5/10/17 Council Meeting
PERTH AMBOY – During the Public Comments, Resident Jeremy Baratta questioned the absence of Code Enforcement Personnel stating, “I thought you (the Council) requested at Monday’s Caucus Meeting (5/8/17) that Code Enforcement be here (tonight).”
Business Administrator Adam Cruz told Baratta, “We said they will be here at the next Caucus Meeting.”
Resident Ken Balut talked about Resolution R-194-5/17 – awarding a contract to Water Loss Systems, Inc. for a leak detection survey.
The amount of the contract was a total of $18,525
Balut wanted to thank the Council for putting a bid out. He also had a question about Communication No. 3 where Council President Petrick asked the Business Administrator to provide the Council with a report of a fire at 524 Cornell Street. “Were any summons issued? Code Enforcement is not doing an investigation. You see graffiti and no one gets a summons. Code Enforcement puts on blinders. Someone’s going to die and it’s going to be your fault. Code Enforcement loses files on C/O’s (Certificate of Occupancy).”
B.A. Cruz answered one of Balut’s concerns, “Yes, there was illegal housing at 524 Cornell Street.”
Resident Vince Mackiel came up to speak in reference to Communications No. 7 & No. 8 pertaining to Buckeye and also Langan Engineering and Environmental Services. He wanted to know, “What are the site improvements (Flood Hazard Area). There are booms (temporary floating barriers used to contain an oil spill; they are used to reduce the possibility of polluting shorelines and other resources, and to help make recovery easier) down there which indicate a spill. The Mayor and others are looking at other sources of renewable energy. We need jobs, but we need to make sure we have a cleanup of the area.”
At this time, Deputy Police Chief Larry Cattano said, “Booms are in the area in case of spills or leaks. There has not been anything ongoing that hs been reported.”
When it came to the last Public Portion, Jeremy Baratta was visibly upset about the elevators and fire alarms that were still not working at 675 New Brunswick Avenue. “This is an ongoing problem. I thought we had standards when it comes to these issues. The Police are always coming here to the Meetings. Next to the Fire Department, the Code Enforcement Department is very important.”
B.A. Cruz addressed Baratta’s concerns, “The circuit board on the elevator went down. It’s on order. It will take about 5 days to get it. (At the time of the 5/10/17 Council Meeting). We go with a third party for elevator inspections because of the amount of elevators we have in the City.”
Resident Ken Balut came up to speak, He was concerned about the many houses that are being put up in small plots of land. “They want to put houses between two houses on my block. (Bruck Avenue). Kushner gave a $100,000 to a PAC in Jersey City. Who is negotiating PARA contracts? Now we’re having a contractor on PARA. It was easier to find money (given to the former Mayor). People who pay money to your campaign (some of the Council Members) took a cut of 15%. Many contractors who make campaign contributions get City contracts. We send out bids on items that have a low cost, but not on million dollar contracts.”
