of Newburgh, sign up for our Flash News via Notify Me. Visit the City's website and click on the Notify Me button towards the homepage. To subscribe, you must type in your email or phone number in the profile information section. Click the email and or phone icon next to the lists that you wanted to subscribe to. You can also subscribe to receive the latest City news, agendas, and job exam postings.

members of the news media are asked to direct all press inquiries to press at citynewberg-ny.gov that concludes the city manager's update excellent job thank you very much mr morris really really great news uh and updates uh next we move to presentations and item number six have a public hearing for the fiscal year 2025 consolidated annual performance and evaluation report otherwise known as caper and it will be open for a 15-day public comment period for those who aren't able to comment tonight and Yeah, there will be a public hearing that this is the public hearing and with public hearings. What we do is we uh... have five minutes for public comment on this particular matter we ask people to state their name tell us simply if they live in the city or not uh... and um... uh... strictly for the fiscal year twenty twenty five consolidated annual performance and evaluation report and we have everyone to make their comments limited to that particular issue an item alone then after the public hearing we'll have public comment where people can mention or discuss whatever issues or questions or concerns they have about any other matter so we're doing a public hearing five minutes on the clock please if anyone has a public comment for this particular item please come to the microphone give us your name you live in the city on your public comment

Nope.

There we go. My name is Tracy Wallace. I'm speaking as a resident of the city of Newburgh. I'd like to thank the city for continuing to invest in CDBG funding into our community. However, I would like to request some greater transparency in the CAPER reporting, particularly regarding accessibility-related projects. While I understand that some CDBG funds were used to improve accessibility, it appears that not all of the available funding for those purposes were utilized. I also noticed a difference between the 2024 and the 2025 CAPER reports. The 2024 report identified completed projects More specifically while the 2025 report focused on the proposed activities. I mean, I saw the proposed ones, but it didn't, I did not find at least in the 2025 report, the specific, like where did those like, okay, we spent this amount of money and where exactly were those funds spent? Like what streets do they improve? You know, and that was not in the 2025 report. So I respectfully ask that the city to include a detailed list of completed accessibility projects, including the locations, the work that was completed, and the amount of funding spent on each project. This level of transparency will help residents better understand how federal funds are being used to improve or how funds are being used to improve accessibility and identify where additional needs remain. I also want to discuss if the CGP funds can be used in any way for youth programs and projects, because youth programs and projects don't just help the youth. It brings our community together. I know we have seen our community come out, especially it reminds me of the Newburgh Steelers. My sons were on that team for many years. And when we came out to the community, the whole community came out. to support the city of Newburgh. And so if any of these funds can be helped to be used towards youth programming, I'm asking for, you know, to look into how those funds can be utilized for any and all youth programs, not just the Steelers, but all youth programs in our city of Newburgh. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Anyone else for this particular item? The fiscal year 2025 CAPER report.

Hi, everyone. Mark Sanchez Potter, City of Newburgh. So specifically about the CAPER report, if you could speak on how much was allocated towards improvement of park lands and parks generally, I think that that would be, you know, really, really impactful. well as if we could just clarify the workforce development some of the the projects that the city is using in relation to workforce development which i think is very noble but like what specifically like is it the the bootcamp thing still or is it a different program basically and like what's the what's the expectation going forward in relation to job training specifically with those funds thank you

Thank you very much. Anyone else for this particular item in public hearing? Good evening.

My name is Miles Ephraim. My wife Rose and I bought a house in Newburgh about eight years ago for $325,000. We thought modestly within our budget we would have spent twice as much, three times as much in other locales like Long Island, Westchester. Rose is a social worker. I'm a teacher. The first goal in this city's own community development framework, right? The one the planning department presents with the CDBG cycle is economic development without displacement. Tonight you're receiving comment on the CAPER, the report that tells us how we performed against our goals. So my question is simple, where in this report do we measure displacement? I can tell you where it's happening for us. Our property tax bill has doubled since 2018. We came in understanding it was high. It was just under $10,000. Within two years, it was increased by 50%. So $15,000. And then this year, it reached $20,000. I mean, the bank representatives themselves and maybe some of you, right? Their jaws were on the floor when they heard that. We were successful in appealing. Fine, we had done that before, but we grieved our assessment and won. I guess is the right word for it. It took eight pages, 44 exhibits. Most homeowners in this city can't mount that kind of a fight. They absorb it, or they're foreclosed on, or they leave and sell to speculators. If we look at the plan's own numbers, the in rem property program, $190,000 as proposed in the fiscal 25 action plan pays three employees and buys supplies to maintain the houses this city acquires through tax foreclosure. The budget line includes locks and keys for homes that families lost. Beside it sits the homeowner assistance repair program, $25,000 for the entire city for the whole year. This spring, a single masonry estimate at our house on West Street came to $27,000. One house's repair needs exceed the whole city's annual homeowner assistance budget. So $190,000 to $25,000, that's eight to one, nearly $8,000. to manage the aftermath of tax foreclosure for every $1 spent keeping a family in its home. That is a performance measure. It measures perhaps the wrong commitment. CDBG exists for low and moderate income people. We have three asks, all CDBG eligible. One, measure displacement in the CAPER. Report tax foreclosures, in rem acquisitions, and where they cluster. If we don't count it, then that goal is decoration. Two, rebalance the next action plan. Grow the homeowner assistance repair program from a rounding error into a genuine anti-displacement tool. Three, fund as a public service activity an assessment and exemption assistance service, helping eligible homeowners claim star, senior, veteran, and disability exemptions, and navigate grievances so that staying in your home doesn't require the resources that my family, in this instance, was lucky enough to be able to muster. Your own slides say successful community building requires reestablishing trust. trust is built when the budget matches the promise the plan says development without displacement right now the budget buys locks for foreclosed doors we're asking you to budget for keeping families in their homes with their own keys in their own doors thank you very much thank you so much

OK. Once again, we really appreciate these comments on the fiscal year 2025 CAPER report, which is the Community Development Block Grant Consolidating Annual Performance and Evaluation. Anyone else would like to comment on that report? Please come forward.

Hi, my name is Betty, and I'm representing Ward 1. Or not representing, but I live in Ward 1. My only question regarding the CDBG grant is, what are the plans for the following year? Because this is a grant that we get yearly. And to really bring to attention the fact that our youth need more positive, engaging activities, things for them to do. So if for the planning of next year, that could really be taking into account that young people in this city need to the way that they'll be kept out of crime is by being engaged and being invited to things to do that are here positive in the community. So we just need more of that.

thank you Betty absolutely anyone else going once twice all right so that will conclude if there's no one else our public hearing for fiscal year 2025 the consolidated annual performance and evaluation report otherwise known as caper and then once again it will be open for a fifteen day public comment period so if you didn't speak tonight you have uh... two weeks to submit your comments uh... online and that will be uh... duly noted as well equally noted and um we appreciate everyone's comment on that all right so next we go to uh comments from the public regarding agenda and or non agenda items and the non-agenda items are general matters of the city this is the favorite section of our agenda so please come forward uh tell us your name whether you not you live in a city and everyone has three minutes and we are five three minutes for for these public comments for the public hearings they get five but these get three so please my name is Shelley Starkey I live in Ducktown I spend ninety nine point nine percent of my time within the city of Newburgh

I am recommending that the council seriously reconsider the application of Maritza Wilson for the director of the recreation department. Maritza has been working for the department for over 22 years. She was hired by Mr. Wilbur Higgins. She has outlasted five recreation directors, one of whom attacked me, and you know that's the truth. While I was cleaning a city park, he told me I needed a permit to pick up trash, so obviously The education factor cannot compare to the life experience that Marissa brings to the job. We have collected over 325 signatures on a petition with that cover letter and a business owner. JNF Pizzeria, he also owns a building. He gave her the highest recommendation. We went, people were calling us. One woman stopped me who did not speak English. I did not speak Spanish. And we had a complete conversation. She said, I sign Maritza helps me. What more can I say? She is the heart and soul of the recreation department. And I challenge anybody someday you're going to stand before God. If you feel differently about Maritza, how was that? I was well under three minutes.

That was excellent. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Leonard Lee.

Can you grab the mic, please? We can't hear you, sir. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Leonard Lee. I'm the head coach for the Hooker League Boxing up at the Rec. And I'm also here for Maritza, asking that she be considered as the director for the Right. Marissa has been there for a lot of years, and I watch her train the other directors that come in, and I don't understand why she can't be the director. And I'm also here to ask about the building on Southlander. No one's gotten back in touch with me or mentioned anything about it, but From what I understand, they tell me I can get it. And I'm not understanding that. And I guess that's it. Maritza, she's the one. You guys should check it out.

Thank you very much, Mr. Lee.

thank you for that my name is cynthia i live at 11 grand street and i'm here tonight because i'm kind of confused i'm confused and i'm hurt um i thought we were a sanctuary city and i don't understand how we can we're not we're a welcoming city not a sanctuary city okay sanctuary cities we wouldn't get no federal funding Oh, okay, I see. Well, I still feel like people are less safe with these cameras all around the place. I just think that they need to go and they need to go now before something really horrible happens, you know, because you're dealing with AI. So that's what I have to say is get the flock out of Newburgh. And I'm hurt, Mayor Harvey, because a couple of weeks ago you made some comments about communism and democratic socialism. Well, I grew up a communist. My parents were communists. They were also civil rights leaders. And I now am a democratic socialist. And I was just hurt because I didn't understand because the two economies are totally different. I didn't understand why they were grouped in the same sentence. But that just hurt me deep in my soul. So it sounded like McCarthy or something. I don't know. It was just weird. But all right.

Thank you.

My name is Felicia Hodges, and I'm a town of Newburgh resident. Some information to share with you. After a car accident in 2024, a man named Frank Tyson walked to a nearby veteran center and asked him to call the sheriff. Instead, the police were called, and he was handcuffed, placed on his stomach while an officer knelt on his back. He said, I can't breathe, seven times in 60 seconds before he stopped responding. He was pronounced dead at the hospital soon after while he was still wearing handcuffs. Canton, Ohio Police Department immediately placed two officers on paid administrative leave as per their policy, while the State Bureau of Criminal Investigation looked into what happened. The officers were eventually indicted on charges of reckless homicide, and their trial was scheduled to begin today. During an arrest for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill in 2020, Minneapolis Police Department officers pinned George Floyd on his stomach while one officer knelt on his back for over nine minutes. Mr. Floyd said he couldn't breathe more than 20 times before he lost consciousness and died. The officers were immediately placed on paid administrative leave, as was their department standard protocol. After cab driver reported passenger Ronald Singleton as belligerent and acting erratically in July of 2014, NYPD officers were reportedly escorting him for a psychiatric evaluation when he went into cardiac arrest and died. His death was ruled a homicide driven by physical restraint, and all the officers involved were immediately placed under internal review, as is their standard policy. There are many more, but they all have one thing in common. The officers involved were immediately placed on administrative leave or paid leave until the investigation concluded. On January 1st of this year, Marcus Burks died on his stomach in handcuffs on the literal street in the city of Newburgh after a violent car accident. He was tased at least three times, pepper sprayed at least twice, once while a New York State trooper knelt on his back, and he said, I can't breathe five times in under 30 seconds. His death has been ruled a homicide, but all 11 city of Newburgh officers involved are still on duty. We've been consistently told that the city will wait until the state attorney general's office concludes its required investigation. To me, that shows a total lack of basic accountability. by this council, the city manager, and the city of Newburgh police chief, because you could place them on leave and investigate separately. You've just chosen not to. The city charter says that the police chief is to present a report on police operations for the prior month at the first regular council meeting of each month. My question, was Marcus's death communicated to this board during the February 9th meeting? As at least two members of this board said they had not heard about it after we spoke here in April, my reaction is probably not. My second question, is there a policy in place for how the city of Newburgh officers involved in the death of a person while in custody is handled? If there is, where can it be found? And if not, why not? No one is above the law, I'm sorry, and no one is so far below it that they don't deserve its protections. This was said by the Ohio prosecutor when he announced the decision to charge the officers with reckless homicide in the death of Frank Tyson. It might serve this body well to remember that. Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm an educator and instructor. Don't people want to start my time? Because they get in the papers.

Reset the time, please.

I'm an educator. I want to make sure I'm giving class. I want to make sure everybody have. I'm also going to speak as an instructor in the military on briefings. When you're ready, just let me know. You got to keep up with me. We only got three minutes.

All right, we're ready.

James 417. First, I want to give thanks to the Chief of Police and Deputy Police for giving me this police report. Over-turned vehicle on its roof. Body cam, surveillance camera, police report. Police pursuit. Car flipped over. My son crawls out of the vehicle on his hands and knees. My son says, I think my leg is broken. My son looks at Officer Plano and said, who are you? My son's last words are, I cannot breathe. First officer on the scene, Francis Quinn. I observed a male to be sweating and actually resisting while I was on his stomach. My son never stood up. Due to the amount that he was sweating, based on my training as a police officer, I assumed that he was on narcotics. So I punched him three times in the head with a closed fist. Officer Plamo arrives on the scene. He administered OC spray. Abigail Baker. I was working with my partner, Officer Borden. Officer Borden and I arrived at the scene. Officer Borden was told to go to West Street and Broadway to block traffic. I struck him one time in the back with a closed fist. Officer Plamo Joseph. I identified myself as a police. My signs of shock is confusion, dizziness, So he identified, remember my son said, who are you? Then I deployed my OC spray towards his face with no effect, a lot. Looked at the video cam. If you ever saw it, that's when he passed away after he got sprayed. He said he then went and held my son's feet. Remember my son said, I think my leg is broken. He's a mean person. I'm so sorry. All right. Officer Gill, I ran towards my officers. I deployed my OC, second time he was sprayed. I dry-tased him three times, means he used a gun, three times on my son. Officer Borden, I was told to go to the corner of West Street and Broadway and stop traffic. I did. Now, question. Why was Officer Borden asked to leave? The only black male there. I know he knew my son. Let's not play this game. You had him leave, you did dirt. That was wrong. Why are these officers still allowed to work? I want to know. Serve and protect. Who are we serving and who are we protecting? Responsibility. Mayor. Oversees city enforces laws and oversees ordinance. city manager, supervised department heads, implementing policies set by the panel, the city panel. I plead the blood of Jesus. James 4 and 17, if anyone knows the good they ought to do and do not do it, it is a sin for them. And till you do right by my son.

Till you do right by my son.

Had this been reversed and my son murdered him, he would be sitting in jail waiting for trial. And I would have accepted that. Why are these officers still working? I don't understand it. Don't have to wait. You have it. You have it. Anybody can.

Thank you.

That's a hard one to follow, right? My name is Harold Couser. I'm the president of the Newburgh Steelers. I'm coming to you directly, face-to-face now. We have issues with Newburgh Recreation Department. For the last nine years, we had different managers that came up there. And they assumed that if you remove us from one part of the recreation, then you would really almost collapse. And actually, it did collapse. We had a shed that Newburgh Pop Warner Youth Football had the shed. Three managers prior to you got now took the shed from us and said, don't worry about it. We're going to put you in another building. We're going to put you in this building. We're going to get you hot water. We're going to get you regular water in here. And we're going to get you urinals in here. For the last three years, if you know this, and I see their development, it's a building there with no running water. There's no lights. For the two years that we was there, no running water, no lights, no nothing. We had to tell the kids, that's not me. We had to tell the kids to stay outside the door to get dressed. know nothing. So what we did is we bought stro lights. We put lights inside there to make sure that we had lights for the kids. And I felt like this was kind of funny because we represented the city of Newburgh, one of the highest parts that I felt like because I'm born and raised a Newburger. I'm a Newburger. I love Newburgh. We had won at least nine titles for the city of Newburgh. We've seen some of you guys come up and we thank you guys for showing up. But we have represented at least 600 youth football kids. And some of them, you know, they went to the state championship and we party hardy when they went to the state championship, when they got to the high school. But before they got to the high school, they was youth under us. I feel disrespected from the city because how do you put us in a dark alleyway with no lights, no running water, from a place that it was already primarily our property that Pop Warner gave us, and you took that from us to put your city stuff in there and gave us a hut and say, stay over there, we got you. After a while, you look at it and parents start paying attention to it. They're saying, well, we can't trust the Newburgh Steelers. We can't trust them. So we took the blunt of the head because now the city don't believe in you. The kids don't believe in you. So now if you notice, some of you guys on Facebook bring back distillers. Well, we're here to bring back distillers, but we can't bring back distillers unless you work with us. You cannot sit here and tell us that we're bringing in over 200 children on a regular day and we have nowhere they can urinate, nowhere they can change, nowhere they can stage their prolongers at, because you took it from us. You literally took it from us.

I'll give you 30 seconds.

And my closing part of this is, how do we change this? How do we work with you? Because the acting president, he will be coming with you to find out how do we sit down and make a plan. That's what we want. That's what we're coming here for. We need a plan. All right? I feel good. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chaucer.

All right, my name is Angelo Brooks. I'm actually the vice president of Newburgh Steelers, actually going to be the president of the Newburgh Steelers. I'm going to piggyback off what Mr. Couser said. I actually spoke to Wayne about a couple days ago about them wanting to remove our Newburgh Steelers equipment from their property. And Wayne did say to me he would try to find another place for us. Just for the record, the last guy that you guys had as the recreation director, he told us he was going to put us in a new building. He didn't put us in a new building. We actually had some of y'all board members come up to our chassis, molded helmets, molded uniform that we actually had to take out money out of our pocket because we wasn't getting funded from nowhere else. And I'll take care of these helmets, clean them, and they still put us back in that same room where there's feces in the toilets. And like Spider said, we couldn't even let the kids go in there and change because it was as uninhabitable to be in there. We need more funding from the inner city, Newburgh, to help us out with these kids. And my theory is this. If we keep these kids off the streets for two hours, two hours we could save their lives.

Let me ask you really quickly, just for a point of clarification, because there may be, I know there are at least two council members that are new. Was the city ever charging the Newburgh Steelers to use facilities?

I'm not for sure if they charged us to use the facility, but we did pay $500 a year to use the football field, which that wasn't good to use due to the fact that me and Coach Spider used to go on that football field every day before a game, pick up drug needles, clean up beer bottles, ask the homeless people if they leave for two or three hours, then they could come back once the game was over. And another thing, just to inform you about your city of Newburgh police, When we go to town of Newburgh games, which they played at NFA, city of Newburgh police officer was always nice to those kids. But when they come to the city of Newburgh, when they come patrol our area, they mean, they don't speak to our kids, they show no love to our kids. But when they're at NFA, they're the nicest cops in the world. So I just want to let that be on the record. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Michael Manion, I'm a resident of Newberg. And I got a simple question, not a complaint. I noticed item number seven is a big, a large cost for that. And what I was wondering is, up, further up Broadway, when they've been doing all that construction on the intersections, they put in concrete. And down here, they have that. And I was wondering why that was, and just out of curiosity, because I know they had, you guys went through something with people further up about their driveways and asphalt and all that stuff, so I was just wondering why.

It's just a temporary fix. We talked about that during the work session. It's just temporary.

Okay, thank you. I wasn't here, so thank you.

Good evening, y'all. My name is Corey Allen. I'm a lifelong city of Newburgh resident. And I have three things. The three things on my agenda right now has a theme of unattended. The unattended business of Marcus Burks' murder. That's first and foremost. The family, I believe that there's been a lapse in communication with the family. I believe that there has been a drop into the ball, that we dropped the ball in regards to how we punished the police officers involved with this, or even investigated them. So first and foremost, I think that is one of the most, the foremost things that needs to be attended to. Second, when I talk about inattended tool business, I'm talking about the resolution submitted on November 12, 2020. No, I'm sorry, 2024. It was a resolution. I was able to get some folks together from the city of Newburgh, victims of urban renewal. We got them together, and it was sent out. The resolution was sent to everybody, including corporate counsel, including all the members right here. Everyone up here got it. I was told a few times that they never received it, but it's a lie, because I have the email right here. It was re-sent by Rob McNamara, Councilman McNamara, on April 20th of this year. We keep talking about developing this river, but there has not been anybody who has attended to the business of indemnifying, which means bringing to the state before a calamity took place to those families who had their property stolen from them. So I called the city manager's office, the past city manager, the new city manager's office, called to make an appointment with them regarding this stuff. Nothing's been done. Meanwhile, our elders are dying off with their kids and their grandkids have no idea as to what's going on. So I feel as a lifelong Newburgh resident, who I feel connected to a lot of you up here, and especially since you guys know me, I'm black man first, I feel like a lot of these things are racially motivated. I know they are, because of the pattern. So with that said, I want to know who I can talk to about that. The third thing I want to talk to you guys about is the business of 146 Montgomery Street. Mr. Mayor, Michelle, Kelson, all you guys, I sent an email to you guys regarding 146 Montgomery Street, how it was owned by my grandfather. I'm sorry, my great-grandfather, John Oliver. You guys told me in an email that he didn't own it. I sent you actual evidence that he owned it. I haven't heard a thing from any of you yet. So my thing is, again, we're talking about unintended business. things that have not been tended to. And black folks in this community feel things that have not been tended to because they have not been tended to. So I can't talk to you about it right now because I'm going out of town tonight, but I'm going to send an email out to you guys again regarding the same things we talked about last year, two years ago, and three years ago. Hopefully I can get someone to respond to me. With that, I yield the floor.

Thank you.

Hello, Corbin Ledline, Ward 3. Before my remarks, I just want to say it is unbelievable that the officers involved in Marcus Burke's killing are still on the job. I wanted to respond to a few things that were said at Thursday's work session around Flock. First, privacy nihilism, the suggestion that any hope of having privacy is long gone because of the Patriot Act. or ring cameras or cell phones abdicates responsibility for a resolution that was passed by this council and that this council has the power to change. At one point I believed that the conflation of ring doorbells and flock cameras was just that some members of this council didn't understand the vast differences between these technologies, but at this point I can only conclude that those remarks are meant to intentionally confuse people. You have claimed that taking down the ALPRs would be detrimental to public safety, but we have yet to see any data to back that up. I'm not aware of any independent study that shows that ALPRs reduce crime. The Atlanta Press Collective recently did an analysis of FBI crime clearance data demonstrating that the over 5,000 flock cameras throughout that city haven't had a significant impact on solving crimes. All we get in response are hypothetical nightmare scenarios. You are sitting on two years of data of how this technology has been used and by whom, It was mentioned at a I mentioned a previous council meeting. I had submitted a formal request for flock data including organization National and network audit logs as well as data sharing agreements, but the city has yet to fill my request Council members student mentioned that she had data shared with her by the police chief I'd like to know what that data specifically is and request that it be made public If you want to make the case that this technology is so essential then please prove it Show us the data On ICE, even if we were to trust that no Newburgh police officers engage in password sharing or informal lookup requests, as officers in other departments have been caught doing, there still remains the possibility that FLOC can grant access to Newburgh's FLOC data without Newburgh's knowledge or consent, which there are documented cases. Mounted View, California discovered in 2025 that FLOC had turned on the national search feature, allowing access to agencies around the country to view their data. In Washington State, during FLOC's pilot program with Customs and Border Patrol, which they denied existed, CBP was able to access FLOC data of jurisdictions, even if they didn't opt into the program. So no, I'm not convinced that a local resolution would stop FLOC from doing the same here, given FLOC's history of deception, violation of guardrails, and state and local laws. On 9-11. Mayor Harvey, I'm sorry that your story about where you were on 9-11 got cut off. I'll share mine. It was my fourth day of high school, located three blocks away from the World Trade Center. What most people saw on television, I witnessed with my own eyes. Things that will stay with me for the rest of my life. I know, some of you are asking yourselves, wow, Corbin, I had no idea. Why didn't you share this with us before? Because it has nothing to do with AOPRs. I checked and confirmed that the statute of limitations on using 9-11 to legitimize expanding domestic surveillance has expired. So please... Stop using people's trauma for political points. It's played out distraction of what the actual issues are. But while we're on the subject of resurrecting outdated political discourse, a story in the Mid-Hudson Times quoted you as saying, a failed planning vote was communism. If those remarks are being true, I find it disturbing that that would come out of the mouth of a history teacher. Not only does it reflect the lack of understanding of what communism is, reviving McCarthy style rhetoric at a time when it was in the White House.

I'm going to stop you right there, because number one, your time is up. Can I get 30 seconds, Ray? your time is up and we ask everyone to have professional decorum in our city council meetings and not to be calling people out you called me out three times and i'm asking you to have respect for our professional decorum so we can professionally conduct the business of the of the city so please put the mic down now your time is up please have a seat and we'll go to the next video thank you thank you thank you Thank you, decorum. So before the next Peter phrase, before you speak, my friend, I'm going to remind people to please stop calling out. elected officials and names and city workers because we all have respect for one another and we must maintain our decorum here so that we can hear you take your take notes and respond to your comments thank you

All right, thank you. City Council Members, Peter Fraze, City of Newburgh, Ward 2, also with the Democratic Socialists of America, shout out to my comrade Cynthia who spoke earlier. I would also like to agree with the speaker who just spoke before me about getting rid of the flock contract as expeditiously as possible and getting rid of the surveillance cameras. I do believe this is a system that has not been shown to keep us safe and has been shown to feed our data into a nationwide system that has been provably abused by various agencies, including federal agencies. But I want to use my time tonight to convey a message for another resident of Ward 2 who could not be here tonight. That would be Shelby Ajo, the Orange County Community Organizer at For the Many, also a member of Mid-Hudson Valley DSA. And these are Shelby's remarks. I wish to ask the Mayor and City Council to add to the agenda and vote on a resolution that would remove flock cameras from Newburgh and ban the use of all AOPRs, or automated license plate readers. It is a violation of our Fourth Amendment right to privacy, and the City of Newburgh Police have not been transparent about what these flock cameras are being currently used for and what is being done with our information. There is plenty of data documenting the abuse of these mass surveillance devices, and there is no data that shows they actually make any population safer. Those are Shelby's remarks, which I would also like to give my agreement with, and in closing, justice for Marcus Burks.

Dennis Grant, Ward 1. I'm sure you guys will be saying this later, but it was wonderful that our city had many events to celebrate recently, and I'm sure that many of you were present at those events, and that was wonderful, too. The people, our neighbors, should enjoy your presence every event time. But remember, we voted for you for voting time and to follow through and be transparent. In March, a resolution was passed reaffirming the city of Newburgh as a fair and welcoming city. It's been five months. This is a serious matter and it remains as such. How the pro, man, I'm losing my eyesight. How has prohibiting the use of our city resources for city immigration enforcement been? That's the question. Grants are still municipal resources, yes. I'm aware if we cancel the flock funding, we have to pay approximately over $40,000. We have been a resolution, we have a resolution that was voted on that has molars but no incisors. What are the guardrails? Has data sharing been prevented? Talk is cheap, and your awareness and concerns are cut rate concerning this matter. At least that large city council member responded with a resolution. I understand many of you stated you support FLOC. Great. But it was renewed this past January, yes? Were you not aware of FLOC, LPRs then? The FLOC system was the first purchase, was first purchased by our city in 2024, yes? That was two years ago. And wouldn't that make sense to understand the latest law enforcement gadgets in question then when presented to, I don't know, to protect our residents, especially in this climate? did not ask about much when it was presented by the chief. I'm not talking about Chief Roller because he became the chief later, and I remember he presented the bulletproof vest funding in 2024. I tried to stop calling you guys out, and I wanna call you guys in, but why would you have someone from Civil Liberties Union present and he not have audited our flock account? Did they get paid for that presentation last work session? Now here we are, our city council playing catch up again. Not being transparent about knowing about FLOC contract, I'm not talking about now, I'm talking about two years ago. We are in a behind mode of what are you doing or failing to do, we will continue, modify or terminate it. Measure twice, cut once. 30 seconds. Was never done two years ago and in January. Listen, we are not looking for perfection. We are looking for progress. And this flock we have is not progress for our community. And let's limit Big Brother's vision. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Michelle Bash, resident of the city of Newburgh and business owner. ICE is present. ICE is a travesty. ICE uses egregious and inhumane ways against human beings of all ages, of all colors, but mostly Latinos. Mostly. We cannot give them another tool. to look into whether it has been used by them before or not. It is a tool that they can access. They can use it. They can get in. And we should not give them that tool, whether by mistake or not. That's number one. A successful society is a society that works with and for the public. all of the public, not just the 1%, not just the middle class, and not just the poor, all the public. Social democrats and democratic socialists are two different things, but they are very similar. They have a contract, a social contract with the public, and they are absolutely not communists. And the word communism in this country has been used to put fear in people. And what does fear do? It pushes people to do what they know is probably not the right thing. We as a city of Newburgh and as a United States country should not use fear. of a word of communism that has nothing to do with the Social Democrats. By the way, do we know what countries are Social Democrats? Germany, France, Canada, Portugal, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, and that's just a few of them. And those countries would not want the way we govern and we treat our people, the way we educate our kids and we take care of our poor. My grandmother, who at 71 lived in Austria, and she had somebody who was a medical student who came every single day to check on her, to make sure she had a meal, and to make sure she was clean, and she went out and she socialized. That is social democracy. Social democracy is where people can be educated from the beginning to whatever level they can achieve. So let's not use one for the other. It's not right, and it causes fear. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, bear with me now. I'm a little short, so I don't know if y'all can really hear me, okay? All right, there we go. Hi, I'm Joshua Jr., professional boxer at the Hooker League Boxing Gym. This is why I think Marissa should be the head of directors for the recreation. That's because I've been doing boxing for over 16 years now, and she's helped us get to where we're at today, you know? And it's not much that I do have to say about her, But she's helped me a lot, and I don't think I'd be where I'm at today if it wasn't for her, and neither is the youth that we have coming in and out the gym today. But there is a subject that I do want to talk about that I'm going to let my uncle take over with because it is a touchy topic, and I'm not ready to talk about that yet. All right?

Okay, no problem. actually my nephew wants to speak about what I'm excuse me excuse me mr. Lee you had three minutes we can't we can't allow you to speak I know but he had three minutes yeah so he can't speak on on his public comment he can't speak twice on a public comment yeah all right it's part of our rules and protocol All right, so if you want to, I know, I'm letting you know.

Since we're going to move like that, now I'm going to say it, you feel me? Now I'm going to speak on it. It's a touchy subject that I damn want to speak on. You don't have to. No, I'm going to speak on it. I wanted my uncle to speak on it. And what Mr. Burke said was completely true because I'm the other car that got hit in that accident, okay? I could have lost my life that night. It could have been five people that lost their life that night. Right. Okay? And what your officers did was wrong. And I don't think that they should have a job at the police office anymore or as a police officer in general. You feel me?

I understand.

That was completely wrong. I could have lost my life, my female could have lost her life, two of my friends could have lost their life. And mind you, she was carrying a baby at the time. My second baby, not my first, but the baby that she was carrying would have been my second at the time. And she lost that baby due to that car accident. So I want to know, what are you really going to do about these officers and why haven't anything really been done for real?

Okay, so I'm going to address this. First and foremost, there's an ongoing investigation with the New York State Attorney General's Office. So we cannot speak publicly about that incident and that situation.

No, you can't speak publicly. I can speak publicly.

Why can't you speak publicly about it? Because we don't want to influence the investigation. You don't want to investigate, right? No, we don't investigate.

Because I still wasn't able to get a police report. I still wasn't able to get a police report, and neither was Mr. Burks.

The Attorney General, we're waiting for the investigation to be concluded. And let me say this, and let me say this.

You know I could have lost my career that night, right? You know I almost did lose my career that night, right?

The New York State of General is investigating this, and we're waiting for that investigation.

That investigation been going on since June 1st, 2026. Why have nobody got a police report yet, for real?

We got the police report.

Why haven't I got my police report? Why has mine been on standby?

OKAY. THE LAST THING I WANT TO SAY, CITY COUNCIL AND THE MAYOR DOES NOT DEAL WITH PERSONNEL MATTERS. IT'S THE CITY MANAGER. WE'RE WATCHING THIS INVESTIGATION CLOSELY, AND WE ARE GOING TO FOLLOW UP ONCE WE GET THAT INVESTIGATION COMPLETED.

HOW LONG IS THAT GOING TO TAKE?

I DON'T KNOW, SIR. OKAY.

OKAY.

THANK YOU.

Y'ALL DOING BAD. Y'ALL DOING US WRONG, MAN.

Thank you, sir.

Hello, everyone. Mark Sanchez-Potter again. So I'm going to talk about flock. And to pivot off of what other folks have said, government overreach doesn't have to happen. The Patriot Act didn't have to happen. COINTELPRO did not have to happen. That's, I guess, an issue of political will and who was in office at the time, right? But we don't need to continue using FLOC or any other program, right? Because it can be used and it can be accessed by the federal government. right even if we put guardrails on which we should there should be guardrails but that opens a whole nother conversation more broadly right about privacy protection for all of the city government and you know all of the data that the city has there needs to be like a robust audit of our policies when it comes to privacy and keeping residents data private right But Flock, as a contract, is just very bad, right? And as a company, has made millions of dollars, millions of dollars from hundreds of municipalities, right? And so this does not need to continue. The city council, you can... work out legislation to do away with the contract and to institute robust privacy protections across the city of Newburgh for all data, right? Like data at this point, because of AI, because of big tech. It's just become so much of a commodity, right? And it needs to be protected. Folks' data needs to be protected. So the city council does need to develop a robust plan in relation to that. And Flock has been shown to violate people's right to privacy, right? And there's countless incidents where the police have used it to spy on folks, right? To spy on ex-girlfriends. You know, people that are seeking an abortion in another state. I know that doesn't apply to New York State, but flock has been used to track down those people and I know that that that scenario would not be used in New York State thank God we have protections for people's bodily autonomy but there's not a lot that prevents the state of Texas from trying to sue and as we see with this administration they are going to bend the knee to any right-wing group that that they want right so this data needs to be protected and this contract right we've seen in other municipalities how it can be used to to be turned against our residents. So again, we need to sit down, we need to hammer out a comprehensive law, ordinance, whatever it will be, to make sure that any contract going forward protects all residents' data, but also that we are not continuing creating 1984. We're not creating Big Brother, right? The city of Newburgh does not need to be party to that. with spying, right? The Patriot Act was wrong. COINTELPRO was wrong. We don't need to continue that. We don't need to continue to cause harm.

Thank you, Mark.

Hi. All right, so I'm here in opposition to the flock surveillance cameras. I recently attended a teach-in with an ACLU attorney and community leaders, and I was deeply troubled to learn that Newburgh has about 65 to 80 flock cameras surveilling our residents 24-7, just blocks from my home on Broadway and Liberty. There are four cameras. On that single intersection alone and my drive to work, there are six more along on 3rd Street and on Broadway. I never consented to this constant violation of privacy. These are not standard security cameras. They are highly specialized analytical surveillance tools. They track who you travel with, recognize patterns, record how often you move through the city, and build detailed behavioral profiles on drivers, storing that sensitive data for up to two years. This is all done in the name of safety, but I ask you, safety for whom? Newburgh is a vibrant community of immigrants and predominantly people of color. Technology like this does not protect us. It puts our neighbors at higher risk. There's also no clear evidence that automated license plate readers lead to meaningful crime reduction. Furthermore, we are told that ICE cannot access the data directly, but FLOC as a private corporation maintains ultimate access and control, and they have a documented history of sharing that data with outside agencies in other cities without local consent. So, as our elected leaders, I ask you to reflect on the level of surveillance you are subjecting our community through this contract. Is it really worth it? My answer is no. If we cannot dismantle this contract entirely, we must place strict enforceable restrictions on how this technology is used. We need strict protocols governing data sharing, transparent oversight, and real public accountability. I do not want to plant more suspicion and surveillance in Newburgh. I want us to plant mutual care, collaboration, and justice. And then I have, that was for the flag, opposing flag cameras. And then I have just, I recently heard about Downing Park getting, the water is getting restored and cleaned up and I was really heartened to learn that the city is taking action to clean that up. And I'm asking you to extend the same care, investment, and commitment to Crystal Lake. If you walk by Crystal Lake today, you will see a beautiful body of water that is increasingly overtaken by thick algae blooms. This isn't just an aesthetic issue. Excessive algae chokes the aquatic ecosystem, impacts local fishing, and disrupts wildlife.

30 seconds.

So please care for, you know, how we care for our environment and our water is a direct reflection of how we value our environment, our public spaces and our community pride. So as you know, Newburgh Crystal Lake is the largest green space and it's actually used every day by our youth, our families, our elders. Our community has five years of dedicated stewardship in cleaning it up and that surrounding lands. And we need the city of Newburgh to do its part by caring for the water.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Betty.

Hello. My name is Edwin. I'm here in regards to flock. Tell us if you live in the city or not. Born and raised in the city of Newburgh. Okay. And I don't believe we should be continuing our contract with Flock and our last meeting, it came to my attention that we were in this contract and in order to get out, we'd have to buy out of it. I'd feel much safer if we just buy out of it. I don't want Flock here. They're much more invasive than what they claim to be, ALPRs and Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, everyone. My name is Elmas Merchant. Good evening. I'm a Newburgh resident since 2022. I'm quite in love with Newburgh. I have a season pass to the pool for two seasons running. I go to the kayaking every single week at Newburgh Waterways, and I paid my property taxes here. I do love this city. I'm also a newish American. I gave up my Indian citizenship, my birthright, which was with much heartbreak, and I did this because I believed in the promise of civil liberty in the United States, a promise that my home country could not keep because it is currently under an authoritarian ethnosupremacist governance. It's why I'm particularly saddened to hear that the city I love in a country that I have adopted seems to not care about a nationwide bipartisan issue that is the use of flock cameras. By the way, I'm a proud DSA member, not a communist, because I'm a business owner and a homeowner. Newburgh is particularly vulnerable to abuses by the Department of Homeland Security, obtaining data and weaponizing it against our community, especially myself and our immigrant neighbors. The public deserves to understand how it is being used, who is accessing it, and counsel over here must get us the data from the police department. I think that's an urgent request and need. Overall, we have the data that shows ALPR is not essential for public safety, causing more harm and violations to civil liberty than benefit. But forget the data for a second. We just heard a father see a murder of his child on a body cam. I get that ALPRs are not body cams, but they are a similar surveillance device. Surveillance does not make us safe. Surveillance is not care or community. I understand that breaking a contract with Flock is not easy. I get that. I understand it's going to make us lose money. As I said, I spend money here in the city and I don't like to lose money. But just because we have spent the money doesn't mean we can't get rid of it. That is a sunk cost fallacy. That is a thinking error where you keep doing something over and over again because you already spent the time, the money, and the effort on it. You do this even when you stop realizing that it's a smart choice. Because you don't want to feel like you wasted your investment. I'm a romantic at heart. It's why I bought and restored a historic home in Newburgh. I say this to share how much I get the sunk cost fallacy, to keep doing the thing over and over again, knowing that it's going to cost you way too much, and you're not going to get much out of it at the end. But this is not a cute stories about myself. Flock cameras are not a romantic delusion like me. They are a dangerous tool of the autocratic fascist state masquerading as capitalism. I pay property taxes here. I do not want my tax dollars to go into making my neighbors unsafe and myself unsafe.

Thank you.

Thank you. okay before you speak I just want to make sure we know how many people if you're able to get online so we can gauge how much time we're going to have for public comments so people can the council can respond okay so looks like Tracy I don't know pastor Rosie who else is online for public comment Okay, okay, so anyone else? Okay, all right, so, all right, you'll be the last one. All right, thank you. Thank you for waiting.

Good evening, Gregory Notto, voting constituent, Newburgh, New York. I would like to speak tonight about the important relationship between this administration and the volunteer citizens who serve on our boards and committees. For more than a century, American municipalities have relied on planning boards, zoning boards, historic preservation commissions, waterfront advisory committees, park commissions, and citizens advisory boards to bring specialized knowledge, local experience, and public input into government. These committees help ensure that decisions are informed, transparent, and representative of the community they represent. History shows that some of America's most successful cities have benefited from strong collaborations between elected officials and advisory bodies. New York City's landmarks saved Grand Central Station, the Parks Conservancy protects New York City's most important asset, Central Park. One of the most important responsibilities of an administration is to not simply lead city hall, but to communicate a holistic plan clearly. After brainstorming a master plan, an effective administration gives committees clear objectives while respecting their independent role. Regardless of anyone's political views, labels such as socialist or communist, directed towards volunteers, risks discouraging the very people who donate their time and expertise to improve our city. Every municipality depends on residents who are willing to serve, ask questions, and offer their professional experience. That civil participation is one of the foundations of local democracy. So now I inquire, what is the plan? What is our collective goal? What objectives should the committees work towards? Where is the mood board for what we envision our city to become? Who are the retailers, corporations, developers, transportation agencies, cultural entities that we are inviting to invest here? What direction are we giving our planning director? We all want and need to know. We want a prospectus of your vision. Every successful company issues a master plan which keeps investors informed, the press optimistic, and the staff focused on objectives. We all look forward to seeing what your visionary plan is after your retreat. We are looking for high standard ideas, visionary. We want the kind of city that will be the envy of the Hudson Valley. There are great examples all around. Pull from other great cities that I've been mentioning week after week. Incorporate the concepts of the 15-minute city. Look to Europe for innovation.

30 seconds.

See you in September. Thank you.

Thank you.

Good evening. I felt it necessary. My name is Enine Williams. I'm a city of Newburgh resident. We're here again with some very important matters before this council, some answers that are being sought, not for the first time. We hear the repeated petition for answers, for a response. Some responses don't require the complete answer, but they require a response and attention. When we hear about lives that have gone and we see families in here, we need to give an answer to those things. If it was my child, I'd want an answer. I'd want a decent and respectable response because we know that all lives matter. A lot of these things I had written down notes for the flock. We've heard what needs to be done. right now, and I understand the business portion of it. No, we don't want, as was said, to lose money, but we have to address the issue at hand. And we have to put some guardrails and guidelines in place. They have to be discussed, and they have to be presented to the people who reside in this city, such as myself. We need to respond. We need to respond affectionately, considering what has happened And it should not take months and months. I've watched people with certain businesses get answers quickly. You know, Flock is not new to our history. It might be new to the people. It might have a new name. It's the same system. And we need to arise as a people, just like we're doing today, and speak on it. We need answers. It won't be the first time and it won't be the last. We are living out the history of this country. And we have gone back in time with some things recently, way back. And unfortunately, people thought because of the hue of our skin when you were darker like me, that they were excused from it, but they found out quickly. That this is about power and authority of which some hold and others don't hold due to the systems that are already presently in place before I was born and before many of you were born. We need some decent answers and some things need to be, I'm going to use this term, green lighted. Got 30 seconds? They need to be green lighted. They're emergency situations. We need to remember this is not about our personalities, our debates, our disagreements. This is about giving everybody a reasonable answer. And these families need an answer and they need something that they can take away while they're grieving the loss of their loved one. Please bring us back some answers.

Thank you. Good evening. Testing, testing. All right. Good evening, council. Good evening, everybody else. Last time I spoke here, I expressed a lack of fair, excuse me, a lack of faith. I'm sorry, young man. Can you hear me?

Please tell us your name and whether or not you live in the city of Newburgh or not. Thank you.

Yes, I'm trying to make this as quick as possible. My name is Robert Walker. I formerly was a resident of Newburgh. I now live in Plattekill. Glory be to God. Thank you for coming. But last time I was here, I spoke about my fear and lack of faith in the Newburgh Police Department. Regrettably, I believe that fear and lack of faith is now in this council. I understand laws and protocols, I really do, and I study law, and I know that it's no longer in your hand. I know it's in the state attorney's hand. But there, like the young lady before me, she said, we need answers. There's some things that you guys can answer. There's some things that you guys can speak on. And I just believe, I don't think that we've gotten that. And I'm being as respectful as I can, and excuse me, I'm trying to tame. But to add salt to injury, it's been eight months since the unnecessary murder of Marcus Burks. Eight months. If it was your child, would you want to sit in eight months with no answers, no sufficient answers? I don't think you do. I know this council has more power than city maintenance. So I'm just asking you to tap into that. And to add salt to injury, they lied. They lied to y'all and said that they had no involvement in his death. Yet we have no answers. We have no answers. I know y'all are well capable of doing some things and getting some answers, and before that fear and lack of faith turns into anger by the public, general public of Newburgh, the city of Newburgh residents, can we just please get some answers? Let's get some answers. Coach Brooks, before I let this mic go, is there anything else you want me to speak on? All right, I'm done. Why is he still on the job? I understand that is also not in your jurisdiction. I know you can't do that as well, but like I said, Well, it's well within your power, doc. Like I said, I understand laws. I'm very competent. I understand. But you guys have way more power than city maintenance, so y'all can sit this man down. Because if I'm on the road driving, minding my business, I could stop by him. And he was adhering to law enforcement. Teased, pepper sprayed, killed, murdered. That's going to be me next? I'm not waiting for that. Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, Ann Sullivan, also former Newberg resident, but I live in Ellenville. And I just have to take a moment to send my deepest sympathy to the family of Marcus Burks and I think as all of us here do that he deserves some justice. Suspension of the officer would just be a tiny first step in justice and this council can definitely ask why is there no accident report? How many months later for an accident that happened in January? That's outrageous to me and I don't understand it. I'm also here to talk about the FLOC resolution and echo what Peter Fraze said on behalf of Shelby, that I hope this Council actually takes action tonight to stop using FLOC surveillance cameras. You can stop using FLOC surveillance cameras today, deal with the contract, when you have to pay more money in January, when you can get out of it in January, but you can pass a resolution. Thank you to Councilman Omari Shakur, who we many know is my dear friend, for being brave, for having the courage to stand up and propose this resolution to stop using flock immediately and to then take the next steps to actually create legislation that would put guardrails on if you ever use ALPRs again. I want to just say I was here on Thursday night and heard the council discussion. I heard council members request the data, the network audit log, from FLOC and you requested it on Thursday night and requested it to be received within 24 hours, my understanding is that no one has still received it unless Councilman Stewart has it because she mentioned some data she had gotten. This is more than 24 hours later and after doing research, guess what? It doesn't take a week to download this data. It doesn't take 24 hours. It barely takes five minutes to download the data that the police department has been withholding from the community since March 22nd when the first FOIA was submitted, and still withholding the data, my understanding, from this council. So why is this police chief allowed to continue treating the council this way? I also hope you have three contracts on tonight for the company with Axon. A slightly different thing, not the ALPR, but Axon is right up there with Flock in the kind of misdeeds that they are doing across the country, the kind of data that they are collecting behind people's backs, the kind of data that they are sharing with ICE, other law enforcement agencies, et cetera. So I hope that when you get to those three resolutions on Axon, you think long and hard for locking yourself into contracts tonight. Take the time that several of you new council members often say, we need the time, we need the time. Well, this is the time. You need to take the time with those axon contracts, not only to have your good council review them, but make sure that you're going to some outside council like the NYCLU to review those contacts before adopting them.

Thank you so much.

Good evening, Council. I was online watching that three hour plus work session. It was really amazing. So a lot of things on the agenda tonight. This is Pastor Rosie Ward 1. And I have had no communication with anybody in this room before I came here except the Lord Jesus Christ. I prayed and prayed, Lord, what do you want me to talk about tonight? During the fall of 1834, there were a series of meetings held at the Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. Historians called them the Lane Debates. In these open forums, they disputed whether slaves should have immediate emancipation or gradual. The worldview was that the immediate emancipation would mean the slave owner would go bankrupt overnight. Those with this view were called sympathizers because they sympathized for the pocketbook of the slave owner, but not for the costly price of human life. They went through a process of self-deception, rationalization, while convincing themselves that they could not rid the Southern society of slavery because it tied up too much money. I'm persuaded that immediate emancipation would have been far less than painful than 620,000 people on the battlefield of the South being killed because people put money over people. Although this example may be radical, as it has some similarities with the continuing debates concerning Flock, scores of your residents from all wards, including 11 people and me being the 12th one tonight, and many, many more, and from different walks of life have come before you and asked you to remove Flock cameras. With legitimate cause, not one person came forward who spoke favorably yet for Flock. We're approximately 28,000 people with Flock. All 28,000 of us are surveilled 24-7, plus all those who drive through our city. I want us to jump hoops to have safer streets and law enforcement. I fight for this with no apology. After listening to hours of debates on this topic, I have a question. If there was no loss of money to terminate Flock, how would you vote? I'm a law-abiding United States citizen. I have nothing to hide, but I'm a woman. I feel very concerned for my privacy with flock cameras in use here. A policy allowing broad searches of people's movements outside of legitimate law enforcement raises big concerns for me, way more than looking for one vehicle involved in a crime or approaching a doorbell camera, which is way different than surveillancing 28,000 people plus. Tonight, I would like to suggest that you all take the time to find out how to get out of the contract rather than dragging this on and on, or first trying to find some kind of alternative. I might be the only one to say this, but there is no loss in doing the right thing by the people to terminate Flock. 30 seconds.

30 seconds.

I believe that doing so

Come on, the 30 seconds.

We could watch and see what the Lord would do for us as a city so that we would have minimal loss. I'm requesting for the council to end the conversations. Your constituents do not want flock. God bless you all. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Joshua McNeil, lifelong resident. I just want to take a moment just to bring something to your attention. As a young boy, when I went outside, my grandfather, he told me a story. He said, there's two types of people that are going to exist.

He said, I'm going to tell you the story of the scorpion and the frog.

The scorpion begged the frog to cross him over the water. The frog told him, nah, not safe. Scorpion begged him again, take me across the water. So with a promise, the scorpion told him, I won't do anything to you. So the frog helped him out. In the middle of the water, the scorpion stung him. The frog looked at the scorpion and said, why'd you do that? He said, that's my nature. Now look at everybody in the room, and that's how I look at people. You're either a scorpion or you're a frog. Coach, we sat in this room. The last time I was in this room, they gave you a key to the city. They gave you a key to the city right here. I watched that. I had my son here. They returned your son in a body bag. And I'm not blaming anybody here. But I'm asking each and every one of y'all, and I know some of y'all here, that's why you can't look at me, because I know your purpose. You're the scorpion. Frogs, you got to get away from the scorpion. You can't ask your oppressor for answers. He's not going to give you the answers, because that's his purpose. And I'm not saying everybody up here is an oppressor, because some of these gentlemen up here, some of these ladies and gentlemen up here, very helpful, but some of them are going to be the scorpion, and they're going to be your oppressor. And here's the crazier part about it. He's a man of uniform. He served the country. So as the flag sits there, and he carried that flag and protected that flag, that's the thanks y'all give him? But I got something for you. Ready? And I don't need the 30 seconds. In November, and any time election comes, remove the people. And then you ain't gonna have this problem. But remember, when they come and they ask you for your vote, there's the scorpion and there's the frog. There's the scorpion and there's the frog. Everybody understand that? Anybody have a good evening? God bless. And one more thing, too. I might need the kids. Football, come on, man. I understand if you wasn't a part of something because you couldn't go outside, you were scared, whatever. These kids need football, man. Give them their program. Because if you don't, the violence will. Let me take 30 seconds to tell you this. No, because this is something serious. From six o'clock to eight o'clock, statistics could show you, pull out your phone, kids are most likely to become victims of crimes or they'll be a victim. Victims of crime or they'll be a victim. And if you don't believe me, remember what I told you back, your purpose? There's a purpose.

Thank you very much.

Time's up.

Michael LeBron, Grand Street. Harry Truman said, there's nothing new in the world except the history you do not know. A month ago, volunteers at the planning board looked at a wall of mockery at apartments and an office park. They applied Newburgh's codes and rejected it. Their thanks, they were called communists, socialists, and outsiders. Paul Robeson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Robert F. Williams, Josephine Baker, Rosa Parks, James Baldwin. They were all called communists, so the planning board members are in very good company. And the company the name caller keeps, J. Edgar Hoover, UAC, Senator Eastland, the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, Walter Winchell, Jesse Helms. Name-calling has consequences. Robeson, passport revoked for eight years. The 1949 Pink School riots just down the road left concert goers beaten. I knew and worked with Paul's son. Du Bois, passport denied until 1958, speaking invitations, withdrawing black institutions, distanced themselves. Williams, indicted on a fabricated kidnapping charge in 61 and had to flee the country. Baker, work visa revoked, effectively barred from performing in the United States for a decade. Baldwin, 1,884 pages in an FBI file, placed on the security index, the list of people to be arrested first in a declared emergency. And, in 1957, the Georgia Commission on Education printed a pamphlet titled, Highlander Folk School, Communist Training School, and a million copies went out. A photograph of Rosa Parks with Martin Luther King sitting next to her appears in it. The name caller teaches history, yet he sits before us, grabs hold of the same word, communist, and hurls it at Newburgh residents. He said free enterprise should have the controlling say over private land within reason. Reason is the entire job of a planning board. No one arguing strategically, which is for the word communism, because it falls apart the second the first board member opens a code book. It instead argues from faith. At Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, a year to the day before he was killed, Dr. King called for a revolution of values. He named the giant triplets that had to be conquered, racism, materialism, and militarism. The Hometown Heroes program embraces the last two. It is militarism made into material decoration. King warned that a nation which goes on year after year spending more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching a spiritual death. It appears Newberg has found its own way to attain that spiritual depth for the mere price of a banner. But perhaps your colleague who sponsored this program and who preaches on Sundays knows something about faith and militarism that the good Dr. King did not. Speaking of communists, this is exactly what Karl Marx meant when he spoke of men who cannot see the history they are standing within. A man who does not know history has an excuse. A man who knows has none. Which do you plead, Mr. Mayor? Ignorance or duplicity? For the record, you may call me a socialist or a communist. I don't give a damn.

Your time is up. Don't call me out. I just called you out and your time is up. Thank you, Mr. LeBron. Last speaker.

Good evening. My name is Tracy Wallace. I'm speaking as a city of Newburgh resident. Speaking on three topics, I'm gonna try and get everything in. So first regarding the death of Marcus Burks and our police policies, I'm asking the city manager to review our existing police policies to create a formal public mandate or standalone published policy, explicitly codifying automatic desk duty or temporary reassignment specifically for officers involved in fatal incidents It is to my knowledge, and please respond and correct me if I am wrong, the City Manager and the City of Newburgh Police Department retain the administrative and operational authority to reassign personnel during internal or external investigations, such as those coordinated with the New York State Attorney General's Office.

Okay, so I'm not wrong.

When someone dies during or following an interaction with law enforcement, I do not believe an involved officer should simply return to regular patrol or continue public-facing enforcement duties while that death is being investigated. With respect to Marcus Burks, someone died. He did not have a judge or jury determine the allegations against him before the interaction ended in his death. Officers have due process and employment protections. A responsible administrative policy can recognize both. I'm asking, what does our current policy require? What does the law allow? And if legally permitted, can we establish a written policy making administrative death duty or reassignment the standard procedure while a fatal incident is being investigated? This is about transparency, accountability, and public trust. My second topic is the flock cameras. I'm asking the city to hold a broader public discussion, a town hall, regarding flock cameras. This is a conversation. This conversation should not be limited to a few minutes of public comment at a city council meeting. Residents should have an opportunity to ask questions and receive answers. What information is being collected? How long is it being stored? Who has access to the information? Is our information shared with other law enforcement agencies or outside entities? Where does that data go? And what safeguards protect our privacy? public safety is important but so are privacy and civil liberties if the city is going to continue using this technology residents deserve transparency about its youth's oversight policies and effectiveness my third topic i'm trying to get through it all my third topic is the city of newburgh steelers youth football league i'm asking wayne our interim recreation director to work with the current steelers president and the recreation department to determine what support the city can provide to help this program continue serving our children i also believe we need a better process for all youth and adult community programs I'm sorry. I also believe we need a better process for all youth and adult community programs seeking city assistance. Whether an organization needs field lighting, storage equipment, use of city facilities, information about grants, or assistance identifying funding opportunities, there should be a clear and fair process. If one does not already exist, I ask the recreation to consider creating an application for request form explaining what assistance is available. who qualifies, who to contact, and how decisions are made. Let's support the Steelers today while creating a transparent process that can support other community programs, tomorrow youth programs, provide mentorship, teamwork, structure, positive activities, and a sense of belonging. I would like to know what authority the city of Newburgh police department and the city manager has as far as changing those policies for police reassignments. Thank you.

thank you all right that concludes our public comment section now we're here from the city council I noticed some people had already left after after making certain statements and questions but we will ask everyone to please remain here to hear responses to your questions and concerns so we'll hear from the city council council member Martinez

thank you mayor Harvey and good evening everyone thank you so much for joining us I first want to start off by thanking our members of the tab tabernacle I think seventh I'm sorry I just want to get make sure that I got there name right they had an event this weekend the Newberg Tabernacle Seventh-day Adventist Church located at 251 Grand Street they had a family weekend event and they had a lot of resources for the community I was informed that they have been doing a food shelter for over 40 years which is very impressive and I just wanted to thank the members of the church for their service and commitment to our community I want to address a couple of the folks who came out to speak against flock at the last meeting and at the work session I already mentioned that I will be supporting getting rid of flock my concerns with that come with the mass surveillance that it has on our communities and the probability of data leaks and would like to also call for the resolution to join to be added to our agenda I would also like to thank our members of DSA who came out who have been also working with various groups in the community and I am also a proud democratic socialist so just thank you to all the members who have been coming out regularly to discuss those issues I want to also out of respect acknowledge on the Burke's family for all the speakers who came to ask for answers I wholeheartedly agree that it shouldn't take eight months for you to receive some type of response and under guidance of our corporate counsel who has discussed various options with us I would like to ask that we Yes. Out of guidance from our council and from our corporate council, I would like to ask for an internal investigation to be done on our behalf. And while we can't... While we perhaps can't do, like I'm not, we're not the ones doing the investigation, what we can do is at least provide some type of communication and be some type of middleman. And if that means asking the Attorney General's office about any updates to ask what is going on if there's anything that we're allowed to publicly share that is the least we can do and i you know i don't want to beat around the bush like you guys deserve answers so we truly do want to work with you and help make this you know um right thank you thank you

Thank you very much, Council Member Martinez. Next we hear from Councilman McLemore.

So thank you everyone for coming out tonight. First and foremost, I wanted to send my condolences to the Thompson family. The detective lost his life. to an illness and he was actually employed by my police department so before going to town of Newberg young man and cancer can hit anybody and at 35 years old you you just got to you know watch your health and pray for the best so we'll be praying for his family Also, senior dinner night we're having tomorrow at Burton Towers. So if you know anyone at Burton Towers, please let them know that we'll be serving them dinner. We also have the food box project that will be there. So if you're on, I believe, Medicaid, they can get signed up and they will get some groceries sent to them as well. channel you fishing program we've been working for years on that and I'm glad that we finally got some resolution and tonight we're going to see where everybody stands as far as with your program and and I believe that it's going to pass tonight so congratulations ahead of time um and um also i want to say uh it wasn't just me i know i started it off um and we kept the fight even till the end but i want to give a shout out for to uh councilman zarilla who uh stepped in and helped us uh formulate a budget plan um but i want so it is not just one person who uh doesn't we're we're a team so once again I'm ready to see how this is going to go secondly fourth I should say you know we got to see exactly where things are and why hasn't there been a promotion I'm not too I don't have the information in front of me when it comes to promoting a employee and but I believe that Marissa Wilson would be a great director of the of the Recreation Department once again that's something that we have to get the information on Also, when it comes to Councilwoman Martinez and I were talking, and I don't want just an investigation. Can I get 30 seconds? It would be an independent investigation that I would ask for because we don't want anything that would be biased. And we don't want it coming from the inside of the police department. We want someone from the outside that would be able to do the investigation. So that is something that we both would want to see. And lastly, okay. Lastly, when it comes to our youth and the Steelers, I would want Wayne to sit down because he is the temporary recreational director along with the other positions he have. I want him to sit down with the organizers of the Steelers so we can see how we can work this thing out. And secondly, I mean, lastly, lastly, lastly, we want, we want that- You want to get me in trouble with the rest of the council? No, I'm coming. We want to get that proposal, that resolution on the table regarding Flock.

thank you next we'll hear from council member monteverde thank you um and um i want to say to the uh burke family welcome tonight and um you know you're in my prayers um thinking about you and uh your son and your situation and i agree with councilwoman martinez whatever we can do to push this forward and get some answers for you um i want to comment regarding the flock uh i think with this we've been going back and forth with it for the last uh couple of council meetings and um i want to remind people that as a fair and welcoming city we have a responsibility to make sure that the technology that we use reflects our value And the information collected in our community is not being accessed and shared in ways that undermine the trust of the people that we serve in our community. The concerns surrounding FLOC are larger than the cameras themselves. And for me, this resolution is not simply about canceling a contract. It's about establishing accountability. This is why I believe we need to be strategic in how we move forward. You know, we talk about other technology that's out there. Axion, I think, was referred to me, and it sounds like they might not be a good choice as well. They might be doing the same thing as Flock. And this is the world that we live in today, surveillance, right? We're being... wherever we go are you know we're being watched most importantly we should not simply replace flock with another company offering essentially the same technology like axion and the last thing is that public safety matters privacy matters civil liberties matter and community trust matters to me so again I would support looking into canceling FLOC. I took a look at the resolution today, made some changes to it, and I believe it could be stronger. And I'll forward that to Corporation Council as well. The other thing that I wanna comment on is I wanna commend the, Wayne Brandenburg and his staff and the DPW department for all the hard work that they've been doing to keep this city running also I want to include that and do a shout out to the fire department as well you know they're going around they're cleaning up our parks. They're doing the park blitz. They're doing the public areas and making sure that these are places that we frequently go to and that they're being cleaned up. And they should have been cleaned up a while ago. These are our public parks, and we should take pride in them. make sure that they are clean and safe for our kids and for our families to always enjoy the other thing that I want to ask is codes the codes report I wanted to make sure that we're getting the correct data since we're going through those reports and the city managers report and if we can include a couple of things and I'll reach out to the city manager to make some requests thank you thank you next we're here from councilman Shakur

to my friend Malcolm. October 16th, 2006, I was found innocent of threatening a police officer. And as I walked out of the courtroom, the police said, we'll see you later. October 17th, I filed three federal lawsuits against the city of New Orleans Police Department. October 30th, my son got shot in the back of the head. November 1st, that cop was found innocent. And a couple of days later, he's a detective now. So my point to you, I never found out what happened to my son, but they told me. They told me. And like he said, well, a scorpion or whatever that was. When you know who it's somebody, they already know what they did. They murdered my son. And that's why I had two options after that. And one option was go to war, and the other option was do what I'm doing now. I can't bring my son back, but I can try to save yours. And I'm sorry yours fell through the cracks, but 15 fell after my son. And this is what, this is how you get answers, when y'all fill up the room. Because if y'all don't fill up the room, these people sitting here, they act like they don't know what's happening. Because this someone was murdered January 1st. At 10, about 10 o'clock, 10.30, 12 o'clock, I knew. It happened in the third ward. The people who, when you came down here in May, a couple of people sitting here didn't even know about it, and that was in May, so that's a problem. That's a problem, like it happened right in the Third Ward, did you find out? So these people, they come and get your votes, but they don't come out here and do the work, until you make them do the work. And so, right now, I'm going to leave that part alone, because I get a little emotional about that, and I'll say some things I'm supposed to say. But right now, I put the resolution out three months ago, three meetings ago, to get rid of flop. Put the resolution together. Oh, we need time to think about it. Let's talk about it some more. I did it the second time. here so we pulled the build on it tonight so right now i'm gonna show the city how i do it i'm making the motion right now to bring up my stock resolution that i brought up last week at the birth session and we vote on it tonight right here i'm asking for a motion to bring up my resolution and we're going tonight And I'm not going to finish with this. That's what I'm going to say.

So we know where we're at now. It's 9 o'clock. Let's see what happens. So there's the motion to bring up the resolution regarding the flock cameras in the city of Newburgh. Do I have a second? Do I have a second? Speak on the mic so you'll be noted for the record. Do I have a second?

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember Martinez. I'm going to open up for discussion. I'll speak last on the discussion. Anyone?

I'll go in alphabetical order.

Okay, we'll go alphabetical order. Council Member Martinez, anything you want to say regarding this?

I mean, I've already added some of my comments about my opposition to flock. I did also want to point out that we wouldn't have to like there was a somebody said that we would have to pay like an additional fee. There is no additional fee that we would have to pay in order to get rid of flock. my only thing is that i don't want to just replace i don't want to like replace flock with another um mass surveillance company i don't want mass surveillance in general in our city so it's not just blocked like i don't want axon or any other um company okay councilman mclemore any comments on this no i'm ready

Okay, Council Member Monteverde, any comments?

Yes, as I was mentioning before, I was looking at the resolution today and I think it could be a lot stronger. For example, we can put in place that for the police department or the chief, to put something else in place that would replace flock we the council should have control over that or have a say over that that should be in the contract also we need to make sure that there are guard rails and this is what the comments that i've been hearing um and make sure that those are in the resolution as well i think that it could be a lot stronger i'm not sure that i'm ready to vote on that or if we do can we add it to the contract or the resolution i'm sorry

Okay, Councilman Shakur, do you have any comments on this motion?

So, I work with the city council. I work with the police department. I work with the whole council. I work with them. But all y'all, y'all put me here. I work for y'all. I don't work with y'all. I work for y'all. I work with these people, but I don't work for them. I work with the people who are destiny. I don't work for these other people or whatever. I work for you. So with that, I want the Flock Resolution board on tonight. Move on, because I've got other fights out here I've got to do. So let's get this one done.

Okay, Council Member Stewart, any comments?

So, yes, we want to get rid of flock. The resolution as it stands right now is not sufficient. I think it definitely can have some additional guardrails and the particulars that Councilman Monteverde actually spoke about. So before we... actually pass a vote and put a resolution in place, we have to do our due diligence before. So anybody that has comments to make it stronger so that it will stand up to the test of anything, we should do that. We're going to cancel the contract either way, but we need to make sure we're safeguarding ourselves as a city And that's it, let's just do it right. As the resolution stands right now, we need guardrails. I don't care what system we use, and I've said this before, every system has to have fail-safe, it has to have guardrails. Regardless of who is using it, we need to know who's accessing not just flock, but any systems that we have who's monitoring it who is accessing it what are they accessing it for how many times are they using it isn't it in regards to an investigation all of these things matter that data matters so we know what we are talking about it's not just you know these big grand ideas we need the information and before we pass it i think this can be stronger if we put that in here to make sure that we get that data we get those that monitoring every month from a council on any of the technology that we're using in this city thank you very much councilmember Stewart next we hear from councilman Zoria

I also agree we need to get rid of flock. I would hope that our colleagues would collaborate better on resolutions because it's great to work with the people but the votes are here in this table and if we don't talk about things then it's kind of hard that to to agree on something i would vote no for this term this resolution this resolution does not do it for the city of newberg yes it will feel good instantly yes we accomplished getting rid of flock but we're going to be shipping out hundreds of thousands of dollars to a company that doesn't deserve a cent so if we're going to do this let's actually sit down and have a conversation i know you work with them but you could talk to me too There is no termination clause in this contract. There is a way to get out of it without sending them hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that's not giving them an appropriation in September, in a month. So the rush to do it right now and feel really good about it would send hundreds of thousands of our dollars to a company that we do not agree with, that a bunch of us do not agree with, the most of us. So we could... yes feel good and do it now but we're asking for a termination of a contract that doesn't have a termination crop clause asking to be sued by a company that we don't like and forking over more and more money for no good reason we could actually sit down and decide as a group that we don't want to fund this and it will be over january 1st and that's a clause in the service agreement it doesn't make sense to me to rush us to feel good about it and ship out 400 000 we've been working right three months that's wrong the first let me finish my comment because if it was collaborating it would be great the first resolution was a paragraph and you could actually read it. It's on the website, a paragraph. It wasn't this next resolution. There's actually three resolutions, one from New York CLU, one with comments from our own corporation council, and a different resolution. That is not collaboration. If you want something to pass, collaborate with us

and the community and we all do this together so right now let me finish my comment please hold on right now right now as it stands hold on hold on right now as it stands hold on hold on we're giving everybody a chance including me because i'm after this young man and then you can speak i don't fucking raise your voice that i've asked you politely let him finish his comment Could we not finish the court? Councilman Cirilla has the floor. We're alphabetical, so everybody can comment in this discussion.

Thank you. Thank you. And to point out our council and say that we don't do anything, that Fair and Welcoming Act was strengthened. We literally said that we wouldn't use personnel, we wouldn't use, and this is part of a broader conversation that we should be having with each other. Also, We have to, we also said we didn't want Clearview AI, voted against it, so we have taken actions to stop the use of our private, to disrespecting our privacy as citizens, and we want to continue to do that, but we have to do it smart.

Thank you very much, Councilman Zoria. And I have to concur with Councilman Zoria, Councilmember Stewart, and Councilmember Monteverde. It would feel great to vote on this resolution right now and satisfy the public that came forward multiple times respectfully about getting rid of flock. But we have to put the guardrails on. The contract expires in 2028. If we were to terminate this contract by way of resolution tonight, It will come at a great cost to the city, $400,000 to $500,000, number one. In addition, we have grants with the Department of Criminal Justice Services, and we call DCJS, and DCJS is tied to this LPR program. we run the risk and this is what council members what he is talking about we run the risk of ruining our professional relationship with new york state and new york state department of criminal justice services who provides us two million dollars every year now for four years which fund some of our youth programs such as mark's friends dandelions of flowers the armory unity center and our youth advocacy program just to mention a few those programs are funded by a two million dollar grant that we have gotten and negotiated for our young people and people people have come tonight and talked about advocating for youth programs people um came before us tonight and saying that we need more youth activities so that our young people are not result in violence and gun violence and other activities that they could fall trapped to. So I agree that I don't like flock, I don't want flock, but I need to make sure that we as a council have to do this responsibly so that the guardrails or the termination or the separation is done in a responsible way where it's not going to cost the city government half a million dollars in addition to those relationships and the funding that we give. And also, the last point I will make, and I'll get to you, Councilman Shakur, the last point I want to make is when I spoke to the police chief and the deputy chief who is here tonight about the GIVE program, the GIVE program is also funding that comes for youth working with police officers in a positive way. programs the anti-gun violence in addition to some of the funding that snug gets and snug is gun spell backwards so councilman Shakur

We got out here 11.30 on Thursday. We did some work. So since we here now, it's 9 o'clock, we can take an hour right now and work on this to get it out and done right now. Or not, we have to wait another 30 days and y'all going to delay the day. So if we want to talk about it, let's go talk about it, work right now, and come up with it. Because what do we need to work about? Three months we've been talking about. So what do y'all want to do? What do y'all want to do? Because I want to vote on it. And I understand, knowing my Indian history, I understand when they say how do politicians speak with forked tongues. They say one thing and do another. I get it now. But they've been talking about this for three months, let's discuss it and work on it. Why haven't we worked on it in these three months? Why? Why now? We're going to put another delay tactic and say, oh, We want it, we don't want it, but I'm not going to vote on it. I love you, but I'm not going to marry you. I'm not. Yeah, you know, so we get it. But like I said, I'm asking we got I wasted five minutes talking because we can talk about this amendment now and go into executive work session for our own work on it and get it done while these good people are here waiting.

Thank you very much, Councilman Shakur. Do we have any other comments?

just want to clarify i was not trying to say that the grant is why we should do this i don't think any outside grant funders no money should decide our values in the city that was not my comment But I will say that this is not the place that you discuss legislation and go into details. You have my number. You have everyone's number. You made it clear that you don't want to effing talk to me. So if you want to collaborate on legislation, you don't do it in front of the people. You do it cordially with your colleagues and we work together. So to come here and put on a show for everyone is funny. It's actually funny.

all right we're gonna we're gonna do a vote we're gonna do a vote we're gonna take a motion we're gonna vote on this motion and then we're gonna move forward all right man roll call on a motion let's go council member martinez

Aye. Council Member McLemore? Yes. Council Member Monteverde?

Abstain.

Council Member Shakur?

Yes.

Council Member Stewart? No. Council Member Zoria?

No.

Mayor Harvey?

No.

uh motion to feed it can can i can i please um add something to this no okay so we're gonna we're gonna break protocol council member stewart then we're gonna come back to uh oh oh i'm sorry wait can i just hold on where are we at uh yes it's council member stewart's public comment thank you um so

It is absolutely disgusting and disheartening that we ask our residents and chastise our residents to come here and tell them that they have to follow decorum and be respectful and do all those things. And we as a council, some of us do not do that. That is not how this works. And that's not how it should work. The performance in the performative theater is absolutely not how you govern in a city.

It is for entertainment.

What I want to say is a part of my public comment is when I hear the Burks family talk about what has happened to them, we have to be as mindful, as empathetic as we possibly can. When we heard about this situation and you came to us the last time, one of the things that I called for was a special session to discuss specifically the Burks case.

Why? Because it's not about this, right? We can talk about this. I'm not going to politicize someone's child Passing away. I'm not going to do that. What we do is we convene, we ask our corporation counsel questions. What is going on with the information that they have asked for? Why haven't they received it? Did they receive it? What is the status of the case? What is the investigation of the officers? That is how you govern. If you are going to just sit and talk and talk and talk and not get information, you cannot make informed decisions. That is all political theater. It is political theater. One of the things that came out of our conversation that I had with Mr. Burks personally was to talk about the city's response to any situation where a child or someone is harmed because no one had reached out to him. And I'm not talking about personally as a council person, I'm talking about as a city. The city collectively did not reach out and say, are you okay? Is there anything you need? Critical response. Do you need someone to talk to? Is there a therapist that we can have you contact? Is there someone that we can have you contact in terms of helping make arrangements? Anything like that. He made a comment to me that hit me. And he said, I had the means to be able to do that. But what happens to the other families that don't have that means? Out of that conversation should be the next state of, Critical response team from the city when there is a situation or an emergency that comes up You don't get to have those things and come to those conclusions when people are having political theater One of the things that also want to talk about is flock flock is a terrible company It does absolutely disgusting things But we have to be responsible and how we actually get rid of flock. That is it. There is no end to this I'm so into it. Councilman Zarrillo and I, we researched and we found out that there is a way to end the contract if it's not funded. If it's not funded, guess when we start funding conversations? In September for the budget. If it's not appropriated for, there is no contract. We have nothing to worry about. But that doesn't come with this. It don't come with loud talk. It doesn't come with political theater. It comes with research, reading, and paying attention and talking to one another.

Thank you. Thank you. Order.

And that is exactly why, but Ms. Howard, that is exactly why we have to pay attention to how we respond, how this city responds to anybody getting killed in our streets. It has to be a protocol to be responded to. thank you thank you everybody nobody deserves that and the burke's family deserved more did we do that no we have to be able to take accountability for when we do wrong and when we are not responding appropriately to families that are hurting council members all right thank you thank you all right order order order

Because what's going to happen is, if I can't get an order, I'm going to clear the room so we can finish this meeting. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, order, order, order.

Okay, so we got one more council member to respond to the public comments, and then I can respond to the order. Order, order, order. So we're going to hear from one more council member, and then I can respond, and then we can move on with our agenda. I know it's a very volatile situation and circumstance regarding the Burks family. So we'll hear from Councilman Zoria, and then we will move forward on our agenda. Thank you.

Thank you. I think it's hard to think with such intensity in these meetings and I wish they weren't like this but that's that's that's okay I think that we have hard conversations to have as a city and We have hard differences in our life experiences up here. We have differences in life experiences out there. And those things are hard to, you know, sometimes when they clash, we learn from each other. We learn how to do better. I do think that The Burks family deserves a response. Obviously, we have limited power. Even though we're here to face everything that comes at us, we have limited power. We are part-time civil servants, public servants, all dedicated to serving the community. we did ask for an internal investigation back in May I would love an update on that and that's it did begin it was internal as far as external the attorney general's office is investigating so I'm not going to be here saying we're going to do extra because things are happening I would love an update on that since May obviously we we deal with a lot of things and that is a priority and I'm sorry for the family that's going through that I do think it's a shame that some people think it's okay to use that opportunity to politicize it and talk about wards. Who gives a shit about wards during that conversation? And it's painful that that is even brought up as a political maneuver, and it's sad also. I do think it's exciting to see the changes in Newburgh. I love to see the rec stadium coming back to life. people sharing their thoughts, excited to see our city staff operating at different levels despite low capacity. And that's exciting to see. I do think it's tough to ask for board members to join vacant boards if we're treating them in certain ways. So I think as a city, we should decide what's the culture we want to create. And it starts here behind this table. So I think we're responsible for that. Flock, I already shared my thoughts on flock. I do not want flock. I'm a child of immigrants. my family are walking around with passports even though they're citizens but i also have responsibility to the city and it's to make good decisions it's make decisions that don't bite us and and are strategic and think about what we're trading off every decision we make we're trading something and if we're making a bad trade we have to call it out And what, we, okay. I do believe we should look at everything. How does it interact with the fair and welcoming contract? These new contracts, a year in advance, Axon. I would like more details before we vote on another $800,000 contract, and I did ask for it. And I'll save the rest for later.

Thank you, Councilman Zoria. I really appreciate your comments. I want to first say thank you to everybody that came out, especially those that spoke up, had the courage and the gumption to speak their minds. They're very, very sensitive matters that we're dealing with. And I want to apologize to anyone who felt offended by some of the outbursts that just took place. Because I do agree, if we ask the public to respect decorum and be professional and refrain from calling people out, we all, and I include myself, we all have to maintain that certain professionalism as well. I want to say my thoughts. I know the Burks family looks like they've gone, but my thoughts and prayers have always been, and I'm a praying man. I am a praying man. I don't make any bones about that. I'm praying for the Burks family. I have been continuously. I was in another country when this happened with my wife. celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary with another couple from the city of newberg we were we were in another country i was on my way back to the airport to come home and um and i got the call and i spoke to coach burks for at least an hour or more on that ride and in fact the folks i was with said can you please call him once we get to the airport because that's how intense the call was so I spoke to him he is a great friend of mine he is a great friend of mine he's been for 27 to 28 years my good friend and I went to the services for Marcus and a couple other council members were there as well and You know, it's a horrible situation. I'm in constant communication with the police chief and the deputy chief. There was an internal investigation done months ago, and that internal investigation was presented to the entire city council in an executive session. we are limited on what we can say because this is a very sensitive volatile matter it is highly litigious and it is with the new york state attorney general's office and we don't want to contaminate or to influence that process because if people have to be held accountable they will i know they only got nineteen seconds but i want to also remind the city council i mean the public that the city council does not get involved in personnel matters as of the charter we do not get involved in the personnel matters and that's why they're the city manager i got 30 seconds and part of that is because elected officials can be influenced by votes and voting and all that that's why the city manager position was created to minimize any kind of government influence and corruption so that is the duties of the city manager regarding personnel matters all right I'll make my other comments regarding flock and other matters um uh at at the end of the uh the um meeting okay nope all right mr city mr uh morris will hear uh the city manager's report please

thank you mayor resolution number 164-2026 tilcon new york inc 2026 paving contract do we have a motion for resolution number 164-2026 so moved first motion is said by councilman zoria do we have a second

second by council member monteverdi roll call on the motion please council members martinez aye mclemore monteverdi shakur yes stewart yes zuria yes mayor harvey yes resolution approved

resolution number one 65 dash 2026 pin number 8005 dot 26 and 8758 dot 75 Broadway pedestrian and traffic signal improvements project change order number 5 with Verde construction.

Do I have a motion for resolution number 165 dash 2026. So moved. First motion is said by Councilman Zoria. Do we have a second? Seconded by Councilmember Monteverde. Roll call on the motion, please.

Councilmember Martinez. Aye. Macklemore. Monteverde. Shakur. Stewart. Yes. Zoria. Yes. Mayor Harvey. Yes. Resolution approved.

Resolution number 166-2026, Quest Proposal for Asbestos Testing at the Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Do we have motion for resolution number 166-2026? First motion is said by council member Monteverde. Do we have a second? Second. Second by councilman Zoria. Roll call on the motion.

Council members Martinez. Aye. McLemore. Aye. Monteverde. Aye. Shakur. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Zoria. Yes. Mayor Harvey. Yes. Resolution approved.

resolution number 167-2026 silver stream dam spillway rehabilitation project change order number one with remiss industries do we have a motion for resolution number 167-2026 first motion instead of a council member about the verity do we have a second second second by councilman zaria roll call on the motion

Council Members Martinez. Aye. Macklemore.

Yes.

Monteverde. Yes. Shakur. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Zoria. Yes. Mayor Harvey. Yes. Resolution approved.

Resolution number 168-2026, contract addendum with Shamrock Shows Inc. for concessions, rides, and games for the International Festival 2026.

Do we have a motion for resolution number 168-2026? So moved. First motion accepted by Council Member Zuri, I'm sorry, Monteverdi. Do we have a second?

Second.

Seconded by Council Member Martinez. Roll call on the motion, please.

Council Members Martinez. Aye. McLemore. Monteverde. Shakur. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Zaria.

No.

Mayor Harvey. Yes. Resolution approved.

Resolution number 169 dash 2026 fireworks proposal for the International Festival 2026.

Do we have a motion for resolution number 169 dash 2026? So moved. First accepted by Council Member Zaria. Do we have a second? second by council member month of early really quickly on a brief discussion. I just want to say my family and I went to the I guess you would call a festival or carnival at the rec center because they were here about a week ago and I saw I saw so many people and families AND THEY WERE HAVING SUCH AN AMAZING TIME. WE HAD AN AMAZING TIME. MY NIECE WAS UP. WE WERE BABY SITTING FOR MY NIECE'S DAUGHTER. WE HAD A BLAST. I ALMOST FORGOT THAT I WAS IN THE CITY OF NEWBURG. fun and family fun and kids on those rides so it was really really a positive thing for the city of newburgh and um i really i'm expecting it's going to be the same for families uh for the international uh festival anyway if no one else anything roll call on the motion please council members martinez aye mclemore monteverde shakur yes stewart yes zoria yes

Mayor Harvey? Yes. Resolution approved.

Resolution number 170-2026, award of RFP number 8.26, Municipal Financial Consulting Services.

Do we have a motion for resolution number 170-2026? So moved. First motion is said by Council Member Monteverde. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Zoria. Roll call on the motion, please.

Councilmembers Martinez. Aye. McLemore. Monteverde. Shakur. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Zoria. Yes. Mayor Harvey. Yes. Resolution approved.

Resolution number 171-2026, Saltwood Lake Management Contract, algae and aquatic vegetation treatments at the Poly at Downing Park in 2026.

Do we have a motion for resolution number 171-2026? First motion accepted by Councilmember Monteverde. Do we have a second? Second. Seconded by Councilman Zoria. Roll call on the motion.

Councilmembers Martinez? Aye. McLemore? Aye. Monteverde? Aye. Shakur? Yes. Stewart? Yes. Zoria?

Yes.

Mayor Harvey?

Yes.

Resolution approved.

resolution number 172-2026 17 johnston street addendum to site development agreement with the newberg ministry inc do we have a motion for resolution number 172 that's 2026

So moved. First motion is said by Councilman Zoria. Do we have a second?

Second.

Seconded by Councilmember Martinez. Roll call on the motion, please.

Councilmembers Martinez. Aye. McLemore. Aye. Monteverde. Aye. Shakur.

Yes.

Stewart. Yes. Zoria.

Yes.

Mayor Harvey. Yes. Resolution approved.

Resolution number 173-2026, apply for and accept if awarded a New York KICS grant.

Do we have a motion for resolution number 173-2026? So moved. First motion is set up by Councilman Zaria. Do we have a second? Seconded by Councilmember Monteverde. Roll call on the motion, please.

Councilmembers Martinez. Aye. McLemore. Yes. Monteverde. Yes. Shakur. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Zoria. Yes. Mayor Harvey. Absolutely. Resolution approved.

Resolution number 174-2026, Channel U, LLC agreement.

we have a motion for resolution number 174-2026 for rule first motion is set up by councilman shakur do we have a second second second by councilman mclemore roll call on the motion please council members martinez aye mclemore monteverde shakur yes

Stewart. Yes. Zoria. Yes. Mayor Harvey.

Absolutely.

Resolution approved.

Resolution number 175-2026, contract with Axon Enterprise Inc. for taser products and related technology.

Do we have a motion for resolution number 175-2026? First motion accepted by Councilman McLemore. Do we have a second?

Second.

Second by Councilman Shakur. Discussion. Oh, discussion. Yes, granted.

Thank you. I just wanted to ask if we could, for the public, get clarification on what this resolution would be regarding, considering that it's with Axon, and we had some comments made about the company.

so to the deputy chief or deputy chief velasquez so this contract is for uh tasers so the current tears that we have uh are being replaced by a new version of the tasers let me just read this again make sure i'm 100 correct Yep, so this is five-year contract for taser products and related technology. Taser is a less lethal weapon. It doesn't record any, well, it records the use of the taser, but it's not recording sounds, it's not recording any video, so it's no audio, no video involved.

Any other comments?

i just i just wanted to point out that it wasn't regarding the license plate readers um and just for clarification that it doesn't have anything to do with surveillance or recording or anything this is regarding tasers and um some equipment but it's still it's the use of force continuum it's wonderful oh go ahead i'm sorry go ahead yeah she was asking me i was telling her

When we went to that thing yesterday, along with Flock, Axon is one of the four worst companies. They're the four top worst companies. So that's what she was asking. They're known as the four worst top companies dealing with AI.

But this is for tasers. It's the use of force continuum. So you go up that scale and you start low. You got your pepper spray, you got the taser, and then you use different other tools. So this has nothing to do with LPRs or surveillance. It has something to do with tasers.

Just to add to what Councilman McLemore is saying, this is a less lethal weapon that is designed to be used instead of a firearm. It's an alternative to the use of a firearm. So that's not, and there is no surveillance. Obviously there's a record of the use of the taser. but what this is designed to do is in certain circumstances be used to subdue somebody without having to use deadly physical force okay all right if there's no other comments from the council roll call on the motion please council members martinez abstain mclemore yes monteverde

shakur abstain stewart yes zoria yes mayor harvey yes resolution approved resolution number 176-2026 contract addendum with axon enterprise inc for body worn camera upgrades

We have a motion for resolution number one, 7, 6, that's 2026. So move. First motion is said to by Councilman Shakur. I'm sorry, Councilman Macklemore. My apologies, bro. Macklemore. How do we have a second? Sorry about that. I'm tired. Second. I want to go on to a quick discussion on this one I want to say that 2016 just to give a little history 10 years ago when I first got on city council as a councilman at large we did a body cam pilot program and that body worn camera pilot program was very successful because what we learned was when our police officers are wearing body cams You know, a lot of allegations and things are said whenever there is a police encounter, but because of the body cam, we can see exactly what is happening from the time the police officer pulls up to an incident, and that camera and footage goes back two minutes before they arrive, And then the city council, especially if it's a very, very sensitive, volatile police encounter where someone, you know, there's a death or there's someone that's potentially beat up or abused by law enforcement, we can see exactly what happened from the time the police officers arrived. So it serves as protection for the public and it also has served for protection for law enforcement and the council can get their eyes on the street so that's why i just want to get that history 2016 we had a body worn camera pilot program that was successful um deputy uh chief pulaskin would come Oh, you want to? It don't matter. Okay, I'm sorry.

No, that's okay.

Thank you. I was going to echo the sentiments of what you said, just basically just reiterating that it also builds transparency and accountability, and that's what's important in every municipality. And it also aids in legal and investigative activities. value especially when you go to court you can see exactly what transpired and so I think this is something that we should continue as far as a useful tool to use so that way there is some transparency as as well as accountability on the officers part as well deputy

So this particular resolution and contract is designed to implement a feature called auto-tagging. So auto-tagging means that instead of an officer having to go back and manually tag the video, that is connect the video to a particular incident, it happens automatically. So that saves a lot of time. It saves human error. People have in the past, people human, have tagged improperly, I should say incorrectly tagged something. So this should eliminate that. type of error. Additionally, which is really stupendous, is this allows the body-worn camera to have a translation feature. So rather than try to find an officer, and there are languages, it translates 57 different languages. So as good as our offices are and the surrounding jurisdictions are, 57 languages is a lot of languages. So there are people who are in need. They feel intimidated. They can't communicate, which increases their consternation. And this allows them to communicate and for us to understand and for the person who we're dealing with to understand in their own language what's going on. So that particular resolution is dealing, if you see it says an upgrade. So those are the two upgrades that are being proposed here.

THANK YOU. AND THEN BEFORE WE GET A ROLL CALL ON THIS, I WANT TO ALSO ENCOURAGE THE COMMUNITY AND THE CITY COUNCIL TO TAKE A LOOK AT OUR POLICE COMMUNITY REVIEW AND RELATIONS BOARD, WHICH IS ALSO KNOWN AS PCRAB BECAUSE WE NEED TO SEE WHERE THOSE MEMBERS ARE AND, YOU KNOW, WHERE THEY NEED TO BE AND WHERE THEY NEED TO GO. to also assist in some of these police encounters we created this uh well this board was created before i was on council police community review and relations board otherwise known as p crab um that is an it you know uh a volunteer board that needs to be actively engaged with some of these matters that we're dealing with right now uh so i want to send out words of encouragement for the council and for the public to be involved in that um okay councilman and also um i would encourage that we do uh that they do a ride along

A ride along is something that will give you another perspective into the field of policing. The chaplains do it all the time. I believe they have to do it once a month or something like that or somewhere around there. And they get that experience or they get that viewpoint from an officer and you're sitting right there. And I know some have already done so, but then you get to see how they utilize these different tools. So it is eye-opening. Trust me, I live it for 25 years. It's definitely eye-opening.

And I'm glad you mentioned the chaplaincy because Dr. Mary McLemore, Councilwoman McLemore, was very much involved in... My mama. very much involved in the chaplaincy we've had them for a few years uh we also have auxiliary officers who are here so between p crab the chaplaincy and our auxiliary officers are very much involved with with this uh council minister court can i sit in the front seat absolutely

all right if there's no other comments roll call on the motion please council members martinez abstain mclemore yes monteverde shakur yes stewart yes zoria yes mayor harvey yes resolution approved resolution number 177-2026 body worn camera contract renewal with axon enterprise inc

Do we have a motion for resolution number one, seven, seven dash 2026. So move. First motion is that of the Councilman Macklemore. Discussion. Let's get a second by Councilman Zoria and then discussion granted to Councilmember Stewart.

Yes, so as I was reading through this, I saw that this is a $811,000 contract, and it is for over a span of five years. Each of those years with an average of $162,000. And one of the things that I was concerned about was being in a contract for that long. understanding the debacle that we're in with the flock contract now we definitely have to be mindful of how we enter into this contract especially because it's almost a million dollar contract and we want to be good stewards of our funds and we also want to make sure that we are not entering into anything that we cannot get out of safely so I want that's what I wanted to put on the table for

this five-year contract I'll go after him councilman

Yes, I agree. I would like to table this and get some more information about it before we vote on it.

Okay. Councilman Zaria.

I also agree to table this. I think any big contract that involves privacy and AI, we've seen the people speak, should be tested against our fair and welcoming policy to make sure it aligns. I do believe, you know, the police need tools. We need to assess whether those tools meet our values now more than ever. So I also asked Chief Rola for some pricing information. This was pitched to us as a savings. We did add a new feature, Axon AI, for the long term. So I think if you're going to pitch it to us as a saving, we have the right to know what we paid in 2022 and what is the actual savings. Again, I don't prefer to slow things down and know the full picture. I will never vote without having the full picture. So I do want to know the full scope of the technology, how it tests against our fair and welcome policy, and what is the actual saving from 2022 to now and why it justifies renewing this contract 12 months early because it actually expires in August, 2027.

okay all right so um if there's it so it sounds like someone yeah there's needs to make a motion within the discussion accorded sure um but go ahead councilman mclemore you had something yeah i just wanted to um so this is the renewal of the body cam contract um so

Could you just explain just a little bit about this?

So what happened was The contract is expiring. Council of Missouri is correct. It expires in August of 2027.

Right.

And so the record management system we have is Axon. That allows the tagging. But we're more than happy to explain, further explain, answer questions, answer into discussions. These are all valid points, and we are absolutely more than happy to address those points.

Now, in terms of the resolution just prior to this one, dealing with axiom, by tabling this, given us more time to vet this out since it is a lot of money and it does put us in a five-year commitment and I agree with that does it affect the resolution we just passed prior okay I don't believe so okay I would say no but I would say 99.9% no

The last resolution was for a feature that he mentioned. Right.

The previous resolution amends the previous resolution 176, which was approved, adds features to an existing contract. Got it. Because I know it's the same company. So that will give us access to those new features at an earlier date through the end of this current term.

Got you.

all right so why why are we why do we have this on a year early he he said that we could save significant amount of money by doing it now there's some sales savings yes there is there is a there is a cost savings by renewing early and for the the five-year term There is some cost savings that would not be available if you waited too long or if you renewed on a shorter term or on an annual basis. In my other discussions with the chief prior to the work session, if you need more time to consider the renewal contract, the pricing that we've been quoted will not be affected by a short delay to get you that information.

Thank you, Michelle, for explaining that because we can gloss over a lot of things and rush through a lot of things, but you explained it.

eloquently and completely thank you i would go ahead i would like to make a motion to table this and get more information how it tests against our fail fair and welcome policy and get the pricing differences so we all right make an informed decision excellent so we have a motion to table resolution number 177-2026 do we have a second so moved

okay second uh councilman mclemore second it roll call on the motion to table resolution number 177-2026 council members martinez aye mclemore yes monteverde shakur

i'm sorry okay stewart yes zoria yes mayor harvey yes resolution table thank you resolution number 178-2026 empress ambulance services llc renewal agreement for ambulance services to the city of newburgh from january 1st 2027 to december 31st 2029.

Do I have a motion for resolution number 178-2026? Any first motion is said by Councilmember Monteverde. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Councilman Zoria. Roll call on the motion, please.

Councilmembers Martinez? Aye. McLemore? Yes. Monteverde? Yes. Shakur?

Si.

Stewart. Yes. Zoria. Yes. Mayor Harvey. Yes. Resolution approved.

Resolution number 179-2026, street naming request, Reverend Saul Williams.

Do we have a motion for resolution number 179-2026? So moved. First motion is seconded by Councilman McLemore. Do we have a second? Second. Seconded by Councilman Shakur. Roll call on the motion, please.

Councilmembers Martinez? Aye. McLemore? Yes. Monteverde? Shakur? Yes. Stewart? Yes. Zoria? Yes. Mayor Harvey? Yes. Resolution approved.

resolution number 180-2026 appointments charter review commission do i have a motion for resolution number 180-2026 first motion is said that by uh council member monteverde we have a second

second and quick discussion sure seconded by councilman Zulia discussion granted thank you I just wanted to share I mean some people ask me why there are only two people and I think that people need to know that the other commissioners will be selected by the council and they'll be receiving later in the mail so I just wanted to let people know there's a lot of questions around why only two

Yes, thank you Councilman Zoria. So the other individuals that will serve as commissioners on the Charter Review Commission will get letters in the mail and the two individuals which are and Reverend Dr. Annene Williams and Jill Ridgway will serve as members of the Charter Review Commission and congratulations to them too and the other commissioners that will get notification. Yes, okay. So any other comments? If not, we'll get a roll call on the motion, please.

Council Members Martinez. Aye. Macklemore.

Macklemore?

Yes.

Monteverde? Yes. Shakur?

No.

Stewart? Yes. Zoria? Yes. Mayor Harvey? Yes. Resolution approved.

resolution number one eighty one dash twenty twenty six resolution to approve a consent judgment involving hudson to that to hudson two hundred llc to show much she and hudson seventy seven l l c do we have a motion for resolution number one eighty one dash twenty twenty six anyone so move first motion is that the white councilman so here we have a second

Seconded by Councilmember Monteverde. Roll call on the motion.

Councilmembers Martinez. Aye. McLemore. Yes. Monteverde. Yes. Shakur. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Zoria. Yes. Mayor Harvey. Yes. Resolution approved.

resolution number 182-2026 authorizing settlement of interim property for 583 a South Street do we have a motion for resolution number 182-2026 first motion is said by council member Monteverde do we have a second second

seconded by council member martinez roll call on the motion please council members martinez aye mclemore monteverde yes mayor harvey yes resolution approved resolution number 183-2026 authorizing settlement of in rem property for 10 liberty street

We have a motion for resolution number 183-2026. So moved. First motion is settled by Councilmember Monteverde. Do we have a second? Second. Seconded by Councilman Zoria. Roll call on a motion.

Council Members Martinez. Aye. McLemore. Yes. Monteverde. Yes. Shakur. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Zoria.

Yes.

Mayor Harvey. Yes. Resolution approved.

resolution number 184-2026 authorizing settlement of in rem property for 206 north miller street we have a motion for resolution number 184-2026 so moved first motion accepted by council member martinez do we have a second second by council member monteverde roll call on the motion please i'm sorry just give me a second sure thank you

This is one 84. Okay.

Martinez took the first motion month already. On the second.

Thank you for confirming that council members Martinez I Macklemore Monteverde shakur yes store. Yes, sorry. Yes, mayor Harvey was resolution approve.

resolution number 185-2026 authorizing settlement of in rem property for 172 dupont avenue do we have a motion for resolution number 185-2026 so moved first motion is settled by councilman zuria do we have a second Seconded by Councilmember Monteverde. Roll call on the motion, please.

Councilmembers Martinez? Aye. McLemore? Monteverde? Yes. Shakur? Yes. Stewart? Yes. Zoria? Yes. Mayor Harvey? Yes. Resolution approved.

Resolution number 186-2026, authorizing settlement of interim property for 289 Grand Street.

WE HAVE A MOTION FOR RESOLUTION NUMBER 186, 2026. SO MOVED. FIRST MOTION IS SET BY COUNCILMAN ZURIYA. DO WE HAVE A SECOND?

SECOND.

Seconded by Councilmember Martinez. Roll call on the motion, please.

Councilmembers Martinez. Aye. McLemore. Yes. Monteverde. Yes. Shakur. Yes. Stewart. Yes. Zoria. Yes. Mayor Harvey. Yes. Resolution approved.

Resolution number 187-2026, authorizing stipulation of settlement with Thomas and Dinah Breitschward.

Do you have a motion for resolution number one, eight, seven, oh, that's 2026. Why would you do that?

So move.

First motion is accepted by Council Member Stewart. Do we have a second?

Second.

Seconded by Council Member Martinez. Roll call on the motion, please.

Council Members Martinez? Aye. McLemore? Yes. Monteverde? Yes. Shakur? Yes. Stewart? Yes. Zoria? Yes. Mayor Harvey? Yes. Resolution approved.

that concludes the city manager's report thank you very much mr morris excellent job to you and the council uh next we move to uh quickly to old business if there are any old business requests that the city council has for the city manager and executive team to consider for the next work session

I have just wanted to add the green light we made some revisions and Ramona has some stuff so we wanted to just put it back on for next week some recommendations are made

okay what is that green light we're going to put that on the work session can i say something sure uh even with the green light i i sent some edits and i know um that that's something that we're all working on a draft um so if you can please just look at those edits so that way we all can discuss exactly um you know okay if we like them or if we don't

OKAY AS AS COUNCILMAN ZARILLA SAYS IT'S ABOUT COMMUNICATION SO I'M GOING TO BE LOOKING FOR SOME FORM OF COMMUNICATION THANK YOU OKAY THANK YOU VERY MUCH ANYONE ELSE OLD BUSINESS IF NOT WE'LL MOVE TO NEW BUSINESS ANY NEW BUSINESS YOUR BUSINESS COUNCIL MEMBER MONTEREY

Excuse me. So I think I was mentioning, with regard to the city manager's report and the codes department, it would be great to add the rental registry to that so that we can track that. I know there's been lots of questions about whether or not there are some buildings that have passed or not that are in compliance with the rental registry. There's a lot of questions about that. So if they could add that to the report so that we are seeing that in real time, that would be great. Thank you.

Yep.

Councilman.

Also, I sent a resolution to corporate council. I'm sorry, to the city manager in regards to the evictions and strengthening the codes enforcement regarding evictions. So if we can look at that, and then I'll send it to the council.

for edits and i want to i want to add quickly um for the next work session a conversation about the newberg steelers so that we can get uh updates from mr vandenberg and the city manager what's been done what what hasn't been done what past practices are so we can kind of get some clarification at the next work session um what the possibilities are

regarding the Newburgh Steelers okay councilman record in Martinez okay Martinez that's your core thank you um I will be sending a request for a street naming for one of the businesses in councilman Zoria's Ward on Lamy's dad we talked about it earlier this year but we thought it would be fitting to save it for Hispanic Heritage Month which would be in September so I'll be sending over the their bio for consideration

Councilman Shakur.

Yes, we go forward with the city charter stuff. I want to make sure that something is put in place that this charter review board should match the demographics of the city law that we're trying to change. We're trying to change Newburgh so that the people that should be on that board should meet the demographics of this city. do a board that represents the city it should match the demographics of the city racial residential whatever but it should match the demographics if it doesn't match the demographic and how to change in a city um charter review or whatever law without matching it should be should be done by the people from the city and should master demographics so we need to get a demographic search them first of what are the demographics of the city and that's your match yet thank you thank you so where does that leave us if um if that if we already where does that leave us and we go back to the drawing board what are we doing we've already selected the commissioners go ahead council missouri

For new business, I submitted a policy intake process for pilots, which I would love to have reviewed and formalize a process. I know we've had a practice that's been covered, but I think our investors, our residents deserve a clear formal process.

JUST TO, I MET WITH THE CITY MANAGER FRIDAY, WHICH WAS RIGHT AFTER THE WORK SESSION. HE AND I DISCUSSED PROCESS AND MR. MORRIS AGREED THAT HE'LL GET IT IN WRITTEN FORM. and I continue to talk about that if anyone else wants to be a part of that conversation before mr. Morris formalizes it in writing we definitely want to do that okay councilmember Monteverdi oh you got something sorry

i just asked for about the demographics now if our this board doesn't match the demographics of our city could that be legally challenging for it by some people because some people that's what that was brought to my attention that was going to be challenged so i wanted to know could it be challenged so i will we'll speak with mrs uh kelson about that and get some legal um advice on that council yep sure council member mother ready

Yes, sorry. With regard to old business, Councilman Zarrillo just reminded me regarding the tax pilots, if we can look at getting one Lafayette on the agenda for the first September council meeting. Now we're back to two in September. But, however, I think we need to look at the agreement, the pilot agreement, because there are some things that we need to include, and I'll reach out to Mr. Schreiber and make sure that they include that.

there you go yeah i mean they went through the ida approval process there's some recapture clauses that they have at the ida and i've sent those to corporation council if we can add them and i've also communicated with them about that and also um i think that we have established um some kind of

sentiment that we have added some things in our pilots that need to be standardized in all pilots, like the Kenny clause, that internship. There are some things that was in the IDA pilot that they submitted, and none of that stuff is in the pilot that they submitted to us. none of it so we want to make sure that all of those recapture clause recapture events are in there the internships are back in there we need to negotiate for more of the internship and also for I know the paid internship was the last one and also ensure that the Kenny clause is added to that we need to just make sure that all pilots moving forward have a certain standard of language um habitability uh making sure that there is some community benefits once we've identified what community benefits we want we want to make sure that is that they're in all of them there's also um one of the things that i wanted to highlight is that there's a fee and i i'm proposed i don't know if corporation council needs to look into this that will be paid to the IDA. And if that fee is paid to the IDA, what happens to that fee if we are handling that pilot? I think it's like $249,000. Or is it just because that's IDA commercial?

There's different rules for industrial development agencies, which are public authorities versus city councils, town boards, village boards, counties. So town villages and cities are municipal corporations. There are different rules. The exemption that you'll be granting is pursuant to the public housing finance law. And there are questions about whether the city council can accept fees for access to the legislative body where an approval is required. It's a little bit different with a public authority, so we'll look into it, but that one, of all the things that have been suggested and put on the table, that one might be the most, that one seems to be the trickiest right now.

we do we do control the the payments over 30 years so the first payment could be higher i'm i'm just exploring how could we but this also because of that fee you know they get to you know depends on what you call it no i know that's what i'm saying that's what i was going to say to you be creative and what that is what it looks like because that's 249 000 could go to something

uh that's a real community benefit it depends on the terminology and it depends on you know the payment schedule is going to be determined on a number of factors and community benefits are again different than fees for access

okay and just to update that in the pilot that we looked at it had 30 years it's not 30 years it's based off of the 32 years so if i need to understand why is that distinction in there or why is that um

well we'll talk about the term right what is initially initially what you received was the developer what you received was what the developers proposing to you you received what the IDA approved right we as a staff have not given it a our overview we have not commented back to the other side we have not um addressed what the direction we're getting from council with the applicant or the applicant's representatives so i understand the concerns but again

we have taken no action waiting on direction from the council and i just want to also add that when that got approved with the city ida it did have 32-year pilot and through discussions between myself some of the uh council members and uh mr shriver uh... we recommended that it not be that long so he was able to go thirty instead of thirty-two but there are still some areas to negotiate but you know we we we do want to make make it make sense but anyway uh... this is what council member martinez had mentioned at the work session and respect to her comment just want to make sure she's okay with knowing that the city can vote on a pilot even though um the ida had had voted on it prior and and then there was no jurisdictional challenge between the state and the city on our ability to do that so i just wanted to make sure so um they're not going to get two pilots that's clear right um the

the the the validity of the pilot granted uh from the ida is now predicated on the uh the uh legislation that was added to the state budget okay the city council's jurisdiction to um address the public housing the the the affordable housing project so the pilot that uh the the Again, the counts, the ability to tax and how to tax and the process and procedures for real property tax are governed for the most part by state law. There's nothing in the budgetary legislation, the budget amendment, that specific piece that reflects any changes to the real property tax law, the private finance housing law, or any of the other provisions that would otherwise govern the taxation of this proposed project. So it's state law to state law. There's not a preemption situation where you're talking about the state coming in and restricting the local government's ability to act. the point of entry here is that this is an affordable housing project and the developer is asking for an exemption pursuant to the private finance housing law which that which is a state law so you're talking about two different state laws okay and so i don't think that there is a conflict um between the council acting pursuant to the private finance housing law because that also is a state law. there was going to be something there would have to have been something else in the state budget legislation that would otherwise amend alter the process and procedure for granting those exemptions under the private finance housing law and then so that exempts the property and then they the the um developer comes back and says okay in lieu of the normal taxation process the normal assessment and valuation process we're going to negotiate this agreement uh in lieu of those regular taxes and so it's all state law so i don't think there's any conflict in what the developer is asking of the council and what the council is what powers the council is proposing to exercise in addressing that request

And just to highlight that what we're talking about the state law is what was put in the budget was a law that was passed by Senator Skoufis and it was in regards to prevailing wage which passed and it stated that any projects that go through an IDA have to have prevailing wage which means that they have to up their game in terms of how they pay people. labor wages and all of that stuff and a lot of the projects that were already in the pipeline here that had gotten approved to the idea did not budget for that kind of funding so that's one of the reasons why this project is coming before us and it doesn't help because there are a couple of other projects that are in the pipeline that were stuck and this bill is definitely hindering that and And I really wish that this council put forth some effort to the state to lobby them or to reach out to them, to ask them to amend that budget or have a different conversation or some amendment or have uh an extension for the people who are trying to get funding if they're trying to close out on things because it's just it does hurt all of us and we have projects that have already been approved and now this state legislation has literally put a hammer to all of that and it is not going to happen so so and just to be crystal clear

that provision that made it into the state budget was approved by the entire legislature and signed by the governor only applies to IDAs in Orange County, of which there are only two. No other jurisdiction in the state of New York subject to that requirement and so I will be happy to help any of you with the process for an amendment a home rule request something that will ameliorate the hardships for those who didn't have the ability or the opportunity to to anticipate that change in requirement. Thank you for that, Michelle.

I would like to add that to new business. Whatever you just said right there, new business to that.

but this is why we ask questions right this is why we even I knew I understood that this had been submitted to the council some years ago and you guys have seen it but things change over time and we need to make sure that we are creating a standard that we're going to follow moving forward and It's not about being in opposition. It is we need to up our standard as a city in how we approach pilots, how we give them out, how we are assessing them, and how we actually are going to help the other ones that are involved with this. Michelle, really quick, what is the other county? I'm sorry, what is the other...

There's only, the provision was defined by population and the population, the only county that fits the population mandate is Orange County. And in Orange County there are two IDAs. The city IDA and the county. The city and the county.

THOSE ARE THE TWO. AND I'D LIKE TO ADD AND THEN MOVE ON THAT IT IS ELECTION YEAR FOR SOME OF THOSE PEOPLE THAT SIGNED OFF ON THAT, INCLUDING THE GOVERNOR. IT'S HER REELECTION YEAR.

YEAH, THAT'S JUST A HINDRANCE, AND THAT'S WHY WE HAVE TO ABSORB THIS NEW PILOT, AND IT'S NOT GOOD. AND I HOPE THAT WE CAN GET TOGETHER AND DO WHAT YOU SAID, KELSON, AND LOBBY THEM AND FIX IT OR TRY TO.

Okay, so we're gonna move on to final comments and hopefully we can keep them brief so that we can get up out of here.

Two seconds.

Right, mine is gonna be real.

Thank you for coming out.

So I'm gonna start with Council Member Martinez.

thank you it's been a very long night and I think we're doing a lot better at trying to get through our agenda items while also having you know the discussions that matter and so at the end of the day you know I really value our decorum on the council and I really value my colleagues opinions whether we agree or disagree and I do respect everyone on this council and would just also like to just reiterate what was said earlier about all of us having respect and listening to each other even when it's hard so I appreciate everyone's time for sticking around and have a good night

Thank you Councilmember Martinez. Next we will go to Councilman McLemore.

So don't forget tomorrow we have senior dinner night. Everyone is invited. It is not political so please no politics when we're feeding the seniors. It will be at Burton Towers at 5 p.m. And so everyone is welcome once again on the council to come and partake in feeding our seniors and having conversation with our seniors and just showing love. our seniors and if you can't make that one we have another one in September and if you can't make that one we have another one in October so we go to every senior facility and we spend time with the seniors also tonight was a lot we can we can disagree but where there's unity there's strength and we should always respect each other's opinions presentation is a is big so whenever you come to present yourself before someone in a conversation we should also have decorum when we do so um so it's important that and we're all passionate about what we want but we shouldn't let our passion get in the way of how we behave and so we must have respect for each other and so thank you once again uh for everybody who came out and who spoke and um we're going to move forward and we're going to get our act together i believe it thank you thank you councilman macklemore next we'll hear from council member marta verity

I'll keep this brief. It's late. Thank you, Councilman McLemore, for those comments regarding being civil and respectful towards each other. I'm just asking that we continue to regulate our emotions and not get out of control because we disagree on something. We're all adults here. I want to just mention I had the opportunity two weeks ago to tour a new building business in my ward, and it was a manufacturing furniture business. I was really excited to see the technology that they're using now. I wrote a support letter because they're applying for a grant, and I hope that they get it. In this day and age, we need more manufacturing businesses here in the city of Newburgh. you know they're they're they hire locally they've got like I think 10 to 15 people that live locally and again we you know whenever we can support businesses in our community we uh we need to do that thank you and good night thank you next we hear from Councilman Shakur did he leave for the evening okay then next we'll hear from Councilmember Stewart

Thank you. It is always great when we have an opportunity to be in front of the public and share and hear the public information. One of the things that I like to point out during these sessions is the money. Pay attention to the money. The resolutions are where we are passing a lot of the stuff in the budget. That's where you see a lot of the movement. And tonight there was movement of upwards of seven point five million dollars of money with fees and different things that we are entering To actually build the infrastructure and also the operations of the city. So pay attention to the resolutions That's where the money moves and that's how you hold the city and us accountable that's how you watch and you and you you figure out what's going on and Also, all of this stuff that we talk about, I want to keep reiterating, none of this stuff is private information. It is all on the website. It's under the meetings tab. You will see all of the documents. It's all PDF. It is there with the minutes of the last session. All of this stuff is there. Whenever you feel like you need to take a look at it, do your own research, which I do recommend. If you have an opportunity or you're interested in something, I don't expect you to read 570 pages of stuff. But if you're interested in something and you're looking for resolutions and how things are moving, look in those packets that are online because all of that information is readily available. The other thing I wanted to talk about is the Newberg Housing Authority. There is a town hall that we have called, and that is happening on August 19th, and this is in regards to hearing from residents from the Fogartys and the Mullins. So that they can share and provide testimony on their living conditions, how their properties are being managed. And we will also be hearing from some of the commissioners and staff. They are all invited to come before us in this town hall and share their experiences. We have to do a better job as a city in protecting our residents and their habitability. And this is where it starts with the Newburgh Housing Authority and our residents that live in those developments. And that's all. Thank you. Good night.

Thank you very much Council Member Stewart. Next we'll hear from Councilman Zoria.

Thank you everyone for coming. When I started Council I bought this compass and I wanted to make sure that it's always pointed north which is the community out there and you see me spinning it and thinking about it and there could be winds that try to push me in all these different directions, and I'm not gonna get pushed in directions I don't wanna go because I have my own values inside, and you could threaten me, you could come at me, you could blame me, all kinds of things. I've heard a lot of things in this job, and it's a very interesting learning experience, but if you protect the status quo in Newburgh, then you're not gonna like me. If you do not want me to read and ask questions, then you're not going to like me. And that's fine because I didn't get elected to get liked by everybody. When I was knocking on doors and all the doors that I knocked, nobody said that I should do a better job of getting liked. And unity doesn't come from getting liked. It comes from working hard towards a shared vision of the future. so it's very easy to sit out there not reading any packets not not going into the nitty-gritty details that we have to go to and stand by our hard decisions every day hard decisions that have an impact on people's lives and it's very easy to criticize us and to call us names and to do all these things but it's okay because we know what we signed up for and we're going to keep doing the job and we're not going to make everyone happy every time but as long as we're all doing a job we'll you know like a sailboat end up in the place we wanted to go together so thank you all for participating please read the packets, know that there's nuance to these decisions that we're making. It's not black and white. It's very easy to simplify us into one or two type of person. You're either that or you're this. That is not true, and being in this job and listening to so many different perspectives shows you that we are complicated, nuanced people, come from different places, have different backgrounds, want different things, and in some weird way, our city works it can get better and we're gonna make sure it gets better and we have in the last six eight months that we've been working together things have you cannot tell me things have got not gotten better And I could give you tons of examples on how they're getting better. Are we perfect? No. But we're going to keep working. And if you want to fight for the status quo, then you're going to come up with a fight with this council. And that's all I will say. Thank you.

THANK YOU, COUNCILMAN ZURI. EXCELLENT COMMENTS. AND I AGREE. THIS IS A TOUGH JOB. IT'S TOUGH. AND, YEAH, IT'S REALLY TOUGH. AND NO ONE, NOT EVERYONE'S GOING TO AGREE ON EVERYTHING. AND THERE IS A WAY TO DISAGREE WITHOUT BEING DISAGREEABLE. and is a way to disagree with civility, respect for one another. And I'm going to keep reiterating that. And emotional intelligence is critical. It's critical. Sometimes people push, you know, your buttons and, you know, there was an MTV show called The Boiling Point and it was like trying to figure out what they could say or do to you so you could reach your boiling point and snap and just it being in this job. as a as as a councilman first and then as the mayor it's very very very educational to learn where your boiling point is and when where and how to increase your emotional intelligence so you can listen you can learn you can hear from the people and govern accordingly even when i'm dealing with high school students they'll say you know you'll get cussed out or cursed out or called kind of names but you have to exercise and utilize that emotional intelligence because you can't let people get to your boiling point so you can maintain your cool even when they're coming at you so I want to thank all my colleagues it was you guys are great and and when you fight and you disagree I like that because now we can we can really get to the bottom of what is needed and necessary to move the city forward because in the final analysis that's what we all want we all want to move the city forward in a really really great way it's a great city and sometimes that work gets difficult so i appreciate everyone's time i appreciate everyone's perspective and their their point of view the last thing i want to say and i know i got 45 seconds there is a 490 000 square foot um factory or warehouse ON SOUTH STREET AND SOUTH AND PEARCES ROAD, BROOK, LET ME GET IT RIGHT, IS BROOKFIELD? BROOKFIELD DEVELOPERS DID IT. WE BROKE GROUND A WHILE AGO. AND I'M GOING TO ASK MR. MORRIS IF YOU HEAR ANY UPDATES ON TENANTS OR PEOPLE, YOU KNOW, THAT BROOKFIELD HAS DECIDED TO PUT INTO THE, THAT'S A VERY LARGE, AND IF YOU ALL CAN, Okay, you did, so you should go see it, it's huge. 30 seconds. I wanna assure the community, because I got a lot of calls and emails, it's not gonna be a data center, it is not gonna be anything for ICE, this and there is a licensing agreement with the city that i think it's like 75 of the employees that go there have to be residents so yeah so there's so if you guys get a chance look you know we can get that pulled up and lastly the new york conference of mayors for our new council members, have lawyers on call if you, oh, you already know, okay. So, in case, okay, okay, all right, just wanted to make sure. All right, so, all right, meeting adjourned.