Good afternoon.

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Newark Municipal Council on Wednesday, June 17th.

Please stand for the National Anthem, Pledge of Allegiance, and Invocation by Dr.

Pete Palmer, Senior Pastor at Trinity Temple's Seventh Day Adventist Church.

I pleaded to require the United States of America.

Where citizens and leaders can gather together to address the needs of the people.

We thank you for the men and women who have accepted the responsibility of public service.

Grant them wisdom beyond their own understanding, courage to do what is right and compassion for those whose voices are often unheard.

Today we lift before you many challenges facing our city.

We pray for families experiencing housing insecurity for those struggling to find safe, affordable and stable housing, open doors of opportunity, and provide pathways towards security and hope.

Guide our leaders as they seek solutions that preserve the dignity and well-being of every resident.

We pray for those who facing food insecurity.

Remember the children who go to bed hungry, the seniors who must choose between groceries and medication, and the working families who are doing their best but still struggle to make ends meet.

Inspire generosity throughout our community and grant wisdom to those who shape policies and programs that will help meet these critical needs.

Bring comfort to the sick, strength to the caregivers, and guidance to those working to ensure that quality health care is accessible to all.

Bless our hospitals, clinics, physicians, nurses, first responders, and all who labor to preserve life and promote wellness.

Lord, unite us among across our differences.

In a time when division often dominates public discourse.

Help us to remember our common humanity.

Teach us to listen with respect, to disagree with grace, and to work together for the good of all.

May every discussion held in this chamber be guided by integrity.

May every decision be marked by justice.

May every action reflect a sincere commitment to the welfare of the people entrusted to our care.

As the prophet Micah reminds us, may we seek to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before you.

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 June 12th at the time of preparation and posted on the city's website.

Roll call.

Council members, they absent council.

Present Kelly.

Scott Roundtree.

Present.

Present.

Council President, Council members, we are on page three of the agenda.

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

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council.

Yes.

And dollars.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Sova absent.

President Crumb.

Yes.

6FA and B are ordinances on first reading.

A is an ordinance ratifying and authorizing a 10-year extension to the tax abatement granted to Claremont Newark Urban Renewal LLC per project to make improvements to the FBI building.

And B is an ordinance amending the special improvement districts to amend various sections increasing the administrative fee retained by the tax collector from 1% to 2%.

Council as a whole to adopt A and B.

Roll call.

Yes on B.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Soba absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

The ordinances adopted today on first reading will be advertised in accordance with law, and a public hearing will be held at a regular meeting on July 15th or as soon thereafter as possible in the council chamber, second floor, city hall.

Public hearing, second reading, and final passage.

6P SFA is an ordinance authorizing the mayor and or his designee to authorize the sale and transfer of city property to Essex Reservoir Urban Renewal LLC.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Is there anyone wishing to be heard on this ordinance?

Great.

Okay, Deborah Salters.

Yes, so can we get?

I mean, I know yesterday with a lot of these we're run through very quickly, except for one in particular.

Um, can we get an explanation of what this?

Because it says sale and transfer.

Of this particular property, and then it says for the amount of one dollar, pursuant to an agreement for sale and redevelopment of land.

Can we get an explanation of what this is and why this sale and transfer is necessary?

Because it's not clear here.

And I don't remember a breakdown on this.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Harry Nunn, public speaking is now closed.

I will just say this is dealing with Riverside, and that the Urban league will be.

Who are already in receivership?

Will be taking over the property.

That's what this will do.

That being said, roll call.

They accent Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Gilbert absent.

President.

Yes.

D is an ordinance authorizing the mayor and or his designee to enter into and execute an amended lease agreement amending the name of the landlord from Urban Renewal LLC to Catholic Charities Archdiocese of North for the lease of the residential homeless shelter.

Is there anyone wishing to be heard on this ordinance?

Yes, Deborah Salter.

So the Miller Street, okay, so I'm not changing the name of the landlord from urban renewal.

So Catholic charities is now the landlord instead of urban renewal.

Is that what we're saying here?

With this ordinance and the lease, commonly known as residential homeless shelter and associated office space.

Because Miller Street has been as even though it has housed many people, it's been terrible.

So what are we doing with this?

What is this ordinance really doing?

It's just saying uh changing the name of the landlord.

So can someone make again?

This is a question that I would like an explanation to, and who is going to make sure that things improve down at that shelter, as of even two weeks ago, right?

So are we changing the landlord?

Because they're saying the name change is the landlord changing, and what's changing with the conditions, and the people that are dealing with the homeless people, as if they're treating them like trash.

People's dogs are treated better in a lot of situations.

Now, who's overseeing this?

Who's checking up and checking in?

And improving the quality of life, the same way that you're changing this name.

Again, is it just a name change or the landlord change?

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon, Alif Mohammed.

Good afternoon.

There's no money value in there.

Why not?

There's no money value.

That's the most important thing.

How much is the lease?

Most important thing is the money, baby.

This is like y'all confused too.

What's the what's the cost?

Remember, the city is in trouble.

Moody says, in trouble.

What's the cost?

You don't know, you don't you don't answer what?

This is embarrassing.

You know when they turn this thing around, y'all look at them.

Not summer people, but look at them.

They don't even know what's going on.

You don't know what's going on.

You don't know what's going on.

That's a damn shame.

Y'all don't know what's going on.

Look at you.

You're confused.

I actually, you're not confused?

You ain't saying nothing.

You ain't got a problem.

You're a pastor.

You a good talker.

What's the money value?

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

Saying none, public hearing is now closed.

I will say it's just simply a name change.

Ownership does not change terms of who the owners of the actual building are just a name change, and there is no cost associated with that name change.

Roll call.

Say absent.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Soba absent.

President C and D are ordinances amending and supplementing the housing code.

C is to establish additional requirements for certificates of habitability.

And D is to add provisions establishing alternative security compliance.

Is there anyone present to be heard on these ordinances?

Never salters.

Additional requirements.

Are the original requirements being followed up on?

Who's enforcing the original requirements?

And what are these additional requirements?

Because they're not listed here.

Let's see.

On D.

When it talks about it's a lot of words here, as amended and supplemented to add a provision establishing alternative security compliance for certain redevelopment projects.

What is it?

What is that?

And why is it only for certain redevelopment projects?

What are these certain development projects that we're talking about?

And what is the alternative security compliance?

First of all, what is the original security compliance?

Because we talk a lot about security in the buildings that are here, and lack thereof.

A bunch of words with no explanations.

Again, this is a question that demands an explanation because it's not clear.

And if you don't know, get someone who does know.

Business as usual.

To add a provision establishing alternative security, compliance for certain redevelopment.

And I'll reiterate: what are these alternative security compliance measures?

And why are they only for certain redevelopment projects?

And who owns these redevelopment projects?

And why is it important for us to establish an ordinance for it?

Thank you for your comments.

Comment questions.

Next speaker.

Anything from the council?

You just turned it off.

Councilman.

Ramos.

Use it in this mic.

Um, like I mentioned yesterday, the pre-I I would really uh encourage the chair and the clerk uh for us to have a conversation at one of our subcommittees about the overall security ordinance, and um this this ordinance essentially empowers the city's administrator to make alternative recommendations outside the city's security ordinance or um you know certain buildings in the city.

Um, and you know, I'm all for flexibility, but I think there has to be some standards that we agree on, whether it's surveillance equipment, um there's some buildings that the existing ordinance is not enough as far as security requirements are concerned, and they should be uh dealt with uh additional conditions based on public safety issues, criminal complaints, and things of that nature.

So I I believe that um this ordinance is a start, but we need to have a much more comprehensive conversation so that we can deal with some of these problematic landlords, and at the same time, ensure that if we have you know residents who are in a hundred percent affordable senior building who do not want to see an armed guard as part of the 24 hour security, that that we're able to make that accommodation.

But you know, this this ordinance is giving the the city flexibility to go around the existing ordinance, uh, but but you know what what the alternatives are are not really spelled out here, whether it's surveillance equipment or other things that they can utilize in order to um you know ensure the safety of the residents in these complexes.

Thank you.

Councilman Councilman Council.

Yeah, Mr.

Chair, a couple of things.

One, the the ordinance uh speaks to new development and what needs to happen as it relates to security measures.

Uh deeply understand what Councilman Ramos is talking about about having some other kind of conversations, but also intrinsically what we put uh into the ordinance uh really speaks to uh a lot of these buildings that are supposed to have over a hundred units security uh at these sites that are going unmanned without any check or justification or really no punitive penalties behind it for them not doing it.

And so what we've engaged in uh in the ordinance was to ensure that those uh facilities and those buildings that are over 100 units that are supposed to have security in it, uh armed or unarmed, uh, that if they don't have security, they will be forced to pay a fine of a thousand dollars a day.

The back end of uh of what uh the ordinance is speaking to is possible projects that may be happening and what kind of security measures they need on those sites for those projects.

So to speak to what you were saying was was correct, right?

We need to be able to figure out if it's uh cameras, what kind of other systems and mechanisms.

But the one thing that this ordinance does is it really begins to deal with a lot of these perpetrators who are out here putting our residents in dangerous situations without having security that is mandated by where ordinance with no punitive damage inside this ordinance.

And so our hope is that once it's passed, that uh the administration will do their due diligence to follow up and all of those people that are responsible for making it happen to make it happen and get security in these facilities that are over 100 units.

Mr.

President.

Thank you, Councilman Ramos.

You know, as I look at the security ordinance that's on the agenda today, it doesn't cover anything related to what you just mentioned on the record.

Um, so so I would I would suggest that you look at it because essentially what the ordinance says is that any provision, I'm sorry, of this code, the business the business administrator may approve an alternative method of compliance with the security requirements for a qualifying redevelopment projects that meet the criteria set forth, and basically the developer agrees to a community benefit agreement, and as a result of that, the city may come up with alternatives to the existing security ordinance, which is what you mentioned on the record.

So my only feedback is that it should clearly stipulate like what those alternatives are because you know it's on a project by project basis, it gives a lot of authority to the administration to come up with those alternatives.

You know, I'm with you.

I think we we need to strengthen the ordinance to deal with problem actors, and I don't know if this this ordinance does.

If if you continue to read through the ordinance, you'll you'll see that that information is there.

And the part that you you read definitely speaks to what the administration part is and allowing the BA to determine that, which we discussed in agreements to say, hey, what does those parameters look like?

Is it uh video, is it armed, unarmed, but if you continue to go through it, it speaks to, yeah, it it speaks to the uh the the price that is put on to those individuals who are not in compliance.

Thank you.

Thank you, council members.

Uh good after Nelson.

Good afternoon, Michelle Nelson First Assistant Corporation Council from the law department.

Just to add further to the conversation inside of the ordinance, it also states that the business administrator has to uh have consultation with the public safety director in regards to any type of alternative um flexibilities in regards to the security.

So he has to have consultation with public safety to determine what's happening in and around the community and make sure that the residents are safe as well.

Thank you.

I agree, Mr.

President.

I I think that's a a great addition to the ordinance, but again, if you read the two and a half pages that are here, it doesn't include a lot of important information that councilman counsel mentioned on the record.

So I would ask the clerk if um we can just you know prepare a summary, make sure everybody has access to it because I think there's some very important details that the councilman mentioned that should be in this ordinance, and if it's not here today, then maybe later on we could add it.

Thank you, council members.

Anything else from the council?

Roll call.

Oh, I cut it off.

I apologize.

We finished, right?

No, we finished it.

Never read it all.

The clerk read the ordinance.

And Miss Salters got up and spoke.

And then I asked if there are any other speakers.

You did not read the ordinance.

Yes, yes, she did.

We can go back and look at the YouTube or the video.

It's there.

So I just read the order.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Mr.

Mohammed.

All right, roll call.

Uh with the note of sponsors council.

Oh, uh.

Roll call with the note of sponsors for.

Yes.

S P S F.

Well, go ahead, you say.

Council President.

Council members, I neglected to mention that both ordinances are sponsored by councilman counsel and second by councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Thank you.

Roll call.

They accent, council.

Yes.

And Dallas.

Yes.

Hellie.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, I'm C and I abstain on D.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

So by accent.

President Crump.

Yes.

E is an ordinance granting a 35-year tax abatement to 10 Park Place, Norwich LLC, for the adaptive reuse of the property located at 10 Park Case into a 10-story high-rise elevator building.

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

Ali Mohammed, just one minute.

Well, I just said to Miles, but I appreciate this.

I think this is the best thing he ever did since he's been in the town.

And I known him since 1979 when we were young men.

This is great.

This is brilliant.

This is wonderful.

This is giving people that it's affordable to live downtown with all these other bills that's not.

And believe me, he ain't had.

He could have played the same game like the rest of them.

20%.

80% of AMI.

I went on Facebook and put up Felicia in the building.

And I said, Felicia has something to do.

And the people don't understand.

50, 60,000 people viewed that.

60,000 people viewed that.

That this idea that's going to be affordable downtown.

And then why I said Felicia?

Because she was the only one talking to AMI.

And y'all thought she was crazy for five years.

Y'all, y'all was, oh, she ain't listening.

When she was telling you was wrong and everything, y'all was, oh, yo, y'all thought she was crazy, right?

But she was telling the truth until the mayor goes down at the forum and finally admits that is wrong, 8020.

But this man did it before that.

I know about the Zanzibar was there.

I know when he made the Robin, but probably into the Robert Tree.

I know when he took the card and made it into a fan.

I know about everything he done did because we came up together.

But this is a fantastic thing.

Now, I'm going to tell you something.

I didn't get a chance to say it this time, and I don't slip.

I might be semi-fleet, but I ain't slipped.

Security, he's gonna follow the security move.

What I was gonna say, Pat, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Because when I was on the housing board for the security, you said you wouldn't have passed the ordinance.

He paid, he wasn't gonna pass the, he wouldn't have passed the ordinance.

Mr.

Mohammad.

Wait, wait, I'm talking about security, and it's a part of this bill.

Oh no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

No, no, you ain't protecting nobody on this.

I'm saying this man, I got tape that this man said that we don't need security.

I was an advocate of security.

Listen to me, listen to me.

Listen to me.

This is about this is about a building and security.

I have an opportunity to say whatever you want.

I got some other stuff to say.

But I'm gonna say it here, I'm gonna say in this audience.

You said that when the people need something to call the police, you don't want me to get the transcript and the tape, do you?

Because you know I'll get the transcript and take.

Now you worrying about on Chancellor Avenue that somebody, man.

You wouldn't do it for the housing authority.

You remember when I said you ain't got I said you ain't got no skin in the game.

I said I got grandkid.

I'm gonna bring the transcript.

I'm asking you now, Mr.

Mohammed.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comments next speaker.

Fantastic mouth.

Oh, you somebody stop me.

Um, good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jeffrey Feld.

Um my family used to own Epstein Hardware in Orange, New Jersey.

And 10 years ago, I appeared, and I raised her in questions.

I wish Mr.

Pennington was here, and I would and I said it to your mother.

The first question is no one has a problem about the housing, but we have to make sure we're going under the right law.

I wish the mayor was here because I raised this 16 years ago.

The validity of a non-tax exempt, non-urban renewal entity sponsor, this is a mixed use affordable housing, Jersey Housing Mortgage Finance Agency long-term tax exemption.

There's an issue whether the HMFA long-term tax exemption still exists, or was whether it was repealed by the long-term tax exemption law.

I raised these issues because what you're talking about, you talk about land tax credits, like if you don't pay it, because one of the issues I raised is if you look at Jersey City and other municipalities, under an HMA long-term tax exemption, no monies go to the Board of Education.

Board of Education.

And when I raised that, the mayor stood up and he goes, and he told the former counsel 10 years ago, you better listen to this man.

He's right.

Why aren't you making sure that certain portions of these revenues are flowing to the Board of Education?

In addition, the way you have it structured, no monies go to the county.

And because of my efforts in the last 10 years, the county finally admitted that they weren't monitoring and collecting all the monies that are owed it.

And this is a time that we really had to make sure we're not against the renovation of the project, but we're doing it under the right law.

And when I brought this case against Newark, I did sue Newark.

They were fudging because there was something called third-party taxpayer standing.

Because of my challenge, the state legislature admitted and abolished that right.

And if you read the first paragraph of the opinion, Judge Fuentes twisted the law.

He said that you were granting a long-term tax exemption for affordable housing under long-term tax exemption law.

If that was the case, I would never brought the case.

You were suing under the HMFA long-term tax exemption.

I just ask you, many of you know me personally.

Know my family.

My family received the key to the city.

I was born invocation of the Prophet Micah to justice?

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon, Lisa Parker.

Good afternoon.

I have an issue with these long-term tax abatement and no disrespect to Mr.

Burger, who has created generational wealth for him and his family.

Not only has he received renovation subsidies from this council.

Now you're extending a tax abatement of which he owns an entire block over there, collecting revenues not only from the state, also from people that are homeless, etc.

You have an example of a building, the Halo building on Washington Street.

They never paid assessment taxes on that property, they're not paying their land taxes, and they have a 25 year tax abatement that none of you had put a motion forward to rescind their tax abatement for being in default and non-compliance of your rules.

The other thing is we have an established community that you haven't put forth now one piece of legislation to extend their tax abatement of over a thousand homeowners that are suffering due to increased taxes that we're supplementing all of these tax abatements for these developers that don't pay into our schools.

Thanks for mentioning that.

And develop these communities, and I'm not taking anything away from Mr.

Burger.

But how much are you going to give PERT to the developers instead of in lieu of writing legislation for the hard-working homeowners that are paying these increased taxes?

How long?

I dare one of you right now to take a motion to rescind the tax abatement you have on that Halo building that's leaning and is structurally unsafe.

Collecting dust, not one dime have you collected in assessment taxes, but they have the privilege of a 25-year tax abatement.

When are you gonna start working for the people instead of development?

And creating generational wealth and sustainability for the people that created these neighborhoods and are newarkers.

Just like everything else you do, nothingness for the people.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Walked in late on that security ordinance just as a point of privilege, because if I'd have known that's what was on the agenda when I walked in, I'd have came up here because it ain't working.

These tenants can't even get video footage from the buildings when incidents happening.

People are getting robbed in Montgomery Heights, 220 Urban Turner Boulevard, across the board and every entity.

And when the victim comes to the management, you're worrying about Mr.

Penitent and the police director getting it.

How about the victim?

How about the victim?

How about when people's cars are smashed and the video footage on the building has it?

So I don't know what you did over here, but we're gonna revisit that.

So let me get to this uh alleged affordable housing.

Alleged.

The application is out for the complex already, even though it's not being built, and NOC was supposed to have fresh preference, it's not even posted.

So here we go again with another wheel deal.

Well, you told the people's will have first preference, and the applications are zooming, building not even done, and no North preference.

But y'all voted on this last council meeting.

Rushed it through as an added starter, and not even following.

Go on now.

Look on here.

The first preference for North is not even there.

What you gonna do about it?

Again, 30-year tax abatement.

This ain't personal this business.

Mr.

Berger has made a lot of money in this city.

And he's gonna continue to.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Because we don't hold anybody accountable.

Well, how many affordable units out of these 169?

I'm not impressed.

Do the whole building.

Then I'll be impressed.

Lower the income down to under 60,000, then I'll be impressed.

We ain't did that.

What you got?

12, 4, 7, 27 studios.

I'm not impressed.

400 people today in that landlord tenant court getting put out.

I ain't impressed with this little bit.

Not at all.

Not at all.

And it's not personal.

These folks have made enough money off the backs of the poor people in this city.

Caught in hotel.

Y'all putting people in the in the uh Robert Street now.

And you're paying them.

When do the people get payback?

When do the people, no, I don't want to live downtown, so not even interested.

However, for those that do, make it where they could get in there.

So I dare y'all stop the application process and make Norkers number one.

That's what you told them.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Tebra Salters.

And there you have it.

Nurkers first.

We're gonna make sure.

Norkers always, they're gonna, oh yeah, we're gonna, yes.

You have these initiatives.

100% affordable, yes.

Affordable for whom, though?

Right?

Are we talking zero to fifty-five thousand a year?

Are we talking 35,000 to 70,000 per year?

Are we talking like the other folk, 80 to 100, like we need numbers, right?

We need uh, because affordable, according to the rubric, is 30% of your income, including your utilities, is paying for your rent and your utilities.

The other 70% is supposed to allow the people to be able to live, buy food, medication, take care of their kids, and a whole plethora of things.

So is this what we're talking about when we're saying affordable?

Or is it the regular cliche that everyone is using to get the tax credits and to get the people hyped up and excited?

This is where we are in Newark.

And again, let me reiterate.

And I'm not saying going against the law, but we have a template, you know, there's a rubric, there are things that we can do.

Is this what we are doing?

And I read the definition of affordable to you all last time.

Affordable means that life is made easier for the residents first.

Norkers first, not transplants that come here and then raise our AMI because they're making more money, but they're not from here.

They come here because it's cheaper than New York, Hobo, and Jersey City.

These are the things that are raising the average income of our Norkers.

It's not that Norkers are now getting jobs to where they're making 70, 80, 90,000 a year.

It's just not happening.

So are we tailoring?

The real definition of affordable to Newark residents, zero to 35,000, 0.

Zero.

So 55,000.

Simple.

These are questions, not comments.

That we've been asking.

No disrespect to anyone, except those who are trying to get over on the backs of the people.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Hearing nine.

Well, I'm sorry.

Good afternoon, Council President, members of the council and members of the public.

Jennifer Mazaway, I'm an attorney with KNL Gates, and I'm here on behalf of 10 Park Place Newark, which is the applicant for the tax abatement before the council today.

I just wanted to give a few highlights about the project, in particular for public that have spoken.

This is a hundred and ninety-six residential units.

Right in downtown and in the arts district.

We are seeking to set aside 10% of those units for seniors and 10% for artists.

With regard to the affordability calculations, they range from 27% AMI to the highest at 57.5% AMI, averaging out at 50.1% AMI.

So I do think those are important factors for the public to know and for the council to consider as you consider our application.

There is 4,500 square feet of retail slash commercial space, which we are providing at a discounted rate as part of our application as well.

I do know Mr.

Berger also would like to address the council briefly, but I wanted to get some of those uh nuts and bolts facts out as well.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

All right, let's let's have quiet in the gallery, please.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Uh council and public.

Um I'm Miles Berger, and I am the developer of Ten Park Place.

10 Park Place was an office building, as it's mentioned.

When I bought the building 35 years ago, Essex County was the tenant, and they stayed in the building for roughly 35 years.

They built bought and built their own new headquarters for the social services department and moved out.

It left me with an empty building, and it was determined by myself and my partners that we would develop this into residential housing.

But not residential housing 80-20, but 100% affordable.

This is a setting a record uh not only in Newark but possibly the state for the establishment of a building in a tremendous area of the city, one of the finest, uh, right next door to New Jersey Performing Arts Center to have a 100% affordable housing project with using 30% AMI also.

Many of the 80-20s don't get down to 30%, but this building does.

The state considers the construction or redevelopment of a building into 100% affordable, the community benefit itself, and it certainly is.

But in addition, here we have a community benefit for the retail space on the first floor, whereby that the rent for that space, and most likely that space will be a restaurant, as it's right next door to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, but it could be, could be a clothing store too, it could be anything.

The rate is set up for 20 years, and we're fixed and obligated to keep the rent at that.

The theory behind it is that this will make this space more affordable and make it more easy for a community, a local person in Newark to rent that space and operate a business that they desire to open up uh in that area.

It is our intention to do this uh project.

We'll take about a year and three quarters to build.

Now, why did we chose a 100% affordable instead of 80 20?

Which it could have been.

Aspire supports 80 20, pilots support 80 20.

I've been in Newark for 50 51 years practically, and like you heard from Mr.

Mohammed before, I've been successful in business here, and I felt this was time to pay back the community, give back the community.

If I made it 80 20, then only 20% or roughly uh 40 units would be affordable.

This is the opportunity for those that need affordable apartments in the city to have a hundred and ninety-six units.

It's unprecedented.

The apartments are going to be beautiful, they're in the best location that the city has, and I ask for your support on this project.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Hearing no other speakers, public hearing is now closed.

Council, I'm sorry, wait a minute.

Do you want to speak on this matter?

No.

Okay.

We're just dealing with this matter.

No.

We just closed public hearing.

She had stood up and was walking towards.

No, you didn't even look.

Let's not do that, Miss Montague.

So uh councilwoman Bay.

I wanted to speak.

No.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, so first of all, I just want to say that we know that um affordable housing is a priority of this administration is a priority of the city, and that's something that we've been striving for long before I got in the seat, and for as long as Mayor Baraka has been in office.

With that being said, um we need to be clear when we talk about um blaming or putting things on the city regarding what's affordable.

I understand exactly what you're saying because this is my job all day, every day to help the unhoused and to make sure that people find affordable housing and to keep people um prevent homelessness.

But we know that the city does not say and do the calculations for affordable housing.

That comes from HUD.

That is a federal calculation that comes from the Department of Housing and Urban Development that they use and they do not use the City of Newark as a standalone municipality, that the City of Newark is lumped into a region or they that includes other municipalities that have an average um income of six seventy-six, ninety-six thousand dollars.

So when they do the calculation, that's where they get that from.

And so the city of Newark and the developers that come in are doing that based on those calculations.

That is not from the city of North.

The city of North does not say what the calculation is, and we all know that.

That is not an opinion, that is fact.

Also, with this particular project, what I wanted to do, and I wanted to ask um a couple of questions because um the attorney, I'm sorry, I I forgot your name.

Jennifer, um, if you could, you and Mr.

Kirk, y'all could come back.

Um, because when you um when you stated, so I I hate to cut you, councilwoman.

We we don't normally do a back and forth like this.

Okay, but I had some questions.

You have some questions for direct.

Okay, all right.

I'm sorry, go ahead, go right ahead.

Go right.

Oh, that's relaxed.

She's going ahead.

Oh my god.

We're good.

We're good, we're good.

Oh, please, councilwoman, yes, continue.

Okay, so you had mentioned about um the 10% set asides for for seniors, okay.

And the reason I'm I'm calling you back to ask you about that is because in the information that was said that it would be a good faith effort.

I want to make sure that there's a guarantee in there that there's this 10% set aside, not just a good faith effort for the seniors as well as the people with disabilities, because this is something that's very important, and I appreciate and applaud the burger organization for doing that because that is something that's very important.

I just want to make sure that that is something that is guaranteed the same way that it was mentioned about making sure that um Norkers are able to make sure that we get, I don't know if you want to call it first price of refusal, but first access, because again, that's important.

We know that is well documented um the history of of the burgers organization's uh contribute uh contribution to growth and development in the city, and we also know and understand how important it is to make sure that we have those things in place.

So I just want to make sure that I'm clear on what you said versus what was written, that it's not good faith effort, that is a guarantee.

Well, it it's best faith efforts.

Thank you, thank you, councilwoman.

It's best faith efforts because we have to make sure that HMFA, which is the organization to whom we're going for the low-income housing tax credits, will allow us to do the 10% set aside for seniors.

If it is permitted, we will do it.

And there are steps in the in the financial agreement that we we're mandated to follow, so to ensure that we're using every possible effort, best effort to ensure that the set aside is there.

We want to have that set aside.

It really for us was a matter of whether we're permitted to do so with HMFA under under HUDS laws, so but we are we are committed to doing so, and I think the language in the financial agreement lays that out.

We have to do it unless the law doesn't allow us to do it.

I hope that's a that's that's as much of a guarantee as I can give because it does require us to have that okay from HMFA, but otherwise we have to do it.

So I just I know that we don't do the back and forth, but I definitely do want to do some follow-up conversations and meetings regarding this because there's some things that we need to clarify.

All right, thank you, Councilwoman, anything else from the council?

Roll call.

Council members Bay, yes, council, yes, Gonzalez, yes, Kelly, yes, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, Silva absent, President Crump, yes, resolutions 7R1A through E are temporary emergency appropriations.

A is for the traffic calming project, B is the hypertensive quality project, C is data management to support the hypertensive quality project, D is for the Sun Up Summer Food Program, sponsored by Councilman Kelly, second by councilwoman Scott Roundtree, and E is the Plan for Health New Jersey grant council as a whole to adopt A through E with sponsors, roll call, Council members Bay, yes, Council, Condolence, yes, Kelly, yes, Pana, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, yes, absent, President Clump, yes, F through J are purchasing contracts.

F is a co-op agreement for document management and records retention.

G is a bid contract for fire equipment installation, sponsored by councilman Kelly, second by councilwoman Bay.

H is a bid contract for lead and healthy homes hazardous inspection.

I is a bid contract for blood test kits and lead analyzers, and J is the career exploration for the summer youth employment program, sponsored by councilwoman bay, second by councilman Kelly.

Council as a whole to adopt F through J with sponsors.

Roll call council members Bay.

Yes, Council, yes, and dollars, yes, Kelly, yes, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, Councilwoman Roundtree.

Scott Round.

Yes.

I got you.

Silva absent President Crump.

Yes.

Okay, is the acceptance of grant funds from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for the upgrade and rehabilitation of the Newark YMCA.

Sponsored by Councilwoman Bay?

Second by Councilman Kelly.

Roll call.

Councilmember's bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Mintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva.

Absent.

President Clump.

Yes.

L.

Council as a whole to return to the administration.

Roll call.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Gitana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

7 R2A through L are private sale of redevelopment agreements.

A is construction of new two-family residential dwelling to be sold at market rate in the South Board.

Motion to defer by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilman Kelly.

Roll call to defer.

Council members.

They.

Yes to defer.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes to defer.

Mintana.

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President?

Yes.

B is new construction of three two-family homes to be sold at market rate in the South Board.

Sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Roll call.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Mintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva.

Absent.

President.

Yes.

C is a motion to defer by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Kintana.

I'm sorry.

I believe Councilman.

Councilman Kelly.

Yes.

I would uh like to move it forward.

Certainly.

My apologies.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Gandana.

Roll call.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Mintana?

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

D is construction of a new three-family residential dwelling with each unit to be rented at market rate in the North Ward.

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Mintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

Council President, Council members, before I group.

I just want to double check E through G.

For all motions to defer.

But I can go through individually if there's a no.

Which one do you want to?

Councilman Kelly?

I would like to move F forward.

Yeah.

Moving G forward.

702G.

Okay.

We'll go through them individually.

No problem.

Okay.

Thank you.

E is a motion to defer by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilman Kelly.

Roll call to defer.

Council members Bay.

Yes to defer.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes to defer.

Mintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

F is construction of two new three family or two family homes to sell at market rate in the West Ward.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Kintana.

Roll call.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Montana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

G is construction of a residential development with a minimum of sixteen units in the South Ward.

Sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilman Kelly.

Roll call.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalezales.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Montana?

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva Absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

H through L are amendments to private cell redevelopment agreements.

H is to correct the sale and appraisal amount.

I is to correct the property description.

J is to change the project description.

K is to change the property description.

And L is designating a redeveloper.

Council as a whole to adopt H through L.

Roll call.

Council members.

A.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzales?

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

M through R of the balance of economic development resolutions.

M is to authorize the execution of an assignment and assumption agreement.

N is approving an amended assignment and assumption of a financial agreement.

O is approving housing and mortgage finance agency agreement.

Sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilman Kelly.

P is a need for housing project and essential ward.

Q is a support for tax credits sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

And R is a is a support for tax credits.

Council as a whole to adopt M through R with sponsors, please.

Roll call.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Midana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Clump.

Yes.

7R3A through C are engineering resolutions.

A is for the extension of time for the municipal aid program for street resurfacing.

B is installation of pavement markings on various streets.

And C is for the paving project.

Council as a whole to adopt A through C.

Rocco.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Montana?

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

Mr.

President.

Councilman Ramos.

No, we had a lot of discussion yesterday on 7R3A and I forgot to ask the the schedule from the department on when these streets are going to get paved, being that this is the second extension.

So through your chair and the clerk that the department can give that to us in writing.

I would appreciate it.

Thank you, Councilman.

7R4A, Council as a whole to return to the administration.

Roll call to return to administration.

Mr.

President, if we can get information as to why these are being returned, is this the second time it comes up on the agenda?

Alright, so we'll quest that information through the court.

Is that there are at least one or two properties in the ward that are problematic that are on this list?

So you know they're it's one on Broadway in particular.

That's um source of a lot of illegal dumping.

So we can get a response at some point.

Thank you, Councilman.

Roll call to return.

Council members, they, yes, council, yes, Gonzales.

Yes, Kelly, yes, Ramos, yes, Scott Roundtree, Silva Accent, President Crump.

Yes.

B through E are all finance resolutions.

B and C are stipulation of settlements for tax appeals.

D is the alternate method for calculating the reserves for uncollected taxes.

And E is to authorize the tax collector to issue estimated tax bills for the third quarter of 2026.

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

Roll call.

Council members.

They?

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Montana?

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Clump.

Yes.

7R5 A through D are contracts with grant recipients for emergency housing program.

A is Circle of Life Treatment Center.

B is emergency housing services.

C is for J's House.

And D is Turning Point.

Council as a whole to adopt A through D.

Roll call.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzales?

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Mintana?

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva Accent.

President Crump.

Yes.

E through Q are contracts with sub-recipients to provide Ryan White HIV services.

E is for Apostle House.

F is A's Resource Foundation.

G is Edge, New Jersey.

H is High CN Foundation.

I is Norwick Bed Disroy Medical Center.

J is North Jersey Community Research Initiative.

K is Rutgers Infectious Disease Program.

L is St.

James Social Services Corporation.

M is Urban Renewal Corporation.

N is Newark Community Health Centers.

O is Zoofall Health Center.

P is Future Bridge Business Solutions.

And Q is Public Strategies.

Council as a whole to adopt E through Q.

Roll call.

Council members Bay?

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva Accent.

President Crump.

Yes.

R through V are additional resolutions from the Health Department.

R is the data management support for the hypertensive quality project.

S is advocacy support for the hypertensive quality project.

T is professional service contract for the certified led evaluation contractor.

U is an open-ended contract to provide animal impoundment and sheltering.

And V is to provide a psychiatric nurse practitioner and medical director that will provide field-based services to homeless North residents.

Council as a whole to adopt R through V, please.

Roll call.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Uh yes on all, and I abstain on you.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

Mr.

President.

Councilman Ramos.

Some time ago I had requested through the chair and the clerk's office for us to schedule some kind of tour of the Humane Society.

We do get a lot of calls and complaints from volunteers and other stakeholders about the poor conditions that some of these animals are being housed in.

So I think it'd be, you know, we we do invest a considerable amount of money in these services.

So I think it's important for the council or subcommittee of the council to have an opportunity to go out there with some of these advocates that reach out to us so that we can do a walkthrough of the facility.

Thank you.

7R6A through G.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, for Ramos.

And just through so this this contract for almost a half a million dollars is only for three months.

So, you know, we're looking upwards of 1.5 million a year that we're spending on animal sheltering.

Thank you.

7R6A through G are settlements from the law department.

Council as a whole to adopt A through G.

Roll call.

Council members B.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzales.

I'm going to abstain on the call.

Kelly?

Yes.

Mintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes, on all except of abstaining on G.

H and I are professional services contracts for litigation defense.

Council as a whole to adopt H and I.

Roll call.

Council members Fay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Nandales?

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

7R8A through E are Council resolutions.

A is waiving a special event fee for restoring love on Sherla Avenue Block Party.

Sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

B is reappointing the clerk.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

C is a resolution urging Governor Mikey Sherrell to close the Lady Hall.

Sponsored by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Second by Councilman Kelly.

D is recognizing and commending resolutions.

And E is expressing profound sorrow and regret.

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

Robocall?

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva accent.

President Crump.

Yes.

Councilman Gonzalez.

There is a vacancy at the second river.

By my exiting the council.

So the council must approve someone to replace me at that.

So I would think at the next meeting at the next remote.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We are working.

Continue, please.

7R9A and B of public safety resolutions.

A is for the Shared Services Agreement with Essex County.

And B is authorizing an involuntary disability retirement.

Council as a whole to adopt A and B.

Roll call.

Council members A.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

7R 11A through C are recreation, cultural affairs, and senior services resolutions.

A is provide meals to North children through the Sun Up Summer Food Program.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilwoman Bay.

B is accepting a gift of free lunch.

Sponsored by Councilwoman Bay.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

And E is accepting a gift from Netflix.

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

Roll call.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Nintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva accent.

President Crump.

Yes.

Communications.

8A is an ordinance granting a 20-year tax abatement to 452 South Orange Avenue Urban Renewal LLC for a project located in the West Ward to construct a five-story mixed use building.

Motion to advance and adopt as 6FA.

Sponsor.

I'm sorry.

C.

Please forgive me.

6FC.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilman Council.

Roll call.

Advance and adopt.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

And Dallas.

Yes.

Kelly?

Yes.

Mintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Round Tree.

Yes.

So the absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

B is an ordinance granting a 20-year tax abatement to 581 South 16th Street Urban Renewal LLC for a project in the West Ward to construct a new low-rise multifamily building with 20 residential units.

Motion to advance and adopt on first reading as 6F.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Council members.

They.

Yes.

Council.

Yes.

Gonzales.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

President.

Yes.

C is an ordinance granting a 25-year tax abatement to Concielo.

Homes Urban Renewal LLC for a project located in the North Ward to construct a new five-story residential building with 65 residential units.

Council as a whole to advance and adopt on first reading as 6F.

E.

We should advance and adopt the C in advance and adopt on first reading.

E.

E.

as an Edward, yes.

E as an Edward.

Proco.

Council members.

They.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva accent.

President Crump.

Yes.

D is an ordinance amending stopping, standing, and parking by adding a new section entitled Limitations on Parking of Motive Vehicles by Certain Commercial Establishments.

Sponsored by Councilman Ramos.

Second by Councilman Silva.

There's also a motion to advance and adopt on first as 6 F.

Roll call.

Second.

Oh, we didn't lose second.

Uh, second by Councilman Kintana.

Roll call.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva.

Accent.

President Crump.

Yes.

Mr.

President.

Councilman Ramos.

For those that weren't tuned in to yesterday's meeting, I just want to say thank you to the clerk's office and the police division for their work on this ordinance.

Um this this attempts to address some the many complaints that we get about auto repair shops, car dealerships, um, mechanic shops that uh in many instances years ago were zoned in residential communities in North.

We get a lot of complaints about these establishments taking up parking on the street, double parking vehicles, parking vehicles on the sidewalk, and and most recently in North, we have mechanic shops that are now subletting spaces within their establishment to different mechanics, and one mechanic shop at any given time could be working on anywhere from twenty to thirty vehicles, which creates an incredible quality of life complaint.

Unfortunately, many of these vehicles are registered in the state of New Jersey, so if they park on the street, the police division has very little recourse as far as dealing with the many complaints that we get from residents.

So, you know, I'm hopeful that that this is a good first step.

The police division feels that there are some provisions here that are going to be helpful to them in addressing some of the complaints that we get on a daily basis.

The other thing it does is it gives those communities that are being negatively affected by these establishments, um, you know, the right to petition for for residential parking.

And I know the city's kind of shied away from granting a residential parking permit because it does, in some instances, create problems for neighboring communities, but I think in those areas that are mostly residential that do have a large presence of these shops, it does make sense.

So that's it, Mr.

President.

Thank you, Councilman.

E is an ordinance authorizing amendments to the bylaws of investor.

Council as a whole to advance and adopt on first reading as 6 FG.

Roll call.

Council members Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Abstain.

Kelly?

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Sova absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

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

And a public hearing will be held at a regular meeting on July 15th or soon thereafter.

Councilman Gonzalez.

So I believe that when we requested some information, it should be provided to us before we exercise the right to.

Thank you, Councilman.

And so the expectation is before we vote on this matter again that even though Councilman you'll be gone, we'll still get that information.

Let me take that opportunity and uh and thank uh my counseling colleagues, the administration, and the NOIC public for the support that we have got that I have gotten for the last 20 years.

He has been the experience of my life.

We appreciate you, Councilman.

And thank you so much.

And what I what I will say to you, councilman, is you're gonna have to stay till the end of the meeting because we're all gonna want to say something about you.

You're gonna stay to the very end today, thank you.

I don't know if I'm gonna be here at the end, but I I just want to um wish my colleague the very best on his retirement.

You know, Carlos and I came in together in uh 2006.

Um I was very disappointed and unhappy for a while when he announced that he wasn't interested in running uh for re-election.

You know, I think Carlos is definitely a class act, you know, person who brings uh level of integrity and independence to this legislative body that I think we've all uh benefited from incredibly.

So, you know, I wish you well.

I know um your contributions to the community in the city are not done with, uh, but you you definitely deserve to enjoy the next phase of your life and on behalf of um residents of the North Ward.

Your leadership is definitely gonna be missed.

God bless you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So we're gonna save it till the end, unless anybody has to leave.

Okay.

Just continue with agenda.

Item 10 miscellaneous 10 A is approval of the raffle license.

Council as a whole to adopt, roll call.

Council members Bay, yes.

Council.

And dollars, yes, Kelly.

Absent, yes.

Ramos, yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes, Sova absent.

President Clump.

Yes, added starters.

7R2 SAS.

Is support for university hospital project.

Sponsored by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Second by councilwoman Day.

Roll call.

Council members.

Bay?

Yes.

Council, yes.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos?

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva.

Absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

2 T A S is a private sale redevelopment of new construction of two family homes in the South Board.

Sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Rocco.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council.

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Quintana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

U A S is the need for housing project in the South Board.

Sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second.

By Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Rocco.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council.

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva accent.

President Crump.

Yes.

B A S is a resolution of support for tax credits sought by the developer for property in the South Ward.

Sponsored by Councilman Council.

Second by Councilwoman Scott Roundtree.

Rocco.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

Gonzalez?

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

Silva accent.

President Crump.

Yes.

7 R6 J A S is settlement of civil litigation.

Council as a whole to adopt.

Roll call.

Council members.

Bay.

Yes.

Council?

Yes.

And Dallas.

Abstain.

Kelly.

Yes.

Intana?

Yes.

Ramos.

Yes.

Got Roundtree?

Yes.

Silva absent.

President Crump.

Abstain.

Seven R 8 FAS is a whole harmless for the Dominican Pride Day.

Sponsored by Councilman Kintana.

Second.

Second by Councilman Ramos.

Councilman Gonzalez.

Why is it that we are giving this to a person and not doing situation?

Uh the president.

This is a this is an event at the statue of Duarte.

And this is an event that's being hosted right there.

Here is a Puerto Rican parade.

I mean a Dominican parade like a Puerto Rican parade, but there's other different festivals.

This is like a festival, not a parade.

Well, this is a poor.

This is a city city property.

I don't think that we should give a let's say a home round list to an individual simply because uh he is the organizer.

Well we do a lot of uh uh community uh community parties, events, uh, and and and this is just a gathering of uh bringing some folks together.

This is not a vendors and this is about just a uh a ceremonial, so we could vote it up or down however you want, but I'm gonna I'm supporting it.

I think let's show I I believe that let's say the the council should uh legal council should give an opinion on this because uh we are exempting someone from liability for on a property that he doesn't own this property.

This is a city owned property, it's a city owned statute, uh so why are we giving uh an exemption to an individual?

We're just giving the right for them to use to utilize this to gather as a cultural event of the we are giving him let's say an exemption of liability.

Say home hardless, uh whole harmless uh resolution or we're calls sponsoring, that's what it is.

Do we have legal counsel?

Uh uh is anybody from core council in here?

No, we have the BA here that is like he's he's not here in that capacity, so uh uh nobody from the legal department is in the room.

So we have three or four of them, and now we don't have any, huh?

We gotta go do mine.

Uh yeah, miss Mr.

President Ramo.

Um I think we've I understand what Councilman Gonzalez is saying.

So this is a private essentially like any other private group that's hosting an event on a city owned property and they see seek some kind of whole harmless because he's right, it is a park that's owned by the city, but any private organization that's hosting an event.

Um, I don't know, Eric, you're many years in law school.

Come on, you gotta weigh in on this one, bro.

So uh uh maybe this will work in terms of saying in the care of Santiago, as opposed to just the it should be through the organization that he represents.

We know the organization.

We can so we can make that.

We could just as a scrivener's error.

Right.

Yeah, and we'll replace the we'll scrivener's error, replace it with the actual organization, but it's the care organization with the care of Santiago, okay?

Yes, yeah, all right.

Everybody, all hearts and minds are clear.

Pro call.

Council members, okay?

Yes, council, yes, Gonzalez.

We'll put it in there.

It's on you.

Yes.

Okay.

Kelly.

Yes, I'm Ramos.

Yes.

Scott Roundtree.

Yes.

So about absent President Crump.

Yes.

A F-A-S.

Is an ordinance establishing the accessory dwelling unit assistance program and authorizing the use of federal pro housing grant funds?

Motion to advance and adopt on first reading as six F H.

Sponsored by Councilman Kelly, second by council as a whole.

Roll call to advance and adopt.

Council members say.

Yes.

Councilman?

Yes.

Gonzalez.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Ramos.

Abstain.

Scott Round Tree?

Yes.

So absent.

President Crump.

Yes.

And Mr.

President.

Councilman Ramos.

Um at some point, can we schedule the department to come in to talk to us a little bit about these ADUs?

I know yesterday we started a conversation.

Um and councilman counsel and I raised some concerns about the existing illegal ADUs that we have all over the city and and how this the administration plans on addressing you know those uh illegal constructions.

I mean, just past weekend when we participated in the city's um cleanup, right off of Barona Avenue.

There's property that belongs to the old rail line that they decided to sub-lease to a um truck operator who stores pallets, and inside that property there is an ADU, like somebody lives in a trailer on that property because the person pulled up and um, you know, we we asked a few questions, so they're renting property along the rail line inside a gator community that um you know we we know nothing about, you know, and it presents a a safety issue for that family that lives there, but at the same time the city has no records of this apartment, and there's a lot of those around town.

Thank you, councilman.

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 Mr.

Alif Mohammed.

Appearing.

Alif Muhammad, good afternoon.

Alif Mohammed Asalam Alaykum.

Alif Muhammad Court Towers.

Alif Muhammad, the president of Ali Muhammad in the school.

I presented something to Carlos.

Gonzalez.

And I'm a Muslim, and I want to say what God says that when people help the needy, he said, helping the weak and the poor is considered the fundamental religious duty and the supplemental act of worship.

Wealth is viewed as a trust from Allah and sharing the less fortune is a meaning spiritual.

That's Islam.

And Christianity I got.

Christianity views help the weak and the poor as a fundamental mandate and a direct expression of faith.

Scriptures teach that defending the magnificence and the act of obedience, honor to God, and the reflection of faith.

So that's the highest thing a person could do.

More so than giving is looking out for the poor.

And that man did it.

And I just want to thank our law for him.

Allah bless him and his family.

You know, I mean, I'm gonna miss him.

I was hoping he could do uh uh was Silver did, was staying out of Abe Graham, stay out of town to stay on the floor.

You know, but I got my girl.

Now, I want to talk about Delaney Hall real quick.

I put up a thing and it says Delaney Hall had immigrants 2013 to 2017 in North New Jersey, and none of y'all said nothing about it, none of y'all came and none of y'all, whatever.

I remember because everybody was hollering at Joey D.

Nobody.

And I want to say something about Delaney Hall.

And I want to say it to Louise the most, because you're mentoring the Monica, you're a mentor to her.

And I am not getting into who's guilty, not guilty.

Whatever happened, it broke my heart.

Everybody I'll tell you, my heart is broken.

But I go back to when Adonisio was a congressperson.

I go back when Rodino was the Congressperson, and Donald Payne couldn't beat him, and we as a black town.

He didn't get the job, Donald Payne Sr.

until Rodino retired.

But Donald Payne Jr.

held that office in such class and dignity, such class and dignity.

What the Monica did guilty, not guilty, whatever, don't make no difference.

It was unacceptable, and her mentor should tell her that.

Her behavior was unacceptable.

And as a mentor, you're supposed to tell somebody when you write.

Now, Delaney Hall, when the police was locking up the mayor, I was wondering why his detail backed up.

So I asked the cop.

I said, Why did they back up?

He said, We're taught that when we, when the fairs come in, we have to back up.

We don't leave our detail, but we step back because it supersedes everything.

You got lawyers here.

The federal thing supersedes everything.

You don't go down there and bust in a federal agency and say this is what you want to do.

You can't do it.

What you do is you go to court, and then the court already ruled against you already in last July.

So this is all political BS.

It's a political BS.

Now, Pat, what I want to talk about was the security.

But when you sat on the board with me, housing, my biggest issue, and everybody will tell you is that I wanted the enforcement of security, especially for the housing authority.

And you didn't fight with me.

You told me that if you was been there on a council meeting.

Now remember now, you're on tape, and you on transcripts.

You said you wouldn't have voted for it.

Then one time we had an argument because Myrna and Kim was talking about something, you said, Oh, uh, well, call the police if you want security.

And I went crazy on you.

And the reason why I went crazy on you because I said I got grandchildren and great-grandchildren and the housing authority.

I got skin in the game.

And I told you you didn't have skin in the game.

Remember the conversation?

I said, because you live on Sheer Avenue and you see a protection.

But now you talk of security because of building a channel.

How come you're not pushing it for the housing authority?

The most low income people.

Now all of a sudden, you're jumping up on it.

Now, if you don't change your mind, I'll bring in the text in the video, my brother.

I don't play.

You know that.

That don't mean I don't still love you, but it should have learned you out of 45,000 votes.

Only 1,500 people voted for you.

That's a wake up call.

Well, make a mass.

Thank you for your comments, next speaker.

All right.

Appearing.

Good afternoon.

My name is Opalar Wright.

I reside at Vanderpol Street, North New Jersey.

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

Title Six Improvements to Regulation of Bank and Savings Association, Holding Companies, and Depository Institutions.

Section 62.

There's a concentration limitation on large financial firms.

The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 is amended by adding at the end the following that.

It's in that section.

And title.

This is the improvement.

Okay.

There is the qualified theft lenders.

Section 624.

It says that the homeowners act is amended by striking subparagraph A and inserting the following.

In general, a savings association that fails to become or remains a qualified thrift lender shall immediately be subject to the restrictions under sub-paragraph B.

And the sub-paragraph B first clause by striking subclause three and inserting the following.

Three, dividends these savings association may not pay dividends except for dividends that would be permissible for a national bank, are necessary to meet obligations of a company that controls such savings association and are specifically approved by the Comptroller of the Currency and the Board after a written request submitted to the Comptroller of the Currency of the Board.

In section 628, credit card bank small business lending, says that section 2C2Fifth Clause of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 is amended by inserting period before the following it says the other than credit card loans that are made to businesses that meet the criteria for a small business concern to be eligible for business loans under regulations established by the small business administration under part 121 of title 13 code of federal regulations there is in Title 7 Wall Street Transparency and Accountability.

Thank you for your comments.

For the record, as we before, I don't want to interrupt the speakers, but on the resolution of the Home Harmless Agreement, it was a mistake because Mr.

Santiago Aniawa is the organizer, the name of the entity, and it's incorporated.

It's Central Dominicano or Medicano of New Jersey.

I'm clerk, I wrote it down for you, and they're incorporated.

So that's the name of for the record.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

Next speaker.

Lisa Mitchison Parker.

Appearing.

Good afternoon, criminal co that's running our government.

Let me address all of you political prostitutes that denied me entrance to a senior fashion show stating this isn't a political event.

You made it political using a city sponsored event to promote your campaign.

I'm a senior, I'm registered, and I had a ticket.

How dare you?

The same you did at the JFK to try to remove me and Gail Cheney Field Jenkins.

I've come to this podium for 20 years for the people.

You political prostitutes have done nothing for the people but enrich yourselves.

How dare you?

In March, 400 residents joined the planning board meeting to oppose the 150 unit project by KS group, and we know who they are, the political advisor to the mayor and Daniel Spiegel to oppose it that was voted against in March, right before the election, and come this past June voted in favor of it.

Going against the community.

Again, yet Roundtree and others voted in favor of the project.

Let's talk about the donations from the KS group to influence the board and the voting that you do here for these developers.

Baraka, 42,600.

Bay, 5,200.

Silver, $2,000.

McGuire, $2,500.

Venice, $1,000.

That's uh Silver's person on the on the school boy.

And Crump, $1,000.

Round Tree $200.

You sell us out for $250.

Eight prime properties in the central ward to the KS group.

Three properties in the East Ward.

Round Tree is a council, a commissioner on the planning board, and sits on a tax committee.

How is this not a conflict of interest when you voting on these things and giving perks and going against what the people want in the community?

And every last one of y'all that got an appointment on that board.

Land use was changed to accommodate developers, not the community.

The point here is these same political prostitutes that come to our community for votes.

KS Group never amended the RDA from 60 units to get approval for you from you for a hundred and fifty units.

Why didn't you bring them back to the table?

You didn't represent our interests.

How dare you?

Lastly, Gonzalez, I know you for 20 years.

God bless your retirement.

Yet not one of those years did you legislate to help my community.

You voted to raise our property taxes.

Now you want taxpayers to foot the bill for your health insurance.

The city is no longer in state health benefits.

How are you using a state statute when you are self-insured?

You have changed the insurance of these people more than 10 times.

And the union, the bargaining union said you're supposed to keep the people whole, not give them less than what they already had.

And what about the people that work full-time that was minutes away from their 25 years?

You laid off and they didn't get health benefits.

How dare you?

In all my years coming to this podium, it was always about the people.

When I said the city was bankrupt and broke at 688 million compounded debt and deficit that this administration saddled us in debt.

Starting with our budget that none of y'all had that y'all introduced last month.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Ms.

O'Frey, not appearing.

Pablo.

Sorry, hold on a second.

Councilman Ramos.

I did review the um concern that Miss O'Fray had, and I just want to thank the engineering department because they reached out to us.

The summary of the response to her concern.

So I'll send it to the clerk so she can share it with the council.

Thank you.

Continue.

Pablo Olivera.

Mr.

Olivera, I don't see him.

Not appearing.

Darnella Lee.

I know I saw her.

I saw her today.

Arnello Lee.

All right, not appearing.

My Kara Bradley.

Appearing.

Not sustainable.

Okay, no, no.

Come on.

That's all right.

All right.

Uh-uh.

Not today, bitch.

I am.

So there's no talking back to Miss Montague.

Wait, wait, wait.

Oh, miss.

I get the case.

Miss Bradley.

No, Miss Bradley, you look forward here, deal with us.

Miss Montague, please do not call out anybody.

Thank you.

I ain't calling nobody.

I didn't say you did.

Just let's just speak to me.

Not supposed to antagonize nobody that don't talk to you, right?

You're not supposed to push buttons.

Girl, I'm a civilian.

Come on.

We're not gonna do this.

Both of you.

Both of you.

Everybody take a breath.

Calm down.

Let's finish the meeting.

Without all.

All right.

You gotta give her a time.

Oh, let's go, Miss Bradley.

Go ahead, Miss Bradley.

I'm coming.

Is it good?

Shut up.

I am your business.

Miss Black, too.

No comment.

Nobody needs to comment.

Just nobody comment and let her speak.

I'm trying to find my paper.

You know, uh forget.

Miss Bradley, we'll start the time over.

Are you sure?

Wait, oh wait, yeah, uh no, you you can't there's no going back.

So if you okay, all right.

Well, Felicia Alston Singleton.

Not appearing.

Lamont Vaughn.

Not appearing.

Deborah Salters.

Appearing.

Um I have a couple uh proposals I need to be copied and given to the fly.

If you can, I'm gonna speak in a minute.

All right, Deborah Salters, City of Newark.

Um, I have two proposals that I'm giving to the council.

One is for to reform the New York City Council structure and compensation, and the other one is for time uh term limits, but I'll get into all of that.

Executive summary.

This proposal recommends two structural reforms to improve accountability, reduce taxpayer costs, and strengthen neighborhood representation in Norfolk, New Jersey.

One, reduce compensation for Newark City Council members through salary restructuring and tighter expense controls, two, eliminate two at large city council seats, and transition to what a more district focused representation model.

The purpose of these reforms is to reduce unnecessary government spending, improve accountability between residents and elected officials, strengthen ward-based representation, modernize Nork's municipal governance structure, restore public confidence in local government.

Background.

At the same time, council salaries and associated expenses have increased despite ongoing concerns regarding affordability, public safety, infrastructure, housing costs, and city services.

Residents increasingly expect government to demonstrate fiscal discipline and prioritize essential services over administrative growth.

Section one, council compensation reform proposal.

Reduce the annual compensation of New York City Council members by establishing a revised salary structure.

Recommended salary structure, current salary, proposed salary, council president, the council board members, and the at-large members would be reduced by 50%, as it is a part-time position.

Now I can keep keep going with this, and um I'll like I said, I'm gonna pass out uh copies to you all.

The point is for reducing the council at-large seats from four to two because it over time, and it's been demonstrated that the work is only getting done by one and a half people on that council.

So you have five aides per council person, right?

With a minimum salary of 55,000 each, um, you have the $95,000 salary of the council people up there, except for the president who gets $105,000, and where is the productivity from all of this, right?

When I've done the assessment over time, like I said, I've tried to get all four council people together, the at-largest, to come and do work in the city, and I'll stand there with them, and I'm like, oh, well, just talk to Roundtree about it.

If I gotta talk to Round Tree all the time and she's the only one doing most of the work in the streets, why do we need four positions?

That'll save us money, a grand total of $740,000 a year.

Not to mention the vehicles and the gas that you all get, along with all the other perks.

Because now we're talking about being uh in a fiscal deficit and all of these things, and then the people who are doing the work in the city aren't getting a livable wage salary.

Meanwhile, you all are living off the fat of the land, many of you with two six-figure salaries, and now we're talking about giving Gonzalez lifetime benefits when our city workers don't have adequate benefits, they don't have adequate pay.

Our DPW workers don't have adequate pay.

So why are we paying four people when only two are getting the work done or one and a half?

So that's the purpose of wanting to restructure, and if you all choose not to move it forward, we will put an initiative on the November ballot to push this thing forward because if we're talking about Norkers benefiting, norkers living, norkers being able to thrive and actually live here, then some changes need to be made.

If they're not getting paid adequately, they don't have adequate health insurance, just doing fire sales on property, which is ridiculous in the city, then this is a way to give back to the community.

Stop wasting our money on doing nothing, and let's take those two positions and that 740,000 plus, because that was just a minimum of 55 per aid salary.

Some of these aides are getting 70,000, right?

And then when you look at the ones Lamonica's aides that kept their jobs the entire time she was gone, and then two of them got moved to another department.

So we need to now make fiscally responsible decisions.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Monique Rodwell.

Monique Broadwell, Monique Rodwell.

Not appearing.

Shirley A.

Branch.

Shirley Branch appearing.

Good afternoon, members of the chamber.

Miss Bradford, you pull the microphone down so we can hear you.

There you go.

Thank you.

Okay, good afternoon.

My name is Sheldon Branch.

I resign at 151 Quinton Street.

This is simply tenant landlord problem.

Please hear me out.

Sewer smell.

Okay.

What I wanted the landlord to do once I um.

Boy, this is so hard.

Uh when I recognize this odor was in my apartment, I just wanted him to locate exactly where the smell is coming from within the wall structure of the apartment or the basement.

Okay, February 26th, the landlord crew, crew workers came in on the first floor.

That apartment had been vacant for about five plus years, and they came in to remodel it.

Since March 1st, 26th, I'm experiencing a strong foul odor of a rotten egg that has been surfacing daily up in my second floor apartment through the radiator.

The smell is equally strong in every room.

It occurs at certain hours, which I was told to detect the odor, which is hard.

It comes and goes in and out of the rooms.

You never know when it comes, but it runs me out of my household.

Sometimes 7 15 in the morning.

Late at night, 5 8 to 6 in the morning.

It's overwhelming.

I have to literally go outside, sit on my step, five in the morning to run away from these uh odors.

Now, in addition to this issue, two buildings down from me is a tenant at 177 Quitman Street, apartment 3A, Mr.

Terrace.

He confined in me and spoke to me a couple months ago, and he had the same smell.

I asked him, what did he do?

He says, I went to the rental office, the site manager, explained the smell to her, they called the crew out.

They found the problem less than two weeks.

Case closed, they did nothing for me.

Okay.

This issue was spoken to the site manager of my problem.

Her response was to me.

Maybe it'll go away.

And nothing was done.

The site manager made it to be known who should ever call in my behalf.

The landlord is not going to do any repairs to my apartment.

When the crew came in and my apartment, just for regular repairs, the bathroom tub drain was installed incorrectly.

I reported it to the contractor to send him there and no response.

The bathtub doesn't work.

The water, the tub doesn't hold water.

Okay.

I reported a sewer smell to the municipal who can investigate and force and and force the landlord to act.

I'm trying to take steps here.

I went to code enforcement.

One of the inspectors, Mr.

Shiggs, I believe that's his name, if I'm not pronouncing it wrong, on April 23rd, 26th.

He was assigned to my case to investigate, but a new supervisor signed him to someone else while I was waiting for him to assist me.

I had to wait 72 hours until someone else became available.

Okay.

Next inspector, Miss Brown.

April 24, 26th at 10 a.m.

She came into my apartment.

She states, I smell no odor.

Well, the odor is not gonna be like smoke of a fire.

You're not gonna come in and smell it like that.

It comes and goes and in and out whenever it comes.

She goes to the rental office and then later tells the uh rental people whatever.

I wasn't present there with her with the rental um uh person.

She leaves and tells me call the health department, health department, April 27.

Went to 94 Williams Street, was told that was for Mo and Mildew, those guys at that desk.

They directed me to 110 William Street.

They said this is a clinic.

You must go back to City Hall, the water and sewer.

No help.

Okay, then I go back to code enforcement.

Code enforcement told me to go to councilman in Central Ward, which is Amina Bay.

Okay, I haven't heard from that aid in two months from uh April 27th.

Then I was told to go to from the councilman, house city housing authority.

Okay, for what?

I'm on a waiting list.

I'm waiting.

Also go to housing authority 500 broads.

Miss Branch, I'm sorry, your time is expired.

But what we can do is if you stay here, somebody will come and speak to you about it, okay?

Thank you, Khan.

Yes, my friend.

I have no information for Miss Bradford.

All right.

Alright, thank you.

Marilyn Silwell.

Okay, right.

Hello.

Hi.

Hi, Marilyn.

So well, Nord resident, my entire life.

I'm here today to share more of my unbelievable.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you.

Can you pull the mic up so we can hear you a little?

Thank you.

I'm here.

I'm here to share more of my unbelievable, unfortunate situation.

Let me start by saying I'm a firm believer of God.

However, my family and I life and destiny is being controlled by someone other than God, and no one seems to care.

No one should be able to control my paycheck, my bank card, my hospital records, my stove, my washing machine, everything.

I haven't cooked a turkey in nine years because of their control of controlling my oven range.

I'll never stop sharing my horrifying story at every meeting in hopes and prayer.

It will be it will reach someone who cares.

So I'll take my horrific ordeal to every corner that holds a municipality structure with my bullhorn and tell my story every day.

Cyber stalking, cyber stalking is ruining my quality of life.

I'm a sister, I'm a mother, I'm an aunt, I'm a grandmother, a registered voter, a taxpayer, and a citizen.

Why doesn't protect and serve applies to me?

I can't, I can't make it through another winter with no heat.

My sister might not make it out the hospital the next hospital stay.

Laws are made to protect people from harm.

If the legislator hasn't done his part, legislation cannot be effective.

I thank you for this platform until next meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Francis Nunes.

Francis Nunes.

Not appearing.

Uh Francis.

Okay.

Appearing.

Good afternoon.

My name is Frances Nunez.

I am the new director of advocacy and organizing for the Ironbound Community Corporation.

I am also, however, a resident of the East Ward, the daughter of property owners in the West Ward, the mother of a Newark public school student, and a young professional working in the city.

And I grew up here.

I credentialed myself in this way because I'm what you would all affectionately refer to as a stakeholder stakeholder in the city of Newark.

I am one of those voices that you can't quite dismiss because I have skin in the game and I'm deeply intentional because of it.

14 years of community organizing experience is aligning with the 27 years of my life that I've called Newark, New Jersey home.

And I'm here today to talk through a few concerns that point to a larger issue within our municipal leadership that I've identified and assessed in my first six months on the job at ICC.

That is the following.

Because this is such a powerful governing body within the city.

They just wipe their hands and say that's not us.

That's the city council.

That's the ordinances that the city council are putting out.

That's the leadership of the council or lack thereof of leadership.

They don't say it outright, but they imply it.

You know, like, and I have examples of this that I've seen repeatedly over the last six months.

Specifically in central planning and zoning board meetings, where residents are coming and advocating against developments, and they're getting voted through anyway.

And literally the lawyers on the opposing side on the developer side are saying the city council is voting through ordinances that make all of this legal, and your job is to just to approve the development.

Literally, they're messing with the power of the people to advocate for themselves, and they're blaming you all.

And I know that that's not the case because again, 14 years of experience in community organizing will tell me that it's not y'all.

That you all do have to put in an intended effort to shift this narrative, though.

That is on you all.

So my ask of this body is to do what councils in the history of Newark has always done, which is work closely with the community members.

Myself and other colleagues at the community level are more than willing to organize our neighbors and organizations members to the table to discuss necessary shifts in city ordinances and give you all proper community backing so you can stick up to private interests.

Like we're I'm I'm happy to do that.

I'll speak and say that.

I'm happy to organize people in that way.

But please make no mistake, myself and other colleagues at the community level are also more than willing to speak truth to power and to hold you all accountable if we discover that you'd rather serve these private interests than to serve the benches' best interest of the public.

And that is not for me to make any designations or have any opinions on whether or not that's the case.

I'm just being clear about the fact that the community wants to work with you all to make sure that our needs are being met.

And I know that since you all are elected leaders, that you all want to listen to your constituencies to make sure that you're improving outcomes for Newark residents and not lining the pockets of private interests.

So none of you have easy jobs, but you do have responsibilities and duties to serve the people.

Specifically related to housing, I will be in contact.

I will organize your constituents to be in contact so that we can shift the language and shift this narrative and make it so that the planning and zoning boards are held accountable to the people that they are serving.

They were appointed, not elected, but they were appointed by somebody who was elected.

So they should have the people's best interests at heart.

Um and I look forward in advance to working in collaboration with all of you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Uh Councilman Ramos.

I I don't typically interject when speakers are on the podium.

But Mr.

Nunez's point, that's what I mentioned at yesterday's meeting because I read some of the articles regarding the planning board hearing that was held regarding this project at University Heights, and there were members of the planning board, and also some of the attorneys uh representing the city that did state on the record that it was the city council's uh fault or responsibility because they adopted some of these ordinances, and I just want to make it clear that with the city's new zoning ordinance, that came from the administration.

Uh, they had public hearings.

The council eventually decided whether or not they wanted to support the changes to the zoning ordinance.

I did not vote for it.

I I voted no.

Um, but there were enough members of the council that supported the changes.

Regardless of that, I don't think it's fair for members of that body to blame the city council for um enacting laws that enable developers to get away with building uh with with zero parking.

I think there's multiple uh levels that are involved in presenting some of the changes that now the planning and zoning board are guided by.

So, you know, I just wanted to put that out there because she's correct.

Some of these attorneys and even planning board members that are being put on by this administration are pointing the finger to this governing body solely to justify their actions, and I don't think that's fair.

Thank you, Councilman Ramos.

Next speaker.

Latoya Jackson Tucker.

Okay.

Good at the Toya Jackson Tucker, City and Newark.

Um, so I have watched over the last couple of weeks.

Uh, elected officials from here, I know you're part of the clergy, so no disrespect to anything that will come out of my mouth.

I try to say things as I try to say things as respectful as I possibly can because not only are you our legislative body, but y'all are my elders.

And I'm coming to you today as a mother, a registered voter, a person with skin in the game.

Somebody that definitely is disappointed with seeing all of our elective issues and even one of our former elected officials being in court right now for what went on at Delaney Hall.

I have been in front of you several times talking about other facilities within North, the Exes County, uh jail, and also Northern State, because I had a son and a husband that dwelled in all of that dysfunction and chaos.

Yet we won't say anything.

So today my plea for you all is to um think about us because we we voted a bunch of black and brown people to legislate things for us, and there's a lot of things that y'all cannot do.

So I want to know what you can do.

Like what can you do to make the circumstances for our young black and brown boys that's incarcerated in the county and within the state?

I seen Mikey Cheryl and the Proud Boys come to North to escalate issues for immigrants.

And um, I'm unapologetic when I say immigrants, because I was born and raised here.

I've been through different administrations.

I could remember the Gibson administration, keep North Clean, Sharp James, Corey Booker, now Mayor Baraka, and I need y'all to fight for people like me.

I've been talking for a few years about the things that my concern, raviticism, um, our return to citizens coming back here, reentry.

I've been telling y'all this stuff is BS.

I've been watching y'all play in my face and thousands of other concerned mothers that don't yet have a voice.

And I want to know what could y'all do?

Because there's a lot of things that y'all cannot do because of policy and y'all hands being tied, but what could you do?

Because at any given time, we rallied for mayor Baraka.

We was down there protesting.

My husband from jail said, go ahead, sister soldier, go down there for your mayor.

And the same exact thing that they can do to my son with him still sitting in the county with all of his charges dropped, with them putting on the record that his mother was a city employee, and we know the city will not hire me because some things will have to change.

What can y'all do?

Because I'm like, I won't shut up.

I'm have positioned myself to be able to continue to speak.

I need to know what can y'all do.

What can y'all do for the countless black and brown young men that are being emasculated every day and on a county level by our own North police on a state level?

What can y'all do?

That is my question.

I got one minute, 22nd, seconds.

I'm gonna keep saying, what can y'all do?

What can y'all do for a citizen that supports y'all?

Somebody that every time she comes to the mic, understand policy, understand all of this stuff from my odds.

What can y'all do?

What will y'all do?

What will y'all do to begin to change some of this stuff?

Because I our young men, it's like my son and stuff.

I got skin in the game and stuff is important to me.

Our children come home to us emasculated with mental health problems.

Ruckers, you and DMJ, Robinwood Johnson, everybody's controlling everything on so many different levels.

They're giving money, they taking it, they're making y'all operate the way that they want y'all to, but what can y'all do in these elected seats?

What will y'all do for our children that we still continue to see being emasculated every day, day after day, across this United States of America, Mikey Cheryl and Joe D.

What would y'all do?

LaMonica, you got a baby in your stomach.

I don't know if it's a boy or a girl.

What will you do for this stuff to be able to stop?

For them to stop playing in our faces.

What would y'all do?

What are y'all willing to do?

Because I'm willing to do whatever it takes for my community and my children because I have skin in the gate.

My family is in these places.

But what will y'all do and what could y'all do?

The people that believe in God fear God and not these people.

What y'all gonna do?

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Sheila Montague.

Appearing.

Recently, I saw a young lady trying to commit suicide on the bridge by Bergen Street, I believe, and I came up to start with this one quote.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Good evening, Council President, members of the city council, and residents of NORC.

Regardless of the hateful atmosphere that has been created over a period of a decade, we're gonna stay focused, we're gonna move forward.

And anybody who continues to be disrespectful or act like I cannot lift my voice as a 25-year educator on issues here, we will see you in court.

And that's for each and everybody.

I've started my process to law, and that's how we're gonna move forward in that vein.

But to keep it back to these kids where I always started from.

I stand before you tonight not simply as a former mayoral candidate, but as a Newark educator, mentor, advocate, coach, professor, district leader, block association, president, and lifelong servant of 54 years of this city.

For more than 25 years, I've dedicated my life to helping young people succeed.

I have taught in classrooms, coached on basketball courts, packed, mentored students, work with families, advocated for children, and spent decades to solve the very problems we discuss here at this podium.

That is why I submitted a formal proposal to the city of Newark through my organization Changing the Lens Education Consultant Services.

I emailed the proposal, delivered a hard copy to the mayor's office, and respectfully requested consideration.

To date, I have heard no response.

Tonight I am asking that this governing body help to change that.

Changing the lens was created to address some of the most pressing challenges facing Newark families.

Literacy gaps, youth violence, conflict resolution, which is desperately needed, mentorship, leadership development, parent engagement, emotional wellness, and educational advocacy.

The proposal includes youth leadership programming, leadership literacy initiatives, violence prevention strategies, restorative justice practices, mentorship opportunities, civic engagement, family support, and intergenerational programming that connects our youth with community leaders, elders, I'm sorry.

Those are not theoretical ideas, these are practical solutions developed from decades of experience that I have working directly with Newark children's and children and families and having success.

Every day we hear conversations about public safety, violence, student achievement, and youth engagement.

My question is simple.

If we know that these are the problems, why are we not investing more aggressively into people and programs working to solve them?

The case that was just shared before me, this is not a loan case.

This is ongoing.

The funding I requested is not for me.

It is for Newark's youth, mentorship, literacy, leadership development, violence prevention, and helping young people see possibilities beyond the circumstances that they currently face.

The city of Newark has countless talented residents here with ideas, expertise, and solutions.

I am asking that local organizations and local talent receive meaningful opportunities to partner with this city in improving outcomes to our residents.

I'm not asking for any special or preferential treatment.

I'm asking for fair consideration.

I am asking for a conversation.

I'm asking for an opportunity to demonstrate that this program can do for Newark's children and families.

And before I close, I want to say something to a broader new.

A healthy democracy depends on citizens who are willing to participate.

Whether someone runs for office, advocates for a cause, speaks at a council meeting, or challenges the status quo.

They should never feel punished for participating in public life.

We should encourage civic engagement, not discourage it.

If you see somebody doing wrong, you say something.

I should not ever have to come down here and defend myself, but I will.

Because I do believe that some of you are trying, and I believe it's challenging, and we want to keep pushing forward.

I remain ready, willing, and able to partner with this city and serve its residents because together we can change the lens, and if we do that, we can change the world.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Yolanda Johnson.

Ms.

Johnson's appearing.

Good afternoon, Yolanda Johnson.

Good afternoon.

Voting rights of 1965 afforded foundational black Americans the right to vote.

But I like to add that it wasn't just about voting, it was about representation.

Since speaker after speaker after speaker has come up here, I have heard that word representation.

Now, Ms.

Bay, you might have gotten their numbers for them, but we expecting you to advocate for us in those rooms where you know that the average person that's working in the city of Newark do not make 8,000 or 80,000 to $90,000 a year annually.

So we're expecting each and every last one of you all to advocate for us that's making 25,000 or $15,000 a year because we can't afford two to $3,000 for rent, especially in areas where we gotta peek outside our door before we leave out.

I didn't come to talk about that, but but I can't keep hearing representation and that's what the voting rights was about.

It was about representation.

It can't be about self-serving or y'all wanting to get in office or serving your friends or serving your family members.

But the rest of us out here need representation.

We do.

Now I can talk about what I came here to talk about because that includes representation.

Pet Council and your war.

I don't live in the South War, but I've been to the South War, and I'm trying to figure out that they keep saying that crime is down.

I don't know if I can believe the numbers to that because each and every time that I have helped somebody there and me from last year, experiencing on my own, going there trying to file a missing person report and being denied the right.

And recently, just two weeks ago, being denied the right to file even a police report.

Now, let me let me let me let me understand something here.

Filing a police report requires it's our right to be able to document what we believe to be a crime.

But being told that we can't file a police report is absurd.

Now I know that this uh mayor is having and they're having this meeting tonight, but I want to have a sit down with the captain or whoever at that fifth precinct.

Now, I don't know if it's happening and all of the wards, but that South War, I want to sit down and have a talk with somebody because let me tell you something.

Martin Luther King said an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

So we're gonna be reporting stuff.

We don't even know what the crime is really down, because we don't even know how many people have been turned away from filing the police report.

Now I had to step outside of North and go get the FBI to step in to help me because I couldn't file a missing person report on my grandchild, who I had custody of.

That's a shame.

It's a shame.

And Councilman Silver not here, but Councilman Silver and always representing his war.

He is the only one outside of, I don't know, Aniebo, but everybody else, I want to just talk to the foundational black Americans.

We got people down there, and y'all got this uh delay hall on this thing.

But let me tell you something.

I know all of y'all heard about what's happening at that um green monster, what they call it.

I know you know that right now, including my husband, sitting in there for just walking down the street.

You understand?

We got people in there.

He's been sitting there almost 60 days, and I can't know nothing that's going on because they won't answer the phone.

You can't go down there to visit because you got the crazy people down there outside of the people that's really actually down there advocating for what's actually happening to them down there.

But we got stuff that's happening over there at that Grey Monster way before, way before the ice took over that, way before, because the Laney Hall, our people was there first.

It was a halfway house for our people, and they still was being treated wrong.

Now, don't sit up here and act like, and I'm not talking to Latinos, I'm talking to the foundational blacks.

Because don't sit up here and act like y'all don't know about the 13th amendment, right?

The clause, the uh um, what's that?

What's that called?

It's a clause in there that says that once you become incarcerated, right?

You become a slave.

So let's not pretend that we got some police officers out there that don't care that know this clause, right?

That's sending out black and brown brothers to jail just because they're in the authority, just because they got a badge on them.

So we gotta look into those things too.

And I know uh councilman, you said that you was gonna look into that, but we need that right now.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Umberto Garcia Garcia.

Up right there.

Okay.

And I need my consumer.

I want to ask a question when Kintana.

The number, Louis King Kana drop, or more five garden.

I wanna know if the mayor is responsible or councilman, responsible with the number.

Aniba, you still had the same number four years ago, but I vote for you in Lewis Kintanga.

My energy, energy was down.

And we was gonna put me hot.

And energy, I never vote to New York.

I never I my energy was very down.

And thank God Donna Jason promote the corruption in New York.

And I know that's enough.

Yeah, let me ask you a question.

I wanna know if Lewis Kintana responds.

Who responsible you drop?

Almost five thousand six thousand, 2018.

You got 17,000.

Um, 2022, you had almost 13,000 vote.

Why you drop down?

I gave vote for you, but I had low energy.

Like I love you, I still love you, I still love Aniba.

I call him the pretty boy in New York.

And you are.

You know, I vote for Aniba in Louis because you had great scal.

If you never had grace scalp, at least 75% Lewis think Tana had great scar.

Aniba have fantastic style.

Give me energy, and also Donna Humi Hot.

Because Donna did the work, the corruption in Newark.

Gailito, I love you so much.

But uh, you know, it's enough, it's enough, the corruption.

Also, the rent in Newark going 2,500 to $3,000.

You cannot blame the Republican or the Nemocrat.

You're responsible to lower the rent in Newark.

Nothing, or I want to ask Lewis why you dropped the number.

Why?

It was the mayor or the councilman not doing the work.

I want to respond now, because you have to be honest to the people, because the people need to know why you dropped.

Because you were the Coca-Cola.

You always had the perfect number.

You beat the mayor, the mayor of Newark.

Four years ago, you had the most vote, the mayor.

Why you dropped so low?

And I want to know why.

I wanted you respond right now.

If you had the Disney and the heart, I want you to respond right now.

Lord have mercy.

I want to you respond right now.

Who was responsible?

Whom?

Mr.

Garcia, are you finished with your comments?

No.

I want to lew.

Mr.

Garcia, when you finish with your comments, when you finish with your comments, then he'll address your question, okay?

You know, I love you so much, every uh councilman, but you're you're not you're acting to the people, the rank's so high.

You don't care about poor people.

You care for the rich people coming to Newark to destroy the poor people, and our rent going higher and higher over 3,000.

Lewis, I love you so much.

I know you, Mom, for many years, and you break my heart.

The number I want to know right now, you respond, why you drop almost five to six thousand votes.

Yeah, I want to be honest.

Yeah, I'm not scared, because I learned to have I watch TV, Republican, Democrat, and I learned about life.

And I want to know you respond.

I finished.

Alright, thank you for your comments.

Councilman.

What happens in elections, right?

You have 19 people running at large, right?

So the votes go different route.

So that is the part of democracy.

In the previous election, there was only four people running.

Previous to that, in 1990, I ran.

I lost by 78 absentee ballots.

There were 20-some people running that year.

It was competitive.

The more people run, the more competitive the race and the election.

Whether it be at large, whether it be in the ward, numbers do change because of you had 19 candidates.

Some of us were on a team, some of us were not on a team.

So what happens is the numbers change, but the turnout or the turnout is what determines the election.

So you drop as the many candidates that are in the race.

So that's that's what occurs.

In previous elections, there was 12, maybe 10 people, so the numbers are out different.

So when you have 19 candidates at large, it is not as, this is not a popularity contest.

It's a who gets to what ward.

There's five wards, you gotta get elected in five wards.

But to your to your answering to you, numbers do not drop.

You gotta look at the percentage of what the turnout was, and you gotta look at what the results were.

So in every election, there's always changes, whether you're up or down, but I just wanna say, hey, listen, uh, citizens have given me an opportunity, and I'm still here, and I want to thank you for that.

You and your family.

Thank you.

Alright, thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

Shaquille Moore, Mr.

Moore.

Not appearing.

Donna Jackson.

Uh hearing.

Good morning.

Good midnight.

Last official.

Oh no, I ain't gonna say that.

Because if it get crazy, I'm coming right back down here.

Living conditions.

I know code enforcement is going hard after these businesses, but that need to be suspended.

Because people are living in hell.

And nothing is being done to these landlords.

Not nothing.

We are allowing people to live with mold, mildew, rats, mice, roaches, and y'all are killing them.

You know what rat feces, rat urine does to a person?

Do you know what roaches crawling leaving?

Do y'all understand the health and the damage we're doing to people?

That's irreparable.

When we close down reservoir apartments, do you understand that in that complex there were nine black women with pacemakers that were not 50 years old?

Yeah, no wow.

Y'all know this.

Took the developer to court, the owner of the court, and did nothing.

I sat there when we sold out to Georgia King Village.

Oh, we believe they're gonna fix the rest of the units and okay.

We'll dismiss the case.

Ain't do one thing in them townhouses, one thing.

We have nobody qualified in this city in uniform construction goal.

Nobody, and I'm not saying that you're lying, but I'm telling you, 90% of what's being built in this city right now don't have the proper permits in place.

And you don't have nobody out there checking because when it rains, it gets on that wood, and then they come and they put the shingles and insulation on there.

Thank you, Ali.

Just looking at you made me remember that on the wood with no drying out process.

Y'all putting people in death traps because we're not watching.

The rooms you're building are so small.

All these people that think they want to live downtown, have at it.

You better get four twin beds because you ain't putting no full queen or king bed in none of them rooms downtown.

Unless you go in this shack on the penthouse, affordable housing.

Oh, I really don't want to fight y'all, but y'all better learn.

Yeah, it is a federal, but dagging, the rest of it is set by the city.

How they came in here and told y'all to make it 89-5.

So stop saying it.

Because it's not true.

We learned a little lingo, okay.

Got affordable housing in North, set by the city of North, 89-5 to 120.

Me and Felicia battled that for five years.

We just came to an agreement.

Wasn't never no big battle, but I need her to understand that that the mayor was lying and not building this for us.

And y'all keep letting it go.

Still 400 people a day up in landlord tenant court.

Y'all not doing nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

But you're worried about Delaney Hall.

While the Green Monster, aka S County Jail, been on lockdown for five and a half months.

Said nothing.

The young man died in Delaney Hall, and y'all team Baraka had a press conference for that young man, but nothing for the brother that died from an asthma attack inside the jail 48 hours later.

This is gonna stop.

I don't think y'all ready for me to be up here.

So give me a seat.

Right next to King Yala.

I'll sit down here.

I don't got no problem.

Because I'm not playing this game.

This budget better get together.

And it better get together soon.

Some layoffs done went out.

Y'all ain't gonna play this game, I'm telling you.

The guys that's working for the city under some kind of roofing program, they've been working since May 10th, and they ain't been paid.

Y'all better straighten it out.

Because I'll file a federal complaint for them with the department of wage an hour.

Let me tell you employees something.

I'm sick of y'all sitting back being quiet when your unions don't represent you.

Get up, get together, and sue the city.

It's called the perk complaint.

Anybody that's a per damn employee for the city of North right now that does not have payments in the pension system, sue them.

The state law says if you work more than 10 hours a week, you ought to be paid into a pension.

All you DPW workers, all you clerks, all of y'all out there, Raz, I want the job.

You got the job.

You supposed to have a pension.

Y'all better fix this.

I don't need New Jersey pack.

Donald gonna be outside.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker.

George Tillman Jr., not appearing.

Rodney Davis.

Appearing.

Woo!

Before you start that clock, Council President, I just gotta take a breath.

Can you stop and get me a start all over?

I told her I got to give her two weeks.

I can't wait for the next two weeks, July 1st to come in here, you know.

Carlos, God speed to you and your family.

May God bless you and your family.

I signed you, I don't know if you're still here, or you're the most important person in the room.

Because uh the kids over there, they you got people that are not teaching black history in American history class.

We need to know they trying to take from black people whole civil rights structure.

They don't teach in the schools no more.

And the reason why, because the teachers don't really know.

They're only 30 years old.

What do they know?

You ain't born till you turn 40.

So, Hasani, I'm wishing you luck that you could do something with teaching black history.

They don't know everything that black people went through in this country.

They don't have no idea.

Now, down there to the homeless shelter Catholic charities, I actually was on that project.

And I think you should do the name change, but who wanna be associated to the city of New York?

Y'all broke.

Y'all ain't got no money.

They probably said we can get more funding for the project because we go on our own.

So cut them off, you know.

And all the biters, you know, they posting this stuff.

I wouldn't even worry about nobody posting no stuff.

I just heard Donna speak.

I don't need to hear you post it on your page.

You know, using pieces of bits of other hip hop hits.

Put my tape on pause and ask some more to yours.

And then you fake it.

You're ready for the neighborhood awards.

Come on, we don't need all that, man.

Delaney Hall, who gives about Delaney Hall?

Like that's Sister Johnson said over there.

Let's talk about the Green Monster State facilities.

Talk about that.

I was all for keeping Delaney Hall, too.

They don't lock so many black people up in the country.

I was like, yo, you know, who cares?

But now that I did my research, I found out that uh they don't pay no taxes over there.

You're a bona fide lawyer, Crump.

They don't pay no taxes.

They skip to their loo.

They got the Gio got a tax abatement because they did a federal lease.

And I gotta ask my man the BA over there.

Do they pay a fee like all the other businesses in the city of New York pay a fee?

You gotta pay a fee to have a liquor license and all these other licenses in the city of North.

They don't pay no fee.

What's the hold up?

Were you scared to go down there and show them that go back down there again, get locked up again?

At least we know you're with us.

You know what I mean?

In the burger organization.

That's what I've been telling you about, uh, Lou, for the last couple of times, a couple of meetings coming down here.

If they do anything 100% affordable, I'm with it.

Anything a hundred percent affordable, so people can have a place to stay.

I'm all for it.

This coach is gonna be a couple of things going on because nobody don't do a hundred percent affordable tax abatement.

The tax abatement should be history.

You know, something we used to do.

Change with the times, you know, get here.

But being that they're doing 100% affordable, let's keep more affordable.

Make your adjustments, keep moving forward.

And Larry Crump, you know, to the victor go to spoilers.

Want Tanner, you uh the highest vote getter.

And with the victor goes the spoils, you know?

Congratulations on that.

You're the highest vote.

I told ask your Larry about the camera, man.

Well, Mike, you came up to speak, people need to hear, see your face.

That Lady Johnson had so much passion when she was delivering her message.

Citizens want to see their face.

Y'all come up with this thing where y'all show the back of people's head, you know, and all that.

I ask you about it.

And that translates the votes going to you.

That's why Quintana, the highest vote getter, because he's always with the people.

You got about 200,000 people who didn't vote.

That's um, that's who I'm talking to, and not the groupies.

You know what I mean?

People want to see Johnny Jackson's face when she gets up here and tell her like it is.

You know what I mean?

You say she ain't even going in there, MJ Pack.

So what?

Big deal.

She's gonna be standing outside, you know.

And I know how y'all move the mobile thing around.

I wish you'd take it back over there with Pat in the South War back, the South Board.

That's so cool.

You go to the hot spots and all that.

What about the working class?

They got some problems too, you know.

And housing.

I want to know something about the housing authority.

We want in on everything the housing to do.

You're selling a five dollar pack of cigarettes, we want in.

You're giving out some water, we want in.

Now the housing authority, oh boy, I like the young kid down there.

He never built a dog house, but I like the young kid down there.

He wanna hide behind the federal martials.

That's just business.

We still don't know what's going on.

He done skip to his loo and move down to 570 broad.

So I don't know if he sold the building down there.

I don't know if he's leasing it out.

I don't know what he doing.

But we need to know the city of Newark.

Uh Crump Quintana, can you get him down here?

You need to know what the curriculum is in the school system forthwith that you're teaching black kids black history in uh American history class.

We didn't know what the housing authority is doing.

This type of letters gotta go out.

Thank you for your comments.

Thank you for your next speaker.

Darren Peric.

Aaron Parrick.

Not appearing.

Maryam Bay.

She's hearing.

Excuse me, I have some documents that I want to give to the uh council.

Sylvester.

Yeah.

Yes.

Okay, um, my name is Marion Bay, and uh I am a New York resident, and I'm here today to talk about the issues that we have with housing with senior citizens, and this is this is an ongoing issue.

Now, I live in the city of Norfolk, but I work in the city of Newark.

And the reason why I'm coming down here again is because the clients that come to see me, they're homeless.

I have this young lady here who has some very serious problems.

Nor can I help her.

Okay?

And I want to know why.

And she's been trying to get a job.

It's not like she's sitting sitting down, not doing anything.

So she is working on getting employment.

But the butt but the brothers and sisters, and and I refer to everybody's brothers and sisters, black and white, Latino, those who are uh trying to get housing, they're having some serious issues.

And now I'm having some issues, knowing that I cannot help them the way that they should be helped because of these issues that we have with housing.

And then I also have an issue with one of the um uh did I write it down?

Yeah, urban renewal.

Urban renewal, I came here, I think it was last year, and mentioned that I had clients who were incarcerated, and they were being threatened if they complained about the conditions, they would be sent back to prison.

So I'm trying to understand with these shelters, and a lot of brothers that are in these shelters, we have some bad shelters here, and this has been going on for years.

So, what I'm saying to you is nothing new, but we need to start doing something about these shelters, you know, because we have with the brothers that I work with, many of them who are in these shelters, it's not good for me.

And see, and what happens is that it makes them want to do something that they shouldn't do, to send them back.

So it's all a part of the plan, like 50 Cent says, it's all a part of the game of what they're doing, okay?

And so I'm tired of it.

I really am.

And the other thing that I wanted to talk about is I worked at Delaney Hall for six years.

I'm very familiar with Delaney Hall.

The city didn't come down when there was issues at Delaney Hall.

When there was issues at the Laney Hall, I took care of them.

You know, food issues, you know, heating issues, any issues that the brothers had and the sisters, if they came to me, I addressed it.

Okay, but at Essence County Correction Facility, because I worked there too, they got some issues, and they've been had issues.

So we need to be doing something about them.

Okay, I worked in every facility here in the city of North, Kentok, all the halfway houses.

So I know that when these brothers and sisters are coming home, they need to come home where they're going to be getting the services that they need so they don't be going back to what they were doing before.

If they were doing it before.

Because a lot of these brothers and sisters were innocent.

Okay, so we have to address that.

And this young lady needs to address and help her because she's going through something.

She she lives in either the central ward or the east ward.

Okay.

And everyone that is going through stuff, it also becomes a mental health issue, too.

You know, because they need to have someone to talk to them to understand what they're going through.

Yesterday I talked to a sister, haven't talked to for a year, but she told me that with everything that she was going through, that because of the discussion that I had with her, it saved her for a year.

Because of the counseling.

That's why when I have clients come to me, I don't be sitting down with them for five minutes.

I want to know what they're actually going through so I can help them.

And then the second, and then the other document that I gave that has to be um printed out for you all to see, is dealing with the pension.

Okay.

Now I sent the information to the state, and the state said to get in contact with human resources, which I went to human resources and I gave them the information.

But see, I work for the people, and I ain't changing, and we have to get better with what's happening.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker, Reginald Tucker, Reginald Turner, Reginald Turner.

Oh, that's you.

All right.

Thank you.

There we go.

Go ahead, Mr.

Turner.

Afternoon.

The situation is uh pertaining to the paper.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Turner.

Pull the mic up so we can.

Thank you.

This situation is dealing with the uh scamming of the uh benefits of EBT.

This is my second time here.

Oh 320, University Avenue.

The first time I went, they like pulled through the computer, pulled it sideways and let me see how it works.

Then every time the card is used, it showed every store.

So when I bring it to their attention, I said, Well, if it's short of restore, that must show who scammed the card.

So we're like, no, it won't tell show here.

So this is the second time.

She gives me a paper with three stages to go through.

Use of username, password, and some questions.

I sat 30 minutes answering the questions.

The questions was one plus one, two plus two.

It's like simple math.

But I think it's designed to deal for the patience of the person.

I sat there 30 minutes.

Not due to not having patience for it.

It kept the car from locking.

Now they still have access to get in the car.

I personally asked for a investigation down at 320.

For the simple fact, because the lady said, well, you didn't lock your card.

Instead of asked me, did you lock your card?

And it's like, how you know I didn't lock my card?

That's what gives me the, you know, I'm a very good listener.

So that's what made me think.

Like, I mean, and it's like, so when I when I when I locked it this time, and it's like I sat there and I observed the names on the board, and then when it came to my name to see the same uh assistant, she had somebody else to replace her.

Because I was gonna get her name.

Because I personally have a strong feel.

I could be right and I could be wrong.

But my point is this I would ask for investigation down there because it's like happening.

It happened to me.

And you know, and I like to address also uh 1060 Raw Street where I live for a very thorough investigation with the with the management, and far as the the uh office workers, because I personally went into the uh manager office and asked her, can I move from a studio to apartment?

She said no, it's against the lease.

But she don't know.

Two months ago, already know she they moved somebody.

So I'm so I dig a little deeper for residents for residents that's been there for years, they charge them $500 just to move.

I don't know which manager it is, but this is facts because the person had been there for years, so and the system, and it's like it's designed racist.

I get along with 80 people, all people, I'm not a racist person at all because I had jobs, I was managers, I did my thing in the work field, but getting back to the point.

You know, it's like it's more Hispanic down there.

I see like two black women in office, and it's like it's always a cover of something.

You you got his, you got a Hispanic manager that takes his dog in the back to poop where they tell everybody, the seniors to go back to eat.

I mean, back to smoke.

They get chased from back there, also, but this is the manager of maintenance.

He takes his dog back there to do whatever he does and doesn't clean up.

Then they're in the front.

I'm acknowledging this.

They make the the dog the black people go inside.

I watch this with my own eyes.

He's a Hispanic supervisor of the uh security.

And he comes out and looks, he makes the other work, the other uh uh security workers go tell them to go in.

But when the Latinos was out there, they don't say nothing.

I seen it with my own eyes, so I just ask, man.

I mean, they need to change some pieces in there because uh I think it's very unfair.

That's the way I lay my head at.

I put a lot of slave labor in a lot of these warehouses that help them make millions of dollars because I'm a thorough worker.

You can check my hit, my background if it's necessary.

But my point is this I'm retired, every penny I make I want back.

You know, and it's just that I come respectful every time, but it's like I could pee game, I'm from the street store, I'm a street dude.

You know, I just turned 64, and I've been in the streets like since I was 19.

It's nothing I don't see.

I can read things, I can read stuff.

But my point is this, though.

I just asked to be investigated or change the people.

It's very racist over there.

It's not fair.

So that, you know, basically that's all I gotta do.

That's all I ask of you.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Council President, Council members, that concludes the hearing of citizens.

All right, before we get to any uh uh uh motions.

Let's uh does the council have anything to respond to.

That's all.

Yeah, alright.

Not motions now.

No motion.

Anything from not motions.

I do a motion.

Nothing.

Anybody?

All right, councilwoman has something to say, it's not a motion.

Yes, I do, because it's comments, not motions.

I know.

I do want to um address uh the Delaney Hall and the Essex County Correctional Facility.

Um I have not worked in any of them, but I have visited all of them over the years to address the concerns of um delivering things to uh those who were incarcerated, uh, halfway houses with the women.

Um it's not public knowledge, but the people who allowed us to come in, the ministries to provide services for them.

Um I said it yesterday when someone said something about Delaney Hall.

I've been actually going down there for quite some years.

Um, it's not on social media.

Of course, they caught me a couple of weeks ago, and I was actually trying to get away from the cameras just to pray.

Uh, but in reference to going down there for the things that are going on, not just in Delaney Hall when it was a halfway house of the state.

Um, I'm trying to just discuss, made it illegal for government to even become involved.

Um, that's why the county is no longer involved with the oversight or control of Delaney Hall, which has made it difficult for us to do uh legitimately what we do.

In reference to SS County Correctional Facility, in there too.

And what I'm in the process of doing as this meeting is going on is I've spoken to the oversight committee because they have one to be able to enter in.

I get complaints just as some of you out there that the advocates um for mothers.

I know about the non-visitation, I know that while the Lady Hall was going through what they were going through.

So within the next um, I'm waiting on a date, so I don't want to put it out there, but we are going to go in.

I've spoken to um some individuals in the oversight committee will be allowing us to enter so we can go in and deal with these issues that I know are legitimate issues.

I've heard other people from the community talk about um the Essex County Correctional Center, so we can't talk about one without dealing with the other, and they're right next door to each other.

But having access to what they call the green monster is a lot um more workable, I should say, than dealing with the issues at Delaney Hall.

I don't care where nobody is and what they have to pay a price for what they do, their consequences.

You can pick your sin, but you can't pick your consequence.

But that does not mean that they should be molded full, that they should be mistreated, they should be, I mean, dignity.

Some people are acting as they act because of how we treat them.

You know, you don't know what showing person concern and compassion on the other side, how it might affect them.

So just for those who were concerned um about the interest in these places, I didn't just drop out.

Some people are more vocal than others when it comes to going to these facilities and making it known to the public, but from being behind the scenes, seeing some things and having conversations, so now I'm just making it public that I will be going back down there again.

I won't go alone.

Um, and I've reaching out, I reached out to the oversight committee to get access and the mothers that have given me legitimate, well, I'll know the legitimate when I get in to deal with what is going on with their children, their husbands, and uh their sons.

Thank you very much, Council President.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Anything else before we go ahead.

So let's councilman council, or did you have something, councilwoman?

Okay, I'm sorry.

I just wanted to um thank you, Council President.

I don't know if it's a motion or amendment or whatever to the uh sorrows and regrets um this morning.

I hate to do this, we're not there yet.

We're gonna do based upon the agenda and comments and then go to there and then we'll come back for motions.

Yes, sir.

You have something?

Yep, thank you, Council President.

Uh, just just wanted to uh point out some of the information that uh Mr.

Mohammed uh was talking about sometimes.

Uh we just want to make sure that everybody is accurate in their assessment uh when I uh was appointed to the commission uh of housing authority, there was already an ordinance that was passed uh by the city of Newark around security measures and that they had to be uh armed and an unarmed guard in the facilities.

Uh and Mr.