##VIDEO ID:6TPXDXD1oPA## n adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by forwarding a copy to The Courier News Star Ledger and posting on the township website at least 48 hours prior to the meeting all in accordance with the open public meetings act this meeting will not substantially go past 10:30 p.m. roll call Madam clerk Mr Kudo here Mr donelly Mr Foster here Mrs zillis I think I saw her so here she is sorry I'm here would you all please rise States indivisible all right we do have an item for executive session this evening council president F you please read the resolution okay whereas the provisions of the open public meeting act act njsa 10 col 4-1 at se Express ride that the public body may move into executive session and exclude the public from that portion of the meeting at which the public body discusses any of the nine areas set forth in njsa 10 col 412b and 12b parentheses 7 and whereas Township Council the C has determined necessary to move into executive session to discuss the following subjects all of which are included in the AET exceptions discuss pending litigation arbitration in the matter of eepic Management Inc versus Township Burke in connection with the municipal complex Redevelopment project therefore be it resolved by the Town Council the township of burk hates that does hereby move into executive session pursuant to njsa call 4-10 what sorry 10 col 4-12 B and 12b parentheses 7 to discuss the a matters and as further resolved that the aate discussion shall be made public either at a public meeting following the executive session or at such time as any litigated or Personnel matters are concluded or upon conclusion of any negotiations or related discussions or as otherwise specified and as further resolved this resolution s take effect pursuant to law approved this 23rd day of December 202 well call Madam clerk Mr Cuda here Mr Donal Mr Foster yes Mrs zillis said here I don't know what's wrong sound she said here or yes yes Mr Mach yes Mrs POG yes okay we'll enter into executive session and return uh to legislate the rest of the agenda oh no let's go to the downstairs conference room'll in e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e you I'm ter oh yeah not he's not here he can't make it okay I don't even know to conference session and we have Matt Jess up here from um that that would you come forward and just we're g to have a a short presentation on the settlement agreement hi hello so good evening mayor council members Matt Jessup McManaman Scotland and Balman um as you know you have before you tonight a resolution that would authorize the mayor to execute and enter into a settlement agreement with epic construction um and countersigned by Travelers who is the construction shy Bond provider um in connection with the ongoing dispute between the township and epic construction with respect to the uh construction of this Municipal complex um it's no secret that uh the two parties have been at odds primarily over two issues one on going water infiltration issues um at the building the building in our view in the Township's view is not watertight um whenever there's a rain event there is you know likely damage that we find um from some in some portion of the building and two uh punch list items uh it's been several years now but at the time the building was initially complete um your professionals created uh various punch lists for epic to complete and it's the township assertion that that many if not most of the items on those punch lists have not been completed um the parties uh pursuing to the terms of our Redevelopment agreement with respect to our dispute did go through a mediation uh this is after of course the township publicly um authorized declaring epic in default we went through that default process we went through the epic's ability to remediate the default uh when none of that happened to our satisfaction we then went through the court ordered um or the document ordered mediation process and it is out of that mediation process that this settlement agreement was born um in short this agreement permits the township to direct the work that needs to be completed in order to make the building watertight that includes any destructive testing any due diligence any um infrared testing to First continue to assess the work that needs to be completed and then it's the Township's design professionals that would create the plans and specs that epic would then have to carry out um in order to construct the work once those design specs are created that work does go those design specs go over to Epic they have a there's a Q&A process we call it RFI 10 days to either choose to accept the work or to determinate sub agreement um we've worked this hard to get this far to try and get this work done it's important to note that epic has signed off on the draft of the settlement agreement as you've seen it so you know we believe that in going forward everybody knows what needs to get down on the roof and that epic would ultimately um agree to perform the work if they don't this terminates and we all go fight our fight and we pursue our remedies under the Redevelopment agreement to get the rest of that water infiltration work completed um if they do commence and commence the work they undertake the work the Township's design professionals are there on a daily basis to Monitor and sign off on the work um there is a retainage amount under the original Redevelopment agreement that we owe epic essentially if they agree to do the work and they do it for 30 days we would release onethird of that retainage amount um once they complete all of the work and it's signed off on by our architect um and our design professionals a second third of that retainage gets paid out to them and finally after a major reign of event and after certificate of occupancy is issued by your building department which was never done um the the final third of the work is is a final third of the retainage is released of course if as a result of that final um rain event we realize that there's additional work that needs to get done we go through that process all over again before we release um that final third in addition this um settlement agreement requires epic to complete the punch list uh the version that is publicly available before you references an exhibit to be included in the settlement agreement it's also no secret that we so the latest proposal is that um punch list will be quote agreed to amongst the parties in this document and we will essentially get in a room together and go line by line through our lists and create the punch list that ultimately uh will get uh completed um pursuant to this doc last contemplates the idea of a neutral and arbiter who can um make decisions regarding any disputes between us and EIC during this um instruction process that neutral is not identified here it will be an architect we are working amongst us epic and our arbitrator to find a qualified architect that all sides are comfortable with that clear conflicts from both law firms that are involved and both eepic and the township and ultimately you know make that selection and consultation with here design professionals the last thing I want to mention is that there is also U an arbitration that's been going on we went through mediation the mediation while it did lead to this which I would view as success epic also wanted to start the arbitration process at the same time um importantly if we approve this agreement move forward the arbitration is suspended so we are not um spending U Township resources on in arbitration when we are in fact working to success by getting the building water type and getting the punch list complete which isn't to say that there will be an arbitration later down the road but it's better get the work done get the building um uh sealed get the punch list complete and then the parties see if they can't on their own resolve any of their open issues before picking back up a grition that I'll pause and see if you have any questions I Just Want to Thank You mat I also want to thank the Town Council and this is two backto back executive sessions that we've worked through this agreement and I want to thank Council people previous uh to this uh this particular governing body who has worked the last four years to get to a point where we can uh get this building water tight get the punch list done and hopefully um to some degree um you know move on with this project so thank you Matt thank you everybody on the days appreciate that I always allow somebody the public rather to come forward and ask any questions does anybody have any questions about this particular settlement agreement right great did a great job explaining he does an amazing job he's one of the best public explainers out there without not too thank you mat we appreciate all right with that let's move on to regular agenda um Margaret since you're not in person I'm going to ask John to take I'll that than you open the agenda on hearing items only second any discussion roll call please Mr Cudo yes Mr B yes Mrs illen yes Mr something's wrong with this yes com any agenda item however if an ordinance is listed for its own public hearing on the agenda please hold your comments for that particular public hearing to make your comment the speaker must come forward to the microphone State his or her name and address for the rec each speaker is limited to three minutes the mayor or council president will keep time please promptly give them the floor when time is called and return to your seat your cooperation and adherence to these Rules of Order will ensure an orderly and respectful meeting so with that the hearing on agenda it is I figured I come last meeting of the year you have to be I will keep it coming um and I guess knowing that we've been doing this uh settlement related to Municipal comp it sounded like getting to success I wanted to be to see that um as for as for the question I have a question on resolution 4 a for um cancellation of Grant balances I'm sure it's order with balancing in the number but I take an opportunity to ask about some of the items been um just to see if I can understand the math um so on that page I'll start with a grantable um number of items I'm going take as an example it could get a bigger Grant driver similar amount now if it was a grant receivable um does that mean we expected that and then we aren't going to get it that is that the definition I'm going to ask Liza to correct me if I am incorrect but I think uh we received the grant took it into the budget but didn't expend any funds against it or the majority of I'm asking on the grand receivable line yeah which is probably yes Diane was here fortunately she's the best person to ask about this but yes these these were funds not expended for whatever reason like the municipal line I know like we ended up discontinuing our membership into that program so that's why that's on there okay so so for example all these things that are receivable we didn't spend we didn't spend it so we couldn't receive we probably re we probably received the grant I'm and I'm just freeforming I don't know for sure but generally speaking with government documents or government budgets this is how it works you take the the Grant in sometimes we know this ahead of the budget process if it's past budget then we have to amend the budget and take it in as a receivable I think many of the municipal Alliance Li is correct we disbanded our membership um and stopped we got the grant but we didn't have we actually didn't have a person to do the compliance on it but if you look at some of these others like $320 I'm going to guess um for spotted Lantern getting rid of the spot spotted Lantern it's probably this $320 left of that Grant and she has to cancel out she's died she um has been doing a lot of housekeeping as you recall we had a small stint with the last CFO he didn't really stay for a long period of time we had a contract CFO for a few years and that's created a need to do a lot of housekeeping and she's doing an amazing job so that's a lot of what you're saying related to um this resolution Steve yeah no and yeah I got great great big picture but it's I guess if we if on the feable side if we U we're that tells me I think we're expecting it but we didn't we didn't like the grant if we didn't do the work and then get the grant money in return for what we did then it wasn't spent for whatever reason it wasn't SP therefore it can't be receivable from the grant if we didn't spend it to get the reimbursement from Grant that's right yeah we probably were awarded to get into the budget but did not spend it or spend all of it $320 right Municipal Alliance I'm going to assume a lot of these were probably the total amount but I'm not sure um I know for some of the enforcement related Road enforcement related stuff I know I think we did some of them but it sounds like we didn't do it all spend all the money that could have been spent right via the grant correct okay right like this way this way by talking about when it happens I'll makes it clear thank you all right thank you Steve anyone else seeing no one make a motion to close the hearing on it any session call Mr cud Mr Foster yes Mrs Ellis oh she gave thums up yes Mr Mach yes Mrs po yes all right let's move on to new business all right I move to resolution number one approving Bill list dat December 17 2024 and the amounts of $579,500 [Music] so when Diane confirmed today that it actually should be dated 23rd yes can I amend the agenda now to correct that the resolution is correct yes you can it's just on the agenda yes do we need a motion roll call to agend amend it or not no I don't think so okay Bill why don't you reread resolution approving bill is dat December 23 just R so I move to uh approve resolution number one approving Bill list dated December 233rd 17 uh 2024 in the amount of $579 35899 I'll res second that thank you I apologize any other discussion all right roll call please Mr Cudo yes Mr P yes Mrs Ellis yes Mr Machado yes Mrs po yes I move resolution two authorizing the shared service agreement with the burrow of Madison for IT services I'll second that and discussion Mr Kudo gingerbread yes Mr Foster yes Mrs NIS yes Mr Machado yes Mrs po yes okay I move resolution number three resolution authorizing a settlement agreement with epic management for the Berkeley Heights Municipal complex second boy definitely a second any any other other discussion tonight all right roll call Mr cud yes Mr Foster yes Mrs illis yes Mr Machado yes Mrs po yes I move agenda a through D I'll second that any discussion roll call Mr Kudo yes M Mr yes Mrs Ellis yes Mr Machado yes Mrs P yes Township Council reports okay uh me first off all right um give different Council report slightly different from mine but I have mine in here also so the senior affairs committee hosted a cookie and tea in tour the North Pole on December 5th was a wonderful event attended by over 40 plus seniors that all gathered to celebrate the holidays enjoy the magic of the North Pole um the cookies were provided by the Berkeley Heights kindness team and the Women's Club of Berkeley Heights whatam l provide the supplies and bir by his Comm Affairs committee the Santa visit downstairs hopefully most of the Town came out for the Santa visit and those over 88 photos were taken that count um Santa Claus outstanding Santa Claus this year Santa Claus did a really good job last year was better last last year was better this year was good it was acceptable but I do want to give a shout out to Carolyn George Kelsey and Jade who designed the North Pole and made the town on Magic uh their Vision creativity is unmatched they canot s up with new ideas and work really hard with the gpw and the rec department to get this thing success it is every single year so beautiful better than any long really big shout out yeah um also I want to give shout out also for the winter walk it was a huge success our record numbers of crowds as always and the Highlight was me getting into the snowb no it wasn't it wasn't it was drones and the fireworks display the community is lucky to have the centor family that continues to support choke the community is lucky to have the Sor family um and their support in fireworks that were donated and the shows that they do for the rest of the community in United States at large so that's all I want to mention about the winter walk but also well actually one more thing on the winter winter walks a volunteer organization it's not done by the township um do the tree lighting recogition do fre weend um but it's done basically by a group of volunteers who work really really hard to make this happen so stop local thank the volunteers when you see them and uh realize it's a lot of work so than you that's it for me great report thank you Manny John okay um the St preservation committee did meet uh I think it's the first time three years I've said that U because it was such a short between the Winter Walk which we were at and it was fantastic everybody was set up um we were in with the the town everybody there um environmental commission and the library and wellness committee Wellness committee there yes the wellness committee was there um it was that was a great time uh it was it was cold but it was nice and everybody's had a great time so we didn't have a meeting we're going to start the new year off uh with with the meeting I believe it's the second week of January so we're going to go with that um I was also asked to do a downtown unification committee uh summary of accomplishments for 2024 uh the committee is comprised of Danny Campell Manny Kudo John Foster Kim Garcia Jean Kingsley Julie Lloyd kunel Sharma and Eve Stewart uh it was a very active year downtown businesses that were reviewed and commented on uh on following sign of building applications 311 Springfield W 408 Springfield Avenue 635 Springfield Avenue pepper town peppertown park Sherman air project 649 Springfield Avenue 134 Snider 408 Springfield 410A Springfield 268 Springfield uh 145 Snider 450 Springfield 512 Springfield Avenue the Claris building 438 Springfield Avenue 268 Springfield Avenue 735 Springfield Avenue and 450 Springfield Avenue if you don't think Springfield Avenue is busy now where do you see it when all this stuff is done okay not that you shouldn't go down there because it's great stuff down okay uh committee elect note that the TRC process is working very well and applicants are very appreciative of the ability to meet with the township officials and committees early in the process restaurant month seems like it was so far away um for the eth year at Berk restaurant they had 23 restaurants participate uh the event costs were $125 to participate that covers the external marketing expenses the promotion of the event along with development of the print material and is all provided uh by the DBC uh the committee surveyed the participa restaurants overwhelmingly look forward to a ninth restaurant month in 2025 can't wait till we get double on that it's going to be great um the township welcome the park signs and to pass the DBC recruit of volunteers to clean plant and maintain the signs for the year of 2024 to committee work with holes and Great Swamp to determine planting schedule for each sign based on the amount of sunshade based upon the recommendations to committee work with the DPW to purchase and plant all the signs uh in addition DPW help clean the signs given and it was a very dry year several of the plants did not survive in October the committee assessed each sign to determine what plants will be replaced in 2025 the committee also uh work on Township log will replace look Township logos rep placed for each sign uh as they were faded and look warm the committee also donated Pine rope to decorate the welcome signs of Springfield Avenue planfield Avenue ahead of the winter ball they hang the flower baskets which were out there prior to all the beautiful lights out there uh the committee worked with Halls to plant seasonal hanging baskets for the spring summer and the holiday winter season we also like to thank the DPW for their support and constant watering of the baskets this year yeah definitely a shout out goes to the DPW those guys are great over there uh the way they just they handled all this stuff we had volunteers doing it now they're stepping up to help out uh put the plants in it if you come into any PL any place in town you'll see the signs and you see the the the plants out there and it just it brightens up the sign let you know you're you're in Berkeley hates um last thing is I want to say to everybody out there in our audience and and TV Land um Merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy K Quanza or whatever you celebrate happy New Year and looking forward to 2025 thank you excellent thank you John um so just to reiterate winter work was wonderful we were there with the um green and pedestrian Task Force at the township table with mayor's wellness and historic pre and environmental commission it was freezing and it was just great fun um so thank you to all of the volunteers and the um the business and Civic group that you know really helped make that a success um I didn't make the economic development committee meeting this month um and um the task force is The Pedestrian green and pedestrian task force is finishing up the um the report for the end of the year so that'll be published probably not until um after the new year because the holidays got the better of us um and we're hoping that um John Leo the the task force president um will come and make a presentation to Council in January that's all I have I think the holidays got the best of all of us Margaret with Thanksgiving being late so I can appreciate that um thank you for your report Bill well I don't really have anything to report but I just want to wish um those who celebrate of Christmas Merry Christmas those who celebrate Hanukkah happy Hanukkah and those who celebrate both like in my family happy Christ I think you and Susan are on same holiday Susan yeah hi so um back to winterwalk for just a second there was a field dedicated to August s s and that was a really nice moment there on that stage truck stage yeah so I just wanted to give a a message about that um so I just want to talk about May's Wellness a little bit so the Comfort kits even though we didn't get the grant the Kimberly and Wilson Foundation is uh donating the money for the comfort kids for students from preot in the school and presentations were made in the schools by the building principles to talk about what's happening um I submitted the application for the healthy Town level for mayor's wellness and our list of things that we've done in the last year was pretty amazing um and I I hope we get it you know I'm not really sure what our competition is but um I sent a lot of pictures along with it so I think the application was pretty healthy of the healthy town no pun oh pun in time uh shout out to Amero America was in the Star Ledger this week as like the uh Hidden Gem in a strip mall and Berkeley Heights so it was a really nice article for Amero and the Hanukkah lighting is on Thursday the 26 at 6 o'clock and then we can walk over to this building in where did I say when I say Memorial oh you said in this building I think no then we come over to this building the lighting is over in Pepper town where the big manora is yeah sorry about that and then we'll walk over to this building where there'll be a little um hanuka party with lockas and other fun things I'll be running the drele game if any kids want to come I'm very excited about that and I think that's all I have you're going to talk about the book club right yeah so have a everything that we celebrate this time of year is celebrated with light and light is so important in our life so keep the light in your heart and have a wonderful quolity season oh nice thank you suan okay Administration report um Economic Development Committee talked about being five Far Ready um and that is in July of 2026 it's coming to New Jersey so one of the economic drivers is to have what do we call them not pop-up parties watch parties yeah um working with some of our local restaurants and locations throughout U Berkeley Heights to Spur Economic Development and get people excited about um the event in July I think they're going to roll out how to become a five ready Community the state of New Jersey um in the summer yes so I revers it's in 202 2026 is the the the FIFA World Cup and 2025 is when they're starting really ramping up getting communities involved in yes in planning planning events in these towns to support a lot of the people who come to the country to to be involved with the World Cup games but they don't necessarily have tickets 50% I think is the statistic 50% of people that come um to this area will not have a ticket to the event so they'll be looking for watch parties we obviously have a hotel we have great restaurants that that were just um written up about in The Star Ledger so we're excited about that for next year um the committee will be working on that January 12 Thursday is it 12 I think so six of the mon the wellness committee has a mayor book club 10 sorry so I I got that wrong and we're doing a pajama party this time with we're g to talk about this book this book is amazing um I seted some of this of the scientific study in my many Master's thesis so it was fortuitous that our library director Amy um selected this book this month to read so I'm enjoying it very much may the title though I think it might Intrigue some a and the new science of everyday wonder and how it can transform your life and Dr Kelner is a well-known um professor and a researcher of positive psychology so it's been a great read so far I think on chapter five or so and oh finally the May's Wellness committee is planning a wellness crawl some people may be familiar with a pub crawl we are going to do a wellness crawl um so we're super excited about that and we're going to do um many different activities from maybe some yoga to some book reading to some specific uh activities with children um I'm going to do some journaling so please join Jo us for that but we are in the planning stages February 22nd so we're really excited about that and just want to thank everyone on this day and all of our volunteers for an amazing year um Li and I had a a call and we had to sort of pitch Berkeley Heights on a on a project that didn't work out um but it really was amazing to talk about all the Redevelopment that's going on all the passionate volunteers we have the Committees um that are so active the council you know we work as a team every single day because we couldn't do this without one another so I just want to thank all of you and happy holidays to everyone out there so that concludes my report well thank you mayor for being a great leader in our town thank you uhri administrative report thank you mayor I'll just keep this short u the biggest news is going into the holiday we have a new recycling schedule beginning January 1st it will be Grand Sanitation and um recycling will be picked up on Wednesdays the January 1 pickup for the east side of town um will be actually rescheduled Saturday January 4th this is all on our website on Berkeley hi.gov on the front uh all pickups both East and West will be on Wednesdays so each side gets picked up every other week Snider Avenue divides the town between East and West if you're not sure what part of town you're on we do have a map also on our website um also Christmas trees we get this question a lot if people need to get rid of their Christmas trees they should contact their garbage caller because they will often take those away for I don't know 25 bucks or something it depends but the township does not take Christmas trees um and lastly uh just finishing off the year uh I just like to say thank you we've made a few amazing new hires one of which is Angela here um you know not least of which is our new Clerk and CFO um they're a tremendous asset to us I'd also like to thank our entire staff at Town Hall DPW and our wasw our treatment plan for being part of such a great team and doing what they do for our residents each and every day and also thank you to this Council for your continued support for everything we're doing here thank you just to picky back on Christmas tree second m is fake so I don't have to think about this but I do read an article like make sure your tree stays watered because there have been some house fires so yeah your tree is hydrated that's a good PSI thank you Ela that accept Council report says R second any discussion Mr Kudo yes Mr P yes Mrs illis yes M Mach yes Mrs po yes moving on to the citizens citizens heuss Mr Cuda yes Mr Foster yes Mrs Ellis yes Mr Mach yes Mrs pop yes just wanted to point out that I invited Larry Cohen who spearheading the um the human P store bill and I know that we're going to be speaking about this uh in the very near future but I invited you to go ahead and speak to us I'm hoping that we allow for more than three minutes I told them that we would um because obviously this is something be a little generous the spirit of the holidays will be generous with that and we all love pups so much I I did I did forward you some documents that he Prov thank you for that we appreciate that and just name and address into the record officially absolutely yeah thank you so much yeah hi good evening my name is Larry Cohen I live a 24 mclenon place and family um I'm here following up on an email that I sent last month um to ask you to pass this resolution in support of a bill down Trenton um it's called The Humane pet store bill it's assembly Bill 4051 Senate Bill 2511 basically what does is um it eliminates pet stores shelters and rescues from selling dogs that they've obtained commercially commercially from a breeder in other words they can't buy puppies and then resell them commercially um the state is actually following up on what 149 New Jersey municipalities have already done and passing their own local ordinances prohibiting it in their towns in their own towns whether they have pet stores that sell dogs or not in fact the vast majority do not there's only 17 stores in the state currently that sell dogs um in addition to that hundreds more towns and just about any of the largest cities that you can think of Boston Pittsburgh Philadelphia Chicago Atlanta San Diego Austin Houston Dallas on and on and on um and eight states have already passed this so this is a naal issue um and it's really it's been around since 2006 all Albuquerque New Mexico was the first town to pass an ordinance prohibiting this um the first New Jersey town was Point Pleasant in 2012 I've been involved in this since 2016 um and the reason it happens is because the evidence is just overwhelming at this point that the supply chain for pet stores sell puppies are these vast commercial breeders out in the Midwest for the most part States like Ohio Indiana Missouri Iowa um who just breed and breed and breed dogs and ship their products the way they you know consider them to stores in New Jersey and you know this is a two-fold tragedy it's not just the stores what happens in the stores and the puppies that come here that are maybe undersocialized or carrying disease if you read that article from the Star Ledger but just as much it's this tragedy that happens in these these on these Dog Farms where these dogs are raised under just un inhumane standards some of which are legal I mean they're Bound by the the Animal Welfare act federal law that actually allows them to be caged 247 they allow breeders to breed dogs at every single heat cycle and when the dogs become infertile by law these breeders are allowed to kill the dogs if they don't want to make so um you know the Humane Society has gotten involved in this particularly since New York state passed its law which went into effect eight days ago yes and so there's there's um you know renewed concern that stores that are having to close in New York might take up shop across the river here and so we think it's it's really crucial that New Jersey you know follow suit and pass this law I want to mention that in the assembly this bill has 36 co-sponsors so you're talking almost half the assembly and among them are your two Assembly women in district 21 mat audas and Munoz are both co-sponsors of this bill um I'm in District 22 one of my assemblymen uh Kennedy is is a co-sponsor it has only 10 co-sponsors in the Senate plus two primary sponsors so you still who are the primary sponsors in the Senate Brian stack introduced this um and what happened was um Westwood a town in northern New Jersey passed their own ordinance like I was talking to one of the 149 in New Jersey and when they did that they also on their own passed a resolution saying you know what's good for us we think is also good for the state and so my colleagues and I thought this was a great idea and so since then we have been going around mostly the Union County towns I'll explain why in a minute to ask them to pass their own supporting resolutions um in part because this is my backyard I've lived and worked in Union County forever um but also because Senator scutari who's the president of the Senate obviously is a big deal in Mion County and we think it's really important that he here from his constituents um so we have a postcard campaign going where he's received almost 500 postcards for residents all across the state who were in favor of this and I I just started doing this in mid November so it's been about a month and you know you're very aware of how long a resolution can take it's not as onerous as a ordinance but still it has to be discussed it then has to be you know put on the next agenda whatever nine towns in uni County have already done this I'm 99% confident that four more will do it in January and I'm very hopeful that three more will do it so I'm hoping by the end of January to have 16 of 21 towns in New Jersey having passed this and you know I just am here to ask you to please consider doing it as well I I support the resolution I would suggest if you wanted to that you we would pass an ordinance Banning it as well if you want to work on on the ordinance with Larry and the township attorney and finally Senator scar is a personal friend so I'd be happy to write a letter um supporting the Senate legislation um if you give me some that would be awesome minor points I we can we can get that done in the next couple of weeks I could tell you real quick if I may yeah I think one of the main um points of opposition to this bill and the pet stores play this up in in my opinion um disingenuously is that nobody wants to be seen as hurting a business neither do I and you need to understand that first this closes no business all this does is and and it doesn't just Target pet stores I mentioned shelters and rescues too it says we consider this particular business model of W you know just like the the smoking restrictions that have come through over the past decades or so um it provides the Humane Society has a model that it helps stores follow to convert to a Humane pet store model like Pet Supplies Plus right here in Berkeley Heights um you know the vast majority 90 I don't know it's got to be between 95 and 100% 99 % of stores do not sell dogs so it's not like this can't succeed the pet store industry is over hundred billion doll industry in the United States now the only segment of it that is in Decline is live at s so that's number one and the second thing that I think is very important um and I can provide this to you if you want because it's voluminous the stores have been violating current New Jersey Law pet purchase protection act since it was an act I mean a year after it went into effect the vast majority of them were fed for their um signage and and disclosure that they're supposed to have in their stores just last year we as we convinced and it's not easy to convince uh consumer affairs to do this we convinced them to go out to five stores that we had the time to go into ourselves and they demanded video evidence that we had to take undercover and all this stuff all five were still in violation of of those inore um things they're supposed to submit breeder lists every year to their licensing town we have evidence and it's really hard to get that there have been 122 instances over the past couple of years where they have used breeders that they did not put on those breeder lists and by law those breeder lists are the way that people are supposed to find out what breeders they're using so if they're not even putting them on the list you can imag imagine what's going on and then there are more uh instances that I wish to um talk about where they actually have used breeders that we have confirmed confirmed are illegal to use based on pet purchase protection act and we've been fighting with Consumer Affairs for years and for some reason they won't go after the stores for that so my point is at what point does an industry any industry or business lose its right to be sanctimonious about you know how they deserve to to operate if you can't follow the law why should you continue to be allowed to be in business and they were they were part of creating this law they are more than aware of all the provisions of this law and they have willfully violated it in part because they know they can get away with it and they have and so it's really hard for somebody who knows how much how many violations are going on to have sympathy for these people when they just don't try they just don't try I agree Larry and you know that's something that I very much would like CER scari to be aware of like I mentioned I'll be happy to send a letter to him personally and I think Bill is the correct person to work with you to try to do something locally here um so we'll look forward to some more information from you guys and we'll take it from that I I have a quick question sure by no by us doing this going forward if we go forward with this um what do you think the impact is going to be do you think it's going to help with consumer affairs you think it's going to help with the state by backing them up and and doing this you think it's going to make it so that it'll you know I don't want I don't want to see you going down a dead end road if you know if that's but this is what it's going to help to get this going then you know yeah it's definitely not a dead end Road it's a hard Road I'm not going to you know lie about that sounds like it is it is a really hard road but I think the only reason that it's um being considered now is because of the 149 towns in New Jersey that have already passed their own ordinance you know we've been doing this for a long time and we kept telling towns you know this is how the state's going to take notice and I think this falls under that that kind of same thing um especially with people like Senator scari if we can say that listen 17 18 of your own towns think this is a good idea you know I I hope to have nine out of 10 of the 10 towns in his district pass this resolution I don't know that I'm GNA ever be able to get Clark because I think it's kind of a dysfunctional town you know whatever um but you know I'm going to get just about all the towns in his own district and I mean how else does one get something done in Trenton sometimes other than persistence and pounding the pavement and trying to get people behind it you know and educating people people don't know yeah necessarily absolutely that's an important piece I I could just tell you I I don't have dogs I have cats but you know when we went out we we checked with people for a breeder that you know by Word of Mouth that you know and the breeder was so like up front with us that the one cat when it was like a month old got through a fight one playing got scratched he didn't want to sell us the cat so he was upfront about that stuff and that's the kind of people you need if you're going to get a pet and have that happen and not like you said you know if you have a breeder you know where to go to you have a you have some kind of a a trail of you know it's like a it's like your child they have their vaccine list they have everything else so you need all of that stuff so yeah this is like yeah if you can if you could do this is yes I'm I'm totally on board what do you me rock and roll by the way it's not just dogs it's dogs cats and rabbit correct I mean generally cats are not sold in pet stores in New Jersey I'm not sure rabbits are either but they want to cover that oh yeah thank you you so much you for your hard effort thank happy holidays you too thank you for waiting [Music] uh anyone else with s Hearing onece okay I make a motion to close the su's hearing I'll second that Mr cud Mr Foster yes Mrs zillis Mr M yes Mrs po yes all right we've already had executive session that may have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn 2025