[Music] this is the combin meeting for February 10th 2025 and it is 603 and 54 seconds We
Stand AG please alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Madam can you read the roll call
please council member Brer here council member council member haris here council member Patel here council member P here council member po pres council member mu here can you read the adequate notice please adquate notice of this meeting is
required by the open public meeting Act of 1975 has been provided by the annual Noti home News Tribune ster jie talk on November 18th 2024 and post Municipal complex on that same date okay council
president remarks um first I want to on behalf of the council I want to apologize for the the very short notice cancellation the January 22nd meeting this is this has not happened since I've been on Council that we have not had a
quorum and we were in a precarious position because we had two people who were on vacation and then two people got sick I did not find out about the last cancellation due to illness until 4:30 that afternoon which did not give us any time at all to to inform and notify
people and so for those of you who were inconvenienced by this I apologize on behalf of this Council we will make sure that when there's illness that we know a lot sooner than that all right now I want to talk about
theorum and I'm going to be reading this it's very long but it's important while at the last meeting this Council successfully and unanimously rescinded the ban on the use of crops during the public speaking time I issuing an important reminder that very
clear and strict theorum rules remain in place including the fact that disruptions during the meeting will no longer be tolerated in that respect I failed at the last meeting to maintain order in this chamber and as council president I must own the fact that I allowed the subsequent disorder to take
place I want to sincerely apologize to all our valued Township employees for letting it down you deserve much better therefore as such while I am still on a learning curve in my new role I'm addressing these failures with immediate remedial action which is as follows one
when speaking on resolutions and ordinances members of the public must address only these issues members of the public can speak on any topic they wish during oral oral petitions and remarks we very much welcome your feedback what will not under any circumstances be
tolerated will be personal attacks slander harassment intimidation and any perceived threats or threatening behavior against members of council ba and any public safety or other Department officials such as as such Behavior will be considered a disruption to a council meeting this rule will also
apply to members of the public who shout out return from the audience two in addition we ask that members of the public stay behind the black ribbon barrier at all times as well as to respectfully not Crown around the podium when a member of the public is speaking please be advised that the following
actions will be taken if the speaker or audience do not follow these rules of the Quorum a you will first be called out of order and asked to refrain from violating these rules of deorum B refusal to do so will result in forfeiture of your speaking time and will be asked to be seated for those in
the audience speaking or shouting on of turn you will be given a warning to stop failure to comply will result in removal from the chambers C failing to comply with request to cease from committing these decorum violations then failure to sit down will result in your being asked to leave council chambers if you refuse
to do so police will escort you out please understand that I wish to avoid at all costs having least escort anyone out of the chambers having a call a recess or early adjournment but if all other options have failed I wasn't I won't hesitate to ask on these measures
act on these measures I simply want these meetings to run as smoothly as possible with respect for the public speakers and the issues of importance to them and in return you respect for members of the administration and council members so that we can carry on the important business at hand the meeting of January 8 should have lasted
2 hours instead of 4 hours because the agenda was relatively but many disruptions unnecessarily added to the meeting time I'm told by former council members that theorum rules were rarely an issue and they shouldn't be sadly a number of previously regular
attendees at these Council meetings have stopped coming because of their discomfort over the toxic atmosphere that has developed which is extremely unfortunate as their voices also need to be heard in conclusion I simply want to serve as council president presiding over Council proceedings not as a ring
master of a circus so I'm you return to a more civil discourse and we look forward to your partnership in achieving the goal of reductive and effective meetings thank you and these the the count the rules for Decor are posted in the back and they're also located on the table in the
back as well um one other item is that I've been getting some complaints that with the snow a lot of people have not been shoveling sidewalks or in front of their houses and I believe that is an that is an ordinance or that is a law of this town that you need to make sure the
sidewalks are cleared in front of your house so please please do that we expect some snow tomorrow and um just to do that for the courtesy of other people who are walking on the sidewalks um that would conclude my council president
remarks um we now turn to resolutions of recognition and I think we're going to actually start with the student because they yeah [Music]
whereas gory kente a senior of Edison High STEM Academy comines her passion for technology and finance to drive impactful Innovation she developed the Theros of physical therapy app using po Poise estimation for Real Time feedback
winning first place at the Congressional app Challenge and presenting her work to Congress whereas she has secured and Seed secured seed funding from renowned competitions like the diamond Cal with
diamond challenge blue ocean competition and teal renovation she has attended the summer science program at India University conducting bioinformatics research on plasmic
design sequential modified analysis and docking student studies for can dates inhabitant of CD 14 she is also co-founder of the team Quadro leading her team to rank top five nationally at
robotic Cup on stage she's published an introductory book in Hindi for underprivileged students in India in the future she aims to combine her interests in technology and Entrepreneurship to create positive change now there for be
resolved Municipal Council Township of venison that we honor and command Barney for her Excellence exceptional accomplishments her leadership advancing stem programs and an and contribution to the community and the field of science technology engineering and Mathematics
sisha D is an ambitious and academically outstanding high school student with deep passion for out science and mechanical engineering and whereas boasting an impressive we weed GPA of 5.62 she's excelled in a challenge
curriculum taking nine AP courses and 12 honor classes her intellectual curiosity and dedication to Innovation are evident in her accomplishments including leading a team in the NASA human exploratory Rover
Challenge and whereas she's applied for skills in computer aided design and metal working to build a human power row kisha's leadership is showcased through her active involvement in organizations such as such as Junior jet propulsion
lab the arotech team and her as captain of The Odyssey of the Mind team where she Fosters collaboration and creativity and whereas Beyond her school commitments she is passionate about stem education teaching quadrant computer
Computing through the Civil Air patrols AE stem program she has dedicated her creativity positive change extends to volunteer work supporting rural communities in India reflecting her empathy and Global Perspective now therefore by the township of Edison that
we hereby honor commend tiisha da for her Excellence exceptional accomplishments of leadership and advanced St programs and are outstanding contributions to the community in the field of science technology engineering and [Applause] Mathematics we at
sanj Shankar being a senior at the Edison Academy Magnet School having a great passion for engineering aspect of stem and whereas SJ has served on his school councils for both computer science club and science Olympic where he participated in competitions and
informatics events for both middle and high school students and president of this schools National Honor Society he has found a great passion in using his skills to help others so much that even developed an app to help digitize his volunteering organizational records and
his passion and skills has driven him all the way to the New Jersey Institute of Technology where SJ conducted research in robotics for civil engineering applications where studied digital vsi design with mits Beaver Work
summer Institute and was later recognized as MIT think Scholars semifinalist more Jenny has become a rougher P Award winner he he now therefore be resolved that he to hereby honor and
commend s j for his exceptional accomplishments his leadership and advancing extend programs his as a contribution to the community in the field of science technology engineering Mathletics whereas Nadine vatos is a senior ocent Academy Magnet School
pursuing the electrical and computer engineering technology p halfways and where she's passionate about cyber security and has won the FBLA state level cyber security event she's an active member of the wi stem communities
as well as cod with closy and has been recognized in NCW she has an long out long outstanding interest in robotics where she has pursued through research related to remote vehicles or outside the
stem nadani enjoys public speaking and is the director general of her Model United Nations chapter and in her free time she likes learning okay I can't say that an Indian classic art form it goes
on Heights of her family in the future she hopes to computerize computer science field where there for we honor and commend madani for her Excellence accomplishments advancing stem programs and outstanding contributions to the community in the field of science
technology engineer mathematics thank you madam CL um I'm going to open this to public comment on these resolutions of recognition anyone from the public want to speak about that seeing none
[Music] can we get a second okay all right um and now we have need a motion to adopt to adopt second please or do we need yes
okay okay all right um I think we well it's usually motion to adopt and then Council comments we're doing these um we are doing this at once or do this split resolution yes okay this is on
08 is be7 Right 08083 com com excuse me for interrupting um we're having an issue with the broadcasting and just in case it's brought to your attention we're working on um putting up
the broadcasting we're having an issue just wanted to let everybody know okay thank you if you can pause because this is a problem moment for the parents and if it is not broadcasted be I'm
sorry I'm sorry Council I think if we if we the Brading is not available then I would request this Council should go in recess for a short break until it is recovered but this is a proud moment for the parents and they would like to see this on the television well uh council
president I I can we just check cuz I think the broadcasting isn't happening so it's not live people can't see you at home now but it's being recorded correct it's still being recorded so the whole thing will be recorded so they'll be
able to um watch it on the Addison TV I mean not in time not in real time yeah I asked about that CU I was kind of concerned that the parents are here they're going to want to see this um but yeah I mean or or if they can fix it in
next couple minutes you know we can just wait a couple minutes does have a r we can do all right this is Council uh okay to continue it's recorded I think we should
okay we should I'm okay to if it recorded all right then let's let's yeah let's move on council member Brer yes council member Co yes council member P Patel yes council member P yes council member po yes council member Schell yes
counc president house yes motion is adopted yes could could we comment at this time can we do what we skip Council yeah yes I was get today um okay uh Council comments on this resolution for these
four Excellence students I'd like to yield to council PTI who has a better vocabulary on some of the things that were discussed and I can look good after he finishes the C you know we can go and present the the resolution but let the rest of the
council com becomeing you go first no I'll speak while presenting okay yes U First students thank you for all your hard work and dedication uh as my colleagues said and I like to think
that I'm a little bit techsavvy um some of those acronyms B my head so kudos to you for understanding it to in regards to therap POS I think it's great in the sense of being able to recognize like a person's pose to be able to like
track it and make sure like high scoliosis right so like seeing those types of adjustments and how over time that type of therapy assists in terms of realignment I think will show value um down down the road uh Tanisha in regards
to the the r Chanel like just being able to create a a humanized like over for control is insane to me uh sanj in regards to being able to digitize organizational records um look from from
a Township perspective like we have records going back decades so having that type of technology to be able to keep those records a preserved uh and be probably likely to be able to be analyzed at a faster capacity than just
paper format is going to be extremely beneficial to many organizations and N in regards to cyber security but we're in the age of of artificial intelligence cyber security is going to be a major item of
concern across many different Industries so thank you all for all of your hard work I look forward to seeing what you have to do in the future thank you vice president Council vice president anyone else you guys are all brilliant and I'm so proud of you all and I think that
someone has said you should state where the PK is going to be and not where the PK is and I think you guys are clearly skating toward where the puck is going to be in the future which is robotics cyber security uh exploring space and essentially using the knowledge that you
gain in school to challenge yourself forther for the society and I'm proud of you guys and keep going and I think guys will do great things for the human civilization thank you a hockey metaphor I like it um okay uh
anyone else car we speak yes councilman Brer yes um listen this is a nice day um for you to get acknowledge for the hard work that you do the resume that you're building now I hope you just continue to do for the rest of your life um but
these things that you're doing now you know speak volumes about Edison about our community and I believe it's important for the council schools you know when they acknowledge you for these things um that acknowledgement I think helps you later on in life and helps
motivate you and I hope that it does in a way that you guys truly succeed I hope you don't forget about us once you leave here um don't forget where you came from okay we hope to see you come back but congratulations for this evening thank you all thank you Council and presser
anyone else was that okay yes C congratulations it's it's a great honor um and it's amazing to see great role models in our town to other
students um and like my colleague said we hope you continue and uh join us on this side uh in the near future anyone else let me just add that what you're
doing is so above my pay grade it is just like this is just amazing we are so proud of you you make Edison proud and you are you are what the future of Edison is all about so we thank you for
all that you're doing we know that you're going to be rock stars in your fields and we we are so proud to have you here and to be able to recognize you thank you very much um okay did you want to present the resolutions
no I'm okay the rest of the council should also join us okay Engish yeah from backward parents if you want to join who they want pleas feel free this is a your
moment don't be shy you can come on the right side thank [Music] you first of all congratulations you the diamonds are the rare finds of
Med Township you have put Edison on the map of the world the way you are heading the innovation in stain I heard the AI robotics Python and many more things at
this age I when I was at your age I was probably playing or doing something but what you are doing is you're putting your time and energy making the community better so your work will be recognized and keep this doing
good job all the parents thank you thank you for raising the bright students in added keep them pushing not to the extrem end but to pursue their interest if there is any Innovation opportunity that exist in
would love to support and any support from this Council we will be always there for that again congratulations thank you congratulations to your hard workking dedication two things uh for the parents who may be pushing or maybe
at Idol with your children growing organically and through the process we appreciate your hard work dedication to make sure that they do their best to our standing um for the time you put in thank you uh this is amazing what all
you've accomplished um don't ever let your age interrupt the will of your intelligence over someone older than you if you work hard at one thing you'll be great at and be an expert so just because you're dealing with someone above you or mide from you or teacher or
Professor if you've done your homework make sure you let them know because it really comes down to the time you put in and you can be an expert have one thing more than someone else at a young age I think many of us may have been challenged by own older that's not go true today you can certainly uh
challenge someone with the knowledge who've earns today through all the opportunities that are out there more than we have ever had I looked at this list of of things you've accomplished I'm amazed um and thank you for the time you put in putting Edis forward and last please lift someone up in your world as
you achieve you have someone else blow or Side Community make sure you're inspired with because you are a community leader you're leading your school people know it and people want to know who you are so do your best to invite other people in your world thank you and congratulations have one public speaker
out here I Le you want to say something I can just hand you the microphone you can hold me nothing out of all four people do you want to text me something I'm just kidding thank you [Applause]
good job [Music] with regard to the other resolutions of recognition I'm going to use a different sports metaphor I'm going to make a scrimmage call here um because Pat Massie Sue O'Neal and Lisa Krauss are not able to come tonight
we are going to move that to the the meeting which meeting that on okay Wednesday to the 26th and uh hope that we can get all of them here so we're just going to move that to the February 26th
agenda um all right council president yes just one brief comment I want to thank my Council Council M for helping me helping the clerk find all these students as we were able to communicate with some he had contact to communicate
with more so thank you all right we move on to number six new business proposed ordinances public hearing set down for Monday February 26 actually it's 20 Monday is the 24th set down for Monday February
yeah um so is it for Wednesday the 26th yes okay proposed ordinances public hearing said down for Wednesday February 26th um any Council comments on these ordinances yes
Council I just question you know we are re rting the change not just for the 6 minute but also for the the a that also rebut I'm I'm sorry can you say again repeat 6 minutes plus restoring rebut
time uh I believe so I know that's not written down here but yes I believe so yes okay um any other Council comments yes I'm presuming at the during the ACT during the regular session upon
whatever motion is made we would have opportunity comment I'll sa my comments okay thank you pres anyone else for either ordinance 2223 or 2244 okay same none go on to seven the review of the
minutes uh any comments on the review of the minutes okay seeing none moving to number eight the administrative agenda from mayor Joi appointment of s ch ch to
the environmental commission any comments Yeah question yes the um is this just a plain mayor's appointment without council's consent yes then let me ask you a question why
does it show up on our agenda here do for so you receive FYI okay okay um all right yes I just want to say I know s that pretty well
and I'm very excited that he feels to be the environmental commission we need a new generation uh to be more active and I think he's a great representation of the new generation being active into the community so I'm glad we have some new blood into theal commission thank you
okay thank you anyone else okay moving on to number nine from the business administrator uh a through I anything um yes question on
I um these are lights tra lights right yes okay do how do we determ that these traffic lights are needed
wanted um feel like this all all of these are well basically I can't leave my house without hitting a traffic light in the first quarter mile um like New York City or something um you know left
organization return to town from town and I've spoken about this like on multiple occasions where we end up putting a light in what that does is it diverts the traffic um currently now in Lane if you want to avoid a light you
you couldn't V light it's light at one end of it but now it's not going to be a be at the other so if you didn't get anywhere off a tangle you have to go through like I mean I specifically moved here because it was
Suburban town is becoming Urban um I don't know so I'm wondering who made these decisions and and why are they here U we just added a light on Warwick you know know uh to Sonia uh is this uh was
this traffic studies it it indeed was um this was done extensively the last two years with our Traffic Division and recommendation from them um we then coordinated this with the county because it's on a County Road um and we have to go through this process of this
agreement um Just for information purposes the the cost to the county would be 67% there's a few costings that at 100% would be with the county um but again yes it was extensively done with our traffic division
council president yes I did bring this up many times in past uh the need of the traffic signal I believe this was also approved similar resolution was approved in 2019 I did ask Administration
to dig through those approvals and where it was T but again it's here I'm happy but I would like to see the traffic study the has been changed from 2019 to 2024 how that particular neighborhood
has been the improved or the traffic has gone up uh this very closer to school so at least one signal two you know is necessary there but from the raway road which is very you know dangerous intersection and I don't know if there
is enough space unless Township acquires one of the property in the corner property so I'd like to really see the TR on on this sure um the we wouldn't be acquiring anyone's particular property that would be the case it would just be
the right away and in order to put the traffic signals but can you please follow with the traffic sure thank you thank you Council pres yes I believe this was the one that Elizabeth C came and wanted to know if we can add a tra
on last year and I think there was also the inmen old rare that was concerned was that something do we have an update for that as well oh with regard to the side triangle I know we've been doing regular um checkups and maintenance um it's winter time so it's probably not an
issue right now it'll be more of an issue come springtime and I traffic calls for a traffic signal that we should do it because we don't want traffic signal does not need traffic signal is not needed at a particular location thank you council president yes
yeah I I just want to EXP I know my counsil colleag would said if we need it right so there's a traffic signal well we're going to put this one there's another traffic signal right at the road that's probably about I don't know 1,000 ft by the golf court and and woodl I
think the road is but what I'm goinging is and this is why I say this is just getting crazy right let's say that I feel safe for me to cross that intersection without a light I've been doing it my whole life I do it now um I do find it safe but if you live by the
Lord law and you don't feel safe because maybe you're you're 75 years old like like my mother right she wouldn't feel safe trying to pull out an Al because of her vision or anything The Prudent thing for her to do would be just to make a
right and go an e of a mile to tingly and then she can take a up there and she hits a light and then she can go to the next light and she can go to the next light to go to South Line field so it's like where I'm going is what you're what we're doing here is we're putting the
light in when there is a clear path for someone to get from point A to point B and like when did we stop with the lights like I'm saying I I think this body should go look at all the lights around that area I see if there's no other way for you to get around you know
put it in your Google Maps but to just say hey let's just put a light because we think it's safe because somebody wants to go there I think it's just wrong you're changing the Dynamics of our town right I know we had a mayor that wanted to make this town a city and and that's where where I'm going is this
body is going to create a city you can safely get around the way it is without any of these lights in here okay you're not really going out of your way by more than probably a quarter of a mile that you're going to go out of your way but instead we're going to have more lights and everything um we just ruin the town
and that especially that intersection because when you get there I've had people from South Edon and may He from South Edon you'll know this when you drive to North Edison and you go by North Edison and Scotch Plains where this L is here that's a whole different
world looks nothing like South asan it looks like it's like you're in Princeton or something it's gorgeous you know just the nature and the beauty of everything now we're going to put a traffic light there so that's just I don't believe that that these things are actually
needed here um and and I see that this body and and not just with the I say this body the body before the one war with you know what I mean it's just continually going down a bad Road here um you know if you don't feel safe then why did you move here you could have
moved to New York City you know there's a lot of places you could have moved but to come to Edison to change our town from what it was to me is just wrong you know what I mean if you if you like all the lights CU you need them you move to a place like Elizabeth or or New York
City or or another place that has all those lights for you so that you can get around where you got to go but to come to this town and then say we have all these problems we want to do this I just think it's wrong you you changeing you're changing the town and how it's been uh and I don't consider that
Progressive um in in any sort of event I I I I think we're hurting the town but that's that'll be it on that council president yes all I want to say to that is that you know we are here to make changes to the Town based on what the
residents need and clearly one of the residents has came forward and ask for a change um there are plenty of places in town that actually I do believe needs a light uh the many complaints about they have to wait 5 minutes to make a turn
that that is something especially if it's close to your house and this is something you have to cross every day that's a lot of time wasted that you would feel the frustration and if a resident comes forward and ask for a change and if the traffic division does the traffic study and says they need a light I believe listen the council's
best interest to listen to the residents and to the traffic study Division and make those changes and that is the purpose of this Council to make changes to Town based on the feedback we get that is my point Thank You counc president yes [Music]
counc a chance to speak yet thank you council president I strongly agreed with this opportunity and I for my opinion I think Council W is the first to disagree with traffic light in all the 30 years of me watching Council meetings we both
know North Edison well we both know IM Avenue and Tingley Lane it's been a complaint for years uh in my 10e of experience watching Council meetings the county does not gift a traway anywhere or fund
any project this large without doing a a study and they are very there's a process there's no question that there is a process before they read to this and it takes a minimum for two years before they appoint funding for this I
think it's a great opportunity I also listen to council pressure about Warwick if anybody's drive for work it's the major cut through from Cal from Grove Avenue to calary to uh to O and the traffic count there of cuts is enormous
that traffic light has been begged by residents for decades to be there and it's working as a functional light and if anybody's come down o Road it's not a 30 mph Road anymore people are flying past there you cannot get out of the old Sun Side Deli that easily like you could
you can't get a divised pharmacy easily like you could in the past and you know I differ from Council bre to call our town and City over traffic light you compare Jersey City or New York City to Edison and we are not 1960 where there were Farms here this is 2025 this is 65
years later we made some great changes we have homes that are worth $3 million in Edison this does not take away or even fit into the vocabulary of City because of traffic late other you know we do agree on different developments that don't make sense but a traffic light it's foggy to believe that this
would differ to a city uh from where we are today so thank you yeah council president I just wanted to just just comment that if if any of my Council colleagues have a request from a resident for a life right I'd like them
to tell me the resident I I'd like to speak to the resident let me tell you why because what I'll do myself is I I'll go from their home and I'll do it safely going by all the lights that we do have to show how they're not really
it takes them 10 minutes to get out you're absolutely right if they went another way and they went around it wouldn't take them 10 minutes to get out it would take them like five that's that's my point but what I have yet to see the res except for the one that we had that gu about the one on the end of
him that you know there even there I said the same thing that meting where we're changing we're changing the look of the Town um they don't make we don't make lights like they make the uh cell phone towers they come through branches on so they look like a
Evergreen but yeah I just I I just don't see the need um my Council colleague I I get right whatever you know he the light I guess were um I know and it's just it's just different that's all um I
chose to move back here for this to keep it the way it is and when he talks about war nobody up here on this di knows anything about War and why the traffic ended up on Warwick okay my counil colleague doesn't even know because he didn't come out of clar Bart he didn't
come to the north side back then you were on the southide you your brother was on the North side with me but I'll tell you why everybody goes downard because we put the other lights up down on Oak Tree Road I know because I was a kid that used to drive through there and
once they put the light up on Oak Tree Road I went down through Stevenville so I missed the light so you build the light and then what we do as people as we try to avoid the light it it's human nature and that's what that's the part
where I'm going where this body is was but house president I'll be brief it's challenging to listen to C profession is not a professional in this expert traffic study and I know although I think you brought a great analysis that's one traffic starts people cut
through but long before people cut from Cal to Grove to to wber to for decades and hey he brings a b point but professionals invade this decision for a reason and they don't give out traffic L like lli BS and Edison thank
[Music] you yeah I just I can only I can only speak anecdotal from taking I can speak anecdotally about Inman and raway because I often take that to Westfield to go into Westfield and that is a very
difficult intersection it's very difficult to make a left from Inman onto raway it's very difficult to make a a left from raway onto Inman and I am suspecting and U son maybe you can you
can verify this that there have been a number of Fender vendors at that that intersection all of that's been taken into consideration okay all right so that's just my own experience and um I I do
believe this is this is a safety issue so that's just my take on it thank you council president yes thank you if I if I can um I've had residents reach out and including some that from here in regards to particularly main left out of lindel
now I understand is raway the street next to it I would imagine that with the inclusion of tingling being able to do both directions there's some benefit to that but I do have some questions for engineering that's okay or you Sonia
Sonia to engineer um since the proposed light is Broadway and Tingley um one of the residents that live in the neighborhood reached out and asked about
potential backup to Lind link is there any consideration or opportunity for us to have like a no blocking intersection or striping there to make sure that when the light is red that residents from Lan that they want to make a left are able
to do so that could be easily taken into consideration you can either do uh do not block the Box uh I do know also due to the proximity of the railroad uh there most likely will be what call for soft Loop which if the queue extends to
a certain point the uh it would be in an Avenue would get the green to go in clear the U that actually leads into a second question I have I saw the acon ATMs the GU it's Advanced traffic management system so is this going to be
tied into any other lights or any other systems that the county runs or that we operate correct so the systems will talk to each other County will have control to clear if there's an issue it'll go back to
their Central uh control and they can make tweaks well a couple years ago we had an item come up where we authorized forward the use of traffic signals to be connected for ambulances
and emergency vehicles is that in the same line with this uh you're talking about a preemption system I believe I'm not 100% sure um we are we the last couple signals we've done with the
county we've included a GPS preemption system so as our police vehicles and emergency vehicles approach the intersection basically they hit a button to warn the signal we coming the car and the controller for the intersection talk
and the approach gets the green to clear for the uh clear for the emergency vehicle thank you um the next two questions I'm not sure if you'll be able to answer but I'll just throw them out there one of the items in the back of dealt with obtaining any potential
easements or anything like that to access the project we don't need to really obtain anything correct uh right now in concept it is a possibility uh that along the several of the corners a small amount of right of
way may be necessary to uh accommodate the signal equipment that's right way not necessarily like the person's property right we would be expanding the right of way so take say a 5ot strip along the radius I'm just throwing out
potentials I don't have the plans or final design in front of me but you know we have to set the controller Foundation uh the controller so far back the signal foundation so far back to minimize the risk of strikes and that would be the
controlling Factor but that's within the presumably within the right away as that which to me is okay um the last question that I have and this may be more line with traffic our Traffic Division um do
we anticipate this helping the school there in regards to like pickups and drop offs and coordinating with that to make sure that when those time frames come that things run smoothly so for my understanding the answer to that is yes that was one of the considerations in my
discussions with PD uh I can also tell you when PD was out there doing traffic counts there were several near pedestrian misses so as this would create um or provide pedestrian facilities push
buttons and a Crossing cross timing so the pedestrians can cross without being in conflict with vehicles and I know that was item that was brought up by uh resident one time because they had wanted multiple uh Crossing intersections there so that cause I
think will be beneficial in the long term um I appreciate the responses I don't have any other questions but as a general comment I think that the safety measures that it will provide in terms of allowing residents from the rollway
and Lind Lan uh side being able to better get out will be a benefit to the community uh but again I would ask that at the lindan intersection and and if we can have that cross box just to say no no blocking uh that would
be appreciated thank you council president thank you any anyone else 49 a through I I just want to clarify Mr okay it was just he said that right I'm not a professional and he's right I have what we call Common
Sense our professionals when we talk about traffic studies over in Mr CO's neighborhood they built a development called camat I think I've said this about 10 times since everybody's still been on this di here those professionals told us that
the traffic was going to be slower and that was good for the residents and then all of a sudden traffic was slower and the residents got up in arms and the residents came and they asked the mayor to fix it so the mayor proposed to widen the road and bring the tractor trailers
closer to their houses which because they debacle with that because they didn't want that so when we say we're going to listen to the professionals there's consequences when you take Common Sense out and you just listen to professionals our job up here is to
apply those Common Sense techniques to what we receive from the administration and the professionals and then for us to make a decision based on that if we're just going to sit here and just be puppets and just vote Yes because the professionals said it then we should give up our seats
and that's just my comment on how a council person should be be handling things okay we our job is to question that that is what our job is not to sit here and say a professional sets it's good Council presid yes at the TR the
traffic lights if I could ask Brian s Brian your buit us today um do we need both traffic lights so close together that won't be enough to slow down traffic so that's actually why uh we
need to signalize both intersections because they are so close to each other you can't signalize one without directly impacting the other so if they're farther apart where you could potentially get the queuing for the Light Between the two signals and not
affect the other Road you could do one and not the other but right now I think the rule of thumb is 500 ft these two roads are offset Within in that 500t Mark so you can't do one without the other okay thank you you're welcome
question C presid if you can have you looked at the traffic study in detail we did the traffic uh warrant analysis uh we did one um a year or so ago I believe I don't have it in front of me I'm sorry I believe it hit the
warrant on accidents alone uh without the volume uh warrant um there was also a traffic study done in the early 2000s when this project was originally proposed and done by the county and it met warrants at
that time as well do we know given the area that is developed how many driveways we will be blocking I do not know that off the top my head counsel I'm sorry I can get that information and get back to you because this is what I expect detail St
how many driers you going to block L Lan do you think people will be able to take right if there's a queue there do you think people will be able to take you the left from ra road if there's a queue there even regardless of a signal you know how
far the school is so close from Rahway road is so close the small childrens are walking on sidewalk we can't expect them to be displ it's a heavy traffic area in the morning in the afternoon so we really
need to think through again I have seen the decision that are taken they were not really great for the community and that's the exactly the reason I'm asking is the thorough due diligence is done for this particular intersection I know you know my Council said there was
a request from the the member of the public very same member has raised the concern today he sent me a big email saying hey you know none of these people are happy if you to put the signals right there it's going to block that
entire area so are we listening to the public or we listening to the handful people again I'm I'm in favor believe me you know this was the project that c lard did bring forward in 2018 2019 I keep hashing that back then you know we
felt it was required but again we were only talking about either Raa or t now we're talking both and I get it there's rational that but my point is saying have we given a thorough thought and what is going to be the impact on the quality of life in that
NE so councilman when we when we design a traffic signal first things we do is determine whether or not it meets the warrants in the federal highways uh MCD manual there are I think nine warrants
meeting any one of those warrants technically is permission to proceeded I I believe this one meant multiple warrants from there we are entering into the agreement with the county the county will start the design process under the
design process they will do a level of service analysis for various iterations of that traffic signal and at that point we will see the actual impacts if you really want to fix the problem again I when I earlier question was to ba 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 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 for Brian councilman pel when will sorry Brian 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 C PR yes onf 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 taxpayer funded campaign Sonia uh can you just repeat exactly which resolution you're referring to
report of disbursement 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 on mayor's tax funded campaign mailers or letters that he's sending I I can't answer to I'm I'm not uh for 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 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 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 $1,548 do you think that is the right amount May mayor send 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 $666 does that include mailing that's a printing and that's a printing and the cost of the magnet what about the mailing uh 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 if 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 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 to 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 cuz you are approving blindly you Council pres 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 you 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 even last time you agreed but now you have no concern that's what I'm seeing 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 di 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 letters and what the mag and the magnets I remember receiving it I just don't
remember what the content of the letter was councilman patio 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 resident 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 being a magnet in there so you threw it possibly but you know
let me ask Kan have you seen that letter no okay son have you seen that letter okay attorney have you seen the letter your firm can I finish let 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 questioning on the magnet I'm questioning on the letter itself that goes with the magnet
right I'm not 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 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 lat that's that's F that's fine thank you council president yes councilman pressure yeah I'm going to take a crack at 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 ceiling 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 yada yada 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 Coyle 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 their money's going in fact the Illuminator you know 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 I just according to this chat 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 councilor 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 is doing the sports complex plus the turfield what was the original
amount the first one 10 million five million it was about 10 million the first time I was around then I I I can find that out for you but I do recall it having originally be said 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 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 that answers your question somewhere 9910 million about yes and that includes the turf field tfield per no we're talking the sports building is a is just the the sports building the turfield was a different project so for the turfield
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 was originally awarded so you're probably talking um I know with change orders it's been about maybe three quarters 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 A2 where we stand I can uh councilman
pointer were you signaling me I 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 on the
resolution 10.78 7 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 on top of that bringing a revised
total which is at the bottom 11.62 eight million and again this is sports building correct stand stand alone so you should have the backup of the change order um just to councilman this is Third change order I'm losing a track
now but this is 11.6 plus the turf field which is4 half $5 million so we are roughly at $17 million combined with a tur field no we're we're talking about separ separate projects uh it is they are not together that's 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 order is very specific to these I understand that I'm talking about even though there are two different projects they were car carv r
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 Starfield Plus the jet Sports Complex is somewhere combined together 1617 million
I'd have to get back to you on the Jets field the turfield okay I I was just ready to talk about the sports building itself now I would like to know the combined number thank you thank you counc anything else 11 a through G um
yes councilman Brer um first off the utility agreement for one and the bridge um I I didn't actually get to read that one I couldn't find that but what was that one for talking about d uh yes d d is 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 Ron 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 because 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 can I get for $10,000 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 and 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 cod 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 uh 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 no 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 irrelevant we just finished to 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 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 an Edison if we just built 2,000 units 30 years from now
those units become market rate right so at that point the Court's 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 low income units so they go okay well
then I need to build 150 units so we approve it on 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 as the Next Generation council president uh I'm sorry councilman were you're looking for an answer from me 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 lowincome 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 lwi income units and we will not have it here any longer so at that time we're going to be required to have the 20 000
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 of January
of last year so you 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 to 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 it's a practical con 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 in 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 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 affordability controls well then let me just make a another quick question to you presid so you're just no it's just quick question good can I just try try
it just for once well just after this one I'm not gonna say anything more I promise you let councilman Brer continue thank 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 500 units and that those would be low 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 SE 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 it's generally part of the
funding of the project to council president yes councilman Coy for the very few times I have to agree with my Council colleague councilman Brer 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 lanky
that carried over into uh Mayor Sam josi we have been using tools to create this and I know councilman Joyce ship is in the audience we've done several things along the way including buying apartment complexes and convert 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 and 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
who has 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's it's impossible for us to catch
this the township does not own property developer 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 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 a committee I would be very interested in
serving on that and I would serve with you Council brusher 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 that one but I had the other ones sorry I'll I didn't needan to talk
like them 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 do 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 to hear
thank you Brian you're welcome anyone else on 11 a through G um I'll I'll to you go ahead all right are you sure I have to make it quick no okay then you should go because this is G where I'm talking about the project
management uh 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 half an hour on this subject you know if if everybody here did 10 minutes then 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 SCH well um so sonio 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 um 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
it'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 7 months to complete this project
correct and then I I I'm looking at this changer it say 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 or total of 556 negotiated cost between cers and epic management
negotiated 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
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 kar'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 PA 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 $40,000 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 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 CU it's uh CU 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 it's not it's that would be on them it's on them it's on
them the reason the we the way we got here was there was 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 is 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 provid to everyone the
original number was 656 th000 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 counsel 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 had 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 everything else that's required for that 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 so if I if I ask now 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 change 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
okay 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 got you got one year experience quite a few quite a few okay um I'm not happy to see change 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 overrun 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 our engineering department with their knowledge and expertise to guide us we R rely on a bid process to to guide us uh but no one can
say that an Administration are 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 and provide services so there's no question that this is above and beyond the scope of what administration does on a dayto 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 it 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
likelihood 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 AR and Engineers are 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 your experience 50 different towns and half of the county
and in comparison this oversight uh this cost overrun is somewhat normal and what you seen in municipalities throughout the state of New Jersey correct okay thank you anyone yes councilman pointer thank you 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 I could give examples from the back up but I prefer not to um but 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 with 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 Okay 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 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 Mike 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 I 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 isore 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 counsel and it would start a process that generally when this happens this way that usually to costs 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 uh material costs 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 can I just ask some 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 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 no 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 so 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 with the attorney from 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 I'm not taking offense because
it's true council president before Council M Brasher um speaks I just want to ask either Council Porter or the administration since Mayor Sam josi took office you know kudos to him we've
gotten a lot of projects completed in town however hearing this you know change order is never uh something a council wants to hear but what is our overall batting average I mean it seems like we've had $100 million worth of
projects you know where are we and I don't need to answer this second I'd like to have it shortly um where we 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 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 ORD is just simply a modification to what the original contract was set forth that
said when you're working on the field there are potential cases and I know uh councilman brusher has a background in 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 a 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 uh 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 it doesn't make it any better for
residents certainly their your concerns are very valid and I'd like to provide that 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
only question to professional counc Pao 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 PS and G so all those things take up time at the beginning of a project if there 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 a you know like this room essentially and and changing some element of it is a 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 will continue to follow on that track as well thank you council president I earlier you mentioned there were minor changes that might be upcoming what do you consider minor just for my
scale uh I don't have it in front of me I would say there' be an aggregate number of maybe a 100 less than 100 thousand 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 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 if things you know a little bit more complicated systems mechanical
systems Etc mhm so it's five million something like that yeah okay so if 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
brusher 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 well I'm going
through the rest of my questions to see what the general conditions number was for the 16 to 18 months um because 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 it for their why not 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 uh 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 in the original change order as far as labor no not no no uh 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 cuz 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 okay
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 would 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 in it's it's a it's an indoor facility in an outdoor facility so there 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 number is 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 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 them 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 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 the 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 Ker's did a great job if it doesn't then I'm going to come to next meeting and say Colliers 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 proceed 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 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 coun councilman BR that was the issue that we had with the architect okay architect um electrical components forward 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 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 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 1017 and somehow the carrier pigeon delivered it on 2
two 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 and any all 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 timeline right I don't know whose fault this is here right I don't know if this is an 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 waterline 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 all 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 a business administrator so our water department is going to do work so Bob Smith's hours right his Guys hours are all going to be build 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 seore department
or something so that everybody's paying for the hours for the water department that's Al 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 Bob's going to do that work underneath that
Bond all all of 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 oh that's right we do have an elevator um yes and it could have been also so 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 Revis and res 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 MH 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 I 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 2nd 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 in change orders coming and and I know you were upset at that time cuz
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 cuz 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 this school World K to 12 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 Engineers but they don't do followup mhm 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 in 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 gun's 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 dollar 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 least I can say I feel assured right yep um 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 because 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 cons I have one only one
request for Sonia given that you know we are 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 vot 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's printed you know there's 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 taxpayers thank you council president right anyone 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 pres yes this is $9.5 million
node is this for the cap Bank K or Sonia what this note 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 are prior or no this more hyd 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 yeah yes
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 half million for the hydr thank you correct anyone else okay um 14 A&B chief of fire questions council president yes on B you know it's a surprising it's it's
February 8 we're on 10 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 U 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 and 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 I okay all right um clerk 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 this Council okay all right so we need a motion to introduce Council Pres 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 comments yeah let's okay let's move to council commas 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 formin actually works in the format I would like to just
see how it how it go this 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 email for them and for good government to move forward and for the amount of people watching this meeting who 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 account 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 J coil 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 4minute uh speaking time will encourage more people 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 needs more time to reevaluate before we make any changes thank you councilman
prer yes I don't know we've had it for six minutes um I caned up the Public's extra minutes and it's irrelevant it's inconsequent at the end of the day um takes up approxim we got 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 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 Cur
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 during 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 oock 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 L Reno I guess like a week
or so ago before I left for vacation and you know what he told me was back in the 9s 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 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 $330,000 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 know 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 Council coil was here AJ was here we were here before with with lank when Lany 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 because they had
enough time go back and watch the 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 because this speaks and says this is for the public this isn't about
letting Council people go home ear 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 [Applause] you
pressure uh councilman patio council president again I heard you during your speech uh as a council president and this was your promise M and A councilman it's my I would say the cour y to extend to
my council president to support your vision and that's why 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
presidents 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 these 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 pres thank
you let me let me president I just want to excuse me what just want to add one small thing no i' think I'd rather give my 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 patile 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 pel 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 2022 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 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 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'm not done with this thank you okay um so we are now uh moving to the roll call council member brusher yes council member Coyle no council member Patel no
council member PTI 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 residential parking Zone to a section of Chapel Street okay uh motion to introduce council president yes I'm Mo this ordinance be passed on first
reading publish according to law for further consideration and public hearing is set down for Wednesday February 26 2025 okay itive 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 PTI yes council member pointer yes council member shuel 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 we don't need to do that okay all right public comment on the resolutions Joyce J sh Freeman Edison New Jersey um first I'll start off with I'll start off with the printing like uh councilman uh
pel was talking about now the reason why I feel like this is political and I I'll bring you all my stuff thing 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 land Lords 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 have had the price from the beginning okay at all so uh you know you gotta rush rush rush through this I gotta 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 grown up sometime now um the infrastructure bank and the money pertaining pertaining to that now I know for a fact that we allow 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 this 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 other day I had a problem there in this same spot on 076 here because it was a water main break that was the first one I seen on the North side in this
location on in Min Avenue like he was discussing earlier on M Avenue up the street tingling there's a train going up there then when you get to edman there's a train going that way
so let me see if the trains backed 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 somebody got killed there before on M Avenue because of the light because of the stuff there and that's why they fill it up with the train thing all right but there's a putting that light there is
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 uh Margot I I traveled at aot lot cuz we cut through we're going on to Westfield or we going to Scotch Plains or we're going somewhere so I know I'm very freaking 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 and you got to peek out and 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 joce all right I know my time is up you know four minutes and
all this money thank you okay Rob Rob kentos 61 Meadow um about the refrigerator magnet the sixth 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 u 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 size font it says Mayor Sam pip joosy 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 josy 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 him that that that's a bad subject um six grand for these refrigerator magnets 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 say 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 next 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 well right 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 hash over budget Rob it's probably what it should be but
um first thing uh for anybody that you know if you whe 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 uh 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
resolution yeah no I'm getting I'm getting um in in in terms of the let's see the sports complex everybody talked about it [Music]
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 middlex 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 quarter 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 Absolut 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 suffer 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 counc 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 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 warn this body I warn 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 they 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 be a council president council
president yes as far as the environmental 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'd love to see people start coming to attend the meetings and check in attendance because the environmental commission does not have a of attendees and if Mia ores 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 we'll 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 G ask youy l it's just not your guy most of this is just Anthony Anthony you're out
of order is it 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 present 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 restor time to six minutes no unfortunately no it's just 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 uh Edward Lefty Grimes uh sativ
across.org we're a 501c3 fighting for 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 light going to cost because from what I understand
there 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 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 SP 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 life 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 Anderson 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 because it's certainly not a traffic light um or is it a stop for a 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 what that figure okay and the uh 10 the 10 grand for the Ada his question about that for
curbing curbing okay right 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 what is that the um the thir for the sport for the sports building MH um there there 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 uh 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've been 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 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 missed 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 motion CL motion
to close the public portion can I get a second second thank you all right anything to pull for a separate vote on the consent agenda conc president yes 038
0610 68 wait can you just slow down 38 61 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 68 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 Coy yes council member pattil yes council member ptil yes council member pointer yes council member schmell yes
council president Harris yes okay approved all right uh start with 038 counc President I would like to pull the two line atems 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 atems they were linked with the printing the print 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 was that are we voting on 38 right now or we going one by one 3 oh the oh okay I'm sorry right on 38 yes
the line item of what so that was of the magnets the 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 56 right it is 56 yeah yep not 38 56 56 not
thank you John yeah good catch and to approve 38 second so you wait all right so 38 now is get 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 yeah you pulled it now so we got just point of clarification you know let be a confirm wait so there's a motion and there's a second so we should do okay so canc is that correct first 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 566 okay all right did we already pass approved 56 we we had approve yeah we had approved 56 appr it already under consent agenda we approved 56 under the consent
agenda oh yes we did yeah I thought it was a about Mr attorney Mr attorney moved seconded and approved you're on resolution 611 61 61 yeah all right um councilman
ptil I think 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 11.6 million at this point
in time I would request this Council to see if we can probably pull this uh if everyone agrees and further negotiate 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 bid over $5 million needs to have a construction
manager attached to it so moving forward we should not run into this issues um 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're 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 amount 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 Council pres Council vice president thank you um I agree with the sentiment about the dollar value I'm going to utilize some
of 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 circumstance and given that we have 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 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 MTI 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 in 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 so yeah I I I don't see any choice in this um this is just
the unfortunate incident of um having an experienced 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 the next council meeting until we get our we get all the background information I received all this information on Friday afternoon I 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 could 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 are 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 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 whole thing when you total them all up if you divided the I think 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 amable 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 Lon 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 operates 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 meet week I mean it
wouldn't be till 12:00 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
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 then 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 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 a contractor's move to get around us and that's a 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 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 coun Co 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 presid you need a
motion in a second oh I'll 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 calender for next I have to I don't have um Zing L can you look okay 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 I'm okay 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 res 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 side
you know probably 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 14,000 328 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 the 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 three months and that's all that was asked councilman pointer excuse me ask aoll
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 councel 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 will be available the 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 number numbers of to show us that comparison you know like I was just talking with where Mr poter were he was councilman poter one 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 have got it somebody could have got it okay but but we didn't get it so to say for for a week
I think it's a fair request it 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 an hour yeah so if you want they're voting it or not voting for if
you want if you wanted to make a motion to table I a motion to table it all right table I'll second that motion okay take a roll call council member brusher uh yes council member Cole no to table council member tell no to table council
member ptil yes to table council member pointer no to table council president haris no to table can I get a motion to approve move a second second
okay all right council member brusher uh yes council member Quil yes council member Patel yes council member ptil yes council member pointer 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 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 shmoel 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
whatso ever I just want to make sure that that is councilman pointer this is Council appointment so I'm not even talking about mayor I'm just talking about 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 in 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 Doubt 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 Cerito and Anthony
um let's Council it's really not appropriate um to divulge people that were not um chosen but were part of the process um attorney you know this 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 volun here 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 bord 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 POL 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 may Joshi was a councilman he was sitting right on this Di 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 cman 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 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 Schell you know in fact you are the guy who we interviewed when we were appointing this body was appointing 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 Co um I think uh both applicants are qualified one has been on the board for two years right now and looking at the serve again and Doug Schneider is
involved in the 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 Council PTI 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 Appo 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 the job and most important
is is this is his own board position to properly represent the residents 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 feel 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 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 vedis councilman K you know let me correct so because you are putting quite a few allegations directly or indirectly I never said dou Schneider is not
qualified person what I said is first his politically connected but more problem for me is Kyle who is two years as a first alternate could have been given a full position and duck 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 porner
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 presid 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 uh as a primary is because he does have more experience and uh we felt that Kyle
could use the experience and he will 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 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 eights 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 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 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 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 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 poter thank you um just want to offer some clarifications January 13th we received an email from Council president um we met 2025
committee slots which are followed which has zoning board appointments myself councilman Patel councilman SCH 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 someone when application is before for 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 it's going to be challenged pretty much right 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 we need we need motion motion 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 PTI no council member pointer yes council member schmell yes council president
Harris yes okay 069 Kyle Sero I think that wasn't Oh I thought that I thought was that was that was that was 068 we just voted on schneer yes but now it's 699 yeah 69 was
pulled too sorry my bad it was oh it was pulled 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 um unfortunately that didn't happen um so you can put that one up vote all second
all right roll call council member brusher yes council member Coyle yes council member Patel yes council member P yes council member pointer yes council member Shel yes council president 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 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 the zoning board also then we we appoint the zonings I think we have a pretty clear say councilman perhaps I can help both of them 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 or 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 uh councilman Brasher I can promise you that uh you won't hear much
uh I will yield my time to coun John Porter if he wants it 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 colle 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 any inputs if you're 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 vote but at least it helps us to communicate back and forth and I you know again when cman 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 approve
now motion to approve second second roll call council member brusher yes council member Coy 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 and nominating me uh to serve it's been a while while since I've been on the planning board I certainly want to take a back seat for other members to be involved and I'm thankful for the
several that have step forward and taking the time of their day to be there and I I know uh Mr shimu can't wait to do this next here I can see the look on his face right now explain to his wife why he's home late again other night so
um thank you for this opportunity okay God speed um all right we're on to oral petitions and remarks joce JY ship Freeman I'm still kind of meth because of the uh minutes and the
uh taking away of the Free Speech because in aptitude 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 throwing us out of the meeting and
sitting up there listen 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's was their job and that's what it was and people that get paid 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 corindus and if it would be possible can I get the amount of LA 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 um 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 to mess we didn't you guys started that's how we
got on Fox News we got Fox News because of the arrogance of you guys okay and that disgust 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 CU we don't actually care what the public says we got our own little program our own little click we have no respect for anyone and I'm very disgusted cuz I didn't think young people would be that
closed-minded Anthony com Anthony D Wy have um real quick just to Echo uh councilwoman just uh stated you know it's if some of you fought it's hard to get certain people on a 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 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 Clare
Barton uh there was another incident uh you know attempt to break in I 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 in 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 individuals 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 see again I I'd like to see the numbers of of Patrol risen 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 2020 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 uh 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 wridge Avenue and Amboy Avenue uh there are you know as as a 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 amb 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 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 hoever 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 school
um what else 18 seconds that's it that's uh that's all I got thank you council president 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 think I've seen one two three four I don't think I've been to a council meeting where we have five when lanky 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 7 % in Edison when it's only up 20% in maten or 25% in Woodbridge and 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 met um nobody up there should actually be able to look at everybody back here with a straight face and say the boards aren't politically connected come on I mean that is AB
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 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 four minutes I mean this is ridiculous you know um reducing the speaking time to 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 considered 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 some of these 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 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 him because the 8S 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 this stuff when it comes to the public
what's two to minutes 3 minutes 4 minutes 6 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 to 10:30 motion to extend the meeting to till 10:30 second he all in favor I okay 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 design 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 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
kristo 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 while one day when the trouble is gone we'll take our weed and go Nish did 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
spread farther ban in costumes props and flag 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 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 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 they 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 you have a brown chicken and a brown cow brown chicken brown [Music]
cow thank you Mikey yes Lefty okay we go Edward Lefty Grimes sativ across.org we 501c3 here in New Jersey fighting for the rights of the disabled and cannabis paac and 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 platform 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 disable 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 forc disabled 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 ramp backwards and maybe kill yourself and that's what you did to disabled vets and your
ba did you did you give councilman Brasher 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 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 beting 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 disa 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 disrespecting 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 I dare you to do it
thank [Music] you anyone yes ma'am hi Janette from Edison I've been here a long time waiting I probably forgot half of my stuff but I just want to have uh I'll
get some information on the tote Center uh what's the status on that is it going for 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 Tuesday on the 2 and the fourth Tuesday of every month CLA 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 there okay that's it thank you okay thank you um Sonia can update on the Toth Center so very recently the 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 d 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 we can't do that I'm sorry all right figured I'd ask okay um so I have a speech written now but I I wanted to say a couple things so I
watched Mayor Sam joi's you know whatever it was and he called out everybody's name and praised them except for Pati and Brasher I think the body including you
Margo is just just a yes sir kind of guy I don't know how he's bribing you guys or what it is uh joose uh Joe Coyle are you getting paid more to be on this planning board is it do you do you get any more money for that is 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 2 hours cuz I now I live in egg harb 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 hod hoodie uh the
sweatpants and I actually had a camera and the I had it all I had it all but uh So I dressed up as Christo 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 jotting down things that she's going to put in her courage 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 a 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 and I've seen the report quite frankly it's a Croc aive I'm actually going to play you a small clip if I if I can if it goes through see if it goes
through GNA go around have to be a about it would you like my husband to come here and talk to do okay threaten me threaten me for the whole world Vinnie um this is this is not appropriate 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 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 once again the Administration has defies the plan to uh stop Christo 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 fear so much is it the effect that exposes the truth and brings corruption to light uh because it seems like that's the real issue here 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 close
we got one more we do okay hi rosti uh 960 new overun 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 hitting with a couple snowstorms uh seen them come out and pre-salt some of the roads um 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 uh 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 or not you can't even get onto the sidewalk from the crosswalk uh I'm a Crossing Gard 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 ended 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 Winters 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 Tingley and Ron it may or may not be necessary we we we really need that traffic study to
determine it but I've lived in this town since 19 60 and I've seen new do Road and Wood Avenue go from a stop sign to a four-way traffic Lan and Grove Avenue never had a traffic light it was a stop
sign Inman Avenue and Grove didn't have a traffic light all those traffic lights that are up and down em Avenue they weren't there do we need a traffic light at tingly and raway 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 son
can we uh appeal to Public Works about the situation with the handicap 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 all right we don't until this until presid 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 um I'm going to say I'm going to
say 10:45 I'm going to say 1045 uh can we get a motion to extend at 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 Brasher 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 Library board didn't 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 the 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 reorg 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 always been a question is are they getting is 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 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 coun president I'm going to keep it brief but if you would allow me to just speak for just a few minutes uh on DPW I did want to say well 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 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 and administration but just a few things you know when getting a DPW director I mean
it was a lot 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 I'm Sor par sorry I'll keep I'm gonna I'm at 54 seconds okay I mean it's it's I'm I'm 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 helped 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 Department
the um the cricket Fields tennis courts animal shelter splash park uh assistance with tur 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 coil councilman poters out here councilman Patel none for me okay councilman patil none
at this time okay councilman shmuel none at 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 uh Tony masero is the chair Vice chair is Lois tar secretary is Christine Ken um uh March is going to be the women's month at Women's month at the gallery um the uh there's 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 treay 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 appointer did you have any committee reports I don't thank you Council all right um Points of Light uh I want to wish everybody uh 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 would L council president uh we didn't acknowled we because of different meetings tight we didn't
acknowledge the death of our President Jimmy Carter and I just want 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 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 patil discussion items councilman schm 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 glendel property um with regard to litigation i' 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 tote censer 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 2 months 3 months 6 months if you can help me to understand uh the next one is jet Sports Complex we already heard it's another 6 to 8 months that's a Target Stelton Community Center how far we are in
the what is the progress on Stelton Community Center Sonia um I believe we're were 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 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 happening I'd have to 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 time 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 question is if an elected official gives the misinformation under the oath what is the penalty this question is to attorney if you're listen um 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 classify as a perjury or what happens I'm sorry councilman I don't
understand the question could you try one more time for elected official under the oath if give use 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 a slander or if it's under oath if it amounts to perjury uh 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 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 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 specifically to answer your questions but absolutely but
you can't just ask me a general question and seek a specific answer 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 cman 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 okay 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 Co council president 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 I know the process is taking time but I haven't gotten an answer yet whether we would use some of those funds to do some 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 of 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 going 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 at support affordable housing uh when and if a committee does 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 a conference call with you and councilman Brer this 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 a builder's going to give us stack condos it's like an apartment complex where we today maybe we can sit down and discuss something that would be have 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 get 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 developments 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 P can Sly 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 will be up probably not okay want another extension
all right no 10:45 I don't know 10 more minutes uh let's just I'm just going to say an extension to can we get a a motion to extend to 11 motion to extend the meeting till 11 p.m. okay
second second curve Council comments 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 where we
are currently working on the system you would like to know where we are in terms of comption yes like right whether they're in the panels in the smok heads are in 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 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 director has been doing everything's looking great he said we took care of Shamrock's field I haven't been down there in about three 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 because 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 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 man 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 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 pickle ball court
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 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 which Park are you referring to
it's on um dorm Avenue backs up to the uh Peter J Barnes preserve so if you're going down Durham Avenue you make a right yeah I guess by may maybe by hell yeah oh no I'm I'm afraid
not no no I'm afraid not I'm sorry okay can I get it's hail Park information on that okay it's hail Park then so can I just get a a drawing for what you guys are 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 a point of order just to the
council president this is just In fairness uh that Mr BR 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 I
want advice asking councilman Co let councilman Coyle we we've got the we've got the safeguards here for that so uh go ahead councilman brusher love this one okay I'm writing to express serious concerns regarding recent legal advice
and the content of an email I received from your department the email contains several several troubling aspects defamatory the emails accusations that I or other council members orchestrated the influx of
individuals from outside of Edison are in 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 three years seem skewed the lack of neutrality expected from the township legal council this contrasts sharply with the balance guidance provided by our previous attorney Bill northrail people we have a new mayor and
we have a new legal counsel let's ask the public where they believe 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 fund's 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 critic
ISM even if expressed through bad words the law recognizes this 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 it by a neutral perspective and protected the interest
of the township its employees and the residents individual choice of council 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 Le 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 prior 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 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 to adjourn second okay this uh council is adjourned at 10:48 and 34 seconds p.m.
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