Newark council adopts resolutions on legal notices, audits and redevelopment; clerk cites League recommendation

The Newark Municipal Council on Feb. 25 adopted several measures, including a resolution backing publication of official legal notices on the city website, an increase of $200,000 to the city's auditing contract, an amendment to a private sale and redevelopment agreement to allow financing for a three-family house in the South Ward, and a bid contract to provide videotaping, training and technical assistance for the council.

The measures were adopted by roll call with Council President Crump and council members Gonzales, Kelly, Quintana and Scott Rountree voting yes; Councilmembers Ramos and Silva were recorded absent for portions of the meeting. No mover or seconder for the individual motions was stated on the record.

The city clerk, explaining the legal-notice resolution, said the Star-Ledger has stopped publishing some print legal notices and that the League of Municipalities and the New Jersey Municipal Clerks Association have promoted a compromise to allow municipalities to place legally required notices on official municipal websites to reduce duplicative spending on multiple publications. "Due to the Star Ledger not publishing anymore and they're digitized totally the law has yet to catch up with that so this proposed resolution of support is a compromise," the clerk said.

Councilman Quintana urged the council to preserve publication in local and ethnic newspapers even if the council supports web posting. "We have different newspapers within the city that we can place the ads to because not everybody's going to look at the website," Quintana said, urging including ethnic papers.

On the auditing contract, Councilman Gonzales asked whether the $200,000 increase was necessary because the police department had not been included in the original audit scope. The clerk confirmed the additional amount covers audit work for the police department.

On the redevelopment matter, the clerk described the item as "a private sale redevelopment agreement, first amendment to the agreement for sale and redevelopment of land in a subordination agreement in order to permit the redeveloper to obtain financing necessary for the rehabilitation of property to build a 3-family house for sale in the South Ward." The amendment was adopted by roll call.

Votes at a glance: - Bid contract to provide videotaping, training and technical assistance to the municipal council and the city corporation (agenda item 7R1AS): adopted by roll call (Gonzales, Kelly, Quintana, Scott Rountree, President Crump yes; Ramos and Silva absent at times); mover/second not specified. - First amendment to private sale and redevelopment agreement to permit subordination for financing of a three-family house (Seminar 2AS): adopted by roll call; mover/second not specified. - Amending resolution to increase the auditing contract by $200,000 to include police department audit work (7OR8AS): adopted by roll call; mover/second not specified. - Resolution supporting publication of legal notices on official government websites (7R8BS): adopted by roll call after clerk's explanation and public comment urging preservation of local/ethnic paper placement.

No appropriation amounts beyond the $200,000 audit increase were specified on the record for the other items. Several council members noted absent members during roll calls; the record shows Ramos and Silva were absent for portions of the session.

The meeting moved on to the public comment period and further discussion of inspection and enforcement issues before adjourning to executive session for employee health-care matters.