going forward, but not to be responsible to public rather questions that either me or answer but I'd like to rather sit down. So anyway, it's a presentation.
I think she almost in the winter has like in the summer has I think it's best if you actually presenting to presenting a different question.
You don't have to get organized after I don't know what No, I appreciate that. How are you? Good. Yes. Worse. I'm sure it's not all Okay. So, it's Tom. No, that's a different
and he's not directly giving him proper I love that. Oh my god. Did you know everybody did? I'm trying to be optimistic. I'm also Well, that would be great. Exactly. I talked about
I didn't want to go back and recreate anything. He said, "You know what? I'll do the same." So, I'm trying to do the same difference every month, you know?
Yes. Right. Me too. No, it's good. A lot of it was I already knew, but it was great. Fascinating, right? They had two good people in here. Yeah, I mean
I was the one who What point of order? What's your point of order now? talking to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of
America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I wish to announce that the 48 hour notice is required under the open public meetings act was emailed to the Asbury Park Press, the Coast Star, and
the new poster on December the 19th, 2024. that a copy has been placed on the bulletin board of the burough office and that a copy has been filed with the municipal clerk. As a courtesy to the public, this meeting may be attended via Zoom. If for any reason Zoom fails or is
disconnected, the inperson meeting will continue without interruption and action can and will be taken providing that there is an in-person quar. Mr. Noble here, Mr. Greenlet here, Mr. Nikki here, Mr. Weber here, mayori.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining us this evening. Uh we are going to jump into item number five on our agenda uh having holding a public hearing uh and adoption for the 2025 budget amendment and municipal budget.
And just by way of quick background, we've been through a process already to this point where we've introduced the budget. We've uh created an amendment to that budget. We had a public hearing on the amendment to the budget our last meeting. So tonight uh After this public
hearing, we the council will take action whether or not to adopt the amended budget. So, um, with that said, I'll make a motion to open the public hearing on 2025 municipal budget amendment. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Noble?
Yes. Miss Greenblat? Yes. Mr. Nikki? Yes. Mr. Weber? Yes. Mayor Ktosi? Yes. Anyone with any questions or comments about the 2025 amended budget? box. Sorry, Fox 61.
Good evening. Um, I just had a couple questions. Number one, has the fund balance analysis been completed? 25 budget. Yes. Uh we have not completed a replenishment analysis at this point.
Okay. Well, we introduced the budget or you introduced the budget two months ago. I guess it's always been a practice or requirement to do that. Why why isn't it done? I guess is the question. Part of the challenge has been the lack
of data integrity that you know that we started the process with. Um I actually responded to this question in a private email to Mr. Fairblock where uh to the best of our knowledge from what data we
can observe we believe we have the ability to that said uh prior three years under your administration for example uh replenishment analysis was nowhere close to what the actual results turned out to be. So we've got some
faulty historical data. I'm not suggesting it's your uh your fault, Mr. Mayor, but rather uh it was very difficult to rely upon the data. Now, what we what I can tell you and the
public is for the past seven years, we've had roughly a million dollars of anticipated surplus, 887 or 977, you know, orders of magnitude 1.1 million for three years in a row. If you go back seven years, we've always had roughly a million dollars of anticipated surplus.
Over the past three years, um we drained surplus a million dollars despite the fact that the replenishment analysis said we could replenish. Uh the following year, that was 22, 23, we drained surplus 600,000 even though the
replenishment analysis said we could replenish. And then last year uh per the uh AFS at least we have we don't have audit signals but the uh 2024 budget uh the replenishment of the of
the budget has said indicated that we not only replenished 700,000 we added two surplus 1 million. So we've had fluctuations of over a million dollars two out of the last three years rendering some of these prior analyses totally irrelevant. Right. Well, I would
talk to the 24. Mr. Garts did a pretty thorough analysis and I I'll actually provide this to you because this question has been coming up uh in this forum and in fact um he had stated right up front when he did
the analysis on April 10th of last year that it was conservative analysis. So we started the balance that he forecasted was about a million5. It came in at 2.4 million which
we expected it to come in favorable. So yeah it was not exact to the million4 but in fact it was conservative and in fact we built not only um some surplus in that account but also in the both utility account. So, I believe that the
2024 analysis was a was a good analysis. And again, I I would just state that I would have expected that we would have done that for 2025. We're going up about 94% in this
uh surplus use uh in one year. It's about 42% over the six-year average. So to your point earlier uh I looked at the six-year average it's about 42% more this million45 and I realize that the rationale is
speculative on the sale and proceeds of 319 but to me it really doesn't dismiss the analysis as appropriate and fiscally responsible. So I just want to make that comment. Um the other comment the question I have is
that and this is more directed to mayor. Um in the past um you and another resident have pretty much railed on what you call the surplus adjusted tax rate. Um I would even suggest not suggest but
state that you campaigned on that last year. I thought I had the document but I don't the graphic yet a graphic showing what we called a what you called a surplus adjusted budget. Um
I don't particularly agree with that uh and that approach for for a lot of reasons. Um, but my question is, um, it seems as though that was something that was looked at
and brought up numerous times. Do you have a handle on what the surplus adjusted budget increase is? Well, we expect it to be neutral. We expect the We expect to be able to
replenish the surplus. If we do that, the increase the 2.7% budgeted tax rate. Maybe I state my question. When you remove the surplus, I my calculations are that the spending levels at at the
least are 6% up. If you did add in the um the Marine Avenue, we would be up 9%. So when you remove that surplus and just look at spend, it's not 2.76%. It's
minimum 6%. And as high as 9%. Well, again, if you're using the materials I campaigned with. No, I'm I'm using actual No, I'm saying to to calculate your version of the materials I use. No, I'm not using your materials.
I'm using the budget document. And I'm saying that last year to this year without the surplus spend is up 6% minimally and when you add in the 319 rate it's up 9%. So my point is that the 2.76 is somewhat of a misnomer. Do I
agree with this surplus adjusted budget conversation? I don't. But I was just curious that it was such a a strong point that you continue to bring up along with another resident that you would have looked at it this year. I I think we're we're sitting here. I'd love to answer your questions, but I think
we're talking apples and oranges because the surplus adjusted data that I provided and to your point that I campaigned on it was a combination of two things. What was the tax increase 2 3 5% whatever and what was the impact on
surplus in that same year. So in a year where you had a tax increase of 1.7 or 9% and then you drained surplus on of 20% of taxes. I added those two numbers together. I don't have a drained
surplus. I don't have an attitude surplus number yet for 2025. I expect it to be neutral. If it is neutral, our surplus adjusted number for this budget would be 2.76%. So you're calculating, you're adding in
your own spend for this year. It's not a spend number. It is a surplus adjusted number as you described. Right. But you would you would agree that if you took the surplus out, it's a minimum 6% and as high as 9% just on a spend. So I don't know
you've got numbers you've calculated. When you say 6% provided to regardless the are you for example including dollars budgeted to pay an employee over $100,000 over a couple years that your administration was supposed to pay and
didn't are are you including that I'm including budget now I'm just including that's in the budget including budget yes then you can't be including it because you wouldn't have done about it well no I'm just taking the document that was provided to the to the public that's what I'm taking I'm looking at the spendary wages and other
expenditures and it's up 6% without 319 Lorine. It's up 9% with 319. Obviously, we throw out 319 Line because that is a one time expenditure. Correct. No, no reason to keep referencing 9% unless you want to count $4 million of revenue,
give or take. Well, it's not going to be $4 million of revenue when you net it down. Not when you net it down, but revenue coming in will be $4 million before we net it down. You don't want to count that, I present. No, I'm talking I'm really looking at 2025. You're talking about spend, but if you're going to count the demolition
charge expense appropriation of 380,000, that's that's deceptive to the and my and as I said, my point on that is that it is speculative. Um, do we expect to get that revenue? I would assume we would, but it is speculative and the
numbers are the numbers. It is 9% when you look at the numerator and denominator. I'm not arguing that. I was saying do you do you understand the number of one-time expenditures appropriations in that number? I I just looked at what doc numerous
onetime expenditures that we do expect to be able to recover. We do hope to and expect to uh retain most if not all of the net revenue that we gain from the church. We believe that we have uh sufficient buffer in our uh our
appropriations and we we have ant unanticipated revenue that we should have increased about $300,000 this year because for example we've raised fees on well we will be raising them on zoning and construction. We already have those ordinance amendments and we've already
raised them for court fees. We expect the total unanticipated revenue to increase 300,000 this year. Okay, last question. Capital forecast is the three in the fiveyear capital forecast done. Has it been completed? We have a
it is not included in this budget yet. It is uh I've talked to Mr. Baron. Mr. Barbach has agreed to share with us information that your administration pulled together did not share with us, but he said there was a six-year Yes,
it's in the budget documents for 23 and 24. Well, we had it um it's in the documents. I'm sorry. At a detailed level, it we have not adjusted it since last year, but Mr. Verbach indicated me that he had updated data which we will
include subsequently. So, we don't have a capital forecast right now for 25. We have what was rolled over from last year but we haven't submitted anything into the state as to in the budget document the
25 to 15 page budget document before I answer I I want to say yes you're right but before I do let me turn and ask to see but did we it was not included um it will be amended okay and the state the state accepted I don't think it's requirement that you have to
a yeah so we'll amend it to um because there are some projects that are be coming down. So, it has to be in there. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I'll try to keep everyone else on a five minute. Sure.
Uh mayor, the 380,000 Thomas J. Coen, 6123rd Avenue. Uh the 380,000 that you're including in this budget in the amendment, um that's for the demolition of the church. Okay. Now, for 2024, when the church was supposed to be demolished, was that
money 380,000 in the 2024 budget? It was It was not. And it was not. It was not. Okay. But now it is. So, now we really have a true budget going forward. And the expectation is that uh if the sale takes place for over $4 million um
and I I believe we previously heard that this money net would go into the capital fund and not into the general fund. Is that correct? My understanding of the of the flow of the dollars is it comes through the
current fund as as margin and then we uh move it to the capital to the extent we extent we want. that you see FOs. Well, well, the previous CFO said it was up to the council and I just want to clarify that that is the council's intent. The
council, it's my intent. The council has not officially voted one way or the other. uh serving SEC. Well, so if you you take in the revenue as a sale of municipal assets and it would go through the current fund as you're stating and
then I believed and I don't want to speak for anybody but the intent was to take care of the debt associated with it and then you would have the net amount which we're talking round numbers so we'll say $2 million. I don't know that there is a plan or what's going to
happen with that $2 million whether it's part of it's going to go back into you know fund balance and then in the 2026 budget whether you um increase cash capital projects whether whatever you're going to do with the money but that I don't think there's and correct me if
I'm wrong I don't think we've gotten that far where the money is going to go beyond the 2 million and I just said to clarify um that is the debt required the bonding required to be paid down when the asset is is sold.
Uh I I don't want I don't when the asset sold when you incur the debt it gets paid down. Okay. So you could even set up a reserve right service depending on how it's borrowed. Okay. Great. Thank you very much. And that and you were
referencing existing debt. The 380,000 is going to be covered by that. Yes sir. Thank you. Any other questions in the room? Any questions on Zoom?
Oh, sorry. Somebody else did a question. Um, Beth Kepler, 504 Central Avenue. Um, good evening, esteemed council members, Mayor Hosi, and fellow residents. I stand before you this evening during
these public comments to address a striking irony that's not gone unnoticed. It is both surprising and frankly perplexing to hear a former mayor whose tenure was marred by significant financial mismanagement now attempting to lecture our current
administration on the principles of fiscal responsibility and the timely passage of a municipal budget. Allow me to elaborate. During the previous administration, under the leadership of the former mayor, our town faced serious challenges in maintaining financial
integrity. Independent audits conducted during that time revealed multiple material misstatements, errors, and oversightes that called into question the accuracy and reliability of our town's financial reporting. These were not minor clerical mistakes. They were
substantial issues that eroded public trust and raised serious concerns about the stewardship of our taxpayer dollars. Such missteps created unnecessary hurdles for our community, forcing us to grapple with the consequences of for
poor oversight and questionable at best decisionmaking. Perhaps even more telling is the issue of the budget process during that administration. The former mayor presided over a period when our municipal budget was not finalized until
August and an astonishingly late date that left our town scrambling to allocate resources, plan for essential services, and meet the needs of our residents. This delay was not a one-time occurrence, but a reflection of a broader pattern of inefficiency that
hindered our community's ability to function smoothly. public works, for example, and community programs all felt the ripple effects of this tardiness, and residents were left to bear the burden of uncertainty. Now, contrast this with today's situation, our current
administration under Mayor Cuposi has worked diligently to present a budget that reflects the needs and priorities of our community. While no process is perfect and we acknowledge that finalizing a budget by today may not have been ideal, it is a far cry from
the delays and the disarray of the past. The current administration has shown a commitment to transparency, collaboration, and fiscal discipline, qualities that were sorely lacking in previous years. To have the former mayor, whose track record speaks for itself, now step
forward to criticize this administration's effort is not only ironic, but it borders on absurd. I urge this council and our community to focus on the facts. Fiscal responsibility is not achieved through empty rhetoric or selective memory, but through
consistent, accountable actions. Mayor Gupatossi and this administration are working diligently and tirelessly to move our town forward, addressing past mistakes, at the same time building a stronger financial foundation for our
future. Let us not be distracted by the critiques of those who own records fail to withstand scrutiny. Instead, let us support the ongoing efforts to ensure our town's resources are managed wisely and our budgets are passed with the
urgency and care that our residents deserve and voted for. Thank you all for your time and attention and I encourage this council to continue its work with integrity and to keep the best interests of our community at heart. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or
questions? I will make a motion to close the public session. Mr. Noble, yes. Mr. Greenwood, yes. Mr. Nikki, yes. Mr. Weber, yes. Mayor Gibosi, yes. I'll open it up to
discussion among the council. Any comments or questions about the amended budget? Good. Okay. I will uh make a motion then that we um vote to
approve resolution 2025-216 the adoption of the 2025 municipal budget Mr. Noble. Yes. Mr. Reblat. Yes. Mr. Nikki. Yes. Mr. Weber. Yes. Mayor Kubosi. Yes.
Okay. One exciting session after another. We are now voting items. I resemble that one. Six on our agenda uh workshops. We are going to have our planner, Miss Jennifer Bean, uh share with the council an
overview of our housing development at fair share plan. Good evening. So, several months ago, I was here to basically give you my anticipated
implementation plan on how to address our affordable housing obligation for this fourth round. Um, the DCA's number came in at 30 units of new construction. Uh, and our rehab obligation is 64.
What we've done since I've been here last is we've done and completed the vacant land adjustment as I said that we were going to and the realistic development potential or RDP is 13 units. Um
so that would leave 17 units of what they call unmet need that has to be addressed through zoning. We have proposed to satisfy that obligation through negotiations with the owner of 803 Main who came in two years ago to
get an approval um which had 18 units some commercial and no affordable units proposed. They have amended their proposal increasing the number of units from 18 to 24, four of which would be affordable, still with a modest
commercial component and um pretty much able to comply with our current zoning requirements uh along Main Street. Because uh this development is approximate to mass transportation,
we're able to take a half a credit per unit for a total of two bonus credits, resulting in six total credits from that project. In addition, we have two Oxford houses located here within Bradley Beach. One
has nine bedrooms and the other has six. Um we were not able to take credit for these units in the past because they don't maintain lensure with the state um as would like a typical group home for
supportive needs. However, the new legislation that was adopted last year now allows for municipalities to take credit for these um sober living facilities. So in addition to the 15 beds which we get credit for, we're able
to take one bonus credit uh for a total of 16 credits resulting in a total of 22 credits for this round against the 13 unit obligation. We have nine surplus credits that don't go away. We can use
those in the next round. And just a refresh, this round is 2025 to 2035. Um, in addition, we have committed to participating in the county's program in for the rehabilitation units, which is
basically what is required uh in order for the court to deem that we're in compliance with that rehabilitation obligation. So, basically that handles, you know, our obligation. Now, you move over to the
unmet need. So, in order to the legislation requires that whatever we do in terms of zoning, and I know that um we've been working very closely with Delany's board um on this issue, has to at least be able to to produce 25% of
the unmet need. Uh so, it's not super clear in the legislation whether it's 25% of the fourth round unmet need or it's 25% of the total from the beginning. We have taken I've discussed this with multiple attorneys that are doing this throughout the state. We have taken the position that the legislation
regulates round four and so it be 25% of the 17 units which we can do through an overlay zone over Main Street from you know north to south. We have a draft ordinance that was provided as part of the housing element and fair share plan
that your language board adopted. It is very rough, you know, given this ridiculous time frame on how municipalities have to get all these plans approved and submitted to the court by June 30th in order to maintain immunity.
We were working through some zoning while we were dealing with this issue in the prior round before we opted to withdraw. So, we have included that as a good stepping stone as a draft commitment to overlay Main Street for
mixed use. The special adjudicator at the time was Mary Beth Lanigan and um Rachel Lurin from Fair Share Housing Center was working with myself and Rocker on coming up with a draft ordinance for Main Street. They had proposed
um on each end, the north end and the south end to allow for standalone multif family residential without a commercial component. We never got far enough along in that negotiation to even get governing body weigh in at that point. Um it definitely was something that
they've asked for. I fully anticipate um Mary Beth asking for the same thing. But all we're required to do to put in here to maintain compliance with this June 30 deadline is a draft ordinance. And I know we've spoken at TJ and I actually just recently that you know
we'll be working with you know you as well as the ladies board to come up with an overlay that you feel comfortable with in terms of height density 100% multif family mixed use whatever you'd like to go in there. Um but right now we
needed to put something in here in order to maintain compliance because part of the legislation requires that these draft ordinances be incorporated into the document. Typically, we wouldn't even have included it until we were farther along the process. Um, in addition to that, overlay zone on Main
Street, we're required to have what they call a mandatory set aside ordinance, which means that if any project anywhere within the burrow is five or more units, 20% have to be affordable with a minimum of one. Meaning if it's what happens and
and we've seen this throughout the state is when you just say five or more at 20% you wind up with a lot of four unit projects with no affordable units as part of it. So the minimum of one um but anything five or above it would be 20% affordable to comply with that
requirement. And then lastly we have the development fee ordinance which you approved last year. So that is still in effect where any a development that takes place in in the burrow if it's a residential in nature it's one and a half% of the equalized value or the
change in the assessment. So someone does an improvement on their house, it's not of the total assessment, it's on what the improvement changed. If there's no change in the assessment, there's no fee. And on on non-residential development, it's 2 and a.5% and that actually is now incorporated into the
municipalities law. So there's really no wiggle room with respect to that. But other than that, you know, that is our plan in a nutshell. The when was the meeting? Do you remember? Was it last week? Uh two weeks ago. Two weeks ago. So the language board approved this two weeks ago. The document was submitted to
the court. The legislation requires that the document be submitted to the court within 48 hours of any lady's board planning board approval. So that was submitted. So I know in your regular meeting you have a resolution endorsing
uh this document on on the agenda. Uh that would be forwarded I mean tomorrow hopefully. But other than that, we're in good shape and we anticipate getting comments back probably mostly from Fair Share Housing Center. They
have till the end of August to appeal or issue comments or what have you. So I anticipate that in the fall any kind of negotiation and discussion, any kind of proposed amendments will be coming at that point in time after which time all these zoning ordinances would be
adopted. So the legislation requires them to be adopted basically by the first quarter of next year, but there's no harm in doing it. If we have a plan everyone agrees upon, we can just adopt the ordinances and and we're good. We would maintain immunity, get a judgment
proposal until 2035. Thank you. Questions for Yes. Can you go back to the four unit developments? Does that the minimum of Does that mean that nobody builds four unit? Like I'm just trying to No, it means like if you come
and you have a proposal for a project that has four units, one of them has to be affordable. Okay. Even though it's not 20%. Correct. So what if you have a proposal for building three? I'm just wondering if the developers just ratchet it down. One of them will be affordable. Minimum of one. Okay. Two. One will be
affordable and then one one will be affordable. If you want if you're just going to build a single family house. No. So that's this is this is more like multif family. So it would be more like a but if you're building one that's not multi family. No. So you're not asking for multif family. What I'm thinking is
is that it be like a mixed use kind of thing or some kind of like multif family development. It would not if if you're building a single family house that would not kick them into a Does it depend on the zone? Does it depend on what you're building? What you're building. What you're building. Yes. So, so if someone, let's say, comes for use
variance and wants to build, you know, a townhouse project or an apartment project in an area that you don't allow it and the board approves it. I haven't ever seen that happen here, but let's say it happens, then that afford that mandatory set aside
would have to kick in. But I'm trying to get to the like trying to think like how this help get around this by just you know well that's why the minimum of one is there because what happened was historically it would just be if you have five or more 20% have to
be affordable which is one. So you have a litany of these projects which just have four units. So that never kicked in. Understand? So but what if you're just building a duplex? If it's multif family and it's not permitted under the zoning, you would have one of them would have to be photo.
Gotcha. Well, that's good. Can I have another question? Sure. Take you back to the beginning. You used a term you're going through the numbers and I was all very familiar with it until you said so we have the 17 units of unmet need. I was I had my head around that. 13 is our
obligation, right? And we've already you know calculated how we're doing that. But the 17 of unmet need like how's that? So the DCA gave us a number of 30, right? We adjusted the 30 to 13 and that's our obligation. So 30
minus 13 equals 17. So the 17 units that are left don't just evaporate, they go into what we call unmet need, which is why we have to do the zoning. Okay. But the 13 is what our actual obligation is. We have to provide those units credits. Yes. Okay. So the 17 they expect that to
be addressed in like any time in the next 10. You just have to provide the zoning. If not one unit is ever built it doesn't matter. We've complied with the unmet need by providing the overlay zone overlay of main street and the mandatory set aside. Those are the mechanisms that the court will accept to address that
unmet need. And we're actually providing the the obligation of 13 through what you said main and combination of the Oxford hazard which previously Okay. Correct. Just and I'm just saying all this because you know there's been some people that are very adamant advocates
for affordable housing as they should be and they've come here and they've said a lot of things and I feel like the town is doing everything that we are supposed to do and we're doing it and we're getting there and they've stopped coming because they think we're not doing it. So um u appreciate
your efforts and explaining this in plain English. Just adding to that I think um we've been the most especially thank you to you. We've been the most proactive uh mayor council ever. Um these development
fees were created but they were never enforced. So this is the first year that we're doing that. We're complying with the state regulations. We're improving the housing stock. We're building up the trust. So, I think these are all great things. Thank you for your time. Thank you for the land use board as well
because I think we're really and we're exceeding what we have to do. So, I think this is really good news. A question. So, on the 64 rehab units, that program that we have put in place, um how is that going to come about? What's the timeline of us putting that
in place? We're collecting fees on on development fees. Okay. And so, uh there's other obligations that we will have to do. set set the the uh the account the trust account um accumulate that money and then advertise also hire a a um a person to manage that
administrate that yes and then that's that's tied to the county program. Could you just elaborate on that a little bit on the time frame that we would have to do this? So so the 64 units is over the duration of this round which is 2025 to 2035. So you have uh 10 years to do it.
However, you don't have to physically rehab 64 units. You just have to provide the opportunity and earmark the money in your spending plan that would accommodate 64 units over the 10 year. It's really actually 11-year period of
time. Um what that means you the bureau will have to hire what they call an administrative agent. the that administrative agent will manage not just the rehab and the coordination with the county but also the four units that are being constructed at 803 M making
sure that it's affirmatively marketed meaning it has to be marketed to the whole region Mammoth Ocean Mercer County uh make sure that individuals are income qualified you know they go through all of their income information make sure they're qualified and make sure that the deed restrictions are in place because
these affordable units have to be deed restricted um They also will coordinate the rehab program and the way the rehab program works, it's not really a timeline. Once this gets adopted and and honestly the the spending plan and the revenues coming in are are projection
because clearly we can't predict the future. So we're projecting how much revenue the bureau will get over the course of this round. We project how much it will cost. You know there are things that are required. 30% of your balance has to be earmarked for
affordability assistance. Meaning like if someone came in and said, you know, their HOA fees were too high and they can't maintain, you know, their income qualified and they can't maintain this, you know, there could be programs put in place to give them money under this
affordability assistance assuming, you know, they're going to be willing to de-restrict their house and those types of things. Um so that's a projection obviously but um all you have to do to maintain compliance with this rehab program is provide the
fact that you are participating in the program you have an administrative agent and you provide you earmarked revenue or money in the spending plan for rehabilitation over the course of this of this round. The way the rehab program works is, you know, obviously you have to be
income qualified and it's for things like bringing your house up to code, maybe replacing a roof, maybe replacing some windows, those types of things. And then if you leave your house before a 10 years is up, you have to
repay the money back to the trust fund. If you stay in that unit beyond the 10 years, then it's forgiven almost as if it's a grant, not a loan. Um, I will say it's going to be challenging in a community like this because, you know,
the the property values are pretty significant. Um, and I find that in all of my coastal communities really, you know, but the opportunity is there. We have to provide for, you know, the obligation. And you
know, in the event that we're looking at uh a budget situation where the trust fund doesn't have the money to pay out all this stuff, there's an opportunity at that time to do what they call a windshield survey where you go through town and you identify are there really
64 units here in Brown Beach that are, you know, out of code in terms of things. I don't know. I I haven't done the windshield survey, but that option exists in the regulations if if in fact it becomes an issue moving forward. But
right now, we have it earmarked for approximately six per year, which would get us to 60. So, like the last couple years, you know, it's like seven for the last couple years just to hit the 64 number. So, so theoretically, so theoretically, if in fact, um the plan
is approved and then um we have to hire our administrative agent and we have to adveris proactively and we have people coming to us applying for assistance but there's not any money or enough money accumulated so there would be an
obligation then for us to um somehow be able to fund that you would have to you would have to bond for it but you can bond against the trust fund and I I did hear somebody in the past make a suggestion in the community that
perhaps there could be a donation from say from the proceeds of 319 Lang It could also help short and so we could also do uh innovative things like that to be able to ensure that we are building that trust. Absolutely. You just have to take whatever I mean that would be up to you and then you whatever
amount you decided if you decide that to be pushed into the trust fund that fund has to be a separate I know she knows this because she knows what she's doing over there but has to be a separate fund separate and apart from all your other funds and things like that you know and then what the court will require is you
know the bank the interest rate all that good stuff which she's provided for us. Thank you. Go ahead. the windshield survey thing. I agree. Yeah, we're probably not going to find 64 units in the front houses. People's
back houses, I think potentially could be affordable housing, but how how would that work? Never mind, you can't see them through the windshield, but we figure out say we found them. But if the, you know, the value of the property or the income of the owner, I mean, you know, it's going to be tough here.
That's, you know, and I find that, you know, I do this basically from, you know, management all the way up through deal. I have to tell you, I have seen singledigit rehabs accumulate there.
And then when you say something's not up to code, could it just be peeling paint? Could be. I could have been on that list. Me, too. I did have my house painted, so I need the list. But it could be a bad group. It could be Yes. anything that's not up to code. So, it could be something that
simple. But, but on this point, if it's a high income individual, they would not qualify. They would not qualify. So, Right. Right. But still, they would qualify. But just because there's 64,000 doesn't they don't know how much these people are earning. No. And that's
that's why you have the administrative agent that would go through the process of income qualifying, right? You know, and and the income levels vary depending upon the size of your household, right? So, a single person household income levels are significantly less than if you're in a household of five or six people that it's not one income. It's
dependent on the size of your household. So I think it's important to so number one thank you for all the work you've done for us and I know you've had a very intense six month period culminating with June 30th as you anxiously awaiting June 30th. Um, I I think it's important
to say for the public's benefit that uh others have made reference to this, but this council is doing everything in our power to not only comply, but to aggressively push forward making funding available for affordable housing. Um,
someone suggested in an email to me recently that the burrow, our residents are somehow discriminating against lower income people that we collectively and not just me, not just the council, the burrow is anti- lowincome individuals. I
have seen no evidence of that. Clearly none on this governing body. Um you mentioned Miss Bean that uh you know and I forgive you for being off a couple years but you said last year we introduced the uh the ordinance for the
development development. It was actually introduced adopted in 2017. Yes. But that was not correct. So we did recently adopt a muted ordinance and establish the fund I think was so those ordinances that were
adopted in 2017 were never formally approved by the court or by DCA whoever was managing it at the time because there was no adopted housing element fair share plan. Um, so that was redone recently
and and the point being there have been efforts underway for years right through to my first two weeks in office this year where we flipped the switch and said let's start collecting these fees. U there has been already very
preliminary discussion just oneoff discussions about could we take a chunk of money put it in this trust because our trust is bare because have not been collecting for could have been seven years. So, you know, we're talking to different developers and town, you
mentioned one of them, the audit type property and we've worked out a compromised position there. We're talking to other developers as well to try to secure units as well as potential funding to support this. So, appreciate your efforts to support us, but as our
message to the community, we're doing everything in our power. Even though we are deemed to have satisfied our current obligation, we're doing everything in our power to continue to provide affordable housing. And all that is going to do is set you guys up for success in round five because the more
units you accumulate over the 13, you know, they don't go away. You still are able to take credit for them in in subsequent years. I was actually in Plainsboro Township on Monday night and their entire plan was built of surplus units that they had done in the prior
round. So there was no new developments, no it makes the process that much easier and way more difficult for anybody to challenge when you have surplus units on projects that have been approved and more happier. For sure. So no other questions for
questions. So, typically, one second. Typically, we would hold uh public questions or anything related to the workshop until we get to uh item number nine on our agenda. However, in the interest of letting Miss go home,
I'm going to open up questions for the public now so we can take advantage of this while she's here. Mr. Um yes, Thomas J. Cohen, 6123rd Avenue. Um being that everyone's in the room, Mr. Canon, Mr. Dy, M. Um at our last meeting when
we did adopt this plan on the land use board we did uh schedule a workshop for I believe it's our July 17th meeting of the land use board because all the land use board members were concerned about the draft or desk but they have some really really good concepts in terms of
the B and the OP zones so that I I think we can really work through it quickly. My question really for Mr. can and this being is do we uh expedite it now and do it in 2025 or do we wait and do it in January of six?
I mean if we have to see how the process plays out as we file it if if you have objections then it might it might take longer. Um I'm going to find a timeline so we see what happens there for at least the first comment period. I
mean, there's nothing to prevent us from doing in 2025. But I I agree with Mr. Ken and that's, you know, there's so many unknowns. This process is brand new and so we're not really sure, you know, like right now the focus is June 30th. So, we're not really sure what we're going to get over the summer. We may get
nothing, right? We may get people coming out of the woodwork. We just don't know. I would not recommend adopting the ordinance until we have the balance of the plan pretty much set. we will be expeditious in terms of 100%. I mean, there's nothing to stop us from doing
the work now, right, to to set us up so when the time is right, we're ready to go. There's nothing to prevent that from happening. It just I wouldn't I wouldn't recommend adopting any of these ordinances until we get farther through the process. We'll just turn it over to you and leave, you know, once once we completed the land, we'll just turn
over. Sure. Fair. Share will have a comment. Yes. and uh being headed by Leer Law Group is the affordable housing attorney who's handing specific compliance filings. Um and yeah, they'll tell us and then the ordinance changes would be done here though, right? Yeah.
Great. Okay. Thank you very much. And then come back to you and then come back. You'll be in the loop. You good? Other questions? Yes, sir. Come on. Please. actually if you would say name and
address. Sure. I'm uh Bob McCallister from 4125th Avenue and um I had a question uh with respect to the credits for the Oxford houses. Um what is our level of confidence that those are not going to
be subject to challenge? So historically because they don't have lenture through like the state of housing services or developmentally disabled uh the process would not accept those bedrooms as credits because they
they just not allow for it. This legislation which just got adopted last year has changed that. So it specifically says that they're eligible for credit. And how do we assure that they are affordable? They're affordable just by the nature. The fact that they're supportive needs housing. Is
that right? Yes. Same as a group home. Okay. Because um I had a question about the plan because the plan says that Bradley Beach maintains them. Maintains meaning has them here. I don't think that's the case. Right. That word is used to say
Bradley Beach has them physically here. Right. They're privately owned and operated. Yes. Yes. But we're certain that there will be income requirements so that they will be affordable. No, they're affordable just by the simple fact that it's according
to these housing there. That is one of the groups of creditable use types. So if there was a group home of developmentally disabled adults, which is regulated as a single family home, so would not need any board approval or what have you, would have to time somebody realize that they're there
because they really just pull a building permit. They don't income qualify the individuals. It's a registered supported needs housing. You get credit per veteran. Okay. Thank you. Um the other um part that I I was concerned about was
the present need and we talked about this a bit at the land use board as well. Um 64 units is a big big number. Yes, I agree. Belmar's number is zero. I understand. And Belmar is bigger than we are. the DCA creates the numbers which is why
I said if we wind up in an issue we can perform that windshield survey and then okay my only reason for raising it and the reason I raised it at land use was it's something that we really need to think a lot about and figure out how do
we satisfy ourselves that we don't have a big problem because if you look at the plan we could be talking about overcrowding we could talk could be talking about inadequate plumbing. We could be talking about inadequate kitchen facilities. It's a
bad look for Bradley Beach to have a big number like that. So, if the numbers wrong, that's great, but how do we figure out whether it's it's real? And if it is real, what do we do about it? So, the building department would have to go through through the burrow and do
a windshield survey every structure and then give us a detailed detailed information about each and every unit here. And they can up and say 64 is not real. We found 15. But they would have to go through that exercise. Jen, on this point you, as you
mentioned, Mr. Mel, we talked about this and I asked questions as well about this at our last landing board meeting. Um, that windshield survey, you were alluding to some of this process earlier that you don't know who's living there. Could be Jane Noble that just doesn't paint her house frequently enough. But
to the extent it's it's qualifies for low income, well, the thing is is that We're talking two different things, right? So, we're talking about the number, right? The 64 number. That windshield survey doesn't doesn't matter who's living there. It's do you have 64 units within the burrow that are in need
of rehabilitation? I agree with you. I think it it's significantly lower than that. Um then once we get to a realistic number based upon this windshield survey that the building department would have to do then if somebody wants to propose to
enter the rehab program then they would have to be income qualified. It's two separate the numbers first and then who gets to use the rehab program is second. But then you also I believe mentioned but let me confirm you also mentioned it's less about it's more about creating
the opportunities for people to take advantage of the rehab dollars that we need to market campaign advertise. Well you have to you have to earmark the money too. That's one of the reasons why when you have a big number um you know you're earmarking like $25,000 per unit
and you have to provide for that out of like your trust fund dollars. So that's money that has to be earmarked for the rehab that probably is inflated erroneously that you can't touch for other things. So it may be worth the
while. That would definitely be up to you. You know, it's something that we can do. Um but as of right now, it's really just a matter of hiring the administrative agent to enter into the program. And you said we at the moment where we have no very very little trust fund dollars, we might have to be
bonding for that. Yes. And did I understand before that um for the development fees we're collecting them under a new ordinance? I think they adopted it last year because when the special adjudicator and fair share
housing center reviewed the ordinance that was on the books in uh from 2017, they found some you know changes to the language that needed to be made, changes to the law that needed to be made. So those things were made and the fund is open, right? We have a trust fund, right? Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. And we are
collect. Very good. Thank you very much. Thank you. Other questions or comments in the room on Zoom? Questions or comments. Okay, Miss Be. Thank you very much.
We'll close our workshop. Like to move to item seven on the agenda, presentations and bids. Um we have another special guest with us tonight. Uh, Mr. Fred, I even uh Mr. Eveno, I put a couple quick notes
together for you. Number one, I I wish former mayor Fox might have been able to stay with us a a little longer because I did ask I did ask Mr. Even to uh well, the council hired Mr. a number of months
ago to give us a look back focus and understanding of you know where we the municipality have struggled financially. give us a sense for the nature of the challenges and you know the the real focus here uh that we charged Mr. Ibo
with is to say tell us more or less what went wrong how can we learn from the past so we can fix things going forward in the future and I think I even presented it at the time we're hiring Mr. always said your sole focus was to
look back. Uh what we do plan to do is uh learn from the past. Uh not coincidentally, we have uh officially assembled a financial task force and uh under the guidance of our CFO uh Janette
Larrison. Um Janette is clearly leading the charge here to help us fix flaws in our current structure. uh our collective hope is that we'll be able to utilize some of the expertise we have from in our residents to uh help us move
forward. So uh couple quick things. Mr. Even delivered a 10-page report. It counting the last page which is a uh an attachment but a 10-page report my opinion very thorough very informative uh a lot of insights not only in terms
of what went wrong but what we need to do to fix things. U we have asked him to present tonight. I did ask him specifically to present in an overview fashion. He's not going to read the report. We're not going to share the report with you live tonight. It is posted on the Burough website. We posted
it 6 o'clockish, 5:30 5:30. So, a little before the meeting. It is out there. If you've seen it already, great. If you haven't yet seen it, you can look at it later. If you do have questions after Mr. Even Mr. Even presentation, um Miss Larson and I will try to of those
at a subsequent meeting, but tonight is really just to give everyone an overview of the work that Mr. Even does. So Brett, can I ask you to present? Absolutely. Thank you. And thank you for bringing me aboard. So help out and thank you for giving my report.
Fred, are you are you able to speak at the microphone help? Like the mayor said, I will be brief. I'm not going to read your 10 report. Most anybody has sleeping problems. Um
it's a very interesting um situation that is in I've been in government for over 40 years. Um CFOs for the most part. I'm retired. Um I have in reviewing all the books in
the records, annual financial statements, annual debt statements, audit reports. Um one common denominator which is very very very concerning. I had two major major concerns in reviewing the books and records of the burough. The first
one is I don't know how many people in accounting try to keep it simple but you have one set of books which is your general ledgers and subsidiary on the computer. Okay, that's where you record your cash, you record your
expenditures and so on and so forth. At the end of the year you do an annual financial statement. Okay, which is supposed to report on your books. And after that you do an order report. Now all three should inside. It could be some little things here and there that
are wrong. You make a little adjustment here and a little adjustment there. When I looked at everything, it was like I was looking at three sets of books. What was on the ledgers was on our financials and what was on the order. Totally totally millions of dollars.
There wasn't even quotes. Okay, that was concerning to say the very least. Um the um another problem I had seen on the books themselves um in accounting in the accounting world
you have debits and you have credits. Okay, debits must equal credits. Debits do not equal credits here. Okay, that's been going on for several years. Um the other major concern that I had is
something that is called in fund. What an in fund is, it's money that is borrowed from one fund to another fund. That's totally legitimate, totally legal, but you have to pay that money back before the end of the year.
Meaning, let's say if the capital fund needed money, okay, I want to borrow money from the current fund. Okay, it borrows it by the year end, it gives it back. I've heard some discussion with surplus. Okay, when you don't pay those into fund
back accounting number two, you restrict your surplus fund balance interchangeable words the same thing. So much of your surplus has been restricted. You've got millions of dollars. Okay, it was a plus.
Why they weren't liquidated beyond me because in many cases you had the cash to do it. It just wasn't done. No idea. Um the scroll I audited actually went back to 20 2019. Okay. So it's not like we're
taking shots at administrations or who shot John. I'm not even looking at CFOs. I'm looking at administrations. I'm just looking at the folks in records and to find out why the burrow is in financial condition that the finances are in today.
In order to do that, I I went back I went all the way back to 2019. I looked at 18 a little bit. Wasn't too bad, but 19 seemed to start down. The uh some of the highlights are the
surplus uh which has not been um regenerated. Now, what is surplus in budget? Okay, you have all your revenues that you anticipate and you have all your expenditures. Okay, ideally, they're equal. Okay, but when they're
not, it's permissible and in economic to surplus to quote that gap so that you balance your budget. Okay, municipalities have a zero balanced budget, but revenues have to equal expenditures. Surplus is considered a revenue.
Um, and ideally when you're using surplus, if you're anticipating X amount of dollars surplus, you want to be able to regenerate that surplus to equal that, if not better that, okay, by increasing your
collection of taxes by increasing your local revenues. So this is along with OE your taxes over 99%. So which is very good. So taxes are coming in It's a little surprising that your your
finances are working. I think a large part of that is due to the collection of taxes because of all errors that are on the books all over the place. The 2022 audit had not been completed until 2024.
The 2023 audit was just just came in a couple months ago. Now, I'm not blaming the auditor at all. I think in reviewing the audience, he did a great job. However, being handed the books the way the shape of the books were in is why it
took that long. Again, no negativism job. Just that in the end of this, it's almost like he had to put the books back together so we could almost like order his own work because he had nothing
really else to work on. Um there's a tremendous amount of lack of controls and internal controls. I'm real big on internal controls. Usually you have all of these other issues. Uh
so there's severe limitation controls which have to be addressed. Um on the order itself uh for the 23 audit that Mr. Spec came in there were 11 comments and
recommendations when the order does the audit he reviews all the books he puts everything all together and where he sees problems. Okay, he identifies those problems as a finding and then also adds two to a recommendation
11 findings is quite a bit ideally one zero. Is it common to have one or two something like that? Yes, it's common. Okay, hopefully nothing of any large magnitude but it's common. Here you had 11.
Of those 11, nine of those were fires. It means that in the prior year audit those were not addressed. In the that was the 23 in the 22 audit there was 16 comments and recommendations of which eight were
prior year comments and recommend recommendations that were not addressed. Um and then I even went back to 21. There were eight findings in that one report. Okay. much of which were part of
the nine and the 22 and the 23 order as well. So it doesn't look like much attention was given to the order. U when I looked at the order reports and I looked at the depending on financials when I looked at the records when an
order comes in and it makes adjustments to balances you're supposed to, you know, have your books equal to what the auditors. So you're starting out with, you know, ending balances. So you begin balance in the next year the same number. I don't see any of those adjustments. I haven't
seen any uh the records are just so bad. Um why is this all so important? Uh one financial integrity which is which is needed. Okay, that helps in your bond
market. It helps with the ratings. Um another reason why is we talked about the budget earlier. How do you put a budget together if you don't even know how good the numbers are? Okay. So, you don't want to put a budget that you could wind up in a deficit uh and then
have to base that deficit in the following year. It's it's extreme. I always like to look at the finance department being like the nervous system of the body that it's not any better or any worse than any any
other department. When your when your nervous system in your body doesn't work, other parts of your body have all kinds of problems. When your finances don't work, public safety, public works, recreation, your other departments also
suffer. Okay? Well, we can't buy police cars, we can't public works equipment, we can't do this, we can't do. Okay? So, the fire doesn't really have to be in place to be in real work. Like I said, I can go on and on and on.
I think I have to be honest with you, much of that is touching the surface. Okay? And it's not just the current fund, it's the capital fund, it's the super fund, it's all over the place. You have something that are called
dedication by writers which are which makes up your trust fun. These were approved by individual local government services that say yes you can have this or no you can't do that trust fun. We have 33 of them but not all have been approved by individual services. So they
have the studio. Uh some more clean but in a nutshell it's bad. Um however anything else it can all be fixed. Okay. Uh Janette and I have spoken a little
bit earlier on some remedies uh that you could actually accelerate uh by basically using the order. Forget about all the messes that are there. Basically start fresh. Trust what the order has
the add controls. Get rid of the inter uh get rid of all the expenditures that we see in uh allow expenditures. Can an over expenditure in one year to another year. Absolutely. You may under the budget for something. There's
something called transfers the last two months of the year. Move some funds around so you don't have over expenditures. You never overexpend the trust capital. Okay. But those again it goes back to control. So controls are in
place. You don't have these problems. If more attention is paid in finances, you don't have these problems. Um That's pretty much it in a nutshell. I want to thank you for your reporting
coming from you. That's honor. If anybody has any questions or sort of say so yes, Mr. Thank you again for the work you've done and coordination with us. While I'm not going to open up to the public, I am going to open up to the council just to ask do we have questions
for Mr. I don't have a question. I sort of comment that on something I hope you'll say. I read your report. Thank you. Great summary just now. One of the things you say in the report is that you say it doesn't look like there was fraud
or embezzlement or anything like that. It was just all this sloppiness, lack of controls or whatever. So that's a really important thing to say to the public. Um because there's all sorts I mean it can lead to those things, right? If it but oh to um even at one point in time bank
reconciliations weren't done for over a year. Okay, there could have been mezzling there. There could have been um somebody breaking into the event that got some scam or something like that going on. Fortunately, uh in that year that that had happened, you would have
reported nothing. Uh so you were extremely fortunate. You were extremely vulnerable. Okay. But you're extremely fortunate um even to today that nothing catastrophic has actually happened. And on that note, I agree with you that
I'm not aware of anything that would suggest anything fraudulent. No. However, in that year 2022, you mentioned nothing happened, but we couldn't find $75,000 through lost entries. It wasn't which is
Yes. That 22 years was a tough year. 74 there. There was um over $100,000 of overdrafts. Uh there was a reserve for the reserve school something wild. I've never seen that before. Uh
miscellaneous. Yeah, it was wild. You just don't have that. Okay. Uh it was here. Okay. Um and it was overdrafts. They didn't know what to do with the overdrafts. They charge us account. Um we've had at one point in time 53 bank accounts. That's a tremendous. I was the
CFO of the city of Patterson. We didn't have 53 bank accounts. Okay. And that was over hund00 million budget. Um then the other years was about 30 some bank accounts have to be looked at. I don't think you need that many bank
accounts. Uh especially in a small municipality like this. And you don't have a whole bunch of different variants where you would need different trust funds and uh escro funds and stuff like that. again, internal controls, simplifying
things. Um, it was just incredible. Uh, and and the deviations uh from, you know, you could be missing almost a million dollars to surplus from one annual financial statement to the order report. Catch huge
huge huge. So, there's a lot. Yeah. Thank Thank you for the report. I think was well done. A lot of the items that you were identifying were um accounting, bookkeeping, uh discrepancies, errors, bad bad habits,
bad practice, um similar to the audit findings were very similar to what you were finding as well. So there was, you know, and this reinforcement of that. Have you come up with a um a list of specific recommendations, early action items, critical ones that you would put
in a priority order for us that said these are the absolute things we need to do ASAP and and and have you gone through an action plan that you got a full-blown action plan? Um there are hints of that in here in various different areas. I'd be happy to get
together with Janette, which I've known Janette for a number of years also. So um but And like I had said, we received it earlier at this point in time to undo everything to bring it back to where the order report should be internally on
your books. It just doesn't make any sense. I'll be relying on the order report that you just received even though it's for 2023 to reset those 24 balances. Even though you already done your completed your financial statement in your budget, I
would still go back, okay, to make sure that when you order spending for 2024, you can find some of those uh issues that may exist which will help you uh in your 2025 year to get at least better
beginning balances because 24 is um you know 24 your deficit credits. is the investment that we've made in you doing this. We want to capitalize that going forward. So if you do get to know Janette, please do you know and bring that back to you know administration to
make sure that we are implementing some of the best critical um practices that we need to address. Absolutely. Yeah, great comments, Paul. And uh just to state this clearly to the public, Janette is our CFO. Janette will lead
the charge. Some of this you already are aware of. Some of this may be helping. It's a super game from all angles. Well, you are only one person and this might need, you know, an army. Uh, however, we are very committed to straight this as soon as possible. I've
got confidence in that. Like I said, we've known a world. So, do we have like a time frame of when this can be organized and can the financial task force help out with this committee? I'm I'm not sure. I was
talking to the mayor. He mentioned the financial task force. I'm not sure what their actual role is. Um but I would run everything through, you know, the CFO. That sounds good. And I do have to comment that I did like that um
in the last budget that we did, we didn't have the the council last year didn't have the financial data to make an educated decision. True. And I'm really glad you acknowledged that. I mean, I I didn't know what to do. I thought maybe we had to change our form of government just to break this cycle.
We didn't know what was going on. And I I'm just so glad that you found Fred and it sounds like we can actually resolve this and finally break this cycle. And you said, you know, you went back to 2019. I'm wondering how long this really went on even before that. Like I said,
2018 didn't look too too bad, but then the the downfall really started in 19 and it really accelerated the after. Right. So, I'm glad we can finally I learned not on the books per se, but
speaking to the mayor, I said we kept everybody was actually fine. Yes, we were fine. But I don't know how you almost $1,000 each, which is terrible. Yes, it was. It was really frustrating and we just wanted to do the right thing. Absolutely. And we couldn't make an educated determination. We didn't
have information. I don't think they This is wonderful. This is very This is a very good day for Brandy Beach and I thank you for your time. You're welcome. Thank you. Any other comments? Um the one thing again I thank you a couple times and we all appreciate just
getting some better insight into our challenges. But I did want to read for the public, for the record, for the minutes. U one one specific comment you made. It was on page eight. You said, "As all the years examined, there is a
consistency of bad recordkeeping and books grossly disagreeing with the audited and unodudited financial statements. As a result of this, it is very difficult for a governing body to make an informed decision on financial matters, including the introduction and
adoption of the annual budget. And that not only captures in a nutshell the challenge we faced last year, captured in a nutshell the challenge we faced this year in preparing this year's budget. And when the prior mayor was asking what kind of prep work have we
done and I said it's difficult because the data we have is somehat questionable. Uh I'm not sure he fully appreciated I kind of wish I had your report done before I invited him to speak but not sure he appreciates the
lack of uh quality in the data that we began this year's budget preparation with. So uh so this is eliminating and I do appreciate your work. Thank you. All right, I think you can go home, sir. More questions. Well done.
Okay, we will move from workshop to uh I'm sorry, from presentations to approval of the minutes. I'll make a motion that we approve June 5th, 2025 council business meeting minutes. Second, Mr. Noble, yes. Mr. Green, yes.
Mr. Nikki, yes. Mr. Weber, yes. Mayor Gubosi, yes. Make a motion to approve June 5, 2025 executive session minutes. Mr. Noble, yes. M greenwest. Yes. Mr. Mr. Wiki. Yes. Mr. Weber. Yes. Mayor Gosi. Yes. Uh, now we will open up for
public comments or questions pertaining to any items on this agenda. Questions or comments on this agenda? Anyone on Zoom? Okay. Seeing no questions or comments.
Sorry, I see one. Oh, sorry about that. No, no, no. That's okay. You can't see the um Beth Kepler 504 Central Avenue. Um yeah, I'm not surprised that um Mayor
Fox booked it out of here after uh knowing that that was going to be on the agenda. I'm not a money person. I'm not a financial person, but three sets of books sounds like RICO crimes and mob activity to me. That's how that
operates, which goes back to 2023 and my petition letter that I read here and 300 residents in Miss Burough signed asking for the attorney general to assign the special prosecutor to investigate the corruption that was
clearly happening in the town. And in retrospect, it completely makes sense to me now why being that I was the first person to come forward and say it boldly and loudly what was going on, why my
home was entered and threats were left. And um I applaud you all for doing what needed to be done. It wasn't easy to do it. I think um I'm really offended especially hearing what I heard here tonight that
um including council woman that isn't here that you had to pay money out of your own pocket to defend us and to stand in the gap between us and I think you're being generous by not calling it
fraud or embezzlement but that's what it looks like to me. um that would have been nice for a prosecutor or somebody um criminally to investigate. And based on what the gentleman said this evening, um his financial review, would that normally find fraud or would that
specifically be for an investigator to find? And would his report be something to send on to be investigated at this point? In your opinion, it would not normally find fraud. would be very unique for Smith. It would have to stumble onto it because he was not
looking for fraud. It was a very limited scope. I hate to even call it an audit, but it was a limited scope review where he largely prepared financial statements. To find fraud, you've got to investigate our vendors, legitimate vendors. You know, people created false
banking accounts. He did not go to that level. He said we could not track tri balances the ending of the year to equal tri balance amounts at the beginning of the next year. I mean our everything he observed was flaws in our accounting
processes. So for me from my background in the medical field that would mean that he saw symptoms and without further diagnostics he couldn't clinically diagnose. So being that we have
massive overwhelming symptoms um based on what this report and and my loop's understanding of it just going by what his explanation revealed and coupled with this uh the 54 bank
accounts that were you know discovered and were withheld and the budget process, the material misstatements, the fact that our CFO had his license removed. Um, I could go on and on. Uh, the the I mean the list, you know, the
list. I I I keep going over it and over and over, but when you put it and you look at it, you know, I know that the the lab Mr. Barrett never wanted to look in the rearview mirror, but the only way we don't repeat this in the future is by looking in the rearview mirror and learning from our mistakes so that we never have to live through this
nightmare again. And so in your esteemed opinion at this point, I know it's preliminary and I'm putting you on the spot, but based on what this gentleman said tonight, I is are you going to be forwarding this to an authoritative, you
know, to someone at an authoritative level like within the state like because back then in July of 2023, we were asking for a special prosecutor. I feel like two years now into this, we have an overwhelming insurmountable amount of
probable cause here worthy of a criminal investigation. Will this um this body, this legislative body on behalf of the residents present this to the attorney general's office and formally ask for an
investigation in depth into what's going on with millions of dollars of more tax money? I would say uh it would be premature for us to do that because again there's no at this point evidence of fraud. There's evidence of tremendous
malpractice if you will. Um primary intention of having this look back and having this report delivered is to educate us to figure out what's broken. And we we received a good amount of that from Mr. report. we now have to turn it
over to our CFO to work with me in particular and the council governing body um to fix things and in the process of fixing we're going to learn a lot more about why we went off the rails. So, so potentially it could come to that, but we're it's too soon at this
point. Can I just say something for clarification, but just so you know, he did not say that there were three sets of books. He said it was as if there were three sets of books because the books which are supposed to match the AFS didn't which is supposed to match
the audit didn't. And so he said he said it was as if there were there were not three sets of votes just to be clear. Oh, I heard what he said. Okay, that's like to me came to the microphone. He said three sets of books. He he said there's not three sets of books. I heard very clearly what he said and that
screens Rico and mobility. That's how the mob operates. I don't think we're talking that's how embezzlement operates. I'm not saying it is a mob, but the the financial aspect of the mob, they keep different sets of books and the numbers never jump. And that's
essentially what we have going on. Based on my interactions with Mr. Eveno and then listening to him tonight, I think we all jumped to a visual of truly having three separate files of of books or whatever. And I think he was being a
little bit u creative. What he's saying is in my opinion we have one set of books maybe John to your point but they are so mismanaged that general ledger accounts don't equal sub
accounts year end balances don't equal following year beginning balances we effectively don't have one set of books with 54 bank accounts and things not reconciled that's troubling but I I've taken the rest of your time thank you
for answering my Other questions or comments about anything on the agenda? Okay, we will close the public comments item nine and move to uh item 10 on the agenda, ordinances. There are no introductions for this evening. We had
scheduled an adoption of u the traffic ordinance chapter 9 u changes we plan to make to the parking lot just north of this building. We're I'm going to make a motion in a second, but the reason I'm making this motion is because we the burrow are working on possible
alternatives. We not saying this ordinance might not ultimately be be voted upon, but at least for tonight, we would like to buy a little more time to see if we can come up with an even better solution than what is proposed here. So, that said, I'll make a motion
that we table the adoption of ordinance 2025-7. Second, Mr. Noble, yes. Miss Greenwood, yes. Mr. Noiki, yes. Mr. Weber, yes. Mayor Gubosi, yes. Okay. Uh for item 11, we have
communications. Uh turn to council member Wiki. Paul, would you like to use update here? Fifth Avenue sewer infrastructure. Sure. Um as far as the Fifth Avenue sewer infrastructure replacement project, um so um as people may recall
last year, we were going to advance a project um to uh mine, uh the sewer from Main Street down to Madison. um and then resurface that uh fifth avenue. Um back
in January, we opted to not advance that project and we reviewed that and we saw that the lining option we thought was not the appropriate solution that we shouldn't full sewer replacement for various reasons. one because the condition of the sewer, although you
could extend the useful life, um all your canal, your lateral connections, house connections coming in would be um difficult to have a replace if you were to line that sewer. So, it would just create a complexity to the homeowner. Um so, we ultimately opted not to award
that contract um as a sewer lining. And then we reverted here um and did a sewer replacement project that was actually bid. Um we took bids on that yesterday and those bids came in uh in the
engineers estimate um and the um the contract for the resurfacing which which was was awarded to Fernandez construction back in in um earlier this year. That was just the resurfacing. The
lane was taken out and so the contract that was awarded yesterday was just for the sewer replacement. We were trying to get this project and the sewers done here between um July and September because of the school
um and the school session being there. And so we're pushing to get that contract awarded and the construction to happen and completed for the sewer replacement while school is out and then come back and resurface the lot here in
um you know the fifth avenue in um September time frame October after the sew's completed while school is in session. So right now that is being um coordinated with the contractor and um we also have to um get a bond or ordinance put into place so that we can
actually bond for that um sewer replacement. So there's a timing thing here that is occurring as we speak um that we won't be able to get that construction to begin on that sewer until probably late July, early August.
And so that's the time frame right now when that construction would happen. Unfortunately, um certain things with getting in getting everything in place to get that contract awarded sooner and bid on sooner than yesterday didn't happen um in order to have had
construction begin here um beginning of July. So, we are moving rapidly. It is going to happen. Uh we're going to have more information uh to the community of the residents on Fifth Avenue exactly what is being done, when it's going to be done, and how it's going to be done and any issues for the residents that
they need to be aware of regarding parting um you know um any any use of their of their you know flushing and that type of thing when the contractor's uh working. So um more information to come on that. There's going to be more coordination more information as we um
coordinate with that contractor. So stay tuned on that. And just to piggyback on that, um so the rest of Fifth Avenue, the plan is that once from Maine to Madison is done then and hopefully by the fall we're going to go forward with
Madison to Ocean and do the same completely replace the sewers and we have a grant in place already. Yeah. just for clarity that the the sewer construction itself is being paid for and bonded through the sewer
utility. The resurfacing of the street, sidewalk repairs, handicap ramps, curb replacement is all being done through a DOT grant. Um, and that's the similar fashion in which the phases one and two of the sewer program was done for the
last several years. So that that this is just a continuation with Fifth Avenue having been left out of trying to complete phase two of that as we go. And one thing worth repeating and both of my council members mentioned this in
their comments. Um the original intent was by the prior administration was to line this particular stretch of sewers and this council reverse dried on that and said we don't want lining. We want to make sure we are replacing 100 year
old sewers. So, uh that that did delay the process. We could move forward much earlier if we wanted to start lining certain areas of the sewers. I think we all unanimously agreed that was not appropriate for homeowners in that section street.
Um okay, we'll move to resolutions. Item 12, there are no consent agenda resolutions. So, we'll move to individual resolutions. The first item is 2025 214 award of bid for Newark Avenue concession. You may recall in the last meeting uh there have
been no biders and we had to rebid once again toward there were no biders that met the criteria which included a minimum bid threshold. So we do have a a handful of entities interested in this
concession. I believe we will have someone in place fairly soon only because people have expressed interest. They just did not want to pay the minimum price that was in our RFP. Uh so we will work very diligently in the next few days to talk to those potential
biders and uh determine who we can we can enlist to serve uh the new gather concession this summer. Mr. Mayor, am I right that one of those is the same concession that left? It's the same business that left. Correct. Am I
right? That is one of because there's more than that. That's the one official. I can't recall an official bid. They did put together a bid, but they did not meet the bid criteria. So, um they did put together a bid, but others didn't
put together a bid, but evidence that they were interested and they they're kind of all in the same pool. So, we have to talk to them, find out who's going to meet. We are now legally Mr. here. He he'd be able to take us through this, but we are now in a position where
we can negotiate. We have complied with bidding requirements. First bid, go through a second bid. Now, we are in a position to basically negotiate with anyone we want. We've had folks suggest popup vendors. I don't think any of us want to try to manage that, but we do
want to maximize uh coverage for this concession. So, a little more to come, but again, we're hoping to resolve this hopefully within the next few days. So, we're not voting yet. We are not. I am going to motion table 2025-214.
Sorry. Mr. Noble, yes. Mwah. Yes. Mr. Noiki? Yes. Mr. Weber? Yes. Mayor Dubatosi? Yes. 2025 217 appointing summer seasonal gate guards. I'll make a motion that we approved. Second. Mr. Noble. Yes, Miss
Reed. Yes, Mr. Nikki. Yes, Mr. Weber. Yes, Mayor Guptzi. Yes. Um, I would like to ask one of my council members to make a motion for 2025 218 as I will need to excuse myself. I'll make a motion. Uh,
so I make a motion to approve 2518 approval of annual renewal of alcohol fabric license for Darcy's LLC. Mr. Noble, I actually live within 200 ft and I've been advised by our attorney to
abstain. Um, Miss Green, yes. Mr. Nigi, yes. Mr. Weber, yes. Mayor Gupti, I also live within 200 ft and I will abstain as well. Thank you. regarding 2025-219.
I once again will ask one of my colleagues to make a motion on this. Okay. This was for the U 2025-219 approval to add LED lighting to a single airator in Fletcher Lake for a trial period. This was a workshop at our last
meeting. the um Federal Life Commission did a presentation and I've done a little more research and it's not uncommon to have these fountains lighted at night. Uh Spring Lake has it, Belmar has it. the um Neptune side of their
lake commission has already approved it and uh many neighbors I' I've spoke to many people and they do like the idea of it and um it it is a trial period up to six months and they're going to assess
it after that to see if there's any ill effects whatsoever. So, um I don't know if anybody has any comments or on this or otherwise. I'd like to make a motion to approve resolution 2025-9.
What did I say? Oh my goodness. I do this all the time. I I I don't know. My apologies. 2025-219. Mobble. Yes. Miss Greenland. Um so I would, you know, I've been on the fence about about
this because as an environmentalist I would um say that I would not like to see lights in the lake. um you know the I guess uh lighting can impact um the wildlife, it can impact the health lake
and so forth, but this is a very minimal amount of lighting and I would um I would opt to um vote yes on this and just for the record um I hope also um that the lights don't stay on for too
long because I think the longer the lights are on the more impact it has on life. Um, and furthermore, um, just from a little bit of research, the color of light makes a difference as well. So, a warm either an amber or an orange
lighting would have less of an of a negative effect. So, that would be my recommendation that I would Mr. Nikki, I would also just comment that um we should probably put some um
guard rails, if you would, on this. what time you define a little more clearly on this trial period exactly what time are the lights going to be on what color they're going to be who's going to manage that um and um and then what are they looking for how are they going to
be evaluating uh any effects of this um and who are they going to report that to um through the commission and I would say back to this council um and I am a little concerned about it becoming president but I do also see the um the
aesthetic feature of it and it could be you know flow that doesn't impact um you know a wildlife um I vote yes Mr. letter. I'm going to vote yes, but also make a statement. Um, first I learned something from the workshop which was
good. Learned some things there. I'm very happy that this is just for six months because that's a very manageable u trial period and fair I think. Um, one thing I just want to um, you know, people think about going forward a lot of times this was called the fountain and when you research something like
this you need to come up with fountain stuff fountain you know this is an air raator in a lake in a natural lake maybe kind of unnatural lake but um trying I think we're trying to make it as natural as possible and a lot of the information you get is like lights and fountains and
that's just a concrete sort of man-made thing. It's just it's not the same as you're talking about algae growing and things like that. So, um happy to vote yes and keep an eye on it and check it out in six months. Mayor Gossi,
the reason I asked others to introduce this is because I I plan to not vote in support of it. But, but quickly, um my own research, I appreciated the uh the individuals who spoke to us at the last meeting um providing you know
positives of moving forward based upon their presentation and based on whatever research I could conduct on my own. I kept coming up with we're balancing largely aesthetics. It looks really nice and residents who view the
lake, visitors who view it, passers by like lights on the lake and it looks pretty in the uh you know with the area. However, I continued to find issues that cause concern. I'm not saying
yes is the incorrect mode. I just could not get myself comfortable with potential negative impact on the lake ecosystem with the impacts potential impacts on algae. Yes, some shades of light are
I think council said, you know, less than negative, but to some degree in my mind at least the negative. Um I think there might be negative light negative issues regarding ambient lighting. Uh and we heard if you
have these lights that might be incentive to run the airators later into the evening. Uh and we had heard that there were some residents who were already raising concerns about the noise of the air raators. So if we're running them potentially longer I think that
could be a challenge. So um what I'm very happy to hear is that the council wants to put guard rails around the process, talk to the uh the Silver Lake individual, Fletcher Lake individuals just to make sure that they're using the right shades of lighting and so forth.
And I'll also be very anxious to see what the results are of this trial period after six months. But I'm still going to vote now. Thank you. Okay. Uh I think hand back. Now,
item 2025-220, approval to submit a grant application and execute a grant contract with the New Jersey Department of Transportation for the improvements to Ocean Park Avenue project. I'll make a motion.
Mr. Noble, yes, Mr. Green. Um, so I'm going to vote yes, but I also just want to comment that this is sort of an extension of our of the plan for the sewer system infrastructure upgrades. So, um, this is a grant for, um, I think
it's the, um, DOT, Department of Transportation grant, and that's in order to secure funding for surfacing, um, for Ocean Park, and that will be very likely the next street that we'll go to.
And on that note, we're we're experiencing some sewer problems on Ocean Park currently. uh our DPW folks have been, you know, all over that sewer system. I think they've identified certainly one and maybe one or two other
uh problem areas. So, we we'll be moving forward as quickly as we can on replacing those sewers, but in the meantime, we've got some hopefully strong preventive measures to avoid any challenges for those residents. Mr. Nikki, yes. Mr. Weather, yes. Mayor
Kubosi, yes. 2025-221 authorizing a contract for playground equipment for the recreation center playground through educational services commission of New Jersey cooperative contract vendor MRC Inc.
through a very lengthy code that I won't but uh this is this is basically spending $160,000 or so rounding uh on brand new playground equipment to really upgrade our rec center playground uh largely covered by over $600,000 of
grant funding. I'll make the motion to approve. Second. Mr. Noble, yes. Miss Greenlat, yes. Mr. Nikki, yes. Mr. Weber, yes. Nutzy. Yes. 2025-22. Authorizing purchase of
recreation center playground surfacing through state of New Jersey contract 16 fleet 00131. Make a motion to approve. Second. Mr. Noble. Yes. Miss Greenwood. Yes. Mr. Nikki. Yes. Mr. Weber. Yes.
Mayor Gubosi. Yes. Following up on Miss Jen Beam's presentation earlier on affordable housing, we have resolution 22025-223, resolution to endorse the housing element and fair share plan BSP. I'll make a motion to approve.
Um, Mr. Noble, yes. Miss Green, yes. Mr. Nikki, yes. Mr. Weber, yes. Mayor Gutzi, yes. Uh, 2025-224, authorizing a modification of fees for suburban consulting engineers to improve the additional skill for the southern
lake technical assistance application. We basically had two sets of fees we've already approved. There's another 15,000 that was coming in and this is Mr. Councilman Noi's effort and councilwoman Greenblat's effort to just consolidate
these into one uh one payment you know one scope. So I will make a motion to approve. Second Mr. Noble. Yes, Mr. Green. Yes, Mr. Niki. Yes, Mr. Weber. Yes, Mayor Guboszi. Yes, as councilman
Noiki explained earlier around the Fifth Avenue sanitary sewer challenges we faced and we're moving forward, but u we put this on the agenda hoping we might, you know, be able to move forward more quickly. Uh I'm going to make a motion,
however, that we table 2025-225 the award of contracts You have the award contract for Fifth Avenue sanitary sewer approve at space wall. Second, Mr. Noble. Yes. Miss Greenlet. Yes. Mr. Noiki. I just want to
comment that I think we the administration we could do a little bit better on getting these things um more timely for our bonding and making sure that we have this lined up so we don't run into this in the future. So I would say yes. Mr. Weber. Yes. Mayor Guptzi.
Yes. 2025-226. The bill is for June 18th, 2025. Are there comments or observations here? Mine weren't answered. Thank you very much, Sean. And I have some questions. But we
got that resolved. That's right. You know, the only other question that I had was um on page two of the bills list um there was payment made to Fernandez Construction in the amount of 200,000 and change. And I Wonder if that was
from work that was done before this year. Was this park place um the one block that was done or is is this go for going forward? This is for work done I believe years ago. Okay. Remarkable the
guy weapons they us like they didn't actually bill us. So they build us And this is the Fernandez construction who was going to be doing the surfacing work, right? And they weren't going to
do it until we paid. What do you mean we found out $200,000? While we're on the topic of this bill, uh I know council, you raised a question, Mr. Majority, you have resolved the question, but it was it was
regarding the purchase of dog mut poop nets or muts. Muts. Would you would you give a brief overview to the public just to let them know what the issue was and how you resolved it? So, uh, one of the, um, line items that Councilwoman
Greenlet picked up on, uh, was the purchase of muts, uh, for $1,379 and the shipping of those muts for $239, which is insane.
So, uh, unfortunately, these have already been delivered. Uh, they're already out in use, so we have to pay this bill. But going forward, uh, we're simply going to use Amazon, uh, to purchase these at a much reduced cost. And, uh, because we're Amazon
Prime members, we will get free shipping. Says 200 bucks. Thanks. Thank you both. Yeah, they were not cheap muts. These were very expensive. Yeah. So, and I think the worse they are, the less
will be taken. Yeah. They're very high quality. not going with a high quality one. But this identified the real problem is that somebody goes in and takes like 50 or 100 at a time because when I had a dog, I mean, you know, I would go out there and I see the DPW guys put in a new one
and like two days later it was empty and I think what is going on, right? They're just too nice. I want cameras on Main Avenue, the lifeguard stand on that one so I find out who was taking I'm serious. Yeah, as long as it's not.
Yeah, it's for emergency purposes. Okay, we will move to item. Somebody second that. Oh, I'm sorry. Second. Mr. Noble, yes. Mr. Green, yes. Mr. Nikki, yes. Mr. Weber, yes. Mayor, yes. Item 13
on the agenda, announcements. There are none. Item 14, uh, 14A, the administrator report. Mr. Dhy. Yes. Uh, mayor council, as you may remember, uh, last meeting, uh, someone from the public came up and asked about the, uh,
invoices for, uh, attorney for the last few years, Eric Bernstein. Uh, it's one of the report that Mr. Bernstein was paid $238,000 between 2022 and 2024. Um he's also continuing to bill us.
There's an invoice outstanding for about $9,500. We are disputing those charges. Uh we're going through attorney fee arbitration with the office of attorney ethics. Uh we are putting all the paperwork
together now to send it on. um to ensure that we're not spending a lot of money on this. The only cost to the burrow is one check for $50 to the disciplinary oversight committee. So, we will send our dispute on to them regarding this
invoice uh and hopefully come to a resolution. And what we're disputing in the invoice is the work done for factf finding regarding the local 152 contract. ask question. Are we only disputing
what's left? This $9,000 us not 228 pages 238,000 and then that was for 23 and 24 collectively uh 22 23 and but that was for Oprah's and other items as well.
Correct. Or was it just for negotiations? Uh it was uh for all of them but a significant amount for negotiations and again fact finding. So if we are successful in our dispute for the 9,000, we are going to pursue uh the
availability if there is one to claw back some of those dollars that were paid out prior to this administration uh the previous administration for that type of factf finding and mediation that was never necessary to be.
Does it put us at risk for a lawsuit? No. If that's a great question. So, if we do not go through the attorney fee arbitration, then uh Mr. Bernstein could sue us for not paying the same ways. Um and then obviously that would cost us
legal fees. But for $50, uh it seems worthwhile to go and see if we can get at least a few thousand knocked off that 9500. And if we can uh take that look at the other line items and the other bills to Councilman Weber's point and if
there's additional factf finding in previous years um to go after that money back what as well and try to call that back to the taxp on just like we didn't find any facts or that just an unnecessary thing to bill us for. I mean what's the that was unnecessary line
item to build us. Okay. And there's a a panel made up of a couple attorneys, some members of the public that can you bring to that whenever you go before this panel like what the total
amount of all this arbitration with union would that all add up to the end like compare that to what this number you just gave us might make the panel think of that. Um, second thing I wanted to bring
everyone's attention is an update uh for the uh demolition of the church at 319 Lraine. Um, this is from our engineering firm CME who is spearheading the uh the management of the the project. uh environmental remediation the aspesus
abatement and lead paint abatement uh is complete for 317 the rainab the parsonage of the house next door 317 the rain a demolition permit was submitted today for the building department uh tomorrow the offices are closed as
everyone knows for Junth but we'll issue that permit to them on Friday so they'll hopefully start demolition on Monday uh which is the 23rd I think Um, on that point, are we we'll see something on the website to inform residents about the
demolition? Yes, we'll we'll do everything that I'm I'm reading now today to the park website. Um 319 Lraine the church itself as specus material such as pipe insulation and
floor tiles are removed and contained in accordance with state requirements. Removal of asbestous roof material is currently underway. Once is fully abanded and a letter of completion submitted to the state uh a demolition permit application for the church will
be submitted. Uh we can keep the public up to date on that as well. Uh that'll probably happen sometime uh next week. Uh and then finally tomorrow uh folks will start seeing a chain link fence around the property uh getting installed. Um again that should be going
up tomorrow. So when this gets post the information this information you just shared when that gets posted on the website hopefully along with the um demolition schedule which was from the demolition company. Um Does that go on
the homepage? Uh we do have now um a a location for infrastructure projects so it would be great to start using that so people have know where to go to find the information. We'll do and I also
think it'd be worthwhile um prior to the church demolition to uh just go out and fly the neighborhoods that are going to be most affected by it. The 300 block 200 block, the 400 block of Lraine, some of the side streets. Um, and then uh
that portion of G Avenue that abuts the uh the church between uh the 300 block as well. I did I did discuss with Amy the website and so in the under wall there is what was called projects. It's going to be what's called
infrastructure projects and and the information that's going to be inside there will be all the different projects broken down. That's work under underway. Um, however, the um notifications like the um the flyer that we did pass out um you can find that right on the front
page on on the homepage as you scroll down. And so that's um her intent is to put notices to the community on there that are active. Um but all the documentation of all the different projects would be reside underneath that in infrastructure project tab underneath
Hall. So that'll be like a library of all the projects. So, I think once that comes together, it'll be very intuitive learn how to find things. All right. And lastly, uh if you're traveling south on Route 71, the bridge
across the Shark River is going to be in the up position for what seems a long time. So, take Memorial Drive into the 35 if you're heading south. That's your new route. That's well I try to take that's a good choice. Uh thank you.
Thank you. Thank you sir. Okay we finish the administrative report. Move to 14B. Mayor and council reports. I'll start to my far left with council. Thank you Mr. Mayor. First the uh police department report. On June 7th, uh, a
50-year-old female from Ocean Grove was arrested by Patrolman Daniel Crow outstanding contempt of court warrants from the Bradley Beach Municipal Court and Long Branch Municipal Court. Uh, she was processed and turned over to the Long Branch Police Department. On June
10th, a 23-year-old male from Anz Park was arrested and charged with theft of a bicycle from Bradley Beach. Um, Mr. deeds was stopped in Ansbury Park and was in possession of the bicycle which he had taken from a residence on 4th Avenue. Detective Gregory Panchcha
handled the arrest. On June 14th, a 19-year-old male from Neptune was arrested and charged with simple assault, possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose stemming from an incident in on the 600 block of Evergreen. Sergeant Michael Tardo and patrolman Ian Ambrose
made the arrest. officers also investigate three motor vehicle accidents and conducted several motor vehicle stops and various motor vehicle violations during this period. The fire department um I get that report monthly so I will only report at the end
of the month uh for for fire department and the first aid um last council meeting I actually reread a previous one and actually printed the wrong one. So, um, the chief, you know, corrected me and cracked me on the street and said, "Paul, did you have a problem with my
email?" And I said, "Yes, I did. I printed the wrong one." So, he wanted to make sure it wasn't his problem. So, I'm going to go back to the June 5th report first. Uh, for the operational period ending June 5th, the squad responded to 21day calls and 189 calls for a total of 39 calls, 26 for medical, 13 for fire
calls. The squad conducted one drill for the safety and education of the membership. The squad provided medical overwatch to the Memorial Day parade and festival as well as marching attending the ceremony around the park. The squad provided medical overwatch for the concert park. Um the squad provided
additional personnel and ambulances in support of the Avon 5K. The squad congratulates member Kyle Hagermanerman on his graduation from New Jersey City University and bachelor of science degrees in fine science
and um nation security. The squad requested no mutual aid for the operational period. The squad had fulfilled 100% of their assignments for this operational period and they are still looking for volunteers for the first aid. Current report the operational period
ending June 18th. The squad responded to 21 calls, 189 calls for a total of 39 calls. 26 was for medical, 13 for fire calls. The squad conducted one drill for safety education of the membership. The squad provided medical overwatch
They're not going to be happy. They're not going to be happy. That happens. That happens. Okay, I caught myself. Okay, so that's interesting. I think it's dated June 18th. So anyways, I'll report on that one next period. We
continue. As far as Silven Lake Commission, um they are actually meeting I met tonight over in Avon because we used the facility here and work is continuing uh to um move forward on with the commission and with the various projects. Um and there's a technical um
advisory committee meeting between the burough and the Toral society and the bureau of Avon on Friday. And so that will be the update um to the overall consultants etc and try to advance the projects um going forward. More information on that uh at the next
meeting. Thank you Councilman Council President. Okay. Chaitri has a meeting next month. Tourism has a meeting next month, but Amy Hall, the director, would like me to remind everyone that country line dance
starts June 24th at 6 PM. The Beatles concert is the 25th next week at 7 in the park and opera is the 30th at the beach and the new takeout signs have been placed on the boardwalk. Also, there was no board of ed meeting, but I
do want to share with everybody the mayor and council attended the graduation last night. It was amazing. They had um slideshows, they had music, they had awards. In fact,
our own Nicole Brownie, this dispatcher that works here in town, was inducted into the Hall of Fame. She was from the class of 1990. She graduated from Bradley Beach Elementary School. So, congratulations, Nicole. And I also like
to congratulate Bridget Deain and John Weber because their daughter Nora was validictorian. So congratulations. And that completes my report. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council President Council.
Mayor, um uh the first is recreation. The recreation board met June 9th uh when the burrow hosted an information session for the rec board with our engineer Ben Matlac of CME and BA Matt Dherty. Many thanks for presenting the
site improvements planned in early fall and an opportunity for feedback. And thanks to the rec board for a fun-filled Father's Day kickball event this past Friday. It was a great way to kick off Father's Day weekend. W summer camp begins onboarding its staff on June
23rd. The camp begins Monday, June 30th. Uh, and a reminder about ongoing events, the senior club meets June 25th, noon at Fiazi Center. The group will then reconvene in September. Summer Botchi League registration opened yesterday,
June 16th. Registration is still open. Summer League will run from July 8th to August 14th. Uh, go to the recreation web page to sign up. Salted yoga. Salted soul yoga hosts a full schedule of activities this month. Uh check the
calendar on the recreation web page for dates. The recreation board's next meeting is Monday, July 14th, 6:30 p.m. at the rec center. Uh and now the Fletcher Lake Commission met Thursday, June 12th. Thanks to everyone who participated in the lake cleanup. Many
bags of waste and debris were collected and it was a great community event for both Bradley Beach and Ocean Grove. Another cleanup will be scheduled for early fall. Uh wildlife enthusiasts enthusiasts, take note, there have been sightings of pickrol and bass at the
lake by Bradley Beach DPW. Fletcher Lake is indeed coming back. The next commission meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 16th at 6 p.m. The arts council has not met Since this last council meeting, the arts council
recently hosted Summer Pallet, an art exhibit at Posh Real Estate, which included an artist reception and a book talk of member Lorie Cry's recently published Chasing Bruce. Many thanks to Mark Posh. I hope you had a chance to see the performance one sweet dream Abby
road and beyond on Janine where member of arts council member Olivia Miranda and her dancers entertained in front of Riley Parks Bshell ahead this summer in partnership with the Bradley Beach Library. The arts council is hosting a children's art workshop entitled Color
My World Tuesday July 29th at 4 p.m. for students in grades 2 through six. And mark your calendar for the popup art Arts exhibit August 23rd 10:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. at the James Gra. More details ahead. The next arts council meeting
will be an in-person brainstorming session. Date to be determined. And that's my report. Thank you, Councilwoman. Council. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, I want to take everybody back to June 7th. That Saturday was a very busy little day in
our wonderful little town. Uh the environmental commission was busy doing um they dreaded notweed, the invasive species. They were removing the Japanese notweed from the maritime forest. But as we did that, people from that were
cleaning Fletcher Lake came through the forest and they were only looking for for garbage. And as both sets of volunteers were doing that back in the distance, we could hear the fire sirens going off uh because we know that the food pantry pickup was happening. And that of course involves dozens of people
in this town and there was probably dozens more volunteers at the pantry. So I just it was like everybody in town volunteering and it was this hot sweaty kind of wet day. It was very interesting but um so helping us out in the forest the Kenny's who are here. So thank you
for that. They uh did a a great job there. every member of the environmental commission and I will say including our newest member um who her first meeting was on July whatever the Monday first Monday in June so it was just a few days before and then that Saturday she was
out um helping us remove the notw week um of course Liz Hernandez leader of the environmental commission Tracy Davidson Rich Davidson um Katherine Batco probably forgetting a bunch of people but a lot of people came out and it was a great day of volunteering um I will
school graduation is great. Of course, uh Councilman Nikki, use excuse, but I do recommend you go because it is just it's a really it's a good time. Like just clear your schedule on that evening. It's fun and it's nice that they invite the council. It's really great. It's great to see everybody
there. Um I have just something to say about the logo. you know, we kind of did this whole thing with the logo and we kind of already used the logo in a few different places, but I think there's still more work that needs to be done and I'm just going to just grab you and grab the administrator and some other people and
just kind of get it across the finish line because there's actually like picking that the actual graphic that's just part of it. I think there's a lot other work that has to be done and we should decide if we want to, you know, go out pay somebody to do that. If it can be done in house, if we have somebody in house that can do that, it'
be great too. I'm just letting you know that's like that is coming. Um finalize the logo stuff and that is my report from the mayor. Thank you councilman. Uh so my report I'm going to cover a few things. Actually I've got two not only I
but hopefully many of you will have it busy next week because uh I've been list off a number of dates starting with library board meeting on Monday June 23rd 5:15 at the library. Uh clearly not mandatory tennis, but the public is
welcome. June 23rd, Monday. Then uh on Friday the 27th, we have the Julie Shrek Maritime Forest Celebration planned. Um that is that will be held at 6 PM at the fifth I'm
sorry, at the gazebo, last gazebo before you head into Ocean Grove. Uh right on the boardwalk. Um, we're going to be adding new signage. The signage will not only have a little brief bio of former mayor Julie Shrek with a picture of her. You know, the maritime horse is named after the former mayor, but there was
there's no detail specifically in our signage about either the mayor andor the history of the maritime forest. What we do capture currently are species of wildlife that we can use there. But now we're going to add smaller signage with
the picture of the mayor, uh, former mayor, uh, brief biography of her role and brief history of the maritime force. So, we'll be celebrating that. Uh, members of the Shrek family plan to attend. Uh, I believe her her daughter
Molly might be able to attend as well and even speak. Uh, refreshments will be served. Now, that's Friday the 27th. On Saturday the 28th, very exciting Mayor's Wellness Walk will occur at 900
a.m. uh at the boardwalk at the Fifth Avenue Gazebo. We will meet at 9:00 a.m. and the uh Jersey Shore University Medical Center physical therapist will teach strength training using resistance bands. So, I personally have trouble
getting those bands open, but uh I'm sure a lot of you might really enjoy uh the exercise that will come with that. So again, 25th Beatles, well, 23rd Library Board, 25th Beatles, 27th Julie Shre Maritime Forest, 28th Mayor's
Wellness Forum. Um, and I also just wanted to comment that the graduation was fascinating. The kids were great. Uh, it was a phenomenal program. And, uh, and the proud parent sitting too to my right, Mr. Weber was giving thumbs up to the to the kids and
taking videos and pictures. John, we probably had a better time than all the kids, but it was a lot of fun. So, that concludes my report. Now, we'll open it up. Uh, item 15 on the agenda, public comments and questions. Public comments, questions. Yes, sir.
Rick Ray Castalano 604 Boulevard. So last meeting I was here to talk about the white wooden rectangular boxes on the beach. Uh after leaving the meeting I had some more homework to do and I'm
back to uh to talk about that. Um so I hate reading really. It is not my style but there's a lot of material and to make the five minutes that's what I have to do. So I apologize for that. Okay.
The objective is to request the council to create an ordinance to improve the procedure to assign beach lockers, which from here on out I will call beach storage boxes. The beach storage box issue frustrates many Bradley residents.
The existing process has loopholes that prevent residents from moving up on the list. Beach storage boxes have been given to new residents that were not on the waiting list ahead of residents on the list for a number of years. Major improvements are needed. The Barrow
needs an ordinance, too. And by the way, I have a copy of this project. No need no notes are required. The Barrow needs an ordinance, too. One, publish existing beach storage box assignments and all existing waiting lists on the Barrow website. The list would include the
name, city, and state of the person or persons that are assigned or waiting for beach storage boxes. Two, limit residents to one beach storage box per resident or non-resident. Three, develop a process for allowing current assignees to move their beach storage box from one
location to another. Four, build additional beach storage boxes for residents currently on the waiting list. Winter storage limits in a parking lot have been used as justification to prevent this, but other towns store their beach storage boxes against the boardwalks. Five, permit residents to
purchase beach storage boxes from the barrel. Residents would would incur a one-time cost for material and labor labor to build the beach storage boxes. Six, develop a process to initially assign and validate the ongoing assignment of beach storage boxes to handicapped individuals.
And uh seven is prioritize beach badge storage boxes for residents only. If you notice only the the first six items can be done. They have nothing to do with the resident non-resident um issue. Okay. Vaness versus burrow of deal 1978
and Neptune City versus Burrow of Avon 1961. Legal cases do not apply to beach storage boxes. The deal case addresses non-resident access to deal casino beach club and the add-on case addresses charging non-residents higher beach tag
fees. Beach storage boxes are not beach lockers. Beach lockers can be interpreted as changing rooms with toilets and showers. It would apply to the vaness case mentioned above. Asbury Park, Lock Arbor and Wildwood Press give priority beach storage box access to
residents. Beach storage boxes are only available to Lock Harbor and Wildwood Press residents and Asbury non-residents are grandfathered but can no longer obtain a beach storage box going forward. Well, it's exciting to talk about Main Street improvements and extending the Bradley Pavilion.
Residents care more about basic summertime issues. The season is short and that's why residents on the wait list care more about beach storage boxes than most other things happening in town. Please consider this request to help restore the trust between residents and the barrels that each storage box.
So, here's the uh document. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you for doing the additional research. You're welcome. Now we get to turn it over to Yeah. I mean, people are doing it and um you know, when when I used to work and you know, you're you're like the you
know, the board in my company, they would look at the attorneys and say make it happen. And if you can't make it happen, find somebody that can make it happen. I mean, that's really how I how I see it. There the the the process is
broken. Um there are loopholes that you know people have seen they have observed doesn't you know it's it's not good and um it's got to be fixed and uh you know by by really we can get item seven then
you you know we can be able to fix it more quickly. Thank you. We will definitely look at it. Thank you. Other questions or comments on anything agenda agenda? Beth Kepler 504 Central Avenue um here in town. Um first I'd like to thank Mr.
Dar for his report tonight um in regard to Mr. Bernstein. Um I find it obscene the amount of money when totaled that was um allocated for that firm given what we know in history which I won't go into but I think we're all aware but not
just about the labor issues but specifically to the Oprah issues. Um, you all know the uh the double dipping scheme he had going peeringly with, you know, in my opinion of the uh Oprah where he would he was our Oprah
attorney. He was denying Oprah requests, getting paid to review them and to deny them and then subsequently going to court and getting paid to go to court to defend them. And then the judge was overturning it because he would lose because he wasn't following the Oprah.
And if he had just, you know, if he was really an Oprah attorney who understood Oprah law, the he would have granted and not redacted records that he ended up having to unredact when he lost in court all with our tax money. So he was
getting paid on both sides. How convenient. And I think that that is something else that I think the office of attorney ethics should evaluate. Um and last week um the last or not last week but the last meeting um council president Denoval brought up a very
important point in her um council report at the end of the meeting and I think it may have gotten lost in between the Moby Max and the ice cream truck and the beach lockers and all the fun fund stuff that there was a $12,000
misallocation identified of the shade tree money that um we can add to the ever growing list of um financial improprieties uh that we've identified that have been going on. And I'd like to ask this
council body if in regard to the letter that was received from the state of New Jersey office of the comroller dated August 5th of 2024. Um there was 24 documents that were
requested by uh Kevin Walsh, the acting state controller that were supposed to be received by his office of August 20 by August 23rd of 2024. Um we most people characterize that as
an investigation. Um Larry Fox said it was an inquiry and that and tried to make it seem like it was routine. When you look at the 24 documents and in different information that was requested
um in especially in context to where we stand today in light of the report that was given earlier tonight is an clearly an investigation. It could be easily termed that. Do we know where that stands? Will that be reported back
to this borrow? What came of that? Because these are this is a very serious thing going on and I don't understand and I I don't mean to keep coming up here, but I'm not going to go away until we find out what is exactly going on here. So, I'm not not with you and and
that my my frustration that you're sensing is not with this council body. Thank God that the borrower got it right and voted correctly this year because we wouldn't be have gotten the information that we've gotten so far, but we're only
6 months into your four-year term mayor. And you know, I would love to talk about like, you know, drinking and outdoor drinking and who's going to be playing at the band and the fireworks and all that fun stuff, but we've got serious business here that
cannot be just swept under the rug. And I think part of the reason that these agencies are ignoring us is because there's only a very limited number of people. Everybody's concerned and everybody's paying taxes, but there's
not that many people that are coming up here and and voicing their concern. And I'm not saying that these other issues are not important that people are bringing up, but it would be very helpful to all of our interests if these agencies were hearing from all of us
collectively because it's easy to ignore one or two people. But we we wrote a letter and 300 people signed it and we were ignored and the council body wrote a letter and signed it unanimously and
brought it to the attorney general's office and you were ignored and our legislators at the state and county level were reached out to and we were ignored. The DCA ignored us and
they find you and that just doesn't make sense to me. The math ain't mapping. So I wish the DCA had ignored us instead of finding us. Right. So, can you tell me please um I didn't mean to spend all my time just talking, but if you could
please answer if you haven't received this report from the comproller in regard to what their investigation or inquiry or whatever this letter was from August 5th of 2024 listing 24 very detailed specific documents that they
asked for from the prior administration. What was the outcome of that? Uh I don't know the outcome of it. Um in fact, trying to track down a lot of the activity that occurred in 24 when the council was not being privy to that. Um,
but I will tell you and and the public that we are even currently having ongoing dialogue with the controllers's office. So, they're not ignoring us. We're in contact. I just need to track down some of last year's correspondents. We're we're also creating some new
correspondents as well. Could you ask them what the outcome of that is and maybe um I can tell you the stuff that they were requesting was sent to them and it was an inquiry. It wasn't any it it wasn't anything against the burrow. That much I can't tell you. Okay. So,
all of this was sent. So, that that's good. We at least know that. That it was they they give you a date and you have to send it by that date or you're supposed to send it by that date which it was done. But what about things like that were like bank reconciliations that we know were we didn't have bank reconciliation. So, how did you anything
that was available? they had. So things so not everything basically it it's handled the same way that an open request is handled. If we have the records they are sorry. So then to be specific everything we had was set but not everything that they requested was available. In fact that was a year ago
off the top of my head I don't remember. Well I wasn't trying to put you on the spot. You jumped in. Most of it I can tell you was sent. Most of it. Yeah. But now it's okay. So if we could So we're five minutes but but we're we're
continuing and as soon as information is available then we can share with you all. Okay. But specifically this this letter is the one that I'm interested if you could ask them what the outcome of that was. We're going to track it down. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Yes. Mr. Bart Rick Bart 116 Newark. Following up I
think on my inquiry two weeks ago. A did we ever find a report about all the wires that were on the telephone polls and you know there supposedly an audit was done on that. I think Councilman Wiki had said that he thought he had
seen something and second part of that I think Matt you were going to possibly talk to Ocean Grove to see because that was supposedly they had done the work and gotten all the utilities to uh take down the
extra wires near town. I don't recall that. Oh, okay. I'll be happy to talk to them. I think it was Ocean Grove if I remember correctly. That's what prompted my mission in Korea a year ago or two years ago, whatever it was that they had done.
That's it. And there was some sort of survey done. Do you recall that of of our polls? I thought somebody There is there is a map showing poles and and some inventory and I think res
Kim Kim Humphre had said she well she had responded that it was being done and I don't know how complete it was doing the survey of the do you know who was doing it like I think it was the engineer engineer
was that I think goes two years ago. No, I think it's it's all through the bureau as far as polls that we're because each poll is different. They might one poll might be JCPL, another poll might be Verizon, another poll
might be optimum. I I do vaguely recall there was some exercise some effort made to take an inventory. I also vaguely recall that it was not action but we'll try to track it
down. I didn't have that on my to other comments. Yes, sir. Mr. Go ahead. Thomas J. Co 612 Third Avenue. Um I'd like to echo one of the previous uh speakers on the uh uh Bernstein bills.
Um, I actually filed suit against the town because I was given documents that were 80 to 90% redacted and it was very nerve-wracking and the town uh did settle by paying my legal fees. So
again, it's this kind of churning of the account um charging to uh do the redactions and then having to charge to then fight the lawsuit and then having to pay the I mean, I'm so happy that this is getting out there because it's
quite un fortunately in that case I paid my u my retainer to the attorney, but there the court does allow fee shifting for open public records act violations. So, I was able to applaud it back, but um it it's annoying because it doesn't
serve the the purposes of the Oprah requirements. Um, I do want to uh thank the mayor and council for making the changes on Fifth Avenue. Um, our sewer system doesn't need any more band-aids, but um I think um one point Mr. Nikki I
think should you know shout out to the folks is that u when you do the new work like was done in phase one and phase two, the homeowners get a curb stop cleanout which they don't get if it's lined. Correct. So if they ever have a failure
in their 100y old system, the work has to be done from their house all the way to the line in the road. So now once we do these sewers, if they have a failure on their side of the curb stop, they only have to go that 25 30 ft from the house to the curb stop. And
also they don't need a road opening permit and bonding. So uh it's very important that we do it the right way and I appreciate you doing that. Thanks for your input. Thank you. Any other questions or comments in the room?
Yeah, we have a handful on Zoom. Mia Mullen, questions or comments? Mia? Yeah. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes, now we can. Okay. Hi. Um, I just wanted to go back at the last meeting I mentioned about
the uh music on the beach. You're absolutely right. It is on the sign. It's in very It's in the fine print, and I say that in air quotes, if you can see me. Um, it says, uh, earphones required.
What I have to do is maybe research how they posted on other beaches because teenagers, college kids, they're not seeing that. And that's just my opinion. But I would invite council, please take a walk on the beach on any
crowded sal Saturday Saturday and there is just music all over the place and it's a constant. Um at least on my beach at 4th Avenue. I would imagine it's like that at the other beaches. So I just don't know how you say to somebody, "Oh, by the way, earphones are required."
It's more like no music. And I don't know how to fix that without it being some extraordinary expense because our signs are very nice. They look nice, but there's a lot of fine print on it. I almost wish the music part was up where it's the no smoking part, like no smoking, no music. Then it would just
click with the average person. Oh, I can't smoke and I can't have music. Um, anyway, that's I really want to see how they post it at other beaches, but again, it it's would be an expense to change that. And I don't know how you police for it, but it's very uncomfortable to say to somebody, you
know, a 20 year old, you know, could you please uh turn your music off? I usually say turn it down and they get irritated because they don't know that there's a sign. They really don't understand that sign. Um, and the other thing I wanted to ask as a question, has there been
consideration for how the lines are going to be when they red resurface courts at the rec center? um it's desperate need to have that done. I forget the timing on all of that, but when I've played there now in recent
weeks, um and there's former tennis players on these pickle ball courts, they all agree that, you know, to put a tennis court down there would just not be used. And it's so confusing the way we have the positioning between the
tennis court and the one tennis court and the four pickle ball courts. It's different than actually how it is in other towns or other public courts that use tennis courts as pickle ball courts too. So I really I just me I just want to let you know that the feedback that
we got from the recreation board and the recreation director is that there are a lot of people who do want to play tennis and of course they they don't want to play on a pickle ball court. That's the point. Well, that people will be playing tennis and that it will be lined for
tennis and pickle ball. That's the bottom line. Miss Mullen, they the board, this rec center board and uh councilwoman Greenblood is the liaison to the board. They met on this. We very very pointedly
said, you know, there are tennis players saying they won't play and we're on pickle ball line courts and we're being told by the rec board and by the rec director, no, that's incorrect. Many tennis players are using these courts with the pickle ball lining. And given
that we don't have a lot of space, we don't have area to, you know, hold one tennis court separate. uh the I don't know I don't mean to interrupt you but I just and I'm sorry it's just I bet none of them play tennis. I mean it just
doesn't any sense. If you ask any tennis player they will tell you it's just it's exactly what she's just saying. at the recre board says there's lots of people that play tennis and would like to play tennis and will play tennis over. It sounds like there's two two types of
tennis players out there and you and Jim Shishi are one and these folks spoke to a bunch of others and you know this is what government does. You talk to people and figure out most people what the most people want.
So we're we're trying uh Miss Bull, but this is an example. We heard you. We heard Mr. Shishes. We heard others, but we also heard others saying, "No, there are many people who will play tennis on these courts, and given our lack of space, we just can't we just don't have
the capacity to to have multiple courts or or give up the tennis court. They don't want to give up the option. So, any other comments or questions? Okay. What is it? Uh, Miss Maguire
actually. Sorry. I think she is. Well, I see Breijit. I was just taking one. Okay. Breit Magguire, are you available? Yep. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Yes.
Hi there. Um, just want to make a couple of comments. Uh I too was someone who had a lawsuit based on uh Oprah's and um about over 20 documents that were loaded with black ink redactions. They looked
like bar graphs if you turn them sideways. Um I believe I had all but three unredacted documents come out of that lawsuit. So it's crazy that he's fighting for this invoice to be paid and we're at risk for a lawsuit. Um, you know, we all
keep trying to move forward positively, but we have so much to fix in this town and are constantly reminded of how poorly things have been managed. Um, the financial review by Mr. Ibanau confirmed for me that we do need investigations to
happen and far back. Um, what else? We had oh, we had a historic tax increase here a couple of years ago. had a set of books that didn't match anywhere and it was basically like looking at three sets of
books. How were we even able to come up with a number of that tax increase that we had when our numbers were so all over the place? It's it's it feels criminal. You know, there's people who couldn't stay
and afford living here because of some of these tax increases. So, it just confirms that Larry Fox had really no clue what he was doing during his term or even commenting tonight at the meeting. He comes scripted and makes no
point at all. He spoke more tonight than ever as a mayor and expected answers he never gave as a mayor. Um, yes, I am furious with his behavior, but more so of the BS he brought to this town that doesn't allow us to move forward without
the reminder of his terrible administration and professionals he milked ceremony for to keep his holdovers doing nothing. Um, I'm sorry. Thank you for letting me vent, but this, you know, you we try to move forward and
then we're reminded with who we still have to pay, putting us at risk for lawsuits, someone who didn't even get our employee contracts done, and then he shows up at these meetings and talks more than he ever even spoke to residents. Um, so I just want to say
thank you. Thank you for hiring Mr. even out for this additional report on top of the audit we'll be waiting for. Um, it helps put things in a clearer perspective of really how damaged our
financials are. And I just am so I feel so much gratitude to where we're at today that we actually have a mayor and a full council that really can move forward and work for all the good. And I
just I feel so positive about that. And you know, thanks for letting me vent all the negative, but we are finally here. And it's a bumpy ride, I feel like, but we're here. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you, Miss Shish,
are you can you hear me? Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Hi. Um, you know, I love the bills list and if I remember correctly, it was
November of 2022 that CME charged us, I think, $2,400 for a utility pole inventory. So, I know it's a November. I
I pretty confident it's a November in the a November bill list. And for some reason, I think it's 2022. I'm trying to go through everything here and I can't find it, but I know they were they charged us, I think, $2,400 for a
utility pull inventory. Okay. Thanks. We we will follow up with that mallet. Okay. Thank you. Byebye. Give her a prize if she's right. Are there any other questions or comments?
Okay. Leaning forward so I can see this. Seeing none, I will uh close the public comments and move to the exe 16 executive session in which we
will discuss 301 main street zoning appeal versus Bradley Beach and uh this is roughly we estimate this will take us half and and the governing body will take no action when we return from executive session.
You're welcome. Thank you. You have a second. Mr. Noble. Yes. M. Green. Mr. Noiki. Mr. Weber. Yes. You said, "Hey, do you need a timeless