3 speakers · 1,895 words of public testimony
The first speaker is Felicia Austin Singleton.
How does Silva, who's in Portugal for the first time, call in to vote on this ordinance that was deferred five times and should have went back to the administration? What this is is a classic example of the advisor to the mayor and Daniel Spiegel getting $3 million for the Riviera after you gave him $650,000 last year and then in December of last year, they didn't have no beds for the homeless. And if he could call in, if I'm not here and I'm in another state, I could call in too. And didn't allow any of the speakers to address that Larry Crump. You're going to say you are researching for a tax abatement extension. I've been coming here for five years and long as you've been here. Even before we had a meeting in my community, I gave every last one of y'all a template for all the legislation that you put forward, given tax abatement extension. I need follow up because while y'all are researching, people are losing their homes Good day, criminal cult that's running our government. Let me first acknowledge the loss of one of Newark's icons, Council President Donald Bradley, a man whose life was devoted to public service for the people. His passing wasn't posted on the website, the city's website, nor was there a flag flying half mass out in front of this building. Let us all remember Don Bradley for his life and his legacy being a public servant. Don Bradley, Mayor Shaw James, two icons that serve in the best interest of the people. I want to talk to Newarkers today about the state of the city and the misrepresentation Last year we didn't get a budget and it was submitted in October of last year. Meanwhile, y'all are giving away perks, 25-year tax abatement, making settlements. We don't even know how much money we have. We don't have none because as of last year to this year, June, you done bonded $804 million in the water department and that is continuing to grow and we the taxpayers have to pay for Sadly, the only ones that's benefiting are the developers, friends and family, while working families are being taxed out of this city. Who is representing the residents of Newark? It isn't the mayor, not the council and the mayor's going around while he was campaigning since…
How does Silva, who's in Portugal for the first time, call in to vote on this ordinance that was deferred five times and should have went back to the administration? What this is is a classic example of the advisor to the mayor and Daniel Spiegel getting $3 million for the Riviera after you gave him $650,000 last year and then in December of last year, they didn't have no beds for the homeless. And if he could call in, if I'm not here and I'm in another state, I could call in too. And didn't allow any of the speakers to address that Larry Crump. You're going to say you are researching for a tax abatement extension. I've been coming here for five years and long as you've been here. Even before we had a meeting in my community, I gave every last one of y'all a template for all the legislation that you put forward, given tax abatement extension. I need follow up because while y'all are researching, people are losing their homes Good day, criminal cult that's running our government. Let me first acknowledge the loss of one of Newark's icons, Council President Donald Bradley, a man whose life was devoted to public service for the people. His passing wasn't posted on the website, the city's website, nor was there a flag flying half mass out in front of this building. Let us all remember Don Bradley for his life and his legacy being a public servant. Don Bradley, Mayor Shaw James, two icons that serve in the best interest of the people. I want to talk to Newarkers today about the state of the city and the misrepresentation Last year we didn't get a budget and it was submitted in October of last year. Meanwhile, y'all are giving away perks, 25-year tax abatement, making settlements. We don't even know how much money we have. We don't have none because as of last year to this year, June, you done bonded $804 million in the water department and that is continuing to grow and we the taxpayers have to pay for Sadly, the only ones that's benefiting are the developers, friends and family, while working families are being taxed out of this city. Who is representing the residents of Newark? It isn't the mayor, not the council and the mayor's going around while he was campaigning since last year, didn't care about the people here and how filthy it was, didn't care about people losing their homes or gentrification that he's promoting. We have had nothing missed for 10 years, a decade. No jobs, no affordable housing, no services, no advocacy and no plan to benefit the Now the mayor's going to come to your neighborhood. Well, we've been talking at this podium. Broke ass city, filth everywhere, developers without PLA, public safety. No one in the mayor's crew pays their fair share for land here. Mismanagement, incompetence and a laundry list of failures will be the Join me in supporting Gail Cheney Field Jenkins for Central War. Ali Mohammed Court Towers, Ali Mohammed, the president, Ali Mohammed near school. I was going to go back in a couple weeks to go back to the housing authority, but as we know, something special happened where there's some changes getting ready to And I wanted to, when I was on the commission for almost five years, I wanted to explain some of the things that happened. And what I just passed out to you was a report that we used to get every month And in the report, it gives you grades on everything that we're supposed to have. And if you look at the grades since 2019 or whatever I gave you, they were all F's. For rental, collective rent, for turning around, for doing things, all F's. Now, let me tell you the kicker about this. In March 23, March 23, 23, I got the transcript here. I said, man, I've been only for four and a half years. And we keep saying yes and voting, voting that we're going to do this. And I said, why should we do this when we keep getting F's? And I asked Victor Cerelo, who was the ED at the time. so even as bad as these numbers are, commission Muhammad presented, their situation is worse than these reports. We're getting F's and the books are cook. So now you, last year and a half, we got rid of Victor, Pat did. And they got rid of Victor and they brought in a new gentleman, Spicer. And Spicer used to be head of HUD in New Jersey for public housing. He's not friends with the council, Joey D. He's not friends with, he's strictly a federal guy. And he came in and he had a meeting, a big meeting of all employees. And I came to the meeting and met Pat, Pat, if you remember, I believe you shouldn't be at that meeting. But I was that kind of commissioner that I went to everything and checked out everything. And in that meeting, he said, you got all these F's, If you don't change, I got to make a change. Soon as he take over, we come total status, which I mean, And in the trouble status, they do an assessment where they send 10 people in from HUD. And in that assessment of 2018, it said Victor Cerelo was not qualified for the job. Now, let me tell you who participate in this assessment. It's the commissioners, it's the ED, and guess who else? So in my school, we have what we call cause and effect. What caused us to have this problem where Mr. Spicer now got to say, I'm going to privatize, and there's probably people from New York And even if the new companies come in and they get a chance to hire them, they ain't going to have the insurance and the pension that we have. Matter of fact, they said a housing company got the best pension in New Jersey. So what I'm saying, they're going to lose a lot of things. But the idea is we got properties up here that we own, like Stellar Right, Remember y'all loaned us $20 million with your co-sign? Well, that $20 million, you say you didn't want us to manage. So somebody else is managing goods, so private. Spicer said the rules is three, six, seven commissioners, one for the governor, three for the council people, three for the mayor. Y'all need to enforce that because it's been the state since I've been, But what would enforce it is because the mayor's picking. So a mayor picked the ED, he picked the commissioners. So who the hell is responsible that we in this hell right now? That these nukers is going to lose jobs.
Hello, I'm Beth Zach Cohen, 17 William Street, number 205. I'm speaking on behalf of Ask Me Local 2298 Newark Public Library Workers. Over the past year, we've been here in the council about the library's budget and also the We're here to report that we have approved a contract with the union, the administration and the board, which is a big win for our staff. We're getting big raises for the lowest paid workers. We're very happy that we were able to work this out. It's going to provide them significant raises and support. We want to thank the city council, Mayor Baraka, and Mr. Pennington for their collaboration throughout this process. As you remember, we met with every council person in the summer of 2024, as well as former councilwoman Minnick-Iver, who's now congresswoman, and we really appreciate those conversations. We were able to increase after those conversations, much needed increase in the budget. So we thank the council for recognizing the importance of our libraries. We're very happy with this contract, but of course the work isn't over. As everyone's spoken about, inflation and cost of living continue to rise. So we want to continue to ensure our staff is supported to provide outstanding service We've been here, we've talked about all the services the libraries provide, beside books, ESL classes, GED classes, a space for the free lunch program, historical archives that are unique, historical art collections, teen and youth programs, community programs, panels, book talks, and dance parties. We have one this Friday again, a dance party, shout out to that. So all these services and programs help support and build our communities. So we're hoping that we can continue to work together to make the library a priority We know as we've talked about, it's of course a difficult budget, but it's a small percentage of the budget, and it really makes a difference to our communities. So once again, we wanted to thank the city council. As many of you know, I was born and raised in this city. So we hope that we continue to support our libraries as we have these budget discussions coming up, and we thank you for all your help this past year. Thank you, and also thank you to all the community members that have supported us throughout the year. So Councilwoman Roundtree, you talked about, and…
Hello, I'm Beth Zach Cohen, 17 William Street, number 205. I'm speaking on behalf of Ask Me Local 2298 Newark Public Library Workers. Over the past year, we've been here in the council about the library's budget and also the We're here to report that we have approved a contract with the union, the administration and the board, which is a big win for our staff. We're getting big raises for the lowest paid workers. We're very happy that we were able to work this out. It's going to provide them significant raises and support. We want to thank the city council, Mayor Baraka, and Mr. Pennington for their collaboration throughout this process. As you remember, we met with every council person in the summer of 2024, as well as former councilwoman Minnick-Iver, who's now congresswoman, and we really appreciate those conversations. We were able to increase after those conversations, much needed increase in the budget. So we thank the council for recognizing the importance of our libraries. We're very happy with this contract, but of course the work isn't over. As everyone's spoken about, inflation and cost of living continue to rise. So we want to continue to ensure our staff is supported to provide outstanding service We've been here, we've talked about all the services the libraries provide, beside books, ESL classes, GED classes, a space for the free lunch program, historical archives that are unique, historical art collections, teen and youth programs, community programs, panels, book talks, and dance parties. We have one this Friday again, a dance party, shout out to that. So all these services and programs help support and build our communities. So we're hoping that we can continue to work together to make the library a priority We know as we've talked about, it's of course a difficult budget, but it's a small percentage of the budget, and it really makes a difference to our communities. So once again, we wanted to thank the city council. As many of you know, I was born and raised in this city. So we hope that we continue to support our libraries as we have these budget discussions coming up, and we thank you for all your help this past year. Thank you, and also thank you to all the community members that have supported us throughout the year. So Councilwoman Roundtree, you talked about, and we several times when we come up here and we address things going to the administration, and I've been doing this for over two years, Councilwoman LaMonica MacIver used to do the same thing, and the administration does not respond. now two years coming to this microphone, on the tax abatements going forward, right? Okay, so we got a moratorium going forward. So this ordinance was written in July of 2015. the residents of the city of Newark are owed compensation. So when you start talking about that process, they've been noncompliant to the ordinance There was no commission that was making sure that Newark residents was working for 10 years. For 10 years, Newark Works was not supplying for all the construction sites under that ordinance. For 10 years, Newark Works was not doing that. There's some compensation that needs to be discussed We don't know what the log is going forward, So we stopped the ones that the application is going. There's a log that we're talking about right now tax abatement still no compliance, no oversight. And I'm asking you, there's no transparency. We want trans who's going to be on that review council? Also, the mayor did not tell new community when he was up there last week that the city was giving them $3.6 million towards that development. See, Ms. Derrick, she was here for a moment. See, there's certain people that needs to be in those negotiations like myself that they took out of it. Because things that need to be discussed You can't be given this entity a grant from the city, And we haven't had a community benefit agreement or discussion about it because I think those residents up there really got a problem with this $80 million project. And no abatement is going on up there in those apartments. Abatements, upgrades, capital improvements, because the city could have gave $3.6 million of a grant or what the process looks like now going forward And I asked council president several times
for your comments. Next speaker. Hearing towers are enforcing upon our residents. Council as a whole to adopt N through V. W is an amending resolution for the Government Access Television Studio, sponsored by Councilman Kelly, second by Councilman Cantana. X is a renewal contract for the bridges outreach. Y is an extension of emergency contract for the reconstruction of the bay floor for engine 5, sponsored by Councilman Silva, second by Councilman Ramos. Only because I'm about to group them right after this last one. X is an extension of emergency contract for the relocation of the property room and evidence to new facility. Council as a whole to adopt? AA through AE are all cooperative purchasing agreements. AA is for the bomb x-ray systems. AB is for the records retention system. AC is for paving services. AD is for membership in the cooperative agreement. AE is for the exhaust systems. Council as a whole to adopt AA through AE. AF and AG are both bid contracts. AF is a bid contract for portable toilets and AG is a bid contract to provide athletic apparel that's sponsored by Councilman Kelly and second by AH and AI are applications acceptance of grant funds. AH is for the clean energy coordinator and AI is for the Keep America Beautiful grant. Council as a whole to adopt 7R2A is a professional service contract for engineering design services as well as construction management services. Council as a whole to adopt. B is a private sale redevelopment to provide new construction of a two-family home and rehabilitation of a three-family home to sell at market rate in the South Board, sponsored by Councilman Council, second by Councilman Scott Rountree. I saw what this contractor did in the central ward and the property that he developed. A beautiful project and that's why I am voting for this item because I saw what he had done in the central ward and hopefully he can do the same for these properties in the South Board. C is new construction of five two-family homes to sell at market rate. Motion to defer sponsored by Councilman Council, second by Councilman Kelly. D is new construction of one two-family home and one three-family home to sell at market E is the first amendment to the agreement for the sale and redevelopment of land to Beacon Development Partners LLC to amend…
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for your comments. Next speaker. Hearing towers are enforcing upon our residents. Council as a whole to adopt N through V. W is an amending resolution for the Government Access Television Studio, sponsored by Councilman Kelly, second by Councilman Cantana. X is a renewal contract for the bridges outreach. Y is an extension of emergency contract for the reconstruction of the bay floor for engine 5, sponsored by Councilman Silva, second by Councilman Ramos. Only because I'm about to group them right after this last one. X is an extension of emergency contract for the relocation of the property room and evidence to new facility. Council as a whole to adopt? AA through AE are all cooperative purchasing agreements. AA is for the bomb x-ray systems. AB is for the records retention system. AC is for paving services. AD is for membership in the cooperative agreement. AE is for the exhaust systems. Council as a whole to adopt AA through AE. AF and AG are both bid contracts. AF is a bid contract for portable toilets and AG is a bid contract to provide athletic apparel that's sponsored by Councilman Kelly and second by AH and AI are applications acceptance of grant funds. AH is for the clean energy coordinator and AI is for the Keep America Beautiful grant. Council as a whole to adopt 7R2A is a professional service contract for engineering design services as well as construction management services. Council as a whole to adopt. B is a private sale redevelopment to provide new construction of a two-family home and rehabilitation of a three-family home to sell at market rate in the South Board, sponsored by Councilman Council, second by Councilman Scott Rountree. I saw what this contractor did in the central ward and the property that he developed. A beautiful project and that's why I am voting for this item because I saw what he had done in the central ward and hopefully he can do the same for these properties in the South Board. C is new construction of five two-family homes to sell at market rate. Motion to defer sponsored by Councilman Council, second by Councilman Kelly. D is new construction of one two-family home and one three-family home to sell at market E is the first amendment to the agreement for the sale and redevelopment of land to Beacon Development Partners LLC to amend the project scope in the West Ward. F is to execute a D, restrictive affordable housing agreement for the central ward. G is to execute a D, restrictive affordable housing agreement for property in the North So is a motion to amend on the floor to reflect the property as actually being in There's a motion to adopt as amended, sponsored by Councilman Ramos and second by Councilman H is to execute an affordable housing agreement for supportive housing in the South Ward, sponsored by Councilman Council, second by Councilwoman Scott Rountree. Investigation for an area in need of redevelopment in a North Ward, sponsored by Councilman Ramos, J is the need for housing project in the Central Ward. Council is a hold to adopt. K and L are both resolutions of support. K is for a submission of application to the developer of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Affordable Housing Trust for a project in the North Ward, sponsored by Councilman Ramos and second by Councilman Cantana. And L is a submission of application to the developer to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Affordable Housing Trust Fund for a project in the South Ward, sponsored by Councilman Council, second by Council President Krumpe. M is an exception to public bidding to provide professional engineering support services for the New York Productionization Safe Streets Project. Council is a hold to adopt. N is to execute a community benefits agreement. Council is a hold to defer. 7R3A is a professional service contract for the Community Health Center at Park Elementary School sponsored by Councilman Ramos, second by Councilman Cantana. B through D are all resolutions requesting an extension of time for various engineering projects. B is for the bikeways project. C is for the transit hub project. And D is for the transit village. Council is a hold to adopt B through D. E is an application for grant funds for the Clinton Avenue Safety Improvements Project sponsored by Councilman Council, second by Councilman Kelly. F through I are application acceptance of grant funds. F is for the Safe Streets program. G is the five-board paving project. H is paving improvement project. And I is transportation planning program. J and K are bid contracts. J is for the Street Resurfacing Project. And K is for the Drop-in Center Project. Council is a hold to adopt J and K. 7R4A is authorizing the tax sale. Council is a hold to adopt. 7R5A is to waive the 20-day period for an ordinance to become effective regarding the lease agreement with 169 Clinton Development Urban Renewal LLC. There's a motion on the floor to amend this item to reflect that the public hearing and second reading was done on April 2nd. The final passage was done today, August 6th. Now there's a motion to adopt as amended. B is the application acceptance of grant funds for the STD testing and patient follow-up. C is for the sponsorship of National Health Centers Week. 7R6A through C are settlements with the law department. The abstention is due to the fact that I wasn't here yesterday. D through F are all professional services contracts with the law department. And E and F are both for litigation matters. G through L are civil litigation and pre-litigation settlements with the law department. 7R7A through F are all whole harmless agreements for the use of Newark public school facilities. A is for the North Ward town hall meeting. B is for the Central Ward community meeting. C is for the West Ward community meeting. D is for the East Ward community meeting. E is for the South Ward community meeting. And F is for the North Ward community meeting. Council as a whole to adopt A through F. 7R8A is the attestation of the review of the city audit. B and C are both ceremonial street designations. B is for Carolyn Bertha Wolfo Thompson Wallace, Council to adopt B and C with the sponsors please. D is for the Peshan Avenue Alumni Reunion Block Party, E is for the Hope and Esperanda Community Health Fair, and F is for the South 16th Street Block Party, Motion to adopt D through F with the sponsors. G is recognizing commending resolutions, and H is expressing profound sorrow and regret. 7R11A is accepting a gift of swimsuits and goggles, 7R12A and B are resolutions from the Department of Water and Sewer Utilities. A is a professional service contract for lead pipe relegation representation, and B is a bid contract for additional filters at the water treatment plant. Item 8A is an appointment to the Newark Equitable Growth Advisory Commission B is an appointment to the Caribbean Commission. Items 8C and D are both ordinances pursuant to New Jersey law. C is increasing the bid threshold for our QPA. And D is increasing the settlement amount for our Corporation Council. Council as a whole to advance and adopt C and D on first reading. I'm sorry, advance and adopt on first reading. E is an ordinance granting a 25-year tax abatement to Central Point Urban Renewal LLC for a project to construct a new six-story multifamily building in the Central Ward. Motion to advance and adopt on first reading sponsored by Councilwoman Scott Rountree. Line 11 of this ordinance says 7-7 instead of saying 7-7. I think that should be considered a Scrivener's error. F is an ordinance granting a 25-year tax abatement to 824 South 20th Management Urban Renewal Entity LLC for a project to construct a new four-story residential multifamily Motion to advance and adopt on first reading sponsored by Councilman Council, G is an ordinance granting a 25-year tax abatement to 300 Gar-Side Management Urban Renewal LLC for a project to construct a new five-story residential multifamily dwelling Motion to advance and adopt on first reading sponsored by Councilman Ramos, H is an ordinance authorizing a corrective deed for the West Ward, Council as a whole, I is an ordinance authorizing the assignment and assumption of a financial agreement from 306 MLK Boulevard Urban Renewal Company LLC for property in the Central Ward. Motion to advance and adopt on first reading sponsored by Councilwoman Scott Rountree, F and G were advanced and adopted on first, yeah. J and K are ordinances issuing bonds or notes. J is for the filters at the water treatment plant and K is for the green parks projects. Council is a whole to advance J and K to first reading. L is an ordinance amending multi-way stop intersections by designating 2nd Avenue West and North 7th Street as a multi-way stop sign intersection in the North Ward. Council is a whole to advance to first reading. 7R1AJ is the use of a state contract to provide walk-in building supplies. 7R2O is a subordination agreement for additional funding for a project in the North Ward. 7R12C is a professional service contract for engineering services for design and construction administration for the Ironbound Resilience Hub project. Communications 8M is the parking meter ordinance. 7R2P is introducing the 2025 annual budget for the Newark Downtown District Management Corporation. Council as a whole to adopt. Item 10A is the raffle license. Council as a whole to adopt. 7R2QAS is the authorized payment of state approved list of eligible training providers. 7R2RAS is an amending resolution to add Manchester Police to the site assessment agreement for NJDEP Greenway Project. Council as a whole to adopt. 8NAS is an ordinance to create Chapter 41 intermodal container lot license and establish rules and regulations. Council as a whole to advance the first reading. You know, just reading the memo that came in just today on this, I know we didn't get a chance to go over it in an executive session yesterday. It seems to be a response to pending litigation. I know this is, you know, there were a few of us that didn't support the original container ordinance that the city put forward because we thought, you know, the city didn't have the authority to do so. It seems like a number of the smaller business owners got together. There's pending litigation, so this is being done in response to that. So I have no problem moving it forward, but at some point I think the council needs to have a detailed briefing as to the city's position on this issue in response I agree with you. At the next executive session, we'll have a full discussion on this matter, but in the meantime, we'll advance the first reading. Council President, Council Members, we have one last added starter, which is simply a whole harmless agreement for the Northward Movies Under the Stars, sponsored by Councilman Ramos. Second by Councilman Quintana. Thank you. Council President, Council Members, just for the record, that item is Legislar File 25-1117. Just want people to know what's on tan is Silva using in Portugal. I could hear, but my Wi-Fi is running out. We are now in the hearing of citizens portion of this meeting where each speaker will have When your name is called, please approach the podium and address the council members.