Okay, we're good. No, you should be. Yes. Yeah. If not, you can have pass down. Okay. AJ, I mean, not AJ, I'm sorry. Assaf. One of those names that starts with an A
and four letters. Assaf. Thank you. Okay. No. Good evening. This is the work session of April 28th and we are now in in order at 6:02 p.m. Please rise and
join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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, please. Clerk. Councilman Brusher, here. Council Coyle, yes. Council member Harris, here. Council member Patel. Council member Patiel, here. Council member Pointer, present. Council members well here.
Okay, good. Thank you. Uh cler madam clerk, could you read adequate notice? Adequate notice of this meeting as required by the open public act has been provided by the annual notice sent to the home news tribune star ledger desi talk and news India times on November 18th 2024 and posted main lobby mal
complex on that same date. You number four review of minutes. Any comments on the combined meetings of either February for February 15th or April 16th? Seeing none, we now move to the unfinished business of ordinances for
further consideration, public hearing, and final adoption. Um, madame clerk, could you read? No, this is not you don't read it. Okay. All right. Um, so for 2247, any any comments or
questions? Council person. Yes. Just one quick uh quick question here. Is there any reason that we are increasing the limit cap limit because we are all within the budget? If you look at last two three years we
we're within 2%. So is there any reason specific reason we are it it primarily allows us future flexibility. We don't need it in 2023. However, it's one of those things if we don't take it, then it won't be
available to us next year. So, even though this guides appropriations, what really is the uh key factor and the key cap is the tax levy cap uh because that limits the amount we place property
taxes on people. So, the appropriation cap by giving us that extra 1% just gives us future flexibility. Understood that. But that also helps to inflate the budget in future and that's the reason I was asking if we have the fiscal discipline around because we have
not increase this cap for several years now. I do understand that it does help in the future but I'm just curious why this year and why not next year and why it was not last year but this year. Yeah. You know, we've done this in the past and and as you can tell by looking at our tax rate increases, it has not uh
abnormally affected our bottom line tax rate increase, but it does allow us flexibility. And in the f in the past, what they've done and even this year, they've given us some concession on cap relief for insurance costs which are
beyond our control or pension costs. Yeah. So, this this just gives us flexibility for the future. mean that we're we're going to raise taxes accordingly. Understood. My only last question is is there anything in future we are anticipating uh maybe insurance could be one area
that we might it might go up and that this could help anywhere it would help. That's what the point is. I I couldn't tell you what the foreseeable future what's what I mean and I couldn't answer that for you. Okay. No, unfortunately.
Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else on 2247? Council President. Yes, Councilman Brusher. Um, yes. So, right, I understand like insurance is outside the cap, right? So, if your insurance went up 32%, you you can raise that. Correct.
That's just a one time ex exception for this year. Uh, they only allowed increases over three and a half% to be appropriated outside the cap. Okay. Now, for for this year, right, our taxes aren't going up like 5%
or anything, but what would be the maximum amount that you could raise taxes next year? Um, besides the things outside the cap if we approve this because this would this this is increasing that now.
Correctly. Correct. But we're still limited by uh there's a the property tax levy cap. We still have that limit uh that we have to contend with. So even though you may be able to spend more on the appropriations, you're limited as to
how much you can increase property taxes by. Right. But but what would that number be then? Because that would be this plus I think it's 2.5, right? That we Yes, correct. It's 2.5%. Right. And if we increase this, this is And how
long does this last for? Um, three years, two years, and then it burns off. So again, it's it's just giving us flexibility for next year and the year after. And we may not need it. This year we didn't need it, right? No, no. I I
listen, I I I do get that. Um, that's where one of our residents always say that we actually don't when we say we do zero, it's not a zero um until 2 years later when you actually don't need to borrow it. Um, yeah, I just don't see
the need to to increase this. But but that's just a personal opinion. I I think where we are now is uh sound financially. I I don't think we need to do that. Um, that'd be it. Council President, thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Uh, comments or questions about
2248, about Skyler Drive? Um, I I would just um, you know, for stuff like this, I kind of like to see if we have people from the public if they come up and they have any issues on anything. I mean, it definitely looks like an improvement to the neighborhood.
Um, I I hope that my council colleagues looked at at stuff because this would be something that if we approve this at the end of the day, this body is ultimately the one that's responsible, right? Like if if there's an issue with parking or or I remember Councilman Cole brought up
one time about billboards um on one of these, but being that I don't see anyone here, I guess it's a good thing for the town. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? All right. U moving to number six,
proposed ordinances. Any council comments on the ordinance amending Do I have you read this or not? No. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. Uh ordinance amending chapter 2 administration article 3 departments by amending portions of subsection
2-33.1 Division of Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Services through subsection 2-33.6 Six firefighters promotions procedures. Any questions or comments? Um, is this okay with does our fire department like this?
Our chief is a chief here. He was. Yes, actually. Um, he'll explain the recommendation that was made to the administration and of course to this body. Uh, Councilman, uh, our physical agility hasn't been updated since the '9s. So this brings the
physical agility up to the standards with the state under the civil service. So we have something to fall back on. It's not that we they developed it inside Edison. This is a state ran one that if you challenge it at least you have a guideline to go by. And for the promotions there's a extra course that's
on there that's not on the ordinance. Um hazmat onseen incident commander. So it just shows in the ordinance what you need. So, we thought it was a good time to update the ordinance and um instead of fire man, we put firefighter. You got that one? Very good. So, that's it's just an ordinance that's out of
date. We're just clarifying the language. It's not making it easier. It's just bringing it up today's standards. Okay. Thank you, Chief. Councilman, we'd also like to once hopefully this body will adopt this uh ordinance to go ahead and implement um
an hiring. Um, so that that's one of the one of the things too. We want to make sure we set someone up for success who's wants to become a firefighter in Edison Township. Anyone else on A? All right. Seeing none, on B about
the authorizing the township of Edison to acquire irrevocable conservation easement over the property located at 110 Clive Street, block 557-8, lot H, lot 38-B on the official tax map of the Township of Edison, New
Jersey. Questions, comments? Um, I I have a question. Well, I don't understand the need for it. I I guess is where I'm going. Um would they still if we don't do this or if we do this are their taxes
the same for the property or are there taxes less for the property now that there would be a uh like governmental easement on it. I mean I understand it's wetlands but it would be considered part of the whole parcel on on square footage. And I don't know tax- wise that
they take take that into consideration. Go ahead, John. Councilman, council vice president. Thank you, Council President. Um, just some background. I I don't have the answer in terms of the tax implications. But the background to this was it was a subdivision application
before the planning board. As one of the conditions of approval, uh, the planning board said that you had to put a conservation easement around the uh, the pond, for lack of better word. So this executes that. Um for myself, I like the
fact that the administration kept it with the irrevocable conservation aspect. Uh the applicant had come back to the planning board when I was on it last year asking to modify the condition for it to be uh revocable if the D
reclassified the pond. Um, I actually voted no on that uh amendment because if it were revocable and the D were to change the classification, then the property owner would be able to subdivide the property again in the
future. However, with this being irrevocable, it would eliminate that potential. But to your initial question on the tax implication, I don't have that answer. Right. The taxes, the other I'm not really concerned. Um, being that I'm 60 years old and I remember when we
would fill in wetlands, right? Um, I haven't seen the state of New Jersey get easier on on disturbing wetlands or ponds. So, so to think that the D would would say that you could get rid of ponds or things like that um to me are
just that's something we're going to wait for the asteroid or something to hit the earth first. Um, but it's really more the tax implication. I can give him a general Sure. Go ahead, counselor. Councilman, I can give you a general answer to your question on the
uh the valuation of the property. So for assessment purposes, there are generally two components. One is the land component and one is the improvement component. As a general rule, the improvement components are
uh the more substantial portion of the total assessment of the property. Uh the difference between land that has that's wet and land that's wet and has a conservation easement on it for land
valuation purposes is generally negligible if at all. Could we get then could we get that from maybe Joanne? All right. Thank you. All right. Anyone else on that ordinance? Yeah. Council person just I want to say happy that you know finally this is if this
approved uh this will close uh not from the builder but this is a landmark also called as a lucid point this is your neighborhood uh and this issue was pending for a long long time and I know builder is struggling the township is struggling I
think the neighborhood also wants that pawn to be preserved because it's a historical landmark there so happy to support thank you council Yes. And for myself, yes, I live three blocks away from there and u before it got overgrown, it was a wonderful haven for
blue herand and all kinds of wildlife there. And it's going to be nice to see the wildlife come back. Right now, it there are some dens of foxes in there, but uh and some deer that go through there, but it's going to be nice to see that cleaned up and uh reestablished
back to its original state. Um, okay. On to uh from the business administrator 7 A or B. Questions, comments? Um, yes, Councilman Brer. Yes, the
B. This is property that we own, right? This is township housing authority. Housing authority. Yeah. Um property and but we're looking to get a pilot from them cuz they're exempt from
taxes, right? Um this isn't a pilot necessarily. This is a cooperation agreement so that there is some financial support to the housing authority and in return um we would then get credit for the units. Oh, this is
where we can take that out of that $10 million or something, right? Right. Okay. No, that's perfect. I mean, that's what I was This is perfect. It's It's great. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone
else? Okay. Moving on to eight A through H. Okay. Seeing none, we move on to nine. Department of Planning and Engineering. A. Okay, we're good. On 10, Department of Public Works,
A. Moving right along, number 11, Department of Recreation. A 12. Department of Water and Sewer. A 12 A. Council President. Council Vice President, not directly related to the resolution, but the overall project. Is
there a time frame from in terms of us bidding out for the water meters and such? Yes. Um I do have a timeline. I can provide that to you. Okay. I appreciate that. I'm I'm happy to see that we're moving forward with this. For
anyone that may be interested as to what this does, it's uh to replace the the water meters for those serviced by the Edison Water Utility. Um converting them to smart meters. This will help us be able to have not only more accurate
billing, but if there are any detections of irre irregularities, we'll be able to detect them and be able to address potential um water main issues that the township has had. So, I'm happy that we're moving forward with this and I look forward to supporting it. Thank you, council
president. Anyone else? Council person, just just a quick question on that. I think we did approve the bond I think way last year, right? For this one, you you did. So, um the I bank has officially approved it last couple weeks. Their requirement is that we come
back to this body um and execute that agreement. Perfect. Thank you. Last call. Anyone else? Okay, moving on to 13A from the chief of police. Very good. 14A from the township
clerk, liquor license. Questions? All right, we go to oral petitions and remarks. Hello, Sumalone Barber, 85 Pleasant Avenue. Um, I want to I have a lot of
questions on where we are with affordable housing. I sent Margot a letter on Wednesday and I just thought I would read that letter. Maybe we have some answers. I don't know. Um but otherwise um entering this into the
public record. Um so I watched Wednesday last Wednesday's not last Wednesday the last council meeting um and I read Suzanne Russell's article in my central jersey and I am still very unclear as to what
the township intends to do to deal with its affordable housing obligation. When Mr. Mello said that Edison will file a comprehensive action. I'd like some clarity on what that means exactly. Where does it get filed with a court? How many affordable
housing units does Edison say is appropriate? What will we base our number on? Where does Edison propose to put the affordable housing units? How many market rate units will developers be allowed to build in order to support the affordable housing
requirement? Um, Mr. Mella referred to relying on a formula from the old fair housing law, but is the old law still applicable? Um, wondering if we could get or I could get a reference to a
specific section of the statute that indicates municipalities have the option on which one they follow. Um uh as you might anticipate from me, um me and many of my neighbors are quite
concerned about the impact affordable housing will have on the Amboy Avenue um area of Clarobarton. Um come July, what happens if a developer applies to build high-rise apartments on Amboy Avenue and justifies it by reserving a few units as
affordable? Will we be forced to grant variances that override the imperfect but long fought Thank you. uh ordinance that was passed to control density and height along Emboy Avenue. What would Edison's
defense be to a builder's remedy lawsuit after June? Um and then finally I I am reading lately I think it was today that at least six or eight I
forget the number other municipalities have come to an agreement and have successfully lowered their affordable housing um obligation. Um and so while so many other municipalities have gotten in front of
this, we have not. And I would like to understand why why we're waiting until June. Does that narrow our opportunity to negotiate a a number? Um, and
it I I have to be honest and say that the June timeline kind of seems like an election strategy. Um I I can't imagine affordable housing will be very popular like where these buildings go and
uh I it's unclear to me um what the delay does for anybody but the administration and maybe we can provide some clarity on why we are waiting until June when so many other municipalities have already gotten in
front of this. Um those are my questions. There are a lot of them. I don't know if any of them can be answered now. Margot did tell me that she referred my note to um Mr. Renown. Um and I hope it doesn't take too long
to get answers because the lack of transparency just raises more questions about it. So, all right. Thank you. Uh you want to tackle? Sure. Okay. Since the Mount Laurel doctrine was
brought into place in New Jersey in 1975, there have been at least two ways that a municipality can gain relief from builder's remedy
lawsuits. Um, in Mount Laurel 2, the courts established a process where a municipality could file a declaratory judgment
action which would then put it through the superior court process. Subsequent to that, the state enacted the Fair Housing Act, which established
the Council on Affordable Housing, which gave you a an administrative way to gain that same comfort and that same relief from builder's remedy lawsuits.
in 2024 when the new statute was enacted. I'm skipping 30 or 40 years of history in the interest of just trying to get you some basic understanding. Um the statute again authorized two
procedures to gain that type of immunity. Uh the first was a permissive process where you could go through what was essentially an alternative dispute
resolution program or you could continue to file your declaratory judgment action in the superior court. It's my understanding uh that Edison has
opted to go through the declaratory judgment action in superior court. Edison has continued immunity from builder's remedy lawsuits through the end of this round. That's the June
30th, 2025 date that you've referenced. The next round starts July 1 and the filing of that declaratory judgment action gets you the temporary immunity until that is resolved. So I've given
you broad strokes. You've asked specific questions which I'm not prepared to give you answers to. But I will affirm to you the township's continuing commitment to meet its regional obligation to provide
affordable housing. Thank you, Council. That's the best I can do tonight. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Can I ask a follow? No. No. Unfortunately, your time is up. Thank you. All right. Next. Anyone else in the
public? Is that you, Lois? Is that a little raised hand? Okay. Oh. Oh. Motion to close the public portion. Yes, ma'am. Your name and address, please.
Oh. Um, do we have the sign? Not good. We do. We have, council president, is it possible we could temporarily suspend and forfeit her time to a later time of the day of this meeting? Maybe we can do her in 10
minutes and have her come back up. I'm I'm sorry, I'm not understanding your question. and the fact that we don't have an interpreter right now and we have to get somebody. Perhaps we could do a onetime allowance of yielding her time for in in 20 minutes and bring her
back up reopen the public portion just for her. Council President, um there were communication back and forth with the clerk's office and I advised that they should get the equipment from the court. So I don't know if that was completed or not.
I can certainly run out and grab it from them if that's the case. What What would you recommend for this situation? If if the clerk's office doesn't have it, I will go run out to the
Yeah, you don't have it? No. I The court's right next door. It's It's next door. Did Do you have the equipment that was Sit down and wait. Could you let the council president know, please? Thank you.
What should I tell her to do? Only the policy is if you're impaired, you need any special Can you put that in the microphone? As far as I understand, um, our policy is that if we needed assistance, um, like we advertise in our notices that we'd need some notice in
order to prepare for 48 hours notice is what I Okay. believe we have. So, so I'm wondering could this be put off to the Wednesday meeting that's 48 hours in
advance since we did not have advanced notice. Council President, I I can call the court administrator and try to get this handled. I certainly wouldn't want to turn her away. Okay. Um if we have the equipment, okay, next door. Okay. Just give me a few minutes. Sure. Sure. And
maybe we'll see if anyone else wants to speak in the meantime. We'll come back. If there's a possibility that she may be able to work offline with our communications department, maybe we can solve. Excuse me.
Let's go ahead. Yeah, that's fine. Friday. Okay. Just in the microphone, please. Friday, I ask for assignment. Can I get just get your name, ma'am? Can I just get your name?
I think I might find my name. I want my name. Good evening. My name is R H O N D A. The first
name, last name, A B O T. Okay, got it. Thank you very much. Any other information? Maybe we need That's all right. It's okay. You want her to speak or Yes, she can speak. Speak.
You get like three minutes. Four. Four minutes. Friday. I asked for a sign language interpreter. Not surprised your township didn't get me a sign language interpreter. Your police department discriminates on
the basis of disability. They don't display the state's mandated New Jersey public accommodation poster. That's required under NJAC 13 colon
8-1.4. I was here on April 1st. I spent at least 45 minutes of my quality time talking with your township clerk explaining to her how to put up
the current posters from the state. I came back here on April 25th. Posters were still not up. By law, you cannot display outdated
posters. This is a fiveminute project. You have posters over there. 15 years old. Sure, you could archive them. This is an article that came out on August 3rd,
2022. Postals came out in August 1st, 2022. All employers, housing providers, and places of public accommodation are required by law to display the new posters. Again, this
came out August 3rd, 2022, two years, eight months ago. Any employer, housing provider, or place of public accommodation that is currently displaying prior versions of the posters
should remove them and replace them with the updated posters. I spent 45 minutes of my time here, April 1st, donating my quality time with your township clerk and three weeks later I came back and everything
was still the same. You are one, two, three. There's got to be at least seven or eight of you. I don't know how anybody could just sit there and ignore the New Jersey law against discrimination. It's
entrenched in employment that ends in 1.2. Housing that ends in 1.3. Public accommodation that ends in 1.4. Medical facilities that ends in 1.5. That's
NJC 13 colon 81.234 or five. Your police department is not accessible to the death. Treated me horribly and they treat an arrest like it is a sport. They
don't comply with the ADA title two for state and local government. They do not comply with the New Jersey law against discrimination. I am a graduate of Galedet University in 1981, the world's only liberal arts college for the deaf. I've been to the
deaf Olympics. My professor warned me, he warned the whole class, we're going to have to stand up for civil rights. 21 years old, I didn't even know what a civil right was. Had a very rude
awakening. I don't if anybody wants to ask me any question. The lad gonna have to hope questions. Thank you. Okay. Did you Did you have questions? Your your your time is is
just about up, but but u you can just if if possible if you can just give to the clerk for me what the actual state statute is. I didn't capture it. Just curious. Thank you. Okay. Um councelor
um this is my bag of salted by your police department. Thank you ma'am. We your time is up. Counselor um what can you tell us about this? I can tell you that I'll be happy to look into it but I don't know it off the
top of my head. Um, so I do have uh the stat they're actually not statutes, they're administrative regulations that um I've got Rhonda as her name, but I
didn't catch the last name. But Miss Abbott uh said it's NJAC 13 colon 8-1.2 two through 1.5. So I can find out. We'll report back.
Okay. All right. Thank you. So councelor will look into this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Your time is up. Your time is up. It's four minutes of speaking time. Mr. You promised me was up and you never did. Thank
you. Thank you. Um Okay. Anyone else from the public? Yes, Liz. Elizabeth Conway, 20 Netherwood Circle. Just a quick question on 8G and H. It says temporary emergency appropriations for the municipal budget and for sanitation budget. Are there dollar
figures attached to this? Because I don't have it on the paper. There are. Yes, there should be dollar figures attached to it. They are um as listed under the municipal budget for uh they're under purchasing legal
department, streets, roads, building and grounds, health, street lighting expenses each equal to $412,000. That's under the municipal budget. And then for the sanitary budget, um the sanitation budget that that is under other expenses, 150,000.
Thank you. Sure. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Public comment. We have a motion to close. Motion to close the public portion. Second. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I council president. Just want to ask Metro, when do we have
the time as to when we should have these posters up? I do have the flowchart if you need as to which posters we need. When will we have these posters that need to be up come from the HR department that's in the hallway. That's
okay. Personnel, can you follow up with the HR? We have there is posters up there. They're just outdated and I believe because she's already been in that the HR department is looking to get the new ones, but you know there is old ones up.
If they need the the link, I can I have the link here. The updated posters should be easy to print. I'll send it to you. Okay. All right. Um, going on to council committees, boards, and commissions, leazison reports. Starting with you,
Councilman Brer. Um, not at this time. Not at this time. All right. Councilman Coyle. Thank you, Council President. I just um I wanted to mention we just had a public safety meeting and um met with our chief
uh Councilman South Shoel and Council AJ Patil. Um, we went over a variety of factors and issues across the town. I was pleased to hear a lot of the great things that are happening across Edison and the amount of detail the chief is
involved with Captain Hammer and Deputy Chief Dudash. Uh, together I I definitely believe we've made a huge impact in town here. Um although I don't want to reveal every step of the
strategic plan of the police department and what they do on the day-to-day, but what I can say is um in the evening and around the clock, we have probably four times as many um officers out there investigating cases. Um and I think the
strategic plan is like no other town. Um and I think any other council member who's on that committee can speak for that as well. Um, I'll leave that that. But at one point, uh, this town had,
uh, we were we have been as low as 60 officers and we well up to 199 officers today on the road. Um, we've had over 59 retirements at a certain time and that was about 26 months ago. And you have to
think of the changes in place and and officers and different supervisors that took place there as well as detectives. So I am I am truly pleased to sit down face to face with the chief and learn of all the different uh great things to
protect the citizens of Edison here and I am very thankful. If any other committee member wants to comment on that before I go to my next uh finance committee, I will wait. questions, comments. I'd just like to add uh to what Councilman Coyle
said. The chief did note that uh crime is in fact trending down and I wanted the public to know about that as well. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Councilman Patio. Yeah, it was a great meeting. Thank you, Councilman, uh for the updates. Uh Chief, you and your
department always do a wonderful job. uh what you put in through the day. I don't think the average citizen really understand. Uh but again, doing a good job. Uh hopefully, you know, we'll have more police officers if this body needs, you know, to approve additional funds.
Happy to support that. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Yeah, this is a great job. Really great job. Um okay, moving on. I'm sorry, you had more. You had more. Okay. And just to end on the public safety for, you know, in comparison to 10 years
ago, we've implemented so many plate readers across this town from mobile plate readers to stationary plate readers. If you come through Edison and you have a car that's stolen, the chief is not dispatchified in seconds and we
have a team out there, you know, uh, chasing you down. I mean, you look at what may have happened 10 years ago if you drove through Edison with a false plate or something across Route One. It's incredible the amount of technology we have today, and I'm sure Councilman Patio can speak for that as well. He's
in technology. It's It's quite amazing what you can do today. Whether you turn around in a parking lot, we may have one there. Whether you cut across Menlo Park Mall, we have one there. They are everywhere. So, if you're coming to Edison, you better think twice because
we we'll be out there in seconds and I am truly proud of that. Thank you. Um, council president, I just wanted to move to finance. Um, our finance committee met twice and uh, each one of you were just received a small packet we got
through Kender Roberts. Um and I am pleased to to say that um overall our first meeting was going over 2024's revenues and appropriations um municipal solid waste, sewer, water, and the overall performance of each uh
department. And we're pleased to say that we had a very large surplus to um put forward into this year's 25 budget. And in this budget we have here, we're in the adminal tax rate the mayor's
proposed is less than 1% which is uh certainly something most residents want is a low tax rate. But also at the same time as we do raise taxes 1% you have to understand that we at this position
we're in we're also doing a great job keeping and maintaining all municipal services. So there wasn't one single cut in municipal services and I'm truly proud of that. So as you look throughout your town and the improvements that we have in programs from seniors uh to
children, every single program is staying forward. So um I'm going to move forward to allow any council uh questions if they had any or we can do that um during the work session. But I've set forth here um all the numbers
that we've had in place here and we have to consider you know all the oneshot revenues we've had in the past which we don't have today. At the same time uh I'm truly thankful for you know our tax assessor department handling all of our appeals and making
sure that we have a comfort of a a cushion of how much we may be appealed on and they have been wonderful. I don't think any council person's question their work and how great and that's kept us at a a truly solid place. So, I'm
thankful for the work of this council reviewing this. This is our budget now to look at. Several members of the council have separate meetings with the with the township officials. If you don't have a meeting, please let me know today and uh make sure you do and we will look to see if this budget is
appropriate to pass. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Co. Coyle. And um this is looks like a a really good packet and it looks like it summarizes things very well. So I look forward to taking a deep look at this. Any other comments or questions about this report? Okay. Um
then we'll move on to Councilman Patel. Any any committees? No. Okay. Councilman Patiel? None at this time. Okay. Councilman Schmoel, not at this time. Thank you. Okay. Council vice president. Thank you, Council President. Um just some updates from the human relations
commission. Uh they are setting up an event for Memorial Day. Uh it's to be determined, but they are looking for guest speakers related to local hero heroes for Memorial Day. Their next meeting is Tuesday, May 6 here in
council chambers at 7 pm. Uh, and you may mention this as part of cultural arts, but I was told they are um partnering with the cultural arts commission for June to use to uh do something for Junth. Uh, the
environmental commission had two cleanups over the weekend. One that was actually inadvertently happened. Uh it was scheduled to happen but with the weather it was actually cancelled but people still came out. This was to at John Adams Middle School. Um over 20 uh
volunteers participated on Saturday's cleanup collecting over 500 lb of trash and miscellaneous items. So I'd like to say thank you to all the volunteers for their time and effort. Um as well as to DPW and police for their assistance in that cleanup. Likewise, on Sunday, there
was a clean up at Swells Park that had over 25 volunteers picking up 17 bags of mixed trash. So, overall, I think that's a pretty big hall uh just for the weekend, which is fantastic that we had that type of uh community involvement
and care to facilitate these types of initiatives. The next meeting for the environmental commission is Thursday, May 15th, 7 p.m. here in council chambers. Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Council Vice President. I have no committee reports. The next uh commission uh meeting is the cultural
arts commission which will be next Tuesday, May the 6th. We move on to points of light. Any points of light? Okay. Well, I have a couple. Um first of all, just to announce the Memorial Day parade, this is Edison
Township 61st annual. will be held Saturday, May 24th at 12 PM. The parade begins at noon at Division Street and travels along Planefield Avenue, ending at Linda School, 50 Blossom Street. Refreshments to follow at the American Legion Father and Son Post 4:35. We're
looking for parade participants. So, um, that's Saturday, May 24th at 12:00 p.m. I also wanted to share about the, um, uh, Hashoa event that was at, um, at the JCC last Wednesday. It was an interfaith
event and it was extremely moving and meaningful. And, uh, the the takeaway was a man, this is a survivor. He's 102 years old, sharp as attack. He lives in Monroe, but he spoke and spoke very eloquently. They were he and his family
were not shipped to camps, but they escaped and it was really quite a quite a story of uh of the journey that they took in order to finally get to America. Um it took a long time actually but um it was it was a very very touching
ceremony and um it's it's the we will we will never forget and um and so um that was a extremely extremely important event. Um okay now we go on to council
discussion items. I'm going to go from my left. Uh Councilman. Yes. Thank you, Council President. Um, I wanted to ask um the administration uh about we'll start with
B. Do we have a paving schedule uh specifically for the South Edison neighborhood? Uh because driving around I see that some of the roads are in dire need of of uh of help.
Uh we are working through the violytics program um to identify more of those areas um specifically that you mentioned in South Edison. Um we are also f with the Edison water district being that
it's um heavily in that area. We're trying to coordinate that infrastructure and then of course the um the paving if you will. So we're working through those two lists of things. Um once we have the list from Violytics I can surely share
that with the council. So thank you. The the water comes first and then the the paving is afterwards. Yes. And can we base off the analytics of of where we hit the water uh issues
before the paving? Is that can we piggy back on each other? Is that something that that could be coordinated? Well, that's that's exactly what we're trying to coordinate is the water infrastructure, the projects that we have that are outstanding in that area and then taking it and um matching it
with what Violytics is proposing that you know cert certain areas that are in more need and in priority. Okay, I look I look to that email. Um and a the flooding issues on Marshall Drive uh leading into Marshall Drive. I
think it's on Washington, Lexington, uh there's a tremendous amount of water specifically when it rains, but also when it doesn't rain that that accumulates uh at the end of those roads. Um are you aware of of that issue? I am. Um, again, it's one of
those uh Edison Water Utility um areas. And so we had a utility company out there and there were some uh repairs done. Um this is a valley cutter back. So, what we can
do just to temporarily relieve some of those water issues is have our DPW do something to again to remediate some of those uh drainage issues in in more in the immediate future, but we are looking to get reimbursed from the utility
company for not having addressed that then. Um, so we're I I did get your request and I know you spoke to engineering and we want to make sure we get that taken care of. I'll talk to also our DPW director about doing that, putting in the valley cutter. Thank you. Sure. Thank you, Council President.
Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Patio, a couple of things. Uh, Grove Avenue again would like to revisit the to extend the speed limit right from James Street to Edison Street, which is probably couple of
hundred feet, which is 35 miles an hour. It's not a good thing. uh because then 25 and again 35. Uh I would request this council to reconsider you know changing the speed for the entire grow especially from James where Metachan ends and
Edison starts. James through all the way at least to the Oakree road or at least to the new door that would help to uh eliminate some of the speeding issues on that road. Uh the second one is Glendel. Any updates? Uh San anything
moved or we still stand still it it's still standing still we haven't done anything with it and the last one is ID the uh the details on the Brower street if someone can please please visit that area look at the road is extremely bad uh also there there's a
need of stop sign I would say it's more of a signage uh the first step in the process the way we did on the Calvert and GR uh I think only these School buses go on that road. So we even if we can put signage like only authorized
vehicles can drive through here. Uh childrens are playing on that road. Again it's a 200 300 ft road. If we can put you know safe driving and of course there is no outlet because it's a more or less dead end. So if you can put that signage as well would be definitely be
helpful. So let's show some progress in next couple of weeks so that at least residents will have some breathing there. It's a summer time. kids are playing out at the same uh time you know if you can please look at the uh if once somebody visit they will notice that this road should really get into the
paving list of 2025. Thank you. Thank you council. Thank you Councilman Patel. So uh Sonia I had a question on the bike math bike path map that Brian was supposed to provide. Yes. Um he has a draft and we're going to
coordinate a meeting with you. Okay. And when would that be? Uh whatever we can accommodate you with uh in terms of a meeting. If it's in person, a Zoom, whatever you uh is is um I'm open to Zoom anytime. Just give me time. give a
lot. And uh second thing I had was I requested a message be sent out for the oak tree and u always forget the second cross street but the proper the plot we have that open space is considering
um but essentially remember I reached out to pack coil and you to get in touch with the community. Was that done? Um it might have been done but I haven't heard anything. So, and may if I have to just go back to my emails if you give me a moment. I will
follow up with you. Not a problem, but just we need to do it soon because it's going to be happening in May. I want to give the residents enough warning if they need to make schedule. It's going to be at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May. Would it be this upcoming Saturday, May
3rd? May 3rd, 1 to 2 p.m. And and if you need the details, I can provide it again. And the last thing, again, this one again is for Brian. I wanted an update on the policies to see
if we can have a central person be responsible for any projects that are uh big projects that require single point of authority that takes responsibility from from A to Z. Uh which I think will help us acknowledge and especially down
the road we can any lessons learned could be passed on to the next person. uh rather than you know I feel like we kind of do a peace meal right now which is not what I would like. We submitted a draft to you. Is there any input that you would like on that draft or or if you could just provide your input based
on the draft we sent? I did. I think the main thing was it still doesn't have a one person responsible for the whole process. It's that would be the township engineer. Township engineer. Yes, sir. All right. I'll take a look again and I'll respond back with the email. Thank you, Sonia. Sure.
Thank you, Councilman. until u on to Councilman Coyle. Thank you, Council President. Um I just wanted to first just discuss the um opioid um opportunities. Have we come up with a
strategic plan for the opioid grant money? We are working on it. We'd worked on an RFP to provide services between um the general opioid addressing general opioid um substance abuse and then uh also with
our senior population. So we we're working through that. So there's been a response from the uh we did but there were several questions. So we actually have to do program focused RFPs. Okay.
Okay, great. I mean, um, I think it's important, as I mentioned to many people, we have over a million dollars in grant money to help out opioid epidemic and do different programs. Um, if anybody's looking for a list of that, I can provide that for them. Um, it's a
good opportunity. I'm thankful this township received the money. Um, economic development, I know we've had some conversations. Thank you, Sonia. And I think, uh, I'm looking forward to that number being in the budget. And I'm asking asking my colleagues to ask that the money from last year be in the
budget. So we have double the money for economic development and we consider some marketing as a part of that. The fact we didn't spend it last year. Um it doesn't mean we shouldn't spend it this year. the importance of marketing Edison. Um, I don't want to talk about
the mayor from the other town, but because we're certainly a better location than the other town, but they're attracting some great stuff, and I I really hope we can. Um, they just brought in, I think, Trader Joe's. They brought in Angelina's restaurant from
Staten Island. Um, but I mean this has been 30 years in coming. So I'll give Sam some time as mayor, but it's truly important. So I hope when we do this budget, we look at that together and note note the importance of how we can market Edison that we are open for
business. I'm going to skip my other questions. Council President, um, affordable housing was gone over by a resident and I'll ask the the town uh, in a separate discussion on that. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Brer. Um, I'm just going to cut this down to
two because it looks like everybody has allergies. Um, but but I' I'd like to echo my council colleagues concerns about having a a one person type manager um for projects we do. I do understand
that Sonia said that uh Brian is the go-to person. Um, I know Brian and and Brian's very good at what his job is, but that's not what this job entails. This is this would be similar to uh our our
policeman, I'm sure, can put out a fire, but you'd prefer to have the firemen put out the fire and the policeman do the police work. Brian's a civil engineer. Um, which means he deals with land and sewers and things of that nature, not uh
like a construction manager. Um, which deals with projects and bidding. So, until the administration can kind of understand how to build projects, right, and and where the different people are, I think they're still going down the
wrong road. And I think my council colleague um Mr. Battel is going down the correct road at this time. Um with that said, I'd like to still get an answer on the um the holes in the road
and the paving that um I sent some pictures the and Sonia did send me a list of the items, but there's a bunch of holes. In fact, now I found out what it was. Um, and it wasn't because the administration
or Brian got back to me on it. It seems one of the residents, as usual, here I go. I'm going back to get my information on Facebook. Um, Comcast is installing fiber optic lines throughout Edison. On Mount
Pleasant, it is like pothole and then 200 or 300 feet and another pothole and then 300 feet and another pothole. and I want to know what we're going to do to repair this and fix it. Like, how do we go about this? Um, Brian doesn't
even have it on the list as something that needs to be taken care of. They did patch all of these, which was great. They weren't patched to our standards. I don't even know that by our law they can patch. I think they have to
repave. Um, but even with that, if you drive down Mount Pleasant and you hit them, you know, people are asking for speed humps. We don't need speed humps. All we need is Comcast to do more trenching across our roads and everybody
will be doing 25. So, can we have Brian maybe here give us a report on this and what he plans on doing because I haven't seen him lately. He's around. um he had a prior commitment in uh child care. So, uh he couldn't be here this evening, but uh
this administration, as you know, we uh we're not pro necessarily speed speed humps, bumps, if you will. So, um we'll take a look at it and I'll have Brian provide a report to you and we'll send you an email. Right. There's none on that list. You know what I mean? Like
these are there must be thousands of these around the town. Um and they're not listed on that report. So you're looking for Mount Pleasant though, correct? Well, yeah, but no, it's not. Mount Pleasant was the So like when you asked me where and what I was
talking about, that was a general area because I hit that every morning going to Mount Dunkin Donuts, right? So I hit it going there and I hit it coming back. Um but but it's the same occurrence that's happening throughout the whole town. Um and that's more of the issue,
you know, it's not just a Mount Pleasant thing. This is a townwide um issue that we have. Sure. Thank you. Um and that would be it. Council President, hope you feel better. Council vice president. Thank
you, Council President. Um before I get to my items, just a request to the administration. Um I know that the 2024 road paving uh schedule is being bid out currently. Can I just get the
bid package because I know it has the list and a map of all the projected areas. Sure. Thank you. Uh for ordinance of consideration, uh I did get um the uh LI zone update uh draft update
today. So I haven't gone through that. I'll peruse through that and then send it to my colleagues for their feedback as well. Uh question to our counselor if I may. Um the state statute right now requires
for warehouses, anything 100,000 square feet or larger has to be solar panel ready. Do we have the ability to set our own guidelines for something of smaller square footage?
Generally, you can make the requirements more restrictive. You can't make them less restrictive. I would need to look at the statute because as soon as you take a a harder stance on it, you're going to get
an argument that it's preempted by the state statute. So, let me take a look at it and I'll get you an answer for Wednesday's meeting. I appreciate that. Thank you. uh under for community involvement initiatives. A question to the
administration. Do we have a form available for anyone that may be interested in the adopt a spot program? Council vice president, we are actually we met with DPW and the ad our administration group to go over the
actual process and we're going through the application and once that's completed, we'll send you a copy. I appreciate that. I do have uh two organizations that are interested, so that's why I'm asking. We'll put that also on the website, but I'll share that with you. Thank you very much. Um and
a I don't know if this is necessarily a request or a question, but maybe something to add on for the Mr. Fixit program. Um, other municipalities have a air conditioning uh assistance program
where you can an individual can donate old like window air conditioners for seniors that may not have AC during the summertime. Um, and I know that many of our units in the township are older, so
central AC isn't necessarily a luxury that anyone ha everyone has. So my question is, is this something that we may be able to implement within Edison Township for seniors that may need assistance in that manner?
Uh, Councilman, I think that's a great idea. I'm going to share that with the administration and that if there's an ability that um there are good conditioned um air conditioners. I just again want to make sure with our town attorney that from a liabilities perspective, you know, if it's leaking
or something to that effect, certainly would want to make sure that it's uh in in good condition. And so we we could talk about it with our group. Absolutely. And I understand there would be some logistics uh to it as well, like obviously you need to store any materials and such. So it's just a
thought and I think Monroe is a municipality that actually does this type of program, but I'll I'll confirm on that. Uh, and finally, in regards to study and plan inquiries, um, I'm hoping that eventually the municipality and the administration will look into a
community forestry management plan. This would help for future plan future plans for planting, whether it's trees, shrubs, um, as well as get general information of what the township is current current makeup is. Uh, a
question, another question to our council if I may. Um, do we have the ability [Music] to do a report on homes that are owned by LLC's or
businesses? Is your question, do we have the ability? Um is this something that uh your tax roles identify who the owners of properties are whether they are
individuals, partnerships, corporations, or LLC's? Could that information be provided? I can't answer that. It would require going through all line items as
to ownership, but it's matter of public record. Okay. So, if it's a if it's something that we can just query inside, then I would think that that's allowable. Uh the reason why I'm asking about this is that a lot of the homes in
Edison were built in the 1940s, 1950s. They're Cape Cod style houses, but these are the houses now that from a renovation standpoint are no longer going to be one-story, one and a half story buildings. They're going to become twotory homes. And usually that means
that there's an increase in bedroom units that are associated with that. So, from a development and planning process, I'm curious if we can try to extrapolate out what we could expect in the future because that's going to
affect how many kids going to the school. That's going to affect how many cars are actually parking on streets and other items like that. So, just a couple of uh ideas for the administration. I'm not sure the form of ownership would get you that information, though. Well, in
in part because likely those companies are going to be looking to renovate. So, uh, that would be it, Council President. Thank you. I love your idea about the donating the air conditioners. I think that's, uh, a great great idea
and I'd love to see that come to fruition. Uh, all right. Can we get a motion to adjourn? Council President, I'm sorry. Before we adjourn, I I I missed to mention something. um an incredible event that we had yesterday morning, a very very moving
event where u we named the tennis courts our northeast in honor of Rabbi Dr. Israel Riiffken um who was a tremendous asset and a great man in in in the part of South Edison. Um it was well attended
by over 200 people uh and the administration was there, the mayor was there, uh Councilman Joe Cole was there, he actually read the proclamation. Um, we had assemblymen, we had uh uh Senator Pat Dyen came to the to the event. Um,
and more importantly, Izzy's entire family uh that came from Israel uh for this event. Uh it was it was absolutely moving. And the best part about the entire thing that after it was over uh the the kids and the grandkids played on
the tennis courts. Uh so that was extremely full circle and it really makes the hard part of this job worthwhile. So I want to thank uh this council administration for the support. Um and and I welcome uh the entire uh
township to come and enjoy the new refurbished tennis courts. Thank you council president. Thank you council. Um all right. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in favor? We are adjourned at 7:10 p.m. Have a
good night everybody.