##VIDEO ID:TiE0QQWyHck## guys questions answered before we wrap up are you ready sure enough I still missed itex are we ready see are on YouTube I'm checking let me see waiting for the email we are on YouTube so recording progress great uh welcome members of the public uh we uh have exited executive session and now entered into public session of our meeting um again this is the uh Workshop uh meeting for the township at chadam uh for this Tuesday January 14 2025 um next up is the proclamation okay so um yes the United States of America and to the for stands one nation God indivisible with and justice for all as you all know January's a month uh in morning uh for Dr Martin Luther King Jr uh there is a Proclamation uh that will jointly be uh read out by the burrow and Township on January 20th uh on Dr Martin Luther King Jr day um and that will be uh made available on the website as well but I just wanted to make a formal announcement as to that in recognition of uh the special day um I would now uh like to proceed to the first hearing of citizens Mr lanti could you kindly provide uh guidance as to how first here in the citizens shall be conducted members of the public are now welcome to come up to the microphone to address the township committee this is an opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues which are not topic scheduled for public hearings tonight those present May step up to the microphone to be heard if you're watching via Zoom you may speak during any of the public comment sessions by following the zoom instructions to raise your hand whether in person or online when you are recognized to speak please mind the following procedures please say your name and spell your last name and give the name of your street you do not need to give your street number all public comments will be limited to 3 minutes rather than use any of your time answering questions the township committee will wait until you finish speaking before responding there are two public comment sessions on tonight's agenda each member of the public will be be limited to one comment of up to 3 minutes during each public comment period written comments submitted to the Township Clerk before 3 p.m. today will be read during the public comment sessions um written comments are subject to the same guidelines as oral comments duplicative written comments may be summarized rather than read in full according to guidelines issued by the New Jersey Division of local government services and we do not have any written comments tonight thank you Mr lanti uh then at the time I I invite members of the public to approach to mic in the event that you desire to do so we do not have anyone to mic so I now um will be closing the first uh hearing of citizens uh Mr Shah I'd like to move forward to the introduction of ordinances um could you kindly introduce the first ordinance for this evening sure mayor uh so actually for the uh the or introduction of ordinances and the resolutions uh because this is a workshop meeting it's uh not usual that we will pass legislation at these meetings however these two are listed on here uh and the sake of of time and expediency the first one is an ordinance for special emergency appropriation for the reval um and that is uh in response to the county mandated reval program that we have to uh undertake we revaluations are you know typically Big Ticket items uh on the town but we were estimating somewhere between $500 to $600,000 those are not usually expenses that towns can absorb in their annual operating budget and the state does allow for special emergency appropriation so essentially it's a way to kind of you know Bond uh or spread the costs of a an expense such as this over multiple years it's very prescriptive they set certain things are only three years certain things are only five years only very limited exceptions um because we went out to bid uh and just received the bids we didn't know what the cost was going to be we could estimate but certainly don't want to do a special emergency appropriation fall short so now that we've gotten the bids the bids were received uh earlier this or just end of December I believe and um the attorney did review the one bid that we received um and that is why we are now preparing a special emergency appropriation for the reval we'd like to introduce it this evening so that way we can adopt it at the next meeting on the 28th and at that meeting adopt a resolution to award the contract to the reval vendor that won the bid we can't award the contract I've mentioned before in other situations you can't award a contract unless the funds are there and the CFO is able to certify the funds so we need to appropriate the funds first have them adopted uh and the goal is to adopt them on the 28th so that way we can quickly proceed to adopt the resolution to award the the contract so that way they can begin their work as quickly as possible um so that's the ordinance here uh we can certainly talk about that later on you don't need to introduce it right now but certainly before the end of the meeting meeting so if there's any questions on that happy to address those now or later and then the resolution on authorizing the purchase of the fire truck uh that's why we've got uh two representatives from Green Village fire department two outstanding volunteers including the chief uh here to talk about uh the the purchase of the fire truck and uh the purchase of the fire truck uh and I don't know if you want to deal with the ordinance first May or you want to go through this one as well no we've already started so I'm fine with I'm moving on combining two discussing resolutions sounds good so the uh purchase of the fire Tru um when we last year adopted the oper the capital budget right we accounted for an expense for the fire truck based on estimates and it takes time from actually building up the specs so this was originally uh in our Capital plan 20123 it evolved into 2024 because we're forecasting multiple years out and as you get closer and closer obviously prices go up with most vendors and most most things and um until you actually put pent to paper and spec out the product you don't know the exact costs so what we had estimated at about 1.2 has now turned into about 1.51 five correct you and would you like me to ask them to come up may mayor if you have any questions for them or you want to deal with that later well I I did want to thank you for um providing the briefing on the ordinance and resolution I did want to open up to members of the committee if they had any questions or would like to discuss first the uh uh special emergency appropriations of the rebal and then I would like to invite members of the fire department uh to regard resolution the only question I had was um it's over five years that we do the emergency appropriation and that has to be booked to operating expense correct so essentially it's like a deferred charge now you can do it in some towns will borrow for the money um but we don't need to borrow from the money one of the good things one of the great things about what we've been doing recently and ch's been good with uh with ups and downs pandemic hit it is having good fund balance because what you can do is essentially borrow against yourself so we take the money in order to pay for this from our fund balance every year we have to book almost like a deferred charge put you know that let's say 650 divided by five put that amount every year in that operating budget uh so you know it's important for taxpayers and residents to hear this that this is an expense that for the next five years we're going to have to be contributing towards in order to repay ourselves from the fund balance um in order to make ourselves whole but that will uh ultimately um it could start from this year or it could start from the the following year the law allows you from the following year so it's not currently accounted in this we're putting the budget together you know that's what we're going to one of those decision if we want to reduce our future obligations uh and that goes into you kind of looking at your trends for your fund balance and what revenues look like so uh this is you know once this is adopted that's one of those decisions that the finance committee is going to have to look at and Mr Shah am I correct in characterizing that the circumstances by which this has come to force is uh that the Morris County Tax Board independently came to a decision and uh put forth a requirement by by the township uh to do a reval correct yes okay thank you um wonderful now so with regard to the authorization of the purchase of the fire truck if I may invite members of the fire department if You' like to come before sure M thank you so to clarify this authorization here is for about 1.2 just under 1.2 um that's not the full amount of the truck uh and the chief can speak to that uh the apparatus is a rescue correct it's a rescue as I said the total purchase for what they would like is about 1.51 five but because we don't have that full amount uh we've asked the vendor to break out uh the specs and give us a a quote in a spec sheet for what we currently can afford which is how much we have in the budget from our capital ordinance uh from last year the balance of that will come forward later U by way of a change order but would be something we would need to account for in our 2025 capital budget now because these trucks have a long lead time I think the quot said uh 24 average 24 months right um we have time to make those changes and the the split out the the breakout of what we're getting now with this authorization and what we look to get at is something that's not um you know know it's something that can come later as a change order it's not that you know the way they're building the truck something that they know will come later but um is not going to hold up the process until that happens so just understand that with this authorization um and I I don't want to speak for you but this is what you're going to hear from the chief is that in the future for 202's capital budget we're going to need to appropriate uh an additional amount of money to make up the balance of the total cost of this vehicle and the purchase of this would be coming through a Cooperative Council Houston Galviston which is the kind of Premier one the most popular One Nationwide that municipalities counties use for purchasing emergency apparatuses um and so the vendor suin here is a member of that Co-op so that's how we got that quote Chief I think you touch on most major parts beest try to make your job easy I love it yeah you know you do this all the time right um yeah so no I appreciate um working with us on this uh you know kind of breaking it out um I think it's important that we get slotted in at this time especially with the long lead times um fortunately this particular vendor is um probably the the quickest on the market um most other major vendors are trending more like a three-year build out we're closer to like a two so we're pretty happy about uh trying to get in early and then trying to get the truck to us early um so we can put it in service obviously um quicker we get it here um the quicker we can have it protect the town and whatnot um the truck itself yes it is a rescue uh it's replacing our current rescue um which is a 2,000 um so uh it's been of great service to us uh but this particular truck um will have a full class a pump on it so um not only rescue it'll allow us to uh do heavy uh fire suppression as well um so in those cases you know if you're running into a situation with lighter band power you can do more with less um being a rescue you know if an industrial call goes out like a u like a car fire um you there was one even uh this this fall actually um on the chattam township side um carire Extended to a second car and then started to enter into the structure um very common kind of car call um let alone you know we're seeing more increased you know EVS on the road uh a traditional rescue truck that might have a limited amount of water or just um you know one like ours that currently has um you know a heavy array of extinguishers on there doesn't quite have the fire the fire punch the fire attack that this truck will be able to have um so as we've seen um and it is true um something like a EV fire would require uh you know a ton of water which this would be able to provide and support um you know so part of the design and also with the um you know the ability to get that slotted and then um treat these change orders um you know or upgrades or you would like to view them um would really give us the piece that we feel will best suit the town uh for for our efforts so I don't know if uh you have any particular questions on what they are or not not not on that actually question is pretty basic and that is if we're looking at a future change order bank for that future change order is there any um you know placing an order today does that impact your pricing that you would receive um can you speak to that sure the change order itself uh we cannot lock into today's pricing it's going to be subject to whatever it is at that time on average we see a 2 to 3% annual increase over um over the course of the year so um for round Figures it's about 300,000 I not going to try to math in my head but um you get the idea so fortunately the you know the the about a quarter of the value or or less will be subject to that increased price so fortunately it's the the vast minority of the cost of the apparatus is there time sensitivity to getting this in que uh that helps a lot uh and actually in this particular case the price increase that we're we're trying to chase is going to go into effect tomorrow so uh the for this initial purchase we're you know with the with the help of the C the committee and and particularly the z um who really we were back and forth hammering us out uh got us in just right under the wire so um provided this all all works out we'll we'll beat it within you know within the 24 hour span that's one of the reasons why the resolutions on to the workshop tonight is to make sure that we lock in that rate uh before the new rate then the whole package goes up as opposed to just the change order um that's number one number two I always have to say this so the residents we look at every opportunity for Grants and we this was one of the apparatuses that we put in for the was it last year's I think afg Grant 2024 and we got denied for it and and it's not because I think the applications aren't great and we could put the best application it's a very competitive Grant and they really look at need they look at need uh they look at the demographics of the community and I hate to chatam is just not one of those competitive municipalities when you look at the the you know what fits the criter for what the feds are trying to fund so we are left to our own devices and that's unfortunately taxation so Mr shahadi I um I thank you for putting in the work to come up with a creative solution on on structuring the pricing um if so in summary if I understand this by by virtue of approaching this so Chief we we can protect ourselves in terms of any possible future cost with regard to the base truck the 1.2 portion correct however but we on able to uh provide any guarantees on cost solidifying cost on the additional 300,000 piece because that's a future item uh and you're comfortable with the funding for that work order 300,000 work order to come from uh the capital plan uh in 202 right okay okay chief could you talk about it because I know you guys had a request for an apparatus for 2025 that was part of our I think seven-year presentation could you talk about absolutely inions with that so originally we had slated to um replace engine 4 um we were um once again you know couple years out trying to figure out a long-term plan figuring 500,000 or so um for that apparatus um we have obviously not even started looking into that and whatnot um the situation we're dealing with now came about uh one of the solutions um working with z uh Debbie and Ed um we all came up with um as well as members of the Greenville dry was uh to delay that truck build um take some of the take the funding for that that we were originally slating and appropriating it to this so I think I think by shifting that we'll be okay um it is uh one of our um we run the truck obviously uh it's a Frontline truck but it probably runs less than the other three apparatus that we have uh it's wellmaintained low mileage um it's pretty good working order so we felt comfortable with moving that down the road committing to this because without getting the truck built in our in our uh you know opinion without getting it built the way that we feel it should be built what's the sense really just you know do it right or don't do it you know that kind of thing so here we are and I we thought it was a better play to manage it this way um and then that'll allow a a a less expensive truck to be dealt with down the road that will obviously be subject you know costs always go up they never seem to go down in that field that's for sure but uh that's what we felt was the best solution and that was our the reasoning behind our approach so what's the what's the longterm I guess the usage or expectancy of that other truck that you bypassed in favor of the other one so we we use a general metrics of 20 years uh for most Fire Apparatus you know some run harder than others like you know this is our our our Mini Engine you know our our primary engine runs way more often uh that would be you know more of an importance if you just use that as a as a comparison uh but just to you know the rescue truck itself is already 24 years old uh by the time we take receipt of it it's going to be 26 to 27 years old sure so um you know this truck that we are pushing down is a 2004 so um you know it's 21 at the time um but we felt you know this one makes more sense for us uh the timing of the payments I don't know who I'm asking What's the timing do we now so generally with these uh payments not due and it's due in full until you take delivery of the vehicle oh really yeah really deposit do right um I believe it they don't require a deposit correct I they don't require a deposit I mean the other one same thing with they don't require deposits on these um yeah so we just pay at the end and we've looked at I me that's why we've explored whether prepayment we can get some discounts deposit discounts and they have given us some discounts but the discount is actually less than what we would be paying if we were to because in order to make that payment we would have to actually Finance the bond so as I said last year said we're bonding for these we're not actually going to borrow for them until we need them and saves US money so rather than borrowing the full 1.2 and having it sit in our account yes we'd be gaining interest but we'd also be paying interest on it and then whatever interest we' be or whatever discount we'd be getting is overshadowed by that cost so we just wait until then uh some cases sometimes deposits make sense and these it does not and uh you know they didn't require it no I'm going tell you oh I think on these we're good because we're using the uh somebody hear they can't hear me oh okay sorry anything else anyone else from the meting Mr yeah I just you know I'm Dan Miller and I'm vice president I'm also pretty much a daytime operator down at the department and uh first I wanted to say you know I want to thank Mike and and all the folks that were on our truck committee uh who put in Endless hours you know and just you know to get it out there all the time that we all are volunteers you know you know both sides of town is all volunteer fire departments and uh you know we we're always looking for more people to come out Mike's been Chief now for what seven years Michael not years almost seven years I'm serving my six okay serving your sixth you know and you know everybody you know at the drop of a hat you know not only myself but everybody stops what they're doing and goes out and this particular vehicle that you're looking at bonding will actually help us Manpower wise because we will be able to handle a vehicle fire and extraction all with one one set apparatus as opposed to now where it takes two you know and sometimes when you have low Manpower you know you have to make choices so this will eliminate all that and it it's very important and uh you know it'll be very helpful and the only other thing I wanted to say was I wanted us to all remember our brothers and sisters out in Los Angeles uh you know they're working really hard out there and there's you know been loss and not just property and we need to remember that and we need to remember how important it is to keep up our infrastructure and our apparatus and everything that we need to do in order to keep our community safe out here it was very dry out here this year too we had a couple we we had one vehicle fire over on running me which actually started to spread to the bushes but we through mutual Aid both Green Village and chattam Township we were out there and we took care of it before we lost anything and also we had one on shum Pike that uh C fire and we were able to make sure that it didn't spread to any of the houses or the day school so you know we work very hard out there and we appreciate your support as well thanks thank you Dan and chief I appreciate the words um and I think I speak on behalf of the committee that uh we're delighted we can uh help to push this forward for you so thank you um we'd like to move on to reports Mr shoty um so we can move on to reports now or or since we've unless there's any questions on either the reval person if you want to knock those two legislative items out are we doing votes for both those those both will need uh votes the ordinance and the resolution if you're comfortable with that I do want to just take a moment to thank the chief and and his Department we' been than if you want to stick to the agenda has written we can vote on those before we move on to the reports sure I do want to thank that the chief and his team and also our team CFO Debbie uh and assistant treaser eded coming up and working with them to come up with this this plan so yes no thank you for everybody's service of course but then when I saw the 20 pages I think that the fire truck I didn't even know you could have that many specs for gaes you well they list every it was very detailed like glutton for punishment I through that thing they're clearly doing very well if they don't take any deposits and they're able to front for two years then they're uring okay yeah so yes may would you like to deal with those first yes okay um so one a Time introduction uh yeah introdu introduce the ordinance 20251 special emergency appropriation for reevaluation I will make a motion to introduce I will second thank you Mr lanti Mr El pertz yes Mrs eal yes Mr McHugh yes Deputy Mayor Roland yes mayor Troy yes motion passes in public hearing will be on January 28th thank you Mr lanti now on to resolution uh 20254 n authorizing purchase of fire truck I will make a motion to uh approve resolution 2025 d49 thank you do I have a second second Mr Al pertz yes Mrs ewal yes Mr McHugh yes Deputy Mayor Rand yes and mayor Troy yes motion passes thank you Mr thank you very much apprciate thank you so much for the support we're off to our reor meeting now appreciate you coming in also no of course they already started so we're a bunch of committees that there you go thank you again gentlemen have a good evening thank you Chief we'll talk toor about the contract and getting a hold of absolutely yeah first thing but let them know it will be signed in the morning yep yep paperwork Etc thank you all right very good thank you great Mr shotty we move on to reports and I got the microphone thank you I remembered uh so first item that I had listed was the resolution of the firetruck which we took care of the next one is the resolution for affordable housing which uh we did discuss an executive session uh but we will more information at the next meeting for the public on that one um the next item is the uh Communications land lease so uh as you are aware we went out to bid uh you know our attorney M phony prepared a memo on on that we went out to bid because the current holder of the lease on the property behind on the DPW property which houses our tower that lease has expired and went out to bid to solicit more competitive proposals and see what happen and I I I'm happy to report that I think we fared pretty well we are getting nice upfront uh advance and we are making quite a bit more rent than even the reserve we set for it and what it would have been had it continued uh and it accounts for escalators uh because it is a land lease uh New Jersey correct uh it requires an ordinance as opposed to a resolution yep so that's listed on the agenda are there any questions or concerns for that um I get of a question about that um uh substantial difference in the two bids that you received which is fantastic but it also raises a question of why um uh for a number of reasons I guess my only real questions were are there any are there things in place already that will restrict the height of what they build on the property or uh and I'm sure there's already things in place that will uh restrict any kind of interference with systems and emergency response systems and everything along those lines either either one of those bids that came in so it's not not specific to the winning it's just red or two in my mind so right now they're not building anything because we have a tower there the last uh leas hole the current I should say built the Tower if I'm not mistaken and but as part of that agreement that Tower stays it's it becomes our property so they occupy the tower by putting antennas on that Tower um but if they wanted to take that down build something new there's a condition in there that they still have to meet all government approval so they would still have to come before the board for anything now the FCC and the federal government have pretty much preempted a lot of Municipal oversight when it comes to uh Cellular Communications and Towers so there is some you know wiggle room there but they are uh largely uh they've got a lot of flexibility Fally regulated especially with regard to um interference and that that type of thing so and as for the difference in cost yeah I can't explain it not looking for justification so to the committee's point though if they potentially have you know 10 whatever they're called attached to the Tower and the new entity wants to put 20 we don't have a sense of that right now but the other one could have done more anyway yeah correct the other one could have the the good thing at least to us is the more they put on there the more money we do get because in addition we would be getting 50% of the rents so essentially they're subletting to carriers so they manage they'll they'll solicit they'll say we're going to get Verizon we're going to get AT&T we're going to get you know that uh the one that advertises to the seniors at night on you know we're going to get all these carriers and put them on there we get 50% of that um but again they still have to get all required approvals from federal level all the way down okay so uh to just to reiterate you said did so because of the land leas requirement is that this will be in ordinance as opposed to yeah typically we would award uh bids by resolution but because this is not only just awarding the bid but it's a executing a lease for the property it requires an ordinance generally when you're affecting um the use of land or land rights you're doing an nor so any objections to having that set for the next meeting okay we welcome Revenue um salary ordinance range so I did include an analysis on that um Ando to accompany that the salance range um it's part of my effort is to kind of be proactive and look forward um any questions or concerns on that if okay I would be using the The Columns to the far right that are highlighted to uh draft the ordinance uh hopefully with introduction at the 28th and then adoption would be in February um I I was trying to see if you had responded to me so I know I sent in my questions late the um sub codes yes is that factor in enough time for them to yeah so that's the reason there's such a variation so in in one column next to the 2022 ordinance actually I'm sorry the 2024 resolution which sets St there are two figures a lower figure and a higher figure that's because we have a range of officials and inspectors and different ones work different hours currently so that's why you see a big range uh in what they're currently compensating plus some of them have been with the township longer so it's the hours the number of hours the number of days uh and excuse me um so the range that I'm providing for is still wide enough that accounts for if we want to include more hours um but I also added in under the part-time non-salary section uh the same position but hourly range so that way if we wanted to bring in uh right now individuals are salaried but they are all serving a set schedule with set number of hours per week if we just wanted to bring somebody in for one or two hours a week not salary but sort of as a per DM or as an as needed that gives us the flexibility to do that as well okay yeah because I just want to make sure I knew that um we had to get additional hours order to get stuff done okay awesome thank you Mr Shah could you provide a a brief summary of uh the process by which you came to the ranges uh so that we can have appreciation for um these numbers to be competitive relevant and within reason absolutely so um there are a number of factors that I considered one was uh where people currently are right in terms of salaries over the last couple of years and individual have resigned retired we've hired some folks uh that's given me and and the township really a good idea of what the current market is demanding most recently there's one in your agenda packet for executive session you'll you'll we'll discuss later kind of gives you an idea of how the market has been trending upwards and and I think making more leaps uh you know towards greater numbers than sort of a consistent uh you know 2% or 3% Cola but I looked at where they currently are and I project as I did in 2022 um a typical Cola increase if we were to do 2% every year based off of their current rates what would that put us and I looked at that through 2028 so that way we've got a range that'll last us at least through there that was one thing I looked at the other one I looked at were certain positions that um are just in Greater demand in Municipal and municipal government that's based on uh conversations in person I have Municipal manager association meetings at the county level we meet uh and Statewide and and then we also distribute emails often uh you know one town might be hiring a Rec director or a public safety director or a police chief and they're asking us all how much do you spend and we get spreadsheets that they've collected uh at that point in time and so I use those numbers as well now it's hard to just use that and come up with a I know mayor you would love a matrix that says here's how much every Town's you know let's say police chief I keep asking I know and and it's it's almost impossible to come up with something that's going to equalize and give you the information you're looking for because some of them are wearing multiple hats some people have worked at a municipality longer some people are um just even geographically it varies as well and then how big is the population of the town the PO the the geographic area of the town uh is there a sewer utility is there a parking authority is it and you're never going to be able to capture all of that in just a simple you know survey and and have all of these municipalities respond to you in a uniform manner to get that so I used some information that I've had from those surveys that we've done informally over the last two three years that I've been here and then the other one was uh also looking at um current vacancies or vacancies that we've had recently and the salary requirements of applicants um you know while most recently was the construction official and then we've had uh as well you know our pool manager so looking at what people are requesting in there and that's not to say we have to give them what they request but the pool of applicants has been shrinking and that's not just in chadam it's everywhere I hear that from administrators all throughout the county that are all having a hard time filling critical positions and filling positions with qualified capable people and they all say the same thing we're hamstrung by either the salary ordinances or what you know elected officials are willing to pay and so if we want to make sure that we've got good talent we keep the talent that we have that we're happy with we can recruit good talent when people resign or retire uh then the key is having ranges that give us that flexibility and this ordinance is just that it just it sets ranges a minimum and a maximum ranges are set when we hire somebody by resolution that you adopt so it's still you you have another opportunity to approve and review the salary that's being set and also at the you know annually when we adopt salary resolutions great thank you Mr shot so the short of the long is there's no centralized database very hard form but certainly benefiting from your many years serving uh in in Municipal um uh in municipalities to be able to call up folks and call together data um and rely on in down data as far as what people are asking and where things seem to be in the market I appreciate your uh trust in me there thank you Mr shoty um are there any objections to those ranges or concerns orther questions on that on to the next item thank you uh yeah so the next item is uh Colony fees so in an effort to um one get the fees set earlier and earlier every year so this is yet another year we were removing it up earlier uh taking care of it in in January uh but it's also I think it's still a reasonable time frame to give us an opportunity to close out the year really analyze the numbers solicit feedback from the members by way of the survey that we did uh look at what the revenue looks like you know it takes time to close out the books based on bills that are still needing to be paid and all so this is uh I provideed you with a spreadsheet that analyzes all of that I believe and includes in there a proposal for uh 2025 that is I think um still a very modest uh but important increase for us in order to generate more revenue for the pool so that way it is self- sustaining um you know last year in 2024 uh the revenue was about 250,000 salaries alone that's and these are critical salaries there's really little fluff there these are lifeguards the manager the instructors the coaches those salaries right there that's about 186,000 so that's you know eating into the revenue and then you've got your operating expenses so this year we had about 150,000 in operating expenses and it's been averaging you know I would say you look over look at over the past couple years um you know 2022 was 125 last year was a little less but that's based on feedback that the managers will give and say Hey you know we really need to uh invest in more lifeguard stands we need to upgrade the PA system this year we put in railings based on feedback from the residents coming down the stairs from the snack stand so we had more expenses this year now all of these do come you know all this does come from our open space budget we do account for a couple hundred, for each of our facilities whether it's Nash whether it's the the pool so we you know we account for this um but this in 2024 we had a gap of about $85,000 so the pool ran at an $85,000 loss uh just this year it's better than it it was in 2022 uh which was 107 $107,000 loss and now we're also making sure that we've got good accounting of all of our expenses including past Debt Service and capital projects so with that I think it's it's important that we keep up with the c our costs are going up chlorine is getting more and more expensive uh the feedback from residents is is you know more in terms of Maintenance uh you know the daily maintenance of the facilities but also things like our our pump house is starting to fall into disrepair that's a major expense and all of these whether it's bonded whether it's coming out of open space these are all real costs that we've got to account for for the pool and if we don't make you know if we don't adjust the rates year after year then we end up in a situation with five years where we're looking back wondering why are we so far off on our rates and and I did look at you know municipalities in the area other competing uh pools and our rates and I think I included the New Providence and the burough our rates are not high they are I think they're a very good value and I think the survey results also did show that people think we offer a fair value for what we're providing thank you Mr shotti yeah would I understand that you know colony is a beloved uh Med uh asset uh to the township uh the reality is costs are escalating across the board I do understand that operating a facility is uh um not an insignificant Endeavor um I would agree that you know based on so the the the the modest increase in the fees is based on a considered uh effort uh we have looked at uh competitive substitutes um most notably New Providence and I think maybe one or two others and uh comparatively it does appear to offer a very high value relative to other facilities and their respective feeds um so so I thank you for that Mr shoty um New Providence uh in the documents you sent us they have a I guess an Initiation fee for new members corre correct and we do not have something like that did you give consideration into instituting something like that for I'll be honest I did not just I mean that has not been the tradition here not to say that we can't bre with tradition but I was not about to introduce something like that and and they charge a very Hefty initiation granted it's a one yeah but I should also know that you know New Providence I don't know how many people do know I mean that is a that is not a government pool either so that is a independent private nonprofit entity governed by their own board of Board of Trustees as well so um so just so the short answer is no I didn't consider that I did notice it but I didn't because I yeah I'm not walking into that land and by discussing it this evening and um in preparation for the end of January meeting uh this would allow us to uh publicly post uh the new updated fees um in in a timely fashion to be well positioned for for the offering of the uh early bird yes so um the the early bird starts March 1st we start sending out postcards on those typically in mid February I want to move that up earlier you know if there's no uh major objections will not you know we'll start entering the information uh but pending obviously adoption on the 28th of that resolution that way we can go ahead and and have the printer mail that out either the first or second week no later advertising you know early bird rates and registration and full scale marketing up for online as well and we'll email all the members uh as well sure my my only comment was given the uh increases 5% and the ear our discount is 5% why don't you just tell them they can lock in last year's where he just make my fees a little bit easier little yeah you know I did not with the uh with the uh because it was off a dollar or two because you're yep yep that makes sense and the the proposed I fig that that's a negotiation whether you want to go with that five or go with a different number certainly but I think five uh you know if you look at it right a resident family regular you're talking about $30 increase for the for the year that's and and if you take advantage of the early bird discount that's no increase so it'll hopefully encourage people to do early bird although it does benefit us more if uh people pay the full rate so sign sign up early and often sign up early and sure sign up often too uh any other comments or questions for members of the committee okay thank you and just to note that these rates still are in line with the pool ordinance as well because there is a pool ordinance that sets ranges and I did check that these still full within that range but we probably should update that at the end of this year or early next year I think I'm the colony now so I'll just share it with the uh Comm after this meeting or if you want to amend it and then because you're gonna yes I'll put together a draft of the resolution so the numbers are clean and more easy just to make them um and then heads up that not for this meeting but the next uh Workshop meeting I'm expecting three memos uh from our land use board manager uh our construction official and Zoning official and our fire prevention official uh they have noticed that certain fees have not been adjusted over time to account for things like notice in the newspaper um I'll use that as an example for the boards the advertising costs are greater than they are than we're charging applicants on the other some fees are uh not consistent with what the state table provides for let's say under uniform construction code or there's opportunities for certain things that we have not been charging for that should be captured so I've asked those three individuals to prepare memos that show what those fee proposals are what they're requesting what the current fee is and some comparisons to neighboring municipalities so that would probably be February and March look forward any questions or thoughts on those and this would be entirely for the construction it'll be for uh the land use boards there's a separate for planning board zoning board that's one then fire prevention so inspections of uh carbon monoxide you've got life Hazard non-life Hazard inspections of say restaurants retail establishments Office Buildings things like that and then the third one is the construction as well permits the you know types of permits what exactly the work is that's being done uh the schedule really should be updated to match what the state allows for any questions or comments please proceed Mr sh uh under the clerk section uh I categorized this under the clerk section the business and landlord Insurance registry is a lot of registrations uh and Licensing uh sort of general ones fall under the clerk's office uh this is a a law that wased uh a couple years ago and it requires businesses and landlords to maintain um Insurance prop you know uh and provide proof of that insurance to the municipality and allows the municipality to also charge for that form processing and maintaining that database um so I did include in the packet I believe should have been a local Finance notice and some background information on this um we don't have that ordinance here we do have an ordinance on um landlords some degree having to register well there is a landlord registration that the state requires that we've been doing for a long time this is something different from that this is more targeted to the insurance the minimum insurance and as the administrator indicated um the a business is having to provide proof of that and um we can charge a fee for that so we could uh hopefully have an ordinance ready for review I guess at the next Workshop we'd be really following the state template on this one and it's to make sure that you know businesses and landlords have the minimum insurance requirements because there really is no oversight of that you know they're supposed to have it but if they don't if the policy lapses if it's not adequate somebody slips and falls in a parking lot something happens uh this make sure that our visitors and residents are safe if they're patronizing a business in town or if they are ATT tenant or visiting a uh multi multi-unit residential property and the uh the ACT also uh calls out the fines for non-compliance if we once once we have this ordinance in effect any questions or concerns there okay this is that's common that most towns have it or most towns don't have it or this registry it's a new uh it's new legislation I think they only put out the notice in 2022 following a recent legislation so some towns uh have them some towns don't yet um this is part of you know my conversation with other administrators and just reading news and bulletins and things like that uh noticed that we don't have that and so we want to correct that and um there are you know there's there's a ton of things that sometimes the state puts out notices on and they kind of just it's like the state cries wolf all the time about things so you got to really catch what they're saying and see whether it's important or not and this is one of those things we don't want to fall through the cracks I don't know how many towns have it yet I can guarante you not all of them have it so uh the next item is a bylaws update um which is your bylaws so I know as the reorg uh and the transition period was occurring there were some questions about subcommittees and liaison ship so that's why we added that here for you guys to have a discussion on that if you so wish yes and I know I definitely contributed to that so um I'm not putting F name there were a couple of positions that just you know of uh trying to allocate all of the work across uh the committee members um there just were a couple positions that seemed that you could fold them into other um I think maybe there was a separate Recreation that you could fold into the like admin role committee and in terms of the you know additional work it's it's pretty much the same so and it made sense because you would have those those discussions together so there were a couple things like that that I remember so and I don't know if there's anything else driving it but I know that was my that was one of them I think public utilities and Recreation were the two and the implication so the notion here is not that uh we're going to remove the work or any duties associated with those roles um historically I think it is something that uh um perhaps didn't warrant you know significant time or you know full-time effort so uh in order to be efficient and you know avoid having for the sake of name or or template you know committee appointments I think we're trying to be efficient and uh um create roles that actually have substantive responsibilities of work so those two positions we we thought might be best benefit we benefit by having those two positions rolled into um some of the other existing other positions yeah I'm trying to remember were in there was there anything else we need to clean up Mr clerk um I will review them to see if there's any suggestions that I have I was wrapped up um since our reorg with uh all the reorg business yeah but I will uh I'll I'll take a look through to see if I have any recommendations okay thank you um I think there was I don't know if it's applicable to this part not the bylaws but this something I mentioned to both uh Jen and Mike is uh the roles and responsibilities of the OEM uh to have a member of the uh Public Safety uh committee at least one member uh be part of that organization or present during those any kind of those meetings um I don't think that's a FW thing I think that was more of a uh role and responsibility of an ordinance I think that was that was discussed and I wasn't sure if that was part of the crafting of the OEM so I did uh participate as mayor and I don't but I don't think for thec just to clarify so the OEM uh is you know that's an employed kind of Department agency but uh correct you're referring to the local emergency management Council so there's the council which uh essentially like an advisory committee let's say to the OEM coordinator and Deputy coordinator that's the one that we've been meeting so the mayor is on there and but there is no slot for you know let's say a rep from from the governing body's Public Safety Committee so you know you could incorporate something like that in your bylaws as well but the LMC is defined by ordinance and that's required to be defined by resource position so that would also be an ordinance update there if you want to include that and then is the was the about the um the communications for the public meetings oh that that would be in the public the bylaws that we can incorporate what aspect of communications because the open public meetings act uh defines how we uh notice our meetings yeah so um my understanding is the state requires the notification of meetings to be published in the newspapers uh so um so the the law is that we're not not required to publish anything we're required to send by snail mail to the newspapers it's up to them whether they choose to publish but so the the only obligations that we are supposed to do for the public to be informed that we're meeting uh is the bulton yeah you heard me which I think we do just fine we cover those bases uh the uh notification should they publish that are both behind firewall pay walls so there really isn't an opportunity for the public to know that we're meeting uh except for a banner or notification that's hung on our walls we always go the extra step by publishing it on our website we always go the extra step by publishing our social media channels uh my recommendation is these are things we do already in the interest of the public to know and be informed that these meetings are taking place so that they can participate or they can tune in uh my recommendation is to make it official that we put it in writing that we do these extra things uh it's things that we're already doing and I think in today's communication channels uh we should make it official that we're taking those extra steps um I I don't think there's any more work on our behalf so that's that was my recommendation on a taking uh uh a review of the bylaws it just seems strange to me that uh it's not already in there but I I think it's uh reasonable in terms of you know it sets a standard going forward because if we're not here then it's good to set the standard going forward that other committee members will make sure that you know our administrations will make sure you you look puzzled oh no I don't puzzled I'm not puzzled at all no no no no sorry I apolog let's I mean let's be honest if you pull the r the community I don't think they're paying for subscriptions to the the chat Courier in order to find out when we're meeting uh and they're not Walking The Halls to see when our meeting is uh I think we can I think we already are very proactive I think we might as well make it official that we maintain that level of proactivity so that the public are invited to the meetings and are aware from so rather rather than treat this as a bylaw matter perhaps have an ordinance to um separately have that be our own requirement upon ourselves not only for the township committee um but I've been doing the same thing for the Board of Health and you may want to consider uh requiring the planning board and the zoning board and have their manager do do the same work that I do for um Board of Health and Township committee as far as website updates I me which you know planning board and zoning board for the most part are doing the same things anyway um but but I I I would suggest that be a standalone thing rather than than a bylaw since all those other boards which are also subject to the open public meetings act um and the environmental commission is also subject to open public meetings you have it be a standalone thing that any board subject to opma meet whatever additional standards the township wants to set beyond beyond what the state law requires Mr L question um is there a requirement that one or both Publications need to be paid Publications um yeah they have to be uh subscription based um printed newspapers uh which I believe the state may be uh making some adjustments because uh print newspapers are becoming a thing in the past and um to committeemen alit's point um I believe there was something um T correct me if I'm wrong but I think there was something where legal ads can't be behind a uh pay wall anymore that they have to be open for anybody and everybody in the spirit of actual transparency um but yeah there there there are regulations about um actual subscri um not necessarily subscription but an actual paid for newspaper and um is as as I started to touch on before the uh State requirement is not that I publish we we we do publish it an annual notice uh for the full normal meeting schedule uh we do publish that for all all our boards but if we have a special meeting all the state requires is that I just simply mail them the the notice put it on the bulletin board and file it with myself yeah that's that's the absolute minimum we have to do to remain compliant but we do go above and beyond that okay thank you Mr I think Priority One is that we're in compliance right so to ensure that and sounds like we're doing that um I have no objections to looking to further to codify the additional means by which we disseminate information uh for the benefit of the public so unless there's uh any other um questions or comments or objections um something we can look into so is there any guidance or direction as to a draft of bylaws yet for the next meeting or would you like to carry this we're talkinging about the bylaws with respect to the subcommittee and the liaison ship is what I'm hearing that ordinance is there do you want us to move ahead with drafting an amendment to that ordinance I I would like to move ahead with it unless there's any other objections do we know what changes we're actually making what I hear is you want to put the recreation uh combine Recreation with the admin Personnel committee yes and public utilities and Public Utilities so eliminate that liaison ship and roll that into the duties of the administration sub commmittee is that correct yes say that again I'm sorry I'll okay I was like what's going into it was in my original notes because somehow that sounds like there's too many things have but when we were um kind of going through the assignments I thought you were removing Public Utilities as a subcommittee we were folding there was an appointment for Public Utilities we're eliminating the leaz you're right it was there was definitely we had like five boards committees and then we were looking to fold them into four right correct because so it's Recreation is one of the subcommittees and so it be folding that subcommittee into what I'm hearing is admin and Personnel so it would be four committees and then the leaz on ship would be eliminated because those duties would be absor by the corre we'll circulate a draft though yeah I've got it thank you Mr shoty no problem uh the clerk report for December any questions the the clerk subit is report for uh for December any questions supp okay uh moving on construction building department uh didn't get any questions on the report there anything to discuss all right uh engineering is the next one uh mayor commit we have two resolutions that we'd like your consideration of uh at the next meeting first is a change order for Colony tennis uh the engineer included a memo in the packet as to the rationale for that change order um and the next one is the local Recreation infrastructure Grant which we are hoping to apply for for Nash Parks playground um the deadline for that Grant is the end of this month uh but we've already gotten a quote for that and um any questions on either of those objections the playground would only be is that only being considered should we receive the grant or the playgrounds being no any way and we're hoping the the playground is in our Capital review and our plan so uh you know since I started we've been trying to put together facilities inventory and uh our Public Works directors has done a great job of saying Hey listen you know this playground it's not in good shape we got to slate this so we do have we had this playground uh as well as some others on our list so we when grant opportunities come up I look at that list and draw from there uh so it is something that would be done regardless of whether we get it um I can't recall whether this was in the same time frame you know of 2025 we may have bumped it up because we look at some of the parameters of the grants that make sense based on the cost the likelihood it will be awarded things like this so we are going to do it one way or the other um I don't see a reason we wouldn't get this grant either because this is one of those things where they award on average about $100,000 it's an annual Grant we got it last year which is good for Mountain View um we do have a component where we have to match some funds anyways uh so we'd be contributing to this as well okay thank you any uh questions on the report oh I'm sorry Mr shotti one last thing on on the playground uh much like we did with Mountain View yes um if there is a need to um uh introduce the project to the environmental commission with regard to any environmental matters that uh might be associated with the project sure if it's above and beyond what was uh done in Mountain View for example the m is the same stuff then probably need not but at least uh provide the courtesy um uh introduction to environment uh commission okay yeah I will do that we're not it's going to be just a replacement so the only thing will probably be the malling same thing we're not looking to we're using the same footprint uh and and just kind of replacing with newer and more C- compliant uh you know equipment that meets today standards but I will I'll run by them anyways terrific thank you Mr shy um moving on to finance is that fine whether no questions on the report correct okay Finance um we tackled the ordinance uh that was the big one so we would have that on for adoption at the final hearing and adoption at the next meeting uh just to give you an over rview of the budget schedule um actually let me pull that up TR you're on that right yes I want to pull and Comm yes yes so let me just pull that up so I've got consistent information there so we are um the state announc there's State Statute that governs when the budgets are due and then the state through the division of local government Finance uh amends that the adoption budget deadline uh budget option deadline for us by the state is April 30th we are intending to introduce that I'm sorry to adopt that at our April 22nd meeting so working backwards from there at the April 8th Workshop meeting is when we'll do a Public Presentation as well on the budget um maybe more abbreviated from the introduction that's basing also off the state deadline to introduce the budget of March 31st so at the meeting of March 25th is when we hope to introduce the budget and at the workshop meeting of March 11th is when I'll present the the budget to you publicly uh as the finance committee has reviewed it and so we've got two more meetings actually we've got a two more meetings scheduled is that correct uh that may yes so two more meetings scheduled on the uh internal budget meetings uh with the finance committee and then uh a couple more meetings internally with the staff to try and have something final there um I think we will be in a good position to um mitigate any burdensome tax increases to the residents in light of as well a lot of costs that have been thrown at us one of them I start off the meeting with which was the tax Ral that's a huge chunk of change and U transportation for affordable housing is is hitting us in our budget full this year so right there between those two you're looking at almost a quarter million dollars uh in in added expenses uh right off the bat so that's separate from health costs and pensions that that keep going up um but we are always looking at crafty ways as you saw we're bringing in some more Revenue through our sellow release we're looking at other ways to reduce costs so um we will be presenting the most fiscally responsible budget to you that we possibly can any questions there I have no question okay uh police licensing is uh coming up on the police department now so that one is an ordinance for police licensing and including your package was uh some information from the chief on that this is based on a law that was a pamphlet law 2022 D whatever from the state that came about calls and a need for improved oversight and accountability of of uh police officers and police departments Statewide making sure that there's a uniform licensing process uh the licensing is valid for three years they have to renew currently these are things that you know you go you complete the academy and then that's it granted they have training that has to happen but there's no centralized database with the state that you know let's say there's misconduct there's termination there's uh for whatever reason uh D sure I'll I'll call you know something that happens uh there's no system for municipalities to really know this stuff uh and talk and coordinate and communicate and to have that oversight so the state law does prevail what the chief is trying to incorporate this licensing requirement into our own code because we do have in our ordinances a section dealing with minimum requirements to be a police officer so we want to reiterate that and make sure that it's also a local ordinance uh and that we uh you know future Chiefs and future governing bodies and future administrators are aware and and bound by that that requirement any questions there no so it's a recently passed state law and we're just being on top of things as far as that Mak sure our ordinances are yeah so I think it passed in 20122 but part of that law like with anything it takes time to implement as you see with foral housing right this one was not only did they adopt it but then they referred it to the PTC which is the police training commission I believe falls under the EG's office if I'm not mistaken or the state police and then they had a review period there was like a lot of lot that went into actually formulating the final rules on this and so we're at that point where we can adopt this now so presumably we will be paying licensing fees I assume to get everybody licensed licens we'll see I mean part of the Union contract I'm sure that that's a negotiable item and and will be brought up but we do account for education and lure with most of our employees I would say whether you're the clerk the CFO uh anybody that's holding the license there's continuing education credits that's part of that that the holding the position and so this is more so budet I assume include in the budget just add more to the which we're hoping it's a nominal we'll see what happens um and also the chief did include in his report an ordinance uh to uh address the issue of alarms and I'm sorry I'm sorry alarms private alarms so like a lot of towns uh you know back in the day alarm systems were centralized in police departments uh if you've been in some police departments that are really old you go into maybe a storage closet telecomunications room you just see wires coming in from all over those were wires that alarm companies would run to the police departments uh so that way if there was a an alarm they would get that notification so this comes from that really that original ordinance where uh we have it still on the books that people get an alarm system they have to register that with us people don't do that now it's all privately you know ad or it's managed and they handle the communications with the police department so this is uh an obsolete ordinance and the chief's recommending that we remove it one so kind of administratively cleans things up makes things easier for residents not having to worry about another thing that uh is already taken care of and and it's redundant so Chief would like to clean that up and it's part of our effort to going through the code book last year we found some things this year we're finding more things that just are little outdated and we want to repeal and clar are those both good before the next meeting okay thank you Public Works um any questions on the report there okay tax collector and tax assor we did touch on the ordinance for the uh rather I'm say the the resolution the ordinance for the funding of the tax re Val the next meeting uh sequentially will to adopt that ordinance and then award the contract to the r valve so that concludes reports Mr shotty yes that concludes everything except for whatever you guys have now well if I may uh now move on to the second hearing of citizens Mr lanti uh same rules as before anyone online uh no hands raised thank you Mr lanti I see no one uh forth so I now would like to close the second hearing of citizens um do we now go need right need a motion right so uh do I have a motion to go uh to Executive session I move we move into executive session second second executive so who have a second second and for the this is for litigation and personel and do we anticipate any action after okay um so if you're ready for a motion uh or if you're ready for a vote uh Mr Al pertz yes and Mrs Ewald yes Mr McHugh yes Deputy Mayor Roland yes and mayor Troy yes motion passes thank you Mr L we're now an executive session I have to have a decision early uh do we have to vote need a mental health