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e e e com good evening everybody it's 6:03 p.m. and this is the call to order for for our work session of March 24th 2025 please stand and join me in the pledge
of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all thank you okay clerk can you please
read the role council member brusher here council member Cole here council member Harris here council member Patel council member ptil here council member po pointer present council member schmuel here okay Madam clerk could you read adequate notice adequate notice of
this meeting is required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by an onu notice sent to the home News Tribune Star Ledger Desi talk in news India times on November 18th 2024 and post main lobby missile complex on that same date okay thank you um I'm
going to ask for a moment of silence for two great losses we had from our Public Safety department this week first for the passing of retired Captain Andy Fresco and the passing of firefighter John Lum l lumenello Jr
please thank you uh can we have uh any any questions on the or comments on the review of the minutes none uh administrative agenda uh the appointment of the planning board member seaj J uh jasme as class 4 board member
term to expire December 31st 2028 any questions or comments okay seeing none proposed ordinances um any coun any Council comments or questions about the ordinances okay um
now we go to from the business administrator a through C any questions or comments Council yes there are two ordinances right yes okay thank you yes one was moved from a resolution to an
ordinance okay um all right back from 7 a b and c uh any questions or comments uh council president yes con just a quick one can I get a a list of um how many trophies we giveway the
trophies the C mhm yes yeah if I can just get a list of what we what we give out that would be it okay um I I didn't get a chance to get my questions over to
um the business administrator um over the weekend so okay all right so that's something that can be forthcoming okay all right anything else from 7 a b and c moving on to eight from the Department of Finance a through e we
uh council president yes councilman Pati on D and E like we can see the binders right on our table do we know uh again I'm surprised uh that we have the introduction without even looking at the document I know the adoption will be 2
weeks but do we know when is the he the public hearing of the budget council president if I may um typically once you introduce that's when we Supply the uh binders however we wanted to do it earlier uh the budget cannot be introduced in two weeks we
have to wait the 30 days so looks more like the first meeting in May okay okay um okay other comments or questions okay uh Department of planning and Engineering a through d
council president councilman uh an a could could I get a clarification exactly what this is about is this for inspections or what are we doing for [Music]
$317,000 councilman co uh councilman pointer you have uh you're referring to the gravity sewers so these are for the inspections inspection for the in assessment and then the the beginning part of it so inspection and assessment for both
why so expensive for inspections uh we're talking about all of the utility throughout the township okay all right thank you check me counc president yes business administrator is this part of the camera CT system it's part of the ACO the uh
consent uh order and part of this contract is it they're going to be scoping the lines with the camera or is that a separate that's part of it to do the scoping okay thank you okay councilman bresser yes can I get the um I was
trying to find uh phase one but I couldn't find it online could could I get phase one sent to me um tomorrow or so this phase two for a I'm sorry same subject uh for the source sure we'll get
that to you and then D um can I can I get the backup documents for now this is for like an affordable housing program and this would go against our
COA I would presume also correct yes can I get the criteria of this one right here um I I guess how much the the home was or the home would be and how much of a down payment they're putting down and
how much they make to qualify um I think it's a good program I like it I just don't understand um exactly how it could work with the with the cost of homes here in Edison um so that that's what
I'm trying to find out you know to make sure the mortgages and all that stuff can work out with that um because right what I was looking at was if we did this more often I mean that could take care of maybe 70 to
90 um of our requirement you know with the money that we have available to us sure uh did you get the backup with regards to the down payment and what that's what I was yeah that that's what I was looking for for like the down
payment um what the mortgage would be on it um what the maximum amount that you qualify for this because I don't know if it's 40,000 or you know 50 um sure um in the backup it does it
it does explain in terms of what you would qualify with the number of bedrooms and the pricing if that's not clear I can certainly provide you a I'm just looking to see like I'll tell you what happened it was discussion that happened where we were talking about our affordability we
and I said we do this once or twice a year with certain people I said the problem that I see with it is we give $100,000 um I think the cheapest house may you can find here is maybe 400,000 so if you give a $100,000 You' need a $300,000 mortgage and then how does
somebody qualify being that the dollar amount that they have to make it so small so the attorney can correct me if uh these are really already qualified as affordable housing units so the pricing is a bit different than what the market
value that's correct so these are already affordable housing yes these are already part of our plan correct okay can I get a list of those uh the homes that are part of our affordable housing sure we can provide the affordable housing plan absolutely yeah yeah I I
mean a lot of people have asked me about this I just don't know enough about it so I'd like to I'd like to know what what I can recommend for people to do absolutely counc thank you right anyone else for a through D council president yes Council M Quil I
I just want to thank this Council for supporting affordable housing I will share the contract with uh councilman Brer which I have uh this purchase price it seems to me is $239,000 to putting down $5,997 their mortgage is $227,900
5 and the balance of the purchase price is$ 5,997 so somewhere between this purchase price of course uh through the ba she mentioned these houses are already affordable homes which are discounted and not sold at market value um there's
a combination of of a down payment that they would have to give and I imagine our support is what's on this agenda um which is remarkable so great opportunity I will share this my colleague and I
have a copy if anybody needs it thank you thank you councilman Coyle anyone else okay on to 10 from the Department of Public Works a through C going here questions comments a through C okay all right 11 from Department of
Water and Sewer A and B okay uh 12 Department of recreation a okay 13 chief of fire a no no I'm I listen I'm glad to see that this is back on here because I know we pulled off um the repair um in the
past and I didn't get a reason why I guess maybe the numbers just didn't work out so it's good to see that you know we're getting somebody on contract to take care of this thank you um 14 we've added B which is uh we're adding a transfer of a liquor license to a hotel
so A and B any questions about uh from number 14 Township Clerk okay um all right we move on to oral petitions and remarks Lois Lois tar 52 Rita Road Edison New
Jersey have the floor you do um on behalf of the cultural art commission I would like to let everyone know that we've now appropriated two walls down there for short-term exhibits we like to invite any cultural nonprofit cultural
or artistic group to participate in a exhibition of their work or their culture to please if they're interested they can contact the mayor's office Mary mcfoy and get an application or you can get one online hope we get some more people to we can spread the exhibits out
and make them more valuable to the whole community thank you Lois I may ask are the two walls in the gallery or are they outside in the gallery in the gallery okay thank you very much they're vacant right now we cleaned them off so that they're vacant right now hoping that we were going to have an exhibit for April but
seems to might have fallen through I'm not sure about the uh you know you know the problem with that yes yes so but now the Wall's there so people can see there's a wall to fill okay very good thank you anyone else yes sir
Thomas Ley Netherwood Circle uh a few years ago the the Town Council passed an ordinance uh I guess making it illegal to nail signs up to uh what's called telephone polls
light light poles and they're starting to come around again uh just wonder who's respons possibility it is to you know trct them call the call the person that's responsible for it and to take
them down and orine them so we we need to start doing some you know taking stuff like that as well as uh a couple months ago you passed an ordinance for I guess lights on houses on the second floor there there's like a ton of
violations out there who enforces these ordinances so that they wind up going and getting and the and the people are go and uh are held accountable for it you secondly Christmas lights are only meant
to be put up or holiday lights are only meant to be put up as temporary installations per the national electrical code they're only allowed to be up 90 days they're not made with the same let's call rigers of a permanent
installation but you see you see these all through the town who monitors that who controls that the appears that I'm going to get sarcastic here the only thing that the only ordinance that you monitor is the four minutes that's the
one where you hold everybody's feet to the fire sorry for the sarcasm but as you as you walk as you drive around the town you see a lot me as as a jmo citizen sees all these what's call violations but they're ever addressed
you need to take the town needs to if they want a town want to make this town a perfect town they need to start enforcing the laws and the ordinance on the books second secondly ordinance 9A for that
$37,000 for inspection and assessment if you say Okay standard engineering rate might be $250 an hour on average for that that's like over 1,200 hours for an individual to and write a report seems a little seems
a little excessive has that been bit out is that just given to a a a firm that the town has you know working relationship with we going to get what we asked for so we don't wind up with
the same issues that we have with the 10 million or the $5 million overrun with that Sports Complex on on by by the Edison Jets I'm just two little questions but we need to enforce ordinances and we need to hold contractor's feet to the fire thank you
Tom may ask the signs that you're talking about that are on puls we talking about political signs or something else no power washing if you uh if you take a drive up Churchill Road and and you'll see you'll see them they're mounted like8 feet in the air so they had to go and put them up they had
to put them up with a ladder or something like that the whole thing was I think I think the original ordinance was to prevent uh let's say uh the telephone workers from having to you know worry about getting stuck with
nails as they were climbing up the up the telephone poles but I mean it's really it's really kind of you know chintzy and cheap when you start seeing these signs attached to all these poles around the town okay thank you um the U
all right so um with regard to he was talking about the bright Lighting on the second floors that there are the ordinances against that um also asking about 9A about was this bid out and of course this was the second this is the second phase of this contract that we
have with them but Sonia uh can you provide anything more for this gentleman no okay all right thank you yes Joyce Joyce ship Edison New Jersey was an ordinance you passed that would be
$100 for each apartment about inspection correct yeah yes yes because um person that that lives in the apartment asked me how would that affect them I think you know well well they
have to swallow the cost because you know they're seniors and they don't have that much money so they're wondering how much of that that they GNA have to swallow because if you give it to the landlord and you put all that money on them it comes back to them and as he was talking about
signs we have all these like Signs like popping up all over in the neighborhood burglar go to jail they beware of crime whatever and like he said nothing is being monitored but speech in this town that's the only thing that's being monitored nothing else is being
monitored so can you give me an answer to tell the the the older woman about the uh $100 cost that she'll probably have to absorb because of this ordinance that you guys passed yes okay we I'm
going to turn this over to our attorney sure uh thank you council president yes the uh the council adopted an ordinance to establish a uh fee on landlords uh for every unit $100 um that there was a lawsuit filed
against the township it is currently in litigation uh so we have not imposed uh the $100 fine um I will be updating the governing body in closed session tonight on the status of the litigation but to date there there has been no
implementation of that ordinance um and probably won't be the case until the cases won we will not impose it until the case is resolved okay thank you councelor um next Christo sorry
sir am I recognized you are thank you very much for recognizing me I came in today I saw this post it up I'm going to save it I'm going to send it to the Fire Organization there is no legal
statute um it's a request I can deny your request I only have to follow the law but I'm not going to waste my time with this as many of you know I haven't been
allowed at many many Council meetings recently City Hall the police station denied services for my Township and for what reason through the chair the captain Revel not attacking
you but for what reason um the business administrator filed a frivolous report against me a Vasa order aasa order is a shield for sexual assault victims and instead Edison
Township used it as a sword to go after a Critic of the government shame on all of you I beat that vas order I have a copy of it here if you would like to make a copy of it absolutely
disgusting I did not meet any of the criteria for Vasa order yet for whatever reason the ba marked down lewdness sexual assault uh uh assault are you kidding me stalking and cyber
harassment and my only interaction ctions with her are at this council meeting through the chair of councilman pressure I remember you making those statements of the attorney spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to find ways to keep me from coming to these Council meetings could that have been
one of their tactics you can answer that at the end um but that's what it seems like to me absolutely disgusting you know it's the holy season we're in the Holy season now so I'm going to stay as respectful as POS
possible um four of you banned the American flag yes Joe Co you banned the American flag you can call it prop you can call it this when someone was waving the American flag you had zero Integrity to
stop what was going on to stop it and have the police leave them alone you banned the American flag you'll bully anybody up here but you cannot debate me about the American flag because you know I know the truth how it started with
anonymous mask and threw the chair to Captain Rell Captain Revel you're most to blame for Ev than anybody not just councilman n Patel am I lying that for weeks I called
you before every council meeting asking the police to teach them the law and to ask them to stop and I just wanted to do my constitutionally protected activity and wear a ask all you guys had to do is the right
thing stop them from violating my rights and the national flag ban would have never happened it would have never made international news so whose fault is it is it councilman Nish Patel's fault is it Joe Coy the for uh John pointer um
ASF schall's fault is it the chief of police's fault or is it your fault that I called you am I lying to you Captain Rau that I called you several times asking for for help from the Edison police department you guys could have prevented
it you guys could have prevented it and the best for order is in retaliation to keep me from coming to the meetings I'm filing a Tor thank you sir your time is up I'm going to file a torque claim and I'm going to Su time is up I I can have two seconds asking asking you to sit
down I understand you can give me 2 seconds like we give other people five seconds asking is the down okay I see how I'm treated differ okay uh yes sir uh I IML rador with sativ across.org or a 501c3 New Jersey fighting for
disability rights fighting for cannabis patient's rights and I'm here still because of the issue from a couple of months ago where they made people go up this side of the mountain here the disabled people lady with one leg disabled
vet and I got a problem this week because I'm out here advocating for people in wheelchairs and last meeting we had someone in the wheelchair say something really horrible using racism to fight ableism is not a thing and the things that were said by by that man in
the wheelchair really disgusted me and I I I don't even know what to say because I I I I don't use that stuff those words and I don't feel that way I don't think that way and for someone to think that way who's already suffering in a wheelchair you should have some more
compassion and empathy for other people and it really upset me to hear those words spoken in this in this room disparaging a an entire group of people I'm apologizing for on behalf of him and I'm still going to advocate for that guy but real that was pretty
ignorant to say that crap if you want to talk about genal Joi talk about him losing his erection NE of his election next well both next next uh season because that's going to happen that's what I'm talking about that's
that's yeah that's the yeah that's the angle until he show until he changes it there you go I love political theater this is great this is great stuff so yeah I'm here for the the wheelchair
access it was really disgusting to see that and I'm still fighting for that I don't have my extra wheelchair today but maybe Evelyn will L you her wheelchair if you want to go up that side of the mountain the other thing I want to talk about is bamboo I really love bamboo I think it's a a great thing it it cleans
our air it gives us oxygen to breathe it cleans the soil we we live in New Jersey we live in a concrete jungle we live in with chromium filled soil we need more bamboo we need more hemp too but we need more bamboo you already have an ordinance that talks about
invasive species but for some reason you want to be I don't know if it's a thing but it's racism towards bamboo if there's a thing for it or somebody who hates certain plants maybe there's a thing for that word that I don't know but to to pick apart bamboo is is shameful because bamboo is
very very good for the environment very good for you they were here first you built your houses on top of what God put here you put concrete on top of what God put here they were here first we need bamboo we need more
plants I can't breathe I can't [Music] breathe you don't you music I'm G let him use it four minutes if he dies he I yield one
second thank you sir yes sir nobody asked him if he was all right I'm okay why am I chasing the camera system tonight to have my sign shown because
the camera angles are now back to the way they were you guys just don't get it you keep treating symptoms and ignore the disease you ignore the disease I can't chase the camera I can't chase the camera the only one who seemed
to thoroughly understand this issue since I've ever got to Edison was councilman Richard Brasher I don't understand why you guys don't realize what what you're doing is just creating more problems changing the camera sisters systems back making me
Chase the camera system so I could have my sign here that says the ba is full of BS call in mult multiple lies lying about compliance over here saying that a survey was done what survey that now the Township's position
is that that the law firm after the fact doctored up some some compliance by saying that the building was ADA Compliant because it was built before the Ada law this is acceptable if I say flag ban again if I if I point out the fact that
Joe Coy will ban the flag is he G to cut me off for the fourth time I've never seen someone so triggered by the word flag ban when you have one one time it's an incident two times it's a repeat and behavioral pattern three times constitutes chronic chaotic disturbances which is the same
term that this Administration gave out to the media to talk about our activism that we were devolving turning into chronic chaotic disturbances which is what councilman Coyle I'm not even GNA call him councilman Coyle Joe that's what Joe did so triggered and then the
video within 24 hours has 100,000 hits all over media platforms but we're not going to correct the problem I mean whether you're good for public service or you're just a politician that's one debate but does this man even have the self-control to remain composed
I mean this is this is absolutely wild you know I go on someone like councilman Brasher's Facebook page I see him with posts trying to fix issues trying to correct issues that's what's good for public service there's public service and there's politicians and politicians are no good for the taxpayers they're no
good for nothing but trying to advance their own political Financial agenda I had multiple people reach out to me within the last two weeks telling me about councilman Coy telling me about Joe being a bully and he's been this way ever since high school so I'm gathering content and I'm going to write a truth
piece I wanted to hear more about these bulling instances but everybody seemed to want to talk about Jade Dynasty Restaurant all these other issues uh but I learned a lot without even asking because there's not a lot of people who support that kind of behavior you know
and for a councilman repeatedly you got by name Joe the township got my name in the form of a Tor claim so you got it and it's got to do with respect actually it does you don't have the decency to respect my rights you feel challenged
when I come up here and remain anonymous you take it that personal that is a gigantic issue you can't respect my rights so yeah it is about respect you you are incapable of respecting my rights to come up here and
remain anonymous you know what that's protected by Joe the First Amendment of the United States Constitution the New Jersey state constitution the op Supreme Court rulings back over and over heavily protected and you think it's a thing about me not giving respect
why not try to correct the issue same four people that banned the flag are the same four people that took away our minutes who didn't want to give it back so keep treating the symptoms and ignore the disease how great has that been working
out for you and did Richard Brasher ever get an answer by the Constitutional lawyer because this is this is absurd at this point thank you [Music] sir next anyone else any answer for
that no okay yes sir all right um Vinnie South Jersey news uh does the lawyer run the meeting or do you run the meeting Margo Harris because it seems like he likes to tell people to do things before he
bounces back at you um Joe we missed you last last time we were all we were all waiting for you but uh I got something more important first so I can actually play this now have to be can you suspend his time would you like my husband to come here
and talk to you um I'm sorry I'm sorry sir but this this case has been adjudicated I'm going to ask you to stop I'm going to ask you to stop litigation is over litigation is over but but at this point this is this is harassment this is a harassment something that
happened in these Chambers this is this is my judgment sir this is the Judgment I'm making and I'm going to ask you I'm going to ask you if you if you don't stop I'll ask you to sit down you'll forfeit your time all right it's not harassing your time your time is forfeited you you need
to sit down now it's my time you need to I'm telling you you need to sit down you need to sit down Li this is this is yes it's limited no no let me talk let me talk
it's I'm asking you him to sit down that is correct so you're you wanted me to removed I'm asking you to sit down I played the meeting here in the rooming meeting this is you're right it is limited public for it what this is the
time and the place and the manner sir sir I'm asking you to sit down no one is taking you out but my fored for playing something that happened in these chambers that is my judgment that is they're playing with the cameras over here that is my judgment sir and if you do not sit down I'm going to ask you
to leave am I'm going to ask if you don't sit down I'm going to ask you to leave then ask me to leave because I'm not sitting down it's my time I'm ask you to leave then I'd prefer you do that on your own and not with the with the police but uh this is this is the order
of I want to I want to be clear if if I don't leave the if I don't leave the if I don't leave the room will I be arrested I'm asking you sit down that that that's all now if I don't leave will I be arrested but will I be arrested
but will I be arrested will I be arrested will I arrested I'll yes they just forfeited his time that's not okay no no he doesn't he doesn't have his time for right now we don't have a meeting here
his time is forfeited and and he is to sit down if he does not sit down he needs to leave the room the the police would then have scored him out we have business to conduct here and I'm not going to let this get in the way of the business to be conducted here I'm
asking you I'm asking you sir to leave and it is my purview to make that consideration yes um is anyone else want is anyone else want to speak wow come back in all right can we have a motion to close the public portion
motion to close a second second okay all right um we now move to council committee reports I will start with you councilman Brer I I have known it this time okay councilman
Coy thank you councilman Harris uh I just first wanted to thank you for the Moment of Silence of two great Public Safety officials one retired Andy Fresco Captain Andy Fresco and firef John luminello thank you um thank you for that I also want to mention that the
public safety uh committee is asking uh for a meeting next week and we'll report back to the Council on what we've discussed um I also want to refer to uh improvements that have been happening for Public Safety and I'd like to refer
to Captain Revel to make comment on Public Safety okay I'm sorry is is Captain yes yes thank you Council M coil So lately I've been getting a lot
of questions about some of the signage that's been around town talking about increases in crime in Edison and there's a concern that some of the council members have and we've been getting some calls from concerned residents about it one of the things that I wanted to point
out is that the UCR which is the uniform crime statistics that people are talking about and that have been reported in different Publications are going back to 2021 2022 and 2023 as a result people are trying to
make the intimation that these statistics are relevant today when in fact crime is trending down today we have multiple UCR reports that are out from two years ago the 2023 Uniform
Crime Report statistics are an outlier co9 impacted uniform crime statistics in the way that hasn't been seen before on the national level where we've seen um 20 20 in March the the covid pandemic
occurred from 21 and 22 we had a lot of people staying at home with um all the restrictions that were placed on people not going to work and a lot of the statistics were skewed in 23 when we came back out of the pandemic we had
reported burglaries that weren't being reported before because people were home and they weren't being reported and other statistics that were skewed as a result of that one of the things that's happening now because of the limitations with the ustr statistics which are based on preliminary statistics that aren't
followed up on because they're entered and don't give the opportunity for investigation a lot of these statistics are not accurate and we as a local agency develop statistics inhouse that are different from those uniform crime
statistics the UCR statistics cover 18,000 different agencies across the country and are used by the FBI to to evaluate statistics on a national basis a more accurate accounting of that is done at a local level which is what we're doing
and I can inform you through the work I've spoken to Captain Hammer and detective Bureau who has provided me with preliminary s statistics for 2025 that indicate that crime is down in those categories if that answers your question
sir thank you do you um can you provide some knowledge of the home invasions or the car thefts and the decrease in car thefts yes I can so just to give you a little background information back prior to the pandemic
the main driver of burglaries in Edison Township was daytime burglaries and they were fueled by people being at work and houses being empty during the pandemic we put people back into house people were in houses restricted those crimes were not as accessible to the criminals
trying to perpetrate them and then in 2023 we saw a rise in burglaries as a result of that but we also saw a new crime Trend criminals have started to utilize the hours when people are sleeping and the trend has been um based
off of people trying to obtain and steal high-end automobiles as a result of that we are in the UCR World which is the where it's reported out of our record Bureau the highest crime is reported um from the incident so if you do an
incident report that involves a theft of a high-end motor vehicle and the house was burglarized to gain access to the key fob to start that car then those crime statistics will indicate that a burglary occurred and won't account for the theft of the automobile so that's
why we see a decrease in automobile thefts and an increase in um burglaries to to residences so they have a new system that we're online and in Q for to replace the UCR statistical uh reporting
it's called ners and that will be more selective and include information um that will parse out the details of these incidents and provide more specific details about what's driving that crime statistic thank you Captain I will refer
to our meeting we'll have in the next week and sit with our committee to discuss further I appreciate your time thank you if I may ask Captain revel Do we have any comparative statistics for surrounding towns like Woodbridge that have similar similar populations uh with
regard to these home invasions um absolutely and and those statistics and all statistics one of the things that I would like to mention about this is that um through the chief of police and and mayor josi they were one of the
um leaders in the state of New Jersey in in um lobbying the legislature to change the laws based on these home invasions and this was done Statewide and chief Brian has had had many conversations with uh police Chiefs from around the
state about what we're doing in Edison because we have seen a great decrease in these home invasion burglaries and these home invasion burglaries are basically um I know I said this at the last council meeting I was at they're transitory and random meaning that you
have Crews of people coming from out of town I don't believe that in the course of these activities they even know that they're in Edison and we've seen similar cases in matachin and Woodbridge on the same evenings that these crimes are also occurring in Edison and as a result of
that we've coordinated with these other agencies in a in in an effort to collaborate with them to try to get these rates down and to make a dent um in this but it's it's something that is a constant work in progress the
legislation although it's passed we haven't se the adjudication of one of these cases as of yet so once that happens you also see that as a deterrent where less people will be committing these crimes because of the penalties that are involved so it's um not just Edison not just Woodbridge not matachin
it's Statewide and it's a it's a it's a major problem in the state of New Jersey so if we were to put us on a graph with Woodbridge for example would there be would they be kind of parallel in terms of the covid years versus uh since the
covid years I have not personally done the analysis of that but I I am we we can get that to you we can we can look into that and get that to you with a side by-side analysis that would be very useful to see thank absolutely thank you any you're welcome any other questions counc president I also want to report on
public safety on uh Public Works sure uh we are going to plan a committee meeting which uh council member Patel is on and council member porner in public works but I've had some discussions offline with our um Public Works team and we're
looking at a calendar of Maintenance um for this spring and summer throughout the town which includes street sweeping and potholes I also had discussion with zoning uh one of the members of the public came up here and discuss signs and why they're being posted on polls um
one of the reasons why we have not caught up with that because we recently had a big retirement of Carl Zimmerman I think Carl who's in the back room knows he took down more signs in anybody in this town and that was his job in zoning uh although not a an official Zone own
in officer or zoning inspector he certainly acted on behalf of the town and made that happen I hope that they share his work with someone else to replace what he did so we are aware of it I can tell you that I think back in 1990 Carl zimman and I were the first to
take down signs and we offered a dollar for every sign that was taken down uh which created a job for Carl zimman in that department from part-time than eventually full-time but since it's retirement I don't think they have someone that's going out there like he did climbing poles and taking them down
uh so but I can promise you through the administration the council president we'll make sure we get on it if anyone from the public can report where they see a sign and give a specifics I'm quite sure they will get on that no different than any zoning issue we need
to know the location uh and the address uh or specifics thank you council president thank you sir you're you're out of order sir you are out of order thank you thank you uh moving on to councilman Patel I just wanted
to we're going to have a meeting for the Steven wil Stevens will Parkway uh bike path with the engineering department on Wednesday and I will report back uh and I'll have a little more to say during the discussion okay thank you councilman
Pao any Council any committee none at this time okay councilman Schmo okay councilman Council vice president pointer no at this time Council okay uh for myself just uh we had the cultural arts commission meeting on March 11th and um talking about women's health
month but but History Month I'm sorry but uh we unfortunately we did not get the materials that we needed from the administration in order to do an exhibit for women's history month and we're almost done and that's really a missed
opportunity um we are so the jazz festival which is not going to be affiliated with middle sex County but the Edison jazz festival is going to be at least tended Le scheduled for n excuse me sir thank you um for 96 on Senate at
the senior center um excuse me I can hear you and it's disruptive I'm asking you to I'm asking you to stop um we are looking to do a raffle fundraiser and we're getting looking to get a a a license for that um we are looking to
get vendors for this particular for this particular event uh still looking to paint the P the PS utility boxes and we just need to work with them and see if we can get them painted on some of the major roads
as well as murals next session is April 8th that is my committee report we move on to point of light anyone have Points of Light um I attended the um uh the event that was held at the JCC last I believe
it was Thursday and this was the this was the funds that were benefiting the Hands of Hope um so it was the volleyball game that was between the police and fire and um the loser of the police and fire which was fire played
the JP Stevens team and I don't know if it was actually JP Stevens if they were staff or if they were if they were students um JP St Stevens uh defeated the fire department and then they defeated the police department so
congratulations to JP Stevens and the best thing is that we raised $750 for Hands of Hope which Charlie Charlie Tamaro does such a great job with that and while I'm speaking of Charlie Tamaro I want to congratulate him and the family because his son got married
yesterday um and uh I know Eid starts next Monday I believe so I want to wish a happy and blessed Eid um Monday April 7th team Edison will be hosting their annual Police Unity Tour at The Brownstone from 5:00 to 9M and again the
proceeds to that there are going to be Raffles with that proceeds go towards the unity Tour um important changes in the April meeting schedule Wednesday April 16 is now going to be a combined meeting uh Monday April 28th is the work
session after that and Wednesday April 30th is the regular meeting uh the changes will both be advertised and posted on the website so let me move on to discussion items um Council mm any
anything uh that you wanted to address no we already addressed it okay earlier thank you Council P very good uh councilman pel thank you C president uh let me start with the old items here the first one I did receive the traffic reports we're good uh Sage architect we have in
the close session we'll discuss that the status on the rider DPW tree planting s is there any schedule on that the fencing was done but I was told that the trees will be planted that will shield the the DPW garage and the or DPW
area and the because they can see the sure uh so usually planting season is upon us so that would be uh forthcoming but I will double check you just looking for tree planting yes okay that's how it was planned but again I don't know the
schedule so if you can help me on that the next one is Clara Bart Avenue in roads you know we we discussed that I was given the number in terms of the the dollar amount that P is going to reimburse us but I was not happy the reason I don't think that's good enough
amount that uh PC is committing so if you can find out from engineering what is the linear mileage of all the roads that were dug by PS and then we can do the costing to see if it is a fair uh thing for Township to accept that
money the next one is a long-standing flooding remediation I don't know where it stands you know we keep talking every budget season saying hey we have funded some architectural or engineering study all that things are sorted out but if you can please find out if there is any
plan to address or mitigate any of those areas or all of those areas and I'll continue to keep the old items until there are there are clear answers or uh there are resolved status of various projects yes you know we did
discuss last meeting uh but if there is any update on the to Center anything moved or it is still stand still um right now they're in the final phases the water testing it's been the the the numbers have been promising and they've
been in the positive so we're hoping that um we'll start shortly the construction portion of it thank you how about the jet field is that on schedule or are we anticipating any additional change
orders or is anything happening there you're referring to the sports building Sports building there may be some forthcoming uh minimal uh change change orders okay and the but are we still on the schedule or that's we are uh nothing
has changed from the last change order believe November okay and the Stelton Community Center where do we stand at this time um so the remediation um reports are being worked on there's I they're working on a draft
I did I was able to to view that once that's done then we're going to um start implementation okay thank you let's move on to the new items New Brun week ston plan field what's happening on that intersection one I know for sure and thank you for
providing that information some 60,000 ft warehouse but now on the the left hand side just across the the shopping complex it's fenced trees are cut down is there any project that
coming up there are you referring to the corner over on 27 in plane field yes no not 27 in front of Kilmer Cricket field just across okay I will follow up for you on that thank you because that's
that intersection is really dangerous and especially warehouse and if something is coming up there uh Co obligation I think you know we missed the date and I know that we were planning some June timeline to come up with some proposal uh the reason I put
this one as a discussion item is I did attend the Housing Authority meeting and there was a discussion about possibly getting a credit of some 72 units for the co obligation so we just want to understand where we stand as of today and what's our plan
forward the next one is water sewer infrastructure this I will table it because I still need to see the budget if there are any provisions uh for uh any improvements and then I will have this question asked next council meeting Road opening around gr Avenue there are
a bunch of roads in inner roads I know where your chief of staffs also lives in that neighborhood entire neighborhood has been it I don't know it's utility company or water company I don't know who re those are apart uh believe it was
PNG I may have been p uh again this is the classic the way they did in on Bo and the inner roads in Clon section exactly same thing is happening and some of those roads were recently repaved uh I don't know if you really
taking enough money in our escrow so that if they do the same thing what they are doing on mamb Avenue that will it will help us can you please find out again I'm very interested to understand the linear mileage this is not going to fit now this it's going to be mileage
there are several roads uh you know they were dug up if you can please find out that that will help thank you council president thank you sir um councilman Patel oh I'm sorry I'm going to move on to councilman Coy for discussion items
thank you council president um again I will bring up at every meeting the importance of Economic Development I'm asking the administration and the mayor and this Council to continue to support the need for economic development in that position uh We've waited over a year to fulfill that position it is a
very challenging position to find someone with all the skill set to recruit follow up and woo people into Edison for business uh today I still think we have I think shoper Stop and Shop is still vacant or
does anybody on this Council have heard that Stop and Shop has been filled with it a tenant uh having an empty grocery store is not good for Edison I do believe that if we took some of the money from Economic Development and spent it in marketing it's truly truly a great
opportunity I had the chance to visit a beautiful restaurant that chose to move to the south end of Edison uh off Oldbridge Avenue their company is called uh curo qer o they opened up a Peruvian restaurant I would guess that they spent
750,000 Plus on the buildout of that location and that is a true uh plus uh for that part of Edison and if we continue to recruit others like them we can make a huge change in that area but
again it comes with marketing so I again to the council president to to the administration we need to spend money on marketing and I'll say it time and time again how important it is um and I'm going to say it at every meeting and I hope to fill vacancies that are
throughout the town um in retail stores and to see who wants to come to Edison as most of you know I've mentioned before services are wonderful to have but Services don't make up and downtown you really need specialty stores that that bring the charm into Ed
Edison and throughout the town we've been fortunate some parts of town grow different than others and some parts of other towns grow faster depending on rent roles and different uh strategic mathematics or Geographic territories or
it's just rent the cost of rent and how do we get there um changing subjects also I'm asking the council president to the administration that we have a plan to spend the money we have on opioids mental health and suicide and I hope
that by June we have a plan that we're spending that money continuously with a good flow I've mentioned before each council member here has the choice to choose what they want to speak about but it's my belief that if we had a top 10 of what to speak about opioids and
mental health and suicide is definitely one to talk about in the top 10 uh I listened to residents here time and time again I say walk through this town and they they know what oids has done to their family it has affected them whether they're a sibling a parent um or
a member of the community or a close friend so it's truly important we spend that money council president thank you very much thank you and I did skip over councilman Patel over to you thank you council president um I do want to piggy back off of what councilman Cole said I
do agree with him that we do need an economic developer uh just for example Woodbridge got tra Trader Joe's coming into that uh what used to be Hobby Lobby or Beth Bath and Beyond and that is something that we could have used in one
of our uh one of our route one areas were shutting down and it would have been good if we had someone pushing or asking businesses to come to our town and so I think if we had someone that would help um and now the other thing I
wanted to talk about was the issue with the sports project uh Sports building uh where we ran over and one of the issues we had was we have a central point person that saw the bu project go from beginning to the end and
that is something I'm working with the engineering to come up with a checklist they did provide a rough draft today uh but I am not completely satisfied with the answer because I do want one person to be responsible from the beginning to the end uh for any project that goes
over $5 million uh so that way we can have some sort of uh responsibility as to who's responsible for that particular issue if there's any issues that arise uh another thing I wanted to talk about was bip path open space we discussed the
Steven will Parkway as a possibility uh for a future bike path that could connect uh the apartment or the town homes to the library uh on North Ranch uh so that is something I'm working with uh engineering again will be meeting on
Wednesday at noon to discuss that and I'm hoping that we have some productive conversation uh thank you council president thank you um councilman Brasher on you fire fire alarm are we nearing completion on that uh we're a couple weeks out all
right thank you um Park improvements I noticed that we got the um we call it the Illuminator it said that we've done improvements to all the parks uh I believe that statement is misleading um it makes you sound like
we're doing something in the Parks uh for this entire Administration I was told that palansky Park uh was going to get the basketball courts in fact that money was allocated in the prior Administration um pansky Park still has
the one crooked basketball hoop with the old RI net in the parking lot so the children get to play basketball on the one who in the parking lot but the big Improvement that the administration did do and this is what I see throughout
most of the town is we got a new sign um so I believe that's misleading you know when we say we're doing something and we're making improvements putting the sign up in my mind is not an improvement um so I'd like to see when
we put stuff out if it could be a little bit more factual U maybe in that illumin Ator but I'm going to come back to the Illuminator later on uh crime it was good to hear that the uh town is looking
at the crime it was good to see that we spent more money this year on our police to put them out there um I guess overtime or whatever to take care of it I do see that they you know in the report I guess that the statistics are
going to be changing um so whatever information we get now we can't compare to the other data that was out there that the other data that was compared year-over-year was the same type of data and and that's unfortunate because then we don't really know if there really is an improvement
when you change how you're compiling your statistics um unless you keep that consistent year-over-year so that is the one shame but it's good to see that the administration now is taking crime serious um they're acknowledging that it
is up and it is important um it's just unfortunate that we have more of these and I call them home invasions burglaries it doesn't matter when when your private space is actually broken into um that's worse than a car even if they're steal
in the cars I'm going to go down to the road openings on Grove or Mount Pleasant I believe I received an email I think um engineering wasn't sure what I was talking about
um when I was talking about the road openings and how we're going to handle these do you need me to go around on on let's say those two streets and give you the address for each one of these areas I mean I'll do I'll do it for you know
like a mile but it's the same issue I have throughout the town about these uh Street openings is your issue similar to councilman patil's well councilman ptil is talking about the gas lines um of which I also had a concern I was down on Heath coat the other day and brand new
road paved right and it's ripped up again by psng um so half the road now I'm assuming we're going to end up patching them or not patching them but paving at least half the street but throughout the rest of the town I'm
driving and they're approximately 8 in by 4 feet long there might be 200 ft in between them and they hop Skip Along on the roadways um those are the ones we have brand new roads that are paved that
were continuous and then we have these new openings and they weren sealed the way that um when councilman deal was on the dis with me that we came up with the plan for for Paving those where we were going to seal the edges even um but I
was told that right when we opened up the roads they have to pave the whole area so do you want me to go and no do you know what I'm talking about I know what you're talking about but uh I'll follow up to see exactly what where where the utility is at this point right
I just don't know is that what they're leaving are they going to repave the road um you know what's what's going on with those having it been newly paved I think there's like a moratorium on it so I'll follow up either two or three years um on the repairs especially if it's a
newly paved road so I'll I'll follow up to see exactly where we are with pscg um well know it's psng it could be the cable I believe it is psng that that's in there doing the repairs so um uh and if all else fails I'll I'll contact our
regional representative to make sure that they are paying close attention to a newly paved Road and that we expect it to be fully restored okay um right they were in clar Barton too the affordable housing I kind of spoke
to I'm going to grab Joe before I leave to um because I I'm at a loss with some of the numbers there um the Ada Stelton
um Stelton was a bit of an eyeopener um and I'd like to just say that we originally approved a $3 million Bond and what happened was I um I wanted to know what it was so I went out to the
site I met um uh Mr deal and and Ray and we walked through what we were going to get for $3 million and what I was told was we were going to get new roof we're going to get new windows and heating and air conditioning and I asked about the
flooring and the walls and they said the flooring had asbest and we were going to encapsulate it and then put a a new floor over the top of it and the walls we were going to um paint you know and Spruce the place up so that we could open it and reuse
it then when we got that Grant and this was wrong on my part I guess I mean I guess have start reading things a little bit more thoroughly because I thought the 3 million for the grant was to replace the $3 million that we were you know borrowing I didn't realize we were going to do $6
million and then the mayor made the statement of it being $9 million um so my concern is why couldn't we open it to the public for the original 3 million right and then what's the plan now that
we're going to spend an additional $6 million and what am I getting that's different between the two and if if if the entire Council can get a um a copy of what that plan would be I will tell you from experience when
it comes to remediation of a building of that magnitude you're looking at the millions just in remediation I can't tell you exactly what that number looks like I hope we're close to it um we're going to take a look at this draft report and hopefully get something to
you the next month or so because that right there will tell you what that remediation cost will be everything else will be the painting in the interior um some of the grounds work that needs to get done the roof did get repaired the
windows did get ordered um we needed to put the roof in right away just so that it would prevent further damage you know that you were there um so I I will tell you from experience a building like that's been closed that long on remediation you're talking about a
couple I I I hope I'm wrong but that's just been past experience that the amount of just remediation that needs to get done okay I I guess when we get the report we'll I'll revisit that okay um
then this one here I um I asked her attorney at one point um for us to look but there's the Illuminator um The Eliminator overall I
I do like um there's certain things I I don't like about it right like the where we mislead the public um about certain things that are being done um but I'd like to uh alert the administration and the public to this
and this is a news release from New Jersey election law enforcement commission and it was released on January 17 2025 it says Communications that do not contain
explicit wording will be subject to reporting under the following conditions now this year was set up so that if a mayor or a councel or anybody was putting out um material like
this that would give an unfair advantage to other people that would be running for office so it's it was looked at as campaign material and the four criteria
that makes this a campaign material is the communication is made by or on behalf of a candidate within 90 days of an election except in the case of a gubernatorial so so that
would apply to the mayor because he's on here and uh for myself because I'm a candidate right so so it would apply to both of us that we would have to claim it but you need four criteria the second one is the communication is disseminated
to an audience substantially compromised of individual El eligible voters for the candidate which is true this goes out to the town residents who are the ones that are going to vote for the new mayor and that would still apply to myself and Sam
as candidates number three the communication refers to governmental objectives and achievements of the candidate and and that's what this whole thing is about is about all the achievements um
and then the the final criteria is a communication is made with the cooperation or consent of the candidate now that wouldn't apply to me so I don't have all four of criteria which means it would have to be filed underneath my
elect report because well I'm not asked for consent on this and I'm not the candidate but the mayor obviously is so under New Jersey election law he's required to put
this on his campaign Finance report um I'd like to see that I guess at the the next his next election report um and as I spoke to uh Mr deal you know
there's a reason why we've been asking for the cost the cost of the printing the cost cost of the mailing um and this is predominantly the reason and I don't think we've ever gotten a total cost or a breakdown so I'd like to have that um being that I
just read to you about this law for tomorrow before our Wednesday's meeting and and I think you guys should be able to pull up what the mailing cost the printing cost whatever Associated cost are with it um and that would do it for
myself tonight thank you thank you Council MC brusher um Council vice president thank you Council I'm actually going to hold off tonight thank you um and councilman ptil you had one
more item yeah one more item actually I did receive the calber gr traffic study report you know through council president question to Administration what is your plan of action now next there are recommendation there are three uh options they were evaluated the
left turns right turns the blinking light and the permanent signal light and the Commendation was signal light but do we know are we planning to first question can this traffic study be put into the
public domain because residents are asking you know what is the outcome is that okay to share with them um I I think that's fine councilman um actually as part of our policy and I also discussed this um with other requests
for example the uh Glen Court one that councilman coil requested is that once we do these reports we need to put letters out to Residents so that they understand and that they speak out for against whatever it is their
they feel is necessary for their neighborhood that directly affects them so that would be the next step would be to inform the residents and to have a um some sort of public for so that they would be able to be heard and that we could take that feedback um because some
people you know may not want um some of those suggestions some one maybe not any of so we'll have to that would be the next step okay thank you councilman Patel I actually had a question for the counselor uh so I was
looking at the pamphlet that Council M brusher was referring to it says political communication that explicitly appeal for votes to elect is considered political communication so with Eliminator be considered
such in my opinion no it would not be a political campaign piece um and that would not be subject to ELC uh however uh this body has no jurisdiction on those matters whatsoever if if councilman brusher if you believe that there's been a violation of campaign
Finance law the proper body to raise that would be before the New Jersey elect commission um they would hear such complaints it is my opinion though my humble opinion that there is no violation that um in every community and every municipality um that that I uh
have the privilege to work for uh the mayor doesn't stop being mayor uh while he runs for reelection um and every uh elected official that I know that does a similar um publication doesn't stop doing it during the election season
thank you thank you for the addication council president yes yeah I'd like to respond to that um I know our attorney we disagree right I mean you guys made the flag ban I disagreed with it then you brought national attention to us um so there's good
reason why I question but you know it when I read this it is very clear that this new release is meant to stop this from doing exactly what David said was that for years Mayors have used this or
Council right elected officials have used as a political tool to help get themselves elected and it is very clear right here and I did speak to election law about this and to them it's not a
big deal it should just be filed on his campaign report where my concern then grows is that since the elect going have expected to be there that would mean it was part of an election which means it
should be paid back just like when when I looked at his campaign finances we we've talked many times about taking the police to Chicago and we've heard that he paid the money back but it was never shown in his elect report so the concern
there is was it actually deposited where was that check cuz he's not showing it in his campaign account either so it's opened up a lot of questions um to the mayor and how he's running his election here and whether he's doing it with taxpayer dollars or not not by elect it
looks like it is um feel free to call them and ask them thank you okay anything anything further on this okay uh I had just the one item which is about the resident advisory
committee that I want to establish and we're kind of getting on in the year uh I would like to get this going I'm still without a chair for this committee and um I I prefer not to take that on myself
if I have to I will because I think it's an important committee but I wanted to find out if there's anyone who would be willing to take this this committee on I'd be happy to take on that was the one of the proponent to have the
residents inolved in some yes great that's excellent all right and so um I think we can uh we can open up the applications then for this uh this committee and you can work work with the people so we're talking about my idea was two people from Clara two people
from North two people from uh South uh does that work for you okay all right great um so is there a way Cheryl to um advertise that applications for this committee are
open sure I mean do have a criteria of what you just left and end I mean in the to see it so you you want residents two from the south two from the north and two from Clara Clara B to participate to U
be on the committe yes and and the chair will be uh councilman pael okay council president if I may uh we can certainly assist with posting on the website great certainly and do email blast that way thank you and thank you counsman ptil for being willing to take this on that's
great um all right um um all right we are now about to go into Clos session with litig litigation matters clerk can you read the closed session resolution into record whereas article six of open public meeting provides public
body public body holds a closed session and whereas the township Council will during this meeting enter discussion for the following matters litigation matters for multif family and Sage whereas the matter to discussed in close session or to remain in the strictness of confidence of all council members in the
F their furtherance of the fiduciary duties to S vettis now therefore be resolved matters discussed at this meeting will be released to the public when the reasons for discussing and act upon them no longer exist thank you very much can I get a motion to go into close session motion to go into close session
second thank you very much um we am I I believe I don't believe we have any excuse me sir sir you are out of order you are out of order you are out of order I'm going to ask you to leave right now I'm asking you to leave you
are out of order all right we're going into closed session e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e oh okay should we start again motion to
Recon second all right I I okay and now motion to motion toour all right do we have a second second all right we are adjourned at 7:42 p.m. thank thank you very muche you
want me to take that all right now I've got this e