##VIDEO ID:vL9mqlWu0Ns## [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the meeting of Atlanta County Board of Commissioners is called to order in compliance with the open public meetings Act of the state of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting of the Atlanta County Board of Commissioners was provided in the following manner published in the Press of Atlantic City and mailed to the Hamilton Gazette and has been posted on the bulletin boards in the county office building in Atlantic City the silbo building in Northfield and the county clerk's office in mandic have a opening prayer let us pray dear God as we come before you today May our actions be guided by fairness integrity and compassion we ask for your blessings upon this meeting so that it may be productive and harmonious in your name we pray amen amen amen please face the flag salute United States of America it stands indivisible andice roll call please chairman commissioner Cory is on able to attend today and commissioner Kern is attending virtually thank you patino here Burns here G here Kar Parker pres rizley here ruu here da here MERS have had an opportunity to review the minutes from January 21st 2025 I will entertain a motion to adopt the January 21st minutes as presented so second call the rooll fortino yes Burns yes Shadow yes Kar Parker yes rley yes Rio yes St yes anyone attending in person or like to speak regarding an agenda item or a public comment please come to the podium speak into the microphone state your name and the town where you reside you will be provided up to three minutes to speak if you are attending virtually and would like to speak please raise your hand during the agenda item or at public comment at the end I will call upon your name and a request to unmute will be sent please state your name in the town you reside you he will be provided up to 3 minutes to speak so at first we have a presentation regarding the central Municipal Court of Atlanta County Thank You by honorable Mark s it is that is me uh my name is Mark Sanson um we're here because uh approximately three months ago we were making a presentation I think at putting another person on the criminal justice Advisory Board of which I'm also a chairman in another reality uh and I was asked about I think it was it was commissioner bertino said why don't you make a presentation to us about the uh Central municipal court and I said great uh and um I think we put something together for you today to show you where we are and where we're going um I'd like to introduce people we're going to talk I'm going to first call on uh Michael blee who is our beloved assignment judge um now Michael I I'll give you the news in case you don't know it Michael is basically on his way out as assignment judge uh not because of the various complaints I've been putting in writing over the years but um it's because he has been promoted is I guess not a uh is not an adequate description of what's happened to him he is now he is going to effect of April the 1 be the uh be the uh what administ what is it called acting director act direct you're gonna be the director I that's this I'm never sure whether it's acting director they they can be acting for a long time but um of the Administrative Office of the courts the administrative office Office of the courts exists in Trenton and runs the entire court system it has over 9,000 come on in come on in it has over 9,000 employees it's a gigantic job Michael is uh you know you know I'm totally bummed out that he's leaving uh Atlanta County he's still going to live here uh but uh we're you know unfortunately going to not be able to take advantage of many of his services for us but I'm going to grab him to help us with the Municipal Court trust me um we also have aanna James from Jewish Family Services we have Andrea uh Steinberg who is the who is the president of Jewish executive director CEO sorry about that of of Jewish Family Services so we brought them in because we're going to deal a lot with the social services that we're offering through the court which you've heard about but I think you really need to hear firsthand the amazing work that they're doing um and also we have Mike fedorko here sometimes I wonder why but no Michael and I go way back and he's never like me but I like him uh and he's going to talk about certain law enforcement issues that he's aware of by virtue of his job with the uh with the county first like Mike Mike why don't you come in and uh you're first thank you I'll say thank thank you judge Sanson too uh and we appreciate uh judge sanson's Relentless with his support of central Municipal Court also what's called our jobs program uh so we get people that are uh on probation or diversion a program jobs to try to get them to reform their lives keep them off the streets he's presented at judicial Council where I sit with the Chief Justice and and 15 assignment judges on our jobs program uh he gets paid this amount of money he wants to serve and I thank him for all he's done uh so when I was asked to speak I couldn't say no uh despite my new position real quick trip down memory Lena being in this building uh as a Young attorney I sat in that seat where Warren is commissioner rley was still there but uh what you know as we become you know as a judge and as a solicitor I really learned from elected officials like you and Leadership how great was it as a young lawyer to sit next to Dennis lenson who was the chairperson of this commission Kurt Conover Jim Kio joose cinaa was just a great experience uh something that I think um created uh you know work ethic and also a sense of fairness that I hopefully bring uh to my position as the assignment judge and uh as the Director of the AOC uh to talk a little about Central Municipal Court I'll talk a little about my background why it's important so first I speak on behalf of Judge Grant and the AOC consolidation is something that we all believe in that we're trying to encourage this was created through legislation initially doesn't happen in the northern part of our state uh we are sort of a a a Target District uh it was a collective effort of uh Senators on both sides of the aisle to establish it I stepped into Central Municipal Court my first day of job as assignment judge my predecessor judge Mendes was very in fact that this was the right thing to do judge Sanson was involved we put it together uh like anything we had some Growing Pains uh but those Growing Pains I believe have been uh addressed uh through a lot of different ways one through the great support of the county Jerry deaso and County Council Miss Hughes Mr Murray uh and their predecessor Mr Ferguson have been uh just given tremendous effort to keep this uh operation going secondly we need legislative changes when we initially started uh all the cities had to handle all State Police cases even if those towns were not participating uh I was told the idea behind that was to try to create an incentive for those towns to join in fact to create a disincentive created a log Jam of cases uh you know we're all about moving dockets the idea is to get to that case and it created a problem and a revenue problem with the help of Senator Palestina that legislation was changed and break neck speed in about six months uh then uh we realized that there was loss of Revenue uh the way life works I was up watching the reappointment process Senator paltin is there I said I'd like to meet this woman Jackie Suarez head of DCA talked about the court about July I got a call on my back deck judge remember he asked for money how much was it and I said I'll get back to you and uh a million dollars was brought back through the DCA to defray some of the cost from those those towns uh I want to thank solicor Warren uh there were some discussions about Hamilton Township perhaps doing a different deal they've decided to stay and hopefully it's it's continuing uh and the last part of my conversation with DCA is uh that there are more money's available uh but that would be for the recruitment of bringing some or other other other County towns into our system uh you all have friends and colleagues that are municipal officials many of you served as Municipal officials talk to them encourage them uh and the last thing I talk about uh really uh is Justice uh and you're going to hear we with the dollars and cents Jerry's going to talk about but Justice in terms of services and I'll speak from personal example I was then a young prosecutor for the city of absin there was a gentleman who clearly had mental health issues like to fight with cops and like to play basketball in our courts I looked at him I said this guy's obviously he needs help wasn't easy he got in a fight with officers listen do aers versary program get him help does it remains law abiding we'll dismiss the charges I cut was probably an illegal deal at that point judge chansen but anyway we did that and the problem is we had no way to track whether that individual was getting those services so it escalated somehow he became obsessed with me uh thought I I was you know the Lena County prosecutor I was not I was just a municipal prosecutor uh sued me in federal court under the Magna Cora you all may remember my brother Frank who at the time was an assemblyman and also a chiropractor happened to treat the young man he used to leave uh western vhs's western on this doorstep my brothers I love that we watch John Way movies it's terrific that then turned into pornography at that point we decided maybe we should report that and he ultimately uh was arrested he was trying to torch his parents home so what do we learn from that I've also sat as judge Sanson did in recovery Court we see people in recovery court that are at witsend they've been through so many different stages of of criminality because of their addiction you're saying you want to do five years you want to get help this idea is to get to people early get to that guy that was playing basketball try to get them in services with the support of JFS to avoid those types of things so we like to see a twofold savings the taxpayer dollars which everybody body once uh uniformity and Justice too uh I practice I was a prosecutor public defender for Morgan Brigantine private attorney Municipal Court Judge Northfield and Lynwood what that I learned unfortunately back then each little town was did not necessarily apply the rules uniformity that's not right that's unequal Justice in a Central Court we can make sure that we we provide uniformity and Justice so pleasure of being here happy to answer any questions anybody has we have other people to want to present and I'll hand it over to judge Sanson thanks I'd like to I'd like to get right to we're gonna get to the financial aspects in a moment but I'd like to hear from JFS now Andrea why don't you come up and introduce yourself and introduce aan and I'm gonna try and disappear tell them what we've been doing has some statistics for the last three months I'm Andrea Steinberg the CEO of Jewish Family Service and this is uh proactive and and human approach to solving problems so I just want to commend all of you for your support um in making uh the support a solution that makes sense um and to judge B's point we are tracking all the information so we actually can talk about the outcomes I do have some um copies of report but I'm going to turn it over to aana James to talk a little bit about um the boots on the ground hi hi I'm aana James I'm the director of our Justice involves services at Jewish Family Service and I oversee the central Municipal Court program um so brief overview what it is I know judge B let you know the higher level aspect of it but on the ground it is a referral source for those individuals who have charges out of central Municipal um any of our local towns that are in the central municipal court so what they do is they'll complete a comprehensive assessment to see what individual needs to help divert to help decrease any other charges to be accumulated over time um we typically have between 20 to 25 cases a month but currently in the month of January we have 22 which is keeping up with our average um we have an at risk initiative day at Central Municipal Court which is for individuals who would be considered high system users and um they also have a lot of charges so what the judge is trying to do is trying to help them get connected to service see some progression with the services and then from there decide to either dismiss charges well the prosecutor dismissed the charges or lower the charges to something like a disorderly person's offense um so in January we assisted 18 individuals on that given day um outside of that the ladies that are there at Central Municipal Court hold a case Lo and they have done about 87% case management outside of the court so that is contacting other court systems to get warrants recalled see if they have court dates help get linked um to Social Services outside of just JFS if they need domestic violence support if they need addiction support um making sure to be in contact with those individuals so that there is a progress update when they have to go back to court we also on AI day gave out food bags which equated to about 450 pounds of food for individuals a lot of the individuals that are on Ari are homeless and don't have the means to feed themselves so we wanted to make sure that we while they were there for a long court day at least have something to eat and to go back with and then outside of that 96% of the clients that we have have avoided acre new char think you know that's a great number you know it's not 100 but we will get there but in 2024 96% did diver news flash s WP so JFS as a whole helped the community with applying for the state rental assistance program out at the court I helped on AR day but for the criminal justice programs that I over we did about 85 applications we're doing it's an unable job and you you can't do this in 23 courts in Atlanta County it cannot be done so we're seeing a lot of people we're giving we're we're delivering to you a better municipal court and I went to virtually every actually Jim Ferguson and I went to virtually every municipality in Atlanta County where we were invited we were excluded in about three or four of them they didn't want to see us because we were conveying dangerous information but uh Jim bertino probably knows where he can guess anyway but uh you know the the reality of it is um what the municipal court system is ideally situated to get people at a ver age of their criminality they're not in Superior Court where there's all sorts of draconian penalties that sometimes judges can't do anything about to send an 18-year-old young man or young woman to state prison is a very very difficult situation so I want that person to be diverted before they get to me and generally as a drug court as a recovery court judge um I would see people by the time they got to me 10 or 15 uh probationary sentences there was a warning as to what was happening there were alarm Bells if you knew how to look at them and where did those alarm Bells first sound they sounded in the the municipal court system which simply does not have the capability to do what we're doing um the the what you have to understand and and I was told at the beginning when we started to try to sell municipalities on this program stress cost savings stress cost savings Now Jerry D Roo's here judge blee is totally aware of this um we Jerry maybe you have much more credibility than I do because I'm a I'm a lawyer so so Jo all right the when what we used in calculating the cost of Municipal Courts for the sounds that have joined was a average of 2016 no 17 18 and 19 right we didn't want to use the covid years because that would skew the whole thing there were many fewer cases in covid years they just went in the backlog uh the total cost of operating the 10 courts that we now have was $2.9 million and obviously the larger municipalities had larger larger costs and that wasn't even all in they didn't calculate the cost of having their police officers stay waste you know a day or two a week oh God bless you waste a day that's okay waste a day or two a week uh you know sitting in their their court today the budget for these same 10 courts is $1.6 million so it's it's almost 50% 45% actually but I always say almost % because you know one day I want to sell cars but uh the reality is it's a humongous tax saving so if you have I mean what the job of government I don't need to preach to you guys because you you're walking the walk whereas I'm only talking the talk here but is to it deliver a valuable service at the best possible cost and as I have said always what's the objection let's join the real world here the the real objection to this court is uh the issue of home rule and it's a difficult one that all of you Embrace every day in the towns that you represent and I'm all you know I understand home rule but I don't think people understand how much it costs consolidation of this function of this function of Justice within a county in the municipal courts makes a lot of sense it's cheaper it's fairer it's higher quality plus you can do the kind of things that that JFS does um frankly Atlanta county is way out in front of the rest of the counties of New Jersey when we try to get this this legislation passed and judge ble is well aware of this because he was helpful in that process um they it's only I think six counties in New Jersey that have the possibility of doing it and guess where they're all located you're never going to guess South Jersey in North Jersey they did not allow a county to organize a municipal court because home rule is so in trenched in North Jersey that they wouldn't have gotten the votes necessary to allow this to happen so the question is what do we do do we allow the system with 23 courts and 23 municipalities and 23 judges 23 prosec all of whom are good people and I don't want to see anybody get hurt we we we hired when we when we take a town in we interview every single person who works there and we'll continue to do that and take take the best people many of them are close are close to retirement if we can help that process along we'll do it um and the question is is this a function of government um I'd like to Mike fedor's here and maybe Mike you can talk about the law enforcement aspects of having a Consolidated Court excuse me if commissioner bertino I think had a question sorry no problem judge um you know when when I look at the numbers you guys are throwing at us about how many people went through the court system and how so many of them were helped and they didn't go back yes do the courts have in Atlanta County the numbers based on the other uh court systems on their recity if they if they're Reis um I I don't know if they keep that stat I've never seen the stat but I will tell you a rule of thumb there's a huge amount of recidivism in in municipal courts um and that and what happens is there's three status crimes that people that are are not usually one and done but they're alarm Bells they're alarm bells that there's there's worse things happening one is of course addiction substance abuse and and it's filled with substance abuse cases and that's usually not one and done unless you do what unless you get them into treatment addiction is a treatable disease it's treatable through uh through you know going through the programs that are read available and JFS and can identify and have some teeth in it to have a judge say you have to go to this treatment right uh there's uh domestic violence is usually not is usually not a oneandone problem unfortunately and it gets worse and worse and worse till ultimately somebody's very seriously injured or killed and then it's too late uh and then there's huge jail sentences the and the other thing is and maybe perhaps the biggest is mental health issues uh and uh if they are not addressed early then you're going to have you know crime committed upon innocent members of the community and tremendous amount of Damages and this program is intended to deal with that I think I think what we're saying that's why I'm I'm asking you a question about the rest of the towns and stuff I think when you're talking about the major selling point the advantage that you guys provide because you have the services sitting there and you could direct them in that direction right initially before it gets blown out of proportion or they go back for additional charges um I I didn't know if like the court systems track any of that apparently yeah go ahead I know so in addition I as the assignment judge I support all consolidation so Hamilton has a joint minicipal with with multiple entities there they do provide services that was one of the thing I mandated since I started Atlantic City and Pleasantville Have now Consolidated it they do provide services the question though and I I think I know the answer but what we will get back to you is I don't know that they have the tracking mechanism that JFS does in central municipal court because when we set it up it was really under the advice and direction of the administrative office of Courts and what we do and that'll be my new post is we we we need to have hardcore data to see if if these programs are viable and and I don't know the answer they I did say you know there were some towns that wanted to move I you have to come up with a service plan I just don't know if it's effective I I I I assume they do have the service plans because I know like Hamington particularly does but as you stated they're not tracking anything they just send them off to correct send them here and then they leave then if they're coming back to court with additional charges it's just Mo new charges nobody's looking at you know how a benefit is and how you guys as far as your record goes which is you can quantify it now the other towns can't um I think it'll help to some of the towns that the police charges go back to the towns when the legislation was changed kind of suggested that to somebody that they actually do that because that's all freebies which that's why they were cherry-picking the the the types of services the courts want to get if you want to be techical about so and a 96 six% civism rate is extraordinary the impact is a the individual B the impact on your community so say it's someone that's code enforcement a hoarder and they have mental health issues stop that that stops a lot because your code andil that's their resources your law enforcement you know all the repetitive offenses that are not violent but they take away from them doing you know law enforcement with stuff that's serious you know and and and it and you know I lived it you have the the the neighborhood quarrels with someone that has mental health issues they Court they're in court no one really wants to Har them but if they don't get they don't treat the symptoms it's it's going to continue yeah and Jim you're 100% right it's it's the case o management system which is what they bring what JFS brings to the table everybody has a file on they file them from court to court to court to court because sometimes they go They're not just in Galloway which's that they're also in bua and Hamilton they they you know so you have to follow them all through and they're you know the trail of tear all the way through the county and sometimes into other counties so they can track this they can find where a person has been arrested throughout the state and they can address those issues in within the court setting this is what the court should be and the other thing I don't want to deal with the money but the money is a big is a big deal I mean that number you gave us one six that million dollars we got this year has not been factored into that yet correct well Northfield was allowed to go to hon so in order not to hurt any of the nine additional towns use the veg BS 115,000 offset the nor cost right and and Mike and judge blee has been has has indicated there's no promises but there has indicated at DCA that if we get other towns in there'll be additional monies from DCA they have consolidation grants let's talk about consolidation for a minute everybody wants consolidation in government right if I asked every one of you individually if we're having lunch or something like that uh you know are you in favor of consolidation everybody says yes but in the government context consolidation is not painfree I guess it's not in business either to tell you the truth but the but the issue is you guys are representing taxpayers who every I just had to pay my taxes today I know how pain painful that experience was for me but um you know and and and nobody's feeling sorry for you're not feeling you're not feeling it right all right so but the reality of it is uh I don't have to preach to preach to the choir here but you know we can get more money from outside from outside because Atlanta County has really gotten this program off the ground it's working great we owe a lot to JFS we owe a lot to all the people who are involved and you know who runs this court the Mayors the mayors of the towns that are in that are in the court run the court they pick the judges they pick all the people they pick we're down to the fact they pick all the people that work in the uh in in the court you know in the court fun in the administrative uh uh levels right Jerry they're they're the ones to do it the county really doesn't do anything in that Jerry just holds the money that's what he's doing and tries to make sure it's spent prudently so that's really the deal Mike you want to talk about law enforcement for a second Mr chairman Commissioners um before I start I just want to say I uh unlike judge Sanson I follow the Winston Churchill rule who said no speech is bad if it's short um also before I start I I want to just commend the sheriff because he is doing a fantastic job out there um my department pays for the the salaries of of the sheriffs out there and I spend a lot of time out there and he is doing a fantastic job um from a law enforce a law enforcement perspective the big thing for a chief or a superintendent of police is to keep the police out on the road and that has always been a problem um at least when I was a road Trooper in the last century um that's a joke by the way got it got it um but it's true um and some of the some of the uh well we called them Barracks then they're not Barracks because nobody's living there but in some of the stations that I worked at you would have 20 courts that you had to you you would write tickets in the courts and some of them were 45 minutes away so you're not on the you're not on the road enforcing the law protecting the public and that that's that's a big thing now you can do it from if the chief allows it you can do it from the car or you can do it from some Chiefs I guess want you to come into the station and do it but like for the state police at the uh the expressway the the parkway U bua and Woodbine it's it's some of those courts are quite a distance from from uh from where they work and that's a problem so I think from from a police perspective this is this is really a home run and I I hope it's something that continues and I hope I hope more towns get involved there so that's basically it thank you thank you just love telling something that that Colonel fura mentioned and and uh judge Sanson so the role of your Mayors um I stepped into a situation where the Atlanta County Sheriff's Office were going to supply the the well the uh action for Central Municipal Court we're trying you know they were not seeing the towns were not seeing the bang for the buck that they wanted and they felt that the amount of money they were paying to the Sheriff's Department was excessive we listened to the stakeholders went out the bid a private entity came in a lot of people weren't happy about that uh Sheriff Joe ODU came in and indicated I believe in the system and I'd like to bid on a judge and I said well it's about dollars and cents it was nothing to do with uh your services they protect me every day uh and to his credit looked at the Staffing model sharpen his pencil came in and outbid the private uh Security Group which makes some issues in law enforcement even better you know and he served as a as a Township commission commissioner in a Harbor Township and he supports this so it's really nice to have the sheriff's department as our partners in central Municipal Court as well okay so the question is what do we want of you um what we want of you you all represent various municipalities you work with Mayors you work with Council people you work with Chiefs of police so forth and so on you're all respected members of the community It's Our intention to go out the more people who are in our system the more money will be saved it is an economies of scale situation we're already saving 45% uh we can save a lot more than that the first year I think this the stats always say they call Township something like $800,000 I it was some humongous amount of money but uh the reality of it is the more people are in the more we'll save that's true in every consolidation s system we're willing to work with Personnel issues we do it all the time we're willing to we're willing to have whatever judges want to be judges apply in our system because if we get more towns in we're going to need more uh more judges and prosecutors and the public defenders all those are obviously paying positions uh so it's Our intention over the next couple months to go back on the road and I'm going to go back to the towns that kicked me out the first time and try to to sell the program I think it's a really good program I think it m it distinguishes Atlanta County because of Judge B uh you know discussions with DCA I think we can get money imported in to help us pay for it so the savings will even be greater so if you can help us out that'd be great I'm available anytime if you want to call me uh 69 73524 give me a buzz and uh and I'll go anywhere I've been everywhere and I'll I I will go everywhere and go to go to meet Mike will come with me won't you Mike there you go so at least I know I'll be safe when I go there uh and and judge blee to the extent he has I mean look judge I couldn't do it I mean I don't work for the court system anymore I'm a retiree but I couldn't do this without judge B that's why I begged him to come today and he did so that that worked out is there anything else you want to say Andrea or or Ayan okay they're doing a they're doing it Beyond when when Mike says 96% non- recidivism rate I will tell you that M that if they kept the statistic they probably don't you know kind of on purpose it would be probably a 80% rate of people you know recidivating because you you see that they call them frequent flyers in the municipal court system you see the same people who are hanging around all day doing the shoplifting doing this doing that it's it's a it's mental it's usually people with mental health issues addiction issues and those are the people we have to treat because treating them not only is it the Humane thing to do it's also a way of protecting the community and I think we can do a better job at both those things thank you very much if there are any questions now I you know willing able to answer them yeah thanks um judge a fantastic presentation by everybody thank you so much um for all of your work I think I think all of us are huge Advocates I think of the program and um I think what I love about a presentation like this is for our taxpayers if they actually do watch a meeting for fun like some of them do they'll get a lot of good information for us I would love to see I don't know if we do share an annual report on the success of the Court um for example the stat Tiana that you you read out I would just love I couldn't get them fast enough but just a quick like hit sheet on on those easily fixable yeah but my my point is like it would just be great thank you something that we not only could have on our website um but that we could also have kind of a one pager as we visit our constituents hey I think it's SE is it seven towns in right now it's it's nine okay now I don't have to remember all those right like nine towns in right um 96% success of non-resistive a million dollar save you know just the the quick hits on a topic like this to share that success in our Partnerships with a public private entities right it's such a great shining example of working together at all levels of government to accomplish something for the common good so I would just love and I always ask this for any program Jerry knows you know what's the success statistics yeah and I loved that we had them for and I always ask about it for any program anything we get a grant for so I would just love us see an annual report that you know could get done that we have every year updated stats and we can we can easily be an advocate to people and not just say yeah it's great it's great because Bam Bam Bam you you know what it would mean a lot to us when we make these these visitations that we're going to meet that we're going to make to uh you know 13 municipalities or 14 municipalities if if it's in your your District for you guys to come with us and and to hear us out and to maybe say anything if you feel uh that it's that it's in the taxpayer's best interest because in the end you know in the end who it's the public that's going to benefit uh from this from this program absolutely yeah I mean I'm at large so whatever town let me know I'll grab it you can come thank you very much everybody we really appreciate it thank you Jud thank you guys thank you thank you chud I think your your last comment is is is is important you know the numbers are great but we're talking about lives and neighborhoods here as well so I appreciate that so thank thank you everyone thank everybody thank you thank you so much app it here can we get this put Jerry can we put on the web yeah okay I would love to see that awesome all right um Ordinance one ordinance amending ordinance number seven adopted on April 21st 19 98 which added permitted purposes for which monies in the Atlantic County open space Recreation and farmland and historic preservation trust fund can be utilized final reading mve second move in second this is a final reading are there any commissioner comments any comments or questions from the public open it up for public hearing it's for public comment there's no any no no public no one online no one anybody in the public all right then we'll close public comment and call the RO motion to close Okay motion to close and second somebody motion yes I move it second we're not allowed to say motion that's right I call the RO please Martino yes Burns yes G yes Kar Parker yes grizley yes ruio yes da yes moving on to resolutions resolution 52 oh oh okay sorry gotcha I'm I catch up here what get for trying to read ahead all right um motion adopt so move second all right roll Callo yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes ruu yes St yes I'll get it it's the first uh first ordinance so we'll get there now resolution 52 Grant application and acceptance from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs through the local efficiency achievement program to purchase three electronic speed feedback signs funded amount $2,125 County cash match 9,375 second any commissioner comments Mr chairman commissioner rizley just like to make the statement that uh all these money issues were discussed at the budget meeting and we all approved sounds good recommend I made a recommendation from the committee any other commissioner comments comments from the public call the role please bertino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes rley yes R yes da yes resolution 53 Grant application and acceptance from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs through the local efficiency achievement program to purchase three Highway digital message boards funded amount 5737 County cash match 9,125 second any commissioner comments any comments from the publicy call the rooll please bertino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes rzz yes Rio yes yes resolution 54 amending resolution number 644 adopted on December 17 2024 a grant from the state of New Jersey office of Information Technology for the Next Generation 911 GIS support and data collection program to reflect the reduced award amount net decrease 8,786 second any commissioner comments th from the public call the RO Batino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizley yes ruu yes St yes resolution 55 Grant application and acceptance from the New Jersey Transit Federal Transit Administration to accept Section 5310 fiscal year 2024 operating assistance funding amount not to exceed $77,000 move second and seconded any Commission comments any public comments all the RO patino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes rizley yes ruio yes St yes resolution 56 Grant application and acceptance from the New Jersey historical commission for the county history partnership program amount not to exceed $90,000 second any commissioner comments anyone from the public call the role fortino yes FS G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizley yes Ru yes St yes resolution 57 for an application and acceptance from the schools and libraries division of the universal Schools administrative company to accept eate grant funding amount not to exceed $218,400 second any commissioner comments anyone from the public all right call the rooll bertino yes Burns G yes Kar yes Parker yes rizley yes rafio yes da yes resolution 58 Grant application and acceptance from the New Jersey Department of State Division of Elections for the primary and general election day 2024 grant program early voting amount not to exceed $177,500 yes Burns G yes K yes Parker yes rzz yes ruio yes St yes resolution 59 gr application and acceptance from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs through the local efficiency achievement program for the shared services county coordinator program funded amount $75,000 County in kind match $54,000 move second any commissioner comments any comments from the public all right call the roll patino yes Burns yes G yes K yes Parker yes rley yes R you yes days yes resolution 60 Grant application and acceptance from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs through the local Recreation Improvement grant for the provision of new portable radios for four Municipal Beach patrols funded amount $88,500 Municipal cast mat $9,000 moved mve and seconded any commissioner comments just briefly yes commissioner rley chairman is that uh I think this uh particular allocation of money and funds will be well spent and may even save some lives so it's h it's important that uh we have communications on the beach thank you agreed any other comments Commissioners any public comment right call the RO please bertino yes Burns G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes rafio yes St yes moving on to Professional Services resolution 61 Professional Services agreement with various law firms for the provision of legal services in the area of employment investigations amount not to exceed $300,000 second any commissioner comments comments from the public right call the role bertino yes FS yes G yes Kern yes Parker yes grizley yes Ru yes St yes resolution 62 Professional Services agreement approving the selection of attorneys to serve as Municipal public defenders in the central Municipal Court of Atlanta County amount that to exceed 81,1 120 move second any commissioner comments any comments from the public call the role please bertino yes Burns SC yes Kern yes Parker yes grizzley yes Ru yes the yes resolution 63 amending resolution number 18 adopted on January 16 2024 a competitive contract with mon housing Associates Incorporated for the provision of homeless consultant services to reflect the County's cash match funded amount $53,000 County cash match $12,500 moved second any commissioner comments anyone from the public call the rooll fortino yes FNS yes G yes K yes Parker yes rizley yes Ru yes St yes yes resolution 64 renewal competitive contract with Jewish Family Service for the provision of a head step down program amount not to exceed $12,000 move second move and seconded any commissioner comments comments from the public right call the role please Martino yes Burns yes G yes Kern yes Parker yes rizley yes R you yes days yes resolution 65 renewal competitive contract with je Jewish Family services for the provision of a heads case management program amount not to exceed $6,200 second any commissioner comments comments from the public call the role please fortino yes Burns G yes Kern yes Parker yes rizley yes ruu yes Stace yes resolution 66 renewal competitive contract with atantic prevention resources for the provision of the sixth and seventh grades gun violence prevention program at Mount to seed $ 65,7 second move then second and any commissioner comments any comments from the public call the role Martino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes rizzly yes ruu yes St yes resolution 67 renewal competitive contract with Atlantic prevention resources for the provision of the gun violence prevention program to exceed $440,000 second any commissioner comments any comments from the public call the role bertino yes Burns yes G yes yes Parker yes rizley yes R yes St yes resolution 68 competitive contract with rehab Professional Services Incorporated for the provision of physical occupational and speech therapy services to the residents of medavie nursing and rehabilitation center amount KN to aive $520,000 move second any commissioner comments anyone from the public call the rooll fortino yes FS yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes ruu yes St yes resolution 69 competitive contract subgrant agreement with Brigantine Aquatic Center for the provision of the arthritic water program pursuant to the older Americans act area plan Services fiscal year 2025 at 50% funding amount not to exceed $3,500 moved second any commissioner comments comments from the public please call the role rotino yes Burns G yes Kar yes Parker yes rizley yes ruffio yes da yes resolution 70 competitive contract with Baron Jewish Older Adult Services for the provision of senior center site manager services and Furnishing of kosher meals for the Herman poosi senior center in Atlantic C City amount not to exceed $144,100 move second any commissioner comments any comments from the public please call the role rotino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes ruu yes Stace yes resolution 71 renewal competitive contract with ablees cleaning agency limited liability company for the provision of cleaning services at the County Libraries and the cron and dental center amount not to exceed $132,450 oh than any commissioner comments any comments from the public all right please call the role patino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes rizley yes ruu yes stce yes resolution 72 competitive contract with catalis courts and land records limited theity company formerly New Vision Systems Corporation for the provision of software maintenance for all licensing and web hosting services for the Atlanta County Clerk's Office amount not to exceed $ 35124 moved second second any commissioner comments any comments from the public I know our clerk is here does a Mr Char have anything to okay all right well said meeting the other day don't pass this R business fair enough um anyone from public comment no please call the rooll Martino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes Ru yes St yes resolution 73 amending resolution number 561 adopt on November 12 2024 a big contract with Keith commissary network limited liability company for inmate commissary services for the Atlanta County Justice Facility to reflect the correct cost of kits Revenue Genera move second any commissioner comments comments from the public I please call the role bertino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes ruu yes da yes moving on to change orders resolution 74 change order number two a contract with kisby Le's mechanical limited liability company trading as kby Shore Corporation for HVAC upgrades at the it UPS room at the Anthony Canali fire training center to extend the term date only no additional cost second any commissioner comments anyone from the public right please call the role bertino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes Rio yes St yes resolution 75 change order number five and final a contract with South State Incorporated for the replacement of the nakod Creek Bridge County Route 610 over nood Creek pr7 in the city of Port Republic net increase $2,154 35 second any commissioner comments any comments from the public all right please call the RO patino yes Burns yes G yes K yes Parker yes rizley yes rafio yes da yes resolution 76 change order number three a contract with South State Incorporated for the replacement of the Lakes Creek Bridge eh29 on means Landing Summers Point Road in an Cora Township net increase $ 44463 66 move second any commissioner comments any comments from the public all right please call the rooll patino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes rizley yes rfu yes St yes resolution 77 amending resolution number 480 adopted on September 5th 2023 a lease agreement with S&T realy limited liability company for warehouse space to be utilized by the Atlanta County division of facilities to extend the term date amount not to exceed $122,000 moved sorry any commissioner comments any comments from the public all right please call the role bertino yes Burns yes G yes K yes Parker yes grizzley yes Rio yes stce yes resolution 78 resolution authorizing acceptance of a deed from 700 veter Avenue limited liability company to restrict vehicular access to Black 105 L 25 on ventner Avenue County Route 629 in the city of Mary second moved then seconded any commissioner comments any comments from the public all right pleas call the rooll fortino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes Ru yes yes resolution 79 indemnification and hold harmless agreement with 700 veter Avenue limited liability company concerning non-standard improvements to be constructed and maintained within the county right of way of vetner Avenue County Route 629 in the city of Margate move second any commissioner comments any comments from the public right just call the role bertino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizley yes Rio yes Stace yes resolution 80 intergovernmental agreement with the Juvenile Justice Commission for the provision of a heads electronic monitoring program for youth awaiting adjudication amount not to exceed 65222 moved Sor any commissioner comments anyone from the public all right he call the role fortino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes Ru yes Ste yes resolution 81 intergovernmental agreement with the Juvenile Justice Commission for the prevention of the Atlantic County F family crisis intervention unit and mount KN to exceed $1,144 move second any Commission commissioner comments anyone from the public all the RO bertino yes Burns yes G yes Kern yes Parker yes grizzley yes ruio yes Stace yes resolution 82 intergovernmental agreement with the atantic County division of probation for the enhanced outcome based supervision Support Program amount not to exceed $5,000 second second any commissioner comments any comments from the public I please call the role patino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes R yes St yes resolution 83 agreement with the youth Advocate Program on behalf of the community engagement committee for funding through the state of New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission amount not to exceed $1 14,820 move second any commissioner comments anyone from the public call the rooll bertino yes Burns yes K yes Parker yes rizley yes Ru you yes please yes I'm a yes too sorry fine resolution 8 84 intergovernmental agreement with the Juvenile Justice Commission for the provision of a detention diversion coordinator am Mount KN to exceed $20,000 moved second move than seconded any commissioner comments any comments from the public all right call the role patino yes Burns yes K yes Parker yes grizzley yes ruu yes St yes resolution 85 agreement with Maldonado Brit and Associates LLP for the provision of psychological evaluation and treatment for adolescent sex offenders amount not to exceed $15,750 moved second moved then second any commissioner comments any comments from the public please call the rooll fortino yes Burns yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes ruu yes stce yes resolution 86 resolution to terminate the agreement with arak Paving Company Incorporated concerning the Reconstruction of Mill Road Section 1 a through 1B in aara Township second mve then seconded any commissioner comments mrman commissioner bertino yeah just a little bit explanation on this why we're doing that apparently this was a project that we had on the books years ago uh there was some maintenance Bonds were put in place uh during this uh during the last few years um since that project was completed the repairs were done so it's I think it's almost 10 years that they've been doing this so we have to take action to release them from uh the maintenance bond that they had put on Force okay thank you any other commissioner comments anyone from the public all right please call the role bertina yes Burns yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes Ruff yes St yes resolution 87 shed Services agreement with Ocean County for the housing of juvenile detainees at the Ocean County Juvenile Detention Center amount knock to exceed $474,500 move second move then second it any commissioner comments Mr chair commissioner Parker uh through you to Jerry Jerry I see a lot going on here with the JJC or least several of these resolutions going with JJC and and juvenile detentions and I know that's been a Hot Topic could you just give like a briefing of what is this and what we're passing today for the public can we at least give them a little bit of what this what we're doing here the the county is responsible for um Harbor field we we own the building but we have a contract with the juvenal Justice Commission to actually administer the program which it's a detention program for youth under the age of 18 the building is uh rated at 20 beds for youth we uh during the course of I guess the last say year or so we got up as high as 42 youth that were committed to a Detention Facility so there are are six other facilities in the state of New Jersey that we have placed kids in we place you know you know it's everybody middle sex Bergen ocean moris uh uh and Camden so this is these are the you'll see these as they come up you'll see this is the Reno with with ocean I think we have two kids still there so that that's that's where we we're we're not allowed to exceed our our limit at the building we have 20 kids we've been trying to keep the the the number of kids at Harbor fields to less than the 20 18 generally because we never know when a kid is going to get picked up and then rather than have to to you know take a kid to either Bergen or middle sex or Mars or Canon we were able to take that kid overnight but but uh we have more more kids out in the field I think we now have seven or eight kids out in the field in other facilities thank you any other commissioner comments comments from the public please call the rotino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizley yes rafio yes St yes resolution 88 alternate method contract with computer Square Incorporated to provide annual software maintenance service for infoshare records management and mount knock to exceed $57,000 move second any commissioner comments anyone from the public all right please call the role bertino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes rizley yes ruu yes St yes resolution 89 alternate method contract with Christopher St John Esquire of the law office of Christopher St John for criminal litigation amount not to exceed $30,000 move yes second move then seconded any commissioner comments any comments from the public right please call the roll fortino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes Rio yes St yes resolution 90 resolution to resin resolution number 692 adopted on December 17 2024 an alternate method contract with civil Solutions du you spatial services for 911 GIS data collection for municipal dispatch centers second move and seconded any commissioner comments anyone from the public please call the roleo hin burns chairman G yes Kar yes Parker yes rizley yes rafio yes da yes appointment so this time I'll obain a motion to combine it adopt resolutions 91 through 93 so move move and seconded are there any commissioner comments chairman D I'd just like to say thank you to everybody that volunteers and again as I say often you guys when we're out in the community we need so many more volunteers on our advisory boards it's how we get things done and we have everybody out in the community hearing what our needs are and we need more volunteers sure thank you definitely welcome thank you um any other commissioner comments any comments from the public all right please call the RO rotino yes Burns yes G yes Kar yes Parker yes grizzley yes rafio yes St yes we've received copies of written Communications and petitions are there any commissioner comments anything like to share Mr chair commissioner Parker I know we all uh through you to Jerry we know I believe all the Commissioners have received an email from a young lady named Terry that's all it said and had some questions about Lake lenen um the lake leny East Park lious the LI lious can can we at least put something out to to answer yes I will I will I will respond there so basically the when we decided the county decided to renovate the uh Lake we bought it and they decided to do development out there using open space the um the executive went to a group of residents in Hamilton Township and they asked him you know what we were going to do there and one of the issues raised was the uh White House and lots of discussion uh there was a group decided that after that conversation that they would raise funds that person because the county chose chose keep it out of scope correct because the funds we were using to renovate the park correct it was half a million doll it was a half a million dollars and the county was not going to spend half a million dollars to renovate the White House it's not a historic structure and we just decided that we would take something we would take it down and do a replica of of the White House which they did not like it wouldn't have been the same height the same you know the same circumference whatever so they said that they would raise the funding uh to renovate the park or or the the lighthouse uh they they were not able to um um $6,000 is what I think they raised then there was another individual who who was uh questioned they said that they would be able to raise around $400,000 that person did raise $400,000 the township came back to the county and asked the county if we had space out out at the lake leny if if you're familiar with when when there's a large event where all the parking goes on well if you if you look at what would be the probably I'm assuming the the most northern piece of property that we own out there they asked if they could put a dog park there they went they got an engineer to look at that would cost around $150,000 and so the person we met at the park said we're willing to take the property it would cost about $150,000 so we're going to take 150,000 from the from the from the 400 leaving 250 for the the lighthouse um there was a an election [Music] person I think was unhappy with the results of the election and left is what I understand and so we're not sure what happened uh I re I received a phone call from a uh resident of the lake the that individual said that uh they were going to get a contractor to look at what what needed to be done with the um the lighthouse I think the general feeling was the lighthouse structurally was unsound they had somebody look at that and it's more sound than than everybody actually thought so it was really more the exterior that had to have work done and they came back to the county executive and said to the county executive you we we've talked to your staff and your staff have thought that you have money left from the development of the park and we did I think it was around $93,000 would you be willing to put that money into the park and the executive said yes meaning for for the lighthouse yes and that's where it is today the they were supposed to come back that individual was supposed to come back to me with a a an estimate of the work that had to be done they never did that that that's where it's been I mean we well well just just to clarify that I mean it needs a it still needs 400,000 so we I was working with the individual and um we were trying to see is there anything we could do to shore up the roof to stop leaking um and anything else we could do with that little bit of money that is available but to mobilize the Machinery on that beach that you would need the mats the Machinery to get to the roof it really isn't financially feasible to do that small an amount of a project um for that money without without doing the rest I mean it drives up the whole total cost so we've been at a standstill because the large donors that we did have lined up did pull out after a lot of other things happened so and at this time the county hasn't hasn't expressed an interest on spending another 4 $400,000 out there so moving forward yes what's our plan moving forward are we going to how long are we going to wait for the other interested parties that said they wanted to maintain this structure to come up with something or is the county willing to come in and say listen we're we waited long enough we're going to make a decision on whether we're keeping it not keeping it whatever we're doing with it you know I've been direct I've been directed to demolish it if that's if we had a decision on to renovate it or take it and put a replica or or do something else there there was a discussion about with with the township at the same time putting some something like a Bandstand out there or or other other kinds of things that might have been been existing in that Park years ago so they they have thrown that at of us I mean we we're willing to entertain those ideas but I mean it's to ask the county I'm only telling you what I've been directed to do thank you thank you any other Commissioners want to discuss written Communications and petitions moving on any reports of special committees with the board yeah Mr chair commissioner got it yeah we did have a shared services committee uh meeting this week for the purpose of starting the conversation on countywide tax assessment I forget what Terry wants us to actually call it um County based County based assessment sorry um so I think we had a good discuss discussion kind of walked away with um in my line of work we always think about things people process technology so people perspective we talked about people needs we need at a county level and um some training needs we have uh for our existing assessors in the in the county technology talked about some new technologies available out there and training on those Technologies across the county and then from a process perspective we talked about a couple pieces of legislation that we would need to revise um to kind of make everything uh work and come together um the way we think it would best work and I see I see Joe Berg back there um from the Senator's office uh so Terry and her team we're going to summarize um some of the legislative needs that we had and we'll be getting that over uh to our uh our state legislator's office to work together on that um so the good news is I think we had um we already had a good basis because of all the work that John and and prior committees have done um in the past um so it was a good refresh and a good chance to say okay you know what are the next steps so we're taking those next steps and we will continue to meet regularly and report back to the board awesome oh sorryy thank you U yeah I spent about an hour and a half on a long talk with h our County tax administrator and she wants to um basically try to modernize and use aerial maps and use a lot of things that um we have in the past and of course the one piece of legislation Amy was talking about is a basically doing away with uh interior home inspections uh for all practical reasons here we are in you know 2025 and we're looking at going into people's homes and of course that's not a popular thing to do and many people refuse to allow the assessors uh the data gatherers to come in and rate their home and so on so forth so we're trying to get a piece of legislation to wave that in the state or at least as a pilot in our County possibly or whatever um years ago about 10 years ago we came up with a report that myself Mr bertino all of Mr da uh and some other people attorneys we put a lot of time into this project a lot of time we're very proud of it this process though calls for um having a centralized assessment situation where each town would have been revaled once every five years years and unfortunately it was a great plan but at the time we couldn't get the the support that that we needed it was um a lot of meat in there there was a lot of things that has to be understood but um Mrs pgas wants to do the modern technology which I'm all in favor of make that very clear I'm totally in agreement with what she was proposing and that's why I think as many people that can attend the February 19th meeting at 10:00 at the Old Courthouse she's going to explain this U process um and of course she's ordered basically every town in the the county to do a Ral our committee seen this coming 10 years ago and um here we are uh because you have to remember one thing that you want to keep in mind accurate assessments equals fairness in taxes that's the key accurate assessments equals fairness and taxes that's the only way you can you can do it on on a fair basis and you have to have the upto-date uh sales good sales what they could consider good sales not sales to a family member or whatever but good solid market sales to determine values so it's it's a rather deep subject and um but it's it's something that we need to do I talked to her about a lot of different topics and um we'll give this an airing out on February 19th so if you can attend if your staff your city can attend I think it's well worth our time thank you sounds great thank you I know um commissioner B thank you along those lines too you know not to believe point the digital mapping and stuff that's available today with the you know satellites and stuff you could do the re-evaluations in a more efficient costeffective manner across then going into somebody's home which is ridiculous because you'll never get in there because everybody works so I think uh her approach to it now is actually pretty solid and actually makes sense yeah and it'll it'll as the Commissioners both indicated they'll create a much fairer way of doing it a more timely one so that the cost on the municipality do multi-million dollar contracts to do revals won't have to be done that way yeah but it will require State legislation changes because the legislation doesn't permit you to do that type of work today right we'll definitely need count and State uh coordination on that and I mean I think a number of us have served locally when we've had to pay that bill on a re I did in Hamilton I know we all on it yeah it's it's it's it's honorous and um I I think it is time to kind of modernize uh the approach and it's not that people are at work all day to get in it's they don't want to let you in the door and I don't I don't blame them you know open up yeah um no thank you I know I was a meeting with um and Mar Capo from Galloway mentioned his concern about the the cost of reval and then the um the process talk about the the the calendar um the process of reval is at the height of the market and then the appeals that may come flooding in I think was his concern because when the township strikes their their budget then the appeals come later um that's something have to be I think addressed through legislation as well possibly we talk I'm sorry guys that's based on the old model yeah and that's what a lot of these guys have not heard I think if they go to the meeting 19th and understand the comcept that we're talking about today which is a little bit different than what they're all accustomed to yeah they all know the old model we all know that one we've all done them Soo and we and Terry did talk about also the market um they don't expect there to be a boo a a bust anytime soon so um they they did say that you know we think we're at a kind of stable place um where these values are going to hold their values for quite a bit now um so awesome hopefully we can get out to the meeting on the 19th more all right any other reps yes just one quick one the bridges of Roads committee met recently uh we did an update on all the existing projects uh and the proposed ones for this coming year it's pretty extensive um you should be seeing the minutes completed shortly I believe we'll be getting them but uh um yeah I just want to make the board aware thank you Mr thank you commissioner bertino any Mr chair unfinished business or special committee okay Parker this is for the culture and Heritage Affairs uh the greater the great Egg Harbor Township Historic Society invites you to the MK betterment wall of History openhouse ceremony Saturday February 22nd 2025 uh it's at noon to 2: p.m. at the mck city betterment building 6 Atlas Lane Egg Harbor Township New Jersey light lunch available RSVP info GT HS Museum M m.org and I'll just read this down at the bottom just to give a little plug to our culture and Heritage Affairs uh Kim I don't know if Kim's on Jerry I think she was okay I I'll I'll do it for her so funding has been made possible in part by the New Jersey historic commission historical commission a division of cultural Affairs within the Department of State through funds administered by the Atlantic County Office of culture and Heritage Affairs that's one of our departments and committees that work together in sort of a shared service to help preserve some history right in at Harbor Township so we should all be kind of interested to go out there and see what work we've been a part of fantastic thank you on the 22nd February 22nd any other reports Mr chair I'll just also put this out there in conjunction with that work there's also going to be the 2025 New Jersey Amistad summer Institute is going to be held at Stockon Atlantic City that's going to be August 4th through 7th um we're working with Dr Phil Gunther at AIT with their visual arts program and he's very excited to to work with this um they're they're they're talking about doing a virtual uh field trip to all the uh sites in Atlantic County that have uh historical significance to African-American history and then next year I know they're going to be doing uh Latino history and Indigenous history and they're going to just keep it going so we're mark Mar in trying to marker and and and highlight all of the historically relevant sites here in Atlant County and um through the partnership with Phil Gunther and the visual arts bringing the students involved they're going to come out and film it and create some sort of virtual field trip so even if we can't get there we'll have that produced for anyone to watch that's awesome question U regarding next year the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence absolutely are we working on something absolutely that keys in on that as well absolutely secret I won't I won't I won't speak too much about it is Kim still on but we it is in conversation okay good and um Dr Phil Gunther is is very as you guys know he's uh very excited about working with us in with getting the students involved and helping in whatever we decide that we're going to do okay so sound get students from all over the county or just ACI acit okay it's a lot of work to get all the tendance to say yes fantastic it's a pretty common good though I would say the Declaration of Independence Declaration of Independence all right any other special Committees of the board any unfinished business any new business know a public comment um anyone attending in person that would like to speak now at public comment please come to the podium speak in the microphone state your name in the town you reside if you're attending virtually and like to make a public comment please raise your hand I will call upon your name and the request to unmute will be sent please state your name and the town you reside you'll be provided up to three minutes to speak any public comment right close public so moved okay any comments for the good of the order I just have one thing I want to say kind of connected to your your comments about the the history of the of the area we had on Mr Ralph Hunter was at my school yesterday with his uh the African-American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey and um he's done a phenomenal job bringing in he did say that he's looking to have someone else take over in a couple years but um if you can get out to the the noise Museum and take a look at that museum um he has some very um very interesting and eye opening pieces and mostly centered around Atlantic City and and you know Southern New Jersey but it's a lot of it Atlantic County History um so I I was this is I don't know how many years in a row he's been there but uh 87 years Young and the guy's phenomenal so quite a quite an interesting conversation so I can remember when he was first when it was just an idea for him a concept and we were raising money for him going to Backyard barbecues all over the place in the county and it literally started from raising money in Grassroots from that way and so to see him have the success that he's had is uh pretty amazing he's also going to be a part of both uh the the commission the summer Institute he's going to be coming over to speak and talked about doing a field trip but you know it gets a little bit technical with insurance when you're providing transportation and things like that so that's where we had the idea to bring the visual artart students in and get the students involved and maybe just we'll do a virtual field trip to some of these sites you know and but he's absolutely working uh with us no that that's that's great just great to see him in and his uh his Museum traveling Museum yesterday any other comments for the good of the order all right motion to adjourn so move second all those in favor all right meetings adjourned [Music] [Music]