[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:40] Commissioner Gill, absent, Commissioner Luciano, absent, Commissioner Mercado, absent, Commissioner Murray-Thomas, absent, Commissioner Richardson,
[0:50] Commissioner Siebold, absent, Commissioner Sermons, absent, Commissioner Vice President Cooper, here, Commissioner President Palmaris.
[1:00] Here. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I have before me certification of clerk that this meeting is in compliance with the open public meeting.
[1:10] The purpose of this meeting is to meet with the financial institutions that the county have
[1:17] all of our deposits and investments with and discuss their reinvestment activities
[1:22] and their impact here in the county of Essex. So tonight we're going to meet three banks and
[1:28] the first bank up is Providence Bank. Can we please have them come in? Thank you.
[1:35] Good
[1:47] evening.
[1:48] Don't be shy.
[1:48] Come on up.
[1:49] Come on up to the mic.
[1:50] Yes.
[1:51] Code
[1:55] off.
[1:55] Make yourself comfortable for a couple of minutes.
[1:57] We don't bite.
[1:58] Hi.
[1:59] How are you?
[1:59] How are you?
[2:00] Good.
[2:01] Please state your name and affiliation for the record and you can introduce the other
[2:06] folks that you have with you today.
[2:08] Sure.
[2:08] My name is Leonardo Ramos with Provident Bank and I have with me Roxanne Camejo.
[2:16] I'm the CRA Officer for Provident Bank and Roxanne is the Community Development Officer for Provident Bank.
[2:25] Well, thank you so much for coming this evening. Please give us an overview of your
[2:32] reinvestment activities here in the County of Essex. Please highlight for us,
[2:37] especially the community investments
[2:40] with the community-based organizations,
[2:43] your programs and services,
[2:45] any loans that you've made to small businesses,
[2:48] LGBTQ community or veterans are the things
[2:51] that we're really interested in hearing about this evening.
[2:54] Okay.
[2:57] I have more, but definitely yes.
[3:00] So from the survey that you said,
[3:03] we've done 42 small business loans
[3:06] for about 15,424,000 in Essex County.
[3:12] We've also done 126 mortgage loans for 104,710,000.
[3:22] When it comes to community development loans,
[3:26] we did five loans, five community development loans
[3:30] for 45,950.
[3:33] We did one large loan for a revitalization loan for $43 million to DNR Orange to Urban Renewal
[3:47] LLC.
[3:49] It is an orange, this is a real-state development firm, and it was a project for the redevelopment
[3:58] of Main Street and the rehabilitation of Main Street in the city of Orange. That project
[4:06] built 200 units, multi-family rentals and about 353 parking for 353 vehicles basically.
[4:21] With four community development loans that are community service, two loans for Jewish
[4:31] service for the developmentally disabled of Metro West in Livingston, one to support their
[4:40] activities and the other one was more for capital needs.
[4:43] We did a loan for $250,000 to Glass Roots, incorporated in Newark, that is a non-profit
[4:53] organization who teaches glass making to youth.
[4:57] And then we did a loan for $1.9 million to DV, Mac, Buildings, LLC, which is a family
[5:07] urgent care.
[5:08] You
[5:12] know, we've done about 32 grants in the Essex County as well for $54,465.
[5:21] Two grants for affordable housing, two grants for economic development, and seven grants
[5:26] for community services.
[5:36] Thank you.
[5:38] Does your colleague want to add anything to your presentation?
[5:42] Please state your name and affiliation on a record, please, before you begin.
[5:46] Roxanne Cameo, Senior Vice President, Community Development Officer for Provident Bank.
[5:53] I do want to add all the activity as the community development officer for the bank.
[5:59] It is my job to make sure that we engage with the non-profits, schools, small businesses
[6:04] in Essex County, but also throughout our footprints.
[6:07] and I personally sit on a board here in Essex County for greater Newark for Habitat for Humanity
[6:16] that provides affordable housing throughout Essex County, but they also extend housing in Union County and Hudson County.
[6:24] My employee, Lana Molina, she also sits on a board here in Essex County called GEM Project,
[6:31] which also provides services to the youth here in Essex County,
[6:35] specifically in the city of Newark.
[6:38] But we also have other board, other affiliate, other employees at Provident Bank
[6:43] that serve on boards and provide services
[6:47] throughout our footprint and here in Essex County.
[6:51] In addition to board service, we also conduct financial literacy workshops.
[6:56] My coworker, Leo, had provided a list of all the workshops
[7:00] workshops we've completed here in Essex County, I want to say there was at least 30 workshops.
[7:05] This includes financial literacy to the youth, to seniors, and also to adults.
[7:11] We also provide small business education to entrepreneurs here in Essex County.
[7:18] And we also provide scam presentations for the seniors here in Essex County.
[7:23] Tonight, down in the Ironbound section in Lafayette Avenue, we are conducting a
[7:29] home-buyer workshop with the City of Newark's grant program.
[7:35] So we can discuss about our special mortgage products
[7:38] that we currently have here in Essex County.
[7:40] One specifically is called the Community Advantage Program.
[7:44] That mortgage program provides a discounted rate
[7:50] to individuals looking to purchase in Essex County,
[7:53] specifically in majority black and Hispanic census
[7:56] track areas, and then we also have another program called the Welcome Home Loan, which
[8:01] offers a discounted rate of fixed mortgage for first-time home buyers who are considered
[8:07] low and moderate income looking at the HUD medium income guideline.
[8:12] So we have those programs.
[8:14] In addition, we also have the Small Business Advantage Program, which if the business
[8:18] is located in a low and moderate census track area, then we'll offer them a discount
[8:23] up to 2% for a small business loan and they could be anywhere here in Essex
[8:29] County or anywhere within our footprint at Provident Bank. So these are some
[8:33] special programs that we offer and we also have a foundation, the Provident
[8:38] Bank Foundation that has new pillars that are rolling out in 2025 that will
[8:42] focus on education and that's separate than Provident Bank but it is
[8:47] is part of the Provident Bank Foundation.
[8:52] Thank you.
[8:54] The grant-making activities that's listed in this report here,
[8:57] was that through the foundation?
[8:58] That is through Provident Bank.
[9:00] That's not through the foundation, that is separate.
[9:03] We have a separate Board of Directors for the Provident Foundation,
[9:07] but it is an extended arm of Provident Bank.
[9:10] Thank you.
[9:13] Commissioner, is there any questions?
[9:16] Thank you for coming today and also thank you for having your staff, my volunteer and local
[9:22] boards.
[9:22] I'm a non-profit guy so I speak in that language.
[9:25] So I want to go back to
[9:35] about,
[9:41] so that's an average ward of about $1,500 or so.
[9:44] Is that likely?
[9:45] Does that sound about right?
[9:47] It sounds about right.
[9:49] Okay.
[9:50] So can you tell what kind of organizations you are funding like that through your bank
[9:54] directly?
[9:54] What are the nature of those organizations?
[9:57] Sure, the majority are non-profit organizations.
[9:59] One of the organizations that we actually fund is Focus.
[10:04] And we're funding more of those as well.
[10:07] So I am actually, I do sit in the board of Focus as well.
[10:11] I forgot to mention that Hispanic Center
[10:13] for Community Development here in Newark.
[10:17] And then other organizations that will come to us
[10:21] also come to the branch requesting funding.
[10:25] And then like Roxanne mentioned, for larger grants
[10:29] that we utilize the foundation.
[10:31] The foundation is the one that actually
[10:32] provides the very large grants.
[10:34] What are the other kind of organizations
[10:36] that you give on the educational ones?
[10:38] I mean, I know they're not profit,
[10:39] so they wouldn't be qualifying for it anyway.
[10:41] Yeah, they do community work, educational.
[10:44] They work with children with disabilities.
[10:48] So there's a proliferation
[10:50] of the organizations that we actually work with.
[10:52] We don't work with one.
[10:53] Curious, do you have any arts and museums
[10:55] and organizations?
[10:56] We do, actually.
[10:57] We provide for the arts as well.
[11:01] You mentioned the foundation pillars.
[11:05] I know you're not representing the foundation,
[11:07] but some of those changes to the pillars
[11:08] of foundation for next year.
[11:10] What are they, are you aware of what those pillars are?
[11:13] Not 100%.
[11:14] They're actually because of the merger.
[11:16] they're in the midst of re-bamping the foundation so I don't know exactly all the
[11:25] pillars that there will be actually focusing on but you know we can come
[11:30] back next year and then kind of like give you a little more on the foundation as well.
[11:34] I think that's a great event a great interest of the committee you know as a
[11:38] whole and specifically I will be focused on the arts because they are
[11:43] the top of all the non-profits seem to get to less
[11:46] because it's hard to compete with homeless issues
[11:50] and things like that.
[11:51] When they're all locked in that group,
[11:53] they get prioritized, and the arts usually suffer
[11:56] as a result of being kind of a larger group.
[12:00] So I'd be curious to see what they are,
[12:02] what your pillars would be on the foundation side
[12:05] and a robust list of the kind of musicians
[12:08] you're funding through the bank side.
[12:09] Okay.
[12:11] Thank you.
[12:13] Commission of Richardson any questions. No comment. I like your presentation. I like the fact that you
[12:19] deal with a lot of non-profits and give loans to small businesses
[12:23] Those are the things we'd like to hear and you didn't come in with the same usual
[12:28] list of suspects that the big guys who give
[12:32] All of the grants so I was happy to hear that we need more place to do what you guys do
[12:38] By the way, something I forgot to mention, we do partner through EverFive with schools
[12:44] in Newark and we have a program that we give away to schools.
[12:51] Majority of those are sitting in LMI areas and through that they get self-guided financial
[12:58] literacy.
[13:00] So, we get teachers to kind of like sign up for that, we give them the program and
[13:04] And then they're able to go in and look at self-guided financial advice.
[13:11] So they're able to look at videos and then learn about the basics of banking, how to
[13:17] borrow money, how to spend money, all of that.
[13:22] This year alone we had 685 students that have signed up and they've completed 3,686
[13:30] modules.
[13:35] So, I agree with everything that my colleagues said.
[13:38] One of my questions is how do people find out about your products?
[13:43] You know, if they don't walk into a bank, how would they know?
[13:46] And especially the grant-making side, where I often always ask,
[13:49] how do we go about applying for grants?
[13:51] And sometimes you go to some of your websites,
[13:53] and it's like a cat and mouse chase.
[13:57] You've got to really drill down to figure out where the links,
[13:59] who are the contact people.
[14:01] So the public is at home watching this program tonight.
[14:05] So how do they find out about your loan making activities
[14:08] and your grant making activities?
[14:10] So I mean, I'll head to direct you to the website,
[14:13] but it's all in the website, yes.
[14:15] And then also, you know, we have people like Roxanne
[14:20] that is in the community always having conversations
[14:23] and talking with the community advocates
[14:26] to let them know how all this works,
[14:28] the programs that we have.
[14:30] We also have community, or not community,
[14:34] but CRA, law and officers, they do the same, right?
[14:37] They're in the community having conversations
[14:39] with community organizations,
[14:40] having conversations with the borrowers,
[14:43] explaining the products, the services,
[14:46] and then I'm there as well, right?
[14:49] So reaching out to the organizations
[14:53] that we think are deserving
[14:56] because of all the things that they're doing
[14:58] and uh
[15:00] Ensuring that they know how to apply for the grants and the grant making and where the money is.
[15:05] So if I go to your website today, is it clear that if I poke around some, how to find out about a grant, how to find out about your living services?
[15:14] There is a section for the foundation specifically where you actually click and you can see everything that the foundation does.
[15:19] If I can add?
[15:21] State your name and affiliation for the mic.
[15:22] Please, Roxanne Cameo with Providence Bank.
[15:27] Just to add to how we get all the information out,
[15:31] we also have a huge, not a huge marketing department
[15:35] that specifically go into magazines like Positive Community
[15:40] which is known in Essex County with the churches
[15:44] and we put our product on that magazine
[15:48] along with Urban News.
[15:49] We also post our information in radio stations, larger newspapers, in billboards throughout Essex County.
[15:58] I don't know off the top of my head, but it is out there through our marketing department,
[16:04] and we can provide the locations if needed, but we do have different ways, train stations, transportation,
[16:12] where individuals are waiting for their bus or train. They will see our ad.
[16:17] We've also tried a solar bench on the campus in the past,
[16:23] but it didn't really generate so much, so we tried the magazines.
[16:29] So magazines like Community Positive, Urban News are some just in Essex County
[16:34] that we announce our mortgage product so other people can reach out.
[16:39] But like Bill said, I'm out in the community.
[16:41] I'm meeting with nonprofits throughout Essex County like Urban League.
[16:44] they invite us to their workshops, we attend their workshops, invest new work, New Jersey
[16:50] citizen action. Any organization that's HUD certified gives us an opportunity to discuss
[16:57] our product and invite individuals to come work with our CRA MLOs so they get additional
[17:03] information.
[17:04] Thank you. Commissioner Richardson?
[17:06] Yes, I just wonder how much bank information you actually teach folks. Do you teach
[17:13] them about when they make a deposit in your bank and let's say a check-in account that
[17:21] say they put in $10,000 in your bank, you loan that out at a high interest rate to the
[17:28] borrowers, but the person who puts the money in the bank is very looted for putting their
[17:33] money in your bank. How do they get a better rate?
[17:38] So, like, name an affiliation for the record, please,
[17:41] before you respond.
[17:42] Leonardo Ramos, C.R.A. officer at Provident Bank.
[17:49] So, we do, like, we do have, first of all,
[17:54] we have an affiliation with Everfi.
[17:56] We have about 20 financial literacy seminars
[17:59] that we do on a very regular basis.
[18:02] They go from the very basic,
[18:04] all the way up to more complicated things.
[18:06] So, the very basic of how do you establish an account,
[18:09] How do you use the account, banking services, and then more complicated to how do you establish
[18:14] a business, how does the business work, how do you find funding for the business?
[18:19] So we have that, but also our culture as bankers in the bank itself, we have a motto, a commitment
[18:30] you can count on.
[18:32] And the idea of that is you can count on us to tell you and steer you in the right way if you will.
[18:40] So if you come to the branch and you open an account and you have money that you will be able to actually invest,
[18:47] we will let you know where your money will be making more.
[18:52] The benefit is for you and that's what we do.
[18:55] And it's not, you know, I'm not trying to sell you a bunch of goods here.
[19:01] It is truthfully what happens when you go to a provident bank branch.
[19:05] I worked in another bank where that was insincere, but this is actually very sincere.
[19:10] You still didn't tell me how I could get more interest rate on my money.
[19:15] You did everything but tell me that, right?
[19:19] I'm going to give you a typical banker, I'm sorry, defense.
[19:24] I do want to add one more thing, because you bought a deposit.
[19:28] Your name again for the record, please?
[19:30] Roxanne Camayo, Community Development Officer, Providence Bank.
[19:33] We also participate on the national program called the Bank On Program, which this helps
[19:40] individuals that are looking for an account where they won't get charged the overdraft
[19:44] fee.
[19:46] We are a participating lender, and that's huge for us, because, you know, there's
[19:51] There's hundreds of other banks that are part of that program, but it is a national
[19:54] program and it ties in with who we are at Provident Bank and making sure that we're providing
[19:58] them the right services to our customers.
[20:02] And regarding education, we educate not just through financial literacy, but if Leo
[20:09] and I are not the professionals to talk about investment, we have a department
[20:13] for that.
[20:14] So we have our investment department.
[20:16] I would say they're the Protection Plus program where we invite them to some of our events
[20:21] where they will talk about a 401K, they'll talk about getting life insurance, even if
[20:26] it's for $10,000 to get one just in case, right?
[20:30] So we have several departments that I work with exclusively when I go out and meet
[20:35] the community because it's not just going to be about buying a home, it's going
[20:39] to be about banking, it's going to be about saving, life insurance, education, and starting
[20:46] a small business.
[20:47] So I try to bring all my partners to events, to tabling events so they get the full scope
[20:53] of what a bank can offer a customer.
[20:56] Thank you.
[20:57] Commissioner, is there any other question?
[20:58] Commissioner President.
[20:59] Thank you.
[21:00] Well, you're talking to go on the website, and I did, and since I'm a nonprofit guy,
[21:04] I do this quite a bit.
[21:05] So, unfortunately, when you type in grants, grant requests, the only thing that comes up
[21:15] is that there's an explanation for that.
[21:18] So, the definition made a decision that they will actually grant everyone that was granted in 2023 for 2024.
[21:26] We would never know that, though. And that probably means that there was no opportunity for new people, new organizations.
[21:32] Not in 2024, but 2025, yes.
[21:34] Okay, so, but my point is, the second part of it, aside from the foundation, since you
[21:40] got to give about $54,000 when I type in anything like, you know, local branch, sponsorship local
[21:46] branch, branch, or anything like that, those kind of key words, nothing comes up. So, in
[21:51] other words, if I were to come to you as a branch, I'd have to go into your appointment
[21:57] as president, you'd have to go into the branch and seek that out, it's not immediately
[22:02] the available. So perhaps if you may be receptive to some advice and that is to
[22:09] send back the message that when you're looking for support you can't find it
[22:13] here. I know you're in the business of making money but you also have an
[22:17] obligation through your foundations right and so that shouldn't be so buried in
[22:22] here to to find. It should be a little bit easier to find and I'm in the
[22:27] not problem business and I think everyone understands what you're
[22:30] about, but not everyone understands the difference between the publishing grants and the fact that
[22:35] you make separate grants in your branch as well. So there's no distinction for that. And that's
[22:41] something I brought up with your branch last year and the year before. And the year before.
[22:47] Now this is my seventh year. So at least six times out of that. Maybe this be the seventh.
[22:54] So this doesn't really make it back home.
[22:57] And that's important to the board as a whole about your philanthropy.
[23:01] But if your philanthropy is very difficult to navigate, then it makes the process so more difficult.
[23:07] So I applaud you for all that you're doing.
[23:09] But this remains a challenge now for a number of years.
[23:13] And we do a lot of business with you guys, right?
[23:16] Yes.
[23:17] Do you have any figures of that?
[23:18] Yes, we do.
[23:19] So,
[23:22] according to the sheet that we were given, Mr. President, our total deposits are $34 million
[23:28] with the profit in bank.
[23:29] You know, I mean, maybe not the biggest client you have, but it is respectable.
[23:33] I would say $34 million part of the client.
[23:37] You know, when you get to people like that, I think the point should be driven somewhere
[23:43] to corporate that, hey, a major client is inquiring about these things on behalf of
[23:49] public and it only makes you look better anyway. So this is some feedback that I repeated over the years that I told you folks that now don't take it personally online.
[23:59] No, no, we will take it back.
[24:01] But this, like, just needs to hit home and see you're not the only bank, you know, but this is important to our board and I think this board has stressed that over the years.
[24:09] Thank you.
[24:10] Well, thank you, Mr. President, for that. Mr. Coltry.
[24:20] I see they have a small business loan program, it would be very beneficial if they contacted the office of small business.
[24:30] So when we do have programs they can come and present their loan program and possibly teach some of the participants at the small business agenda that we have.
[24:42] So hopefully they can reach out to our office of small business
[24:46] Thank You mr. Coltry. That was going to be one of my closing remarks to them. So thank you for that. Mr. President
[24:52] Thank you. I appreciate your comments, and I agree with them 100%
[24:56] I was going to say for a number of years going we have highlighted the need for Providence to make it easier for
[25:05] Residents to find out about your products, especially in the grant-making area
[25:10] I think you guys have done a tremendous job with your lending activities small businesses with your mortgage product products
[25:16] The first-time home buyers you guys have great products, and you guys always come in and give us a great presentation
[25:22] It's easy to follow
[25:24] It's easy for us to understand and you work with community-based organizations that a lot of us
[25:30] Interact with and as Commissioner Richardson pointed out you're not just dealing with the same big
[25:35] Organizations community-based ones that always get the funding you mix it up
[25:39] and we appreciate that about you.
[25:41] My biggest dig is what the Commissioner President
[25:44] just pointed out.
[25:45] Your website is very difficult to navigate.
[25:48] I asked that on purpose because I recall year after year
[25:51] we've highlighted that as a concern
[25:53] and something that we wanted to see change.
[25:56] Something that I highlighted year after year
[25:58] is I thought your grant making side from the bank
[26:01] is a little lean.
[26:03] When I look at $34 million in investment,
[26:05] I expect to see more than $100,000 in grant making from the bank.
[26:11] You guys are required through your CRA activities, and I understand that banks often hedge heavy
[26:16] on the lending side, but we need the grant making side to equally complement the lending
[26:22] and investments at the same level.
[26:24] I would love to hear as a follow-up the level of grant making from the foundation
[26:29] side, because you are the first person to really talk about the private foundation,
[26:33] And I know one of the things that I beat you guys up for is the grant making and you guys are the first group to talk about
[26:40] Your foundation side and the lending that they give out
[26:44] So I would love to see what their grant making activities has been
[26:48] And I'm sure it's a lot better than what we see here from the bank lending that that's gone out
[26:53] And I'm sure that may make me feel a little bit better
[26:55] But also to compliment that to go on back to the commissioner president. How do people get to the foundation side?
[27:01] How do people find out about your giving, if there's an annual round of funding?
[27:07] How do people apply for that?
[27:09] So if no one else have any other questions, there are some open questions that we ask here today.
[27:16] We would like to have that information provided back to our office.
[27:18] Adam, was the contact?
[27:20] Is it?
[27:21] So Adam, please give on your way out your business cards, please, to Mr. Adam so that we can follow up with you
[27:27] And please provide us back with that information that we're looking for around the foundation
[27:32] and grant making.
[27:34] And I want to drive home, Commissioner, President's point of, your higher-ups need to understand
[27:39] $34 million is a significant amount of an investment for us.
[27:43] And we'd like to see some little tweaks on your website.
[27:47] I'm sure you guys have a whole big, robust IT department that could make some little,
[27:51] you know, clicks of that mouse to make it easier for people to find those grants.
[27:56] So thank you so much for coming out.
[27:57] We appreciate your time.
[27:58] Thank you for the opportunity.
[28:00] Thank you.
[29:26] And give us a little over.
[29:30] Good evening.
[29:31] My name is Robert Barberino.
[29:33] I'm with Valley National Bank.
[29:34] I'm in our government service department.
[29:38] And I handle government banking for the bank.
[29:40] Thank you.
[29:42] Hi, my name is Caitlin Chalizzi.
[29:44] I'm from Valley Bank.
[29:45] I'm a senior vice president.
[29:47] One of part of the corporate social responsibility team
[29:50] and one of the Sierra regional officers for the bank.
[29:52] Thank you.
[29:56] Good evening.
[29:57] My name is Bernadette Moller.
[29:59] I'm an executive...
[30:00] Executive vice president with the bank, and I oversee all of our corporate social responsibility
[30:05] CRA and some other regulatory matters across our footprint. Thanks for having us.
[30:11] Thank you. Thank you all so much for coming this evening. Please begin your presentation
[30:15] by giving us an overview, um, high level of your, um, CRA activities, specifically highlighting
[30:21] your community lending activities, your grants, your loans, your first time, um, home
[30:27] products, any mortgage products, things that were asked of you in the survey that you responded
[30:33] to. Each time someone speaks, you please need to put your name and affiliation on a record
[30:38] because we're recording and we have to transcribe.
[30:44] Bernadette Muller, Valley Bank. So with regard to our CRA efforts, would you like me to
[30:50] address specifically the bank's overall efforts or Essex County?
[30:55] Essex County.
[30:56] Okay, so with regard to Essex County, we have approximately 17 branches here in Essex County,
[31:04] and throughout the many different municipalities, including Newark, we have, from a community
[31:15] lending and a mortgage lending perspective, probably one of the few banks, number one
[31:22] that is headquartered here in New Jersey.
[31:24] Although we cross, we span six states.
[31:27] New Jersey is our largest.
[31:29] Essex County is definitely an area of concentration for us.
[31:36] We support many organizations within the county
[31:40] in terms of not just financial.
[31:43] It's not our, it's not our goal to be just a financial
[31:49] and philanthropic on them.
[31:51] When we support an organization, we like to support them with financial education, financial
[31:57] resources, investments, whether it be the NRTC in Clinton Hill, or we like to do it
[32:07] across multiple channels.
[32:10] We are probably one of the few banks that have home mortgage originators still feed
[32:17] on the street.
[32:17] I believe in Essex County in total, and let me double check.
[32:23] I think we originated approximately 264 residential mortgages of which almost half of them were
[32:39] either made to low or moderate individuals or in low or moderate income areas.
[32:44] We have two proprietary programs that we keep in house, 97% financing and 95% financing from an LTV perspective.
[32:57] With no PMI, we pay for the PMI.
[33:01] We, in addition to that, we probably have, I'm going to say, an additional six programs
[33:09] with Fannie and Freddie and FHA that we provide.
[33:13] But I think what's important about Valley is although, as I mentioned earlier, we're
[33:19] in six states, we are very committed to local leadership and local investments.
[33:28] So our feet on the street will actually meet with our, you know, residential mortgage clients
[33:34] at their place of business, at their home, at the branch, wherever that may be.
[33:40] Plus, of course, we do have digital capabilities as well.
[33:44] But we're very much a relationship bank.
[33:48] We, as I indicated at a moment earlier, have been long-time participants in the NRTC,
[33:57] the Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit Program.
[34:02] And probably, not probably, but I could tell you, the very first one we did was a million dollars,
[34:08] which was the max, and that was well over 10 years ago,
[34:11] And that was to an organization in the Orange's hands at the time.
[34:18] And that was our very first entree into it.
[34:21] We have just shy of, I believe it's about, we're in the top ten,
[34:27] as some of my community-based organizations have pointed out,
[34:33] we're in the top ten of lifetime contributors to that program.
[34:39] We also participate very actively and have done so for, I think since it's inception,
[34:47] the Affordable Housing Program, AHP, which you may be familiar with, it's with the Federal
[34:53] Home Loan Bank of New York, and we as a member bank of the Federal Home Loan Bank will put
[35:01] through applications on behalf of our community-based organizations for the purpose of developing
[35:09] housing, affordable housing.
[35:12] So we just recently put through another five applications for that, and we monitor that.
[35:22] So we try to really take advantage of programs wherever we can to benefit the people who
[35:29] need it the most. And with these programs, especially the AHP, it helps support nonprofits
[35:37] and even mission-based developers try to create affordable housing, which as we know is very
[35:44] expensive. So that's something that we are, you know, very much committed to.
[35:51] We also have developed, again a little unique, we had a need, one of our advisory board members
[36:02] brought to us a need to do land trust lending.
[36:06] So we've developed a product where we support people who want to buy homes in a community
[36:14] the Land Trust and we've done that here in Essex County and we've also done it in upstates
[36:22] including Florida and Alabama.
[36:30] Thank you. You're welcome. Can I... Can we hear an overview
[36:35] of your grant making?
[36:38] Sure. So last year in 2023, thank you, we made a grant making
[36:50] Well, just in Essex County alone, we contributed approximately $360,000 to about 45 different
[37:03] organizations.
[37:05] Now, let me preface that by saying those grants and those donations were strictly for the
[37:14] support of low or moderate income individuals that are serviced by organizations or for
[37:23] small businesses, CDFIs, they were all, as we would say, CRA qualified. They don't encompass
[37:31] all of our philanthropic grant giving here in Essex County.
[37:39] Thank you.
[37:42] Thank you for coming here today, so I'm a non-profit guide by trade, and so my questions
[37:48] are going to be more about your philanthropy to small organizations that are not necessarily
[37:53] based on housing.
[37:55] So other banks may support the local historic house museum, an arts organization, things
[38:01] of that nature.
[38:02] Can you discuss more about the way you help those kind of organizations and how a representative
[38:08] of Museum X would go about applying for a grant?
[38:11] Sure. We do support and we very much believe in the arts as well.
[38:18] So they're not mutually exclusive. I'll give you an example.
[38:23] We support New Jersey Performing Arts Center here in Newark,
[38:27] but we support one of their programs that does outreach
[38:31] to young students that are from underserved neighborhoods.
[38:35] So we do try wherever possible to reach those that may not be able to take advantage of some of these programs through the arts.
[38:48] We believe very much in the arts in terms of enhancing the overall quality of life and education.
[38:57] There are many others that I can tell you about, but that one comes to mind since it's Essex County.
[39:05] I have time. I'm curious to know more because this is very important to me because I think
[39:10] it gets overlooked quite a bit. So, I'm curious to know what are the kind of organizations
[39:16] in that world that you fund in Essex County?
[39:19] So, with regard to the other organizations in Essex County that are museums, I don't...
[39:27] Museum, arts, culture, anything of that sort.
[39:31] So we very much invested in LUNA Stage, which is an organization in the valley.
[39:39] And we invested in that not only in grants, but in NRTC money as well.
[39:47] The Institute of Music is another one in Elizabeth that we are out of that area that we...
[39:55] and they cover, I know Elizabeth is Union County,
[39:58] but they do cover a wider area.
[40:02] Again, we try wherever to support the arts
[40:07] and then support the arts
[40:08] and then maybe hopefully it has a program
[40:13] that reaches, again, people who are either low
[40:19] or moderate income and may not be able
[40:21] to afford going to certain cultural shows.
[40:26] How would an organization go about applying?
[40:30] You would contact any, you can go to any one of our branches and you can contact us directly
[40:39] and they would, you know, just send your application to us.
[40:44] Can you find that online?
[40:46] We don't have our application online at present.
[40:49] We are in the process right now of navigating and upgrading our website, and we are having
[41:00] discussions about putting it online.
[41:02] We haven't made the decision yet, but we are definitely having discussions.
[41:06] I mean, we can email it to you.
[41:08] Is there any specific reason you don't have it online?
[41:13] Yes, yes, because at this point in time where we want to make sure that when we put something
[41:21] out there online, we can number one, fulfill it, turn around time, responsiveness.
[41:28] So we want to make sure we understand what's involved in that.
[41:32] It's not an issue to get an application.
[41:34] Any branch would be happy to send you one, you know.
[41:38] It's electronic.
[41:39] it's PDF. It's very easy. It's not a difficult process, but we don't, you know, we haven't
[41:47] thought about it. We want to know what the outcome would be before we do that, or think
[41:51] about it, the possible outcomes and how we would adjust for that.
[41:55] And when you say application, I'm assuming you mean to like a foundation side of it,
[41:59] not the local branch that gives away funding, is that correct?
[42:01] So to that point, most of Valley, historically, most of our philanthropic giving has been done at the bank level, not through a foundation.
[42:17] Many banks that you might see that were savings banks when they changed and they went through their conversion process.
[42:24] They were mandated to put aside a certain amount of dollars.
[42:28] So they have some very lofty and rich foundations.
[42:33] We never went through that process.
[42:35] We've always been a commercial bank.
[42:37] We've always been here in New Jersey.
[42:40] So we don't have a lofty foundation like that.
[42:45] And therefore, you know, most of the philanthropic giving is done right out of the banks.
[42:49] So how long has Valley been in business?
[42:52] 1927.
[42:53] And how long have you been serving Essex County?
[42:56] And how long have we been serving Essex County?
[42:58] Roughly I'm not going to hold to the precise date, but I want to get a sense with it been five years ten years 20
[43:03] Oh much more than that. Yeah. No, we bought we bought a bank
[43:07] Where our our branch is right on a broad on Bloomfield?
[43:11] Okay, so
[43:13] You've been around forever, right?
[43:16] Presumably as long as I've been alive
[43:18] As long as the internet's been around as long as websites have been prevalent in our mainstream society
[43:24] But you really can't find any mechanism or justification for putting this stuff online where many other banks do.
[43:31] So, forgive me, I'm not trying to be condescending or anything like that.
[43:35] But that's very weak answer from my point of view when so many other banks do have, this is not, you know, crazy information.
[43:44] And you're already processing grants, so you have grants, you're giving grants where you can't put it online.
[43:52] I didn't say we couldn't.
[43:56] So can you give me an idea of how much business we do with you?
[44:00] And Essex County is our government?
[44:01] What does that refer to? Can someone refer?
[44:03] We only have $5 million.
[44:05] I'm sorry, okay.
[44:06] $3.5 million.
[44:07] All right.
[44:08] And Mr. President, for the record, you're concerned to a voice last year.
[44:12] Yeah, so yeah, it's why I've been here seven years now.
[44:15] This is like, I think this is what I'm going to say every night, you know.
[44:18] So for the last six years, I've said it, and I know you weren't the rep who's here last year.
[44:22] We had someone here who apparently wasn't in today. She's been here for the last couple years.
[44:26] And I've asked exactly the same questions pretty much, and I pretty much get a different answer every time.
[44:33] Well, first of all, I have to apologize for that.
[44:37] So you're getting the answer from me overseeing the entire department.
[44:43] I wanted to come this year purposely because I wanted to, you know, we believe so much
[44:49] in what we do from a cultural perspective here at the bank, and I heard feedback, not
[44:56] not necessarily about that, but I did hear feet.
[45:00] The feedback of that has some of these meetings were conducted and so I wanted to be here firsthand
[45:06] so I could hear the questions that you asked.
[45:09] I appreciate you coming and hearing it for yourself since you do have the social responsibility
[45:15] component of it. So what I would say to other banks is to go report to the person who has
[45:21] the social responsibility, which in this case I'm talking to directly, so this is a great
[45:26] opportunity.
[45:26] So I think it's very important to the board that banks give back, right? Period.
[45:34] And it's great that we do low interest loans and all that stuff, but that's still really doing business
[45:39] at the end of the day, maybe just with a smaller profit.
[45:43] So as a non-profit guy that I've been trying to do for a long time in the arts and historic houses
[45:48] and working in very small museums where I've been maybe one of one employee
[45:52] or one of 10 employees, or one of 50 employees.
[45:56] The issue is, like, it takes a long time
[45:59] to do that research, and where in any other bank
[46:01] it makes it a little bit easier, your bank doesn't.
[46:04] Okay, I take that on your advisement.
[46:07] And you did make a point to tell us
[46:10] how important New Jersey is and how Essex County is.
[46:12] And so, you know, this is what Essex County
[46:14] is interested in, right?
[46:16] So at least in this room,
[46:17] or at least I'll speak for myself,
[46:19] this is very important to us,
[46:21] And it doesn't seem to get addressed year after year after year.
[46:24] And I can rest assured.
[46:26] I'll be here this year.
[46:28] And I'll be asking the same kind of questions.
[46:31] Well hopefully I'll be here too.
[46:32] And we can have this conversation.
[46:34] Well hopefully we get the wonderful improvements you've made
[46:37] because you were already sort of thinking that
[46:39] when you started to respond to it.
[46:42] And hopefully we've heard the call
[46:45] because it's been a few years now
[46:47] that we've kind of not really gotten the answer
[46:50] and I was on your website going through it and it's difficult because there's nowhere to find it and that's my point.
[46:58] So if I may, Mr. President, I think that we may need to make some adjustments in how we communicate out.
[47:07] As the board, we decide whether deposits are held with the county.
[47:13] The administration puts a resolution before us and we either vote it up or we vote it down.
[47:18] And we, as Mr. President, said, love banks that make investments in our community.
[47:25] Yes, the retail lending is great, but you're getting a return on that investment.
[47:30] We equally want to see a high level of giving from the grant-making perspective.
[47:35] And considering our level of investment with you, your level of giving is pretty darn good.
[47:42] You know, it's $359,000 and we have $3.5 million in the bank.
[47:47] That's a pretty good, you know, pretty good level of given, but at a minimum, I would think
[47:54] that you would put a page up on your website that at least says, if you're interested in
[47:59] grant making activities, you know, contact the local branch or a generic grant making
[48:06] kind of email for people to send something through, because as Mr. President just discussed,
[48:11] Because small community-based organizations don't have a whole lot of human capital to
[48:17] spend in, you know, researching to figure it out.
[48:20] Yeah, I understand.
[48:21] So, and if you're truly interested in that social responsibility that you talked about,
[48:26] it shouldn't be a treasure hunt to figure it out.
[48:30] Make it a little bit more accessible for people to at least apply, for people to try.
[48:36] Mr. President, do you have any more questions?
[48:39] No, I don't, Madam Vice President.
[48:40] Thank you very much.
[48:41] And thank you for your response.
[48:42] I think you covered it.
[48:44] Yeah, I appreciate your comments.
[48:47] Please put your name on the record again,
[48:48] please, before you speak.
[48:49] Bernadette Muller, Valley Bank.
[48:52] I appreciate your comments and your feedback.
[48:55] And then they are duly noted.
[48:57] Thank you.
[48:58] And hopefully we can resolve them.
[49:01] Thank you.
[49:01] I have one last question before you go.
[49:04] In your report that you gave to us,
[49:06] you referenced that you guys gave up 411 small business loans,
[49:11] but there wasn't a total aggregate number with that numeric value
[49:16] that the 411 loans represented.
[49:19] So as a follow-up...
[49:19] A dollar a month, you mean?
[49:21] A dollar a month.
[49:21] Yeah, no, I apologize.
[49:22] I noticed that too, so I asked the question.
[49:25] It was just shy of 18 million.
[49:28] 18 million dollars.
[49:29] Yeah.
[49:30] And just also, I don't know, I think it was in the survey,
[49:33] and I apologize, a person who represented here before is no longer with the bank, which
[49:40] is why you're seeing some new faces.
[49:43] So I might not be, I didn't read through the whole survey in detail, but 91% of those
[49:51] loans were 100,000 or less, just as a point.
[49:57] And the other aspect, too, and I know investments are really important, but let's not underplay
[50:03] the investments that we get with the NRTC, the Neighborhood Revitalization Tax Credit,
[50:09] you know, the organizations are getting, you know, 75,000, 200,000, 300,000, and also
[50:17] the AHP, like the Urban League of Essex County, you know, they could receive up to a million
[50:23] million dollars with us processing and putting through their application. Again, we recognize
[50:30] that those, you know, those needs really need to be met. So I think there's a bigger picture.
[50:36] I quickly left through the survey.
[50:39] We also have a community lending group, which again
[50:44] I'm probably focusing on lending. You don't want to hear that. But they do loans
[50:49] as small as 5,000 with a focus on minority and women-owned businesses.
[50:55] Service everyone, but there is a focus and outreach through CDFIs as well.
[51:04] And then we do the one thing that I will mention, we do a lot of statewide investing,
[51:10] so we'll do EQ2s into organizations that service the entire state, like New Jersey,
[51:17] community capital, you know, is one of the larger ones in New Jersey that we
[51:23] service. So there are a lot of statewide organizations that we fund who then in
[51:27] turn fund smaller organizations as well. So we'd like to hear about the grant
[51:34] making, the lending, and everything above because we represent the county of
[51:38] Essex. Our constituencies represent a whole lot of different needs and
[51:42] interests and as Mr. Coltrane would you please share with them the small
[51:46] business office that I would love for you guys to connect with because all your products
[51:50] that you've talked about today in this report may benefit some of our small business constituents.
[51:57] We would like, we actually tried at one point to do that at the, the mayor had tried to
[52:06] help facilitate that at some point.
[52:11] So I'd like to follow up with that.
[52:13] County Administrator. We have a direct office of small business here. The county is the county,
[52:20] the city is the city. So two different governmental agencies. So the office of small businesses
[52:28] run by Director Burgess and her phone number is 973
[52:41] -621-2010. So if you contact her
[52:47] She's going to be running programs in, let's say, the North Ward, possibly,
[52:55] a weak-wake section of the North, and bringing in small businesses who need loans
[53:01] and just to learn how to apply for the loans.
[53:04] So this is what we're trying to do in our office, a small business.
[53:07] I'm sure we'd love to be part of that and assist.
[53:11] We'll follow up.
[53:12] Thank you.
[53:13] Thank you.
[53:14] any other questions? So thank you so much for coming. We hope we didn't beat you up too
[53:19] bad for your first time. No, no. And we look forward to the responses and questions that
[53:24] we ask here that require a response. Can you please email them to Adam? And to back
[53:30] on your way out, please provide your contact information, your business cards to Adam in
[53:34] case any of us want to follow up with you with additional questions. Absolutely. Thank
[53:38] you so much for coming. Thank you very much. I appreciate your candor.
[55:29] They lock
[55:29] boxing vice president of industrial bank and with me I have, today I have some with me
[55:34] for change or whatever. We have a dedicated commercial lender, Richard Livingston is responsible
[55:39] for the lending activity for New Jersey. Thank you, welcome.
[55:51] Right into it. So 2024
[55:54] has been, you know, challenging to say the least because of interest rates and that
[55:58] type of stuff. So there has been a little decline in just approvals and different
[56:03] types of things primarily because of that. If you look at the beginning of the year with
[56:07] commercial rates versus what they are now or whatever, they're not balancing themselves
[56:13] out like the residential and residential is still a little high. The last time I was here,
[56:18] I think last year, we were just ramping up. So I can say to you that we do now have
[56:22] a dedicated mortgage representative for residential mortgages. Thus far, we started in March
[56:28] of this year we have done four mortgages for residential mortgages in Essex
[56:34] County this year she has an additional three or four that's in her pipeline
[56:40] currently so we're aggressively going out looking for primarily refinances in
[56:45] different types of things new homes that are actually being built on the
[56:49] residential side on the commercial side we pair a lot with a lot of the
[56:53] the not-for-profit organizations and builders that are local.
[56:59] One of the few things that we've actually done, one of the prior things that we've done earlier this year is Urban League of Essex County right here.
[57:07] The Urban League has built four homes.
[57:10] We financed those homes.
[57:11] They did quite a unique program.
[57:13] Those homes are being sold below market, roughly approximately about $150,000 below market.
[57:21] Unfortunately, because there was subsidy involved,
[57:24] the Urban League realized that they had to open it up to a lottery,
[57:27] not only to Essex County, but by law, they had to open it up to the entire state.
[57:32] So the intent was there. However, the bottom line was all of Essex County residents didn't get the opportunity
[57:39] to win the bids to those homes because they had to be opened up to the entire state.
[57:44] So with that being said, additionally, there's another program that Industrial Bank has implemented.
[57:49] We have an emerging business account for small business owners.
[57:54] They can get a business account service-free for one year
[57:59] to get their businesses ramped up and started.
[58:02] So that's another thing that we've implemented
[58:05] and we're aggressively going after the small business owners
[58:08] to allow them the opportunity to ramp their business up
[58:10] before any fees are actually charged to them.
[58:13] So that's another thing that we actually do.
[58:16] and I and we do have just as exposed program that's been in place for a few
[58:23] years however it's being rolled out and now it's available here for not only
[58:28] Essex County but the entire New Jersey where Industrial Bank will actually go
[58:33] into the prison system and we pair with them and we actually do tutorials and
[58:38] counseling on recidivism and all types of things so that as individuals are
[58:43] coming out, one, we set them up with an opportunity so that they're not feeling the understanding
[58:49] some of them have gone in and things have changed or whatever, so we explained to them
[58:52] the different types of opportunities that are actually out there in addition to what
[58:57] they can expect in terms of managing an account and budgeting and different types of things.
[59:03] So that's a program that's eight weeks.
[59:05] I did include in the email a flyer for that program itself there, so that's actually
[59:10] offered to anyone who's incarcerated or we've extended it to also the homeless and also the
[59:20] shelters as well so we're more than willing to go in and do those type of things also.
[59:25] You know in terms of CRA rating we have not had an audit since our last time so we're
[59:32] expecting an audit Q2 2025 so they've already notified us that they will be a CRA audit
[59:39] by going over everything that Industrial Bank does.
[59:42] We're celebrating our 90th year this year,
[59:45] so 90 years being minority-owned and operated.
[59:48] So that's a big feat.
[59:50] And the last time I was here, we had just opened
[59:53] our Freelink-Heisen Avenue office
[59:56] that's on the new office at Zere.
[59:58] That office is growing and doing what?
[1:00:01] We, I would say thank you because we did receive additional deposits last year to put
[1:00:06] to use or whatever, so currently the county has near $11 million on deposit with Industrial
[1:00:13] Bank that we utilize to put back in the market. What we're seeing really is, in terms of the
[1:00:19] small business, we do a lot of the small business counseling and different types of things
[1:00:25] because of the situations the small business owners have. We find that their challenges
[1:00:30] is with providing the financial information that's needed.
[1:00:34] So we've implemented the business checking account.
[1:00:38] Not only that, but the business credit card
[1:00:40] for the small business owner because the importance
[1:00:42] is getting them to understand to separate their businesses
[1:00:45] so that they're not commingling personal funds
[1:00:48] with business funds and things of that nature.
[1:00:51] And if they are, then give them avenues
[1:00:53] how to separate the type of stuff
[1:00:55] so that when they're audited or if they're audited,
[1:00:57] They're only audited on whatever that portion is and not on the entire thing see what else I can discuss with you
[1:01:06] That has happened over the year. I mean overall it's been a you know in terms of lending our lending capacity
[1:01:12] From 2023 to 2024
[1:01:15] We have done less in terms of dollar amounts and that type of stuff because of the interest rate environment at beginning of the year
[1:01:23] Rates were lower and then
[1:01:25] Literally, I mean, there were rates that were up to in the sevens at one time for commercial
[1:01:31] loans.
[1:01:32] So if you look at the amount of money that was actually out there in some cases, we've
[1:01:36] referred some customers to different avenues and told them to, it was a better idea to
[1:01:41] use funds that they currently had maybe or to take some equity out of some things
[1:01:46] as opposed to refinancing.
[1:01:48] I would prefer, or we would prefer as an industrial bank not to do a deal if it's not going
[1:01:52] to be in the best interest of the small business owners.
[1:01:54] So, with that being said, if you have any additional questions or anything, I'm more than willing
[1:01:59] to answer them.
[1:02:01] Commissioner?
[1:02:02] Any questions?
[1:02:04] Commissioner President?
[1:02:05] Thank you, Ms. Willilac.
[1:02:06] Good to see you again.
[1:02:07] Commissioner, how are you?
[1:02:08] Good to see you.
[1:02:08] Well, things are going well for you, and then you're doubling in size.
[1:02:12] We are growing, so that's a good thing.
[1:02:15] Maybe this year we'll keep that doubling going for a while, right?
[1:02:18] That's all good.
[1:02:19] So, I wanted to ask a question.
[1:02:21] I asked this last year, I think this was it.
[1:02:23] But I think what made you a little bit different, did you offer loans to churches as well?
[1:02:28] We are the primary faith-based lender.
[1:02:32] Thank you for mentioning that as a matter of fact, because I didn't discuss the foreclosure
[1:02:37] what we have.
[1:02:37] We know I pride myself on working out whatever situation it is, especially when it comes
[1:02:43] to residential.
[1:02:44] On the commercial side, we only have one loan that's in our portfolio that's classified
[1:02:49] as a special asset which is actually a church and what we just recently did was re-finance
[1:02:54] the loans so that they could afford the payment. But in addition to that, I went out and one
[1:03:00] of Richard's reports went out and we conducted a seminar for the entire committee of the
[1:03:05] church to give them an understanding on how to actually quick books and how to balance
[1:03:10] the books going forward so that they can afford the payment. So we are still very
[1:03:15] aggressively and actively refinancing and doing some of the financing, some of the other
[1:03:20] financial institutions are asking the faith based organizations to exit the loans when
[1:03:26] they become insured and that kind of stuff.
[1:03:28] I'm curious to know that the nature of the loans, are they like for capital improvement?
[1:03:31] I mean, one of the things that I see is that so many of the buildings are so physically
[1:03:37] old, right, because we're so old in this part of the country and churches are usually
[1:03:41] among the first things that get built in communities, historically speaking, and I know I'm on my
[1:03:46] ton, I live off the town green, and there's like six churches there. The newest one is just 100 years
[1:03:51] old, right? That's the newest one. So what are the kind of loans that you give to the faith-based
[1:03:56] organizations? So we do the entire gamut. A lot of the stuff that we have done in 2024 has been
[1:04:05] refinancing. So say for example, if commercial loans are different than residential, the term
[1:04:11] the duration is shorter, even though the amortization may be similar 25 years or 30 years or that
[1:04:17] nature. So what actually happens in those cases, most of those loans have a balloon payment
[1:04:22] at maturity. And in that instance, what happens with financial institutions, we actually review
[1:04:28] the information to see if they were performing as agreed, so on and so forth, to refinance
[1:04:35] to give them an opportunity to refinance. What we found is a lot, well, I wouldn't
[1:04:39] say a lot. I shouldn't say that to some of my counterparts. A few of them have taken
[1:04:44] the option not to do the refinancing to get out of that business and that's been common
[1:04:50] for years and years and years. So in those instances they would come to industrial and
[1:04:55] just let us know that they have a loan that's actually maturing or whatever and we would
[1:04:59] look to entertain to take out for that. But at that time we actually go visit, sit
[1:05:04] with them to see if there's any, say for example repairs that need to be done to
[1:05:08] incorporate that in the entire loan because a lot of them have been paying
[1:05:12] over years and so they have quite a bit of equity in these buildings and
[1:05:16] different types of things so at that time we determine what is actually needed
[1:05:21] so say for example if they had to refinance for $500,000 outstanding
[1:05:25] they may need an additional $150,000 or $200,000 to do a new roof or new
[1:05:31] pews or carpet or whatever else it is we can incorporate that entire thing
[1:05:36] into one loan and then just expand it out so that it's affordable and in most cases they
[1:05:41] have either the same payment and in some cases even lower by getting more money because they're
[1:05:46] at the end of the initial loan so that higher payment that they really had they can actually
[1:05:52] get more money to do some of the things that are actually needed to be done.
[1:05:56] But we're more than willing if they currently have an existing mortgage somewhere else
[1:06:00] we'll actually come in and if they need we have some that they need a boiler
[1:06:05] that goes out and this time when they spark the boilers up we have those
[1:06:09] common things and those things range $50,000 $100,000 different types of
[1:06:13] things so we'll do those and and spread it out over five-year, 10-year period for
[1:06:18] them so we have situations like that we have other situations where they've
[1:06:21] incorporated you know had to do parking lots over or roofs and things of
[1:06:25] that nature so that's all it was so we do the entire gamut when it comes
[1:06:29] to that. That's really refreshing to hear because it's so difficult for
[1:06:33] organizations like that financially to move forward, right?
[1:06:36] I mean, if you're lucky to have an accountant on the board or
[1:06:39] something like that, they can give you better sense.
[1:06:42] But a lot of banks don't really want to look at that or
[1:06:45] they make it so difficult to discourage that kind of.
[1:06:48] Well, the non-profit arena in general, a lot of banks are
[1:06:51] not willing to look at that type of stuff.
[1:06:54] Do you work with cultural organizations as well?
[1:06:56] Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.
[1:06:58] And not only do we work with them, but I'll
[1:07:03] construction as well. Richard is telling me from the lending side, construction as well.
[1:07:07] We've had some that we've done new construction or additions to. A lot of the churches, maybe
[1:07:13] the rear, they've had some type of water damage or fire or something like that, so we're
[1:07:18] willing to do construction as well. We'll do that also.
[1:07:21] Great. Thank you very much. I would love to. I think one of the things that would
[1:07:28] be a benefit to your institution and to a cultural and faith-based would just be knowing
[1:07:33] you exist, right? That's probably the biggest challenge you have.
[1:07:36] Absolutely, absolutely. We don't, unfortunately, because of the size of our institution, and
[1:07:41] I think I say that every single year that I'm here, you have some of the banks that
[1:07:44] have branches that are larger than our entire bank. We have about 730 million in assets
[1:07:51] compared to, if you look at some of the large ones, trillions in assets. So you
[1:07:56] can only imagine the difference in the size. So some of them have branches that
[1:08:00] have, you know, billion dollars, two billion dollars in assets. So we're
[1:08:05] out there. Our lending capacity, though, isn't bad because we have been growing.
[1:08:09] So in most cases, we're, you know, there's not been an opportunity that we
[1:08:13] haven't been able to support. We do have support from some of the local
[1:08:18] companies that are in Newark as well. We have a very good partnership, of
[1:08:21] course with Prudential who do, don't do permanent but they'll do construction type of stuff.
[1:08:27] So we do a lot of that stuff with them and invest Newark and the Urban League and organizations
[1:08:35] like LISC and that type of stuff.
[1:08:36] So we do have a partnership with all of them.
[1:08:39] So when we're more, our concern is just getting some of the deals done so that we
[1:08:43] can improve the community.
[1:08:44] So if in fact we just did a deal with LISC that they had that we took a portion
[1:08:49] of. We had some challenges with, if some of you know the Krupa Mansion, that was one
[1:08:54] of the most recent ones. They had stock construction because they ran out of money, no one else
[1:08:58] was willing to lend to them. So I wish I had Avi here to explain. We had to go in and
[1:09:04] provide them with the last million and a half so that they can do what they needed to
[1:09:09] do. Yes, we're low on the totem pole in terms of getting paid back, but we're betting
[1:09:13] on allowing them to do what they need to do so that they can get that greenhouse
[1:09:17] house and kitchen and all the other stuff up and running so that some jobs can be actually
[1:09:21] be created here in Essex County.
[1:09:23] Great.
[1:09:24] Thank you.
[1:09:24] Thank you, Madam Vice President.
[1:09:26] Thank you very much, Mr. President.
[1:09:27] Commissioner Richardson, any questions?
[1:09:29] That IV tell us.
[1:09:31] I'm sorry?
[1:09:32] So I wish you had IV here, too.
[1:09:34] Yes.
[1:09:35] So I can read them right out.
[1:09:36] So you can tell exactly they came to us.
[1:09:39] Yeah.
[1:09:41] But we got it done.
[1:09:42] We worked with Prudential and Goldman and a lot of the others and we really
[1:09:47] We did get that was a difficult deal. I guess Richard will contest to that
[1:09:51] But we did get it done for them to allow them to move forward with it and now the project hopefully
[1:09:57] Avi can get it up and running and showing some profit. It's open. Yes
[1:10:02] the greenhouse
[1:10:06] The kitchen is what they had they ran out of funds on so that's what we allow
[1:10:11] We allowed our loan to go towards so that and that kitchen is going to be open to the public to
[1:10:17] Rent out and portions in that kind of stuff. So someone has a small business
[1:10:21] So that was another caveat for us doing the loan to say hey, this is what we'd like to see happen here
[1:10:27] Yeah, it's a small business incubator right the building behind right
[1:10:33] So, yeah, no, I'm very familiar with construction and I'll be
[1:10:40] That's another conversation. But again,
[1:10:43] Make sure you talk to him and tell him he needs to pay me.
[1:10:46] Now he doesn't want to talk to me.
[1:10:47] Now he won't talk to me.
[1:10:50] But that's neither here nor there.
[1:10:52] But happy to see you here doing business, growing,
[1:10:56] and congratulations on your 90 years.
[1:10:59] And I'm going to ask the same thing I asked last year.
[1:11:02] Can you use more money?
[1:11:05] We can always use.
[1:11:05] I mean, because you have limited, we can always use that question before and you said, well,
[1:11:11] we can only take this amount.
[1:11:13] Yes, because we were limited.
[1:11:14] Because of our asset side is growing, we can take additional funds now and then we can
[1:11:18] also deploy those funds.
[1:11:20] We've also applied because- How much more in additional funds can you handle?
[1:11:25] We can handle, at this gamut, we can handle whatever additional funds we can get and
[1:11:31] we can show you what we will do with those funds or whatever in terms of deploying
[1:11:35] it back into Essex County. We're committed to doing that. It's a conversation we definitely
[1:11:41] need to have and I'll have with the administration and we'll have that conversation see if we
[1:11:46] can move some more money in the bank. We've had a good relationship so he's provided some
[1:11:52] intel to us from time to time and that type of stuff so we appreciate the relationship
[1:11:56] that we have with him as well. Sure. We're excited to hear what you've done with
[1:12:02] this past year between before us last year and started off early talking about some of the changes that your bank was undergoing.
[1:12:10] We're happy that you were able to receive more from us if we're able to provide more to you.
[1:12:17] One of my questions would be, your report did not specify the total number of grants that you provided
[1:12:26] and the numeric value that those grants represent.
[1:12:30] because of the size of the organization we don't have a I mean we support of
[1:12:35] course organizations local for example the parks and that type of stuff or
[1:12:41] whatever when they're having outings and events we do sponsor those but we do
[1:12:44] not have a facility or us an account or anything that's actually set up so
[1:12:51] that we can support so but we do support we're out there not only
[1:12:55] supporting monetarily but also volunteering as well so I get that
[1:13:00] we're looking for a number okay everyone provides the numeric value of
[1:13:06] grant-making investments that they give to the SS County community so the
[1:13:10] follow-up we would like to see how much in grant-making disbursements that you
[1:13:15] make throughout SS County okay and if you heavily rest within Newark in a
[1:13:19] greater Newark area that's fine but please communicate to us what that
[1:13:23] number is. Okay. And also as a follow-up to Commissioner Richardson's comment, communicate
[1:13:28] back what your additional capacity is if you are not able to do something. I can get that
[1:13:34] information too. Commissioner, is there any other questions? Nope. Ms. Coltree?
[1:13:40] Jules Coltree, Deputy County Minister. I did see that they have a program for corrections
[1:13:47] for inmates. And I was wondering, do you participate with RSX County Correctional Institution?
[1:13:55] In the past, we have gone into the prisons and we also partnered with the courts. The courts have the program with the prisoners.
[1:14:04] So I've gone in and I've conducted seminars and done things with them.
[1:14:08] In 2024, they haven't reached out to us at all to do any.
[1:14:11] So I don't know if they've stopped it or what the issue is with it, but all before we were their primary source of
[1:14:19] Training for these individuals who were going back out. Okay, but we're more than willing to
[1:14:24] If in fact they have if there's an opportunity there were more than willing to do, okay
[1:14:28] If you believe you'll have your information and I'll have someone from the Office of Corrections. Absolutely
[1:14:35] Sure. Thank you very much, miss madam. Thank you for that miss the coffee. That was a great
[1:14:40] synergy to make that connection, to make sure that we get you back in a circuit to
[1:14:45] following up and interacting with our correctional folks. Also, let's connect
[1:14:50] them with the small business department as well, just if we can make some
[1:14:54] connections with our small business folks that's involved with our small business
[1:15:00] That's often looking for resources, loans, grants, even, to help grow their businesses here in Essence County.
[1:15:07] Great.
[1:15:08] So, if there's no other questions, let's provide your information, please, to Adam.
[1:15:14] We want to thank you for coming out. We want to encourage you to keep up the good work
[1:15:17] and keep making the investments here in Essence County.
[1:15:20] And welcome to your new mortgage person that you have there.
[1:15:24] If you want to say a few words that you came up this evening, please come on up.
[1:15:29] Well, I just want to reiterate what Mr. Boilock's been saying, and I think a couple of things.
[1:15:37] Richard Livingston, Commercial Lending Officer for Industrial Bank.
[1:15:41] Thank you.
[1:15:42] Thank you for having me.
[1:15:43] Just want to reiterate some of the things that he did say in regards to what we're doing.
[1:15:47] We talked about nonprofit organizations and the religious organizations.
[1:15:52] Just my experience in commercial lending, we do a vast majority of church loans and a lot of ministers and pastors do come to us because of the history and because of what we have done over the past year.
[1:16:07] We've done construction projects for churches, we've done refinancing for some of the non-profits, a couple of schools in the area, so we have a strong community impact that we try to put forward.
[1:16:17] And we're not afraid of these loans that some of the other larger institutions kind of like, you know, back away from.
[1:16:25] We have taken them on. We continue to do that as we go forward.
[1:16:29] And we do have a small business piece that we're trying to make sure that we emphasize within the county community so that we allow a lot of people to come to.
[1:16:38] I have one of my reports that just handles small business loans.
[1:16:42] So we do have already established a way to address those small business loans.
[1:16:47] So if we can connect with the resources that you have in the county for the small business owners,
[1:16:52] we will probably be able to turn around a lot of those opportunities really fast.
[1:16:57] Thank you. I do have a question.
[1:16:59] Did you say that is a community organization is interested in receiving a grant?
[1:17:06] What does that process look like?
[1:17:08] Is it posted on your website or people have to come into the grants to inquire?
[1:17:13] It's actually part of both.
[1:17:15] So we do have a, we've just established a link for that to develop that.
[1:17:19] We'd like to say we haven't had it to that level but we've had participation.
[1:17:25] We've asked people over the years to come back to us and we will try to galvanize what
[1:17:29] we can to do something with them.
[1:17:31] But we do have established a link that I've been issuing to people that have asked
[1:17:36] for us to support them and we're trying to function it that way so that we have
[1:17:42] that.
[1:17:42] And so as we have started to grow, we feel a more complete purpose for doing that in
[1:17:48] regards to being able to supply the necessary funds for it.
[1:17:52] So and a lot of people do come to us for this at all times, but we would like to be able
[1:17:57] to grow to a level where we can provide that just like some of the other larger banks
[1:18:01] can.
[1:18:02] And we want to make sure that we are hitting the actual business owners that really
[1:18:07] need us to counsel them and to support them in those particular ways.
[1:18:12] Thank you.
[1:18:13] Commissioners, no other questions?
[1:18:15] Okay.
[1:18:16] Well thank you again so much for coming out.
[1:18:17] Please leave your cards with Adam.
[1:18:20] We'll do it.
[1:18:20] Thank you very much.
[1:18:21] Thank you.
[1:18:22] Take care gentlemen.
[1:18:23] Thank you.
[1:18:25] So commissioners, tonight we reviewed three banks.
[1:18:27] It's a couple of main things.