1/24/18 Council Meeting

PERTH AMBOY – Resident Kenneth Balut continued where he left off at the 1/22/18 Caucus about sexual harassment complaints from female employees. “What are you going to do to protect female employees? Another sexual harassment case was settled for $100,000. I heard that someone OD’d at Olive Street and were children there? Were you guys notified? The Chief of Police belittled you and me for not showing up for the Fayette Street victims.”

Business Administrator Adam Cruz responded to Balut. “The report that there was an OD at Olive Street was false.”

Resident Alan Silber came up to speak. He reminded the Council, “We do have a protocol for speakers. Whoever comes up to speak must give their name and address no matter who it is. Also, when Balut came up to speak, he may have misspoke where the OD took place. It may have been at Holy Trinity.”

A resident from Convery Boulevard came up to complain about a summons from a Code Enforcement Employee. When he went to court, the employee that was listed on the summons was not listed as a City Employee. Judge George Boyd wasn’t concerned. “We went to all different departments and no one knew who this employee was.” He stated that all other summons was issued by an employee named Angel. “The courts couldn’t help me and said it could be a computer error.”

Council President Bill Petrick told the resident that the Council will check this for him.

Vice-President of Friends of Perth Amboy Free Public Library Barbara Sottilaro came up to speak. She made a plea that the club needs more members, citing the same members who have done most of the work over the last 9 years. “Since we started with the Friends, we’ve raised over $13,000 for the Library. We’ve had book events at Barnes ‘n Noble and book sales (at Brighton Avenue Community Center) with donated books.” She was concerned about a correspondence that the Friends of the Library received regarding insurance. It stated the Friends would have to buy insurance because of events they have in City buildings.

Business Administer Adam Cruz responded to the insurance issue, “You (the Friends of the Library) will be covered under the City Insurance. There will be a resolution letting you know this.”

There was a question asked by Resident Iris Rodriguez regarding Communication No.8 – Police Chief Roman McKeon submitted an e-mail from Sgt. Chris Joy outlining the difficulties in getting a quorum in order to conduct the handicapped parking committee meetings.

Rodriguez stated, “My daughter requested and got approved for a handicapped spot back in July 2017. Now there seems to be a question about the block that my daughter lives on in regards to handicapped parking.”

Council President Bill Petrick responded, “Because parts of Fayette Street is designated for businesses, handicapped parking may not be permitted in certain areas of that street.”

City Clerk Elaine Jasko then asked Rodriguez for her daughter’s name. Jasko then told Rodriguez that her daughter is on a list for a handicapped parking space. “But right now, it’s on the first reading.”

Rodriguez then responded, “There are streets that have 9 handicapped spots on them and there is a dire need of parking. You need to replace the number of handicapped committee members if they can’t show up for the meetings.