Special City Council Meeting 6/18/19

By: Katherine Massopust

PERTH AMBOY – Firefighters from all around came to support the Perth Amboy Fire Department because members of the PAFD were notified of budget cuts which would affect the PAFD. The Council Chambers was filled to capacity with firefighters, local residents and businesspeople, City Employees including Department Directors.

Perth Amboy Fire Chief Ed Mullen read a statement assuring everyone that despite budget cuts, there will be no cuts to the Fire Department, Police Department, or Department of Public Works. 

After Chief Mullen spoke, there were a plethora of speakers by concerned citizens.

Director of Recreation Ken Ortiz came up to speak next. “In 2018, when Fehrenbach (Former Business Administrator) came in, we took an initiative of what our base goal of human services. I took down administrative services down to 2009’s level. I want to give a little bit of insight. We took into consideration our funding costs. One of the increases dealt with an incident where 40 people needed services. Many City agencies supplied services, as did PRAHD and the JRF (Jewish Renaissance Foundation). This summer over 100,000 meals will be given to children. A reduction may affect that. We provided 50 Code Blue’s last year. If you change 28^o (minimum temperature for Code Blue) to 32^o, we will have 80 Code Blues. Any tax increase may affect our homeowners and renters will be affected as well.”

Resident Ken Balut came up to speak next. “You know why we’re here? Code Enforcement and illegal housing. How many reports of illegal housing are there? Firemen are going to die because of illegal housing. We give millions of dollars to Fortune500 Companies. These PILOTS are $750 million. That’s enough money to keep and improve staffing costs. We’re paying the percentage of taxes. We’re paying police officers $33,000 a year. One of her (Diaz’s) supporters who couldn’t become a supervisor – and we’re making him a director. We need a qualified director of Code Enforcement. If PILOTS were negotiated properly, we would not be in this predicament. She’s (Diaz) been hiring left and right. According to a Union Rep, she put zero in the budget for raises. It’s the incompetence’s of this administration who negotiate contracts. If you had a qualified person (for Code Enforcement Director), you would know what’s in the budget. That’s simple math. It’s the incompetency in this Administration.”

Police Chief Roman McKeon came up to speak next. He stated that the original budget was supposed to be a 5.3% increase. “The City Council came back with a 1% increase. That percentage can be achieved where she can cut other places.” McKeon held up a list of police officers with some names highlighted in yellow. “Those in yellow are those who left. Currently we have 5 officers being interviewed for jobs in other towns. This brings us down to 104 officers. Some can’t afford to work in Perth Amboy. In 2018, there were 135 officers. We’re looking at 105 by the end of this year. It affects everything. We have 5 patrol officers working the streets of Perth Amboy. This coming yesterday we had to close the Police Substation because an officer had to be pulled. That substation caused a 25% crime decrease. It makes a huge increase in response time. One officer calls in sick – that’s where overtime comes in. I’m not placing any blame on anybody.”

Council President Bill Petrick reminded everyone that the Mayor is the Police Director. 

Resident and Businessman Louis Cruz came up to speak next. “I’m here to speak on behalf of my colleagues in Perth Amboy. All the energy is blaming one another. We’re not taking time to solve issues we’re having. We’re so divided. How do we prevent this from happening again? A better core of investors. To see every election year. Basically, like this we’re going nowhere. It’s hard for businessmen to say I’m keeping my businesses here. My business is based on investors who flip houses. I don’t see why I should keep my business in Perth Amboy. I rather go to another city that works hands on with investors. You have to work together and communicate better.”

Council President Bill Petrick asked what other towns (are more business friendly)?

Cruz answered, “Carteret, Linden. . . If it takes 9 months here, If I do it there, it’s 4 months. That’s where I put my money.”

Former Code Enforcement Director Ed Scala came up to speak. “I’m here to speak up about Irving Lozada as Director of Code Enforcement. I don’t think we can hire enough staff to address all of these issues. As Director, he has power to act. Mr. Lozada is not only been there the last 3 months – he learned the operation of the office. As Director, he will resolve issues. He has learned the fundamentals of each position and how they all work.”

Resident Dorothy Daniel spoke next, “I’m not here to criticize – I’m a problem solver. I would like to present something to you so that nobody – especially public safety gets laid-off. A city will have police and fire personnel, especially when they go to the academy. This City has the lowest paid Police Department in the County. I remember when Joe Vas was going to lay-off 17 police officers and firefighters together. I went to him and said, there is a federal law called the Community Reinvestment Act. It was passed in 1977. It requires the banks located in a city to contribute to that city. Go to the banks. There’s one on every corner in this town. Get them to adopt a Police Officer or Firefighter. Let them pay for their salary.” Daniel got a few laughs when she said, “This is my 4^th pacemaker. We need a full court if it goes out.”

Council President Petrick said, “Shame on the administration.”

Daniel answered, “I’m sharing this with everyone!”

The room gave Daniel a standing ovation.

Daniel added, “Read it, and do what I told you to do and you won’t have a problem.”

The next speaker at the podium was Lissette Martinez who is a Director in the Olive Street Community Center. “I’m aware I’m part of the defunding totals in the City. We have over 6,700 seniors (in Perth Amboy). We have over 70 programs a year where we provide information and services. Any given day there are between 45 and 65 seniors we service. Many (seniors) live off $700 a month. In this way, they can have a hot meal. Our recreational activities – it’s kind of hard for me if you want to cut programs and your services there. We are creating programs. We’re a group that works together. We service our seniors. Think about the services you are cutting. Everything is affecting them. Some seniors don’t have a family. You’re going to affect them.”

Robert O’Buck came up to speak next. “We’re in a big pickle. Our community has grown bigger than we can handle. We cannot get rid of our services. Better decisions on certain things – I’m not sure if going into our reserve or what is going to happen. If there’s an emergency, we’ll be 4X in debt. We always come together as a unit. I’m a businessman in our town. I don’t want to see taxes raised, but we have to change how we do business to move forward. I’m sure you guys will make a good decision.”

James Garrison, President of Local Firefighters #286 spoke next. “I understand everyone might have political motives. Public Safety is not one of them. We have 49 firefighters. 30% of our firefighters were burned or injured last year. I don’t want a phone call saying we killed someone in the community. It’s important to you, too. At Family Fun Day, you want a picture with us – but you don’t have our back.”

Resident Alan Silber spoke next. “The facts you can’t beat. There’s a lot of people in Woodbridge. For every $1 they pay for their municipal taxes, they pay $2 for school tax. If you live in Perth Amboy there is 60,000 residents and we pay $26 million in school tax. In her (Mayor Diaz) first State of the City address, Wilda Diaz said, “We have to do more with less.” She actually raised our taxes 26% in one year. Between 2016 thru 2018, we hired 74 people.”

Council President Bill Petrick stated, “The City Council is not cutting any emergency personnel. The Mayor and Administration sent out notes to all departments.”

Silber continued, “If you put on resumes and say you have 10 years experience as a short-order cook and 10 years experience in childcare, would you hire someone as a Director of Code Enforcement? If you voted “No,” would there be a vacancy??

Law Director Peter King answered, “The Mayor can put in someone for 90 days.”

Silber then said, “Amboy’s code – keep hiring anybody.”

Mayor Wilda Diaz came up to the podium next. “I did introduce a budget of 5.44% (increase). I did hire many safety personnel. I want to work with the Council. It was recommended to be a 2.5% increase (by the Council). At the 11^th hour, the Council decided to go with 1%. This has been very difficult for me. I want the reason. When we looked at that figure, we had some types of firing and layoffs. I want to know – 1% is impossible to achieve. I was not going to layoff anyone in those departments. Let me go over what positions were targeted: we worked closely with Code Enforcement. You also want to eliminate the Public Information Officer and Mayor’s Aide.” Mayor Diaz’s time ran out before she could finish her statement. The Council did not give her any more time to speak. 

Councilman Helmin Caba then made a statement, “I’m a union member myself. I feel your pain. I work in Perth Amboy High School and we’re fighting for a contract. Let’s clarify some things. A lot have been coming to meetings sometimes. We should not lay off police officers, firefighters, or members of the Department of Public Works. Last week, I pled with Mayor Diaz to not lay off essential workers. The Mayor and Mr. Carr said do not lay off any police, fire, or DPW. I even quoted former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Government’s highest duty is public safety.””

Caba stated that Diaz’s response could not be stated in public because it involved closed session information. Caba then stated, “The ball is in the Mayor’s court. People got positions for political reasons.”

Resident Stanley Sierakowski then came up to the podium, “People can be lied to. She (the Mayor) is the only person that can hire, fire, or layoff people. If you layoff people who were hired for political reasons – her campaign manager did nothing for $100,000 a year. The Mayor supports multimillionaires. A multimillionaire got a 10-year loan to fix his business with no interest. A wealthy individual didn’t pay taxes for 25 years. If you didn’t pay property taxes, they wouldn’t allow it. That’s how the Mayor conducts business. Kushner got an extension without telling anybody. Layoff the Public Information Officer. Layoff political hacks. I’m involved with politics. You reward your supporters. Don’t be misled. Don’t be deceived.”

Resident David Caba came up to speak next. “I’ve been coming here since I graduated high school in 1991. I’m very proud everyone cares. That’s how all meetings here should be. Overspending – now you want to blame the Council. Our police officers are going to other towns.” Caba then made analogy, “It’s like the Yankees. We’re hiring all these players. Only the Yankees could do this,” Caba then stated, “She (Diaz) is becoming worse than Joe Vas. She’s worried about her problems – not the people she represents. I believe in term limits. Can we imagine a President for 20 years? In the Dominican Republic the President been there for 10 years. That’s our Mayor.”

A woman came up to speak about Irving Lozada. “After he (Lozada) has been switched to Code Enforcement, things have changed. You used to walk in the office and ask for permits – the people would hide from you (in that office). That’s changed under Irving. You call and he calls you back. Permits used to take months, now it’s faster.”

Councilman Fernando Irizarry then asked, “How do you know it’s changed?” 

The woman answered, “It used to be a headache. My husband dealt with this. I don’t think it’s fair when we pay so much property taxes.”

Businessman Paul Patel spoke next, “All is negative, negative, negative. Most people are Mayor, Mayor, Mayor. You must work with people. My recommendation is to stop fighting with each other. Compared to Carteret, everything is negative.”

Frank Marrero came up to speak next. “When you do something right, no one remembers; when you do something bad, no one forgets. If someone has a problem, he (Lozada) works with us hand by hand. He’s a good gem we’re throwing away. He is very, very proactive.”

Former Councilman Fernando Gonzalez came up to speak next, “I always supported Perth Amboy. I’m glad to hear no one is suffering layoffs. The people of Perth Amboy should not pay anymore taxes. If we didn’t have money, don’t spend. We are spending 22,000 a month on the Y. It is sad; that’s reality. Look down at City Hall. Nothing has been done with (the old police station) in 12 years of this administration. That land has been sitting. We got to continue. Code Enforcement is an important position. 1% is all this City can afford at this time.”

Former Councilwoman Lisa Nanton spoke next. “I just want to go over a review for those in attendance that a month ago this Council voted on a budget with a 1% tax increase that did not eliminate any police, fire, or the DPW workers – period. The only reason we are back here, is between that meeting and a following meeting, we had a meeting with the EPA who came here to tell this City that our water is being contaminated and they are offering 3 alternate solutions and there was nobody in this room. That is the number one health issue in this community.  We are slowly being poisoned by our water. Nobody was notified. The Mayor wasn’t here. Nobody was here. I resent the Mayor using City Workers as pawns when she wants to make this point. It’s insulting and it’s diminishing the credentials of our City employees. This is America. No Mayor has the right to use City Workers as pawns for her benefit. The whole intention of property taxes is to share pooled resources to make services more affordable. This issue with this administration raising our property taxes, is that there is no evidence of any improvements in our city that warrant an increase.”

The following was provided by Nanton and read at the meeting:

1) Do we have paved streets?

2) Do we have safe drinking water?

3) Is our debt paid?

4) Are our sewers replaced or relined?

5) Have we satisfied the federal mandate to separate our water and sewer  systems?

6) Has our train station been updated to satisfy the legal requirements?

7) Are there traffic issues that have been addressed?

8) Are there any solutions to the parking conundrum?

9) Are there any long-range plans for restoring our water supply?

10) Has our unsafe housing been rectified?

11) Are we litter free?

1) No, our streets are a bumpy mess and people’s tires and rims are being damaged.

2) No, we don’t have safe drinking water and it’s thanks to the EPA and not this administration to warn us of the threat.

3) No, after 10 years, the debt is still there.

4) Our sewers are collapsing continually, and all we can do it patch them up and hope for the best.

5) No, but the deadline is looming and it’s gonna cost millions!

6) Our train station is in worse shape ever, unless you enjoy the smell of urine, but the handicapped, people traveling with luggage or families with children and strollers cannot use it.

7) Traffic is ridiculous and there has been no thought or plan to try and alleviate some of the problems.

8) Parking problems exist in every neighborhood with no thought or solution in sight.

9) There are no long-range plans for restoring our water supply. Why not?

10) Our community has suffered tragedies because of unsafe housing.

11) There’s litter is so many public areas, it’s disheartening.

NOTHING has been done to improve living conditions in our city, in fact they’ve been neglected and now they’re worse. So, my question is – what the hell are we paying more money for?”

DPW Director Frank Hoffman spoke next and explained what the DPW has been doing.

A man came up and spoke about reports that the drinking water in Perth Amboy is not safe. 

Resident Renee Skelton came up next. “The budget and tax increase – there’s not a lot of people speaking on behalf of the taxpayers. Be cognitive of the town we live in. We’re being pushed to the limit. We’ve been talking to a lot of people who live here. Property tax is based on what you need. People who live in homes they own in New Jersey – 65% is the average. That is true for Woodbridge and South Amboy. In Perth Amboy 29% of homeowners live in their home. That number is trending down. Raising property taxes too much pushes that number lower. People who own their own homes have a stake. It forces them to raise rent. Please keep in mind the City you represent.”

After the Public Comments were closed, there was an interview with Irving Lozada who gave a report on his work as Acting Director of Code Enforcement. Lozada explained that Code Enforcement used to send letters and now they get a call to explain whatever you need for code compliance. Lozada then explained there was a recent incident where Code Enforcement was dispatched to a house with illegal housing. “We’re here for the people,” Lozada explained. “In the last six months 246 code compliances. That’s a great number for anyone. I have to work with everyone in the department. We have an issue of crowding in town. We are very up-front when it comes to illegal housing. As far as zoning, when you submit for an application, right away you get the permit within 3 to 5 days. As far as illegal parking – it’s been too many years. Someone needs to address these problems. We know where we have a problem. As Acting Director of Code Enforcement, we have to protect the taxpayers. We have 20-30 days; we have to be flexible. The same with boats. We’re sending out letters to tell them to put their boats in the water. I’m making sure people have permanent Certificate of Occupancy’s (C/O). It’s important that they comply with this law.”

Council President Petrick then asked, “Is there a reason for a temporary Certificate of Occupancy?”

Lozada answered, “The Armory has had a temporary Certificate of Occupancy since Sandy. They never came back for a permanent C/O.”

Petrick added, “In many towns, there are worse issues with C/O’s for whatever reason.”

Lozada then added, “A contractor had a temporary C/O for 2014, 2015, 2015, 2017, and 2018. I called them to get final input to get a permanent C/O. We have four Code Enforcement Officers for 18,000 proposals. It’s easy to blame and remind citizens if Code Enforcement is not doing anything. It’s not easy. I’m open. Let me do my job. I want support from you guys.”

Addressing Resolution R-285-6/19 – Authorizing the execution of a property donation and easement agreement (“The City Agreement”) between the City of Perth Amboy and NCP Perth Amboy Holdings, LLC (“NCP”). A representative from NCP came up and spoke. It was stated that the City Agreement was to provide 10% of property to open space. 3.6 acres will be an amphitheater and includes a restoration of a historic building at no cost to the City. “We will maintain some of that property. There will be walls on the north side and northwest side.  We are responsible for cleaning up the site. It’s the City’s obligation to do maintain the improvements on the historic building. All of this is built into the agreement. We’re going to team up with a Fortune500 Company. We’re offering tax incentives and requirements to labor. Things pop up. We need more parking. It’s a very dynamic process. We have met all the requests and have an agreement for 20 years.”

Petrick then added, “That’s the life of the PILOT.”

Councilman Irizarry said, “We’re back to the original plan.”

The representative then stated, “Our business is acquiring environmentally challenged sites and getting them ready. For the historic building, put through a wish list, what you’d like to see. For the 3.68 acres, it will be $2.6 million worth of improvements. There is $50,000 for a pubic bathroom or washroom.”

All the Council voted “Yes” to R-285.

Regarding R-286-6/19 Amending the CY 2019 Budget., Councilman Joel Pabon made some comments: “I’m hoping the Administration steps up. In the past, I voted against it. With respect, the other day I was sent a text that we were going to lay off you guys. You knew before us. I really thought, I’m a homeowner, too. Seniors can only pay so much. I want to make sure you guys are working and making good money. What better if you live here. Certain department are used the way you’re being used, but you are here. At the end of the day, I don’t know what happened.”

All Council Members voted “Yes” except Councilman Fernando Irizarry. R-286 passed. 

R-287-6/19 Consenting to the appointment of Irving Lozada as Director of Code Enforcement. – The Council voted unanimously to table R-287.

During the second pubic portion, Resident Dorothy Daniel came up to speak first. “Banks take away people’s houses. Those houses are not there. We had a fire because a person was there. The homeless people. I’m asking you to do something to make these places livable. I don’t want to see a firefighter lose their life during a fire. I know what could happen. I would like to get cooperation with the City Council to get some covering on that bridge. I saw the bridge going up. It was like a ladder. I started a ruckus. They put up chicken wire. They (emergency personnel) have to go into the bay where the worse currents are. Make the State accountable so people can’t use Perth Amboy and Perth Amboy resources to kill themselves. It’s your right and responsibility.”

Fire Chief Ed Mullen came up next, “I’m just reassuring Ms. Daniel the grid decreased people from jumping. For the Amended Budget, the cuts existed in the prior budget.”

Council President Petrick then answered, “Not according to the City Council.”

Resident David Caba came up to speak, “Are we looking out for poor Seniors? A driver for Uber makes more than them.”

Former Councilwoman Lisa Nanton came back up to speak, “I just asked the representative from NCP why the amphitheater is next to the train bridge. They said it was what they were told to do.” Nanton continued quoting, “If education is expensive, try ignorance.”

Resident Alan Silber came up, “In February 2008, more people that were here for Run Joe (Vas)! Run! You can always go on. Joe (Vas) went to prison 2 years later. The Senior Citizens – There aren’t too much money to do a lot of things. $500-$700 – that’s a lot for them. A lot of people who work for the City don’t worry about that. She (Diaz) hired 74 people in 2 months. What Bryan Walensky made in a month, they (the City) could pay 2 Officers (salary). Send a message telling people to come to meetings – it’s where it came from. I wish it was this crowded all the time.”

Resident Stephanie Márquez-Villafañe came up to speak. “I am always pro first responders. The reality is people are standing in the stairways. Some concerned citizens couldn’t hear anything. You should have prepared a location or have a monitor so you can hear what people have to say. We should have an alternate location to come to the Meeting. Seniors are not only on a fixed income; a lot of our homeowners do rent out. Who feels it are our renters. What’s going to happen to the City tomorrow or 10 years from now? I’m glad money comes in. What happens when they leave the City? Perth Amboy is not in the best of shape. What happens when all these companies decide to leave?”

Petrick answered, “One position is the properties are cleaned up.”

Márquez-Villafañe continued, “Look at places like Trenton and Camden. These companies leave and we’re stuck with another vacant property. There should be something in place.”

The Council did not have any Council Comments. President Bill Petrick thanked everyone for coming and stated, “I think we accomplished a lot.”

The Meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m. and the Council went into closed session where no formal action was taken.