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really want to fix the problem again I my earlier question was to be
which she said she doesn't think we need any uh we we don't need to acquire any property but I can tell you raway road is very small it's not that wide you will end up getting into the neighbor's property the both Corners to install the lights but unless you widen that road it's next to impossible to make the left and right from from raway on in man you cannot with one lane it's impossible to control the traffic that
will all be determined during the design process I can only make assumptions at this time okay so it's still in design we don't know whether we will need to acquire neighboring property or whether this project will even move forward to the greatest extent until the design is brought forth and we see the actual impacts that is the case yes sir and do we know how much money we'll be spending on design uh I'm going to pass over to the
um if you all have a copy of the agreement um this is all on the county at 100% the con the all of the administrative cost and design engineering services are at 100% to the county okay so as long as it's with County but just just remember when we say County it is not free money we do pay the county tax it's not free thank you sir council president one question councilman pel when will sorry when will the design be done how long does that
process um knowing the county not quickly nothing against them it normally takes easily a year okay with the back and forth and that's before even going out to bid okay sounds good thank you you're welcome thanks Brian don't get too comfortable we're going to need you later um okay anyone else on items a through I on nine okay seeing none we're going to move on to 10 from the Department of Finance a through F questions
comments on a through F on 10 council president yes on F report of disbursement through January 25 2025 I have brought this to this attention of this Council multiple times does this disbursement includes mayor's campaign tax funded campaign son uh can you just repeat
exactly which resolution you're referring to report of dispersement the 10f the bills list you're referring to it yes okay and if you could just repeat your question please my question is does this bill list includes or anywhere in the bill list which probably could be hidden mayor's tax funded campaign mailers or letters that he's sending I I
can't answer answer to I'm I'm not first of all I'm with all due respect I can't I don't understand your question the builds dispersement are what the township let Mees on a monthly basis thank you uh is there a specific if you could identify a specific line item that you may have a question about that's a problem that's how exactly the problem is it is embedded in a way that it is not visible so question to attorney sir do you have any idea first thing have
you seen the bill list I'm sorry could you repeat the question so I can answer it properly you have before you a bill list I think what you're asking is are there any political expenditures on behalf of the mayor on that bill list all right and without going through it line by line I can't answer that but I don't think that there are I reviewed it briefly but I didn't look for that specific response can
you affirmatively tell me that that it doesn't include or for that matter council president I hate to see this but I would like to put you on the spot because you continue to support the same propaganda what happened in the state of town same propaganda at the cost of the taxpayer with all due respect councilman you're not putting me on the spot I am not your finance officer I don't present the bills to you I don't prepare the
bill list the bill list if you have specific questions on the bill list should be directed to finance okay let me ask the finance Ken yes the bill list does include uh a charge for concept printing for letters from the mayor okay and how much is that
1,54 8 do you think that is the right amount May mayor sent the magnet along with the letter one envelope would cost more than a dollar it was sent to every single household which is probably 50,000 plus there is another charge for concept printing for a magnet
which was in the amount of 6,665 does that include mailing that's a printing and that's a printing and the cost of the magnet what about the mailing um have a line item I don't know if there is a you're asking us so you know which one you're talking about so no because I don't know how you are hiding where you are hiding I don't know it could be legitimate reason I those are allegations I can't affirm that I'm just simply going over what we would charge for example for printing correct again
s with all due respect printing is a very generic word what that printing means it could be regular stationary mayor is printing something to hand out internal office I get that that's needed for the business you know the town hall operation I'm very specific to the campaign tax funded campaign material if you're not aware that's okay but that's where I'm asking the finance person we're we're not aware of any um but your words political so you want me to bring the letters here which
I brought one time so council president you want me to bring the same letters back here CU you are approving blindly you council president you yourself without taking any objection to any of these line items you're asking me if I want you to bring the letters with the magnets no what I'm asking is you have no concern on mailer a mayor using taxpayers funds to send mailer or the letters to the residents which is in the bill list
which I just heard at least two line items I I said that you last time you agreed but now you have no concern that's what I'm saying why would you say I have no concern about it I have not seen because you were just moving to the next item so I would like to hear your position on that is May doing the right thing and not just you every single council member on this as can you can you reconstruct for me I remember the letters with the magnets can you reconstruct
for me what was the gist of the letter and what the mag and the magnets I remember receiving it I just don't remember what the content of the letter was councilman Pati I'm asking you every resent I think you know they should have the more information because they approved not approved they allowed it to be printed so they would have the more latest greatest information rather than asking the person who is raising the question so I
need to come up with the letter which I did last time I showed it to everyone right now you want me to produce every single letter that is sent to the resident I don't need you to do that I'm asking I'm just asking if you recall what was in that letter every res received you should have received the same letter I'm sorry you should have also received the same letter council president I did receive the same letter I'm telling you I don't remember what it said I don't remember what the content was I remember there being a magnet in
there so you threw it was possibly but you know let me ask Kan have you seen that letter no okay Sonia have you seen that letter okay attorney have you seen the letter your firm can I finish let let ask um so the the letter was with the magnet I have seen the magnet and the Crux of the magnet was to provide information to Residents should they require um services that was the magnet understood
I'm not question on the magnet I'm questioning on the letter itself that goes with the magnet right I'm just remember the the mayor is not a permanent body here the mayor will come and go it cannot be just one person name on that magnet that's what if it is Edison Township reach out for the the police fire I'm perfectly fine council president I don't have any additional information to add with regard to the magnet I do know it was informational purposes that's all
I have thank you okay next time council president I'll bring all the letters for your reference and then probably you can make any comment I I just would need one letter I don't need I don't need a stack of letters I just need one letter I gave last time I circulated to the entire Council and I spoke saying is this acceptable is anyone willing to condemn and none I didn't hear anything show me the letter I will next time I will bring the letter that's abely that's fine thank
you presid yes con pressure yeah I'm going to take a crack at this one too um we we know that a letter went out right I mean anybody that lives in the town got it uh the ba acknowledges that we have a magnet they can find the printing cost right and they can find the cost for the magnet it got sent out to 50,000 households so I guess what we're looking at
here is what is the cost in this bill list for all these items which would be the mailing the printing the stuffing into envelopes the sealing whatever that whole process is and let me just tell you why because like I brought up when the mayor stole Time by taking our Police Department to Chicago and then after I brought it up and exposed him he wrote a check to supposedly pay back the town right right here if this is
a political flyer or it's deemed political because it says things like um you know I paved all your roads and significant infrastructure improvements yada y y which sounds like a political flyer to me from what I just read um and then I would like to if he's not willing to reimburse the town right from his political campaign for it then I would look to let's say sue him as a resident right to recoup those funds from
the mayor so what we're looking for here is just what that dollar amount is with the breakdown so that if we're going to go this route you know that's where it'll go or if it goes to an ethics board or if it goes to elect or wherever we deem it should go we're looking for those numbers the Administration has them so they just have to get us the cost the stuffing the licking and closing and the stamp like just I know that's kind of but you know what I mean just the total
package cost if we can get that I I'd be happy to get it to you it may not be this evening but certainly I can get that to you all right thank you council president yes Council and Co well according to chat TBT well first I agree with the mayor sending out information to Residents and taxpayers to Showcase where their money is going it's been done before this is not the first time a mayor has done it and it's part of an information opportunity for residents to know
where money's going in fact the Illuminator you know how much I love the Illuminator I don't think you can ever get a group people to come here to say they don't like it because there's so many residents that just love it and uh for the seniors I speak to who call my house the first thing to talk about is the Illuminator getting the Illuminator Hey listen I'm I'm willing to go for the challenge you bring your people and we'll just see what happen we'll do a survey but according to this uh 58 cents per resident to receive a mailer just according to this check TPT vendor thing
just an analysis out there um I don't think that's a lot of money for residents uh to encumber to get information on where their taxpayer money is going has there ever been uh one before yes it's been done before it's just this mayor is not his mayor and we'll talk about what he does it's just an opposition proposition thank you anyone else on 10 a through
F okay moving on 11 from the Department of planning and Engineering a through G council president on G yes okay I'd like to get just the numbers because we this project is already in Flight you again I fully support the project K question to you is what was the original amount that we started this project with or maybe Sonia you can help it the original the first when we announce mayor announced this in state of town he's doing the sports complex
plus the turfield what was the original amount the first one 10 million 5 million it was about 10 million the first time I it was around then I I I can find that out for you but I do recall it having originally be set about between 9 and 10 when we went out to bid that first time the bids were much much higher than what we had anticipated so with with that um via the procurement law we do have to go
back out to bid which we we did um the numbers came back a little high I I want to say the the winning bidder it was about uh a million more um than we had anticipated um we did find the funds certifi the funds um so that's where we were originally if that answers your question somewhere n910 million about yes and that includes the turfield turfield per SP we're talking the
sports building is a is just the the sports building the turfield was a different project so for the turf field excluding the turfield just for the uh the sports building Sports building it was $9 to10 million correct correct do we know what is the cost as of today before this change order um I can get that number for you um if you just give me a minute okay sure um so we're at
8% above of what was originally awarded so you're probably talking um I know with te orders it's been about maybe 3/4 of a mil okay because I remember we had originally planned half a million dollar we did one time this is lesser but you know if you can give me the rough number are we at 11 11 and a half
where we stand I can uh councilman pointer were you sign me I think there's some confusion because I believe you're incorporating the change order that was with the tur field by the baseball field which is technically a separate project I think that's what the business Ministry was trying to say corre on the resolution 10.78 s was the initial bid for the sports building uh the first two change orders were 284,000 I'm
approximating here onto that and then this change order is 557 on top of that bringing a revised total which is at the bottom 11.6 28 million and again this is sports building correct stand alone so you should have the backup of the change order um just to councilman this is Third change order and I'm losing a track now but this is 11.6 plus the turf field which is42 $5 million so we are roughly at $17
million combined with the tur field no we're we're talking about separate separate projects uh it is they are not together for the jet field jet field and the the sports complex they're next to each other these are but these are totally unrelated change ORD very specific to the sport understand that I'm talking about even though there are two different projects they were car carved out but the purpose and the audience is one at that point in time so that is where I'm I'm trying to understand
the complete project that includes the jet star field plus the jet Sports Complex is somewhere combined together 16 17 million dollar I'd have to get back to you on the Jets field the tur field okay I I was just ready to talk about the sports building now I would like to know the combined number thank you thank you pres anything else 11 a through G um
yes councilman Brer um first off the utility agreement for Route One and the bridge um I I didn't actually get to read that one I couldn't find it but what was that one for talk about d uh yes D fine 11 d uh council president we'll have Brian come up hello um I believe the one that you're referring to is for the dot project uh expanding the good kind
bridge over the River and the utility agreement is for any impacts to our infrastructure in case we need to redesign it the dot reimburses our professionals and then uh they will construct the work let me ask you what's the $10,000 for it's a token uh value we can negotiate that up or down based on the uh pricing we get back right now it's for design correct let me just ask a quick question cuz I I've
been sitting up here for a couple years now have we ever had any design of anything I think the Gazebo the Gazebo I think cost us $80,000 to design I think so what what can I get for $110,000 is my question I mean just I you know like I was saying uh councilman it's a token value right now uh until dot actually
designs something and gives it to us we don't know what the impacts are and at that time we can negotiate that value up up to to what our design professionals would need to cover the cost do you think that they would do something where that road could go like two ways where you could like use that as a turnaround like right now when I leave the Edison Diner I come out I make a left and I go underneath and then I can go on Route on Route One heading north but if I'm going
in the other direction I can't go back around the other way I do not believe that was part of the concept design at this point uh dot still in concept uh I know the county just issued comments back to dot on what they would like to see okay but we're still early on in the process all right no thank you you're welcome um then I have f um and this is to try and get like affordable housing
right does this will this go against our uh let me use the word COA numbers um but does this apply to that also councilman this is part of your third round um affordability programs the third round runs through June 30th of this year so
this would qualify as meeting one of your um prior obligations to meet your affordable housing requirements it's a market to Affordable program it helps people um buy a home it's a good thing oh no listen I I don't have a problem with that what I have a problem really with is um maybe you can answer this so we have a COA obligation in the town which could be whatever 500 600 800 whatever amount of units
right I'm saying that's a we just finished a CO around I think like a year or two ago which had whatever 700 units th000 units I I don't care what you want to you know call the amount of units um because that to me that's irrelevant right the court has decided we can negotiate a little bit I get it we should have affordable housing right I kind of like that I don't like projects you know like they were like in norc and stuff where everybody that was poor had to be all bound up in one little town I like
the idea of of spreading everything out I think it's good just for social on the aspect the problem the biggest problem I have again is urbanization of my town okay and mayors that are irresponsible in this instead of protecting the sanctity of a Suburban town and let me tell you where I go with it we just completed our COA obligation and as you stated we have a new round of COA obligation well 30 years
from now how much lowincome housing do you believe we're going to have in Edison if we just built 2,000 units 30 years from now those units become market rate right so at that point the courts going to come back to us and say you need to build another 2,000 or 3,000 or 4,000 units and at that time my children are going to end up selling my home right and teaming up with my neighbors and they're going to build apartment complexes there under the
COA obligations Why Can't This Town right stop this and and is there a mechanism where we could make the COA obligation like Perpetual um and I don't know if you want to call it um like New York City has something where when they have low income it's low income for life so what happens here is a developer comes in and they're allowed to build a 100 units but we say you're going to have to build 10 lowincome units so they go okay well then
I need to build 100 50 units so we approve it under the disguise of Kaa but then that same developer those apartments 30 years from now are all market rate right and and what we're doing is we're urbanizing our town so what mechanism do we have that the mayor or this body right can make this affordable housing be affordable housing in perpetuity you know I know there's a
way New York City figured out a way and I won't be here 30 years from now we know that but my grandchildren will so that's what I'm looking out for is is the next Generation council president I'm sorry councilman were you're looking for an answer from so you want me to to forecast 30 years into the future what affordable housing obligations there will be I will tell you this that affordable housing is a constitutional obligation that each municipality has to provide
a reasonable um Prospect of housing that's affordable to median income and lowincome people um it is not just a municipal obligation it's a it's a regional obligation I will tell you that there probably has not been any issue that has generated more litigation than the Mount Laurel concept since it was instituted in 1975 I will tell
you that while I'm pretty good at that stuff I don't have a crystal ball as to what it would be in 30 years from now the legislature has tried to come up with a plan that will meet that constitutional obligation and theoretically if population stays the same the programs that are in place
will meet that obligation but when that obligation is not met or population increases as you move forward in 30 years there will be new obligations to provide affordable housing what they will be I don't have that crystal ball and I'm not willing to guess thank you counselor I I I guess you I'm
going to try and clarify the question um right now with our population of 100,000 people we have to provide 2,000 lwi income units let's say okay 30 years from now given the same scenario we're going to have 100,000 people and at the same time those 2,000 lowincome units 30 years from now will no longer be low income units and we will not have it here any longer so at that time
we're going to be required to have the 2,000 units so my question is is there a mechanism or what could we possibly do as a council or as a Township to make our low income that's low income stay low income into the 30-year future 40-year future 50-year future so that we we have those low incomes that that was really my question what what is that mechanism
that we could possibly do there is a provision that is currently available called extending affordability controls so that when those controls are about to expire um you can negotiate with developers or owners of those properties to extend those affordability controls it doesn't often take place but it's there and I have used it
it usually requires some contribution from the municipality um to extend those controls but I believe that your question is what can this municipality do and I think that the answer is it is a Statewide problem that requires a Statewide solution which is why the legislature has um adopted the new affordable housing statute as a January of last
year so you can't solve it on a on a municipal basis it is a Statewide issue the state delegates that responsibility to Regions and it is a regional obligation which each municipality in that region has their own share of um mechanisms Tove
meet that Regional obligation so this is a philosophical conversation that you want to have no it's not it's it's it's not philosophic a practical it's a practical question you're asking me what can we do not a lot we have to continue to meet our constitutional obligation whatever that takes right but what I'm saying is it okay I guess we didn't really get anywhere with that one um we we do meet Our obligation 30
years from now those will no longer be low income therefore we're going to have to go back and produce those low income ones council president I think the question is the the obligations that we met now and 30 years from now when they expire do we need to re-include those numbers into the new one or since 30 years has expired we already met Our obligation we close this chapter and in
30 years whatever the new new chapter is that'll be the new chapter you're councilman yes you're kind of right there with me um that's where I'm going but where I'm going is when that expires 30 years from now what can we do now to say that it can't expire in 30 years I think that one he answered he said we can't do much uh so we just have to let that play out so each round of affordable housing theoretically is supposed to last for 10 years so this
current round because co- did not do its job the last round went from 1999 to 2025 the current round is scheduled to start July 1 2025 and expire June 30 2035 so in 30 years in on June 30th of 2055 we will continue to have an obligation and it will be your job as leaders of the community to find ways
to meet that obligation you cannot impose under current regulations a permanent restriction on affordable con affordability controls well then let me just make a another quick question to you so you're just just a quick question good can I just try try it just for once well just after this one I'm not goingon to say anything more I promise councilman Brer continue than okay
so so what you're saying is there's no way for us to do this so what Edison couldn't do is we couldn't take the land let's say that is over by Kilmer that we own or or the land that's over by the Triple C Ranch that we have and we couldn't build a lowincome or you know unit in there um ourselves that has five 00 units and
that those would be lwi income 500 units in perpetuity that's a different question councilman so there is municipally sponsored 100% affordable housing um that you can as part of the obligation to build that you can require that it maintain its affordability controls uh I will tell you that housing authorities that receive set Federal
funding generally have a 50-year affordable housing control but that's the federal program that's not the state program uh a 100% municipally sponsored affordable housing program uh is one of the compliance mechanisms that a lot of municipalities use to meet their obligation and that can be extended when the affordability controls are about to expire
and and it's generally part of the funding of the project too council president yes councilman Co for the very few times I have to agree with my Council colleague Council M BR and I'm happy that he stands with affordable housing and so many colleagues on this day do as well um the indefinite uh carryover of affordable housing uh that's something I wouldn't support I
mean I think the opportunity for someone to buy a home and pay 30 years on a mortgage should eventually have the free will of the market 30 years from now um I do open an opportunity through the council president for a committee and we look at methods and opportunities of how we can get there I mean the past administration through uh mayor Lany that carried over into uh Mayor Sam josi we have been using tools to create this and uh I know councilman Jo ship
is in the audience we've done several things along the way including buying apartment complexes and converting them to uh affordable housing so we can meet the criteria homes that were that are four bedrooms in different parts were included uh in in that analysis as well so as we strive to hope to give every resident every taxpayer what they want to see less development we're obligated to do this no matter what whatever project you may have seen in the past it's been approved been approved through a
court order in the past uh the Camelot was approved through a court order 225 units because at that time we were not ready so I'm certainly open through the council president to sitting on a committee on how we can get ahead of this for the 700 units we have to build which I think are necessary to give people an opportunity whether it's Rich's son my son or anybody on this day as who has it a child at a college um in their first career can't afford to live in
Edison and we know that and this is something that it's important that we respect and for those who have no interest in seeing more development it it's impossible for us to catch this the township does not own property develop we're not developers but I think it's important that a committee uh or we meet together separately uh as colleagues to figure out means and methods to get there and to get ahead of a builder who's not going to just push a project in our face and give us something we don't want and
that's coming because they're way ahead of the game they've been waiting for this they've been sitting with baited breath to catch us and wait for the the court to you know give out their new numbers I've met with uh you know councilman Porter we've discussed this I think he probably has the most knowledge of this direction I don't want to give him too much credit some days because he he overthinks but he's good at it he's really good at it and I think together if the council president decides to put together committee I would be very interested in
serving on that and I would serve with you councilman Brasher um you have development experience in project management and I'm very interested in seeing how we can get there and give young adults a chance to live in Edison and continue to be residents here thank you okay thank you councilman Co and we can talk offline about setting up such a committee okay councilman pointer council president um on item C resolution 57 that one but I had the
other ones sorry I'll I didn't need to talk in the mic then um I'm just curious on item C what that project entails um I understand the the item D with the the bridge widening I'm not sure what the other project entails if I can get clarification on that I'm getting my steps in tonight so the dot is taking on the project for uh believe
it's Prince Street to planfield Avenue the signalized intersections through that Corridor along Route One to do Ada upgrades that is new Ada ramps or curb ramps as the calls them along with push button and pedestrians uh signals so once again it's not yet designed but those are the intersections they're looking to do the projects at and likewise with
the bridge should there be conflicts with our utilities that's what the utility agreement is for I appreciate it and hopefully they consider some of the uh The Voice mechanisms for that assistance that is standard procedure now good good to hear thank you Bri you're welcome anyone else on 11 a through G um I'll I'll to you go ahead all right you sure I have to make it quick no okay
you go cuz this is G where I'm talking about the project management but I I'd like to hear from any of my um you know colleagues or anybody that would like to speak about the building before I do as opposed to me speaking for a half an hour on this subject you know if if everybody here did 10 minutes and you'd only leave me five at the end of the day so if anybody would like to comment on G I'd like to go last on that one okay yeah I was about to councilman um so Sonia could you
elaborate a little bit about the change order and what is entailed in that change order what is it for specifically uh so generally speaking uh there were some delays in the project conditions in the project and all of that has extended the project um till the end of this year so all that said um that's amounted to 557 th000 um so
it's labor hours um it's labor it's um there were some utilities that were part of this that delayed um production of some of the the structures that we we were waiting for so um all of this was pushed so there are General conditions that are outlined in the change order and they're projecting they're projecting another seven months to complete this project correct and then I
I'm looking at this change where it says or less uh I mean we're really aiming to do less um that is a fall safe okay so there's I'm looking at this change a total of 556 negotiated costs between cers and epic management negotiate a cost correct this number originally was higher um and we negotiated it down to the 557 do you have a copy of the original um change
order uh this is the change order we'd uh originally gotten some proposals some back and forth our construction manager um who you all appointed at some point um has been instrumental in negotiating some of this down so I can certainly provide some of the back end of what was originally proposed to us because I'm trying to understand what the negotiation was they're not going to change their their per hour uh their their hourly rates um that stays
the only thing you could possibly negotiate is is material so did they negotiate the time of the project what was the negotiation um council president if I may have our construction manager come up some of that yes thank you good evening my name is Rich Brown I'm the kier's project leaders so to answer your uh question directly so as part
of the change order that's what's called General conditions so when the contractor has an impact uh on a critical path and not all his uh delays were on a critical path so those costs are not associated and you wouldn't see any of those costs as it relates to some of the things that Sonia was saying um it's for their staff or the general super project management it's for the trailers it's for the fence it's everything that they uh cost on a like
a monthly basis and so that's what we review that's what we look at and put together and we do something called a Time impact analysis and based off of that information that number gets trickled down if they have a number and I'm just making this number up it could be $440,000 a month for those costs well that bucket isn't everything they're going to get because sometimes they don't have the person on the job or every so things get prated so between that
um they and they had it if in your uh package I think it said something around to um November so we sat down with them and negotiated not only the money but also the time and how how we can shrink that because it's better to use money wisely instead of giving them money to go longer we looked at it trying to use money to for it to shrink the schedule because obviously that's the goal to get the project done so quick math this is about $80,000 a month uh I think
it's less than that because it's uh because their contract completion was January and it's going to go to uh what first second week of September it's five something okay and and if this goes on past the seven months that would be on them it's on them it's on them the reason the we the way we
got here was there were some redesign things that had to take place which obviously they didn't they didn't cause they didn't create it but anything that happens on their dime then then they're obligated to do it just like we waited till the end of this to get closer to fully understand what the cost would be we didn't want to do it too soon because we all know contractors are not great at what they do always some of them are better than others so we wanted to make sure because they part of how we got here too was a little bit of a
performance on their side so we took all that into the analysis and how we got to where we are with the negotiation and what would be the impact if this Council doesn't pass this uh this change order it's a good question um probably Edison would hire an attorney and and a a claims attorney to um Rec as a recourse we can renegotiate this uh 556 so if I could just clarify
that in the backup provided to everyone the original number was 66,000 that was the original number that was proposed to us and then that was reduced uh about 100,000 if you will So 20% that and and I will tell you firsthand that that's been negotiated for the last three months um because we wanted to come to this body with uh a firm number and not only just a
firm number with uh conditions that would require them to complete it or else there would obviously there could potentially be liquidated damages so um we felt comfortable that this um was something worth presenting to the council for your approval if this body chooses not to do this again we'd have to take legal recourse I'd want to talk to our Council about counselor about that but not only that it would um stop the project we would have a shell
and it there would um quite frankly it'd be a hazard to have that in place at this moment in time I would still like to see the original change because I want I'd like to see what was negotiated sure you're not negotiating hours the hours are the hours so so where was the negotiation if you look in the packet you'll see their original numbers and then what we did is we went back through and shaved some of the time for
the individuals that were here because this is how how this starts is the schedule of values based on their project and so again I'm going to make up the number if if the the team that they have out there costs $50,000 a month for all the team members that work for epic it doesn't mean that they're out there fully every day so we took that into consideration because that was their original contract which what they originally intended to do
versus what they have been doing on a regular basis I want to add to that so part of this because of the extension that's required to complete the project we now they have to go back to their bonding companies and extend that and pay into that so that's part of the cost here too is going back to their companies to get uh additional shity bonds and um things of that nature so um you're talking about when you're talking about General conditions you're talking not only about the timeline you're talking about about
everything else that's required for that needs to be all the paperwork the documentation uh insurance is a huge cost thank you and one last this is a not to exceed so they're locked into this number if we can continue with an effort this may this may number may go down if I if I asking that you mentioned that not to exceed includes material as well material goes up now you know we
have a steel Tariff of 25% no this this change order doesn't cover anything this has nothing to do with the design related changes where we added pipe or deleted pipe or changed the size or a type this is strictly driven on their management of the project could could it fluctuate if somebody gets a raise they didn't they didn't push that in here nor would we accepted it so this is based off of the rates of their individuals
to oversee and manage the project yeah thank you you're welcome counc president yes councilman Co while you're still up first thank you for being a part of the management uh it's my first time meeting you in your experience in in other administrations I'm quite certain you worked for a few municipalities before in the past absolutely you got one year experience quite a few quite a few okay um I'm not happy to see change your orders I don't think anybody in St likes
to see change orders uh I don't like to make a comparison of what a homeowner does at home and how things cost overun and where life was yesterday with a sheet of plywood and what it cost today for a sheet of plywood but in your experience we're looking at a project that started at you know uh 10787 and now we're at 11628 you know knowingly that an Administration is not a contractor you know we can't rely on engineering department with their knowledge and expertise to
guide us we rely rely on a bid process to to guide us uh but no one can say that Administration or experts in project management con you know contractual you know uh litigators with you know different contractors subcontractors Architects combin it's enormous this project let alone we set policy we got a town we we do our best to keep taxes at a certain rate
provide services so there's no question that this is above and beyond the scope of what administration does on a day-to- day but it's part of something we're responsible for and I'm not taking that away we have to be responsible so to see a change order again is is is not an appetite for the council but in your experience the percentage of overrun and your what is your opinion for a Township dis llarge uh that over does oversight for this and hires the best of the best through
bid process is this number somewhat normal or is this something you're not used to it's it's in the ballpark it's it's it's it's not bad um you know with with the utility a lot of the redesigns you know some of that some of that information is a little bit harder to fully understand from the uh from the engineers and the site so that's always at a disadvantage now that we're out of the ground now that we have the building for the most part up um the likely
of any significant change orders diminish significantly um and one other thing that we do you know we have you know my firm we have Architects we have Engineers we we have all of those skill sets um so when we get a change order and we come when we look at it now we're talking about materials and hours and all that kind of good stuff we have the experts that are you know down the hall or nearby that not only my team who who went to school they're educated for construction management but we truly
have Architects and Engineers they're really fine-tuned and look at this stuff so it gets quite a few set of eyes on these changes before they even come you know to where you you would see these and last how many municipalities have you worked for underneath this contractor or any contractor total in your experience me yeah how many different towns uh probably close to 50 and um you're talking about me yes personally in 5050 different towns and
half of the counties and in comparison this oversight uh this cost overrun is somewhat normal and what you've seen in municipalities throughout the state of New Jersey correct okay thank you anyone yes councilman pointer thank you uh council president um you mentioned that the likelihood of a future change order uh is greatly diminished now that the building's up um just to refresh my memory I
know obviously we hired you guys for construction management there was a line item in regards to reviewing the plans as well but I forget if we had authorized that portion did you was that also included yeah yep yeah we we do we do that as well as part of our proposal okay um in that consideration because sometimes we have a bit of a delay obviously like this is an example right when it was originally brought forward to the administration before it comes to
us that the the actual architectural or engineering plans are there any other adjustments that we should expect based on your analysis of what was originally provided I can say there's nothing significant um there are changes that are still out there that are under review but there's nothing significant anything like you know we're here to
talk about tonight okay but it is possible like we will have something else come forward to us and I could give an examples from the backup but i' prefer not to um but it just so that we're not blindsided like hey there's a change order for 20,000 three months from now we should expect it's a possibility that we could have something else before us at that time yes um in your opinion
do you foresee any circumstance where the proposed completion date would not be held to no that was that was clearly our discussion with epic epic's the contractor there I've done a lot of projects for them they're they're fairly reasonable and they're Cooperative so I don't see that being an issue and now that we have most of the design issues flushed out it doesn't no I don't believe that to be the case on
um just as a general comment I I've expressed this to the administration I'm not happy about the change order uh particularly that it is labor focused however this is why we brought you guys on so that we can flush it out and make sure that the remainder of the project is as smooth as possible so um I I I'm happy that cor a corrective action plan has been taken but um just personally
like I'm not thrilled to see this before me thank you council president let me just put my two cents in here too um change orders I know they happen I usually give change order number one uh a past number two is makes me skeptical number three really um is kind of a red alert that's kind of a Mayday situation and um I know the residents aren't happy when they
see this many change orders on a project um so getting to first B back to the question of what happens if we as a council say no we're not going to we're going to vote down this change order so more specifically and I don't know if this is to you mik rich or if this is to you Sonia um are we talking about then an abandoned an abandoned project are we talk what what are we talking about because I feel we're like we're we're kind of between a rock and a hard
place here right now as I mentioned before yeah the project would be at a standstill okay um and so and that's where I feel like we're in between a rock and a hard place because here we have this semi structure and then it gets abandoned and that's not a that's not a good alternative either it's an eyesore um and I think to follow up on what council vice president pointer said
um is there a possibility that there would be a change order number four coming our way as I indicated there are some I I'm going to consider them small change orders where they'll have you know the if we were to get going again this gets approved there are some I'm going to classify them as minor um nothing nothing significant like this so so if we get through tonight and and this gets authorized that will happen I just wanted to jump back to if we don't do
this um and again I'm no attorney um but I've been part of a couple of these and generally what would happen is epic would hire outside councel and it would start a process that generally when this happens this way that usually to cost two to three times what you're here talking about tonight it's just when you know attorneys get involved and there's more delays then there's more the labor costs do go up material cost do go up
and you know at the end of the day it get it gets settled or you abandon a project entirely um which I'm not sure that would be an option but if for to get it going again it would take months and it would be more costly it's um which is another reason why we're between a rock and a hard place with this we're kind of uh there's there's nowhere to run nowhere to hide so all right councilman Brer council president I can I just ask a question about that last comment that he made yes the lawyer yes so if we don't approve
this they're going to sue us if we don't pay them what what no no what because if if the if this doesn't get approved then there would be a breach of contract and again I'm not an attorney but the project would stop because there's no means to pay them to continue their contract uh was completed January 8th based on their contract so there's no means to pay them to manage their own project anymore so essentially they could put down whatever number they they want to
put down and and we're obligated to approve it well not no because you have experts on your side that's what we reviewed that's we think is this is fair and reasonable to continue the project and get to the finish line if you choose not to go down this option then another option will kick in which will attorneys will be involved with all due respect I I I I think this is beyond fair or
reasonable I think this is very very expensive for seven months of work additional work so okay understood so I just want to confirm what the attorney for a procurement standpoint we we would also be breach of a contract I haven't actually reviewed that contract but any litigation is everybody's going to go to their separate corners and come out swinging and shoot for anybody they can swing at um
and while I am an attorney I am not taking offense although I thought about it um to the statement that once attorneys get involved things get more expensive taking offense because it's true council president before councilman Brasher um speaks I just want to ask either Council pointer or the administration since Mayor
Sam josi took office you know cudos to him we've gotten a lot of projects completed in town however hearing this you know change order is never uh something that Council wants a hear but what is our overall batting average I mean it seems like we've had um 100 million dollar worth of projects you know where are we and I don't need to answer this second
but to have it shortly um where stand so for the taxpayers who believe we've accomplished seven projects at $75 million where do we stand as a management as a responsible Administration to taxpayers where do we stand on over on on change orders that's a a question I don't need an answer for now it's a big question but if this is a metrics of you know 4 million over of an override of
nine projects um maybe that's something that that that is not unusual and I'm also speaking to the uh to the professional here as well who may not know all of our projects but he may not uh so um let me just say this and then I certainly can provide that to you based on all of the projects we've done um I I think there's a negative connotation when it comes to change orders um the word change order is just simply a modification to what the original contract was set for forth
that said when you're working on the field there are potential cases and I know uh councilman brusher has a background and construction management there are very much likely uh changes to something once you get on the field which is exactly what happened in this case and in many cases so I just want to say that while there is the negative connotation with change orders it is simply just a structure by means of which when you get on the field there are potential uh modifications
based on restrictions you know in this case utilities uh Manpower all of the things there's just a slew of variables and um and that's just the world of construction um that that said doesn't make it any better for residents certainly their your concerns are very valid and I'd like to provide that in uh to you at length and I can certainly do that for all of our projects thank you council president
before councilman pressure starts I have one question to professional councilman ptio yeah just summarize you know how did we get here this half a million dollar is this the issue with our planning our specs our design engineering where was The Gap here well it was a little it was before I got here but based off all the information that I reviewed to get to review the cost a lot of it was redesign of a lot of
the utilities um was a major component of that um specifically the electrical went from a single phase to a three-phase um the uh let's see the Water Service went from a 6 in to an 8 in and also re realigned uh the gas service uh actually there was none at the beginning so that had to be all started from kind of scratch with psng so all those things take up time at the beginning of a
project if there's no way that you know you start with the lower stuff right because you want to do all that work as you build you know the building you do the lower stuff so you don't compromise so a lot of this stuff ended up on a critical path if it's not on a critical path we're not here talking about any of this you know if you if you're changing you know like this room essentially and and changing some element of it is the change there might be a change cost to the material or the finishes or something but it's not going to cost the delay to
the completion of the project unless it's on a critical path so those items that I described were on a critical path so it's not always a change that's going to have that impact I understand that but what you mentioned these are very basic things utilities gas water who designed this whole building councilman ftil if I may if you recall we had the issue with the architect I don't want to get too much into I don't see the attorney here I don't want to get too much into
the weeds or any sort of litigation conversation but that is an issue that we are currently working on which stems back to okay some of these issues so again I understand that you know we we have that challenge and for the earlier change order as well we said we will go back and recover that money from that architect so this is again another change order half a million dollar are we planning to go back and recoup the money we we are actively working on Gathering all of this um and this is part of much part of that okay so
we'll we'll continue to follow on that track as well thank you council president I want to get my earlier you mentioned there were minor changes that might be upcoming what do you considered minor just for my scale uh I don't have it in front of me I would say there would be an aggregate number of maybe 100 less than 100,00 less than 100 okay and what was the original timeline when we started this project would you know that it was
supposed to be completed I believe uh January 8th and so how how long was the total uh D I don't have the notice to proceed date in front of me is it yeah it was probably about 18 months yeah I was going to say 16 or 18 months and what portion of that 10 million original 10 million was the labor Association well generally on a project usually rule of thumb is it's kind of 50/50 between labor and material but
it can fluctuate depending on the equipment and all the things you know a little bit more complicated systems mechanical systems Etc so it's five million something like that yeah okay so if could rough math uh 270,000 per month for labor okay and I assume if this is going to be part of the continuation with the architect issue I and I do want the sport
building and hopefully we can recover most of this money moving forward um I am okay to support this thank you thanks councilman Brasher all right I just have a few dozen questions no not really it's not that bad I've been waiting I'm ready no it's not that bad um you you your firm does a lot of work for municipalities correct that I do know yes um I I've worked with you guys in the past um
is it in in this industry that you're in do the firms that do work for townships normally have a professional insurance to cover them for like errors and omissions absolutely so all firms really have that right yep yes sir um designers and us as well piggy backing off of my Council colleague when he was talking about Labor um and I know where
he was going with it I'm going to delve into that a little bit so the project was 12 million we said right just under 11 okay what did the GC show for uh his General conditions for the 16 to 18mth project I don't recall those numbers in front of me but I believe they ended up being roughly around between 40 to 50
a month well what I'm saying is can somebody look this up while I'm going through the rest of my questions to see what the general conditions number was for the 16 to 18 months um cuz then what I want to do is just do I want to do that math like Nish was about to do um just to see that that actually works out to be roughly where we are here are you asking about the original right the original contract tell me what the dollar amount was 11 million and then tell me what they
had for their line item for General conditions because their change order here is basically the general conditions correct so in the in the backup if you want to pull out which I have a suggestion it may be helpful that at times you get this printed out I know just for future purposes it would be helpful so in terms of the backup and the original change order as far as labor no not no no Sonia in the original bid they gave a breakdown I
I've seen it before and in that entire breakdown there was a line item for General conditions it would be and I'm just saying what was that number in total CU then I can divide that by 16 to 18 months multiply it by the additional seven right and we see if we're in the same ballpark that's all I can just tell you what I have here with the current change order it's at 19 weeks so under the general see it's broken down into it's itemized there's no one number okay
um all right I I mean I would like to just verify that normally I would ask you if we could just wait on this whole thing but but I'll tell you where my problem is with holding on this in reading this document here this says they're not going to be done till November 25th that's their new completion date is November 25th November 25th is the end of the football season so so they're never going to be able
to use this facilities this year now I know you're saying what it's in the documents no I know but it's an it's it's a it's an indoor facility and an outdoor facility so there are practices or we talked about the multi-use purpose of the building right we're not going to be able to use the building until November 25th when they're done um so with that being said you know to to push this off a little bit would make a lot of sense so that we can get to the bottom of whether the numbers legitimate or not right when we add up all the general condition
numbers because I'm going to ask you to get that for me and you can have cers do it right but I'd like to have that before the end of the week so that they could add up all the general condition line items that are in this change order that are from the original job just so I can do that simple math that's all um but I'll tell you where my problem is with holding this off even though the kids can't use it and this is where my counsil C
colleague um at the very end for me um where we were kind of going and I know where you're kind of going with him but the problem that they have epic has is epic has like a project manager they got a super so let's say that I'm on site and I'm the super and this body here doesn't do anything so I can't proceed epic has two choices they're going to lay me off and I'm going to go work somewhere else like that or they're going to pay me to do absolutely nothing and what happens then is instead of
this being 500,000 it's going to be 600,000 even if we decide a month from now it's it's going to increase because they have to pay these people whether they work or they don't at this point you don't want to lose a super in the project manager and everybody else or them are really going to be up a creek so I feel like there is a gun to our head here um that's why I'd like to verify those numbers and if that if that breakdown number looks legitimate I'm going to say at the next meeting that
cers did a great job if it doesn't then I'm going to come to the next meeting and say cers looks like they didn't do a good job um but it's just based upon that but but with that there um gu sitting home uh okay now I can get back to my questions here so I noticed that they had like a notice of proed for like 102 but they couldn't get drawings till 10:31 right so my question is why would you start somebody to have a job and
they don't have the drawings like whose job is that that should have gotten them the drawings that that was far before I came on I understand but in in your professional experience whose job is it to get drawings to the contractor whoever would have been the the point person for the town to keep to keep getting them the information so that they could proceed on those topics okay so we councilman BR that was
the issue that we had with the architect okay architect um electrical components 4 to 11 months I I do get that I would have lik to have seen that we had a construction manager brought on board prior during the design phase okay and I'll tell you why I would have expected you to do your job and tell me what the delivery dates on those components were to see that we could fit stuff in a schedule exactly I'll tell you we we get
engaged on many occasions at the beginning of the design sometimes we even help hire the the professionals the designers more times than not we know the process as well as them right but we have a you know we we look at it from a different perspective one the constructibility we look at all the things they're just drawing you know the buildings and all those components we're looking at it from cost schedule and all those other things that they're really not concentrating on so it's a big deal um the contractor
asked for a contact for the engineers it took two weeks to get them a contact um I'm going to go with architect on that right because that would have been their point of contact they weren't calling you correct Sonia okay no I think they were the lead for the most part the architect okay um they requested CAD files on 10
17 and somehow the carrier pigeon delivered it on 22 so that's um like two three almost three and a half months to send an electronic document that you already had usually as you know excuse me there's usually a form that they have to fill out the disclaimer and so that would take maybe a day or two any all right let me just stop you there only because that that's part of the legal issue that we
were dealing with well I I have I I'm not that timeline right I don't know who's fault this is here so right I don't know if this is and this is why I'm asking these questions right so I'm answering uh and my answer is that during that time there was um attorney client privilege situations with with the architect okay um water line right I noticed that the water line wasn't up to code Edison so so we had a a building built
uh designed right we call for a certain size water line and then Edison owns our own water department right so we have our own guy here that knows what kind of water lines we have yes and we consulted with them during that time and they advised us on part of what they can do and then what needed to be done um with additional equipment all right now let me ask you another question this whole water line whole water line coming in here um our water department did
this right part part of it not yet not yet at least but I mean we're doing it eventually right yeah they did did they they scoped it out at right but so here's just a question to you to make sure that you get this correct as the business administrator so our water department is going to do work so Bob Smith's hours right his guy's hours are all going to be built to the water department for
this so the people in South Edison are going to be paying this on their water bill but the people from North Edison are going to be using the facilities overall so somehow you need to break somehow the billing out so that they'll maybe build through the sore department or something so that everybody's paying for the hours for the water department that's all a billing issue this goes back to the ordinance to the capital Bond ordinance that was taken out it gets charged to that the capital Bond yeah so so so Bob's going
to do that work underneath that Bond all all the we can charge it to the bond that's what you're going to do right okay um right we needed a letter saying the building was clean uh for the demo permit and so we gave him a notice to proceed on 102 and then we didn't give him a a letter that the building was clean till 12:13 so that was like two months later
and then we got the then they got the demo permit on 13 right so so I mean when you just look at this right here you you have they're supposed to start October like 1 yet they really couldn't even get started until January the first week in January or so you know what I mean so I'm not looking at this as like this is an issue um so much with the contractor um the roof redesign that's something we all went through
um electric utility redesign do you know anything about that uh somewhat I know we went from a single phase to a three-phase and why would we need a three-phase because normally psng or Elizabeth whoever is the provider doesn't really want to provide you three-phase service to something that's so small like this that you're not a manufacturing so why would we design a three-phase system uh generally elevators require a three-phase um well that's right we do have an elevator um yes and it
could have been also and maybe the loads changed on the mechanical equipment I I don't I thought I saw something about the equipment being changed as well okay so we have three phase now is what you're putting in yeah right and the elevator right that was submitted on 1026 it wasn't even approved till 214 like any jobs I did and don't get me wrong Architects and Engineers right I get it you guys like to take forever I mean you're on the management side though so so we can blame we can blame
the engineers um but at the end of the day you know two weeks is sufficient if it's if they take longer than two weeks for an approval time then it's sitting on someone's desk someone actually isn't working on it un unless it's a revise and resubmit and then you do the you cycle twice but you know now I I mean where I'm going with this is and I've been saying this for years right and my Council colleague just you know he tried to um I guess cover for the administration and the mayor right and saying
they don't do this for a living right um The Fault in that concept is the mayor that is his job that is the administration's job their job is to build the projects their job is to make sure they have the right professionals to do this okay that's what their job is Public Safety the buildings we have to do maintenance this is all part of of what the job is not
to say we don't do this all the time okay and when this came up I've been asking for a construction manager since before day one on everything we do okay and I want to go on the record here I want the business administrator at like this whole Council body to see what I've been talking about this is the problem right here this is what the change order is about because if we would have had a construction manager at the beginning during the design phase this would not be here none of this would be here
you would not have started the project on the second of October you would have waited until you had your design done properly and everything was vetted out right and I spoke about this but but nobody on the body wanted to hear about it nobody in the administration wanted to hear about it now thank you Sonia because eventually right when we sat down after you gave me the minutes to the meeting and I told you that you're going to have a half million dollars and change is coming and and I know you were upset at that time CU that's the first you
heard of it and I know that you then got on everybody's case there for that I mean I acknowledge that because I heard um but where I'm going is that this has to take place at the beginning if we continue doing this and not starting at the beginning like this this continues this is irresponsible and it's Reckless and and it's what I've been saying has been happening here you know the closing on Glendale has nothing to do with you but same thing trying to push
things forward without having without having everything done is is a big issue that I see coun like councilman I can tell you that in the school World K to2 they just passed legislation for any project over 12.5 million you you're obligated to hire a construction manager I think it's 19a versus you you fall under 40a and there's a big difference between a construction manager and an architect and an engineer and I have nothing against Architects or Eng Engineers but they don't do followup
they're they're not like add driven okay where construction managers got that where they're just on top of everything yeah we we represent you they they're nothing against them by any means some of them are my best friends but but they we're here to represent your and protect your interests where you know where they're there to build a building and do some a lot of other you know responsibilities but we're here to make sure that it gets done right and everybody does their job so I mean in closing I I do feel
a guns held to my head right I do think that we put ourselves in this I mean I'm here part of the body I didn't vote to to do this like this um everybody else did and and this is why we're paying a half million dollars because I'm saying it's irresponsible the way that we proceed it um I believe the contractor is entirely right except that you're going to give me those numbers come Friday so that at at least I can say
I feel assured right yep um so yeah I mean I I don't think I have a choice in this one um but I listen I thank you I'm glad that you're on board um you're not looking are you looking at the health center not not at the moment okay cuz that's another one we're it's going I don't know what we're doing with it but right we need somebody competent watching over this stuff thank you very much oh you're welcome I will get the information C I have one only one request for Sonia given that
you know we are in the active litigation which I'm not going to discuss which is not fair for the vendor as well but this vendor was put on the bill list like not the bill list but as an vendor for architectural services which this Council pulled for a separate vote and we took that vendor out I'm surprised that the vendor was there on the vendor list my question is you know will you be able to give some backup document about the litigation so that this body knows that there
is real litigation that is happening um certainly I I'll talk to our counselor about um in close session if you'd like at the next meeting uh we can certainly bring that up sure because I don't need verbal I need something that printed you know there is a doctor it's signed it's filed in a code so that we all know that we are going uh behind this architect it's more than half a million dollar it it's not fair for the tax payers thank you cons President right any one else for 11 Department of planning and
Engineering okay we're going to move on to Public Works just a street opening questions okay 13 Department of Water and Sewer a council president yes this is $9.5 million Noe is this for the cap Bank K or Sonia what this Noe will be used for this is it's for
the smart meters and uh water line Replacements okay this is for the smart meter have we replaced all the smart meters or prior or no smart H sorry oh this for hydrant let me go back to so uh right now where the process is that D approved it so part of the process we come to this body to um award or go out to bid with the co actually award the contract if
I'm not mistaken under this Bond ordinance yes is the resolution uh provides for the funding for those projects but we won't begin drawing them down until uh the projects are ready to proceed okay so it's not yet went out for the bid right yes okay
and is this $9 half million is part of any of the current Bond or this is a separate note all together this was part of the bond ordinance that we adopted back uh in 2024 okay so this is you know carving out 9 and a half million dollar for the hydrant thank you okay anyone else okay uh 14 a& B chief of fire questions council president
yes on B you know it's surprising it's it's February 8 we're on 10th of February this was probably carried was this carried over from the last agenda yeah did the firework happen or okay okay thank you okay uh they were approved by the state so um that it went through all that okay okay uh chief of police we're going to we're removing a because it's a it's
a duplication of a on the last one um but B okay and from the Township Clerk resolutions the me appointing members of the zoning board and council member to the planning board questions all right we now move on to the regular meeting and I need a motion to approve the minutes motion to approve second
okay all in favor I hi okay all right um cler could you read the ordinance for the motion to introduce this ordinance restores the public speaking time to Six Minutes during the public comment portions of the public meetings okay and all right this just Council com okay all right so we need a motion to introduce council president yes I
move this ordinance be passed first reading published according to the law for further consideration and public hearing set down for Wednesday Wednesday February 26 2025 okay second a second okay all right um here Council yeah okay let's move to council comments council president yes uh thank you um
at this time I will not be supporting introduction as I had uh explained previously I'm open to reconsidering however since the implementation of the ordinance itself we've had three meetings so from a a data point to see how form minut actually works in the format I would like to just see how it how it goes that's thank you anybody else council president I also will not
be supporting the uh introduction of this resolution this ordinance um it's been two meetings since we've adopted this and uh I have not seen a resident come to the microphone who could not fit in the time of what they expect to speak on nor for those who come here a lot have had the availability to speak to any one of us at any time and I think everyone on this day has has picked up the phone or answered an email for them
and for good government to move forward and for the amount of people watching this meeting who would like to see the meeting move forward um there are situations where different residents take advantage of the time frame to filibuster and just stand there and I I have the right to stand here and just hold time and it happens over and over again so I'm open to seeing how
this goes and and what cannot be fit into the time frame and take it from there so therefore I'm not going to be supporting it but as I mentioned before for anyone who comes here who needs to reach me after this meeting I would stay after this meeting to speak to you like I've done in the past and you also can email me for those who disagree and there must be a count of people who disagree so I'm open to all the emails that you feel I'll be getting you're welcome to email me at jco Edison
nj.gov again it's at jco Edison nj.gov please leave me in detail what you'd like to discuss and I will certainly help in any way I can thank you other Council comments council president yes Council M I too will not be supporting this ordinance I I said it before I'll say it again I think that uh anyone can make a point under four minutes and uh I think the four minute uh uh speaking time will encourage more
people to come and speak um at our Council meetings thank you anyone else yeah um council president I will also not be supporting uh this ordinance introduction at this moment I think it need some more time to reevaluate before we we any changes thank you councilman prer yes I don't know we've had it for 6 minutes um I counted up the Public's extra minutes and it's irrelevant it's inconsequential at the
end of the day um takes up approxim we got 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 nine nine people if they all get up and speak and it's you know 2 minutes that's 18 minutes that the meeting will be longer and this is basically what we kind of have really um and I don't mind sitting here for 18 minutes for the public that comes in here you know what we've spent more time and money which is sickening
is the whole constitutionality of free speech okay this body has spent I myself have spent well over a 100 hours reading court documents and transcripts and things like that um I know our attorneys we had to pay them at least 50 Grand so far if not more to try and and curb vulgar language or or aggressive language or whatever it is and and at the end during my comments
I I've written a whole response to all of this and I think where we really are with it um but that's one of my discussion items so for me the extra minutes for the public it's inconsequential okay it's not going to help this meeting get done any faster or any slower um in fact I would challenge my Council colleagues to tell me that I'll tell you what the next agenda if you'd like right all of you um we'll have the meeting go to like midnight or one o'clock in the morning if you'd like
because I'm sure I'm sure we can make that kind of happen right just with our agenda items with the public and everything and it's not going to have any effect on the public whatsoever you know what I mean so it's not the public that's the problem it's the agenda it's the way the administration speaks to the council body okay that inherently is the problem um I met with Lou Rena and I guess like a week or so ago before I left
for vacation and you know what he told me was back in the 90s when he was here he spent an inordinate amount of time um with the council people at the time there were Republicans on the council so as any good Administration would want they would try and get a 70 vote right and to get a 70 vote what you need to do is you need to bring in um all the council people you need to speak to them all you need to moderate certain things like
you know I might say the containers cost 90,000 we could have got them for 60 you know what you say you know I'll tell you what we'll pull that for a week we'll put it on the next meeting and the next meeting it goes on and we save $30,000 councilman brusher is happy right but I told Lou that is not what his firm and this mayor is doing now so Sam Joi is definitely no George pedoro that's for sure um but he recognizes that that inherently
is the problem because if the council here was in tune with what's on this agenda and we were in agreement to what all this was there wouldn't be the discourse and these meetings would not go on that long it is not the Public's 18 minutes that you're trying to take right here by by saying that they can get it out in four minutes yeah they can they got to be speed speakers I mean at the end of the day it's this body that has caused this problem and I've said it over and over okay I was here councilman coil was here
AJ was here we were here before with with lank when ly was here and these issues at that time didn't happen with the same cast of people that we have here they're the same people the only thing that changed was the law firm and the mayor that's what changed so when people ask me what happened that's what happened it's not the two minutes to for the speakers cuz they had enough time go back and watch the me meetings I challenge any one of you that's new up here to go watch the meetings when
Lany was here Christo was here he was here but it's just like I said a different mayor different counsel so you guys need to make an educated decision and say where is the real problem and stop saying it's the public it's not the public for their 18 minutes that that these people would want to talk even if they did so yes I definitely support this cuz this speaks and says this is for the public this isn't about letting Council people go home early because they don't want
to get along with the administration or whatever the problem may be I'm here for the people people elected me I'm here to do their work not my own thank you pressure uh councilman Pati council president again I heard you during your speech uh as a council president and this was your promise M as a councilman it's my I would say the courtesy to extend
to my council president to support your vision and that's what I will be supporting this but coming back to the point that my Council colleague raised it's about 16 18 minutes we took how many hours 2 and a half hours this body is discussing about the agenda residents are waiting patiently and politely why can't we give those 2 minutes extra for them again you are elected by those people you are here because of them and
if you're not willing to listen to the public I don't think any of this council member have any right to be on this di I'm pretty sure this is an election year and people will remember who are for the resident and the taxpayers and who are not thank you council president thank you let me presid excuse me what just want to add one small thing I no I think I'd rather give my
remarks all right problem thank you um I reintroduced this for this agenda um not really expecting that my fellow my I would get the four votes that would be needed to put this back on but um I I couldn't agree more with what councilman Brasher and councilman pel have said about this we have just in talking about a couple of these resolutions we've just heard a lot of filibustering and I'm
not saying that necessarily in a pointy finger kind of way but there's been a lot of filibustering from our council members here asking questions and wanting to really um sus things out and the the public has sat here patiently waiting and listening to this and um and so I think as councilman patio just said if if they are here to listen to
us drone on then we for these extra two minutes we owe that to the public to listen to those extra two minutes of whatever they have to say I've said since 2022 when this first came up and we we uh I think we we just tabled it um I've said from 20122 when this first came up it's not about the minutes it's not about the number of minutes it's about the way the minutes are hand handled and the way they're managed and so
we had this we we had this um situation last fall where we had the the very unfortunate situation with the uh the whole thing about the props and the flag turns into flags and all of that and that was a very unfortunate thing that opened up a Pandora's Box and then to put the icing on the cake we had the taking away of the six minutes and moving it to four so I don't know the my Council colleagues seem to think that we
need to see how the four minutes works out um I disagree respectfully I disagree with the council colleagues uh no one likes to have their time taken away from them it's by no fault of the public that this time was taken away from them does some people uh use the six minutes and they just want to use up the six minutes yes they do but it's their right to do that so so I am just as adamant about this as I was in
2022 and I'm going to make sure this comes back on the agenda again I am not done with this thank you okay um so we are now uh moving to the roll call council member brusher yes council member Cole no council member Patel no council member bti yes for introduction council member pointer no to
introduction council member schmuel no council president Harris yes it did not pass it did not pass okay let's move on to 2020 2244 could you read the ordinance ordinance adds a residential parking Zone to a section of Chapel Street okay uh motion to introduce council president yes I Mo this ordinance be passed on first reading published according to
law for further consideration and public hearing is set down for Wednesday February 26 2025 okay can I get a second second thank you all right Council comments okay seeing none let's go to roll call council member brusher yes council member Coyle yes council member Patel yes council member P yes council member pointer yes council member shimu yes council president Harris yes okay uh we now move to public comment
on the resolutions uh can we have a motion to open the public comment I don't need to do that okay all right public comment on the resolutions Joyce J ship Freeman Edison New Jersey um first I'll start off with I'll start off with the printing like uh councilman ptil was talking about now the reason why I like this is political and I I'll bring you all my stuff in because when you're sending out political stuff
because it says negative stuff about councilman ptil and councilman Richard Brasher now this a part that kills me if everybody's a Democrat then you wonder why the Republicans get in why would you send out information negatively about the people you sit next to I I do recall Sam Josie voted no to mostly all the Tom Lany stuff he didn't send out any mail he not childish or foolish he
did not send out any mail next moving right along uh the market for affordable housing I know that I know that like the back of my hand I know that private public and all that and that's the problem that we're having with private public that after they're there for a little while they can cause problems and plus a lot of landlords don't take Section 8 so there's a lot of people there moving around like that now
for the sports uh for the sports building when I was sitting up there it started off at five million then it went to 10 million so they didn't start off at no 10 million it started off at five million it started off as a small project but as uh the person that was standing here had he been there in the beginning we'd had the price from the beginning okay at all so uh you know you got to rush rush students I got to listen to you talk foolishness and ask
50 questions over and over again back and forth to each other back and forth back and forth but you think that I'm paying you but you telling me Oh you can't have but four minutes okay so that's what part that kills me about this whole set up here I don't know I need some grownup sometime now um the infrastructure bank and the money pertaining pertaining to that now I know for a fact that we owe a a lot of money
in bonds and everybody's trying to keep this secret maybe it's election year they trying to keep it secret but the more money we have to put on actually for this for the water conditions because it's so bad here but I I want you to remember the mayor voted no for every Water Project until it blew up all right till it blew up in his face now I'm talking to you people that don't live on
the North side of town so first of all you don't live on the North side of town and that's oh yeah I ran into the the other day I had a problem there in this same spot on 076 here because it was a water man break that was the first one I seen on the North side in this location on mman Avenue like he was discussing earlier On Em Avenue up the street tingling there's a
train going up there then when you get to Inman there's a train going that way so let me see if the Train's back if if you backed up because remember that those trains come infrequently all right because I've been stuck behind them they come infrequently so with all these lights and stuff going on I know some somebody got killed there before on M Avenue because of the
lights because of the stuff there and that's why they filled it up with the train thing all right but there a putting that light there it's like you go up you turn over whatever and to me this study would probably do better on calvard that's where the major accidents are because I I travel this a lot a lot like uh Council woman uh council president Margo I I travel that a lot cuz
we cut through we're going on to Westfield or we're going to Scotch Plains or we going somewhere so I know I'm very frequent with that y'all don't live on that side of town y'all not frequent with that you don't know what a major problem that it poses there everybody says that you I'm okay with it because it's not going to disrupt anything by me but how many lights are you going to put on that street and if you wanted to put a real light there where the real real Danger is you go up at the end of that street on enman and you got to peek out in
on Raritan to see if you can make it out that's the very dangerous intersection so I don't understand why the real dangerous intersections are not being uh taken care of thank you Joy all right I know my time is a you know four minutes and all this money thank you okay Rob Rob kantos 61 meow um about the refrigerator magnet the six grand
um you know since I was a little kid we on the refrigerator we had the police phone number little cop car stuck right there um I got this refrigerator magnet in the uh mail and when I looked at it first I I honestly thought it was if I wanted to date the mayor if I want to go out with him invite him out for a drink or something it says Edison Township and in the same siiz font it says Mayor Sam pip Joi I can't even read the Edison Township phone number at the
bottom without my glasses on then it has the mayor's personal Instagram account Mayor Sam joosy and his personal Facebook account what if I'm having a heart attack in front of my fridge what what am I calling the mayor I'm gonna have a what's he gonna do come to my house I mean and honestly I really don't want to date the mayor I don't want to go out for drinks with them that that that's a bad subject um six grand for these refrigerators Magnus they don't even have the police phone number
on them they don't have an emergency services phone number it's absolutely ridiculous absolutely ridiculous has a QR code on it I get it I know what to do with the QR code I can scan it will bring me to the request form my grandmother can't scan it she has no clue what that code is she might think you check out with it at the supermarket it's absolutely ridiculous six grand for campaign materials and it then it says hashtag or pound whatever you guys prefer to call it these days getting things done what what does that have to
do with Edison I I mean been in Edison 50 years actually my birthday's not in the 20th I'll be 50 Ben Edison 50 I'm in my 50th year I guess we could call it um since when is getting things done the Edison slogan I mean what happened to let there be light Donald Trump's getting stuff done oh yeah yeah I'm really upset about that magnet I really am I mean mayor could have put his name on there like every mayor does put it down at the bottom could have even made it big but I mean really
not even the police phone number I mean that that's just ridiculous that's all I got thank you Anthony Anthony dammer and 25 Wy uh first of all should be hasht over budget Rob it's probably what it should be but um first thing uh for anybody that you know if you what you guys were talking about whether or not a city this is turning into
a city go ask any South Edison resident uh if uh if the south end of town is is turning into city as a matter of fact go look at go talk to the officers about response time I'm sure response time has changed over the last couple years um and you need to go you know go look at the definition of a at the Census Bureau to find out what a city uh what you need to do to qualify to be a city Anthony I just need you to speak to the resolutions yeah I'm getting um in in
in terms of the let's see the sports complex everybody talked about it um sorry I got a lot of notes here oh the appointments you know we have a we're a Township full of a lot of residents with a lot of backgrounds a lot of qualifications okay and I think everybody up in desk would probably agree with that statement
why is it that we continually I don't want to I I use the word recycle individuals for these different appointments all right um I actually know both of these individuals for these appointments regarding the uh I guess it's uh the environmental thing and then the zoning board all right one is a former was a former Board of Ed member who just lost um nothing against him but there's and and the other individual is one of the mayor's closest friends
as we all know he's one of his closest friends in town hall quite often he sits on the middle sex County zoning board or planning board okay I believe that he sits on the state some type of there's a state board that he sits on I'm not sure what it is but he's on a state board they put him on so he's been rewarded handsomely here and now we're going to put him on uh the environmental committee there's nobody else so I I I I'd like to make a suggestion we have we the mayor puts out the Illuminator every single month or quarterly why doesn't
he add to the Illuminator then the deadlines for these dates for to to apply for these positions it's almost like it's done in secret so to get more applicants and I also like to know anybody else apply for these positions it seems like we're just using the same individuals who are very close Confidant to the mayor so um I mean it's nobody else has an issue with this there's no other person qualified for this these these boards so um I actually I could probably get you some some people
I know people that would definitely be interested in these positions I I will I I absolutely will I actually know I know a few that would love to do it Joyce you're absolutely right um and the the sports complex just an absolute somebody needs to be held account when this is all said and done somebody needs to be held accountable with this over budgeting now it's till next year it's said and the kids suffer that's who suffers the children's offer who need to want to use these facilities and the taxpayer who's flipping the bill
and this is this isn't Monopoly money the guy came up here before and he's talking throwing these are big numbers they're not small numbers these are big numbers and every people in this room are flipping the bill so I think it needs to be taken a little more seriously um thank you council president council president yes yeah I just like to comment on his um statement just about the when you were saying you know can't we pick anyone um earlier I I asked council president you might have been not have been here
then um that's a mayor's appointment so this body we don't even get to approve the mayor's appointment right to the environmental correct um committee and and trust me I I I do understand you know I mean he does do a lot um the mayor has a lot of the same people does everything um and yes 100% with the accountability um but again that that goes back to I warned this body I warned the administration right I told everybody that this was going to happen
if we didn't hire someone that was a professional but they didn't want to listen to me and so this 500,000 Falls squarely on this body and that Administration okay that's whose fault it is it's not the contractors okay it's not the architect Architects make problems that they they do have issues but they didn't have anybody overwatching it and overseeing it that was qualified to do it like I asked um that'd be a council president
council president yes as far as the environment the commission I I think socket is definitely well qualified I don't know um how other people can save that they have eligible candidates for the environmental commission um is it possible yes but i' love to see people start coming to attend the meetings and checking attendance because because the environmental commission does not have a lot of attendees and
if Mia orches was here she can tell you it's less involved as you would think it is challenging to find people who want to be on the environmental commission so I'd love to start by please offer your people to stop by will keep attendance and see where they start getting involved and see where they qualify to be a member and I certainly would support those who are active to become members because I highly doubt people will show up volunteering is very I'm GNA ask you Anthony listen it's just not your guy most of this is
just Anthony Anthony you're out of order is it's I I I'm open please send your people we'll have an attendance present I'm sorry you're holding up your time sir we'll have an attendance president and we'll see where other people attend and where they qualify to be involved and I certainly will support Merit based uh people involved thank you Mikey um how you doing good evening um council president Harris I'm allowed to
speak on the the ordinance the restore time to six minutes no unfortunately no it's is just resolutions okay thank you okay thank you anyone else on resolutions only okay do we need to make a motion to close oh oh okay okay Edward Lefty Grimes uh sativa cross org we're a 501c3 fighting for your cannabis patients rights and the rights of
the disabled the um oh I don't have the agenda but uh let me ask you I've been fighting for a traffic light in Bon for years and we went through the traffic study and we uh got a stop for pedestrian sign uh at this intersection and it's not very easy to get this light so I don't know uh not sure how it's U seems like it's so easy but how much is your like going to cost because from what I understand they're between $5 and $800,000 is
that pretty much the range we're looking at I'm going to just hold all your questions until the end okay okay so 5 to 800,000 is a traffic light so if that light is really needed sure I don't know the area so I can't say if it's needed or not but I will say this what is needed you have blind people in this town you also have a Lions Club in this town for blind people and I think the Lions Club should get involved in this and retrofit all of your traffic lights so that they're ADA Compliant for
blind people talking lights like the message on my wheelchair it says here on my wheelchair we're fighting for a talking traffic light for the blind that's my energy and I think that should be your energy to help blind people you do have a Lions Club in Edison maybe you should reach out to them they're local they fight for blind people in Edison I'm sure you can get these traffic lights retrofitted that's something that's definitely needed without even looking at it that I could tell you right now there's blind people that need your help uh the other thing was the 10 grand 10 grand whatever that is that that number that
you throw out there the 10 grand on the uh ADA Compliant intersection is that for like four curb cutouts that seems to be something like that CU it's certainly not a traffic light um or is it a stop for pedestrian sign so that's my second question thank you okay all right um so starting with the traffic light the cost was that what Lefty was that what your question was yes I have to get back to you with that figure okay and the
uh 10 the 10 grand for the Ada his question about that for curbing curbing okay thank you okay um anyone else on resolutions yes sir uh my name is Vinnie and uh as far far as um the resolution authorizing for the third was it the um the third for the
sport for the sports building um there there are there there are companies that you know see the plans and I I do this for a living people there's companies that see the plans where they see single phase and where they know it needs three phase they bid low on purpose because they know they're going to get this change order and uh like like Brasher said uh having someone to oversee that kind of stuff is I mean it's needed I mean I I work for a company that
does the same thing we take advantage of the situation I mean it is what it is I bid I bid jobs for Edison myself so um I see these things you know um yeah I mean the third the third change order that's kind of crazy I can definitely see like two but I I I I I say you try to fight this stop the project I mean it's going to cost you more what
if there's a fourth change order because they miss something else you know it's it's crazy it it seems like it's going to it's it's never going to end that's all I got to say there thank you anyone else on resolutions only okay do I need to CL motion to close in public portion I get a second second thank you all right anything to pull for uh separate vote on the
consent agenda CC pres yes 038 061 068 wait can you just slow down 3861 what else 68 68 6 38 61 68 is right yes okay anyone else um you have 68 yeah that's you have 69 not 69 and 70 okay so 6 so so far we have 38 61 68 69
and 70 any anyone else anything else okay so in that case we're looking to approve 39 through 60 and then 62 through 67 and then 71 through 76 I got that okay so can I get a motion to approve motion to approve second okay
and can we get a roll call from council member brusher yes council member Co yes council member Patel yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Harris yes okay approved all right uh start with 038 council president I would like to pull the two line ATMs that we briefly spoke for the separate word and
the rest I'm okay to in the dispersement I'm sorry I I didn't in the dispersement list there were two line atem they were linked with the printing the the yes you're asking to remove that one is that not remove you know pull that out for a separate vote okay to approve yes okay um can we P can we pull that out for a separate vote yeah we have done that
in past okay um okay um 61 change order um was that that are we voting on 38 right now or we are going one by one oh V oh okay I'm sorry right on 38 yes the line item of what so that was of the magnets the the mailings the the mayor's mailing Council P make your motion
um just a point of clarification I think you might have mixed up the dispersement reports because I don't see that one on 38 you might be thinking of the second one oh 56 I know that's a logistic thing but yes I think it's 56 yeah that's a 5 right it is 56 yeah yep not 38 56 56 thank you John yeah good catch motion to approve 38 second so wait
all right so 38 now is going approved as it was yes okay so so the first all right so yeah so we have to add that as the approval 56 is going to be pulled yeah you pulled it now so we got just point of clarification you know let be confirm wait so there's a motion and there's a second so we should do okay so council is that correct first and the second was Joe okay all right
so roll call on 38 council member brusher yes council member coil yes council member Patel yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member smell yes council president Harris yes okay so that all right so now so now it's it's 56 okay all right and you already approved 56 we had approve yeah we had
approved 56 appr it already under consent agenda we approve 56 under the consent agenda oh yes we did yeah I thought it was a Bo Mr attorney uh moved seconded and approved you're on resolution 611 61 61 yeah all right um councilman pel I think you had pulled 61 yeah 61
is I think you know we have we had an opportunity to negotiate with the vendor I don't know how far we can stretch I do support continuing this project but again this is not acceptable it's Crossing $1.6 million at this point in time I would request this Council to see if we can hardly pull this uh if everyone agrees and further negotiate uh council president yes I think we it's well established that us pulling it will cause
issues so I would not be in motion in favor of pulling it uh and holding it uh I agree this should not have happened but there should be a correction made moving forward I emailed out to Sonia in terms of an ordinance to be drafted for anything that's bit over $5 million needs to have a construction manager attached to it so moving forward we should not run into these issues um and and I think this should be a lesson learned that moving any project that we do that's a significant amount we should try
to be mindful that we try to avoid any cost uh but yeah in this particular case I think we are all kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place even though we don't want to move forward even though we have our objections I think the right call here is to move forward council president I just want to uh support councilman Patel's uh idea to have construction management up to a certain out in a contract it's super important I do give credit to
my Council colleague he's talked before about construction management with I've agreed with it's important to have some oversight and this is uh certainly a way we can start controlling more projects so looking forward to that ordinance being drafted and passed thank you counc counc vice president thank you um I agree with the sentiment about the dollar value I'm going to utilize some my contract Construction contract background
like just my understanding um we are in between a rock and a hard place on this particular item and I think my colleague at the end would agree with me in the sense when it comes to completion dates as to why that may be problematic from a Township perspective depending on the actual the final language but um given given that s circumstance and given that we have hired a
construction management firm to oversee the project and hopefully everything now has corrected course uh I will support the resolution as I stated before I'm not happy with the the fact that we are here but my opinion is that if this were to not proceed that dollar figure will go up substantially not only from the the actual change order perspective but from potential litigation so uh I will
be supporting it thank you council president any other comments yeah I I mean I'll just go back I I intend on supporting this um I don't like it I've said from the beginning that you know listen our mayor is a young mayor that didn't have life experience that's the bottom line fact and that's why we're here but right now the only thing we can do is vote no which Council Matti that
would be the most logical choice at this point to to table us so we can look at it but this contractor is going to want to get paid in fact I was out at that site today and I don't think I seen anybody there working and it wasn't lunchtime and it wasn't really cold so I don't really know what was going on out there I I don't even know that they're actually working on the site now um so so that was a concern of mine I I
wasn't going to bring that up before but yeah it was just out there does anybody go out there on a daily basis Sonia we do have someone there in uh in that one of those trailers that's there on a daily basis that's a project manager okay so we could just knock on the door then I mean there were no workers anyway so major project manager was there yep okay see I I I don't see any choice in in this um this is just the unfortunate incident of um
having inexperienced mayor that's all so so we have to pay and we have to pay more um that would be it I'm going to support it okay uh yes I don't see a a a significant issue of pulling this until next council meeting until we get our we get all the background information I received all this information on Friday afternoon I didn't even look at it until Monday morning um to I couldn't even ask questions
and to put it on us with like you said with a gun to our head I think it's a little halfhazard of us to just go ahead with a 500,000 plus change order without seeing any background information and honestly I think that we can bring that number down even further if we negotiate so if we pull this for another meeting um let the ba and and the administration do what they need to do let colier do what they need to do
uh to to sharpen the pencil and and also get us more information to make an educated decision um I I don't think we're going to incur uh significant charges specifically like you said there was no one there today you know the the the list of people that are that were listed on this change order are not working there daily as of now from my understanding so another two weeks I don't I don't think it would hurt us Sonia I
wanted to ask you um what about that what what are the consequences of of of pushing this ahead to two weeks I guess there's additional fees incurred um there's push forward with the project so there certainly delays to this both monetary and timing um as for myself I I think we're all in this position that we're holding our noses on this one I don't think
any of us is happy with this with this change order um for myself I really do think that we need to move forward um I I don't I don't see I don't see another another way forward on this except for to move forward and um uh we that we have to insist that they do better and I think uh the the project manager is in fact A Way Forward on this but um I would not be for tabling this
for another two weeks thank you council president can I can I ask a question being that we did ask for these numbers right total General conditions divided into those numbers right because you originally had a contract we all seen it there was a general conditions line item that was made up of maybe 10 or 15 numbers it might have had project manager superintendent uh labor a whole thing when you total them all up if you divided the I think it was 18 months into that number that would tell you
what that number is worth per month right we didn't receive that they're going to get that to us by we said Friday um if we tabled this would you be ad meable to let's say have a emergency meeting next Wednesday um just for us to come in to approve this so all that we're really looking at losing is you know like a week um and then a week I don't think is that much time um or or cost right I mean this thing they've been negotiating for three
months um you know I mean again like I said if you had that Administration that was working with the council body like like luberon told me he did in the 90s right we would have all been aware of this change order we would have known about this we would have been partaking in that communication with the administration over the last three months but that's unfortunately not how how this mayor operat Ates so would you be amable if we pulled this or we put it up for a vote to table and then
if we needed an emergency meeting so we could do this next me week I mean it it wouldn't be till 12 o'clock at night it would just be a short meeting because it's just let me put this to our Council colleagues um what are what are everyone's thoughts about uh council president moving this back um I'm definitely caught in a a a difficult position here but two things I definitely think have to happen to move forward here first as uh councilman Patel said we must have
a construction manager on every project over $5 million furthermore I think you know like one of the residents or or speakers mentioned who's in the business and this is certainly not new uh to the business the language of a bid is written the response to a bidder is well aware of how to take advantage of the town and bid within the specs and they know there's going to be a catch all later on nothing's all inclusive this is not
a cruise ship where you get everything done they're you know contractors are looking for that add-on they're looking never to pay more than they need to it's a union process it's bid and we need to get better at making sure that the language matches of contractors move to get around us and that's a that's that's a big issue here that's happening and the guy just came up and said it I bid and I look for you guys we look for the mistake we angle
at just giving you the Bare Basics to fit into that bid spec does our purchasing agent a qualified contractor you know they put out what they need to put out according to spec and people respond so I I wouldn't doubt that contractors uh throughout the state know better and know what to put in and they are always in a position I to you know to not be liable and to get paid to further
their contract uh because of the vague descriptions of a bid uh it's no different than an environmental spill they never say we're going to clean the whole spill and um that's it's it's sad that we are taking advantage of different different times here and this may be a situation I can't prove that this second but we definitely need oversight for that construction manager to look at the bid process with us to make sure that we don't get caught into a catch-all situation so if I do choose to support this
by vote I will never do it again on this project Council Quil the the question at hand actually is about what councilman brusher was asking about having a pulling this for today getting more information and then uh reconvening just on this issue next week that's that's the question uh council president you need a motion in a second I I'll propose a
motion um to table this item till our next council meeting that council president will set up okay you have to pick a date did you look at the calendar for next I have to I don't um Z okay chamber council president it's not it's never been done
that we have to set up an emergency meeting for one resolution can I try to clarify some numbers councilman pointer um I I honestly believe that we would be making a legal Mistake by the way and this is the only reason why I'm actually pushing this but from the resident like on the residential end if I don't meet a completion date I can go to the
Consumer Fraud Bureau or whatever it is because the contractor didn't meet that date and be subject to from the contractor's side you know proba in violation of that of three times damages it can work out you know in similar concept so you had asked what the weekly number is I just took what the amount that they have uh on the two items broke out by weekly I'm coming up $1 4,328 on a weekly basis the change
orders are from January 8th to November 25th which is 321 days divide that by seven that's 45 weeks 45 weeks times the 14328 is 65741 this is coming at the the 557 I I just in my humble opinion I believe that even with the delay if something were to happen we would be opening ourselves up and I just have to be honest in my opinion all right
now council president since I'm an expert in this like I've told my Council colleagues over and over but no one seems to want to listen ever I'm going to explain that if this were held up by a week there is no litigation all right I've done this for years they don't have a claim to litigation If We Hold this up for a week to take a look at the numbers that that that doesn't jive it doesn't happen all right like I said I've done this I've warned this Council body about
hiring the right people and getting this stuff done Council body doesn't want to support me now it just costs the council body and this Administration just cost this Township $500,000 so again this is your opinion right I'm an expert in this and I'm telling you that holding it up for a week is not going to cause any litigation they've been negotiating this for 3 months and that's all that was asked councilman point excuse me let just ask do a roll
call Council councilman Co I want to ask the attorney to weigh in on this I'm going to need you to ask a more specific question so the if the question is will tabling this to a special meeting for a week possibly affect your negotiations with the contractor possibly um if you're asking me whether tabling
it to the next available meeting would affect the negotiations and completion date definitely um would it result in a claim I haven't been part of the negotiations um probably not but I also don't think that uh that the numbers are going to change I think what you've heard from
your construction manager is he has negotiated this down by in excess of 20% from what they originally saw in my experience that's pretty good negotiating down now let me ask the coun a question yes uh I think um we have a construction manager now I understand this was a prior error that we're correcting we have a construction manager
now that is a lesson we learned he is telling us that this is a good price he's negotiated well I believe that we may or we may not have a reduction I don't know what the future holds but I do know that we are going to be delaying it for some unknown benefit uh which I don't see at this point especially our construction manager is telling us that hey this is the right call we negotiated this
is what we have done so I'm okay to move forward I not even sure if we'll have this chamber for the council meeting come Wednesday I don't know what what would be available yeah so there'll be a lot of we're throwing a lot of variables into this mix and it's not serving us well so I would rather we move forward but that is my opinion okay um councilman Brer if you wanted to make a motion I I'll make a motion to
you know like I said I don't know where it goes at the end of the day I I know that it's not going to lead to litigation I mean that would that's that's not something that's even plausible um the contractor just wants to get paid that's all he wants and he wants to be compensated and and he's been negotiating with the township for months as it was stated but to come here today and not have the numbers of to show us that comparison you know like
I was just talking where Mr pointed where he councilman pointed where he was pointing it out that we had this times this and and that whole thing I was asking for that during the meeting to get right but but that wasn't what we got right but they they could have done that right he could have went and got it Sonia could have got it um Ken could got it somebody could have got it okay but but we didn't get it so save for for a week I think it's a fair request it doesn't hurt anything it goes back
to the containers remember the containers that were the emergency of the town so we should pay an addition point of order we we have to vote yes we've been on this for hour yeah so if you want you're voting it or not voting for it if you want if you wanted to make a motion to table I made a motion to table it all right I'll second that motion okay I take a roll call council member brusher uh yes council member Cole no to table council member Patel no to table council member ptil yes to table council
member pointer no to table council president Harris no to table can I get a motion to approve move a second second okay all right council member brusher uh yes council member coil yes council member Patel yes council member PTI yes council member poiner yes council member schmuel yes council president Harris yes it's
approved okay uh we're now at uh 068 I don't know who pulled that one president yes yeah is this member was interviewed that's what I heard right was interviewed by who was the people like who is in the committee who interviewed okay um Council vice president thank you council president uh it was myself
councilman Patel and councilman sh okay how many applications we received in total there were uh eight overall and all of them were interviewed uh not everyone we took the approach of first saying who we felt were qualified and I just want to be clear we did not consult with the mayor on this whatsoever I just want to make sure that that is councilman point this is
Council appointment so I'm not even talking about mayor I'm just talking about it was a question brought up by a previous president so and I didn't get to address it I just want to make sure that there's clarification um the subcommittee took the approach of seeing who we felt from the resume perspective um we felt were the most qualified from the pool uh we also did try just as a point
of clarification because it was brought up from the library board appointments to make sure that uh we got those recommendations to the council president um ahead of the meeting that and making with our recommendation asking her to disseminate that to the body so that there was the the week time in review um I I know that's not addressing your question directly but all right and I have several questions so I I don't
want to listen to the commentary my questions are very straight so it is based on the three of you and I think council president you form this committee correct um I had asked who wanted to be on this committee and so I took these three people yes I did not see the your announcement of the committee to interview people but anyway I'll give the benefit of that out so you're saying that you three of you decided you know these are only the few individuals you want to interview can you please name those individuals who
you interviewed there were four that we requested for interviews uh the three that we did interview were dou Schneider Kito and Anthony um let's Council it's really not appropriate um
to divulge people that were not um chosen but we're part of the process um attorney Know M is a I'm sorry this is a council appointment to your Zoning Board of adjustment the council subcommittee has made a recommendation you should either be voting on that recommendation either in favor or against if you vote against then the council subcommittee will go back
to the drawing board and try to find another volunteer to serve on your Zoning Board of adjustment for no compensation thank you for your suggestion but you know I declined to take that suggestion my question is still to the uh committee which I was not aware uh council president didn't send that in the email who the members of the committee were but regardless of that if the committee has interviewed few people I hope everyone looked at the background of those individuals and how they
are politically connected to the mayor you made the disclosure again you can make the comment once I'm done is the same individual who ran for Bard ofed in 2023 mayor fully funded endorsed and fully funded his campaign he ran again again he lost that's a whole different story but again do we really want to appoint somebody who is politically connected and this is the council you know who should be making that good
choice of making sure that you know we go out in public and find the good people and this was an ask and this was very same ask when Mar josi was a councilman he was sitting right on this Das and he was saying hey don't appoint any political connected people again no offense I have no issue individually with d Schneider is a great guy you know he knows the businesses you know he he's successful in his life but what I hate is appointing the politically connected people on the zoning board because ultimately this is how you Lobby and
then when people come to the zoning board there are already votes decided unfortunately again hence I would not be supporting this nomination council president C could I just respond as part of the committee councilman I I appreciate Council if you tell what you're trying to do but couldn't be further from the truth this has nothing to do with the mayor it has and everything to do with the people of Edison and who's capable of doing the volunteer work um we had eight
applicants uh we narrowed it down to four we asked four people to come in for an interview uh one did not uh out of the three that uh we interviewed we found the two that we're recommending to be uh the most competent in doing the job the the the most uh that had the the best background absolutely and I I appreciate that feedback you know councilman SCH you know in fact you are the guy who we interviewed when we were appointing this body
was appointed you on a zoning board back then councilman Joi objected on your nomination because he refused he refused he said you know you're politically connected but let me correct I'd like to go on the record I'd like to go on the record to say that I had zero conversations with mayor Joi about I'm not questioning about that conversation the typical process is you know somebody who is on the first alternate if that person get a chance to be appointed as the full member that really helps so
you are elevating the person and you are appointing a new person as an alternate you know that's a simple math right or Simple Theory but I don't know again you want to parachute somebody politically connected person God bless you guys council president councilman k um I think uh both applicants are qualified one has been on the board for two years right now and is looking to serve again and Doug Schneider is
involved in a business Community um he served in elected official capacity he understands he's someone who's went through the process by three council members and if councilman ptil wants to revoke all people involved in committees or politics then perhaps there could be a resolution or ordinance put together which would pretty much disqualify half of New Jersey for appointments uh and we all know that at the end of the day
I mean simply put this is not your guy and that's why you're upset simply stated it's what it is I've been sitting up here 10 years there's been plenty of situations it wasn't someone I may have supported but I still voted yes it's a council appointment Doug is certainly qualified to do the job and most important is is this is his zian board position to properly represent the resident of Edison and uh those who choose to invest in Edison and have
a neutral position when voting to both fulfill the obligation of residents and protect them and F the obligation of improving a property that's been sitting idle forever not an easy decision and and you know several of these board members were put on attack people showed up at their house uh for projects that made no sense that were an improvement to the community but we have opposition that wants to stop everything don't build anything and uh
it's what happens but these are challenging positions and they are not paid people take the time out of their day I think Doug is more than qualified and I fully support this and I do hear my colleagues and when that resolution is put up I'll certainly review it but today there's no resolution that states that and it's been it's been we've had this practice before for and we've had other people involved that been involved and I'm glad that they have experience to come forth and serve the township Edison K you
know let me correct so because you are putting quite a few allegations directly or indirectly I never said the Schneider is not qualified person what I said is first he's politically connected but more problem for me is Kyle who is 2 years as a first alternate could have been given a full position and Doug could have been given an alternate position nothing to do with appointments but this is a blunder That's What I Call oh listen I'm open if able to be
bended I have no problem with amending and giving Kyle the opportunity to serve in that capacity and move Doug to a uh move Doug to that that that's the council president's call and and I hear you I did see that uh he's young and um I didn't interview him on what he wanted and that would be something that the the the committee would tell whether he wanted to move up or not I think that offer may have been on the table I didn't speak to Mr Porter but I'm open to switch that call if that call needs to be made by the committee council
president as a committee we have the responsibility of putting the best people in the right position and we felt that Doug was better suited to be on the Zoning Board in in the full capacity and Kyle to be as an alternate that would that would put that board in the best position it's not a question of time and who's served what it's a question of who's going to be the most uh the most
qualified I I also I just want to point out too that this is filling the unexpired term of Anthony Baron who is who moved out of town and this term ends December 31st of this year so a new Council can certainly when when the when this comes up next year a new Council can certainly make another decision if they so choose council president as as as part of the subcommittee I think first of all we
have a limited number of applicants so we had to select between those applicants out of those applicants we selected four because we thought that we were the best qualified upon interviewing I personally felt that Doug was the best qualified candidate especially since his dealing with New Brunswick and uh how he has dealt especially in our community he has the experience you want someone with the most experience unfortunately anyone who's active in the community will
be known politically he's been active he's been wanting to help out Edison residents and I think that's not a crime I think that should be encouraged and as a subcommittee I would ask more residents to apply to these boards so we would have a bigger pool to choose from um I you know I wish we had hundreds and we had to narrow it down from hundreds and it was a problem I wish I had unfortunately there was a narrow selection and the reason we chose Doug as a primary is because he does have
more experience and uh we felt that Kyle could use the experience and he would be a great asset to Edison in the future and he could be he could serve as a permanent member uh but yes I believe this is the right decision based on the work the subcommittee has done um if the council does not approve I understand we'll go back to the drawing boards and we'll wait for for more applications to come in from the residents whoever wants to come in we would love to have you uh but as of right now we had eight
and I believe these are the best candidates of those AIDS thank you council president yes councilman Brer um yes I just wanted to say that I I believe that the the legal advice we got earlier was was wrong okay and and I'm going to just tell you why um this went to a committee this committee cannot meet with the other Council people up here in the back
room to go through why we why you feel that someone that never sat on a zoning board or anything is more qualified than somebody that did sit there even though he was an alternate these are the questions it's called Council discussion right and that should take place like it just did here not where we just vote no no okay that's that's poor legal advice in my opinion um yes yes Sam does
have four votes on this Council the entire town sees it right so there's no question about that it doesn't stop that we shouldn't have discussion so so that's why I say we have bad legal advice myself I'm not supportive of it um one person sat there obviously has some kind of experience the new person coming in doesn't he is politically connected it right we all know that um the other guy I don't know that he is right but I do know that he was there so he's seen what had to happen the new guy
doesn't so so as far as telling me that he's more qualified you guys on the committee have not articulated how he's more qualified because he built a restaurant in New Brunswick or something you know what I mean I just don't see where that is so so since you can't articulate why someone that's never been there is more qualified than someone that has been there how do like why should I vote for him just because the three of you said yes I don't know it doesn't pass the smell
test I don't think it's it's prudent to embarrass anybody in public so if you want to know the qualification I'll be more than happy to tell you in in the back room should we take a break if you'd like I I don't I've never had a break for an appointment of a position no these questions could have been asked they could have been asked when the agenda came out on Friday you've had that you've had the weekend to look this over and you certainly could have asked these questions you're welcome to have reached out to me and I could
have directed you to the the subcommittee um but uh no I don't think taking a break you can just vote it up or down as you wish councilman pointer okay thank you um just want to offer some clarifications January 13th we received an email from Council president uh we met 2025 committee slots which are as followed which has zoning board appointments myself councilman Patel counc
so it was established by council president for the subcommittee back then I will speak on and I'll be brief as to why what I'm looking for yes thank you why I believe the individual is qualified I'm looking for for someone when application is before the board a to view it fairly B when there is an item of concern particularly from the
resident perspective that they can think outside the box and with experience what items may be able to be applied to in application as a condition of approval denying an application in the sense of just for the sake of denying is going to be challenged pretty much right away and from a legal standpoint not have much weight
so I'm looking for someone that will in my understanding or my belief be able to make those recommendations uh there was consultation with the board as our ordinance States um there was no negative feedback along that I did provide to council president additional information as to backing of these selections if that was
not disseminated I apologize uh I didn't do it and uh but overall I think in terms of how the board functions and in protection of what residents would like to see their boards do I will be in support of the applicant thank you all right I'd like to take a roll call on this now yeah motion a second second I need a second someone
going to Second this second okay all right roll call council member brusher no council member Coyle yes council member Patel yes council member ptil no council member poiner yes council member schmuel yes council president Harris yes okay 069 Kyle Sero I think that was Oh I thought that I thought was that was that was 68 we just
yes but now it's 699 yeah 69 was P too sorry my bad it was oh was pulled yes that's what I'm saying yes yes oh My Hope was that we were going to be able to kind of swap the two okay um unfortunately that didn't happen um so you can put that one up all right second all right roll call council member brusher yes council member Coy yes council member Patel
yes council member P yes council member pointer yes council member shuel yes Council preson Harris yes okay 070 yes um that's the appointment of Mr Coyle to the planning board um I I want to say that I think this is um a giant mistake okay I don't know why this is being done um the council oversees the zoning board
if we wanted to appoint someone to the zoning board I thoroughly understand that's a body that we're overseeing the planning board we don't oversee so why do we send a councilman there he goes he gives a report he comes back here and reads it it's all online people can get the all the information that they need I just don't understand the whole concept of the planning board coming to this body Council president I would like to have a different opinion on this I
think it's important to have someone there so we can actually have a conversation back and forth and I think it' be good to have a representation in the planning board just you know I understand we can email and we can do um we can watch the videos but I think H having a representation from the council in that why not zoning board so then we we appoint the zoning I think we have a pretty clear say councilman perhaps I can help both of please
the municipal land use law authorizes the composition of the planning board class one member is the mayor or he design class two member is a municipal appointment class three member is a council member class four are residents of the municipality in order to fulfill the statutory obligation to have your planning board properly constituted
you need a council member representative all right I mean right I I just like you know because we took the 18 minutes from the public when we read the planning board stuff that takes up 10 minutes I I don't know okay listen you can put that up for a vote councilman Brasher I can promise you that uh you won't hear much I will yield my time to councilman John Porter if he wants said but I
will refer people to the videotape and I will give them the H they give the ww. address as well counc yes I just want to you know answer my Council colleag question here it's important that the member of the council is attending the planning board meeting so this body is also aware what is happening in the town as far as the project goes and if there are any inputs if you're l hearing anything from residents you can always reach out to the member of the planning board the
the liazon from the council and either you can wise the concern or at least advise something not to influence his V but at least it helps us to communicate back and forth and I you know again when conman pointer you know I did ask him question when he was presenting a report uh even though it was approved because it was more important for me to go little deeper to understand why that project was approved thank you council president can I get a motion can a motion to BR now motion
to approve second second roll call council member brusher yes council member Cole yes council member Patel yes council member P yes council member pointer yes council member schmuel yes council president Harris yes council president thank you for the opportunity of nominating me uh to serve it's been a while since I've been on the planning board I certainly want to take a backseat for other members to be
involved and I'm thankful for the several that have stepped forward and taken the time of their day to be there and I I know uh Mr shimu can't wait to do this next year I can see the look on his face right now explain to his wife why he's home late again another night so um thank you for this opportunity okay God speed um all right we're on to oral petitions and remarks Joyce J shf Freeman
I'm still kind of meth because of the uh minutes and the uh taken away of the Free Speech because ineptitude and arrogance throwing me out of a meeting and another person we never had props we never said anything that was derogatory about the mayor and throwing us out of the meeting and sitting up there listening to yourself talk the whole evening back and forth just talking about nonsense back and forth
back and forth I was at these meetings since the 70s I was at these meetings when people only made maybe $6,000 and they stayed here at 12:00 because they cared about what the residents said that was their job and that's what it was and people that get paid on almost $20,000 and say h I'll give you a couple of minutes to speak because I'm not really concerned because if I was concerned you would have your six
minutes and another thing I'm going to say too uh Happy Black History Month and uh I just wanted to know about the um mounting the mounting of lawsuits by black individuals against this town it's like horendous and if it would be possible can I get the amount of lawsuits that have been against this town lately it's like too much
every time you turn around there's another lawsuit going on here and you know that adds up all right and there another thing that I'm disappointed in I remember coming to Council meetings up until last year coming to Council meetings the council people had their own mind they didn't just say I don't care I'm just going to vote this is what
I'm doing nobody's interested they just know that what I'm going to do is I'm just going to be a puppet I'm just going to answer what I like before with the other Council people prior to me coming to these meetings was the people were able to the people were able to and I had respect for them because they were able to talk back and forth they were able not during the course of the meeting I recall going to a meeting having 9,000 for a project and
I spoke up and the council people said well how much more do you need and they would give you the 25 they wasn't stuck like in a bubble and then somebody had the nerve to say that if the people come to the council meetings will know if they want to be on environmental Commission not for one people that became Council people I never seen them at Council meetings so why is it different rules for other people all right
why is a different Rule and most of the time most of the time you get a bunch of retired teachers here at the meeting and you try to cut yeah and you cut their time because you're arrogant because you start stuff because the only reason you guys started the mess we didn't you guys started that's how we got on Fox News we got on Fox News because of the arrogance of you guys okay and that disgusted me cuz I
was always proud of my town maybe y'all didn't graduate here but I did and it just saddens me that you guys are so full of yourself that you think it's oh you just going to get a couple of minutes and you better like it because we don't actually care what the public says we got our own little program our own little click we have no resp respect for anyone and I'm very disgusted CU I didn't think young people would be that
closed-minded Anthony Anthony Dam and Wy a um real quick just Echo uh councilwoman just uh stated you know it's if some of you fought as hard to get certain people on the zoning board and so on and so forth and you fought to maybe add two more minutes to the speaking time things
might be a little different it's sad the things you fight for the things you're passionate about up there the what you go back and forth on but the things you won't speak up on that's it's just noticeable I and I I hope you guys get to watch this you know in replay and see how you guys some of you not all of you some of you how you sound and it's it it's terrible um I just want to comment on Public Safety really quick um we had in in my neighborhood CLA Barton uh there was another incident uh you know attempt to break in I I want
to say uh give a shout out to the PD because um I'll just say this they were extremely proactive um and in then in the days after and I I definitely appreciate it I I spoke to two of the individuals uh from the PD um you know I I don't know if they caught the individual or not but uh they they were they were definitely visible and they've been visible and I I we appreciate it um
but it it is a concern um I'd like to again I I'd like to see the numbers of of Patrol RIS you know more more more guys on the road um and you know as as the town especially as the town continues to grow and we've been saying this over and over again coming to these meetings talking about the same thing um and you know there's only so much that they could do so um but Public Safety is just it's just it just continues to grow and and I'll tell you continues to be
a concern rather um the statistics is there a way we could get any statistics on the what the crime rates have been over from 202 24 to you know over the previous three years and if so can it can it be broken down into to different regions of the Town um I I don't know if there's statistics like that if they're done um I'm just curious to know um what those numbers are I know a lot of people are but um
what else do I have here oh uh suggestion too as well um on the crosswalk Woodbridge Avenue and Amboy Avenue uh there are you know as as schools deal with you know um especially Hoover with bus Jackson app being a problem you know one way to you know to to help with that is to encourage more people more
pedestrian walking for for for students but if you live on my side of am on borbridge Avenue on the Ford side you know it there's no crossing guard there so you don't have a crossing guard Crossing uh any kids and there's there's a lot of kids especially in the apartments that that go to school that way and they're they're young kids there's no crossing guard but I I can tell you the the amount of children that live on the other side of the of Amboy again on the on the on the Ford side there would they would walk to school they would ride their bikes to school to
Hoover if there if there was if it was safer um and and we should try to get crossing guards I I don't you know to to put a patrol officer there to me is is should be a very last resort to rely on it so I wouldn't go that route but if we have to pay more to get a crossing guard then we should but you you have a lot more kids possibly walking and commuting to school uh than you would uh being driven to school um what
else 18 seconds that's it that's uh that's all I got thank you Council pres thank you okay Rob council president yes just to answer his question oh yes yes um since this mayor came in from the lanky Administration crime is up 70% 70 okay from the Lany Administration same police officer same Force um of course I don't think I have seen one two three four I don't think I've been to a council meeting where we have five when Lany
was here um I also know Lany didn't have a police detail I also know Lany had less people in the office that's why we have all the vacant cars that when my friends came up on Sunday um they were laughing because we have patrol cars parked around town with snow over them so they asked me what that was about um but yes simply put I can't tell you why it's up 70% in Edison when it's only up 20% in matachin or 25% in Woodbridge in all our neighboring towns
um but for whatever reason um I have my assumptions um and it's because of our public safety director um that's the only answer I have for you rob Kento 61 meta um nobody up there should actually be able to look at everybody back here with a straight face and say the boards aren't Poli ially connected come on I mean that is absolutely absurd every board is polit has a political component do we get the best
guy we get the best guy that has a political affiliation come on I mean I'm a standing example of that I mean I'm not on the historic preservation committee but you can't find one applicant better than me other than probably Walt stel I mean think about it you know we could play the zoning board game how about 3743 you know what ordinance that is that's def defense ordinance how about 3722 that's the zoning map how about um ordinance 3754 that's the historic preservation ordinance I could go toe-to-toe with anybody
up there all right so we'll just end it there every appointment in the in the history of Edison has a political component so just get it out of the way just say it hey you know what you're a well-qualified individual but you got to be on the side of the current Administration that's how it works anyway that's not what I was here for today you guys brought me up here for that so you you know you guys kind of brought me up here for that what I was here for is the whole four minutes I mean this is ridiculous you know um reducing the speaking time the four minutes I mean I told you guys
about this last time have you considered what the public might do for not putting this through have you consider what the opposition is going to do how about if everybody here brings a friend for the next meeting brings three people then what we're going to have a meeting now for a few extra hours for a few extra minutes I mean I told you this last time with these amateur moves you you ban props and the first thing everybody's thinking is well what the hell can I bring in here I I I hate repeating myself but what happens I'm going to be
standing here now you know and I know for sure my wife really wants me to get home right but what are we going to do now how about if everybody here brings a friend or people bring in a whole crowd of people just because I've actually emailed this to somebody why can't we just get the six minutes back you know I was the first public um the first public uh I don't know how to put it but you know the first lesson I learned is or or a lesson my grandfather told me when I was here in the um the 90s with
them because the 80s we were over the other place or in the back room I don't remember um for Council meetings the first thing he told me is you do not mess with the public never mess with the public don't reduce the public speaking time don't mess with the public don't tell them what they can do they're here to yell at you that's your job you're here to listen to us yell at you so I I don't like any of the stuff when it comes to the public what's two two minutes three minutes four minutes six minutes I mean come on guys that's all I got oh you can interview me for
the zoning board if you want okay um Mikey council president just a point of order because we're oh yes we need a motion to extend to what do we think 10:30 all right can I get a motion to extend at 10:30 motion to extend the meeting to till 10:30 he all in favor I okay Mikey uh good evening everyone um right thank you um just want to
talk about a couple things first thing I want to say is the four people that banned props banned Flags the same people that voted no for the ordinance and I knew that was clever designed I knew since two of the people were on vacation they weren't going to be able the mayor wouldn't be able to get his no votes so they wouldn't have the majority so I knew damn well that the same four people who banned the props and flags were going to do this and it was all by Design political maneuvering political staging
is what it was and it's despicable you want to see how that plays out you want to see how that plays out how did that work out last time for you but the same four of you want to see how this plays out oh God I got to catch my breath after saying that it's it's absolutely absurd absolutely absurd we want to move forward we want to we want to make progress since everybody keeps resorting to their own old ways I mean we're we we have plenty of violations that still
exist you know the mayor recently disabled his comments on Facebook First Amendment violation councilman Nish Patel still has his Facebook with disabled comments um now we have the weaponization against resources against Cristo um continual violations and I'm not going to stand for that so since everybody keeps resorting to their old ways I'm going to resort to my old ways I'm going to sing you guys a song and I got my forbidden props here a
couple months ago these were forbidden same thing with the American flag here not true I'm speaking Joe there once was a town I came to see the name was Edison New Jersey the wind blew up the flag fell down you blow my silly boys blow soon then the other men come to expose your lives while we have fun one day when the trouble is gone we'll take our weed and go Nish did it know and he wasn't sure he removed people right
through that door for doing things that he didn't like oh boy he lost that fight H soon then the other men come to expose you guys while we have fun one day when the trouble is done we'll take our weed and go before your show hit the water it was mostly contained now it's farther ban in costumes props and flags is where you stoop so low H soon then the other men come to expose you guys
while we have fun one day when the trouble is done we'll take our weed and go no line was drawn no man was free and the mayor's mind was full of greed and if you do not agree then take your and go H soon then the other men come to expose you guys while we have fun one day went trouble is done we'll take our weed and go no line was drawn no man was free and the mayor's mind was full of greed and if you do not agree then
take your and go H soon then the other men come to expose you guys while we have fun one day when a trouble is done we'll take our weed and go the problem isn't understood at the course so you're bound to fail at least twice more the ones that voted there were only four now take your and go H soon then the other men come to expose you guys while we have fun one day when a trouble is done we'll take our weed
and go you all should know that the fight's still on the line's not drawn or the May you're gone the other men they will never stand down to any of you clowns huh soon then the other men come to expose you guys while we have fun one day when the trouble is done we'll take our weed and go well I got a couple seconds left what do you get when you have a brown chicken and a brown cow brown chicken brown cow thank
you Mikey yes Lefty we go Edward Lefty Grimes sativ across.org where 501c3 here in New Jersey fighting for the rights of the disabled and cannabis pacent trits the first thing I want to say is I meant to say this for a couple of meetings now that that platform sucks that platform is the most ablest thing I've seen in a long time and I know it's an afterthought but
that flatform there is exclusive it keeps disabled people from being recognized uh when people get on that platform they want to be recognized they want to be raised up and that's what you're not doing here you have a ramp there to get people up to the the stage but you don't have it for the people that are being raised up to be recognized so you either need to put a ramp on that thing or get rid of it it's ableist and it's pretty uh part for the course of this town I've seen this governing body has done to disabled people uh the reason why
there's a wheelchair here is because I want the four people that conspired against disabled vets for those two meetings to get in that wheelchair and go up the hill that you made Disabled Vets go up the first person I'm going to ask is the township attorney now you weren't here but you're representing coughlin's Law Firm you're representing Burns now Burns forced the stable people sick dying and disabled people to go up that that half a mountain with no with no wheelchair access no no act no lights and no railings so I want you because
you're filling in for burns you get in that wheelchair and you go up that ramp will you do it thank you no I didn't think so uh Patel will you go up that ramp no no why not because it's scary it's dangerous you might get killed going up that ramp if you go if you lose your your grip you're going to go down that ran backwards and maybe kill yourself and that's what you did to disabled vets and your ba did you did you give councilman Brer the information that he asked for
about the ADA compliance of your incline no you didn't so you lied and you doubled down on your Lie by saying you had it and then you didn't have it and you still don't have it so you lied three times three times Disabled Vets deserve better than that the Taliban treats our vets better than you I want you to go up in that wheelchair now will you get in that wheelchair and go up that incline no you won't you just give me a dirty look you're going to have your
husband beat meeting point of order the questions have to go through the council president the questions yeah yes yes okay well the ba needs to resign she's incompetent she's a liar and there was a bunch of people that had to go here from the meeting about a dozen people went here to her Court case that she put against Christo because she lied and weaponized our government against Christo 12 people who don't even know each other went to the court
case because she lied she's weaponizing the government against a man because he speaks his mind that's disgusting we are in a struggle not against blood and flesh but against the authorities against the dark Forces in this world and that is this governing body four people on this governing body conspired against the sick dying and disabled Disabled Vets including the police chief who's not here now your
police Union you have members of your police Union that that did this to Disabled Vets you wouldn't have a police department if it wasn't for disabled vets fighting for your right to be ableist and ignorant you got genital josi in this town dis respecting our vets you got the police Union you got the police Union that endorsed genital Joi and
it wasn't even erection season when they did it but now it is erection season and I want you to erect a ramp out here erect a proper ramp for disabled vets can you do that absolutely disgusting that's why I'm here and that's why I'm going to keep coming here with this wheelchair to one of you people go up that ramp with that wheelchair here I dare you to do it you anyone yes
ma'am hi Janette from Edison I've been here a long time waiting and I probably forgot half of my stuff but I just want to have uh I'll get some information on the tot Center uh what's the status on that is it going forward is it a standstill um I heard Mr Brer mention it so that's why I'm bringing it up
um since it's been closed they moved everything and I mean everything over to the um Center on um the senior center on Woodbridge Avenue we are crowded over there I'm a senior citizen I go over there once a week sometimes twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays on Tuesdays on the 2 and the fourth Tuesday of every month Clare Barton section is there I
mean they have to go someplace too but it is so crowded maybe the fire company should come over there I think there might be some kind of uh uh too many people over there because we have no place to stay I've been our our club has been moved three times because of no room I mean come on over there and visit us sometimes between 11:30 and 2:00 I mean it's the the poor girl that uh has
to clean there has to set up tables take down tables put up more tables put up chairs I mean it's like a a three-wing circus over there every day at at between 11:00 and 11:30 and then she has to dismantle everything I mean we're really crowded take a time and come on over there but my first question was what's the status with the uh tote Center over there I I never see anybody working over there at night time it's
lit up like a Christmas tree lights on the whole place maybe that's for safety I I don't know but I've gone by there late at night and all the lights are on but I don't see no cars or nobody working here okay that's it thank you okay thank you um Sonia can update on the Toth Center so very recently the water testing has been good um I will follow up with our project manager to see where we are and
how far we can go uh with DP approval but my understanding is that the water testing is looking good okay all right thank you very much anyone else yes sir uh I'd like to ask for more time if that's possible more than four minutes no well we can't do that I'm sorry all right figured I'd ask okay um so I have a
speech right now but I I wanted to say a couple things so I watched Mayor Sam josi's you know whatever it was and he called out everybody's name and praised them except for patil and Brer I think the body including you Margo is just a yes sir kind of guy I don't know how he's bribing you guys or what
it is uh Jo uh Joe Coy are you getting paid more to be on this planning board is it do you do you get any more money for that I don't know so anyways uh I want to start by uh addressing the last meeting I drove two hours to be here I'm from I'm from Edison but I I drove here two hours because I now I live in Egg Harbor Township only to find that there was no Quorum that's completely unfair and that's not just to me but to everyone who takes the
time and effort to attend these meetings uh expecting transparency and accountability from our elected officials uh now let's let's talk about why I'm here tonight you might have noticed that I dressed up as Christa last meeting when it was canceled I know brusher did and I know the Edison police did as well uh because they were definitely eyeballing me with the the mask the chain the bud HUD hoodie uh the sweatpants and I actually had the camera
and I had it all I had it all but uh So I dressed up as kristo and uh the reason I did that is because he's not allowed to come here he's not allowed to come to these meetings or the police station because of Sonia's lies and I'm sure she's down things that she's going to put in her quartets they said this they said this he said that but if you don't believe me uh
well let's see um yeah because of Sonia's lies and if you don't believe me you can uh check out the video on South Jersey news uh Christo never threatened Sonia he never charged at her in a violent violent way yet there's a Vasa order keeping him away um based on pure deception if anything Sonia is the one who made a threat right and I've seen the report quite frankly it's a Croc Li I'm actually going to play you a small clip if I if I can if
it goes through see if it goes through go around but have to be a about it would you like my husband to come here and talk to do that okay threaten me the Vinnie um this is this is not appropriate play is my time stopped no we we stopped your time yeah um it's it's not appropriate for you to be playing this in here right now this is uh well I I felt that was completely
uh fair to play that because that is why Christo loves this town all right he loves this town and he can't be here or the police station start again go ahead he can't he can't come here or to the police station what if he needed to file a report he can't even come I it's definitely I can play more would I be kicked out would that be not allowed it's it's it's just not appropriate this is this is this is so once again
the Administration has defies the plan to uh stop Christal from attending but let me make one thing clear the people are tired of your games all right um uh what is uh what is it about Christo and the ad Administration fears so much is it the fact that exposes the truth and brings corruption to light uh because it seems like that's the real issue here um yeah we're going to keep coming back we want our six minutes we
have things to say I can continue on with legitimate things but I I I'm I'm limited here I mean we we we drive from far we're from here we live nearby we we we are the people we we want to be heard thank you thank you okay anyone else all right okay do we
motion we got one more we do okay hi Rosy uh 960 new over Road um first I'd like to uh commend the Department of Public Works for their snow removal efforts uh these past couple of weeks um we've uh we've been hit with a couple snowstorms I've uh seen them come out and pre-salt some of the roads uh do some uh you know some pretty good plowing but uh
a couple of points that might make it a little bit better is on the corners where all the handicap accessible access points are uh you're probably familiar with them those red squares that are right on the corner by the slanted ramps that um that someone in a wheelchair has to use to be able to get off up off the curb up off the street up onto the sidewalk through you know instead
of going over the curb there's a lot of the the plows are actually blocking those access points when they come in with the plow they're they're clearing it across on an angle and actually push even with only a 3in high uh amount of snow falling they'll push about a foot or more of snow into a mound right up onto those ramps and wheelchair not you can't even get onto the sidewalk from the crosswalk
uh I'm a crossing guard in Town uh I bring a shovel with me to my crosswalk to clear those ramps so that the kids can cross and but wherever I go around town you see it guys you're driving all over town when you drive home tonight it's been days since the last snowstorm look at those intersections you're going to see the Mounds of snow that are piled up at the crosswalks uh there was a crossing guard
recently that quit she quit her position because she asked a church to have their contractor who plows the driveways and shovels the sidewalk to clear that little corner and the priest of all people came out and said well that's not my job well realistically it is his job it's their responsibility as the the owner of that property that has that
easement that that be cleared and she ends up getting so frustrated over she just quit her job and somebody made mention today that we we could use more crossing guards in the south end of town at a couple points if there's a need for a crossing guard call Lieutenant Turner call Sergeant winter ask to see if a crossing guard could be put in that in in those spots I don't know if it's a shortage of Manpower or not but from what I understand we're not short on Manpower as we were a couple years ago when I hired on that being
said again you know the township did a pretty good job of clearing the roads uh uh councilman brusher as far as the traffic light over on IM Avenue at the IM and tangley and riton it may or may not be necessary we we really need that traffic study to determine but I've lived in this town since 1960 and I've seen new do Road and Wood Avenue go from a stop sign to a
four-way traffic light and Grove Avenue never had a traffic light it was a stop sign imman Avenue and Grove didn't have a traffic light all those traffic lights that are up and down in Avenue they weren't there do we need a traffic light at tingon rway maybe maybe not but you know a traffic study will help determine that and to your point put a little bit of common sense into it because I personally don't want to see Edison the
city of light be lit up by traffic lights but if we need one we need one so thank you thank you uh Sonia can we uh appeal to Public Works about the situation with the handicapped crosswalks and not that would be really be important thank you okay anyone else okay motion to close yeah motion to close public portion motion to close the public portion second okay um we don't
until this until counc president yes you want to extend the meeting oh yes we should um what what should we say at this point uh 10:45 10:30 10:30 I'm going to say I'm going to say 10:45 I'm going to say 10:45 uh can we get a motion to extend to 10:45 motion to extend the meeting till 10 10:45 okay second second thank you all right um so until just a few moments ago
we did not have a council member to the planning board um and so we'll move on to reports from Council committees I'll start with you councilman brusher uh I'll go first no I was going to say the the only um ones we have is we have the veterans committee that um they're going to meet with the administration to go over like a timetable and a schedule I think that's set up um the other one was liary
yes Library Board of which um they have a couple new members now um the only odd thing that happened at the library board meeting I'm going to say is there was an attorney who had a contract extension I I guess for a year or two years and the new library board that came in got rid of him and then had another attorney sitting in the audience so um uh you know listen I mean we all know when we talked about politics before right people are put on these
boards because of politics um the last time that Sam joei did stuff with the library it cost us a million dollars in a settlement when they fired someone and now we got rid of an attorney over there under his direction is what I'm going to say um but Hey listen he runs a Library board he runs his Council um planning zoning um so he gets credit for everything and he also has to take the hit for it um but that was really
the the big thing that kind of happened you know was it mostly just reor or was there any actual business conducted it was really kind of the reorg um I I did ask uh lose firm to get me some information on um because there was some question about how they handle insurances and stuff but I think he sent it over I didn't get to look at it um because there's there always been a question is are they getting is the township charging them the fair rate um and you know overall I'll tell you what I'll look at it and if it's the fair rate it's going to be the fair rate if
it's not I'm going to speak to I guess Sonia about it um and Allan at the library um but that was kind of the gist of it I mean it was the whole getting rid of one attorney for another really okay thank you councilman Coy thank you thank you council president I'm gonna keep it brief but if you would allow me to just speak for just a few minutes uh on DPW I did want to sa yeah I want to say farewell
to our former director Ray poro who um accomplished a lot he's certainly not the first person I got along with I think some people would agree on the council there are many times I bumped heads with Ray poro as director but under his leadership for say five plus years we ACC accomplished a lot I mean uh let's not forget that we certainly funded some great projects through the mayor's off and this Council Administration but just a few things you
know when getting a DPW director I mean it was a l a lot more than I ever thought that job I'm sorry we we on uh we're talking about reports from committees my committee oh it is okay Parks sorry I'll keep I'm gonna I'm at 54 seconds okay I mean it's it's I'm I'm looking looking forward to when we do fulfill that position because it is a long uh list of of AC accomplishments and qualifications you need to have and I just want to say you know for
Parks committee liaison we did 850 trees we help building and grounds the minville center the senior center the Shamrock building Recycling Center Police bathrooms have you taken a look at our police bathrooms here unbelievable you think you at you're at a hotel here their locker rooms improved uh area for uh women in Police Department the um the cricket Fields tennis courts animal shelter splash park uh assistance with
turf fields tennis courts pickle B fields beautification projects um and I'll keep it there at two minutes I just want to say farewell and goodbye I'm happy we got along at the end and I'm looking forward to our next DPW director thank you thanks councilman Co councilman partner is not here councilman Patel none for me okay councilman patil none at this time okay councilman schmuel
not this time okay um for myself just um you have the cultural arts commission this was from the meeting of January 14th um we uh we did the reorganization and it's still Tony masero is the chair Vice chair is Lois tar secretary is Christine can um uh March is going to be the women's month at Women's month at the gallery um the uh there are some
Grand Awards uh to Asphalt Arts asphalt Arts initiative um we're looking to do 50-50 fundraiser we're looking to do a Tricky Tray um the jazz festival which we had partnered with middle sex County apparently we're not going to be doing that anymore um the mayor feels that the town can do a better job on their own and so we're looking to do something in maybe August or sometime in September um and uh so uh we're we're
going to be doing that on our own uh finally the animal shelter very brief report on that um the January report currently in the shelter 11 dogs 19 cats the adoptions in January 2025 were uh seven dogs and seven cats and that is my report uh councilman pointer did you have any committee reports I don't thank you counc all right um Points of Light uh I want to wish everybody uh a
happy Lunar New Year Happy Valentine's Day any other Points of Light council president yes uh as was mentioned before it's black history month so I just wanted to recognize uh the month of February thank you okay any other points of L council president yes uh we didn't acknowled we because of different meetings were tight we didn't acknowledge the death of our President Jimmy Carter I just wanted to mention that we were busy between two meetings and
we missed a meeting and um sad lived a long life I'm only hoping to live to be 85 because I Know Rich wants me to certainly poke him around till for the next 30 Years but he lived a long life and um farewell to President Jimmy Carter thank you than you um any others okay uh moving on to number 25 Communications uh we need a motion to accept uh and a second motion to accept
second second all in favor I I okay um discussion items I'm going to go from the other side um I'm going to go councilman ptil discussion items councilman did not have any listed I'll be looking at the time I'll be quick I'll skip you know few of those uh but first one grow Avenue and cward this was in month of December I heard there was a traffic study we
have the bids everything Sonia do we know where we stand uh I will follow up on that okay uh glendel property where we stand I know there is a litigation but anything beyond that or that's the status quo on glendal property um with regard to litigation I'd turn to our counselor um as far as the property itself um nothing is being done at this moment I'll skip
Public Safety because we don't have Chief here status of various projects the first one to Center where we stand at this time it is stand still or we are planning to resume shortly as I previously mentioned I think the resident had asked um with regard to toad Center we've been getting good news that it looks like the water testing is
um the the levels are in going in the positive direction so we are hopeful that um construction will commence soon but I will get you a more timely timeline soon could be you know I don't know two months 3 months 6 months if you can help me to understand uh the next one is jet Sports Complex we already third it's another 6 to 8 months that's a Target ston Community Center how far we are in the what is the
progress on Stelton Community Center Sonia um I believe we're doing a environmental study so I'll have to follow up with our project manager and engineer where we stand with the environmental study okay so we have the project manager for ston Community Our Town engineer Brian who was here earlier is leading the charge perfect uh some of the things I would cover like resident complain I will not take few uh I will take only a few minutes here Stelton planfield
intersection New Brun week Stelton planfield that intersection what is coming up there on the that lot next to the cricket field I see big machiner is there is the warehouse coming or anything that is happening i' have get back to you on that okay anyone probably from the planning board might be aware uh if not then thank you council president the rest I'm going to cover state of the town I'm going to
rewind what mayor said uh but question to attorney before I move forward attorney my question is if an elected official gives the misinformation under the oath what is the penalty this question is to attorney if you're listening I'm sorry so if an elected official
gives incorrect information under the oath I'm not using the word lie but incorrect what is the penalty is that classifi as a perjury or what happens I'm sorry councilman I don't understand the question could you try one more time for me please elected official under the oath if gives wrong information or give the falsified information or lie under the oath what is the
consequences what can happen well it depends on what the alleged uh improper statement is and whether it uh amounts to a liable or or a slander or if it's under oath if it amounts to perjury it's such a broad question that I really can't answer it okay what happens if it is not under
the oath but in public forum if an elected official lies it's the same it's the same issue sir um you're asking me a general question cor and then asking for a specific answer and you just can't well ask me the question you have to let me answer please and and you just can't do it that way you can't just say if someone lies what's the
punishment without knowing the context what the LIE is whether it was under oath whether it's defamation either liable or slander um so I'd love to be able to to speak with you more specific speically to answer your questions but you can't just ask me a general question and seek a specific answer on the record on the record I wanted to ask if
an elected official gives the falsified information or lies under the oath what are the consequences but you're looking for what that context is and then based on that you can advise what action needs to happen again I I'll wait but I will have the personal conversation with you thank you sir thank you councilman Patel I just wanted to
follow up on the economic developer and any further progress on the Redevelopment agency Sonia I don't have an update at this time and I'm not going to be talking about the other two topics as I am not ready at this point for those thank you councilman pointer thank you council president um just a request to the administration I asked for Department feedback on a potential ordinance if I could get that by the next meeting I'd appreciate it
thank you council president councilman Cole council president I I just wanted to of course um get a quick update on the economic development person I know we discussed it a few times um and I know the process is taking time but I haven't gotten an answer yet whether we would use some of those funds to just marketing or to Pro promote
Edison if we had an economic developer they would be probably doing a few things a Consulting can do and uh last year we had about 125 set aside now this year we I'm assuming we carried over or have still some money for that job so is there an update on the communication if if we can use some of those funds to hire a consultant uh we
don't have an adopted budget or introduced budget um we hope to have that fairly soon um but with regard to the position as I said I don't have an update however um I would uh contact the mayor with regard to that position and what is the vision for that position and the money from last year that just got pushed into our uh budget for the end of the year that line and we got moved into General funds again we
don't have an adopted budget so I can't tell you whether it is or isn't okay I'm G to yield extra questions on that um council president uh when Council BR talked about affordable housing of course I know several people on this day has support affordable housing uh when and if a committee does come come together I certainly want to know what the forecast and what the town can do and how we can start discussing uh projects that may be coming forward rather than to be you know pushed into a corner hopefully we can
make do and work with an investor to see an opportunity come together that would be something fitting for the community and not as impactful but necessary to fulfill the obligation so I'm looking forward to that I'll I'll try and arrange conference call with you and councilman Brer this week okay we I believe we are going to get hit with a baseball bat and they're going to get what they want because they're going to go to court and I think there's a possibility through
counselor or uh that we can possibly negotiate to see if they would give us something that would fit the community um our Builder's going to give us stack condos it's going like an apartment complex where we today maybe we can sit down and discuss something that would be have a you know a architectural look for the community it's coming our way whether they like it or not the building and development is coming our way and affordable housing is going to happen uh to
you know so and it's only 20% of what they build so they build 100 we get 20 units they build 200 we get 40 so we did 300 we get 60 that's just 60 of the 700 plus we need to fulfill however you want to look at that say it's only 300 we still have a lot of development to get to 300 so we are fools not to get ahead of this I hope we can I've seen it happen I'm here for 10 years now uh Council ptio canly speak on that
and it's been historical investors are very Savvy and they're waiting with baited breath to do what they need to do for themselves it's their property they sat on for decades so I hope we can have uh an opportunity to to work together thank you councilman Brer can you clock in under eight minutes or do we need to ask for another extension hold on I will be up probably not okay want another extension all right now 10 I don't know 10 more minutes or so uh let's just I'm
just going to say an extension to can we get a a motion to extend till 11 motion to extend the meeting till 11:00 p.m. okay second second Cur Council comments right all right go ahead councilman Brer all right um fire alarm I I didn't receive an update on it now I I've asked I need an update now whether it's an update telling me that um there's 300 smok heads and only
one works or you know it's been tested and we're still working on 20 of them some kind of update from the contractor or whatever someone's doing if I can just get that um as you know or or may have observed we are currently working on the system you would like to know where we are in terms of completion yes like right whether they're in the panels in the smok heads or whatever it is whatever the stat I need an update
um just can't keep on getting like nothing with that one um uh yeah The Whistleblower thing I had uh U that that just had to go with the mayor looking to seal documents for the Glendale property that is so that he doesn't look bad politically is what I read um of which I think he owes the taxpayers back the funds that our attorney's going to build for that by the
way um just like he did for the police that he took to Chicago crime is a crime um Park improvements now now here is here's a classic one um my Council colleague next to me told me about how great the um DPW ctor has been doing everything's looking great he said uh we took care of Shamrock's field I haven't been down there in about 3 weeks but I'm going to go down there tomorrow morning and explain the great work that councilman Coyle says Shamrock field
looks like tomorrow when I'm videotaping that live um cuz something tells me it didn't change so I don't know why he said Shamrocks but uh Park improvements now now here I'm going to give you a heads up see everybody says that I I just try and and and beat up the mayor um what I say is that the mayor is is not in touch with the public he has no clue what the public wants we went through that with Jackson Avenue where I went down and out
of 30 residents only two wanted to see it made wider right so we did we stopped that at that point but the problem is the mayor and the administration don't communicate with the public biggest problem you have here which makes it a disaster it has to be his grandiose Vision type of thing um some kind of e Eagle Maniac or something but anyway you're doing a park here from what I understand uh by dorm Avenue I think it's called Edison Park you familiar with
that um by dorm Avenue in the back there it backs up to the U Peter J Barnes uh preserve oh on Durham okay right so a a resident wrote and they said that they feel that the improvements there are excessive so I asked what what do you mean by excessive and what they were looking for was like a park Improvement I guess like a basketball court maybe uh maybe a tennis court but they don't
want to see five basketball courts they don't want to see seven pickable they're not looking for their neighborhood park to be the destination from where people from all around us go there to go play in their neighborhood um and they said no one reached out to them you know from from the mayor of the administration and they're just saying that they're going to do all the stuff to their park and they're not looking for this so can I get a plan for that Park on what you guys plan on doing um and then I'll go meet with the residents and you know
go through it are you referring to hail park or W Park are you refer could it's on um dormy Avenue backs up to the uh Peter J Barnes preserve so if you're going down dorham Avenue you make a right yeah I guess by may maybe by hell yeah no I'm I'm afraid not no no I'm afraid not sorry okay
can I get it's Hil Park information on that okay yes Hil Park then so can I just get a a drawing for what you guys were planning on doing all right um the other stuff I'm going to skip because I have to read this um I I received a distressing email um that I have to go on the record now and um and talk about point of word just to the council president this is just In fairness
uh that Mr brush just if it involves a lawsuit or some issue we should not discuss that because of legal issues but I listen I'm just I'm just want iice Mr I'm not asking coun Co let councilman Coy will we've got the we've got the safeguards here for that so uh go ahead councilman Brasher love this one okay I'm writing to express serious concerns regarding recent legal advice and
the content of an email I've received from your department the email contains several several troubling aspects defamatory the email's accusations that I or other council members orchestrated the influx of individuals from outside of Edison are entirely false and defamatory these statements appear designed to shift blame from the Township's legal team
to their own missteps which directly contributed to the current situation for three years now the township has wasted thousands of dollars the council has spent hundreds and hundreds to circumvent the Constitution these actions have brought national attention brought disgrace to Edison and to the Democratic party created a hostile working environment
for employees and elected officials all due to bad legal advice in my opinion I am not really sure if the email was meant to try and intimidate an elected official into changing their votes on the Constitutional issues with a comment about yourself to potential claims including personal damages which are not covered by the township insurance so in
essence I was told that I would not be covered this statement seems to try and intimidate an elected official and I take great offense in it if I could be provided a neutral legal source I may feel more comfortable in adjusting my view the legal opinions presented at times throughout the last 3 years seem skewed the lack of neutrality expected
from the township legal council this contrast sharply with the balance guidance provided by our previous attorney Bill northg grave so we must ask what has changed we have three new Council people we have a new mayor and we have a new legal counsel let's ask the public where they believe the new destructive meetings originated from which of the three questionable actions over three years
by legal I am deeply troubled by the redactions of a veterans report to the council members and then there was a decision to allow the closing on a property now subject to litigation Additionally the handling of the housing ordinance has resulted in avoidable legal challenges misrepresentation of joint Insurance Fund recommendations I asked you to confer with the joint Insurance Fund your
firm modified it your firm misrepresented The Joint Insurance funds recommendations regarding meeting decorum specifically the ban on the flag as props originated from your firm a decision that has drawn national attention and fueled public descent creating the environment that we are living in again created by your firm Edison became famous for all the wrong reasons it made Democrats look like we're out of touch with
the electorate the constitutional rights and responsibilities as an elected official I am Bound by oath to uphold the Constitution including the first amendment's protection of free speech which I agree that offensive language directed at employees is unacceptable in my mind I firmly believe that public officials must tolerate robust criticism even if expressed through bad words the law recognizes its distinction and I am particularly concerned by your
firm's attempt to curtail constitutionally protected Free Speech during public meetings the legal team seems to hang their hat on a case that has been challenged now and will likely be reversed and I'd like to pass these down for each of the council people to have and if somebody doesn't want theirs if we can give it to our counselor for him to have the legal seems to to hang their case and why has the council not been aware that these challenges to this case are happening now
I'm requesting independent counsel in light of these concerns I request the following inde independent legal counsel I requested access to an independent constitutionally focused attorney to provide unbiased legal advice to council members this will ensure that our decisions are Guided by a neutral perspective and protected the interest of the township its employees and the residents individual choice of counsil
given the potential for personal liability I believe each council member should have the option to select their own legal representation this will allow us to seek Council aligned with our individual understanding of the law and our responsibilities at elected officials over the years I've disagreed with legal about many issues I was dismissed by the attorneys and not supported by my colleagues the results now speak for themselves I urge
legal to reconsider their current approach to legal representation and prioriti prioritizing the protection of the constitutional rights the current environment is detrimental to the effective governance of the township and undermines the Public's trust I trust that you you will address these concerns promptly and take the necessary actions to restore confidence in the township and our legal council thank you and
on that I will end my okay time okay we got a motion to adjourn motion tot journ second okay this uh council is adjourned at 10:48 and 34 seconds p.m. thank youone it's ever going to happen it's