Also, Notifying Developer Kushner; Runoff Elections; Municipal Boards Part of Discussions

2/25/19 Caucus

PERTH AMBOY – Department of Public Works Director Frank Hoffman came forward to list what is needed in his department. “The DPW has a tractor with a rusting frame rail. The trailer has a lot of wear and tear. The wall is coming loose from the framework. We have five salters that are in the same range, and we are looking to replace two of them due to rust. We want to upgrade one of them. There are multiple holes on the bottom of the salters that need to be replaced. We have a mini-sweeper that has 5,400 hours of use and 150,000 miles on it.”

Council President
William Petrick

Hoffman then went on to explain about some of the street construction projects where there is water pumped on to the roads from resident’s crawl spaces. “Some streets have sewer separations that need to tie into the storm system. We will have to open up those streets to do this.”

City Engineer Jeffery Rauch came up to provide more detailed information. “The drain line will be close to the curb and not on the street.

Hoffman handed the Council a list of the streets that had to be done. “We also need a new bucket truck to extend up to 75 feet to cut down trees.”

After Hoffman made his presentation, Councilman Fernando Irizarry had comments to make regarding Ordinance No. 1. Amending an ordinance entitled “Wreckers” No. 621-92 as amended adopted August 14, 1992.

Irizarry asked, “Why was certain language being stricken? I thought we didn’t want wreckers that were not in the City.”

Law Director Peter King explained, “There were legal issues involved due to geographic locations.”

Council President William Petrick questioned King’s statement and said, “Woodbridge requested that their wreckers be in town.”

Councilman Helmin Caba questioned, “How can they get away with it?”

Petrick then continued and said that maybe we can use a tower who is from out of town but has a lot in Perth Amboy. “We are here to be a voice for the people.”

King then explained, “There are two Councilmen who reviewed the policy to use out-of-town towers.”

At this point Deputy Police Chief Larry Cattano stated, “It was at the time Councilmen Fernando Gonzalez and Joel Pabon who reviewed that policy.”

Petrick then stated, “We’re here to question this.”

Irizarry then mentioned, “I had asked about using an empty lot on the outskirts of town to use as towing for vehicles. Let’s find the money to use it as a City lot.”

Council President William Petrick suggested that they hold this ordinance. 

Irizarry then continued and asked about the wording in the ordinance that said past criminal activity may disqualify someone as a (City) tower.

King gave a couple of instances such as indictable offense such as being involved in murder or a robbery. 

Petrick then suggested that the wording should read that a person shall be disqualified.

Irizarry then stated, “I thought it was the sentiment of the Council not to have outside towers. It happened to me personally when my car was towed to South Amboy.”

Petrick then asked that this ordinance be tabled. This was seconded by Councilman Helmin Caba (to table it).

Irizarry then thanked Law Director King for the work he did on this ordinance. 

Ordinance No. 2 came up next for discussion. Submitting the proposition to the voters at the November 5, 2019 General Election that the City of Perth Amboy adopt the holding of runoff elections as permitted by the Uniform Non-Partisan Election Law. 

Councilman Helmin Caba spoke and asked, “Will this apply to Council Candidates if accepted as is?” He then stated that in that case, “There will always be runoffs. We should change the language because of multiple Council Candidates running. We need to do more research.”

King responded, “Most every Mayor is elected with less than 50% of votes.”

Petrick responded, “We are talking about the people who voted and not the amount of registered voters.”

Councilman Irizarry had a question regarding Ordinance No. 3 – Establishing a Youth Sports Code of Conduct. “What precipitated this?”

Business Administrator Frederick Carr answered, “We had some athletes and their families acting in a non-sportsmanship action. There were one or two instances in the past.”

Irizarry then stated that according to one of the sections in the ordinance, there’s a Code of Conduct Committee that will send out notices within 7 days to the offenders. He then questioned, “Who is on the Committee?”

Carr said it would be himself, Kenny Ortiz (Director of the Recreation Department), and Deputy Chief Cattano.

Business Administrator Frederick Carr then spoke about R-106-2/19 Accepting a Donation of Equipment from the Law Enforcement Support Office. He told the Council, “We have already received the items. The items include: Segways, blankets, and coveralls.”

Deputy Chief Cattano came up to give a more detailed information, “One of the items was a box that contained 25 blankets that can be used at the shelters. The coveralls are plastic that can be used by the Police Department to protect their uniforms from getting dirty. The Segways are to be used for Officers to supplement the two that we already have. They can be used during the warmer months.” 

Law Director Peter King answered questions pertaining to R-107-2/19 Authorizing a payment to Peter J. King Esq. and the Law Firm of King and Petracca, LLP for legal services rendered in 2018 beyond the regular duties of the Law Director in an amount not to exceed $100,767.50 and R-108-2/19 – Authorizing an amount not to exceed $50,000 with Peter J. King and the Law Firm of King and Petracca LLP. He stated, “This has to do with items involving the Zoning Board and (Benny) Ruiz. We have a complete list. All of the items have been resolved except for the case involving Ruiz. Regarding Resolution R-108, the money would be allocated for the continuation of Ruiz’s case and a new case involving the Zoning Board. The hourly rate is $150/hour. We are on Part 3 of Ruiz’s case.”

Irizarry wanted to know, “Where are we at regarding Rector Street?”

City Engineer Rauch came up to explain, “They are looking to take care of Rector Street from Smith to Market Street. We are going with a bond with Landings to get that paved.”

Law Director Peter King then stated, “We are sending a notice to the developer (Kushner).”

Irizarry then questioned, “Why is Rector Street being paved only by certain blocks?”

Rauch then explained, “We are milling, paving, and doing restoration.”

Petrick then asked, “If we can’t do Rector in one shot, then charge the developer.”

Rauch explained, “The bond money is dedicated to Rector Street.”

King then spoke up and said, “The repairs on Rector Street will depend on if the developer will try to fight us. Letters to the developer will be sent out this week and they will have two weeks to respond.”

Petrick stated, “They have not cooperated with us in the past.”

Former B.A. Greg Fehrenbach came up to speak, “There has been a lot of discontent with the City and Residents about Rector Street (Landings). There was an action taken against the performance bond.” Fehrenbach continued, “We have not heard back from the developer on the performance guarantee. Plans and funding have to be made first by the City.”

Petrick then suggested, “We can approach the developer (Kushner) to save him some cost.”

King responded that he would have to put the developer (Kushner) on notice first. 

Petrick responded, “We want Rector Street done all in one shot.”

Fehrenbach continued, “Funding has to be available to the CFO.”

Rauch talked next and explained that funding for High Street has been awarded.

Councilman Fernando Irizarry had a question regarding R-111 An installation of a traffic control signal at the intersection of New Brunswick Avenue and Ogden Place. “How will this affect the flow of traffic?”

Councilwoman Milady Tejeda then remembered that they talked about doing a dry run first.

Fire Chief Ed Mullen came up and said, “There will be a back-up of traffic on Ogden. The Police Department will be able to control that light.”

City Engineer Rauch came up to provide more details, “Timing will be controlled by a device that would be in the Police and Fire Departments. The lights will have cameras that will also be installed on other lights. Studies have to be done first before any lights can be changed.”

Council President Bill Petrick then stated, “We need to update our traffic lights to modern standards. The lights at State and High Streets need to be coordinated.”

Councilman Irizarry then had a question regarding R-114-2/19 – Accepting the proposal of and awarding a contract to Kyle and McManus Associates for professional engineering services relating to the Housing Study for the Department of Human Services in an amount not to exceed $52,500. He stated, “This is a new firm and I am not comfortable with this. What if they mess up and the information provided to us is useless?”

Petrick then questioned if anyone approached Rutgers (for this project)? “We may have to table and reissue.”

Petrick then talked about R-117-2/19 – Referring a Redevelopment Plan to the Planning Board for comments and recommendation for property described as 319, 320, & 322 McGuire Place. He stated that the developer wants to put in townhouses and that this resolution is sending it back to the Planning Board.

R-118-2/19 was pulled. Authorizing execution of contracts for towing services for year 2019.

Petrick wanted to know why R-119-2/19 was on the agenda. Accepting the proposal of and awarding a one-year contract to Joseph M. Wenzel Esq. as Planning Board Attorney commencing January 1, 2019 and terminating December 31, 2019 in the amount of $12,000. 

“We never did this in the past to approve,” stated Petrick.

Fehrenbach responded, “An RFP was put out by the City, and the funding has to be authorized by the Council.”

King added some comments, “Some of the appointees are holdovers on some of the Boards.”

Petrick then responded, “At one the time, the period for holdovers was 90 days.” 

King responded, “After 90 days, it becomes a vacancy.”

Petrick then asked King to find out the requirements regarding the Redevelopment Agency and for those members who move out of town?

Councilman Irizarry asked for more information regarding Communication No. 7 NJDEP (New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection) issued a suspected hazardous substance discharge notification of a fresh acid spill due to criminal mischief in the area of 642 Johnstone St. 

Deputy Chief Cattano came up and said, “It’s being investigated, and it was on the outside of the property.”

Irving Lozada who is Acting Code Enforcement Director came up to speak about the complaints on Neville Street (illegal housing, noise, and illegal parking). “We investigated and it’s a Zoning and Police matter.”

Cattano addressed this issue as well, “There have been multiple problems with parking spots, loud music, and we seized one of the vehicles. We installed a box where we can view the speeds of the cars.”

Lozada then spoke again, “We did a reinspection of a complaint of illegal housing on that street, and the problem was fixed.”

During the public portion, Bruck Avenue Resident Ken Balut came up to speak about Communication No. 5. School Buses and Commercial vehicles parking on residential streets. “By my house, vehicles are parked illegally. Nobody sees that stuff: the trucks, buses and vans.” He then went on to another subject, “Jersey City raised the starting salary for their police officers.” He then asked, “How do out-of-town chaplains know about shootings in our town? The last Agenda had communications that were added (that were not on the Caucus Meeting Agenda). Why are ambulances taking our children to St. Peter’s Hospital instead of here? Irving (Acting Code Enforcement Director) did not meet the requirements for an Executive Assistant. Anyone with half a brain knows we have illegal housing. Money should be allocated to hire a qualified person for Code Enforcement. Code Enforcement costs us a lot of money for not investigating illegal housing. The Mayor used taxpayers’ dollars not to support the Landings residents.”

Resident David Caba came up next, “Money to fix Rector Street has been in place. If Rector Street was fixed, it could have improved property values. Amboy Avenue needs to be fixed because that road is also disgusting. No one is holding the utility companies that are tearing up the streets accountable.”

Resident Alan Silber came up to speak, “Kenny Balut and I put in applications to be put on the Planning Board but were never called. Somebody who lost in the last election got put on the Planning Board. Some towns that have the same form of government as ours have elections in May and have runoffs. The Mayor tells Kushner that whatever he wants – goes. The Council and Mayor has a fiduciary responsibility. Can the Mayor be responsible if she encouraged someone to sue the City? You should see how people are hired. Everyone should recuse themselves from this case (filed by a City Employee) for conflict of interest.”

Councilman Joel Pabon was not present because of an excused absence.