May 20, 2026

President and founder of Aleef Mohammed Neerschool. So Moody says, and I'm going to make it simple, that we're in trouble. And the biggest things I've seen, now people, Moody is a credit agency for a commercial situation, tells you what kind of shape you in. Should somebody loan you money or should they watch? And the biggest things I've seen about Moody was a lot of things that Lisa Parker said was right, a lot of things that Deborah Sawyer was right, And I think that we should owe them an apology. I know they're not big enough, so I apologize to you on behalf of Noah, They're not, you know, but these people told you was right. And the biggest thing that I did see was that it said that the financials was three years behind, not the budget, and the budget was always late. He said, that's how you hide money sometimes by not showing the budget. And that's what happened at the housing authority. And if in the real world, what I mean by the real world, what I mean the corporate world, the business world, you got to fire somebody and the person you're supposed to fire is Eric Pinnitus. He called me a coward and all that stuff. That's the person you're supposed to fire. Just like I tried to go down and tell the Barakas about Victor Cerelo. I said, bro, first month, we in trouble. It's so bad at the housing authority that you get a guy from HUD, put a guy on from HUD, a executive from HUD, and he still can't bring it out of total status. He said he's going to do it in six months. And it's not so, what it says is that, in other words, be careful of your power as a public person. And I'm not giving it to the team Barakas, because y'all like, how they say Trump said, I can shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue. But I'm talking to Silver, who I know is the law enforcement. And I'm always going to talk to my little sister, And I know Raymond will know, and I know Louis know, and I know Carl definitely know, and I'm talking to Kelly. A little thing like a senior fashion show. And you tell them they can't come in on the city money. If you did that, that's mis- you oversposed your body. The city paid for it, and you're not letting them in? OK, you didn't let Gail in, but how come you didn't let Lisa Parker in? And then I heard somebody, your author, was telling them, wasn't Walter. And then they said, Rachman and them was in the back. It's when you call Hudson Valley and tell Hudson Valley, You better not let Gail Cheneyfield in there to that stretch call. Because Hudson Valley is trying to sell a building. Remember, they slumlords, so y'all said they can't do it. But the biggest slumlord is Nook Housing Authority. But he can't say that, because you know why? Because he run the Nook Housing Authority. You people that I love so much are making powers, using your power So the good thing about it, you only get a year maybe. You cannot misuse your power for election. You can't let nobody into a free because of your power, a fashion show.

I thought maybe I would have had a little more time. First, I want to say this past Saturday, I made it to C50. But then I received some news today that a person that used to come here all the time to speak is right now suffering in the hospital. So it makes you reflect on what's really going on in your life. And I want to say in order the congratulations for those who did get We didn't get everyone in, but Donna Jackson got in. I'm just thankful that the city of Newark finally spoke up and woke up. It's a little weird, though, to look at you guys now without the glass. You know, it's really hard because the person was banned from not speaking here anymore and it just realized that I don't think you guys realize. People didn't just run to just run against you. And I don't think we understand the urgency of what's been going on People come up here with their concerns, but yet we're not getting And I want to ask going forward, because someone stated to me, well, since you I've been trying to work with folks and make suggestions. I just don't come up here with just things that I want to talk about. And for those who are parked in the front, eight o'clock, they're giving So make sure you move because you guys put in this special events in place, which I don't understand why, because many people can't afford to park in the But yet they wait till six o'clock because we still have four to six towing, which I still don't understand why that has been a rule. And it's still a rule when businesses are trying to get money. But yet everybody's getting ticketed and towed from four to six. So I would ask if we go forward to look into why is that a rule and why And then after six o'clock, we have till 12 o'clock, the special events So people like myself who come to the meetings and have nowhere else to park So then when you get a ticket and you don't report it right away or it's fast track to hurry up and suspend you, you know how much you just paid But I just ask you to start looking into things that will help benefit because you already raised the tickets to $85 and it's like why that's I know we need to bring money in, but can we find other ways? You know, people don't understand that now we have good debt going on. But when all these people talked about the debt before, I never heard I want us to go forward to maybe start having real conversations and We need to have real town hall meetings where you come and talk to the constituents with their ideas, not your prepared agenda. But if you don't engage with us, how do you expect to lead us? Yes, you got back in, but do you realize how many people spoke up People are taking our time to come here to say something to you. You have the position, but we still have the power too. So I want to remind folks, yes, this election was different. I want to thank Young Blood for coming out because you brought the spark. Your mayor before this, he went, he keeps saying 12, but it's like 16. We need to work together in order to get things done. Yes, you have the position, but yet you're not engaging with us Start talking to the people and start finding out why we're bringing these We're not just here to be complaining because I would like to know, how do Because my door has been illegally locked since March. But what I'm going to say again, illegally locked out since March. I'm not going to put on blast who knew about it, but it's not resolved. And we're supposed to have a meeting next month in June, but that's not on the books.

Councilman Kelly, I'm sure you're aware that St. May's Villa was sold in January, we have new owners, new management. This management company is worse than the other one ever was. We have no social worker that did away with that. I've been out of order for a whole month. One of the fire doors on this A side, second level, does not work properly. I told the new manager about it, even went upstairs and I tell it to the superintendent, no repair. Our cop in the building smells, got stains all over it. like have code enforcement need to come up there, Councilman Kelly. Appreciate what you can do with your aides and start issuing some issues to these new management companies. They took away all the benches in the lobby area. tell them what their plans are for the building. I mean, some of the old ladies have cats and dogs. They came up to me crying because they're changing the rules around. I'm telling you, trying to help them out, but they're old and Unless I have some help from this council. And you, Mr. Kelly, I believe that you have the power to do something about the council people at large with COVID-19. They need to have a meeting there with the residents, with the new management and owners there present to find out what's going on. But really, COVID-19 force needs to start issuing some summons for these people. And I have a documentation on that and everything else. Before I leave, I'd like to leave that with you, Councilman Kelly. Used to get extermination service once a month. I had exterminator come with the superintendent two weeks ago, And the superintendent came in with the guy from the exterminate company. He goes, I'm sorry, miss, and I have nothing to kill the roaches with. I mean, you have nothing to come with roaches. So he had to use my combat gel, and this had a little 50 cent glue traps he put down. And I'll have no trouble with no mice cuz I got door sweep and everything. But you can't get nowhere with these new management. Trying to ask them questions that goes right through the ear. The senior citizen always, every springtime, They were allowed to go outside and plant gardens. This year, they tore up the garden, told seniors they cannot plant garden this year. They took all the plants out of the building, threw them in dumpster with the benches, But some of these people in wheelchair and everything else. But heaven forbid that fire door on second floor, something happens to it. I mean, some people gonna panic and heaven forbid that something happened. And that's been like that since last year I complained. But management seems not to want to do nothing. That's why we need to, Mr. Keller, appreciate it. Get there with the staff and have a meeting with this new management company, with the residents and everything and find out what's going on. Cuz now the Haitian population is very bad. But some people are starting to speak up and wanna complain now. One lady, they're raising rent on people cuz the old management company messed up. Paper work will bad and new management company calling people down saying they owe a couple I mean, it's a mess with the old paperwork. And there are only two people in this management office, the manager herself and the unit secretary has been there. They're overwhelmed, they don't wanna hire. Like I said, we only have one maintenance guy. Gone through two cuts, they need more help. I mean, I appreciate any help you can do for us, Mr. Kelly. You are the councilman, you've been there, you've been at St. Mary's, but it's okay to come out and get food, but you need to take some action. I wanna enjoy my life, not come up here and fight with these, trying to get something fixed or anything else. They make one round in March with new maintenance company saying, we might need to be fixing departments and they'll fix nothing yet. Mr. Penelope, thank you for your comments. It's copy of extermination and the wolves and everything else.

I'm an owner in Newark and I work for the city of Newark. And I just wanna say to the sister, Nadira, happy 50th birthday. I wanted to tell her happy 50th birthday because April the 6th, I turned 75 years young. The reason why I'm here today is because Councilman Kelly, you probably saw the pictures that I posted up on Facebook, but the slumlords and how the block look and also Councilwoman I posted up again when they cleaned the streets and it looked so much better. Because we gotta stop letting them be slumlords. And I met the owner next door to my home and so I told him, why is the garbage still in front of the house, right? And so he said, oh, well, I'm gonna move it because he had to get rid of someone. I said, well, I posted the pictures of, he said, are you the one who posted that? But he said something that was very interesting. If you go in the post, you'll see some of the responses. And one of the things he said that was very true is that tenants are responsible, too. So when we sit down and have meetings about the slumlords, we have to also understand about the tenant's responsibility, too. You know, so, but the key thing is that when you see the street, it looks so much better. Like it looked when I first moved on the street and I've been there for 34 years. Okay, so now the reason I have this young lady up here and her daughter, I know that she's not gonna be able to speak, but I met her today for the first time. And with many of the clients that I have, they have housing issues. And when I refer them to different places, the places don't have any money. And so now I'm starting to bring them up here so that you guys can talk to her or them so that we can know how we can help this young woman. So what I did was I also did her resume for her so we can help her to get a job. Because she's a very intelligent young woman and her name is Miss... Okay, so someone from the East ward should speak with you. Okay, and I just wanted to bring her up so you guys, Okay, because see, the key thing is that housing is very, very important. We can't be having our brothers and sisters. And everybody know that when I say brothers and sisters, And we can't have them out in the streets the way that they are now. So that's why I wanted to bring her up and let her know that we're going to be supporting her, all right? Because she's going through some things. Like most of the clients that I deal with are going through a lot of things. Okay, so having said that, I just want to say thank you. And looking forward to working with you and turning these slumlords Councilman Kelly had a very nice conversation with the person that had all the garbage in front of their house. And he's definitely willing to work with us.

I have came out of the conservated prison with Marion Bay helping me out. I'm doing the right path for citizenship. And I have got honored with Barack Obama, Mayor, a lot of rewards. The problem that I'm having right now is I'm in the YMCA right now for shelter. I was staying in my car, living inside my car. And they kept giving me the runaround with the denial paper. But eventually they eventually gave it to me. She's helping me out too to get a voucher. Gave her all my information and everything. She said, be on them because it goes to a next person in 10 William Street. So the lady said, oh, you're Ms. Simmons. I was trying to get in contact with you. She said, you're not eligible for a voucher. She tells me you have to be disabled or on drugs or mental illness. So I said, oh, I got to stay in the Y for two or three years to order get eligible for anything housing that goes underneath my income or my work. I am a productive citizen or working and trying to go the right path and not go And once I got that of this year, of 2025, I got a job. I couldn't get no job without that sponge off my head. And it seemed like I'm going through living hell again without sheltering. And that's all I asked is just for that little bit of help. One of our officers will come and speak to you, Ms. Simmons. Once again, I'm placing on the public record, my ongoing complaints regarding catastrophic consequences of this administration Deliberate failure to enforce housing, sanitation, uniform construction codes throughout the city. And I've been complaining for over 12 years. On May 17th, the one stable one-family home that had been illegally converted into a dilapidated, overcrowded, slum filled with itinerants, surrounded by accumulated refuse, caught fire in my neighborhood, and the property had been repeatedly reported to the city. Children visiting the neighborhood saw the blaze, and before emergency responders arrived, the children attempted to put the fire out. They went door to door knocking on people's doors, trying to warn them, and the itinerants refused to respond. When they applied water to the flames, the fire intensified, And yes, Mr. Council, I filmed everything. And for approximately eight minutes, the children were forced to risk their own lives attempting to contain the fire that should have never occurred You have endangered children who attempted to stop the blaze. The undocumented and vulnerable residents forced into unsafe crowding housing, adjacent homeowners and surrounding properties, the entire neighborhood now subjected to repeated fire hazards, flooding, rodent infestation, bio hazards, and collapsing infrastructure. This is the second fire in less than two months. Another illegal converted house caught a blaze, and it had to be attacked by two sides of the street because the overcrowding and parking prevented the firefighters from getting close enough to the building. Residents now dealing with illegal overcrowding, persistent flooding, like I said, rodent infrastructure, rodent infestation, biohazard, fire hazards from unlawful conversion, parking shortages that also impeded response to the fire, public urination and defecation linked to the overcrowding and transient people that I've caught on tape and submitted to you as well. Accordingly, I demand emergency inspections of illegally converted and overcrowded properties. Immediate enforcement of the Uniform Construction Code and fire safety regulations, public disclosure of all complaints and violations and enforcement actions connected to these properties involved in May 17 fire and the fire prior to that. A moratorium on approvals for additional high density development projects until infrastructure, sanitation, and enforcement capabilities are independently reviewed and dependent investigation of the systemic failures with code enforcement and housing oversight. Public hearings specifically addressing illegal overcrowding, sanitation, collapse, fire hazards citywide. You had a homeless woman saying she's living in her car when you get millions of dollars to take care of the homeless. You have supposed to have some type of housing program that's supposed to prevent homelessness. Why is this woman here having to talk to you and all of you looking disinterested Ramos except for Reverend Brown Tree and a little bit from Kelly. I'm surprised like he had a little bit of emotion on his face when she came up and spoke. This is unacceptable and Mr. Purnell you weren't paying attention to him. I've been in his building. St. Mary's is a rodent infested, vermin infested rat trap where you go and house, go and wrestle votes away. Get these people to sign your petitions so that you can come back over here and sit. You're holding these old people hostage and you give them nothing but stale cookies and Vienna sausages and then everything is dirty and filthy. I wish I had smell-o-vision because I recorded all of that and sent it to her. This is unacceptable and you set up there and you heard him plead with you and you're like oh we're gonna have somebody talk to you. You should have had people when you were over there trying to hustle those votes and get your petition signed you should have had people talking to them. I know that they

complained to you. Unacceptable. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Sharonda Allen. Sharonda Allen not appearing. Muneer Richards. Muneer Richards. Muneer Richards not appearing. Reginald Turner. Reginald Turner appearing. Good afternoon everybody. Good afternoon everyone. Oh this is an incident that happened. I'm in 1060 Broad Street. Oh my name Reginald Turner. Incident I'm at 1060 Broad Street. I'm a resident there so this altercation that takes place like this like the third time. The staff or the workers should I say pushes the trash on the elevators while residents while we're on the elevators. So I asked them respectfully can you wait to the next elevator which I was informed it's an elevator in the back they're supposed to use. So he said no. So he tried to pull it on. I have the documentation of what happened afterwards. So through my emotions I had just came from the emergency room. I had got an ammonia shot and I had some something on my lungs so I had medication for it. So now by this taking place at the same time it's happening on the 30th. But I'm breathing by me breathing of poison it's like second hand smoke different type of things get me sick because of my immune system is down. But getting back to the point I did I pushed it. I pushed the dumpster off the what you call off the elevator which I could have dealt with it better but going through my emotions of my sickness. Now I don't see how days go by. I also went downstairs explained the matter right after it happened. I went to the office two days later this is in my door. No notice of lease violation disturbance. It was reported that on 4 30 26 you verbally assorted one of our maintenance staff members and push his car off the elevator. I did push it but he verbally came at me first when I asked him respectfully. He he he's I'm not racist but he Hispanic and he had no professional way of dealing with the situation. He's already been working there for years and it's like that's it's not even the only thing that's going on. That's a lot of things going to come back here with a list of things they do for the maintenance department. It's a lot they threat not unwashed them threatened some people sit on you can't smoke out here. I'm a write you up. I'm evict you and it's a lot of things going on. So getting back to the point I respectfully asked if this is a way that they could use another elevator because it's not only a health hazard but you got people older than me. I just Monday I turned 60 64 and it's people older than me to have breathing problem. They have a little oxygen tanks but for this for me to get this warning for the violation or or or threat to be evicted if I just but you have staff members that's very disrespectful there and I watched him. I watched him on the side talking like to the residents like the animals but I'm very quiet. I just walk through because I don't disrespect nobody but I'm a stand up for what's right and sometime when I speak I'm speaking for them too because some of them can't even come down here. They're in wheelchairs. I'm grateful to have the limbs or whatever I have it at 64 years old because I was athletic and I took care of myself a lot of my life but getting back to the point they're very disrespectful. I'm not trying to teach you do but it's like I don't feel the supervisor or manager but they got their little thing going on. They plant fear in it's fear in a lot of them. It's like yeah because they're seniors and some of them would love to come in because they tell me a lot of things but by the time I get upstairs I'll be wanting to write it down but I forget but I'm going to have a list next time I let y'all know what they're doing because it's disrespectful and it takes more than that to fear me you know. That's all I got to say thank you for listening. Thank you for your comments. I'm kind of miss Bay. It's Marion Bay. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Deborah Sanders. Deborah Sanders appearing. Good evening Council President, Council members and members of the administration. My name is Deborah Sanders and I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here because I need your assistance. We need your assistance for in addressing a serious and ongoing issue involving best management. I am not only speaking for myself I'm speaking for my neighbors many of whom are seniors, disabled, long-term tenants and people who are afraid to speak publicly because of how they may be treated afterwards. What we are experiencing is not simply poor management. It is a systematic intimidation through neglect, passive aggressive harassment tactics, a pattern of deliberate non-response and institutionalized disregard for tenants and where they live. Best management behavior has created fear, confusion and unsafe living conditions. Since they took over management four of my tenants, four of my neighbors have moved out because they became emotionally exhausted from the constant phone calls sometimes four and five calls before 11 o'clock in the morning asking them to move. I have also recorded conversations which I am willing to personally provide to Council where representatives from best management discuss wanting a tenant removed from from the property. No resident especially seniors, disabled tenants or long-term Newark residents should feel pressured out of their home through repeated calls intimidation and psychological exhaustion. I have a neighbor who's a paraplegic and has an 89 year old mother in his apartment. They've lived there for approximately 35 years and best management has called them almost daily wanting to know when can I get my apartment back. His sister is trying to find another place for them but has been finding it very is finding it very difficult. This type of repeated pressure on a disabled resident is not professional management. It is psychological pressure placed on seniors and disabled residents. They have offered different amount of money to different tenants some zero some two thousand to four thousand and even nine thousand dollars. There is no clear explanation for this behavior no consistency and no transparency. Parking has also become inconsistent and unfair. For the first time tenants are being charged different amounts of money. Best management in my case I wrote a letter about the cars being parked along the fence and making it difficult to park safely. Best management arbitrarily restricted me from paying for parking. I can still pay my rent but I had been blocked from paying from the parking which was included. This is not normal business practice. This feels retaliatory to me. Other neighbors have been restricted at different times from paying their rent altogether. Some from October of last year some from January of this year. This is not normal business practice. Other neighbors when a tenant is willing to pay and management blocks payment or manipulates payment access this creates unnecessary fear and confusion. There are serious maintenance concerns. We have had snowstorms and my son and two other neighbors have cleared this huge parking lot not best management. Since best management took over our hallways for two months were pitch black and they would not repair the problem with public service. For two months recently I took my car for an oil change and was told that a rodent had eaten parts of the engine cover. My other neighbor over here her wires were eaten up from rodents. Rent increases have been unreasonable. One neighbor was charged not one many neighbors were charged $400 for a rent increase. I went to rent control and was told and got the information which was showed the allowable amounts that Newark has rules for. Tenants have rights and management companies should not be allowed to ignore the law and then pressure residents who question them. Respectfully I dispute best management logos. We do the best for our customers. The best for customers is not ignoring calls. The best is not pressuring seniors and disabled tenants. The best is not blocking payments. The best is not leaving hallways dark. The best is not forcing tenants to clean common areas or pay out of pocket for repairs. The rest of it I have given you all a copy. Thank you. Mr. Saunders I don't know if you said what building. Which building? Yes. 383, 384 South 6th Street 16th Avenue. So several buildings you're referring to. Oh yes several. All right I believe somebody's going to speak to you right behind you from one of Councilwoman Bay's office. Yes we'll take

care of it. Thank you so much for this. Yes thank you. Next speaker. Donna Jackson. All right first of all let me say congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations to you. I think you'll be sitting right here when you come up. Head in the middle? Okay sounds good to me. You're close you're in here. Let's get the fire started. Amen. Amen. What God has for me no man can block. Amen. 360 years this city is this year. Full circle. It's time for the dynamite to come and I'm on my way. I came to work Wednesday the 13th. My clip bought my pad. I walked around. Didn't like nothing I saw. This building is out of control. I don't even know who was working and who wasn't working. But I got notes. I got notes. When are we going to let the employees know they're going to be laid off? Because y'all know that's coming. Councilman Ramos thank you for the questions yesterday. Thank you. Y'all know what time it is. Let's stop playing. Stop playing right? Because when I get up there I got the book now. So when they ask how much something costs and how much you spent I'm gonna flip to the page and tell them. Ain't gonna be no go to the clerk's office and operate. That's not that's it's over. So the jig is up. God sent me and it's over. It's fully over. Y'all are complicit in these budgets not being done. You are complicit with these employees not making money. You are complicit with people running out of this city. You are complicit with slumlords, managers that abuse people in this town and you let them because they give you money. $1,900 against 15 million crushed you. You never thought on your brightest day that I'd be standing here got my shirt on because I'm ready for work. And let me to all the y'all that I need a suit. I need to get my hair done. I can't even say it no more but you already know I'm coming in uniform. I ain't coming to be cute. There's nothing cute going on in this city. Desperation. People dying. People that's working sleeping in their car. We do nothing. How did y'all let two whole buildings get closed down over at Creshmore? How is the Legionnaires in this building since September of last year? Ain't nobody impressed with y'all new video. Oh we got the code enforcement out. Oh we're gonna pick up the trash. Oh we're doing a neighborhood cleanup. Who cares when people can't breathe? Who cares when people go to the hospital with pneumonia? These fires is out of control. You still do nothing. You say nothing. The silence is over because I'm here. It's not going to be swept under the rug anymore. It's over. Y'all are letting firefighters get killed, get sick. You're letting residents get killed, get sick because you're letting these abandoned buildings sit. When you got 15 people in here that ask you can they buy the abandoned building? No you're not in the club. You got people living next door to abandoned builders' business since y'all been sitting here. Since this administration been in. Since Corby administration. And you got to invest what? Invest in yourselves. Not invest NORC because we have invested in no one. Where's the emergency plan? If I had not gone over to Creshmore yesterday them seniors probably still be standing outside today. It was 92 degrees yesterday and I did it live. And I don't care what the restrictions of this office are because I'm still a person. I'm still an advocate. It ain't going to change. Stop calling me telling me who's going to be my staff because I don't need no help. See I already had my team when I was running. That's why I only needed 1900 because I got the people on my back. My city. I put my city. Nobody else don't put on for this city like me. Nobody. And guess what? I'm international now. Got a call today from Ghana. Said go girl. You go girl. Ghana. Doing food pantry. I told her send the garbage trucks back though. Send the garbage trucks back. Demolition happening. No water. No permits. Y'all letting all this asbestos and stuff go in the air. Y'all killing people. I don't know who the new code enforcement director is and there's no disrespect but is she licensed? Does she have the uniform construction code badge? Y'all just hiring people. Stop it. And it's not personal to the young lady because I don't know. Maybe I do. I don't know. But y'all got to stop this. Every department is a failure. Everyone. Oh we're doing good over here. We're doing good over here. Where? Where? Tell them. Wait. Shut up. Tell them workers when the layoffs are going to come. How deep the cuts is going to be. Because let me tell y'all something. When you start laying them off they're going to be on my back too and y'all are going to be gone. Thank you. Trust my word. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker.

Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Cheseray Adams. Cheseray Adams. I don't know if I saw him. Cheseray Adams not appearing. Chay Coulter. Chay Coulter. I don't see. Oh there he is appearing. Mr. President I know you're not there right now so whoever is assuming the former role as vice president I would ask the person to speak step up at this time. I'm going to elect Quintana to do that. So I'm addressing Mr. Quintana as the president. Mr. President Chay Coulter. Chay Coulter I'm talking to you President Quintana since the president Mr. Crump has stepped away. I'm coming this evening to address you as a parent, father, and a citizen of Newark. The working class Newark. First we want to salute the fact that Donna Jackson has exercised her civic right to return to a formal representation in the at-large capacity. We need her service dedication, commitment, persistence, and legislation to work with all other eight of her colleagues. In addition to that we want to look at not only the issues of the budget but be squarely. Good evening Mr. President. So we'll surrender position back to Mr. Crump from Mr. Quintana at this time since he's back present with us in terms of Robert's Rules of Order. I'm here Mr. President this evening to address your counsel that this government we hold these truths to be evident that this government is broken and out of control and thank God for sending us a sign of Ms. Donna Jackson being duly elected and formally elected by the citizens of Newark. I come today rising I rise today as a father, taxpayer, working class Newark to both congratulate Ms. Amina Bay on her victory and although I was on the other side I want to encourage you on working across and collaboratively to encourage a better administrative science in this next term. I'll congratulate Mayor Ras Baraka on his re-election although we know that there is better programmatic thrust and administrative functions that we need to service all 500,000 Newarkers. We are putting the South Ward residents on due notice that you are in fact entering a runoff election. We have business to still complete. Residents I'm talking to you moms I'm talking to you dads I'm talking to you Mr. President himself. We have uncompleted homework in the South Ward in the form of a runoff and we want to not only elevate a spirit of passion for Newark but we don't want it to end in a spirit of hate. Our changes and our choices of changes on the menus of political elections are the rights of the people, prerogatives of the people, and the tradition of the people. We were freed as slaves in 1865. Why are we still conducting ourselves as slaves in 2026? I wrote a speech but I threw it in the trash because the one thing that I want to see out of this out of the mayor and congratulating him in the new election is for him Dona Jackson and Louis Scott Roundtree to go meet with the President of the United States regardless of his political thing because I think and Mr. President you can come with them too if you're still the President but we got stuff to do with Newark Housing Authority. We can't be feeling no kind of way against Trump. We need some people in the room that's going to sit across from him save the non-profit non-violence money. If they're saying Trump's going to take it off the table you got to take people like Don Jackson and Louis Scott Roundtree and the Mina Bay in the room with you Mr. President to get it done. Trump don't understand Newark so it would take you and Mr. Roundtree to take him around Newark to explain why we need the money you want to have Mr. Pence up so late at night and I'm speaking in the mic and thank you sisters and brothers Deborah, Sheila, everyone, Alith, everyone. I appreciate all 500,000 residents and I came here from work and I want y'all to remember the working class Newarker. I know my speech is not so formally structured this evening. Next time I'll come with it written but Mr. President I want you and the Mayor and Ms. Roundtree and Ms. Jackson to go meet with President Trump irregardless of politics to save the programs and the funding of the programs. That's my concern and for us to do what Ken Gibson did and what Sharp James did whether it's Reagan or Bush, Clinton or Obama, Trump or Biden that y'all will represent all 700,000 of the residents and we're up to a million at some points in time depending on the pace of traffic. So I'll conclude with the fact of please don't treat the public safety budget like an unwanted stepchild next year in next year's budget. Can you not treat the public safety like an unwanted stepchild because what you do is you drive crime higher and then we got to deal with crime before we call the police. That's what I'm asking you to do Mr. President. Don't treat public safety next year like an unwanted stepchild. Get serious about it. Listen to Sylvia. Get in these meetings. Find out from Kozalis what we need taxable base wise and work with our big sister Don Jackson in this new elective season. Thank you and so God be the glory. Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker. Monira El-Balmami. Monira not appearing. Oh there she is. Okay appearing. Let's have some quiet in the chamber so we can hear speaker. We still got to come here. Oh I got a new name for y'all. Good Riddens. Council Eight. That's y'all new name because we ain't going to include that one council person. Newark residents. You been coming here 30 years. The fight continues. Though we fatigue, exhausted, bitter, angry. The fight continues. Newarkers four more years. I said it yesterday of slavery because that's what they run in this city hall like a plantation. Plantation politics is what you call it. Corruption, mismanagement, poor municipal services and the list could go on. Y'all ain't gonna get no better. You got people what 30 40 years. You only got 3,000 the last two years. You went from almost 5,000 to three. North Ward ain't even pleased with you but they settling and they ain't even coming out for you. Newarkers we got to please make the call because you said it in that text balance. When you say balance, it's the balance. Make the call for a ballot investigation and I guarantee you. Not y'all there. You just stole the election again and that's what y'all been doing and I'm gonna get to how you stealing it. Also call to end the mail-in ballots and call in for voter identification and also make sure they legal because somebody just went not died the other day right. It wasn't even legal voting. It's a lot of this stuff been going on for years. Term limits is a must and there's a movement on term limits. Anybody interested we're gonna join a movement. Fiscal mismanagement, fiscal management is desperately needed in this city. Now Ron Rice left out and I was good with legislation. Oh my God. I miss him dearly with that but all that other kubaya stuff he talked about on the internet. He created a budget advisory committee for the residents so we could sit on and be a part of the budget right. And I want to talk about the budget. You got somebody making $300,000 a year and having delivered a budget in all those years that he's been here in a timely manner. Late budgets, a 300k salary with no return on investment, a budget deficit, no revenue generating ideals and no nothing. A billion dollar budget and nothing's in it for lifelong norcas. It is just a crying out shame. And y'all just sit here and just allow this man with a 300k salary. We called on the state. We called on everybody to look into our budget and we warned you norcas. We warned you how many times we came up here and asked for a forensic audit on our budget. How many times we called on for his removal? Nothing. So what is four more years of nothingness? Barack you've down in history as the worst black and Latino administration in the history of North. Your leadership is a void though you are selected. Show us your accomplishment for the residents. It's nothing. Nothing. Speeches, Facebook and social media. Rockline, kumbaya speech. Tareq Tucker, kumbaya speech. You, a pet counselor the other day, kumbaya speeches. That you sit on Norke housing authority as a commissioner crying out to you about 130 Chancellor Avenue and all you came to say is what? Oh, oh, Senator Bayard represented. Thank you for your comments. But you deserve

another seat. Next speaker. Asia Norton for Southport. Say my name, Keisha. I'm sorry if you didn't hear me. I did say Cassandra Dock. Appearing. Okay, I'm here. Cassandra Dock. Congratulations, Ms. Jackson. Let me congratulate your campaign manager. Oh, but you didn't have one. Let me congratulate your street team then. Oh, but you didn't have one. Well, let me congratulate God and the 6,000 or more people that voted for you. I didn't ask for your comments. Do you want to work back there again? Okay. Well, wait, wait, Eric. So anybody that know me knows that I like to talk about all levels of government. I want us to be engaged in all levels so bad. I want us to know what's going on with all levels so bad. So tonight I'm going to talk about federal and state and something that they're doing that's going to affect both. So but the problem I have because I don't know who really did it. But who did they ask? So most of us know that the president is elected due to electoral college votes. So now they got this new thing going around, MPVIC law, where they want to do away with the electoral college vote. Some of us want that to be done. But you got to ask the residents do they want it to be done. So I don't know if Murphy did it. I don't know if Mikey did it. But about 18 to 20 states have bought into this new law. New Jersey is one of them. So most of us know that with the electoral college vote, how that works is you have each state has two senators. And that's how you have the hundred senators in the Senate. So Corby and Kim are ours. And then we have the 12, New Jersey has like congressional, well every state has congressional districts. So New Jersey has 12. So you take the 12 and you have the 2 and that's what make up the 14. So now with the new MPVIC law, instead of giving that those 14 to the Democrat or the Republican, whichever the delegates decide they want to do, they're now deciding to give that to whoever got the popular vote. So at one time, Hillary were the one because she had the popular votes. And I think Gore were the one because he had the popular votes. Trump were the one because he had both. He had both the popular vote this time and the electoral votes this time. The problem I'm having again is who did they ask? Why do we sit here? As somebody said earlier, why do we just allow anything to go on, not inform the residents about what's going on, don't let us decide whether or not this is something we want to do, something we don't want to do. Why? Why? And why do we let people that manage these buildings disrespect us? Because that's what they're doing. If Donna didn't show us nothing else, she showed you that elections can be won off of what you do, off of actions. No money. So guess what? She ain't got an answer to nobody. So if they call her, a manager of a building call her, guess what? She don't got to meet with them. Just get over there and fix it. That's it. That's it. As a matter of fact, I'll meet you over there. Fix it. That's what you should be telling them. Fix it. Now, okay, Cassandra, say it right. Let me say blacks. It's going to be six blacks, three Latinos. Who we going to blame? Who we going to blame? Because they're the minority. Who you, say it right, Cassandra, black people, who you going to blame if it's effed up, if we homeless, if we don't have employment, who the are we going to blame? Blacks. Blacks. I want to call you something else, but blacks. So now what? You don't need the donations. You don't need the money. You don't need it. Fix it. Thank you for your

comments. Next speaker. Debra Salters. Good evening, Newark. Debra Salters. So I'm not going to congratulate any of you because you've done a terrible job with the city. To Newark, you did not show up for yourselves. You had an opportunity, like the sister said, do we pick a new mayor? Do we pick a new city? If things don't change, you're going to be kicked into a new city. So you've been warned. You've been given all the necessary information and you did not show up for yourselves in this election. I'm going to say shame on you district followers because you surely are not district leaders. I don't even know that you know what your job is in the community because we see five and it's a bunch of you out here. And part of your job is getting the information to the community, encouraging the community to vote, translating the necessary information, and it is a travesty. So Newark, you failed yourselves. To the activist and the 735 of you that jumped out here, decided to get your name in lights and out here making noise and in the way, congratulations. You played yourself because who do we have here? You thought you were going to force a runoff. What happened? Because you don't study and you don't listen. And this is why the administration is still here. The ones that you complained about repeatedly, the things that you said you wanted fixed repeatedly, and you did not show up for yourselves. So don't blame anyone but yourselves because now what are you going to say? What you gonna say? They have been consistent, consistently wicked, consistently wrong, but they've been consistent. The inconsistency comes from we the people, period. You had several opportunities to show up for yourself and you did not. So Warrior for the People is going to be fighting a little differently because I will not be standing here yelling at folk that you put back in office because when you don't vote, you vote them back in. And as Donna has showed you, your vote counts. Those of you who said my vote don't count, they want to do it, they want to do, bah bah bah. Well, do you think they wanted Donna to just be? I'm just saying. So that shows you that your vote matters. And to those of you who have told the people not to vote, shame on you because instead of encouraging them, you help their demise. So when you can no longer live in this city, blame yourselves because you've had plenty opportunity. So stop your complaining, stop it. Just stop. And also want to say something, Gonzalez, thank you. I asked you not to be a lame duck on the way out yesterday. Very pointed questions. I like how you put Alison Ladd on the spot. Ramos stepped in. Oh, and you, Mr. Crump. I was like, oh, did he forget she's the man's designee? Because you were like, wait a minute, because you're missing the point. She was very disrespectful and she was very rude. So don't take back the disrespect and make it cute as in, you know, no, she didn't show respect. Leave it as it is, not a courtesy. She doesn't get to have a courtesy. You don't work for her. Understand the power that you possess and use it. So I was glad to see that you made her stand up here. Now I don't know what happened after the cameras went off, but I'm glad that you checked her yesterday. Roundtree, stop letting these men over talk you. And every time you go to say something, it's like, oh, I didn't hear you. I didn't see you. Speak up. You're the one doing the work. You are the at-large that's doing all the work out here in the streets. So I need you to speak up. I don't know what deal was made. Bump that. Okay. Stand ten toes down on business. You're up in here. Now things can be done, nurkers. But are you willing to follow through to get it done? Because guess what? You know, I'm going to work on the things I've been working on prior to the election. But as for you and your house, you better decide what you're going to do. Because pretty soon, you're not going to be able to live here if you don't make some moves. Now you've been told this over and over. So I don't know if you're going to stand up or lay down, but either way, you're going to have to do something. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Betty Crockett. Betty Crockett. Betty Crockett. Not appearing. George Tillman, Jr. Mr. Tillman is appearing. Good evening, Council. Good evening, Council President. Congratulations to all those who won in this election. This war on poverty that we started back in 2025, throughout this campaign for Central Ward. One of the things we talked about was these tax abatements and these economic incentives. It was very surprising to me that the governor got involved in this nonpartisan election. This election showed a lot of things and it's still ongoing. It shows that this war is still ongoing. There was voter interference. That was by the state because the governor represents all of us. There was no need for the state to get involved in our local politics when they also represent us. And it's nonpartisan. But with all that, with all of that, with all of that rally and all of that money that was spent to bring all of that in, you still lost the seat. And you still got in the run off because of some organization, some organizing that's going on in this city. So it wasn't just by chance that Ms. Jackson won that election. It was the work that she did for over the years in our community. And it's still, she's still going to continue to work. I'm looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to the South Ward, that run off over there. It ain't nothing personal. It's all about Team Baraka. I told you, Team Baraka, this dismantling of this administration, it all starts one step at a time. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. And no, we took one step. We're about to take one more step in that South Ward. It ain't nothing personal. Like Donna said, this is God intervening in our local politics because we ain't got no money. We got no money in that South Ward. We ain't had no money in this whole entire election. We've just been in them streets letting people know that what's going on in the city is wrong. They understand now that through those tax abatements, we've been losing over two to three thousand jobs a year for the last 12 years. We've been losing over a half a billion dollars for contracts to local contractors annually because of the non-enforcement of our Newark resident employment policy. How many South Ward residents benefited from the last 12 years under this administration, all that development in the South Ward? How many South Ward residents benefited, worked, made those jobs at $65 an hour and was able to take care of their households? How many of them became entrepreneurs? How many became homeowners? How many local contractors over in South Ward benefited for the last 12 years from all that development? I can tell you as a sworn employee, a whistleblower from the Mayor's Office of Employment, Mayor's Office of Affirmative Action, a senior program analyst, I can tell you that we've been losing. I've been coming to this microphone. We still, you still haven't, and I stayed away for the whole entire election. We still haven't addressed this Newark resident employment policy. We still haven't addressed why Newark residents aren't working, why we're not getting no contracts from all these economic incentives. So yes, I will continue to be in the South Ward. I am supporting Asian Norton as I've been supporting throughout this whole campaign. It's nothing personal. It's that we have to get a change. We have to change this whole demographic of everything that's going on. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Deborah Dawkins. Deborah Dawkins. Deborah Dawkins. Not appearing. Council President, council members, that concludes the hearing of the students. Ordinances on public hearings, second reading and final passage. 6P SFA is an ordinance granting. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Before we get there, anything from the council. Councilman Kelly. Thank you, council president. I just wanted to just address some of the things Robert Penil, I believe I'm saying his name right, Penil, addressed. Just wanted to let them know we were myself and my staff, we went to St. Mary's Villa. I think believe it was the end of February or the beginning of March. I have to look to see what exact date to speak with the new management, new ownership, find out what some of the things that were going on. Because we have reports from the tenants that they were mad about the benches being removed. The elevator is new. I know that they were working on the elevator. It wasn't elevated down when we were there. The main problem that they had when I addressed it and they said they have a new exterminator was the rodent problem. That the building was infested with rodents. That was the first time that I heard somebody complain that the building was infested with rodents. They said they were dealing with that, with the new exterminator. Also, we're going to address, I'm going to have another meeting with them to set up a resident management meeting so you guys can address the concerns right in front of them. The packages being stolen, we're going to address that as well. I did speak to them about cameras not working. They assured me that the cameras will be working but they're still not working. We're going to address them. I want to let you know some of the concerns that you brought up, we already addressed probably the end of February or the first week of March. I will be going back to this time, I want the residents to be at the meeting. Thank you for bringing the concerns to us. I just want to go forward to my council colleagues because I am at large and sometimes I miss some of these meetings. I'm just going to request that when these meetings are set up throughout the city with the five ward council people that I, as an at large, I think my other colleagues would like to be invited. A lot of times things happen and meetings are done and we're not privy to the information so just as we move forward into this season, if there's a meeting with any landlord, any problem, slumlord, if I don't get the email or Councilman Kelly, Councilman Cantana, Councilwoman Jackson at this point, she'll probably have the information but just the same I would like to make sure. So in reference to St. Mary's Village, that was in February, I think that maybe we should try to see whether we can meet with the management and they're saying they're not allowing the tenants, they're not like having tenant meetings. So I don't know who the tenant person is, the new tenant person or is it the same person? Maybe we might want to try to put something together after you meet with management or after you meet with management and then give a chance to hear from the tenants and see can we go down a checklist to see what they did, repair what they did not so that we can have a better relationship with the tenants and their concerns. Thank you so much. I did that too, Councilwoman. I wasn't there so I'm just saying. No, we, they have a new tenant association, the past tenant association is no longer and they kind of had a rift with each other about which new tenant associations it's going to be. So, you know, we're dealing with a lot over there between the Haitian population, the old regime and the new regime, but we are approaching it and it's not as bad as people think they are ready to talk. Thank you. Councilwoman, Councilwoman Bay. Yes, thank you Council President. So yes, so a follow up to Councilman Kellyanne to Councilwoman Scott Rountree. Ms. Sanders and her comments about best management and the issues going on. My office has been receiving multiple calls and people showing up from different places talk about this predatory practices that's been going on that landlords and building owners are literally trying to harass people into eviction and harass them into vacating the property for whatever reason. And we've been working with them on this. And again, my staff met with just Ms. Sanders. So these are, there's some things that really need to happen legally to make sure that these landlords and these building owners cannot push people out arbitrarily because they want to go ahead and get larger rent and more rent for different things. Whether they are seniors, whether they're disabled or whether they're, you know, able bodied people going to work every day, it is legal and you cannot push people out. So that's something that we're definitely working on and I agree with you. We will be working together, all of our council colleagues and Ms. Moore regarding 224 Sussex Avenue. We're definitely going to be following up and working with you on the situation there. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. Anything else from the councilman Ramos? Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. I just want to address a matter that Ms. Freeman brought up. And, you know, I do agree with her that the issue of illegal conversions in the city is it's almost at a crisis point. And I would ask that your chair and the clerk, if we can bring in the relevant departments that are involved in doing these inspections so they could explain to us from a very basic standpoint, you know, what the inspections entail, what kind of right of entry do they need access to. You know, I identified a property, there are numerous properties in the neighborhood on Montclair Avenue and Highland. It's a one family. It's supposed to be registered as a one family. I believe the city was able to get entry and they determined that the property wasn't in violation. But if you drive by that property, they have illegal doors that are visible from the street. They have about 12 vehicles that are parked in the parking lot. They have at least 10 different garbage cans that are identified, you know, through a magic marker, listing different apartments in this allegedly one family home. So, you know, if I could see it from the street and I'm not trained as a city inspector, I don't know how our folks are not able to flag some of these clear violators in the neighborhood. And this is just one of dozens of properties. And, you know, in the case where you do have a fire, there's safety concerns, there are parking issues associated with these illegal conversions. You got people living in basements, people living in garages. You know, we have to figure out a way to deal with these operators. And we need to understand what the process entails. Does it die when it goes to court? Like, what is it that's allowing all these illegal conversions to get away with this practice? Thank you, Councilman. I definitely agree. At the next opportunity, let's bring in the departments. Anything else from the council? Administration? Good evening, Eric Bennington, business administrator. Just really two issues. The first of which I'm going to ask Ben Guzman, the finance director, to address. And while he's coming up, I'll deal with the second issue, which relates to one of the things that Councilman Ramos just said. There's only one department, for the most part, that's involved with this. And that's engineering. They have both the UCC and code enforcement. An ancillary department is fired, so they could come as well. We're happy to have their presentation. But UCC is the one that addresses illegal conversions for the most part. But your concern about having an illegal door and those types of things that can be seen from the street code enforcement can address those as well. So we can certainly have that taken care of. The new code enforcement manager was referenced as perhaps not having the appropriate qualifications. And quite frankly, she has all the qualifications necessary for the job. She's a Tire Police officer with 25 years experience. The certifications, I think, that were alluded to are UCC certifications, sub code officials, which is not required to be the manager of code enforcement. We think she's doing a fantastic job. She's been zealous. There's no question about it. But she's been in zealous and ensuring that businesses are in compliance with business licenses, fire inspection certificates that they have to have, appropriate health inspections for with food. She has authorized the closure of businesses that have been out of compliance for years in some cases. I've actually met her at one location on Bloomfield Avenue, where the business owner had spoiled food in his container. And perhaps people think that we should give them a break and let them stay open. Those are not the people who would take any of that spoiled food to their families. Those are not the people who would have rodent-infested fruit and vegetables taken home to their children. And we don't want anybody else to have to deal with that. And that manager that we have is going to continue doing that. I think one of the things that we have to do a better job of is alerting the public and the business owners that we are coming. And we're not giving them a grace period. There is no grace period for the potential infestation that will occur to people, to their children and babies who may ingest baby formula and other items that are expired. So there's no grace period. So every owner should know from this microphone and elsewhere that they are subject to follow all the rules and regulations of the city of Newark and the state of New Jersey. And we're certainly going to continue to be aggressive in enforcing that. As well as Councilman Ramos, your point, we're going to do a better job and a more aggressive job with residents as well. We have not done as good a job as we should. And to your point, I think I know about the place you're talking about, but we'll follow up on that as well, but others as well. In fact, I actually responded to an email today that about a property that was brought up by a public speaker at the last meeting indicating that it was a firefighter who owned the building. Well, that home is going to court. And I'm also going to follow up with the UCC to ensure that they've been cited appropriately. There will be a discussion as to whether or not we're going to make that property return to the status quo ante. And that means take the third floor down. Don't know if that'll happen because if the work was done and it looks like it was done in compliance, we may give them an opportunity to have architectural drawings, open up the walls, look at the plumbing, look at the electrical. And if it was done properly, we will probably allow it to go forward, but they'll have to have a certificate of occupancy. All the code compliance standards will have to be met. And so that's the approach that we intend to take. So everybody out there who's listening to this voice and what the council people have to say, you're warned. You all notice that we are coming. And if I could, if I can have Ben Guzman speak about the comment about Moody's, I'd appreciate it. And I'm also saying that Ms. Freeman is not the one who tells me when I'm done. Council President, if you tell me I'm done, I'm done. But Ms. Freeman doesn't get to tell me we're not finished talking ever. I could just say whatever it is I need to say unless you say stop, except when Good evening, Council President, Council Members. Benjamin Guzman, Acting Director of Finance. To the BA's point regarding the recent Moody's Investor Services rating update for the City of Newark. Recently Moody's released a rating update for the city after the city had sold some monetization notes. They had decided also to update since we were approaching the one year anniversary of the last ratings update from the city. This Moody's has maintained the city's rating at a BAA1, but they have changed our outlook from stable to negative. The reasons behind that negative outlook is a number of reasons. Primarily it's increases of inflation, cost of products, not just for the City of Newark, but also within the region. Primarily one of the areas that they identified in their rating was the cost of healthcare. Due to those increased costs and particularly the cost of healthcare, it has taken an effect on the city's reserves year over year. And due to those declining reserves, that is what poised them to change our outlook from stable to negative. They did point out as well that there are factors that can help us turn that around from negative back to stable. One of the areas that they identified is that the City of Newark for its size has a moderate to low level of debt outstanding. And also notice that within the last five years, our outstanding debt has been declining. Given that, that puts us in a position where we continue to pay off our debt and reduce our costs for debt service year over year. They also pointed out that we do have the ability and the possibility of increasing that rating back, that outlook back to stable, given that we are an anchor to many industries and many job opportunities. Primarily the airport, the universities and other large organizations within the City of Newark and the increased development over the last few years that is increasing that development and that increase in revenue. They do recognize that there are some difficulties given the current financial struggles that the city is facing. But again, that's something that again is regional, not just specifically identified to the City of Newark, something that is shared around other municipalities around us, but that we do have an opportunity to correct that even as soon as some point throughout this year. Thank you, Director. Councilman Ramos. I just want Ben to talk about the gross debt relative to net debt, $640 million and where it comes from. Yes, absolutely. Again, the rating also mentioned the outstanding debt of $640 million. That is the gross authorized debt that is currently outstanding for the City of Newark, but that also includes debt that the city had issued on behalf of the school district and debt that is issued on behalf of the water and sea utilities. Now, due to the fact that the school's debt is qualified under state law and state qualified bond act or the schools that is deducted from the gross net for the City of Newark. Additionally, the debt issued for the water and the sewer departments being that the water and sewer utilities are self liquidating, which means their revenues exceed their expenses annually. You can deduct 100% of the utilities debt from our gross debt. If we were to deduct that those numbers, both the school and the utility that's from our gross debt, the city currently sits on $260 million of net debt, which is what the city is at this point truly responsible for because the qualified debt is guaranteed and covered by the state of New Jersey. Thank you. Councilor Ramos. Yeah, I mean, this is an item that we could be here all night just going back and forth. And I think at some point we definitely need to add this to an agenda for a special meeting because, you know, they're sure there are a lot of questions. The email that the reporter sent to us followed like a conversation with representatives from Moody's. And one of the things that was stated by whomever that individual was that one of their concerns was the fact that we were late consistently with the audited financial statement. Is that an accurate assessment that they made in the email? If it is, then what's being done to correct that? Historically, well, not the last few years of the city has been late in filing their audited financials. A lot of that had to do with due to the COVID period, which extended the timeframe and we've been fighting to get back on track. The city has filed their 2024 annual financial statements. We are already starting on the 2025 annual financial statements and, excuse me, 2025 audit, correct myself, which this year the state of New Jersey has extended the due date to August 31st. And therefore will be August 31st every calendar year after the close of the fiscal year for us. So we are working on completing the 2025 audit. We are shooting and striving for it completed on time and being having filed with the state of New Jersey by that due date. And when we have that conversation, can you break down the overall debt in terms of what percentages or what amount is allocated toward school projects, you know, water and sewer capital projects? I know the city borrowed money in order to pay the county share that they owed because our reval was late. I'd like to see a breakdown of that $600 plus million in terms of where is it parked. Absolutely, yes, we can provide that information. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Gonzales and then Councilman Sebelius. What is the due dates on the debt? I believe it's more important that how much we owe. We have to pay that within five years, 10 years, 20 years. Well, Councilman Gonzales, your question. It varies depending on when the bonds were originally issued. Some of the bonds that the city has issued have a life expectancy of 15 years, 12 years, some of them are 20, 25 years. And based on that payment schedule, that's when the city that's when we pay our debt services. Can you send us the detail by the same due date? Yes, yeah, we could definitely provide that to you with all our outstanding issues. We can provide you when they're due and when the city pays us. Yes, yes, yes. All right, thank you. Councilman Silva. Oh, yeah, so I don't know if you can answer this question, the BA. I saw a couple of things in the article that said that either we get state aid or raise taxes and I'm just concerned with a reval next year. Are our residents going to see any changes or significant increase in their taxes for 2026? Thank you, Eric Pennington, business administrator to Councilman Silva. Reval again is a rebalancing of the budget. It does not increase the budget at all. There's a zero dollar increase associated citywide with the revaluation. What it does, it looks at the property values and re-creates the assessment based on what the actual values of the properties are. So it's a zero sum game. So that means that there are some properties that could go up and there's some properties that could go down. What will also have to be taken into consideration is since the last revaluation, we've had tremendous growth in industrial properties being built, warehouses being built, and other commercial properties, some of which are not in the tax base at the appropriate level either. It is highly likely that those properties will be assessed at a higher level and so the residences are not going to take a particularly significant increase in their taxes. The tax rate will be the same for everybody. Businesses, commercial individuals, the tax rate is going to be what the tax rate is. So it will make a determination as to whether or not your house is improved in value relative to your neighbor's house's value. So that's what's going to happen but there's not going to be some huge increase in one location versus another. Oh I have a question. Anything else from the council? So has the city performed any analysis or let's just say analysis on revaluation as how it may affect different regions in the city? No, we have to get information from the revaluation company which we expect to get in the fourth quarter. We will have that information and it will lay out where the changes are in the city. But again, if we have, you know, we're expecting 500 million, a billion dollars in tax revenue, that's not going to change. It's just a question of where it's going to come from and our expectation is that more of it will come from the non-residential sector than the residential sector. All right, thank you. Thank you, the BA, thank you, let's go to the agenda. We are on page four of the agenda. Item six, ordinances on public hearing, second reading, and final passage. 6P SFA is an ordinance granting a 25-year tax abatement to 1080 Bergen developer urban renewal LLC for a project in the south ward to construct a new five-story mixed-use building. Is there anyone wishing to be heard on this ordinance? Good evening, George Tillman Jr. Good evening. Yes, this is in the south ward, correct? Yes. Okay, it's 66 residential units and 53 of these units are market rate. Can you please tell me why are we giving this entity a tax abatement when the majority of these units will be market rate? It looks like what we're doing all over with this affordable housing because this is only a form of gentrification. There's no way you can build 80% anything in our city and it's going to be market rate and you're going to say that you're going to do the other 40% at this and that. That does not help our housing crisis. This is exactly why we need such a change in leadership. When we talk about these tax abatements and these economic incentives, first, the benefit to our community is not getting there. The jobs that are promised through these tax abatements aren't reaching our community. The contracts that are promised in these tax abatements and these economic incentives are not reaching our community. Why? Because that affirmative action review council, that I don't know if you have mantled it, if it's functional, there has not been any update to what is this entity that is a part of these economic incentives for you to be able to give out these tax abatements if it's functional. But we're still giving them out. I keep saying we're still giving them out, but we're not in compliance. But now, councilman, council, here we are in the South Ward building more development in the South Ward and here we are as market rate. And still we're asking why are we giving out these tax abatements on market rate projects. So still looking for answers to why we're giving out these tax abatements on market rate. We shouldn't be giving out right now because we're not even in compliance, councilman, council. So please help me with that. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Dr. Dock, of course, you already know we're against tax abatement in the way that you all do it. It's just horrible. But now I need to know when you do the breakdown, 40%, 60%, 80% of what? From now on, include the medium income in the ordinance so that we could get a better look at what you want people to make in order to be able to live in these apartments. So in other words, a studio, how much is a studio going to cost on Bergen Street? How? How much? How much? How much? And I'm only trying to be careful with what I say because of Ms. Jackson because other than that, you know, I say what I want because that's how I feel. How much? How much do you all want a studio to cost? And then put yourself, put yourself, say for instance, if you were not elected officials, say for instance, if you did not even, you know, have the income, but you lived here, right? Let's say you were someone that just wanted to move out of your parents' house. Put yourself in the shoes when you're talking to the developer. Include, please include, so we all know what you're talking about. 40% of what? 60% of what? 80% of what? So we can get a better picture so we can see the games and we can see we don't care. Bottom line, we don't care. Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker. Manera El-Boumani. One of y'all gonna answer because I think I'm trying to Google in the, that's that building, Ka-Bori Tucker development, right? Somebody say yeah, because y'all know. Wasn't this the Ka-Bori Tucker project across from the ice cream parlor and the Aisha's Halal Chinese restaurant? Hello? Hello? And then someone also proposed that whoever purchased properties or redeveloped that they come before the council. Oh hello? Hello? Did they come before us? Hello? Then somebody said, oh let's go out, let's put a moratorium on tax abatements. Hello? Hello? Y'all there? Somebody said that? Which one of y'all? Hello? Hello? Gonzales? Moratorium? Before you leave? Hello? Hello? We haven't gotten a return on investment yet. Hello? Council 8, is this the Ka-Bori Tucker project? Did it change hands? Is he a silent partner? Hello? Oh, y'all don't know? Who live in South Ward? Council? You're not going to answer? Is this the Ka-Bori Tucker project? You live in South Ward? You still there? Oh, y'all ain't going to answer, huh? Is the person coming before the council? Did they come yet? Hello? Didn't you say something about that yesterday? At the pre? Got your head down? One tapping, this one doing that, that one doing this, he got his eyes shut. No answers? How did this develop? Are we having to be seen to be turned on investment? Affirmative review council person, got kicked off of it. Answers was getting too deep. Y'all going to answer? Ka-Bori Tucker, where are you? I see you at the meeting. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. So, the Resaulters. So, you all talked about a couple of you having the developers show up here, right? I mean, it's respect. It's called being respectful. You want to know what's going on in your wards. You all said that when Alison Ladd was up here trying to push y'all to do what she wanted you to do and fire sale real quick. I need you to push this through. So, we're the developers. We need to see them in here explaining what's going on and why they're getting what they're getting and the community benefit. Now, Newark, unfortunately, this is what you're stuck with for the next four years. Thank yourselves because you didn't show up to vote. Because clearly they've shown us that they're going to push these things through. We get up here and we say why the tax abatement shouldn't be given. We're not against development. We say it all the time. But how does it benefit we the people? But we the people didn't show up. So, guess what? They really don't care now because all they know is you talk and complain, but you don't do anything. Yeah, because Crump said very confidently yesterday, I ain't going nowhere. So, Newark, they've told you where they stand. And you did this because you didn't show up to vote. So, get used to more of these because no matter what we say, they're going to say yes, yes, yes. And I don't know, you might find yourself on a curb in another town because you can't afford to live here anymore. You complain all the time, but you didn't show up. And another one. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Good evening, Councilor Lamont Vaughan, City of Newark. I just want to talk to the residents not about this particular issue in the bill here, but in the overarching sense of the issue with respect to affordable housing in this city. I've said it on my social media over and over again throughout this election process that the entire process is rigged. Here it is, we call them this affordability, but what is affordability? We haven't even defined that here in this community as a people, we the people of this community, or you as the leadership speaking, re-representing the people in this community, right? Secondly, we're excluding a lot of people in this community, large segments as a matter of fact, of people that live in this community from the affordability process because you have to have a 650 credit score, you got to pass these background checks, you got to have all this other stuff in place that a lot of the residents in this city who need affordable housing do not have, cannot attain low income housing. Right. Right. So we need to start talking about low income housing, building that up. And listen, like some of the speakers said, I believe in the development thing, but if we're going to talk about diversity, equity and inclusion, let's really stand on that business and diversify these developments, include all of the people in this city from every genre, walk and all of that, and diversity equity and that will show the equity in the process to the people here. We won't have the issues. Our seniors are living like you don't give a damn about any of them, but they're at the chicken dinners that you give, giveaways and all of that stuff that you guys throw and still have to go back to the one elevator, wheelchairs waiting for the one elevator that smells like piss with hallways that smell like piss and crap. Literally, I don't want to get kicked out in band anymore. Let's go towards the ordinance closer towards the ordinance, please. Yeah, we're speaking about affordability and all of that with respect to the residents in this city. That's the ordinance. I believe I'm speak been speaking to that for the last minute and I just actually don't charge me 10 seconds because I'm responding to you. Mr. Crump. Lastly, I'll say with all the respect the way that you did me at that last council meeting where you kicked me out, sucked the police on me, downplayed my entire candidacy before the public, ended up on top through it all and I ended up on the bottom through it all. That will be rectified by paperwork hitting your desk soon. You shouldn't have did that and I'm asking you, thank you for your continue that course next administration going forward. It won't be good for North. Mr. President, my comments are very pointed and very specific. Mr. Coulter, state your name for the record first, please. Che John Tucson Coulter here to speak before you on 6 PSFA. The ordinance granting a 25 year tax abatement, long term abatement. It reads to 10 80 Bergen developer, urban renewal. My concern is not in the opportunity of this deal because I understand that opportunities are something that people prepare for and then go for. So a contractor has put their skin in the game for building affordable opportunity. My concern is on the incentive, the incentive to provide a 25 year tax abatement without consulting our two particular entities. The fiscal advisory board, which is supposed to exist in the finance department, it does not exist. We're hopeful that after Donna Jackson is sworn in, the fiscal advisory board is something that's operative that's implemented under the Faulkner government, former government that city of Newark has to support our at large formal members, formal elected members in evaluating these tax abatements and getting more skin in the game from our school district. By that, I mean not the superintendent. No, no, no. Let Roger Leon stay at his office. The legislative elected members of the school board are able to buy their oath and obligation, participate in the repayment of tax abatement, technically called pilot programs, and how that money is going to fund our local school system. I know this seems like a foreign language that I'm speaking, but I'm speaking as English as I can get it within three minutes. But Mr. President, speaking to you as one parent to another and a special education advocate, under God, this is high rate robbery. One, this is exit 144 robbery, how we know it. If you need to see it on body cam, check in with Silva so he can show you what robbery looks like in real time. Okay? The taxpayer, the homeowner, the senior, and those who have yet to be born should not be robbed through legislative ignorance. The inaction is complicity to Wall Street wolves coming into Newark and circumventing our school board to get the correct payments that we should have for a long-term sustainable school system for our young boys and girls. 11,000 of Newark's children are being raised by grandparents, and these abatements force the state to have to continue to subsidize us when we can fund ourselves. My God. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. Donna Jackson, three quick things. We know when they throw these buildings up because nobody's watching. Plywood, plaster, the structure is never sound. Question I have for you, you're giving a 25-year tax abatement. How long is it going to take you to put that tax abatement on hold? Because you're letting people get away with murder. How long is it going to take you? Every building that you have going up in this city right now has that pressed wood. That is not legal. It's been raining, it's storming out there now. Some of that house is going to be down the street, especially that stuff on South foreign jazz. It's going to be down the street. 13th Avenue, that's going to be down the street. The stuff in the South is going to be down the street. Everything they're building right now. You ain't checking them stairs because they got 40 stairs. What person is coming home from work with grocery bags walking up 90 stairs? Who came up with this dumb design? Nobody want to be walking up them stairs, especially if we got two, three little kids. Y'all got 20, 30 stairs in front of these houses. What urban developer y'all hired came up with that dumb plan. Right? So I just need to know how long is it going to take you to enforce the law? Because you're not doing it now. Teachers Village, I remember when the man came here six years ago talking about the mold in Teachers Village. You did nothing. Did nothing. We're not holding anybody accountable. How long is it going to take? Now when this building go up, people move in. How long is it going to take for you to enforce the law? Because these buildings leaking out, they just open. Foundation settling because they're not putting it properly. They're filling in the ground. They're throwing sandbags in there. And you know why they're doing it? Because nobody's watching. I appreciate Mr. P's explanation of the new lady at the director. Excellent. Who's watching? And I'm questioning the credentials of the people that are watching. She could be fabulous. What about the people working for her? They don't know the law. What good are they? Because if they're doing what they're supposed to do when they write these buildings up, we should be rolling in the dump. Are we not? We just had a situation on Clinton Place. Code enforcement went in, turned the electricity off via PSNG, code enforcement, and the North Fire Department. And guess what y'all did? Walked away and left them there. Children and families. 279 Clinton Place. We left them there. So I just need to know how long before we're going to enforce it and how long is it going to take you to change the AMI? Because everything else that you've built, you got to make 85 to 120. I dare you. Change this one. Make it from 20 to 50. Make it from 20 to 50. So some real families that's here suffering can move in, including some seniors who want fixed incomes. Change the AMI, enforce the tax abatement, and I'll be impressed. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker. There ain't no one else. Public hearing is now closed. Is there anything from the council?