11/9/20 Caucus & Council Meetings

By: Carolyn Maxwell

PERTH AMBOY – There was quite a discussion involving Ordinance No. 1 – “Administration of Government” Re: Municipal Prosecutor.

Councilman Fernando Gonzalez stated, “Law Director Peter King said this is contrary to the law.”

King then responded, “The mayor can choose anyone she wants to this position. You (the council) can preclude the person from being appointed for another 3 years if you reject that applicant. You are also precluding the new council members for voting for the applicant that you previously rejected.”

Council President William Petrick spoke up, “We want to change this ordinance so the applicant that was rejected by the council can reapply again after 2 years. The applicant can still go to other towns to apply (for the same position) plus they still have their own law practices.”

Law Director King then continued, “You have to have a super majority (at least 4 votes) to reappoint someone regarding a 60-day extension.”

Irizarry then spoke up, “We have plenty of attorneys, but not many who applied for this position (municipal prosecutor) are from the city.”

King then said, “Many prosecutors don’t want to live in the town where they work.”

Petrick questioned King’s remark noting many city employees such as police officers interact with people whom they may have had an unpleasant encounter with.

The next topic for discussion was Ordinance No. 2 (First Reading) – Vehicles and Traffic RE: Addition of a loading zone – 576 New Brunswick Ave. (Domino’s Pizza).

Councilman Joel Pabon stated, “They are requesting an area that would be maybe 2 parking spots. They are looking at some space on Lawrie Street also. They want this loading zone for 7 days a week from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. There is no parking there now.”

Irizarry then spoke up, “They are also asking for a 60-foot loading zone. The other place that requested a 60-foot loading zone was turned down. Why does this new applicant need 60 feet?”

Celestina Ramos, Director of the Perth Amboy Parking Utility came up to answer that question. “I have seen delivery trucks and NJ Transit parking there. It is necessary for that business to have that much space due to the length of their delivery trucks. I don’t know what was done before (they requested the loading zone). A designated area would be better for their deliveries. I will talk to their manager about how much space they would need for their delivery truck.”

The next discussion was regarding R-438 – 11/20 – Approving the transfer of CY: 2020 Budget appropriations in the amount of $217,566.

Petrick questioned Law Director King if there were funds available in King’s account for the council to use money for a lawyer.

King responded, “The council has $25,000 in their account. It may have come out of my account (the funds the council used to pay for lawyer’s fees in the past).

The next discussion involved R-441-11/20 – Hazardous discharge site remediation for a grant to perform the remedial investigation and medial action activity on the former Harry Goldberg and Son Scrap Metal.

Human Resources Director Kenny Ortiz came up, “This is additional work that needs to be performed in accordance to work required by the NJDEP. There has to be testing and a demolition of small building and a test for asbestos. We are getting money from the DEP. We need to get permits and we are doing everything additional that the DEP is requesting. We complete this project by the end of 2021.”

Councilman Joel Pabon questioned R-446-11/20 – Road Improvements (Fayette Street, Kelsey Avenue, and Gornik Drive) in an amount not to exceed $13,275.55.

Joel Pabon asked if work will be done this year.

DPW Director Frank Hoffman came up to speak, “The work was done. Additional base work that had to be completed. We also hope to start working on Commerce Street this week. Other streets are on the list will be done if weather conditions are favorable.”

R-448-11/20 – An agreement between the city of Perth Amboy and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Plainfield and Middlesex County to Morris Habitat for Humanity.

Tashi Vazquez came up to explain, “In 2019, the Office of Economic Development gave a sum of $72,827 for this project. The house being built will be given to a Veteran. The Plainfield and Morris Habitat for Humanity Offices merged.”

R-449-11/20 – Authorizing the Purchase of a used Ladder Truck from the Fire & Safety Services in an amount not to exceed $15,000.

Fire Chief Ed Mullen came up and told the council that he presented this at a September meeting. “A pump and aerial test needs to be performed before purchasing this truck.”

OEM Coordinator Larry Cattano came up to explain R-451 – 11/20 – A shared services agreement with the Township of Woodbridge to utilize the township digital trunk radio system for public safety and other radio communication needs. “We are getting funding from the state. This is to renew the agreement for another 5 years to use the Woodbridge band.”

Council President Bill Petrick questioned R-459-11/20 – A refund of inactive water/sewer accounts totaling $711.62 to Raritan Bay Medical Center. He questioned, “Are they all paid up? Because they owed us a lot of money from the past.”

Interim B.A. Perkins said she would look into this. 

Councilman Irizarry questioned R-462-11/20 – Authorizing the 2020-2021 renewal of inactive plenary retail consumption license held in the name of Aris Lounge located at 829 Amboy Ave. effective November 10, 2020. Irizarry was concerned because there was a problem there in the past. 

Petrick suggested a restriction be placed on this establishment.

City Clerk Kupsch spoke up, “This is a different owner than the person who had it when there was a problem there. Plus, this is an inactive license.”

Law Director Peter King spoke about R-463-11/20 – Suspending plenary retail consumption license held in the name of Seabra’s Armory at 200 Front St. for 15 days. King explained that the suspension would start 30 days from tonight to give the owner a chance to appeal the ordinance.

Petrick then asked if anybody had any questions on the communication before they go into a closed session to discuss personnel.

King responded, “Unless there was anything else besides personnel for closed session, Ms. Perkins requested that her employment be discussed in the open instead of in a closed session.”

Irizarry then asked Ms. Perkins and Law Director King if she agreed to waive her Rice Notice. 

Ms. Perkins was adamant that this be discussed in an open session.

Council President Bill Petrick then spoke up, “At our last council meeting, we agreed to terminate her (Perkins) effective 10/28/2020 per our ordinance with a 4-1 vote. The mayor reappointed her on 11/3/2020. We hired a lawyer to see whether we are in the right or not.”

King then spoke up, “Perkins was appointed under the old ordinance. The council amended the ordinance so the mayor can reappoint that person for another 60 days that you (the council) would have to approve that reappointments.”

Petrick continued, “I consulted with other lawyers about what powers we (the council) have regarding reappointment.”

Councilman Pabon wasn’t happy, “We are in the middle of an election and there is no need for us to do this. The mayor is actively campaigning, and we need to have stability. We’ll be spending money on an attorney for a short period of time for a new B.A. If we have a new mayor, they will need to know what is going on.”

Irizarry then questioned, “How long will this appointment be?”

King responded, “It would be for 30 days,” explaining this is due to the circumstances of the runoff election, if need be. “All department heads and other appointments will be made if there is a new mayor. Those who are in these positions already may be held over unless a new mayor comes in to replace them.”

Councilman Helmin Caba then spoke up, “We need to do what is best for the city. It’s not worth it to pursue removing an Interim B.A. for a short period of time.”

Councilman Irizarry spoke up, “My decision to not reappoint the Interim B.A. was not based on gender or race.”

Councilwoman Milady Tejeda joined to the meeting late (6:02 p.m. – she was delayed at work). 

Council President Bill Petrick spoke up, “The mayor hired an unqualified person as a Business Administrator and the mayor also broke the law. Diaz abused the law when she did not give former Business Administrators Adam Cruz, Frederick Carr a 20-day notice before she dismissed them. We changed the ordinance that she can reappoint an Interim Business Administrator for an additional 60 days.”

Irizarry spoke up and reminded Petrick, “This is a personnel matter. This is to discuss Perkins and not what the mayor has been doing. I in no way am condoning what the mayor did.”

Petrick persisted. “We need to take this to court and let them render a decision. (If Perkins is still an employee and can get paid.)”

Councilwoman Tejeda spoke up, “I agree with the Council President that we should go to get legal advice so we don’t get ourselves into trouble.”

Petrick went on, “If the mayor gets reelected, she can continue to break the law and ignore all the rules. Do we stop her now or wait? We can stand our ground.”

Councilman Caba then spoke up, “When a super majority vote is needed, I remember when we were voting on the budget, we asked whether a super majority was needed to pass the budget.”

The council opened up the meeting to the public. The first person to speak was Jeremy Baratta. He asked, “When do you stand up to the mayor? We can spend a lot of on menus. Why have an ordinance if you don’t use it? The citizens chose you to defend the laws. We have a book on laws and that is the system you operate on. You have people on PARA that are not approved by you. $25,000 (to spend on a lawyer) is a drop in the bucket for you to defend yourselves.”

Alan Silber came up next, “They tried to make you look like you have no thought process. Law Director Peter King is not giving you correct information. He is doing what the mayor tells him to do. You have integrity. You didn’t know that one of the former Business Administrators (Peter Pelissier) only had 90 days to serve as a Business Administrator. During that time period, Pelissier also took off 14 personal days. You also fell for the 90 days that was given to Irving Lozada as the Acting Code Enforcement Director. A couple of years ago, an election got overturned and a lawyer got paid $30,000 for it. When the special election was held, the person who won got 30 additional votes. A man of integrity (former Law Director Mark Blunda) was fired to get Arlene Quinones Perez from the DeCotiis Law Firm to take his place. You have the authority to fire the Law Director (for good cause). You are getting bad information from him.”

Law Director King then spoke up and told the council, “You have the authority to fire me.”

Resident Vince Mackiel then came up to speak about the Domino’s loading zone, “They had a building that was behind where they are located now.”

Petrick responded, “They are using the old building for storage.”

Earlier in the meeting, one of the council members mentioned that residents on that part of Lawrie street all have their own driveway.

Mackiel concluded, “The council has to consider the needs of the residents of that neighborhood.”

The caucus concluded at 6:40 p.m. That included the closed session which was held in public.

The council meeting started at 7 p.m. The meeting was opened up to the public on agenda items only. The first person to speak was Jeremy Baratta who came up to speak about Ordinance No. 1 – RE: The Municipal Prosecutor.

Baratta asked, “What has been changed?”

Council President William Petrick responded, “This is to establish that the prosecutor should live in the city by a 2/3 vote of the council.”

Baratta questioned, “How is Billy Delgado still a prosecutor when only 2 people voted in his favor?”

Petrick said, “Law Director King said he could appoint Delgado.”

Baratta then stated, “You passed ordinances, vote on them, and then Wilda overturns them. Now, the prosecutor must live in town?”

Petrick continued, “All employees have to live in town unless precluded by state law.” Petrick stated that this also applies to assistant prosecutors.

When it came to voting on the ordinances, Ordinance No. 1 was moved by Irizarry and seconded by Caba. The only person to vote “No,” was Pabon.

Ordinance No. 1 (first reading) Authorizing a 1-year lease agreement with Easter Seals New Jersey for office space in the Jankowski Center, for non-monetary consideration. Beginning January 1, 2021 thru December 31, 2021. It was moved by Irizarry and seconded by Caba. All voted “Yes.”

Ordinance No. 2 (first reading) – RE: Addition of a loading zone – 576 New Brunswick Ave.

Before voting on this Councilman Joel Pabon wanted to make a statement. “There is no other business close to this location. They also have the times that deliveries will be made and people that live in that neighborhood have driveways.”

At first, Irizarry asked to table this ordinance. Council President Petrick said he’s in favor of voting for this tonight, and this is only the first reading. Irizarry moved the ordinance. It was seconded by Caba.

For the consent agenda, R-438 thru R-461, R-463 and R-465 was moved by Irizarry and seconded by Pabon. R-462 and R-464 were asked by Pabon to be voted on separately. 

R-462 (renewal of inactive plenary retail consumption license in the name of Aris Lounge) was moved by Irizarry and seconded by Pabon.

R-464 (Late Starter) – Resolution appointing the firm of Calcagni-Kanesky, Newark, New Jersey to represent the City of Perth Amboy with regard to the Mayor’s reappointment of Patricia Perkins as Business Administrator of the City of Perth Amboy in and amount not to exceed $25,000.00

R-464 was moved by Irizarry and seconded by Caba. The only person who voted, “No,” was Pabon.

R-465 (Late Starter) – Resolution authorizing the submission of an application to the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternative Set-Aside Program.

Public Portion:

Resident Jeremy Baratta came up first. He spoke about Veteran’s Day coming up. He read an email that was sent to him congratulating him on his Veteran owned business. (See p.12.) He then continued that many events are paid for by the city. “Every time there is a holiday event, the mayor always has her staff and her supporters in the program, but where are the Veterans? All patriotic events are campaign events for those who she is supporting. She hardly ever reaches out to Veteran groups to speak. Will they continue to be Wilda’s campaign events? One time, a Veteran who was on one of the programs gave a campaign speech supporting her. You (the council) are never put on the program or asked to speak. The mayor goes to business openings that don’t have licenses to operate and hands out citations. I am the only Veteran-owned business in town. Do I get a citation?”

Stephanie Márquez-Villafañe came up to speak. She was upset regarding the mishandling of her application that she applied for last year regarding the flag raising for Lung Cancer Awareness. “Even though I applied to have that flag raising in plenty of time, I heard nothing regarding my request. I went to city hall on October 29, 2020 and I was told that Jeanette had misplaced the request and we can’t raise the flag on the day that you want because someone else requested to have their flag raised the following day. Middlesex County bought a Lung Cancer Awareness Flag and they put it up automatically without us requesting it to fly on their flagpole. Cops and firefighters ask us when our event will be taking place because they look forward to it. A lot of them have quit smoking because of us bringing lung cancer awareness to their attention. We put in this request a year ago for the flag raising. I am now expecting to get an answer about our flag raising event for 2021.”

Council President Bill Petrick spoke up, “I believe permits for events should go to the clerk’s office This should remove politics from the situation. We can initiate an ordinance that request for permits go to the clerk’s office.”

Law Director King answered Petrick’s remarks, “The administration controls an event that utilize the city’s properties.”

The next speaker was Alan Silber. He questioned what happened with the mail-in ballots only. Petrick responded, “Mail-in only ballots were done under Governor Murphy’s orders. November 20, 2020 is supposed to be the certified numbers. The next election for the run-off is supposed to be December 15, 2020 and the results are supposed to be finalized by December 30, 2020.”

Silber continued, “I was impressed how late the mailman was delivering mail and I applaud them.”

Council Comments:

Helmin Caba stated, “A person brought up the fact that some meetings were not taking place because of Covid and minutes are still not being posted. Any meeting that did take place should have their minutes posted. The public also needs to know even if the events are not held because of cancellations.” He ended his comments by thanking all Veterans. 

Fernando Irizarry said, “Now that recreational marijuana has been approved, we need an ordinance to regulate it in the city ASAP. The only places in town that marijuana dispensaries can open up would be in neighborhoods or schools. People in the suburbs don’t want it in their backyards or towns. They only want it in urban towns. Have the Law Director write up an ordinance for the next election. The county asked if we (the city) wanted a voter help center which they didn’t do. The city needs to open up their own voter help center.” He then thanked everyone who participated in the campaigns, supported the candidates and participated in the democratic process. He thanked the Veterans for their service to the country and family members who lost those in service. “The pain never goes away.”

Joel Pabon wanted to thank all who participated in the voting process. “Congratulations to all (who ran).” I also wanted to especially thank the voters. This is a democratic country and voters should have been allowed to vote by machine. Just exercise your right to vote. I’m hoping by the 15^th that everybody has received their ballots. Don’t wait until the last minute if you haven’t received a ballot. May the best person win. My heart is with the Veterans every day. Also, to those who lost a loved one.” Pabon then touched on what one speaker said regarding a Veteran who gave a speech supporting Mayor Diaz one year. Sometimes we don’t know what a Veteran will say when speaking. Enjoy Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving. I was very surprised with some of the home learning taking place. It’s amazing, especially with the kids in Kindergarten how they are learning. The teachers have a lot of patience as well as the staff. They just have to do what they have to do.”

Milady Tejeda thanked all the Veterans and reminded everyone to vote on December 15, 2020. “We still have another chance. Covid is rising each day. Be careful, mindful, and take care.”

Bill Petrick said, “Kids are coming home from college and this virus is very serious. For the upcoming runoff election, we are going to have 2 mayoral candidates and 4 people for 2 council seats. The ballot boxes are monitored by cameras. It’s the best way to make sure your vote counts. The Jewish Renaissance is getting rapid Covid-19 tests with results in about 15 minutes.” Petrick thanked the State and the Jewish Renaissance for getting these tests. He also thanked YMCA CEO Steve Jobin for the use of the Y facility for our meetings. “I appreciate all who came here and all those in TV land.” Petrick ended his remarks by asking Law Director Peter King to look at other municipalities ordinances regarding guidelines pertaining to medical marijuana.

King said he would do so.

The meeting adjourned at 8 p.m. All council members were present.