[Music] Adequate notice of this meeting was provided in accordance with chapter 231 public law 1975. We would like to take a moment of silence at this time. If you could think about all the individuals that gave
their lives for this country that we celebrated over this weekend and thank God that he created individuals that were willing to do that, right? Our country is free. You might have problems with it or whatever, but it is the
greatest country in the world in my opinion. Amen. And we uh we want to thank God and we want to thank all those families that all their loved ones sacrifice for our take that moment of silence. If we could stand it will be
led by flat by commissioner Victoria Lo. I pledge algiance 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. Roll call. Commissioner Alstino here. Commissioner Alrech here. Commissioner Romero here. Commissioner Lodes present. Commissioner Taylor present. Deputy Director Maron here. Director Sorrow here. Do I have a motion and second to accept and dispense with the reading of
the minutes from the last public meeting? So moved. Second. All in favor? I. In correspondence dated May 6, 2025, Atlantic City Electric gave notice of filing and public hearings in the matter of petition. Atlantic City Electric
Company for approval of amendments to its tariff to provide for an increase in rates and charges for electric service. BPU docket number ER24110854 and notice of virtual public hearing scheduled May 27th, 2025 at 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. which members of the
public may participate. To join the meeting direct directly, you can dial in at 1646828-7666. When prompted, the meeting ID is 160996-6383 and passcode 924-525. for copy request statement
commissioner board of clerk. It looks like we're gonna have a presentation tonight. Okay. Our CFO that I'm gonna be calling upon Christopher Hart. Thank him for his hard work in getting this and putting it together. And I think Robin, where you
at? He was very instrumental in getting everything squared away for the presentation. Okay. We appreciate it, Robin. So, I'm going to turn this over to our CFO, Christopher Har. Just making a little adjustment. Sorry. Oh, no.
Um, bad jokes like the other bad jokes. Okay. I don't have them in my script. Okay. Um, so good evening everyone. Good evening, commissioners, and everyone here tonight. Um, we're here to introduce our budget finally and present
it to uh the residents of Cumberland County. Um, is that microphone on? Yeah, make sure it's on because I'm not sure they can online. Is it on? Okay, it's on. Maybe closer to an extension on this. Okay, I'll
crouch down a little. So, um, tonight we're here to introduce our county budget finally. It's been a few months since I joined the county and, uh, I'm really glad that I had a chance to work on the budget this year.
Um, this budget was crafted with an emphasis and a vis vision on building a path uh, forward with direction, purpose, and credibility. And this year's budget, I'm happy to say, is a fiscally sound budget with prudent
decisions for success in its operations. With the mindset of our county residents at the forefront, I believe that we should be proud of this budget and the pathway forward it provides in order to achieve our goals and objectives.
Um, I want to thank our commissioners and especially director Sorero for allowing me to work on this budget, giving me confidence and allowing me to balance the budget this year. It was challenging to say the least. However, I think uh you'll be pleased after the
presentation. I also want to thank the county management team and all of our county employees for their contributions this year. And I just want to make a note that without our employees, we would not be successful. So, thank you very
much. Um, so I thought it would be um a good introduction phase to the budget to just talk a little bit about um what the county offers to its residents. Um I think it's really important um to uh
just embellish on that, if you will. Um so I'll try to touch on some points. I know the department's um turned over a bunch of facts and figures at our request. So um I'll try to touch on them all and I apologize if I don't hit everybody, but I just think it's
important to set the tone for this budget. Um so we're going to talk about the Department of Public Works first and foremost. Um I don't know if a lot of people know this, but county government was actually formed on the basis of the
DPW department. So, I felt it was um probably the best thing to do is start with them. Um so, buildings and grounds, um the maintenance division, they oversee 24 county own buildings and the
courthouse. Um they completed 4,240 maintenance requests in the past year. And engineering, they oversaw 17.8 8 million in construction projects resurfacing over 35 miles of roadways in
the past past 12 months alone. Uh, next mosquito. So, their border management program, they cleared 4,191 ft of vegetation, uh, removed
11,315 ft of spoil from four different ditches and cleared 10,240 ft of debris from six different streams. Interesting stat, too. They also provided they actually collected
1,132 tires across 12 municipalities. More responsibilities of public works. Um the motor poolool they maintain over 400 pieces of equipment. Um that does not include small things like chainsaws and wheat whackers and
things like that. um the road division, 1479 public service requests and they maintain 550 miles of roadways. Um storm water, they conducted
3,647 inlet inspections for storm water runoff and maintained 15 miles of guard rails to enhance road safety. Um and also the bridge division. They maintained and repaired 258 bridges and
culverts. And not last but not least, traffic safety. They maintain 20,000 signs and 80 traffic signals. So you can see the breadth of the division itself. They have quite a lot to handle over the course of the year. Um let me
see next slide. Uh so Office on Aging, they provide 11,000 congregate meals and 14,623 homed delivered meals. They also do quite a bit of a lot of other stuff,
but um in the advent of time, we'll just move over to the next one. Human services. They provide critical support for residents through financial assistant programs, mental health and addiction services, and
homelessness prevention. Um, and I'm going to mention it just because Robin's here. Um, the IT department, they handled seven-year refresh of county firewalls. They also um processed more than 200,000
emails uh which now 20% are now blocked automatically for suspicious content. Mr. Hart, I hate to interrupt you, but we're really having a tough time hearing you. Can you hold the microphone? Oh, I'm sorry. In your hand. Yeah. Yeah. Is that better? Yes. It's amazing.
It's just not more. Um Okay. So, the library um they served 40,693 patrons in 2024. Um they also provide free GED and ESL classes, job listing help, tutoring,
and outreach events. And we're going to finish it with Veterans Affairs because Memorial Day was just yesterday. So they there are 5,487 veterans in Cumberland County and the division assists veterans with
claims guiding them through the process of getting financial support for service related health issues. This process usually takes 18 8 to 15 months or so. Um there were 340 office visits and there were 634
referrals. Um let me see slide. Um we go to slide six. So, I just wanted to mention really quick to the affiliated agencies that the county um does provide financial
support and a variety of other resources to these agencies throughout the year. As you can see up here, um there's uh the Rowan College of South Jersey, you have Cumberland County Library, you have the authority, and there's also a CCT
um along with public health [Music] and can't see down there. Oh, workforce development, excuse me. All right, next. So, now we're going to get into the
budget itself. Um the key budget deliverables in this year's budget is that it's a fiscally sound budget that focuses on our county residents in mind and delivers the
following. It's a balanced budget that achieves all the county objectives. It focuses on long-term planning. It focuses on creating synergies amongst the departmental operations. It also maintains required funding for all
operations. It maintains a healthy level of funding to the outside agencies which we've previously mentioned. These are success paramount to successful county operations. Uh long-term focus on maintaining a robust fund balance which
is surplus. Um and also new program initiatives such as transportation and parks. Uh one one-time options to balance the budget have been removed. Um we're using shared services within the
county government um to create synergies and keep costs low. Uh, a point of emphasis in this year's budget is that it's funds $1 million in pay as you go capital projects and
begins the process of self-funding our capital program, which increases our purchasing power. This will be the first time in 15 years the county has funded greater than $1 million in the capital
fund, which is direct capital funding, not issuing debt. Um, why is this important? Because bonding costs the county roughly 40% more from interest and issuance costs, reducing our purchasing
power. And last but not least, this year was definitely a reset in our budget where we had to match our revenues, which are predictable revenues, with our expenditures. So, I thought it was important to point
out that this budget funds an additional 34 positions by investing in a stronger workforce um and a higher level of service in county operations and public safety to our county residents. As you can see, public safety is 10 positions, judicial
is six, and DPW is four. These I'll just emphasize what this means. There are vacant positions in the budget right now and these are the positions that were funded. There were a certain amount of positions that were not funded. However, these are the ones that are getting
funded. Um the overtime reduction reduction mandate um which is a focus on reducing the utilization of overtime countywide. Um, and this budget funds all our statutory obligations such as debt service,
pension, and health benefits. Um, so I just wanted to mention what were the cost drivers in this budget. Um, of course there's the normal inflationary pressures. Those persist. Um, you
have jail and trans uh IP transport and housing costs, juvenile detention, there's lawsuits. Those that line particularly in the budget is up 700%. Um, the combined insurance costs
are up 8%. Debt service payments are up 86,000. utility costs are up uh 4%. Um on the revenue side, the most significant aspect in our budget is that we lost $5
million over the course of the last two years in federal revenue from the ARP funding. Um so that totals $10 million and that really set us back. So um that was one of the biggest driving forces in
balancing the budget this year. Um, one of the other critical uh messages in this budget is that surplus usage is declining by 700,000. Um, we we want to focus on maintaining a
robust surplus balance to ensure we have healthy reserves going forward. So, where do your county tax dollars go? Um 63% to maintain operations, 13% capital budget funding,
14% insurance, payroll taxes, 9% statutory expenses for pension and social security, and 1% go to lawsuits. What? Lawsuits. county budget control or lack thereof.
Um on the revenue side, we do control about 81% of the revenue decisions in the budget and 19 are non-controllable. Uh on the appropriation side, we have uh roughly
44% of our expenditures are under county control and 56% are not controllable. Okay. So, here's a summarized version of the big document that's available uh for most of us to look at tonight. And
going forward um the budget revenues will start on this side. We are presenting a reduced budget in 2025. It's down slightly from 2024. We have held the line on out of
control costs by bringing forth a budget that is less than last year. This is simply basically unheard of in recent times. The main driver for revenue loss, as I indicated earlier, is the federal funds,
the ARPA funds, um, where $10 million was used to offset the costs of the budget, which are no longer available to us going forward. We are also reducing surplus usage this year to preserve the fund
balance for future years and to um, use it as a guide for the future. Next. So, I just wanted to reiterate as we look at the appropriation side, the 2025 budget holds the line on
um increased costs and it actually comes in lower than last year. Um, it comes in lower in an environment over the last four years where the combined inflation has risen about 20%. Insurance costs are up 10%
um this year for the county and 18% this year at the state level. Um, general insurance costs are up about 5.6%. Energy costs are also significantly impacting the county operations at a
proportional rate of over 17% exceeding our statemandated cap laws. Um so that's that surplus. Um we generated more
surplus in the last year than 2023 by $2.1 million. Um surplus is trending up um and it's up 10% this year. Uh we have made a commitment to
continue um focus on a healthy surplus balance. Um the dependency to use surplus in this year's budget is down by 7%. This graph is a um taken from the abstract the readables from the tax
board. And as you can see uh when a graph goes up and to the right that's actually very good news. So we've experienced significant rateable growth in our county over the last three years in particular. valuations have increased
34% over the last three years. Um it's probably a testament to the economic growth in the county. Um people are moving here and they want to live here, so valuations are increasing. This year alone, our equalized ratables
are up 1.1 billion. Um and they're up 3.3 billion in the last three years. On average, our county assessed value is also up as a result the last 5 years by 5%. What are the tax
impacts in our 2025 budget? Well, quite simply, the 2025 county budget provides a 5% a 5 cent tax decrease from 89 cents to 84 cents. Overall, the tax rate
decrease was 8% 8 cents and only 2.9 cents was used to balance the budget. 5 cents was given back to the residents. The average county tax, as you can see, uh, as a result of decisions in this
budget, result in a reduction in the average home of approximately $66. Um, so that equates to the budget tax impacts um for our residents are lower than last
year. So, lastly, um, upon approval tonight, the second reading of the budget is scheduled to take place on June 24th at 6:00 p.m. And that's when the public hearing takes place, and there'll be a
vote on the adoption of the budget. Um, and I just want to thank Robin tremendously for helping with the presentation. She's the one that really designed this and made it look really nice. So, thank you.
[Applause] Thank you, Mr. Hart. We appreciate all the effort that you put into this. What we'll do is we'll have an open meeting uh the next session for all questions.
Just so you can sit down, take this all in. you have the paperwork. You can go through all of it, read it. Uh and then when we have our open session for uh the budget next meeting, you'll be able to ask all your questions. Okay. Um
do I have a motion and second that the ordinance be read on first reading by title only? So moved. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Ordinance 2025-3 approving CAP Bank
for the 2025 county budget. Do I have a motion and second that introduces the ordinance on first reading? I'd like to make a motion. Second it. Commissioner Albert Commissioner Ostino. Yes. Commissioner Alrech. Yes. Commissioner Rivero. Yes. Commissioner
Less. Yes. Commissioner Taylor. Yes. Deputy Director Marsh. Yes. Director Sorrow. A very big yes. Thank you. Notice is hereby given that ordinance 2025-3 was introduced and approved by the board of county commissioners of the county of Cumberland on first reading on May 27th, 2025. It will be further
considered for final passage after public hearing thereon at a meeting of the board of county commissioners to be held at the Cumberland County Administration building 164 West Broad Street, Richton, New Jersey 08302 on June 24th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. Prevailing time at which time and place comments
and objections to the ordinance 2025-3 may be presented by member members of the public during the week prior to and including the date of such meeting. Copies of said ordinance will be made available to the general public who shall request the same at the office of the clerkship board county commissioners 164 West Broad Street,
Richmond, New Jersey. Resolution 2025-269 resolution introducing and approving the calendar year 2025 county budget and notice of public hearing. Do I have a motion and second? So moved. Second. Second. Commissioner Alstino?
Yes. Commissioner Alrech? Yes. Commissioner Romero? Yes. Commissioner Loes? Yes. Commissioner Taylor? Yes. Deputy Director Marshon. Yes. Director Sorrow. Yes. Do I have a motion and second for public comment on resolutions only? So move to open public comment on
resolutions only. Mad. Second. All in favor? I. I. Anyone from the public that would like to adjust the the board on resolutions only, you can step forward and uh please state your name and location.
Good evening. Nancy Rididgeway from Upper Deerfield and Fairfield Townships on resolution 2025 276. The resolution authorizing purchase from New
Jersey state contract vendor for repairs to a mower used by the Cuming County Department of Public Works. $24,22327. That's a lot of money for repairs. When
with resolution 2025 289. It's a resolution off authorizing the purchase of two X mark 60in zeroturn mower rear deer discharge under bid for
the Cuming County Department of Public Works. It says two and the price is $26,71768. This was an awful big repair and it doesn't really tell me what kind of piece of machinery it
was. And then on resolution 2025305, this is a resolution appointing member to the workforce development board, Jerry Balquiz, CCIA. Well, the chairwoman, Don
Hunter, really needed to be reappointed or you need to put somebody to take her place because I was at the last meeting and we didn't have a quorum because of the
appointments. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else would like to step forward and speak the board on resolutions only? Motion to close. Second. Second.
All in favor? Okay. On the first uh note, you probably don't have the actual resolution. Uh it's the mower is a mower that's worth somewhere in the vicinity of $350,000. Is that correct? 300 possible.
Okay. I know. And um I'm looking at the actual invoices and it's actually two pages long of parts and uh it's just it's a very large mower. It's quite expensive. If you want to
step up and if you would and also the other mowers aren't the same size. No. Okay. So, Department of Public Works. The first mower is called an arm mower. It's a large tractor that has equipment that goes off the side to cut back vegetation, woods, tree
branches, things of that nature. The second two, again, to replace a new one is around $300,000. So, the repair in totalities is a fraction of what a new one would cost. The two mowers that we're purchasing are zeroturn mowers,
lawnmowers. So, it's it's two different. It's apples and oranges. Okay, that's that's what we need. Thanks. tractor. Tractor was a tractor. Correct. Tractor append. It's called arm. It's the
ar the repair cost includ. Okay. We had the questions. Okay. You gave the answers to the questions. We can't have the dialogue going back and forth. All right. The thing is you got two different types of mower. One's an arm mower that is attached to a tractor
that reaches out. Okay. And it has a lot of moving parts as U-jints. It has I'm going through the bearings. All the bearings have to be replaced in this have clutches. All that they had to be replaced. Okay. Um the other mowers are
two mowers are your standard lawn mowers. Okay. Zero turn. They're not the size of the one that is attached to the side of a tractor. Was there anything else, sir? No, sir. There you go. All right. Uh, as far as the other, we are
going to make the appointment. Uh, what we're looking for in the appointment, I would really like to see a business person on the western side to be appointed. I see a lack in that. I'd like to see a better uh, what do you call
it? Representation for the county on this. Okay. Not having one organization, meaning violent chamber commerce. I know, you know, she's been around for a long time. I know her personally, but it seems like the questions were, well, that's the bonding chamber comments. Why
wasn't Milwood or why wasn't Bridon? So, what we would like to do again is I would like to get better representation on this board throughout the whole county and we are actually looking for a western side business person for this position and that's the the reason why
we did what we did. Okay, that being said, questions were answered. Let's move on. Uh, department head comments if there are any. Are there any department head comments? None seeing. Okay, we can close. Do we need a motion to close that? Nope. Okay. Okay. Resolution
2025-270. Resolution authorizing the county sergeants office to exceed the 2% budget cap for the 2025 county budget. Do I have a motion and second? Motion. Second. Commissioner Alino. Yeah. I just have one question. I know the surgeon don't
have a really big budget. Do we know what caused the uh excess? Well, that's a good question. Sure. Um, so last year in September, there was an assistant uh physician
hired in the division. That's what's driving. So, Okay. Just a mathematics. Well, there was an assistant surrogate already. Isabella Garopolo was the assistant surrogate along with and then they hired
[Music] Bill Gillson was hired as the the new assistant surrogate, but there already was an assistant surrogate. We'll get we'll check into that for you. That was a good question. I have no idea. And we'll just have to look up that line item. Okay. Would that be
good? Okay. All right. Let's continue. Commissioner Alrech, yes. Commissioner Romero, yes. Commissioner Lodess, yes. Commissioner Taylor, yes. Deputy Director Marshon, yes. Director Sara, yes. Consent agenda
resolutions. Do I have a motion and second to vote by consent agenda on resolutions 2025-271- 2025-312? So moved. Second. Commissioner Alino. Yes. Commissioner Alrech. I I I do want to state one
that's uh the uh number. Yes. On the rest of them, the uh sorry the uh the reappoint of the the college. Uh, so it'll be uh u
309 or state. Commissioner Romero, yes. Commissioner Loess, yes. Commissioner Taylor, yes. Deputy Director Marshon, yes. Director Sorrow, yes. Do I have a motion and second to adopt resolutions 2025-271-
2025-312 by consent? Commissioner Alstino. Oh, do I have a motion? I'm sorry. So move. Second. Second. Commissioner Austin. Yes. Commissioner Alrech. Uh I just want to make a comment on on 298. Uh this is uh this is where
we put a lower speed limit which we somehow we have control over of a little street between two it it relied between upper Pitts Grove uh upper Deerfield and Deerfield. It's a it's two-day roads kicked by a little road should which
should be 25 miles an hour but it's uh we we can't we had a it was in the county control was not in the local so it was actually from the from Deerfield initiated the uh the request and we followed through to lower the speed
limit uh to which was appropriate by our engineering. Uh so the state road now has a road. It's a local road connected. So actually was a 50 mile street limited. It was lower. So that was that was a cooperation with that also.
Uh this one Okay, good. Thank you. So, yes. And you're abstaining from 309? Yeah. Yes. Commissioner Romero? Yes. Commissioner Lodess? Yes. Commissioner Taylor? Yes. Deputy Director Marshon? Yes. Director Sorrow? Yes. Resolution
2025-313, resolution awarding a contract for providing supportive services for children, adults, and faculty by the Cumberland County Department of Human Services, Human Services Advisory Council, RFP 25-14. Do I have a motion to second? So move. Second. Commissioner Oino, yes. Commissioner Alrech, yes.
Commissioner Romero, yes. Commissioner Less, yes. Commissioner Taylor, yes. Deputy Director Marsh, yes. Director Sorrow, yes. Resolution 2025-314. Resolution authorizing a shared service agreement between Cumberland County, Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, and the city of Milville for Cumberland County Sheriff's Office to provide
public safety assistance. Do I have a motion and a second? Second. Commissioner Alino. Yes. Commissioner Alrech, just make a comment. This this took a little bit, but I want to compliment our sheriff departments and city of Bilbo working together and solve this is a a big issue in the city of
Bilville right now. The commissioners saw that they step forward. They made an agreement. They actually talked to our sheriff who's uh who was very open to this idea and we're going to provide a ser. They're very short-handed and we're going to provide a a service to them be
paid for our ser for doing. So, what I'd like to do is I'd actually like to get the sheriff to come up after we vote to actually explain what they're going to do. More confidence. All right. Since I'm voting on I'd like to make a comment. So, I'm doing that. So, yes, I would love to hear from them, but I like to make comment that I'm very
It's good. I appreciate that we're doing this. It was a very proactive move on our part. So, yes. Commissioner Romero, yes. Commissioner Ligs, yes. Commissioner Taylor, yes. Deputy Director Marshon, yes. Director Sorrow, yes. If I may take pause,
sheriff, would you please come up and uh explain exactly the uh the shared service that'll be between the uh the county sheriff's department and the city of Milville. Good evening everyone. Mike Don from the sheriff's department. Uh briefly, I'll
discuss a little bit. I don't want to talk about the the tactics and stuff that we're going to use, but um basically we've entered into a shared service agreement with the city uh utilizing UE funding to reimburse the county uh for basically for proactive
patrols utilizing sheriff's officers and a supervisor. various times and days throughout the week. Uh we'll send over uh a fourman team, a fourman women team uh and a supervisor to do 4-hour blocks within the city and we will then be
reimbursed um utilizing their UAE funding. Very good. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. It's a good thing for all of us, especially being able to help out one of our cities. Resolution 2025-315, resolution authorizing renewal
application with the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services for the Substance Use Disorder Feed for Service Network Initiative for SFY 2026 through 2027. Do I have a motion and second? The motion. Second. Commissioner
Alino, yes. Commissioner Alrech, yes. Commissioner Romero, yes. Commissioner Less, yes. Commissioner Taylor, yes. Deputy Director Marshon, yes. Director Sorrow, yes. Resolution 2025-316. Resolution authorizing the award of a non-fair and open contract for voting machine programming, testing, and support services for primary 2025
election. Do I have a motion in second? Motion. Second. Commissioner Alino, yes. Commissioner Alre, yes. Commissioner Romero, yes. Commissioner Loess, yes. Commissioner Taylor, yes. Deputy Director Marshon, yes. Director Sar, yes. Resolution
2025-317, resolution authorizing assignment of grievance matters involving employees of the division of social services. Do I have a motion and second? So moved. Second. Commissioner Ostino, yes. Commissioner Alrech, yes. Commissioner Romero, yes. Commissioner Loads, yes. Commissioner
Taylor, yes. Deputy Director Marshon, yes. Director Sorrow, yes. Resolution 2025-318. Resolution rescending initial submission for request for proposals for providing life and accidental death and disability insurance for the county of Cumberland, RFP 2025-21, and authorizing the
readvertising for proposals. Do I have a motion and second? Motion. Second. Commissioner Alino, yes. Commissioner Alrech, yes. Commissioner Romero, yes. Commissioner Lo, yes. Commissioner Taylor, yes. Deputy Director Marshon, yes. Director Sorrow, yes. Do I have a motion and second to accept Treasur's
report as provided? Motion. Second. All in favor? Do I have a motion and second for authorizing payment of all salaries and wages? Second. All in favor? I. Do I have a motion and second to open public comment
on new business only? I'd like to make the motion, madam clerk, to open public comment for new business. Second. All in favor? I uh if there's anyone from the public that like to step forward to talk about any new business, the board, please
state your name and your location. Good evening. Uh Mike Donado again. I I apologize. I probably should have mentioned this during the department head thing, but I just wanted to give a shout out uh to Matt Gorson and the buildings and grounds. I was one of the services that I went to yesterday was
out at the county veterans and the place is beautiful. It's immaculate. There was I don't know 50 or 60 people out there. I know Art was with us. Um and just the job that they've done out there, the place is amazing. And so Matt, thank you to you and the buildings and grounds crew for that. We appreciate that. Yeah,
I do have to second that. I was there with the sheriff. It was beautiful. It was a beautiful ceremony and it was very well done. So, thank you. Okay. Is there anybody else that would like to step forward? Seeing none, motion to close. Second.
Second. All in favor? I. Commissioner reports. Okay. Commissioner reports. Commissioner Austin. All right. Some of the board meetings I attended was the agricultural board 4 got them to meet their new employee there and uh human
relations all doing great jobs and attended some of the parade yesterday in Mobile and Lawrence Township to honor our deceased soldiers. Very good. Anything else, sir? That's
it. Commission. Yeah. uh actually want to read some statistics from the department of division of social services that they pull what so people know what's being done or how much is volumes being done over there
um over um this is in the last this is in April just in April itself u public assistance over 1963 applications uh they reertified this is actually a big process they're going through public
assistance 23 2361. How many calls? 560 actually received 21 uh actually 567 calls. 21,513 in the foot traffic. U make sure
I say that. Number of visitors 2520. There was over 21,513 telephone calls. Uh there's there's 231 people that that work there. Uh right now there's uh uh 231 uh
budgeted positions, but 209 are working. So they're kind of short-handed. 22 vacancies. They're waiting. They have some people in mind. They will take more, but they're waiting for uh um approval from the state on some of these
so they can hire so we get up to snuff. It's a very busy busy department. A lot of a lot of people work there for the county. one of our biggest departments, if not the biggest department. So, um we also had the the human services had this
was a mental health awareness month and we had a big uh uh event on the 17th of May which uh Commissioner Lo and I attended, Commissioner Romero also attended. Um they had a walk and many uh
many uh boosts of information. People were walking in and out. um they had yoga, they had a walk which we participated in. The one thing I got out of that talking to the different booths they there's many many resources and I wish and I have one paper here but I I
like to make sure all the commissioners have this and anyone that wants it is a resource like a cheat sheet that provides information for so there's someone comes to you that you're dealing with you can direct them to give them numbers give hand this out to them so they could actually do the footwork
themselves. We provide a lot of services and just getting to those services and I thought it was a pretty good uh thing. We have a lot of dedicated people really working hard, a lot of volunteers. Thought the event went fantastic. Um and coming up as part of this is that we're
actually dedicating a new vehicle for uh recovering wheels. Uh it's going to be this uh on this Saturday the 30th. And uh so come out. It's in front of the library. They're going to dedicate this new vehicle. What the purpose of this vehicle is that they actually uh can go to go somewhere
with no pressure. If someone is there that's maybe homeless or have an addiction, they can walk on this bus and and actually be taken to some place to help them uh help them. And I um it's a big that's the first step literally a
first step for them that these people to do it. Uh so we provide that and you you'll see it different parts of the county park. you know what it's about and the cold weather. They serve coffee while that so people can get on there and get warm. But as a real we're it's
an outreach that we this commission um um is committed to and this is a new vehicle that will be on a lot of issues. So um so Reverend Cuy I don't know what time it's a new it's on Friday. It's on
Friday. Oh Friday the third. Oh Friday the 30th. Sorry. So confirmation. Yeah. Friday the 30th. Actually, the next two events are Saturday, the same u Saturday events coming up. U so keep that in mind.
Um there's a um which actually Morristown uh Morristown the river fund is actually it's a private u company has donated the 300,000 need to ground break and fix their bulkhead down in their uh their
little park they have uh you another ribbon cutting 11:00 on June 4th uh come out for it which is neat local company donated the way to do it. They did approach county and planning to help try to do this.
Um the company stepped forward and do it. I think it's great. So um I u commissioner mentioned the the 4 um they have several uh programs coming up. Uh we did introduce new
employees. Um but they have several programs coming up. a 4 uh expo program the couple county fair you'll see big displays from the 4 of all different facets of their operation uh and what they do and it's a it's all
volunteer mostly all volunteer except for the the three employees we then help keep it on track uh which we now have three employees which is uh which is good uh but this one thing I say about 4 it's a very their whole premise no
matter what they do their rabbit the rabbit club I don't know the names they say but the rabbit the horses public presentation is a key component to all their these kids go from being shy individuals to being very outspoken very
u uh well spoken as they move through this program and I've seen it when Commissioner Lo has been at these award ceremonies commissioner Austin's been that they actually you could see these kids when they were just there and now they're up top up up in the stage
actually accept the rewards and make it a a great statement. It's a it should be commended and it all starts with the county 4 program where they uh pull people. They do need volunteers and it's a and they people can start uh new programs, anything they'll cover
anything you need as far as whatever you want to start a club in if you're committed to it. Commissioner Public, I I know you got a lot of stuff with you. We have other commissioners that need to Okay. I don't I have time to cover my my
group. Don't I get a chance to do that? Well, I mean, you know, you have a time limit. So, you know, we're asking you to if you can just Well, I don't know, director. We get one time, one chance to say what what's going on and they depend and people ask us to spread the word a
little bit. So I have what three minutes, four minutes to do it. No, you're well over that. Oh, all right. Okay. I'm just asking you if you can Well, what do you want to do? Not not to tell anybody about any of this stuff. Just No. Just Okay. Well, I mean All right. We have other commissioners that
would like to talk. Listen, I'll stay here for two more hours and they have other things to say. So, we let Can I But I'm basically finished anyway, but Thank you. Okay, Commissioner Liz. Uh, thank you, Director Sorrow. Uh,
first I I do want to commend uh two groups. I want to commend our public works um office and also our sheriff uh for really going above and beyond. I'm not surprised that we need repairs on the arm mower because I have gotten reports back from numerous people who
when they they go online and they put report they put complaints in where uh foliage needs to be cut back or things that need to happen and the response time from public works is within 24 to 48 hours. So I I'm pretty proud of that and thank you very much Matt Morrison for for doing that and for really being
on top of it with your staff. Uh you and your staff are doing a tremendous job. So, so keep up the good work and and also to our sheriff's officer uh sheriff's office rather working with the city of Milville to solve a problem. I'm an educator in the city of Milville. I work at Milville High School. What's
happening is is heartbreaking. Almost every week we have another incident, a murder, a some sort of violent act. And Milville does need the help and they're having a difficult time getting more police officers. So, in the interim, uh, we're taking a model that other cities
in the state of New Jersey are using with their UEE funds, uh, which is particularly important to me because I remember being on the the front lines in the early 2000s when UE funds were legislated and came into be with the state of New Jersey. And I think this is
a really unique way to encourage um, growth in those areas. You're not going to get growth. You're not going to get businesses to come downtown if they don't feel safe. So, this is a really uh interesting out of the box uh idea and I thank you very much for being willing to work with the city of Milville and come
up with a way to to pro to protect our citizens. We appreciate that. Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again uh that when I first came on to the commissioner board, I went around this county and listened to a lot of people and the number one thing that they all said is that they wanted to see
economic development. They wanted to see better jobs coming into the area and you're not going to get better jobs unless you have that economic development. And so then we said, "Okay, well, how do how do we do that?" And you know, we start talking to businesses and say, "What's going to attract you? What's going to get you here?" And and
it might be surprising or not, but what they all say is that they want to have a good quality of life for their employees. They want their employees to have longevity. They want them to stay. They want them to be happy. That makes them more productive. And that means that they stay longer. So, their investment is returned and the things
that they look for are good education, they look for recreation, and they look for affordability. And I'm I'm really glad I see that we have the um the poster here for Gile Street Park um which is just about finished and we'll be opening up uh Friday, Saturday,
Saturday. Uh Saturday. So, I think that's fantastic. We have made finally, I'm going to call them, you know, the sexy glossy improvements to the county fairgrounds. We've been working a lot in the county fairgrounds, but a lot of it has been things that you can't see underground, electrical, things like
that. Uh, and so this we're finally into that next phase of of finishing off different things in the in the county fairgrounds, which is sort of going to be the spearhead for the rest of the recreation department in Cumberland County. And already we've attracted back different groups that haven't been here
hosting their events at the county fairgrounds. Uh we have the lemon lap pow which is coming back this year and and we're really excited to see that and then right a week after that we have the um the friends of India cut and color festival which I always attend and it's phenomenal. So I'm really glad to see
that that is happening that you know we're encouraging this multiculturalism we're encouraging recreation and all of this the proof is in the pudding that we have increased economic development because of the budget that was just announced tonight. Thank you so much Mr. Hart for your hard work on that. Uh
taxes are actually going down in Cumberland County. We're holding the line once again and even going a little bit beyond that, but reducing it by 5 cents. So I think that that's a pretty impressive thing. Uh so I I really appreciate all the hard work of the administration and everyone that has done what they needed to do to put their
nose to the grindstone and figure this out and and we've been able to do it because we've done the work leading up to now. So I I'm really excited about that. Also, congratulations to human services for the the new recovery on wheels bus. Um, and this county, this is
a major focus for this county. Why? Because it's a major epidemic in this county. Uh, addiction and mental health. It it reaches into every facet and especially now we're on really high awareness because we had Sebrook House unfortunately um has announced that they
are closing. So they have I think they had 90 days to um to stay open uh to continue treatment with the patients that they had and then they will be closing and that's 200 beds and overund and some employees that will be losing their jobs. So this county is going to stay vigilant to see what we can do
other out of the box ideas to bring that service back to the county because it's something that so many people here rely on. Um and lastly I just want to make an announcement to our seniors that we do have our senior symposium. That's what I like to call it. Thursday, May 29th at
2:00 at the Cumberland County Library. All of our seniors in Cumberland County are welcome to come and bring up any issues that they have on their mind that they say, "Hey, this is a concern. This is where we'd really like to see the Office on Aging focus their resources or finding a solution to. So, it's a really
great uh time for our Office on Aging to hear the direct concerns of the public and then bring it back to us uh so that we can make good governing decisions. Thank you. Commissioner Romero. Finally. All right.
Um, I don't have that much. Uh, I'd like to thank all the department heads for the fine job they do in our county, not just one or another that you you are very important to all of us and
and I thank you. And if you were not at Melissa's event, uh, mental health, you missed a good singer there. Melissa did a great job with her vocals there. But other than that, you know, everything is being mostly covered and
uh and I don't have anything else to do. Commissioner, uh most of the things I was I I wanted to touch on, they've already been addressed, but I would like to remind everybody about the early voting. It starts June 6th. Um, I did have the
opportunity to attend two very nice parades over the weekend. I have never been to the violent parade and I have to say that um the presentation that they did was was wonderful. I I guess it was the largest crowd they've ever had. So,
next year if you're looking for a parade, Memorial Day, that that is a great parade to go to. I also wanted to thank the department heads for holding the line and helping make this year's budget a success. And thank you, Chris, for all that you did to work on that.
Um, and I would like to see if the sheriff could announce the date for uh the fishing tournament is that's coming up in June 28th. June 28th. So keep that in mind. There there'll be a fishing tournament in Cedarville Lake. Correct. That's it.
Deputy Director Arford. Thank you. So, another busy month in the county. Uh, last week I did have a unique opportunity. I was able to take a tour of the 911 center and OEM and I spent a few hours over there. I had a chance first to sit down with some department
heads and had some nice conversations about exactly what they're doing, maybe some issues that they're facing and how the county can uh can help them better assist them. But what I found very impressive was when I got the chance to walk back into the 911 center itself and to actually watch these men and women in
action when the calls were coming in and how effectively and quickly and calmly that they were taken care of. It was very impressive to me. I I learned that they work very long hours over there. They work long shift hours and I was just very impressed. These are people
that keep us safe uh day in and day out and I just can't thank them enough. So I think they just need a little recognition and I I was really impressed by everything I saw over there. So that's all I have. Thank you. Uh real quick uh you know all of us attend many
meetings, a lot of meetings, meetings that aren't even mentioned uh during this this part of the uh meeting. Um, we had a an important meeting recently when we were told that uh our townships and
our cities are going to be without ambulance service or they're going to have problems or the the rates going to go up or all the different problems that are that are going to happen by the end of the year. So, we had a meeting and we
were very fortunate that Senator Ta was able to contact individuals from DCA to come down. I had never in all my years being either a freehold or a commissioner
knew the kind of grants that are possible with the DCA. I just never knew it. And it's amazing uh how much you learn. We were very fortunate that the that the senator brought them down. He brought a sheriff down from Mammoth
County uh which they have a program that they're putting together when it comes to ambulance service. And it was very uh very very a big learning experience for me. It really was. And why I'm bringing
this up is that the county is working diligently with the cities and the townships to try to make our county better. Now, this this is only the first of a number of other meetings uh that are we're going to have and Spirit was
there. Okay. Um the gentleman from DCA is supposed to be a consultant. So, what we're going to do is we gave our mayors a homework assignment. And one of the things that this other sheriff did from
Llama County was he eliminated the lines to the cities and to the townships, which is a novel, what do you call idea. And what they did was they were able to figure
out hot spots. doing that, you're not going to have an ambulance way over here when the hot spot is way over here. Doing knowing these hotspots, that's where you try to keep your ambulance in that area and what it'll do is
reduce the time getting to the emergency. So, I'm very excited about this. I think if we get our mayors to do that, we're going to have another meeting with the mayors. We're going to pick the uh the county apart and see where the hot spots are. Then after we
do that, we're going to call the gentleman from DCA, bring them down, and then use them as a consultant to determine how we can actually do some kind of routing system. So that was the first thing. The second thing is everybody knows my passion for
transit of Cland County Transit System. uh Susara who's in charge of cats. Uh she's been in contact with individuals up in North Jersey that Sussex County, I believe it is, isn't it? John Sussex. Um
and we're looking at software to be able to work with New Jersey Transit and we would like to see this working with other counties. So, uh, when we brought this up to the South Jersey Economic Development District,
uh, this kind of went through the the the room like wildfire. They were very, very interested in being able to coordinate all the counties together. What we're looking to do is that if a person had to go to Atlantic City for a job, they'll be able to get there. How
can we do that? Well, our cash pro, well, it'll be a transit system, we'll be able to take them to a certain area where they could be met by somebody from Cam County. and bring this through. As everybody knows, uh, South Jersey, uh, especially
K County, uh, New Jersey Transit does not know where we're at. And we have some buses in the area. But when you think about it, when this works, and I say when, when this works, we're going to be able to have people get to work.
People that don't have vehicles or people that don't have, we're going to be able to get them to work. And you're going to see employers and businesses see that Cumberland County is serious about this and getting their workforce to their jobs that they'll be willing to come here. So that'll help economic
development. So we'll be linking our service. We're going to try to do that with this new software. Okay. So uh doing that you're going to be able to link with actually in Spear. You're going to be able to link with other counties get the other counties involved. Okay. You're going to be able
to link with New Jersey Transit where they let's say a person wants to go to New York. All right. Well, they live out in the township. Well, we're able to pick them up, bring them to an area where New Jersey Transit services it, and then they can go to New York. That's
that's the whole thing. Sussex County actually has four different systems that they're working with to make this work. So, what we're doing is we're not going to try to recreate the wheel. We're going to bring them down here and and they have somewhat in the same situation
we have which is rural and urban. So that's what we're working with. That's all I have to say. Do we have um no need for executive session? No need for executive session. So there's a motion to do I have a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in
favor? I God bless America. 703. This has been a QVC television production in association with our partners and sponsors. QBC broadcasts on Comcast cable channel 22 and live streams its programming on Facebook and YouTube. All rights reserved by Quinn
Media and QBC. Programming that serves the South Jersey market.