two okay I'm now going to call the meeting the budget Workshop meeting of March 3rd 2025 to order at 7:01 p.m. can everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance
allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all okay thank you okay um yansy can you please read the open public meeting act statement this budget Workshop meeting was called pursuant to the provisions of the open
public meetings law notice of this meeting was published in the record on February 11th 2025 in addition a copy of the notice was posted on the city's website the bulletin board in the municipal building and filed in the office of the municipal clerk on a forementioned date notice on the bulletin board has remained continuously
posted please take notice that in accordance with the open public meetings act and JSA 10 colon 4-6 at seek and local Finance notice 2020-21 establishing standard protocols the city council of the city of Anglewood adopted resolution number 083
A- 02- 05-25-18 Council budget Workshop meetings for 2025 to be held remotely via Zoom members of the public who wish to participate in the meeting May do so by calling or clicking on the links below at uh 7M or by dialing
6465588656 please see link on our website webinar ID is 96411 12444 and the passcode is 00425 individuals will be able to fully participate in the meeting including
providing public comment public comments may be submitted by 3 P.M on the date of the meeting either through Written Letter or email to meeting at cityofinglewood.org all written comments shall be read during the public forum portion of the meeting and shall be subject to the same time limitations for
public speaking duplicative comments shall be noted for the record and summarized the agenda for the meeting can be found on the city's website at www.cityofinglewood.org a separate meeting will be used if closed session is required proper notice having been given the municipal clerk is directed to include the statement in the minutes of
this meeting and just for uh everyone's information we are still trying to work our way through the zoom and YouTube issues so we are not live we post can you please send uh the mayor a link to the meeting he's trying to get on he he needs the
link okay I'll do it through my phone as soon as that we're done okay you want me to do a roll call uh yeah just send the link to the mayor and then we'll do roll take me a minute or two okay then let's do roll call and then send
it okay uh councilwoman David presentent councilman Rosen here councilman toer here I don't see councilman
Wilson uh council president wiski here also present is city manager Robert S Hoffman Deputy city manager John burner on CFO Michael calman and someone just joined oh yeah
hi it's Michael how are you mayor and mayor's present oh okay okay good all right so um before we get started with the Department of Public Works uh Mr calman do you have a few words to say
sure sure um so in the binder there's a page that has the DPW summary over there so I'll just go through the summary um salary and wages went down actually 7% from last year so that's 273,000
uh can you just direct us are you are you in the front of the binder now no if you click well I I'm on I'm on the binder the budget binder electronic version if you go down to the DPW section it's in the DPW section okay so
I'm in the DPW section the first first first it has the uh organization ational chart then it has the salaries and then it has the summary okay just give me a minute so after the S okay I see the summary so
it's about four pages in yeah okay fourth page so um salary and wages went down 273,000 which is a 7.07% decrease over time went up minimal $20,000
is a 3.66% increase so the total for salary and wages in overtime went down $253,000 which is a 5.74% decrease uh other expenses though went up $411,000 which is a
17.64% increase uh a lot of that is uh the $300,000 for the r the maintenance to the parks does that does that does that also include the
$60,000 yes to um for Palace pales yes Palisade Avenue pick up yeah and um what and why can you just before we go into the presentation can you just
explain what that decrease in the salary and wages means well that just means means a couple of employees got transferred to the police to the police department so their salaries went over there um we had some
some people that retired we hired people at lower salaries that's the main reason right so the main thing is that the two two two employees that that do the signs the traffic signs were moved over from DPW to police so it's not that we reduce
the salaries overall in our budget we just move them to a different department okay okay great um all right uh Mr Romney do you want to get started uh yes uh Yancy can I share my
screen just uh click on the bottom where it says share there you go okay good evening everyone my name is Raymond Romney I'm the director of the Department of Public Works simply a a resident of 28 years and 20 I've been
working here 20 of those 20 of those um 28 years uh Public Works who who are we basically here had the Department of Public workers public works I've always been looked we have always been looked
as trans sets especially when it comes to the curbside collection right while other municipalities failed in the curb site collect in the automated collection we took our time and got it right because our residents deserve the best
I'm also very proud of the fact that every snow storm we're usually the first in this prob to make our streets safe and drivable for all our residents basically the streets are black top before anyone um get up to go to work
therefore the equipment on my list is basically focused on getting equipment to continue giving our residents the service they deserve and to assist in the implementation of measures to ensure their safety during the climate change basically our Focus here is on safety
and service our our accomplishments in 24 includes being the first municipality in New Jersey to receive electric garbage trucks and the opening of our Center we also started shared services with other surrounding municipalities
which shows that equipment can be shared and we can work together to get things done especially the cleaning of waterways by our soil Department going to other towns like Leonia tanly Inglewood Cliffs to assist in cleaning
of their waterways this will in turn decrease the storm run up that affects our our town on a on a yearly basis we although it was not our responsibility one of our challenges of
2024 was was spense of lots of resources and man hour cleaning up locations like the turnpike right away by Crystal Lake and the locations behind the police department and fire department which is not being maintained by CSX however regard regardless we took
the time to open up whatever to open up any clock that we have there behind those departments our SE department will also continue removing the debris from Flat Rock and over over creeks although it's really not our
responsibility another challenge is communicating to our residents the options that they have for parking the cars during snow events to allow our staff to properly plow the streets this location include Liberty school the two
parking lots by the Arena parking garage and Depot square one of our biggest challenges in 2024 was the fact that we had dozens of incidents where leaves were placed on top of storm drains on top or too close
to storm drains where this always contributes to flooding and not not only flooding this also this is also very fire hazard and almost always leads to overtime because crws must return to location after the
cars are relocated some of our goals for this year is to update our inspection and cleaning schedule of catch basins also to check to see how newly implemented alarm systems that we we had installed in our pump stations just to
make sure those those work so there will there won't be a delay if there any issues at our pump station within minutes we will we will be aware of that so we could respond in a in a in more rapid manner we also we also plan on
opening all transportations for trash so we can save time and reduce Ray and te our trucks and commute into the landfill and eventually it'll be a source of Revenue because basically all transportation is a gold mine that no one no one na Els has so we could also
when it's finally up and running we could get some revenue for the shared services we we also create a more rigid equipment replacement schedule all right and also cross Trin our employees so more
employees I'm sorry so more employees can use our various equipment and also more curbside education to improve the city's curb appeal right we are also plan planning on making changes like restructuring
some of our division to better address climate change all right and hopefully the purchase of a long arm so we could no longer have to continue to borrow the the long arm from the county right then additionally um in addition to our wish list is also an a
combination sewer truck and man the city manager and myself uh working to see if we could find funds to make that happen right so once again due to all the run-ups from other municipalities we will continue to work
with these mun M municipalities with our shared service agreement to ensure that drains and storms waterways are maintained so we will not get that runoff that we experienced last year from these other towns I'll also be
working with Mr Warren in the in the recreation department to improve the safety in our parks and including vandalism and keeping our Parks clean right and also we'll be taking a closer look at the recommendations from the r
ruus plan of improvements all right in closing I'd like to end this presentation with some PE some picks of our department efforts described in this presentation this was basically the new electric truck that we
received the new Mac electric truck would basically bring down the pollut to pollutants That's goes through the environment uh Raymond just just make the point that that's the second one that we have right correct yeah that's
that's this is the the SEC the this is the first one the second one came in last last week which was the the one arm truck okay yeah so all right and these are just some of the stuff our efforts this is the cleanup of Flat Rocks also
this is over by Lafayette and Forest and this is uh over by overp where all that would leads goes into the mes Mesa Brook and also this is what we spoke about with the turning our leaves into mulch
and composting so we could give back to our residents right basically the leaves are place over in this machine and it's grinded and whatever is removed from our premises is probably much less which um
brings us a considerable amount of savings these are these pics are from behind the police department with um CSX property which has probably never haven't been clean like 20 years and we
we took our Time Manpower overtime and cleaned this whole location which will assist in any future flooding these are just some of the fire hazards that we spoke about and this is
over by Catherine Street where we um just part of the storm dra that we are cleaning to continue our efforts to to prevent floodings future floodings that's basically the end of my
presentation okay Lisa you're on mute okay thank you very much for the presentation yansy I was just asking asking if we could uh close down the slideshow please thank you and I'm going to open
this up to questions uh from from the governing body Angela has her hand up councilwoman David why don't you start sorry to interrupt just for the record councilman Wilson is present good evening councilman
Wilson good evening council president okay councilwoman David why don't you start the question um great presentation thank you for sharing um Mr Romney and um I notied that you kept saying shared services and
everything and I know that we're working on it but it seemed like the language you were uncomfortable with because um I know Bob's language I'm sorry and Bob's language basically um basically you didn't feel comfortable reading it so I
don't know how much input you had in writing this um but it seemed like you were not comfortable reading this um information also you said something about um board with uh safety safety but when
I think of safe Outsider I think of like policing but when you go into safety I think you should have deep did a deep dive into safety of what the water is or whatever but you went safety safety I think of safety I think about police
officers you know um but overall um also my question to you is that how do you manage or try to micromanage the schedule of your employees that are um supposed to pick up
garbage and they miss it or don't you know is there tracking of where they are a device in the truck of where they make stops or where supposed to be so I don't get these um flooded with these phone calls of like uh hey my garbage is not
picked up and then I have to go back and forth and send people emails and everything so how do we track they do the police track but how do we track DPW to see if in fact they're doing their job and due diligence of picking up
garbage so you know what Ang wait wait I'm just stop for a minute councilwoman David um I think some of these questions we could probably take in a different Forum I think for tonight we're going to concentrate on the budget Mr Hoffman
what what did did you want to say um what I wanted to yeah um thank you council president know one of the things that I wanted to say is that the DPW has instituted a a tracking system because there are several times where um cars are parked too close to the garbage can
so what they've done is they've started taking pictures so you know of of cars that are um you know parked in front of garbage cans or or parked in such a way that they they can't get the they can't get um get to picking up the the cans so
that's that's something that they're uh they're doing and then they're um you know the it's it's about education of the you know of of whoever the homeowner is there are times that garbage is missed but there are several times that cars are just parked in such a way that
they can't get to the garbage cans when they're using the long arm or the one arm I should say um Ray did you have anything you wanted to add to that uh I was just looking a little for a little Clarity on her statement when she said un being uncomfortable with the
presentation which came from the um can you give me a little more clarity with well you know this is this is about the budget and I'll just say that you know you put together the Pres you put together the presentation and you you ran through it SE several times so okay
in in response to curbside collection there's a lot of streets closer during the week the and when whenever a a street is being closed I know a lot of residents they actually
know or my driver comes by 10:00 or he's there by 1 unfortunately when there's construction in the streets we try to get there by seven o'clock so I'll just like I just like to remind all the Resident that you're garbage and recyclable needs to be a
curb size by 7 a.m. just in case there are any changes on on your street know so miss garbage or recycling is always investigated and for for the most part is it's not because it's my department
but it's 95% of the time it's either blocked or the trash is not placed at curbside on time so we just I just would like to again stress to the residents that please have your trash can by curbat at 700 a.m. or there might be a
driver who's on vacation and somebody else is servicing your route that day your your W that day and he may come to your home at 7:30 as opposed to coming at 11 o' when your normal driver is is
is working so once again uh I just like to enforce Force the fact that please have the your trash and recyclables at curbside by 7 a.m. okay thank you Mr thank you um so so let's so let's try to concentrate on the budget uh councilman
to you have your hand raised why don't you go now I thank you um let me just lower the hand first of all thank you so much Mr Romney um I have a couple of questions about the budget that I don't understand and it's it's purely because I'm sort of
new I want to just sort of compare year over-year but I don't have uh um a good handle on how it's been going the last few years but there's some line items like other expenses for instance a shade tree has other
expenses um uh some expenses have gone up substantially in terms of percentage uh construction has gone up 3% sanitation collection has gone up 98% for other expenses are you able to walk me through that or is this something
that you think we should do offline I'm happy to do it offline if if Bob is winking at me to do that well now we can talk about it but this is something that there's some interest we'll look at the budget sheets and M Michael Michael can have some input as well so
um so your your first your first question had to do with I'm sorry councilman uh shade tree uh other expenses of 114,000 uh for last year uh it's this year also 2025 in
2024 what page are you on uh there's no oh page three okay page three of in the beginning of the book or the budget I'm sorry appropriation budget summary page
three all right yeah I don't have what you're looking at I have so yeah I realize that you probably don't this offline question I don't want to disrupt the yeah I'm here uh so that's line 228
right yeah I don't have a line number I only have a page sh Tre overtime you talking about no special overtime um other expenses stay the same yes for shade tree but what exactly is shade tree overtime other
expenses that's 114,000 right yeah no no other expens is 114 sh overtime is 20 27 but I'm sorry I'm inant other expenses so you want to know what we spend money on for shry yeah that were
not budgeted so oh other expenses would be budgeted I'm sorry outside of salary what would those expenses be so we we we last so in 2024 we their adopted budget was 114,000 and we spent 128 390 okay so I'm not sure where you're I
don't know if it's it could be a little confusing you know so I'm not sure so your question is what so which one my question is what would the 114 be uh for other expenses on a shade tree you want know like what we use it for what we spend yeah give give them some examples because is that where
that's where part some some of that goes to Liz Stewart the arborist yeah if we have to remove a tree sometimes you know removing a tree or a lot of times it goes over there cousins tree cousins yeah so if we can move to other expenses of Sanitation and collection
costs that's up 98% like what would be some examples of that so that the the reason why that's up a lot is for the uh for East Palisade Avenue garbage collection
that was $60,000 60,000 yeah okay all right that's that I mean that's the total increase was 575 so this take away the 60,000 that'll be uh will actually reduced it by
2500 okay um all right Central maintenance garage there's overtime what would that be up 44% 48% we had an employee that
retired resigned and later in the year we had an employee who got hurt so we basically had one mechanic and V and there were two vacant and there two vacant two vacant positions also yeah okay these aren't red flags for me they're just understanding questions
more no 100% hold on um councilwoman David uh just texted me that she was removed from the meeting or somehow disappeared from the meeting I don't know yansy if you we don't I don't remove people from meetings maybe
dropped I'm looking for her right now I don't see her you should ask her to just sign on again ask her to sign back in sometimes internet drops especially if I mean she she had a loose connection she was going in and out when she was on before I I'm finished with questions
thank you Mr Romney thank you everyone all right I asked her to sign back in I told her she was not REM um councilman Rosen swag I thank you and thank you Mr Romney what um just with regard to the
budget and um and if it's not the appropriate time but um let me know but what Capital Equipment do you need um this year and and what can we expect you know maybe the next three years
we you talked about you know remember at the night market we we saw the new electric truck and we got another one uh this year but what what just to kind of gauge and expect what what do you think some of the future needs are going to be just so we can plan for it yes curbside
collection is the main thing that we do here at Department of Public Works and just to replace some of the our automated trucks and uh something else we we are or we focused on here is leaf collection snow plowing so they're
basically a hook Cliff which will help us during the snow storm and also help us join the leaf season and we we also like I said spoke to Mr Hoffman today about the combination truck to assist in the sewer the storm drain cleanings and
the keeping the sewers up up up to par so which which of our old equipment how old is our oldest equipment we have trucks here probably 20 some years old those when you see those old orange Packers going around town
especially on Wednesdays when we service the entire towns recycling so I mean a lot of those trucks really they break down and just replacing those trucks we will save in overtime and of course the the time that's spent trying to re repe of trucks
in the in central maintenance okay yeah and many many of the items that are listed over the next couple years are in the uh the capital the capital budget section of the of the budget you know the the budget document and now what technology do we
use for the leaves do we use different mechanisms in different parts of the town like I know we have the scooper which is the one I see the most frequently but I know we also had
the kind of vacuum cleaner I don't know yeah the hook which yeah we have okay which I just mentioned we also have another V truck and we have three bucket loaders um we have four bucket loaders but one one also needs to be replaced I
like like to have a bucket loader in each Ward so we have a a crew station in each Ward for the entire season and basically the V trucks which is a three-man team we use those on the mains around town so we the mains and inside
each Ward at at the same time and do you have um if someone's in violation of and again this is not the budget but because it might be lead to revenue I'll I'll say it as part of the budget if someone's in violation of policy you
know putting out leaves on the wrong day who issues that summons is that something your department has the power to do or you would need to inform Property Maintenance and or the police about it yes we do um although we it's another thing I've spoken to Mr hoffen
about and he's he's trying to help me um obtain an environmental enforcement officer because last season the supervisors would go by and try to give friendly reminders in reference to leaves being storm drain being covered by leaves or too close to leaves and
vehicles being parked on top of leaf piles so the answer to your question is the supervisors were the one who was given out friendly friendly reminders but that's one location where we have to spend more time to okay all right thank
you very much for answering these questions thank you R great job thank you okay does anyone else on the council uh wish to speak councilman Wilson do you wish to speak uh of course anytime we we we talk
about numbers you know I I I usually have a question my concern is when will we attack these um these numbers in a closed session um because the last time I inquired we we said that we're going into close session at some point in
regards to the police budget we we are on March 24th in Clos session to DPW litigation and um I'm going just continue to gather my information on March 24th I have an
extensive list of things that we need to go over okay um does um do you have any other any questions for now no because you know we we are we're not enclosed and um some of these
numbers as you may or may not know aren't in alignment with how we need to move forward okay um mayor Wilds do you have any questions for for Mr Romney okay um I have some questions
so um so a couple of things well I have a few things so uh one is in terms of passing on the cost for cleaning up the CSX ride of way and then cleaning up
behind Crystal Lake and I guess my question is really to Mr Hoffman are we to recoup some of those costs well the answer is yes the uh the council passed a resolution that authorized us to withhold payments to
CSX until we are made whole for the U for the cost for repairing of Forest Avenue on two occasions at the um at at that intersection and then we're also keeping track of the work that the DPW
has done along there along the RightWay you saw the pict pictures behind the police department and the DPW I mean the fire department so those those DPW staff members as well as the equipment we have we're tracking the costs and we're um we're adding that to our um you know to
what we're withholding from CSX because we're you know until until we're made whole or until they start helping us but what about behind that place we where was a right of way as well are we recouping those costs from DPW well it's it's already intention to um submit
submit a a bill to the Turnpike Authority for the overall cost so it's it's the DPW cost but it's you know it's the cost of the contractors that we that we brought in to help the DPW it's the cost of disposing of the debris um so yes you know and that's that's something
that we'll be we'll be um submitting to the Turnpike Authority in the near future okay um I I think my next question also probably to you Mr Hoffman on ter terms of the $60,000 um that's added into the budget
to pick up garbage along Palisade Avenue can you speak to that for for for a couple of minutes I'll speak to it just just generally the um this this will this will allow the uh the city to um to
redeploy redeploy it some of its employees so that they'll be able to do more um concentrate on uh street sweeping and then do do other work that's related to um flood mitigation
and to you know just just m making sure that we're we're meeting the EPA and the d d requirements that the city has okay um and so I just want to go back um to the Enforcement issue I know
I know councilman Rosen swag boarded up you know so so I it's it's it's a lot of enforcement it's it's it's enforcement in terms of well we we talked about am I right and this again Mr Hoffman we talked about the fact that for leaf pickup
we're going to go back to a system where people will have where where people could put the bags out but we're go we're not going to am I correct that the way it's been running the last two years you know DPW will show up on my street
there's no dates they pick up the leaves as soon as they're gone more people put leaves on the street and this is an ongoing going uh all over the city they're picking up on no schedule and um and then a day later two days later it
needs to be picked up again it's it's really a lack of efficiency and it's very costly you know in terms of our DPW cost so I'm I'm I'm hoping I think we talked about this coming fall of 202
5 we're going to go back to a system where there will be dates that people will have to put the leaves on the street so we don't always have leaves on the street at all times any time is is that correct well that's partially correct we're going to be putting
together schedule so that we can uh know the DPW can come around on a systematic basis and pick up the leaves but what we're going to be doing before that is we're going to be identifying the catch basins in in all locations and we're going to be putting um you know marks on the streets so that
we will be able to that we'll be able to know when it's Leaf season if a catch Basin is blocked or Not by leaves if there's a you know if if a landscaper has put leaves on top of um on top of a catch Basin and it'll also help us when
we're when the DPW is plowing so that they'll know where where the catch basins are so that they can check them and the the answer is yes we're going to have a more systematic approach it hasn't it hasn't been completed yet uh if if you remember last year leav
started falling about two weeks later than they had in 2023 you know and so that backed up that was an issue that the dpws in North Jersey were all were all facing it was a um you know there was there was a shorter amount of time to get the to get
the leaves up but we're you know we're working on a plan A and A Plan B right so so I think I think just to you know uh continue with councilman Rosen swag was saying is so so we need to have better enforcement in terms of people following the schedule once we get a
schedule and then we need to have better enforcement um with with with the um with with many areas you talked about people not removing cars for snow you know so that snows snow could be removed people putting leaves on out according
to a schedule people not uh covering the storm uh basin so we'll need to increase enforcement in all those um areas in terms of the equipment I know we talked about it a couple times you mentioned a long so I I just didn't hear what you
you mentioned a long armed some kind of truck to that we don't have to borrow it what's the name of that long AR excavator which reaches in the um in the brook to clean up the brook it is is more accessible than the small one that
we have okay is that is that on our capital budget um for for now Mr Hoffman or in the future it's it's in the future it's not it's not in it's not in this year you know because it's it's it's a combination of we need that and we also
need a trailer to move it so um when I I can look up when it's when we have it in there and let let the governing body know tomorrow in terms of shared services so what I understand from the presentation there were there were two two shared service a agreements so one
was the multi-municipal multi- towns multi- municipalities sharing uh equipment to clean out um different waterways and the second shared service that you mentioned was was that if if was that for
mulching is that what what the second one was for no that's we we open our compost center um that's for our leaves in-house so we could turn our leaves into um top soil or mulch after they
grind and they turn into wind RS it's a process before we get the top soil of the mulch for um any of our residents who who um wants any so so is that something that we we're going to share that service with other municipalities
no no no no that's for our residents okay you're sharing with our residents yes and my last question is about Central maintenance so so H so we have a central maintenance facility and we're doing a lot of the work inhouse in our
facility is that correct we we we now have a central maintenance supervisor so now that's our plan to do more of the work inhouse instead of because it was a while since we had a central maintenance supervisor that's why it was costly
because a lot of the stuff was being sent out okay so so so the idea is that having a central M supervisor will save us money correct with with additional personnel which we trying to get right
now so the central maintenance supervisor is also a mechanic so he's um this individual is able to diagnose problems and then uh help make sure that they get fixed inhouse or if they if they can if it's something more
comprehensive if it's if it's related to um you know ba basically some something that that's that's on one of our our Emergency Services Vehicles then it would go down to Paramus where they have emergency ve ve vehicle technicians so
that it can get done quicker but part of the part of the part of the job of the central maintenance supervisor is is to diagnose the diagnose the the problems with the equipment and then uh triage them and get them fixed so that they can get back on the road and we're also you
know we're also looking at at um doing doing two shifts with mechanics so that uh things that that breakdown can get fixed say from 3:00 to 11: and be be ready the next day for for work um you had mentioned shared services and what
Mr Romney was talking about is in March of last year we created a um a pilot program with some of our sister municipalities we meet on a monthly basis and we we plan projects together so we are proving that we that our dpws
can work together we've had four pilot projects where um we have gone to other municipalities and other municipalities have come into Inglewood and we've um tested different me methods to uh clean streams what equipment works well and
what doesn't so that's that was part of one of the shared services that Mr Romy was talking about it's the the month the monthly meetings that we have and then the four the four pilot projects that we've done and the goal this year is to expand those pilot projects into other
avenues or other areas so um so that we can continue to um Break um you know break break down some of the old traditions and just and just work together there's an there's a good informal uh relationship between the
dpws but we're um we're just we're just taking it two steps further okay thank you very much um council president if I may it's Michael I just wanted toh congratulate you Ray on running a good department and for being so responsive
uh when residents call me in real time and being diligent and your team also they've done a fantastic job in the recent months thank you man pleasure all right I want to thank you for for that thorough
presentation and um with that we'll complete the um Department of Public Works presentation so have a good evening and we are now going to have the city first presentation and the city clerk's
information in the booklet it's hard to find things right away because we don't have tabs on it or I don't have tabs but the city clerk's is the uh third Department in the book and also if you're looking at it electronically you can just click on the
city C and then the whole the whole budget will come up okay thank you m Mr calman do you want to start the presentation please sure
so the clerk's budget went up for salaries and wages it went up eight eight and a half percent from uh 273,000 to 2
96,000 and other expenses went up from 92,000 to 200,000 202,000 and then there's an explanation for that it's 110,000 but 100,000 of that is is to get files that we have stored in the facilities to get them all
out we have like 20 how many 10 20,000 boxes 2,000 2,000 2,000 boxes yes 2,000 boxes what was that percentage again Michael 100 and 18% higher thank you and that's a onetime deal right that's never
happening yes yes do we have an ETA on that well the council the council has to approve the funding first and then what we're going to do is then then that gives us sufficient funds so that we can um we can get all all of the boxes out
out of where they currently are um and then we will get we will start to get them digitized uh so that we will we will all have access to the inform information that they contain and in round numbers we're paying about $30,000 a year to
store um files that we don't we don't know what's what's in them because the indexes are are not accurate on the files so um basically this is this is going to get 2,000 boxes out of out of out of Cold Storage um give us access to
the information so that all of our departments boards and commissions will be able to have access to in information that um we just don't know what what it contains but it will help them make better decisions and in in you know in round numbers um the the expense that
were asking the governing body to consider will um will pay for itself in in just under four years so we have a forever expense now and we don't know what we're storing we're going to be able to get it out so Mr Hoffman the question is how
can the council expedite uh the finances so we can get those records out because I think that that at least the majority if not all all the council would like to get those records out we like we would have liked to have gotten it out last month uh so so how could we expedite
that Mr calman and so we can get those records out of storage please well tomorrow night there's a emergency temporary appropriation which adds money to the temporary appropriation so the clerks if you look at the clerk's line you'll see it it's it's going up a lot
and and so if the council approves the emergency temporary Appropriations tomorrow night it will be approved okay thank you um uh yansy do you want to uh do the presentation now please um I believe councilman Wilson has his hand raised I don't know if he had additional
questions before I start Council Wilson do you want to ask your question now or after yeah just just before we get started um I I think it's imperative that we get those uh 2,000 boxes back but my concern is
um we're moving forward so how do we digitize that um are we going to start to hire people to scan those into documents how does that work so the the answer is that when we get them out when we get them out of
storage they're going to go to another company go directly to another company that's scanning them in now it's they're you know they're they're taking out the doubles and they're they're they're scanning them in and giving us access to it immediately so yeah one of the good things with that company as well is that
as they're going through these records if uh the record has reached its retention schedule where now we're able to request permission to destroy we can at least uh put them in in that category of uh request permission to destroy and then destroy so that we know we're not
paying for something that we no longer have to hang on to what's what's our retention level 10 years it depends on the record it could be anywhere from a year to 75 to permanent okay how long digitize that's going to depend on the
amount of records and what's in those boxes thank you I'd like to sorry for interrupting before you got your presentation going sorry that coun and David this will be quick no this be quick for my understanding with um our
city council um our city man manager and yansy that old bills and stuff will not be considered for um to be um scanned right like the old bills from like 20 years ago and stuff like that it's obsolete we don't have to keep old
things so I think that you know going forward that um that eliminate a lot of the process am I right um Bob um old bills from like 20 30 years ago maybe yeah if there's old invoices and purchase orders they don't have to they don't have have to be kept so we're you
know we're we're paying for we're paying for paper that Pro you know that that can be disposed of so that's that's part of this process yes thank you I'm want on the record thank you okay yes let's let's have the presentation please okay um mine's going
to be relatively quick um so uh what are the some of the uh core duties or duties of the city clerk um just going to keep it real quick um I'm just going to go through the title secretary to the municipal
Corporation um secretary to the governing body chief administrative officer of all elections chief registar of Voters in the municipality administrative officer records coordinator and manager and other duties
which fall under like Oprah um licensing and whatever else a law the legislature passes or the governing body chooses to do by ordinance um so that's B real quick
basic um there's a lot of things under there I'll I'll email that out to everybody so you have more of a detailed explanation of what the duties are and that's uh basically that's in the statute the core duties of the clerk are found in the uh state law that um
regulates the clerk uh so that's uh public record and can be found anywhere um 24 accomplishments um we have now the AI powered meeting minutes processing uh we're now using uh clerk minutes AI uh
we used it to close out eight months of backlogged uh meeting minutes from 2023 to 2024 this increased efficiency freeing up hundreds of Staff hours for high higher value tasks uh we did the implementation of the sdl portal for
Oprah requests uh we successfully centralized Oprah operations through sdl portal further enhancing efficiency tracking and response time for uh record requests uh 2024 presidential election coordination uh we managed and executed
a smooth compliant election process ensuring transparency and accessibility um 2024 challenges uh Staffing Transitions and Manpower constraints uh we faced Personnel changes due to staff departures extended
leaves and shifting workloads uh despite these challenges the office maintained service levels through operational uh strain underscored ough operational uh strain underscored the need for Strategic Staffing Solutions and proper succession
planning um also hiring a deputy city clerk helped a lot uh 2025 goals uh Records management overhaul which is what we just spoke about moving 2,000 boxes of records from access storage facility to file Bank off-site storage for for a long-term preservation
Implement a comprehensive archiving process with proper indexing and Digi digitization ensuring easy multi-departmental access to critical documents and then um we have the clerk's office renovation and relocation
um we have to um not so much the actual construction but overseeing the transition into a modernized office space improving workflow and public accessibility and then we are doing digital uh transfer and public service modernization we're converting all of
the clerk's office forms into fillable online uh forms integrating with spatial data uh logic which is sdl for seamless processing uh we're hoping to enable online payment options simplifying transactions for residents and businesses and implementing AI power
digital assistance allowing the public to access services in two clicks or less enhancing convenience and user experience um hopefully these initiatives will increase efficiency reduce operational burdens and modernize the clerk's office to better serve our
community in 2025 and Beyond okay thank you um does anyone on the council have any comments please raise your hand Miss councilwoman David why don't you start yes um I know that
the city clerk and um has a difficult job she does a lot and I saw her during election time as well running around with the numbers and stuff and I saw her um you know doing a lot and I'm glad she does have helped with um Molly who I worked with the Board of Education with
um and um she gets all of the heat basically when things don't work right and this Zoom thing yany it's like um i w i I walk into one room and the other one is different temperatures in my house I'm like U calling Yancy and texting me like Yancy I can't get in
like conspiracy theist and I do apologize Yancy it's not you it's just me in my dining room and my living room and stuff like that but you do a great job and keep up the great work and um you know you're the backbone of the city manager that's all I have to say thank
you you're welcome okay anyone else on the council okay um since no one else has any comments I just have one question I'm sorry I'm sorry council president okay go ahead uh so yansy
um so you know great use of AI what other future uses do you think we have for it and you know are there I know you're a leader within the Bergen County Clerk's group are there any discussions amongst the group
about other uses of AI um obviously it's a a super hot topic but you know we're already getting some Advantage from it what what else do you see coming down the pike really mostly right now uh converting our forms over into that um
to to really help it a lot of our forms are paper uh believe it or not we still use a typewriter so we're trying to not only move into the 21st century trying to move beyond that at this point using the AI to help us with the fillable forms to process the requests by sending
to other departments making it a lot quicker instead of just through Office Mail here's a copy here you know having it passed along um and also the online payments uh that's huge we have we got a lot of requests for online payments the
filming for example um the applications are filled out the checks come from California um and it's like well can we pay by credit card it's like sorry we can only do checks or money orders so that'll help uh simplify that a lot uh
and other things and and I'm I'm looking forward to that AI uh uh uh tool for search where people can uh click and ask questions so that that'll be a big help on how to do things and processes and if I have time for one
more question council president okay thanks so we talked about at the last council meeting you know the transition from newsprint so what and if you could just reiterate
you know because is a budget item too so we've we've spent a considerable sum putting ads you know classif essentially classified ads in newspapers which when you think about is kind of bizarre that it's an official
government role to put an ad in a newspaper as the as the notification but it is what it is so now with so there no Daily Newspaper in New Jersey is that correct The Star Ledger yeah is well
it's in it's only digital it's online only yes so is there so what's what what's the resolution from the state level on on fulfilling our duty on notification so the original deadline was end of
March they've extended that deadline now to June um so they're just keep picking the can down the road um we're hoping they'll come up with a permanent solution hoping one of those is to allow municipalities to also post on we already do we post notices on our
website uh to allow us to have that be a legal process right now it's just uh a courtesy to our residents most people get their information off of our website very few people actually read the newspaper especially the back part of the newspapers I think we're the only
ones that do here we we go through and cut out out the ads because we have to have that be part of the process um so we'll see as long as there's still paper print we'll continue to uh publish in the newspaper uh because the law requires us to do so um but we'll see
we'll see what the legislators will do yeah is there so obviously residents find out about our meetings through you know web the website or or you know good citizens putting it on
social media Etc are there groups you know such as real estate professionals or other people who have business with the city do they rely on the newsprint for it is it going to be a hardship for
them you know Municipal uh legal professionals things like that none that I'm aware of even our bids we get um as soon as we post them they're actually there's uh magazine construction magazines for example
that'll har go through all the the newspaper Publications and the websites and they'll take those ads and post them on their sites so a lot of construction companies rely on on parties on the yeah okay yeah because I know there might be
a whole world that we're not aware of but all right thank you for filling me in on that you're welcome thank you council president sure um so yansy I had just a quick question question uh in terms of the election costs are we able
to um recoup any of that or that just comes out of our budget it comes out of our budget that's actually a bill that we get from the county uh for primary elections we get charged for uh the sample ballots the mail and ballots uh not for the general election but only
for the primary election we get an invoice from them so it's hard to determine every year what that dollar amount will be it depends on the number of ballots that they mail out the more um the more people like a presidential election it's high voter turnout so there will be more ballots
that go out so we get a higher bill on quieter years where there's no presidential or gubernatorial our bill will come out less um so we can't honestly we don't anticipate we try to F guess um but it's hard to okay thank you
um all right um councilwoman David has her hand raised I I I see her quick question wait just before I go for a second time I just want to make sure everybody had a chance all right first one time so does anyone who hasn't
spoken yet wanna want to speak no okay um have councilwoman David and when she's finished Mr Hoffman please um yansy um do you think we
should like do a deeper dive like we have um I remember getting my receipts from like shoppr right on the back of it has like um advertisement you know we can we can we can push the app more like with businesses and even going into the other places the apartments and push the
app more so people on the other side don't feel left out like the Brownstones or everything you think we should push the app more than anything to found out that we like everyone's in sync or what do you think that would help more with um our transparency I'm glad that you
did state that um you know you're going to we going to always do print as long as print exists but as far as everyone knowing like you know like a a map of like what's happening in Englewood what do you think about that like as far as like you know advertising and Shop right
you know in Englewood receipts and going to the Brownstones across the street um on Route four like advertising and with the leasing agents and stuff like that I'm just asking from your the advertisements are legal ads um for example every time you introduce an
ordinance there we have to publish a summary of that ordinance I mean these are the type of documents that we publish if we're going out to bid you'll get a notice to biders explaining the bidding process um uh whenever there's a meeting we you know we advertise when there's an an
added meeting or a change to the current schedule um the board of adjustment posts their applications that are in front of the board so this the planning board um there's multiple uh uh boards and commissions that have to publish things besides just uh the the
governing body so it's um it's not something as simple as like an ad it's it's they're actual legal ads that it's a one-time thing that we publish in the paper well there are certain examples where it has to be twice but for the most part it's a one-time introduction a
onetime adoption okay no thank you and we can use a marquee also downtown right to advertise right not not for these legal no yeah so that's why that's why you went to the state level and people need to understand why you had to go higher up because everyone's making these um assumptions that we're doing
things that's illegal but we're doing things the right way basically correct that's my job to do and I appreciate you thank you okay M Mr Hoffman thank you just wanted to make a make a point that when I was
when I when I heard uh councilman rosenke talk about the legal ads one of the one of the issues that's facing the clerk's office is it used to take they used to be able to put an ad in within three days of the ad would be published within three days of it being sent to
the paper now it's up to 10 and we're you know we're not sure when it's going to get published so it's just you know it's it's a constant juggling on on the clerk's office so it's gone from three days to 10 days now so that's it thank you okay thank you um so um yansy thank you
for the presentation and you're GNA stay on the call I'll be here yes we'll be here and so now we're going to go um to human resources and uh Finance so I guess we'll start with human resources one
second oh yeah Robert wanted to know if if you could put him on just in case there's anything he wants to say well yes because he's human resources so we have to put him on Bob put him bring him in yeah yeah that' be fine you can bring him in so
who's doing the human resources presentation is this Administration and everyone say it says in our in our packet it's human resource and finance so we'll start with human resource and then we'll do Finance so what we'll do what we'll do
is um while Robert's Robert's coming in Michael will give an overview but just um you know we're really pleased that Robert has joined us he's been he's been our HR Director since September so he's been with us for six months you know and he is just uh he's a joy to work with
he's uh he's calm and and levelheaded and he's he's helping us make sure that we're we're being both fair and objective and we're we have complic we have complicated um issues that are you know have been
changing since January of this year and he's he's helping to assess what what has to be done at both the city the county the state and and the federal level so and Michael why don't you give an give an overview of um you know of of
the the HR department sure um so HR for salaries and wages went up 10% which is 35,00 and for other expenses went down $45,500 which is negative
29.3% um the expenses went down due to Robert I guess could explain that he he knows well that but it was also we we there was the uh there was there was the the search firm fee was was charged last year to the to the HR line so
that's one of the reasons why the O and went down this year yeah yeah okay thank you um Mr Leen do you want to start your presentation please yes thank you council president and the last name is pronounced lepine if you
would please of course apologies um okay so a brief overview of what human resources does we're responsible for the recruitment the on boarding for potential employees as well as managing any offboarding situations that may
occur on new employees coming on board as well as any employees that basically are already on board we also manage the policies and procedures as well as the revision and management of ensuring that all
employees um both line level staff supervisors managerial staff and councel are able to again and sign off on that new employee handbook that came out last year that you guys approved earlier in the year we're also responsible for the management and imp mentation of all the
collective bargaining agreements that we have with our Union Representatives uh that represent our employees as well as the fair implementation of such policies that are in place we are also responsible for the
representation of Health Administration a benefits Administration whether they be Health pension or any other ancillary items that we basically offer in the city of Englewood to our employ employees and ensuring that that
training occurs as it needs to be based on new items that come up federally within the state of New Jersey in the county of Bergen and as well as within the city of Englewood some of our accomplishments
that took place during um 2024 was the roll out of the new employee handbook our open enrollment for 2025 that was effective January 1 of this year the roll out of our anti-harassment
anti-discrimination training that took place although it was also a challenge because it was a a challenge basically like trying to hurt cats into training in holding at
least 10 plus sessions across the board both during the day and in a couple of instances at night as well and one of the other things that we basically saw as a challenge during 2024
was getting myself acclimated to working with all of the different unions that are in place and introducing myself and going out to all of the different departments basically introducing who I am and what my policies and and philosophy might be but going forward in
in 2025 we will have training again in October for the anti-h harass anti-discrimination training will be an annual thing and as we introduce new trainings going forward such as supervisory training in
reviewing how to handle corrective counseling with the staff those are some of the things that we are looking to go ahead and put forward as well as having a new look at Open Enrollment come for
2026 later on this year and helping to get ahead and ensure that in the future the city of Anglewood is looked at as a city as an employee of choice across the um state of New Jersey
and helping to push that forward and what I have come to find out is that with Mr Hoffman's Guidance with Mr berkner's guidance and with the help of my team that's that's here it's been a very easy transition and it's a pleasure to go ahead and work with Minds that basically
help keep me objective and help keep me smooth and levelheaded as on Mr hofen indicated and as a caveat to all of the things that we do we're looking to ensure that employees are treated in a
fair diplomatic respectful and dignified manner basically seeking to ensure that we capture and bring on board those employees those applicants that are of the highest quality and are able to get and contribute to the city Englewood and it's all about making sure that we're
being objective rather than being subjective when it comes down to the different challenges that we come across during our during our daily um work here council
president thank you does anyone on the council have any comments please raise your hand okay can I have councilwoman David please hello sir good job you're doing and you you know what with the last name I could understand why people get it
wrong because my legal name is Angela mget David but they call me and I'm 5' 10 so that's my little joke there um um what do you think about like me to um mental health when it comes to certain
jobs and everything as far as like depending on what position you have and I know that we have the dispatchers that we have um pums and everything right that uh doing a lot of work and you know and and they need some type of like
something because you you take all these upload of phone calls you go home at night you're like I mean I'm just saying I'm just over exaggerated you been thinking about your job all the time 247 and all the calls that's coming in so tell me about the mental uh what you
what you want to do in 2025 or 26 with the mental um help for these positions basically well it's appos that you bring that up Council David um in two weeks during our department head meeting the ruus
behavioral health um Consortium that we basically are working with will be coming in to present a webinar on in inperson seminar to our department heads to talk about some of the aspects that
they're able to put together and what we want to do as well is to be able to bring that out to all of the empy employees and provide seminars with them as well and give them the ability for them to go ahead and reach out to the team net works there with ruus
Behavioral Health to goad and have conversations with them to basically be able to go ahead and offload some of the issues and some of the challenges that they carry with them once they come off shift it's it's like a psychologist going to talk
to another psychologist because they get burdened with some of the things it's a matter being able to offload that that stuff that they carry around and be able to have it compartmentalized and be able to set it aside and be able to come back the next day and be able to goad and
work and provide the good service that they can provide so that's something that's definitely coming up in 2025 no thank you um you know as a special ed teacher with behavioral behind me as a master's degree in it and a behaviorist also a
bcba um I sometimes also have to speak to someone so it doesn't be it doesn't matter what um economic background or social or anything we all need someone to speak to and thank you and keep up the good work and I'm glad that we have
you here thank you councilwoman okay councilman Rosen swag hi thank you thank you Mr leine um how many open positions do we have in uh Anglewood I know we had we just saw a bunch of
recreation department positions but uh other than uh the rec department which a lot of about is seasonal uh how many uh empty positions do you think we have um give me a second look at my board it's in my
office we have 12 separate positions 12 12 separate titles of which at least two of those positions have more than one no more than three positions so roughly about 16 positions that need to be filled and
we're actively recruiting okay um so with what's going on in Washington are we seeing yeah I know Governor hako from uh New York State
said like you know your federal worker come work for us we have you know 7,000 open positions have you been seeing federal workers who are interested in public service obviously we're 200 miles from Washington so you know the people from the DC Metro Area
might not be relocating but we do know federal workers work throughout the entire country uh have you seen any of them applying Andor do you think there's going to be a major shift in who goes into public service just with you know a
new uncertainty in uh in the employment oper the employment you know uh stability not as of yet um however I'm I'm probably picking up a lot
of those skilled positions as as an as an example um assistant city engineer um Mr burer and I basically have been working tirelessly on LinkedIn and attempting to go ahead and bring in those individuals who would
be good candidates to help Mr vult in basically doing those things that need to take place where here in the city of Englewood we were this close with a candidate and she opted to pursue a little
different I guess thought process and we did everything we could to try and cool her back but you know we're pushing forward we have one interview lined up for this week and we have two more coming up hopefully next week to help fill that particular
role with um with France all right thank you very much Mr L thank you councilman so if I'm to understand you correctly um the assistance to the engineer position has not been filled that's
correct okay thank you uh Mr Hopman did you want to make a comment um yes thank you council president one of the one of the things that U Mr leine didn't mention in the interest of brevity was that um he's playing a key role in our succession planning so that we can we
can make sure that we have um we have the you know we have the next level of you know our our next level of leadership is ready to step up in the future and also that he's he's developing some in-house training so that um we can we can start to ramp that
ramp that up and uh help make sure that all all of us are are staying up to date but those those are just two of the things that uh that he's working with us on so thank you thank you anyone else from the governing body have any okay councilman
Wilson you're a mute councilman councilman you're on mute thank you for your presentation apologize for that um I appreciate it uh we have a unique situation we don't see often uh as far as budgeting uh I would
like to see this number across the board I think it's 29.3 is is that right or did I see something wrong a decrease is that the number yes yes yes
everybody looked as a surprise as I was I don't know um even you Robert um those are like MVP numbers you know you're putting up some some good numbers there um and so with that
decrease what programs do you think that we're missing that you think there might be need for a slight increase in that budget like I I don't know if in fact that we actually have a Dei
policy um and if that's a threat to us uh the way the way things moving now and your your policy of every year training is absolutely great I'm a
screamer I've been a trainer and I know how important is uh my concern budgetarily is did that increase because we're trying to Herb cats um I I know people don't like to do
training I had to trick people when I was in the fire department and when they were doing overtime and such but how do how do we try to get around that how do we make it more I don't know I don't want to say employee friendly because nobody wants to sign off on any of that
stuff they want to be left alone uh was that a increase because we had to do it at evening shifts sometimes for the budget in in some instances yeah it was because with our trainer who was coming
in that was an expense that we had to go ahead and foot because it wasn't training that I was providing it was a training that I've done in the past but with some of the legislation that's
being being dropped out there of of note of the last few few months few years the subject matter experts have a good handle on that and it's really a matter of getting a h getting a good handle on what that training has to be
similar to what Rutter's um behavioral health is going to be able to come in and do for us being able to let people know that there are individuals that they can go ahead and talk to but you want to try and go ahead and meet the employees where they are too and that was one thing that I've always pred
myself on if there was a need to be at a location at 2:00 in the morning yeah I was there it was over the weekend yes I was there but it's a matter of being able to be there and if it's during the day early in the morning in the evening
we'll get the individuals there for the training and if it's going to cause an expense increase we'll we'll we'll cross that bridge when we have to come to it and if there's an idea for free training that we can go ahead and provide some like some of the online training we'll be able to get and put that out there
for everyone to take note of are we doing no swaps no leaves say again are we doing no swaps no leaves during those training that's something that the both Chiefs put out there they said hey look
you have to do it on your shift you got to be there if you're not there guess what you're going to to come to the next one or you're going to have come in typically on a day off if you were schedule to be off on that particular
drain for some reason or the other all right I'm just curious why we're suffering the burdens when when this this training in this particular climate is very important and you know it's not a huge budgetary item and I'm not really
worried about it I just want us to be as diligent as possible and continue to do the training so um thank you for that did you answer the question about the Dei and worried about that um it's sort of like almost stepping on
a landmine if you do put we're already on it we're already on the L man but I think you know and you know I've had this conversation with Mr Hoffman I do in a couple of other lives that I have I
do that type of training on my own and and and do it with a couple of other individuals bringing it out there making it making everyone aware of such is is kind of difficult but at the same token I've also looked at the
prospect of bringing the most qualified individual in no matter who they are or what they're all about does diversity help yes it does but I think what's more important is including
everyone in the process not just us but the folks who are actually down there in the front line and hearing what they have to say and they may have a better way or more efficient way that we probably haven't thought about and putting it out there being and us being
able to listen to it and help put it in process thank you thank you [Music] councilman does anyone else from the governing body have any comments okay thank you very much for your
presentation have a good evening you too thank you council president and now we'll hear from um Finance Mr calman do you want to start please just just want to say in the agenda it says Administration and it's a parentheses HR and finance I think Administration
really is included in the in the whole process tonight so I'll just go through quickly you know the who was was doing the uh Administration uh well well we're we're just I'm just going to go through you know any big increases or
decreases in the budget wa one minute so we have finance and then you're saying we also have Administration separate so could we do the finance first and then we'll go to the administration okay there are different sections in our
binders okay so so um let's start with Finance please okay I mean there's not much difference between this year and last year the other expenses for every one of my accounts stay the same except
for assessment of taxes and that's due to the new tax maps that we need to have done so that has to that's going to be done this year and that it has to be done when we go after R either revaluation or reassessment we need the
tax maps to be updated so it costs around $70,000 to update tax maps so that's really the only increase in my other expenses and in the salaries it's all the non-un percent race so that's really it for my
department how often do we update the tax M probably once every 10 years or so that's what we're supposed to do I thought so you okay yeah okay does anyone else on the council have any questions please raise your
hand okay um so now the administration is going to be in the uh beginning of the book or the binder right yeah yep let me just give everybody a chance to get to
it okay um who's doing the administration presentation is it Mr Hoffman or is it is it you uh I I'll just give the numbers and then if Mr hofman wants to add anything about why the numbers went up please start okay so
the for the city manager the salaries went up 14.4% which is an increase of 73,000 other expenses went up $112,000 which is 12.3% uh for the mayor and Council the salary line went up $112,000 which is
20% other expenses which will explain why went up th% a little over a th% which normally it's like 8,500 now it's 114,000 for this year um and those are the two accounts for
the city manager okay you thank you Michael you know the um with the city manager's budget the uh we're we're we're asking for the position of internal Management Consultant so that we can take a deeper
look into um our city operations and of look look look at um how we can of do how we we can make sure that we're we we understand all of our all of our costs our embedded costs and then look at the
unfunded mandates that we're we're being forced to uh fund from the state and see what kind what kind of options that we can come up with to uh to look at those we also we we've got a we're looking at a 70.8 4%
increase in in our overall Insurance costs and we we have to take a look at uh several factors including fee shifting but how do we how do we make sure that um we are we are able to uh look look at the cost the cost per
incident and then make sure that they're as they're as low as possible and we we understand what's what's happening with uh with some of those ideas and we're looking to merge um technology with our procedures but we have to take a look at our procedures there are some things
that we've been doing the same way since the 1970s and they they there are too many steps so we need to we need to take a a step back look at those and then uh merge that technology so that we can provide better customer
service and we can we can do things in a more prompt fashion for for our our residents and also for our forward-looking uh departments such as the police department and the and the fire department as as well as as a as a
couple of others so those are some of the things we also have um in both the uh Council Council o and the city managers o we have um we have some onetime contracts where the uh you know
where we need to address the issue of the community center so we have a we have a contract in there in there to to do a study where's a where's potential pardon me locations for the for the community center we have also we also have in both of those budget lines we we
needed to hire a planner to help with affordable housing so we have we have a contract for Mr Zabo to help us with round four uh the governing body is aware that um the developers had until Friday to decide whether they wanted to
to sue the city or not or or challenge the city's numbers and they have decided to challenge the city numers 28 so so those are those are those are some of the contracts that we have um you know that so that we can we can make sure we are protecting the city in the short
term and also the long term um so Michael did I leave out any of the any contracts that's um no no just the studies the stor more utility study oh that's right you know yeah so we we have we have we have we have money in both in
both budgets to um you know to conduct the storm water study and then uh there's there's a there's a couple of others other smaller smaller ones just just in case we um we're we're going to need them if if we're ordered by by
judges in the future so thank you Mr calman in the beginning of the presentation you mentioned that one of the the not the salary line but the other line went up a lot what what did you say those
numbers were for for who well for Michael give them give them for both because we we 73,000 so we have um okay so for the city manager's office it went
$73,000 more right and that was 14.4% which is 14.4% yes yeah other expenses went up 12,000 which is 12.3% go back to if we can go back to the 73 was that did I hear that right
was that for a totally new position yes and and and what and if you could be so kind as to uh Rec recap that City Manager for me please and and what's the
fun function of that new position again sure this is an internal management consulting position so it's to so one one second is this a yearly consistent thing are they in for a short quarter
three months is this going to be an annual thing yes so um this this is to um implement the merger of technology and look look at look at our procedures make sure that they're
efficient and then to do an in-depth analysis of our expenses over the past five years and then so that we can see how we we can change our those those structured expenses how we can we
can make them a smaller percentage of the overall budget and see what can what is it that we can do to make changes you don't think that position can be filled on on a part-time basis that that has to be a yearly position well I I think so because the
the uh the the amount of the amount of hours that's going to be required to do the work is is a full-time position so the the question becomes is this is this something that's um going to be needed over the next two to two to five years
you know that's that's a that's a separate that's a separate question um so so have I answered have I answered the question about the about the functions of the position yes you have um know and part
what we've done is we've identified potential savings that are um that that are are basically two and a half times that that salary but the the question is you got to go get it yeah but here's the problem with that but um
you have spoiled l in certain areas where you you led me to believe that there's no need for it because you've been getting that money anyway well we we have but there's only 168 68 hours in a week and what's your
point this is only this is only 74 ounces of coffee I think they got big guls okay all right I'll leave the rest for later uh council president councilwoman David hi Bob thank you for your
transparency whenever I have um questions I always call you um you know early and ask and thank you for your transparency which is greatly appreciated thank you you're welcome thank you anyone else from the council have
any comments okay so thank you very much for that presentation and now I'd like to call in our fire chief Jeff Kaplan I think that um yansy um HR is
finished so that presentation's done and we can have Chief Kaplan come in perfect and then um Mr welcome good evening Mr Kaplan good evening how
everyone good good how are you hanging in there good um Mr calman do you want to start off the presentation please sure so uh salaries for this year is 7 7,
101,000 last year was 6, 85,000 that's an increase of 4.3% for $296,000 over time we increased it from 1.1 million to 1.2 million which is an increase of
99.1% and other expenses went up $17,500 from 41,500 to 429,000 which is an increase of 43% same salaries and other expenses both
went up 4.3% okay uh Chief do you want to start your presentation please all right that's uh Yancy I always mess this up every year so just at the bottom of the screen there's that little green arrow that says share just click on that and it'll take you to your
screen how we doing there can everyone see it yep okay great okay thanks for uh thanks for accommodating me tonight and switching the uh schedule around I appreciate it um so just a quick year and
review um we had a 5.5 5 and a half% increase um from 2024 we did 2553 calls um we did 198 structure fires and I don't want to mislead you to think
that we had 198 actual uh working fires a structural fire can be anything from an actual working fire to a kitchen fire food on the stove an outside fire um car fires uh dumpster fires rubbish fires
but there were 198 actual some type of fire in the city of Anglewood last year um we had one third alarm that was the fire on Tracy place at the end of the year eight second alarms um 105 company recalls and I can't see it with the zoom
panel here but I think there were 21 um platoon recalls and just by comparison because I know um recalls are a Hot Topic um Bob and I talk about it every week uh by comparison we did 94 company recalls and 17 platoon recalls in uh
2023 so just a slight tick up in 2024 wasn't um a huge jump in in recalls um for rescues motor vehicle accident uh first responder calls we did 360 total incidents of that there were 274 motor
vehicle accidents and that could be motor vehicle accidents with injuries motor vehicle accidents with spills um we did 21 uh extrications and 13 rollovers which are are pretty serious incidents uh we actually went down and activated fire alarms to
997 um and that's a big bulk of the calls that we go on and the truth is um if a fire alarm is doing what it's supposed to be doing it should alert us to a fire or to um you know a cooking fire cooking smoke but most of the times activated fire alarms are are false
alarms fortunately uh we did uh 383 hazardous condition type calls which could be wires down gas leaks Co emergencies um of those calls we did um 189 wire down calls and a lot of that could be attributed to several serious
storms that we had in town uh we do a tremendous amount of service calls which are lockouts people who are locked out of their homes locked out of their cars uh water leaks like I said we we did a 100 vehicle lockouts so people who lock themselves out of their cars children
that are locked in their car uh locked in cars while the vehicle are running pets that are locked in the cars while the vehicles are are running and we still do that as a service call and this is a big number um a big jump we did 46 responses to other communities last year
um and as a a comparison we only did 30 times in 2023 we respond to a wide variety of of emergencies and service calls and like I say year after year we are in all hazards fire department so what that means is uh we do obviously do firefighting but we respond through
motor veh accidents we do all sorts of rescues whether it be elevator rescues rope rescues industrial uh in industrial accidents we actually responded to a man who was stuck in a um an industrial Dome mixer last year um Swift water rescue
which is become a huge part of what we respond to and we'll talk about that in a minute a medical response to Medical emergencies at car accidents hazardous materials response and and dare I say uh we are prepared for terrorism and active shooter incidents as well um so like I
said act at all hazards fire department you can see respond to a rollover incident and obviously to fires that's still our bread and butter what we still respond to uh some of the accomplishments in 2024 we hired three probationary firefighters we promoted three fire officers we hired one
full-time fire inspector and two part-time fire inspectors which has done a um made a great dent in the fire prevention Bureau we've really been able to kick up the amount of inspections and revenue that we've collected in in the fire prevention Bureau we took delivery of of Truck 2 which is the first new
ladder truck that the city's um purchased in over 20 years we took the delivery of the high waterer rescue truck which you can see here which if you asked me 10 years ago if it was necessary I would have laughed at you but man did it make a huge impact in August we literally rescued hundreds of
people with this truck and without it I don't know where we would have been it's a huge asset and uh probably the best investment the city's made in the last 10 years uh we completed the refurbishment of rescue one and it's it's going to probably extend the life of that truck
for another 8 to 10 years we completed our kitchen renovation and finally we took delivery of two fire engine Vehicles some of the challenges that we faced uh we've been saying this for a long time but unfortunately we and and this isn't a knock on our people we have great people and we've hired some
exceptional young um young firefighters but we have an experienced an inexperienced Workforce half of the employees that we have working for us have um only been working us for 5 years or less so they just lack the experience that um some of our older firefighters have or that those firefighters that
have retired they've taken with them that experience has gone out the door so we've worked real hard to try to build up that experience um like I said before we still are tremendously reliant on recalls due to a par parentally short staff fire department um I use the
baseball analogy with Mr Hoffman a lot we don't have a deep bench when our trucks go out the door and we get committed to a scene there's nobody left in the bullpen to call back to if we have other emergencies or other calls there's just nobody left and if we compare ourselves to teener hackin saac
they have more staff and more people in the bullpan or on the bench to re to utilize when there are more emergencies and so in our case we use the recalls to backfill our fire department when we have more emergencies um we see Rising overtime
cost due to St shortages um people using sick leave recall and training and as best we are trying to curb those costs that's a reality that we fac in 2024 um we have a lack of administrative staff that forces us to use overtime to
complete even basic tasks we take vehicles to the repair shops we're trying to get administrative things done around the firehouse um and we have to hold overtime or use overtime uh to get things done during the day around the firehouse and unfortunately that that cost money um and then finally and it's
something that we all can relate to everything costs more money now um the cost of software the cost of repairing the fire trucks the cost of our personal protective equipment the cost of supplies the cost of tires everything is going up and the 2% increase and trying
to keep it at a 2% cap is not nearly enough to keep up with the cost of inflation and and um it's just simply we're we're having trouble keeping up with the cost of of our everyday Supply that's a huge challenge that the fire department's facing so just let's take a minute to
talk about grants um this is the first time we've ever won all three FEMA grants in the same year we were awarded the assistance of firefighter Grant we're going to receive we're receiving money for technical Rescue Training next year we received the fire prevention and
safety grant for a home safety and smoke detector installation program and finally we received the safer Grant which is giving us funding for hiring four firefighters that's fully funded the salary of four firefighters that we just hired for the next 3 years that's totaling
1,396 492 um we've never gotten all three grants in the same year we've gotten them separately or two but we've this is the first time that we've got the trifecta of Grants that's a huge huge accomplishment um total Grant Awards in
2024 was actually 1,468 39271 um there were other grants that we we were awarded um from the state from private um private funding sources um we are just exceptionally I'll use the word lucky
but we have a a very talented um Grant team uh myself and Lieutenant Cito who just put a tremendous amount of time into writing and keeping up with the grants um we completed compressed natural gas vehicle fire training uh
that was funded through the state from $11,900 we put 30 over 30 members through Swiftwater operations and technician training last year that was completely funded through a FEMA Grant and I can't say enough about that if we didn't have that training last year I really don't know how we would have
responded to the floods in August we would have been underere equipped undertrained and people's lives might have not been um able to be saved because of the lack of training but because we had the Grant and because we had the training done we were able to save lives that day hundreds of lives
literally uh we continue to finish out our driver training Grant through FEMA funds the last of it is just being spent now uh we have six firefighters that are still being funded by the 2022 safer Grant we purchased $42,000 worth of PPE from a New Jersey arpa Grant we just
finished um a $115,000 leadership uh program through the ly firefighter ly firefighters Foundation we took delivery of our $95,000 training trailer which was also funded by FEMA and finally um the 2024 FEMA afg Grant was for live
fire training which we hope to hear about shortly so we are very very active with grants it's the lifeblood of our fire department right now uh here a couple pictures of our training at the top our firefighters went to the Bergen County Fire Academy it's the premier fire training academy in the state right
now uh down below is um pump operator training which is funded by FEMA money and then on the right is our brand new fire training trailer um which will bring the fire academy to the Firehouse essentially it's a mobile training trailer that lets us um practice all
sorts of different training Evolutions in literally the backyard of the firehouse so let's talk quickly about the flooding event August 6th and August 18th we went on hundreds of calls we lost track of how many calls we went on We rescued hundreds of people from various places uh on the right you can
see the high water rescue truck going to work uh it's able to go through up to 4 feet of water like I said if you asked me 10 years ago if we needed a vehicle like that I would have told you absolutely not but it is a central piece of equipment right now um and it's able
to go to places where A firet TRU can't go where other types of vehicles can't go it was a very very smart purchase um we took delivery of it last February but it it is terrific the picture on the left is the intersection of Broad Avenue and uh Cross Creek you can see that the
water's up over the hoods of cars listen I've I been in this city my whole life I've never seen flooding like this um we're you know we don't have we don't have enough people we don't have enough equipment to handle things like this um
fortunately we had a lot of towns who came to our Aid EK Demis Edgewater um North Arlington whiteoff you know towns that have never ever come to Anglewood came to our Aid and the only thing that I can say is the storm was situated
directly over Anglewood and I I'm worried to to see what would happen when the storm is more widespread and those communities have their own flooding problems but those towns didn't have a storm that day and they were all able to come to anglea's Aid and they were all
able to help us that day um but in a more widespread event we're going to be on our own and we're going to have a difficult time handling that emergency but the graphic here shows that we got s and a quar inches of 7 point you know uh and a quarter inches of rain that day
it's a massive amount of rain in a very short period of time and we just need to be prepared for it I think that we're in a very good position right now having over 30 people trained and equipped um and we continue to work with more training and more equipment but it's the new reality for Anglewood that the fire
department has to be prepared for these types of events uh we continue continue to be um very involved in the community with the openhouse with our Junior uh junior fire academy it's a terrific um terrific program Captain Brown spearheads it with
several other of our firefighters and fire officers but it's the highlight of our summer and it brings a lot of um area town you know resident children to the firehouse and gives them a taste of what it's like to be a firefighter uh we'll talk quickly about
Staffing and Manpower current Staffing is 61 which is 19 officers and 42 firefighters this is the first time the Department's been fully staffed since 2017 um our onboarding takes probably 6 months maybe a little bit longer um in
the budget this year we're requesting two additional firefighters which would bring um the Total Staffing to 633 that would bring one uh one additional firefighter to each platoon um from last year we're also um planning on having an
entrance exam uh this year uh for the later in the year the current list is expiring late November so we're planning on having a new entrance exam at the end of this year the bottom line is is that proper Staffing is essential for the fire department this is a picture from
the large fire in Leonia last week you can see that these are Anglewood firefighters that are battling this major fire and the more firefighters that are there would prevent this type of catastrophe and when we're showing up with with only a few firefighters the fire is going to spread very quickly
because not enough people are there to put out the fire and that's a just simple simple math um the more people that we have to do the task quickly to stretch the hose lines to put the ladder up to conduct search the more tasks that are going to get done on the fire ground
properly and the better chance we have at stopping fires and saving lives if we're running out the door with fewer firefighters fewer tasks get done on the fire ground and the less things that get done if we are going out with proper Staffing more of those jobs get done it's just simple simple sta simple math
simple Staffing okay we were awarded a safer Grant in 2022 it's currently funding six firefighters for the next three years through March Mar 1st 2026 we got a second safe reward in 2024 fully funding four additional firefighters um starting yesterday
actually for the next three years and the goal of the fire department has always been to set the Staffing to 63 um that brings us basically in compliance with nfba 1710 which is going out the door with 15 firefighters that would be 11 firefighters and four officers in every shift obviously we're not always
going to have uh 15 firefighters due to vacations with sick outs things like that but the goal would be to have that Staffing 15 firefighters on each platoon major constructions always continuing um there's always new developments you know on the planning board docket but the
population continues to increase and Staffing and proper Manpower is essential to keep up with those demands of the growing population and the growing city this is a picture of a fire we had at the beginning of last year on James Street you can see it's the major apartment building there's hundreds of
people that live in this building and the fire was in the back corner of the building it takes a lot of people to search this building to get the hose on into operation it cannot be properly done with only nine firefighters on duty that's six firefighters and three officers one of those firefighters
serves as the pump operator one of those officer Ser serves as The Incident Commander outside that leaves us only seven firefighters inside to do the job so you can imagine all those people inside all those apartments need to be searched the hose line needs to get upstairs that fire was on the fifth
floor that the lot of work to be done with such few men so you can see that this is a smaller apartment building compared to some of the bigger ones that are being built Staffing matters we need more people to do the job when we have fires in these larger buildings so let's quickly talk about
apparatus we're making great progress with apparatus but like I said last year the maintenance needs are far from Over the rescue truck is 23 years old truck one is 20 years old Engine 2 is 17 years old and the nfba stand for Frontline
service for fire apparatus it says that it should be fire truck should be replaced in Frontline service after 15 years old so half our Fleet is beyond the nfba standard for Frontline service we're doing a great job of having a planned replacement program Mr Hoffman has done a great job of supporting me
with supporting me on that um and we got to just keep sticking to the plan the fire apparatus industry has changed dramatically since covid where it used to only take one year to get fire apparatus built now it's taking between three and four years for fire apparatus
to be built so the point is if we don't plan appropriately and we don't plan out our fire apparatus replacement appropriately we're going to be caught behind the eightball again and have old fire trucks that are not able to be built in time what we've been doing the last few years is having a sinking fund
and putting a little bit of money away every year to ensure that we have the proper amount of money ready in place when we're ready to purchase the fire apparatus and I urge you to continue doing that each and every year so that that when we are ready to purchase the fire truck that we have enough money put
away fire trucks um for a new pumper Truck is over a million dollar and a new ladder truck is 1.6 to$ 1.7 million these are very expensive and the best way to plan for it is to have a little bit of money put away each year so that when we are ready to make the purchase
uh we have the the right amount of Appropriations put away um and I don't think we had to rely on any laner trucks in 2024 so compared to a few years ago that's a huge Improvement so we're doing great 2025 Capital expenditures we're looking to do a ladder truck purchase
and I know you're going to say didn't we just buy one yes we did but a new ladder truck is going to take four years to build 48 months and the current ladder truck we're looking to replace is 20 years old so by the time we get the new ladder truck it's going to be 24 and a half years old and it's time to replace
it so that's why we're looking to make that purchase this year we're going to continue with our two-way radio Replacements and purchase another seven radios those are $8,000 a piece and they're not cheap anymore we're going to start an airpack replacement program our airpacks are nearing 10 years old so
we're going to look to replace 10 air packs this year we'll continue with our PPE replacement program which is our our person protective equipment our turnout gear and we're going to look to replace 10 sets of Turner gear we're going to purchase a uh sport utility vehicle for the deputy chief and we've spoken with
the city manager the current vehicle that he's using is going to get passed down to the city manager and turn the vehicle that the city manager is using is going to get turned down to the recreation department so we think that's a pretty good um use of of taxpayer dollars by switching the vehicles around
to the different departments and finally we're pretty excited about this last purchase is U new thermal imaging cameras thermal imaging technology has come a long way since when I started as a firefighter and you can see in the picture the thermal imaging cameras are the size of uh could fit in the palm of
your hands now and what we're looking to do is purchase 12 handheld size thermal imim cameras which would put a thermal camera in the um in possession of every firefighter on duty it will increase safety for the firefighters and it in turn create a safer environment for our
residents by allowing our firefighters um to be using the thermal imag Camas to find our residents that are lost in a firefighter so we're pretty excited to be able to increase our sa the safety of our firefighters and our residents so pretty excited about that some of the goals for 2025 complete
the delivery of engine one you guys saw that last week the engine came in we hope to have it in service either by the end of this week or the beginning of next week everything's ready to go we just have to load the equipment on it and complete training this week and the training starts tomorrow as I said before we'd like to hire two additional
firefighters to increase the table of organization we'd like to hire one additional part-time fire inspector that would help us to be in compliant with the new state law that's requiring a certified fire inspector complete all smoke detector inspections on all new um
certificate of occupancy inspections and that would be in um in compliance with that law that would take that responsibility away from the building department where they do not have that certified fire inspector now like I said before we'd hold the entrance exam in the fall of 2025 we want to get our home
fire safety uh program going um this spring we talked about this Le last year our lexipol program is revamping our policy procedure program we're nearly complete with that and finally we've been looking at a new software platform that would integrate fire prevention
fire suppression all under one Platform One Umbrella and um basically replace the software program that we've been using for the last 20 years and we just started looking at that but that's a goal that we tried like to implement over the end of this year and uh I hope I I hope I got that
in under the 20 minutes Bob because I know you always got me under the gun but that's all I got the the answer is no but um we we'll we'll figure out real quick we we'll figure out the the the appropriate response tomorrow um yansy
um can you please can we just take down the slideshow please great that that was a very thorough presentation thank you for the presentation if anyone has a count on the council has any questions or comments please raise your hand I see
councilwoman David has her hand up oh why don't hi thank you um and um respect to the fire department and everything um and that was an excellent presentation so thank you also my question to you I
know you guys need some other help but um I would like to know why did you guys change it from like the shifts from the wheels and everything as a wife to a firefighter who retire you know who retired at 20s something years but did
that help with um the numbers of people that you're like the wheels are the three hours what was it three days on three days off or something like that that's question one and also is there something that you're asking those that are inexperienced to work with the ones
that are like my husband who are from Englewood who can also say you know what hey I'm part of the community I can help you because I remember people always asking they still ask it this day knowing that there's a firefighter on a block hey could you help me shovel my snow there seniors you know and
everything so be part of the community maybe you can take the retired firefighters to work with the young ones to also blend them in the community and also um I know that on your Mutual Aid you also had uh mentioned other towns
but you also did an awesome job in tly and I did not see this on your list but I want to say thank you for everything you do and um God bless thank you so you there's a lot of questions
there which one do you want me to address okay one with the like why did we change it from the will you know with the you know the will um we understaffed and um you know and also maybe bring the retired firefighters out with the new ones that's inexperienced
and say hey we got to like get along to move along and hey shovel I don't care if pull a cat from a tree and you've been doing this for years because you're Flingo W also and also your Mutual Aid you just you know you wear your heart and your sleeve and that's what you all
do and I respect that but tenly you did your you know you did a wonderful job but that wasn't even on your Mutual Aid as well and you did help that situation so I want to say thank you thank you thank you if I'm if I'm understanding your question correctly we switched from the
old the old uh shift the 10 and 14s to 24-Hour shifts uh I don't know I would tell you probably 15 years ago maybe longer um I do think that it it has helped uh morale in the firehouse I do think that it it creates a more rested
firefighter um I know that un fortunately unfortunately I'll tell you that most of the workforce that we have working for us now doesn't know anything different there are very very few firefighters left that um worked during the time of tens and 14s so I
think that most of the people that most of our firefighters now only know for 24-Hour shifts so that I think that they appreciate that and and would probably um not enjoy the old style shift that you know I started with and your husband
used to work you know back in the day so I think that's that's one thing um and and and not to not you know we love our retired firefighters um you know every once in a while they come back you know when other other you know firefighters decide to retire they always come back
and you know celebrate with us but I would say by and large that when firefighters retire they like being retired and they don't like coming back to the Firehouse to do that they're retired for a reason is because they don't want to do this anymore and that's not to not I'm not trying to make an insult but they they put in their 25 or
30 years and that's the way they like it they want to be retired they don't want to fight fires anymore um and I don't know if Mr Wilson will agree with me or not but um you know we appreciate their we appreciate their service and they've done an excellent job um you know I'm not sure if they want to come back and
train the the young kids though so um they they don't seem to come around very often only when there's a party a cup of coffee and a piece of cake to be had so that's not that's not a disrespectful statement we love our retired firefighters and they're great to have around and they're great to learn from but I'm not sure if they want to come
back and teach the young kids anymore how about your Mutual Aid you did in tenna fly that was not on your list but you did Aid in that incident and tenly yes we we we go to we go to we have a great partnership with tly uh that partnership goes back you know I would
tell you 75 years um that list that list was only for the uh encompassing for the flooding event and tly actually wasn't called because they don't have resources to handle flooding incidents but yeah we responded to the that big fire in tfly last week um our firefighters did an
amazing job uh last week at that fire thank you and God bless okay um anyone else from the governing body uh has any have any comments um mayor Wilds go ahead uh Chief exceptional job
exceptional work as always um just a a question and forgive my naive but why not do a lateral move or does that not exist like it does for police departments where you take somebody who's a little seasoned from another
department and bring them in with skills that can help uh bridge that divide um we explored that a few years ago um but we felt that it was better to
recruit from the community and to do the the entry-level test uh and give the you know everyone from the community an opportunity to work in Anglewood and I think that you know as that that this
first round from that test wraps up uh I'm extremely proud of the recruitment effort that we did um I think that the group of firefighters that we've hired I think it's like 15 off of that test are a great group of of individuals and I'm pretty excited to see what this next
round brings at the end of this year um I think that my my only regret off of this past test was that we didn't have the recruitment um time open as long as I you know maybe we keep the recruitment effort open a little bit longer but um I
I think that the spirit of of you know having it the way doing it the way we did I think worked out really really well and I think the proof is in of who we hired and how well they're working out so I think that was what we we had tossed that idea around at the beginning but I'm I'm really satisfied with how we
did the hiring and yeah it takes a little bit longer and you know yes they're inexperienced but I think in the end it it it's worked out great of who we've hired and how well they worked out and the fact that they are Anglewood residents so I'm pretty proud of how that's turned out for us thanks Chief
what about um you told us 2553 calls 198 structural fires 100 vehicle lockouts you're at 61 Staffing the number that concerns me is that you said 105 company recalls um what is a company recall is
it a full complement of the entire balance of the fire department being asked to come back because there's a problem in Leonia or we're under staff because of multiple e emergencies so a company recall is an officer and three
firefighters and it's just enough people to uh backfill uh one piece of fire apparatus that's typically committed to an incident so I'll give you an example if we go to a a wire down or Transformer on fire and we are sitting there waiting
for public service to respond and secure the scene we would put a company recall on um until Public Service comes there makes the scene safe and release our our fire engine to return back to Duty back to service but until that scene is made safe that piece of fire practice is
committed to that scene until it is safe to leave or the utility releases it from that incident the same could go for a gas leak and we've seen a a pretty high spike in um struck gas Mains especially with the uh infrastructure upgrades
going on throughout Anglewood we've seen Public Service do all the gas main infrastructure upgrades throughout the city um and unfortunately the contractors strike the gas Mains fairly often despite the fact that they're marked out and they request us to stand
by until the the until the the utility is secured till the gas line is secured and that's just one example um we could go to a multitude of different calls where we are committed to an incident until that scene is secure and we put a recall on until because the that firet
truck is committed to the scene and it cannot respond to another incident and we are then short staffed the rest of the compliment is short staff if another emergency comes in so vendor is that vendor responsible for the breach do we
do they get do they have to pay for it Mr Hoffman and I have spoken about it we do have an ordinance on the book on the books called The Spill recovery ordinance um was basically for hazardous materials and we've never tested the water to see that if we could um recoup
those funds from the person that has struck the contractor so to so to speak that has struck the gas main um you know but we do have an ordinance on the books that I you know I guess we could potentially reach out to public service and see if we could recoup those funds
we're warned that there it is a natural consequence if you're doing CPR in somebody that you can break a rib it is natural if you're going to be doing work you're going to break a line the person ought to be responsible for that if it's a major uh cost to the city um 105
company recalls what is the general cost of a recall uh it's probably $1,500 or less right times 105 correct so it it definitely adds
up thank you and an excellent job Chief and a beautiful presentation as always thank you sir um anyone else on the council have any questions okay I have some questions thank you first of all I I
want to um thank you for that presentation it was really really great I I also want to congratulate you because I know how hard you work on getting grants and uh you've gotten so many grants for both training
and for the for the firefighters for hiring firefighters so thank you for that um I think that I think that the council should take I think we should take a look uh on the ordinance on the books
about recouping some of our fees with psng um Mr Hoffman can you send that ordinance over to the council please and can we um maybe talk about um next steps in recouping some of those fees from
PNG yeah we'll we'll look and we'll locate the ordinance and we'll send it out okay thank you um so so a bunch of times you you're talking about your Staffing and the the importance of having proper Staffing you mentioned that that we're
going to go from 61 to 63 this year so that's funded in the 2025 budget that increased from 61 to 63 well that's a request it's a request that's a request so it's it's it's a request that we have
to okay now um in terms of the overtime recall the need for more firefighters and and and you so it's really a balancing act right because you have you know you talk about proper Staffing so there's a balance like
what's that number between B between between if we have Staffing if we have Staffing that's going to reduce our overtime recoil need for more firefighters what's that number that would that would kind of
make that over time uh I I can't give you that number to be perfectly honest with you because even if we if even if we increased Staffing um I'll use the term that's a moving Target
because that doesn't stop the Personnel from using their PTO and bringing that number back down if that makes any sense so even though we increase Staffing that Staffing is always going to be fluctuating due to PTO and that's why
it's a challenge to predict that so we we increase Staffing but at the end of the day you know we we create we create a staffing level but there's minimum there's minimum Staffing levels and there's maximum Staffing levels so the
number that we're talking about 63 but then we have minimum Staffing levels every day and that's where the over over time comes into play So in theory if we increase the Staffing overall we should not have as much um what we call staffing shortages uh overtime due to
Staffing shortages because there are just more more people more bodies um Staffing the fire Firehouse every day so that's in theory is that always going to be the case no but since we've increased Staffing just a few short years ago we only had 46 firefighters so we' we've
tremendously increased Staffing and we've seen some of the STA quote Staffing shortage over time go down because there are just more people in the firehouse um can I put a number on that I can't pinpoint that but because there are more people working now the
Staffing shortage uh overtime has gone down have recalls gone down no not necessarily but everyday Staffing shortage um in the firehouse that has gone down and that was something that me and Mr Hoffman have spoken about a lot because there are more people working
now so the everyday staff insurers have gone down quite a bit but there like I said there are other re there are other reasons overtime reasons you know recalls training um administrative costs th those numbers are still still there
and we've spoken extensively about um how to low lower those costs so that's something that we're actively working at you and we're we're preparing an analysis basically try trying to predict where's where's that where's the right Delta so that's you know that that's
something that you know we've we've we're working on we've adjusted the first draft and we'll you know the the chief and I will we'll take another look at it okay and then I just have um just a couple of comments it's not it's not a question but I think I think given given
what we learned on the presentation the last this year last year I think we need to look at ways we could do some kind of shared services and given you know given the way you know the fact that there are so few
paid fire departments and many of them are volunteer units and then we cover each other and it seems like we we cover a lot of the the um we cover a lot of the the the the
burden of of covering U I mean I know other towns come to us and they did in the flooding but more often than that we cover other towns and and that's our Staffing that's our equipment and so so a I I really would like to see an effort
made toward exploring shared services and the my other and given that we use our equipment in in other towns and given the expenses and the age of our equipment you know I wish there was some way that we can get even more help from
the state on a state level um or even a county level to cover some of these expenses given that we're we're helping out so many other municipalities so I don't know if those resources exist but if they do I or or
if we have to advocate for these resources to exist then I think that we should do that all right um so uh Mr will councilman Wilson did you have a comment or yes um first and
foremost um good evening Chief thank you for the Pres thank you for the presentation evening um over time you know we're going to need to talk off offline to get a Delta on
um the recall and I think I've had discussions in regards to the length of uh recalls and you know some of them may or may we will talk offline in regards to that um and other thing is is
that thank you because I think we're at an all-time high I gave a compliment to human resource of being uh down what was it 29.3% um so I will give you a compliment as well as being up for the the Grant I
think this is our highest number we've ever reached that I can recall um for the grants is that correct I believe so thank you yeah so that that important and you know just keep the training up and we we are we are dedicated like any
other services for the city to see you guys Thrive and we want to give you the tools necessary but also we' like to see some of this overtime go down as well so we will talk offline in regards to those Deltas so thank you for your presentation have a great night be safe
thank you you too okay um if if everybody's finished speaking a first time I'm going to everybody who's spoken has spoken councilwoman David um you have a question no I want to say thank you to
um our fire department thank you for HR thank you for the city um clerk Department thank you for Bob Hoffman and thank you for a great job we doing moving forward that's it oh one last thing um to your question Chief about
retirees wanting to come back um you know there's always a pleasure to see new blood um and you haven't got to this stage at at at your age but you know there gets a point where we we reach that age and we understand that
we've got bow down to the younger people because it's a young men's game um but training is always optimal um the guys are youtubing tabletop training so you know we believe the retirees that I've
spoken to um believe that we have passed it down in good hands you know you were you were in on some of the Writ training with me and you went on and did some other training and so we have other individuals that we have the pleasure of having under our employment that have
taken training seriously so the retirees believe that we left it in good hands thank you I and I appreciate that that's a tremendous compliment coming from you okay more than welcome okay thank you very much for
that presentation um I think we'll wish you good evening I'm going to um yansy thank you chief that was great yeah it was really great um thank you have a great night thank you you too so I'm now gonna
open the meeting to the public any member of the public wishing to speak is asked to raise their hand to be placed Q to be called upon to speak speakers are requested to give their name and have three minutes to speak um yansy I'm going to let you call people from the
public to speak please okay uh one person has their hand raised right now Dian Jansen Diane go ahead un mute yourself Diane I'm muted yes go ahead okay thank you I'm going to start my
time on my side um I'd like to ask a strategic question hackens saac has 46,000 people T has 42,000 people Fort Lee has 40,000 people Anglewood has
30,000 people Fort Lee has a volunteer fire department hackin sack a paid fire department tck a paid fire department strategically should it be Anglewood
that is providing all this Mutual Aid to others without getting reimbursed and that goes to councilwoman wassi's Point um about others we're funding other towns
indirectly however should we be the focal point for it is it better left to hackin sack with 46,000 people tenek with 42,000 people or how about Fort least stepping up to the plate um and uh
so I I do uh I'm very interested in our looking at that also um the presentations were outstanding tonight and I hold um Chief Kaplan in the highest regard he's the consumate professional and he would be a great
Regional person but maybe not working for Anglewood um anyway uh let's go to um the uh different uh Consultants internal management consulting um to I
thought that was what we hired a deputy city manager to do I thought that that was part of the function to go and look at the costs and the like that was my understanding um so uh are we now
putting in another position um that we really don't need when we could have our quite able uh Mr Berkner uh uh to do some of this kind of work and also uh
are we going back to look at people candidates past candidates uh who were not selected uh because things were put on hold for instance and I'm going to give this example my husband applied for several jobs in Anglewood and uh he's a
dual degree engineer uh with an MBA and he worked for a Fortune 100 company um he worked on uh the merger of technology and cost and other things why aren why isn't someone like him being called back
he's civically active so I I just ask these kinds of questions is it political is it um uh cronyism uh what what is going on and Anglewood so I I I'm at my three minutes
thank you very much I do want to say with respect to technology I owe an apology for my comments last time and the reason is it appeared that I might have been criticizing the city clerk's office whom I hold the city clerk in the
highest regard so I do want to say I apologize I'm questioning our IT services and we really need need to look at getting our money's worth um we're not where we need to be and that's sad
thank you thank you hey thank you uh Raymond Diaz has his hand raised Raymond go ahead unmute hello yep can you hear yep we can
hear you go ahead thank you thank you everyone for the uh budget hearing they're all did well uh just commenting about the fire department as far as wires down and uh gas leaks uh it's the responsibility of the
psng to do that they should have First Responders that should be called to the site to secure the areas until uh further Crews come in to take over and solve the problem problem and
that could be a couple of days they shouldn't hold up our fire department and our trucks at those locations they must love it because they're saving a lot of money but in the city these contractors are responsible to hire
safety teams for traffic and also for um uh any kind of uh work they have to put out cones they have to make sure that the area is safe where they see where they do markouts those are guidelines
and if they thought that they weren't sure they should put test pits at their cost and I have seen test pits by uh the gas company to ensure that they're going to uh locate these
locations uh immediately when they get there this is not guess work we're really doing them a favor and we're losing out on a lot of money and possible uh compromising the safety of our residents uh the HR training uh we used
to do like 15 minute on before the shift starts 15 minute uh safety talks uh that uh just as reminders and there are other type of talks that we had as far as uh uh some of our cultures
were really bad and how we behave and speak to others within our groups they were uh making fun of people because of their sexual orientation and stuff like that uh the HR department told us that
if they hear any kind of conversation there and the supervisor is present and he does or she does not say something he will be fired so uh those are things that as far as the
culture concerned yeah we have to do that but you can you can give training short training sessions before they go to their shift anything that's new to new procedures then that has to be
scheduled but you can't wait two or three weeks until that training comes so you can do something in in the middle right the last thing is that internal management person for 73,000 I actually thought that the
managers of of each department is responsible for looking at what you're doing now is the budgets but also cost trying to get some cost effective measures to save the the city money
because I see this money is is just being spent we have too many assistance for people uh it it's amazing I don't I don't I can't see how we're we're we're but we're doing this I don't know where the money's coming from and I think it
just means that the in the long run you may push out a lot of people you know and and I just wish that uh we can think a little bit more better as far as uh trying to save money well that's it thank you for your listening I
appreciate your efforts have a nice night thank you okay thank you um yansy I don't see anybody else with their hand up no no one else does so I'm now going to close the public session I need a
motion to adjourn the meeting please go moved second okay can I have a roll call please councilwoman David yes councilman Rosen yes councilman toer yes councilman
Wilson yes council president wasi yes yes we'll see everybody tomorrow night at 7 pm have a good night good night night good night everyone good night everyone okay good night night