Police Officers walk out of the City Council Chambers after the contract was voted down. *Photo by Carolyn Maxwell
2/26/20 Council Meeting
By: Carolyn Maxwell
PERTH AMBOY – At the beginning of the 2/26/20 Council Meeting, Jonathan Jerez of Amboy Checker Taxi was given a hearing to discuss increasing the number of taxi licenses. Jerez represented Amboy Checker Taxi and requested more licenses for his company.
Jerez stated, “One person left and took 7 licenses with them. We need to provide more services to the community. From 1995 to the present, the city’s population has grown a lot. Owners of other taxi companies will come here to say you will not need more taxis because it will take away from them. They have their own clientele.”
After Jerez spoke, the meeting was open to anyone who wanted to discuss Ordinance No. 1 – Fixing and establishing a schedule of salaries and salary ranges and increments for officers and employees of the city of Perth Amboy to reflect the addition of titles RE: FOP.
Resident Ken Balut came up and asked, “Who negotiated this? Since the PBA Contract was knocked down, and this is $12,000 for one person.”
Council President Petrick responded, “I believe it was through the Mayor.”
Balut continued, “You settled the other contract through a mediator. It went through proper channels, but it hasn’t been moved yet. This was an unfair labor practice and your own paperwork will kill you. You have no respect for those on the street saving people and stepping in during domestic violence. Officers should put in for overtime when they have to travel out of town on other duties. They should file charges.”
Resident Stanley Sierakowski came up. He urged the council to table and investigate to see who benefits with this pay increase and title change. See if they are going to be on a political slate. Investigations can go up higher. Ask the person involved in this ordinance to come and answer questions under oath.”
The next Ordinance for public discussion was Ordinance No. 2 – Dissolving the Perth Amboy Redevelopment Agency and designating the city council as redevelopment entity for the city of Perth Amboy and enjoining those previously approved redevelopment projects identified in this ordinance pending review and further action by the city council.
Stanley Sierakowski came up and asked, “What does enjoining mean?”
Law Director Peter King responded, “Stopping.”
Council President Petrick added, “It’s putting on hold and that term is going back several years.”
Sierakowski then cited Jersey City where they had audits on 19 PILOTS that failed for compliances. He urged the council to see who is responsible (on negotiating for PILOTS). “Make sure developers are in compliance with the contract.”
Ken Balut came up and brought the PILOT for Bridgeport and Target. “The mayor recently participated in a protest with the workers at Target because of poor working conditions. The school board raised taxes because there was no money (from PILOTS). Taxes are going up despite PILOTS. There’s a conflict with the Kushner negotiations and they the city over $35,000 for road repairs. The PILOTS are disgusting. You didn’t know how much money was given away. Probably $100 million in a 17-20-year time frame. The problem is when one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing, and things are dropped in your laps. The man who came here and our CFO do not know anything about PILOTS.”
East Brunswick Resident Reinaldo Aviles who formerly lived in Perth Amboy came up to say he’s in favor of the council taking over PARA. “I agreed with King when he talked about the enjoining sentence. Developers might sue you. Maybe you should remove that section for practical senses.”
Council President Petrick challenged Aviles stating, “Your views are speculative.”
Aviles retorted, “I’d rather err on the side of caution.”
Petrick the questioned why Aviles is concerned since he is now living in East Brunswick.
Aviles challenged Petrick and stated, “I can still speak here. It’s your personal fight with the mayor. This could create legal action against the city.”
The next ordinance for public discussion was regarding membership on the redevelopment agency. Ken Balut came up to the podium and asked for an explanation of this ordinance.
Petrick responded, “There’s a need to have people who live in Perth Amboy on that board.”
Law Director King added, “It does not affect the current PARA Board Members.”
Balut continued, “Some of the current Board Members had a conflict of interest, especially when it came to dealing with the Kushner project. The past and present Kushner deals are garbage. I don’t care if Kushner protests. There are enough people against him.”
Balut returned to the podium to speak about the PILOT Program of the PHILOTIMO Housing Development Urban Renewal Corporation. He questioned, “How many years is this PILOT for?”
Petrick responded, “15 years.”
Balut asked, “And the cost to the taxpayers?”
Petrick responded, “I can’t project that.”
Balut then gave a rough calculation how it is easy to project the cost. “You are giving money to the rich.”
B.A. Frederick Carr then responded, “It’s a 15-year PILOT. 2% tax rate, $76,202, but the city will not collect money without the project. The units are age restricted. He then answered Balut’s question regarding the Target warehouse. “We didn’t do those projections for Target.”
Balut concluded, “At least the taxpayers will benefit (from this project).”
The consent agenda R-69 thru R-89 was moved by Councilman Helmin Caba and seconded by Councilman Joel Pabon. R-90 and R-91 which dealt with vehicles requested by the police department was pulled to be voted on separately. It was moved by Councilman Joel Pabon and seconded by Councilwoman Milady Tejeda. Pabon felt the money spent to purchase additional equipment for these two items could be used for something more important. When the council voted separately, Caba, Tejeda, and Petrick voted “Yes,” and Pabon voted “No”. Motion passed.
Public Portion on Agenda Items only:
Sierakowski asked about R-71 – Cancellation of unexpended Capital Fund Improvement Authorization in the amount of $808,142.99. He questioned if there is still money there.
Petrick responded, “Yes.”
Sierakowski then questioned R-84 – A professional service contract with Lanza and Lanza LLP for legal representation of the mayor of the city of Perth Amboy in an amount not to exceed $15,000.
He wanted to know, “Who is suing whom?”
Petrick responded, “It’s an old lawsuit where the mayor was suing the council and we agreed to pay for each other’s attorneys.”
The next person who came up to speak was Franklin Diaz, who is from the Taxicab Federation. He told the council, “This is not time for the city to add more licenses because of outside competitors such as Uber.” He then mentioned the other taxi company who spoke earlier in the meeting who stated that my company has 7 cars without drivers. This is because some of the drivers are leaving to go elsewhere. The ordinance that was established is good until 2027.”
The next person who came up was Jonathan Jarez from Amboy Taxi who spoke at the Hearing for Citizens earlier in the meeting. “Diaz (from the Taxicab Federation) has 17 cars. Why does he need more? He (Diaz) has no drivers. Our cars are working. If more taxis are needed, we should let the citizens decide.”
Balut came up to speak about R-84. He was concerned because the mayor puts a lawyer that is not on the city’s attorney list to represent her.
Law Director King responded, “You can’t be an attorney on the city’s list and sue the city.”
Balut continued, “It’s a quid pro quo. This could be a scam and what’s going on with those legal bills? Lawyers should be held to our hourly rate.”
King answered, “There’s a cap. It’s $150 per hour, and there is also a cap on the total cost to be paid out.”
Balut then told the council they should watch the movie, “The Firm.”
Reinaldo Aviles came back up to talk about R-83 – Guidelines for the engraving of names on the War Veteran’s Memorial. “Councilman Pabon made a statement about the War Memorial and not removing any names.”
Pabon then stated, “It’s supposed to be for only those who fought in wars.”
Aviles said, “It could be litigious if it should be changed to veterans. Then it will fly in the face of future veterans. Both groups should be honored.”
Public Portion:
Resident Ken Balut came up and mentioned a billboard posted on the side of a building on 200 New Brunswick Ave. “It was supposed to have cost $150. When I asked for a receipt from Code Enforcement, it said $125. The person on the billboard is the wife of the Code Enforcement Director. When I did an OPRA regarding this billboard, the answer came back, there were no permits. Files were also lost. Have the FBI investigate. Look at the graffiti in town. There’s a judge who is still parking in handicapped spots. A judge misused handicapped parking and he also erroneously misfiled a First-Time Homebuyers application. They tried to defraud the government. A judge had been suspended. What’s going on with the court system? A judge is violating the handicapped ordinances and hearing cases involving handicapped violations. A judge was reprimanded 3 times and now there’s talk about censuring him. Ticket fixing was going on in court. It’s up to you to investigate what’s going on with the court judge. A court case involving an illegal lottery was sent to an out-of-town court. There was a case involving sexual harassment between two city employees that was thrown out of court.” Balut then stated that the prosecutor present at a council meeting made an obscene gesture at him.
Petrick responded to some of Balut’s statements, “Some of these offenses can be fraud. Online (referring to the lottery case) is wire fraud. Online is wire fraud and is a federal offense.”
King added, “I can’t prosecute a judge.”
Stanley Sierakowski came up and mentioned an article on NJ.com tilted, “The Culture of Wrongdoing”. In the article, NJ State Senator Nicholas Scutari (D) (22nd Legislative District) who also works as a prosecutor in Linden part-time earning over $84,000. “50% of the time he was a no-show. He is suing the city after he was fired. In the court system, there should be set up for the prosecutors a sign-in sheet so they can account for their time. You should put that in an ordinance. In lawsuits, they went after other people. Contracts should be investigated. We know what’s been going on. In some towns, it’s been going on for 50-75 years. People are arrogant and greedy.”
Resident and Businesswoman Sharon Hubberman came up next. She stated, “I’ve advocated for the community. We are undergoing a safety and security crisis. There has been an extreme disservice (to the police) referencing some high paying positions. There are two kind of agreements: union and a non-union collective bargaining. A memorandum of an agreement has to be reached. The mayor and the business administrator made an agreement with the employees.” She threw out figures on what monies were budgeted for the school, operations of the city which included the fire department, the PBA, and the DPW. “I can go through details on how to handle this. You have the opportunity to go through a salary guide and get this (the PBA contract) back on the agenda. We need to authorize where the funds are really needed.”
Brian Ferry, Representative of the PBA Local #13 came up to speak next, “You found money for the firefighters. We heard from Police Chief McKeon who talked about officers getting better pay elsewhere. Balut finds hundreds of dollars, but you can’t find money to pay a modest increase to the police. 4 out of 5 council members are against the police officers.”
Council President Petrick responded, “I object because I have family members who are officers. Would you agree to a 1.5% increase like the firefighters?”
Ferry responded, “We are in remediation.”
Petrick then suggested, “Go back to them (the mediators).”
PBA Local#13 President Officer Daniel Gonzalez came up to speak, “Some of the council are ignorant about the arbitration process.” He then explained the different steps of the salary guides between the police and fire departments. He based it at the 1.5% increase the fire department will be getting. “The first step for the police – $34,338; fire department – $41,489. You are not looking at the salary guide. For the second step, police – $42,000; fire department -$47,000. For the third step, police $47,150; fire department – $53,000. You are going to cause a divide between the police and the PBA. The top tier – police – $103,110. Fire department – $101,800, but the fire department gets longevity. At the end, this will end up in arbitration. Some police officers are leaving for cities that pay better and better benefits with less work.”
B.A. Carr spoke up, “Under the Faulkner Act, the mayor has a right to negotiate the contract without me being there. You have not filed for mediation.”
Council President Petrick then interjected, “This process didn’t end.”
Gonzalez said, “We just asked for a 2.5% raise.”
Petrick then explained, “We can only make our decisions based on the attorney’s advice. When I was sitting on the school board, we did not discuss negotiations in public. What is the next step?”
People started shouting from the audience, “You (the council) can reintroduce!”
Gonzalez continued, “I suggest you ratify. What’s being said in closed session? Go with the numbers that we said tonight.”
Another police officer came to speak and told the council, “You don’t give care anything about the police! You guys don’t want to work together. I went on the record with our salary. Why don’t you guys walk the street at night? I’m requesting a moment of silence.”
After around 2 minutes, Council President William Petrick said the public portion could continue. Resident Stephanie Márquez-Villafañe came up. She mentioned that she is a college student studying to be a researcher on Caribbean and Labor Studies. “I was born and raised here. The library is not handicapped accessible and although there are a lot of resources online (for my research), there’s a lot of critical research information (which I would need to get inside the library to have access to).”
Petrick responded, “The Board of Trustees would be involved in the construction, hiring, and firing of employees. We don’t have a solution. We went to court against the contractor (who were doing the renovations on the library) and won that case.”
Stephanie Márquez-Villafañe continued, “The Board of Trustees don’t know that they are in charge.”
Petrick suggested, “You can write a letter to the board.”
Carr added, “The process can start, but she wants to go to the library’s basement and there’s no way she can get down there.”
Petrick suggested, “Can the Board of Trustees hold their meeting in an ADA building? We don’t have the authority to do anything.”
Councilman Joel Pabon suggested, “Maybe we can have someone from the library come here to answer questions.”
Councilwoman Milady Tejeda wanted to address some of the concerns of the police officers, “There are certain items in negotiations that can’t be spoken here. I have to defend the city’s finances. We wanted to increase the starting salary for the police. It’s not political, but I want to thank you for being here.”
Another police officer came up to speak. He asked Tejeda, “Do you know where the money for the fire department came from?”
She answered, “Yes.”
Petrick spoke up, “I can’t elaborate on remarks that were said behind closed sessions.”
The police officer then asked, “Knowing this new information, would you have voted the same way?”
Councilman Helmin Caba responded, “Yes.”
Council Comments:
Helmin Caba was disturbed and said, “It was disrespectful of those accusing us of not respecting the police. I have to make decisions affecting all of the residents. Throwing us under the bus is unfair. The new police officers will get $33,500, but they are still underpaid.”
One of the PBA Representatives shouted out, “We deal with disrespectful people every day!”
Joel Pabon spoke next. He addressed the situation with the two cab companies which talked about the number of licenses in the city, “The taxis now have to deal with competitors such as Uber and Lyft. Years ago, the taxicabs complained that they were not making enough money.” He then addressed the fire department’s pay increase of 1.5% which was already set, “I am not changing my mind. We had all the information about the fire department. I defended my own vote (voting to approve the PBA contract).”
B.A. Carr had important information for the council. “You have in front of you details of the budget and it’s a secret for all of you only and not to be given out to anybody else. They’ll be no tax increase. It’s a $714,000 increase over last year’s but there was a $1.9 million debt reduction because of an insurance refund that received. The insurance costs came down, even though there was an increase. Reserves were replenished. There are 97 school bus drivers, and we have our crossing guards. $4,970,000 was used for surplus. We need to reintroduce the budget by March 25th and the adoption by April 22nd. We need to look at our fees for review. With our credit rating, we have callable bonds for debt payment. We have construction fees (uniform construction only).”
Petrick stated, “The local finance board told us we can’t dip into the surplus all the time.”
Carr assured Petrick, “We can dip into the surplus to add to certain budget lines.”
Petrick then asked, “Can we introduce the budget at the next meeting?”
Carr responded, “You can hold discussions in closed session, but we may need to have two special meetings to discuss the budget.”
Petrick ended the meeting by thanking everyone for their patience.
Councilman Fernando Irizarry was absent with an excuse. Councilwoman Milady Tejeda had to leave before the council comments were made.
