The Newark Municipal Council held its regular meeting on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, at 6:31 PM in the Council Chamber. All eight council members were present for roll call. The meeting included public comment on several tax abatement ordinances, debate on a convenience store regulation ordinance, and the passage of numerous resolutions and ordinances. The meeting adjourned at 10:03 PM.
Good evening. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Newark Municipal Council on Wednesday, January twenty second, twenty twenty five. Please stand for the National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation by Imam Taood Haq of Nia Masjid. We pays you for all the numerous favors and monkeys for which you are showered upon us. Bless the leadership of the city, and that you would make it uh decisions, have them to make decisions that is going to be beneficial to us. In accordance with New Jersey law, adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the Star Ledger, the Jersey Journal, and the public at large establishing the date, time and location of this meeting. When your name is called, please approach the podium and address the council. Miss Bradley. Not appearing. Alif Mohammed. Appearing. No. No. Good evening. I sound like him. Good evening. Alif Mohammed. School. I'm going to go back to Philip's Ford, which we finally called Little Briggs, and I'm going to start there. What I'm going to have to do is I want to take my time, so this might take two different meetings. I can't do this, Mr. President, in five minutes or three minutes. So it's basically, I'm giving you almost the same thing I gave you before, but I want to start at the beginning. And I what I want to do now is I want to set the climate. At that time, I was team Baraka. I was probably outside of the person that didn't have a job or wasn't benefiting from it, their biggest supporter. I probably spent from 2014, 2018, 60, 70, 80 grand of my own money pushing team of Barack. So I was serious. So when this went down, I was on the team. I was a true believer. And then so it started at the Phillips Ford. It's a uh project that's been there since 1942. It's sitting there, and it was a deal came up. And I want to start at the beginning, that the deal would came up, and then I want to start it. I got called down this meeting that's at the end. Five, I got called down by Bear's office because they weren't happy on what I did with this thing. So that's the first, not the first time I got called down, but it was a real serious situation. And the conversation went like this. Why are you stopping this? I said, stop this. He said, Yeah. I said it's a bad deal. He said, This is the mayor's student. I said, it's a bad deal. He said, it's the mayor's student. It's a bad deal. Five times. He looked me in the eyes. He said, This is the mayor's student. I said, it's a bad deal.