##VIDEO ID:Hw-0wNEa-KI## e make we good I'd like to welcome everybody to our January 15th Brigantine city council meeting please rise for the flag salute standy mayor Ken Heavenly Father we come to you at the beginning of a new year asking for your blessings and help as we are gathered together we pray for peace calm and understanding in our community and for you to continue to guide the Israeli Hamas ceasefire and hostage release we pray for guidance as we enter our new terms of office and ask that you help us to work together and encourage each other to reach higher and farther to be the best we can be in the words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr help us to walk together pray together and live together until that day when All God's Children black white red and yellow will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the Kingdom in your name we pray pleas standing while we have silence for the gun with the recent loss of their brother Charles Joseph Charlie grew up in Brigantine attending St Phillips and holy spirit he served on the Brigantine Beach Patrol the Brigantine police department and and then went for a long to a long career in security surveillance in numerous Atlantic City casinos Charlie survived by his wife Kathy their daughter Alyssa his brothers Joseph and Phillip and sister Moren B services will be held on Friday morning at St Elizabeth and SE church and up seek beginning at 9 public meetings act announcement Christine I've been corrected just just don't call me mar Gunther well done good job for your first all before we get started with our swearing in I'd actually like to do a special presentation tonight is our sw's last and I think that she's taken this position needs help there for any of us on coun and it's her dedication is something that I think that she Tru loves job truly loves she serves after this we're gon have to have sign we didn't want us to do it ahead of time so Lynn has to sign all these and we didn't want her to know ahead of time so this one's not sign but we'll get we're trying to keep it a surprise uh so whereas the city clerk ly Sweeny started working as a secretary for the city of britin in 1999 and was promoted to the position of city clerk in 2005 where she has pa uh provided valuable and friendly service to Residents visitors and businesses on the island whereas Lynn is known for her helpless her helpfulness selflessness and kindness as a city clerk and through her work with the Community Presbyterian Church she has worked with various groups um connecting individuals with assistance and providing relief to families in times of need for many years Lynn has dedicated her holiday season to organizing food and clothing donations shopping for toys and making deliveries to families for the true Spirit Coalition she she also worked tirelessly for rakr in the aftermath suor standard ensuring that those affected receive the services they need additionally Lyn has volunteered to lead community events such as organizing the free race dinner for the Brigantine trath and ensuring that Santa had plenty of treats to hand out for our annual tree lighting ceremony whereas ly Sweeny exemplifies the qualities of a dedicated public servant whose values and commitment have far exceeded expectations and have greatly contributed to the unity and strength of our now therefore I Vince Sarah mayor of the city of Brigantine on behalf of city council the people of Brigantine do hereby recognize ly swed for her outstanding service to our thank you I'm thank you everyone I'm really surprised my family's here my granddaughters great niece everybody's here much appreciate it thank you e tell us where was good evening everybody I'm June Dylan Burns Dyan has always been there when I was little she stepped in when Mom she taught me in middle school she taught my children in grammar school and had to get that parent call but it was her sister every night talking about the class she's always been there fast forward as I Grew Older and we became more alike she's the first Dylan girl in public service her career was public service but the first in politics she paid I'm your county commissioner I did it because I called her all the time for advice in first in the summer of 2002 I called her my H seven days a weeks thinking about getting a dog what do you think what do what do you think the girls are begging for a dog June have a baby it's easier I had a baby he's now 21 I tell you that in just but um I'm so proud of her she is the glue that holds our family together now and she is the rock Brigantine I know how much she does here for all of you I'm so proud to be here standing here for her today like I State TR name do sound swear that I will support the Constitution of the state of New Jersey that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and in this state under the authority of the people and that I will faithfully and partially injus L perform all the duties required as a member of the first W as first W council person according to the best of my ability so help me guys um the first time I swar got to swear Jun in was when she first became counsel person and then she reciprocated four years ago for me however if you remember what was going on four years ago we were on Zoom she had just got out of quarantine she had that I had Co she came she said it again so she came to the house yeah was standing there with the Bible but I thank you June very much Molly and thank for that little bit under WEA I I love this job I met somebody a few nights ago teacher our time J oh I said the city what do you do I enjoyed this job such a great guys they always watch out great so I want to thank everybody and especially G up with all right this time I'd like to take a five minute recess we have motion second that motion favor I any oppose all right 5 minute recess for for f e yes all right so [Music] do you wna I can have her talk when we do 13 which is establishing rate increase instead of making the way to the end do she talk about beginning uh why don't we do it don't have to St don't we do it um right the beginning so she can talk I have like five minutes he like all going to resume the meeting mik all right uh we have a motion and second to resume the meeting I'll make that motion all in favor I any opposed all right meeting has resumed tiger we have an executive session tonight H Lyn even though she's not no we do not uh next up we have our approval of our January second 2025 council meeting minutes motion seconds questions or comments seeing none can we have roll call yes yes vilo yes Kane yes Reen yes mayor Sarah yes motion carried all right this time we'll open it up for public comment this is public comment on agenda items only anybody wishing to be heard please come up state your name and address for the record I see no public comment we're going to close the public portion at this time uh next up we have ordinance number one of 2025 this is a public hearing and adoption and this is an ordinance of the city of Brigantine to exceed the municipal budget appropriation limit and establish a caps Bank we have a motion second all at this time we're going to open up the public hearing anybody wishing to be heard on ordinance number one please come up state your name and address for the record seeing no public participation we're going to close the public portion any Council comments seeing none can we have roll call yes yes yes vilia yes yes Reen yes mayor Sarah yes motion car ordinance number two of 2025 this is public hearing and adoption um this is an ordinance amending chapter 284 of the code of the city of Brigantine as it relates to handicap parking spaces this is for a handicap parking space at 103 30th Street and motion second I'll make that motion second all right at this time we're going to open up the public hearing anybody wishing to be heard on this ordinance please come up and state your name and address for the record seeing no public participation we're going to close the public portion any Council comments seeing none can we have roll call you yes yesil yes yes yes Sarah yes carries ordinance number three of 2025 this is an introduction and this is an ordinance amending chapter 284 of the code of the city of Brigantine as it relates to handicap parking spaces and this is for the renewable handicap parking space that is no longer needed at 2904 bore Avenue motion second move questions or comments seeing none can we have roll call yes yes vilo yes Kane yes rean yes mayor Sarah yes motion Carri we have resolution 2025 number 24 and this is a resolution of support for from local governing body authorizing fiscal year 2025 local Recreation Improvement Grant application funded by the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs have motion second I'll make that motion at this time I'm G to turn it over to our city manager tiger Platt I think he's going to talk about uh resolution this one 2024 four and included in that 30 as well thank you mayor as mayor said this um Grant would be for we're putting for $100,000 for a local Recreation Grant the use of these funds would be to offset the down payment required for another grant that we're applying for which was being resolution 20253 coming up and that is a Green Acres uh funding um for a inclusive playground to replace the current playground at eore drive and Golf Course Drive country playground needs to be redone that whole property need to be redone a lot of work in time and energy the whole team of people to get this across the Finish Line cities uh the total cost of this project is $753,000 the city would be on the $188,000 we're hoping this $100,000 Grant would offset that 188 to put the cost to the taxpayer around $888,000 historically this grant local Recreation Grant we've been very successful with it getting between 70 and 80,000 every year so we're hoping uh that we'll continue to have that that success along with being successful with the eshore ground eshore Drive playground to uh build a beautiful fully inclusive playground um with that information if you do go on our website and I highly encourage everyone to go on our website right on the front page uh there's information you can click there's all the details on the project cost estimates concept plans environmental uh plans everything is on the website to include a survey that we're asking people to fill out it's a really short survey um about the uh playground and what they're looking for in a fully inclusive playground um and and I just want to um mentioned an inclusive playground is a playground that's designed for use for children in wheelchairs and stuff like that so they have full access to so we we highly encourage everyone to go on our website fill out the surve survey it's also on our social media Pages island of Brigantine and there will also be a public meeting on January 30th at 5:00 pm at the Brigantine Golf Links where we will have more information to hand out if people have some questions they have about it can come to that meeting they could always stop by my office anytime or call the office or email me all that information is on the website you know how to uh when the meeting is in case they um they forget between now and then but we highly encourage the public to come out and support this and we are keeping our fingers crossed for re Acres funding for a beautiful short uh for the public meeting uh that'll all be advertised that it is advertised it's on our website it will also be advertised high in the times um this Friday and next Friday as well I've already talked to them they'll be putting it up as public noce as well and and it is on the social media as well we'll be making sure everyone isw January 30th 5m at the golf links yeah and it'll be in uh next Tuesday I think it goes in l City Press as well and part of this too um we've been looking trying to restore the playground for a long time there's broken parts down there pupp Works does a good job of maintaining it but the equipment so old we actually can't hold parts for it anymore um we normally try to strategically plant this stuff out with this one the grant became available and you can see it's almost an $800,000 project to do this we're going to get a majority of the money hopefully through the grant but normally our projects would try to keep it where it has minimal to no impact this could have a small impact depending on what we get uh for second grant that we're applying for I think that's the importance too of um making sure that uh we have the public meetings people know that and actually if you could have uh Al run the number so people know specifically what that impact absolutely I that's that's something that's important part of this too is um increasing our ADA compliance within the city um every municipality has an obligation to make sure that we meet ad Ada um accessibility um regulations and we're trying to work on that throughout the city and this will create a nice ADA Compliant in BR te uh for our residents and I would tell you something that is definitely needed so I'd like to to see these move forward uh any questions or comments from councel my gr is there John talked a lot about it they made some improvements but this is going to be awwesome all right if there's no further comments uh can we have roll call yes yes yes yes yes mayor Sarah yes car resolution 2025 yeah 2025 d25 and this is a resolution by the city of Brigantine New Jersey establishing the rate increase for the farmers market trust fund Brigantine New Jersey we have a motion second and we actually have Fran PA here I didn't know people had questions I thought the presentation was pretty straight forward but she's here if anyone had questions Janette speak pleas come in addition to rate increases for nonform and particularly for the second stall felt that was undervalued but we lowered the rate for Farmers each week because we want to encourage more Farmers to apply kind of don't have as many farmers at the market as we whole team does or just working team in on the island no coms from Council may have bro you yes yes yes mayor Sarah I would like to thank with the Farmers Market Committee 19 this is a year labor a lot of time that goes into it but your love and dedication has made the farmers market obviously it was named in one of the top 10 in the country it's definitely one of the best in the area and I know I talked to a lot of vendors they love being here they love the setup they love support they get from thank you very much I V yes resolution 22-26 and this is a resolution to authorize the tax assessor to file a petition of appeals for the tax year 2025 motion second motion questions comments see none can we have roll call you yes yes vilia yes yes I think it starts with tax ISS vote Yes Yes resolution 202527 and this is a resolution by the city of britin New Jersey authorizing refund of report over payment to the city of Brigantine this is the amount of $70 and motion second second questions or comments seeing none we have roll call yes yes yes mayor Sarah yes Mo car resolution 202528 this is a resolution by the city of Brigantine New Jersey authorizing a refund of trash container payment to uh 516b Ontario Avenue britin Jersey and this is the amount of $100 motion second questions comments seeing none can we have roll call you yes yes yes yes mayor Sarah yes resolution 2025 d29 this is a resolution by the city of Brig New Jersey authorizing the refund of Emergency Medical Services overpayment uh briy New Jersey this now have $700 I think this is for a double payment second questions or comments have roll call yes yes yes yes may Sarah yes resolution 2025 D30 this is a resolution authorizing uh city of brick for New Jersey ACR funding application have motion second this is the grant for the Ada compli playground that city manager talking about earlier we have any I guess further questions or comments see none we have roll call yes yes mayor Sarah yes resolution 2 25-31 this is a resolution authorizing to change order to storm water pump station and reconstruction of intersection at 12th Street North East Boulevard and this is a decrease of 29,7 we have a motion second make that motion questions or comments see n we have roll call you yes the yes me yes vilo yes yes re yes mayor Sarah yes car resolution 2025 d32 and this is a resolution authorizing a contract with the Blasio and Associates for storm water improvements to bore Avenue from 38th Street to Lighthouse Circle and this is the amount of $15,750 motion second I'll make that so for this one of the things we're with dress now is flooding on the south end of the island um we are going to be repaving I guess bore which is in front of the public Wars building but while we have the street opening before the county does the redesign and construction with the circle we want to fix our infrastructure underneath I just believe that part of well I guess there's two parts to it one with the county some of the pipes that are under the circle um they don't have the right flow to them like either they have the sediment or kind of collapsed a little bit so part of the work the count is going to do is to repair those pipes for us when it gets back into our system um the outfall pipe for that area if you go to the acne shopping center you know where that little Pond area is well the outfall pipe goes there so we want to install check valves and some other stock gaps in order to stop the water from backing up on high tides we believe this will help the water and the pumps that are there to pump better be more efficient one of the things I always say we live on a Barrier Island we've only got you know maybe a foot in height sometimes so when it's heavy rain it's still going to flood but this is going to help clear those areas faster and it's going to help to minimize flooding and the reason I say that is sometimes when we do these projects people have the assumption that it's going to eliminate flooding 100% that's very very hard on Barrier Islands but Brigantine has been very successful with the work done if you drive in some of the other communities I don't want to list by names it's not appropriate but if you head south a bit drives through some of these other Barrier Islands especially on these storms especially with the rain they're dealing with feet of water that doesn't go away we're in a much better position but that is really because of the proactive work prob doing last 20 years here a BRI team we had focused on the North End because that was the area of most issues now we're starting our work on the south end because that needs to be addressed to part of that project we had a motion second there any questions or comments from Council seeing none can we have roll call yes yes yes yes mayor Sarah yes motion car have resolution 2025 d33 this is a resolution authorizing a contract with palistine and Associates for construction management inspection services for the 14th Street South bulkhead and drainage this in the amount of $2,690 motion second questions or comments seeing none we have roll call yes yesil yes may Sarah yes all right resolution 2025 34 and this is a resolution accepting the Department of Community Affairs estimates for the fourth round of affordable housing obligations for 2025 through 2035 for the city of Brigantine we have a motion second second so most people are familiar with the Mount Laurel decision short version of it state of New Jersey Supreme Court has determined that every municipality the state has an obligation to provide affordable housing every 10 years we go through this process State comes up with a number that they believe te should be able to provide uh the state right now and this what I was underlining so I have to search through the whole thing they're saying our present need is 13 units our perspective need is 19 units what we're voting on today just says that we agree with the state with the DCA that that is the realistic need for bring team to put it in perspective I don't remember the last time or the last the specific number but the last time we went through this process it was somewhere around 495 homes they wanted us to put in Bri te that was not a realistic number we had a very very long legal battle in the state of New Jersey we eventually came to a compromise that worked uh for this what they're saying the present need is 13 perspective need is 19 it's probably a more reasonable number what this resolution does it only says that we accept their number the next step is we have six months for this is city of britin has to put together a plan of how we plan how we intend to meet this obligation one of the things we do now we have a COA fund Co is the co affordable housing so any new construction on the island there's a percent that the builders have to pay and the owners have to pay that goes into a fund that fund is used to buy what we call market rate housing we buy housing we rehab it we sell it um at what the state says to people who qualify for that affordable housing that has helped to meet Our obligation we have some overlay zones that we've done in the past but that is where we are in this step um our legal counsil will guide us through the next step um in my conversations probably about six to eight months ago with DCA they want to change the way they do this they don't want to get into the protracted legal battles with every municipality and really work within individual municipalities to meet a fair obligation looking at this on the surface it seems like they intend to keep their word I think this is kind of reasonable so I think that's it's worth moving forward but there are more steps to this um open up to council if there's any questions or comments I see none can we have roll call you yes yesil yes yes mayor Sarah yes resolution 202536 this is a resolution of the city of Brig for a leap implementation Grant uh participants highway speed feedback signs uh we have a motion second uh tiger I know this is a uh Grant with the county information sure I was approached by the county uh see if we want to participate in this U there's multiple municipalities within the county so there's there's two here uh the first one that you're speaking about now is the uh highway speed feedback sign um which is one of those where it it shows you what your speed is and U you know these trailers would be able to be used by US we request them anybody who participates in this grant will have access to the trailers obviously there could be a time when we say hey we have it for these couple days scheduling Police Department work County to uh use these signs the the second one that you're you're going to talk about is the the highway uh digital signs so that's more like a message board sign you know if we have a big event Triathlon other things I know we have message boards if we're in the need of another one an additional one we could always request it from the county to use it for that which is by appr in these it allows us to participate and use those zero cost this is a grant for the county if there's any cost the county Bears the cost of that but by participating have access to any uh questions or comments from Council see none we have roll call yesil yes mayor Sarah yes car resolution uh 2025 d37 and this is a resolution city of Brigantine foration Grant participating in Highway digital signs we have a motion second move second questions or comments see none we have roll call you yes yesil yes yes rean yes mayor Sarah yes motion car nothing on our consent agend uh next up we'll open up for our Council manager committee discussion start with our city manager I have nothing uh fortunately for any of you I do want to reiterate um Lynn from myself Deputy manager and all of the employees that we've been so blessed to have you in our lives I want to say thank you and absolutely over to our Deputy Mayor Karen same same Lynn we love you we're GNA miss you we wish you many many years of happy healthy re time and Christine is going to do great job and I yeah and I know you're just a phone call away for um I just want to thank Jim Mogan and the ceer staff and and Jim's daughter Kim Mogan for leading 25 travelers from our Island on January 2nd to Philadelphia and then we flew to Fort Lauderdale got on Celebrity beyond for a 10day cruise it was wonderful they they worked with BOS travel everything is just so easy easy Travelers we had an awesome trip lots of sunshine and we missed the snow uh and uh I want to wish um the mayor happy birthday right luck second everyone's you're awesome blessed to have you just want to touch on U our windmill committee and U Back months ago diligently uh Mayor Bob cochi there's a lot of efforts that went in there and mayor did a lot of leg work around townships and everything and uh recently he shared an article with this on the efforts of Congressman van TR working towards we know that the uh I mean all the efforts combined for power they're extremely important but the long game was very important too because we know the administration the outgoing Administration and where we stand from a state governmental standpoint uh things were uh it was a tough road to Hope was going to be but uh now with president-elect Trump um it's uh our looking up that spoken about that was in that aible sure you touch that's that monstrosities incomprehensible to these things down down our throats that's it thanks conratulations tonight and uh Lyn I want to take it from a little bit of a different perspective I'm hearing from everyone [Music] here great work Karen sorry Lind did here I give perspective on what she does for organizations specifically the Elks and you know these volunteer organizations have no idea how to navigate ABC laws and city ordinances and how to so patiently has taught so many different people um how to navigate that in the city and has since become friends with my wife because she took that project on and she has said to R different organizations how to do these things so wanted you to know that from theity how T thanks mayor Absolut amazing Christine AB Karen did it again too late to back out now congratulations I first of all I'd like to thank everybody who came out here on this brutally cold night here but it was I mean what else can I say that hasn't been said before I mean you know your countless pow of volunteering for those in Everlasting impact far wherever I know you're uh like you said you'll continue to do good work so thank especially when I came on board one thing I L about ly anytime you called her she either picked up or she called you right back a lot of things for this year stages especially shake the shamon March 15 the parade St Patrick's Day Parade so that's a good thing thanks thanks for everybody I would say we have something really special here I talk a lot ofies I don't have know we have a really good team it's not just counsel it's the community it's organizations it's just I'm telling you special I spend a lot of time in a lot of different places and I'm always grateful for everything have for team L we are going to miss you immensely I know there's a lot of times I've called you when there's some people very excited to have I was GNA ask because they they're talking about your city phone I got your personal number so can't get away from me uh and John I wanted to thank Public Works uh in that last snowstorm your guys work very very hard work through the night um everything was excellent and I know how hard they work sure please convey on behalf of council how proud you are in the city I got a lot of compliments from people and people talk about how you guys go through the night especially the kids were excited to have an extra day off school and a little that worked out well with so thank you South gas was working on a project just one up the counil they're working on a project down on the south end on the uh Boulevard uh we had some questions about the restoration um in Brick we have an ordinance where if uh utilities do a certain number of cuts they have to do a full restoration the street uh we reached out to the county to see what their restoration process is because it is a County Road count to spend a ton of money to keep that street uh South Jersey gas has let us know that they're now delayed that project and I guess they want to look at the design what their responsibilities are so hopefully we get some more information on that but I think it's important and that's one of the things you're hear me say a lot I hate to pave a street and see it cut back open a bunch of times so uh as soon as we have more information on that put that back to everybody but that uh gas line and some of the work they're doing some of the upgrades they're doing on the island but it's on the boulevard I'd say probably from roughly Harbor Beach towards the bridge so it's going to be in that area we're also looking at um what we're doing for the access road which is the road parallel to that we have a full reconstruction of that and I want to check in if you could just check with h South try gas in the county I want to make sure that since they're delaying project that they don't intend to do that project after weave it and if they do then obviously they're on the hook to repay the so I just want to make sure we stay on top of that because I don't money I have a couple planning board appointments uh these are reappointments that we have to do so I'd like to have a motion second to uh reappoint the following planning board members uh Marin Sarah by cath Kyle Driscoll councilman Paul Dory Hearn J Pereira Paul matano and Alexis is motion second all in favor I anyos motion passed reappointed well welcome back want to give a quick quick update I know uh Dennis talked about this a little bit I've been in contact with uh Congressman ban Drew and through him in contact with uh president Trump when it comes to the ocean wind projects one of the things that um we knew going into this that um obviously through City through other municipalities through our different citizens groups we have a number of lawsuits that have been filed against these companies uh to stop them on the construction stop them from moving forward um one of the things we knew that it was going to be something more than just litigation change Administration uh talked with Congressman van drw he explained the situation to president Trump one of the things that he ran on was stopping these projects he's made several public statements about how their baned specifically to New Jersey but specifically for the coast um Congressman talked with him a couple of days ago and congressman and the president have put out a statement the president has asked congressman vanre and his staff to put together the language that needs to be in that executive order he wants to make sure that he gets it right to stop those projects out there that will be coming forward I don't know if it's going to happen on day one I know they already have 28 executive orders lined up and ready to go um but I think he wants to get this right and probably within the first weeks to months of his administration now he's going to get that executive order done and forward and keep that campaign promise I think that is very very important for the people who live along the coast especially for our businesses who are here and our residents I've talked about the uh long-term negative implications that come from these so I won't rehash it but um it's kind of good to see how the system works you know this kind of started here on Brigantine I knew this was a fight we couldn't do by ourselves but we were able to build a coalition not just elected officials but CI but we were able to build a coalition of people up and down the entire East Coast there's a number of elected officials and citizens groups that we able to work with and that's the kind of force we took to stop these projects um in Maryland uh talking with the mayor of Ocean City Maryland those projects are under way already started um I've heard video he has video and stuff of the construction out in the ocean and the pounding of the monopiles 24 hours a day you just hear it he's like this is what my residents are dealing with one of their biggest concerns like we're in the situation where they haven't started construction but for them down there construction's already started if these projects end these companies can walk away and this is one of the major issues we had any other I don't know fuel or utility company when they build this kind of infrastructure they have to put up perform performance bonds and performance guarantees and they have to have a decommission plan so that in the event they can't move forward or in the event there's a major catastrophic problem there is funding available to decommission restore I'm going to say the ocean or to restore the landscape back to what it was in order to make these financially viable um federal government has we that that's problem there's rules in place for a reason that needs to be consistent for all energy Industries and those rules are put in place to protect our environment and to protect our people and this is one of the major issues we had with this and unfortunately there's going to be some states that may be stuck and it's going to come down to federal government's responsibility to deconstruct and remove which means the taxpayers of our country that's like I said it's good to see that the system works that what we started here by ourselves grew into a major Coalition involving government officials at every month I'm proud of it um we're still going to continue forward with our lawsuits our citizens groups are going to continue forward their lawsuits we just dropped another couple of them um we're not going to take the foot off the gas until these companies move and I know that Dennis talked about this a little bit but with each Administration this is something that could come up again right because this all started you know under the Obama Administration when Trump first came into office he he did the right thing he talked to the municipalities who look among the coast nobody wanted them he said look if you guys don't want them I'm not going to do it when uh Biden Murphy Administration came in a number of people reached out they didn't care they didn't want to hear what we had to say so we took this through the process of we're going continue this battle um we'll keep people posted as information comes out I know that V Drew is very very good at keeping that information going forward uh we've been working with our County Commissioners uh through another organization that I'm a part of uh which is the Jersey strong Coalition there's uh 50 municipalities in the state of New Jersey we're all working together to fight these ocean wind projects we have sent a number of letters uh to the Board of Public Utilities to our elected officials to to president Trump uh to Governor Murphy um either explaining what our issues are with these projects or explaining the steps that we believe that should be taken to stop these and I will tell you that um almost every single commissioner that's sitting on there has signed these letters and has really stepped up their support of this funding I'm proud to see that like I said that's what makes this great is having that team work together so we'll uh keep more information coming as that moves forward at this time we'll open it up for public comment anybody wishing to be heard please come up and state your name and address for the rec 112 12 Street a bu here we have all our budgeting place and it came in well above property taxes came in well we had our home built by Gary Warner and our model is all over where I got a lot of those estimates were based on you know the taxes that that model was paying I'm very un I was very uneducated in property tax you know and if I say something that is not accurate I do apologize since I learned that I began to dig into exactly what could be the C and it appears that Brigantine hasn't had City reassessment since 2014 and since then property values have Skyrock you know to where they're well over double what they were in 200 and not saying that my uh assessment is incorrect it's actually correct I was basically assessed at what the value the purchase price of the homeage makes sense to but unfortunately that means I pay about double what somebody with my exact property and a lot of them even in better locations are paying so I began the process uh to find out what can be done about it I by no means don't want to pay less than my fair share just want to pay my fair share as well I think everybody probably would um so you know I called the assessor she was very helpful she told me that I should uh look to the county Atlanta County as to when a whole City assessment with schedule and why when I called them they told me that it would be the state's responsibility when I called the state they told me to call the local assessment so you see where it's the circular frustration that goes on and you know it's now two and a half years B about 500 extra dollars every month nice new car but uh so I did get a hold of someone in the uh Andrew's office and he recommended that i' come here and you know talk to you guys at least to get the ball rolling to see if maybe there is uh you know a schedule for a new assessment or maybe there is something that the tax assessor can do to help people I found out that the only time in Brigantine that your home is reassessed is through a whole city reassessment or if it's a new build or major Renovations are done to the property so you have a a fairly short group of people you know home values really haven't skyrocketed since 20192020 you know they were reasonable up until then but you have a short amount of a group of people that are paying quite a bit of money more in property tax than they should be so I don't know if there's anything the assessor can do to help us I've heard some things about a handbook and you know she may be able to go in there and do a a certain grouping you know to have our prop proper reassessed like it's 2014 I guess just just my question is anything on the books to you know uh probably the tax assessor would be the best to help you with that I can tell you that um one of the things we've been talking with the county do is rebal um it is triggered by the state of New Jersey one of the things that the county actually asks us to hold off on is um because of the housing market last time we went to a reval it was at the height of the market prices came back down and there was massive appeals and what happens in the appeal process is um we collect taxes for the county and when people appeal we still have to pay the county based on the higher rate but the taxes get lowered for the individual and then that comes out of the city budget which causes issues with the local taxes so what the recommendation was for us to do was to wait uh couple years to let the market stabilize to see what the trend is so when we do a reassessment that it's actually a fair assessment not at the very height because as you know housing prices go up and down and the biggest Focus for us is stability of taxes and that's something we're going to be looking at this year is looking at what's the pric is as you said 2019 2020 was probably the height I'd say probably 21 not just when it really took yeah so that's what we want to look at and then what that process is and that's something actually I've had a conversation with the city manager as well as with County because we want to make sure that what we do is Meaningful and impactful and not put us I think last time we did this was like 2012 and I think we had like two to four years of massive appeals we actually had to have a whole budget line in the budget because we as the city were still on the hook to pay the county portion of that so we are working our way through that process hopefully we'll have more information totally could appreciate that just didn't know if there's anything you can do to help me now so I'd say probably the best person would be the the tax assessor she could guide you through that process I don't we don't have intimate knowledge of how the tax code works but she is very very helpful and she can help you through that process and then like I said we we're starting to look at what we can do on our end okay fair enough awesome thank you just one resolution tonight that authoriz tax in the past we getting bombarded with deals after we actually had to hire companies to handle Dan sure you got a lot of other stuff not good bre size you guys want pass the basket re open the Pu joke um just a question we had got my wife we Ed letter saying something about I thought what it tastes good I was happy I even have friend then we got SL and wife said she P the same and I don't know who to ask there's no concerns with water I can give you a brief overview and if you need more detail our director of Public Works can give you more specific information uh the state of New Jersey a couple years back has deemed galvanized pipes as a potential lead Hazard so because galvanized pipes are a potential Le hazard the state has mandated that in the state of New Jersey every municipality has to remove and replace those pipes part of the process of that is we have to notify every homeowner that there is a potential is it is the year 1985 after yeah everything prior to 1985 we have to go back and check because it could have been done with galvanized steel everything after 1985 is probably not an issue but there's no issues with our water the waters tested regularly the water safe it's just a mandate from the state of New Jersey that we are obligated to follow up on we're doing this in 10 phases first part of this we have to notify everybody we do an exploratory process once we identify specific homes there's a followup letter that comes out to say hey we've identified this specific home um and then we have to take the process forward from there but there's no issues or no hazards or threats or problems with the water so they buil I pipes or talking about the letter that went out last year about the actual water in 24 yeah it came out months ago came and just an oversight that we had to that you guys had to send out even though there was no problem with the w I didn't know if he was talking about the actual that letter that came out talking about the pipes I think it was about the pipes I you address way off charts now the towers how do they that's what we're doing on now oh is that what's going yeah the one by the school we just redid Rec clean the whole thing now we're working on this one when this one's done we're doing the next one we actually hired a professional company that comes in to to do all that work maintenance but that that's part of our project now cleans the inside the outside everything no it's I just hate to say but my house I I I see that every morning big problems I got thank you so much we're gonna we're when it's done it's gonna be beautiful there you go and congratulations on you time it's the greatest don't have to get up T 208 Washington Drive um and again I I know the mayor I know Council 25 years here on the island some 10 plus years ago when I stood here somehow managed to wind up the volunteer for shark Parks renovation I had no idea what it meant to to the to have a a playground like that to see this new development come to see it planned out with that handicapped accessibility is another level I to thank you all behind the scenes for getting it done you know I'll be around you know I'll try to get involved with it any way I can so I I thank you for that Lynn on behalf of the Chamber of comments all the years all the presid all the people been about the chamber you've always been a rock to help them make sure that the paperwork got done make sure that they did things the right way so thank you on behalf of the chamber good luck on your retirement and uh I I'd be remiss if I didn't say you know with shark park with the new playground I I I often still get questioned about condition of Shark Park and people don't appreciate how much Public Works has done all these years to maintain it and maintain the other Park as well thank you to John's team thank you to you guys for to another great year thanks I don't if people realized too when we redid shark par Paul uh spearheaded the citizens group citizens organization and without his work that he put into that it wouldn't be as beautiful as is and I I would say that was another full-time job that took over your life so we got another playground we're gonna build so I'll be calling you later but uh as I said Paul thank you for everything I have this public comment 371 please don't do any reassessments can't afford any more taxes here um I've just after owning from 2001 uh I have finally become a New Jersey resident and have been uh very happy insurance and everything it has hit hard but anyway uh that's not my point just a question that I have is I state of New Jersey state okay try to give you the short version all right so the short version of this is um there was a lawsuit that started in Mount laurl because there wasn't equal access to housing right mayor of the Town said some derogatory probably inappropriate comments to an individual about it didn't think it was his responsibility that precipitated lawsuit took its way all the way to New Jersey Supreme Court they came up with something called the mount laurl decision the M decision says that every municipality in the state has an obligation to provide AFF housing from there you have the Coalition on affordable housing this is run through the DCA in the state of New Jersey they come up with assessments for every municipality about what they believe is reasonable a reasonable number of houses that you have to create that are affordable each municipality has to put together a plan and how you meet that when you put together the plan of how you meet that DCA and um COA have specific guidelines which kind of guide what affordable housing is the state of New Jersey keeps the list of people who qualify for affordable housing and then from their list they determine the rates at which we can sell those houses for to the people who are on those lists because last time we went through this process I tried to say well there's people in Brigantine need places they can afford can we build affordable housing for people and bring a team they said no we have a state list it comes from the state list one of the things we were able to do is build affordable housing for Veterans and if you look at um uh next to the where the pool is the old there something going up yeah we're doing five units there of affordable housing for Veterans and that's something that we agreed on with the state of New Jersey if we're going to build affordable housing we wanted to take care of our veterans but this still comes from a state list and veterans get first preference on that so that's what we're working on uh for this next round all we're doing is agreeing on the number 19 is probably reasonable the 495 like last time we went through this process they were trying to make us put houses in the middle of like Sheridan Circle I'm like seriously you put houses in a circle that doesn't make sense so the state has taken a different approach but they have the guidelines that are set we try to meet those guidelines cat I tell youti with bin and Simpson The Experience he has now knowledge we when they told us told they R of their minds more or less Andy you know so we worked out an agreement you have to you have to bargain a good fi out some overlay yeah and it only says that we have to come up with the plan it doesn't say we actually have to do it and it it has to be a reasonable plan that you can achieve and we we work towards it like I think there's some things we can do make things better for people to just having like um kids in the school how many young families can afford to live here especially with like starts so it does create opportunity that way I think for some of our seniors too it does create opportunity so there's some good that comes with it as long as the DCA is willing to to work with us so we can find Mutual good I think we're okay with that yes question is the city currently involed yeah we have the joint lawsuit that we filed with the other eight municipalities that's still pending we have a couple of lawsuits Bob Stern with sa LBI dropped a couple and the New Jersey strong Coalition which I represent Brigantine on is moving forward the the child report in State Court stand now I'd say almost every single commissioner now has taken a position against ocean wind um they have all now signed letters that we have requested to send to the different agencies and I think right now we're kind of all like a little bit of holding pattern because it's through the balls on the federal level with uh president Trump and he has made several public statements that he intends to completely shut them down yes but I will tell you almost every single even some of the Commissioners who were like not saying anything have now all signed on and understand importance of this for this been made public has the board taken position in opposition to I don't think they've taken an official vote but they've all now signed letters in opposition they're they're taking stand anything I've asked them to work on with us they shouldn't they be taking a public position as can up to them as a board to take but I can tell you they're now working very closely especially with commissioner rich da he's now the chairman of the board and he and John BRZ have been some of the biggest champions of that commissioner June Burns who's here tonight has been a big Advocate uh Andrew Parker is now on board mik ruffy who was just elected is now on board with this they they're working very hard Jim bertino Jim bertino he was great he's A's May so still has not been a statement I don't believe that they've taken official counil I mean I talk with chairman days but I can tell you that they're all very much engaged they've all signed on to the letters that we have been putting forward and um really right now all eyes are on President Trump because that's really a question that's what his executive order is what SEALs to do and that's really what we need uh one of the things they did all sign on for is uh through the Jersey strong Coalition one of the letters that we sent to B and president Trump was the specific language that we're requesting in the executive order they' all signed on requesting that requesting that so they're they're very very much engaged I don't know if you saw but there's a great article on New Jersey Spotlight news.com about what the mayor said there the executive order that Congress start beginning that's pressure any influence this C has the county executive I don't know if you listen to him on talk radio but he has come out several times that he doesn't want them he's not in favor of them he supports us pressure is important AB thank no other public comment we're GNA close the public portion any final councel comments uh yes mayor drop the ball Karen congratulations swearing in slash reinforment m add it happy birthday Vince many many more drop the ball that but hopefully the Eagles don't drop the ball this weekend to Delaware Valley and locally lot of Buzz going on so if there's no further Council comments uh we have a motion to adjourn is there a second all in favor I I all right motion pass meeting is ended thank you for coming out