Good evening and welcome to the township of Clark Council meeting. It is Monday, March 2nd, 2026, 7:30 p.m. Roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff >> here. >> Council member Hund >> here. >> Council member Maserella >> here. >> Council member Maniti >> here.
>> Council member Okconor >> here. >> Council member Tol >> here. >> Council President Smith >> here. Can you please stand for the pledge of allegiance and then a moment of silence? To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This meeting is in compliance with the open public meetings act as adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by mailing the annual schedule of meetings to the star ledger the leader union county local source by posting
such annual meeting schedule on the bulletin board and town hall reserved for such announcements the official website of the township ourclark.com in compliance with public laws of 2025 chapter 72 effective March March 1st, 2026 and the proper filing of said
notice. Formal action may be taken at this meeting. >> Hey, thank you. We're going to move on to communications from the mayor, Mayor Albanese. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, this evening I'll talk about some of the agenda items that we have here. Um,
tonight we'll be adopting our ordinance 2605 regarding clearing of snow for the entire width and length of the sidewalk. Um it's very important to do that especially when we have our police department, fire department, volunteer
emergency squad that have to get through perhaps with um you know wheelchairs uh other other apparatus. Um so we want to make that go smoothly of course and address all emergency situations. So I
appreciate your support on that. Um, we have an ordinance 26-10 uh regarding two-hour parking on popppler and um also related establishing an area where only residents can park in those
areas um which we'll be happy to discuss any questions you might have on that. for the consent agenda resolution 47. Um this relates to the attorney general suit uh filed mid January. Um regarding historical policing practices in Clark,
uh we need to appoint legal counsel for the township and for defendants listed in the case that were employed or serving the township. Resolution 9 supporting Senate Bill S1604 um was brought up brought up last
meeting by Bill Gribb. great idea. Um asking that uh public utilities um that for volunteer squads such as our police department, I'm sorry, fire department and our ambulance squad that they can get charged a lower rate whether it's
the residential rate but not the commercial rate. Um so this is something that we'd like the legislature of the state to look into. Uh they'll have to go to the BPU and and go through the process. So, we hope that they'll consider doing that and save money for
those entities. Um, I see he's in the I think he's in the audience here. Sean Keegan Foley of Cranford. Um, at the last council meeting, he recommended that we pass a resolution urging the New Jersey legislature to place a ban on
algorithmic renting pricing software uh, which can be used amongst apartment building o owners to inflate rates beyond market value through coordination of rent increases and market manipulation. So, we are against that.
Um there's actually a lawsuit by the attorney general that's in process right now and there are some communities other communities throughout the state that have um are supporting that. Moving on, we have a whole section here on affordable housing resolutions in
order to comply with all of our requirements of our settlement which we agreed to on December 12th, 2025 uh for the fourth round of affordable housing. We had a long list as I mentioned at our last meeting. We had some resolutions and ordinances at that
meeting. We have resolutions this evening that need to be reviewed and approved by the council and and then later on some by the planning board. Um so the first one uh is a need to endorse the amendment of the housing element and fair share plan adopted by the planning
board which was presented by Paul Ricky at the February 5th planning board meeting which incorporated all the final issues involved with the fair share housing center. Resolution 14 requires council approval on the EP updated
spending plan for fees deposited in our affordable trust fund. So, that plan outlines how the township plans to spend the trust funds. And um in December of 2025, the
Department of Community Affairs provided new regulations governing how the affordable fees may be spent. So, we're committing committed to spending the funds in accordance with new regulations. And uh this resolution outlines how those spending how the spending plan
will work. Um resolution um 15 um relates to the spending plan and has a forecast of the revenues and expenses that we'll have. And in the event we don't collect adequate funds from developers, the township is committed to
bonding for any shortfalls in development fees. We don't anticipate this, but in the event it happens, we will take out bonds to cover any expenses and then future development fees from developers would be used to pay down those bonds. That would be an
option for us. And um I think the main priority with this spending plan is that developers are paying the fees, not coming out of citizens taxes. Uh resolution 16 exhibit A includes a
48page policies and procedure manual we need to have and that was prepared by our consultant C CGP and H community grants planning and housing firm and that manual uh is designed to ensure compliance with the state's uniform
affordable controls and its affordable affirmative marketing plan uh reflects the changes to the UHAC that went into effect um in December of 2025. And the manual will also serve as a
resource for affordable housing professionals and interested members of the public to understand the intricacies of implementing a program such as this. Uh resolution 17 uh relates to uh the outline of our affirmative marketing
plan for affordable housing units available and who will incur the marketing costs. So the upfront marketing costs will be borne by the developers. Um and this is this program will be administrated by our administrative agent once again CGP&H
community grants planning and housing firm and the cost the costs will be borne by the developers and then later on if we have homes sellers and owners of affordable units with the exception of resale. All out advertising shall be completed in accordance with the
requirements in the uniform housing affordability controls in accordance with the New Jersey administrative code applicable. Resolution 18 requires adoption of the affordability assistance manual prepared by our consultant again community grants
planning and housing. And that manual describes in detail the re related policies and procedures and describes the basic content and operation of various affordable assistance program components that are available. And uh the document is laid out very nicely. It
has a flexible format which will facilitate updates in the future. There's four types of assistance that we have. Some you may be familiar with, we've done in the past. One month's rent, um emergency um rental assistance for very lowincome households is available, down payment or closing cost
assistance for purchasing a home and repairs for supportive housing units. Um, and also, I think this came up at the last meeting, uh, maybe Dia Collins brought it up. We are going to have a special council meeting on March 13th at
2 p.m. to vote on some other resolutions voted by the planning board this Thursday. So, we'll have all the documents um, available related to these resolutions and ordinances to meet the affordable housing requirements, which must be done by March 15th. So, we are
driven to accomplishing our goal of complying with everything by March 15th and we seem to be on track and I think I'll hold my other comments so we can go through the agenda and then come back. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you for the recap. Um all
uh any reports from council committee members we will do this second Monday of each month. So the next meeting we will give our reports. All right. At this time we're going to move to ordinances, appropriations, and claims. will have a public hearing on proposed ordinance. Madame clerk. >> Thank you, Mr. President. For the
record, no objections have been received in connection with the proposed ordinance. Ordinance 2605 is an ordinance amending section 310-30 titled responsibilities of owners and occupants of the township code
to clarify section 310-30A that the entire width and length of sidewalks abuing or bordering their land are to be cleared of snow and ice. >> Thank you. At this time I'll open the meeting if anyone would like to come forward and discuss this ordinance and
this ordinance only. Anything else on the agenda can be addressed at a later time. You'll have 5 minutes or duration. Okay. Uh my question regarding this ordinance is you have someone that goes out and does their plowing, snow blowing
of their sidewalk and then the next morning or the next day the plows come by and dump craters on your sidewalk and your apron of your driveway. Is there going to be a time limit to get them
removed after you've initially removed the original snow? And will we get a break on our taxes if we have to hire someone being a senior and I can't do it to come out and remove that because it weighs a ton. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Dia. Frank Matroche, Clark, New Jersey. Kind of similar to what De says, but a little bit different. Um, last time we met together here. U talked about, you know, a uh abuing and etc. I'm past that. I
also have zero issues with clearing full width and length. But when we lose the words travel path, and I put down some of my uh comments there, do we wind up putting ourselves at a disadvantage in
that the crosswalks do not wind up being cleared or there's no requirement to clear the crosswalks? Right? I mean, if we looked at NJSA 391-1, um, crosswalks are part of the roadway.
So, when the plows come by or the loader with the plow loads everything up, I mean, there are plenty of crosswalks that still are not freely accessible. Sometimes as a homeowner that winds up going through it. I have a snowblower. I
do my walk. I do my neighbors walks. Um I started doing that when they were elderly and disabled. Um they've died. Uh we have older uh younger people moving in. I still continue that and I clean my apron which allows people some
access to the sidewalk. So the fundamental part is does the township intend that the crosswalk approaches and curb ramp access to remain within the stroke of the abundant property owners responsibilities and if not if not what
the municipal snow operations will formally assume responsibility for ensuring continuous pedestrian access at intersections. Thank you. Thank >> Thank you. Anyone else like to come up on this agenda
item? All right, seeing no one, I'd like a motion to close the public hearing. >> Moved. >> Thank you, Council Member Maserella. And was that P O Conor and Councilman Pat O' Conor? Second. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Right. At this time, I need
a motion to adopt the ordinance. >> Yes, I'll move it. >> Thank you, Council Member Maserella, and thank you, Council Member Hun. Any uh discussion? Anyone have any questions? Mayor Albanese, you want to address anything? >> Have to verify it, but I believe that the if you're on a corner and you have
that property, you are responsible for that area. Um I have a house in down the shore and it's on the corner and I have to clear off the uh fire hydrant and the crosswalk. I don't know if our attorney has any comments on that.
Um Uh, may I, Mr. Yes. Um, >> the ordinance was intended to clarify that the property owner has to uh clear the snow and ice for the entire
length and width of the sidewalk. This is the change that was made here. The prior ordinance did not address uh crosswalks. It was silent as to that. So whatever the practice was in the prior ordinance
will carry forward to this ordinance. What was intended and you are correct the the words traveled path were deleted but the purpose of it was to make sure that the entire width and length of the sidewalk was cleared because what a
traveled path is differs depending upon many factors. uh it could be uh one pass of a snowblower, could be two passes, it could be more to that. Uh and so the concern was that if
that traveled path is interpreted differently by different residents, you're going to have a hodgepodge of widths uh of snow cleared. And the purpose of was as I said to make it consistent from uh residence to
residents, business to business, you're responsible for the entire width and length of your sidewalk. Um and again, that ordinance, the prior ordinance did not address crosswalks. Um, I'll be happy to speak with the administrator
about that to see if it it is a problem and hasn't been and hasn't been addressed previously. Uh, but this ordinance, as I said, the intent is limited to clarifying what the traveled path is, and that is the entire width and length of the the sidewalk in in
front of your property. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Uh, roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti,
>> yes. >> Council member Okconor, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. >> Ordinance adopted. >> When you're ready, we can move to introduction of proposed ordinances. First ordinance for introduction is
26-10, an ordinance amending section 347-23 titled parking time limited of the code of the township of Clark, County of Union, state of New Jersey to establish 2hour parking on portions of Popular Terrace. >> I get a motion, please.
>> Thank you, Council Member Okconor. I get a second. >> Thank you, council. It was council member Tol and any discussion? >> Yeah, I'd like to make some comments. So, Popular Terrace has experienced >> pull the microphone a little closer. >> Popular Terrace has experienced an
increase in parking demand from vehicles associated with 1150 Ritton Road uh which has reduced the availability of on street parking for the Rarin Road businesses including the chicken restaurant and barber shop. To address this, two-hour parking will be implemented from the corner to the end of the commercial area which is the
first residential property. from the first residential property to the end of the block. Parking on both sides of the street will be restricted for residents only. So this covers number two and number three. Number two for the two-hour and number three for the resident only parking. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Anyone else have any questions? >> Just a quick couple of thoughts and comments. Um I thought it was only the fourth word we have these issues, but it's also in the second word. The neighborhoods are getting tighter as progress progresses in the township,
which is a good thing because it helps keeps the taxes stable. But in the neighbor, I had a lot of problems with Bartell Park. Hopefully those problems are quieter this summer when the youth leagues start up again. But again, we have to address those who live there, the residents that are grandfathered in
and it's their neighborhood. It's their homes. We have to help them. And that's what this is about. And again, I'm sorry it's in the second word you're having a problem, but the fourth ward, we've had numerous issues, and this is how we legally can address it to make your home safer and easier to get in and out of.
Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Okconor, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes.
>> Council President Smith, >> yes. The public hearing on this ordinance is March 16th. Next ordinance is 26-11, an ordinance amending section 347-51 titled designation of restricted streets
of the code of the township of Clark County of Union, State of New Jersey to establish residentonly parking on portions of Popular Terrace. >> I get a motion. >> I'd like to move that please. >> Thank you, Council Member Okconor. Second. Thank you, Council Member Tol. Anyone else have any questions or
discussion for the mayor? >> Okay, a roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund, >> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Okconor, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith,
>> yes. >> Public hearing on this ordinance is March 16th. >> And now we're going to move to payment of claims. Councilman Okconor. >> Thank you. I have reviewed the encumbered bills through February 25th, 2026 in the amount of $69,3945.
Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. All right. Now, we're going to move on to the citizens hearing on the agenda. I'll open the meeting to the public. Public comment portion of the meeting is to allow the public to bring to the council's attention their concerns or comments in accordance with
NJSA104-12A and coded a township of Clark. Each person addressing the council shall give their name and town in which they reside to the clerk. All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and shall not exceed five minutes in duration. At the conclusion of
statements or questions from member of the public, the council president his or her discretion may choose to respond or not respond. So if anyone would like to come forward on this agenda uh on any agenda item, uh please do so. Go ahead. Just state your name and the
town you reside in. Harry Manog Clark, New Jersey. >> Can you pull the microphone down and speak a little? >> I'm sorry. Manugg, Clark, New Jersey. >> So, um, just want to say thank you very much for the ordinance for Popular Terrace. I live on Popular Terrace. My neighbors are here. Um, so that's going
to solve two out of three of our issues. Um, one of I think is probably the most important issue is we're going to have two-hour parking at the top of the street, Friendley's side, and the barber shop and the chicken restaurant.
On the right side, you can only fit about two cars there right now, uh, legally. And on the other side, probably five. Ideally, there would be no parking on one side. It would probably avoid a lot. But if we're going to have parking on
both sides, the problem is they're parking right stacked up to the stop sign. So, we can't get out. So, you have cars on both sides on a narrow street up to the stop signs on both sides. The we currently
have no parking 50 feet from the corner. Nobody obeys it. whether they're going to pick up their chicken for 10, 20 minutes, going to the barber shop for an hour, cutting getting their haircut, or I don't even know, probably maybe the
dentist office across the street that the people are parking and leaving their cars there all day. The two-hour parking will solve that part, but the parking and we've called the police several times. I've called, my neighbors called because we can't get out. Can't see. I
had a backup Friday. The Amazon truck was coming down. Behind him was the UPS truck. Behind him were uh was my neighbor. Behind my neighbor was my son. And behind my son were the police that I called because I couldn't get out. So they couldn't even get down the street.
Um they came, they spoke with me. I told them, showed them. No sooner did the truck that was there that I called about pull out, another van pulled in. So I I showed him the pictures. I talked to him. I said, you know, we're calling you
guys every day or every other day for the same problem. It's kind of, you know, it's a it's a parking issue, but it's really like a quality of life issue at this point. Somebody's going to have an accident. Um, >> can you just step a little closer to the microphone? Yeah. Thank you.
>> So, of course, you know, um, safety is really the issue which leads to the frustration of, you know, just being able to go to work. So, one of the issues is having tickets written. So,
I'm hoping as a deterrence, people will be ticketed for illegally parking. I had three cars blocking me from getting out. So, um yeah, I don't want to keep calling. My neighbors don't want to keep calling. We want to have a resolution.
Better signage maybe um for that area in particular. Um painted curbs maybe. maybe a patrol car coming through once in a while to help, you know, keep the um people from
to deter them from parking there if that's an option. Uh that's one thing. And then we had some questions about how the uh resident parking will work. Um how will the neighbors get notified? Will we all get stickers? Uh will they
come in the mail? Do we have to pick them up? because there's some neighbors that aren't here, don't even know that this is going on. Um, how will our guests will this affect anybody or will anybody be enforcing it like unless we call? Um, and will there be signage on
the street saying resident parking only? So, we'll deter um hopefully uh the people that are working at the building in Cranford from parking all day on our block because they come at 8 in the morning and they don't leave till 6:00
at night. It's a full day. Um and that's it. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> Sean King Foley, Scotch Plains. Um, I just wanted to come here personally and thank the mayor and council uh for their
support on putting the resolution to ban algorithic rent price fixing um in in your um in your agenda. And I'm really grateful uh I residents are grateful families and individuals for your
support on this really underlooked and really uh really you know negative and very economically impactful issue uh with people throughout the state. So thank you all so very much. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Frank Frank Matto, Clark, New Jersey. Uh, Mayor Albanese, thank you for a bit of intro on the stuff about the um affordable housing specifically uh
number 15. My questions on number 15 are very very simple I believe and that is this intent to to bond right I think I heard the explanation that we have money coming in
we spend some money and we should be net neutral I mean obviously we give 10 or 20% to the um folks who take care of the marketing etc right now on the budget there it says we give them 3% but it be as much as six as uh
I'm sorry 10% could be as much as 20% 300,000 or 600,000 and if I'm understanding it right now the budget is about 1.7 over the next 10 years we'll wind up taking in another 1 million and you know it kind of made sense in terms
of what we spend the money on we spend it on um renovating some affordable housing units or renovating certain units, their affordable housing unit. Um,
that's about $420,000 in total. And I believe that's supposed to be over 21, but if you looked at 15, it's talking about 71 rehab obligations. So, I'm a little confused on the numbers. Maybe the 71's a simple typo and it should
have been 21. Um, just putting that out there. And you know, do we really intend to bond or is that just u kind of you know, how do I say this? Right? Uh indifference to council, right? In New
Jersey, if you're going to have a a you have to file a notice of claim within 90 days of an incident, if you're going to assume municipality or employee, then you have about 2 years for your statute of limitations. Is this comparable to that or is it something else that we're
putting this intent to bond out right now when we seem to feel comfortable that we have enough money there? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Nancy Toascus Clark. I'd like to thank the town's communication
department for including an article in the Clark newsletter that gets distributed via email. >> Is this agenda? Are you going to any agenda items or is this just comments >> time? >> Yeah, it's >> this is citizen hearing. Oh,
>> it's just the agenda part. You for public comment you come up later. Okay. Thank you, Nancy. Good evening, John Gre from Clark. Um, I just wanted to ask a little bit about the appointment of attorneys uh regarding the lawsuit. Um, we have the town obviously needs to defend
themselves in the this matter. Um but they're also um appointing attorneys for the former mayor uh the former police chief and our current police director which again is pretty reasonable. That's how it works when they're working in their capacity as town officials. But
this case actually two things. First thing, um, I just wanted to clarify. It seems from what I read that the town is, um, on the hook to pay the first $100,000 for each of these attorneys. And then after that point, then the insurance company will start covering
some of the fees. And then the next thing is is I understand that they're being offered representation in their capacity as town officials, but this this lawsuit um involves racial discrimination, which can be
intentional malice, which is generally not covered in those situations. And I know that that hasn't been proven. What I'm asking is is if it is proven, I would like to be some type of I would like to see if the town would reserve some type of right to not indemnify or
ask for that money back if that is actually proven. If if it's found to be within the scope, I understand that's how it should be. But if it turns out it's outside of the scope, I don't think the town and the taxpayers should be on the hook for that. That's it. >> Thank you.
Anyone else want to come up on any agenda items before I close it and then we'll comment. Okay. At this time, I'd like a motion to close this portion of the meeting. Thank you, Council Member Tolk. Can I get a second? Thank you, Council Member Maserella. All in favor?
>> I. >> Any opposed? >> Pat, you have something to say? >> I just wanted to make some comments on Popular Terrace. So, um, the ordinance is going to re, um, for the 2-hour parking, it's from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and for residential parking, it's
from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Okay. And um with regard to the um the trucks and the vans parking too close to the corner, um the BA and the mayor have already asked the DPW to paint the curb yellow by the
stop sign for 50 ft and on the friendly side for 25 ft. So again, so you'll have, you know, 50 ft on one side, 25 ft on the other side. So you have view of the road as well as the ability to turn into the street without risking that.
And again, to your point, it needs to be enforced, right? We're not going to let that go, right? Um there's nothing written up right now with regard to how it's going to work, but I could tell you how it's worked in other streets. You guys will get resident um the other streets we get uh
resident stickers. You get visitor passes. And um again, do I believe the police are going to actively drive down your street to see do they ever do they have a pass? Do they not have a pass? They're not going to. I could I could assure I mean I can't speak for the for
for for um the OIC, but I would think not. And that would, you know, you would help yourselves if you police that for yourselves and call it in because if they continue to do it and nothing happens, they're going to continue to do it. But if you get them in the
beginning, then people learn their lesson. Okay. So, uh, Council President, that's my comments. >> Thank you. Um, regarding the cost for the attorneys, it's $100,000 total. uh not
each individual attorney. So once the billing hits $100,000, doesn't matter which attorney, uh then it all will be paid for by the joint insurance fund and then there's another fund afterwards that picks that up. Uh
my understanding is this uh suit is just a civil suit, not a criminal. Correct, counselor? >> Yes. >> So do you have anything to add on that? Uh no other than uh these attorneys were selected by the joint insurance fund. Uh
the only attorney that was selected as the attorney by the township as the attorney that is uh representing the township itself. Uh the other three attorneys were approved by the insurance carrier and the the carriers uh hourly
rate. Um, in terms of the questions about indemnification and hold harmless, the township is relying upon what its carrier has said and at this point they're defending. >> Great. Thank you.
Mayor, you have anything you want to add? >> Yes. I'll talk for a minute about the bonding that's required in case we don't have funds available in our affordable housing trust fund. Right now, we have $1.6 $6 million in there. So, it's it's
just a requirement. If we do need to bond in the future at some point, we don't anticipate that, but if we do, then that can be paid with additional development money that's um collected. >> Great. Thank you.
>> Oh, it also um yes, the present need obligation was 71. Okay. So, that's what was left over. Now the fourth round is 166 additional units. Okay. >> Mhm.
>> And anyone else have any comments before we move on? >> Um Mr. Council President, if I may, just just to follow up on the mayor's comments, um the town also was eligible for a vacant land analysis,
meaning that the capacity of the town to add new units is limited. So through this process and the work of the township planner and the township special affordable housing council
that obligation was reduced to zero. The realistic development potential the ability of the town to provide additional housing was reduced to zero. However,
the town still has to address that 166 unit obligation. It doesn't go away. So what has happened here is at the last meeting several ordinances were introduced which are overlay ordinances
to meet that unmet need or to address that unmet need that is consistent with the regulations that exist in the past practice for affordable housing. Um, and so the town is uh dependent upon these
properties being developed consistent with the overlay zone. So I don't want to leave you with the impression that the town's going to be subject immediately to a large growth. It's not. Your development potential is zero.
These overlay zones that will were introduced at the last meeting and will be uh considered by the council on March 13 are overlay zones in the event that development of those properties occurs. There has to be a certain portion of the
property dedicated to affordable housing to meet that unmet need. Um because as I said that 166 unit obligation doesn't go away. It never goes away. You always have to provide mechanisms to address that that unmet need. In terms of the
intent to bond, as the mayor said, you have a very healthy affordable housing trust fund. Uh, one of the other items on the agenda is the spending plan. That is a 10-year spending plan that accounts
for the money you currently have and projected money that you're going to receive over the next 10 years. and how you're going to spend that money. Uh, typically an intent to bond is triggered when there is an affordable housing
development or 100% municipally sponsored affordable housing development and your plan does not have that. Your plan has overlay zoning which is dependent upon the property owner either
developing the property consistent with the overlay zoning or a developer uh doing the same. >> Thank you, Mr. Council President. >> Thank you for the recap. All right. Now, we'll move along to consent agenda
resolutions. Madame Clerk, >> thank you. The following items are considered routine and non-controversial items by the township council and will be enacted upon by one motion. There will be no separate vote on these items unless a council member so requests, in which event the item will be removed
from the consent agenda to be discussed and voted on following the approval of the remaining items listed on the consent agenda. The mayor did a wonderful job explaining all of them. Mr. President, do you want me to read them again or do you just want a motion and second? I I believe we can just go
to a motion to adopt the consent agenda. >> Thank you, Council Member Tol. Can I get a second? >> I'll second that, please. >> Thank you, Council Member Hund. Uh, roll call, please. >> Council member Hoff, >> yes. >> Council member Hund,
>> yes. >> Council member Maserella, >> yes. >> Council member Maniti, >> yes. >> Council member Okconor, >> yes. >> Council member Tol, >> yes. >> Council President Smith, >> yes. Thank you. >> Is there any new business on the calendar?
>> There is no new business. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. Now, we're going to move on to public comments. If anyone would like to come forward at this is your time to do it on anything on your mind. The public comment portion of the meeting is to allow the public to bring to the council's attention their concerns or comments in accordance with
NJSA 10 col 4-12A and the code of the township of clerk. Each person trust in the council shall give their name and town in which they reside to the clerk. All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and shall not exceed five minutes in duration. At the
conclusion of statements or questions from a member of the public, the council president his or her discretion may choose to respond or not respond. If anyone like to come forward, please do so. Nancy Taskcus Clark. So, I want to thank the communications
department for following up on my comment at the last meeting regarding commercial parking on the on the streets. Put out a nice article in the Clark newsletter that gets delivered via email. I think only email. And so I just
want to recognize that it came out very quickly after the meeting. I'll defer my judgment as to the impact as I don't see a change yet. So maybe they didn't read their email yet or thumb their nose to
the rule of law in the town of Clark. We'll have to see about that. I do have two other things that for the affordable housing if I did my math correctly with the 166 units and the 71 coming to like 237
and if 13% of all new development has to be affordable. We're talking approximately about 1,800 units that would have to be put up in town in order to accommodate the uh 237 units. Um, and
the third is related to the lawsuits and the and the uh what the insurance covers from being involved in this type of activity before, not in the capacity of Clark and the capacity of some other thing that I do. The the insurance
company only covers the legal fees. If there's any judgment that is against the town, I guess the town then would have to pay for the judgment or the damages uh for the for that. So that was how it
happened with something that I was involved in outside of the town that only the legal fees are covered by the insurance companies. It's it's part of the I guess directors and officers insurance that's carried for the uh
town. Thank you. Thank you, Nancy. >> Uh, good evening, Madame Mayor, council. Uh, Glenn Fogerty here, Clark, New Jersey, off Lake Avenue. Um, first of all, I want to wish everyone in advance a happy St. Patrick's Day, particularly
those of us with uh, Irishamean heritage, Mr. O' Conor, perhaps Mr. Smith. Uh, anyone else here as well? Um, I'm going to start off with a reference to an old Irish song called The Parting Glass.
Normally, it's a very positive song. My own impressions of this lawsuit as a citizen is that this is Little Matt's parting glass of malice towards our town. Uh
this is a classic example of partisan lawfare directed at uh conservative towns in an authoritarian manner. Little Matt did his best job for four years to emulate Merrick Garland in this respect. basically acting as Merrick Garland's
mini me with punitive lawsuits against people he didn't like, including more normal Democrats such as George Norcross in South Jersey. Um, I believe Mr. Norcross was able to defeat that lawsuit, but again, this just shows the
level of lawfare that has infected our jurist prudence at both a national, state, and local level. Uh, apparently Matt never got the memo from God called, "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Uh, because he, in my
impressions, did a lot of that. Now, getting to some points again, we are a corridor town, a conduit to and from the Parkway. We as a town have no control over who uses us as a corridor. Who they
are in what proportions they are and how often a police officer is present or not present at the time of speeding or any other sort of moving violation. Whether it's green people, Martians, blue people, smurfs, Klingons, Romulons,
and so forth. We have no control who is speeding through our town and unfortunately there's quite a lot of it. Um there seems to be nothing probative of all of quote unquote racism
in this so-called lawsuit. In fact, the last refuge of a scoundrel is to accuse someone of being a racist these days. It's a catchall term that has become meaningless over the years. I myself live off of Lake Avenue. Uh I was nearly
rammed last week by a big white guy bigger than me in a large pickup truck coming off the bridge from scotch planes. When you're on the Martine Avenue corridor, it's about 45 miles an hour. Some people continue that speed
over the bridge and treat Lake Avenue like a speedway. I was pulling off into Lake Avenue. Plenty of time. Some guy was booking like a bat out of hell, pardon the French, at 60 m an hour,
flashing his lights at me, blowing his horn. Again, I wish a officer had been present, but that is the luck of the draw. People come from Scotch Plains or from wherever they're from and treat
Lake Avenue like a speedway. You know what? If you follow the law, you shouldn't have a problem. Six years ago, I made a left at 8:59 in the morning in a no left turn zone from 7
a.m. to 9:00 a.m. And guess what? A Clark police officer was doing his job and nailed me. I paid the ticket. My bad. I was so to speak. But you know what? I broke the
law by turning left at 8:59 a.m. Fair enough. I thought it was 9:01. My clock in my car was wrong. But you know what? You You break the law, you pay the price. I've never made that left again.
But I see a lot of people who do. So no matter who you are, if you are speeding, you should be pulled over. >> You have 30 seconds, just so you know. >> Period. >> To me, this lawsuit is vindictive lawfare on a partisan basis and
defamatory towards our police department in the extreme. Going back, happy St. Patrick's Day. Thank you, council. Thank you, Madame Mayor. >> Thank you, Glenn. Hi, John Gre again from Clark. Um, I was not able to make the last meeting
because of child care and all and I I I think I brought this up before. I wanted to see if there's any way that we can have sort of a virtual way to participate in meetings like a Zoom call that people might be able to, you know, speak or bring their voice up because, you know, just like I wasn't able to get childcare last time, I'm sure there's
plenty of people that might like to come here or might not necessarily like to come here and spend their whole time through the administrative process, but might have something to say. So, I wanted to see if um we can keep working on that and see if there's something that we can do for that. Um, and then
the other thing is, you know, I heard Mr. Fogert's um, comments about the lawsuit, and, you know, it's still not proven. It's just a lawsuit, so we don't know exactly what's going to happen. But I do
feel a little bit concerned that our newly appointed um, police director is named in the lawsuit. and it is partially in the lawsuit stating that, you know, the prosecutor seemed uncomfortable with his appointment
saying that he had a connection to some of the previous wrongdoing. Um, I guess the question I have is is after we got control back from the prosecutor's office, they said that they were happy with the leadership that was in place with um, Captain Akaboo, I believe, was
the person that they specifically mentioned, but we also have Captain Lot. Um, why do we need the police director if they were doing a good job? I thought they were doing pretty good. Um, and um, it's just an unfortunate situation. You
know, I don't really know Mr. Grady too well, and I I don't know him personally, but obviously the situation with the lawsuit puts a, you know, cast a cloud over the police department and the leadership when that happens. And I wanted to see, you know, why, like I said, why couldn't we just have stuck
with the leadership that we had in place when we received um control back from the from the prosecutor's office? Thank you. >> Thank you, John. >> All right, seeing no one else, I like a motion to close this portion of the meeting. >> Thank you, Council Member Tolk. I got a
second. >> Second. Thank you, Council Member Okconor. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Um, John, I'm going to address the director Grady. U, he was a police officer here for many years, and
never once did his name ever come up in the whole process of the investigation. So, I kind of wonder what the AG's motive is that all of a sudden his name pops up. So, I'm just throwing it out there. Um the and correct me if I'm
wrong, but the Union County prosecutor's office said that was a phenomenal great hire >> as well as Captain Barnwell is in addition. >> Correct. So I just want to address uh that. I don't know what your innuendos are and what what you're trying what
road you're trying to go down there, but he has an impeccable reputation. has zero IIA writeups in his file from the minute he became a police officer to the minute he uh retired. So, anything else on that you want to address? I think that cover
>> I just I I agree 100%. I mean, I meet many police officers throughout the state that were trained by him. He did that for many years, probably trained over 5,000 students. So, um, yeah, I I I feel totally confident that he's
competent and, uh, was totally endorsed as we said. >> Correct. Um, anyone else want to address anything before we move on? Okay. Um, all right. Mayor Albanese, you have any closing
comments? Um, yes, a few things, but just to address some one point that John mentioned, if anyone in the public is will, you know, interested in meeting with me and talking about any issues regarding the town, um, I'm happy to email with you, talk to you on the
phone, or you can set up an appointment and we meet with me in my office. Um, my number is 7323190234. and I always welcome and look forward to meeting the citizens of Clark. Um I want to go on to some other items. Uh first
let's talk about the blizzard of 22. Um winters have been extremely mild. Uh we're always talking about global warming going on and for past the past 10 years we haven't had a storm like this to deal with. Um in fact this was a
monumental storm. We haven't uh I guess the last one was January 22nd, 2016. We had over 28 inches of snow and that took more days to clean up than this one for sure. Um, but first and foremost, I want to thank all the members of the
emergency preparedness team who worked together before, during, and after the storm, including the office of emergency management, the police, the fire department, ambulance squad, superintendent of schools, library director, business administrator, of course, and our communication officer
and getting the word out. And of course, our department of public works. They worked day and night throughout the storm and they have to go out and be on the front line right at the end of the day. And thank you to our citizens as well, not only for their gratitude
regarding a job well done by our team, but to those who moved their cars off the street, cleared sidewalks, fire hydrants, and their property. And uh yeah, we had to clear our driveways after passed after the plows passed
several times to do the cleanup because as you know we first take care of emergency roadways and then we have to do the side of the roads and um you know the storm was very tough. Uh it came you know was so many hours long. We have 70
miles of municipal roadway to clear. And as they were clearing the path, initially it was very fluffy and soft, but as you know, they turned into like hard cannonballs when you were picking them up off the street uh once they did the multiple clears.
So, um yes, we had some bumps in the road, but overall um you know, we appreciate those who cleared their driveways. Um and uh unfortunate fortunately the complaints weren't as as uh many as some other towns and some of
the other things that I've seen on on uh TV or or talked to. So um thankfully thankful for that. Um in the midst of all this um we had to shut down our uh tournament our the the basketball
tournament that the travel basketball uh league was having. So my heart really went out to Jason Katz, the league president, Jason Ham, all the coaches, teams, executive board members who worked for so many months to put the event together. And uh Jason Katz was responsible for the schedule and had to
deal with all the process of putting the schedule back together after the storm um and uh get everything back on track. So certainly this is a tournament for the history books. Um,
another topic I want to mention is, um, we are working on various events for our 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. And we have an exciting program that's coming tomorrow night. Um, it's a program with a an individual
who does reenactments and she's going to be reenacting Betsy Ross and that is again March 3rd at 7 p.m. at the library. And um hopefully uh you had a chance to visit our travel exhibit, the revolutionary
life at the library. And unfortunately again that was not available for a couple of the days but we hope to continue the celebration of our uh 250th anniversary. Um a reminder for those who uh turn 65
in 2025. I know sometimes these things can't be seen. It's a little postcard here says time to apply for New Jersey tax relief. Uh I mentioned at our last meeting we're going to have some seminars with our excellent um very professional tax collector Laura
Caliguire and myself will be have a session on April 2nd Thursday the first Thursday in April at 1:30 at the recreation center in the cafeteria. And then on Thursday, April 16th at 7 p.m., we'll also be right here in council chambers available to answer any
questions you may have. And finally, I'm reminded um as as I was going through some of the papers yesterday about the um women's history month, and it reminds me that the 28th amendment to the constitution regarding the equal rights amendment, which I usually bring up every year, was never
passed. So even though 38 states passed the Equal Rights Amendment, um it has not been certified by the National Archives due to the fact that there were expired deadlines. So now it's in litigation and we shall see what
happened. Um I'm grateful to all the men and women who supported women's right to vote. It was a 90-year battle. Um and finally passed. The the 19th amendment was finally passed modifying our
constitution in August of 1920. The Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in 1923 and passed by Congress in 1972. And uh at that time I was pretty much
getting ready to get out a real job and you do want those things in your in your favor. Um the 38th state to finally ratify the amendment was uh Virginia in 2020. So we've been working on this amendment
for 97 years and I do hope to see it passed in my lifetime. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Huff. >> Thank you. Um Council President, I wanted to congratulate Mayor Albaneseise
at the Lincoln Day event. we were um able to be there while she was recognized for her dedication to Clark. So, that was a great day to witness. Um I'd also like to echo and thank the DPW for the many backbreaking hours after that blizzard cleanup. But I also want to thank the administration uh overall
for the plethora of communication in various places and texts and emails and social before, during, and after the storm. And also to the administration for all of the followup um afterwards that went on for a couple days responding to the citizens needs so quickly. So, thank you for that. Um, as
a newly reformed snow lover and a DPW wife, I say bring on spring. I am done. Um, thank you very much as well, um, to the Clark Travel Basketball for a fantastic tournament. And I wanted to point out too that our council president Smith is involved in that. So, I want to make sure that him and the board and
especially my brother-in-law Jason Katz um, gets all the credit that they deserve for a um, really job well done. Thank you to the Clark Police, Ralph and team, and the administration for making sure it ran well and so smoothly. And it was really very cool that there were so many winners that came out of Clark. So, it was very exciting to see everybody
there walking around. Um, now I'll just have to go to her house when I want to visit. Um, and lastly, I want to say thank you to the uh, Council President Smith and to Mayor Albaneseise as well, especially for speaking out um, tonight and affirming the misinformation and innuendos against our police director,
Grady. I appreciate you both speaking up about that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Hund. >> Yes. Thank you, Council President. I just also want to echo my congratulations to the mayor for her award last week on the Lincoln Day dinner that we attended with her. Um,
and as well as the tournament that's a great experience for all the kids in town and all the town uh other members that come in to town. It helps out the businesses during the day as they need someplace to eat and do other things while they're
waiting to play their games. Um, I also want to wish the ALJ varsity girls basketball team good luck tomorrow night in the state tournament playoff game that they're playing down in Rumson Fair Haven. Um, hopefully they'll get a win down there. And that's all that I have tonight. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Maserella. >> Yes. Thank you, Council President. I want to thank Mayor Albanese and our administrator for providing me with a um message relating to the potholes that uh they want me to relate to the residents
of our community. And it reads this. Um the past winter season was particularly difficult with repeated freeze thaw cycles, snow events, and extended periods of harsh weather that
contributed to the development of potholes throughout our township roadways. Public works crews are aware of these conditions and will address potholes as staffing levels and weather conditions
permit. Um permanent repairs on the roadways require um uh temperatures and dried conditions to ensure a fir a work is efficient and
longlasting. Residents are encouraged to submit pothole repair requests through the township website. Jot this down please. www.aracclark.com.
Click on the online services. Then click on report a concern uh so locations can be tracked and prioritized effectively. We ask for your patience and
understanding as crews work through this the reported issues as conditions allow. Ladies and gentlemen, our crews are trying their best trying to fill and
remediate the potholes. So, please give a time and they will get to them. But please do not forget to go on our website and point out um whatever potholes you may see. We will follow it up. Thank you. That's the extent of my
report. >> Thank you, Council Member Manetti. >> Uh thank you, Council President. Uh a few hours ago, uh next door at the high school, um the ALJ athletes, the winter athletes, um were awarded their uh winter sports awards. and uh as the
president of the booster club and the one that hosts that event, I want to congratulate all our senior and varsity athletes uh tonight for receiving their awards is a it's just an great accomplishment for our athletes and I'm very proud of all of them and I wish them all the best. Um tomorrow night,
girls basketball is in the semi-final round in um Rumson. Uh so I want to wish them uh the you know best of luck there. And finally, I want to give my condolences to the Bon Cororso family on the loss of uh Sal's mom, an um you
know, my thoughts and our thoughts and prayers are with their entire family at this time. So, um that concludes my uh comments. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Okconor. >> Thank you. Um by the time we get down here, a lot has been said, so you know, I'm not going I'm not a big repeater, so
um congratulations to all. Um Frank, I want to address you specifically. Thank you for coming up here and telling people what Clark is all about. What I mean by that is you do your neighbors walkways, right? That's what Clark is. That's what I was taught as a kid. I go
over and do my mother's house every time it snows. We had a deep snow. Guess what? Two kids cross the street, shoveled a path, did their steps. My mother tried to give them money. They said no. They went back to their house. That's Clark. Thank you very much for reminding everyone what Clark is about
because that's who we are. Thank you so much. Um to the residents of Popular Terrace, thank you for coming out. Thank you for all the uh conversation we had. Thank you for staying calm and thank you for your understanding and I I appreciate you guys coming here and
voicing your opinion. Appreciate it. That concludes my comments for this evening. Thank you. >> Hey, Council Member Tol. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I'm going to piggy back on Popular and Pat for a second. If you want an example of what you're going to get, go to Bartell from
King Street down to Gertrude. That's basically the signage and then you'll see the way the cars are staggered because you have the dance studio there. It's a recreational use, not a commercial issue that's affecting you. Commercial issue is affecting you. That's more of a recreational with the dance studio and all, but that's how
it's going to be with the signage. You also go down to Byron Place, another one of my streets. That's a dead end. So, it's similar to what you have, but recreation again. and it gets seasonal. So you don't see anything now. You'll see it when the spring and the summer comes and the cars when they can't park there anymore. They're on every other
side street, every other neighborhood street. They don't go into that culde-sac. They're now all over the place. So that's things that you have to kind of adjust to and be prepared for. So that's just a suggestion to Mayor Albanesey's Jimmy Uric and the public works and Scott McCabe. Ladies and
gentlemen, you get a storm like we just had uh 17 20 in. We've had storms before. We've had winter winter events is what they're calling them. The weatherman calls it an event. I call it a snowstorm. Blizzard. You want to put that terminology on? Fine. Means you get more federal money. What happened? This
this was an odd storm because we had three different cycles come through. I was up three different times. I was up at 3:30, 6:30, and again in the afternoon on it was Sunday into Monday. And I'm shuffling my driveway over and over again doing the same thing again.
doing the same thing three times. Why? Because I didn't want as much snow to deal with, but I didn't have any real complaints. Nobody was calling me. It was odd. Normally, you get boom, boom, boom, you get hit with phone calls. It wasn't until the end of Monday afternoon,
Monday evening, that I got hit with a seven calls came into my phone. Hey, what what are you doing? They didn't do my street. They missed my street. And I immediately went on to a text with the mayor who went immediately and moved mountains. an angel. Thank you again for the residents on Plymouth Road. She knows what I'm talking about. Plymouth
Road, Kilmer, which is a little bit of an oddity, but it's one house, but they got plowed in because the main arteries were the most important situation. Your main thoroughare is to get people out of their house. One resident, their house is to the side on a dead end, and they
got blocked in. And the woman's expecting a child, and we're like, let's get her help. Let's go over and shovel out. What do we got to do? Let's get a pathway to open up her driveway to at least get her out. A councilman doesn't do. We don't have that kind of authority, but the mayor does. And God, thank you, Angel, for your assistance.
It was done. It was done not right to the c the resident's satisfaction, but it was done. And they did call the next day to say the day Tuesday to say thanks for your help. I said, "No, no, that goes goes to the mayor and to Scott McCabe and to Jimmy Olrich." And even Jimmy calls me the town hemorrhoid or the town pain in the ass because I don't
just take, "Hey, do this. I need I need this because that's the way I'm taking that energy from the resident like a Frank who's got we still have to go back and revisit the speeding on on Kennedy and Mildrid and we're going to review that and get some updates for 2026 and see what we can do on that issue. That's
an issue that hasn't gone away with me because I still when I'm going out in the mornings I'm on Eaton and I'm seeing cars zipping by on Kennedy heading towards the school zone and that's a complete parkway. I got the parkway on one side of my house and then I come out and I try to get out of Drexel Hills and
I'm going out through I'm not going to give you all the streets. I'm just trying to say we need to address a lot of issues in this town. This is a great town as it was said and it is it's our home. Some people might have some issues or some questions. I got it. You can ask. It's not a problem to ask questions. Let's try to resolve the
answers together and make a better town. And to Glenn, my mother was from County Meath. That's right outside of Dublin. My ancestry name is from County Arma, Northern Ireland. I have relatives in Belfast, educators, teachers. So my
family, my family history, the Okconors, Toll was old toll and then it ended up with just being Americanized and been in this country and of course my aunts, my grandfather was worked at Krueger Brewery in Newark with the Germans. So that's how I have a love for the German community. So with that said and done, ladies and gentlemen, God bless you.
Have a healthy and safe and if St. Patty's Day. Please celebrate without drinking. If you're going to drink, don't drive. Have a good day. >> Thank you, Madame Clerk. Do you have anything? >> Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. Two things I want to talk about. The first
is the new law regarding uh the legal advertising. Um everything now is put on the township website effective yesterday, March 1st. So, if you go on the homepage, uh right on the top ribbon, you're going
to see legal notices and then there are various categories and you can just click on it and uh and there it is all our legal notices. So, that's effective uh yesterday. Now, any um if there are planning board applications or um liquor
license transfers, those will still be in the newspaper, but anything else will be on our website. So, it's very easy to do. hourclark.com right on the homepage legal notices and then pick the category you want. Uh the other thing I'd like to talk about is just the special meeting
that is go that the mayor mentioned on March 13th. Uh the only thing that will be discussed is the remaining outstanding items for affordable housing. It is at 2:00 in town hall, not this chamber. And I just wanted to make that clear. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Counselor, do you have anything? >> Uh no, Mr. Council President. >> All right. Uh, Captain Aboot, do you have anything you want to add tonight? Okay. Mayor Albanesey's. >> Okay. I communicated with our business administrator and if you are a property
that is on a corner with a crosswalk, you are responsible for the crosswalk as well. I know that I do that where I have a crosswalk as well as the fire hydrant that's there. So, hopefully that answers the question.
>> Thank you for clarifying. Uh and just one last recap on the basketball tournament that concluded yesterday. Again, we had 211 teams. There was uh originally scheduled about 410 games over three weekends, 18 days. Uh the
snowstorm hit. Uh we ended up losing 40 38 games on Sunday and five games on Monday. So, we had to try to fit 43 games into three days before the semifinals and finals, which were this past weekend. Uh, so Jason Katz, who's a
tournament director, did wonders. Um, and we got everything in but 20 games. So, we ended up with about 390 something games played over the three weekends. Uh, I was in a lot of the businesses in town, the food establishments, um, and they were very happy with the overflow
crowds. Uh we did have five Clark teams make the finals and four of them won the championships. So in a future meeting whether it's two weeks or the first meeting in April, we will have the teams here and honor all the uh individual players and coaches. Uh and that's all I
have this evening. So with nothing further, I'd like a motion to adjurnn. >> Thank you, Council Member Tol and Council uh Council Member Manetti. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Thank you. See you in a couple weeks. Heat.
Heat.