resolution<\/a>, the city would utilize a federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to purchase the vehicle for the Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n\u201cAre there specific deadlines? What\u2019s the stance from Community Development?\u201d Ward F Councilman Frank \u201cEducational\u201d Gilmore asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a deadline of January 31st for these federal funds. They are subject to a drawdown requirement from the federal government. If we do not meet that deadline, then we are subject to penalties,\u201d Acting Business Administrator Peter Horton replied.<\/p>\n
He added that it took \u201ca substantial amount of time\u201d to put the proposal together since the funding dates back to 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould you just describe the consequence of not making good on the drawn down?\u201d Ward D Councilman Jake Ephros inquired.<\/p>\n
Horton responded that future federal funding could be withheld, or perhaps even the possibility of losing the current funding completely.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did reach out to someone in the department who told me that this was a grant that could have been fulfilled in a previous fiscal year. The cost of equipment is rising,\u201d Ward B Councilman Joel Brooks noted, indicating this is probably the best price the city will get.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had sticker shock. But I did learn fire trucks \u2026 cost over $1 million for a new rig. We do have an aging fleet. We do have substitute trucks and engines. My understanding is we do buy used trucks and engines.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also recalled that 2021\u2019s Hurricane Ida caused significant flooding on the west side, further stating that climate change is unpredictable and that it won\u2019t come out of the public safety budget.<\/p>\n
Ward C Councilman Tom Zuppa said he was initially uncertain about acquiring the emergency rescue vehicle, but agreed with Brooks that it was a good purchase considering it was not coming from the city budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to see the CDBG monies going to other kinds of organizations. This is seemingly a really important vehicle. Wish we could find different monies to fund it,\u201d Ephros added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciated [Community Development] Director [D\u00e9j\u00e0] Anderson\u2019s willingness to share information,\u201d Ward E Councilwoman Eleana Little said about the vehicle before voting yes.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, Gilmore felt the situation was a bit frustrating since the grant was over two years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re already forced to vote yeah. There\u2019s penalties. You must lose the grant or whatever \u2026. I just think that sets a bad precedent for how the city operates,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy vote no is essentially saying there\u2019s processes that need to be in place to ensure there\u2019s clear communication and transparency during the whole process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilman at-Large Michael Griffin expressed a similar sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to express my disappointment in the disconnect between this department and our underserved communities. We have a lot of stakeholders in Jersey City in need of funding to continue the good work that they do,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt comes to us, and the deadline is next week or Saturday. It\u2019s extremely disappointing. For the sake of that, I\u2019m voting no.\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilman at-Large Rolando Lavarro, a former council president, felt that the funds could be used for a greater good than a Skeeter truck.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese funds could be used for other purposes. It could be used for an anti-violence facility. It could be used for a youth center, as we talked about. Half a million dollars could be used more productively for something else,\u201d he contended.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2026 I want to make sure our firefighters are well-equipped, and they have the vehicles and equipment they need. But again, we need to start establishing some good precedents. Bringing it to us with a deadline of January 30th is again mismanagement of some sort going on that we need to correct. And it only corrects when we start to hold people accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governing body approved the resolution to purchase the vehicle 6-3, with Gilmore, Griffin, and Lavarro voting no.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jersey City Council voted 6-3 to approve a resolution to use a federal grant to acquire a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51706,51707,51708,11005,42224,9,11,10,51709,51710],"class_list":["post-117128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-frank-gilmore","tag-hurricane-idea","tag-jake-ephros","tag-jersey-city-council","tag-jersey-city-department-of-public-safety","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-peter-horton","tag-skeeter-high-water-rescue-vehicle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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