Heat. Heat. Good evening and welcome to the Township of Clark Council meeting. It is Monday, February 2nd, 7:30m. 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? I pledge allegiance 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 towns will reserve for such announcements the official website of the township www.ourclark.com ourclark.com in compliance with public laws of 2025 chapter 72 effective March
1st 2026 the proper filing of said notice formal action may be taken at this meeting. >> Great. Thank you. Uh we'll go to communications from Mayor Albanesey's. >> Thank you Mr. President. Good evening. Um, couple of things I want to mention
is first congratulations to the Cub Scouts for their successful pancake breakfast last Saturday. It was a wonderful event and uh they took advantage of having all of the um children that were there to play soccer. So, it was really well attended and uh
nice to see in our community. Um just want to also remind individuals um online we have our resident guide available. Um, you don't need a printed copy. It's at your fingertips 24 hours a day and um, it has a lot of good
information about what's happening in the town. Um, I also want to um, mention that yesterday had uh, I was truly blessed um, to be at St. John the Apostle as as they school as they celebrated um, mass
together. and uh in honor of Catholic schools week. So it was really nice to see um all the faculty members, families out there and Father Morrow and um it was uh
wonderful. My final comment is regarding the um storm. Um, thank you everyone for all your positive feedback um about the work that was done by our staff. um as you know and uh I think
this is the first day that we've been above freezing um there's a tremendous amount of snow and um we do use plows and what that means is that we plow the snow that means moving the snow off to the side and it is unfortunate sometimes
you go out you clean your driveway up and then the plow comes by and um I think I described how that was going to work. It was going It took a few days to clean everything up. The first pass, uh, we clear the roads for the emergency
vehicles to get through. So, we clear the middle roads and that took a day and at least. And then the second day, we're going to come and clear the roads from curb to curb and then work on other areas, um, you know, sidewalks, etc., so
that their people have access. So, unfortunately, we had some cars that did not move um and um that had to be addressed, but overall appreciate everyone's support and cooperation during that uh tremendous storm. And uh
we're still still working on certain areas uh Westfield Avenue, make sure that people can get out of their cars, etc. So, that concludes my report. I'll make other comments later on during the meeting. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Um, reports of council
committee will be given the third Monday of every month at our council meetings. So, we're going to move on to ordinances, appropriations, and claims. >> Thank you, Mr. President. For the record, no objections have been received in connection with the proposed ordinances. First ordinance is 26-01,
an ordinance entitled an ordinance to fix minimum and maximum salaries. >> Okay. I'm going to open the meeting to the public. >> I'm not done yet. I'm going to open it to the public on this ordinance only. If you'd like to
come up, please u do so. You have five minutes in duration. >> All right. Seeing no one coming up on this ordinance, I'd like a motion to close the public hearing. >> Thank you, Council Member Tol and seconding Council Member Maserella. All in favor? >> I.
>> Any opposed? >> Right. At this time, I'd like a motion uh to direct a motion to adopt the ordinance. >> Moved. >> Thank you, Council Member Tolk. Can I get a second? >> Second that, please. >> Thank you, Council Member Hund. Uh, any discussion or questions? Jim, do you have anything to add on this?
>> It's pretty self-explanatory. >> We just updated the salaries based on the increases that people have gotten in their uh union contracts. We also added the human resources positions on here and the increase to the minimum wage.
>> Great. Thank you. 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. Next is Ordinance 26-04, an ordinance authorizing the use of the Township of Clark owned fuel dispensing facilities by the Clark Volunteer Emergency Squad. Okay. >> At this time, I will open a meeting, a
public hearing on this ordinance and this ordinance only. If anyone would like to come forward and ask any questions. Okay, seeing no one on this ordinance, I'd like a motion to close the public hearing. >> So move. >> Who's that? Councilman Okconor. >> Yeah. >> All right. And then Councilman Hun.
Second. Thank you. All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Now I need a motion to adopt the ordinance. >> Thank you, Council Member Hoff. Can I get a second? >> Second that, please. >> Thank you, Council Member Hun. Uh any discussion or questions for the BA or
mayor? >> This is just as we discussed uh at the last meeting just to formalize the agreement. Uh there was no issues. It was just something we never thought about. They've always used our gas pumps. But after the issue in Tom's River with the volunteer ambulance squad and them going after them for past
usage. We just wanted to memorialize our relationship with the volunteers which we always support. >> Right. Smart decision. Okay. 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. >> And now we'll move to payment of claims. Councilman Okconor. >> Thank you. I have reviewed the bills totaling $99,385.99. Thank you.
>> Thank you. All right. Now we'll move to the citizens hearing on the agenda. I'll open the meeting to the public. 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 NJ SA10 col4-12A and the code of the township of
Clark. Each person addressing the council shall give their name and the town in which they reside to the clerk. All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and shall not exceed 5 minutes in duration. At the conclusion of the statements or questions from a member of the public, the council president his discretion may choose to respond or not respond. So please come
forward if anyone would like We have 5 minutes in duration. >> Hello. Uh John Gre from Clark. Uh just a quick question about number 10. I guess that would be number 63. Um the planning board to do the investigation determine whether there's
an area of redevelopment. And that block is off of um Madison Hill and Raritin I think. And I was just curious as to why that basically the whole area seems like, you know, there's development
there. It's just one lot. And from what I understand, uh there have been attempts to develop it, but there was some community push back and somehow it just didn't happen. But it doesn't seem like there's something wrong with the area. It's just one block or one lot.
And I'm just a little curious cuz that's, you know, making it an area development usually is the first step to doing a pilot, which, you know, I have my problems with. And I just wanted to see why or what's the criteria that makes you guys think that that one block in that area that seems okay is um in
need of redevelopment. >> Thank you, Mr. Greavves. Good evening, Julia Collins, Clark. I was also questioning number 10. I tried to look that up and I couldn't find out exactly where it was now that Mr. briefs. I think it's on Rarington Road
next to the pediatric dentist because I couldn't find lot 25-01 block 34 on the um the way the only way I can look for it now is to go on pay your taxes online.
Used to be able to go in and do the block and then the lot. And I was a little confused because usually when they post it, it says block first then lot second. So, thank you. If
somebody can verify that's the area. >> Yes, that is the that is right next to the dentist office. But we'll answer the questions at the end. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. Good evening, Mary Semler, Conger Way Clark. Uh so, uh number three on the
consent agenda, my question is, is this does this contract have to do with the um officers that are in question and the hearing officers that need to be obtained in order to hear um those cases?
>> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Anyone else like to come forward before I close it? Okay. Seeing um no one like a motion to
um close the uh public uh the citizens hearing on the agenda. >> Thank you, Council Member Maserella. Can I get a second? >> Thank you, Council Member Hoff. All in favor? Any opposed? >> Go ahead. >> To address item number 10.
>> So the township had hearings with the council on affordable housing regarding our fourth round plan. And in that plan we the township had taken out the specific lot which was included in round
three. And um the state did not appreciate that. They did not want it removed. They wanted round three to stay intact and um we agreed to do that. So now we need to go back and make sure that that uh land qualifies. So we need
council's approval to go through the process to make sure that we can in include that piece of property um as an area in need of redevelopment. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. Uh anyone else? Jim, you have
anything to add or >> Yeah. Um, Gileia, if you go on R. Clark under engineering, all of the tax maps are there and there's also an interactive zoning map there. So, you could look up any property. You don't have to go to
where you pay your taxes. >> It's under engineering, >> GPS. Right. >> Great. Thank you. Okay, Madame Clerk, when you're ready, we'll move to consent agenda resolutions. >> Okay. Thank you. The following resolutions 26-56
through 26-63 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. First item is authorizing the award of a contract for hearing officer services. Next is authorizing the award of contract for affordable housing administrative agent services. Number
five is appointing Christina Dloa as alternate one member and Nicholas Manganelli as alternate two member of the environmental commission. Six is authorizing the tax collector to refund overpayment of taxes in the amount of $37,76826. Seven is authorizing the tax collector
to refund overpayment of sewer fees in the amount of $1,170.33. Eight is authorizing the tax collector to apply sewer account balance adjustments as credit in the amount of $2,850. Nine is authorizing final payment to AJM
Contractors Incorporated for work completed on the 2024 to 2025 NJ dot road improvements valley road sections 1 and two in the amount of $25,56 and 10 is authorizing the township planning board to undertake a
preliminary investigation to determine whether the proposed study area which includes lot 25.01 01 in block 34 qualifies as an area in need of non-condemnation redevelopment pursuant to NJSA4A12A-5.
>> Thank you. Can I get a motion to adopt the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Council Member Tolk. Can I get a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Council Member Maniti. Uh roll call. Madame Clerk. >> 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. >> Okay, I do see we have new business on the calendar. Do you want to
>> We have one item of new business authorizing submission of a strategic plan for the Clark Municipal Alliance Grant for fiscal year 2027 in the amount of $9,956. Can I get a motion to add the resolution to the agenda? >> So moved.
>> Thank you, Council Member Okconor, and thank you, Council Member Hun. Uh, any discussion or questions? This is u just correcting the verbiage uh for the county on this grant. Correct. Okay. Anything else you want to add? That's
it. Thank you. All right. 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.
>> Get a a motion to adopt the resolution. >> I'll move it. >> Thank you, Council Member Maserell. I get a second. >> I'll second that. >> Thank you, Council Member Okconor. And 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. >> Adopted. Thank you. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now, we'll move to uh public comments. I'll open a meeting to the
public. Uh public comment portion of meeting is allowed the public to bring to the council's attention, their concerns or comments in accordance with NJSA10 colon 4-12A and the code of the township of Clark. Each person addressing the council should give their name and the town in which they reside to the clerk.
All remarks shall be addressed to the council as a body and shall not exceed 5 minutes in duration. At the conclusion of statements or questions from a member of the public, the council president at his discretion may choose to respond or not respond. So the floor is open if anyone would like to come forward.
Good evening, John Gre from Clark. Um, I wanted to come up here because I wasn't here last meeting and I saw you guys talking about the new lawsuit that has been filed by the attorney general and um, you know, the mayor and the business administrator and the council made
comments and actually pulled some quotes from the original attorney general's report and I feel like they were very selective quotes um, because they were saying that there was nothing in the old report that was a problem. Um, I think that that's very selective. There were a
lot of things that the original attorney general's report brought up that I think were important. And I, you know, so for instance, you know, Mayor Albany said the prosecutor's office said no findings were raised that caused any concerns.
But they actually said at the outset of this investigation, it was evident that the internal affairs function of the CPD was broken and those within Clark entrusted to oversee it had let their department down. That's a quote directly from the attorney general's report and I
think that raises a concern. And then the investigation into CPD revealed that members and leadership abused the internal affairs function of CPD. Senior members of the department, including the chief, selectively initiated and failed to initiate internals affair in investigations as they saw fit.
Um that seems to be a concern that they're raising. Um the data surrounding the demographics of people subjected to law enforcement action compared to the demographics of the resident population was alarming. These are direct quotes from the 2023 aternal um attorney
general's report. The investigation into CPD revealed a complete breakdown in their leadership's oversight and abuse of the internal affairs function. Additionally, the attorney general directs the um DCR division of civil
rights to undertake a review of the institutional practices of the township. So this new lawsuit is not something surprising. you guys made it seem like there was nothing there to to be worried about that this came out in the left
field. They said that they were referring it to the division of civil rights and then you know um the business administrator was talking about he made some quotes that said uh UCPO did not observe any incident of bias, misconduct or any unprofessional behavior. But that was very selective because if you went
to the end of that it says in the various videos reviewed there are over 19,000 videos and they only looked at 40 to make their determination. But they did say that this does not talk about whether or not black motorists are stopped at disproportionately higher
rate as the data clearly suggests. And then they said that all things were properly recorded, but the direct quote is whenever possible, UCPO investigative staff attempted to corroborate raw data with reviews of video recordings. Unfortunately, many of the incidents
UCPO attempted to review were still not retained or properly tagged for retention by UCPO. When UCPO officers sought to independently verify the records of CPD, they were met with two obstacles. Video footage of many of the events sought to be reviewed was no longer retained and
video footage by CPD is not properly tagged for retention and review. And then there's other things. uh used found that although the officers are broadcasting this information computer AED dispatch data, it is not routinely collected into the CPD CAD system. This
is an unacceptable practice. The lack of adequate and relevant data collection regarding everyday police civilian interactions by CPD created an inability on the part of those charged with overseeing the department to draw any reliable conclusions about the general practices of the CPD.
These are concerns. These are things that were in the report and it you guys made it seem like this didn't exist. This is important stuff and this is why we have this additional lawsuit. And Councilwoman Hoff brought up that I am
picking scabs by bringing this up, by stating facts, by talking about the fact that we have this uh new civil rights lawsuit. It's not picking scabs, it's stating facts. And if you really want to talk about picking scabs,
this department was healing. Even Mayor Albanesey's mentioned that the UCPO was happy with the leadership under Captain Akaboo and that they were they were feeling positive about his leadership. And then what do you guys
do? You passed him over and created a police director who now controls the police department. also he is implicated in that civil rights lawsuit. So of course they're going to see that they were making progress, they had a
good leader in place and then you guys got rid of him or he's still in the force but he doesn't have the same type of leadership. I I think that's not okay. And the fact that you guys make it seem like this didn't happen and that everything's okay. I know I'm almost done. Um
>> I'll let you continue. Five minutes are up. We're good. >> It's not okay. All right. So, I I'll end there, but I just think it was selectively done, and I think it's important to talk about what was in the whole report. And there were good things. Some of those things were true, but there's other things, too. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Good evening. Mary Semler, Conger Way. Um some time ago, a number of years ago, I came here and I told you my story. Um, at the time that it happened to my family where my mother came home from the hospital and was was unable to care
for herself and her aid who happened to uh be of a different color skin drive a car that was not necessarily a car that maybe somebody else would drive and coming from a direction where people are coming from Lynen or Rawway or Roselle
was pulled over and issued a ticket on the way to care for my 90-year-old mother who could not even walk at the time when she came home from the hospital. And I'm sorry if I'm repeating this, but for those of you who have not heard the story, it is just a story of
how it affects all of us. What people do does not just affect one victim. There are more than one victim here. >> Miss Demler, can you just pull the microphone down a little bit? >> Surely. >> Okay. She received a ticket. I asked
her, did she tell the police officer she didn't do this? She says she doesn't argue with police officers, especially in Clark. Either the next day or the following day, she was pulled over yet again in the same exact spot, and she was held on the side of the road for
approximately 45 minutes with an erroneous claim that they believed there was a warrant for her arrest. My mother was in tears because we pretty much knew what had happened. I mean, this this, you know, for people to get
up and kind of gaslight us and say that nobody knows that this is an issue in Clark, we all know it. You don't have to admit it, but I believe we should all be true to ourselves that this is an issue. This has been an issue. And I am determined to move forward from it, heal
from it, but make things better from it. Not forget that it ever happened. and pretend that it never happened. Okay. So now my mother's aid, Melinda, says she is on the side of the road. She has her
ID on her. She's on the phone with her boss from the home health agency and she asked the police officer to talk to her boss to tell her where she's going and he will not speak to her boss. She never came that day and she never came back
again. Okay, this was heartbreaking and put my mother in danger when she could not care for herself. Okay, and I can't even imagine, you know, I can't imagine being that person where merely the way I was
born or the color of my skin leads somebody to constantly be pulling me over. I mean, I just think we should walk in somebody else's shoes rather than pretend that this isn't really an issue or hasn't been an issue. Um, so the next person they hired, they
had to ask the person what kind of car did they drive. Did they have tinted windows and what direction would they be entering Clark from? This is the home health agency. Okay. So, uh, sometime later when someone didn't show up for work before I had to go to work,
I get in my car and I go searching around because the woman is late and I figure she's somewhere pulled over by the side of the road. Okay. So, so this is my story I am telling. I am not looking to be up here and talk about drama. I'm just looking to say that we
need to heal and move forward. We don't need to bring the same people into our police department. I have heard the former mayor saying, "Just look at the person who's running. She hates the police department." I do not hate police officers. When I call, they are there
for me. I know it's aggravating to you. I understand. But you didn't hear the story the last time. Okay. So what I am saying merely is we need to own this and we need to move forward. And I I get we can't admit culpability here because we
have a huge lawsuit we're facing. So we hired a PR our firm to do this. But what I would say is that when our police director's contract is up for renewal, each one of us should sh sincerely consider whether that is the right
person to put in charge of our police force when named in this investigation. I have told you before I have been a public servant for 42 years. If anything like that was imp was implied or anything implicated, even though I
belong to a union, I would be placed on leave immediately. Okay? We can't put the fox in charge of the hen house. We have a department that's trying to move forward, trying to do the right things, and trying to implement the right policies. I can't imagine if it's an
officer that's still working on the force that has spoken to the prosecutor's office, how they must feel about having a police director that's already been implicated in this whole scandal. That's my story. You don't need
to give me an answer. I just think we all really need to own this and think about it. And the other thing is before you all reply later and tell me I hate Clark, you hate Clark, you're always I love Clark. I moved here because it's a beautiful town. I don't like some of the
things in Clark that we stand for and we have done in our past and I believe that we can all do better. I believe that in my heart. Okay. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you.
Okay, seeing no one else, I'd like a motion to close this portion of the meeting. >> Thank you, Council Member Tol. Can I get a second? I'll second. >> Thank you, Council Member Okconor. All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Okay, we'll move on. Mayor Albanese, you
have any u closing comments. Okay, I think I think I heard Director Grady is a civilian. He's not a police officer. So, didn't take anything away from our officer in charge. Um,
but he was appointed a year ago and this complaint came out on January 15th. So, I just wanted to clarify that. Um, you also referred to things that have been done in the past, but it's not happening now. So, I think that's one of
the things that's concerning when when people come up here and it sounds like there's two messages coming across. Um, as I mentioned, um, we are working um, to address the complaint. As far as the public
relations officer, yes, I do have a job when ABC and NBC and CBS is calling me in my office and I'm at work and I haven't even read the 66-page document. Well, yes. Um, it is it is good to have
uh people assist in those situations and um thus far that's that's what we've used them for and that's it. Um, I think I don't want to comment further because of the pending litigation that's
going on and I'll leave my comments there. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Huff. >> Um, I appreciate what the mayor said. Um, I think that we're on the right track and uh, just having been specifically spoken to when the comments
were up here, I would simply say, um, the story is familiar. Just because I wasn't on council doesn't mean I don't know what went on at the meetings. Um, rehashing old stories and referring to things in the past. That's good. I'm glad that people are referring to past experiences and things of the sort. Um I
think we've said repeatedly how currently how um every how you know I won't speak for everyone but you know how we feel and and the direction we're looking in. Um the only thing I would just say is that last comment of like this is not what you know making sure because this is what Clark stands for.
Um that's not what Clark stands for and to speak on behalf of the town and to say that that is you know how how the whole township is. I would just repeat again that there's a lot of amazing things that are going on in town and I hope we can continue to highlight it instead of looking backwards and going over all the negative things and uh
focusing uh on the positive stuff instead of repeatedly rehashing the same things up here. That's all. Thank you. >> Thank you, Council Member Hund. >> Thank you, Council President. Um just want to agree with the mayor on her comments and as we know certain things
we're not allowed to speak about due to the civil suit advice of our council. But on a different note I want to congratulate the uh Arthur L. Johnson swim team for making the state uh state
playoffs for the first time in I think possibly school history. um they unfortunately lost uh today, today or yesterday, but they went up against an allmale team versus our co-ed team. So, just want to give them congratulations.
Uh it's a great thing to see our our school scholar athletes competing at such high levels. We had the volleyball team in last week and now just want to congratulate them as well. And uh stay safe in this weather and I'll see you in
two weeks. Thank you, Council Member Maserella. >> Yes. Thank you, Council President. Just one comment. Um to the residents, please be careful walking um around. There's a lot of ice out there. You don't want to trip and uh
break something. Um and uh remember to lock your doors. Please keep them locked at all times, your vehicle and your residence doors. and I'll defer the rest of my comments in two weeks. Thank you, >> Council Member Mani.
>> Uh thank you, Council President. Uh first just want to uh thank the uh DPW for their hard work over the last couple of days. Um they did, you know, a great job cleaning up our town, getting us out, getting us to work, and I just want to commend them on their uh countless hours of hard work. Uh great job, guys.
Uh with that, I'll save uh my comments for uh our next meeting. >> Council member Okconor, >> thank you very much. I too wanted to thank the DPW. They did a great job and you know um when you look online there was a lot of accolades given to the uh DPW for the great job. I know I had
posted something you know at 12:30 on on Sunday how clear Westwood Avenue had looked. But, you know, in the comments online, right after they said, "Great job, DPW." It was, you know, some people had said, you know, "The town did a great job plowing my street. However, my
neighbor snowblowed all of the snow from their sidewalk and in front of their driveway back into the street." And unfortunately, DBW had come already and then that snow was still there because, as you know, I think today was the first day it got bel above 32 degrees. So, again, you know, um I know we do get
frustrated. We we plow our our sidewalks. You plow in front of our our driveways and then the plow comes again and you have to get dressed again and go out and and and snowb blow. Just, you know, take a couple seconds just to turn the chute back onto your property and um and make it safe for everyone, not just
your neighbors, but for people traveling through your neighborhood because um like I said, it's been almost a week and um there's a still a lot of frozen ice and snow in the street. So, um, a be careful and b just try to take the time to, um, to turn your, uh, snowblower
shoot. And again, it's not everybody. Um, it's a few people, but again, I just thought it was worth mentioning. And, um, I don't want to take anything from Frank, but DPW did say it's been a week. And, um, you know, your sidewalks and the fire hydrants from front of your property should be cleared as well. Um,
that's one of the things too that I grew up with, understanding that if you have a fire hydrant, you should clear the snow away from it to make it easier for the fire department to access the fire hydrant if they need to access it. And of course, if it's your house or one of your neighbors, um, you'd like that as
well if it was clear. So, um, more in two more weeks. Thanks, guys. >> Council member Tol. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, I had a couple residents during the storm text me that their street wasn't clean. It was the next day on Milit Terrace and on Jupiter Street and I basically said did
not respond. I forwarded that immediately to the administration to let them know, hey, when the trucks are around, could you direct them to come back and hit Jupiter Street again? Dorsa Drive still has some icing on it, but it's not been over 25 degrees until only today. So, it takes a little while. This
is the similar storm we had in 9798 where we had 13 competitive storms, one after the other. You had an ice buildup on the streets and on the ground in Clark in 9798. And those storms left ice packs till what was it around April when it finally started getting a meltdown. I
had a large chunk of Clark ice in my refrigerator that I took out for the Fourth of July party we had. So just trying to say things like this when it's a ridiculous amount of snow and a ridiculous amount of temperatures because we're getting this arctic draft that comes all the way down and goes down and you see what what's doing to
Florida. If you have anybody you know in Florida or you own property down there, you understand this is not normal weather and we're under not normal times at this time. I'll be in touch with again. We'll be giving more on the history and starting that. Uh Abraham Clark's birthday is February the 15th.
It's an important one. We'll talk more at the next meeting. Thank you. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Do you have anything to add? >> Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to take the opportunity to thank everyone uh on behalf of me and my two sisters who um reached out with condolence
messages on the passing of my mom. It really means a lot to all of us. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Jim, do you have anything to add? >> Yeah, I have a few things to address. Um you know, one is the um OIC position.
It's not unheard of in this area. uh Rowway has one, Union County Police have an OIC and they've had it for over two years now. Um so it's not something that you know we you know we are doing
something that is not done elsewhere. So I mean it is an effective command structure and separating both the administrative and the policing uh requirements. Uh so I'm not sure what the concern is
there but the you know that is something that's been done in various different places. Um the you know 40 videos again the attorney general's office and the Union County prosecutor's office had access to all of the videos and they
were satisfied by reviewing 40 that there was no issue. I could assure you if there was any issues they would have been digging into those. So it it's irrespective of the number of videos that they are talking about. The issue that they're dealing with is were there any concerns and there were no concerns
in those 40 and if there were obviously they would have been doing additional work on that. Um the not having the race of the um the people being pulled over pre2020 that was not required. Okay. So
yes, they are in fact correct that they cannot um you know identify who it was, but it wasn't a required field. So it's not just the township of Clark. They wanted to run data on it, but again, we weren't doing anything that was outside
of what was required in 2020. Um the concerns that they um were having about the um internal affairs, I mean, those were filing issues. There was some paperwork issues, but none of those
files that were reviewed by the um Union County Prosecutor's Office led to any charges or anything other um any other issues that were um associated with that. the other issue about, you know, firing and,
you know, there was the lieutenant colonel of the New Jersey State Police who in fact made uh religious comments about the former attorney general and I was back in October of 2024. Since October of 2024, there was also no
action taken against him. The attorney general couldn't fire him, didn't have uh any in uh disciplinary procedures. He did retire at the end of the year of 25, but that was over a year. So, it's not from the comments. It's really um based
on what the uh what actions were taken. And, you know, as everybody keeps, you know, hanging their hat on this lawsuit, again, I just want to continue to remind everybody about all of the issues. And it just happened again that Norcross got thrown his case got thrown out in the
appellet court um this week and or last week, sorry, this Monday last week, but um it just got thrown out of the court and he's in fact going to be filing a lawsuit. He's in the process of filing a $und00 million lawsuit against the um state in the attorney general's office.
So again, that was a RICO status, not a case. It wasn't just a civil case like this one is. So, there's a bunch of legal issues with this and as we discussed and you know I I think everybody's getting a little bit premature on you know this is going to
be a slam dunk for the attorney general's office because there's a lot of things that we're working on. Um I think that was it on that side. Uh I just want to address one other thing with the um with the snow and and Frank
that is a very valid point. Uh and you know everybody needs to not only uh pl uh snowb blow or you know plow their sidewalks depending on you know how big it is and what they're using but it has to be curb to curb right. It's not just
a 2 and 1/2t um walkway through the the um sidewalks. And we just want to make sure that everybody realizes that. Um and then finally, I I do want to thank DPW um OEM, the police department, the fire
department. You know, throughout this storm, we had, you know, numerous calls, numerous um text chats on, you know, what's going on, what roads are being closed. Oh, and the ambulance squad. Sorry about that. um you know, numerous calls, numerous texts on what was going on, who what
streets are needed. You know, even from a standpoint if there was an emergency call that we were sending the plows out and ahead of the emergency call, there was a lot of coordination and given the amount of snow, everybody did an exceptional job, you know, throughout the town. So, um you know, thanking
everybody and Mike Dortis from OEM staying on top of the everything that was happening. Uh that's all that I have this evening. Great. Thank you, Captain Akabuti, have anything you want to add from the police department? Good. Thank you, counselor. Anything? >> Uh, no report.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um, I just want to remind the citizens that we all live in this town, too. And I I know I've gotten a few phone calls on the plowing. Uh, when I lived on Charles Street, it was a deadend street. uh depending which way the plows back down the street and
pushed the snow, one side would get two, three feet of snow and the other side would have very little and inevitably it always happened after we cleared our driveways and that's just the the way the process is and then we had to go back out and clean it again. So I feel for you when you had to clean your driveway and then it got some snow on
the apron again. Um, but we do want the streets or need the streets cleared curb to curb. Uh, mainly for emergency purposes and then so you can get out uh to work the next day or that day. Um, I recently moved to a townhouse complex so
I didn't have to deal with that. But they now plow in our cars, so I still have to go out and shovel behind my car, next to my cars, and there's four cars in my family. So it doesn't end uh moving uh to a townhouse other than moving to Florida. But Florida got snow.
So, it's it was one of those freak storms. Uh it's been 20 degrees for seven, eight, nine days in a row. The salt and the liquid we put on the streets does not work under is it 20 or 25 degrees?
15, you know, and at night we were down to single digits. So hopefully between today, tomorrow, and the next day when the temperature is over 30°, a lot of this ice will melt. Then we'll have a few more days of a deep freeze. Then hopefully uh it'll be behind us. So
that's all I want to add to the snowstorm. Uh we'll see everyone next month. A motion to adjurnn. >> Two weeks. >> Well, two weeks. What I say? Next month. Two weeks. Correct. Thank you, Councilman Tol and second. Councilman Okconor. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Thank you. Have a good
night.