e adequate newness at this meeting was provided in accordance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 to have a moment of silent meditation we have commissioner Romero flat to the flag of the United States of
America and to the Republic for it stands one nation indivisible withy andice for all commissioner Alo here commissioner Al here commissioner Romero here commissioner Lo pres commissioner Taylor
pres deputy director Maran here director SAR here do I have a motion in second to accept and dispense with the reading of the minutes from the last public meeting so second in favor by email of February 27th 2025 the K May County Board of Commissioners
notified the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners of resolution 10925 adopted at a meeting held on February 25th 2025 in support of publishing publishing legal notices on official government websites by email dated March 5th 20125 the mm County
Board of Commissioners notified the cumland County Board of Commissioners of resolution 2025 - 0176 adopted at a meeting held on February 27th 2025 opposing a 919 S1 1518 which would establish certain procedures and
standards concerning Public Services privac privac privatization contracts by email dated March 13 2025 the Mars County Board of Commissioners notified Carland County Board of Commissioners of resolution 2025 233
adopted at a meeting held on March 12th 2025 oos a919 S1 1518 which would establish certain procedures and standards concerning Public Services privatization contracts do I have a motion and second to open public comment
on resolutions only second all in favor I anyone from the public would like to make a statement or ask a question please step forward and just state your name and where you're from
seeing no one's coming up I have a motion to close to close second all in favor department head comments anyone department heads wish to come forward make any kind of comments
ask any questions see [Music] any um consent agenda resolution I have a motion and second to votee by consent agenda on resolutions 2025 d171 through 20251
198 second commissioner altino yes commissioner Al uh everything except u i I apologize to the director but I I didn't look at until late the uh the one where we're awarding
uh it's uh number 16 resolution 5186 or served for 5 years now and the Democrats were they're in charge of the board voted numerous times to allow U the paid bills ahead of time without
approval of the board I never think the board should delegate responsibility we have two beings a month put a time we have 45 days to pay most of our bills there's no reason to delegate this uh this ability to decide what is being paid so I the only object
is this to object to it thank you commissioner [Applause] rero commissioner LS yes commissioner Taylor yesy director Mar yes director s yes do I have a motion and second toop
to adopt resolutions 2025 171 through 20251 198 by consent second commissioner Alo yes commissioner Al everything except what IED commissioner
rero commissioner Lo yes commissioner Taylor yes commission deputy director Maran yes director Soro yes resolution 20251 199 resolution rejecting all proposals for providing virtual realy reality career exploration
simulations for the comberland Salem Kate May Workforce Development board and authorizing the three advertising for request for proposals RFP number 25-7 do I have a motion in second commissioner alino yes commissioner Al yes commissioner Romero
yes commissioner loads yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director marshan yes director Soro yes resolution 202-2000 resolution approving change order number three to contract for lease of sah copers do I have a motion in
second second commissioner altino yes commissioner Al commissioner Romero yes commissioner L yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director Maran yes director Sor yes resolution 202-21 resolution authorizing amendments to the sheriff service agreements
between the county of Cumberland and the cities of bridon milville and vinand concerning code blue warming shelters do I have a motion and second so move second I have a question on that just what are what were the Amendments that were changed does anybody know
it was a additional money I $25,000 each okay that's thank [Music] you sorry I didn't see you going up there sorry that's all right good evening my name's Melissa
Niles I live in B New Jersey I'm the department head for Human Services so this amendment is to add funding there's two funding sources that the county contribut to assist good blue one is through direct contributions from the arpa funds and the other one is acting
as a pass through agent on behalf of the state of New Jersey Division of Family development so um it's each municipality gets $50,000 each and $25,000 per so that's what that is it's adding the money into it so it's an
additional yes very thank you very we also will just to make sure that the it's noted that the Count's provided this fund has passed through that before that the cities well it's the
county to these three cities it's just an extra new today we said what we can do is when we do a resolution can we just add that saying that it's going through the count sure thank you commissioner altino yes
commissioner Al commissioner r yes commissioner Lo yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director Mar director s resolution 2025 202 resolution approving change order number one to contracte of Sarah copier do I have a
motion and second second commissioner atino yes commissioner Al yes commissioner Romero yes commissioner L yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director Maran director Sor yes resolutions 202-203 resolution authorizing
application to an agreement with the New Jersey Department of Health for the mini grant for the senior citizen Farmer Market nutrition program do I Motion in second um I have a question about that I it um is this just for the vouchers for
the seniors or are we reopening the um Farmers Market hi barberan director of The Office on Aging um this is is just a stien for the administrative uh aspects of the program normally Cumberland County will receive
1,600 uh vouchers at $40 a piece so this just be used at all the farm stands at all the participating farm markets right but we're not reopening the County Farm Market oh no this has nothing to do with the count okay thank do I have a motion
second commissioner yes commissioner commission rero commissioner Lo yes commissioner Taylor yes director Mar director s yes resolution 202-204 resolution authorizing an agreement of sale and release of claims between kland County and holdover tenant
Antonio in isana regarding residential property located at 2191 fin Street do I have Motion in second can we just uh J give give us a thumbnail sketch this this is a property that came to the County
prosecutor through a forfeiture action um on the County prosecutor's motion uh the house came with tenants already in the property um and the county the prosecutor's office um is trying to just
support the notion that we uh we uh don't disturb the tenants but we get fair value for the property in order to put it back into the forfeiture fund to do further good for the county that's what this is we're not evicting the people not evicting them as a pastor of
the local church ex the county paid for an appraisal um I believe we will recover that money out of the forfeiture funds in order to make the that uh event net neutral to the county but you're going to keep them in the house fair value for it and life goes on so it
comes out in terms of a settlement to the extent that you have tenants with rights in property and can just uh what's important commissioner is that that no no what's important commissioner is that the people are not being evicted they're going be St there want to be
taxpayers in the C there you go do I have a motion so second commissioner altino commissioner Al yes commissioner Romero commissioner loads yes commissioner Taylor yes deputy director Maran yes director Saro yes I
feel the need to add just one little caveat to to that the people that are in there the people that are named in the resolution had nothing to do with the criminal action that beg got the forfeiture I think that's I appreciate that thank you that would leave me uncomfortable they've been nothing but
good they had no idea of the history of a property it would end up in the county thank you foring you better do I have a motion in second to accept treasur report as provided second all in
favor I have a motion in second for authorizing payment of all salaries and wages I'll make a motion second all in favor I do I have a motion and second to open public comment on new business only make a motion to open public comment
second favor I anyone from the public like to come up and speak on any new business sorry about this I lost page uh in the very beginning of the
agenda it has two two things in it one from mmth County and the other from Mars County talking about establishing certain procedures and standards concerning Public Services privatization
contracts what are they Council sure so these are uh Communications from other counties to kland County we are not involved in their going on but they wanted us to be cognizant of them okay what is I'm sorry
Public Service privatization contracts what is that well I have not read what they sent personally but that's what I know is that came it's based on piece of legislation that was introduced in the the assembly and the and the the Senate
the thing was I didn't get a chance to read what what the the law was that they were trying to go against that's all but they just wanted to notify us that they were against it I can understand that but don't you think that if it's in here
someone somewhere in this room should have some way to say here's what it is and that's why we put it in here it's in here because it's correspondence to to be clear it's just correspondence we just didn't get a chance to read the law that was trying to be passed or that was
introduced you can provide the proposed Bill if you'd like it I can get through that no no I I don't care about the bill I want to know what public services privatization contract it's a bill and I'm offering it to you if you'd like if you'd like me to produce it I can it's all good I i' appreciate it okay
yeah sounds like jum mumble jumble understood honestly can I can I get another question and maybe I'm out of ter about I'd like to hear resolation
resolution uh 193 talking about raising the ceiling which $30,000 which brings it to $887,000 we paid this Law Firm what what can it possibly be we
count so this uh was a longstanding suit that is now fortunately uh settled this is to pay the last of the expenses but going backwards Brown uh Clark was a
class action lawsuit against the county what do you know sure I'm getting to that okay yeah no no no it was for uh conditions in the jail and it's something you and I have talked about from time to time okay as as this has
rest but it was a class action suit that was handled on behalf of multiple inmates about conditions in the jail and there continues to be monitoring at the jail as a result and this is really as a result of the co uh epidemic that where
that this came from and this was a federal judge hman who handled the litigation and who is now retired and when it's finally settled will we find out who we what have it's all uh of record as far as the
suit in other words there's the litigation would have to be sealed in order to not hand it to you yeah right but there's a complaint and at this point there's a settlement agreement that is not in any way private if that's a yeah
yeah I guess the reason I'm asking is we're paying the the lawyer alone $87,000 this is multiple lawyers over multiple years what the heck did we pay the people on the other
end so there was because it's a class action suit is a very complicated metric whereby you have to uh make the money available to those that were similarly affected so you have people applying saying I was in your jail and I was impacted and there's a formula for what
they collect but nothing about this was simple um you've gotten notices like this at home probably you may have been infected you can participate the class action that's what this was wow okay I think good news is it's it's a it's a wi
to the extent that it's over and I believe the jail took about five years yeah okay which is why the cumulative is so aoll it is and you're not going to have a total until everybody runs everybody gets paid
everybody gets paid so you're not going to have a total yet when you ask the question what's the total we we can't give to you because we don't know who's going to PL for and are we paying that out of County funds or do we have an insurance policy for
this there was some limited Insurance the way it was pled it was pled as uh in um an intentional act so negligence not just negligence no int saying was one of them that's the
difference right but negligence was a part of it so there is some there was some recovery right I thank you appreciate it thanks for asking question Mr Mr Carr after all this stuff that uh this is this is the end and we met Judge
Hill uh he's a good footing with us we have so you still have we have oversight you have a monitor that visits the jail so could it flare up into something possibly uh but I don't believe so uh but this point with this you should be
we' report this monor every but every three bus we report monitor stages surprise visits and comes and looks and stays in touch but and so far all the parties seem relatively okay what we done that is correct well the sad part is that we
have to pay for the monitor keep coming in okay so even though the uh there's a judgment and it's over with the key we're still pay sure we do doing well with it and so far the monitor is not just coming for the hack of right so I'm happy to report
that I'm not seeing that's uh we have another individual state your name and um Sandy ATO Upper Deerfield Township um there was an article in one of the papers that
talked about some Congressional earmarks that the county has lost have have we indeed lost those ear marks and can you give us any insight on any insight on what you know whether
we'll be getting back or permanent we ask two the a marks were they were at requested that was Drew and Senator Cory Booker to help with the dab ABY we requested they had
actually carser Andrews got knocked off earlier and the only what was left was Senator Booker's uh request keep it our figures crossed but I just got the same news you got that that was that was knocked off so and the idea was to help
see body for the dab Avenue to help us to do whatever we needed to get going the engine theera the beginning part cuz it doesn't cover everything it's just part of so but we could always apply again it was just the budgets kind of was in chaos so we have to apply again for all of the
cuz it was like 600,000 and8 down request to put in but I think KS and U and Drew put it like 1.4 so they they would had mat it together but they it got kned off early on one side and keep our fingers cross
the other side but it got doed off also so so so they're not monies that we were guaranteed we were just trying to get them and now they're saying that was a wish yeah okay when they say knocked off it means it was taken out of the budget for
but they can always put the next year they can work on it later on okay that's that's what I was wondering whether it was a permanent thing or whether it was just if car speak with him like he's probably more more willing to help put it through again but again requesting
Senator fer if we move forward that he probably more W to help us again um just didn't happen this time that's all 20 the 25 budget I guess or whatever whatever budget they were talking about we're not going to give up we're not going to give up yes all right thank you
disappointing give up good evening everyone I'm Nancy richway from Upper Deerfield and Fairfield townships this is another month that we haven't publicly had a Treasures report read in public very
disappointing this is the end of March there's been no discussion about the county budget are you going to request to the state to have your budget time extended you're not talking about anything and those are very important
questions this is budget time so when do you plan on introducing your budget anyone else we had talked about at the last meeting that we were looking for uh April or into May for the budget that
was stated last meeting so that's what we're looking for at this point in time we're not finished we're still working on it and we'll see how it works out and what about the treasures report that would tell me the finances of the
county do you have a packet uh M it's not in your packet we always had a the treasures report at the microphone and I'm pretty sure that the people tuning in and listening and looking online would be interested in a real treasurous report like we were
getting when we had Jeff Bridge right here thank you anyone else would like to step forward motion to close motion to close second all in favor commission
reports okay commissioner yes I was honored to be able to attend the agricultural board meeting at the 48 Cent Rosen very interesting I don't have an
agricultural background but I'm learning and it was one of their concerns there is with the teror how it's going to affect the farmers in the area and already started effect some of them they've been notified that Canada is not
going to buy our fruits and vegetables from this area so they got to look for another buyer they import a lot of stuff too that they use for growing the crops like the plants and the uh Peete moss and all and a lot of them ordered it
early before the car take I also attended a 4 function at the Comm mall where they had display of all the different uh things that they do and it's not just horses it's all kind of craft you name it they do it and it's
very nice well attended then yes I attended the human relations board meeting and uh when I was share I was a member of the board I familiar with the board and uh just say one of the problems they're
concerned about is with the all the publicity of immigration that the uh the uh immigrants are not reporting all the crimes and they're not getting involved as far as being witnesses to it's the
problem that uh all the Departments are having that's it that's it okay commissioner Alber U first thing 4 is uh um write down two two people down and
we've actually had people come the into the audience and requesting it uh I was talking to the administration we have one that's going to be put out to a one one advertising for one person and
uh and we're working on the second one so we hope probably uh a relatively short period of time we do get a good person and we have other plans for the second part so we should be up to three again in relatively good terms there have been people call we try to keep
them a breast of what we're deal with Administration the business administrator has I have so uh Le see at at least At Ease is waiting for what we're doing and okay with that I got a chance and I mentioned this Bo about the I believe that we're going to have an
EMS crisis uh in this County U I got a chance to sit in the city city of Ms EMS department they were going over to the dumpers because they are the most recent uh Department to go from not having an EMS to having EMS and it was a pretty
good discussion on the numbers so real ders and it was U there was the the May forer Township K Ken wion and the Jack feldis Jr and uh
and the chief and other individual just just basic numbers just finding what the numbers are what what we're looking at what are the possibilities uh pretty good discussion we done that we face and eventually I'd like to share with the commission just
an idea to get an idea what we're working towards uh down Township is going to be the first uh uh Township effective because I think their contracts up shortly and from with spear it's a pretty hefty number U for it's
the we even reaching out more comes up next I don't know if commercial has little U little U EMS and that department is actually kind of they're trying and they've uh they're still there they're try uh Fairfield is very
interested to be a part of this Upper Deerfield says they will be they see a CET probably a year two years off they have a volunteer and paid Service Deerfield a lot of people are getting older so they they understand that there's response times to getting so not
not by any reason their own they work hard but they everyone is seeing it and I just want to make sure this board is aware of it uh second I want to point out that we had some discussion and again I point the administration in the 700 system of
Emergency Management in 911 there are some changes but the administration and the director have made sure that the uh that U that system will be working and attct and have coverage uh they've
expressed that I'm just saying that they can talk in their own terms they express this to the fire departments at the EMS and that uh the system will stay uh fully functioned and running and and covered and we'll just keep we'll keep
on top of it that's all so U last thing uh the library we we've we've lost the director a couple months ago uh right now they've been interviewing they believe they they're they're going to make a offer to one of
the people to interview his director yeah that would U I'm kind of happy that uh I won't say who it is yet but they'll anounce it um and it will move forward and keep going and it took a little bit of the process but again that board is I
believe is a very good board and has made some uh uh worked hard to get the right person and we'll go from there we announce the what they what they're ready to announce but hopefully shortly so thank
thank you Comm L um good afternoon everyone good evening now at this point still daylight I'm getting confused you know uh but March is a big month it's Red Cross awareness month and it's also women's history month and I just want to let you know what that month means here
in Cumberland County so for women's History Month Cumberland County Women's Hall of Fame inducted two new members to our kland County Women's Hall of Fame and we were there to congratulate them um and that's Amy manso who was our CEO of inspir Health Network here in
Cumberland County um as well as Jean scanny who is an educator um in the county for I don't know since the 70s I believe she started Centerton Country Day School um and has really been an innovator in uh childhood education here in Cumberland County so congratulations
to these two women on being inducted into the Cumberland County Women's Hall of Fame it's certainly well deserved and for Red Cross Awareness Month uh this marks the 80th year that Red Cross month has been C celebrated and acknowledged in the United States of America it was
originally started by Franklin uh President Franklin Roosevelt and every 8 minutes uh right cross volunteers respond to a disaster in the United States of America so to say that the need for blood donations um is imminent is an understatement of course the need
for blood is constant one in seven patients that enter a hospital will need a blood transfusion and here in Cumberland County we have been doing our part since January we've hosted 22 blood drives in Cumberland County and that number keeps going and so far we've
collected 580 units of blood so far to serve the public so I just want to let you know what Red Cross month and women's History Month are doing here in Cumberland County thank you thank you commission commissioner Romero enough say Okay commissioner
tale yes um I attended the Board of Health meeting and um I I just think it's important to let the public know that the noro virus is in Carland County and um you know if if you're used to
using hand sanitizer that does not work with the noro virus you have to use soap and water and saying happy birthday so um I thought that was important to mention also the bird flu we have several cases
of that in Cumberland County um I think uh it's pretty much under control as far as we know today I did want to mention um I also attended the Board of Elections meeting
and Mr Fernandez um Can can you give the dates of because we're going to have um some extra dates to vote do you have that just give me one sec for um for the early voting because
it is a um you know an election year for a new governor so June yeah so from June 3rd to June 8th for early voting thank you I also wanted to mention um this
Saturday at the fairgrounds they're going to have the Cindy hudel um Memorial fundraiser it's a horse riding event uh they they did um and it's through 4 AG they earned uh $2500 last
year so if you have some time this weekend that might be something you want to stop out and see and I think that's about it deputy director carer thank you so I know at our last meeting we discussed uh
the resolution 19125 that's utility increases I know people have heard me talk about this many time tonight we pass that resolution so once again I do want to thank this board for taking a stance and standing up for the people of kland County but I do want to say the job certainly isn't done still please
make your calls to BPU make your calls to the government make your voice heard that's very important we're just at the beginning of this battle we still need to fight it uh this past weekend I had the opportunity to going down to Lawrence Township EMS had a fundraiser
great chicken barbecue great food great people they're always so welcoming uh we had a very nice time down there I had the opportunity to speak with a few people and what I found very interesting was at least a handful of people told me how they tune in watch our meetings every uh every week so I every uh every
month or or two meetings a month I thought that was so hi thanks for tuning in so I thought that was that was really nice idea to appreciate that and then I like to also bring up um community events so we have upper deerfields having Upper Deerfield day I believe that's April 26 124 very
familyfriendly they usually have vendors and food truck it's a nice way to spend an afternoon with your family so I highly recommend it and the best part about that is there's no admission fee so it's free so that's all answer thank um one I was at the barbecue also
you and I was at the Women's Hall of Fame uh but I I want to address something that uh commissioner alre brought up which is a very important issue and that is the ambulance service in the townships I had a um a meeting
with inspir and it was quite candid and I more or less kind of threw it in um their wag that it was their fault that this happened I was trying to
figure out how to say that nicely but it's it's exactly what happened okay um this is not going to stop here have more meetings I do believe that inp has to step up and make a difference in this
this is something that we have to take a stand on because when someone comes in and takes over an ambulance service and everybody's happy about it because it was a big organization they figured well how can it fail and then all of a sudden uh they leave or they raise it to a
point where nobody can afford it so that is not acceptable and we will have more meetings with them and they're going to find out about it through this meeting um we have to figure something out uh this is a a situation where if
you you look at the county does the county have the money to put out a million dollars more for ambulance the answer is no so what we have to do is go back to the people that I believe are responsible for this and get them to work on this that's that's the first
thing the second thing is I was uh honored to be asked to testify Trenton on uh it's no longer called the Juvenile Justice uh commission it's called the
youth uh Justice Commission yjc instead of JJC and there were a number of us from the counties that were there and we we were at a senate uh senate committee hearing and I was able to get across to
them that it's costing the people in cin County not just come County but in the state of New Jersey a lot of money to house the juveniles and um it's a very situ
interesting situation where you have have the yjc coming in saying okay it's the responsibilities of the county to take care of this even though I I don't actually have the the number was njsa 14
or whatever where it states that the the Justice Commission is is responsible for placing the actual individuals um but they turn around and say the counties are responsible but they say well you have
to do it our way and when you're not uh succeeding at it it's your fault I want you to think about what I just said it's your responsibility and you have to do it our way the way we want you to do it but when you fail it's your
fault that's what's happening right now and I really do believe I think we made an impact with the commission because later on I had two senators come up and we talk probably for about 20 25 minutes on this we have almost 50% of our juveniles they're not
juveniles they're over the age of 18 and anybody standard that means they're adults now Juvenile Detention officers jdos are not trained to uh look after
adults and directions officers cosos are not trained to look after juveniles or children so that's where the situation is right now what we need to do is get the adults because you're allowed to keep them to the age of
26 think about that the 26 year old with a 15-year-old in the same Community that's not acceptable it is not acceptable so we're working hard on it I have to give kudos to John denardio he
did a great job he's with NJ um New Jersey Association of counties and he put this all together and if you ever want to know about a great organization they are a great organization because they fight for the
counties every day and he did a fabulous job putting together making sure we were able to testify before this committee it's not over uh we made a number of recommendations hopefully within the next two three months we're going to see
progress in that so I was very happy that I was up there uh it was an all day Affair but I think it was well worth it and I think we made some strides into it that's about it I'm not going to hold everybody up anymore but uh I think we did did well up there any of the
Commissioners have anything else to say no do we have any no need for executive session okay do I have a motion to there you go Motion to Second all in favor I thank you [Music]
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