regular meeting of the township council is called to order Madame clerk in accordance with the open public meeting Act of the state of New Jersey adequate notice of this work session regular meeting of the Franklin Township Council was made as required indicating that this meeting would take place at
the municipal building at 700 p.m. on Tuesday March 11th 2025 please all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by the invocation by and barison I Al to the of the United States
of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all if there is to be peace in the world there must be peace in the Nations if
there is to be peace in the Nations then must be peace in the cities if there is to be peace in the cities there must be peace between neighbors if there is to be peace between neighbors there must be peace in the home if there is to be peace in the home there must be peace in
the heart amen amen Madam clerk please call the role yeah councilman EMB Barrison here councilwoman Francois councilman Kazi here mayor Kramer here councilman on jaka here council member basnik present
Deputy Mayor uden here councilman vasella here councilman Wright here we are to item number five uh commendations and proclamations we have three can get a copy of the agenda near the clerk uh the first one is uh by councilman
vasella the 2025 Girl Scout week Proclamation is there anyone here from scouting yeah there is great hello it's on okay it is working the battery might be running a little
low is there anybody here from Girl Scout yes okay um well you can wait till I read this in and come up so Franklin Township has been blessed with a lot of scouting activities over the decade and we're we're thrilled at the girl scouting still thriving in our
Township um whereas Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a national organization dedicated to the empowering young girls to become leaders who make a positive impact on their community communities whereas Girl Scout week is celebrated annually to honor the legacy
of the Girl Scouts and the enduring values of Courage confidence and character they instill in young girls and whereas from March 9th to March 15th 2025 Girl Scout Troops across Frankland Township will participate in community service leadership development
activities and activities that teach the importance of service to others and personal growth and whereas Girl Scouts are an integral part of Franklin Township Vibrant Community contributing their time talent and energy to make a difference in the lives of others and whereas the dedicated volunteers leaders
and families of Girl Scouts of Franklin Township continue to support the mission of the Girl Scouts by nurturing the next generation of women leaders now therefore we pH Kramer mayor and James fanella councilman of the township of Franklin County of Somerset state of New
Jersey on behalf of the entire Franklin Township council do hereby proclaim the week of March 9th through 5th 15 2025 as Girl Scout week in Franklin Township and encourage all residents to join in recognizing and celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of the
Girl Scouts and their [Applause] leaders um so I'd like to say that girl Scot being a girl Scot means to be
sisters with other girl scouts and to much more to say we help each other and we help others and we Girl Scouts will be Contin continuously will be helping others and everyone future Franklin leader in the
making here I'm going to give this to you and you can I don't know um here you go May to no one can hear on them without the mic I was just saying asking what troop you were in oh you got you're wearing your
oh show everyone 60327 Girl Scout TR I'm sure you can find them on online Google up Franklin Girl Scouts but they do a wonderful job we have a stream cleanup coming up if you want to put it
any service hours I know uh some of the scouting USA which used to be Boy Scouts from Aman Girl Scouts have been there before thank you for all the work that you do thank you for the volunteers and uh I hope you stick with it and and keep helping as as you have thank you so much
here you go [Applause] uh next we have the 2025 women's History Month Proclamation by count by Deputy Mayor
oudin good evening everyone can you guys all hear me I want to express my gratitude to all the incredible women who have inspired us led the way and work tirelessly for progress and change your efforts are not only shaping the future but also leaving
a lasting mark on history with that happy International women's day I have invited um we have 62 board between the board members and community members in our Township so I've invited all the women that are part of our wonderful
boards and communties so if you're here today please join me as I read the proclamation and as you guys are coming up I do want to give a shout out to the Franklin Women's Club um just if you don't know about them in 2028 Franklin
Women's Club will celebrate their hundred years as a Federated club for community service and friendships um Franklin Women's Club gives out scholarships for graduating senior girls from Franklin Township and have been their primary focus as well supporting our food bank the mexic
violence Child Abuse Prevention recently the pator and monarchy Garden Project by the Gaz um if you have been to the library you will notice that the woman the Franklin Women's Club has put out the women's history display um honoring Our World
War II 6888 Battalion of black women who fixed the backlog of male problem that no one else could solve so if you're in the library please make it a a stop over to see the bulletin board there all right ladies go here come come
closer we're March is celebrated as women's history moment a time to honor and recognize the vital contributions women have made to society culture and history and whereas Franklin Township recognizes and celebrates the remarkable achievements of women who have shaped
our community State and Nation as well as those whose names may not be widely known but whose impact has been profound and whereas women in Franklin Township continue to inspire and Lead across all Fields including education business government Healthcare and the Arts okay
making our committee a stronger and more vibrant place to live and whereas women's History Month provides an opportunity to reflect on the progress women have made and to acknowledge the work that still needs to be done to achieve gender equality in all areas of life and whereas we celebrate the
strength resilience and determination of women of all backgrounds and walks of life and honor the ongoing efforts to empower women and the girls in our community and Beyond now therefore we Philip Kramer mayor and Shea Udin deputy mayor of the Franklin Township sorry
Township of Franklin County of suet New Jersey on behalf of the Franklin Township Council to hereby proclaim the month of March 2025 as women's History Month in Franklin Township and encourage all residents to join in recognizing and
honoring the achievements and contributions of women in our community and across the world thank you and so I will give you guys each of I think I have enough I can am I I just need one more
then right so I'll give you yours tomorrow okay um do would you like to say a few words you want to say a few words go ahead uh well thank you Council and thank you
to the residents of Franklin it's wonderful to be part of a community that recognized the achievements of women um and certainly women's International month is a great time to celebrate all the amazing women of Franklin and so we
on behalf of all my new friends I I thank you and uh appreciate this recognition and once again happy International Women's Day to everyone here so thank you I'm sorry I just wanted to thank um May Kramer she bin and I just wanted to
say that you know this is a celebration of uh woman's progress but we still have uh you know things remaining in terms of progress and and I also wanted to say that when we uplift Empower each other
um we progress more and also when women Thrive Society flourishes thank you uh the third Proclamation is uh probably pronounce it wrong now Raj 2025 Proclamation thank you so much good evening
everyone and we have a proclamation for no Rus how many of you have heard no Rus then you're going to learn something fantastic no Rus the Persian New Year is an ancient and cherished celebration
observed by millions of people around the world including many of our resident in Franklin Township and norus makes the first day of a spring symbolizing renewal growth and the Triumph of good
over evil and is a time for people to come together to celebrate their cultural heritage strengthen Community bonds and embrace the Spirit of Hope and Harmony and whereas the celebration of
norus spans over 3,000 years and is deeply rooted in the tradition of various ethnic communities including those of Persian Central Asia and Middle Eastern descent reflect and shared
values of Peace unity and family and whereas no Rus is a time for families and communities to gather enjoy delicious food engage in cultural practices and reflect on the blessings
of the past year while looking forward to a new year full of promise and opportunity and whereas Franken Township with its diverse and vibrant population is proud to honor and celebrate the
Traditions customs and contribution of all of its residents including those who celebrate norus as they en enrich our community and bring us closer together as one United Township and whereas the
mayor and Council of franklen Township recognize the importance of embracing cultural diversity and the positive impact as such celebration have on uh un fostering understanding respect and
inclusion among all residents now therefore we the mayor and Council of franklen Township New Jersey do hereby proclaim the celebration of norus in Franklin Township and encourage all residents to participate in and support
the observance of this important cultural event I hope you'll learn something thank you [Applause] thank you councilman um we are now on to
item number six public discussion to have a motion to open to the public so second moved in seconded all in favor say I I opposed say nay motion is carried we're open to the
public anyone wanting to speak about anything regarding government uh is welcome to do so now 5 minutes of time may only come up once no yielding of time um and please state your name and address now there's you can come up for
anything to do with government but there is going to be a separate public hearing specifically about the fire districts so you may want to keep your powder dry till then I'll be helpful
okay good evening my name is Alex Clark and I am at 396 Hamilton Street I here to voice my support for rank Choice voting for a resolution supporting rank Choice voting and to share some
information about some upcoming public events I volunteer with voter Choice NJ which is a nonpartisan grassroot Organization advocating for State Bill S1 1622 and a4042 this bill would enable rank Choice
voting in local elections if passed local officials and voters could adopt rank Choice voting if they choose to elect their mayor council and school board members for anyone not familiar rank Choice voting is a voting process that allows voters to rank
candidates in order of preference ensuring that the winner has brought broad support from the electorate voters can choose their first second third preference candidates and so on and when votes are counted if your first preference receives too few votes your
vote is transferred to your second preference and this goes on until there is a majority winner I support rank Choice voting because it improves the voter experience and eliminates the need for strategic voting right now many districts and
States tend to vote with a predict able outcome and this causes voters to feel like their vote doesn't matter or they may feel like they don't need to vote because their District or state seems to always vote in their favor or otherwise many voters become disengaged
and they stop participating as a result we see many elections with very low voter turnout we also hear concerns about the spoiler effect in which votes become split between candidates with similar ideals
there by helping the opposition win with a plurality this year we have an important gubernatorial election and for example right now we there are six candidates in the upcoming Democratic primary for me personally there are two
candidates that I'm enthusiastic about and another at least one other that I would vote for in our current system if the candidates I vote if the candidate I vote for wins only a small percentage of the vote my V vote will basically be
meaningless it won't count for much out of a field of six candidates that we currently have in that primary we could end up with a winner who gets only 20% or 30% of the vote with rank Choice voting the candidate with the fewest votes gets removed and their votes are
transferred to the next preference until we have a winner with more than 50% of the vote of support a candidate with 51% support represent better represents us than a candidate with just 20% another example I've often heard
people say about a particular candate they really like the cand they love the candidate but they don't want to vote for them because they don't think that that person can win so they end up voting for The safer Choice even if it isn't their preference with rank Choice voting this decision is easy you can
vote with your heart as your first preference and then vote strategically with your second preference or vice versa you don't have to worry so much that your vote isn't going to really count your vote is more likely to stay in play I am asking if you would consider
introducing a resolution in support of S1 1622 and a442 several towns in New Jersey have already passed measures in favor of State enabling legislation for a local rank Choice voting voter Choice NJ can work with you if you need more
information or if you have questions we can send you literature and example resolutions that have passed in other towns and voter Choice NJ also organizes educational events to the public which you can attend to learn more there are a few upcoming events earli upcoming
events over the next week including one Edison this Thursday that's a couple of days away March 13th at 7 p.m. and I have information on that which I can share with you and for more information you can o
visit into RSVP you can visit voter Choice nj.org events and if you do if you are able to attend any of these event which I events which I hope you are uh please introduce yourself to the organizers thank you anyone else wishing to
speak you don't have to raise your hand you just come right up hi um my name is Lydia Lacy I live at 1036 Canal Road in griggstown and I'm I'm here to just
voice my support for um allowing backyard chickens in Franklin Township and where we live um we've we've lived here three years and our house came with chickens and we are actually zoned for I
I can't remember but we're allowed to have chickens and uh I've never had chickens in my life I I liked the idea of eggs and um but I didn't know anything about chickens it it it's been so much fun um it's there's a learning
curve um it took a while but it's uh I mean I've raised two children it's certainly easier than children um I would say it's easier than cats and dogs too just different but cats and dogs I mean well cats are in there living a little but dogs really don't no I had
I've had a dog I can say that but um you know we just it's so much fun uh we get over a dozen eggs a day it's um you know it's it's a little work you know it's sort of akin to if you've ever
had taken a guinea pig home from school where you have to kind of clean out the bedding in the morning and stuff although guinea pigs really they're not chickens they're not fun but you know I I meet my neighbors I I almost always have eggs with me I have eggs with me right now and I give them
to people it's like giving people flowers um we have a ton of eggs we have blue eggs and brown eggs and uh I think it's I think I think it would be nice if everybody has the option to have chickens and I roosters are
chickens and I understand roosters might be a different deal but just who lay eggs and and they're nice so I've said my piece thank you thank you anyone
else hi Donal 12 Drive Somerset New Jersey I have to speak into the mic please hi Donal 12 her Drive Somerset New Jersey uh I I I appreciate the former uh resident's enthusiasm for chickens uh I just do want to caution on
chair of the Board of Health advisory Council for Franklin Township I do want to caution that one of the sources of please address the council one of the sources of Aven flu has been backyard chickens and backyard uh poultry so um with that note please just be careful uh
one of the first signs of Aven flu is conjunctivitis uh right now it's a type A flu so you would test positive for type A flu uh so if anyone tests positive for type A flu and has as a predominant symptom conjuctivitis that's some of the key things so like I said
the the backyard chickens are infected by the wild birds and around here we have a lot of wild birds that are waterfoul uh so they can bring it to to to flock so if you do that just be uh a word of caution thank you Bill Connell 25 Spring Street um so
it may be uh surprised to some of you that I am actually a big fan of quiet and peace um so I get up early in the morning and it makes me astutely aware of the ambient noise around Franklin there's a distinct difference between 4
or 5 o'clock in the morning and 8 9 10 so that's kind of where I'm coming from um the uh the especially in the fourth W fifth w there's a lot of ambient noise all the time you have cars you have cars with no
mufflers and all that there's a lot going on there and I've come to the conclusion reading this that you really should not have um chickens on anything uh R15 or less which is 15,000 square
feet okay do you agree with me Vince excuse me no anyway um and then looking at the RO roers um I want to know is there a fine if you have a rooster cuz some people get Roosters by accident it's not
you don't like you may get a chicken think you're getting a a hen but you actually get a rooster um so the question is is there aine for a rooster and if you get one by accident how do you dispose of them because you specifically say that you can't kill it
on your own property so the question is is what do you do with the rooster because I know if you you can't like if you have a straight cat you can't you can't just kill it you have to give it a six-month uh waiting period or something like that so the question is how do you treat the rooster once it's there um I
think that's it thank you the rooster Paradox anyone else wishing to speak I won't be speaking about chickens uh I am a part of Somerset
County I live I'm getting ready to say Tor D I live at 1621 Amo Road right across from dmer on the White House with the red door this most help people ever remember me and I am a troop member part of troop 60327 I am not a girl Scout now
but once was long ago and these three young ladies are a part of our truth so they wanted to introduce themselves and we wanted to say thank you for honoring Girl Scouts it's a pleasure to be here it's a different scene for them but it's an opportunity for them to know that the work that they do as a Girl Scout is
recognized and that for them it's a it's it's a badge of honor right to be able to be recognized in such a way so we wanted to say thank you and let you know that we're going to continue to work and hopefully bring on more Girl Scouts in years to come and we hope that for them this is an opportunity to see that they
do have an impact on a much larger scale so they want to introduce themselves and say thank you um excuse me one second if you're under 18 you don't have to give your last name and you don't have to give your address hi my name is tayor thank you hi
my name is Taylor I'm a Junior I've been in girl college for two years and I just want to thank you guys for giving us the chance to be here today hi I'm niia and I've been part of girl SC I'm I'm really new to it and
um she did excellent earlier so we're good hi my name is Olivia I am a my second year a Girl Scout I'm a Cadet and thank you [Applause]
anyone else wishing to speak not seeing anyone coming forward mayor I'll motion to close the public portion of the meeting second moved then second and all in favor say I I post say nay motion is carried public session is closed uh
address public comments um we'll be addressing chickens question quite a bit later um and um rank choice votings anyone have any comments on
that I honestly don't know all the ins and out pros and cons I've heard of of course and I know they do and in certain parts of the country I assumed the legislature would have to do that but I will look
into and develop my thoughts on it but honestly right now I couldn't say whether I would be in favor or not of it but thank you um for bringing this or any concern you have to us uh I yeah I haven't done the math on it
yet but it's something we should consider um that and chickens um Mr manager do you have anything I do um to address Mr connell's question about what happens if someone has a rooster I believe Mr Connell you have a copy of
the ordinance in front of you if you do and you look at the very last paragraph of that proposed ordinance I believe it will tell you exactly what the penalty is for a violation of any portion of said
ordinance and then in addition there's some Community groups as well U Facebook has a group called ruse to reome um where folks post pictures of their roosters um often if you're hatching your own 50% chance that it's going to be a rooster most folks don't want them
but a lot of folks FKS do um I won't tell you who in town gets my roosters when I have them um but there's a lot of folks that are willing to take them um and I believe we have a number of farms in Franklin Township that have uh
chicken flocks that would also have Roosters on an a working farm correct the person I give it to is a farmer the penalty is the general penalty for the township so any violation of ordinance would result in
that penalty being enforced via a summons and and an appearance in municipal court so um we have a lot of people here about the Fire District budget and I don't know if they want to sit through
45 minutes of council comments um to have a motion to move to amend the agenda to move that up I would motion to move that forward to pres is when you think May yes yeah would then motion to have
it the next item second moved in second and all in favor say I I oppos say nay motion is carried so we're going to skip on ahead to item number
14 calendar year 2025 Fire District Number Four budget um so the budget fails therefore comes as just as if back in the day when Schoolboard budgets failed he comes before the council to
make a determination of what to do um now uh council member basnik is uh in the first councilman for the First Ward and he's done quite a bit of work studying the issue so what I'm going to
do is I'm going to call on him first then I'm going to let um members of uh Franklin's Fire District 4 to come up here to the table and give us their thoughts and then we'll have South
Brunswick Fire District 3 to the representatives here from there okay then then you'll be able to come up and give your thoughts so that council's fully informed when we make a decision have open to the public oh you're right
right then we open it up to the public after the three entities speak council member uh thank you mayor um couple of other thank you to uh Township manager vorn Locker for his help and the mayor as well as the rest of um folks that had a chance to look at
this I I also want to start up by saying uh thank you to our firefighters uh both volunteered and paid and folks that work as fire Commissioners um both in Franklin Township and District 4 and also in South Brunswick in District 3 appreciate everything you guys do it's an unusual circumstance to be in this
position not uh extraordinary like it never happens um but I will say what we did was look very carefully at the budgets and also the contract as well as the uh ratables of the assessments and a
whole bunch of other stuff so I'm going to walk you through sort of all of the numbers it's sort of a um an orientation so we're all on the same page both for Council and for the public and um you know this is not really an emotional thing as much as a numeric calculation
so just so folks understand and and ensuring that there's good strong fire coverage is a number one priority Safety and Security of our residents is is critical um but costs have to be shared fairly um so if we take a look here just so folks have an orientation um there
are a number of fire districts in Franklin um I'm going to use the laser pointer for a far away uh oh you can't see it on the screen okay I'll do it this way then um backup plan um so this is Fire District 4 um right here um just
north of it is fire district 2 it's a large District um and let's see if I click what happens I do that okay um this is South this this Franklin so if you don't know the shape of Franklin um and this is South Brunswick and this is
South Brunswick what's marked here is Kingston Fire District um South Brunswick Fire District 3 so I sort of match these up so you can get a sense of the sort sort of uh geography uh but geography doesn't tell the whole picture folks who know Fire District 4 know it's
a residential Community it's quite quaint it used to have PJs now it's got tinos Pizzeria uh which is great Brick Oven Pizza um I get 10% of the profits now oh no um and then this is a blowup of the Kingston Fire District so it's
kind of hard to see any roads here but those of you who have been in the area for some time recognize this road this is Route One Route One Cuts right through uh South Brunswick's Fire District 3 we know that along Route One there are a lot of big uh I would say
commercial spaces that are more costlier or have higher assessments for taxes and values and closer you get to that sort of area business parks and things like that so if you don't know the community exactly you can get a sort of a sense of it you're welcome to look at the Google Maps or or what have you for it um these
are the results of the fire election themselves the budget fail faed 75% to one uh to 25% uh yes uh the levy cap um ex exceeding that was a failure as well at 56% to 44% the actual uh vote count
was six NOS for the budget two yeses for the budget one voted yes and no so it was not counted and then for the levy cap there was a no and a yes um excuse me five Nos and four yeses it also failed um
so the total rejected budget for the fire district that was presented to voters was 85,3 N5 what are shared services so according to the contract with uh between South Brunswick and uh Fire District 4 in
Franklin from 2020 to 2023 section 4 States how the charges would go Franklin shall pay to South Brunswick a percentage of the capital and operating budget of South Brunswick for the current fiscal year of this agreement excluding administrative expenses as
determined by the ratio of applicable ratables for Franklin to those of South Brunswick adjusted to reflect 100% True Value as determined by the state of New Jersey in 20124 I I'll point this out the adjusted to reflect 100% of the True
Value as determined by the state of New Jersey it's an important clue and it will come back to it okay um in 2024 the language was shifted a little bit um uh it said Franklin Township shall pay South Brunswick a negotiated and mutually agreed upon payment excluding
administrative expenses I'm not sure we didn't go P further than 2020 um but I highlighted there they adjusted to reflect the 100% True Value as determined by the state of New Jersey um so the history of that shared agreement between Franklin and South Brunswick um
in 20120 the contract cost was $50,0 in 2021 it was uh 52 ,000 sort of estimated there was some adjustments that had be made it was a 4% increase so history kind of helps tell a little bit of a picture in 2022 it jumped to
$58,900 it was a 133% increase sort of a one-time expense in there my understanding is washing equipment for um the heavy duty of fire uh uh protection uh um clothing in 20123 um
the number went down um to uh 57720 um that was a 2% drop and in 2024 it was $ 59,60 a 3% increase and that was a negotiated by the term of that fourth uh one in
2025 it was uh presented at $ 75,6 18888 a 27.5% increase so one might suspect that this 27.5% increase got some of the voters kind of a little off guard right um if you take the uh uh
2020 to 2024 the average is about 4% per year of an increase just to give you a sense then thanks to uh uh manager VOR Locker he went through South Brunswick's budget and pulled out the items that Franklin and South brunwick Fire comp
fire districts share they don't they don't share every single expect some things are just for them right some things are just for us but actually not a lot of those um and when you total all of those items up you come up with 700 56,800 Etc the number I presented before
um we were able to make one uh uh correction um which was in the detailed budget that was provided to South Brunswick this item here firefighter equipment for 150,000 was actually reduced to 75,000 so uh you'll see you'll see that
piece there um so when you do that math you back out the $75,000 um because you know it's 150 75 twice take out 75 to get back to 75 um and the adjusted amount for that with
the reduced Fire Equipment is 681 880 80 if you did 10% be $ 68,800 per valuation fair share adjusted to reflect 100 True Value as determined by the state of New Jersey so luckily the state of New Jersey each County
comes up with these uh County Equalization tables for your assessments so some towns like Franklin We assess every single year we change our assessments folks got little I think they're green they might a different color this year in the mail and they say
oh my evaluation went up some amount that's the price it's supposed to be that a willing buyer would pay um and in Franklin Township because we do it every single year um our evaluation is near 100% it's actually over 10.55% so on average we're
overvalued um which is still pretty close um that's the story there 10.55 in South Brunswick um they have a similar table and middle sex County and that shows for South Brunswick that they run really short of what the sale price
would be in their assessment I don't want to get into too much numbers here but it doesn't matter so much in the town because how you're paying you're paying your percentage share Etc but when you go outside this Equalization table helps so that's
3672 per of the actual value of the property okay so you do some math um Franklin was assessed uh Fire District 4 the total value of the properties in there is $98 m878 when you actualize that lower
because it was assessed higher 1.55% that drops to 97 m299 655 similar types of math for South Brunswick Fire District 4 at $592 mil 443,000 and there's a zero missing there
um uh dollars now they evaluate less so when you do the math it becomes a larger number that larger number is 1.6 billion and change when you add up the two numbers and take the Franklin percentage of the
total amount that number is not 10% Franklin's ratable share is 5.7% okay so from there um just to give a sense South Brunswick's total budget was
$844,000 it was actually down for South Brunswick homeowners 4% in 2024 so we go back to the budget table here where we look at the total number of the Franklin share of the budget $681,000
18880 we apply that 5.7% and we come up with Franklin share based on the ratable assessment at 100% of the shared budget with South Brunswick Fire
District 3 and that's 38,8 uh $676 okay now there are some expenses in the budget that are not the shared service agreement those are constant and unchanged um and that um that we so we
go back here sort of this was this number here would have been the 10% number this was the proposed 10% number with the extra fire equipment and then this is the actual number based on the rateable equalization all math all fair
all pretty much standard practice um so the recommended budget then for Fire District 4 as I see it and recommending to counil is 48,5 7366 which is a savings of
43% so it seemed like to me members of council that the voters in Fire District 4 were on to something and that is that there was an unequal Equalization that we were able to address here with math so that's my presentation okay thank you uh
representatives of fire district for Franklin do you like to come up is it clear can you hear me yeah so I don't know if you have something prepared or not but that was the money
side the other thing to consider of course the more important thing is the safety side so you're gonna have a lot if we were to pass this you would have a lot less money available to pay uh South Brunswick Fire District
3 um they might say no what would your Alternatives be well Alternatives would initially be it right into the mic you gotta get really close okay is that good initially what we would have is that we're under a shared service agreement
with with the township of South Brunswick but it's also on a mutual Aid agreement so Kingston Fire Department will respond to Princeton will respond to other areas as well as those other areas will respond to us in the short
term we would still have the coverage that we would need we have a volunteer fire department I can't speak for the chief but I can say that most of the residents that our volunteer fire department that live in either the Kingston or the South Brunswick side are not going to not respond to their
neighbors fire we have the same agreements that we then have the little Rocky Hill Rocky Hill and Montgomery and all perhaps even Princeton to be able to respond to us the respond times in those conditions would be very similar to what
we have now right now we have a shared service agreement where if a fire department has to come from Mammoth Junction it could take them 11 to 25 minutes to get to Kingston we're four minutes away from Little Rocky Hill what we want is the best thing that we can
provide to our residents and we have the amount of money that we can can allocate based upon what the fine work that our Council Warman has performed and found that we have been
overpay now we've gotten great service we don't get many calls the fire department has been outstanding they're a they're they're a a center of our Township we would hate to lose their ability but do respond to items within
Kingston on the Franklin side if we don't have the agreement with South brri District 3 would be up to how South Brun District 3 wants to respond to us with the agreement they could have just the volunteer volunteer firemen come to us they could have the paid
volunteer fire departments come but that's solely up to their discretion and I'm glad they're here to be able to discuss how they would handle it because we can't speak for them we're are a service uh recipient basically an out
Source contract from the residents of Franklin Township in Kingston to the South Brunswick Fire Department in District three so to answer your question we've had some initial discussions over the last few months we have the third the
$48,000 that are in our budget there are other fire departments that we can take that money to and that money can be paid for a per DM fire department full-time employee that may be able to sit in a firehouse that they're not sitting in right now so it's really the next step
is once youve made the decision you've come to the understanding of what is the affair amount it's up to us to get that money applied to get to the coverage that we need and that we can s across the table from our neighbors and say this is what we've got and it's is good
or better than what we have now and I can't say it can be better because the fire department in Kingston for over a hundred years have been a part of our community at it's a shame if we have to walk away from it and be looked upon as they're on the other side of the Border
mere feet away from their fellows fellow citizens so I don't know much more how I can say this or what we can say at this point mayor but we need to have fire protection we have professionals who
work in that area who were not going to not come here because the bill isn't going to be paid they put their life on the line every day they're not going to let us down but what we want to make sure is
it's fair to the taxpayers so for those viewing um volunteerism is down from what it was years ago and the problem the at night there's really not a problem the volunteers will show up but during the
day they may be working the way things are now 40 miles away and hours drive away so some of the fire companies are covering that by getting paid workers during the day and that's part of the
issue here is will the paid workers uh respond um anyone else want to hi I just want to give context in terms of uh the numbers in case you're
curious in 2023 we had 23 alarms that include smoke and regular alarms in our side of Kingston and in uh 2024 we was down to 22 so there is just a handful of alarms
on our side just to give context for uh how much traffic there really is in our side um and also I want to just point out that in our contract which ends with South bwick uh March 31st
there is a portion of it that extends for 60 days so uh if sou Brook District 3 does not accept the amount we have 60 days by contract to find another uh District or
house to do our coverage and we uh we reached out to other districts if necessary to make the uh additional contracts for that thank you and to go back to your point about the person in
the house microphone um to go back to your point mayor about the person in the house that's where I think some of these funds would go to if we do look at let's say a house that does not have a full-time employe there during the day is to go to
them and say make the deal with us and we will provide you enough at a PO DM basis that you can have someone sitting in that Firehouse waiting to respond so there are some contingencies that we have thought about um unfortunately we've had to think about
them uh we don't want to move away from Firehouse uh but if we have to we have to be fair to the taxpayers and if we can get the same level of service for Less cost then we have to do that in the best interest of our
community okay any other comments sorry just for clarification also uh in the contract for the Kingston Firehouse uh they're not allowed to do a contract with anyone except for South B District 3 so we can you know if we
can't actually bypass District three and do a direct agreement with the firehouse itself any council members any other council members have questions okay thank you very much thank you for your service okay thank you very much for all
the work you've done thank you very much and giving us the opportunity to speak here tonight thank you bet South brri District 3 yeah it's a place of honor thank you
thank you for hosting tonight uh Steve biano I'm chairman South bronswick Fire District 3 um the numbers that you used are erroneous I just want to put to start so where you
did the um the 10% has been off the table a year so I thought it was interesting that you brought the itemized in to to justify then brought the 10% back in to justify that's Voodoo math Voodoo math um we've been very
um uh I said dating to the uh district and you can't go by number of calls if there's a fire there's a fire uh as you know volunteerism is now most companies cannot roll a truck
during the day they don't roll trucks during the night we're we're suffering with that in our district right now and we're looking at making changes to correct that we brought in a full-time employees we had budget issues so we have a shared service agreement with the other Sal B fire companies to share that
so we have professional paid Crews on during the day that do respond into across based on our contract but we're not here we're the Commissioners we're not running firematics that's a Chief's job and who we contract with so I want to be clear to all talk about who's
responding that's the chief's responsibility we're to ensure that the service in our Township and our taxpayers get the service they need but I want to go back to the numbers there when we negotiated this contract this year
there was talk well who pays legal who pays this we have a service contract our overhead is our overhead our costs or our cost we were able to say listen get off the 10% we'll do negoti because if we did a 10% they'd be paying a lot more
so you can use the 10% and then use the automization later it just doesn't work um the other uh challenge is that there are other expenses that we've been very accommodating to concerning radios things that are on the horizon that you're your Franklin and the
district has failed to address that we're creating potential liabilities for our district and we're very clear we don't believe it's fair for our taxpayers to subsidize folks outside our district I'm
speaking as a commissioner fire service say if someone's need trucks roll put a fire at that's great but the challenge right now of getting more paid firefighters increased expenses and and if you look at the budget I mean I haven't seen a District budget go down anywhere in New Jersey so this started a
few years two years ago when they uh the district got a lower budget and put us in the bind and now we're we're here today so again I want to go back to your numbers if you straight line it there's I don't know where you got where you're itemizing from don't know who you gave
information about equipment cost that's totally your own there was no bump in any budget for uh that the taxpayers in Franklin had to pay for additional equipment that's untrue that's untrue hi uh ales I mean I'm the
treasurer for uh South BRS Fire District 3 uh yeah speak a little louder please sure the only comment that I have is we'd like to see the presentation that you've provided so that we can look at the numbers and uh and really evaluate
that provide some sort of response give yeah give the clerk your email or you can email her tomorrow and she'll send she'll send it right out well you have you did have them before because they're your numbers they're your numbers um that's all
public information your math equation if we had that before it would again it's it's public math it's not secret math it's not voodoo math it's literally just math you're using itemization here you're taking things out of this equation by
going back to 10% there is no 10% do you recognize this uh either of you but there's no the 10% you're talking about doesn't exist in this contract okay you recognize this document Board of fire Commissioners Sure Fire District 4 did you create this document taking out what are you taking
out this document that that Franklin should not be paying for did you create this document the treasur did yes is this your document you did okay um am I uh maybe I zoom in on this box right here I can color it yellow um what what is that
number 10% you created a document that called out items at 10% and you're saying it's old and inaccurate and Voodoo math and I take objection to it I don't know you but it's it's pretty unusual so a contract though that's not
a contract does the contract say 10% okay anyway no no I just here if it's not in the Square it's not squ yeah I'm I'm just going to tell you that it's not voodo math these are numbers you provided it's nice if you wanted them in advance they're your numbers but that
10% equals $48,000 or $43,000 what's the 10% based on our doc if you're going to use that 10% the document what's the number in that document show the green block see you scroll down when you go down scroll down okay I I understand got
it doesn't help if you keep saying what I'm going to do I know what you want me to do okay yes thank you appreciate it so if you'll if you'll notice how I did it here uh it's a little harder um but in each each case here where there
was uh I'll just explain it to you because you know it seems like it's important item 11 uh line 11 um as you presented these are your numbers uh in 2025 the total cost for this contract with KV fire department um is100 000 a
90% share for District 3 is 90,000 and change for District 4 so in this case District 4 uh has a uh a share of it some unusually but we were able to determine from the numbers that were provided in row 17 that um $122,000 was
the budgeted number but since it's ghosted here you'd think it didn't apply in this case you took the total amount and then did 90% here and 10% there so again 10% applied to that number and every case where you see black numbers those numbers are shared numbers okay as
I scroll down in line 46 $116,000 it's a red number the red number indicates it's not a Kingston Franklin Fire District 4 number so you'll see 16,000 the whole share of that is in item uh in Fire District 3
none of it is in this other box here for Fire District 4 similarly in the next line $500 and $2,600 only applies to South Brunswick and we can continue on and on and on but I think you can see uh that's pretty consistent then in F in
row 53 20,000 just a South Brunswick expense and I can keep going line by line but this is your numbers and I just pulled them from there with the help of the manager uh to proof read it and the mayor 58 same item uh we can go down to 62 same thing um and then over here in
66 and 67 also 100% share of South Brunswick those were taken out it doesn't matter either way it doesn't add up it does matter because that fire comp those go to the guys who are getting on the truck putting fires out and you want to take that out well so if
you look so okay looking okay relax take a breath one at a time line 66 are you saying that the 25 number that you provided 42,000 should have been split 9010 there's no 9010 I don't know where
you're getting 9 it's literally on this paper it says right here is not the contract okay so let me just ask the question again away from that we walked away from 10% okay let me ask a question maybe ask the treasurer is it a better to ask question for him so in in in line
62 oh no actually line 66 this line here um for the length of service award program is that a 100% South Brunswick expense that wouldn't be shared or passed on to to uh Kingston Fire District 4
no I'm want to know okay so well nonetheless this is the numbers you presented so now you're so yeah these are the numbers you provided you said that so if it's not and someone doctored it we'll figure it out let me let me let you said you
wanted to see you're going back to a contract that doesn't exist this isn't a contract this is just math but you're say but you use 10% as a number it mean something no you you use 10% in the spreadsheet that's why I referred to it we did not use 10% we7 cont says 10%
well you as me to step in and out maybe I'll explain it to you you you you allocated the money 9010 that's just what you did in the budget I in all due respect I don't really care what the contract says what you did in your budget is you allocated it yeah but if the contract the contract
look I am and not only am I an attorney I'm a pretty good attorney because I can understand this math if your budget if your budget allocated at 9010 and the contract had a narrative about how you were going to allocate it I'm not sure what that means but your budget
allocated at 9010 and we're only here to worry about the budget so if you're if you tell me that the contract doesn't have a percentage in it that's fine but the budget does have a percentage in it it's 9010 and I think the point that the councilman was trying to make in his presentation is that based upon the
average uh based upon the assessed value of the of the two units the number should have only been 5.5% and that's the point that we're trying and that's the only point we're trying to make so that's that's the long and the short numbers are put up in a slide tonight without giv again what I'm a little
concerned about this council is trying to negotiate on behalf of the other have these numbers before as our so your Tre so can can can can I ask you a question I'll just make a point of what is your rationale for the budget
that you gave to our the district we look at our we looked at our cost of services right we have paid firefighters now we're having more challenges getting volunteer trucks out the door overhead is up the cost of doing business is up insurance is up this is New Jersey
everything is more expensive we we understand so yeah so I'm trying to figure out a logical way council member I can answer your question it's 10% I wanted him to answer that I know but it's 10% but the 10% doesn't even matter
that's that that's an example we're saying it we pick from we what we did was we figured out which Services were shared we add those up and then we applied 5.7% because that's the equalized
assessment ratio that's the 10% is irrelevant it's irrelevant it's it's I agree so let's go back to your document okay hold on hold on hold on wait wait hold on stop wa you need to hold on because you asked a question I'm still answering and all
your interruptions led to all the side stuff ask you yes you did if we roll back the tape if we roll back if we had a court reporter it would say show me where you grab those numbers and that's what I was doing I was running through line by line the numbers you took out that's the ones I'm talking about no numb I'm still answering your basic
question so if you have further maybe write them on a pad and we'll get to them one at a time so um in line 80 what I what I uh 81 rather what I did is I added up column e which is the
100% that means full cost of the items that were applicable for Fire District 4 in Franklin Township the ones that are not red the ones that are black when you do that you come up with this number oops that's my math not voodoo math
actual math on a computer 681 million $681,000 8888 you can check my work two you know uh colleagues have done that um and and it it
um uh excuse me I'm in the wrong column here um and that gives you the total amount when you apply 5.7% which is the ratable equalized share that's publicly available you could have done that math you chose not to do that math but you
could have done it we did I chose not to we sat down you okay nonetheless so and we went through that's where the okay I'm sorry for saying you chose not to did you do it yes we did we sat down you did the math to get to 5.7 not 5.7 is a
number that we didn't we used the combine ratables and then we did a split did you Excuse excuse me excuse me did you equalize the ratables did did you equalize them to 100% do you understand the way these contracts work I'm seriously do you
understand way fire service contracts sir I'm pry anyway that's where we came up with the MTH no because it's obvious you're not you don't are they different are they different than other contracts excuse me are fire district contracts somehow different than other contracts no but if if you look at the contracts
it's pretty much it's will'll pay a party X for X Services M now if you go through this document you took numbers out if you took the numbers out they can't deliver the services loow sa salaries for the district how do we run
the district without P people District it's the cost of it's a service contract we decided and agree with the with the other District to take the itemization out the way you do it out the way you do that is you put in the proper budget and
then this is a discussion about who pays what piece of the pie it's not a discussion about how much money you need it's a discussion about who pays what piece of the pie can I ask question if I'm a if I'm a a computer
contractor with the township are you going to sit there and say what is my rent what's my you're going to say no you want to keep my computer up and running we're going to pay x amount of dollars x amount of hour stop there so if you can so stop there so stop there so that's a that's a computer contract and that's for the town but if we
decided to share it with southbound Brook and we decided that we would allocate the cost for that contract based upon our assessed value we would take their assessed value and our assess value and come up with a percentage and we would pay our percentage and they would pay theirs when we do that it
should be 955 and you're doing it 9010 and that's the issue so where in the contract does it say we're going to do assess value Che no that's not a contract no I'll show you the contract as well but right now I'm going to show you microphone is your doc microphone Mr for the wonderful
viewers at home is actually your document as provided by your fire district to Fire District Number Four do you see that I I I also have the budget on my computer if you'd like to look at
that every number in this column called 2025 budget that equates to a 10% payment in The District 4 column on this was compared to your budget as posted on
your website by me council member could you please put up my my uh document that I provided you today with the um proofing of your math oh sorry I'm could you please post that could you read this so I I'm talking now he likes to do
distracting questions so we got to stay on one thread at a time we can get you a pad and a pen if it helps could you please post that you want to go back to m document that I provided to you this morning I don't this one yeah Bob shared
that yes that one I did a little color every line on that spreadsheet equates to an equal dollar amount line in your budget as posted on your website it also is the same exact number that's in this
spreadsheet on my computer that I'm showing you now the total for for the 10% column identified for district number four equals 75,6 18888 which is the number that proved
out on my math as done when I did the comparison of this document provided to District Number Four at the end in December of 2024 and your budget that was introduced and posted on your website that's still
available there now those numbers are the same and the numbers that are the same are the equivalent of 10% of each budgetary item that you identified in this document provided to District
Number Four and identified it at 10% you also identified it at 14.6% the 14.6% is the rate ratio if you actually
utilize the assessed values in South Brunswick as provided by the assessor from South Brunswick which is an incorrect as the council member said is an under number un under percentage
number when you compare it to the 100% value that your shared service agreement references in 2020 21 22 and 23 which says that it will be at 100% market
value I believe that's the wording that was the slide I had the number that was adjusted the only number that was adjusted to get from the 750 uh 56,000 number to the
661 or whatever is that in your budget contrary to this spreadsheet that you provided to to District Number Four you budgeted $75,000 for Capital expenditures whereas you identified the capital expenditure
budget is 150,000 in this document that you provided to District Number Four so the number was reduced from the the 600 and some odd th000 by 75,000 to make the correction to the
equation so you can shake your head no but that's so when you say that it's not your budget it is exactly your budget as verified by me this morning okay you're the what you're using is a document we use in negotiation with the district and
that's the number you provide the 14% is the number that they brought to the table with us when we looked at the ratables so again I go back to if you go back to 2024 the contract is based upon usually agreeable the fire district for
negotiate with us in good on that let me ask a question two questions I think those will sum it up it probably be the last questions one do you have a mutually agreeable number right now we had one what's the number we agree with them we had a mutually agreeable number
which was lower than that 75,000 for 2025 2025 which the yeah gotone excuse me yeah please use the microphone sorry Christina clam I'm the
treasurer for Fire District 4 so I for clarification we don't have a contract for 2025 so we budgeted for a number but we don't have a contract for that yet so it's not agreed to no okay because it has to be go because because it has to
go to the voters what the 2024 we did pay that amount that is actually the amount we paid last year okay thank you and then my second question is the number um by the turn around and again uh the
number that uh you know we're using here with the let me just make sure I get the right thing I've got two screens so give me a second this number at the bottom $ 38,866 C is that a number you would
agree to no I can't I can't agree to it because on the chairman we don't make decisions at hoc that have to talk to the board but again I want to go back to how you're taking numbers out of our budget of salaries of expenses that have to be we can't function without those
dollars so how can we provide services to your Township without that so so I I have a I have a question I have a related question on that point that you are just making in case fat District 4 was not there would you red would your
budget be lower by any amount in other other words if you have to just serve your people would you be cutting the budget number down because Franklin is not there that's a rhetorical wow it's not a rhetorical there's a concept wait
a minute you you seem to have a sarcastic way of addressing us I would ask you to give us due respect okay there's a concept called incremental expense if you are adding service to your department how much are you adding
incrementally to your expenses that is the fair share that you should pass on to Franklin if you are going to not add an incremental expense your expense toward providing the service to Franklin is zero the money that they are paying
you is an added subsidy to your department so I'll answer the question if if we didn't have to Service uh uh Franklin right now that that we pull that money out and we reduce the the money we have to pay to our contractors for fire companies so our cost would go
down so there'd be no negative impact to your there would on our contractors well they they would get less money no you would have budgeted the money and it would have gone been the same you would have set
the same um amount that you wanted and you would have had the same Levy and it's just that it all would have been paid by South Brunswick citizens that's the point right no our service contractors would have less work
to do we would have less territory to cover so we'd have to look at that what what do your service contractors do you put fires out talking about the paid firefighters fir out we have contractors to hose we have paid te we have PID firefighters and they charge you by the
square foot by the assess value are it's they're you're paying them to be there for a certain amount of time correct and you would you have fewer of them there if you didn't have Franklin we have fewer calls have but
would you have fewer people that you would hire on the pay though on the volunteers it doesn't material so no is what you just told me is you'd have the same expense you would just have to divide it up differently amongst South Brunswick
people all we're asking or saying is that it should be divided up fearly make this all one one community and divide that up fairly between the communities assess values is one way to do it you might do want to do it by
length of road or I don't know what else you might want to do but you're going to do it by assess value then the fair way to do it is to use the um balanced Fair uh assess
value uh and make it fair to everyone so could I just ask a question I'm then what's the role of the fire the Franklin fire district we sat down with them in good faith negotiated in good faith and the voter just let me finish and now
negotiating with the township on something that they negotiate in good faith because the because the voters turned it down the voters turned it down and then it becomes our respons supposed to is you took their methodology that they negotiated good faith good F and
you tore it all apart and came up with this other formula so I'm saying is it's not fair all right to do that it's just not fair to do that it's not fair to to uh tax people on assess values when you
haven't assessed since 1987 that's why they have the equalized value chart and when you pay County taxes you are um adjusted that way because how else could you do it between
towns so um we are responsible to the public because they said no to the budget and we're doing it the way we think it's appropriate so just just to just
closure this this this the the challenge with our district and the Frank District this is not new uh Franklin District was picking to walk in the way and going to another servic before because we could come to an agreement personally I live
in the village it's probably not good however I have to look at the south of taxpayers um and it comes to the point that is it sustainable going forward right Vol we all know the volunteer service and for our district to to M we spend more time on Franklin issues than
we do on self issues many times so again it can't speak for all the board members but I think we have we have to figure out if if if number one again my concern I can't speak for the board I'll speak for myself I don't think this is fair in the way this structured because we negotia the state now we moving the ches
that's fine I would rather the negotiation but hey we can't afford X let's come up with the numbers negotiable versus trying to so do so do that when when you I I just want to ask a question so when you said that you negotiated in good faith when you provided the fire district your assessed
value did you give them the equalized assessed value or your regular assessed value we said we both sh down and use are both regular assess Valu okay so so here so so here's here's I'll give you I'll give you this cuz I understand this good faith if you give the other side in
the negotiation faulty information and then they reach an agreement based upon the faulty information that's not good faith negotiating absolutely so in all due respect you you can't you can't do that if you give them a budget that shows $150,000 in capital Improvement
but there's really only 75 and you give them and you say our assess value was 700,000 when it's really 1.6 million 1.6 billion that's not good faith negotiation in fact you know what that's called I'll give I'll give you I'll give you a free legal I'll give you a free legal advice it's called Mutual mistake
those contracts are not enforceable if you started off with at sitting at the table with bad numbers they're they're just bad numbers so whatever happened as a result of it it it's not it's not an enforceable number but what happened here is that the taxpayers rejected it
now we're sitting at the table by the way in case you don't know you're in another negotiation except we actually know what the real numbers are so when we look at it we think the logical way to do it is to um a portion it based upon the assessed value which is by the way the way fire districts do it all
over the state It's Not Unusual I I I know that I think my firm represents 70 municipalities I think um so I I understand how it's done so that's a logical way to do it so there's other ways as the mayor said you could do it by the length of Roads or the number of
calls but that's a logical way to do it and what we're telling you and when I tell you you're in negotiation you really are because we have to strike that budget and when we look at it we say gee it really should be 955 and not 9010 and that's all that's
happening here and what I'm telling you is that if you went to the table and you and you were both mistakenly believing that you had correct assessment information you were wrong because you didn't so I'm I need to move this along a bit you'll be you're going to what we're
going to do is you're going to make a final statement and then we're going to go to public comment Mr Mayor may I um I heard that councilman PES was asking a question that how much your numbers are you said much less than 75 and he was
trying to look at for that number and tell us what what your number is we never heard that answer I don't I don't have that right in front of me I looking for it but we came up with a slight increase over the last year's budget we did a slight INE
over last so how last year was 50 something 67% no no no 50 last year was 508,000 58,000 matters 59 59 okay so that's a number at a spot but I want there's a
key part of just one point uh in our contract additional cost he doesn't know there's a cost that might Frank I want you to see something it could be in excess of50 to $100,000 you see this do these radios
cost ,000 Township Fire District when that happen this contract who is going to pay for that now if you don't have radio excuse me Mr vlocker turn Mr vlocker turn off your mic please thank
you I was liking hear that's one thing that in his that we even trying to figure out that there are liabilities that are if you want to go Line to Line specific to Franklin not to South Bruns that for to put a radio in the chief here you tell it could cost $100,000 or
$15,000 a radio per radio so who's going to Bear those costs they're not we can buy four radios with this contract we can't even put one radio in a truck under this contract so okay no we are not going to public
session you can because we've been trying to get that question answered for three years okay three years so anyone who has a comment out there can come to the mic but we're going to do three minutes thank you both for your time thank you
guys thank you for your time and thank you for your service I mean that sincerely um do we have a motion to open to the public so moved second moved in second and in favor say I I I oppos say nay motion is carried may come to the
mic only to speak about the fire district for Budget failing no no other subjects uh anyone wishing to speak same rules as before but three minutes you have to switch the uh screen Ed you have to
unplug I go that one no no you're fine no no the the TVs need to have the counter just hold one second please not gonna be enough here you go there you go you're
on the clock thanks um Andrea mcparland 10 Laur La in the district four Franklin side um I don't know where it begin after that but um uh several things I wanted to raise so the contract um to District Four Commissioners hopefully um
the contract cont uh says in written if you put in written notice that the 60-day extension does not apply the the voters hopefully are have said that they want you to do that and hopefully in writing you put that that the contract will be terminated on March
31st um the state guidelines will protect us um under the state mandates the fire dist all fire companies will respond to any emergency in in our district so there is no worry that we will not be covered um including Kingston Volunteer Fire Company will be
responding including the paid staff because they're under the control of the chief who who works for the fir fire company and not for the district I think the district uh confirmed that that they can't dictate who will respond um and all the Chiefs will respond in all of
the fire companies that surround us so we're not worried that we won't have uh coverage if we don't have a contract um so hopefully that contract is put in writing that it is terminated we don't want to pay even two months to them um
especially after the the show we just saw the radios um the radios are to answer I believe uh district U sorry Franklin calls if they can provide services in Franklin I think that they should have that equipment um I don't
know if they're going to ask us to pay for their fire engines as well next time um I assume if they're providing fire surfaces and fire matics they have all the equipment to be able to do that so again that should be part of their normal equipment that they buy if they want to provide those Services um and
not something that is 100% paid for by District 4 um the the math it seemed very logical to me thank you um Mr patnik I think that was the first time an Enlightenment enlightening Enlightenment um I also um
my husband was the former chair um of of District 4 um he is still a commissioner but he was the former chair and resigned last year because of this from that position um so there have been no negotiations with District 3 I want to make that clear I sat in the public
meetings of all of the fire meetings um and was able to witness there were no no negotiations there were demands and there were um uh Tantrums thrown but there were no negotiations I think you saw that tonight as well
um let's see where else was I um the valuation seems absolutely right that's exactly what we were saying last year and we couldn't get those numbers we didn't know there was an equalization chart as as the public so I'm glad that there is but we knew 100% that those
numbers were wrong and the 10% was well overstated so um you know I think going you know going into it that the the public definitely agrees with your numbers and they seem uh basically what we came up with last
year thank you anyone else I guess I should talk to George luck Jr 7 Laurel Avenue um I'm here really as a taxpayer um but I've been concerned about the changes over the years with uh between Franklin and South Bruns I can
give you the whole history going back to 1980 when the two districts were formed and that's where the 9010 started so it was back in the beginning of both fire districts District Four in Franklin and District 3 in South Brunswick and that's
at that time and I'm sure they didn't do rateable charts for The Equalizer but I know that they did look at the ratables on both sides it was 9010 there is no doubt that over the course of these years that South
Brunswick has grown immensely and and Franklin has basically been the same and I could go through all the developments and all but I I won't take your time to do that but looking at your numbers tonight I can see that this has been
unequal for the last few years and I as a resident of Franklin and as a member of the fire company in Kingston I want the protection and I want Kingston to come across the street uh I can almost throw a stone to the Firehouse from
where I live but the important thing is I want to pay my fair share I don't want to be paying double or triple I want to pay approximately within dollars exactly what my brother who lives right next to the Firehouse in South Bruns pays that's
what I want to pay I think that is a fair agreement that is the way the two boards always worked in the past and I would hope they would work in the future and as far as I'm concerned this is at both boards both District 4 and District three they need to communicate and talk
with one another not talk at each other and not talk and be demanded of from one or the other they both need to sit down and negotiate and talk in good faith if that's done the village of Kingston is a beautiful town and to be honest with you
most times we don't decide Franklin or South Brun we just consider ourselves residents of the village of Kingston and uh I consider that still I grew up on the south side graduated from sa high school we moved to Franklin and both my
children graduated from Franklin High School but that's just the names of the high school they were both all times Kingston residents and I just encourage you to I thank you for the work you've done and I think that's the right way to move
forward anyone else with all the talking in the audience and no one else okay fine close the motion close the public portion yeah oh great come on up I just for the timer that's okay just your
name and I'll be quick uh Chris chapaton I'm a South resident I am deputy chief in Kingston right so I just want to clarify for the public in the board that we are at 100% for responding to calls in the district for right so from a fire
protection standpoint right I want to rest assure the public that trucks are getting on Road and we are responding right I will make a comment that from a you know radio budget perspective right we have been hamping a little bit in terms of just kind of the Mandate in terms of the the radio changes and kind
of updating software right so my concern right is necessarily you terminate the contract just in terms of some of the response and things like that right I would from an operational standpoint have the board potentially just talk about providing us with mutual Aid radios to be able to to effectively
respond right from a firefighter safety perspective as we start to flash some of these older radios we're running into some issues right so obviously I want to have a radio for every you know operator or you know firefighter on the scene and if we were to terminate the contract which I don't know if that's the move or not right it's not my decision I would
just want to make sure that that we keep firefighter safety from a mutual Aid perspective you know in in mind right so just don't want to hamstring the crew as they go out but I I appreciate the time it's not very often you get to address the council but thank you anyone else
no one else sure okay so then yes mayor I'll motion to close the public portion at this point second move in second and all in favor say I I I oppos say nay public session is closed council members do we have
comments I don't know if anybody has the numbers I just had a couple questions and for what it's worth at the end of the day this is really like I'm glad whoever was saying that it's Kingston you know things get testy but the councilman to my left here and the
manager and the mayor they don't play around with numbers or very very good at that I think what it was is quite frankly I'm assuming Ben for the doubt that when South Brunswick did not realize about the eval I understand
taxes and every year we do evaluations and towns don't so I don't think there was anything purposely on either side trying to manipulate for what that's worth so to bring it back back to where I would like to see it move or I think everyone like to see it move I think
that they were going on numbers that gave an amount that they were comfortable with but the numbers the what they were basing on was wrong it sounds like there's items that they worry that are soft cost or costs that don't you can't quantify in 10% and all
this I don't know and and wouldn't expec them to come up with a final number um I agree we should pay a fair share these are a couple questions I have do we know because again this is all math so it's easy as public information what the percentage for South Brunswick resident
versus the percentage for the Kingston resident I mean the Franklin resident living literally in some cases feet away so that we can get to where people are paying their fair share which to me
should be very similar whether you live on one side of the street or the other side of the street so I don't know if anybody has that math it's on your tax bill everyone gets it well that's probably not easy to figure out councilman because you'd have to go through the same exercise we went
through then you'd have to know what their tax rate was and then you'd have to know the average so it would be like a whole mathematical nightmare so um so so councilman so picture this the amount of tax paid so picture
there's a $500,000 house in in Kingston on the Franklin Township side and there's a $500,000 market value home on the South Brunswick side stealing my thunder go ahead well this is this is when I had this discussion with the assessor today
about this very thing if in fact the all things being equal the person who lives in the house in South Brunswick would pay about $240,000 worth of
tax based on the value of the home and based on the current Assessments in South Brunswick at the rate that they are assessed their value of their $500,000 home for tax purposes is
$240,000 whereas the value of the home in Franklin Township is $500,000 so they're paying a little bit more than twice as much in fire tax annually for the same market value
home yes yes so essentially essentially I was going to say if you sell your $500,000 home on one side and move to the other side buying a $500,000 home your tax should be the same it shouldn't
change and not yeah Mr Wright you've haven't spoken you wish to speak well you know everyone throws in their their little number there and our counselor came out with something that I I wanted
to jump into Mr REO yes sir give me your thoughts on this well I once again I I I my personal opinion is that it is a math exercise and it's also my opinion is that they probably NE I I look I quickly looked at the agreements
because they're online and it's pretty clear to me that at some point in time South Brunswick took out the assess value um formula and it's pretty obvious why because it got to a point where the numbers had gotten skewed right so they were just trying to negotiate a number that was more and I also understand that
they negotiated a number that was more than an assess value ratio but I think that we now this is the first time council's had a chance to take a look at it and I and thank you mayor and Mr forn Locker for answering councilman vasella's question M much easier but
that's that's the long and the short of it I mean for me I would have had to understand the tax rates and all of those things to get precise numbers but that's that's what the difference that's what the difference is and the difference is is that it appears that the Franklin side of this is just overpaying for for for the same value if
you're going to do it based upon assessed value and I think that's the way generally this is done because you know it's fire mtic protection for property and if the property in one side is valued at X and the other is valued at 2X and our assessor has said that
exact same thing so that that's gener that's generally the way the the way it's it's kind of done so um so that so that having been said it seems to me that that seems to be the logical The Logical point of
this I understand that you know and I went once again I want to take a look at the contracts and they have quote unquote negotiated numbers in them but they're all subject to the budgets being approved so if the budget not a I don't know that you have a I only saw a 2024
contract I think somebody mentioned the fact that there is not a 2025 contract so once once we approve the budget at the number that we think is reasonable then the parties can sit down and decide whether or not they can reach an agreement at that number and if they can't they can't right and then
everybody makes alternate Arrangements that's the long and the short we're not talking about going back and changing 2024 is 2024 that that it is what it is but if there's going to be a contract in 2025 that contract in 2025 has to reflect what is an in our mind an
accurate number and I think that from the council's point of view from what we're hearing from the Franklin fire district that that seems to be logically what the number should be and then the parties can go and see whether or not they can reach an agreement or not and I I think the councilman rah's question
which was a really good question and we you know I say this and I didn't mean to be perjorative and I'm sorry if I if I seem to be you know snarky when I answered your question but the fact of the matter is is that you do one shared services contract We Do 50 of them a year we actually know how to do this we
price them out all the time right we're going to you know and I and I use South Brunswick because you know they we might share an IT department with them and and we negotiate the way we do it um and it's got to be fair to both parties because otherwise they'd be overpaying for a service that they could go out and
get on their own um and when're so so we do understand how to do this um and I and I think that that's what councilman patas has laid out and I think that it seems to me to be logically what happens is that the council now makes a decision
based upon that math uh and then we leave it you know the fire district will now know what their budget is which is a good thing and then the fire district uh in Franklin could sit down with the fire district in South Brunswick and if there is a deal to be made there's a deal to be made if there's not then there's not
um uh that's but that seems to be I think seems to be where where it is at this point in time your question I just got one one more little point there sure that uh 10% just blew me out the water because they they kept throwing
that thing back and forth at each other and I kept trying to figure out I I understand Cal Ed I understand that point but I was trying to grab their point and because they said it it didn't matter well well I think what they were saying is this is that I think we were
both saying what what both part what both of us were saying was the same what they said is oh that alloc there's no 10% in the contract I agree there's no quote unquote allocation in the contract I agree with that too but their contracts were very interesting because
they said in one paragraph We Shall allocate and another and in another a couple of years later the contract said we shall negotiate but then three paragraphs later it said the number is 59,000 3775 so it came to a number what we were
able to do when we looked at that number is back into hey we're paying 10% of the of the budget cuz we could now we know the number and we're only 5% of the the value so all we did was yeah I got I understand how you I understand you
negotiated it but the long and the short of it is and we Now understand what the effect of that negotiation and it appears on analysis that that the Franklin fire district was overpaying right May mayor I don't I think you know not having been involved in anything before tonight I think that that pretty
much seems to be where we are so and and and I just you know just to go One Step Beyond you know when you talk about shared service agreements it's it's kind of ironic that the township has a shared service agreement uh related to fire
service fire protection and that shared service we have a shared service with three of the four fire districts here in Franklin Township um King uh Fire District 4 being one of them and the method by which we determine annually
the cost of that shared service agreement and how it is divided is by the ratables of each individual fire district um you know and so that Shar service agreement is I want to say about
90 or $100,000 a year of which Fire District 4 is responsible for $1,200 because the ratables in in District 4 um are as we've said about 989 million and and I think the next
smallest fire district in Franklin is about 2 and A5 billion um so that's why the share is so small so it is a very common method but it is also a percentage that's calculated annually at
based on our annual assessments uh that one question yes sir where 101% value in 2024 which is what the calculations for the
2025 budget would have been deter would have been utilized because fire district budgets get elected in in in February so they used the 2024 numbers in 2024 our County
equalized um assessments were at about 10 1.5% that's a yes yes and so we we took that number and made it 100% okay and then the South
Brunswick um ratables were at and and I don't have it right in front of me what was it 3 no 37.421998 numbers to calculate the the percentage of the whole for each municipality okay see I I kept mixing that up and I thank
you for it because I I wanted to make sure we were doing apples to apples and oranges to oranges exactly and not monkeying around with their 35% our 100% we got to figure stuff out anyone else so I thank you for that and I thank a counselor for giving me that legal lease
and I'm rolling now thank you anyone else who hasn't spoken all right my final thing that I wanted to say was I heard about the radios a lot if the radios are costing a lot and Franklin benefits from the
radios then next year put that as part of a sheared expense that's that's the simple answer to it they want to pay their fair share just put it as part of the expense Mr Mayor may I want to say that
was one of my little questions here I wrote it down about the radios what's the story with them and you asked that that question and I thank you for it all right so if there's no other discussion uh I present resolution
2598 introducing introduction of the calendar year 2025 Hamilton Street special Improvement oh no Jesus I wish we were there [Laughter] I'm sorry now we need a resolution
setting the fire department budget mayor yes 299 wait before you do can I have the number that put in the resolution do I need to make a motion going to ask him that okay yeah you have to make probably ask a motion yeah so the the number is$
48573 and66 okay all right so I'll try again I present resolu solution 25099 setting the annual budget for Fire District Number Four pursuant to
njsa 404-785-2000 I I painfully ask any further discussion Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes [Music] [Music]
no it's still going okay councilman Cari yeah mayor Kramer yes councilman on joa yes council member baznik yes Deputy Mayor udine yes
councilman vasella yes councilman R yes may are you your mic on if I can just say one thing I think sometimes we oversimplify things we
should not do that sometimes people are going to get lost and everyone had their own ideas and got lost uh swimming and I I think that our attorney spelled it out good at
one shot one shot he spelled it out good and our Township manager spelled it out the one with I the guy I sit next to uh but I just want everyone to know in TV Land if you are
confused at any particular point if you are confused see that guy at the end and have him explain it to you bit by bit if you are confused in anything that we just did thank you Mr Wright
because you're paying for it thank you Mr Wright I'm just letting them know all right Madam clerk um I think Council comments huh yeah Council comments oh
godil com that's interesting can we can I move we dispense of council comments so we have a motion to dispense do have a second second all in favor say I I any anyone
darare say no no conso comments let me send this to myself Mr manager was there anything vital that you needed to report on Mr manager was there anything vital you needed to report on I have nothing
actually I was digging for something and now I don't even want to dig anymore all right we're on to item number 11 approval of the minutes I present the following minutes to the township Council for their approval work session regular meeting February 11th and work session regular meeting February
25th so moved second any discussion anyone want to change an item Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilman karazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman Oni jaka yes council member
cosn yes Deputy Mayor Dean yes councilman vasella yes councilman R yes if the camera can do a closeup here I just want them to see that they look very much the same all Britain and
engl oh okay approval of the warrants and the amount of 4 million 4,588 sorry 4, 58,000 $875 on March 11th are presented to the
township Council for payment do we have a motion on the warrants so moved second moved and seconded any discussion anyone want to pull item change an item Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilman karazi yes mayor Kramer
yes councilman non joa yes council member pnik yes Deputy Mary Dean yes councilman vasella yes councilman Wright yes and now calendar year 2025 Hamilton Street special Improvement District
budget I present uh the budget um introduction of 2025 uh Hamilton Street special improvement district and set public hearing date of April 8th 2025 to the township Council uh for their
consideration do have a motion seconded we've then seconded Mr Dominic ask something has nothing to say okay any other discussion Madam clerk councilman and Barrison yes
councilman karazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman Oni joa yes council member vasnik yes Deputy Mary Dean yes councilman vasella yes councilman right yes item number 15 we already did number 14 public hearing and Adoption of
ordinances on second reading there are none ordinances on introduction on first reading ordinance 44 59-25 sorry uh an ordinance to vacate existing emergency vehicle and utility easement
and accept an emergency Act access and utility easement agreement between Ewa Somerset 400 owner LLC and the township of Franklin for the premises known as block 46801 lot
21.15 Atrium Drive the following ordinances presents to Township Council for adoption on first reading posting publication in accordance with law and public hearing and final adoption at a meeting of the township Council to be held on Tuesday March 25th
2025 at 700 p.m. in the township council chambers do we have a motion to introduce so moved second moved in second and any discussion I think it's pretty self-explanatory by
title Madame clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilman karazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman n jaka yes council member pnik yes Deputy Mary Dean yes councilman vasella yes councilman R
yes okay uh ordinance 4460 d25 an ordinance amending the municipal code of the township of Franklin County of Somerset state of New Jersey more particularly chapter 115 dogs and other animals adding article uh
four uh six backyard chicken flocks the forgoing ordinances presents Township Council for adoption first reading and posting and publication in accordance with law and public heing and final adoption at the meeting of the township Council to be held on Tuesday March 25th
2025 at 7 pm in the council chambers do we have a motion so moved second moved in seconded well this is Ed pnik night since you introduced this ordinance why don't you explain it um this ordinance allows Property Owners with a quarter
acre or more to start a backyard chicken flock of just hens no roosters um which is great entertainment as we heard earlier but in addition U they also take a lot of food scraps and waste which rues our our waste uh and we also get eggs and and meat from them so um it's
been years in the making with egg prices the way they are more and more folks are looking at this and I think would be doing it without it being official this is a nice way to make sure they do it safely as we heard from the health um uh chair and in a in a way that um conforms
and also protects neighbor so I'm very pleased to have it up tonight thank you all so that's uh R15 that we allowed down to 10 R 10 and then yeah different you can have you have two at 10 and then a little bit more as you have more
property so just as a uh point of reference Princeton and dellan allow it down to R5 so half the size lots and they allow two chickens at that level um and any other discussion uh yes uh Mr
Mayor first of all uh thank you so much uh councilman this this has been a great thing and and I I grew up with chicken so I know it's a lot of fun and I was looking forward to have couple of my grandchildren in Warren they have eight
of them and every time they come and they talk about how much fun they have with their uh chickens and I I'm looking forward to have couple in my property hopefully uh but there's one thing that I'd like to u to suggest as an amend
actually uh honestly I I really don't think it's necessary for us to ask the resident to do the annual uh renewal so what I'd like to suggest that we have um a onetime $25 fee for a permit
application and with no renewal as an amendment for this so we have a we have a motion do we have a second second moved in move and seconded any discussion I think the reason for if
anyone have any discussion no I think the reason for renewal is to keep track of these birds so that if as it was brought up earlier bird flu or some other such equal uh
problem were to come up they know where to go go to inspect or to um do whatever they need to do so it's a way of keeping track of them um I I would say sort of worst case
scenario we have a list of where the chickens are supposed to be and we go somewhere and they're not there right if if someone started it and 5 years later they didn't they didn't have it anymore that would maybe be the side of having it be a permanent sort of thing or but
every it seem it does seem like a lot so maybe we could be a onetime fee and a fiveyear application but then people are going to forget in five years we're going to have to send them a letter and that's why you do it every year just like a dog license which is no different and and so that came from the
recommendations from the uh University of Maryland extension for ordinances related to backyard chicken flocks is that because of like what we're in right now and AV in flu so that when you need
to know where those chickens are in short order you have updated licensing annually so that you can now know where you need to go and you're not chasing around something that remember this we're talking in short term right over
the next couple years but when it's 30 years from now and we have a list that somebody had chickens 25 years ago and we're starting to go now you know and you're going to start looking for things things that no longer exist as opposed to an annual permit and if you do a
one-time initial at whatever the rate is that you decide and you do at the the uh every other year after that there's no cost or what you know you want to make it you know $25 initial and $5 a year after that whatever it is um but there's
a reason why you want to be able to keep track of where you have chicken flocks and it's primarily related to disease outbreaks so what about if he uh I'm sorry Mr Mayor what about if he asked the people if if they got rid of their
uh chickens they can just let the township know that's now you're relying on someone to do something that they're not going to do and they they perit they not going to so I'm telling you that having done law enforcement for 27 years you're asking people to do something
that they're not going to do because what's the penalty if they don't there is none and the same thing for the permit if well if they don't get a permit there is a penalty the ordinance has the general penalty for violating the ordinance so if they don't get their permit renewed they're in violation and
they're subject to a summon but if you just blindly accept the fact that people are going to say well I don't have chickens anymore I'll notify the town that I don't they're not going to do that we can we can make it an online form I mean all our forms are pretty
much online now so they it's pretty easy to do do would we send out a letter I just uh to me it's just we ask asking Community again do paperwork bureaucracy like I said we're in Township we're in
Township we don't I mean I I have never seen they asking for additional permit just one time that's it and so I I just don't don't and councilman I just used the dog license as the example the state of New Jersey requires dogs be licensed
annually and you have to go pay for a dog license and dog and chickens are and the reason why we license dogs is to ensure that they're inoculated against things like rabies and chickens get are susceptible to disease as well and so
the reason why you require that dog to be licensed is the same reason you would require your backyard flock to be licensed so that a we know where they are and B when there's an when there's issue related to them whether one
escapes or one is when there's an outbreak of disease you know where to go find them that's the reason why I I agree it's a it's a health issue so when just a point of clarification so that onetime $25 and no renewal if we amended
that and said annual renewal would they get a notice like an email or some a letter that said go online and just make check the box that you still have them or update the number or whatever it is whatever you decide to do I mean we so none none of this was ever given any
consideration because as you recall as a result of the committee meeting that generated this um this final version of the ordinance the recommendation out of committee was that there be no fee so if there's no fee then there would there
would be no registration right I mean that that was you know there was no fee involved in this uh in this process so now there's a fee so we're going to have to follow up right we're I need to do what it is but I there's no reason why we can't notify Amry do we notify people
when their dog licenses are due yes there's the answer so there's the answer I would I would equate it to no different than a dog license in that the people would get a notice if they s when they initially provide the registration if they provide an email address in that
registration they can get an annual email okay if they just provide a snail mail address they would get something in the mail I think I think um supporting what said well he's saying that one time $25 never again is that what he said
yeah that's that's that's right that's the amendment $25 they do it once and then they don't have to register each year no no but Bob's saying so maybe we amend it and say one time $25 and then annual free
what Bob said I'm supporting what Bob said the ordinance that's in the ordinance that's in the packet still says no fee correct because this was just an amendment to the original ordinance that was uh a motion to amend am no no no I'm talking about I'm
talking about the ordinance that I'm reading that was in the packet tonight it says that there is no FEI that's correct and someone just made a motion to amend that ordinance that's in the packet Oh I thought I'm sorry B I thought you had said that originally it was no when when when can I can I uh Mr
Mayor yes go ahead um my amendment was $25 fee and no renewal if we going to go to Renewal I will withdraw my Amendment so okay I okay I would make a motion
that it's $25 the initial fee and that you have to whatever the technical term is register each year then there's no fee involved and I just want to clear with the lawyer that's my motion that uh Lou if somebody built another Coupe or
tore down that Coupe and built another one cuz you get more chickens that would be considered needed for a new a new per you're not you're not licensing the building of chicken coop you're licensing the having chickens on your property so if you have two chickens and you paid a fee you could build a big
coup a small coup tear it down and then yearly we would know because they'd register so I'm going to leave it as stands $25 we do yearly so we can keep track but no at no encumbers uh no fee cumbered by the uh what is the right
word chicken no I meant flock chick flock holders do we okay that would be my motion is there a second seconded an uh amarie do you understand the motion $25 for the initial fee and the
renewal is free correct annual renewal annual renewal that's free it's obviously amory's microphone councilman right not yours and and he just and discussion further discussion what about uh anyone want to
discuss uh chicken CPS in fire district 2 mayor I think we had a lengthy discussion so we're going to vote on the motion only if they split it 9010 M Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes
councilman czi I'll pass mayor Kramer yes councilman Oni Chaka yes council member vasnik yes Deputy Mary Dean yes councilman vasella yes
councilman right yes M Mr Kazi passed that means we go back to him councilman karazi if you want to abstain then vote no I'll abstain okay uh that's the amendment does anyone
have have a further discussion on the ordinance thank God Madam clerk councilman and Barrison yes councilman karazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman un jaka yes council member yes Deputy Maran councilman
basella yes Council come on all right let me see if I can get to the right place in the agenda consent agenda items eight a through is that an i or an l l has listed in the consent agenda portion of this meeting are presented to the
township Council for adoption to have a motion on the consent agenda second move and seconded any discussion anyone like to pull an item yes sir one little item and it takes 30 Seconds J resolution
25109 and the only reason I'm bringing it up is so the uh Township resident know exactly what this was so so does anyone else know what it is because I do do you want to read it do you want me to tell you what it is
or do you want someone else to tell you what it is tell me tell me what it is so so J is a resolution accepting the grant that's received annually um from the governor's Council on substance use disorder by the
Franklin Municipal Alliance program for $885 to for the municipal Alliance to use those funds in furtherance of drug and alcohol abuse education so that now is that at a
particular group or is just the municipal Alliance is a committee that you as the council appoint and it's the municipal alliance against drug abuse and it's uh uh a a
every every municipality in the county and likewise I believe every municipality in the state has a municipal Alliance and their funding comes through that Governor's Council and then filters through the counties
and their uh the the county uh Alliance for lack of a better term the county office on drug abuse to utilize those funds for um drug and alcohol abuse education so that's what it is it's
accepting that Grant anyone else have an item Madam clerk councilman EMB Barrison yes councilman karazi yes mayor Kramer yes councilman on Jaa yes council member yes Deputy Mayor councilman vas yes
councilman r item 18 resolutions to be voted on separately there are none item 19 all business boards committees commissions does anyone have any um nominations I have one nomination mayor yes claudet
Latimore as a oh my God Hamilton Street Advisory Board member filling the uh one of two longstanding resident category openings 100%
residential membership unexpired three-year term ending well I would just give the full term um well there's you have a choice of ending 2026 or 2027 uh my understanding she's looking very forward to serving for as long as
they'll have her so I would let it fill the position ending in 2027 okay any other nominations for that position oh no any other nominations for any other position itions we can do this by acclamation all
in favor say I I I oppose say nay motion is carried congratulations um where is there is no executive session who wants to adjourn say I so moved the PO say Nay be well Franklin
take care of your chickens