In accordance with New Jersey law, adequate notice of this meeting has been provided to the Star Ledger, the Jersey Journal, and the public at large, establishing the date, time, and location of this meeting.

In addition, the agenda for this meeting was disseminated on September 12th at the time of preparation and posted on the city's website.

Roll call.

Madam Clerk.

Do we have somebody to uh morning?

I mean, for the prayer.

Is he here?

He was there.

He is okay.

We do have somebody.

My apologies.

Might we pray, eternal God, our Father, creator and sustainer of life.

We come before you on this Wednesday evening to pause to say thank you.

Thank you for life, health, and strength.

Thank you for the activity of our limbs, the blood running warm in our vein.

Certainly, Lord, we are thankful for your goodness and your mercy.

Father, you have kept us, you have blessed us, and you have never left us.

And for that we say thank you.

Lord, we also want to ask for your forgiveness tonight, Lord, for every transgression that we have done in this body of clay.

Lord, the things we've said, thought, and done.

We ask for forgiveness now.

We thank you for the fresh start.

We thank you for a clean slate.

Now, God, as you come into this room tonight, as we conduct the business and city affairs.

We pray, Lord, that you will rest rule and abide.

We thank you now, God, for our honorable mayor.

We pray now, God, that you continue to bless him, God.

Bestow wisdom upon him, God, as he leaves this great city.

Remember his family, God.

Remember his staff.

We thank you now, God, for even our honorable council president that will conduct our meeting tonight.

We thank you, God, for every councilman and our councilwoman at large.

Continue to bless them.

Bless their families, bless their hands, God, as they govern the five wards.

We thank you for every employee, God, every business administrator, every civil servant, God that works tirelessly to work and keep the North City functioning behind the scenes.

We thank you, God, for our responders, our first responders.

We thank you for our health care professionals.

We thank you for all of our business owners, God that bring business and revenue through the city.

We thank you now, God, for those that are operating with integrity and with honesty.

We thank you, God, for all of our house and our faith-based leadership, God, that's in all of the five wards.

We thank you for the bright light that they share in the city.

We thank you for the prayers that go lifted up for protection and coverage.

Now, God, we thank you for even these city residents that are here, God, that come near and far, that reside here.

God, I pray, God that you would continue to bless every resident of North, God.

Bless every household, every mother, every father, every child, every son, every daughter.

We pray God that you would keep your hands over them as you are keeping this great city of North.

Now, God bless every man and woman that's coming to speak tonight.

I pray, God that as they come with their compassion, God, with their excitement.

I pray now, God, they will come, God looking for a resolve.

And we pray, God, that between city government and people, that there will be a resolution for all.

And Lord, we thank you.

If you move in the room, we'll give you glory.

If you have your way, we'll give you honor, and we'll say thank you in advance for all that you've done and all that you are yet to do.

These and all the blessings we ask in your name and the people of God say Amen.

Amen.

Phone call.

Here.

Ramos.

Scott Roundtree.

President.

Silver absent.

President Trump.

Present.

Council President, Council members, we are in the hearing citizens portion of this meeting where each speaker will have five minutes to speak.

Once your name is called, please approach the podium and address the council members.

The first speaker this evening is Gail Cheneyfield Jenkins.

Not appearing.

Lisa Mitchison Parker.

Appearing.

Gail Cheneyfield couldn't be here tonight because of scheduling conflicts.

But I do hope you join me in supporting Gail Cheneyfield Jenkins for the Central Ward 4F.

Good day, criminal cult that's running our government.

Please join me in reaching out to the Attorney General in Washington to request a forensic audit of all of Newark's municipal departments.

Budget for mismanagement and wasteful spending.

That is 24.8% in taxes in three years.

Yet there's no relief for hardworking families, retirees, seniors, and small businesses.

From the letting our water to the pipe replacement to the selling of the land, raising our taxes, our water bills.

There are no public safety, lawsuits, settlements.

We're going bankrupt in mismanagement by this administration.

And the people, the hard working people are gonna want, are gonna be the ones to pay the bill.

There's no accountability from this administration, from the BA to the clerk's office, and to some of those that are sitting there on a dais.

Starting with the 24 hours of foolishness, money from vendors, t-shirt sales, the Latin festival, the Ecuadorian festival.

We had crowd sizes for a concert, yet we didn't have public safety for that.

Why are we spending on garbage and police for the celebrities when residents can't get their garbage picked up?

Explain that one.

You pay overtime into a budget for all of these festivals, then nothing is coming back into the into the city.

Why does the mayor and the chief of staff and the celebs get to rent RVs?

For what?

Um big balling on out tax dollars, the permits department, code enforcement, churches, businesses, and slum lords are not paying their fair share of taxes.

You got Smitty on my block, owe you 1.2 million dollars in taxes from 2011, and yet he's still there.

Make him leave.

We want him out of the neighborhood.

Why is every budget top heavy with salaries?

Yet we are borrowing money to operate departments.

Every branch of our city government is broken, and the lawless governing body aren't following the rules.

You had three deferments that's supposed to go back to the administration, and yet you have these ordinances here with four and five deferments that never went back.

Then the public has a right to a 30-day review of your budget.

You're supposed to make available to the public, viewing at a night meeting, at a weekend meeting, not on a Friday at 12 o'clock, that nobody knows that the meeting is even being held.

The city clerk as well as the BA are negligent.

They have been compromised by this administration to ignore the law that they're supposed to follow and enforce.

Mark the date, September 25th, to come down here for the budget hearing and make sure you have a night meeting and a weekend meeting and the ample time for people to look at the budget and review it.

Vote November 4th for F.

Gail Cheneyfield Jenkins for real leadership.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Alicia Austin Singleton.

Appearing.

Good evening, council.

Good evening.

You know I love you.

So you you can't get mad at anything I say.

I'm talking to the councilwoman, not my reverend, okay, the Reverend Louise Roundtree.

So, council people, here we go again.

You don't follow rules.

Didn't present a complete budget.

You didn't even gave an excuse to the chief of staff when he tried to do the mayoral budget.

But you don't even follow your own council rules that you only have for the conduct of us.

Because in agenda council rules, it says when an ordinance or resolution submitted by the mayor or business administrator fails to gain necessary votes for adoption during three meetings of the municipal meeting, the agenda shall not include such ordinance or resolution for a time period of one year immediately following the date of the third meeting and the municipal council without the prior consent of the municipal council.

See, you just said two municipal councils right there.

This from your this is from your rules.

Such legislation shall be returned to the original agency.

So you have three deferments on two things.

Oh, should we hear this out and vote on it?

It should be returned back to the administration according to your council rules.

So if you're not gonna follow the rules, that does not mean that if I stand up and say, that's right, you're a liar, this and that, and it's council chambers, you have nothing to say because that is my first amendment, right?

We're gonna follow the rules and we're not gonna follow them.

But I'm gonna tell you one thing, you need to follow.

If Marquise Lewis ever walks out this building after me like he did yesterday, after I said he was incompetent, it will be a problem at Broad and Green.

I did back on him when we got downstairs to go out the building and went out the Green Street side, he comes all the way to the Green Street Corner.

I promise you that anything that anything happens to me or any advocate that comes to this mic, it's gonna be a problem.

Not only am I gonna sue you, the counsel, I'm gonna sue Eric Pennetton, Kenyatta Stewart, Mitty Baraka, because we know that he's the puppet master, and Mayor Raz J.

Baraka.

I don't know what Marquise think he was doing.

But I'm gonna tell you one thing.

It's always the pig that takes the corn, but he gets nothing but the cob.

Now if you don't know what that means, ask some Southern person, they'll tell you.

They'll definitely tell you what it means.

It's sad.

It's ridiculous.

Y'all run this like it's a circus.

This is government.

This is our lives.

We come and plead to you.

We plead for residents to get apartments.

We plead for everything and it goes on deaf ears.

But y'all took at least 30 minutes to talk about some services for street pavement, some services for what we're gonna do on a budget had about a whole five hour session here and you ain't getting nothing done.

You ain't said what come in what go out what should be accountable for what needed to be reallocated.

Nothing but everything according to Mary Baraka stays the same.

Isn't that what he said?

Nothing changed.

It has to change y'all claim y'all not getting taxes but nobody came down here to say how many tax abatements have y'all collected revenue from from these people that y'all got your tax abatements to nothing that's the budget it's not 30 minutes for a department y'all are a million dollar corporation one billion dollar corporation we should have ingoing outgoing what needed to be done what jobs we have available who fills the jobs currently but Joshua made sure that Marquis said he was the assistant chief of staff of recreation yet y'all wanted to put him illegally on a housing authority who did you pick Louise to be at the sitting on housing authority Ramos Quintana Crump Kelly we know you picked Carter uh Gonzalez and Pat who did you pick you get for not the mayor the governor gets one the county gets one and us and the state gets one and you get four and if the county doesn't want to who they go to Eric you thank you for your comments next speaker Deborah Salters let's have some quiet please so we can hear the speaker Deborah Salter City of Newark um you know Norkers are you ready for change?

That's the question and I know the people out there are um I get questions from the residents all the time like people all over anytime anything's brought to this administration it's for other municipalities and what they do over here in this city we don't care about any other municipality because our all eyes are on Newark this is where we live this is where we pay our taxes this is where we cannot afford to live so no matter what country city or state I'm in Newark is the topic of conversation all throughout the papers let's not dismiss the the the uh corruption that has been blown up the fake loans that we don't have to pay back to the governor because he spent so much time in Newark the 1.5 billion for the school budget all of these things right someone said to me the other day how can they have a 15 it was actually last night $1500 a plate ball and we can't even live we're homeless we're doing this are the people in the city that you all show no regard for so that being the case then they asked me other questions.

So today you all were talking about was it seven or eight the immigrant documentation that you want passed and again you all fight for undocumented and illegals but you don't fight for the documented and legal residents here.

You're talking about kidnapping them off the street my son was kidnapped out of his house not one of you came and had a word to say the corruption that's in the internal affairs department the corruption that is in the uh public what's it called the uh the professional standards they're all hand in hand so you call on one they send it to the other one and they play ping pong back and forth and nothing gets done you ask to speak to the head prosecutor Theodore Stevens oh we can't give you that so we'll give you a captain meanwhile they're playing ring around the rosy our men are getting kidnapped off the streets you don't care not one of you has had anything to say about it but you can stand up and fight for undocumented and I have nothing against them but if you come what country can we go into as Americans and demand to be treated like we're a citizen nowhere you learn the language or you you have your paperwork or you get out or they jail you there's there's no other way around it there's no other way around it Brazil Italy anywhere in the world they're not letting you buy land if you're not a citizen none of that then you talked about Cantana brought up oh well you know the federal government they're now that they don't want to uh have the

But if you come, what country can we go into as Americans and demand to be treated like we're a citizen?

Nowhere.

You learn the language, or you you how have your paperwork or you get out or they jail you.

There's no other way around it.

There's no other way around it.

Brazil, Italy, anywhere in the world.

They're not letting you buy land if you're not a citizen.

None of that.

Then you talked about Kentana brought up, oh, but you know the federal government, then now that they don't want to uh have the undocumented get health care.

Look at the health care that the city workers gotta pay out their nose for.

Do you hear what you're saying?

You don't fight for we, the people who live here.

So, line by line, you're giving this information every day, every time we come up here, and you look at us like we have four heads.

So I'm asking you, Norkers, why would you vote any one of them up here back in office?

When you talk about the corruption, and you can like who you want to like.

I actually like a couple people up there.

But if you're not getting a job done, you gotta go do something else.

You gotta do something else, because this is not it.

We don't benefit, we're losing.

Our city is in a shambles.

Every department is in the shambles.

And y'all don't have anything to say.

The thing with Marquise, so can tell uh Gonzalez has questions.

Oh, oh, oh, you, Mr.

Bowtie uh Crump.

Well, no, no, no.

I don't think you should ask him that.

He has a right to answer.

Then you give him the answer.

That's counterproductive.

You get people that you want, you make the way for them to have the position.

I'm just sick of it.

The people are sick of it.

They're hurting, they're dying.

Our city is broke, it's broken.

You have obliterated our culture, our community, you've destroyed it.

So, what I'm saying to you all, if you are serious about change, what has been obliterated, destroyed, and broken, it is now time to fix.

You vote Deborah Salters for mayor in 2026.

You want some change?

Let's make some change.

People ask me, well, sister, they're up there talking about vote them out.

What happened when you had the recall?

Y'all remember this?

When everybody had an opportunity to get on board.

Those of you jumping up talking about you running for office.

You sat by and watched our city burn while you waited for your turn.

Run for what office?

For your chance to get in a seat and be just like the people that's here.

Especially, where have you been?

Especially those up, where are our men?

Now you want to jump out here and run for some office.

How about you run somewhere else because you sat by, watched our city burn while you waited for your turn when you had an opportunity to make a difference?

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Alive Muhammad appearing.

Oh my goodness.

Somebody can think about it.

Oh, you know what?

Wait, wait, wait, wait.

I have a bad cold.

Can you change this, please?

Can you give another cover?

I don't want you to catch this.

I think the guy took them.

Well, who took it?

No, so do we have it?

Wait, so where's the other one?

You need the other one to put it in the middle.

Where's it?

Thank you.

Okay, I need them without.

No, I'm talking.

I'm gonna speak.

I need to have I gave you nine.

I gave you nine.

Those papers is that that's each one.

You got nine up there, including the papers with the clips on them.

These ones with the clip.

That's nine.

Good evening.

Asalam Alaykum.

Good evening.

Alif Mohammed, Court Towers.

Alif Muhammad, the president found Alif Mohammed near school.

Um it says that Carlos Gonzalez is a dedicated lever with international background.

It says that he got his B, his bachelor's in university, a bachelor administration in 1969.

He said he got his doctrine from Ruckers with it in tax law and taxation.

Larry, take the mask off.

You're not Larry Pump anymore.

In that mask, it's MIDI or Ross.

How dare you, someone in your father?

Somebody that you was in playing high school basketball or whatever, he had a law degree.

How dare you?

How dare you stop him?

When you run for public office or anything public, this is how it goes.

You are your life is open.

And when a person comes and they're a candidate for something, you allowed to ask any questions.

What color is your underwear?

Watch TV.

You can't, and then you're gonna jump in and stop and say, is it inappropriate?

That was protecting the Barackers.

And that's why I say take the mask off.

The Larry that's fair that you want to be, that's not you.

You are MIDI or you are Ross.

Now Pac knew that Marquise could not come on there.

I taught him ethics.

He taught me a lot of things, but I taught you ethics.

And you only have one person, an employee.

That's why they knock normal off.

Also, whenever you work for the housing authority, you have to be gone for one year in order, one year, in order to come back.

And if you do business with him, or like consultants two years.

Now let me explain something to you about Marquise.

No, I'm not going there.

Marquise was the president of the New York Board Education.

We got our uh school back.

Marquise was working at the Housing Authority and Recreation, head of recreation, he was doing a good job.

But we had a meeting one time, and then the meeting was Eddie, and you could call him up and ask him with MIDI, because I had a problem with Victor Cerrillo.

And in that meeting, Marquis said he wanted a raise.

And this is all public.

Dashe said, I'm not giving you nothing because they got a problem from when they were both set on the board education.

He said I want 90 grand.

I said, you can't get 90 grand, bro.

So 65,000.

So I fought for him to get the 65,000.

But then Dashe went away for a week.

And all of a sudden, he got the 90,000, and he was put in resident service.

Now, resident service is not supposed to be ran, it's supposed to be ran by grants.

Midi sent 20 people down there, and they put all of the resident service.

Pat gotta stand up and tell y'all the truth.

Now, this is the assessment.

What they said in the assessment, and this is for y'all, it says y'all are not vetting your candidates.

That's what HUD said.

Read it.

You're not vetting your candidates.

Why do you think the house has already got problems now?

You have to go and vet your candidates.

You gotta go in and see how what we're gonna do.

You gotta do that.

You have to do that.

Now I was watching the uh the budget thing, and this guy gets up, that's the affirmative action, and he says, Oh wow, we got two people in the museum working.

It's a hundred people down there.

We got uh one person in Jefferson, we got oh man, we're doing it.

I was so embarrassing.

I was in my office.

What kind of guy's surprise?

Then Luis try to tell him, you only got five people last year.

Get the other five people.

We're doing great.

That's embarrassing.

I am the affirmative person, and I got two people at the museum, and it's a hundred people working there.

Louise, you gotta be careful with the hatchet.

You got up there, uh, you got up there and you said about Amina on City Time.

Okay, so you be careful because I begged them not to file a thing with electoral.

Just want to tell you that.

It's called a hatchet.

Thank you for your comment.

Somebody teach it with the hat jacket.

Thank you for your comments next speaker.

I mean that Brad Barry.

I mean Bradbury.

Good evening, counsel.

That's a packet of is basically transparency of what I'm talking about.

Uh paychecks.

Hours.

Yeah, can you pull the mic closer to yourself?

Thank you.

That's the paychecks, hours, and etc.

Um, good evening, councilman members.

My name is Amin Bradbury.

I have been a city employee since 2019.

I would like to bring some awareness of the issues down at New York Sanitation.

As a sanitation worker, we take pride in keeping our community clean and safe.

However, despite our hard work and dedication, many of us struggle with unfair compensation and payroll discrepancies.

We have homeless city workers down there.

Myself being one of them.

The former director, Tariq, he sent me down to 110 to fill out the application.

I haven't heard anything yet back.

Our paychecks often don't reflect the overtime we worked, and it's frustrating to feel like our efforts aren't valued.

We're not just talking about numbers on a paycheck.

We're talking about impact on our families, our livelihoods, and our ability to provide for ourselves and the ones we love.

Recently, our department has seen significant changes with the introduction of a new frontloader.

As part of a pilot program, this initiative has grown into a new department with additional trucks and equipment being added.

This new department has the potential to generate revenue for the city, creating a new stream of income.

As pioneers in this new department, my co my co-worker and I were tasked with implementing this program.

We've worked tirelessly to make it a success.

And now we're being asked to train new drivers without any compensation.

We believe it's only right that we receive fair compensation for our work, including title change overtime, and training responsibilities.

It can be changed.

And I'm here to say that we need to do something different.

They're stuck in their old ways.

She gave me the receipts and everything.

But when I went to court, the judge said, being that I um wasn't on the lease, I had no rights.

Any and everything I said, please verify it.

And it's an everyday struggle to go to work and be productive.

When I look at my check, I have a check in there.

80 hours, 17 hours overtime.

My take home was $2,057.

My partner, he had 80 hours straight time, no overtime.

His check, he brought home 1,274.94 cents.

This is what our checks look like.

When you go to these buildings, the law says you can't ask for three times.

They went to two and a half.

We don't make that.

One bedrooms are 25.

We don't make it.

The stipulation in the contract says you want to work for the city, you must live in the city.

Where am I going?

I'm sleeping in my car.

I'm sleeping in my car.

Like I said, I went to one ten William Street.

Kyrie, the director, she knows me.

Everything I said is verifiable.

My name is Amin Bradbury.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

George Tilman Jr.

Uh appearing.

Good evening.

George Stillman Jr.

Um Council President.

Um I wanted to speak about the Affirmative Action Review Council.

Um yesterday at the pre-council meeting, um, Deputy Mayor Rachman was Muhammad, and I guess tonight is going to be voted to be appointed to the Affirmative Action Review Council.

Um we've been at this point now for two years.

And coming to this microphone for two years, and we've been talking about this issue of non-compliance.

It's taken two years for the government to admit that it's non-compliant.

Now that now that the government is involved in this process, and now we have these appointments.

This ordinance was originally written in 2002.

I started advocating for this ordinance in 2003.

For 13 years until 2015, there was no not there was non-compliance to that same ordinance, the Newark resident employment policy that was written in 2002.

And so when I first brought that to the deputy mayor to this administration to this council's attention that that 2002 ordinance was not being enacting, it was non-compliance.

So there was an amendment done by this administration in 2015.

So understand that the first 13 years of this ordinance, Newark residents did not benefit.

And now 10 years from 2015 to 2025, Newark residents still haven't benefited.

And now we're talking about finally fixing and putting together this commission to oversee and make sure that Newark residents are part of these economic incentives.

So don't have a problem with any appointments that you're going to do to this commission.

The problem is that throughout this whole 23-year process, now we're here right now.

We tried to have a tax abatement moratorium on all the new applications because it would it would it would at least give us some relief to kind of deal with all the applications that we have current with no compliance.

What I'm saying to you tonight is that um regardless of what is happening right now with that that affirmative action review council, the whole process.

When we talk about Newark Works, that's a part of that process.

All the penalties, all the fines, all the contributions that are being taken from these tax abatements coming out of the Office of Affirmative Action, all that revenue is going to Newark Works.

And Newark Works is able to utilize that money however they want to utilize that money.

So what I'm saying to you again, Council President, um, I've asked several times that we have a special conference to address this whole issue.

There's no way we're gonna continue to give these tax abatements out.

We got more going out tonight.

We got more that's gonna be approved.

Newark residents have no safeguard right now.

There's nothing to ensure that New York residents are going to be working, it's nothing been there for 23 years.

So what are we gonna do in the meantime to bring some sort of relief to make sure that Newark residents are gonna be a part of these economic incentives because right now um this just been a two-year process of coming back and forth on this microphone, and now you know we have another process.

Because right now, um, this has been a two-year process of coming back and forth on this microphone, and now you know we have another process.

So council president, I'm gonna ask you again to schedule a special conference to address this matter.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Nadera Brown.

Appearing.

Good evening.

Nadeira Brown, New York, New Jersey.

Hi, Council.

It's been some time.

It's been some time since I've last been here.

Not really quite sure what to bring up because you always have an agenda before you start.

And then the speakers before you remind me what I really want to talk about.

You can pay attention to me.

Council.

The residents out here are really, really suffering.

But when you keep coming to the mic, I have a lot to talk about.

But we only get a few minutes.

And I do want to point out that you know, the last time I was here, some things arise, and I was uh a little removed.

Sometimes you gotta agree to disagree.

I will say, you know, being in the community, I was able to run into a president council, and we had a conversation.

You know, at the end of the day, you have a responsibility with the residents, and I have a responsibility to the residents to bring the concerns to you as well.

The difference is I'm just the aide without the pay, but I'm also the one going through it as well.

But not everybody can come before you to speak.

It was once told to me before, you have a lot to say, and I do, and five minutes is really not enough.

But when you try to make suggestions on top of it, and then when those things are ignored, you know, the mayor had these meetings throughout the town.

He brought the leadership from, but that didn't help.

We need meetings that we bring the agenda, that we the people tell you what's going on, and the word of the day would be follow up.

Because part of the problem is we're so busy doing everything, we're not following up.

Now, President Crump, Councilwoman Round Tree, you sent me to an agency, 110 Williams Street to get some help.

There are no help.

And I want to bring the awareness due to the fact that they're not the only agency, but this platform I must bring it because they're under this.

I've been dealing with this since March.

A lot of people think, you know, I made this up.

Over two years I've been dealing with a landlord that did her own thing through the courts.

Just like the DPW guy said, the judges are doing what they want.

But unfortunately, everyone doesn't know how to follow up and fight that.

You can have all the receipts and still be evicted, because I'm another one too, still fighting that.

So I go to 110 to get hope for them to tell me you ripped up the application.

Then I had to resubmit it.

This is not four pages, this is a booklet.

Take two buses because I didn't have a car to go to another agency to drop it off.

For them to tell me, oh, you don't qualify, but no follow-up.

This has been March, we're about to be in October.

But I did come across something while I did research.

A lot of times we always say we can't help you on this level.

But Title 2A says Section 2A18-61.1G, relocation of a displaced tenant.

A municipality may enact an ordinance providing that any tenant who receives a notice of expension pursuant to section three results from a zoning or code enforcement activity.

Well, that basically, if code enforcement shuts your place down, the landlord is supposed to do a rule relocation for you, but a lot of these landlords do not want to register with the city nor relocate you.

They play around in the courts.

I'm gonna email you guys.

Oh, Silver not here, he finally got an email address.

But I want to let you know that we must follow up.

It's a lot going on.

You're not the only guys in place.

You have aid.

Now you have less than six months till your terms are finished out.

Some will be back, some won't.

I'm not here to do petty.

I just want to let you know the residents are really listening and are concerned.

So my time is almost up, and I do want to think council president.

I've noticed in the past meetings you let individuals finish their sentence, and that was really the point that I was trying to make before, but it escalated.

I will be back.

I thank you, and everyone, time for change.

Have a good evening.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Miriam Bay.

Good evening.

My name is Mary An Bay.

I'm a resident in Newark.

I'm an investor in Newark.

And I'm here today to find out as a homeowner, is there a homeowners rebate program that is like there is for slum lords and contractors that provide Newark homeowners help to pay our property taxes because we are small businesses, and many of us are seniors.

Who are investigating these shelters?

I'm getting complaints from clients regarding the condition and treatments.

If they are returning citizens who are complaining about the conditions, they will be threatened to be sent back to prison by contacting parole or probation.

I recently received a complaint by a client who believes he is being discriminated against because of his race.

I let him know I would visit the shelter as I have done in the past.

As you know, I've been coming before you to talk to you about these shelters because the majority of the clients that I work with, because I am an employee here in the city of Newark.

So the majority of the clients that I do work with have been incarcerated and they are now returning citizens.

I let him know, as I said, that I would visit the uh the shelters because I do visit these shelters.

When I have clients come to me and they complain about the conditions, I visit so I can find out what is going on.

I have also been informed that many of the residents who are living in these shelters are Norwick employees.

That's an issue.

Today I met with a 29-year-old young man who was incarcerated and who has an open case and is looking for employment.

I did his resume for him.

However, he is homeless, he needs somewhere to live.

I don't want to set him up for failure with everything that he's going through.

I don't want him to go back through the back to you know to the streets.

Because you know, when people are going through stuff and all of us are going through stuff.

But when brothers and sisters come, and as you know, when I say brothers and sisters, I'm talking about black, white, Latino.

It doesn't matter to me.

If they are a client that I'm responsible for, I'm gonna do the work for them.

I work 24-7.

I work on the weekends, I work after work because that is the needs of the clients.

I'm a Newark resident, and I want these residents to be successful.

That's why I work the way I work.

I come to work when I'm off.

Okay.

So anyway, and I'm and I'm upset now about this.

I put him in contact with someone who can assist him with employment, and I did speak with someone who could possibly help him with shelter.

Also, here's the other thing.

How are we treating our seniors?

I'm a senior, and I'm so happy and thankful to God to say that I'm 74 years young.

Okay, and that God still has me in a position to do the work that I love to do.

All right, some of these shelters and housing is taking advantage of our seniors.

So I want to know what are we doing in this area to help seniors because this is an issue, and I'm gonna have to keep coming here to talk about this because when I have clients coming to me and I'm sending them to certain places and they're not getting help.

What are we supposed to do?

For the last week or two, you know what I have been doing with clients?

Counseling because some of them are talking about doing things, and my and when they say that to me, you know what I say to them?

If you like prison so much, then that's your choice.

But I don't think that you should.

So after counseling with them for almost an hour or so, they see things the other way.

But I really want to know what is it, should I do as an employee to help our Newark residents?

I live in Newark.

Okay.

We have a lot of people who work for Newark but don't live in Newark.

I care about the city.

I'm a former board president.

I care about our children.

So please help us.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Darnella Lee.

Not appearing.

Deborah Mapson.

Not appearing.

Reginald Turner.

Reginald Turner.

Not appearing.

Fakaria Bradley.

I did not see her.

Not appearing.

Farrakhan Swab.

Farcon swab.

Not appearing.

Oprah on right.

Appearing.

Good evening.

My name is Opal R.

Wright.

I reside Vanderpool Street in Newark.

And I'm only I'm here to speak on Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

In Title Three, there's a transfer of power to the Comptroller of the Corporation and the Board of Governors.

And that's subtitle E that it mentions that there is technical and conforming amendments set forth, technical and conforming amendments to spec to specified acts regarding banking, housing, and securities.

Title Ten, the Bureau of Consumer Protection.

I'm sorry, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

And the Sure Title is cited as the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010.

Subtitle H conforming amendments.

And two in section eight oh four.

In each of the paragraphs, eleven.

I'm sorry, each of the paragraphs, one, two, or three, by inserting after transactions made, each place that term appears on or before the designated transfer date.

As determined under section ten sixty-two of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010.

The provisions says that the Federal Reserve Act amendment.

Amendments on emergency lending authority.

11.

Oh 11.

6.

It's the emergency financial stabilization.

And it says that upon the written uh the written determination of the corporation and the board of governors.

Under sections 1104, that the corporation shall create a widely available program to guarantee obligations of solvent insured depository institutions or sovereign depository institutions, holding companies, including any affiliates thereof during times of severe economic distress.

Event is the extent that a guarantee of obligations under the section may not include the provision of equity in any firm.

There's the rule making and terms of conditions.

And I would just like to say thank you for your for having this opportunity.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Cassandra Doc.

Appearing.

Yep, yep, yep.

Cassandra Doc.

So when we call and sign up for the council meeting, they want us to give a topic, right?

So mine is just one, two, three, four.

Raz J Baraka, you're one.

Thank you, God.

You are not the Democratic nominee for governor.

Thank you, God.

But what you did do, Raz, along with Reverend Al Sharpton, along with La Monica McIver, and I don't have the fire because I forget the other parties.

Had the nerve to go to a church in Long Branch.

Somebody's church who I love.

And you had an event, a program for Lamonica McIver.

You had the nerve.

You probably raised funds, but you probably try to make it seem like you were supported her.

But you probably raised funds.

Y'all had the nerve to raise funds for her for something she did.

She's guilty.

She assaulted the officer.

She did it.

Then she tried to keep Raz Baraka.

She hindering the officers from arresting Raz Baraka.

She did that.

So won't you do what you should have did?

Because you never did.

You and Revenow, a fundraiser for the members of that church or any church who may be facing eviction, need their utilities paid, need food.

You never did that.

You went to Long Branch, you never did it, and you never did it in North.

Number two, it's your night, Dashay Carter.

It's your night.

You have F up that housing authority.

And a Mary Baraka allowed you to do it.

She's the chief human resource officer.

Means she's responsible for anybody that worked for that New York Housing Authority.

She doesn't.

And if they got her now, do away with the management.

It's her fault.

She's been down there 10 years.

And because of you, Dashay, and your team, you got working at home, Rebecca Good facing eviction.

They had her, we certify in January.

Come back rectify in February.

Then from March until I got involved, along with my partner, Miss Jackson got involved, they didn't pay a landlord.

Miss Rebecca Goods is 72 years old.

Harass, calling every day.

Finally, they told her she wasn't even a part of the program.

Well, how was you paying the landlord on her behalf for five years?

If she's not a part of the program, you can't buy her in the system.

She has to go to court on September the 30th because the landlord wants to evict her for non-payment of the rent.

Because they told her she didn't even have a voucher.

I'm gonna tell you what I'm gonna do for you, Miss Carter.

The same thing I did for Connard.

I'm gonna write Scott Turner, Secretary of HUD.

He's gonna come investigate to see if you gave yourself a $60,000 raise.

Want to see if you did all the things that you're being accused of.

Now, thirdly, you Lamonica McGiva, you being treated like the rioters.

Which one you being treated like?

The one who came through the window and got shot dead?

You can't be treated like that one because you still living.

Which one you treated like?

The one that President Tump Party that was locked up?

Can't be that one because you're not locked up.

Oh, I know which one you're treated like.

The ones that was there and nothing happened to.

Because you was down at Delaney Hall, but nothing is happening to you.

And fourth, it's you, Hakim Jeffries, with your black behind.

Shut your black mouth.

You had the nerve to talk about hospitals closing under Trump.

Shh, don't tell nobody Haken.

United Presbyterian closed.

1997 under black Dr.

Johnson who worked there.

Guess who was the president?

Shhh.

President Bill Clinton, Democrat.

Then in 2005, Orange Memorial closed.

Although Bush was the president, but it started with President Carter.

2006, along with St.

Barnabas, because St.

Barnabas was all also a part of United Presbyterian.

Closed Irvington General.

So I want you Negroes to shut what I call the F buck and sit what I call down.

Trying to make people think, oh, Trump closed the hospital.

No, Negroes, you've been closing them.

You've been closing them.

And Dr.

Johnson with his black behind, try to close that pediatric department over at the University Hospital until me and my partner begin it, had to go over there and stop him, black out.

I'm sick of you Negroes.

I mean, I'm sick of you.

I'm so sick of you.

I'm just like Doc and spit you out.

For your comments next year.

I know you are thankful.

I know you are there.

Next speaker.

Donna Jackson.

Miss Jackson.

Ms.

Jackson's appearing.

Ten years.

Mary Rocca, go get her ass.

Jackson.

I mean, Miss, I'm sorry, not Miss Jackson.

Miss Doc.

Yes.

We need to have some quiet so we can hear the speaker.

All right, thank you.

I'm sorry, sir.

We have a list of all a list of speakers.

Ms.

Jackson is next on this list.

All right.

So maybe.

I proved my name.

I called.

Are you on the list, sir?

No, but I just want to say so.

So I really can't allow this because then we'd have to allow everybody to come up and do it.

So if if somebody from uh James, could you speak to the gentleman?

Ms.

James here?

Yeah, okay.

Speak to the gentleman and find out what is concerned is.

Thank you.

Go get a Mary.

Go get her ass.

Good morning.

We have several residents in here from several different complexes.

And what you guys are allowing to be done to the tenants in this community is criminal.

And you sit there as if you know nothing.

Mr.

Spicer had the audacity to stand up and say there's over a thousand empty units at Norwich Housing Authority.

How?

How?

Because people are being illegally evicted by the managers that were hired from this raggedy Baraka team and sent down there to NHA and don't know what they're doing.

The young lady just said that Miss Good had to recertify four times at 74 years old.

Would you allow your mothers to do that?

No, you wouldn't, but you did nothing.

Because nobody's checking.

Nobody.

You got people being recertified right now, and management is telling them they will lose their unit if they don't backdate the paperwork.

Elegal.

Y'all not doing nothing.

You didn't read the HUD report.

How did we let Alita Thomas, who they walked into her home, found the Persian rugs, she wanted y'all girls too.

Found the new ranges, saw what she was sending refrigerators out the city, and she retired.

Why is she not in jail?

I'm just trying to understand that's everybody that's a part of Team Baraka, why they not in jail?

Why they not in jail?

Because when you steal, you steal.

So I guess that brings us to present day.

The city has no money.

So now you're going down here to the oh, we need 60 million to plug the budget cap.

50 million, 22 million.

Ain't paid the county taxes, ain't paid the county bond.

Can y'all make payroll in October?

I don't think so.

So I'm already telling the workers, they not getting paid in October.

Y'all gonna lie and tell them they are, but I'm telling them they not.

Because they know y'all liars.

They know what comes out this mouth in research.

The Republicans is on y'all so hired.

Ooh, Lord Jesus.

And it don't even need to be that, but that's because the Democrats that y'all want to keep holding up don't know how to hold people accountable.

Y'all friends and family get in trouble.

They ain't supposed to go in jail.

But you let somebody in this community kid get in trouble.

Y'all ain't out there trying to help them.

You doing all this for La Monica.

You got 99 police in here.

Four people every meeting.

You let me, Cassandra, Lisa Parker, uh, well, Mr.

He ain't gonna do it.

George, Mary I won't either because she got respect.

DJ, you let one of us assault one of these officers when they're coming up here to get us, and we'll be right over there in the green monster of our own next door.

You have these builders in deplorable conditions.

I just bought a senior down here to get a police release, and we had to walk to the fourth floor because you're sorry, behind.

Let that gag go on elevator at 22 Franklin Street, then down three years.

What are y'all doing?

Why isn't court open at the city?

Why?

And all of this is on y'all.

All of it.

Why can't we come and have the quorum and be nice?

You disrespect us, we disrespect y'all.

Y'all don't care about us.

Y'all don't care.

You let Mr.

P come up here, he lie all the time.

Whatever team Barack text them, oh yes, okay.

Mm-hmm.

No, they didn't happen.

Oh, yeah, okay.

Donald right, Pat not right.

This one ain't right.

Come on, stop.

We know the jig is up.

There's no money.

Y'all getting ready to put these people out their houses, and you know it.

I'm helping C's in Irvington.

The lady property tax went from 1500 to 28, one quarter.

And that was revalved, not even the budget.

Stop lying to these people.

The blood is on your hands, the murders on the street, the 24 hours of hell, because that wasn't no peace over there.

Oh, they had face paint.

We was doing it, it wasn't nothing.

Not when we started out on Clinton Avenue, nothing like that.

It's not community anymore.

It done became a party, a shaking ass and drinking and drugs.

That's what it's become.

No longer does it mention to the children in this community that need it.

Because they smoking more weed than their parents smoke.

And we allow it.

Y'all allowed them to tear that man's exile station up after y'all sent Doug's in there to threaten the man when he told you he don't want you on his property.

And then you're killing the police officers and the people that work for the city.

You got so much asbestos in that second precinct, so much especially in 22 Franklin Street, so much suspensive right here.

Y'all killing me right now.

If Ocean came in here, y'all would be shut down.

The blood is on your hands.

You kill people with the COVID shot, now you're killing us with this damn aspects.

Thank you for your comments.

Cesare Adams.

Caesar.

Cesare Adams.

I did not see him.

Oh, there he is.

All right.

You're gonna say Adam, the president makes 36,000.

Appearing.

Affordable income.

44,000.

Doc, please.

Miss Doc.

We need to hear the speaker.

Good evening, citizens of the city of North.

Good evening.

Good evening, Council.

Before I introduce myself, I would like to uh read a small poem.

I've been to war, hell on fire.

My voice forge in the same fire.

To say the truth is my desire.

To say the truth is to inspire.

My name is Raylor.

Steele Montan Adams.

I recited in the Northword.

Before now it's a beautiful branch for Park.

Uh Mrs.

I'm sorry, could you could you state your name again?

Raylor.

Raylor Styles Montana Adams.

So let me let me say this.

We have a list of speakers that we're going to do.

That's me right there.

Raylor Adams.

Caesar.

Number 23.

You see here.

We're at number 18.

I'm Adams.

That's right.

No, that's not true.

No.

I'm looking at right.

All right.

I'll wait my time then.

I'll repeat it again.

Oh, he's down at the bottom.

Two atoms.

Yeah, you're 23.

Okay.

All right.

But the hat I could think fooled us all.

He's on the list.

Yeah, he's on later on the list.

So uh not uh Cesare.

I never pronounced the name Adams.

Cesare Adams is not appearing.

Lorenzo Hall.

Lorenzo Hall appearing.

Good evening, uh Council people.

Good evening.

Um my name is Lorenzo Hall.

I'm president of Local 617, which is in Newark, New Jersey, public sector people.

And it looks like I have to jump on this Newark housing situation of layoff.

We're asking the council to support us in blocking this layoff in the Newark Housing Authority of a hundred and six-one employees.

Now the director wants to privatize the housing authority, which in fact means that the rents would go up because it's private, if it's privatized for money.

You got to more or less pay pay to play.

But they don't know what they would get with a private company.

Now the finances, this this is there was a uh conversation with one of the uh councilmen a couple of last week, I believe.

And for the life of me, I cannot understand being a 30-year employee in the Newark Public Schools.

I used to do custodial work, which is the same as a janitor C and those titles, and I promised myself I would not use certain type of words, but how in the world does mopping a floor equate with a four million dollar deficit in Newark Housing Authority?

Why is it that the workers get blamed?

The reason that these ATOs are not repaired is because management didn't order order the materials to fix them.

Plus, you don't have enough workers to do the job.

Which one?

Ms.

Doc, please.

Mr.

Dress.

Okay.

So the Newark Housing Authority is planning to lay off most of its workers.

And these are the ground troops.

These are the ones that mop, clean, take out the garbage, and clean up everything.

Why do they get the blame for the deficit?

They don't order the materials.

That's upper management that does that.

This union is offering to partner with the housing authority to try to figure out and save jobs and partner with them to figure out how in the world do you say something?

But how in the world is it that you blame the workers because the rents are not paid on time or not paid at all?

But the workers get the blame for that.

And this is a cross unions.

This isn't just one union, it affects four unions.

We don't understand it.

These are people, these are people in the residents of Newark.

If anybody in here knows old Newark, when the boys and girls club on Broadway was torn down those years ago, and they put, I think it's a 10-story building up there, the rent went for one bedroom $2,000.

There's no crossing guard that could, and by the way, we got the crossing guards.

There's no crossing guards that can afford that.

There's no sanitation worker that can afford that.

By the way, we have the sanitation department too.

The rents in Newark are atrocious for every, not just in the housing authority, all over the place.

Then if we do such a good job, then why don't you pay us?

Why don't you pay us a living wage?

That's what we asked for.

As union folks, we defend and support our folks, but what happens to one which is the tennis happens to all because we're all affected.

And what we intend to do is try to get a coalition with the tenants, with anybody who wants to join with us and try to figure out what's wrong in this Newark Housing Authority.

And the last thing to say is Spicer, the executive director came into this into Norfolk to destroy that housing authority.

And I dare you to prove me wrong.

He came in here with a plan to destroy and not to fix anything.

And uh my time is up before I get all excited around here.

Don't worry about it.

Yeah.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Vatoya Jackson Tucker.

Up here.

Miss Doc, Miss Doc, please.

Do not call out anymore.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm gonna need y'all to smile because I don't come with the shade.

I come to bring cheer.

Um I have a question.

My son is incarcerated, and I could advocate for him, but he's actually on the phone.

Is that against the law for him to speak during some of my time?

Only the speaker who's on the list can speak.

Okay.

So just hold up because you know I can't call you that.

I will.

Okay, so it's a couple of things.

I went to the police decree meeting last night.

And um, I do believe that we can govern ourselves.

And I definitely, if it's a committee, I believe it should be with people from the streets that actually have been affected by policy of the police department, like Mustafa Dent, Latoya Jackson Tucker, Bashawn Williams.

Um the people that I would recommend to actually be there.

People who have been who actually see the change, like myself, because most of the police department are my friends.

I call them my friends.

We get along very well.

I do think they do a good job at what they're trying to do.

I respect the leadership.

I'm happy to see people from North that actually look like me and my son, my grandfather, that type of stuff.

And I also want to thank the Office of Alice Prevention and Trauma Recovery for always meeting and rectifying anything, me a baraka.

Like it's to me, it's about communication and how you communicate.

And I know I'm a little rough around the edges sometimes, and I could be very passionate, sometimes aggressive.

But nine times out of ten, if I ask for something, if I have a concern, it is addressed because of how I communicate.

So that's just food for thought for anybody in this room that may be younger than me, older than me, that's in here, period.

Um to me, whatever makes you mad should make you change.

So I can't walk around with attitudes with my people.

That's black on black crimes.

So, you know, I have I may get a little agitated, but I'm not trying to get stuck in the moment.

The other thing that my son wanted to talk about is the re-entry situation.

Um just briefed me on some things, and I don't really, but he's back home.

I've been speaking a lot about how it's gonna look, not officially back home, he's in Kenton.

So we had some concerns where I actually had to call supervisors at Kentuck and also the parole board.

And they basically told my son, um, your mother's gonna make it bad for you.

So I just did eight years with my son by myself, not as homies, not his friends, not a lot of my family.

It was very tough.

And then I'm just doing three years with my husband right now, he'll be home December the 7th.

Then my baby may be going in for 18 months for when my house got raided or whatever.

He has a lawyer, but I also had to play co-counsel.

Like the systems that we live in are not fair to us.

And we have a lot of different representatives that sit in place, and I just want y'all to have a little, I want to give y'all a little more support and have and just want y'all to have a little more inspiration to actually fight the way y'all see me fighting.

Like be bold when you sitting in these rooms and you conversating, be able to stand on business so that when the people come here, they know or feel like you're doing stuff.

Like I don't have things bad to say because I feel like when I reach out to y'all, y'all doing something or want to, or we'll actually address the things that I need to be addressed.

But I need to know who is in charge of Kentop.

Because they that gate down here, it doesn't, I don't know if it have cameras or anything, but they don't ask you who are you, they just bust the gate.

And the way that I have been disrespected on that phone, I don't want to be on RLS because of the things, like it's system from system the system of playing with me.

And we all know that I'm not playing with nobody, so I don't want nobody playing with me.

And as a mother to understand that my son is trying to do the best that he can, and he still basically has all of these things up against him where he wanna come home and be a good product to society.

It's is the trauma of like what he this is like the last quarter for what we're going through.

But I'm gonna need somebody to call somebody down there for me because I don't, I don't have a rest record, and I don't want one.

But that's my baby.

So I have jumped in a list and went down here and haven't got locked up.

But the way that they talk to you, I really need y'all to get in touch with Kent Talk for me.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Crystal Alan Witton.

Apparently.

Okay.

Okay.

Can you pull the microphone down too?

Help her.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Hello and good evening.

My name is Crystal Allen Witten, and I live at 915 Broad Street, Newark, and I am a lifelong Newark resident.

I know some of you are familiar with me.

And I'm happy to be here this evening for the first time to uh just ask for a bit more connection with a special community that exists in Newark, which is the disability community.

I am president of Eyes Like Mine Incorporated, which I founded right here in Newark in 2014.

So we're 11 years strong, and we do a lot to bring awareness to vision loss and vision loss resources and the disability community.

So as you may know, being disabled, being blind, being vision impaired, it's a part of life that doesn't discriminate against any gender or age group.

It can happen to anyone.

I have been legally blind for 26 years.

And when I'm not running Eyes Like Mine, I am the community outreach specialist for the New Jersey Commission for the Blind, where I go all up and down Newark, all up and down New Jersey, all 21 counties to let people know that there is life after blindness.

And I was fortunate in the beginning of my journey to have the training I needed from the honorable late Mildred C.

Crump, who was a big part of why I'm as independent as I am today.

And with eyes like mine, for the past 11 years, we have brought women, men, children who are blind, death blind, low vision from Missouri, from Georgia, from Kenya, from North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Maryland, and all parts of New Jersey to Newark.

Because we want to show our community that we don't just exist, we live.

Our organization has many different programs, and this year especially, all of our initiatives are at a theme of better together.

And so we're saying better together, emphasizing what better together means.

We need you with us.

We need your quality time council members.

We need your time.

We need you to connect with our community.

We need to help our community with any food insecurities, any employment insecurities.

We're not just sitting at home waiting for someone to hand us something.

We're out here, we're taking care of our families.

We're being educated.

I'm a first generation grad and I'm legally blind.

I'm about to graduate Rutgers next year with my bachelor's in social work, and I'm working, I'm going to school, and I'm running an organization.

So I need all of your networks, your circles of support.

I want to thank Councilman Kelly for joining us last year for dancing with the blind.

Councilperson Carlos Gonzalez for supporting us over the years, and especially my beloved councilperson, Mr.

Crump for always supporting our pageant.

We want to invite you to our pageant on October 4th.

If you didn't know, October is blindness awareness month the entire month.

And we want to get connected with our 330, 30,000 North residents to help them detect any unknown vision loss with our vision screening program.

But we need your help to help us get out there and reach the residents.

Because there are some people who've been living in NORC who've been thinking they are clumsy or that they have literacy problems all their life when they really are just visually impaired.

And there are services that can help them live their life independently, that can help them achieve their goals and education, employment, and careers and enterprising businesses.

There's so many corporations here in North, but have they tapped into the disabled community?

We need you to help us get in there with them.

Because our community, we got bills just like everybody else.

We got life to live just like everybody else.

So we need you.

We invite you to be with us.

Just a few weeks ago, I came down here personally and walked to every station.

And I left y'all a purple envelope because purple stands for royalty, and you are our royal servants.

So we need you in the building with our ladies on October 4th.

Our ladies are coming from Missouri, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, and different parts of New Jersey.

And they're gonna be showing up about how they are change agents.

They're not blind only.

That's not the characteristic that defines them.

They are more than just vision loss, and we need you to be there with us.

Think about what you do every day.

Imagine if you became blind and how you would do your job.

So please, please be with us, you guys, okay.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Cynthia D'Souza.

Appearing, I think I said, yeah.

We may need some help with the microphone.

Good evening, Mr.

Susa.

Good evening, council.

I think you have a microphone.

Yeah, yeah, my hands are weak.

It's been a long journey.

Um, just wanted to follow up with the young lady that just left.

I remember when she was a baby, and now she's doing great things in the community.

And uh I'm here this time, not for the community.

So to so to speak, but on behalf of the things I've been bringing to you guys for I don't know, 20 years now.

I've sent you guys emails.

I don't get any responses.

I came to a council meeting.

It's almost a year to the day.

I got one phone call, asked me to repeat the information, which I had given you out handouts, and I haven't heard anything back yet.

I've been doing community service in Newark for 57 years.

Um our houses tore up, and that's the first thing I want to talk about from the traffic pattern on Springfield Avenue by Wendy's.

Uh we've got hit since 2021 four times.

In 2022, they almost took us out.

Uh, cars came through the building, uh, blew up the gas lines, the gas heaters with the lit pilot.

Some young lady died.

We're still fighting to get a house repaired and to get more so for the city to put uh you were supposed to be doing something with Essex County to try to get um some planters put in front of the building.

Uh, we you were kind enough through the help of one young man in engineering.

We got four planters about three weeks after they were up.

A car turned a corner and hit it.

We're still waiting to get the replacement that kept us from getting hit again in our building.

Uh so I would like to know, and also if I how do I get a tax abatement because I sit here and listen to all these construction companies getting these tax abatements, and since I had to close my business down, which was a small construction company and community service organizations, and we haven't been able to function because our building is still trying to be repaired.

Uh, it would help me if I could get a tax abatement until we got back up on our feet.

Uh, the next thing I want to talk about was um we got the barriers, the property lines.

I gave the young man the information, and it was also included in all the emails that I send to you.

Our tax map has to be adjusted to show that our property is 25 by 100.

Years ago when Jeff Gail Cheneyfield was on the council and other folks, they were so that was supposed to get fixed.

They told the people to fix it.

It was in the minutes.

It still hasn't gotten fixed.

I spoke to the young man.

They said they were gonna take care of it, but I hadn't gotten any word yet that our tax line of the hour line has been fixed to put it to 100.

Instead of I think now it's like it's 65 or something like that.

The second thing is the lots.

How many years ago?

Mildred submitted my plans long time ago, and I've been trying to get you guys to handle this situation for about the last 15 years.

Now the lots have gone to Invest Newark, and about two weeks ago they put a sign on the lots saying for sale.

Even though I've been writing Gregory Good and telling them this is a legal matter, I have paperwork which I've given to you guys to show that those lots were supposed to come to me.

So I'm still waiting for somebody to get back to me because it's gonna be a real problem if they sell those lots to somebody else.

I stayed here on Springfield Avenue before it was any stores, they're just blighted lots.

I put my life there, and I think I deserve to live and take a part in all this building that's being done in the city.

So somebody please get back to me.

The last thing I wanted to know was we have a grant that's been outstanding for $80.

I'm the CEO of Rebuilding Together, whose office was also in my building.

We have done work for thousands of people for seniors, doing their homes, etc.

There was an $80,000 grant that was warded to us.

We never got it.

I gave you guys copies of the letter, and nobody has gotten back to me on that either.

And uh Wendy, what does that last thing say?

No.

And I've got no response.

You guys know me, I've been around.

Larry, I work with your mother.

I encouraged her to run for city council woman.

And I think that senior citizens like myself, who stayed when I was doing tech when nobody knew Harley what tech was, I took the time and taught the young people here down at the school for free things about computers.

I've given my life here.

I think you guys deserve to give something back to me and my family.

This is my baby daughter.

So you guys please at least respond to me.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Raylor Adams.

All right, let's try that again, Mr.

Adams.

Now he's not moving.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Maybe in a summer, but I mean.

I reside on the North Ward.

Um, I read a poem earlier when I came up.

Um like to read it again because I think it sets the tone about what's happening, not only nationally, state and local.

Um I served in the United States Army.

It's a 250 years old institution.

I went to war.

I've been to war, and it was hell on fire there.

I learned to say the truth.

It was my desire, and to say the truth is to inspire.

The sanitations workers that work here, we all felt them.

It was in their voice, their clamoring for for some action.

I want to speak about violence.

Because, as we all know, a huge event took place nationally in Utah.

And violence hits different depending on your upbringing.

Isn't that right?

Uh it depends on your life, your tolerance level.

Depends on your trauma.

Um experienced trauma here in the city when a nine-year-old baby girl was killed.

Yasine Morrison.

And her life and Charlie Kick's life is still a life.

It's just the same life.

Now they heard different depending on who you are.

Um I've been coming here for the past two years about an issue in my block, and I've hear everybody, Mr.

Tillman, Ms.

Donna.

We all see each other on YouTube.

Um in July two years ago, I met Patrick Council at a uh floor shop.

Remember, yeah.

It wasn't a it wasn't a coincidence.

God doesn't do coincidence.

Um and this is no disrespect to anybody here.

Um I was born in Dominican Republic.

I was born in the Isla called Quisqueya, and it's shared with Haiti, which is Modender Haiti.

Um, next to it, there was an island, Puerto Rico, it's called Borinquen, and in it we have council members who come from that island.

And given that we have a shared language in Spanish, I would like to ask the president if I can speak to the government in my native language.

Absolutely.

Gracias.

Sorry, it's I'm gonna speak in Spanish.

You know, but I was carried on a solution, for favor.

My son is the number one swimmer in the city of Newark.

And every day I come out, for favor.

Um so thank you.

That's it.

Uh, thank you to the mayor and you all you guys here.

Um, there is a um Audible.

I know they're investing in Newark, and I know most of you guys want investment outside of the city, but we have to support whatever this corporation is investing here.

They're gonna open up October 15th, a nice venue.

I think everybody who comes here should be there to also support something that is for Newark.

Audible is an Amazon company, there's their headquarters here, and they're investing, but they're investing in here.

So, you know, sometimes these buildings are old, and we see in over the years, so let's just support whatever's going on that's positive and it's good.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Miss Doc.

We're not gonna we're not gonna yell out from there.

Without talk.

Oh let's talk.

Every time I come up to this mic, good evening, New Yorkers.

Good riddance, corrupt cult that is running our government, failed leadership, no other way to describe you, and like in the words of Cassandra Doc said, says pathetic, no other way to describe them, pathetic.

Another four years of this insanity, no goods.

I don't know what to say to you if you re-elect these people back in office.

Insanity.

No other way to describe it.

There's nothing good to say about what y'all done here.

I don't care all the you know, people that's appeasing you and all of that.

It's nothing good to say.

You are the worst of the worst administrations that's running this government.

You are the worst homegrown of the worst that's been out of that that don't even live here.

No other way to describe you.

Drain the swap.

Whoever's gonna do it, drain it.

Get rid of them by any means necessary.

That's how I feel about y'all.

The worst that I've coincided uh came in and in contact with the worst.

Black on black crime is happening right here in the halls of City Hall.

Black on black crime is happening on the county level, on the state level, and in the halls of Congress.

And Corey Booker, you got the audacity.

Watergate, open up his investigation for the watershed.

Open up.

You have the audacity to talk about sexual predator when you got sexual predators running this government.

Sex for hire.

No other way to describe what's going on.

It's a whole array of things that's happening in this administration that you're turning a blind eye on.

Our government is committing crimes against humanity on every level of government.

Drain a swamp.

Whoever was inside, know about them, drain it.

Get rid of them.

And I contact Turner and he wrote back.

So guess what?

He said, send him a letter.

He wrote it back.

Drain them.

Use whoever.

It's the art of war.

Use whoever you got to get to get your opponents.

Get them out of here.

You are a disgrace.

You are disgraced.

What's going on in this city?

The Baraka and the municipal council, your legacy is failure.

No other way to describe what's going on here.

Failure.

Fiscal mismanagement.

Trials of corruption.

Poor governance and misleadership.

Fail policies.

Price gouging, like Chadyville said, with predatory lending, predatory towing.

Do uh Andro still own the company?

Do we is he still a solid partner?

Ucceptable.

Do some investigation on the on the uh on the uh the parking authority, like I said the last uh election.

Do some investigation on the price gathering and predatory ticket in the tone that's going on.

We got high rents, high foreclosures, slum lords out of control, and booking you came here camped out at the spires, talking about you're gonna deal with slum lords.

You have the audacity, you ain't mentioned nothing about the slum lords that's running this government, running this city along with the slum politicians here.

You are disgraced, you have the audacity to sit up there and want to get back and fire back at the uh other side.

You are disgraced, Corey Booker, and you need to be jailed for those who went to jail.

You need to drain the swamp on his administration.

What happened with the sexual harassment policy that Gail Cheney feel pushed?

Y'all can talk about all you want, but listen, central orders, it behoove you to put her back in that seat because she's the only one that's gonna uh cause a ripple effect in this administration.

You're scared to get her on there because guess what?

She's gonna shake this house like never before.

But what happened to the sexual harassment?

We got women coming to us daily talking about being harassed on this administration, and you have done nothing.

Enough with your comments, enough with your leadership.

Get out of office.

Thank you for your comments.

Council President and Council members, that concludes the hearing of saying Miss Doc.

I'm gonna show you even spot back.

Anything from the council, yeah, Mr.

Council.

Yeah, I just wanted to uh you know say a couple of things.

I I really wish the uh president of local 617 would have stayed behind, and I just really want to say some stuff, uh, especially to us uh in this audience.

Uh and this thing has been on me for uh a minute, and I just wanted to talk about the dangers of over exaggeration.

Right?

Over exaggeration is very dangerous, and and I just believe uh as people of color, black and brown people, uh, that we have to understand how over exaggeration is dangerous.

Uh it was over exaggeration that killed Amadou Diallo when they thought that it was a gun in his back pocket and it was a wallet.

Uh, it was over exaggeration that took out Trayvon Martin when a call was made and said that there was a young black man with a hoodie uh and a gun on.

Over exaggeration that took out Emmett Till.

If we have issues and concerns that we want to deal with, there's nothing wrong with telling the truth about what the issue is and then having folks clearly deal with it.

But you know, to come up here to say that rent will be increased and housing authority if the housing authority decided to go with other managing agents is just egregious, especially to the people that live in housing authority when housing authority is based off of income.

And so that is not the case.

But just for people's understanding, there are already 14 locations that is under the tutelage of housing authority that is under private management, that is at 90% uh uh rental, that uh work orders are getting complete.

And and and so that's just the truth.

And I just want to lay out the truth about what is happening, uh, because I just don't want us to get into this kind of situation where people lay this whole thing out about over-exaggeration.

I'm not saying that uh I'm with one thing or another, but it is very, very detrimental uh to us uh as folks who are uh running this city, leaders in this city, and supposed to be leaders, uh, to over-exaggerate information for the stimulation of other people because it becomes dangerous.

Uh we have to understand it, it becomes dangerous and it becomes dangerous in our own communities.

Uh, even to hear the the comments and claims of sexual harassment.

If there were claims of sexual harassment, I would encourage people to go to the officers, file uh uh against these individuals.

If something is happening, do those kind of things.

If there was a claim of of someone attacking someone outside, but to say that Mr.

Lewis approached or uh uh uh was out of the way with someone, these things are just dangerous.

And we have to speak to this because this is the movement of what is happening in this nation, right?

And so I I just really want us to understand that I respect every speaker in here, the right to democracy, the layout, what it is.

But if you got an issue, speak specifically and intentionally uh to that issue and say, this is what I disagree with, this is how I disagree with it, without over-exaggerating something that could put people in dangerous situations.

I've been here all my life, and I've seen what over exaggeration can do when we wasn't under a consent decree, uh, you know, with with some of our law enforcement people, and people came up on corners and streets in the wrong way, right?

And so we have to we have to be very clear uh about messaging.

And I continue to support everybody uh that get up to this microphone and speak, say it, you know, get it in and move, and then after you do it, let's get out here and figure out how to make it better.

Because we gotta make it better as long as we here, as long as we live in, and even after we go on, we have to make it better for the generations that are behind us.

And as your uh mother used to say, the former council president emeritus, even for generations yet unborn, gonna have to come and deal with the difficulty of this city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well said.

Uh Ms.

Doc, you're gonna be escorted out if you keep speaking out.

Anything else from the council?

Councilman Ramos.

Yeah.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

I I'm not gonna translate word for word with um Raylor said, but you know, we we spoke yesterday at the pre about the fact that you know, we we we conducted a walkthrough of the area a little over a month and a half ago.

I asked uh engineering and the police division to give us a follow-up report based on the walkthrough.

I did receive something back from engineering prior to today's meeting.

I'm gonna have an opportunity to look at the summary to see what kind of recommendations are being made, and then um through the clerk will follow up with you, Ray Lord, uh, on those recommendations.

Uh but you know, we we we definitely need to confront the fact that there is a traffic safety crisis in the city and and in many urban communities.

We got distracted drivers uh on their cell phones, um, you know, distracted by a whole host of different issues.

We had a pedestrian that was killed a few blocks away from Raylor's house a few weeks ago.

Uh woman was walking her dog and uh F-150, a pickup truck past a vehicle in front of him and and killed this woman and and her dog while she was crossing the street.

So there's gotta be some things that the city can do, and I understand limitations as far as funding and other things, but you know, doing nothing is not uh an answer.

So, you know, we we we need to pull together and figure out some creative ways that we can assist and and spread the message, uh increase fines, whatever it takes in order for us to um make sure that people can safely cross the street, that children who are walking to and from school are not at risk of um you know getting hit and badly hurt because of a distracted driver.

And you know, I I sent the uh report that engineering forwarded to me to the police division because they also have uh an important hand in this process as well.

So I'll take a look at the report, make sure that it covered the things that we discussed that day, and then um I'll have the clerk's office uh send it over to Mr.

Adamus formally, and then I'll we'll have a conversation with you, Raylor.

All right.

Thank you, Councilman Ramos.

Councilwoman Scott Roundry.

I actually thank you, Council President.

One to um there's so many things that uh I would like to respond to, but right now I want to deal with the re-entry piece, and I want to deal with Miss Miriam Bay, because I think about a year ago, um, councilman counsel, there were some of us that did um go over and inspect one of these shelters, and as a result of it, it was actually shut down.

I was saying that once you do that, we do have to make sure we have somewhere to put these individuals once we go in and find it, not uh in the condition it should be, not just the condition of the shelter, but the services that they're getting.

Um I I have a problem with someone being in a shelter for two years and not getting the services they should.

So I have spoken to Director Eulerio, and it might be time, Miss Bay, for us to call on the administration or whoever, whatever departments um to set in place um an inspection of all the shelters, especially those that are getting funding from the city for us to see not just the conditions, but the services and are these people being actually serviced the way they're supposed to, so their lives can change.

We know that in shelters there's many, many issues.

There's not just re-entry, there's mental health, there's drug addiction, there's um domestic violence.

There's so many different areas that need services, and not to mention those who have been living in Penn Station for so for so long to even get them into a place where they will be comfortable living on their own or in a condition that's even where they're able to take a shower, where they're able to be treated.

I want to make sure that we do that um, council president, that we set up a time that we talk to the administration, get the addresses of those shelters, especially those that are getting funding from the city, and follow up not just on the conditions of the buildings, but also follow up on how they're conducting services.

I think I I am a commissioner with Director Eulerio, and I think I asked for a report of the turnaround and the assessment of how do how they transition out and what is the what are the numbers, what do they look like for a person that that's we are being that we're paying for to be housed in a shelter that not only is not given the services, but are not being treated with the dignity.

They deserve the same respect as the person who um might not be a resident without an address.

So we're going to revisit that in the direct gulario.

Uh, we're going to have a conversation.

Council president, and let's see, can we set up that meeting?

I want addresses.

I have most of them, but I know that the administration has a call for those that we're getting that are getting funding.

But it's time for an inspection.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Anything else from the council?

Two two quick matters, and I want to just say I know something was mentioned about seniors.

Um let me say this.

We do have uh the council has a senior committee where we have members from the senior population, uh, tenants as well as uh uh individual homeowners, et cetera, who are part of that committee.

Uh I chair it along with Councilwoman Scott Roundtree and Councilman Silva, and uh each council member has aides that attend that meeting.

And in that meeting, it's not about the uh uh a fashion show, it's not just about doing an event, it's about talking about issues that are affecting our seniors and giving them an opportunity to speak on it and see how we can address those issues.

We have also have speakers come in and talk about different uh areas that are helpful to them.

I think uh last year we had someone talk about scams.

We also talk about health insurance and things like that for our seniors.

So it's it's open to the public.

Anyone can attend, you can call my office and find out what the meetings are 973-73-8043.

We welcome everybody uh to come and be a part of it.

Secondly, uh I just want to say that, you know, I and I say this, I think all of us are in the same way.

Our offices are are always open.

You know, one of the things that I think I I pride myself on is having an open door policy.

Anyone can come to my office.

I may not be able to be there or meet with them right then and there, but we schedule an appointment.

When I get a call, we schedule an appointment a meeting.

When I get an email, we schedule a meeting because it's important that we uh know what's going on.

It's important that we're we we respond to our constituents.

And so I I wanted to say that publicly, and uh and also you know, it and also with regards to uh community meetings.

I I always and I say this often, we don't learn everything that's going on in the city by sitting here.

We have to go out to the community meetings, and I I know my council colleagues, we go to the meetings, or if we're not there, I always say somebody from my office is going to be there because if we don't know what's going on in the community, how do we help?

So it's important to understand, and those who are in the audience and those who are watching on TV that we are here for you.

We do understand and appreciate all of the residents of the city, and and whether you disagree with the methods of what we're trying to do, we do care.

We are gonna continue to care, and we're gonna try to do the best we can to help the residents of our city.

And what I just want to give a special shout out to Crystal, because I've known Crystal forever.

And I just want to thank you for your advocacy.

You know, it's it's not it, you know, uh, it's not easy when you find out that you have uh when you are losing your site, you know.

Um, and and uh what I believe and what and that this may be a hyperbolic statement, but from triumph from tragedy comes triumph.

Uh and it's not necessarily tragedy, but that's expression.

What you do and advocate for for the community for the blind and visually impaired is exceptional.

Um sometimes I see you walking down the street, and I'm just yeah, as my mother would say, peacock proud because you have gained your independence, and not only that, but you are advocating on a personal level through your organization, but also on uh professional level with the uh commission for the blind.

And so I want to just give you a shout out for that.

And and regardless of what you think, uh necessarily some of the folks in the audience, uh I do appreciate your advocacy.

Uh I take notes.

Um, you may say something that I agree with, and I'll be honest, you may say some things I don't agree with, but I will take notes on it, and whether you hear me talk about it in public or not, I follow up.

And I think that's important.

And I and I'm and I know I'm not the only one up here that does that.

Um with that being said, I I think let's go to the agenda.

Uh I'm sorry, uh, does the administration have anything they want to add at this point?

Melvin Waldrop, a chief of staff, uh, officer of business administrator.

Um just wanted to uh say that there have been a lot of concerns about the budget, and uh we take those concerns very seriously.

A budget is driven by needs.

And when uh citizens, our residents come before uh this podium, uh they express a lot of the needs that we have here in the city.

Those needs are social, and in many instances, they are physical and deal with infrastructure.

And one could make the argument that we have a lot of unmet needs.

Uh again, we tried to address as many needs in this budget as we possibly could.

Uh, in some instances, that resulted in the tax increase that we will experience here in the city for the 2025 budget.

Uh going forward, as the BA uh indicated in previous meetings, uh, we have a challenge, and we will still have needs.

I think our challenge is to ensure there we're meeting those needs as effectively and efficiently.

Because the budget is driven by the needs, which get expressed in terms of expenditures, but there's also the revenue side.

And we have to look at the revenue side.

Uh everything cannot follow the property taxes.

As I'm sure you are aware, when you look at the budget, look at the revenue side of the budget, there's a miscellaneous revenue, there are the property taxes.

Uh, to the extent that we can get more out of the miscellaneous uh component, uh, you know, the revenue component, then that relieves what we have to get from the property taxes.

And one of the things that we will be doing is looking at how we can do that.

One of the measures or one of the uh pieces of legislation that you have on your agenda tonight is to uh increase the soil erosion of fees.

That's a miscellaneous uh revenue, and again, we have to go through that revenue line by line by line to determine where we have some opportunities are there so they can leave the pressure that we have uh you know on our our property taxes.

Uh one one other thing that was mentioned tonight is that we're not going to be able to pay our employees.

Uh I have not seen anything based on the numbers that I looked at to indicate that that would be uh the case.

Uh the other uh thing I think that we had two uh individuals who came up and spoke about some of the things that might be going on in public works, and if uh director deem is still here, I'd like for him to address uh those issues as you very well know.

Your public works is uh great concern of ours, and we've been investing a lot of time and effort in terms of turning that operation uh around the thank you, Director Adim.

Good afternoon, good evening, Council President, Council members Kareem Adem in term director DPW.

Yes, sir Councilman Councilman, uh Council members.

You've known the last two months we've kind of made the administration made some uh dramatic changes in DPW to get that operation to be a little more efficient and effective.

We'll still look into everything.

The two gentlemen talked about uh you know I listened to them and talked about their checks, he didn't talk about a payroll issue, talked about what he brought home.

We'll take a look at that.

I don't think that's on our end, it looks like it was deductions or whatever's coming out of his check after he worked.

He did mention he got 80 hours and 17 hours.

He didn't say he was uh deducted from 80 or 17, he just said his take home was a thousand dollars.

But you know, a lot of employees has they become permanent, it could be a pension issue just coming out.

I don't know, but uh our team will look into that.

We are still making measures.

The union was here today.

Um, a couple of months ago, did that union did get a dramatic uh increase in the union contract?

So I don't think that would that's what it is, but overall the DPW operation is still under a fine-tooth comb with changing things around, and we'll continue to make that progress the most efficiently and effectively as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Yes, and I'm sorry, Councilman.

Council President Councilman.

He did one of the gentlemen just the housing issue.

I think you know um we followed up with Lewis to see where he's actually at on the list that we were trying to make sure they're following up.

Is one thing to come and say you need something, we need to make sure you're following up with the process that we're following up with you.

So, Mr.

Director Laurel did follow up with them.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you, Director.

Anything else from the council?

All right, hearing none.

Let's go to the agenda council president, council members.

We are on page four of the agenda.

Item five, reports and recommendations of city officers, boards, and commissions.

Council as a whole to adopt, roll call.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Yes, Kelly, yes.

Ramos, yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes, Silva, yes, President Crump.

Yes, ordinances on first reading.

6 FA, Council as a whole to return to the administration.

Roll call to return to administration.

Council, yes.

Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes.

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

B is an ordinance authorizing an agreement to exchange land for certain city-owned properties in the South Ward.

Council is a whole to adopt.

ROCO.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva?

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

C is an ordinance granting a 30-year tax abatement to 1007-1009 broad development urban renewal LLC for a project to construct a new six-story building in the central ward.

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council.

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva?

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

D is an ordinance amending and supplementing the soil erosion and sediment control.

Council as a whole to adopt.

ROCO.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva?

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

The ordinances adopted in first reading will be advertised in accordance with law.

And a public hearing will be held at a regular meeting on October 1st or as soon thereafter as practical in the council chamber.

Public hearing, second reading, and final passage.

Is an ordinance providing for the construction of the resilient hope project.

Is there anyone wishing to speak on this ordinance?

Good evening again, Alif Mohammed.

I see the President of the Commission of the Border.

Housing Authority is here hi.

Say hi to you.

Um I bought the housing authority up for this hope situation.

I think this is not smart.

I like the idea, guys.

When ladies, when you gave the housing authority six million dollars, and you got 200 apartments.

Not only have you got the people off the street, they gave them a permanent situation.

Plus, it helps the housing authority.

So you do this whole thing where you could get 20 people in and you spend four or five million dollars.

It's better to get them.

This is just a temporary thing where if you spend the same amount of money in the housing authority, you might get 150 apartments.

And the people are living there permanent.

It just makes sense.

The whole thing looked cute all up and down the street, but you gotta be more effective.

And plus, remember, Gonzales, the whole thing started off at 1.5 and they went over budget.

Remember?

And that was 4.5.

But what I'm saying is the housing authority thing is the best.

You you you you you have to support that agency because it's responsible for the low income.

It's responsible.

Everybody get up here and talk about affordable.

Is the responsibility housing authority?

And if you right now gave that 4.5 and put it hypothetically, get up 150, that's 150 houses.

There's the make it a housing county uh housing authority revenue up.

Um and also, I've seen some pictures of what they did in Broadway.

I don't know if you guys seen some of the things they did in Broadway.

It's fabulous, fabulous.

I mean, some apartments they did, and a person is gonna be able to move in there, and I think they got furniture.

That's better than having a hope village with 20 people in there and just 4.5.

I'm just talking realistic.

My problem is, see, I never had a job, I always work for myself.

So when you work for yourself, you do realistic stuff because your budget is zero.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

First of all, I disagree with Ali.

Newark Housing Authority is not the only agency that's supposed to build low-income housing.

There's also low-income house tax credits, right?

There's also um other funds, and also is a state law that the city under fair housing is supposed to build a certain amount.

Did you reach that quota yet?

Because that's aside from the housing authority.

Okay, so don't just come up here, Alif and say the housing authority is the only entity that's responsible because they're not.

This city under the low-income house housing tax credit, have an obligation, and also under the new law under the fair housing.

The city's supposed to build, I think they're supposed to build like three, four thousand uh uh low-income housing under fair housing.

Did you reach that quota yet?

And whatever happened to the uh the money that was set aside when you did the the uh press conference about the low-income housing on Stratford and all of that around here.

You haven't even scratched the surface, like I'm gonna continue to say on building housing.

That's why there needs to be a moratorium on this mayor's housing plan because it's a scam.

It's a scam.

You receive probably close to 20 million dollars for housing under both administrations, and we the people homeless.

The container scam, millions dead, the hotel 10 million over there.

I mean, it's this abomination.

How much money has been uh spilled into this city, and we still talking about uh whole project?

There's no hope with you all.

You are a failure.

That's why you said I said your policies are failure, and there needs to be an independent monitor to address our housing crisis.

You haven't even scratched the circus or nothing.

We got the landlord tenant flup uh uh uh a tsunami going on, a vixy tsunami.

We got all the shelters around the city filled to capacity, and you got over 20 million dollars almost, probably more than that.

I'm just just off the top of my head, and funds for housing.

Where's the return on investment?

Failure, that's what you are.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

You go on down.

I'm just trying, because I'm the doctor.

Just a quick question on the project.

What because here deferred, deferred, deferred, deferred, had to be a reason why it's deferred, deferred, deferred.

What would this project address in terms of the need of housing?

Because when the mayor got into the back and forth with the senator talking about whether it was gift, whether it's a loan, he quoted saying that the reason why he was doing the loan because he the average income of his residence is $36,000.

If that's in fact the truth, and more than likely it's the truth, and maybe a little lower, then why would when you do these projects, particularly there's one in specific, and I forget exactly where it's located, but it's down here somewhere.

He said the maximum minimum income is 72,000, the maximum minimum income is 44,000.

So which one is it, mayor?

Is your residence the average income of your residence $36,000 or $44,000?

Because if it's $36,000, then why when you are talking about these low income, well affordable housing projects, why would you not make the minimum income what you said the average income of your residence is, which is $36,000?

So again, address the benefit of these projects in terms of the word affordable.

What's affordable?

$36,000, $44,000.

Which one is it?

Because it it I we I we need to know.

We need to know.

And I agree with you, Moo.

I disagree with Ali.

You just don't rely on the Newark Housing Authority.

We already know it's in a sham.

And I don't know what you was talking about over there, Pat.

But it's it's just out of control.

It's just out of control.

So again, why deferred, deferred, deferred?

And it's deferred, deferred, deferred for a reason.

What is it?

What's the reason?

So while uh Ms.

Jackson comes up, the the reason for the deferment was for the local finance board to approve this matter and the next one.

So that's the reason for the deferment.

Okay.

Partnership don't have a problem.

The condition we in today is because of mismanagement, and it has not stopped.

I hate to stay.

State your name for the record.

Donna Jackson.

Thank you.

Troublemaker.

I'm the gallery, right, Larry?

I'm the gallery yesterday.

Remember Friday, you said gallery be quiet.

Okay.

I like that name gallery, I'll take it.

So 20 units, is that the accurate number before I?

Because that was what Mr.

Muhammad said.

So this is 20 whole units.

So here's the second problem with that.

The children at Central, if we were going to move in that direction, right?

Because y'all not building nobody here.

The children at Central formed a company and remodeled a container over there under the direction of Mr.

Gifted.

And they also formed a company.

And this raggedy mayor, who's the principal at Central, and the mayor, when they did it, gave them nothing.

You go get these people from another state.

Instead of acknowledging the children that are here.

Y'all ain't built nothing.

Build on a legacy of why you ain't built nothing.

Don't nobody that look like me, Munira, Cassandra, or anybody in this audience own nothing in this city.

Build nothing in this city.

Y'all don't even got us out here when they doing the pipes.

Come on, stop it.

That's in y'all illusion.

Y'all ain't putting nobody nowhere.

Nowhere.

So now this 4.5 million dollars.

A little bit of money.

I don't even know why we bond in that for 20 units.

Because if we were going to do that, the housing authority has been troubled for a long time.

I have seen the townhouses on Broadway, and the person in charge is doing an excellent job over there because when you ride down at night, I challenge all of you to do it.

Mr.

Ramos, I think you've seen it by now.

The lights light up.

And it looks like a mini vermella.

I love it.

Right?

I love it.

Because that's how we should look.

The problem is you all sit here and let the previous people and some of the current people who done stole millions and millions where the whole city could have looked like that off the hook.

This 4.5, what they're doing in Bradley Court, and I know people don't agree, but we need home, we need uh low-income housing.

Y'all better watch, keep talking about close it down close.

Well, I get close to projects.

Look where y'all at now.

Little bricks, let's do it.

Okay.

I don't agree with everything Mr.

Spicer does.

I don't disagree.

I don't like the plan.

But we could take that money.

You're doing a 33 million dollar bond for something else that we ain't gonna be able to pay for.

Let's redo little bricks and put some families in there.

Five, six hundred at a time.

Not 20.

20 impacts nothing because you just put the people out on central last year.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

No additional speakers.

Public hearing is closed.

Uh anything from the council first.

Director.

Good evening, Council President, Council members, Louis Alario, Director of the City's Office of Home and Services.

I just want to provide uh additional make a correction as well, but provide some background on this project.

Uh Resilient Hope, uh, which will be located in the Great West Ford.

Uh, thank you, Councilman Kelly, for your support.

Uh, the exact location is 112-124 North Monday Avenue.

Uh, so just a little bit of background in 2022.

The mayor, uh, along with our office, partner with the uh NJIT uh to develop a low barrier housing model.

This was actually designed by students uh at the Hilliard College of Architectural and Design.

Uh it was built on previous studios that looked at prototypical housing models to address uh uh homelessness in our community.

Uh and one of the really cool things about this is this is actually was informed by the residents uh that the uh we're living at the time at Hope Village once it was four guiding principles that were outlined to drive the design, which is privacy, security, storage, and dignity.

Uh so there was named Resilient Hope.

Um, and the project, which is the correction I want to make, is a 12 dwelling units that will be housing 24 individuals, two support structures that will be in an amenity community building, a community clinic, and one public-facing community building, which we hope will be a pantry that will serve not just those residents but the community as well.

Uh, and to address Mr.

Mohammed's comment, um, yes, the Path Home program that the mayor launched last year is an incredible resource, but in order to really address homelessness in our city, it's very complex.

Uh so the mayor has committed to various uh pathways to housing.

Uh, this one in particular will address unsheltered uh individuals in our city, uh, which is part of the mayor's signature transitional program that provides safe community where people experiencing unsheltered homelessness has access to their own private room paired with intensive supportive services.

So this model was designed uh to really transition our most resident, most vulnerable residents that are experiencing unsheltered homelessness, literally living in our streets.

So we're excited about this project.

Thank you, Director.

Councilman Kelly.

Thank you, Council Prez.

I just want to say we we've had numerous meetings in the community.

Like Council President said it was more about the finance.

But we've had many community meetings about this project.

And some of those meetings, the residents did not agree with it, right?

So we held it back.

We held it back because we wanted the all of the residents to be in tune what we were doing.

When we held it back, the population, the homeless population in the West Ward, around that area, up and down South Orange Avenue started to increase.

And then the residents said when the South Ward did theirs, the residents said, why don't we have one like the South Ward?

And we said to them, well, we turned that down.

Before the South Ward was going to get built, it was going to get built in the West Ward.

And they didn't want it.

So the South Ward took it, and then when the South Ward got it, the Westboard said, why do we don't get treated like that?

And then when we when we came back and said, look, we have more meetings.

We this is not just 20 to 24 um houses.

This is a community center for the for the entire neighborhood.

It's not just for the homeless.

There's a laundromat that will be inside.

There's a clinic that will be inside.

If you go up and down South Orange Avenue at night, you see the homeless population right on South Orange Avenue.

And if you cut in some of the side streets, you see them.

So this will help with that problem that we have.

I'm always calling the director, right?

And we're deploying people and transition teams out to the homeless.

So this will help us deal with the homeless population in our community, and it will also help the community get united with have a center there.

So to do other things in that community.

So I'm appreciative that this is the residents have agreed to in the meetings and have allowed us to build this in the West Ward because the West Ward needs it.

So I'm thankful to you guys for helping us get this pushed through.

And I'm looking forward, and I'm glad that the students of the Architect Architectural School had the opportunity to put input in people who look like us that come from our cities, our city, and all around the board.

It includes us, it's by us, and it's for us.

Thank you, Councilman Kelly.

Councilman Ramos, did you have something?

Yeah, I I just want to say, you know, I don't I don't have an issue with this project, but but I I do think that we need to have a conversation about trying to get the best bang for our buck when it comes to developing you know affordable units.

Um just looking at the projects we've committed, substantial resources to, you know, Riviera Hotel being an example that I bring up.

You wonder working with the housing authority, you know, how many units would that have enabled us to rehab and made available uh uh on the affordable side if we took the resources we're investing on just one specific project like Riviera and actually worked with the housing authority to try to get you know, probably a hundred, 150 units online.

I'm I'm not an expert on on what it would cost for them to rehab, but I I do think that it's great that we're putting a lot of these smaller, specialized uh programs in place.

But I think in order for us to really make a dent uh on affordability, you gotta look at working with entities that already have an infrastructure that own real estate, like the housing authority, so they can make more units available.

So that's a longer conversation.

I think this is a great project.

I think it meets a specific need.

Uh, but I think moving forward, uh we we got to figure out a way to multiply the affordability that we have available with the investments that we're making.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Ray.

Well noted.

Uh, one more thing, Council President.

Real quick, please.

Then we do real quick.

Just I just want to add to what Council Ramos is saying, and I believe that he's right.

But I just want to say something about the housing authority.

When I had a conversation with uh Director Spicer, we had an in-depth conversation about Bradley Court.

This this project is right near Bradley Court.

So the affordability, the units, all of those things will be happening in Bradley Court.

So the um the center is right here, right in the association, right up the street from where the units that the people are asking for will be put.

It will be put in Bradley Courts.

So the area will have those affordable units.

And just like uh I believe it was uh um Donna who said that it looked like a little vanilla down there.

This is how Bradley Court will look, Donna, and I'm sure you already know because you always aware of certain things, but this is how Bradley Court will look, and we have the director in the audience, and and he's already um verified what we're gonna be doing in Bradley Court.

So having the the center there and having Bradley Court, it just makes sense.

Thank you, Councilman.

Uh roll call.

It's Doc.

It's Doc.

Introduce yourself outside if you need to.

I'm continuing with the roll call.

Are there movers for this item?

Say that again.

Movers on the record for this item.

But the movers Kelly, Kenny Gonzalez.

First and second.

Council.

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

B is an ordinance, a bond ordinance providing for various capital improvements.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Gonzalez.

Is there anyone wishing to speak on this ordinance?

Which one?

So while while Miss Jackson is coming up, I will say what some of the capital improvements are.

It's for the City Hall elevators.

It's for Iron Bound the rink, the uh locker rooms of the Ironbound Rink to replace the Central Avenue Bridge, uh Community Center, telecommunications.

Let's have some quiet so I can hear Miss Jackson.

Donna Jackson.

God, get in this room, get in this room.

Which elevators?

Because the ones in this building are horrible.

The ones next door don't work.

Um, both our 22 Franklin and 381 Green Street.

Um, we got issues going on.

That's why the court is not open.

We're not HDD compliant, excuse me, no disrespect, Miss U.

Oh, she's not here, but no disrespect to the disabled, because I have those in my family as well.

So we're not ADD compliant.

There you go.

Come on, Larry, help me out with that word.

So it's it's this capital improvement because y'all always doing capital improvements, but nothing get improved.

Y'all let people do patchwork in here.

Patchwork.

We not fixing it.

Y'all just did capital improvements in 22 Franklin.

And they still killing over there with the asbestos, because all they did was come in, scrape it down, and paint over.

Y'all care about the y'all don't care about the officers over there.

Because I went in there while they was doing it.

Y'all don't watch nothing.

You're not watching what's going on on the street.

You're gonna do the Central Avenue Bridge.

Tell me who's gonna be over there to monitor.

Because if you don't gotta have a monitor from this city over there at that bridge, don't touch it.

They putting the sidewalks down in this city and they're not putting the metal framing down.

Y'all think y'all doing something?

You not.

They putting sandbags in the holes when they're recovering over people's stock doing these last service lines, doing the electric gas lines.

Y'all not watching.

We had a gas line potion on my block.

Now, thank you for speaking about Telfer, but them people ain't tell, so they ain't coming all the way down the money.

Because what's gonna happen is you're gonna create back on money.

What only is cured down a little bit because those units are empty, but all the things is in there.

Right.

So that's not gonna be no service for them.

Now, I got I guess the homeowners changed their mind.

I don't know, because I wasn't at the last couple of meetings, so I won't speak for them.

But we do not need to turn that homeowner section, and particularly when we're attempting to do some improvements inside Bradley Court.

Now that's the one place where me and Mr.

Spicer don't agree.

He said all the housing authority is doing is collecting rent.

We don't get in the social services.

He's so wrong on that.

So wrong.

Because we need all the social services and public housing.

Just because we're in public housing.

Right?

So he don't, that's not his agenda.

So when y'all partnering, y'all need to put that in mind.

That family success center at Bradley Court needs to be reopened, refurbished.

Taking them damn bars off of there.

Let the kids see.

Me and T C did boy scouts, we did girl scouts, but we had the boys come in, so if we're gonna do it, let's do it right.

And I hear you talking about the architectural school, but I'm talking about our students.

NJRT students, the majority of them are not knockers.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Sandra Doc.

Mr.

Spicer, my name is Cassandra Doc.

Never met you, sir.

Guess I'll meet you tonight.

Larry, I'm gonna need you to put that in writing.

All the capital improvements that you said are gonna take place.

I'm gonna need you to put that in writing.

I'm gonna have I'm gonna need you to give it to Miss Daniels, and I'm gonna need her to send that to me or email it to me, Keisha.

Because I don't believe none of it.

Now again, Mr.

Spicer, you're here.

You're here, sir.

And I hope you heard some of the things I said earlier.

Because we're not happy with that Newark Housing Authority.

Ms.

Doc, let's please address it.

Okay, well, Larry, just get me the capital improvements that you said gonna take place because I don't believe you.

Not one thing you said, because ain't nothing gonna get improved.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Many bumani.

So you you just rambled uh a whole lot of lists of things that you're supposed to be repairing.

Now, to the elevator, y'all already received probably like close to three million to fix those elevators.

Previously, so why are why is the elevators on this list when you already got millions of dollars to fix them in the first place?

That's number one.

And to this capital bonds stuff, we need uh uh oversight, uh federal uh state monitor, which was supposed to stay here, but Murphy took it, took the monitor out when he you know got in office over our budget and over the bond stuff here that's going on.

So which one of y'all gonna call on a state monitor, which we know you're not gonna do it, because you was happy that Murphy took away the state monitor that allowed y'all to uh put the city in a deficit because that's what we're in the deficit, right?

So now you're gonna bond out of everything, everything's gonna be bonding on the backs of the taxpayers and the homeowners.

This this is gonna fall on uh uh on those individuals on us.

So once again, it needs to be a state monitor and a moratorium because we don't know now you're putting the elevator in it when you already received money, and we don't know the other items that you're putting in there that you receive money for that.

So please hand us a breakdown of the list, and also we need to have a monitor over the bond issuance and also over our budget.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

See none public speakers.

Hearing is now closed.

Roll call.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez, yes, Kelly.

Yes, Donna?

Yes, Ramos, yes.

Scott Round track?

Yes.

Silver?

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

C is an amending ordinance providing for additional filters at the Peconic Water Treatment Plant.

Is there anyone wishing to speak on this ordinance?

Halif Mohammed.

This is the greatest thing that happened out of New York.

This water situation.

Anyway.

Anyway.

No, I drink water.

I don't need to drink bottle water.

That's what I drink.

I got them.

I got them.

I got them.

I got them.

It's okay.

I got it.

Thank you, sir.

They're my people.

So what I'm saying is, anything that you're doing with the water and with this director that's doing a great job.

And I gotta give the mayors props because they could have fixed it and they changed it.

That was revolutionary in the United States.

And this is a good thing.

Please support it and pass it.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

City monitor and inspector.

I'm hiring my own self.

Now we in the midst of doing some water quality tests in this city.

And we have spent millions of dollars at that Pinnaqua facility.

And we talking about putting in additional filters.

Who went up there and checked to make sure when y'all put filters up there last year, they were installed.

Anybody ride up there?

Because you know, right now, you know, watershed is still on fire.

City has done nothing.

Nothing.

Y'all don't know how it started.

We had 150 acres today, because I called down the Trenton to the New Jersey Forestry.

What we doing?

What we doing?

So you putting filters on something that the ash is flowing into.

Make it make sense.

And I know y'all ain't been up there.

Because when it caught on fire, the employees came outside.

Oh, it's smoke.

And they left.

Come on.

So are the filters gonna get clogged now?

That's already there.

No, I'm and I'm and I'm serious.

I'm very serious.

Because we still can't drink the water here.

That's why y'all got bottled water.

Ain't nobody playing with this.

Our water numbers right now are worse than what they were in 2016.

And I ain't exaggerating, Pat.

Because I love you, but I ain't.

I gotta put it where it is.

You still got some of these seniors because they can't afford the bottle water, still drinking this water.

And y'all wondering why they sick?

Because they drinking this water.

That's contaminated with more than just lead.

When the last time we had a wallet, water quality blessing.

Water quality report.

When so are y'all watching what's going on at these filtration systems?

Do y'all even know how many systems we have?

Oh, okay.

We got seven.

You know how many reservoirs we have?

We have seven that we own.

That's 14 properties of water.

That's why I told y'all.

You didn't have to go get the 120 from Joe D.

We got water value.

We got a trillion dollars worth of water assets.

Y'all ain't watching it.

Ain't gonna be no camp watershed this summer because it's burning down.

I'm just it's still on fire.

I'm not playing.

I'm serious.

What are we doing?

And how close to the because I always say them names wrong.

The wanacy, the penny, you know, we got them names that we named it 100 years ago.

So I gotta go back to my founding poke.

But why are we watching what's going on?

And are y'all making sure that the companies that you're hiring are vetted and really doing the work?

Because I don't believe so, because we're not watching what's going on right here in the city.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Alif, I don't know about you.

You know what?

Just like the parking authority, this water department, the money that y'all funneled through that department, and now it's bonds going on with this stuff here.

This is just this criminal.

It's criminal.

We don't know about the filters.

You just had the perk, the people that were supposed to do the last service lines.

Look what happened with that.

They underin ready to face uh uh prison time if they get it.

Ready to face uh uh prison time if they get it.

This is this criminal of all the money.

I mean, y'all, y'all don't, y'all not paying attention yourself.

Like I said, just like the water the parking authority.

There needs to be an independent thorough investigation.

Because the water gate, no corruption continues from Booker to this administration.

The worst of the worst.

All the money.

And I don't even think y'all even adhere to the um the lawsuit within in N R DC with the filters and in the in the education and all the stuff that was in that in that um lawsuit.

And still checking the water, like Donna said, the water, the water looked like ass in it.

It looked like it has acid in the water.

Dirty.

I mean, it's this the water can't be still uh good and being filtered properly.

So we can't ask y'all to do it.

Some somebody out there in uh La La Land who's listening to our council meetings.

Please, please, we need a new water gate investigation.

Please.

Please help us.

I beg of you.

Because this is insanity.

We not seeing millions, close to billions of dollars floating through.

First the money, now's the bonds.

Which is gonna affect the homeowners and and and the future generations to come.

And y'all don't care.

You're not filtering nothing up there.

The water looks horrible.

Thank you for your comments next speaker.

Good evening, John Reverend.

Just a question about these filters.

Are we not meeting minimum standards by the state?

It says additional filtration.

What is this for?

What are we filtering extra for?

We gave you 22 million in a year back in the early.

We gave you another four.

Is there no oversight?

Do any of you take a ride up there?

What are we not filtering correctly?

Are we not meeting the standards?

Is this additional because we're not meeting it?

What what is it?

Is it for TSS?

What are the what are we not meeting that we're asking another 16 million?

If our water standards are meeting the state level, then what is this for?

Is this replacement filters?

Are these new filters?

I can stand up here like he does and says, I have a New Jersey wastewater license.

I do too.

I have a license in the state.

And I don't understand this.

Because if we if if the water is not correct, then it should have been an emergency repair.

It says additional.

So is this really needed?

Or are we just going on someone's assumptions here?

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

See none public hearing is now closed.

Director.

Council President, Council members Kareem and Dean, director of the Department of Water and Sewer Utilities.

This uh money is to bond out for two new additional filters.

When they built this treatment plant in 1990, when it came online, they left space and room for additional growth.

They left room for additional growth.

We do see the city is growing.

We need to provide more water.

We need to expand the filter plant.

When it was originally built, it was built for 14 filters.

They only put 12 in.

At the time in that time, we were sending out about 40 MGD.

Population was about 260,000.

But now a little bit close to pushing up on 350,000.

Expanding the filters will allow us to send more water down into the city and sell water to our other customers that buy water.

Another issue, the city is in compliance, has been in compliance for the last five years.

You can go on the NDP website or the US EPA website.

It's up to public knowledge.

You can see the last violation the city had, or the last violation that the city didn't have.

The city, Mayor Baraka's administration, this council continues to invest in the water and wastewater infrastructure.

I applaud you for that because some cities don't.

We've just seen in Passaic County in the last month where they had two large water main breaks.

And it took them about three weeks to get them under control.

And at a ball water notice that's still going on, it's probably gonna end this week.

We just seen Hoboken, right?

When you don't invest cities that have the money to invest, don't invest in their water systems have three main breaks this week.

Right that they get them out of control.

And when these cities have main breaks, they call on the city of New York to open the valve and send them water.

Right.

So those additional filters will continue to provide us additional capacity to send drinking water to the city.

Um watershed.

She had a ribbon cut in the day to announce the completion of the 22 million dollar optimization project that we spent to upgrade the treatment plant to optimize it to be more efficient and effective.

And the last thing before I leave almost 14 years ago, the Booker administration came out with a report and said that the water, the wastewater system needed 1.4 billion dollars in repairs to keep it functioning.

Right?

What came out of that was the Christie administration told us to put it up for referendum to sell the water step.

We didn't.

We turned around and we started investing in it.

To date, we've invested close to $560 million, not a billion.

I think people get that mixed up with what was needed from that report and what we actually spent.

This council and his Barack administration has invested about a little over 500 million dollars in our water and wastewater infrastructure, right?

From the Paquatic system all the way down into our distribution system, all the way down to London where our pipes stop at.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Anything from the council?

Hearing none, thank you, Director Roll Call.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Donna?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Round Trees.

Yes.

Silva.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

D is an ordinance providing for the Green Parks projects.

Is there anyone wishing to speak on this ordinance?

See no Ms.

Jackson.

I'm sorry.

I see you.

I see you.

Come on, Miss Jackson.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

Good morning.

Donna Jackson, City of North Monitor.

For free.

Free.

No money.

So this is Green Parks.

Can you tell me how many?

Are we constructing new?

Are we and refurbishing?

Or is if you could just tell me that and then I'll finish.

Because I only got a couple of points.

It's four parks to all together.

New?

No, at existing parks.

We're going to redo into Greenstyle.

Yes.

Okay.

So suggestion.

Because they just did this up at the county.

And I spoke to the lady that's doing the redesign on Waneka Park.

I know I'm saying it wrong.

Help me.

The W one.

Bloomfield.

Okay.

The phonics is not working today.

I'm sorry.

So we talked about, and as our city is growing, and we getting more and more issues.

Our seniors with dementia, we need to start having some spaces for them.

Now, I don't know if this is the appropriate place to put it, but Larry, since you're taking such good notes, I wanted to give it to you.

So we need to have some Al H Alzheimer friendly spaces for our seniors.

So when their family comes over to get them, I went through that with my grandma, so I know it's very hard to take them out.

But if we had like an enclosed park type thing where the family could go out, sit down, let mommy get up, but we don't have to worry about her going out the gate.

Same thing with the autism.

Eight-year-old, non-verbal.

She runs faster than me.

She has chunky as me.

I don't know how she moves so fast, but she does.

So we need to have some autism friendly, and we're working on it, I know.

But we need to have some autism-friendly spaces with the green space because the one thing about the children, period, is they're going to be chewing on stuff.

It's just a habit.

And so we need to make sure that what we're putting in this green space is not something that's harmful to our children either.

Because you know they'll pick something up, put it in their mouth.

So we need to make sure that the sponge turf and everything that we're putting down, all of the stuff that's going to take the rain water off.

We need to make sure that those things are eco-friendly as well as green friendly.

Um I think that's the main two, you know, things to make sure that we include the community so that it's park is friendly for everyone, but I think we also need to start getting into some specifics.

You guys put up some new senior buildings in the South Ward.

I think we need to have those spaces so when people's family members come and that Alzheimer's is an issue, as well as um with the disabilities in our community.

I mean, autism is not the only disability.

We have some physical disability, but I think we need to start building family friendly parks.

Thank you for your comments.

Oh no.

Uh any other speakers.

Hearing none, public speaking is closed.

Wait, who I can't see, you gotta come over.

Uh is this person trying to speak?

Good evening, Councilman.

Good evening.

Uh, real quick, just very simple just for the record, can you state your name?

Of course.

Uh Tony Augusto, longtime resident of the city of North, 30 years plus, raised kids in this area, coached and most of the soccer player teams that involved in uh Newark.

Uh worked in the uh first responder area of business.

I don't want to really throw out what I do exactly.

But uh I've been around all the city and I've seen a lot of these green areas and parks and everything.

And one of the simple things that we keep overlapping on and forgetting about is the security for those parks and spaces and the lighting.

So we build a beautiful place that looks great during the daytime, but as soon as the sun comes down in the winter times and the fall season, four o'clock, it's dark.

And you know, we're already undergone with the officers that we do have in the city and the county parks and everything else, but we're not providing that safety juncture, and I think that's something that definitely needs to be included when we speak about green.

We need to speak about security lighting, and how do we maintain those areas?

So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

May I?

Sure.

Julie Moreno, North Ward.

Uh, I came here for a different topic, but this is actually something that is very important to me.

I looked into the adopt a lot program uh recently, a few months ago, with the intention of making a pocket park.

There's a lot of uh vacant property lots, small lots in every ward.

Um, and we're also having a problem with extreme heat in the city, and the the adopt a lot I looked into would be to make a pocket park for a shade park available to all citizens to get some relief from the heat as the city gets hotter and hotter every year, and there's more and more development, we're getting less ground space for water to drain, um, less tree cover to keep the roads or the sidewalks or our homes cooler.

Um, so I would like to maybe speak with you in the future about having the adopt a lot program a little more available.

Every time I called them with a specific lot that was available on my block, they said it wasn't available because it was already spoken for.

But I couldn't get a list of vacant lots that would be open and available.

I had to bring them an address.

If that could be more accessible, I think it would be uh a health benefit, a beauty benefit, a piece of mind benefit, the amount of green around, etc.

Um, and also you know, making use of these these spots that are doing nothing.

All right, thank you, Ms.

Uh Public Hearing is now closed.

Roll called Council, yes, Gonzales, yes, Kelly, yes, Tana.

Yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree.

Yes, Silva, yes, President Crumb.

Yes, Mr.

President, Councilman Gonzalez.

Yes, uh on that about a lot uh we went uh like 10 years ago.

We went to Harvard regarding the program for the uh for what we have in the city of Newark in terms of the lots that the city gives to uh to invest Newark.

Uh and uh one of the functions that was discussed was the possibility of creating this uh pocket parks and uh and garden and community gardens.

And uh I I am surprised that we don't have uh any lots that are allocated to that.

I believe that we should stress that that possibility to invest North because that was part of creating that entity.

Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez, roll call.

No, we're ready to just approve.

We just approved.

Just did it roll.

I'm sorry.

I know it's getting late, Larry.

Come on.

Next item.

He is an ordinance amending traffic by designating 2nd Avenue West and North 7th Street as a multi-way stop sign intersection in the North Ward.

Is there anyone wishing to speak on this ordinance?

See, none public hearing is closed.

Roll call.

Council?

Yes, Gonzalez.

Yes, Kelly.

Yes, Pintana?

Yes, Ramos.

Yes, Scott Groundtree, yes, Silver.

Yes, President Clump.

Yes.

F is an ordinance granting a 20-year tax abatement to Gomes Green Urban Renewal LLC for a project located in the East Ward to construct a 28 residential rental units, sponsored by Councilman Silva, second by Councilman Kelly.

Is there anyone wishing to speak on this ordinance?

Good evening, John Reverendo here.

Uh, I think there's uh misprint here.

It says to construct, but the building's done already.

So isn't this supposed to be approved before they start construction?

It says two construct.

Line five.

Oh, that's a little confusing to me.

It was the same thing like on Frontage Road.

We did the same thing, some factory.

We gave in a tax abatement, but the building was done already.

So I think it says to construct.

So I don't know if there's a misprint on there.

Also, they're advertising one bedroom apartments for 1900, but the city is uh advertising it 700 to 1400.

So I don't know what the confusion is.

That was just me looking up on the websites.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Ms.

Jackson.

Give it to me.

Okay, so in light of what my friend just, Donald Jackson, enlightened us on.

Uh, I thought we discussed a moratorium on tax abatement.

Um so I don't know, because allegedly, two meetings ago, two months ago, there was supposed to be a tax abatement moratorium.

I knew that wasn't gonna happen, but you know, those who were advocating for it thought it passed.

Uh Tony Gomes, urban renewal, whatever he wants to call itself today, is a millionaire.

Tony Gomes did the project on Dayton Street for housing.

He did the projects on Elizabeth Avenue that were then turned over to Ruckers.

Uh Tony Gomes is over there on Central Avenue with DJ MV.

Uh allegedly uh restaurant and all of that.

So why do they need a 20-year tax abatement?

I don't want to hear all Donna, we got some affordable units, affordable for who?

The officer standing in the back can't even move in here.

So who's affordable for?

And at least they starting at a decent, oh, I don't want to say it.

I'm well, all right, I'm gonna say it.

At least they're starting at a decent salary because they police and fire.

Uh the clerk office can't move in there.

No, so what are we doing?

Why are we keep giving away the city?

Y'all can argue with me all day long.

I don't have to come down here and sit with none of y'all.

We got money problems.

Because you're giving the city away.

We can all agree with that, right?

We got money problems, okay.

And if we don't, we the only city that don't.

So please don't do that to the people.

You're getting ready to raise these taxes.

You just said it.

You just said it.

So why are we giving Tony Gomes?

He don't need it.

DJ Envy don't need it.

He's building across the country.

You better believe DJ MV is not getting no break in all these other towns.

He building it.

Why?

Why do y'all keep doing this?

For what three units that's affordable?

Allegedly.

AMI allegedly.

Share rating.

DJ can't move in there.

They ain't 40 yet.

They up and coming Norkers.

I don't want to speak for the young lady here.

She can't move in there.

I'm just gonna use it because you're sitting there, ma'am.

She can't move in there either.

Or her children can't move in there.

What are we doing?

You getting ready to rape my mother's taxes over the cold on Smith Street.

And everybody else in here that's a homeowner.

And you get ready to get Tony Gomes.

That he probably is a billionaire by now.

I know Envy is a damn billionaire.

Because he goes around the country doing financial seminars, showing all the rest of y'all how to become a billionaire.

Stop it.

No.

Even though I know you're gonna say yes anyway.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Gonzalez.

Manera Bumani.

Gonzalez, didn't you uh put a motion in for a moratorium?

You didn't you didn't follow up on it?

This flyer that we when we was out here real strong under homes for all Newark says Newark has a housing crisis.

New Yorkers, Newark has a housing crisis, and this was years ago.

And we still have in a housing crisis under your administration.

Ten years this administration, right?

In office, and you still haven't even scratched the surface on how meeting the needs of the housing for low for new or you haven't even scratched the surface.

So as I'm gonna continue to say, Noorkers, if you don't vote them out like your lives depend on it, there'll be consequences and then I talked about which one of y'all gonna do a support, a responsible tax abatement ordinance proposed it a couple of times.

We came up here with the Newark civic trustee.

We proposed a responsible tax abatement ordinance and a responsible banking ordinance for all this money that you got in these banks that's supposed to give back under the community benefits.

That's a federal law, and you haven't done one IOTA of none of the legislation to benefit, and then you wonder why the Democrats craps that you are losing votes, and you wonder why.

People call you what you are, failed leadership, no other way to describe you now.

Who gonna pass the legislation for a responsible tax abatement ordinance on top of the ordinance that y'all failing on?

Because it's no return on investment for all the tax abatements that you're giving out, and you came and you ran on your campaign saying that you was gonna do away with tax abatements and you was gonna reassess them, right, Ramos?

And I'm gonna continue to come.

Say Ramos because you co-signed it, right?

When you gonna assess that?

But see, Norkers and Sanity.

If you reelect any of them people back in office, it's consequences on this yours.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Seeing none, public hearing is now closed.

Councilman Silva.

Um, yes, the answer, Miss Jackson, it's not Tony Gomes.

Uh Gomes is a very popular uh Portuguese name, uh, so I can assure you that it's not Tony Gomes that's the developer of this particular project.

Uh this particular project is in the area 6668 Emmett Street that's in desperate need of development.

Desperate need.

Uh there's a lot of issues out there.

It's complied with the 20% affordable housing.

Um it was vacant lots as well as abandoned homes uh that have been abandoned for quite some time, and now you drive by there and it's a beautiful building, but uh just to assure Miss Uh Jackson it's not Tony Gomes.

Okay, thank you.

Anything else from the council?

Council.

Say no sponsors?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva?

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

G is an ordinance providing for the Green Street projects.

Is there anyone wishing to speak on this ordinance?

All right.

Look at Ms.

Jackson moving.

Go ahead.

Come on up, Miss Jackson.

We're here a little late.

What's the how many?

Oh my God, Lavia's quarter to 10th.

Jesus.

Okay, so just a point of clarification.

We talking about beautifying streets.

Blocks, the main our main carters, our side quarters.

Just could you give me that little bit and then I'll finish?

Only got like two questions.

It's with storm dealing with stormwater.

Okay.

Drainage.

Okay.

Oh, good.

That's what I thought.

All right.

So.

And if you if you'd like, Miss Jackson, let's can we stop her time for a second?

Let's do this.

Let's get Mr.

Director Adima.

He looked like he wanted to jump up and speak.

So let's go.

Oh, this okay.

So let's do that.

Oh, this is water.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

Good evening, Council President.

Council members.

This is a Green Street project.

This is around doing uh projects in all five wards to capture and mitigate stormwater rainwater.

Um part of this is like uh the Clinton and Badger Triangle is one of them.

The Andre Adabawale Memorial Park, which is on Central and MLK.

Uh one of these is gonna be on Ferry, one of these projects is on Ferry Street, another one is on Freedom Heiding in Dayton.

There's several more throughout the city.

Just that one question.

So they're not they're just gonna catch capture rainwater.

All right, reduce flooding.

Thank you, Director.

All right.

Okay, that's all I'm gonna do.

Ms.

Jackson come back up.

I wasn't trying to interrupt the director.

I just wanted to make sure that I understood that they're bigger than the regular sewer catch basin.

That's all I wanted to be clear.

Okay.

Um much needed.

And I'm sure that this 6.5 with what's been going on in this city is not enough.

Um, I think we all were shocked when we saw the four to five inches, four to five feet of water on Sanford Avenue between South Orange, and I know it didn't come down that far, but between maybe uh 18th Avenue and Ivy, when those cars were just inundated at that one storm, and it didn't happen every time.

Um and I think when that happened is when the little baby in Irvington fell into the stream because that runs along there underneath the firehouse.

So I we need this to do this mitigation, but again, I'm gonna say that we need to watch um what people are doing in our city because when they were cleaning, and I know you know the experts go, oh Donna, they don't have nothing to do with it.

Yes, it does.

When you cleaning those cement trucks, they do not do that in suburban areas and wash them daggone trucks on the street.

They don't do it, they don't disrespect them, but they did that here.

And I put two separate videos across this city that weren't mine up on my page because you are allowing them to put cement in the sewer, which makes Mr.

Adem's job harder, right?

Because now it's clogging up.

And the the video in particular uh was when 20th Street, 19th Street, South Ward flooded where we didn't see that before.

So, yes, there's increased rainwater, there's increased storms, all of that.

We'll go with uh Mother Nature and the new uh, you know, whatever's going on.

I can it's it's not coming today, but we know what I'm talking about.

But we also see that the water's not running off, and then the other piece to that is we're not requiring trees, enough of them.

Everything we build in this cement, everything got a driveway.

There's no greenery around these properties, and it's so little on some of the properties, it's not gonna help us mitigate what's going on.

So I you know, yes, needs to happen.

Um, probably needs to be expanded.

So I'm sure Mr.

Dean will be back in a little while, and we're gonna need to expand this out because there's so much water.

Um, good job, but we gotta watch what people are doing that are causing us some of the additional sewage and water problems that we have.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Seeing non public hearing is now closed.

Roll call council?

Yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, Silva, yes, President Crump, yes, resolutions.

7R1A and B are purchasing resolutions.

A is for the Path Home Renovation Project, and B is for mail room equipment.

Council as a whole to adopt A and B.

Roll call.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Quintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva?

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

7R2A is a professional service contract for engineering and construction management services.

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Abstain.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Stain.

Ramos.

Abstain.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva?

Abstain.

President Crump.

Yes.

Item failed to adopt.

B through D or private sales and redevelopment agreement.

7R2B, motion to defer by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilman Gonzalez.

Roll call to defer.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes, the defer.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

C is to newly construct a parking lot for the adjacent owned school in the central ward.

Sponsored by Councilman Gonzalez.

Second by Councilman Ramos.

Roll call.

Council.

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

D, new construction of a four-story building with 25 affordable residential units and 14 parking spaces in the West Ward.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Gonzalez.

Roll call.

Council.

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

E is referral to the proposed amendment to the zoning and land use regulations.

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

Mr.

President.

Councilman Ramos.

With this, uh, we we had asked the department to give us a list of what areas are impacted by the changes.

So just want to remind remind them.

I don't know what that is.

They gotta get that to us.

I thought that I believe she sent it.

It did.

Okay.

My email has been it was okay.

It was sent.

Okay.

I'll check it out.

Maybe uh Keisha, you send it to my Gmail if you can.

Absolutely.

Thanks.

F is declaring an area in need of redevelopment in the central ward.

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Quintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva?

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

G is investigation for area in need of redevelopment in the North Ward.

Sponsored by Councilman Ramos.

Second by Councilman Quintana.

Roll call.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

7R5A is acceptance of essential baby gear, including strollers, diapers, baby carriers, and clothing.

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

7R8A through E.

Our municipal council resolutions with sponsors.

A is a resolution supporting the Immigrant Trust Act to protect immigrant communities in the state of New Jersey.

Sponsored by Council President Crump.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Roll call.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Sorry.

Want me to keep going?

Go ahead.

Keep going.

B is supporting a special event.

The annual day of prayer acclamation day, sponsored by Councilman Quintana.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

C is a ceremonial street designation for Reverend Raymond Greer, sponsored by Councilwoman Scott Rountree.

Second by Councilman Council.

D is a resolution declaring the month of September as Suicide Awareness Month.

Sponsored by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Second by Council President Crump.

And E is waiving special event application permit fee for Jazz in the street festival.

Sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Council as a whole to adopt A through E with sponsors.

Roll call on A through E.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.