April 1, 2026

the Councilmembers the first speaker is Aleef Muhammad appearing As-salamu alaykum name is Aleef Muhammad good afternoon Aleef Muhammad of Court Street Aleef Muhammad the president of school you know uh FBI I gotta apologize to them and I hate it because Louise I used to argue with them about this city I would argue with the FBI about the city and I had an argument with them one time and I was saying when they get in trouble Midy is going to fall on a sword for his brother he's going to take the weight that's how much confidence I had and they say no no he's not we don't see that and they was right he's weak as kool-aid he has fallen apart the video came out and I even put the video out I didn't get the video to the media here I was trying to get it in the mail and he was he's rattled he's rattled and what's so crazy about it is that it's a video it's not like I said you said and what I did I put together some things that people might not know about federal housing first you know New Jersey is a one state permission for recording so he said I illegally recorded him New Jersey you got as long as one person second thing forcing a per a public housing authority commissioner to change their vote through threat coercion and intimidation constitute a serious crime punishing up from one year to 20 years now I said like my mind got on he said they lobby they lobby it wasn't a lobby it was a change of vote the coercion and intimidation is when he seen me on the 12th he came to office on the 13th on the 14th we had a hearing on the 14th you guys remember they send a letter to remove me so that's called intimidation in other words you didn't get your so now you're going to remove me it was dumb you should at least wait a month later the next day people talk like I'm like mom things like sharp did this I don't know why you're on sharp but sharp did this and sharp did this things changed in the house and thought he because it was so much in 1992 the housing started start changing where we had to take five classes rucka classes so things sharp or somebody else might have got out of it you know again it's independent study so I think he's having a breakdown because he's lying about the tape oh I just came by to see how leave visit them and you see the clear on tape he's arguing about that now I don't know why he's kicking Wayne Richardson under the bus because you know he said on the tape I mean he said it on the show over there that Wayne Richardson and Victor Cerella is the ones that destroyed the house and authority with local 55 he said it publicly now Wayne Richardson name was never brought up to me to the FBI never the oig Wayne Richardson represented local 55 I was in there for a month and I was hearing so much negative stuff about local 55 that I called Wayne in because we cool and I said Wayne I'm hearing a lot of bs five men in one one bedroom apartment just that and what I'm saying you got 100 people on here and 75 of them are Hispanic Latinos and they don't live in north they live in Belleville they live in Bloomfield I had a problem with that I told a man that what changed 55 is when Khalid came in Khalid Thomas came in he fired 35 and then he fired the rest of them that's what changed 55 they won't go budget but why kick Wayne under the bus because Wayne was doing his job as a local president to get him in there because 617 wouldn't get him in there so now you're gonna kick him under the bus he's doing his job I don't know what's going on but you know that was corny um and uh he was doing his job but Khalid got him out of there it was always over the budget it's always over I wasn't happy with him I told him I wasn't happy with him and it's amazing to me how people try to change history that's why I looked at this Allison in 66 we black people couldn't go past Park Avenue no less by a piece of land that's why I looked at her and they killed me rebellion it was a riot I got my I got we got our first color tv stop all that bs it was in 1970 when he got the building and a model himself says it was not a period it wasn't no long it was Abu Bado your own father you contradicted while Laker muscle thank you for your comments next speaker Lisa Mitcherson Parker appearing good day criminal cult that's running out government new workers elect the clown expect a circus let me take a few minutes of my time to check what Allison Ladd said because I've read the court document not only did it talk about 2.2 million dollars that it was assessed that the court document also talked about how the elected were being paid by the persons that you sold it the property to in addition to the taxpayers having to pay a half a million dollars and more in legal settlement so we lost money on that deal congratulations to the students and community folks for being honored by the mayor at the state of lives yesterday you are to be commended for your work in the community and for the students who studied and their parents may god bless you on the basketball courts in new york we say bring your game not your name the mayor yesterday filibustered the entire time with honorees said disparaging things about advocates he did that because he does not have a record to stand on to his failed record to the city is bankrupt broke high taxes rent utilities unsafe streets no jobs no sustainable training the city is dirty potholes flooding no snow removal dirty water suppressed public farm lie stealing cheat for their seats 12 years three terms of being non-responsive to the concerns of new workers in addition his surrogates that billy intimidate residents that don't agree with him the mayor didn't talk about his accomplishment or policy because he doesn't have any he puts developers friends and families first my community came out to the planning board 400 and more overwhelmingly against a project in our community three times the project was denied three times came before the planning board under a different llc but it was the same owners let me say this to you they don't live here yet the people that invested maintained and preserved our communities is met with the elected that won't stand with the homeowners the ones that pay the lion's share of property taxes in the central ward um we don't want the project chaos group has amassed all prime real estate in in newark today we want the same things that we invested in a quality of life and not a project that's being rammed down our throats because they're paying into your your campaign or their friends with the administration and some of you up there and i've already checked the elect reports that some of you shouldn't even be voting because there's a conflict of interest because they donate to your campaigns new workers in may please join me in supporting gail cheney field jenkins for a better central ward jamal youngblood for mayor for a better north louis quintana at large my mejente i love you you still with me and the people donna jackson at large nadira brown at large altharite white at large vote anybody but baraka it is time for change i don't want people coming back and clapping back because what i do in the community is advocacy nobody pays me for but i have a deep respect and care for the people in my community unlike some of you have haven't even created legislation to preserve protect and look out for the people in our communities that made those communities attractive for developers let's not talk about affordable alison lad when you stated yourself unless you make up to 120 000 a year you aren't even eligible half of the municipal workers rely on housing vouchers y'all are gentrifying displacing new workers for for your own benefit your own personal benefit and destroying the working class in this city it's time for change vote them out thank you for your comments

next speaker shakira mcdoogle appearing excuse me boss man can get this to the council yes just a few more documents may i start i'm sorry no no this for them it's just for them sir uh it's just for them and miss daniels because i felt like i left her out last time i do apologize about that am i waiting on the president to begin or well good afternoon my name is shakira mcdoogle this is the state of the trenches i've been in these chambers consistently not just to speak but to listen to understand where we are as a city not just on paper but on the ground and what i see is this nork is valuable but not everyone is experiencing that value the same way we hear about progress we hear about development but for many residents there's still a gap between what's announced and what's actually felt that's the trenches so let me ask her something who are we still falling short for in this city and if we're honest it's the young person who doesn't see a pathway it's the family still waiting for answers it's the resident who feels like the system moves around them but never with them because if we know who we're falling short for then we know exactly what we need to build and i listen to the state of the city but if this is truly our city then the systems in it should work for all of us clearly consistency consistently and in real time that's not a funding problem that's a coordination problem because in our hospitals we don't guess there's a board live and updated that shows capacity and real time who needs a bid what's available and where the pressure points are so the question becomes if we can track something that critical with that level of clarity why can't we do the same for opportunity in our city housing job training youth programs mental health services not scattered but connected visible and accountable and i want to speak to the generation in between you're the bridge and the younger watching so the question is are we building something they can step into or just giving them something to watch and the public trust act i've been working on is rooted in that so my question to the leadership tonight is simple what would it take for north to pilot a real-time coordination system i'm proposing we start small one or two areas this isn't something we have to wait years for either we can start seeing what it looks like in months not just what we funded but what actually worked and how it worked and a city that can deliver is a city people don't just live in it's a city they believe in thank you um thank you for your comments oh i'm not done oh i still got some time oh you said i'm sorry i mr mcdole the floor is yours and look look so this the game right this the game because i don't have the same issue up there east orange and mayor tag green is fixing things up there for me but so you got one post on one corner and you got another post on another corner so when i'm busing the corner i'm not seeing that one at the bottom and as i cross the street on the left side i'm not looking at that all i'm thinking i'm looking for is to pay my fair share and so i put the time and i paid and even the officer she's like yeah it's a setup because you've got the the postings for the pay everywhere but if it's going to be a street cleaning or something why aren't they set up like that and let me ask you something gonzales because this is what i was thinking right if the street is broken up don't you have to put a sign everywhere that the street is broken up or is it just consistent you can just have one sign here and then one side all the way down there and then if the street is broken up here you can just still be ticketing people i think it's it's unfair and we should pay to put the signs up everywhere so that there's no there's no issue i it just was ironic here i am and and well you know i don't want i just i just want fair i just want fair again why not post the signs what does it cost i mean if anything you should have to sign up under the pay meter like reminder do do do do do do do do that's all i'm asking y'all you know and how y'all doing i hope y'all enjoy your good friday you know i hope that you enjoy your easter you know and um listen a public trust act they was eating that up that thing gone out there they eating that up so hopefully we can get some support captain uh james george thank him so much because we're working in tandem you're creating a system thank you for your comments uh mr mr mcdougall just just sit tight for the rest of the meeting and let's talk about

somebody's getting ready to do it now uh next speaker felicia austin singleton oh i didn't see you okay appearing let the meditation of my heart in the words of my mouth be acceptable in the sight of the lord my strength i know i said it wrong pat my strength and my redeemer felicia austin singleton accountability you guys aren't accountable for anything y'all sit there and y'all mark people ballots for the election in their ballots i'm getting calls about that on a sample ballot sheet y'all went and marked who you want you not being supported louis quantana you're not being supported on none of the ballots that i got from team baraka round tree and crump you are you're not being supported now i said it at the end of the day you are the most un incompatible unreligious people i get down on my knees every night and pray and i couldn't have the heart to come up here and sit here and yes yes yes you because i'm going to hell i didn't get to be 53 year old we had 11 grandkids happy birthday anthony my only grandson turned 18 years old today at the end of the day i didn't get to be a grandmother of a 19 and 18 year old to now be going to jail or going to hell for you unbelievable then you send your cronies on me and then you want to threaten me about my housing pat and at the end of the day you threaten the housing advocate how stupid can you be i see why they named the ass that read jesus rode through jerusalem into a donkey because all of you are nothing but an ass it's a jesus it's most fitting time because it was last prom sunday jesus wrote an ass to jerusalem am i right pat am i right louise you can't tell me i can't say that i earned the right for that larry well come on y'all are so corrupt that you didn't even want me to tell the truth of housing on a radio show a community radio show rock ma mohammed on it jody pitman on it we know y'all she on your team i don't know that chick i don't care about her she's a non-motherfucking factor to me and at the end of the day that's how you treat the residents that's how you treat the residents like we're not a factor in this equity what have you produced in equity for resources for the community such as affordable housing you asked janelle gunn come on the radio and send a long email about the kawaii the towers we just lost almost two million dollars to al sharpton and steffy bartley told y'all about that 23 000 you sold the building for you came back and then the judge made you pay an extra 50 000 plus 450 000 and you let him do business in this city again how dare you disrespect the resident but yet la monica won a fight a lawsuit case about her representing illegal residents over there at delaney hall yet you did not help villa victoria you did not help ncc you did not help georgia king village you did not help 550 uh bergen street when did you come and stand lock arms let the man go go there man i'm gonna come lock my arms around you when you stand in front of our apartment building bro it's nothing personal this is business business of the city and if you want to take it personal then get about the seat because me felicia i only know how to be me i'll work with any last one of you to make a resolution for a solution for the residents i bring the solutions i am the solution and yet you want somebody to come and come against me well bring it bring it i dare you nothing but a bunch of bullies much of high school kids can't get it together can't get right and yet you still want to act like i don't know what i'm talking about you degrade me because i call you incompetent i say what i said and i mean what i said and whoever don't like out of it what you can do is you could just move out the way or i'm gonna roll you over this is not election time please go tell all your people this is not election time for me i've been standing at this mic since 2014 am i correct ramos am i correct louis am i correct gonzalez this ain't election time for me maybe for some of you how dare you be disrespectful to residents i am for the residents thank you thank you for your comments next speaker gail cheney field jenkins appearing you know we want to talk about dignity gail cheney for jenkins 88 richmond street when i left here in 2006 after i lost the election one of the things i did was i left a letter for each council person that was coming on board and the letter was to wish them luck but to also remind them to be careful not to allow the executive branch to overpower the legislative branch dignity the seniors in our families are living in housing that is deplorable and they want and deserve better y'all better start listening to these residents because they're hurting and they're tired they want more than bingo games bus rides and y'all listening to the building owners who are telling you that they're fixing things you know you guys went up to new community corporation last year and they kept giving you timeline after timeline in which they were going to repair things and do things and they still haven't done it three weeks that 180 elevators have been down they've been using one elevator now the ironic thing about it was there was a delivery of hello fresh food and the seniors had it delivered into the community room and miss davis who's number 24 she's not coming she said gail i'm too tired they're not listening they don't care but it's amazing that you can get up to the first floor to the 15th floor to put a flyer under the door or knock on the door and ask for a vote but at that point in time yeah i couldn't take this yeah i didn't have enough manpower to take the boxes upstairs to the seniors on the 15th floor to 12th floor or whatever they were struggling getting those boxes upstairs they want dignity you want their votes that's political currency but the political currency that you are supposed to be giving them is service why aren't there enough code enforcement officers that go in and do the inspections that they can find the building owners how come new community corporation gets a pass is richard cammerary that powerful is new community that powerful that you can ignore what they're doing to the seniors you know in 2016 there was a vote for the properties for new community and at the time council president krump said to me gail you can't keep holding it up because there was properties 545 orange street as well as one north eighth street because that's the westward and councilman mccallum was like gail we're going to lose the money we're going to lose the money and i said to rich roman at that time who was the ceo of new community rich new community has a bad track record of getting monies and not doing the repairs that they're supposed to do and at the end of the day i said i'm going to fight you all and it hurts me because my family helped put some blood sweat and tears into that place along with a willie wright our brash or alma bateman and all those other people and they're still not doing the things that they need to do to ensure that the residents have better quality of life that falls on you guys because the administration has to send the code enforcement people out there but you all have the legislative power to say that you'll put a clean and lean on a building you'll turn around and you'll review tax abatements and if the people aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing then you stop giving them the allowance to let seniors and people live in horrible conditions you know at the end of the day this is an election time things will be said good or bad but at the end of the day we all need to be listened to what the residents are saying they are hurting they are tired of living in the conditions that they're living in they can't even go to their managers because the managers will punish tenants if they turn around and make complaints so who do they turn to if they don't turn to this governing body when you turn around and write a report or you turn around and make a complaint about new community corporation send a letter to HUD send it to dca send it to new njfma and hold them accountable because they are funding these kind of organizations they're funding these landlords and at the end of the day the people are what's supposed to matter all of us we come and go but at the end of the day we're supposed to be about new workers so let's start working for new workers

thank you thank you for your comments next speaker marilyn so well marilyn so appearing i'm marilyn so well can you do me a favor just pull the mic up a little so we can hear you better marilyn so well north resident i had to unfortunately for me in 2018 i was assaulted very badly i got jumped which led to three years of court back and forth right now today it had um i'm nervous excuse me all right right now the people that assaulted me the outcome wasn't good in court because they continuously uh attacked me cyberly when i say cyberly is to a degree where you wouldn't have no understanding it started with the appliances in my house the microwave the tv the refrigerator my wash machine as the years increased i watched this attack increased on me i'm a speeder my sister i started working with her i'm a caretaker for a year now what they started in my home playing with the tv uh blowing out blowing out the lights or making it seem making it appear to be the lights are blown so my i'm a caretaker and i've been a caretaker for a year we have uh doctor's appointments cyberly they were canceled the doctor's appointment whether it's getting from the doctor or going to they canceled her life alert they she had went through three phones already flip phones already because they shut them down with me in the beginning i don't went through 25 phones uh 57 different phone numbers different i tried every tactic to weave them or get them out the way to no avail i've been writing for nine years to the prosecution to the um i even wrote the mayor here i wrote him in 2022 i have that letter with me back then it wasn't that it wasn't that severe when i stayed there control is so surreal sometimes i have a hard time believing it but it's real real at my job at my work they are into their computers to where i get paid once a month i'm not federal taxes not being taken out because they're deleting something i would be on the phone with a rep from my job and and hear her say the most craziest things that wouldn't even make sense so in my mind they're editing a computer right in front of them right in front of them and they're repeating what they're reading even things that doesn't make any sense i would have to call my job three days out of a week to correct something i went from um open downloading their app on my phone and go get my time in that way to um faxing in i went back and forth five to six times to no avail when i said these people are so vicious and so cruel my sister was hospitalized the 31st of december december 31st she was hospitalized she went in for a cough her son took her down tonight i followed shortly after they took her a blood work blood work came back that her potassium was low but i said in my mind i said that's that's more than impossible because she take 20 milligrams of potassium each day and she eats lots of bananas but so the doctor's saying somehow it could have been pushed out but i had an eerie feeling in my stomach because what i experienced from these hackers to my bank to my job to my everyday life tv i i can't even watch what i want to watch i can't even wash my clothes in the brand new front loop because they were stopping on one second and that way is locked i can't open it three years ago four years ago i haven't cooked the thanksgiving dinner because they controlled they opened as well i learned as time went on when i left the house during the day they were turning my my refrigerator down to the lowest i guess they know i'm coming home because they know the time because they when i stayed they know everything everything that i do everything it's all this is real life i don't wish it on anybody because i think the average woman my age she wouldn't be able to take this as long as she had it's been nine years and i said i refuse for it to go into a tenth year this is oh i don't know thank you for your comments um you have a seat somebody your putrid time is up somebody we'll have somebody from one of us there have a conversation with you to help see how we can help you okay thank you miss oh queen danisha cliborn appearing good afternoon everyone good afternoon queen danisha cliburn 39a 14th avenue north new jersey that is the sentry ward i don't even know what to say right now i can't even look i was sitting here listening to people and looking around this room and i can't help but to notice it says that we started 1666 they say those are the devil's numbers listen i could work with anybody don't have a problem with agreeing to disagree because it's life right i'm everywhere doing things i'm almost showing myself that we don't need a local government literally because if we're going to keep going back and forth like this from the person that are currently in office to the people that are candidates we're never going to get nowhere we're going to still be in 1666 with the devil i got 16 more events and going again i am the community liaison manager for mcdonald's and we own 14 mcdonald's within new jersey not just norick i love the work that i do my boss is amazing we did an event for the first time ever we named it the mcbans day and i'm just upset with this community we do not support anything nothing we keep saying this about the youth and when we give things for the youth i don't care who's giving it somebody should be appearing because if you're watching me post negative things or you stay there negative on facebook i'm sure you see all the positive things i'm posting as well i don't have a problem with y'all i just pay taxes and i feel like because i pay taxes maybe i could come up here and get some assistance and then if i can't then i'll go home and i figure it out on my own y'all gonna be very surprised with how i'm gonna react within the next two weeks i'm telling you i support those that are real i support those that make real moves oh by the way because you know we gotta give flowers thank you pat council when i came the last time you did get your people out to the apartment to fix it up well not for your people to fix it up but for code enforcement thank you so much i had to go there i sat there they came it was clean by the time i came in the inside so thank you when you do good things i don't know about nobody else i'm gonna tell you thank you okay but there's a lot of work to be done i'm gonna just put this in the air i will never respect any female i don't care who you are that allows a man that don't know nothing about politics to disrespect the female never i don't care who you are i don't even respect my mother half of the time was she wrong ask her her name is shilla cliver she lives in north carolina if i'm gonna do that to her i'm gonna do it to you too nobody's exempt but what i do want is for us to come into some kind of bridge of this gap where the community and you guys can work together because right now this election is messy it is very messy i get calls from very concerned people in the city of newark about whether it's what we're doing what you guys are doing and there's a separation there should never be a separation you guys are supposed to have components people running against you it should be fair how you run this race because i learned this from the baraka administration hands on listen to the other loud that we just put up you hear gal cheney field voice in it you hear everybody praising razz back then yeah i was there too but sometime there's some things we see that that need to be corrected and at this point i need to be corrected i saw the city of estate i think it was messy because we don't have to yell all the time we only want to act like people that allow us to act that way you guys don't have to be like your boss we need you and i'm going to call y'all until i don't thank you for having me y'all have a great day on purpose thank you for your comments next speaker eden rivera appearing good afternoon good afternoon if i could get this up to the council please eden rivera candidate for councilman at large for the city of newark i'm a new face guys nice to meet you right um i'm also running a very clean campaign okay um a campaign that listens and what i'm giving you guys right now is concerns that go to my personal website from residents in the city of newark not saying that they don't come to you at the same time right with all due respect you guys are busy people but guess what i'm going to express these and i need an answer from each one of you not as a whole each one of you because i want to hear your different versions right because i too have a say in this election i too have a right to tell people how to vote so your responses to me are going to be very crucial right because just because you're at this in the south doesn't mean i can't influence that just because you're in the central ward doesn't mean i can't influence that just because you're at large and i'm expiring for a seat there's three more seats that we need to fill ahead of the time i congratulate you if you're sitting in this seat after this election but i make you one promise like i made a promise to my people on my website and i am living this today is that if you return to that seat i would be on you like white on rice so today i want to briefly discuss some issues and challenges that the city of newark is experiencing we all know it right i won't go into full detail because i'm at three minutes and i have two pages housing and homelessness that's a big issue you guys housing in newark is not affordable i don't care who says it when you have an apartment right across from nj pack at close to four thousand dollars not happening who is it affordable i make decent money it's not affordable to me it is not homelessness we're working on it but those shelters are not in living conditions not even for the homeless we're giving them this money they're pocketing it and giving our homeless people whatever scraps they can get why because they're homeless they are no different than me and you so my question to you what initiatives are currently in place for low-income residents expanding housing options and addressing the homelessness i want sincere answers guys not the political answer okay can you promise that that's all right they can look at me however they want i'm being very clear and i'm being very respectful the only reason i'm raising my voice is because this mic ain't the best right but i'm being as respectable as possible public safety and policing right nor took an approach said we want to be community-based let me tell you something ain't no law enforcement officer no disrespect to the guys in the back being community-based i remember back when i was here in 1989 when a police officer walked up to you and said go home a child said no problem sir i'm going that respect is gone you know why because policing is no longer community-based now law enforcement approaches you and derogatively tells you to go where they want you to go any citizen in the city of north will tell you go f yourself because you're not talking to me in the proper manner we were taught to respect our parents respect authority but the respect goes both ways can we agree we agree i'll take that as a yes so what plans are ongoing right now right about police accountability building trust between law enforcement and its residents i want an answer to that please okay citizens are also navigating a very complex situation because it's called ice right they are not our friends i'm pretty sure you all share my same vision that if we had the chance to tell them to scram we would but unfortunately in the political field that we're in right now that's just not an option but please tell me what approach would you take on ice what approach are we taking there's nothing clear sent to the residents on a consistent basis saying these are our approaches there is no transparency guys i look at that newark website and jamar young blood is here right and he says very clearly on his campaign i am going to improve that website so guys like i said two more seconds thank you for your comments next speaker two more seconds thank you for your comments finish your sentence i'll let you finish your sentence i'm appreciating you can i do that and i'm letting you finish your sentence go ahead so i appreciate your time i look forward to your responses and please make them in a timely fashion so that we can do it before election day thank you for your comments next speaker malik h cooper appearing great day beautiful people thank you for getting my name correct i appreciate that i'm sorry mr cooper we can barely hear you okay i guess we're back to the bad microphone um comment okay great day everyone my name is malik h cooper and i just want to thank her for getting my name correct this time i appreciate that um you constantly hear all of the stuff and you have everybody getting on the microphone and um there are words and i'm a person that picks up on words and and definitions and how people evaluate their choices through these words and definitions so the words that i came up today with was rumors rumors are not proven yet am i right but one of the things we use to get investigations done is rumors and it is unfortunate that the rumors that we hear coming from the other side you know we hear stuff back here um and i don't believe y'all understand how intense that rumor factor is when you're somebody i'm going to say i'm going to use myself as an example somebody that's coming into this race running for councilman at large that's a new face from that angle and have heard rumors before i made the decision and then the rumors intensify when people know that they can come to somebody like me and say something and be honest and truthful there's a difference when the person is coming to you knowing they can't lie knowing that they don't want to lie knowing that they really want something better for the community and then we have to sit and and and it be forced down our throats that the rumors aren't true reputation is my next word rumors don't happen on a negative perspective if your reputation is positive you don't get rumors that have or or go excessively negative if this is not true i have a nephew he's nine years old at a point in one time in my life he said uncle malik this boy said this about you i said doodoo you listen to me very closely when people say something over and over again you might want to believe them but when rumors and reputation meet somewhere there is the truth when room that's why they had investigations okay i have to say that i'm listening to the other thing we have trucks you everybody's worried about these trucks you know i went to north carolina and i was there for three days they had a garbage pickup i never knew when the garbage picked up want to know why because they used a newer technology they have side loaders the side loaders they load in they load the side there's no trash on the ground i said charlotte north carolina not north new jersey however our regime presently believes that it is okay to put our men's back and all of that stuff into labor instead of looking at a new technology and moving those workers into something greater there is something you can do i've been doing a bunch of research and y'all are sitting around dealing what what's old instead of really looking at what's new and part of what's new is mentoring people to take your position not to sit in the position and act like it's okay to not put it out and give that's a hiring component too that you're not willing to do so what do you believe the citizens are going to believe from you if you won't give up your position for the greater purpose of the community that's what this is all about teachers that's what teachers do if you're real teachers thank you thank you for your

my name is rodney davis a runner for mayor of the city of north and i'm may 3 first uh let's talk about paving let's talk about pick i drive i know some people in here got a car the streets are for nothing the streets are absolute joke i don't even know president krump you pretty intelligent guy but uh i heard the city of newark you could either tell me yes or no being your attorney don't even have a paving contract the city of newark relies on a grant from the state of new jersey to pave our streets i mean that's when you know you hit rock bottom people tell this story it'd be sounding good like you know times is all good times ain't good around here so i'm putting the city of north on the reorganization and i like what you did ramos you ruiz that was good with the fight this is an american city and we gotta have the firefighters so i'm what i'm thinking if you didn't do that then it wouldn't be done it just would be the same old same old and uh i'm supporting gail cheney field jenkins for central ward councilwoman i'm not against me the best i'm for gail cheney field jenkins and since came out a couple weeks i would like to get a progress report councilman quintana i would like to get a progress report update she was with the people from the television i think it was channel 12 11 or somebody and they went to a young lady house and the lady had all type of rats rogues extinguished in front of her kids i guess you could hook up with cheney field and get the address on that so court enforcement did do their job the brave men and women of court enforcement they went out there but after a while it stops being paperwork it's what marcia cooper used to do is call it clean and lean you send the exterminator over there and you exterminate the place why he can exterminate it he can have pain ain't but oh yeah i call cold enforcement ha ha ha no no no no you hit the landlord up and tell the landlord shipping to the marriott till you get it fixed you pay the bill for the exterminator the paint job and the marriott that's what we'd like to get a progress report on that because right now i and i don't know cheney field could tell me or somebody could tell me but i think about it every day you know now we're on a garden this election we got coming up we got an election coming up people not satisfied so we got a whole bunch of candidates and there's a rumor going around that people are scared scared of what what are you scared for people in this country died for you to vote got spit on they brought the horses out got pissed on everything so what are you scared for you're only about 67 i'm 60 so y'all the seniors in the building gotta be 78 whether you what no matter where you live in this city you don't have to be scared at night you don't need nobody like you a little kid just go up there and vote when the young boys be standing by the polling booth barking walk past them like you do every day vote come out of the booth and go on about your business like you do there's nothing to be scared of you know if you're tired you're tired guy was running against sweeney he had 600 other guy was we had a lot of money was tied even that's why mandami in there people get that's what's happening here it's going to be a lot of changes it's gonna be a lot of changes you know the people tag all the money in the world ain't gonna help and this story you're telling it's getting boring and it sounds good you know it sounds good but this ain't good times these are desperate times the man just had to go and make a law to get some fire equipment it's gonna be that in the police department it's gonna be that the way in dpw but we're gonna put the city under reorganization have a good day

next speaker michael charity michael charity michael charity not appearing opal r right i believe i see miss right yes miss right is appearing good afternoon my name is opal r right i reside at vanderpool street in newark new jersey and i'm concerned with the implementation of dot frank wall street reform and consumer protection act title 10 the bureau of consumer financial protection i believe that there was the last time i mentioned the transaction fees at the automated atm the automated like where you like to receive your funds from the atm they're using those fees for security and fraud and they're using that to improve the service so i wanted to make sure that if i'm going to read this read this law that that it's understood so that we don't have to go before a judge and have them explain it so i'm going to try again and complete uh by reading section 10 17 as is funding penalties and fines since that the transfer of funds from board of governors in general each year beginning on the designated transfer date and each quarter thereafter the board of governors shall transfer to the bureau from the combined earnings of the federal reserve system the amount determined by the director to be reasonable necessary to carry out the authorities of the bureau under federal consumer financial law taking into account such other sums made available to the bureau and i was just mentioning the authority of the appropriations and is it says that the director makes the determination and submits the report suing to one there are hereby authorized to be appropriated to the bureau for the purpose of carrying out the authorities granted granted in federal reserve financial law 200 million dollars for each of the fiscal years 2010 2011 2012 2013 and 2014 in title 11 i had also mentioned that there was uh this is a preamble i believe that it's mentioned in here that um it states that they want um something to the effect that it is not a preamble but i wanted to just um go on to section uh one of the sections that clearly explains the entitle the this title's um provisions and i know that this is this is a part of an amendment so it says that there are they're talking about terms such as credit terms such as credit facilities which means a program or facility that is including any special purpose vehicle or other entity that established by or on behalf of the board of governors of the federal reserve system or a federal reserve bank and the information um that we should pretty much understand i would have to get uh bring up on the okay i would like to also mention that i know that i have um mentioned the payback which is i believe title 13 and title 12 should be mentioned first and this is improving access to mainstream financial institutions where they offer small dollars that's right value loans your time is up thank you for your comments next speaker arnelle lee i did not see miss lee not appearing lamont ball i don't see him either not appearing d talib i know i saw areas appearing peace be upon you d talib i kill seven porter place all of you know me professionally but very few people here know me personally and i've made it my business to keep my professional and my personal life separate i don't like to commingle the two but in saying that professionally all of you know me as someone who leads with integrity i'm gonna always do what's right but i'm driven by systems and processes so i'm not here to bash anybody speak negatively about someone because that's not how you get things done i'm about i'm here to illustrate that i've gone through the process for what i'm trying to get done because i want to work with you but i need your help and what i'm referring to is i want the firehouse that's on the corner of muhammad ali and urban turner boulevard now in terms of going through the process i've spoken to the mayor a couple of times i was spoken to mr pennanting a couple of times and they've been honest with me that it's been designated for something else it's been sold but we all know that the city does land swaps all the time i have a better designation for this property but in going through the process i've i want to thank councilwoman bay for taking time out of her busy schedule to meet with me because it's in her ward so i respect for her i came to her i met with her i gave her a copy of my proposal that i used to get into the youth house i spoke to and i emailed deputy mayor quiles i emailed deputy mayor lad i've also emailed the mayor's executive assistant on three different occasions this year but in fairness to them i understand that there was pipes dead burst computers and things were damaged they were displaced for a couple of months but again it's just so that i've gone through the process to try to get this done and i'm here now because the land has been sold there's been some movement on it so i'm here to try to bring this to the top of everyone's leaderboard because i need your assistance i want to turn this place into an empowerment house for the youth of this city and you probably ask well why do you care why is that important to you because again to share personal information today is growing up i was the fat dumb kid that everybody laughed at because i couldn't read till i was 10 or 11 years old i went to three different high schools and it took me five years to graduate it wasn't until i got to florida a&m university where they have the number one program that facilitates students with learning disabilities where they poured into us and told us we're not dumb or stupid we just process information differently use your resources focus on your strengths don't worry so much about your weaknesses so in doing that coming home i think is in working in public administration i've worked my way up through work my way up the rank and file to become an administrator but again i've put systems and process in place along the way and you're not going to make it as an administrator if you don't you don't follow systems and processes and i believe that you have to work with and within the system in order to get things done in addition to that and i mean in doing that i've also met with you know a couple of the the leadership of the bloods and crepes because i want this to be a safe haven regardless of who they're affiliated with or what they've done once the court released them to me this has to be a safe space for them almost like swiss linden in the citra ward because again they need a place like that and again i know because i was in that facility november 1993 for making poor decisions because i didn't feel good about myself i didn't feel like i belonged so you do things to be accepted or not to be picked on and i just was doing things i had no business doing so again this is my calling working with kids giving back to them but again i need your help and what i've learned from that program and things that i'm doing and working with these kids is that i don't care if you black white latina asian democrat republican if you were racist if you pro-black people who have learning disabilities whether it's you your child or a relative we share a trauma bond because we know what it's like growing up dealing with that issue and i'm going to share some hopefully i'm not out of interest to give you an idea of what i'm talking i hope i'm not i'm not out of bound council president our children are friends they used to be in the same class they went to the same schools but i fought for three years to get my child out of district placement because her needs weren't being met he and his wife reached out to us about a year later to find out what did we do i shared the information with them as well because that's what it's about sharing the information with people who have common bonds or things who love each other and just want to see us do it and that's what this place would be about creating a safe space for them and a community of like-minded people who understand what it's like to have a learning disability and need help so i'll leave you with this there's only two things that separate us as human beings and if you don't know what that is it's the information that we have and the effort that we give these kids will be given the information they're going to stand in place of like putting forth the effort thank you thank you thank you for your comments

next speaker lachey lopez duran a miss do or no not appearing pablo alavira mr alavira not appearing debra salters i'm sorry before you get it okay that's fine i thought somebody else was coming go ahead appearing great day nork debra salters 1a for mayor may 12 2026 operation clean house so i'm looking at the agenda and i remember the last time i got up and i talked about the temporary appropriations and the ba spoke after i spoke and said that you know it's normal for municipalities to you know do temporary appropriations before the budget is passed so i'm looking at and i understood that the point is not that the temporary appropriations are here it's that they're here all the time long time before we get the budget and like for instance this one here 7r1a that's temporary emergency appropriation for drinking enforcement fund for 91,222 dollars and it says from january 126 through december 31st 26 so when do we plan to pass the budget and then the next one says 50,000 for funds for the highway and traffic and safety for 50,000 october 1st 25 through september 26 so and i know i often ask when we have these dates that are in 25 that go into 26 has the money been partially spent already or are we like i i don't understand and no one ever made that clear so if this is from the 26 budget and it says october 25 up until september of 26 how does that work then we have another one that says from july 25th july 1st 2025 through june 30 of 2026 that's for public health emergency preparedness and then this one over here which is huge this one is for this is 7r1e that is for water and sewer 67 million 624 thousand 172 dollars we need that much money for water water is on every budget and this is from april 1st to 2026 through april 30 of 2026 and then there's this ordinance over here is 7r1f that is for something that is not clear to me it says the contract amount not to exceed 7.5 million dollars and it's for technology of some sort right use of state contract t2989 communications wiring services adopted on march 6 2024 that's the original resolution and then it goes down to talk about authorized dealer they're under in an amount not to exceed 500 000 and then we get down to the bottom and it's 1.5 million so and then at the bottom this resolution will further increase not to exceed contract amount of the original resolution by six million dollars and zero cents so this is what i'm talking about so we need some clarity on all of this and it's more stuff on here right so nurkers what i'm saying to you and not to mention that people are being moved out of departments and shifted under other departments so that the funding for this salary can come out of other departments because the city is in a mess right now it's in a complete mess so nurkers you have a choice on may 12th to make a decision if you want to get this dark cloud from over this city you have got to make the right decision because with lion's gate the developers eating off of our backs the taxes going up our water going everything going up except your paychecks you not being able to live breathe thrive your kids can't thrive you need to make a decision may 12 2026 to save your lives this election is paramount if we do not take this city back now we are doomed because you can't afford to live where you live now what do you think is going to happen when lion gate goes up you don't think these property taxes don't go through the roof do you think you're going to be able to move freely up and down feeling highs and out like you've been doing all these years what about you that's the question you need to ask about what about you what about your family what about your children what about your grandchildren how do you think you're going to live may 12 2026 it's time to make a decision to change your life if you need to if you want to live again if you want to breathe again if you want to thrive again may 12 2026 deborah salters for mayor 1a i will see you at the polls oh and if you see something say something have your phones out record what you see report it to the federal government because it's serious out here thank you for your comments next speaker latoya jackson tucker appearing latoya jackson tucker north new jersey central ward um excuse me um so i make a lot of videos and i know a lot of people watch them i made one i believe that was sunday night with ruckus police on bergman street in the central ward um i called out your name reverend roundtree people was in my inbox thought you was there and i had your nephew or somebody and i'm tired of people in my inbox about the things that i say up here because i know that i speak about me most of the time and the things that go on in my life so either you can relate or you can't but i don't play with nobody but the police the law enforcement the north police the sheriff's department ruckus police um it's a lot of bullying and intimidation we i've seen people recording we got out it was two women when we got out and began to ask questions i know they had policy that say they don't have to tell us anything so i know also from north police basically warning me on the procedures of actually going up to officers when they have an investigation everything like disrespectful they do is like an investigation they'll say that word investigation so that you could back up mind your business but it's really bullying and intimidation so i would like maybe with the other community members here for us to make a roadmap for the community because we know it's a lot of issues that we do not talk about and the people need to know what they up against like we need to know the rules we need to know what jurisdiction north police has on west streets and what jurisdiction excess county sheriff and now the ruckus police if it be they have young officers and i know they're so happy to get a position because everybody want to feed your family but most of the time when you're talking to them it'd be our own kind trying to the god told us told me go mind your business before you get locked up and i had to challenge that because even though like i'd be having issues with the department of public safety i took their class and they informed us within a dissent decree of what we could do and what we could not do so i know that you can videotape somebody and then you know and also you get not you can videotape them and not ask for permission when you out there and they cannot do anything to you but the first thing they do to the community when they come and they want information about what's going on because we have the right like every black young man hispanic young man is not a criminal no matter what they doing no matter what they driving i had an incident because i had a boxed off Cherokee and i pulled into the pilgrim village where i live at where my license registration and everything say and officers cuff me in front of my son like when do the bullying and intimidation stop they have all these different departments that y'all fun because y'all got the power to purse all these different things that we can't even ask questions about that the information is not valuable to us because we policy like they don't have to do this and that's not right like they shouldn't stop a person not telling what they stopping them for and then when they asked them they rip them out their car and start slamming them against the car that was what ruckus police did then they cuffed them in front of us so i left because it was a sergeant there and i had it on tape but i also asked for the information of the young boy that basically told me he could lock me up because i asked him a question like i ain't this mouth can get very disrespectful if you follow me i'm sure that you can see what i'm possible what i'm capable of doing there's no reason for anybody to fear me though because i'm not gonna put my hands on anybody i was told that's the difference between me and auntie jack donna that she talked but i actually i'm not putting my hands on nobody because i know better and i know nobody ain't gonna save me if i cross the line but this mouth i have the freedom of speech to be able to say whatever i want to say it however i want to say it and it's wrong every time i see an officer doing something whether it's north police the sheriff the joint task force now ruckus police doing anything we humans we don't have the right to be emasculated every time we deal with law enforcement like it's not right and we we should not be scared they say they can't do anything they want but their unions will come up here and defend them they don't they don't forgive us if we could young i'm talking about not us because i don't have no record but they don't forget the young forgive the young black men in the community it's still a stereotype on who they feel and how they feel like when they created all this stuff y'all the reason why we mad because you're following the leader whatever that means please do something about the people that police us in this city

renee davis appearing good afternoon good afternoon my name is dr lashini renee davis um professionally i go by dr renee davis that's a whole nother story i'm an educator and an advocate for community members i started my journey as an educator almost 40 years ago where i started tutoring grades one through five in the after school program after that i've taught dance drill team english language arts math social studies science character leadership and ged prep and that was in the new york city department of education i currently i'm a ceo founder and executive director of leonis angels is a non-profit where our catch phrase is let's build better lives we stand on five cornerstones which are education vocation health and wellness recreation and socialization we believe that with support and the goals in these five cornerstones community members will build a solid foundation to be successful members of society uh leonis angel currently provides outreach to homeless people in california and new jersey we walk through streets looking for those in needs we provide services and all of those goals along with full distribution and clothing distribution our future goal as an organization is to open campuses and underserved areas all over the united states and the comp the campuses will have community resource buildings along with housing for foster youth seniors and transitional age youth so i currently came back and moved to newark in march of 2024 i started teaching in one of the new work department of a public schools i'm not even going to name the school right now but i learned early on from my colleagues and the test results that the students in newark are way below grade level in reading and in math in my class i taught sixth grade i had a student that was unable to read write or count in sixth grade a 12 year old and she started she was born and raised in newark started preschool in new york department of education um as my as her teacher i was able to to get her to write her letters from a to z write her name her first name tom june came she couldn't get her last name and also potty training this young lady was in diapers at 12 years old with her administration so um i always ask questions and of course of the administration a child has been in your school since kindergarten why was she never flagged for dc and p&p why was she never taught how to read or write mom she had a one-on-one aid and the first day of school that september of 24 the aid told me that she never does anything but stood on her chrome book so that right there was a concern to me and at that point my non-profit was still new so i incorporated in new jersey because that's what my spirit told me to do um her attendance was also poor so i was concerned about um newark's board of education concern about attendance like i said i taught in new york city so after a certain amount of days of absences the parent is supposed to be contacted and prove reasons for these absences this parent had no reason for absences and she like i said was never fouled so the reason why i'm here is because i'm interested in the city of newark donating a home to my non-profit um i'm not sure if everyone knows if you have property you donate it to non-profit you get it back in taxes you can write it off and when you file your taxes you get whatever that home was worth that property is worth you get that back so i was wanting to collaborate with of course newark board of education other social services so that i can house some of these children that need to be taken from their home and work with them and their parents and reunification and parent training because of course if you're born with a child with special needs it might be hard for you to educate them but to send them to school and know that they've been going to school since kindergarten and haven't gained any skills to me is a major concern and that was just one student there are many students in just that school alone who i already could house and educate them and bring them up to grade level so that's something that i want to work on i came here thinking that maybe someone they know i've seen so many abandoned or foreclosed properties in newark that maybe somebody can reach out and help me help our community members thank you for your comments council council members that concludes the agenda for this meeting at this point before we go into motions anything from the council councilwoman bay did you have anything before motions your motions go ahead go ahead um thank you council president first thing i definitely wanted to say something and i don't think he's still here um talibakil he did with me with me there's some really good work that he's trying to do so hopefully we can find a way to help and support him in that work if it's not in that space and in another space because what he's talking about is something that's really needed in the community also regarding um miss climbers commerce we actually are meeting today we have a meeting today with public safety with the department of a community health department of health and community wellness and homeless services and one of the major things that's on the agenda is the issue that she's and she has come here multiple times to talk about the issues that's going on in the mcdonald's as she works with we've been in communication for months about that so we do have a meeting today to follow up with that so we just want to make sure that that's out there also i think it was mr davis that mentioned something about a follow-up a progress record report regarding the resident that expressed the issues on the the news 12 believe it's a news 12 um i think that actually those issues were addressed long before um there was a news article and i've mentioned that here in the chambers before um that she was offered not one not two but three different departments as she turned down um and those issues have been um addressed for the past several months with not only my office but also the owners of the building it as far as the issues that um are still plaguing um in villa victoria into nevada and those um ncc and those other um issues there have been um multiple violations we do have the reports now are the violations that have been written up and in the process of making sure that not only are those business owners um and those building owners being addressed with um fines and making sure that the the time limit that is not there's no more extension than letting people go and just allowing people to live in unsafe conditions that's actually being addressed and the moving towards the process that if it's not done in the time that is supposed to be done that the process is being moved forward to even address um their continuing having tax abatement so those things um have and are being addressed and as far as the uh planning board meeting miss parker um you're absolutely correct um there's um the community does not want that project it has been stated time and time again we have pushed back on it um my team and i were on that planning board meeting and um we agreed that we need to make sure that everything that happens is in the best interest of the community that's why we reached out because we've been receiving a lot of phone calls people saying that they didn't feel that they had a chance to be heard and we wanted to have the community meeting um with the developers so they can hear directly from the residents because again the residents and you as a community advocate you had the people call us and they called us and asked us to act on their behalf and so that's what we're doing and so to have a community meeting so they can say and have their say to the developers and let them know directly how they feel about the project in the community so those were the things that we were doing um and then also just just to follow up on that there is a um a resource fair that's happening for the community and that information is going out for um saturday april 11th at 10 a.m um that is happening at university hospital and so we want to make sure that people have the opportunity to get those information and resources thank you councilwoman uh anything else before we go to motion anything from the council anything from the administration just a few things eric pennington business administrator there was one uh comment that uh that the mayor didn't speak about his accomplishments that last night state of the city because according to the speaker he has no comp accomplishments i was at the state of the city perhaps this person wasn't there i think most of you were there and many people were able to see it in the audience from being on tv or being there and he spoke eloquently and at length about his accomplishments and those of the city much of which was approved by this council and we are absolutely proud of it that speech by the way is available to the public now you put it out it's an 18 page speech you can get it through our communications on social media and other avenues and you can look at it and you can see what he said himself the highlights of that this is just from my perspective were the accomplishments he touted of the the students that he brought up and talked about the njit scholars for example who have graduated and done some amazing things he talked about the companies that they work for and what they're doing now the students at saint elizabeth university who have four-year scholarships we're attending school for free which was started through the the recommendation of the director of the office of violence prevention kalisha wingfield hill she had an idea she brought it forward and we figured out how to pay for it those students are there now we're working with those colleges there are students at records who got on board after saint elizabeth university brought students on board we talked about crime in the city of norfolk which is at a 60-year low which is absolutely amazing crime set at all time low conversely development is at an all-time high the cranes are in downtown and in the neighborhoods there's infill development that's going on as well as the large buildings that we see here the infill development is being done in large measure by small local minority and women-owned businesses who we are supporting and helping affordable housing is being built indeed part of the development every development of a certain size required to have at least 20 percent affordable housing that is in place and we are enforcing it and nork residents have first dibs on those affordable housing units through the economic and housing development department local developments are being local developers are being supported and given opportunities that they would not otherwise have they are building these projects some of which they are selling some of which they are owning and they are creating wealth for themselves we are with the affordable housing are working to reduce sheltering part of the administration's philosophy now is to eliminate as much sheltering as possible and have people residents without addresses going to transitional housing which is the appropriate way to get people from off the streets into housing and not just warehousing in these in these shelters so that is the philosophy that mayor baraka's put forward and that we are following under mayor baraka's leadership local control of the schools which return here now you get to elect your board of education that election is coming up so you should vote and take advantage of the fact that there's local control that happened while he was mayor the consent decree the police consent decree which interestingly mayor baraka advocated for when he was a council person because he recognized that there were problems with the police and problems with the residents and that there needed to be better oversight and control he worked to get that consent decree in place it was put in place interestingly when it came in place he became the mayor so he helped pick the monitor who was put in charge of the consent decree now 10 years later the consent decree is gone under his leadership we have a better police department because of it somebody indicated that there is a lack of respect for the officers and that the the kids nowadays do things and don't listen to the police he may have some individualized perspective on that but the the reality is across the board that the interaction with the police is much better there's a much stronger bond between community-based policing than there ever has worked well i don't say ever has been but has been in the recent recent past the police work with the office of violence prevention and the brick city peace collective to engage in making sure that problems don't occur before they happen there's mediation there's safe passage the police are working with the community to make sure that those issues are minimized as much as possible and we support them there are fewer ai complaints in there than there have been that that's uh complaints about you police just used ai i'm sorry i yeah thank you i a complaints that ai i'm sorry i got ai in the brain these days with my jet gpt but i a complaints uh no question that we have shop with a cop and trunk or treat these are intentional to make sure that our police officers engage with the community and they do an amazing job a much better job than they than they ever did and we we you know commend them and commend them continue doing what they're doing before back to affordable housing for a quick minute there was a you know an attack on administration with respect to the lack of affordable housing and there is a shortage of housing affordable housing in this state there are hundreds of thousands of units that need to be built in the state as at least on one report says that there are about 16,000 units to be built need to be built here in the city of north and under the mayor's leadership we are developing affordable housing as i indicated every project of a certain size has to have 20 percent affordability in those in those houses with respect again to police one individual indicated that we have a lack of messaging regarding ice which is shocking to me we are at the forefront one of the leaders in the nation with respect to making sure our residents are aware of what ice can and cannot do we do not have our officers engaged with ice on a discretionary basis or voluntary basis if it's voluntary discretionary we're not engaging with ice if it is mandatory under some federal mandate or to save somebody's life then we do there's no no question about that but we're not going in there helping them violate the law with some administrative warrant we're not going to help with that and we make sure that our residents know about it so that they know what their rights are whether they are born here in the united states otherwise we still make them aware of what their rights are their constitutional rights for everybody in the city and we will protect those rights now interesting another fellow came up and it's got a teeny bit personal and i'm going to talk about it anyway rodney davis says he's running for mayor he happened to talk about how we've allowed people to go to polling sites and spit on people and do other things the reason i'm bringing this up is when i early on when i was a first became the business administrator i didn't know rodney davis was he knows a lot of people he came up to me when i was outside my car he spit spit at me did not hit me fortunately but he spit at me and the spit landed like i don't six inches from my feet many of you know that i'm pretty mild mannered most of the time but i let a few colorful expletives come out of my mouth and he and i had a conversation we engaged right then and there about how i was not going to be treated that way by him or anybody else turns out that he was an advocate for some developer at the time and he thought i was holding up their project i didn't know what he was talking about when i got back to my office there was a piece of legislation on my desk that affected this person he was talking about and i moved it forward because irrespective of the way rodney dravis treated me and acted in a manner that i thought was totally inappropriate the person he worked for didn't deserve to have me treat them poorly so i moved that project forward rodney ultimately realized that that's what happened he apologized to me and i've accepted his apology we have moved forward until recently now he's running for mayor again now he wants to act like an idiot if that's what he wants to do that's his business he will never spit at this person again without some consequences flowing from that i can guarantee you that he has a right to say what he wants to say but you just can't do anything you want to do he is not the kind of person or at least not him i don't want to have advocate one way or for him you need to be careful who it is we look at as an elective representative one way or the other the final thing i have to say is about the the budget every municipality in the state of new jersey has to follow certain guidelines and there are there's literally less than one percent of all of the municipalities in the state of new jersey could ever pass their budget in the first month of the year it's just impossible because of that there are laws in place that allow us to have appropriations and those appropriations are based on the prior year's budget i have offered to teach that rudimentary information to somebody who's running for mayor and who should know it before i've offered to have them come to my office i'll explain the basic budgeting process for them and anybody who's running for mayor should know the basic budgeting process but she has not taken me up on that that office still stands because it is hurtful to come up here and talk about the budgeting process and she doesn't know what she's talking about the residents of this city need to know that this council and this administration looks at every piece of legislation that goes forward with respect to the budget in a way that is in the best interest of the city in order to run this city before a budget is introduced you have to have an appropriation you can't pay bills you can't pay the payroll you can't go out and get the paving that somebody else talked about without some appropriation so that's what these appropriations are and again that is a fundamental rudimentary fact that anybody who's running for some office particularly at that level should have a basic understanding of and without that i don't know maybe they should just take a basic course in budgeting finally with respect to the the paving we do have a paving we have paving contracts i should say the paving season hasn't started yet it's unfortunate we had an awful winter and because of this winter there are lots of potholes we're working on taking care of the potholes in fact the mayor has directed dpw to go out with a targeted pothole team to take care of many of the potholes right now so that is underway we expect that the asphalt companies will open in the next few weeks so that we can start the regular paving the paving is coordinated through the city's paving contract through water and sewer which is also part of the city's paving contract we coordinate with public service electric and gas and the state to make sure all that paving is done so we're not one on top of the other so that should start within the next few weeks you should see some results of that in a month and i hope we don't get too many complaints when we shut down your street to pave it but those are the things that will be done and you know to the extent again the council has particular streets that need to be done let us know we'll try to work that into the current current system of what paving we have scheduled i don't think i have anything else but i would answer questions from the council if there was anything i have a question first if i can since you're talking about paving i think there's a misunderstanding a miscommunication out there regarding paving and potholes so those are two different operations paving is is the season for paving hasn't started and that's going to be april late april early may i believe is what uh what we were told yesterday that's correct they asked for companies haven't opened yet so it's dependent about but potholes pothole filling is occurring right now as we speak right as we speak yes we the mayor has directed dpw does the potholes engineering does the paving okay has been directed to work on potholes now in targeted areas uh that are the most dangerous and the most egregious and we're working on that as we speak i'm sure everybody has a list of space places and happy to take them great thank you uh councilor ramos yeah eric with the potholes is the city um workforce enough to address it i know in the past the cities use private contractors to supplement the city's small crew like you know there's a lot of ground to cover obviously we have bad winter a lot of salt being put out because of the storms like are you guys planning on engaging a private contract that will help the city yes we're doing two things we're looking at renting another pothole machine we have one we're looking to rent another pothole machine with an operator and we're looking to uh bring on board small contractors as well to help your point is well taken puddles are created mostly in two ways one is the freezing following cycle what happened this particular winter with the prolonged freezing is that there were many uh many more areas where the water was underneath the asphalt and lots of areas that froze a long time when water freezes it expands when it expands and then uh melts that expansion causes cracks in the pavement and that's where potholes come from in one instance and the other instance is there's salt salt is corrosive and it also weakens the pavement and concrete and causes potholes as well so we had a double you know we had a perfect storm unfortunately for all the bad things that happen the short answer to your question is no we don't have enough people or enough equipment to address all of it and we are working to address that but we'll deal with the most egregious the most dangerous as quickly as we can how do you target the areas are are you responding to um inquiries from residents is there like a database that you guys are following there is that we are we are responding to see click fix or three one one and quite honestly i'm not trying to direct anybody to you guys but your council complaints as well yeah i would imagine if you're in a specific part of the city that it makes sense to try to keep the crew there for the day as opposed to moving them around exactly right we're trying to target the same areas where we can in a particular grid so that we can get the most of it as we can but also in connection with the most dangerous they may mean that we have to move around so they're coordinated as best as possible thank you ever thank you anything else for the b.a. thank you sir you appreciate all right let's go into motions councilman kelly i know motions council prayers just uh one quick one quick uh announcement just want to say uh happy good friday coming up to everybody hope you have a blessed easter as well and we will be doing an easter egg hunt along with jehovah jira outreach and hope incorporated in partnership with feldsburg park community conservancy and esses county parks the easter egg hunt we'll have food games music prizes uh saturday april 4th 2026 from two to five p.m and the rain date will be april 5th sunday and this will be at at belzberg park senior cafe so please come out join us um bring the family for fun filled easter egg hunt and bring your blankets uh excuse me your baskets as well um yes and i just want to say thank you to the community village and everybody who donated to make this happen thank you councilman councilwoman scott raltree yes thank you council president i first want to uh express profound sorry gret i know we've done um assemblyman former assemblyman um albert gratino but buster stories had very deep roots in the city of norfolk and yesterday um they very his mom uh mary mitzi stories so i just and i did take care of that yesterday but i want to make sure that i'm to tell the public that on behalf of the city and the council that we express a profound sorry gret to reverend dr buster stories uh mr mcdoogle has presented something to the council and um he's met with myself and councilman council and i'm not sure who else he's met with with this documentation but we will be reviewing this again because it's a good piece of he's left the same i was going to say the sanctuary he's left the chambers but it is a good piece of legislation to look at consider i don't know what changes we can make but i am truly willing to look at this i mean i know we're working with the ccrb and trying to get subpoena power and all those things but this reason i commend this document is because he's actually brought something to us that he's worked on and i know our job is to do write legislation and to pass laws and do everything in the best interest of our residents but when you have almost 400 000 residents and there's 11 of us there's some things that don't even reach us we know the quality of life does marion bay has been advocating for the west ward and she is a happy resident about right now councilman kelly because after days and weeks of doing whatever it was she acts the block looks amazing and she you want to thank marion bay publicly for being the advocate that she is so this week the city has named or they're naming national minority health week a month i believe and they're asking the resident the employees to wear brown but i do want to madam clerk put that on the record that we also in the city of newark not just i know it's national and jennifer sneed put out something on behalf of the administration but on behalf of the legislative body because health is wealth and a lot of our ethnic groups a lot of our african-americans and they're going through a lot just because they're a minority or they consider to be the minority so that part uh i want to commend council president acting director adams at the moment of engineering i'm looking at this document that we received regarding street paving the record i know there have been many times we asked for things he actually he and mr savage made sure we have a record of what's been done and what is possibly getting ready to be done this is something the council's been asking for just something in writing thoroughly a thorough report and so i do want to thank mr adams and his team for presenting that on to in announcements in your ward councilman kelly you know dr bridgeforth has been doing this thing for almost probably 35 40 years the stations of the cross where they walk all the way down south london avenue with the horses and the reenactment of the crucifixion so i know she wanted me to announce um on april 3rd at 11 o'clock they will start the location they will assemble on money avenue and south london avenue at 11 a.m and they will walk all the way up to smith street and this is hosted by dr mayme bridgeforth faith christian center april 14th important informative session i'm partnering with the shiny baraka center women's resource center we're going to come together to learn about recognizing and responding domestic violence understanding the legal rights and protection discovered trusted resources available in our community and explore safe and confidential ways to seek help your presence is important work it's going to be held on april 14th 2026 calling faith leaders and community to join us from 5 30 to 7 p.m on april 14th for this very informative session on domestic violence then on april 25th there will be a grief symposium hosted by myself and dr tracy tisdale from prairie street rome and some other partners saturday april 25th 11 a.m to 2 p.m at the friaria restaurant 233 west market street north new jersey that will be from 11 a.m to 2 p.m senior fashion show i'm going to leave for my partner councilman i know that's in may council president nor women's meeting the next meeting will be held on tuesday april 28th 2026 i want to once again thank norc for allowing me to serve you i want to thank the speakers that came up with their information with their statements and what their request for us to do whatever it is that is necessary in the positions we are the only thing that i do want to speak to is that you know we all have families and i just have to say this council president you know my mom and dad have all gone home to be with the lord my prayerfully corporation council and i do take um i'm a very strong woman i can take whatever you bring but even when you talk about my brother my sister i don't even have to know you but we all have family and to speak ill of the deceased will always be something that touches my heart and i don't think either i i'm going to say this because we're the only ones that you know the jewish community and latino community they will come together and they no one says anything about them when they pass on their legacy or when they're training their children to follow in their footsteps i know some i'm not going to call their names right here in this city that have their children um they're clear folk they don't they don't have the pigment we we have but they're training their children to carry on legacies and we talk about legacy as african-americans and we talk like something's wrong with that like there's something wrong you know i want to live out some of what my mother put in me because my mother was a shaker mover in this community i'm not her nowhere near because if i was i probably wouldn't be sitting up here but i got a lot of her in me which means that we got to love people we got to care for people and even if you don't agree with us don't come for our families that is just just a hurtful thing but if you do that's what you do if you can live with it and go to sleep at night because it's fine counselor and crump same thing as a mother that served this city whether you agree with how she served or not it's still his mother we got to be careful we got a lot of work to do in this city but to speak ill of him or to talk about somebody slapping somebody you know i just i just wonder like what legacy are you leaving your children and your family when you're coming after the brothers and sisters whether you agree with them or not it is just so like you didn't come for my mother you know but it bothers me that you come for somebody else's because they're carrying on a legacy whether you agree or not because we all can disagree that doesn't mean we're wrong because we don't agree with you it just means we see things differently and that's okay to see things differently it's okay even to disagree with me but to come for my family to talk about our families it's just not something that's sacred it's not a good space and i'm just trying to help somebody you can talk and keep on talking i'm good with it but i just wanted to put something out there to for people to think about talk about me that's that's good it's fine when you start bringing people in it they're not in the room they can't say anything they can't speak to what you're saying use your five minutes to help build the city up and build the people up the last thing i want is my 11 year old granddaughter to think that it's okay for somebody to talk about her grandmother in an ill way hold me accountable but be very careful because everybody's got somebody in their family they love hopefully their whole family but it really did a little something when i hear when i used to sit up here with congresswoman mckeiver same thing does a little something we got families just like you do hold us accountable for the work talk about what you don't agree with but in reference to our performance but don't bring our family in it and if you do i'm gonna just keep on praying for you but i had to put that out there my prayer is that you all have a blessed blessed holiday weekend and i'm gonna close with this one little thing council president there's not one person that has walked in this council chambers that don't have something bring a little scripture because the bible says all have fallen short so no one comes in here that's perfect and be careful of how you come for others because somebody got some receipts on you somebody has done something for you somebody has made a difference in your life maybe we're not doing it now maybe not to your your your approval but we appear to be together that right now whatever people think any feeling let me put it up here we've got to work together as a team for the betterment of this city that's my prayer i've been praying that we will all be on one accord i know it's not gonna work on both sides but i'll just at the same time i'm praying for you i'm hoping god they're doing this holy season again we just came out of mom and i now we're getting ready to go into the resurrection weekend whatever you believe know that god is not an author of confusion and whether it's whatever you call god whether there's confusion there is no god and god didn't be jesus did not beat those people out of the temple because they were in the temple he did it because of what they were doing in the temple so let's be careful folks love you all to death love my city love our people love our administration and i love my colleagues but most of all i love the residents of this city of north god bless you have a great and that's my two cents back in your hands thank you councilwoman is there a second second by councilman kelly roll call yes council yes yes yes i thought you said yes i'm sorry oh yes my fault i jumped ahead yes councilman council yes want to also wish everyone a blessed easter season resurrection sunday and a good friday and hope that we're all in some place of meditation and reflection and hopefully worship also i would like to have a motion to request a hearing with optimum verizon and public service we need to have all three of them in here together because they are causing a lot of confusion and havoc in the community as it relates to poll ownership who is responsible for the maintenance the upkeep and customer service as it relates to workers and responsibilities of leaving these wires all behind and as you reach out to them each of them are trying to throw and share different responsibilities so we need them all in here together so that we can have a hearing i'll second that shoot was that it councilman yes i'll second that roll call council members say scott roundtree yes president clump yes councilman beck no motions at this time no motion all right so i have a couple things i wanted to say um one real quick for those who think that we don't show up for certain events for whatever reason 99 percent of time is because we don't know about the event whether it's put on facebook whether you tell one council member make sure if you want and i'll speak for me and i think i speak for the whole council we make sure it comes to us directly because we get a lot of invitations to community meetings etc that are emailed to us that are putting our hands that are putting our office mail to us etc and we respond if we can make it or if we can't because sometimes we can't and we have staff attend but do not assume that we know about a meeting because it was posted on facebook or it was given to a particular council member or uh i mean for something to that effect so i've said this i think several times before but i'm saying it again you know one of the things that was important to me is try to attend as many meetings as i can to find out what the community what the pulse of the community we can't figure that out up here in city hall we have to be out in the community so those who are having meetings etc and want to invite uh particularly the council members please send it to us directly uh second i want to just do a well in conjunction of a motion regarding uh acknowledging uh autism awareness month which began today april 1st month of april it's important that we i believe that we provide awareness of what autism is what the different levels of the spectrum are and how we can help those families affected with autism navigate what can sometimes be a very complicated and very i won't say difficult isn't a word but but but for lack of a better word difficult navigation to get to where we can help our children who have autism or affected by autism so um i wanted to make that motion but also with that being said um again i'm hosting a fifth annual autism awareness family fund resource along with naysan's place empower you uh the mayor and the department of public safety and department of wellness it's going to be i'll just read it please join us for a great day of autism awareness community unity fund resources giveaways and more saturday april 18th 20 26 11 a.m to 2 p.m again we're going to be a mulberry commons 162 uh mulberry street in norick uh if you can please contact my office and we will provide you with a code uh or uh i shouldn't say code but what you need to do to register so that we have an accurate account somewhat of those who are going to join us we're going to have a lot of information resources the public safety comes with the fire truck with the police officers and the horses and have a lot of great information and i know uh and also uh office the department of health and wellness they're a great partner with us to make sure that we provide information for families affected families who need to know about aba therapy physical therapy uh occupational therapy all that's needed because i you know my son is that everybody i've talked about my son is on the spectrum and i and i know if we hadn't had him in all those necessary therapies early on he would not be playing pop warner football today going to school having a great time that he has um did i miss something oh we're gonna have we're gonna have food uh ice cream we're gonna have haircuts braiding um bounce house i'm trying to get them to stop doing the shaving cream because that was all over the place so we're going to see if we can stop that or or lessen it to the point now we also have face painting so we have a lot of activities for the kids bring your child bring your children you know one of the things i love about nassan's place is they also it's not as important as it is to make sure that we take care of our children who are on the spectrum we can't forget about the siblings and she always has programs that help us with with the siblings because a lot of times they feel neglected because we spend a lot more time with the child affected with autism so i'm always going to be an advocate and a partner with nassan's place and what they do and that's uh saturday april 18th again 2 26 11 a.m to 2 p.m two things i want more i want to say one is happy easter to all i think this might be the first time i'm home in the last five or six years for easter but usually it's spring break and we go away but i've got the text message that i'm cooking easter dinner so so i will be doing that on easter i already got the menu planned uh and also i just want to congratulate the mayor i thought that was a great state of the city address um and it was a it was backed with facts and it was backed with a lot of of hope um of what we're going to do and acknowledgement of we've done some things but there's more to do so nothing's perfect and we're going to continue to do so and i know my council colleagues feel the same way with that being said is there a second second second by councilwoman scott roundtree roll call yes council gonzales absent kelly yes kentana ramos absent scott roundtree yes president trump yes motion to adjourn council members bay yes council kelly yes scott roundtree