12/6/21 Caucus

By: Carolyn Maxwell

PERTH AMBOY – Councilman Joel Pabon had a heated discussion regarding three appointments to the Citizen’s Public Safety Advisory Board that was put on the agenda as a Resolution by Council President William Petrick. “Why are these candidates being reappointed again? And why were these resolutions put on the agenda before informing the other council members. Once you put these on the agenda, it is going to be hard to put another candidate up for these positions.”

Councilwoman Rose Morales agreed with Pabon. 

Council President Petrick then explained, “They haven’t had a chance to have even one meeting, yet.”

Councilwoman Milady Tejeda then chimed in, “I was puzzled why this group never had a meeting.”

City Clerk Victoria Kupsch then spoke up, “The ordinance creating the Citizen’s Public Safety Advisory Board sets the terms of each member, and how long they serve.”

Petrick said, “These people that are on the agenda for reappointment were told they shouldn’t have any concerns. We will reappoint them at the end of the year to formalize the rotation of the time they are to serve. If you want, we can bring up the tape of that meeting.”

Pabon spoke up again, “We had the same problem with the Rent Leveling Board reappointment.”

Petrick reminded Pabon, “You were the one who asked about the reappointment of the Rent Leveling Board Members. Those appointments had to be readvertised because of sudden vacancies. We are only reappointing two members to the Citizen’s Advisory Board.”

Councilwoman said, “Actually, it’s three people on the agenda to be reappointed.”

Councilman B.J. Torres then added, “The initial appointment for this Board were made in the spring and due to unforeseen circumstances, they were not able to have not even one meeting.”

Petrick reiterated that same fact as to why they need to be reappointed, “They have not had a chance to have any meetings. Before we look at appointing anybody new, we have to look at the people who applied beforehand and were turned down.”

Pabon stated, “We have to follow the law.”

Petrick fired back, “There are a lot of laws that haven’t been followed.”

Pabon answered back, “This is not about us.”

Petrick agreed and said, “It is really about people.”

Councilwoman Tejeda stated, “We should wrap this up. It is just that we thought that the other council members should have been informed about these reappointments before they were put on the agenda.”

The next topic of discussion was Resolution R-631-12/21 – Consenting to the extension of the interim appointment of Matthew Nieves as Acting Director of Public Works for a period of no longer than 60 days from December 2, 2021.

Petrick stated, “There was no advise and consent for this appointment.”

City Clerk Victoria Kupsch stated, “It was on a previous agenda as a communication – not a resolution.”

Petrick was frustrated and stated, “If it was done properly, it should have been a resolution to appoint someone as an Acting DPW Director.”

Councilman Joel Pabon referenced R-633-12/21 – An installment payment agreement with Carlos Jimenez for water consumption at 553 Gerard Street.

He thanked Luis Perez Jimenez – Director of Operations at the USA-PA (Utility Service Associates Perth Amboy) Middlesex Water Company) for investigating this matter.

City Attorney William Opel explained R-645-12/21 – Authorizing execution of a revocable license agreement with Convery Boulevard LLC. 

“This is on the agenda to formalize an agreement so that the city can access this property if necessary. This was originally on the agenda in early October.”

Council President Petrick questioned R-647-12/21 – Extending the contract with Milennium Strategy for grant writing services for a one-month period in an amount not to exceed $4,000.

He questioned, “I thought we had enough grant writers.”

Business Administrator Michael Green responded, “This company has gotten the city seven grants since August, and they have brought in much more money to the city than what we have paid them, and they are finding the grants.” Green then explained, “For R-651, they are asking for an expansion of two months for the professional services contract for Bruce Kaplan as a City Benefit Consultant until February 28, 2022.”

Petrick agreed with this. “Kaplan has been a tremendous asset to the city.”

Milady Tejeda spoke up and asked Petrick if he would like to speak about R-657-12/21 – Prohibiting the use of fluoride in the city drinking water. Tejeda questioned how people would feel about this.

Councilman B.J. Torres spoke up, “Fluoride might be a carcinogenic in the long run, and it’s been known to decrease a person’s IQ by 10 points when they become adults. It’s good for children, but not for adults. We are only one of two municipalities in the county that has fluoride in their water.”

Council President Petrick who put this resolution on the agenda stated, “Middlesex Water doesn’t add fluoride and plus fluoride is already in commercial products. Dentists give it to children to just swish it around in their mouths and have them spit it out.”

Milady Tejeda spoke, “In the long run, will it benefit the taxpayers and the health of all? There’s not much going to be much of a tax savings if we remove the fluoride in the water.”

Councilman Pabon said he was okay with removing it.

Torres spoke up again, “There are no mass tooth decay when fluoride was removed from the drinking water.”

Petrick then remembered, “At one time, Perth Amboy had the best water.”

Councilwoman Morales asked, “Can we have someone who is an expert who knows the pros and cons of fluoride in the drinking water?”

Council President Petrick said, “There was a presentation on this.”

Torres said, “I must have missed that presentation, but the students have dental checkups in the school.”

Morales then suggested that the council have Dr. Lydia David, a local dentist come and speak.

Petrick was adamant, “If Middlesex Water thought it was great (having fluoride in the water), they would have supplied it to all the cities that they serve.”

Petrick then talked about R-658-12/21 – Involving improvements to several roads in Perth Amboy. 

One of the roads mentioned was Krockmally Avenue. “That road is so bad, it’s like a warzone.”

Business Administrator Mike Green explained R-660-12/21 – Authorizing initiation of competitive contracting for grant writing services.

He said, “This is part of Best Practices to solicit for grant writers. It authorizes the cities to submit RFQ’s.

City Clerk Victoria Kupsch spoke up, “R-636-12/21 – Accepting the bid and awarding the contract to Signal Control Products for traffic signals and parts in an amount not to exceed $177,504.

She stated a department head asked this to be removed from the agenda.

Mike Green responded, “I am not aware of anyone asking to remove this from the agenda and I’m requesting that it be kept on the agenda.”

Public Comments (in-house first):

Resident Alan Silber came up. “What kind of expertise do you have to remove fluoride from our water? You had several people come here to speak about weed, but not about fluoride.” He then turned his attention to R-631 (the extension of the DPW Acting Director). “Who is Matthew Nieves? An acting appointment is to put a person in place for someone who is on leave and interim is temporary while you search for a permanent replacement. Now, it seems that everything is interim and all you are doing is adding extensions to these interim appointments. At the end of the 60 days of these interim appointments, you were to vote and have a regular person in place. If you look at the City’s website, it has Matthew Nieves as Director of Public Works. It’s the law and an ordinance. Now, with this resolution, Matthew Nieves has been an Acting Director for 127 days. Before Frank Hoffman was appointed as DPW Director, there was a bridge between him being appointed as Acting Director before they made him DPW Director. Was this advertised?” Silber then went back to talk about fluoride removal resolution. “You have dental schools in New Jersey. Why don’t you ask someone from one of those schools to come here and speak?”

Councilman Torres spoke up quickly, “New Brunswick does not have fluoride in their water system.”

Silber then mentioned that a Dental School at Rutgers in New Brunswick and the Harvard Dental School also talked about the benefits of having fluoride in the drinking water. “Just have pros and cons presented. The council failed by extending the interim contract for the DPW contract for up to 127 days for Matthew Nieves.”

B.A. Green responded to Silber’s last remark, “This does not have to be advertised – the DPW Director position. It is the mayor’s decision with the advise and consent of the council. If the city website has Nieves as the DPW Director, that is incorrect, and we will correct that as Acting DPW Director.”

The meeting was opened up to Zoom and no one spoke.

The council went into closed session at 6:33 p.m. All council members were present.