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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=wIXTsIfnt_Q

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So, I think the mayor just stepped out for a brief moment. We're just going to wait a moment for her to return. Talk amongst yourselves. Right? We'll just wait another 30 seconds, tops. Okay.

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Time starts now. You guys don't want to talk amongst yourselves? No, we don't want to. >> No. Let's get it started. All right. Okay. At this point, I will entertain a motion to suspend the regular order of business

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to accommodate the budget hearing. I so move to suspend regular order of business for the budget hearing. I'll second that motion. Copy that. Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Councilman Albany. >> Yes. Councilman Minakino. >> Yes. Councilwoman Marina. Yes.

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Councilman Cohen. Yes. Councilwoman Travers. >> Yes. Vice President Ambersino. Yes. President Feiman. Yes. Thank you. Council President, this is the time fixed for the public hearing of the 2026 municipal budget. The budget was introduced by the governing body on March 24th, 2026 and was advertised in

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the Ocean Star on March 27th, 2026 together with a notice of hearing for April 28th, 2026 at this time. Thank you. Anyone who has not secured a copy of the budget may do so now. Copies are on the back table.

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>> [snorts] >> And then, we'll give them an extra moment to And first, I'd like to open it up to council first regarding the budget. I'd like to Yes, Councilwoman Marina. Thank you.

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>> [clears throat] >> So, first, um I'd like to begin by thanking our new CFO and BA for the multiple meetings that they had and all the questions of mine that were answered. I'd like to turn my attention to the topic of our

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surplus. Um as many of you know, the surplus is a leading indicator of a municipality's financial health. It's used to stabilize tax impact on the community during economic changes and downturns.

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It serves as a savings account and generates interest. It uh is also available to help pay down debt, invest in future projects, and an emergency buffer. A decline in the surplus over time will limit a

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community's ability to buffer its taxpayers from spikes in tax rates. And unfortunately, that is exactly what is happening [clears throat] here. So, I have here with me uh a surplus history, and there are three um

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three sections of this, three columns of this that are important to call out. The first is utilized in budget. So, utilized in budget for 2026, we have $16,108,085. This is the highest amount of the surplus used in 16 years.

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I'll move next to the balance that's remaining. Our balance remaining for 2026 is uh $2,964,444. That is the lowest amount remaining in the budget in 15 years. And then, my

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last and final uh column that I'll address is the surplus left as a percentage of the budget. This is at 2.34% and it is the lowest in 15 years. So, why why am I talking about this and why

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is it important? And what else does the surplus impact outside of the things that I mentioned? So, one of the things is that it impacts is our bond rating. A bond rating is generally jeopardized when it falls below 10 to 15% of annual

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operating expenditures. We are significantly below that. The surplus of a fund balance when it is 5% or less is viewed as um critical. It can trigger a downgrade in

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our bond rating and it's considered precarious. We may have difficulty covering temporary budget imbalances as a result. And so, another point I'd like to make is that a steady decline

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is more concerning than a single year in because um a steady decline in this indicates a structural issue rather than a one-time event. What are the consequences of a downgrade to our bond rating? Well,

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the the rating agency believes that the issuer has a higher risk of defaulting on the debt. So, there are severe and lasting consequences on financial health. Borrowing costs, they will be increased. It's a higher risk to investors, higher

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interest on bond issues for infrastructure projects, decreased fiscal flexibility, our reserves are depleted, we're vulnerable to economic downturns, we have lower credit confidence, and also

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potential for property tax increases. So, to recap, what we have here, what concerns me, is a steady decline over time, a surplus in the danger zone um at 2.34,

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5% it's historically low and precarious. It jeopardizes our bond rating and has lasting consequences on our financial health, increasing our borrowing costs. So, you know, what is a realistic expectation in terms of replenishing the

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sub the surplus? I My concern is that we are on an unsustainable path and we need a strong plan to reverse the the trajectory of the path that we're traveling. Thank you. Mr. President, I have comments. Yes,

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Councilman Cohen, please. So, um first, I'd like to also thank Joanne and Bill um for being totally available to us at like crazy hours. I'm getting emails back and forth um explaining all of this to us as new council people. It was invaluable

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information. Um as a councilman, my first obligation is to the taxpayers of Brick Township, and tonight, I can't vote on vote yes on this budget. The budget puts us right back in the same dangerous position we were in back in 2011 when our surplus fell so low, the township was forced to

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raise taxes through a public referendum just to stabilize our finances. We all remember it. It was brought up recently in the mayoral election. We should have learned from that experience. Instead, this budget repeats the same pattern, leaving us with a surplus of only 2.9 million, a level

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that is simply not fiscally responsible for a town the size of Brick. We are entering contract negotiations with every one of our unions. That alone demands a stronger financial cushion, not a weaker one. A low surplus puts the township at risk, and it puts taxpayers at risk. It's not

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responsible budgeting. I also cannot support increasing this budget and increasing taxes when multiple departments came in under budget. If the department spent less than anticipated, then the responsible question is, why are we increasing appropriations at all? They had enough to cover all of their expenses,

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including overtime. What is the justification for raising taxes when the numbers show we operate efficiently? There are only two ways to reduce the impact of a budget increase. That is to decrease our fees and revenues, which is being done,

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and to raise taxes, which I am absolutely against. The budget chooses the second option, and I can't support that choice. I want to acknowledge that the majority of this council identifies with Democratic principles. Some supporters of Democratic socialism emphasize fairness,

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quality, and protecting working families. But fairness also means not placing unnecessary tax burdens on some of those working families. Equity also means ensuring that the future budgets are not pushed to the crisis because we failed to maintain a responsible surplus today.

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And stewardship means planning ahead, not spending down to the point where we jeopardize our financial stability. My vote is not about party labels. It's about financial fiscal discipline, long-term planning, and protecting the people of Brick Township from repeating the same mistakes that

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were we repeated in 2011. A budget that reduces our surplus to those levels, increases spending despite under budget performance, and raises taxes without without necessity, is not a budget that I will or can support. Thank you.

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Thank you. Anyone else from council at this point? Yes, I have a few comments. Councilman President Ambersino. Thank you, Council President. I actually just want to go on the record and state that I support this budget for 2026. Uh this administration and team, going

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all the way back to Mayor Ducey and continuing with Mayor Create, have a track record of 14 plus years in continually improving our township's financial standing. This budget does continue that progress. After 2 months of extensive review,

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including the past three council meetings that we were all present at, I'm convinced of the appropriateness of this budget and its necessity. I'm satisfied with the hard work and tough decisions that the administration and department heads have made to ensure that they can consistently serve our

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community even in the face of extraordinary cost increases. We are living in an unprecedented time. Our town, just like every one of our residents, my household included, has been impacted by macro factors in our economy.

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The cost of gas has skyrocketed so far this year. This plays a role and has an impact in preparing for 2026. We all know that energy costs have risen significantly. Over the past three council meetings, we've heard testimony from our department heads that supplies for

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public works, police, the parks, EMTs, and all of the departments are more costly now than they were last year. Uh, literally everything that we all have to buy costs more today than it did a year or two ago. I understand that. I also believe that the residents of Brick

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understand that. Everybody would prefer scenario in which costs weren't rising, one in which taxes could be decreased. That's natural. But at this moment in time, that's simply not realistic. And voting no won't change that. Voting no is voting against funding the

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most important elements of Brick. It's voting against providing the proud men and women of the Brick Township Police Department with the resources they need to keep us safe. It's [clears throat] voting against funding the hardworking and dedicated emergency services team members that do the same.

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It's voting against continually improving our roads, our parks, our garbage, and our recycling collection. And there are concrete items in this budget that build in the steady progress of making Brick better that this administration has continued. We've

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heard for multiple years from residents in low-lying areas about frequent flooding, flooding of their streets that has a big impact on their safety and disruption of their daily lives. This year, we're finally able to execute on long-awaited approval from state agencies to affect roadway elevation for

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the community served by Snake Road. That makes a difference to those residents. We are strengthening township bulkheads and improving our parks and our shared spaces. We're acquiring real property for open space preservation through Mayor Create's Brick Open Space Savers program.

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This is something that the vast majority of the residents support and that actually improves the experience of living in Brick for every one of us. I appreciate everything that Councilwoman Reina has said, and I appreciate the perspective of Councilman Kowan. But look, at as council people, at the end

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of the day, our responsibility is to ensure that our town is well run by Mayor Create and her administration. I do have faith in them that they are doing so. And after extensive review, I am convinced that our town needs the appropriations outlined in this budget

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this year. Thank you. I'd like to respond as my name was invoked. Uh, sure. So, once [snorts] again, we disagree, and once again, Derek, you're calling me, you're calling Greg out I

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think I said that I agree with your perspective. Well, so it feels as though each time there's a disagreement in the perspective that there's a public scolding for having a dissenting opinion, and I don't

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appreciate it. I respect your vote, and I would ask the same in return that you respect mine. I am not All of the things that you listed, I am in favor of. I am also in favor of fiscal responsibility. I'm in favor of looking for other ways to increase

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revenue, to decrease spending. Can we all say that there's not any opportunity to improve our efficiency of efficiency, effectiveness, and um uh, our in our service delivery in all of our services? I don't believe that to

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be true. So, I respect your opinion, and I would respectfully ask that mine be respected as well. Thank you. Could I also respond? Briefly, yes, please. So, we can So, did you not feel that I was respectful? Um, yeah, I don't you are entitled to

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your opinion. That's why Do you not feel that I was respectful? >> different opinions. I just want to be clear that my vote isn't against our police department by any means. It's not against our EMTs. It's not against our public works. I'm not saying that we

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need to cut the the current spending level in our current budget. I'm saying that we don't need to necessarily increase what we're increasing in the new budget. If we came in under budget, there is no reason in the world that we need to be increasing

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any of those department budgets. So, it's a point that we are in an economy right now. The the people of this town, this is primarily a blue-collar town with

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hardworking people, and they cannot afford to continue to have everything go up. Our governor's raising taxes again, which he promised not to. She's talking about a sales tax increase. Our gasoline taxes are going up automatically. Take 60 cents off of the current amount of money that you're paying for for

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gasoline. It is unfair for this body to be looking for more money from taxpayers that don't have it. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Moving on, Councilwoman Travers, did you want to Um

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I add add anything? I was just going to add, I mean, I definitely respect all the opinions as well, but I just wanted to say how I do also, you know, support this year's town budget, and I want to recognize the extensive work and collaboration that has gone into the development of it. Our

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department heads definitely came in, and they were clear, transparent, and they gave us a very thorough understanding of their needs, and were thoughtful in ensuring the requests were not only necessary, but they're justified as well. And I feel that the budget reflects a responsible and disciplined approach to our finances while

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addressing the needs of this community. And I couldn't agree more that everything is going up. I'm a household of five. I have three kids. I'm watching everything go up as well. So, I definitely I'm I'm a family as well that's looking for cuts everywhere. So, I but I do believe that this budget is very, you

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know, it's fiscal, and we are it's very sound. But while I respect that there are many differing votes, I believe this process has been thorough and transparent, and voting against this budget, in my view, calls into question the diligence and good faith efforts of those who worked through the process

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step by step. So, again, I believe that it's fiscally sound, and that this positions the town well moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. I'm also going to add my take on uh on this. But first, I'd like to begin by thanking the members of our governing

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body, town staff, department heads, and residents who took time to review and participate in this year's budget process. Tonight, we are voting on a municipal budget that reflects an increase of about $98 per year for the average household in Brick,

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which is a responsible and measured adjustment that allows us to continue meeting the needs of our community while planning for the realities we face. No one welcomes higher costs. We understand that. We understand that every dollar matters to the families in

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our town. That is exactly why this budget was built carefully, thoughtfully, and with a focus on value. The town's goal is to protect the essential services that residents rely on every single day without too big of a financial burden.

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This budget ensures continued support for our police department, whose offi- officers work tirelessly to keep our neighborhoods safe and respond when emergencies arise. It supports our EMT and emergency medical services, whose rapid response could mean the

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difference between life and death. It strengthens our senior services, helping older residents remain connected, active, and supported. It also invests in parks and recreation, which provides safe spaces for families, youth programs, community events, and

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quality of life for all residents. At the same time, we cannot ignore the rising costs affecting every municipality. The cost of insurance, gasoline, diesel fuel, equipment, and everyday supplies has have increased significantly. These are not optional expenses. They

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are necessary to keep police cars on the road, emergency vehicles operating, public spaces maintained, and town services functioning efficiently. Most importantly, this budget is an investment in the people of our town. It protects public safety, supports

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vulnerable residents, maintains the services families count on, and preserves the quality of life that makes our community a place we are proud to call home. Thank you. Is there anyone else from council? Okay.

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So, we are going to um close council, and then before opening this public hearing, I wish to outline the procedure. Each person desired will be heard to be heard will raise their hand, wait to be

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recognized, and come forward to the microphone. Give his or her name before speaking, and I will recognize one speaker at a time. Address all questions to the chair. Questions must be confined solely to the municipal budget before us. School or county matters are not proper

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subjects to this hearing and cannot be discussed or answered here tonight. And each person may only come up once for no more than 5 minutes. I now declare the public hearing open on the 2026 municipal budget. Is there anyone from the public who

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would like to come up? Yes, sir. Joe Lamb, 386 West Stereo Drive, Brick, New Jersey. Um a few things. Um in talking about the budget and people saying um, you know, it came

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under budget. The thing about public companies, every quarter when they put out uh their financial results, if things change, they change their budgets going forward. Government can't do that. All right, you're making a budget for 1

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year and you're living with it. Uh so, it's completely different what corporations do than what uh government does. And so, that has to be taken into consideration. So, as lean as they feel that the their budget is,

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um they can't make it too lean so that if something happens that they don't have the financial wherewithal to to handle that situation. Um in talking about uh the bond rating and um how the credit agencies look at a

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government, they also look at the debt that the government has taken on. And over the course of many years with this administration and in in the prior administration uh right before this administration, uh they've cut the the debt drastically.

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That's a real positive sign for a credit agency looking at um handling any kind of bond issue that they're going to put forward, whatever you're going to buy, it's a real positive impact. Um >> [clears throat]

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>> and so, those are some of the things that you really have to think about. And on top of that, I take exception to the fact that you won't let us talk about the county when they just talked about the state and the federal government. And so, what I'm going to lay on you

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right now, the county is raising our taxes 9.3% this year, which is insane. 9.3% The increase of this town is drastically lower than that. And yet, the same

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people that are screaming about that are not screaming about 9.3%. That's insane. We had a a fellow here from the town that went down and he um got a job in county clerk's office.

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Uh assistant county clerk for a hundred grand a year. They just hired another person down there for the county clerk, assistant county clerk. That woman's getting a hundred fifty thousand dollars a year. This is insane what we're

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dealing with. So, when you want to put things in perspective, let's put it all in perspective. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hello, my name's Kathy Lindemann, Host Landing Road in Brick. The road that's

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not been paved for 10 years. Um just wanted to add that in there. Question. Um I don't know who to ask this to, but is there a plan how you're going to put back surplus? Cuz surplus is very low. Do we have a

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plan for that? Yeah, I'll throw this to uh Miss Bergen and Bill. So, um we would have to have some revenues that come in next year um that would would help replenish that.

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Um there's uh a couple of um we hope to close on the pilot for the Superdome and that will bring in um money that we are not experiencing now. Uh we also have the potential uh sale of a property

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to uh Bancroft NeuroHealth as needed for us, uh them because they're occupying the space but secondarily so we get more affordable housing units um from that development um ex- through the extension of lease agreements for affordable housing. So, we have a couple of things in play uh

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that you know, we hope will come to fruition in the coming year to to help us. And what if they don't? Well, this is how municipal budgets work. All you can do is look to the future and see what's in in the in the pan and and hope for the and work towards things working out. You know, we

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are very diligent with watching our expenses and living really really tight when we need to when looking at this, that's what we will have to do as a workforce for sure. And wasn't the sports dome, that wasn't a 30-year pilot? Am I mistaken here? >> they haven't had a CEO yet, right? So,

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with the pilot doesn't start with the exchange of the payment until there's a certificate of occupancy for that and that should be coming in 2026. Okay, and how much will that bring in? Um I don't recall what the first year of that is, just that it will start coming regularly once they have a certificate

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of occupancy. >> taxes. How about school taxes? Do they get They get a a shared portion of the use of the fields, which is worked out um back in 2017, I think, when we executed the pilot. >> They don't get any money? >> No, because they're not getting any

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students. It's it's just a sports complex. >> of businesses in town don't have students and they still give money towards school taxes. That's Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else from public?

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I love when you hear oh Jesus when they walk up. Uh my name Mike Calderise, 331 Stinson. Did we do that right? Yeah, thanks. I just have a bunch of questions. I'm hoping uh you know, I I get a little bit of time here. Um if you can't help me with something Greg said and I I apologize for not being able to

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to meet get to the last bunch of meetings. As you can see, I'm just from work. How is it that we are saying that we saved two and a half or 2.6 million dollars that the cops said that they saved? It was the same story last year. We gave them an

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increase last year. They didn't use it all and now they're asking for another increase. So, I'm just wondering, why is it that we keep coming in under budget but what they keep getting a a bigger budget? And what the biggest question I have for this is, where does that money go?

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Like, is that is that getting spent on other projects? Like, why don't they have that two and a half million dollars for their budget next year? Like, there's your increase. You saved it. There's your increase. Why why can't we operate on something like that? Can anybody answer that for me? Would you want to ask all of them at once and we'll take turns answering?

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>> Take it I ask all of them in a shotgun. >> minutes, Greg. >> a shotgun. Take it up and I hope you guys give me a little bit more because you know what I'm saying? Cuz answer if you can answer whatever question you want. Where does the money go? Start there. Well, what would the president prefer? Do you want to go through all of your questions so we have make sure we have time?

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>> like three big ones. So, like I you know, I have a lot of questions here, guys. So, I'm sorry I I missed some stuff, but I just want to make sure you we have enough time for you to ask all of your questions and for us to answer them. Yeah, so we'll start now. Like, we're wasting time. Like, just pick a pick a question that I asked and start answering. Okay. So, as uh I explained,

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the police department took a 3-year total of savings that was unexpended in salary and wages, specifically overtime. So, that what he talked about in his budget presentation was cumulative over a period of several years. Um the money does not then roll over. Municipal budgets don't work like that. So, uh

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it'll roll back into what we can later then transfer into surplus, but there's a process for that that municipal budgets have to follow. Um the in terms of the overtime budget, uh he did save money there. Uh that is something that you just cannot predict.

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You cannot predict if there's going to be several floods, several major events, the Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, um you know, large-scale events and in protests at at public parks. You you just don't know. So, you can't it's not a good idea to start the year

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not having what you might need um because the worst scenario is not having what you might need when you have an event, specifically for public safety. So, that's why we kept the amount where it is um and that's explains a little bit of the savings. So, the money does eventually come back to us, but not

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immediately into surplus. >> they came in, because they said last year the cops said the same thing. We were two 2.5 million dollar under budget from the previous year. But, it's the the If you if you take the last 2 years of their presentation, it was the exact same words, basically. Okay. On repeat,

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right? Um so, it just it leads to me that it's they're being overfunded and then when they come in under budget, where does that money go? Is it getting allocated to other projects or is it getting put back into the surplus? Cuz I do have a question on the surplus as well because when when I look at this

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here, it seems like a number doesn't match from last year. Okay? You have a projected or anticipated surplus of 14 6 35. If I remember correctly, and this is I am going off of memory,

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I remember a woman sitting over there talking about having a 17.8 million dollar projected surplus when it all came over. The number was over 17 million dollars projected surplus. It's on video. I think I have a clip of it somewhere. But you guys have it at 14

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million. It just seems it's that seems lower than than what I than what I thought it was going to be and that's what it came in at is 14. So like I'm just I'm wondering like why everything keeps going down when we supposedly save all this money. You know, I'm wondering where this 2.5 million dollars is 2.6

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million dollars. Where did it go? Did the cops save? Do you know what I'm saying? >> Right. So it gets transferred into other areas. Whatever's not spent in anybody's particular budget, whether it's salary and wage, overtime, or their operating budget, if something is underspent as the as the first speaker explained,

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we're a finite dollar amount that that's very you can't it can't be fudged, it can't be adjusted through any way throughout the year except in November you can transfer money. So if somebody in one area or some department or some line item Like snow removal? Like snow removal.

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>> I mean we should have had a savings for that though, right? >> We have a savings for that, but we also had a bad example. But we also had a bad example. >> We also had an unprecedented year of storms. So even the trust fund took a a massive massive hit. Okay. Unlike unlike any hit that we've seen in the 13 years

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that I've been here. So um that that's how a municipal budget goes. So in November, if there is a line item or a department or uh a person's budget that was under that's short, in November you can transfer. So wherever somebody's got a little bit extra, you transfer over so that you

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remain flat with what you put out at this time of year and you remain flat towards the end of the year because you you transfer. That's how municipal budgets work. I I I remember I was >> it doesn't get lost, it doesn't get wasted. It's transferred as needed and then when it's if it's not needed, if

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there's still an overage at the end of the the year, then it's moved into a fund that then is then put into replenishing surplus. >> I wish I could have and can I come back up for a Cuz the the thing that I just wanted it just seems like everybody is coming in under budget or on budget.

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All the presentations were about as rosy as you could possibly get with oh we're doing such a great job with your money. We're all on budget, we're all on budget, but we all need more money. That's it seems and then it seems like we have all this money left over, but this I don't know where that's that money's going. It just it's interesting

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to see the we need more money, but we're very judicious with your money. We're all saving money. Nobody Nobody talked about where there was like they were they needed all this extra budget. Everyone was on budget. So where's the money going if everyone's on budget? You feel where I'm going with this? Right, but Mike, what you're focusing on are the

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department budgets that were presented here for a very small portion of our budget. Okay. >> That doesn't touch or talk about all of the other expenses that impacted more than this and that would be what it costs for us at the landfill, what it costs for us at the recycling center,

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what it costs for us to juice up our cars, what it costs for us to buy cars, which is up exponentially. All of those other things in totality are the bulk of the budget that causes us the most headache and and causes us the most money. >> Okay, so that's a good answer. >> So the part that they manage is minimal

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in compared to our 129 million dollar budget. Those are the other things that cost us big time and are out of our control completely. >> So that's where that money's going. So it gets taken from the cops and it gets allocated to things that that it may need over there. That's what I'm asking. I'm asking where did that 2.6 million dollars go? Anywhere where there's a

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shortage. In November we can take from who's got who hasn't spent and put it to where it needs to be spent, where it's short. And [clears throat] do they also have budgets as well? Like does every department has a budget obviously, right? >> Every department has a budget, but also things like landfill tipping fees, recycling fees, natural gas We don't

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know what that is like every year though. We don't have a set budget for that stuff. Like I'm just I'm I thought money was already allocated for all those things though. >> at home. I try to estimate what my electricity costs are going to be. I try to estimate what my cars or repairs are going to be and if I'm short, I can self-adjust in the middle of the year.

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We can't do that. We can only do that via transfers and then making sure we we estimate the right amounts for the following year. And when we get a letter from the landfill I know there's a lot of relations you can >> a letter from Ocean County telling us the landfill fees are going up 15% and

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look at how much garbage we dump, that's enormous and that we had no opportunity to plan for that. It's just a bill that comes and you have to pay. >> Trust me, I went through it. I know I know exactly about that increase. Um yeah, cuz it went up $22 to $52 in like uh 3 months. Yeah, so Right. No warning. Yeah, no warning. That was like 3 years

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ago. Um And we get stuff handed to with no warning. We don't know what it's going to be every year is health care insurance. Health care insurance this year, 25 to 26 what's in the budget, went up 2.2 million dollars. Which for us compared to other municipalities is minimal because we're self-insured.

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Other municipalities percentage for the health increases went up 30%. All right. All right. So >> May I May I just answer one question you raised about the surplus and the discrepancy between what you remembered and what you heard? I'm it's possible that what was

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projected to be replenishing the surplus did not come to the same amount as was projected. So I just I'm just saying it says projected in the paper and I'm just hoping that's like a typo or something cuz I do remember it being higher. Like when I asked about this projected surplus, I remember being

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over 17 million. I will find it though for you guys. I'll just get get it back to you. And it's saying in the paperwork that we were projecting 14 million. That sounds low from what I remember we were talking about. That's all. Thanks Yeah, I appreciate keeping track of the time.

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But you can certainly feel free to, you know, reach out. No, sorry. Um all right, is there anyone else from public in regards to the budget? Uh you look familiar. Yes, sir. This is what we would get on

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the bankrupt sale. Okay. 500 and the max when it's into its maturity years would be 280 a year. Enough for your average, you know, 280 red cedar drive. Uh first of all, uh thank you to the mayor for uh proposing the budget that you did and

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the way that you've been handling it. Uh It was crazy here. I mean, uh I moved down to Brick in 1981. And uh up to about 2012 or so,

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things were were out of hand. They were. Uh we had a lot of issues. Uh taxes were going up. Quality of life was not improving. So I do want to thank this administration, the the government administration for

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the improvement in quality of life cuz at the end of the day, that's what's really important also. As far as the budget is concerned, again, I go to the I'm retired now, so I actually go to the grocery store. And boy, what a shock that is. I mean, we

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all see the gas, >> [snorts] >> right? It's four on the way here, 429 a gallon. When I went uh this past January, when I right before I left for Florida, I'm a snowbird, it was 271.

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Now it's 429. We don't know where that will go. Okay? So I appreciate those council people that are saying not another penny, but what we've done up to date has served us

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well. It has. Our we we haven't faced disasterous consequences from anything. We've gotten through it all and it's the budget that was been put together over the years has worked well. It's

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it's important to recognize that costs have gone up. We don't work in a uh in a vacuum. So although there's a 2.8% I think is that's what it works out to be increase,

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show me what in the grocery store hasn't gone up more than 2.8%? Fuel has gone up more than 2.8%. It's gone up what well over that? What, 30 something percent? Energy in general, insurances,

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all these things have gone up. So although there was a surplus in these different departments that uh came here and presented, if they just do everything exactly the same, their cost of a paper clip is

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going up. Their cost of a uh towel is going up. So the 2.8% is al- although no one wants to pay more money, the 2.8% I think is an acceptable

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amount going up. And thank you uh thank you for your work. I know my son is on the council. I know the amount of work that goes into it. So I want to thank each and every one of you for that. And just keep in mind

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the quality that we here in Brick are fortunate enough to live. And let's keep it at that level also. Again, everything has gone up. Uh certainly we uh

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we we need to meet those costs that we anticipate that are coming in. Certainly we don't want to cut the police department. We don't want to cut EMS. We want to rebuild those roads that need to be rebuilt. So all these things have to be done. 2.8% is not the end of the

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world. Uh certainly we'd like it less, but 2.8% [clears throat] is fine. And the part of everyone's coming in on the budget, if they do everything exactly the same, it's going to cost them something like 4.something%

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greater if you look at our inflation. Thank you very much. Have a great day. Thank you. Yes. Michelle Janurik, 20 White Cap Way. I mean, I'm sitting back here debating whether or not I should come up and I decided that I would. Um I have a classic example of something that

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happened to me yesterday or to a friend of mine yesterday. And I as we talk about those millions and millions of dollars in the budget, I wanted to just talk about an everyday occurrence where costs are going up and it's, you know, a dollar here, a dollar there, five dollars here, five dollars there that

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maybe we don't really think about. And while this doesn't directly impact costs here in Brick, I had to help a friend make a hotel reservation in Parsippany yesterday. The cost of the room was $140. That was the bare cost of the room. By the time the reservation was

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done with all of the taxes, that room is going to cost this individual who happens to be 85 years old, cannot drive, therefore has to stay in a hotel room for an event. That room is going to cost him $197. $57 in just taxes.

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And so I think that it's important when we're looking at line items, when we're looking at overall budgets, when we're looking at numbers, you know, $2 here, $2 there, $5 here might not mean a lot to people. But the overall monies that we're spending in the overall budgets of

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departments makes a huge difference. I I I I was just appalled yesterday and I said to the poor woman on the other end of the phone, she might have been in the Philippines for all I know. I said, "Are you telling me that our new governor is inflicting $57 worth of taxes?" Please just keep that

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in mind that those things add up to everybody, no matter if it's affecting affecting Brick, affecting Ocean County, affecting the state in general. It's still affecting the residents here in town. Thank you. Thank you. All right, anyone else? I'm sorry, it's only you only can come up one time.

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Yeah. We'll have public We'll comment later, you can come back up, but for this for the hearing only one time. Is there anyone else from public who would like to come up? Yep. Good morning. Bob from

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Manor Drive. Um couple things I just wanted to go over. I'm sitting back there deciding to come up or not come up. Um Number one, if the if the budget's going to go up like $98 we're talking and the state goes up, whatever they're going to raise it, it's

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going to cost these people more and more money. The problem is we have a lot of senior citizens here that are on a budget that can't afford their budget right now. So they're sacrificing food, what they're doing, um and all that stuff to to survive because

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I get it all day long. People oh, your car needs this and I can't afford it, so I can only do this. It's getting tighter and tighter for people. I understand that. Um Our budget, I think in some departments

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is a little bit high as far as and I take away from the police department at all or the EMS, but they make a lot of money. They make a lot of money and I don't want nothing bad said to them because, you know, they they do keep us safe, but

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they make more than state police, um which is a a large amount of money. I think what we really should do is keep guys at the lower scale, save some money in that way and then you know, they it takes time for them to

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grow up, you know, to on a pay salary. But if we keep it on a lower base maybe for a little longer time, it it'll help us put some money back into our pockets instead of just getting promoted up and up and up. The same thing with the EMS. I don't know what they make. I I didn't

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look into them, but um I think we should just slow down our pay raises, keep everything on a on a steady basis and try to recoup some of our money, get a large surplus and then go from

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there and some of the fees that we do charge in this town are very low. We should raise the fees up. Let's, you know, building fees, I don't know what all the things are. Um I know I'm going to need a few permits myself, but maybe we should get some money added at

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department. I don't know. You know, it's just thoughts. Try to get some surplus and put it away, keep it in the surplus in case we do need it for emergency. Um you know, maybe get some new businesses. There's still a lot of empty businesses.

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Joanne, I know does her job. She's She does what she has to do. And I don't know, maybe we get some big corporations in in, you know, some of these empty spots to try to get more revenue into this town. Um

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instead of cutting maybe some tax breaks and stuff, they got to pay. I mean, we all pay. They got to pay, you know, it's uh just some thoughts. I'm just trying to you know, I I I'm always looking in my business, I'm always looking for the best bang for the buck. You know, I'm

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trying to save people money so they save their money and I'm trying to get the best product. So maybe we should start to do this and going on to the county was we're we're not allowed to, but we're I'm going to do it. Mantoloking Road was paid two two times in in two years. They dug

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the road up, paved it, and then put a gas line in after it was paved. They knew the gas line was going in, but if they didn't use the money in the budget, they would lose it. So they used it, paved the road, and then dug it back

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up, put the gas line in, and paved it again. It made no sense. That was a lot of money. We all paid that. You know, it's all our money. So I I you know, I mean, it's just things that happen that people are wasting money and I hate wasting money. So

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my main thing is I feel sorry for these older people that are really starting to struggle. I don't know what we can do in this town, but we should do something for them. And keeping the taxes down without the state, you know, try to do our best. I mean, I understand

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it has to go up. $98 is not a lot of money, but some of these old people, I really feel bad they can't afford it. So. And there are some senior programs that the town provides. It's it's very difficult for for elderly people and we have a lot of retired

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people in this town. All right. >> All right, that's it. Yeah, thank you. And be careful. God forbid if you have to call 911, don't tell them how you feel about them getting paid too much. All right, is there Is there anyone else from public?

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All right. So observing no further questions from the floor, I will entertain a motion to close the hearing. >> I move to close public hearing. I'll second that motion. Thank you both. >> Roll call, please.

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Yes. Yes. Councilwoman Reina. Yes. Councilman Cowen. Yes. Councilwoman Travers. Yes. Vice President Ambersano. Yes. President Feiman. Yes. Thank you. Moving on to item number 5.1.

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Authorize reading of the budget by title only. Title of resolution to authorize reading of title of budget by title only. N.J.S.A. 40A:4-8 provides that the budget shall be read in full at the public hearing or that it may be read by its title only if at

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least one week prior to the date of the hearing and at the hearing, a complete copy of the approved budget shall be made available for public inspection and shall be made available to each person upon request. Can I have a motion and a second? Motion. Second.

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All right, is there a council member who would move the adoption of this resolution? We we have a motion. >> that motion. That was that? Yeah. All right, copy that. >> roll. All right, roll call, please. Councilman Albanese. No. Councilman Minakino. Yes. Councilwoman

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Reina. No. Councilman Cowen. No. Councilwoman Travers. >> Yes. Vice President Ambersano. This is simply to just adopt the budget by title only. Exactly. Mhm. Thank you.

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President Feiman. >> Yes. Thank you. I didn't know that we were making comments on this resolution. I I well, Vice President added additional comments. It was yes or no vote. So he added additional comments. I don't

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feel that we're being transparent reading a title only, so I'll add my comments. Thank you. Were those your comments or did you >> That was my Okay. That was it. Copy that. Okay. So moving on to item number 5.2.

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Adoption of the 2026 municipal budget. All right, need a motion and a second. So moved. Second. Copy that. Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Councilman Albanese. No. Councilman Minakino. Yes. Councilwoman Reina. No.

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Councilman Cohen No. Councilwoman Travers Yes. Vice President Ambersano Yes. >> President Feinman Yes. Thank you. The 2026 Brick Township Municipal Budget has been adopted. At this point, I'd like to return to our

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regular agenda, moving on to the consent agenda. All matters listed under item consent agenda will be enacted by one motion in the form listed below. If discussion is desired on any item, this item will be removed from the consent agenda and will be considered separately. 6-1, please. Authorize receipt of bids

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general athletic equipment and supplies. Councilman Mekino Thank you. This resolution authorizes the receipt of bid for general equipment and supplies. This bid covers purchases and deliveries of numerous categories of equipment including but not limited to athletic

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equipment, summer camp supplies, preschool games, etc. used by the rec department. Thank you. Thank you. 6-2, please. Authorize change order number one Brick Township Senior Center site improvements. Councilwoman Travers Thank you, Council President. This resolution

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authorizes approval approval of close out change with order number one with Earl Asphalt Company for the Brick Township Senior Service Site Improvements at Ora Place parking lot improvement project. This is a change order decrease in the amount of $40,012.40

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as a result of final as-built quantities. Thank you. Thank you. 6-3 Authorize lease agreement with St. Paul's United Methodist Church. Councilman Mekino Thank you. This resolution authorizes a lease agreement with St. Paul's Methodist Church for the Township's recreational

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program to use the church sports field weekdays. There's no monetary exchange in the lease. Instead, the Township Park Department will maintain the fields for the sports season. Thank you. Thank you. 6-4, please. Authorize person-to-person transfer liquor license

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in the inactive status. Councilman Albanese Thank you, Council President. This resolution authorizes the person-to-person transfer of inactive liquor license at Trey Pizza and Roselita's Roadside Cantina to FRRI Leasing and Development.

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Thank you. 6-5 Authorize support of the Helper Act. Council Vice President Ambersano Thank you, Council President. This resolution confirms support for the Helper Act. That's a House Resolution which establishes a home loan program within the Federal Housing

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Administration to make homeownership more affordable to our nation's first responders, specifically law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, and pre-K through 12th grade teachers. Thank you.

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Thank you. 6-6 6-6A is an inspection fund release for block 446.01 lot 21. B is an inspection fund release for block 674 lot 20. And C is an inspection fund release for block 685 lot two.

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Thank you. 6-7 7A is 100% DAV widow of veteran deduction at block 313 lot 13. B is 100% DAV widow of veteran deduction at block 324 lot 8.06. C is 100% DAV widow of

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veteran deduction at block 1221 lot 851. And D are tax overpayments for the year 2026 at block 1034.05 lot 16. Thank you. That brings us to the end of the consent agenda. Can I have a motion and a second on the consent agenda? Motion.

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Second. Copy that. Thank you. Open to Council. I'll just make very quick very quick comment [clears throat] about number five, um the Helper Act. I did some research on it. I think it's a great program.

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Um my only concern with it is that again, [clears throat] it addresses just the K through 12 grade teachers helping them to purchase a home and does not um help the rank and file who are the lower paid employees across the entire state of New Jersey. Thank you.

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Thank you. Um anyone else on Council? Seeing none, close Council. Open to the public for questions on the resolutions only. Seeing none, close public roll call.

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Councilman Albanese Yes. Councilman Mekino >> Yes. Councilwoman Rina Yes. Councilman Cohen Yes. Councilwoman Travers Yes. >> [snorts] >> Vice President Ambersano Yes. President Feinman Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Uh item numbers

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>> [clears throat] >> 6-8, please. Be it resolved by the Township Council of the Township of Brick that the following bills be paid and that the Mayor and Clerk be and are hereby authorized to draw orders on the Treasurer for the amounts of the same. Computer bill resolution in the amount of $12,086,903.60.

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Thank you. Is there a motion and a second on the computer bill resolution? Motion. Second. Copy that. Thank you. Open to Council. Seeing none, close Council. Open to the public for questions on the computer bill resolution only.

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Seeing none, close public roll call. Councilman Albanese >> Yes. Councilman Mekino Yes. Councilwoman Rina Yes. Councilman Cohen Yes. Councilwoman Travers Yes. Vice President Ambersano Yes. President Feinman Yes. Thank you. Moving on to item number 6-9

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Be it resolved by the Township Council of the Township of Brick that the following bills be paid and that the Mayor and Clerk be and are hereby authorized to draw orders on the Treasurer for the amounts of the same. Manual bill resolution in the amount of $2,172,698.87. Thank you. Can I get a motion and a second on the manual bill resolution?

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Motion. Second. Copy that. Thank you. Open to Council. Seeing none, close Open to the public for questions on the manual bill resolution only. Seeing none, close public roll call. Councilman Albanese

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>> Yes. Councilman Mekino Councilwoman Rina >> Yes. Councilman Cohen Yes. Councilwoman Travers Yes. Vice President Ambersano Yes. President Feinman Yes. Moving on to item number 6-7 Please note that each person addressing

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the Council during any section of the meeting during which public comment is permitted shall limit his or her remarks to five minutes pursuant to Brick Township Administrative Code Section 2-33B. All right. Is there anyone from public? Yes. Cathy Lindenbaum, Host Landing Road,

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Brick. So, I did some research on the question or the statement that the county raised taxes 9%. That's not accurate. Um what actually happened, the way I looked at it is the property values went up across the county. And taxes are

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obviously based on property values. So, the county did end up collecting, I think it looks like about 4 to 5% more, 4 and 1/2% but the key point is that the rate itself didn't increase. So, there's no 9% tax increase.

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So, I just wanted to make that clear. Okay. Thank you. >> Google and you can find that on the county website also where I got the information from. Thank you. >> much. Anyone else from public? Yes, sir. Yeah, just come on up to the lectern.

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And you can just address the comments to to me. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Um Joe Lamb, 386 Wisteria Drive. And the thing about it is with the county and the municipal, how they assess property values.

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That the mu- on the municipal level, I don't know, maybe they assessed their property values in 2010. The county does it year by year. If they come across and they say that that Brick is a town that the the properties across

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Brick increased 3%. That's what they're basing on. They do it to for the 33 towns in Ocean County because if they had to go by assessments, practically every town has a assessment on a different year. So, you can imagine the mess that it's

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making. So, anyway, um you know, it's kind of cutesy for the county because they say well, the tax rate didn't go up. But meanwhile, your house that was assessed on the Brick level, if they looked at it and it was 300,000

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and the market value, let's just say it's 600,000 today. And I'm not saying they use the market value, but what they assessed it at and it comes in as an aggregate Brick and it's at 600,000 and it's really cute for them because we

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didn't raise your tax rate, but our tax taxes go up and you see your tax bill. So, what what And again, they'll person's looking at the wrong wrong the wrong line item. Um and I believe it's

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07-190. And the thing about it is last year, what they were raising taxes for the county was 497 million. This year, it's 547 million. A difference of um a

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of $50 million. And that's how that's how that 9.3% comes into play based on the 497 million that they uh taxed the year before. That's how it works. So, you know,

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the county gets that tootsie game and I'm sure every town in Ocean County wishes they could do the same thing, but it doesn't work that well. We didn't raise your rate, fella, but take a look at your tax bill. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you.

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Anyone else from public? Yes. Hi, Michelle Jenner, 20 White Cap Way. Um I just want to make a I guess a a statement. Not budget related at all, if that's okay. >> Absolutely. >> Um I made this comment to somebody from the senior center a couple of years ago at an event we were at and I haven't seen any action done on it at all. So,

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I'm going to throw my idea out there again. First of all, let me commend the administration and everybody connected with the senior center cuz they do offer some fabulous programs. But if you look at it, a lot of the programs are sort of women related and a lot of the programs are in the morning and the

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early afternoon. The same gentleman that I spoke about that I had to help make a hotel reservation is also a retired gentleman um whose wife passed away a year ago and he um doesn't really he's retired, so he doesn't really have a lot of

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activities, male friends. He's becoming a little bit of a recluse. And I had suggested to somebody from the senior center a couple of years ago that there need to be there needs to be a couple more or at least one more specific man related activity. Like

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this gentleman has very well read and things like that. He There would be nice if there would be a group of men that they could get together and discuss politics, discuss the Mets, the Yankees, the whomever. And there just isn't that. And the other problem is is that this gentleman isn't

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a very good morning person. And I'm sure that there's an he would come to be, you know, an employee that would have to stay later in the afternoon or in the evening. But it would be nice if we could take a look at the schedule of the programs that they're not all specifically morning or specifically afternoon. Take a look at, you know,

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once a month or once every couple of weeks have something in the evenings that are a little bit more men specific. Yeah, that's a really cool idea and I can follow up with the senior center if you want to leave your email address at the end of the meeting before you leave. >> leave you my card. Perfect. Thank you very much.

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>> have a question. Ma'am, do you know what development he lives in? Does he live in a senior community? Yeah, he lives in the same development as I do. He lives in Seaview Village. >> Okay. I'm I know that Lions Head South has a men's group. By the way, I don't know if maybe Seaview Village does not. >> had from what I understand Seaview

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Village had one years ago. I mean, that we do have a women's club um and I I guess the men's club just didn't go over that well, but that's where he does live now. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. Anyone else from public? For

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It could be whatever you you want it to be. For That's what this is. This is how that's happening now. Yeah, cuz it's like a separate section. Okay. We know who you are. >> [laughter] >> At this point, Anthony, right? So,

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listen. This is all I'm going to say about this. Um Everyone made really good points here today. And everyone keeps talking about prices going up, prices going up, prices going up and then you keep raising prices on us. It is like the dollar store effect where it's like you have a

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dollar, dollar, dollar, dollar and it's only 2.9 this year, but last year it was 5.9 and the year before that it was So, when you start ticking all these numbers up, when you look at the increases over the last 5 years, especially when you factor in I know you guys don't have any anything to do with the schools, but

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when you factor the schools and the municipals and the old people that Bob referenced earlier, this is this is thousands of dollars for them. Do we realize this over the last five five years this is a lot of money we're talking about. So,

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when you when you take this and like see things like everybody finishing up under budget. I know there was a good good reaction to that, but when I see everyone finishing up under budget, I feel like there's certain departments that are almost being used as slush funds.

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Where it's oh, we can't say no to the cops. You referenced earlier that it was a no vote is a no against the cops. A no vote is a no against EMS. And when you say things like that, then you could continually add the cops budget because they continually fall underneath the

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budget and then we could take that money we could allocate it to whatever we want to allocate it to. At while at the same time every department having a budget. We allocate money for this and we're talking about millions and millions of dollars and there's always millions and

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millions of dollars increasing while everything that the people that we have to that you if you take the town of what they actually want, overdevelopment and traffic and all this, it seems like we're getting taxed more and we're losing more of our town.

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Everything that we don't want, we're paying for for it to come into our town. Do we understand that? So, when you guys keep saying it's only this number or it's $100 or it's this, just remember something. Every time you go to us, the feeling out here

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is that we are giving you more and we are getting way less in return. And I don't care if you believe it or I I don't care if you believe it's true or not true. That is the absolute feeling in Brick and Ocean County.

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And if you don't if I urge everyone of you guys, I made a very simple post. I said, give me your top three issues on what's happening in Ocean County. I got a thousand comments, guys. And they told you exactly what their issues are.

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I don't see that being dealt with. I see it getting worse while we're paying more and more and more and more and more money to try to help it, but it's doing nothing but hurting us. Just keep that in mind. Thanks. >> top three issues that you I urge you I urge you go to my page

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and listen to them. There's 20 of them. Can you give me the top three that you cited? Ah, you're going to get me a to click. One extra click coming your way. Very well done. Okay. Traffic

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All right. I'll I'll still give you the click. All right. Copy that. Thank you. Anyone else from public? Yes. That's okay. Virginia Holford 589 Robin Hood Road, Brick.

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My question is I recall years ago and I don't know if anybody sees this happening, um our cable bills have been going through the roof. Uh it's sometimes it's more

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for your cable bill than any of your other expenditures for the month. Um I also recall, I think I was at a council meeting maybe 10 8 10 years ago,

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where they said that the township had to uh sign a contract, I gather with Xfinity, uh or Comcast, whatever you want to call it, um and that it would be up in 2026

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and I've been waiting to hear if that would open up the possibility of us having alternative choices and not just

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being forced to pay every it seems like every four months my I'm almost paying $300 a month for cable. It's crazy. When uh Crosswicks cables opened in 1975,

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I want to say, I paid $6.95 a month for cable. Granted, I didn't have a thousand channels that I didn't want to watch. But I also I and I didn't have a computer then. That was before computers.

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So, my point is is there going to be attention to this matter because I've been holding off as they said it would take, you know, the contract that was signed by the township. I forget even what mayor it was,

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but that it was good until 2026. Councilwoman, yes. >> Yes, Mayor. Hi. So, yeah, so we have I have reached out to FiOS. FiOS is in some portions of Brick Township right now. Not I know not all. Yeah, so

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I have reached out on multiple occasions to see if they could expand further into Brick. The last response I had from them was at this time they were not interested in doing that. Uh so, we are not against reaching out to other cable companies in order to expand into Brick.

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I don't have a problem doing that, reaching out to do that uh to try to break up the monopoly to a degree. Unfortunately, I'll just put this out there. Like, my parents live in Jackson and they started out with FIOS at a decent price and that they jack Like, I think every cable company, their job is

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to get you in at a low price and then jack it up as it goes. But, I would love to have more competition in here in Brick. I'm happy to reach out to the cable companies to continue to do so to see if they'll move in. I was very disappointed to hear back from FIOS saying that they weren't looking to expand at this time.

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But, the idea that they're already starting to creep into Brick is gives us a little bit of hope >> [clears throat] >> It's been It's been at least 2 years that they've said we're not Yes. >> we're not putting any more lines in. So, we are We're hopeful that someone else

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will want to come here, but they have to want to come, too. So, um you know, we'll keep >> like uh Spectrum or any of the other bigger that you see, "Oh, it's a discount and you're going to save and all this."

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They say, "Well, we can't come to Brick Yeah, I don't know how I can answer that at this point. >> all have a a contract that limits who can come in. Yeah, the the contract you're talking about is called a franchise agreement and um most towns in New Jersey have that with the the cable

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companies, not not FIOS and not the like satellite, but the cable companies. Um unfortunately, that they're controlled by the state through it as you call the BPU and BPU sort of carves up the state for these cable companies. So, there's

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uh you know, there's no Cablevision in Brick. There's Comcast. Another town might have Cablevision, they can't get Comcast. So, while the township has an agreement we didn't have a choice but enter into it. That was about 20 years ago. Um every town in New Jersey faced the same

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thing. They don't have a choice but to enter into the agreement. The only thing the town gets out of the agreement they sometimes negotiate things like uh a public access channel or you know, some some local things that really don't bring a lot to the town. So, I I hear you. I agree with you that that

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it's not right that cable companies have monopolies in town in towns, but but they do. Um the options right now are FIOS who's not here Or you have to go >> satellite satellite Yeah, I mean, the town can't um change what the BPU

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enforces on the town. Uh-huh. Doesn't Doesn't mean we don't want to. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I just >> Yeah. It's been It's a good point, though. on my mind. Yeah. Mhm. Thank you. Anyone else from public? Seeing none, close public. Move on to

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council administration comments starting with Mr. Starkey. Oh, I'm sorry. You asked me if I had anything to say. I I am. Thank you very much, Councilman. My pleasure. >> I don't have anything to say. Okay. Thank you. >> talking about FIOS. Sorry.

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Um I I just want to make a few announcements. The first is I want to thank the nearly 50 volunteers that came out this Saturday, even though it was a little dreary. We had a little over 50 volunteers uh come out to Riverwalk Refuge for our second pick up Brick. It

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was a huge success. Uh they they picked up lots of garbage. Uh I think some new friends were made and I appreciate all the people that continue to come out to keep our parks and preserved lands clean. One of the things that I pointed out to the

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volunteers this year is that each time we host this, this is our third year where we're doing a pick up Brick every single month and we've kind of kept everything on a rotation so that each place is done about the same time each year uh with our volunteer program. And

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each year now that we've done this, we're in year three, we notice that Midstreams, which was our first pick up Brick, and then again this week at Riverwalk Refuge, there is less and less garbage out. Uh it doesn't mean that there isn't anything to pick up and it's still a great day and we absolutely

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still have work to do, but we're noticing that as we're continuing to clean these areas and keeping them on a rotation the cleaner they are, the cleaner they stay. You know, people go for a walk and they notice if there's no garbage on the ground, they're a little more hesitant

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to just drop, you know, the bottle or the gum wrapper or the I hate to say it, but the dog waste or whatever. Um Which I don't understand. You've got it in the bag and there's a garbage can. Like, just walk to the garbage can. But, anyway um you know, so we are noticing an improvement in all of our preserved

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lands and we hope to continue to do that. And like I said, we had like 50 people came out for a 13-acre uh this is one of our smaller ones. And so, it was a lot of fun seeing everyone working together and I just have a great deal of gratitude for all of those people.

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Uh speaking of um ways that you can also come out to help your community, this uh Saturday, May 2nd, it's not a pick up Brick. However, if you like gardening and uh you want to help out, we are going to be just as we did last year,

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meeting up on Saturday, May 2nd at 10:00 a.m. at the pollinator garden at Havens Homestead. We just want to spruce up the garden. It needs a little bit of weeding. Uh we need to plant a couple of items and uh just do a general cleanup so that it's ready for our Green Fair

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that's coming up on May 16th. We like to have the area all cleaned up and ready and spruced up. So we'd love to see you Saturday. It's rain or shine. Uh listen, when it rains, it's easier to pull the weeds, you know, makes everything a little looser. So, um and I always recommend because this is not a pick up Brick event

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I recommend that if you're a gardener, if you have good garden gloves, if you have any garden shears or little hoes, and also I highly recommend if you have a kneeling pad because we have the uh crushed shell is in a lot of the areas of that, so it makes it kind of hard to kneel down to do weeding. I highly

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recommend bringing a kneeling pad. Uh but, for those gardeners out there, you've got that stowed away and it's easy to bring out. So, hope to see you Saturday. That's from 10:00 to 12:00. Also this Saturday, we have our bicycle rodeo that is sponsored by the Brick Police Department. That is going to be

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at Emma Havens. I believe that starts at 11:00. It's again rain or shine. I know that weather has not been great on the weekends. I don't understand, but uh I believe it's rain or shine. It's going to be at Emma Havens and it's a great event. You can bring um it's for all ages. We want young kids, uh middle

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schoolers, high schoolers. You can bring your bikes out. Uh they have a fun obstacle course to bike through. They also do bike checks. So, they'll have someone there to make sure your brakes are working properly and your air your tires are inflated properly and the seat is adjusted to the right height so that

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you're not too high or too low. Um handlebars are tight. All that good stuff. You have the your reflectors are, you know, not broken or anything. So, they're going to do a bike check. Um there's also opportunities if if they do it the same if they did last year, um to enter a raffle to win new bikes and

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some other fun prizes. I think the Mr. Softy truck will be there selling ice cream and other fun goodies. So, uh we invite you out to join us for that as well. I did skip, I'm sorry, this Friday is our senior citizen prom. So, if

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you're age 60 or older, we invite you to join us at Civic Plaza this Friday from 6:00 to 8:00. We are hosting our civic I mean, excuse me, our senior citizen prom. Dress to the nines. It is a dressy affair and it is a catered meal. It's a really nice meal provided by Jersey

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Kitchen. If you have not signed up yet, you can call town hall, call the administrative offices and we'll get you on the list. It is a three-course meal that is served by the mayor's student advisory kids from Brook Brick Township and Brick Memorial High School. So, we'd love to see you there.

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It's a really fun night. We've got a DJ. It's good time. Um And then two other quick events or things that I want to mention. Also this Saturday, our farmers market starting. Again, rain or shine. So, come off for the kickoff event for our this year's

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farmers market. And um to let you know, we are if you go to the recreation website uh to sign up for different activities, we have introduced today and we just put it out on our social media, the community

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first our first community canvas event. This is an a event that brings out artists of uh all ages. We are going to be painting our first mural and we invite participants to sign up at the Brick website uh the recreation

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website in order to participate. And we are hoping to unveil the very first mural that we'll be painting together as a community at our first Summerfest concert uh this this summer on July 2nd. So please look at look for that on the recreation website. And the very last

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thing I want to mention because it will happen before our next meeting is we are relaunching our Challenger program and I'm very excited to say that the kickoff for our Challenger program is taking place on Friday, May 8th at 5:45

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at Drum Point Sports Complex. It will be a uh kickball event. So, uh we're really looking forward to that. I'll be out there um to support the kids and have a good time. And uh if you uh would like to participate in the Challenger program, you can reach out to

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the recreation department in order to sign up for that event as well. So, thank you uh for your time and have a great day. Night, whatever it is now. Happy birthday, by the way, Council President. Happy birthday. Thank you so much. It's true. It is my birthday today.

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So, we can kind of speed this along so I can get home. >> [laughter] >> That being said, Ms. Bergen. Uh yes, so I'd just like to give kudos to our new CFO Bill Pandos, who jumped into the fire very recently and and has just done

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a great job making sure we're all educated and all our questions are answered and he's been very helpful and of course you can't thank Bill without thanking Mo. One half Each half makes a whole of Mo served this town incredibly well for many many years, left us in great hands and we

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will continue to work hard to uh manage the fiscal responsibilities of the town and thanks also to the department and division heads that work tirelessly on on uh trying to give you guys the best budgets possible. Thank you. Billy, you're normally not here so I

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don't want to be rude and skip over you but do you have anything? Okay. All right, very good. Uh Madam Clerk. Well, happy birthday but that's all. Thank you. Madam Secretary. Yes, happy birthday. Many many more. Thank you. Councilman Albanese. Happy birthday,

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welcome Bill and uh congratulations to Brick Hockey. I moved here in '72 and it was hockey and it was football. It was a big deal to me. Then when I started to go to Brick Memorial I was like I'm not going to I'm green and white all the way. I ended up going to Memorial but congratulations to those guys. Thank you. Well done, thank you.

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Councilman Minikino. Thank you. Uh just want to say thank you to everybody who did the work on the budget. It was well received and uh thank you again. Happy birthday, bless. Thank you. Councilwoman [clears throat] Arena. Yes, I'd like to address comments that were made here this evening by several co-council members as well as

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others. Listen to my words carefully. Disagreements with a budget is not, I repeat, not the same as opposing essential services. Public safety, infrastructure and core operations must

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always be funded responsibly. What is unacceptable is the attempt to mislead residents into believing otherwise. Suggesting that fiscal scrutiny equals a lack of support for essential services is not only inaccurate, it undermines

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honest public discourse. Budgets should be evaluated on their merits with transparency and accountability, not used as leverage to shape public perception. Residents and taxpayers deserve facts, not political

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narratives. We are on an unsustainable path. We have a historic and precariously low surplus. It's right here. You can gloss over this fact but it is undeniable.

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We need to look at new ways and different ways to move forward. We need to increase revenue. We need to be lean, efficient and effective in every service delivery. We need to reduce waste. Thank you.

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Thank you. Councilman Cohen. First I'd like to congratulate hockey team on the Handchen Cup. Having that back in town is where it belongs. Um the family has a long history here in Brick Township and having that cup named

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after Mr. Handchen is absolutely amazing. I remember him back from when I was in high school and of course his son. Um also I'd like to thank the scouts for coming out and leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance. It is good to see our young people being involved and being

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patriotic. We need a lot more of that in this town, a lot more of that in the state. Um very quickly going to address the $98 doesn't sound like a whole lot of money but it's $98 here, it's another $100 over there,

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it is a increase in gasoline tax, it's an increase from the county because the value of your property went up, it's an increase in your school taxes. It's not $98. $98 is our responsibility and we should be doing everything that we

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possibly can to reduce that number by using the funds that are available, our availability to increase fees. Um and to go on what Councilwoman um Ms. Arena said, um disagreeing with the budget is not the same as opposing

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essential services. We're not opposed to essential services. Public safety, our town infrastructure and our core operations have got to be funded and they need to be funded responsibly. What is unacceptable is an attempt to mislead our residents into believing otherwise.

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Equating fiscal uh scrutiny with a lack of support for essential services is inaccurate and undermines honest public disclosure. Budgets should be judged on their substance with full transparency and accountability including reading every line item in that budget which all we did was a

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title tonight. It shouldn't be used as a tool to manipulate the public's perception. Residents deserve clear facts, not political narratives. This is our town. And our the public in this town, the

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taxpayers in this town need to start speaking up about what it is that they want and not on a webpage somewhere but right here in our council chamber. They need to come here and they need to tell us. Um something was said about the 30-year

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tax abatement that was given to the sports dome that isn't a dome and that there's no children going there. It should not matter. Every business in this town pays taxes, those taxes go to the schools. The fact that we entered into a pilot program

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that eliminated our school district from receiving any tax funds increases your school taxes. We're not the school board, we're the town council but it still impacts every single resident of Brick Township. Enough is enough.

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You count the pennies, the dollars will count themselves. Thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Travers. I'm going to make a little bit of a shift here. First I wanted to thank the Boy Scouts for coming and then congratulate the Brick Memorial Hockey team. I also

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wanted to speak about I had the privilege of attending a charity event in the place of the mayor hosted by Seeds of Service in partnership with Catholic Charities um last week. So during this visit I was able to tour the facility and participate in a simulated shopping experience designed to reflect

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what individuals and families in need in our town may experience when accessing services. The bags we filled were also donated to homebound members of our community which made the experience even more meaningful. It was definitely eye-opening to learn how many members of

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our community rely on these resources but also inspiring to see the level of coordination, compassion and effort that goes into providing and sustaining them. Seeds of Service continues to be an incredible asset to our community. They are available always for donations of food, goods and monetary contributions

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and they're always actively looking for and welcoming volunteers especially during afternoon they said from 4:00 to 7:00 which are their greatest areas of need. Um and if you need any more information, their website is www.seedsofservice.help

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and their phone number is 732-746-3456. So if you or anyone you know is in need of assistance, um Seeds of Service is a wonderful resource that's right here in our town um and they're always helpful They are always there to help without hesitation. And happy birthday, Steve. Thank you. Thank you.

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Council Vice President Ambrosino. Thank you, Council President. Thank you to the Boy Scouts. I also want to congratulate the hockey team. There were three Acropolis's on this championship team. Perry, when I wore green and white there were three Acropolis's on that state hockey championship team so there must

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be something in their genes. Happy birthday to you, Councilman Steve. Good night to everybody else. Thank you. I just would like to uh say I hope everyone stays safe and have fun. Uh next scheduled public meeting will be

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on Tuesday, May 12th, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. Can I have a motion and a second to adjourn? Motion. Second. Copy that. All in favor? I. And we're adjourned.