Good afternoon.

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Newark Municipal Council on Wednesday, April First.

Please stand for the National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance, and Invocation by Pastor Tiffany Moras.

We thank you, God for allowing us to see this day we've never seen before.

We thank you, God, as we are on this Holy Wednesday, God, observing this week of holy week that you remind us not to betray your word, to be slow to speak and quick to hear.

Bless this council, God, they continue not to work for your people.

Open the ears, God, of us that we be slow, God, to understand and put us on one accord.

Allow love to abide, and we'll give you all the glory, the honor, and the praise in the matchless name of Jesus.

We pray, Amen.

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

In addition, the agenda for this meeting was disseminated on March 27th at the time of preparation and posted on the city's website.

Roll call, please.

Council members Bay.

Present.

Council.

President.

Gonzalez.

Present.

Kelly.

Ramos.

Here.

Scott Roundtree.

President.

Nova.

Absent.

President Crump.

Present.

Council President, Council members, just by way of housekeeping for the record, Councilman Silva is excused today, so that we don't keep saying absent.

Thank you.

And before we begin, Councilman Silva did ask if we could have a moment of silence for um Albert Catinho.

Umone who uh loved the city of Norfolk.

Uh very good friends with with uh Councilman Silva and really with all of us up here knew him well.

He always said he loved the city of Norfolk and did a lot for the city of Norfolk for the people of Norway.

So we can just have a moment of silence.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And before we begin, I just want to uh councilwoman Bay has some visit guests here today.

Thank you, Council President.

I want to acknowledge the presence of University High School, my alma mater.

Yes, here with us today as council members for the day.

I want to welcome them and thank them for being here with us today.

They came all the way from the mighty South Ward.

That's right.

All right, all right.

Thank you for being here.

We hope you've had a good time and learned a lot about civics and about the city of New York.

All right, Madam Clerk.

We are on page three of the agenda.

Item six is ordinances on public hearing, second reading, and final passage.

Six PSFA is an ordinance amending special improvement districts to revise terminology and clarify collection and administration of the tourism improvement district license fee.

Is there anyone present wishing to be heard on this ordinance?

Secure McGougled, I'll speak on it.

So um I really don't know what this um entails, but for the most part, a license fee.

Um, I didn't even know that we were doing a tourism kind of thing.

Uh so I guess my question would be who would be adversely affected because of this, because somebody's gonna have to pay how much they're gonna have to pay, who they're gonna have to pay to, where does that money go?

That's it.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

No other speaker uh appearing public area is now closed.

Uh, and to answer your question that the fee comes from the uh uh uh hotels, so it doesn't adversely affect uh the population of the city of Norway, the residents of the city of Norfolk.

That being said, roll call, council members Bay, yes, council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Kintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump.

Yes, Mr.

President, Councilman uh Ramos, yeah, not related to this, but connected to the improvement districts.

I know at the one of the previous council meetings of BA explained to us um the shift that's being made related to the admin fee that the city charges the improvement districts um you know for essentially advancing them the the taxes that they anticipate collecting and and other duties that the city performs.

Just you don't need to answer it today, but if you can get us an update, if the administration's had an opportunity to meet with the heads of these districts, a few of them are small neighborhood-based districts.

I have two on my ward.

So I just want to want to know if he's had an opportunity or someone from his team to meet with them and explain how the process is gonna work.

Thank you, madam.

I did have an opportunity to talk to some of the board members from one of our improvement districts, and they were uh a little bit unclear about the process.

So your office, Madam Clerk, we can update.

Certainly.

Thank you.

B is an ordinance amending records to amend the rules and regulations to include persons exempt from toll fees, releases of motor vehicles to include notice requirements for certain vehicles involved in a criminal investigation.

Sponsored by councilman counsel, second by councilwoman Scott Roundry.

Is there anyone wishing to be heard on this ordinance?

Hold on, Molly.

So the way I see this is exempt from toll fees, that means somebody don't have to pay.

Now, when I was parked down here on Broad Street, my car got told, and I had to pay.

So why should anybody be exempt?

There's the rules are the rules.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Good afternoon, Alif Mohammed.

Um, when this ordinance goes in, it's gonna be starting and now because I had a niece that got shot and uh about two years ago, and they still ain't given her car back because they say she gotta pay the tolls.

You know, because the call, she was in the car when she got the car, so they took the car to crime.

Is this retroactive because she still haven't got her car out because when she went down, there was six, seven hundred dollars.

Car just sitting there, that she was a victim.

So I don't know if it's retroactive or what, you know.

She lost a kidney.

Thank God she's all right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

No other speaker repairing.

Public hearing is now closed.

Councilman Council.

Yeah, just to uh respond to to the speaker, they the uh ordinance will not be retroactive, but it does touch on the critical uh discussion around individuals who cars have been towed um that have not been involved in a crime and being charged to get their vehicles out.

And so the way that the the ordinance puts it is that if uh there were individuals who have had their cars uh that have been told from sites that have been crime scene sites, but their uh particular vehicle has not been engaged in any of that, that their vehicle would be released back to them and notification will go out to them uh in a timely manner that they can be able to come and pick their vehicle back up.

So thank you.

Uh Councilman Ramos.

Yeah, Mr.

President, I I I totally agree with um making sure that someone who's a victim uh essentially is is not being unduly penalized.

Uh I do know that there are instances where individuals do not use their vehicles and may use you know girlfriend or boy boyfriend's vehicle um to commit crime, and sometimes they may claim that they had no involvement in the incident, and it's probably true in some instances.

Um, you know, I I had requested at least some correspondence from the police division to see if they had the opportunity to review this, and from my understanding, I never received it.

I'm not trying to hold it up.

Um, but to me their um review of this legislation is important just to make sure that it doesn't create, it doesn't solve one problem and then create other issues for them.

So that that was the only reason why I requested a letter from them, and I had I don't think I received it unless the clerk got it and didn't share it with us.

Yeah, Mr.

Chair.

Uh Councilman Council.

Yeah, so we we were uh in receipt of the information.

There was four bullet points.

Some of us probably didn't get it.

There was a a funeral today, so when it came out uh today, but yes, but one of the the bullet points did indicate uh that in it uh as well as the amendment goes that we want to make sure that the license individual of that vehicle that who is ever listed under the New Jersey motor vehicle statute as ownership of that car is the individual that can only be able to uh receive the car.

And so there was four bullet points that was addressed uh from the administration uh around what particularly needs to happen.

There was some conversation uh also around the releasing uh of the vehicle and the fees uh that would be uh engaged and just adding information in there for written provision uh so that as they go out for contractual concerns with these tolling companies that they also are made aware of them as well.

So it helps in the RFP process.

Uh didn't really find no issues or no problems with that.

Um, but as it speaks to who can claim the vehicle, it would have to be the direct owner who's listed under New Jersey Motor Vehicles.

Thank you.

And uh and Madam Clerk has per uh Councilman Ramos.

If we can get something from the police department, just uh our public safety just uh just are we gonna amend this to include these provisions?

Because I don't I don't I don't think they send it to all of us, they may have sent it to you as the author of the legislation.

So what was the question?

Are we amending this to include the provisions that councilman counsel mentioned, or are we adopting it as it is?

Because I didn't get I didn't get the email with the suggestions that came back.

So court counsel.

Uh good afternoon, Kenyatta City of North Corporation Council.

So essentially, uh you're 100% correct, uh, councilman counsel.

Uh the the ordinance only speaks to the owner of the vehicle.

So in this scenario where you gave where um I don't know, a a friend is involved in an investigation, and the car is not associated with uh to the owner of the car is not associated with the investigation.

In that situation, the police department is supposed to contact the owner and find out if the owner was involved, right?

What you're saying is that someone loaned the vehicle to someone else or something like that.

As long as the owner of the vehicle was not involved in the situation, then the owner of the vehicle should not be penalized.

Yeah, but but but that that's coming from your office, right?

The assessment, not from the police division.

For the police on the legislation, all the the all the all the laws come from.

No, I I know you review it, but I'm just saying all I asked for was just a review by the police division.

I'm a councilman counsel went through some very uh pertinent points, so I didn't know where that was coming from.

Was that the review that the police division did that highlighted some provisions in the ordinance?

Representative from the police department is here.

Thank you, Council President and Council members.

Uh we did provide some feedback.

I don't know if it made it to you all in time, but we did have a couple concerns.

Uh not with the overall idea, but maybe just some uh ideas surrounding the contracting that's currently in place.

Is this like gonna be uh applied right now or just for future contracts?

Because we just didn't know if this was gonna uh affect or there gonna be problems with the with the current contract because they agreed upon certain provisions.

And if they're if moving forward, if we started applied this right away, who would bear the cost?

Because if there's a contract in place with the uh with the tow companies and they're expecting payment for these things, is the is Nork can be responsible for those things or just during future RFPs.

Uh but the ideas behind it of contacting the the uh the owners based on the license plate and who's registered the car, and and providing continual updates is definitely more in concert with all those things.

Can you make sure those suggestions get to us or to the clerk?

You know, the feedback that the police division wants to provide because that we don't have it.

So that's all I've been asking.

It's been three weeks, and I'm not sure why it's been so difficult to get it.

Yes, sir.

Uh forward to you right now.

Mr.

Bray.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Councilman Gonzalez.

Was the solution we saw this a reach as to who is going to pay for the for the throwing?

Because uh it seems to me that uh that that's not clear.

Let's say if you have to return the car to the owner without charging the owner, who is going to pay for who's going to pay for that.

So as it speaks now, what what happens is when a car is towed, when a car is towed and it's for police purposes.

Yes, use it for example, right?

The the police department doesn't have to pay for it.

Okay.

In this situation, who pays for who pays for it?

Because normally when the tow truck goes there, they usually charge someone is going to pay.

So who pays for that?

So you have to also realize that all this is associated with victims of crime compensation as well, right?

So what happens is if my car is involved in the shooting, uh the the toll department, toll company or what have you, well they usually do is they usually give the city a portion of their tolls.

This stuff is reduced from that amount.

So when we return the car, the car has been in, let's say, in the in the garage or storage for say 15 days, 20 days.

Normally they charge like a hundred dollars or two hundred dollars a day.

Who pays for that?

As I said, what happens is whenever a car is told, whenever car is told, today, your car is told, right?

If it's involved in an investigation, the city has a understanding with the the toll department that the money that the toll department normally gets from a percentage of what they tar told for the other cars, that money is reduced now from what the city is so they the city doesn't pay.

Well, you're telling me the city doesn't pay, and the owner of the car doesn't pay because his car is being returned to him or her, and they say we don't charge.

Yes.

Okay.

All right, any other questions?

Council uh Roll Call.

Councilmember Bay.

Yes, Council, yes, Gonzalez.

I'm saying Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Abstain.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

Council President, Council members, before going to the next item, I do want to apologize.

Public safety did send the memo with the bullet points, but they did express concerns about some of the language.

So at some future point, we may bring this issue back up to amend it again.

Can you share that?

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

That's all I was asking for.

Even though the corporation council gave very good uh view.

Next item.

C is an ordinance to amend solid waste management by amending the time to abate waste.

Sponsored by councilman Ramos.

Second by Councilman Council.

Is there anyone present wishing to be heard on this ordinance?

All right, saying none public hearing is closed.

Roll call.

Council members bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Clump.

Yes.

Councilman.

Um Council President.

Council Ramos.

Yeah, I just want to say that this was really sponsored by Councilman Silva as part of his attempt to kind of shorten the time period that property owners are allowed to abate certain quality of life issues.

And you know, in his absence, he asked me to sponsor it, but it's really his ordinance.

So just want to note that for the record.

Thank you, Council.

Council Councilman Scott Round.

Mr.

President, if I made uh councilman.

Yes.

It isn't regarding not regarding this, it's regarding let's say picking up garbage in general.

They say sometimes when the sanitation workers go through the streets, the street is dirtier after than before the picking up of the garbage.

And that we have a lot of complaints from people that let's say that say that people go and pick up the consolidation goes and pick up the recycling.

If something falls on the uh on the street, it stays on the street, it's not picked up.

I believe it's imperative that we uh let's say send the supervisor behind the the trucks so that if something like that happens, that somebody is going to clean it because people I I go up to a lot of places and people are always telling me that the city is dirty, the city is not improving in that respect, and I know that we are trying, but uh it seems that we are not trying hard enough.

Thank you, councilman.

Next item.

Uh uh.

Yeah, it is hot.

I'll I'll take care of that.

D is an ordinance authorizing the sale and transfer of city of Newark property, sponsored by councilwoman Bay, second by councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Is there anyone present wishing to be heard on this ordinance?

Lisa Parker.

Kawiita Towers originally was sold to Nan and the other LLC group for $23,000.

The property was assessed at $2.7 million.

They sat there, didn't develop.

Now you went and demolished the site during the day, no protection for the people in the area, or the five schools in that area.

Now you're selling it for a half a million dollars that we originally understood it was supposed to be sold for $800,000.

Explain to me how a property assessed at $2.7 million, the resale of it as prime real estate is being sold for a half a million dollars.

Once again, the LLC, this administration hides all of these properties and invest newer for resale to certain individuals and not to the greater public.

This is an embarrassment for the taxpayers like me that you increase our taxes by 24.8% in the last three years, and now you're getting ready to give another property incentives by developers, but you have nothing for the homeowners that built and invested in these communities.

How is it that you continue to sell these properties for not even a fraction of what they're worth to certain individuals for development, and you have no revenues coming into the city to anchor so that you don't have to go up on taxes on homeowners?

These people do not pay into our schools.

At the end of the day, y'all need to take on some fiduciary responsibility for the properties that you're selling in this city so that we are garnering the revenues like other municipalities for sales of prime real estate.

It wouldn't happen in New York.

Be guaranteed of that.

Vote no.

Thank you for your comments next speaker.

Good afternoon.

Okay, now let me say this to you.

When I found my OIG complaint, whistleblower, not called whistleblower.

You know.

And they came to my office three hours, and it was two agents, and the woman was talking to me.

And was talking three hours, whatever.

And they asked me about corruption.

Matter of fact, they asked me, was the mayor corrupt, and I said no at the time.

And then they said, come down next week to the office on Mulberry, the HUD office.

So when I came in, same two people was there, and the gentleman said, I'm the FBI.

She's the OIG, but I'm FBI.

And the first thing they asked me about, I'm glad you're being patient, was Kwadi Towers.

It was on it.

And I didn't know anything about it, no more that I was a 20-year-old man in 1973, my first child, my own business.

And Mary Barack was trying to build it.

And they got slapped in the face and told me to go home.

That's exactly.

It was our bottom.

Slapped them in the face, go home.

They came to the nation's arm and asked us for help.

We said, no, you should handle your business.

So anyway, I didn't know anything about it until Gonzalez started talking about it.

29,000.

That's a joke for downtown.

Plus, they were giving out five million for uh government funds.

It reminded me when I was in the housing authority and they were trying to sell the little bricks for $300,000, and I killed the deal.

And Middy bought me down.

He said, This is the man's uh student.

And I said, No, it's no good.

He said it five times.

I said, no good.

And he said, Well, what are we supposed to give you something?

You would want I said, I would never come with a bad deal to a friend.

It's okay if they want to honor their father, but don't do it at our cost.

You didn't bid it out or anything like that.

You know, you want to say that's your father, that's great.

That's how you feel about your father, that's great.

I feel another way.

So what I'm saying to you, you should pay the regular price, like I told them about the little bricks, and I told them now you're giving eight million dollars that somebody left.

That's all sucks up corruption.

Even though the intent might be good to look out for your father, it's corrupt.

You're putting your hand on the scale for your daddy.

You're trying to change the rules.

He got pumped in 1973.

I'm old enough to tell y'all.

Abu Ballo said you ain't doing nothing over here because you're a racist.

So what I'm saying to you, guys, I know Tim Barack is in, but be careful.

The FBI is all over whatever happened on this deal.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments next week.

Hey, babe.

Good.

Thank you.

Gail Cheneyfield Jenkins, 88 Richmond Street.

The mere fact that the taxpayer dollars are going towards this project.

And not taking into consideration the monies that were received prior to for this project to go forward.

Is irresponsible at best.

What is the real benefit for the community?

And if you're taking dollars to subsidize this kind of a project, it's unprecedented.

Though you guys have done this to some other projects, the taxpayers are paying attention, especially with that $500 million school.

The people are waking up, they're understanding that these kind of projects, what is the best community benefit for the people?

How are you giving this particular developer the opportunity to build?

And the project was originally appraised for $2.3 million.

There was an opportunity, and I'm going to refresh the memory of Councilman Gonzalez, Councilman Ramos, and Councilman Quintana.

When Bae Wilson was here as the director of economic development, there was an opportunity for this project to be purchased for $5 million.

And Bae said, don't do it because there was a black school in there at that time.

Let them stay.

And not to mention the taxes that would have been added on that would have gone into our budget.

So at the end of the day, whose interest is this for?

Who's in the best interest?

What is in the best interest for the residents of the city of North?

And especially the taxpayers.

They're gonna get stiffed on this kind of a deal.

It's not fair.

You all can vote the way you want to vote, but understand.

Irregardless of what um Alif said about the FBI looking at it, just look at the fairness.

There are other developers who have come before you all and gotten subsidies more than what they should.

But now is the time to say, hey, you know what?

Maybe we need to slow our role and see if this is analyzed and what is the benefit to the residents.

What is the benefit to the taxpayers?

And are they gonna be screwed if we continue this way?

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Uh I guess I would um uh second her thing.

I would love to hear what the community benefits are.

Um they need a lot of things in the city, so I would just love to hear this slide explain what those benefits are, what kind of deal they've made, and um what kind of enforcement measures are in place to make sure that they hold up to their end of the deal.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Afternoon, my name's Tyree Davis, North Norwich.

Uh I'm sorry, I if you could put a mic up a little bit.

I can't really I know you really can't hear you.

Tyree Davis North Noork.

I submitted uh the blockade for financial aid to the city and state from the SAC exchange.

I have the file number.

I just need a point of contact to help me shake some trees for ultimately so what we're doing is public hearing for this particular matter.

And that that's how council.

So usually yesterday is when we have open mic for any comments.

Um EHD matter, economic housing development.

Is that what I heard?

I couldn't I'm here and financial this financial.

I have the financial aid file.

So for the city and state.

Maybe we could somebody from one of our offices can get some more information from you.

It's on the speaker list.

Oh, you're on the speaker list?

Yes.

Okay, well, you get to when you come back, you can speak on that.

Then I saw I apologize, I didn't realize.

All right, thank you.

Any other speakers?

Say non-public hearing is now closed.

Any comments from the uh the council.

You want to okay?

Let's get the deputy mayor to come.

I was gonna ask first.

Yes.

Uh good afternoon, Council President, Council members, Allison Ladd, Director of Economic and Housing Development.

Uh first, I'd like to correct the facts.

I think it's really important for the those that are voting as well as the public to understand the facts that are actually true around this project.

What you've heard so far are not factual.

So, first, in the late 60s, the mayor's father did try to build this project in the North Ward.

However, the reason why the project wasn't built was due to the rebellion as well as due to the HMFA not agreeing to fund the project.

And it is in writing in places in which can be provided to anyone who has a question.

The so that is true.

Second, we were not going to recreate Kawaita Towers because we had no other location to build a Kawaita Towers in our city.

Second, what happened is a previous director did sell this land to a previous um buyer.

We were in court for three years because the previous owner did zero.

And that is why the land stayed vacant.

Um, and we have the court records to prove it.

And um, excuse me.

So let's let's not have when when everybody else spoke, they were given the respect not to call out, no one called out on them.

Let's not call out on the speaker right now.

So again, first of all, the history just needs to be reset.

Uh second of all, the city did not own 17-21 Halsey Street when I came to the city of Newark seven years ago.

It was owned by a third party who did nothing on the site for more than 10 years.

We could use the mayor was so um unhappy with the party that purchased the property.

We went to court and we actually won, but it took us three years to win.

It was at that time that we decided to recreate Kawaita Towers.

And what we did at that time, which was around COVID, is we actually had about a dozen developers submit applications to purchase the property and tell us what they would do.

We chose an a developer called Omni.

Unfortunately, at that time, uh, or fortunately at that time, Omni was a successful developer in our city.

And then they were bought by a company named New Veen out of New York.

After a some time of negotiations, New Veen agreed to step away from the project because they no longer wanted to execute the vision of the party that they bought, known as um the the other group that I mentioned.

So we had to mutually terminate the redevelopment agreement between the party that was gonna buy it and the city, which was done and is documented.

Then we decided that we needed to continue to march forward because in Newark that is what we do.

So the next step was we knew what an eye saw the property was on Halsey and Central.

And so it was also dangerous.

So that is when we agreed to demolish the site so that it is more safe for our residents in Newark.

And that is why you see a space there where there is no building.

You also see a fence, and we have then gone through the process publicly to select new partners for the site.

When we published the application, we received six awards of the six awards.

The group that is being presented today for selection was one of three that we were top finalists.

This group brought forward the best transaction, the best information, as well as the financial wherewithal to make this happen.

Therefore, we selected them, and all of that information is documented in the legislatar file.

So in closing, because this part I hope that all will be able to be excited about it is a hundred percent affordable housing in our central ward.

Second, there is going to be home ownership for Newark residents, also at affordable levels.

Three, there will also be a community grocer on the ground floor that will be for the residents not only of the building, but also of the neighborhood.

And we know that it's necessary because not everyone can afford the day-to-day things that we need.

So therefore, we are trying to help more families have access to good health and food choices.

Now, specifically, I wanted to mention the two questions, three questions that were asked yesterday by the council.

The first, the assessed value is 918,800.

The assessed value is 918,800.

What we did is like we did with other nonprofits and other development.

We have asked for at this point 54% of the price.

And so that is why that we are asking them to pay a half a million dollars for the site.

The other funds will actually be used to build affordable housing.

I think all of us know that affordable housing is not built out of complete generosity.

It is also built with public sector funds, which is what happens in every city, county, and state across the United States.

So it is not unusual, it's not a surprise, it's something that I know this council supports, and we regularly bring these matters to you.

Second, the principals are heritage company, local women, Newark-based people.

People like everybody who's in the chambers or people that are in our neighborhoods.

The principal is Chanel Duns, and they also have, which we are fine with.

It'll be one bedroom, two two bedrooms, and one three-bedroom.

There will be eight condos at 50% of AMI, and there'll be two one-bedrooms, three two bedrooms, and three three bedrooms.

Also, there will be four condos at 60% of AMI, two bedrooms, and two three bedrooms.

The development will then balance out with actual rentals, and those rentals will be able to be similar in nature.

So we are asking you to support the affordable housing effort in our downtown central ward, our 100% affordable project that is for residents of Newark, that is affordable rental, affordable home ownership, and also happens to be something in which our mayor is proud of.

So thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Anything from the council.

Yes, thank you, Deputy Mayor.

I appreciate that.

And for this project to be something that we hear all the time, people talking about we need affordable housing, we have it.

We need opportunities for Norkers to own their home.

Too many people from the outside development in our city.

These are homegrown people who are here in the city of Newark already invested part of the community, given the opportunity to build and develop and grow this city.

So I do appreciate the explanation and especially the breakdown of the units because the three bedrooms are very important because that speaks to family, that speaks to community.

Because the three bedrooms are very important because that speaks to family, that speaks to community.

It's not just about a one-off with a studio with one bedroom for people to come in and have this transient population.

This is about family instability.

So I want to say thank you for the explanation.

Thank you, Councilwoman Bay.

Councilman Kelly.

Thank you, Council President.

Good day, Deputy Mayor.

Question about the community benefit that you mentioned about the grocery store.

Is this the grocery store that will also be selling items based on people's finances based on the income that they're receiving?

Yes, Council President.

As you may recall, uh we are working on five community grocers as a pilot, um, one in each ward.

Um the mayor was able to publicly announce the four of the five locations last night at the state of the city address.

Um those are pilots.

What we are excited about is that the Cow Ida Towers project will actually be permanent.

And so the concept will be the same: that it's community-based, community-led, as well as extremely low cost, if not no cost.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council uh uh Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh of the apartments that are going to be sold at least, how many are three families?

Three.

Yes, three, sir.

Of how many?

Oh, of bear with me.

Twelve.

Sir, the the and then six will be two bedrooms.

The total uh the total uh apartments in the building are twelve.

Uh the total condos in that building are 12.

I I didn't hear that.

Yes, the total condominiums, the total affordable homeownership will be 12.

So there'll be three one bedrooms, six two bedrooms, and three three bedrooms for for sale.

Okay.

It's a as mentioned before, let's say I believe that, and I have been stressing that we have to have uh apartments for families in the city of Norway.

We have too many one-bedroom apartments and too many studios uh in the city.

So we have to encourage uh builders uh to build what families need in the city of Norway so that we can protect the families that it went to stay in the city of Newark.

Yes, understood.

Thank you.

Any other questions from Councilman Ramos?

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

President.

I I just want to state for the record that some years ago when this came up, I I didn't support it.

I had a lot of concerns because there were some variables related to financing and some things that were forthcoming to the council that were needed in order to make this project happen.

Um so just for the record, uh you mentioned that the the new developer has the financing in place.

I know there's some federal funds that were earmarked by the late Congressman Payne.

Is that all we can expect to finance this project, or are you anticipating coming back to the council uh for additional subsidies beyond maybe a tax abatement?

I don't know.

Uh what where are we on the financing side?

Uh yes, uh Council President, uh Councilmember Ramos's question.

Um this is definitely a traditional 100% affordable housing project whereby there are a lot of um public investment that's needed.

I will say though that the development team is actually going out and do and applied for grants um from the New York Federal Home Loan Bank, and we expect them to be successful for both the homeownership side and the rental housing side.

But in addition to what you said, yes, the only other item would be a potential pilot.

At this point, we have not uh finalized anything on that.

Yeah, and they haven't been before any uh planning board, they need acquisition first, right?

Correct, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh anything else from the council?

Uh Mr.

President, Councilman.

Final point, let's say I have been opposed to this uh project since the very beginning.

I believe the explanation that you gave today has convinced me to that to change the way I think it because of the three family component of the project.

It's a uh at the beginning, I had a friend that was uh willing and able to pay 1.2 million dollars for that lot.

And the and it was sold for 123,000, I believe it was or 23,000.

It's a so uh to me that was let's say something that the city shouldn't have done, but there was some reasons, whatever there were reasons were, but let's say the new project uh as presented to us uh today is different to the project that was presented to us five or six years ago.

It's a so uh to me that was let's say something that the city shouldn't have done, but there was some reasons, whatever there were reasons for, but let's say the new project uh as presented to us uh today is different to the project that was presented to us five or six years ago, and I believe that that is a change by the way that I think about the project.

Thank you, Councilman.

Anything else from the council?

Uh councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Thank you, Council President.

It's amazing that it took this long when um as one of our speakers said that back in some years ago.

I probably was in elementary school when they were fighting to break bring this project to the north ward.

The point is everything happens in God's time.

You supported not just because it's just affordable, that's very important because we get a lot of speakers talking about affordable, and we do understand there's a difference between affordable and low income.

However, what's other speakers always talk about is people from inside, homegrown, people that have grown up in this city that decided to come together.

I'm hoping that message will be sent to a lot of our homegrown individuals that if they come together, they choose can accommodate our families with family ownership with one percent 100% affordable.

That's amazing.

That's amazing, and I do support the group that came together, and I think most of them are women, maybe a young guy or something, yes, yeah, women of color.

So, yes.

Thank you very much for that thorough explanation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Anything else from the council?

Uh with that being said, roll call.

Council members bay, yes, council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree.

Yes, President Crump.

Yes, resolutions.

7R1A through E are all emergency, temporary emergency appropriations.

A is for the drinking driving enforcement fund, B is pedestrian safety grant, C is public health preparedness grant, D is to support the education of a diverse nurse practitioner population, and E is to provide funds for the city's operating expenses.

Council as a whole to adopt A through E, please.

Council members Bay.

Yes, Council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree.

Yes, President Crump.

Yes.

F is the use of state contract for IT equipment.

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council members bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Abstain.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

B through Q are all contracts with grant recipients to provide community-based violence intervention and prevention in youth mentoring and or safe passage.

G is Ayesha and Harper Domestic Awareness Foundation.

Sponsored by Councilman Council and second by Councilwoman Bay.

H is Complex Vision Newark.

I is push peers understanding strategies to healing.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilwoman Bay.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Gonzalez.

K is to provide funds for the city's.

Please forgive me.

K is Voices International Publications Incorporated.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Council.

L is Hope Love Kindness Crisis Intervention.

Sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Council President Crump.

M is FP Youth Outcry Foundation.

Spounced sponsored by Councilwoman Bay.

Second by Councilman Kelly.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Gonzalez.

O is Rise to Grime Fitness sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilman Quintana.

P is Hope, Love, Kindness, Crisis Intervention.

And Q is Brothers Building a Better Nation.

Sponsored by Council President Crump.

Second by Councilwoman Bay.

Council as a whole to adopt G through Q with sponsors, please.

Ms.

Chair.

7R1H.

Yeah, it was sponsored by myself and second by Councilman Kelly.

Yeah, that would arrest.

My apology.

7 R1H, Council Kelly.

I got you, Councilman.

I saw it.

Roll call with the notice sponsors.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

R is the application for grant funds to apply for the sustainable jersey grant funded by PSC and G and S is an exception to public bidding to support the maintenance and proprietary soft computer software and hardware.

Council is a whole to adopt R and S, please.

Roll call.

Council Members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

7R2A through E are private sale and redevelopment agreements.

A is new construction of a three and a half story residential building, all units designated to households earning 60 to 80% AMI.

Sponsored by Councilman Ramos.

Second by Councilman Quintana.

Roll call.

Council Members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Clump.

Yes.

B and C will both be deferred.

B is actually sponsored by Councilman Council.

And second by Councilman Gonzalez.

Council to defer B and C with sponsors.

Roll call.

Council members bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

D Council as a whole to return to the administration.

Roll call.

The return administration.

Council members bay.

Yes.

Council.

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President.

Yes.

E is a motion to defer.

Sponsored by Councilman.

Council.

Second by Councilman Gonzalez.

Mr.

Chair.

Councilman Council.

I know I asked for this item to be deferred on yesterday.

Can we turn it to the administration?

All right.

Motion to return to administration.

Same sponsors.

Councilman Gonzalez, you second that.

7 R2E.

Roll call.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

F is a referral to the proposed Third Amendment to the West Ward Model Neighborhood Initiative Redevelopment Plan.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Gonzalez.

Roll call.

Uh oh.

You just scratched your head and then I have a question.

Roll call.

Council members bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

G is to execute an affordable housing agreement for home funds to develop and construct a new three-family home in the central ward, which was corrected yesterday after this Grivener's error was discovered.

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council members bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

H is a grant agreement to provide gap financing for the construction of one three family residential dwelling in the West Ward, sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilwoman Bay.

Councilman Kelly.

Thank you, Council President.

I know yesterday that we were talking about that there was it was wrong by saying one three family.

And it was supposed to be three.

So it's one.

Yes.

Is it three family?

It's one building with three units.

My question yesterday was about the one million dollars, but apparently there was an oil tank that had to be taken out, and some other expenses that had to be taken out, so that brings a cost a higher than normally by a couple of hundred thousand dollars to about it then.

Uh roll call.

Council members they council Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Absent.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

I and J are introducing the 2026 budget for SIDS and/or bids.

I is the annual budget for the Bergen Lines Clinton Special Improvement District sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Council President Crump.

And J is the annual budget for partnership West.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Gonzalez.

Council as a whole to adopt I and J with sponsors, please.

ROCO.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos absent.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

K is the issuance of a stoppel certificate certifying the status of the financial agreement.

Council as a whole to adopt.

ROCO.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos absent.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

7R3A and B are all both refunds.

A is refund monies as a result of payment error.

And B is refund monies paid toward construction permit fees for work that was never commenced.

Council as a whole to adopt A and B.

ROCO.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council.

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Quintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

C and D are both resolutions requesting additional time from the New Jersey Department of Transportation Local Aid.

C is for the safe streets to Newark Transit Hub.

And D is the Transit Village Pedestrian Safety Improvement Extension.

Council as a whole to adopt C and D.

ROCO.

Council Members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Clump.

Yes.

Mr.

President.

Councilman Ramos.

Um while I was making my tea.

I know I missed a few votes, so I'd like to be noted as a yes for 7R2I, 7R2J, and 7R2K.

Thank you, Councilman.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

So noted.

I J and K.

Duly noted.

7R4A and B are both stipulations of settlements for tax appeals.

Council as a whole to adopt A and B.

ROCO.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

7R4C is requesting approval to establish a dedication by rider trust for the three dollar per day surcharge on hotel occupancies to fund fire services.

Sponsored by Councilman Ramos.

Second by Council President Crump.

Rocco.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

Mr.

President.

Councilman Ramos.

President Councilman Ramos I stated at the pre-meeting yesterday if we can just send a note through your chair and the clerk thanking Senator Ruiz Assemblywoman Pintor Marin and also the North Fire Union they collaborated to change the state law that allows Norwich now to collect a surcharge on hotel stays with the purposes of funding the fire division's uh need for equipment.

This is not supposed to be operational subsidy.

This is supposed to be to enable the fire division to buy uh much needed uh safety equipment and I believe you know it's gonna generate at least a million dollars a year that can be used to support a department that that desperately needs um equipment, especially with these high rises going up with a lot of people driving electric vehicles now.

Um there's definitely different strategies that they need and equipment to to fight fires in New York.

Thank you, Councilman 5A through I are contracts with grant sub-recipients to provide emergency shelter services, homelessness prevention, and or rapid rehousing assistance, A is Access Family Services, B is Apostle House, C is the YMCA sponsored by Councilman Kelly, second by Councilwoman Bay, D is the Urban League of Esses County, sponsored by Councilman Kelly, second by Councilwoman Bay, E is Joy's Angels, F is Fairmount Health Services, G is United Community Corporation, sponsored by Councilman Kelly, second by Councilwoman Bay, H is Norwick Beth Israel Medical Center, and I is St.

James Social Services Corporation, sponsored by Councilwoman Bay, second by Councilman Ramos.

Council as a whole to adopt A through I with sponsors, please.

Oco Council Members Bay, yes, Council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, J is the application acceptance of grant funds to support the education of a diverse nurse practitioner population in underserved communities, sponsored by councilman Kelly, second by councilwoman Bay, Rocco, Councilmembers Bay, yes, Council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, 7R6A is a professional service contract to provide legal services concerning bond council services.

Council as a whole to adopt, ROCO, Council members Bay, yes, Council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump.

Yes, 7R8A is recognizing and commending resolutions, council as a whole to adopt.

ROCO, Council Members Bay, yes, Council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, B is expressing profound sorrow and regret.

Council President Council members, we have an amendment on the floor to include former state assemblyman Alberto Al Cochino, sponsored by Councilman Council, and also adding Paulette Hall and Minister Abdul Akbar Mohammed, sponsored by Councilwoman Bay.

Roll call to amend council members bay, yes, council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, Council as a whole to adopt as amended, please.

Rocco, Council Members Bay, yes, Council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, thank you.

7R9A is an exception to public bidding to provide support and maintenance of proprietary software and public safety.

Council as a whole to adopt.

ROCO.

Council as a whole to adopt, ROCO, Council Members Bay, yes, Council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, 7R12A is a bid contract for roof replacement on various public buildings, council sponsored by council president Crump, second by councilwoman Bay, Rocco, Council Members Bay, yes, Council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, communications item 8A is an ordinance granting a 20-year tax abatement to Naymour 763 South Orange Urban Renewal LLC for a project located in the West Ward to construct a new five-story mixed use building.

Council as a whole to advance to first reading, roll call, council members bay, yes, council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, B is an ordinance that ratifies and authorizes the second amendment to the original tax abatement granted to Spruce Park Associates.

Council as a whole to advance the first reading.

Council President uh Councilman Bay.

I may um Mark, thank you.

Um I had asked for some additional information on this, and I want to thank Deputy Mayor Ladd for for providing it for me, but because of um so many things that happened this morning.

I haven't had a chance to review it, so I want to refer to I'm sorry, I didn't hear the last word.

I was coughing.

I said sorry, I said because I didn't get a chance to review the information that was provided because of everything that happened this morning.

I wanted to make a motion to defer.

Councilwoman, if if you um your prerogative, but we can just advance it one so that you can have review the information for the next meeting.

Okay if that would be sufficient.

Okay, all right, sir.

So we'll just advance uh the first reading.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Uh Roll Call.

Council members bay, yes, council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, C is an ordinance authorizing the mayor and or his designee to enter into and execute an agreement with Bergen Street Partners LLC for the sale and redevelopment of city property council to advance the first reading, sponsored by councilman council, second by councilman Kelly, ROCO, Council Members Bay, yes, Council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, D, excuse me, D is an ordinance ratifying and authorizing the mayor and or his designee to enter into an execute a lease agreement with South Orange New Jersey LLC for property in the West Ward to use his office space council to advance to first reading, sponsored by Councilman Kelly, second by councilman council, roco, council members bay, yes, council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, Quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President, yes, miscellaneous item 10 a is approval of the raffle license, council as a whole to adopt council members bay, yes, council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, quintana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Crump, yes, at its starters, 7R2 LAS is the issuance of a stoppel certificates certifying the status of the lease agreement.

Yes.

M A S is rejection of bids and re-advertisement of public bids solicitation.

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roko.

Council Member Spay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Crump.

Yes.

7R8CAS is a resolution of support declaring fraud prevention month, the whole month of April.

Sponsored by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Second by Council's a home.

Rocco.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council.

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President Trump.

Yes.

I'm sorry.

We are in the hearing of citizens portion of this meeting where each speaker will have five minutes to speak.

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

The first speaker is Alif Mohammed.

Appearing.

Asalam Aleikum.

My name is Alif Mohammed.

Good afternoon.

Alif Mohammed of Court Street.

Alif Mohammed the president of the school.

You know, uh FBI.

I gotta apologize to them, and I hate it.

Because Louise, I used to argue with them about this city.

I would argue with the FBI about the city.

And I had an argument with them one time, and I was saying when they get in trouble, MIDI is gonna fall on a sword for his brother.

He's gonna take the weight.

That's how much confidence I had.

And they said, no, no, he's not.

We don't see that.

And they was right, he's as weak as Kool-Aid.

He is falling apart.

The video came out, and I didn't put the video out.

I didn't get the video to the media yet.

I was trying to get it in the mail.

And he was he's rattled.

He's rattled.

And what's so crazy about it is that it's a video.

It's not like I said you said.

And what I did, I put together some things that people might not know about federal housing.

First, you know, New Jersey is a one state permission for recording.

So he said I illegal recorded him.

New Jersey, you gotta have long as one person.

Second thing, forcing a perfect housing authority commissioner to change their vote through threat, coercion, and intimidation constitute a serious crime, punishing up from one year to 20 years.

Now I said, like Rogmar got on, he said they lobby, they lobby.

It wasn't a lobby, it was to change the vote.

The coordinate intimidation is when he seen me on the 12th, he came to office on the 13th.

On the 14th, we had a hearing.

On the 14th, you guys remember, they send the letter to remove me.

So that's called intimidation.

You didn't get your way, so now you're gonna remove me.

It was dumb.

You should at least waited a month later.

Next day, you remove me.

Um people talk like I'm like things like Sharp did this.

I don't know why you're on Sharp, but Sharp did this and Sharp did this.

Things changed the housing authority because it was so much in 1992.

The housing authority started changing.

Well, we had to take five classes, welcome classes.

So things sharp or somebody else might have got out of it, you know?

Again, it's an independent study.

So I think he's having a breakdown because he's lying about the tape.

Oh, I just came by to see how leave.

Now I don't know why he's kicking Wayne Richardson under the bus.

Because you know he said on the tape.

I mean, he said it on the show over there that Wayne Richardson and Victor Sarrela is the ones that destroyed the housing authority with local 55.

He said it publicly.

Now, Wayne Richardson, name was never brought up to me to the FBI.

Never.

The OIG.

Wayne Richardson represented local 55.

I was in there for a month, and I was hearing so much negative stuff about local 55 that I called Wayne in, because we're cool.

And big, I said, Wayne, I'm hearing a lot of BS.

Five men in one bedroom apartments, this, that.

And what I'm saying, you got a hundred people on here, and 75 of them are Hispanic, Latinos.

And they don't live in New York.

They live in Belleville, they live in Bloomfield.

I had a problem with that.

I told a man that.

What changed 55 is when Khalif came in.

Khaled Thomas came in and he fired 35, and then he fired the rest of them.

That's what changed.

55.

They won't go budget.

But why kick Wayne under the bus?

Because Wayne was doing his job as a local president to get him in there because 617 wouldn't get him in there.

So now you don't kick him under the bus.

He's doing his job.

I don't know what's going on, but you know, that was corny.

Um he was doing his job, but Khalif got him out of there.

It was always over to budget, it's always over.

I wasn't happy with him.

I told him I wasn't happy with him.

And it's amazing to me how people try to change history.

That's why I looked at the Allison.

In 66, we black people couldn't go past Park Avenue.

No less buy a piece of land.

That's why I looked at it.

And they killed me rebellion.

It was a ride.

I got my, I got we got our first color TV.

Stop all that BS.

It was in 1970 when he got the building.

And a mom herself says it was not a PRL.

It wasn't no loan, it was Abu Bottle.

Your own father, you contradicted.

Walek in my salon.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Lisa Mitchelson Parker.

Appearing.

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

Newarkers, elect the clown, expect the circus.

Let me take a few minutes of my time to check with Allison Ladd said because I read the court document.

Not only did it talk about 2.2 million dollars that it was assessed at, the court document also talked about how the elected were being paid by the persons that you sold it the property to.

In addition to the taxpayers having to pay a half a million dollars and more in legal settlement.

So we lost money on that deal.

Congratulations to the students and community folks for being honored by the mayor at the state of Lodge yesterday.

You are to be commended for your work in the community, and for the students who studied and their parents, may God bless you.

On the basketball courts in New York, we say, bring your game, not your name.

The mayor yesterday filibusted the entire time with honorees, said disparaging things about advocates.

He did that because he does not have a record to stand on.

To his failed record to the city is bankrupt, broke, high taxes, rent, um, utilities, unsafe streets, no jobs, no sustainable training.

The city is dirty, potholes flooding, no snow removal, dirty water, suppressed public form, lie stealing cheat for their seats.

12 years, three terms of being non-responsive to the concerns of newarkers.

In addition, his surrogates that Billy intimidate residents that don't agree with him.

The mayor didn't talk about his accomplishment or policy because he doesn't have any.

He puts developers, friends, and families first.

My community came out to the planning board, 400 and more, overwhelmingly against uh a project in our community.

Three times the project was denied.

Three times came before the planning board under a different LLC, but it was the same owners.

Let me say this to you.

They don't live here, yet the people that invested, maintained and preserved our communities is met with the elected that won't stand with the homeowners.

The ones that pay the lion's share of property taxes in the central ward.

Um we don't want the project.

KS Group has amassed all um prime real estate in in Newark today.

We want the same things that we invested in, a quality of life and not a project that's being rammed down our throats because they're paying into your campaign or their friends with the administration and some of you up there, and I've already checked the elect reports that some of you shouldn't even be voting because there's a conflict of interest because they donate to your campaigns.

Please join me in supporting Gail Cheney Field Jenkins for a better central ward, Jamal Youngblood for Mayor for a Better Newark, Louis Quintana at large, my gente.

I love you, you still with me and the people, Donna Jackson at large, Nadeira Brown at large, Al Tariq, White at large.

Vote anybody but Baraka.

It is time for change.

I don't want people coming back and clapping back because what I do in the community is advocacy, nobody pays me for.

But I have a deep respect and care for the people in my community.

Unlike some of you have even created legislation to preserve, protect, and look out for the people in our communities that made those communities attractive for developers.

Let's not talk about affordable Allison lag when you stated yourself, unless you make up to a hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year.

You aren't even eligible.

Half of the municipal workers rely on housing vouchers.

Y'all are gentrifying, displacing newarkers for for your own benefit, your own personal benefit, and destroying the working class in this city.

It's time for change, vote them out.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Shakir McDougal.

Appearing.

I gotta run down.

Excuse me, bossman.

I can't get this to the council.

Yes, just a few more documents.

May I start?

I'm sorry?

No, no, this is for them.

It's just for them, sir.

Uh it's just for them.

And Miss Daniels, because I felt like I left her out last time.

I have to apologize about that.

Am I waiting on the president to begin?

Or well, good afternoon.

My name is Shakir McDougall.

Uh, this is the state of the trenches.

I've been in these chambers consistently, not just to speak, but to listen, to understand where we are as a city, not just on paper, but on the ground.

And what I see is this.

NORK is valuable, but not everyone is experiencing that value the same way.

We hear about progress, we hear about development, but for many residents, there's still a gap between what's announced and what's actually felt.

That's the trenches.

So let me ask us something.

Who are we still falling short for in this city?

And if we're honest, it's the young person who doesn't see a pathway.

It's the family still waiting for answers.

It's the resident who feels like the system moves around them, but never with them.

Because if we know who we're falling short for, then we know exactly what we need to build.

And I listen to the state of the city.

But if this is truly our city, then the systems in it should work for all of us.

Clearly, consistency, consistently, and in real time.

That's not a funding problem, that's a coordination problem.

Because in our hospitals, we don't guess.

There's a board, live and updated, that shows capacity and real time.

Who needs a bid, what's available, and where the pressure points are.

So the question becomes if we can track something that critical with that level of clarity, why can't we do the same for opportunity in our city?

Housing, job training, youth programs, mental health services, not scattered, but connected, visible, and accountable.

You're the bridge, and the younger watching.

So the question is are we building something they can step into or just giving them something to watch?

And the public trust act I've been working on is rooted in that.

So my question to the leadership tonight is simple.

What would it take for North to Polly a real-time coordination system?

I'm proposing we start small, one or two areas.

This isn't something we have to wait years for either.

We can start seeing what it looks like in months.

Not just what we funded, but what actually worked and how it worked.

And a city that can deliver is a city people don't just live in.

Thank you.

Very nice.

Thank you for your comments.

Oh, I'm not done.

Oh.

I still got some time.

Oh, you still have some time?

I'm sorry.

Mr.

McDougal, the floor is yours.

And look, look.

So this is the game, right?

This is the game.

Because I don't had the same issue up there in East Orange and Mayor Taylor Green is fixing things up there for me.

But so you got one post on one corner, and you got another post on another corner.

So when I'm busting the corner, I'm not seeing that one at the bottom.

And as I cross the street on the left side, I'm not looking at that.

Only thing I'm looking for is to pay my fair share.

And so I put the time and I paid.

And even the officer, she's like, yeah, it's a setup.

Because you've got the the postings for the pay everywhere.

But if it's gonna be a uh uh street cleaning or something, why aren't they set up like that?

And let me ask you something, Gonzalez.

Because this is what I was thinking, right?

If the street is broken up, don't you have to put a sign everywhere that the street is broken up?

Or is it just consistent?

You can just have one sign here and then one side all the way down there, and then if the street is broken up here, you can just still be ticketing people.

I think it's it's unfair.

And we should pay to put the signs up everywhere so that there's no there's no issue.

I it just was ironic.

Here I am.

And and well, you know, I don't want I just I just want fear.

I just want fear again.

We why not post the signs?

What does it cause?

I mean, if anything, you should have the sign up under the paymeter.

Like reminder, do do do do do do do do?

That's all I'm asking y'all, you know.

And how y'all doing?

I hope y'all enjoy your good Friday.

You know, I hope that you um enjoy your Easter, you know, and um listen, that public trust act, they was eating that up.

That thing gone out there.

They eat that up.

So hopefully we can get some support.

Captain uh James George, thank him so much.

Because we're working in tandem.

You're creating a system.

Thank you for your comments.

Uh Mr.

McDougal.

Just sit tight for the rest of the meeting, and let's talk about it.

Somebody's getting ready to do it now.

Uh next speaker, Felicia Austin Singleton.

Oh, I didn't see you.

Okay.

Appearing.

Let the meditation of my heart in the words of my mouth be acceptable in the sight of the Lord.

My strength.

I know I said it wrong, Pat.

My strength and my redeemer.

Felicia Austin Singleton.

Accountability.

You guys aren't accountable for anything.

Y'all sit there and y'all mark people ballots for the election in their ballots.

I'm getting calls about that on a sample balance sheet.

Y'all went and marked who you want.

You not being supported.

Louis Quantana.

You're not being supported on none of the ballots that I got.

From Team Baraka.

Round Tree and Crump, you are.

You're not being supported.

Now I said it.

At the end of the day, you are the most unincompatible, unreligious people.

I get down on my knees every night and pray.

And I couldn't have the heart to come up here and sit here and yes, yes, yes, you.

Because I'm going to hell.

I didn't get to be 53 year old.

We had 11 grandkids.

Happy birthday, Anthony.

My grandson turned 18 years old today.

At the end of the day, I didn't get to be a grandmother of a 19 and 18-year-old to now be going to jail or going to hell for you.

Unbelievable.

Then you send your cronies on me, and then you want to threaten me about my housing patch.

And at the end of the day, you threaten the housing advocate.

How stupid can you be?

I see why they named the ass that Jesus rode to Jerusalem into a donkey because all of you are nothing but an ass.

It's most spinning time because it was last Palm Sunday.

Jesus wrote an ass to Jerusalem.

Am I right, Pat?

Am I right, Louise?

You can't tell me I can't say that.

I earned the right for that, Larry.

Bro, come on, y'all are so corrupt that you wouldn't even want me to tell the truth of housing on a radio show, a community radio show.

Rachma Muhammad on there, Jody Pittman on there.

We know y'all, she on y'all team.

I don't know that chick.

I don't care about her.

She's a non-motherfucking factor to me.

And at the end of the day, that's how you treat the residents.

That's how you treat the residents.

Like we're not a factor in this.

Equity.

What have you produced in equity for resources for the community, such as affordable housing?

You have Chanel Dunn come on the radio and send a long email about the cow we eat of towers.

We just lost almost two million dollars to Al Sharpton and Stephanie Bartley.

I just told y'all about that.

23,000 you sold the building for, you came back, and then the judge made you pay an extra $50,000 plus 450,000, and you let him do business in this city again.

How dare you disrespect the residents?

But yet La Monica wanna fight a lawsuit case about her representing illegal residents over there at Delaney Hall.

Yet you did not help Bill of Victoria.

You did not help NCC.

You did not help Georgia King Village.

You did not help 550 uh Bergen Street.

When did you come and stay and lock arms?

Let the man go there, man.

I'm gonna come lock my arms around you when you stand in front of our apartment building, bruh.

It's nothing personal.

This is business.

Business of the city.

And if you want to take it personal, then get up out to see.

Because me, Felicia, I only know how to be me.

I work with any last one of you to make a resolution for a solution for the residents.

I bring the solutions.

I am the solution.

And yet you want somebody to come and come against me?

Well, bring it.

Bring it.

I dare you.

Nothing but a bunch of bullies, bunch of high school kids.

Can't get it together.

Can't get right.

And yet you still want to act like I don't know what I'm talking about.

You degrade me.

Cause I call you incompetent.

I say what I said, and I mean what I said.

And whoever don't like out of it, what you can't do is you can just move out the way, or I'm gonna roll you over.

This is not election time.

Please go tell all your people this is not election time for me.

I've been standing at this mic since 2014.

Am I correct Ramos?

Am I correct Louie and my correct Gonzalez?

This ain't election time for me.

Maybe for some of you.

How dare you be disrespectful to residents?

I am for the residents.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Gail Cheneyfield Jenkins.

A period.

You know, we want to talk about dignity.

Gail Cheneyfield Jenkins, 88 Richmond Street.

When I left here in 2006, after I lost the election, one of the things I did was I left a letter for each council person that was coming on board.

And the letter was to wish them luck, but to also remind them to be careful not to allow the executive branch to overpower the legislative branch.

Dignity.

And they want and deserve better.

Y'all better start listening to these residents.

Because they're hurting and they're tired.

They want more than bingo games, bus rides, and y'all listening to the building owners who are telling you that they're fixing things.

You know, you guys went up to New Community Corporation last year, and they kept giving you timeline after timeline in which they were going to repair things and do things.

And they still haven't done it.

Three weeks, the 180.

Elevators have been down.

They've been using one elevator.

Now the ironic thing about it was there was a delivery of hello fresh food.

And the seniors had it delivered into the community room.

And Miss Davis, who's number 24, she's not coming.

She said, Gail, I'm too tired.

They're not listening.

They don't care.

But it's amazing that you can get up to the first floor to the 15th floor to put a flyer under the door or knock on the door and ask for a vote.

But at that point in time, I couldn't take the yeah, I didn't have enough manpower to take the boxes upstairs to the seniors on the 15th floor, the 12th floor, or whatever.

They were struggling getting those boxes upstairs.

They want dignity.

You want their votes.

That's political currency.

But the political currency that you are supposed to be giving them is service.

Why aren't there enough code enforcement officers that go in and do the inspections that they can find the building owners?

How come new community corporation gets a pass?

Is Richard Camarari that powerful?

Is new community that powerful that you can ignore what they're doing to the seniors?

You know, in 2016, um there was a vote for the properties for new community.

And at the time, Council President Crump said to me, Gail, you can't keep holding it up because it was properties.

545 um Orange Street as well as um one North 8th Street, because that's the West Ward.

And Councilmember Collins was like, Gail, we're gonna lose the money, we're gonna lose the money.

And I said to Rich Roman at that time, who was the CEO of New Community, Rich, New Community has a bad track record of getting monies and not doing the repairs that they're supposed to do.

And at the end of the day, I said, I'm gonna fight you all, and it hurts me because my family helped put some blood, sweat, and tears into that place, along with a Willie Wright, Al Brash, or Alma Bateman, and all those other people, and they're still not doing the things that they need to do to ensure that the residents have better quality of life.

That falls on you guys because the administration has to send the code enforcement people out there, but you all have the legislative power to say that you'll put a clean and lean on a building, you'll turn around and you'll review tax abatements.

And if the people aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing, then you stop giving them the allowance to live seniors and people live in horrible conditions.

You know, at the end of the day, this is an election time.

Things will be said, good or bad, but at the end of the day, we all need to be listening to what the residents are saying.

They are hurting.

They are tired of living in the conditions that they're living in.

They can't even go to their managers because the managers will punish tenants if they turn around and make complaints.

So who do they turn to if they don't turn to this governing body?

When you turn around and write a report, or you turn around and make a complaint about new community corporation, send the letter to HUD, send it to DCA, send it to Newark House and NJ FMA, and hold them accountable because they're funding these kind of organizations.

They're funding these landlords.

And at the end of the day, the people are what's supposed to matter.

All of us, we come and go, but at the end of the day, we're supposed to be about New Yorkers.

So let's start working for new workers.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Marilyn Sowell.

Hello.

Hi Marilyn Sowell.

Can you do me a favor?

Just pull the mic up a little so we can hear you better.

Marilyn Sowell, North resident.

I had to.

Unfortunately for me, in 2018, I was assaulted very badly.

I got jumped.

Which led to three years of court back and forth.

Right now, today, it had um I'm nervous, excuse me.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Right now, the people that assaulted me, the outcome wasn't good in court because they continuously attack me cyberly.

When I say cyberly, is to a degree where you wouldn't have no understanding.

It started with the appliances in my house, the microwave, the TV, the refrigerator, my wash machine.

As the years increased, I watched this attack increased on me.

I'm gonna speed it up.

My sister, I started working with her.

I'm her caretaker for a year now.

What they started in my home playing with the TV, uh blowing out, blowing out the lights or making it seem making appear to be the lights are blown.

So my caretaker, and I've been a caretaker for a year.

We have uh doctors' appointments.

Cyberly, they were canceled.

The doctor's appointment, whether it's getting from the doctor or going to.

She had went through three phones already, flip phones already because they shut them down.

With me in the beginning, I done went through 25 phones.

Um 57 different um phone numbers, different.

I tried every tactic to weave them or get them out the way to no avail.

I've been writing for nine years to the prosecution, to the um, I even wrote the mayor here.

I wrote them in 2022.

I have that letter with me.

Back then it wasn't that it wasn't as severe.

When I stayed there, control is so surreal.

Sometimes I have a hard time believing it, but it's real real.

At my job at my work, they're into their computers to where I get paid once a month.

I'm not federal taxes not being taken out because they're deleting something.

I would be on the phone with a rep from my job and and hear her say the most craziest things that wouldn't even make sense.

So in my mind, they're editing a uh um computer right in front of them, right in front of them, and they repeating what they're reading, even things that doesn't make any sense.

I would have to call my job three days out of a week to correct something.

I went from um opening downloading their app on my phone and going putting my time in that way, to um faxing in.

I went back and forth five to six times to Noah Bell.

When I said these people are so vicious and so cruel, my sister was hospitalized the 31st of December.

December 31st, she was hospitalized.

She went in for a cough.

Her son took it down tonight.

I followed shortly after.

They took her uh blood work, blood work came back that her potassium was low.

But I said in my mind, I said that's that's more than impossible because she takes 20 milligrams of potassium each day, and she eats lots of bananas.

But so the doctor's saying somehow it could have been pushed out.

But I had an eerie feeling in my stomach because what I experienced from these hackers to my bank, to my job, to my everyday life, TV.

I I can't even watch what I want to watch.

I can't even wash my clothes in the brand new front loop because they were stopping all one second, and that way is locked.

I can't open it.

Three years ago, four years ago, I haven't cooked the Thanksgiving dinner because they controls the oven as well.

I learned as time went on.

When I left the house during the day, they were turning my refrigerator down to the lowest.

I guess they know I'm coming home because they know the time because they when I stay, they know everything, everything that I do, everything.

It's all this is a real life.

I don't wash it on anybody because I think the average woman, my age, she wouldn't be able to take this as long as she had.

It's been nine years.

And I said I refuse for it, it to go into a 10th year.

Mr.

Thank you for your comments.

Um is up.

Somebody will have somebody from one of our staff have a conversation with you to help see how we can help you, okay?

Thank you very much.

I have handouts as well.

Thank you, Ms.

Hall.

Queen Denisha Clyborne.

Appearing.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon.

Queen Danisha Clivern, 39A 14th Avenue, New York, New Jersey.

That is the Century Ward.

I don't even know what to say right now.

I I can't even laugh.

I was sitting here listening to people and looking around this room.

And I can't help but the notice it says that we started 1666.

They say those are the devil's numbers.

Listen.

I could work with anybody.

Don't have a problem with agreeing to disagree, because it's life.

Right.

I'm everywhere doing things.

I'm almost showing myself that we don't need a local government.

Literally.

Because if we're gonna keep going back and forth like this, from the person that are currently in office to the people that are candidates, we never gonna get nowhere.

We're gonna still be in 1666 with the devil.

I got 16 more events and going.

Again, I am the community liaison manager for McDonald's, and we own 14 McDonald's within New Jersey, not just Newark.

I love the work that I do.

My boss is amazing.

We did an event for the first time ever.

We named it the McBans Day, and I'm just upset with this community.

We do not support anything.

Nothing.

We keep saying this about the youth.

And when we give things for the youth, I don't care who's giving it.

Somebody should be appearing because if you're watching me post negative things or you say they're negative on Facebook, I'm sure you'll see all the positive things I'm posting as well.

I don't have a problem with y'all.

I'll just pay taxes, and I feel like because I pay taxes, maybe I could come up here and get some assistance.

And then if I can't, then I'll go home and I figure it out on my own.

Y'all gonna be very surprised with how I'm gonna react within the next two weeks.

I'm telling you.

I support those that make real moves.

Oh, by the way, because you know we gotta get flowers.

Thank you, Pat Council.

When I came the last time, you did get your people out to the apartment to fix it up.

Well, not for your people to fix it up, but for code enforcement.

Thank you so much.

I had to go there, I sat there, they came.

It was clean by the time I came in the inside, so thank you.

When you do good things, I don't know about nobody else.

I'ma tell you thank you.

Okay.

But there's a lot of work to be done.

I'm gonna just put this in the air.

I will never respect any female, I don't care who you are.

That allows a man that don't know nothing about politics to disrespect a female.

Never.

I don't care who you are.

I don't even respect my mother half of the time with she wrong.

Ask her.

Her name is Sheila Klyvern.

She lives in North Carolina.

If I'm gonna do that to her, I'm gonna do it to you too.

Nobody's exempt.

But what I do want is for us to come into some kind of bridge of this gap where the community and you guys can work together.

Because right now, this election is messy.

It is very messy.

I get calls from very concerned people in the city of Newark about whether it's what we're doing, what you guys are doing, and there's a separation.

There should never be a separation.

You guys are supposed to have components, people running against you.

It should be fair.

How you run this race, because I learned this from the Baraka administration, hands on.

Listen to the other law that we just put up.

You hear Gail Cheney Field voice in it.

You hear everybody praising Raz back then.

I was there too.

But sometimes there's some things we see now that need to be corrected.

And at this point, it need to be corrected.

I saw the city of the state.

I think it was messy because we don't have to yell all the time.

We only gonna act like people that allow us to act that way.

You guys don't have to be like your boss.

We need you, and I'm gonna call y'all until I don't.

Thank you for having me.

Y'all have a great day on purpose.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Up here.

Good afternoon.

Ian Rivera, candidate for councilman at large for the city of Norfolk.

I'm a new face, guys.

Nice to meet you.

Right.

Um, I'm also running a very clean campaign.

Okay.

Um, a campaign that listens.

And what I'm giving you guys right now is concerns that go to my personal website from residents in the city of Norfolk.

Not saying that they don't come to you at the same time, right?

With all due respect, you guys are busy people.

But guess what?

I'm gonna express these, and I need an answer from each one of you.

Not as a whole, each one of you, because I want to hear your different versions.

Right?

Because I too have a say in this election.

I too have a right to tell people how to vote.

So your responses to me are gonna be very crucial, right?

Because just because you're at this in the south doesn't mean I can't influence that.

Just because you're in the central ward doesn't mean I can't influence that.

Just because you're at large and I'm aspiring for a seat.

There's three more seats that we need to fill.

Ahead of the time, I congratulate you if you're sitting in this seat after this election.

But I make you one promise, like I made a promise to my people on my website, and I am living this today, is that if you return to that seat, I would be on you like white on rice.

So today I want to briefly discuss some issues and challenges that the city of Norwork is experiencing.

We all know it, right?

I won't go into full detail because I'm at three minutes and I have two pages.

Housing and homelessness, that's a big issue, you guys.

Housing in Norwich is not affordable.

I don't care who says it.

When you have an apartment right across from NJP at close to $4,000, not happening.

Who is it affordable for?

I make decent money.

It's not affordable to me.

It is not homelessness, we're working on it, but those shelters are not in living conditions, not even for the homeless.

We're giving them this money, they're pocketing it and giving our homeless people whatever scraps they can get.

Why?

Because they're homeless, they are no different than me and you.

So my question to you what initiatives are currently in place for low-income residents expanding housing options and addressing the homelessness.

I want sincere answers, guys.

Not the political answer.

Okay.

Can you promise that?

That's all right.

They can look at me however they want.

I'm being very clear, and I'm being very respectful.

The only reason I'm raising my voice is because this mic ain't the best.

Right?

But I'm being as respectable as possible.

Public safety and policing, right?

Newark took an approach.

Said we want to be community-based.

Let me tell you something.

Ain't no law enforcement officer, no disrespect to the guys in the back, being community-based.

I remember back when I was here in 1989, when a police officer walked up to you and said, Go home, a child said, No problem, sir, I'm going.

That respect is gone.

You know why?

Because policing is no longer community-based.

Now, law enforcement approaches you and derogatively tells you to go where they want you to go.

Any citizen in the city of Norfolk will tell you, go F yourself, because you're not talking to me in the proper manner.

We were taught to respect our parents, respect authority, but the respect goes both ways.

Can we agree?

We agree.

I'll take that as a yes.

So, what plans are ongoing right now, right?

About police accountability, building trust between law enforcement and its residents.

I want an answer to that.

Please.

Okay.

Citizens are also navigating a very complex situation.

It's called dice.

Right?

They are not our friends.

I'm pretty sure you all share my same vision.

That if we had the chance to tell them to scram, we would.

But unfortunately, in the political field that we're in right now, that's just not an option.

But please tell me, what approach would you take on ice?

What approach are we taking?

There's nothing clear sent to the residents on a consistent basis saying these are our approaches.

There is no transparency, guys.

I look at that Newark website, and Jamar Youngblood is here, right?

And he says very clearly on his campaign.

I am going to improve that website.

So guys, like I said, two more seconds.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Two more seconds.

Thank you for your time.

Finish your sentence.

I'll let you finish your sentence.

I'm appreciating you.

Can I do that?

And I'm letting you finish your sentence.

Go ahead.

So I appreciate your time.

I look forward to your responses.

And please make them in a timely fashion so that we can do it before election day.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Malik H.

Cooper.

Appearing.

Great day, beautiful people.

Thank you for getting my name correct.

I appreciate that.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Cooper.

I we can barely hear you.

Okay, I guess we're back to the bad microphone comment.

Okay, great day, everyone.

My name is Malik H.

Cooper, and I just want to thank her for getting my name correct this time.

I appreciate that.

Um you constantly hear all of the stuff, and you have everybody getting on the microphone.

And um, there are words, and I'm a person that picks up on words and and and definitions and how people evaluate their choices through these words and definitions.

So the words that I came up today with was rumors.

Rumors are not proven yet.

Am I right?

But one of the things we use to get investigations done is rumors.

And it is unfortunate that the rumors that we hear coming from the other side, you know, we hear stuff back here.

Um, and I don't believe y'all understand how intense that rumor factor is when you're somebody.

I'm gonna say, I'm gonna use myself as an example.

Somebody that's coming into this race, running for councilman at large, that's a new face from that angle, and have heard rumors before I made the decision.

And then the rumors intensify when people know that they can come to somebody like me and say something and be honest and truthful.

There's a difference when the person is coming to you knowing they can't lie, knowing that they don't want to lie, knowing that they really want something better for the community, and then we have to sit and and it be forced down our throats that the rumors aren't true.

Reputation is my next word.

Rumors don't happen on a negative perspective if your reputation is positive.

You don't get rumors that have or go excessively negative if this is not true.

I have a nephew, he's nine years old at a point in one time in my life.

He said, Uncle Malik.

This boy said this about you.

I said, Doodle, you listen to me very closely.

When people say something over and over again, you might want to believe them.

When rumors and reputation meet somewhere there is the truth.

When room that's why they have investigations.

Okay, I have to say that.

I'm listening to the other thing we have.

Trucks, you everybody's worried about these trucks.

You know, I went to North Carolina and I was there for three days.

They had a garbage pickup.

I never knew when the garbage picked up.

Want to know why?

Because they use the newer technology, they have side loaders.

The side loaders, they load in, they load the side.

There's no trash on the ground.

I said, Charlotte, North Carolina, not in Newark, New Jersey.

However, our regime presently believes that it is okay to put our men's back and all of that stuff into labor instead of looking at a new technology and moving those workers into something greater.

There is something you can do.

I've been doing a bunch of research, and y'all are sitting around dealing with what's old instead of really looking at what's new.

And part of what's new is mentoring people to take your position.

Not to sit in the position and act like it's okay to not put it out and give that's a hiring component too that you're not willing to do.

So what do you believe the citizens are gonna believe from you if you won't give up your position for the greater purpose of the community?

That's what this is all about.

Teachers, that's what teachers do if you're real teachers.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Next speaker.

I do not see Ms.

Bradley.

Not appearing.

Aisha Carter.

Aisha Carter.

Aisha Carter, not a beer.

Rodney Davis.

Rodney Davis.

He's a beer.

Before we uh go on the reorganization this afternoon, I'm gonna take 10 seconds of my time, might go a little longer for uh my main man in the east.

He was when I first came to the planning board, he showed me how to do it.

I will continue.

All right, uh, one old timer said, Rodney, you know a lot of people, and a lot of people know you, and a lot of people don't know you.

So for anybody who don't know, my name is Rodley Davis.

I'm running for mayor of the city of Newark, and I made three.

First uh, let's talk about paving.

Let's talk about pick.

I drive, I know some people in here got a car.

The streets are for nothing.

The streets are an absolute joke.

Now I don't even know.

President Crump, you pretty intelligent guy.

But uh, I heard the city of Newark, you can either tell me yes or no, being your attorney, don't even have a paving contract.

The city of Newark relies on a grant from the state of New Jersey to pave our streets.

I mean, that's when you know you hit rock bottom.

People tell this story, it be sounding good.

Like, you know, times is all good.

Times ain't good around here.

That's why I'm putting the city of Newark under reorganization.

And I like what you did, Ramos.

You, Ruez.

That was good with the fight.

This is an American uh city, and we gotta have a firefighter.

So I'm what I'm thinking, if you didn't do that, then it wouldn't be done.

It just would be the same old same old.

And uh I'm supporting Gail Cheney Phil Jenkins for Central Ward Councilwoman.

I'm not against me the bay.

I'm for Gail Cheney Phil Jenkins.

And what sis came out a couple weeks ago, I would like to get a progress report, Councilman Quintana.

I would like to get a progress report or update.

She was with the people from the television, I think it was Channel 12, 11 or somebody, and they went to a young lady's house, and the lady had all types of rats, roaches things in front of her kids.

I guess you could hook up with Cheney Field and get the address on that.

So called enforcement did do their job, the brave men and women of code enforcement.

They went out there, but after a while, it stops being paperwork.

It's what the Marsha Cooper used to do.

It's called the clean and lean.

You send the exterminator over there and you're exterminating the place.

Why he can exterminate it, he can appear.

Anybody, oh yeah, I call code of force, but ha ha ha ha.

None.

You hit the landlord up and tell the landlord, ship them to the Marriott till you get it fixed.

You paying the bill for the exterminator, the paint job, and the marriage.

I just would like to get a progress report on that.

Because right now, and I don't know if Cheney Phil could tell me or uh somebody can tell you, but I'd be I think about it every day, you know.

Now, right guarding this election we got coming up.

We got a lecture coming up.

People not satisfied, so we got a whole bunch of candidates.

And there's a rumor going around that people are scared.

Scared of what?

What you scared for?

People in this country died for you to vote.

Got spit on, they brought the horses out, got pissed on, everything.

So what are you scared for?

You're only about 67.

I'm 60.

So y'all the seniors in the building gotta be 78.

Whether you want, no matter where you live in this city, you don't have to be scared or nothing.

You don't need nobody like you a little kid.

Just go up there and vote.

When the young boys be standing by the polling booth, barking, whoo hoo, walk past them like you do every day.

Vote, come out of the booth and go on about your business like you do everything.

There's nothing to be scared of.

You know what I mean?

If you tie, you tired.

Guy was running against Sweeney.

He has $600.

Other guy was swinging had a lot of money.

It was tied.

Even that's why my damian knew.

People get to that's what's happening here.

It's gonna be a lot of changes.

It's gonna be a lot of changes, you know.

People tie all the money in the world ain't gonna help me.

And this story you telling, it's getting boring, and it sounds good.

Yeah, it sounds good.

But this ain't good times.

These are desperate times.

The man just had to go and make a law to get some fire equipment.

It's gonna be that in the police department.

It's gonna be that the way in DPW.

But we're gonna put the city under reorganization.

Have a good day.

Next speaker.

Michael Charity.

Michael Charity.

Michael Charity.

Not appearing.

Opal R.

Right.

I believe I see Ms.

Wright.

Yes, Ms.

Wright is appearing.

Good afternoon.

My name is Opal R.

Ray.

I reside at Vanderple Street in Newark, New Jersey.

And I'm concerned with the implementation of Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Title 10, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.

I believe that there was the last time I mentioned the transaction fees at the uh automated ATM, the automated um like where you like to um receive your funds from the ATM.

They're using those fees for security and fraud, and they're using that to improve the service.

So I wanted to make sure that if I'm going to read this, read this law, that um that it's understood so that we don't have to go before a judge and have them explain it.

So I'm gonna try again and complete uh by reading um section 1017 as is funding, penalties, and fines.

Since that the transfer of funds from board of governors in general each year, beginning on the designated transfer date, and each quarter thereafter, the board of governors shall transfer to the bureau from the combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System, the amount determined by the director to be reasonable, necessary to carry out the authorities of the Bureau under federal consumer financial law, taking into account such other thumbs made available to the bureau.

And I was just mentioning the authority of the appropriations, and is it says that the director makes the determination and submits the report pursuant to one there are hereby authorized to be appropriated to the bureau for the purpose of carrying out the authorities granted granted in Federal Reserve Financial Law 200 million dollars for each of the fiscal years 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 in Title 11.

I had also mentioned that there was uh that this is a preamble.

I believe that it's mentioned in here that it states that they want um something to the effect that it is not a preamble, but I wanted to just um go on to section uh one of the sections that clearly explains the entitled the this titles um provisions and I know that this is this is uh part of an amendment.

So it says that there are they're talking about terms such as credit terms, such as credit facilities, which means a program or facility that is including any special purpose vehicle or other entity that established by or on behalf of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System or a Federal Reserve Bank, and the information um that we should pretty much understand.

I would have to get uh bring up on the okay.

I would like to also mention that I know that I have um mentioned the payback, which is I believe Title 13, and Title 12 should be mentioned first.

And this is improving access to mainstream financial uh institutions where they offer small dollars right value loans.

Your time is up.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Darnella Lee.

I did not see Ms.

Lee.

Not appearing.

Lamont Vaughn.

I don't see him either not appearing.

D Talib OK.

I know I saw there he is appearing.

Slide what's up.

Peace be upon you.

D Talabakil, Seven Porter Place.

All of you know me professionally, but very few people here know me personally, and I've made it my business to keep my professional and my personal life separate.

I don't like to commingle the two.

But in saying that, um, professionally, all of you know me as someone who leads with integrity.

I'm gonna always do what's right, but I I'm driven by systems and processes.

So I'm not here to bash anybody, speak negatively about someone, because that's not how you get things done.

I'm about I'm here to illustrate that I've gone through the process for what I'm trying to get done because I want to work with you, but I need your help.

Um, and what I'm referring to is I want the firehouse that's on the corner of Muhammad Ali and Urban Turner Boulevard.

Now, in terms of going through the process, I've spoken to the mayor a couple of times.

I've spoken to Mr.

Penintin a couple of times, and they've been honest with me that it's been designated for something else.

Uh, it's been sold, but we all know that the city does land swaps all the time.

I have a better designation for this property.

Um, but in going through the process, I've I want to thank Councilwoman Bay for taking time out of her busy schedule to meet with me because it's in her ward.

So out of respect for her, I came to her, I met with her, I gave her a copy of uh my proposal that I used to get into the youth house.

Um I I spoke to and I emailed uh Deputy Mayor uh Quillis, I emailed Deputy Mayor Um Ladd.

Um I've also emailed the mayor's executive assistant on three different occasions this year, but in fairness to them, I understand that there was uh pipes there, burst computers and things with the damage, they were displaced for a couple of months, but again, it's just to show that I've I've gone through the process to try to get this done, and I'm here now because the land has been, so there's been some movement on there, so I'm here to try to bring this to the top of everyone's leaderboard because I need your assistance.

I want to turn this place into an empowerment house for the reading youth of this city.

Um and you probably ask, well, why do you care?

Why is that important to you?

Um, because again, to share personal information today is growing up.

I was the fat dumb kid that everybody laughed at because I couldn't read while I was 10 or 11 years old.

I went to three different high schools, and it took me five years to graduate.

It wasn't until I got to Florida AM University where they have the number one program that facilitates students with learning disabilities, where they poured into us and told us we're not dumb or stupid, we just process information differently.

Use your resources, focus on your strengths, don't worry so much about your weaknesses.

So in doing that, coming home, I think it's in working in public administration.

I've worked my way up through, working my way up the rank and file to become an administrator.

But again, I've put systems in process in place along the way, and you know, you're not gonna make it as an administrator if you don't you don't follow systems and processes.

And I believe that you have to work with and within the system in order to get things done.

Um, in addition to that, and I mean, if in doing that, I've also met with you know a couple of the the leadership of the bloods and cribs because I want this to be a safe haven, regardless of who they're affiliated with or what they've done once the courts released them to me, this has to be a safe space for them.

Almost like Switzerland in the Citral Ward, um, because again, they need a place like that, and again, I know because I was in that facility, November 1993 for making poor decisions because I didn't feel good about myself, I didn't feel like I belonged, so you do things to be accepted or not to be picked on.

And I just was doing things I had no business doing.

So again, this is my calling, working with kids, giving back to them, but again, I need your help.

And what I've learned uh from that program and things that I'm doing and working with these kids is that I don't care if you black, white, Latina, Asian, Democrat, Republican, if you were racist, if you're pro-black, people who have learning disabilities, whether it's you, your child, or a relative, we share a trauma bond because we know what it's like growing up dealing with that issue.

And I'm gonna share some.

Hopefully, I'm not out of, and just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

I hope I'm not I'm not out of bounds, Council President.

Our children are friends, they used to be in the same class, they went to the same schools, but I fought for three years to get my child out of district placement because her needs weren't being met.

He and his wife reached out to us about a year later to find out what did we do.

I shared the information with them as well, because that's what it's about sharing the information with people who have common bonds or things who who love each other and just want to see us do it.

And that's what this place would be about, creating a safe space for them and a community of like-minded people who understand what it's like to have a learning disability and need help.

So I'll leave you with this.

And if you don't know what that is, it's the information that we have and the effort that we give.

These kids will be given the information, and they're gonna understand the importance of putting forth effort.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Mr.

No.

Not appearing.

Pablo Oliveira.

Mr.

Oliveira.

Not appearing.

Deborah Salters.

I'm sorry, before you get a okay, that's fine.

I thought somebody else was coming.

Go ahead.

Appearing.

Great day, Newark.

Deborah Salters, one A for Mayor, May 12th, 2026, Operation Clean House.

So I'm looking at the agenda.

And I remember the last time I got up and I talked about the temporary appropriations.

And the BA spoke after I spoke and said that, you know, it's normal for uh municipalities to, you know, do temporary appropriations before the budget is passed.

So I'm looking at, and and I understood that.

The point is not that the temporary appropriations are here, it's that they're here all the time, long time before we get the budget.

And like for instance, this one here, 7R1A, that's uh temporary emergency appropriation for drinking enforcement fund for 91,222, and it says from January 1, 26 through December 31st, 26th.

So when do we plan to pass the budget?

And then the next one says 50,000 for um funds for the highway and traffic and safety for 50,000.

October 1st, 25 through September 26.

So, and I know I often ask when we have these dates that are in 25 that go into 26.

Has the money been partially spent already, or are we like I don't understand, and no one ever made that clear.

So if this is from the 26th budget, and it says October 25 up until September of 26th, how does that work?

Then we have another one that says from July 25th, July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026.

Um that's for public health, emergency preparedness, and then this one over here, which is huge.

This one is for this is 7R1E, that is for water and sewer.

67 million, 624,000, 172.

We need that much money for water.

Water is on every budget.

And this is from April 1st, 2026 through April 30th, 2026.

And then there's this uh ordinance over here, 7R1F, that is for something that is not clear to me.

Um it says the contract amount not to exceed 7.5 million dollars, and it's for technology of some sort, right?

Use of state contract T 2989, communications wiring services, uh adopted on March 6, 2024.

That's the original resolution, and then it goes down to talk about authorized dealers, they're under in an amount not to exceed 500,000, and then we get down to the bottom and it's 1.5 million.

So and then at the bottom, this resolution will further increase not to exceed contract amount of the original resolution by six million dollars and zero cents.

So this is what I'm talking about.

So we need some clarity on all of this, and it's more stuff on here, right?

So, Norkers.

What I'm saying to you, and not to mention that people are being moved out of departments and shifted under other departments so that the funding for their salary can come out of other departments because the city is in a mess right now.

It's in a complete mess.

So, Norkers, you have a choice on May 12th to make a decision.

If you want to get this dark cloud from over this city, you have got to make the right decisions.

Because with Lions Gate, the developers eating off of our backs, the taxes going up, our water going, everything going up except your paychecks, you not being able to live, breathe, thrive, your kids can't thrive.

You need to make a decision, May 12, 2026 to save your lives.

This election is paramount.

If we do not take this city back now, we are doomed.

Because you can't afford to live where you live now.

What do you think is gonna happen when Lion Gate goes up?

You don't think these property taxes are gonna go through the roof?

Do you think you're gonna be able to move freely up and down Freeling Heizing Avenue like you've been doing all these years?

What about you?

That's the question you need to ask about.

What about you?

What about your family?

What about your children?

What about your grandchildren?

How do you think you're gonna live?

May 12th, 2026, it's time to make a decision to change your life.

If you need to, if you want to live again, if you want to breathe again, if you want to thrive again, May 12th, 2026, Deborah Salters from Mayor 1A, I will see you at the polls.

Oh, and if you see something, say something, have your phones out, record what you see, report it to the federal government, because it's serious out here.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Appearing.

Let's tucker, North New Jersey, Central Ward.

Excuse me.

Um, so I make a lot of videos, and I know a lot of people watch them.

I made one, I believe that was Sunday night with Ruckers Police on Bergen Street in the central board.

Um, I called out your name, Reverend Round Tree.

People within my inbox thought you was there, and I had the your nephew or somebody.

And I'm tired of people in my inbox about the things that I say up here because I know that I speak about me most of the time and the things that go on in my life.

So either you can relate or you can't, but I don't play with nobody.

But the police, the law enforcement, the North Police, the Sheriff's Department, Rutgers Police, um, is a lot of bullying and intimidation.

We I seen people recording, we got out, it was two women.

When we got out and began to ask questions, I know they had policy that say they don't have to tell us anything.

So I know also from North Police basically warning me on the procedures of actually going up to offices when they have an investigation.

Everything like disrespectful, they do is like an investigation.

They'll say that we're investigation so that you could back up mind your business, but it's really bullying and intimidation.

So I would like maybe with the other community members here for us to make a roadmap for the community, because we know it's a lot of issues that we do not talk about, and the people need to know what they up against.

Like we need to know the rules.

We need to know what jurisdiction or police has on what streets and what jurisdiction, Exis County Sheriff, and now the Rutgers Police.

The guy told us told me, go mind your business before you get locked up.

And I had to challenge that because even though like I be having issues with the Department of Public Safety, I took their class and they informed us within the dissent decree of what we could do and what we could not do.

So I know that you can videotape somebody and then you know, and also you can not you can videotape them and not ask for permission when you out there, and they cannot do anything to you.

But the first thing they do to the community when they come and they want information about what's going on because we have the right.

Like every black young man, Hispanic young man is not a criminal, no matter what they doing, no matter what they driving.

I had an incident because I had a boxed off Cherokee and I pulled into the Pilgrim Village where I live at, where my license registration and everything say, and officers cuff me in front of my son.

Like when do the bullying and intimidation stop?

They have all these different departments that y'all fund because y'all got the power of the purse.

All these different things that we can't even ask questions about, that the information is not valuable to us because we policy, like they don't have to do this, and that's not right.

Like they shouldn't stop a person, not tell them what they stopping them for, and then when they ask them, they rip them out their car and start slamming them against the car.

That was what Ruckers Police did.

Then they cuffed them in front of us.

So I left because it was a Sergeant Dia, and I had it on tape.

But I also asked for the information of the young boy that basically told me he could lock me up because I asked him a question.

Like I ain't this mouth can get very disrespectful.

If you follow me, I'm sure that you can see what I'm possible, what I'm capable of doing.

There's no reason for anybody to fear me, though, because I'm not gonna put my hands on anybody.

I was told that's the difference between me and Auntie Jack Donna that she taught, but I actually, I'm not putting my hands on nobody because I know better.

And I know nobody ain't gonna come save me if I cross the line.

But this mouth, I have the freedom of speech to be able to say whatever I want to say it, however I want to say it.

And it's wrong.

Every time I see an officer doing something, whether it's North Police, the sheriff, the joint task force, now Rutgers Police doing anything.

We humans.

We don't have the right to be emasculated every time we deal with law enforcement.

Like it's not right.

And we we should not be scared.

They say they can't do anything they want, but the unions will come up here and defend them.

They don't, they don't forgive us if we could young.

I'm talking about not us because I don't have no record, but they don't forget the young, forgive the young black men in the community.

It's still a stereotype on who they feel and how they feel like when they created all this stuff.

Y'all the reason why we mad.

Because y'all following the leader, whatever that means.

Please do something about the people that police us in this city.

Like, thank you for your comments, speaker.

Tyree Davis.

Sorry, Davis.

Not appearing.

Carlene Davis.

Darlene Davis.

Darlene Davis.

Not appearing.

Lucius Jones.

Yeah, I don't see Mr.

Jones.

Not appearing.

Renee Davis.

Appearing.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dr.

La Cheney Renee Davis.

Um, professionally I go by Dr.

Renee Davis.

That's a whole nother story.

I'm an educator and an advocate for community members.

I started my journey as an educator almost 40 years ago, where I started tutoring, grades one through five in the after-school program.

After that, I've taught dance, drill team, English language arts, math, social studies, science, character leadership, and GED prep.

And that was in the New York City Department of Education.

I currently I'm a CEO, founder, and executive director of Leonis Angels as a nonprofit, where I catchphrase is let's build better lives.

We stand on five cornerstones, which are education, vocation, health and wellness, recreation, and socialization.

We believe that with support and the goals in these five cornerstones, community members would build a solid foundation to be successful members of society.

We provide services and all of those goals along with food distribution and clothing distribution.

Our future goal as an organization is to open campuses and underserved areas all over the United States.

And the comp the campuses will have community resource buildings along with housing for foster youth, seniors, and transitional age youth.

So I currently came back and moved to Newark in March of 2024.

I started teaching in one of the Newark Department of A public schools.

I'm not even gonna name the school right now.

But I learned early on from my colleagues and the test results that the students in Newark are way below grade level in reading and in math.

In my class, I taught sixth grade.

I had a student that was unable to read, write, or count as in sixth grade, a 12-year-old.

And she started, she was born and raised in Newark, started preschool in New York Department of Education.

As my as her teacher, I was able to get her to write her letters from A to Z, write her name, her first name by time June came, she couldn't get her last name.

And also potty training.

This young lady was in diapers at 12 years old with her menstruation.

So I always ask questions, and of course, of the administration, a child has been in your school since kindergarten.

Why was she never flagged for DC and P, why was she never taught how to read or write?

Mom, she had a one-on-one aid, and the first day of school, that September of 24, the aide told me that she never does anything but sit on her Chromebook.

So that right there was a concern to me.

And at that point, my nonprofit was still new.

So I incorporated in New Jersey because that's what my spirit told me to do.

Her attendance was also poor.

So I was concerned about New York's Board of Education's concern about attendance.

Like I said, I taught in New York City.

So after a certain amount of days of absences, the parent is supposed to be contacted and prove reasons for these absences.

This parent had no reasons for absences, and she, like I said, was never filed.

So the reason why I'm here is because I'm interested in the city of Newark donating a home to my nonprofit.

Um, I'm not sure if everyone knows.

If you have property, you donate it to nonprofit, you get it back in taxes.

You can write it off, and when you file your taxes, you get whatever that home was worth, that property is worth, you get that back.

So I was wanted to collaborate with, of course, Newark Board of Education and other social services, so that I can house some of these children that need to be taken from their home and work with them and their parents in reunification and parent training because of course, if you're born with a child with special needs, it might be hard for you to educate them, but to send them to school and know that they've been going to school since kindergarten and haven't gained any skills to me is a major concern.

And that was just one student.

There are many students in just that school alone who I already could house and educate them and bring them up to grade level.

So that's something that I want to work on.

I came here that thinking that maybe someone they know I've seen so many abandoned and foreclosed properties in Newark that maybe somebody could reach out and help me help our community members.

Thank you for your comments.

Uh-oh, new council president, council members, that concludes the agenda for this meeting.

At this point, uh, before we go into motions, anything from the uh council.

Councilwoman Bay.

Did you have everything?

Yes, for motions.

Not for motions, but I had comments.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Um, thank you, Council President.

First thing I definitely wanted to say something, and I don't think he's still here.

Um Talibakil, he did with me with me.

Um, there's some really good work that he's trying to do, so hopefully we can find a way to help and support him in that work if it's not a nest based and in another space because what he's talking about is something that's really needed in the community.

Um, also regarding um Miss Cliver's comments.

We actually are meeting today.

And one of the major things that's on the agenda is the issue that she's and she has come here multiple times to talk about the issues that's going on in the McDonald's that she works with.

We've been in communication for months about that.

So we do have a meeting today to follow up with that.

So we just want to make sure that that's out there.

Also, um, I think it was Mr.

Davis that mentioned something about a follow-up or progress record uh report regarding the resident um that expressed the issues um on the the news 12, I believe it's a news 12 um thing that actually uh those issues were addressed long before there was a news article, and I've mentioned that here in the shavers before that she was offered not one, not two, but three different departments that she turned down, um, and those issues have been um addressed for the past several months with not only my office but also the um the owners of the building and as far as the issues that um are still plaguing um in Villa Victoria and to Nevada and those um NCC and those other um issues there have been um multiple violations.

We do have the reports now of the violations that have been written up, and in the process of making sure that not only are those business owners um and those building owners um being addressed with um fines and making sure that the the time limit that it's not there's no more extension and letting people go and just allowing people to live in unsafe conditions that's actually being addressed and the moving towards the process that if it's not done in the time that it was supposed to be done, that the process is being moved forward to even address um their continuing having tax abatements.

So those things um have and are being addressed.

And as far as the uh planning board meeting, Ms.

Parker, um you're absolutely correct.

Um there's um the community does not want that project.

It has been stated time and time again.

We have pushback on it.

Um my team and I were on that planning board meeting, and um we agree that we need to make sure that everything that happens is in the best interest of the community.

That's why we reached out because we've been receiving a lot of phone calls, people saying that they didn't feel that they had a chance to be heard, and we wanted to have the community meeting um with the developers so they can hear directly from the residents because again, the residents and you as a community advocate, you had the people call us and they called us and asked us to act on their behalf, and so that's what we're doing.

And so to have a community meeting so they can say and have their say to the developers and let them know directly how they feel about the project in the community.

So those were the things that we were doing.

Um then also just to follow up on that.

There is a um a resource fair that's happening for the community, and that information is going out for um Saturday, April 11th at 10 a.m.

Um that is happening at university hospital, and so we want to make sure that people have the opportunity to get those information and resources.

Thank you, councilwoman.

Uh anything else before we go to motion?

Anything from the council?

Anything from the administration, just a few things, Eric Pennington Business Administrator.

Um there was one uh comment that uh that the mayor didn't speak about his accomplishments at last night state of the city because according to the speaker, he has no comp accomplishments.

Uh I was at the state of the city.

Perhaps this person wasn't there.

I think most of you were there, and uh many people were able to see it in the uh audience from being on TV or being there, and he spoke eloquently and at length about his accomplishments and those of the city, um, much of which was uh approved by this council, and we are absolutely proud of it.

That speech, by the way, is available to the public.

So you put it out, it's an 18-page speech.

You can get it through our communications on social media and another avenues, and you can look at it, and you can see what he said himself.

The highlights of that, this is just from my perspective, were uh the accomplishments he touted of the the students that he brought up and talked about.

The NJIT scholars, for example, who uh have graduated and done some amazing things.

We talked about the companies that they work for and what they're doing now.

The students at St.

Elizabeth University who have four year scholarships were attending school for free, which was started through the um the recommendation of the director of the Office of Violence Prevention, uh Khalicia Wingfield Hill.

She had an idea, she brought it forward, and we figured out how to pay for it, and those students are there now.

We're working with those colleges.

There are students at Rutgers who got on board after uh St.

Elizabeth's university brought students on board.

You talked about crime in the city of Norwich, which is at a 60-year low, which is uh absolutely uh amazing.

Crime is at an all-time low, conversely, development is at an all-time high.

Uh the cranes are in downtown and in the neighborhoods.

There's in field development that's going on as well as the large buildings that we see here.

The in field development is being done in large measure by small local minority and women-owned businesses who we are supporting and helping.

Affordable housing is being built, indeed, part of the development, every development of a certain size required to have at least 20% affordable housing that is in place and we are enforcing it.

And Nork residents have uh first dibs on those affordable housing units through the um uh economic and housing development department.

Local developments are being local developers are being supported and given opportunities that they would not otherwise have, and they are building these projects, some of which they are selling, some of which they are owning, and they are uh creating wealth for themselves.

We are with the affordable housing are working to reduce sheltering.

Part of the administration's philosophy now is to eliminate as much sheltering as possible and have uh people residents without addresses go into transitional housing, which is the appropriate way to get people from off the streets into housing and not just wear housing in these uh in these shelters.

So that is uh the philosophy that Mayor Paraka's put forward and that we are following.

Under Mayor Baraka's leadership, local control of the schools is returned here now.

You get to elect your board of education.

That election is coming up, so you should vote and take advantage of the fact that there's local control.

That happened while he was mayor.

The uh consent decree, the police consent decree, which interestingly, Mayor Baraka advocated for when he was a council person because he recognized that there were problems with the police and problems with the residents and that there needed to be better oversight and control.

He worked to get that consent decree in place, it was put in place.

Uh, interestingly, when it came in place, he became the mayor.

So he helped pick the monitor who was uh put in charge of the consent decree.

Now, 10 years later, the consent decree is gone under his leadership.

We have a better police department because of it.

Uh, somebody indicated that there is um lack of respect for the officers and that the the kids nowadays do things uh and don't listen to the police.

Uh he may have some individualized um perspective on that, but the the reality is across the board that the interaction with the police is much better.

There's a much stronger bond between community-based policing than there ever has, or well, I don't say ever has been, but has been uh in the recent recent past.

Uh the police work with the Office of Violence Prevention and the Brick City Peace Collective to engage in uh making sure that problems don't occur before they happen.

There's mediation, there's safe passage.

The police are working with the community to make sure that those issues are minimized as much as possible, and we support them.

There are fewer um uh AI complaints than there than there have been.

That that's uh complaints about you know police is used AI, I'm sorry.

IA, yeah, yeah, thank you.

IA complaints, not AI.

AI like AI in the brain these days with my chat GPT, but IA complaints.

Uh no question about it.

We have shop with a cop, then trunk retreat.

Uh, these are intentional to make sure that our police officers engage with the community, and they do an amazing job, a much better job than they than they ever did.

And we we you know commend them and commend them to continue doing what they're doing uh before.

Back to affordable housing for a quick minute.

There was uh you know an attack on the administration with respect to lack of affordable housing, and there is a shortage of housing, affordable housing in this state.

There are hundreds of thousands of units that need to be built in the state.

There's at least on one report says that there are about 16,000 units to be built, need to be built here in the city of Norway.

And under the mayor's leadership, uh, we are developing affordable housing.

As I indicated, every project of a certain size has to have 20% affordability uh in those in those houses.

Um with respect again to to police, uh, one individual indicated that we have a lack of messaging regarding ICE, which is shocking to me.

We are at the forefront, one of the leaders uh in the nation with respect to making sure our residents are aware of what ICE can and cannot do.

We do not have our officers engage with ICE on a discretionary basis or voluntary basis.

If it's voluntary or discretionary, we're not engaging with ICE.

If it is mandatory under some federal mandate or to save somebody's life, then we do.

There's no no question about that.

But we're not going in there helping them violate the law with some administrative warrant.

We're not going to help with that.

And we make sure that our residents uh know about it so that they know what their rights are, whether they are uh born here in the United States or otherwise.

We still make them aware of what their rights are.

They're constitutional rights for everybody in the city, and we will protect those rights.

Now, interesting, another fellow came up, and it's got a teeny bit personal, but I'm gonna talk about it anyway.

Rodney Davis says he's running for mayor, and he happened to talk about um how we've allowed people to go to polling sites and spit on people and do other things.

The reason I'm bringing this up is when I early on when I was a uh first became the business administrator, I don't know who Rodney Davis was.

He said he knows a lot of people, but he came up to me while I was outside my car and he spit at me spit at me.

Did not hit me fortunately, but he spit at me, and the spit landed like I don't know, six inches from my feet.

Many of you know that I'm pretty mild mannered most of the time, but I let a few colorful expertise come out of my mouth, and he and I had a conversation.

We engaged right then and there about how I was not gonna be treated that way by him or anybody else.

Turns out that he was an advocate for some developer at the time, and he thought I was holding up their project.

I didn't know what he was talking about.

When I got back to my office, there was a piece of legislation on my desk that affected this person he was talking about, and I moved it forward because irrespective of the way Rodney Dravis treated me and acted in a manner that I thought was totally inappropriate.

The person he worked for didn't deserve to have me treat them uh poorly.

So I moved that project forward.

Rodney ultimately realized that that's what happened.

He apologized to me, and I've accepted his apology.

We have moved forward until recently.

Now he's running for mayor again.

Now he wants to act like an idiot.

If that's what he wants to do, that's his business.

He will never spit at this person again without some consequences flowing from that.

I can guarantee you that.

He has a right to say what he wants to say, but you just can't do anything you want to do.

He is not the kind of person, or at least not him.

I don't want to have one way or the other for him.

We need to be careful who it is uh we look at as an elective representative one way or the other.

The final thing I have to say is about the the budget.

Um every municipality in the state of New Jersey has to follow certain guidelines, and there are there's literally less than one percent of all of the municipalities in the state of New Jersey could ever pass their budget in the first month of the year.

It's just impossible.

Because of that, there are laws in place that allow us to have appropriations, and those appropriations are based on the prior year's budget.

I have offered to teach that rudimentary information to somebody who's running for mayor and who should know it before.

I've offered to have them come to my office.

I'll explain the basic budgeting process for them, and anybody who's running for mayor should know the basic budgeting process, but she has not taken me up on that.

That offer still stands because it is hurtful to come up here and talk about the budgeting process, and she doesn't know what she's talking about.

The residents of this city need to know that this council and this administration looks at every piece of legislation that goes forward with respect to the budget in a way that is in the best interest of the city.

In order to run the city before a budget is introduced, you have to have an appropriation.

You can't pay bills, you can't pay the payroll, you can't uh go out and get the paving that somebody else talked about without some appropriation.

So that's what these appropriations are, and again, that is a fundamental rudimentary fact that anybody who's running for some office, particularly at that level, should have a basic understanding of.

And without that, I don't know, maybe they should uh just take a basic course in budgeting.

Um finally, with respect to the the paving, we do have uh uh a paving, we have pavement contracts.

I should say the paving season hasn't started yet.

It's unfortunate we had an awful winter, and because of this winter, there are lots of potholes.

We're working on uh uh taking care of the potholes.

In fact, the mayor has directed DPW uh to go out with a uh targeted pothole team to take care of many of the potholes right now.

So that is underway.

We expect that the asphalt companies will open in the next few weeks so that we can start the regular paving.

The paving is coordinated through the city's paving contract, through water and sewer, which is also part of the city's pavement contract.

We coordinate with public service, electric and gas uh and the state to make sure all that paving is done to enact one on top of the other.

So that should start within the next few weeks.

You should see some results uh of that in a month, and I hope we don't get too many complaints when we shut down your street to pave it, but those are the things that will be done.

Um, and uh, you know, to the extent again, the council has particular streets that need to be done.

Let us know.

We'll try to work that into the current current system of uh what paving we have scheduled.

I don't think I have anything else, but I would answer questions from the council if there's anything.

Yeah, I I have a question first if I can.

And since you're talking about paving, I I think there's a misunderstanding or miscommunication out there regarding paving and potholes.

So those are two different operations.

They are paving is the season for paving hasn't started, and that's gonna be April, late April, early May, I believe, is what uh what we were told yesterday.

That's correct.

Yeah, the ask small companies haven't opened yet, so it's dependent on the nice possibility.

But potholes, pothole filling is occurring right now as we speak, right?

As we speak, yes.

We the mayor has directed DPW does the potholes, engineering does the paving.

DW has been directed to work on potholes now in targeted areas uh that are the most dangerous and the most egregious, and uh we're working on that as we speak.

I'm sure everybody has a list of space places and happy to take them.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Councilman Ramos.

Yeah, Eric, with the potholes, is the city um workforce enough to address it.

I know in the past the cities used private contractors to supplement uh the city's small crew.

Yeah, like you know, it's a lot of ground to cover, obviously.

We have bad winter, a lot of um salt being put out because of the storms.

Like are you guys planning on engaging a private contractor to help the city?

Yes, crew.

We're doing two things.

We're looking at renting another pothole machine.

We have one, we're looking to rent another pothole machine with an operator, and we're looking to uh bring on board small contractors as well to help.

Your point is well taken.

Puddholes are created mostly in two ways.

One, it's a freezing thawing cycle.

What happened this particular uh winter with a prolonged freezing is that there were many uh many more areas where the water was underneath the asphalt and lots of areas that froze a long time.

When water freezes, it expands when it expands and then um uh melts that expansion causes cracks in the pavement, and that's where potholes come from in one instance.

And the other instance is there's salt.

Salt is corrosive, and it also uh weakens the pavement and concrete and causes potholes as well.

So we had a double, you know, we had a perfect storm, unfortunately, for all the bad things that happened.

Uh the short answer to your question is no, we don't have enough people or enough equipment to address all of it, and we are working to address that, but we'll deal with the most egregious and most dangerous as quickly as we can.

Yeah, how do you target the areas?

Or are you responding to um inquiries from residents?

Is there like a database that you guys are following?

There is that we are we are responding to see click fix 4311, and quite honestly, I'm not trying to direct anybody to you guys, but your council complaints as well.

Yeah, I would imagine if you're in a specific part of the city that it makes sense to try to keep the crew there for the day as opposed to moving them around.

Exactly right.

We're trying to target the same areas where we can in a particular grid uh so that the we can get the most of it as we can, but also in connection with the most dangerous, and it may mean that we have to move around.

So they're coordinating that as best as possible.

Thank you, Eric.

You will thank you.

Anything else for the uh BA?

Thank you, sir.

You're welcome.

Appreciate it.

All right, let's go on the motions.

Uh Councilman Kelly.

Uh no motions, Council Prayers.

Just uh one quick one quick uh announcement.

Um just want to say uh um happy good Friday coming up to everyone.

Everybody hope you have uh um a blessed Easter as well, and we will be doing uh Easter egg hunt along with Jehovah Gyra Outreach and um Hope Incorporated in partnership with Bellsburg Park Community Conservancy and Esses County Parks.

The Easter egg hunt will have food games, music prizes uh Saturday, April 4th, 2026 from 2 to 5 p.m.

And the rain date will be April 5th, Sunday, and this will be at uh Bellsburg Park Senior Cafe.

So please come out and join us.

Um bring the family or fun fill Easter egg hunt and bring your blankets, uh excuse me, your baskets as well.

Um, yes.

And I just want to say thank you to the community village and everybody who donated to make this happen.

Thank you, Councilman.

Councilwoman Scott Rowtrick.

Yes, thank you, Council President.

I I first want to uh express profound sorrow and regret.

I know we've done former assemblyman um Albert Catino, but Buster Sorries had very deep roots in the city of Newark.

And yesterday, um they read his mom, uh Mary Mitzi Sorries.

So I just, and I did take care of that yesterday, but I want to make sure that I'm to tell the public that on behalf of the city and the council that we express our profound sorrow and regret to Reverend Dr.

Buster's sorries.

Uh Mr.

McDougall has presented something to the council, and um, he's met with myself in councilman council, and I'm not sure who else he's met with with this documentation, but we will be reviewing this again because it's a good piece of he's left the sanctuary, he's left the chambers, uh, but it is a good piece of legislation uh to look at, consider.

I don't know what changes we can make, but I am truly willing to look at this.

I mean, I know we're working with the CCRB and trying to get subpoena power and all those things.

But this reason I commend this document is because he's actually brought something to us that he's worked on, and I know our job is to do the right legislation and to pass laws and do everything in the best interest of our residents.

But when you have almost 400,000 residents, and there's 11 of us, there's some things that don't even reach us.

We know the uh quality of life does.

Miriam Bay has been advocating for the West Ward, and she is a happy resident about right now, Councilman Kelly, because after days and weeks of doing whatever it was, she acts.

The block looks amazing, and she we want to thank Miriam Bay publicly for being the advocate that she is.

Uh so this week, this the city has uh named or they're naming national minority health week, a month, I believe, and they're asking uh the resident the employees to wear brown.

Um, but I do want to madam clerk put that on the record that we also in the uh city of Newark, not just I know it's national, and Jennifer Sneed put out something on behalf of the administration, but on behalf of the legislative body, um, because health is wealth, and a lot of our ethnic groups, a lot of our African Americans are going through a lot just because they're a minority or they considered to be in the minority, so that part.

Uh I want to commend council president, acting director Adams at the moment of engineering.

I'm looking at this document that we received regarding street paving, the record.

Uh I know there have been many times we asked for things.

He actually, he and Mr.

Savage made sure we have a record of what's been done and what is possibly getting ready to be done.

This is something the council's been asking for, just something in writing.

Thoroughly, a thorough report.

Um, and so I do want to thank Mr.

Adams and his team for presenting that on to announcements.

In your ward, Councilman Kelly.

You know, Dr.

Bridgeforth has been doing this thing for almost probably 35, 40 years, the stations of the cross, where they walk all the way down South Orange Avenue with the horses and the reenactment of the crucifixion.

So I know she wanted me to announce um on April 3rd at 11 o'clock.

They will start the location.

They will assemble on Lynn Avenue and South Orange Avenue at 11 a.m.

And they will walk all the way up to Smith Street.

And this is hosted by Dr.

Mamie Bridgeforth, Faith Christian Center.

Uh April 14th.

Important and informative session.

I'm partnering with the Shawnee Baraka Center, uh Women's Resource Center.

We're going to come together to learn about recognizing and responding to domestic violence, understanding the legal rights and protection.

Discover trusted resources available in our community and explore safe and confidential ways to seek help.

Your presence is important, North.

It's going to be held on April 14th, 2026, calling faith leaders and community to join us from 5.30 to 7 p.m.

on April 14th for this very informative session on domestic violence.

And then on April 25th, there will be a grief symposium hosted by myself and Dr.

Tracy Tisdale from Prairies Funeral Home and some other partners.

Saturday, April 25th, 11 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

at the Priory Restaurant, 233 West Market Street, North, New Jersey.

That will be from 11 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

Senior Fashion Show.

I'm going to leave for my partner, Councilman.

I know that's in May, Council President.

The North Women's Meeting, the next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 28th, 2026.

I want to once again thank Nork for allowing me to serve you.

I want to thank the speakers that came up with their information, with their uh statements and with their request for us to do whatever it is that is necessary in the positions we are.

The only thing that I do want to speak to is that, you know, we all have families, and I just have to say this council president.

You know, my mom and dad have all gone home to be with the Lord, my prayerfully uh corporation council, and I do take I'm a very strong woman.

I can take whatever you bring, but even when you're talking about my brother or my sister, I don't even have to know you.

But we all have family, and to speak ill of the deceased will always be something that touches my heart.

And I don't think either I'm gonna say this because we're the only ones that you know, the Jewish community and the Latino community, they will come together and they no one says anything about them when they pass on their legacy or when they're training their children to follow in their footsteps.

Um I know some, I'm not gonna call their names right here in this city that have their children.

Um they're clear folk, they don't they don't have the pigment we have, but they're training their children to carry on legacies, and we talk about legacy as African Americans, and we talk like something's wrong with that, like there's something wrong.

You know, I want to live out some of what my mother put in me because my mother was a shaker mover in this community.

I'm not her, nowhere near, because if I was, I probably wouldn't be sitting up here.

But I got a lot of her in me, which means that we gotta love people, we gotta care for people, and even if you don't agree with us, don't come for our families.

That is that's just a hurtful thing.

But if you do, that's what you do.

If you can live with it and go to sleep at night, because it's fine.

Councilman Crump, same thing.

He has a mother that served this city, whether you agree with how she served or not, it's still his mother.

We got to be careful.

We got a lot of work to do in this city, but to speak ill of them or to talk about somebody slapping somebody, you know.

I just I just wonder like what legacy are you leaving on your children in your family when you're coming after the brothers and sisters, whether you agree with them or not, it is just so like you didn't come for my mother, you know, but it bothers me that you come for somebody else's because they're carrying on a legacy, whether you agree or not, because we all can disagree.

That doesn't mean we're wrong because we don't agree with you, it just means we see things differently.

And that's okay to see things differently.

It's okay even to disagree with me, but to come for my family, to talk about our families, is just not something that's sacred.

It's not a good space.

And I'm just trying to help somebody because you can talk and keep on talking.

I'm good with it.

But I just wanted to put something out there to for people to think about.

Talk about me.

That's that's good.

Um that's fine.

But when you start bringing people in it that are not in the room, they can't say anything, they can't speak to what you're saying.

You use your five minutes to help build the city up and build the people up.

The last thing I want is my 11-year-old granddaughter to think that it's okay for somebody to talk about her grandmother in an ill way.

Hold me accountable, but be very careful because everybody's got somebody in their family they love, hopefully their whole family.

But be very careful, because everybody's got somebody in their family they love, hopefully their whole family.

But it really did a little something.

When I hear when I used to sit up here with Congresswoman MacIver, same thing.

Does a little something.

We got family just like you do.

Hold us accountable for the work.

Talk about what you don't agree with, but in reference to our performance.

But don't bring our family in it.

And if you do, I'm gonna just keep on praying for you.

But I had to put that out there.

My prayer is that you all have a bless, bless holiday weekend.

And I'm gonna close with this one little thing, Council President.

There's not one person that has walked in this council chambers that don't have something.

I'm gonna bring a little scripture because the Bible says ALL.

All have fallen short.

So no one comes in here that's perfect.

And be careful of how you come for others, because somebody got some receipts on you.

Somebody has done something for you, somebody has made a difference in your life.

Maybe we're not doing it now, maybe not to your your approval.

But we up here are gonna be together.

That that right now, whatever people thinking and feeling, let me put it up here.

We've got to work together as a team for the betterment of this city.

And that's my prayer.

I've been praying that we would all be on one accord.

I know it's not gonna work on both sides, but I'll just at the same time.

I'm praying for you.

I'm hoping God that doing this holy season again.

We just came out of mom and I.

Now we're getting ready to go into the resurrection weekend.

Whatever you believe, know that God is not an author of confusion.

And where there is whatever you call God, where there's confusion, there is no God.

And God didn't beat Jesus, did not beat those people out of the temple because they were in the temple.

He did it because of what they were doing in the temple.

So let's be careful, folks.

Love you all to death, love my city, love our people, love our administration, and I love my colleagues.

But most of all, I love the residents of this city of North.

God bless you.

Have a great weekend, and that's my two cents.

Back in your hands, Councilman.

Thank you, councilwoman.

Is there a second?

Is that second by councilman Kelly?

Roll call.

Councilmember Stan.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez absent Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

I thought you said yes.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Oh, yes.

My fault.

I jumped ahead.

Yes.

Okay.

Councilman, uh, council.

Yes, we want to uh also wish everyone uh a blessed uh Easter season, resurrection Sunday, uh, and uh good Friday, uh, and hope that we're all in some place of meditation and reflection and hopefully uh worship.

Um also I would like to uh have a motion uh to request a hearing with uh optimum verizon and public service.

Uh we need to have all three of them in here together uh because they are causing a lot of confusion and havoc in the community uh as it relates to poll ownership, uh uh, who is responsible for the maintenance, the upkeep uh and customer service uh as it relates to workers and responsibilities of leaving uh these wires all behind.

And uh, as you reach out to them, each of them are trying to throw and share different responsibilities, and so we need them all in here together so that we can have a hearing.

Yes, I'll second that.

True.

Was that it, councilman?

Yes, that's it.

I'll second that.

Yes, roll call.

Council members Bay, absolutely yes, yes.

Yes, you kinda rainbow accent, Scott Roundtree.

Yes, President Crump.

Yes, Councilwoman Bay.

No motions at this time, no motion, all right.

So I have a couple things I wanted to say.

Um real quick for those who think that we don't show up for certain events for whatever reason, 99% of the time is because we don't know about the event.

Well, whether it's put on Facebook, whether you tell one council member, right?

Make sure if you want, uh and I'll speak for me, and I I think I speak for the whole council.

Tell us.

We make sure it comes to us directly.

Because we get a lot of invitations to meet community meetings, et cetera, that are emailed to us that are put in our hands, that are put in our office, right?

Mail to us, et cetera.

And we respond if we can make it or we or if we can't, because sometimes we can't, and we have staff attend, but do not assume that we know about a meeting because it was posted on Facebook or it was given to a particular council member or uh uh I mean uh for something to that effect.

So I I've said this I think several times before, but I'm saying it again.

Um, one of the things that was important to me is try to attend as many meetings as I can to find out what the community um what the the pulse of the community we can't figure that out up here in City Hall.

We have to be out in the community.

So those who are having meetings, etc.

And want to invite uh particularly the council members, please send it to us directly.

Uh second, I want to just do a uh well in conjunction of a motion uh regarding uh acknowledging uh autism awareness month, which began today, April 1st, um month of April.

Uh it's important that we uh I believe that we um provide uh awareness of of what autism is and what the different uh levels of the spectrum are and how we can help those families affected with autism.

Um navigate uh what can sometimes be a very complicated and very I won't say difficult, it isn't a word, but but for lack of a better word, difficult um navigation to get to where we can help our children who have autism or affected by autism.

So I wanted to make that motion, but also with that being said, um again, I'm hosting a fifth annual autism awareness family fund resource along with Nasan's place, empower you, uh the uh mayor and the Department of Public Safety and Department of Wellness.

It's going to be I'll just read it.

Please join us for a great day of autism awareness, community unity, fund resources, giveaways, and more.

Saturday, April 18th, 2026, 11 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

Again, we're gonna be at Mulberry Commons, 162 uh Mulberry Street in Newark.

Uh, if you can please contact my office and we will provide you with a code uh or uh I shouldn't say code, but what you need to do to register so that we have an accurate account, somewhat of those who are uh going to join us.

We're gonna have a lot of information, resources, the public safety comes with the fire truck with the uh police officers and the horses, uh, and have a lot of great information.

I know uh, and also uh office, uh the Department of Health and Wellness, they're they're a great partner with us to make sure that we provide uh information for families affected, families need to know about ABA therapy, physical therapy, uh occupational therapy, all that's needed.

Um because I I you know, my son is uh everybody I've talked about my son is on the spectrum, and I and I know if we hadn't had him in all those necessary therapies early on, he would not be playing pop warner football today, going to school, having a great time that he has.

Um did I miss something?

Oh, we're gonna have we're gonna have food, uh, ice cream, we're gonna have haircuts, braiding, um bounce house.

I'm trying to get them to stop doing the shaving cream because that was all over the place, so we're gonna see if we can stop that, or or or lessen it to the point.

Uh we also have face painting, so we have a lot of activities for the kids.

Uh bring your child, bring your children.

Um, you know, one of the things I love about Nissan's place is they also it's not as important as it is to make sure that we take care of our children who are on the spectrum.

We can't forget about the siblings.

And she always has programs that help us with the siblings, um, because a lot of times they feel neglected because we spend a lot more time with the child affected with autism.

So I'm always going to be uh an advocate and a partner of with with uh Nissan's place and what they do.

Uh and that's uh a Saturday, April 18th again, 2026, 11 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

Um two things more I wanted to say.

One is happy Easter to all.

I think this might be the first time I'm home in the last five or six years for Easter.

Usually it's spring break and we go away, but uh I've got the text message that I'm cooking Easter dinner.

So I I will be doing that on Easter.

Already got the menu planned.

Uh and also I just want to congratulate the mayor.

I I thought that was a great state of the city uh address.

Um, and it was a it was backed with facts, and it was backed with a lot of of hope of what we're going to do and and an acknowledgement of we've done some things, but there's more to do.

So nothing's perfect.

That's right.

And we're gonna continue to do so.

And I know my council colleagues feel the same way.

Uh with that being said, is there a second?

Second, second by councilwoman Scott Roundtree, roll call.

Council members Bay, yes.

Council Gonzalez absent Kelly, yes, Pintana Ramos absent, Scott Roundtree, yes, President Trump.

Yes.

Motion to adjourn.

Council members Bay, yes, Council Kelly, yes, Scott Roundtree, President.

Yes.

You just skipped.

Yes.