6/7/21 Caucus

By: Carolyn Maxwell

Ken Balut

PERTH AMBOY – Deputy Police Chief Larry Cattano came up to field a question regarding R-297-6/21 – Appointing Special Officer Class I for the City of Perth Amboy. “Six officers will be appointed on June 21st. 

Councilman Joel Pabon asked a question regarding R-295-6/21 – Authorizing the execution of a shared services agreement with the County of Middlesex and the City of Perth Amboy for the management of Thomas Mundy Peterson Park.

“Will this park be guarded?”

City Engineer Ernest Feist came on via Zoom who spoke about R-298.

R-298-6/21 – Rescinding R-441-11/20 – and authorizing the city of Perth Amboy to make an application to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund for a grant to perform remedial investigation and remedial action activities on the former Harry Goldberg & Son Scrap Metal site.

“There was a preapplication for this remediation that was sent to the State House Commission which was done pre-Covid. The state is reviewing the application today.”

Business Administrator Remsen spoke up, and if this project can go on as scheduled.

Feist responded, “I anticipate an added delay. We were not the engineers on this particular project (R-295).”

CFO Jill Goldy then spoke up via Zoom, “They would have to rescind the original resolution  (R-298) because they had to add additional language.”

Public Portion:

The first person to speak was Ken Balut. He directed his comments to Law Director Northgrave who was present in person in the Council Chambers. He requested that Northgrave call Middlesex County Democratic Chair Kevin McCabe to call former Governor McGreevy to talk to Kushner. Balut then talked about how Plainfield is lowering their taxes with the federal money they are getting. He then questioned again if the council got a copy of the 150-page report which gives a breakdown on how municipalities can use the monies given to them by the federal government. 

Northgrave responded, “This is not the time to cross-examine the council.”

Balut shot back, “Maybe I made a mistake when I heard that Plainfield used the money to lower taxes. I can say whatever I want. Kushner has owed us money for years. I’ve had discussions with retired Woodbridge cops about McGreevy. I didn’t have the votes to sue Kushner when I was on the council. The YMCA hasn’t been addressed in years. Everyone is afraid of looking at the report on how you can spend $16 million.”

CFO Jill Goldy spoke about R-293-6/21 – Authorizing emergency temporary appropriations to extend the CY: 2021 Temporary Budget in the amount of $314,200.

Goldy said, “There can be a supplemental amount of funding if the water amendment is adopted for the 3% increase.”

Business Administrator William Remsen responded to one of Balut’s remarks and told the council, “You all have the link to the 150-page report. We didn’t want to waste paper printing 150 pages to give to each council member.”

The Pastor from St. John’s Church came up next. He wanted to address the marijuana regulation issue. “I am a father of three children. The best scenario of action is to take no action. The state gives you 180 days to make a decision. It’s for their own interest. Let Woodbridge have a marijuana dispensary. They have no problems sending their homeless to us.”

Historic Preservation Chair Renee Skelton was invited to speak by Council President William Petrick. She started out by saying, “Only a third of the municipalities (in New Jersey) have a Historic Preservation Commission. We have not done a good job of restoring our historic sites. We’ve had inventories at historic sites done. The last one was done in 2016. Some sites were demolished or drastically altered. We will have nothing much left to preserve. Administrations in the past have ignored the ordinances. The ordinances are very vague, and we are missing so many safeguards. The Historic Preservation Commission must revue plans of any historic buildings that are targeted for redevelopment. First of all, we need to have a list of all the historic sites. We wanted to hire someone on how to fix our ordinance. There are two sites that are on the State Register that need to be on the National Register. We are not getting money that we could get by putting in commercial buildings. We need to get a lot of buildings on the national register, especially the terra-cotta buildings. We have gotten money from Tashi Vazquez from the Office of Economic Development for one of our projects. We need expertise on our commission such as an attorney, an engineer, and someone from Code Enforcement. We don’t have any of these. We need to upgrade the HPC Board. We have a small budget, and I don’t even know if we have any money in the budget. We do all the work ourselves and are under the Office of Economic Development who helps us a lot. We need a grant writer and our ordinance changed. I want to thank Councilman Joel Pabon and Council President Bill Petrick who asked me to come speak about this.”

Councilman Joel Pabon responded, “The next time we have a presentation for something like this at the beginning of the meeting because we are in the public portion (where there is a 5-minute time limit).”

Petrick then asked Skelton, “What number are you looking at for funds to fill in the gaps?”

It was decided on $4,500.

Petrick then questioned the council whether or not we should add that to the budget.

Councilman B.J. Torres then suggested that we should go into the reserves for these funds.

Council President Petrick then asked, “Is it important to adjust the budget for $4,500?”

Councilwoman Milady Tejeda responded, “We should take into consideration the Master Plan to give the HPC extra funding.”

Business Administrator Remsen said, “There was a discussion about preserving the cobblestone (at Sunshine Alley) and we will discuss the HPC budget. There is a lot of low hanging fruit money. If you get a full-time grant writer, they can work on getting money for the Historic Preservation Commission.”

The next person to come up was Reinaldo Aviles (from East Brunswick) and former Chair of the PAHPC. “I agree with everything that Renee (Skelton) said. We got a lot of lip service. The ordinance has to have some teeth in it. Have experts on the Commission and let it be properly budgeted. We are losing too many important structures. $4,500 is a start.”

A resident from Rector Street Jeanette Perry Wilson spoke next. She wanted to invite everyone to the Juneteenth Flag Raising at City Hall Circle on June 19th from 3p.m. to 4p.m. “On September 10, 2020, Governor Murphy signed into law that the third Thursday in June will be a State Holiday.”

The meeting was now open to Zoom participants.

Vince Mackiel spoke first. He talked about R-292-6/21- The Water Bank Construction Financing Program of the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank to be issued in the principle amount up to $1,500,000. He said, “Governor Murphy is creating over $300 million for water infrastructure improvements. We have 30% of the people in the city who have not been able to pay their bills. They had to stay home, and in turn use more water.”

Law Director Northgrave spoke up and told the council that the boarded-up building on Rector Street should be coming down in about two weeks. “The sewer or waterlines have to be replaced.”

The meeting was closed to the public and went into closed session at 6:45 p.m. with no further action taken. All council members were present in-person.