It's lay down. Yeah, it's down here. Good evening everyone. It's Thursday, September 25th. This is the combined council meeting. The time is 6:03 p.m. Could you please stand and join us in the plan a pledge of allegiance?
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Madame clerk, could you please uh call
the role, please? Council member Presser here. Council member Coyle here. Council member Harris here. Council member Patel. Council member Patiel here. Council member Pointer. Council member Schmeuel here. Thank you. Could you read adequate
notice? Adequate notice of this meeting as required by the public open public meeting act of 1975 has been provided by the annual notice sent to the home news tribune star ledger ty talk on November 18th 2024 and post the main lobby missile complex on that same date.
Thank you very much council president remarks. Um, just want to remind everybody that if you choose to drop your ballots in the drop any of the dropboxes, we have an election dropbox of course right out front and one at uh
mini beve ve. Um, also um what was the other thing? I'm trying to remember. No, I can't remember the other thing. Um, the other important item is that I I on behalf of council would like to wish uh Councilman Shuel a
very happy birthday. Thank you very much. All right. And also to all of our Jewish friends and neighbors out there a sha tova and happy new year to you. All right, with that um we go to review of the minutes. Any comments?
All right. Seeing none, uh we have the proposed ordinance the ordinance 2260 amending chapter 2 administration article 3 department section 2-31 police extra duty employment to update fee schedule regarding police extra duty
employment. Um any questions or comments about that? Council person. Yes. I have only one question on this. Is this applicable to It's good to see that you know we are re revising the rate after a long long time uh because this
does put some strain on our uh police force. Just a question on this ordinance. Uh does this apply to a nonprofit organization? Okay. Um yes it does. Is that right? Council is
I'm sorry. So, this is an ordinance that applies when um you have private duty for your police officers that are generally not on their
regular schedule. When, for instance, a developer needs to have a roadway uh have uh traffic control. This puts the cost and the burden on that private
individual for the costs that would be incurred if you had um someone who was on your regularly scheduled police force handling the matter. There's the procedural aspects of the ordinance
uh remain the same. All that changes is the fees um to reflect more modern costs that should be incurred. Right. No, that's exactly the reason I did say that you know it's a good thing that you know we are revising just I
didn't see any language per se for forprofit nonprofit you know there could be some religious event and if they need some uh know police force for the traffic routing purpose you know they will also be charged. That's what I'm hearing. It applies generally across the board. Y
the only way that any fees for a nonprofit could be waved uh would be for them to make that request to this governing body which you would then have to approve by a majority of your of your um body to authorize the action and
waiver of fees. Okay. Understood. At the same time then someone's picking up the tab for that. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions or comments on the ordinance? Okay, moving on. Um, number 7A from the business ad administrator. Any questions
or comments? Okay. 8 A through F questions, comments. All right. Um, number nine, Department of Health. We have a questions, comments.
Okay. Uh, Department of Planning and Engineering 10 A through C. All right. Uh, number 11, Department of Public Works, A Department of Water and Sewer, 12 A.
Uh, 13A, Chief of Fire, A. Okay. Chief of Police 14A. Uh from the township clerk a monster golf council president. Yes.
Do do they have a date? Um this is the the new new place that's open there, right? Do do they have a date as to when their opening is? To to my my knowledge, Monster Golf has been there. Yeah.
Applying now for the state amusement license. Council Councilman Brusher, this is just a yearly renewal for them. Yeah. Hope I can licensing our renewals yearly. Okay. All right. Thank you.
Okay. Um All right. With that, we go to the regular meeting and uh the approval of the minutes 16A. Can I get a motion to approve? Motion to approve. Second. All right. Right. All in favor? I. New business. We have the proposed
ordinance public hearing set down for Wednesday, October 8th, 2025. Madame clerk, would you read the ordinance? [Applause] An ordinance amending chapter 2 administration article 3 department section 2-31 police extra duty
employment to update the fee schedule regarding police extra duty employment. Okay. Um, we would now open it up to public comment on Oh, no. No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. Um, the uh I need a motion to introduce.
Mr. President, yes. I move this ordinance be passed on first reading published according to law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Wednesday, October 8th. Wednesday, October 8th. Seconded.
All right. So, we got a second. Okay. Um, who was it? I think it was a soft. Did you second? Okay. Sorry. Uh, any council comments on on the ordinance? Yeah, this just makes sense to me. It just makes sense that the the $50 an
hour moving it to $80 an hour makes perfect sense. the people who are in need of this. That would be whether as their counselor pointed out, whether it would be um a developer who's doing construction and it's diverting traffic, whether it would be a private individual
having a a function, let's say at one of our parks, then um they would be paying the bill for it. So, it just seems like a no-brainer to me. Um can we get a roll call, please? Council member Brusher. Yes. Council member Coyle. Yes.
Council member Patel. Yes. Council member Patiel. Yes. Council member Pointer. Yes. Council member. Yes. Council President Harris. Yes. All right. Um All right. We move to um 18. Public comment on the resolutions.
Any public comment on the resolutions? Okay. Uh motion to close. You got I think they did a question. Sorry. I'm sorry. Yes. And just as a reminder, this is on the resolutions only. If it's regular public comment, that's later. That's a
little bit later on for the ordinance for that you guys were just discussing. No, no, that will be that will be on October 8th. Yes. I just have a quick question about it. Uh I have to do it for a class.
Yeah, I I public. Yeah, just doing it. Yeah, if you do. Yeah, you can do it when we get to uh oral petitions and remarks later on. So, if you can stick around, you can ask that question then. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anyone else? Motion to close the public portion.
Second. Okay. Um All right. Now, uh proposed resolutions. Anything to pull for a separate vote? We have uh resolutions 528 through 544. anything to pull?
Okie dokie. Um All right. So, um yeah. Yeah. So, I'm uh we go to the motion to approve. Motion to approve. Chance to second. Second. Okay. Uh all in favor? I Oh, roll call. Sorry. Okay. Got it.
Council member Brusher. Yes. Council member Coyle. Yes. Council member Patel. Yes. Council member Patiel. Yes. Council member Pointer. Yes. Council member. Yes. Council President Harris. Yes. All right. We are now at 21 from the
council member to the planning board. President the regular public would be. Wait. No. We have to do oral petitions and remarks. I do. Oh jeez. I am really No. Now you're open oral petitions. Okay. I am so sorry everybody. Um,
okay. Uh, delete that last comment and uh, we move to oral petitions and remarks. And so now if you have that question, you can ask it. Thank you. I just wanted to ask for the ordinance,
when was the last time it was passed? Good question. I can't hear you. The last time that the ordinance Yeah. the last time the ordinance was passed. Do we know when that was? How long would it was in the original form? I can't answer that.
Okay. It it would indicate in the bottom of the ordinance in the draft. Usually it tells you the the dates. Um I don't I don't see it on here.
No, it's it's not on our cop it's not on our copies here. Yeah. Leave a number with the clerk and we'll get back to them. Yeah. Let's um if you can hang hang
around, maybe we can then find that and get back to you. Can you can you hang around a bit? Yeah. All right. Thank you. Thank you, C. Yes, President. I mean, just while she's here, does she have any more questions we can answer right now? Because it's your four minutes. Uh, no, that was all. But you said that's the only question you have. Yes. And you know, it's the police ordinance,
right, for the extra duty solutions. Okay. So, make sure we're confirming. That's all. Okay. Thank you, Mr. President. I have the year. It's 2018. 2018. There you go. All right. Thank you. Okay. Um, anyone else from the public?
Yes, Liz. Elizabeth Conway, 20 Netherward Circle. Number one, Grove Avenue has been paved. Well, that was wonderful. Oh, sorry. Grove. What about Grove Avenue? It was paved where all those divots were. It's nice and smooth. So, okay. So, you're happy?
Yes. Okay. Okay. Well, that's number one. Uh, number two, I would like to know if there's any updates on the status of Inman Avenue going into Old Raritin Road. Uh, number three, um, the new ordinance
that will be coming up, it's updating the fees. So, that means the police will get an increase in salary and the township gets an increase. it looked like like a 10%
would go back to the township and then there was a question as to who was actually assigning um the overtime fees. But my initial question is since there's a um a change in the fees that the police would be
getting, does that affect a a sidebar to their contract or no? And um my last thing is I had um not ne next to last uh I had asked about the uh ebikes and scooters uh if there was any
kind of regulations and I kind of felt that uh I was told that there are none and I was wondering if that is something that could be considered because even coming tonight an electric scooter passed me on my right going in the
opposite direction no helment. So, if that's something that uh is of concern, if that the council could uh look into something at least for that. And last but not least,
I know I still have two minutes, but uh to make sure that sometime in the future that this is redone where we're back to the six minutes and not even so much the
six minutes. You know, if I have a um quite a bit to talk about, I might need the six minutes. Other nights I may not, but it gives me the option. But the rebuttal part is the thing that really bothers me and
may bother other people. I can only speak for me. But if I get a response to one of my items that I really don't agree with or somebody goes against what I was saying, I'm not given that right to uh rebut what they're saying. So I
really think that you're taking away our rights to speak our minds and if someone doesn't agree or if they give wrong information I am not able to um speak up about it. So, uh, I really think, uh, the council,
it's September. If we could get it done, I would really appreciate it. And I'm sure other people would also because knowing the number of people that are in the room, if we're talking an additional two minutes to speak in and making it
six instead of four. And if the rebuttal is three minutes, you're only talking about an additional five minutes. And right now we have, you don't count, one, two, three, four, five, six people. So
we're only talking 30 minutes maximum if every person chose to go get up and speak. Now I know all of you, especially one person I know, could speak in 30 minutes with a blink of an eye. So
please consider it and bring that back to the residents. Must be talking about you, Rich. Thank you. Seven seconds. More on that later, Liz. Yes, Gloria. Oh, I'm so sorry. Road. I I am. Yes. Yes. Yes. Can hold on
there, Gloria. I am really discombobulated. Uh, all right. Her questions were about Inman and Old Rear Road. Anything being done there? The county is actually looking at that intersection, so we will follow up with them. Okay. Uh, regarding the ordinance, the
new fees, um, is this a sidebar to the contracts? It is not. It's just a change in ordinance and policy. And the additional question with regards to this ordinance, there is a percentage uh, in terms of fees that goes into the
township administratively. Okay. All right. And uh, any council president, one just one more question. Sonia, this isn't mandatory that they have to work, right? this is an option. It's not it's it's usually paid by outside vendors who use them. So, this
is not the township necessarily. It's we obviously get a portion of it because we have to administer the folks that we hire and therefore it's paid by um th those vendors that use them for security purposes. Okay. Thank you. All right. And our last question was
about ebikes and scooters. Are there any regulations uh that are going to be looked at about this? Uh, council person, I'm not aware of any issues pertaining to Edison. If there are, certainly welcome any feedback from the council. Uh, if you so wish to look at
and we'll take a look at it with legal. Not that I'm aware of. Um generally in these types of situations we're looking for um consistency and we would not want a patchwork where
local reg regulations were sought to be imposed on essentially what are traffic issues. So we'd be looking to the state. Uh, but I'm not aware that there's any regulations that are currently pending, but I or
mandatory statutory requirements, but we can look at it. I'm just not aware off the top of my head. Council President. Yep. Yes. Even if we did change something, uh, they're just going to buy scooters with pedals and that eliminates there's a law
that you can have a pedal bike and that's been going on since 19 probably 70. So, but it's going to be tough to eliminate it completely because of the law of having pedals on bikes. That's why they had the moped. Mopeds always
have pedals. Uh, council vice president. Thank you. Um, I actually had received an email from Mr. Stool about two hours ago, uh, following up on a conversation that we had because he had asked me to bring this up today. Hey, I was going to
do it under uh ordinances and consideration, but he uh mentioned that I guess Woodbridge had just recently passed a local ordinance. Um maybe as something that we could just look to for guidance. I understand that there is no specific state regulation for us to
dovetail off of, but that might be a good starting point. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, Gloria. Good evening, Gloria Dipman. Midland Road Edison. I have a couple of
things I'd like to talk about. I agree wholeheartedly with what Elizabeth has just said. I can live with the four minutes. I can live with that. But I sincerely wish you would reconsider the rebuttal.
people do not feel, if I can use the word satisfied, if they can't don't have a chance to at least say one other thing that maybe that hadn't occurred to them until you give your answer. So, I'm asking you to
please not stifle our right to speech and consider the rebuttal. Keep the four minutes if you feel that strongly about it, but consider the rebuttal, please. Second thing I'd like to talk to you about, and I know this is distressing,
maybe our engineering department can do something about the water mane breaks in Edison. Last weekend, we had another one. I'm not an engineer. I don't know what you could do, but I'm sure it's upsetting to the people in the area, especially if they have to go for any
length of time without water. That is really, really upsetting. Thirdly, I'd like to talk to you about the senior center on Woodbridge Avenue. I understand it's been closed for a while. Some people have been calling me
asking me why. I have no idea. If you have an answer, are they redoing the inside? Is there a plumbing issue? If you could share that with me, I'd greatly appreciate it. And lastly, I looked on the computer
today and it says that in January of 2025, Edison's debt was $116 million. and that in nine months after you this council passed three bonds, our debt now
is $180 million. It's an outstanding number. I mean, it's it takes your breath away. Please think about that. Think about how hard people have to work
to take care of the additional taxes that will be placed upon us to take care of those bonds. And then when the school board gets their three cents in, it's it's it's overwhelming. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. I was not aware of the senior center having been closed, so um I'd like to know about that as well. It's not closed as far as I as far as I know. Um the only issue we've had there was the kitchen. We had to do an emergency
repair to the um to the um the trap. The um Oh my gosh. The grease grease. The grease trap. Yes. Skipped my mind. So we So uh I'm not aware of that. it's closed or any anything else other than the perhaps a
kitchen, but I'll follow up on the renovations to make sure that the grease trap was fully repaired. Um, we entered into uh an emergency contract with Magic Touch. Um, far as the water main brakes, as you know, uh, we have I mean, they
have been weekly. Uh, but our team is just outstanding and they get that up and running within a couple hours for the most part. And sometimes we don't even know that uh they happen because they're so quick with getting the repairs done other than if there are
major breaks. The last one we had was Brunswick A and we used our emergency contractor which the council uh do just passed the resolution and thank goodness for that because we were able to get that repair done and um it is up and
running and there was minimal impact to to that to Brunswick. Um, so I will I will again follow up on the senior building and see what's going on with that, but it is not closed. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I hadn't heard anything about that. Thanks. I'm sorry, but I couldn't hear what you said. Could you repeat it?
The the senior center is not closed. It's not closed. It's not closed. No. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Council President. Yes. Uh, can I just make a comment on the the debt statement that was just made? Sure.
I think some of the numbers are a little inaccurate that was just presented uh at the debt statement that ended for December 31st of last year. Yes, the debt is including those that are have not been
like authorized and bonded out, right? Because you have those that have been authorized and bonded, authorized and not bonded out yet is at 179. But to say that we've increased it 70 million since the beginning of January um like the
debt statement December 31st 2023 we're at 151. So I I don't see where we increased at 70 and by my numbers it was at 28 and we went over these numbers before uh with the recent bond ordinance
that would be under capital we would be at about 204 in total and again that's authorized doesn't mean that they've actually been put out to bond yet. So I just wanted to make that clarification. Thank you council president. Thank you council vice president. Anyone else?
Seeing none. Motion to close the public portion. A second. Second. Okay. Very good. Motion. Um. One second. Uh. All right. So
All right. Um. All right. Now we go to the planning board. Council President. Um, I have no comments in planning board. Okay. Anyone who wants to know what's been
approved, it's on the agenda on the township website. You can watch the video. Um, that's my presentation. Thank you. Is the next planning board meeting October 6th? I think that's why we're having a
combined meeting. I'm sorry. What was that, Joel? I'm just Oh, yes. Next meeting is October 6th. Thank you. Uh all right. Uh reports from council committees. Um starting with uh
Councilman Brresser. Uh none at this time. All right. Uh Councilman Coyle. None at this time. Okay. Uh Councilman Patel. None at this time. Thank you. Councilman Patiel? None at this time.
Okay. Councilman Patiel. Um it might be a good idea again to just make another announcement about the resident advisory committee about where things are at. Yes. Uh resident advisory committee we are looking for more applicants. We have
very few very few. So if you can please please so we can start the process of interview and we can get this committee form as soon as we can. Okay. Thank you Councilman Patiel. Uh, Councilman Shmul, I would just I would echo Councilman Patiel's uh ask for people to come and
and apply for uh for these committees, important committees that we want to get off the ground and start running. Uh but we don't have any applicants or we I shouldn't say we don't have any. We have very few applicants. Uh so if uh if you're interested in in
uh in a voice, we're here to listen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Council Vice President. Uh thank you, council president. Uh I do apologize to the um human relations committee. They had given me notes. I accidentally left that at home. I I apologize. Um the
environmental commission, I think I'll save that for points of light because there was the green fair that occurred. Uh but there there is a request to fill I think the last uh open vacancy on the board. Um there is a recommendation that
the commission would like the uh the mayor to consider. So I'll follow up uh afterwards with the the administration and the mayor on that. Thank you, council president. Thank you very much. Okay. And for myself, uh apparently council vice president and I got the
same memo about leaving notes from from committees at home because I also left the uh cultural arts commission uh notes from earlier this month at home. So, I apologize for that. We'll pick that up next uh next month. Um so, we go on to
points of light. And so, who had some uh some items for the points of late light? Did you want to council president? Yes. Um on September um 13th, the Environmental Commission
along with numerous other organizations had the uh Edison Green Fair at Swales Park. Um I was able to fortunately attend in the morning. I know you as well. I thought it was uh a great event. Um there were a lot of local educational
and environmental vendors that were there that uh I thought was just great to see. um seeing the growth and the utilization of the community garden there I thought was great to see um and just overall it was a it was a good
event to be at. So I appreciate the environmental commission, the department of health um and all the other organizations that took part and all the uh the vendors and such that also partic participated to make it a wonderful event and I look forward to its
continued growth. Thank you, Council President. Thank you. Anyone else for points of light? Councilman Coyle, if I'm sure you're probably going to mention it, but on Saturday is our fall family spectacular. Okay. You're going to go over there. That's okay. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Um, and that's on in Amboy Avenue between 1 and 9:00 p.m. Uh, I just want to echo council vice president about the green fair. First of all, they had a perfect day weatherwise for it and the attendance was very robust. Um, the thing that that impressed me the most is
the interest from our youth in the environment. And I remember being impressed by that three years ago when former councilwoman Joyce Ship Freeman and I went to a Girl Scout troop and we were asking them what are some of their biggest concerns about uh about Edison
and their overwhelming response was the environment. It blew me away in a good way. And so it's really nice to know that it's the young people who are going to be putting in the energy in order to
keep this environment safe uh to com to combat global warming and pollution and they they are our hope for the future. So there was a plenty of youth presence out there who was very who were very interested. So, I agree it was a I think
it was a tremendous success. Um, all right. We move on to discussion items. Uh, let's start with uh Well, I'm going to start. It's It's in a different order here, but yeah. All right. Councilman Brresser, anything.
Um, well, I'm going to say no, but I'm going to comment after you speak today. Okay. Okay. All right. Councilman Co. Councilman Coyle, I've discussed my points with the administration and it's pretty redundant. Uh that's same stuff for the same stuff I have from last meeting.
Thank you. Okay. Uh Councilman Patel, I'm going to pass on it today too. Councilman Patiel. Thank you, Council President. I think you know there is a good progress. The the road patches were done. Thank you for the followup. Um Brower Street is
paved. Thank you. Uh so the two things are down. Uh the request here is the crossing marks on Oakry Road. I know it is county road grow as well as planefield road especially across the bus stops. Uh
now the the timing changing these the people are using uh public buses frequently when they cross especially on oak tree or grow you know it is a chance of accident because of the traffic because of the speeding. So it's a request you know if you can work with the county and
if there are local road if we can get that done and the last one is you know how far we are in Shelton community center and to center what's the progress on that so they started actually demolishing the building um and so we're underway with
constructional permitting and um so we're in a in a good place at this point there's actual activity happening if you do pass by. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. All right. Thank you. Uh, Councilman, anything? No, I too discussed some of my uh items
with the administration earlier today and I got my answers. Thank you. All right. Uh, Council Vice President. Thank you, Council President. Uh, as mentioned before about the ebike and u uh e motorcycles or um just something
for us to take a look into. Uh, thank you to the administration for getting Brower Avenue. Uh several of the residents reached out expressing their gratitude. I apologize. I have not had the opportunity to forward it yet. Um there are a couple of other items that they had brought to attention. Hopefully
we can work on those. Um, the one I do want to make mention, I'm not sure the process because I know the repaving was a condition of approval, but some of the new homeowners there are curious if there's anything that if anything else
that would obstruct them getting certificate of occupancy. Um, I know that is a bit of a further disc like a deeper dive, but uh just wanted to bring it to attention. Uh, that would be it, Council President. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh for myself,
we'll do the easy ones first. Uh I'm going to go from D up to A. Um and I'm glad that uh Gloria is here because I wanted to follow up on where we we are if anywhere on planning a 250th birthday
event for Edison. So, Council President, we formed a committee. Okay. Um actually uh our engineer who is a hidden historian is part of that committee and uh there's quite a lot that we're and we're working
um with a few other community um folks uh to get together a fullsome calendar. We are working with TV. TV is going to put regular videos out there. They are currently working. I saw a few of them. Um they're very intriguing. They're uh
fun. their fact their uh factf finding fun and so we we will share that once we have the entire calendar in place. Uh we plan on doing some reenactments in particular over on Oakree Road um at the pond and so um we will provide that and
put that on the website and have something together uh at uh on the TV station. So please uh stay tuned. Okay, glad to hear that. Thank you. Um status of 110 Clive. It still looks like nothing is nothing is happening there.
Any any update? I'm sorry. Can you repeat 110 Clive? Where are we at? Uh are you referring to the cons conservation easement area? Yeah. Well, I'm talking about that whole thing in terms of development. It just it does not look like there's anything that's happening. I walk every morning
and I'm going by there and I see nothing going on. And I'm just wondering at what point does do things start to move there? I they'd have to make an application to the planning board. That that would be on on them to do. As far as the pond area, um the county the I
believe the uh mosquito commission, they are planning on cleaning up the pond. Um that's as far as our involvement goes. Um I don't know when they're going to do it. They alerted me to that they would be doing it. Um but as far as the development part of it, that's on
whomever, you know, is planning on building. I think over in that area. All right. Um and the Fonte House. Uh so we are currently expanding some of our um cleanup in at the Fonte House as
far as environmental and we're working with our engineers on doing that. We've done some mold um but we're doing some additional asper dive is we want to make sure that that building is safe. Okay. Um, so it does not sound like so,
so work is currently being done there. There is no work currently being done. We are doing all of the studies in order to make sure that we go in there to do the work in a safe manner. All right. It sounds like we are a long way off from that being able to be um uh
to be occupiable, if that's a word. Okay. Then we get to public speaking time and um and you know I don't I don't even want pe I don't I know Gloria you spoke about the I'd be willing to compromise to the four minutes if we can
get a rebuttal. I don't want to compromise on this. I want the people to have the six minutes back that they had that were taken away from them. And the part, one of the parts I have a hard time getting my head around is that at
the same time as this um th this particular ordinance was changed was when the the whole props ban thing was changed. And we know what an embarrassment that wound up turning into for this town. And
so we closed the barn door on that one after the horses were gone because it was already in national news. And even though we unanimously wound up repealing what we had what had been passed, the scars are still there.
The scars are very much still there. And and yet I praise the council for having seen the error of their ways and having repealed that. I don't understand the stubbornness of this council in doing the same for the six minutes because I I
don't know whose purposes are being served by this. It's certainly we are not beholden to admin the administration for the six minutes. It doesn't it does not affect them in any particular way.
No resident in since this has been this was changed, no resident has come to me or has spoken up saying, you know, I think that four minutes is just is just enough and we don't need a rebuttal. Nobody. It's been a constant drum beat
of people who want their time back. So I ask whose needs are being served by this? Um and and I will tell you this that whoever is on the next council, this will be changed. This will be repealed. uh either of the teams who are
running right now, I am confident that they will have the vote between them and other people on this council that coun myself, Councilman uh Patel and Council Vice President Pointer will no longer be here, but there will be others here
along with other the people who have been in favor of changing this back to the six minutes. It will be passed eventually. It's going to be passed, but I'd rather see this done sooner than later. Why not? Why not now? Um I also
um would ask the departing members who have voted to keep the four minutes. I would also ask you to consider what your legacies are if this if if we fail to pass the the return to six minutes. I'd ask you to consider what your legacies
will be when you leave this council because I think that it's a very good chance that you are going to be remembered for the people as council members who took away people's time. And I I would ask you to consider that. And for the others of you who are going to
be staying on council who have voted against this, the same is going to go to you. you'll be you you may or may not run for reelection the next time around, but this is going to go to your legacies as well. And I think that's something I think that's something that you need to
consider. So, um the good news is for the people out there eventually the six minutes is going to come back and the rebuttal will come back. I am asking for you to do that now and I am going to be putting it on the agenda for the next
meeting and let you all go on record and vote as you will. But I'm hoping I'm hoping and and hoping as hard as I can that this time we can get this passed and and move it back to to six minutes and not and not have to wait for the next council to do this. Thank you very
much, Council President. Yes. Um, can I just ask if if you're going to put this on I I mean I'm in favor of it. We we know that. But I I do believe that government is supposed to work together, right? And it
shouldn't be my way or the highway type of thing. Um I believe that's what happens with all the discourse we have um in Washington. And well, while I'm not opposed to the 6 minutes, I do believe that the rebuttal
um and I'm not saying it has to be a 3minut rebuttal or 4-minute rebuttal, right? That could be topic of conversation. But I've sat here and witnessed a resident um make a statement. We gave an answer or the administration gave an answer, but that
wasn't the real question that was asked, you know. So in that circumstance, they spoke out from the audience. It looked like there was going to be some chaos going on, you know, and and they just felt disenfranchised. And I don't think we really I don't think anybody up here
wants any of them to feel that way. So, if there's a way that when you have this written, um, if we could have it written so that it has the both parts because we might have council people that might be okay with the rebuttal end of it. Um, where
they don't feel that comfortable with maybe going for the whole 6 minutes cuz they think it's just too long. And, and I understand, right, with the amount of people we have here, absolutely right, we we can sit here for a half an hour. that happened during a time when we'd have 50 or 100 people and I guess
everybody was looking at it going we'll be here till you know 1:00 in the morning. Um and we have we've extended those meetings from 10:00 to like 10:30 to 11. So so I I do understand that there but um if we could at least make
it up in like two parts um in case any of like the council colleagues that were with you know feel comfortable with that I'd appreciate if we could do that. Thank you. I I would just say it if if the meetings
extend to 11, 12, whatever it is, it's our jobs. When I was on the school board, we had meetings that went until midnight. It's our job. It's we were elected to serve and it's our jobs to serve and if it means it goes to 11 or 12, then so be it. Um, anyone else?
Council President. Yes, Council Vice President. Uh, I'm I'm going to agree with uh Councilman Brusher. um you present it in a take it or leave it format. Um when we discussed during the initial thing, we said maybe 5 minutes is appropriate and
it was immediately shot down because if five minutes is good then six minutes is okay. When I did my research, I know no one really cares about all that. I found that most of the people that were speaking ended up at the 4 minute to 4:30 mark. Right? Well, we had presented
possibly five minutes, but this take or leave it ultimatum that's presented like to Councilman Brer's point, like why am I going to automatically now say, "Hey, maybe five minutes is okay when I'm just being approached to in that manner." Um,
so I just needed to make that comment in regards to whose needs are being served. We have a responsibility up here to perform the council's business, right? And in doing so, it's setting up the environment for us to be the most
efficient that we can. I can agree where maybe four minutes maybe is too short. One of the instances was the gentleman who needed his daughter to interpret for him where in theory because he's having someone interpret, he didn't have the full four minutes. So I can understand
where maybe five minutes is more appropriate for that type of instance. But that then goes back to my initial thing and that if it's just going to be presented as take her to leave it, I mean then what's what's bringing me to the table to even have that discussion.
So I just wanted to put that on the record. Thank you. My answer to that, council vice president, is that the people th the this the ordinance the original ordinance for 6 minutes goes back well
over 10 years. I think it's it might even be 15 years and it was working. It works for the school board. The school board is currently 6 minutes and a three-minute rebuttal. It works for them. They haven't had any problem with
it. It doesn't mean everybody uses their six minutes, but it's there if they if they need it. And so I kind of go back to the fact that people liked and were satisfied with the six minutes and the three minute rebuttal and then it was
yanked. It was yanked away from them. So yeah, we can talk about five minutes, we can talk about five and a half minutes or six minutes. Um, and so if people say, "Okay, let's let's settle on five," then you then you settle on five. Um, bottom line is that
four minutes is not enough that people want to know. They have the leeway if they need it to use that full amount of time. And um I know that part of what was going into this was the antics of some of the people who were coming to
these meetings and using their six minutes in a way that was making a mockery out of the meetings. That's not happening anymore. And I and so the people generally who are coming to these meetings do not make a mockery out of
their public speaking time. And so it's still my ask to bring it back to six minutes. We can I suppose we can talk about that. I will discuss with the attorneys. I'll discuss uh maybe a little bit more with you, Councilman Brusher, about how to word this. Um but
um I uh I I do plan to in one form or another put this back on the agenda for the next meeting. Thank you, Council President. Yes. Can I just make one more remark on the rebuttal aspect? Um, if you do bring up on the rebuttals, I would just ask for a
definition clarifying what it means in the ordinance because at the last meeting, it was brought up. I know a rebuttal is when someone else brings up a topic I did not discuss and I disagree with that viewpoint, then I can come up.
I I that's how I ran the entire 2023. No one made any comments different, right? And now the same individual comes up today and says, "Well, if there's something that may be misleading or something that is misphrased, then I
would have the opportunity to come up." Right? Those are two different ways of the actual definition of how we are treating a rebuttal. So, I would just ask for that to be clarified in the ordinance if a rebuttal is brought back up. Thank you. That's fair. I think that's fair. All
right. Anything else? Okay. Um, can we get a motion to adjurnn? Motion to adjurnn. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I. Thank you very much. Thanks everyone. Oh, 6:52 p.m.
You forgot to sing happy birthday. Oh, yeah.