Remarks by Giselle Martinez
27 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
“I just wanted to also add on to that, just to some of the concerns regarding the bidding process and just wanting more transparency in this process. It seems like this isn't the only procedural issue that feel that we can expand on or fix constituents or residents don't get any type do they receive any type of feedback and email a letter saying that they've that we've received their application that they're that they weren't selected and”
“Yeah, I think it would be helpful even just knowing that someone submitted applications because there's a lot of just conversations within the community. And I think it would make it easier for us to know what's going on, especially if we have a timeline. I know that it might not be doable for every single property but as long as we know that some like if there's some type of log for us to review I guess just expanding that process like I just want to know who's been submitting when did they submit it having a clear timeline to avoid issues like the one that we face tonight”
“So for a council to know, if it's possible to have a log of each bid, like if this is the recommended bidder that you presented, if it's possible to have a log. I know Mayor Harvey requested a timeline. If we could have some type of log as well.”
“I would agree to moving the work session. I don't know if maybe the day after would work. I mean, not the day after. I'm sorry. I believe that Monday we have our council meeting. So maybe let me see.”
“Good evening everyone, buenas tardes. I'll do my best to go back and forth for both English and Spanish speakers. As a daughter of immigrants, I am also a proud Mexican American, first generation. I completely understand the importance of soccer in our culture and the importance that it plays on the youth, specifically here in the city of Newburgh. And the first thing I'm going to say is that I 100% support making sure that the youth keeps their soccer program here in the city of Newburgh. Lo primero que voy a decir es que yo los apoyo. Voy a trabajar con el concejal para poder apoyarlos para…”
“yes no I just wanted to also add comments to that to councilman Zaria and mayor Harvey to their point I think that Michelle mentioned that there have been things put in place prior to leadership um that is in place now and so i don't want it to sound like we are like you know attacking um our city manager or wayne um i know they're doing a fantastic job this is more so like we have these gaps that haven't been fixed before and we should be focusing instead of waiting like councilman zuria mentioned instead of waiting for something to happen like what happened tonight we should just be…”
“Thank you. There were definitely a lot of comments made tonight, so a couple of them that I wasn't able to address. I wanted to also thank Tracy for working with the council to put on that tenants meeting. I think that this is the first of many more that are gonna come and I think that what tenants need to know aside from having legal resources is just being able to organize and having the right to organize within their own building um varix is not the only the only place where um I receive a lot of complaints from tenants um we've received complaints from tenants all across the city but…”
“Thank you, Chief Rola. I just had a quick question regarding Axon and just the overall company. Just in comparison to Flock, would Axon have permission to share any data or anything regarding the software with the federal government?”
“Okay, and then I also just wanted to ask, when it comes to the software, how do we store it? How long does that information stay, or does it delete after a couple of years?”
“Just a quick question regarding the cameras. You mentioned AI, and I was curious, do the cameras... Are they linked to our city-wide cameras, or this is just the body vests? And then do they have the ability to use AI to identify people, or is that just, it's for recording only?”
“thank you I have a couple of questions just apologies if there's any repeat questions I wanted to know the difference between the overtime for Pete for the PD garage and just the regular like garage I was looking at some of the lines I just want to know like what the difference between like the the two garages are and what the overtime would be used for so the one of the one of the mechanics is”
“And then if you could also just explain the difference between the sanitation sewer and regular sanitation and also for their overtime. I saw there was a line for the sanitation under the sewer section.”
“Yeah, that's what I wanted to know. No, that's okay. And then I was also looking at the snow removal over time. So in... As of now, for 2026, the number is a lot higher than what was requested for 2027, and it was almost double that. Are you expecting for the overtime or the numbers to increase for next year? Only because we mentioned this at the past meeting, I think Jason mentioned it, that the costs for snow removal are going up, or for sludge disposal. lunch disposal and sanitation tipping fees so landfill fees for garbage got it okay so are any of those fees included in this or is that a…”
“No, I agree. I'm just asking because if we do go over like we did this year, which is obviously out of your control and out of our control, what did we do this year in order to make up for the money that we didn't? We only budgeted for half of that, and it ended up being more.”
“no yeah thank you I I appreciate it no problem and then similar question with the sand and salt line I realized I saw that there was like an increase of 250 K since the rise of salt is like the cost of salt is on the rise so I guess what specific, well, I mean, I don't know. I don't want to get into like the, the details of it, but, um, is this like with a specific company that we're using? Um, is this just salt in general all around and how much, um, is this like the amount that we're allocating for? Is that the usual amount that we use every year? Or is this just like an estimation of like…”
“Yeah, no, I mean, of course, again, this is not, like, something that we can control, but just, like, the prices of everything going up has really, like, I feel like it's really going to shift things and what we prioritize, but obviously salt is important during the winter. And then can you just clarify, does the salt contribute to the roads becoming more brittle and... yeah yeah and the sidewalks too okay because that was leading into my next question about the repaving the roads I mean I know every year we allocate about 1 million and so do you think that there will be an increase in costs…”
“Thank you for that. And then just my last question is regarding the street lighting. I know that we were switching out the light bulbs with the LED lights. Do you have an estimate of how many street lights have already been converted to LED or which ones are still in need of replacing?”
“okay actually i lied that was not my last question i'm sorry one more um just because somebody made a comment about this last night uh regarding the montgomery street um and the overgrown weeds um does yeah does dpw um take care of the property behind um the the homes like uh where the where what is that street river street water street yeah river road so so that project that property was formerly a city-owned property that the city RFP for development so right now that property is under control by a private entity oh so not so okay got it okay yeah I was wondering what DPW I mean what the…”
“Sorry, just also last questions that I have. Just, I mean, what wouldn't we be able to do if we had a bigger budget? I had a question regarding the staffing levels. I know you mentioned that for paving, you know, you need a certain number of staffing for that. What would a number be and how far are we from that ideal goal?”
“so for um re for the roads like specifically um not including um well i don't know if they if they would do the same thing but um like street sweeping but when it comes to repaving the roads specifically um of those people and of those that need to take their time off, would we be able to put in temporary workers, or was there already a line? Because I saw temporary workers for other divisions, but I wasn't sure if there was one for specifically the streets.”
“oh of course yeah no that's that's insane i think you know um dpw of course all of our departments are important um but when it comes to the work that dpw does i mean it really holds like our city together and so um i would really like to look into adding more positions um specifically for the roads but just in general for dpw i think last year you know we added two positions for the fire department um this year i really do think that the areas that need it the most such as DPW could use additional staffing so if that's if there's a way to make that happen I would I would like to see that and…”
“I agree that it should be a priority. And then just a final question regarding the city electrician. Would you, and it's okay if you don't have the numbers, but would you happen to have an estimate of how much we would spend now in just individual contracts or what”
“yeah but I I do know I can try to keep track of things he's doing moving forward to try to have an idea of what yeah no yeah I just wanted to know what we spend in a year without having this position and just wanted to compare it to what the requested salary is and what this position would mean for the city so”
“thank you um i missed the first couple of minutes um so apologies if i'm repeating this um but i really would like to advocate for the sidewalk repair program um i think that goes hand in hand with the sidewalk repair program um i think it goes hand in hand with um our road paving plan and a lot of constituents have shown a lot of interest in that and I also want to really advocate for some type of constituent management assistance whether it's a software database platform or whether it's adding something to the budget and adding people that we can hire as liaisons which I don't think is the…”
“Just a quick question. The small business economic development, is that the same thing or can they be consolidated with the economic development small business assistance? I think, yeah, they're the same thing.”