WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=DB3Mv0qLTQw

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: DB3Mv0qLTQw):
- 00:00:22: Meeting Called to Order; Roll Call; Budget Discussion
- 00:06:07: Public Comment: Laura Thompson questions budget details
- 00:07:49: Public Comment: John Bartle questions surplus and police funding
- 00:12:34: Public Comment: Bruce Patterson budget questions via email
- 00:20:53: Public Comment: Michelle Capo Biano criticizes budget failures
- 00:26:50: Council Responds to Public Comments; Adopts 2026 Budget
- 00:51:39: Borough Attorney and Administrator Reports; Ordinances Introduced
- 00:53:13: Mayor's Report: Recognitions and Upcoming Events
- 01:00:26: Council Comments: Special Needs Discussion & Pride Celebration
- 01:05:06: Approval of Meeting Minutes and Communications
- 01:06:14: Ordinance 26-12: Public Hearing and Salary Ordinance Adoption
- 01:07:40: Ordinances 26-13, 26-14, 26-15 Introduced; Committee Reports
- 01:15:04: Committee Report: Community Engagement and Planned Events
- 01:21:14: Public Comment: Johnny Pritchard on Police, Firefighters, Military
- 01:25:14: Public Comment: Laura Thompson - Budget Advisors & School Pilot
- 01:29:04: Public Comment: Ron Carter - Willow Ave Sidewalk Concerns
- 01:33:55: Public Comment: Anthony, Rachel - Willow Avenue Concerns
- 01:36:35: Public Comment: Moren Crawford - Pilot Clarification
- 01:39:20: Public Comment: John Bartle - Capital Plan, Surplus & Hardstop
- 01:43:40: Council Responds to Public Comments; Willow Street Concerns
- 01:59:49: Public Comment: Email - AI Data Center in Kennaworth


Part: 1

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We're good to go. I better speech. Okay. >> Okay. >> Tommy first. Okay. >> Don't forget to everybody talk into the mic. Yeah, it seems to be working as

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long as we do that. All right, everybody. Good. The long you all right? Good. Ready, >> Don? >> Okay. All right. Welcome everybody. Uh, if I could please

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ask for a moment of silence. Uh, and salute to the flag. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, liberty and justice for

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all. Adequate notice of this meeting was provided to the leader and advertised on November 13, 2025. Notification was sent to the local source, Union County, and is posted on the municipal website, the municipal public bulletin board, and filed in the office of the municipal

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clerk, informing the public of the time and place according to the provisions of the open public meeting law, chapter 241 PL/1975. PL 2025C72 states that legal ads placed by the municipality will not need to be published in newspapers beginning on

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March 1st, 2026 and will be posted on our burough website under the section titled Garwood legal notices. Uh, roll call please. Miss Katiga. Madame Mayor here, >> Councilwoman Inelli >> here. >> Councilwoman Biano here. >> Councilwoman Noli >> here.

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>> Councilwoman Padusniaak. Uh, he is uh absent tonight. is excused. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, Councilman SA >> here. >> Council President Bodto >> here. >> Have a roll call of staff and professionals, please. >> Administrator Arthur >> here.

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>> CFO Bruns >> here. >> Chief party. >> Um, burrow attorney Adam Abramson >> here. >> And Mr. Cari, burrow auditor >> here. >> Thank you. Okay. Um before we head into

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our regular business, we are going to open the meeting up with our 2026 municipal budget hearing. Um before I open it to public comment um for the public hearing, I just want to take a minute to thank once again Miss Bruns

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and Mr. Cari and Mr. Arthur for all of your work on this year's budget. Uh but of course a special thank you to our finance committee um putting in those long hours uh and uh really I I do think you came away with a budget that is

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really uh it really works for our residents and I think um I think as we went through the budget the special budget presentation a few weeks ago um and we we made some changes uh but we really got to see what is in the nitty-gritty of it and um I

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just want to Thank you once again for all of the hard work. Uh at this point, I will turn it over to the finance chair, Council President Karina Bodto, if she has any comments. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um I also want to

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thank Mr. Arthur Burns, Mr. Cari, um all the department heads, our finance committee. We did put a lot of hours in. On tonight's agenda, we have resolution 2697 authorizing the adoption of the 2026 municipal budget and bond ordinance 2613

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for introduction. As you all know, the finance committee, Bur administrator, CFO, and our department heads have worked diligently to craft a fiscally responsible budget that ensures each department has the resources necessary to protect and serve effectively. This

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spending plan reflects a careful, measured approach, one that balances rising costs with our commitment to maintaining the high level of services our residents expect while continuing to invest in the long-term strength and resilience of our community. For the

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average home assessed at $400,000, the tax impact is $87.79. I hope council will support on vote in favor of both. Thank you. >> Thank you, council president. Um, so at this point I will open it up for public

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comment. If anybody wishes to address the mayor and council regarding the budget, uh, please step forward to the microphone, state your name and address, and please limit your comment to 5 minutes. Good evening. I'm Laura Thompson, uh, 325 at Bar.

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Um, Couple questions. We have a wonderful spreadsheet here that says 26 about 2026 2025 gives you the list of the budget, summary of revenues, summary of appropriations, outstanding balance of debt. Why don't we have comparison

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there? Seems like a a little bit of a u mistake there. I hope that you're not showing us what our debt was versus what our debt will be. Um my other question is we put $25,000 aside for capital expenditures. We all know that the

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capital expenditures are going to be way more than that. We put it out for bond. We have to pay interest on the bonds. If I'm paying interest on 400 or 500 and something thousand dollar in bonds over a period

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of anywhere from five to 15 years, I believe on various um things that we're going to be buying. How much interest are we going to be paying on that $495,000?

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And is that really the best deal? >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> John Bartle, 231 Hemlock Avenue. Uh, at the last meeting, I asked the question about our anticipated surplus of 1.4

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million and uh what our plan was going forward. I didn't get an answer or perhaps I was not clear in my question, so I I'll ask again. In all of our anticipated uh revenues and other uh sources to cover our costs, it seems to

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me the anticipated surplus is the least reliable. Yet, it is skyrocketed in terms of both the the raw numbers and the percentage that uh of which it takes for our uh uh our cost covering uh resources. So my plan is or my question

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is do you plan on having a million for next year because if we forecast accurately our surplus should go down and we won't have that or do you have some other revenue source that perhaps will

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substitute for this uh large s and growing portion that anticipated surplus takes. That's all I wanted to know. So, if there's some big revenue source coming on board, I'll give you a hint to help you a little bit. Maybe paperboard

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perhaps sometime in the future. That's all I'm asking for is how you're going to cover a million4 or something in that neighborhood in the future since this number just seems to keep going up. Secondly, I take at your word that

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you've looked at every new dollar of spending very diligently and that you listen to the department heads. absolutely believe that. But sometimes that's not enough. When our operating budget continues to increase, sometimes you have to look at the existing spend and sometimes you

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have to be more directive. And this bottomup uh budgeting that we do, laudable though it is, and it's actually the preferable way to budget, but we've got to stem the tide of rising cost with no corresponding increase in

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services. So, I'm thankful that the impact from a tax basis is not as great, recognizing that I've prepaid and given you the best interest free loan you're ever going to get, which is why we have such a large surplus. But at the same time, we need to take a step back and

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look at existing spending and look at the value that we're getting out of that. I know there's no million-dollar thing we're going to be able to cut off, but it's that kind of rigor and discipline so that if areas are going up, you need to challenge some of these heads of departments to bring their costs down or time things or do things a

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little differently. And along those lines, I just want to mention the 19th police officer because I'm very disappointed to see that one service that everybody in this community will use at one time or another is the one area that's not invested in. And there seems to be a total misunderstanding

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that this is going to be a paperboard cop. We have an increasing burden on our sworn police officers. We've uh I think done a great job of going through and getting certifications and uh adding

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other services, but these things cost money to maintain and the demands on our sworn police officers continue to increase. And I remember when we added the 18th officer, Chief Wright, I believe it was at that time, timed

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his budget appropriately so that we had certain senior officers rolling off the payroll, which uh opened up some opportunities and cut his own costs, reduced uh overtime and other costs. Have we challenged

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in this case the police chief or the other departments to come up with equally creative ways to be able to provide better services or at least as good services with a lower cost or are we just simply sitting back and saying okay just you know tell us what you need

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thumbs up thumbs down on anything new I think we can do better in terms of directing some of these department heads because we can't keep up with these rising across And I I I don't want to keep hearing we're just the hopeless victims of an ecosystem that's out of

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our control. We have control, more control than we'd like to have regardless of of everything else. That's it. Thanks. >> Thank you. Does anybody else wish to address the mayor and council? >> Okay. Uh, Miss Katiga, I know we had

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several uh or a few people uh send in public comment. Um, if you could begin reading the first one time. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, this comes from Bruce Patterson, members of the governing body and professionals. First,

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I must apologize for having a conflict and missing this important budget hearing. Probably this is the first one I missed in 25 years. I thank the professionals, the department heads, and the finance committee for crafting this 2026 burough budget to which I am

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writing. Within I have made some questions and comments, the public should hear answers for the record. Public interest, obligation, accountability, and transparency should be paramount in any government. First

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general question, if the budget numbers suddenly need to be adjusted through this hearing, is there time and a venue that this can be done? Second general question is from the previous council meeting where I asked the counselors if someone

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could explain the cap bank since they had voted on it. No one answered. Generally, it is best to know what anything is about before voting on it. Accountant Cari and separately myself had explained it and CFO Bruns put out a

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memo on it. Again, through the mayor to any of the counselors, someone please explain what the cap bank bonus question is. Are we within the levy cap? Recently, I sent budget questions into

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CFO Ms. Bruns. She answered and also forwarded them to you so you had a chance to answer them. Oh, sorry. Had a chance to understand them. Also, the budget metrics sheet I handed out the previous meeting. You had a

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chance to at least look at it for no reason, but the council should be interested in what the constituent gives you. However, not a single council came back to me with any questions as to what this metric sheet was supposed to

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reflect. It did include some interesting highlights over the years. My issues are as follows. A the sewer fee. Similar to last year, we find disappearing sewer fee monies collected

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versus allocated. There is a shortfall of $99,000. The administration obviously claims it will go to the RVSA increase, but that's only $43,000.

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Per my question and answer, the $56,000 balance was explained to go directly into the operating expenses. So, it fails the convents of ordinance 25-08. But it gets worse.

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In the sewer expense, a $25,000 flood mitigation study is being paid. IMO, this is irrelevant and may be in direct contradiction to the ordinance 25-08

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fees to be allocated to sewer operation and maintenance. This allegedly is an illegal action and we request our burough attorney to weigh in with his opinion. B. Pilot revenues.

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Budget sheet 10 shows the fatal flaw in agreeing to pilots. We sadly are anticipating $103,000 less than collected last year. CFO Bruns notes rent roles declined. We are at Vermela's

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mercy with their occupancy levels which we now find public officials are clueless about when agreeing. C pilot revenues political manipulation. We find by my recent Q&A that over the

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past few budget years manipulation of the revenue stream was being done possibly for political purposes to make taxes look good. The public was told back then the very first year was front-loaded with false revenue, but the

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second year pilot receipts was to be then adjusted for that. The public now finds that additional ongoing years pilot revenues are being adjusted to offset that one-year front loading and unsure how many years in the future this

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is being done. shameful that non-transparency of our governing body again rears its head. D surplus current surplus anticipated in past 2 years went from 900,000 to 1.4

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million which comes questionable as a potential budget imbalance is happening. We see this possibility from our surplus remaining line item from last year to this year via page 39. Although surplus

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anticipated went up 285,000, our surplus balance went down 80,000. Serious analysis needs to be done. Do you want me to keep going? >> Oh, I'm sorry. I thought this was timing. It was it was at 5:17

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527 just where we and you can read it. Okay, I'll let it in since it's the budget. E borrowing debt. The proposed 2026

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multi-purpose bond. Incredible. Do you plan to borrow for many little items all under 25,000 and unsure why the accountants didn't stop you from doing that? We will still have to borrow two 200 no

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2500 for a hose tray. We can't handle to just buy that outright. Simply incredible. These little items in the draft total 105,000 and shouldn't be included will incur many years interest that taxpayers have

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to pay. IM owe its financial incompetence. My suggestion is immediately removing them and include in the appropriations of the budget. F BOE shared service. Since 2016, I have

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been explaining how the municipal end should share the Vermela complex pilot revenues to the school district. You finally relented and are giving them 55,000. However, in my letters, I noted it should be hundreds of thousands.

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Presently, our district is now against the wall in distress. They are facing $500,000 in special needs costs to educate four district students from the Vermela complex. The BOE is now forced to close and combine their second school

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into one. They're laying off eight employees. They have blown through their levy cap, have used up nearly all their surplus, and still had to raise taxes 4%. Meanwhile, the municipal end is enjoying

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huge cash flows for whatever vanity or politically motivated items they want to spend it on, ignoring the school district's students plate. We should be saddened at your heartlessness. Thank you for responding to my issues and possibly adjust the budget to

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accommodate these issues. Very truly yours, Bruce Patterson. Thank you. Um and we have another correspondence. >> Yes. >> Okay. Uh this one is received from Michelle Capo Biano.

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This budget is not simply falled. It's a failure of leadership, a failure of planning, a failure of accountability, and residents are the ones being forced to pay for it. In a town that has dealt with serious flooding issues where engineering, drainage, and

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infrastructure should be non-negotiable top priorities, you have repeatedly chosen to fund a full-time $80,000 recreation director over other critical needs. That is not just poor judgment. It is a misplacement of priorities and a

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clear message that resident safety and infrastructure resilience are not being taken seriously. Year after year, costly administrative expenses continue to grow. And every single one of those decisions locks in permanent

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non-discretionary costs. Salaries, insurance, benefits, employer taxes. These are non-flexible expenses. They are long-term obligations that compound every year and permanently increase the burden on taxpayers.

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That is not responsible budgeting. That is how you dig a town into a structural financial hole. At the same time, we are being asked to accept higher taxes while the burrow continues to increase debt year after year.

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That is not stability. That is not physical dis discipline. That is a municipality living beyond its means and pushing the consequences onto its residents. And then there's the excess sanitary sewer flow debacle.

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Under your watch, mayor, for many consecutive months, excess sanitary sewer flow was occurring in Garwood. Monthly RVSA sewer use reports that were received and filed as you stated at each council meeting clearly documented it.

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And yet nothing was done. No action, no correction, no accountability. No one bothered to look at the report and investigate that negligence directly inflated gar share of the RVSA sewage usage bill creating a massive and

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completely avoidable cost increase. The RVSA sewer billing is based on a 5-year look back period. So this failure will continue to punish taxpayers for years and still no accountability. Instead,

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residents are expected to simply absorb it and pay more in the form of a new residential sewer fee. We are also witnessing a clear pattern of extra revenues coming into Garwood and those revenues are not being used for their

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intended most responsible purpose. Sewer connection fees and also the new residential sewer fees are prime examples. funds meant for the sanitary sewer infrastructure and system maintenance that all or most are instead absorbed without transparency or

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protection of their purpose while the systems they are meant to support suffer neglect. Equally important is there has been no meaningful effort to plan for known long-term expensive capital needs like the recreation turf field, fire

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trucks, fire CSBA equipment, police and fire radios. All of these items were not emergencies. They were all very predictable expenses that should have been funded over time, not at all with debt. Instead, they were ignored year

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after year until they couldn't be ignored anymore. And now, residents are forced to absorb the consequences from repeated lack of planning. Our critical department suffer as well as every year it's a scramble at budget time to see

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who needs what the most. This should not be. I also want to raise something I have asked about publicly and emailed council members and the burough administrator about for multiple years. grants. Why is Garwood consistently not

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applying for more available grants? There are multiple federal, state, etc. grant opportunities specifically for emergency services, including funding for the fire department, PPE, training,

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equipment upgrades, and related safety needs. These are exactly the kinds of programs that are designed to reduce the burden of local taxpayers while improving public safety. Yet, there has been little to no visible effort to

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aggressively pursue this funding. That is money left on the table. Money that could directly reduce costs and strengthen our emergency services without increasing taxes. Money that I repeatedly watch our neighboring towns receive. We are

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looking at roughly an $84 tax increase combined with an additional $105 residential sewer fee increase nearly $190 more per per household in 2026. That is not acceptable. This is the

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direct result of bad decisions made in office year after year. This budget is not just a mistake. It is a pattern. And this pattern is costing taxpayers more every year. We deserve leadership that understands responsibility, not just

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raising revenue. It is how you spend it and how you plan for the future. Right now, this budget fails on all those counts and taxpayers should not be expected to keep funding that failure. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a

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different result. Yet, here we are again with the same result. Thank you, Michelle Capo Biano. Okay. Can I have a motion to close public hearing on the 2026 municipal budget?

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>> So moved. Second. >> Okay. Um there was a lot there tonight. So I will start uh with Miss Thompson. Um I'm not sure what part you're

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particularly looking at, but what our outstanding debt will be and what uh it was is I mean you can find the comparisons just even year to year on the the website and we do talk about um every time we do do a a bond ordinance

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what the net debt is at that time. And Miss Bruns, do you want to speak to that? Uh yeah, I'm not sure what document you were referring to. If it was the advertisement, that's a standard format that >> uh Miss Thompson, if you don't mind

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having a seat though, I'm sorry. We can hand that afterwards and have a talk after. >> Um as far as our current debt at this time, after tonight's bond ordinance, it'll be 0.774 net debt percentage. The maximum

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allowable is 3.5%. So, we're well under that. >> And the documents um yeartoear, I mean, I know I've gone in and compared year to year. They're on they are online. >> I again, I believe the document she was

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referring to is the uh the state document from the budget. It's it's promulgated by the state. It's not our um >> Okay. >> set up. We we filled it out according to what they want. >> Thank you. uh in terms of the um capital

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uh expenditure, the multi-purpose bond, that particular uh line item that I I believe you were talking about that they were putting $25,000 in this year. Sometimes it's different each year. um that I I we talked about it before at the

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special budget meeting usually goes to cover down payments or smaller items um larger items or more costly items to put that into the operating budget. Um I just think financially that doesn't make

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sense when you can spread the cost out. Yes, there is an interest payment, but it spreads it out as opposed to putting it directly into your operating budget. Um, and I don't have the numbers for exactly how much. Obviously, it would be on the over the over time on the 495, but Miss Brenn, do you want to speak to

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any of that? >> Um, with regard to the 25,000, we generally that goes in, as you said, uh, towards down payments, it's held in capital to make the 5% down payment on um, things you're going to bond for

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during the year. But no other comment. Um, obviously if we decided to put $495,000 worth of what is included in this equipment and and whatnot into the operating budget, you would be seeing a much much bigger

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hit to your your operating. It's just it's a mechanism that allows that to be spread out over many years as opposed to paying for each year or something like that. Um, okay,

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Mr. Patterson. Well, Miss Cap Biano. Okay, I do uh Miss Capabiano. Um, they were uh I guess not really questions, but comments, but I just to address your comments generally. Um, I

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have discussed the recreation director position many times up here. Uh, and to be honest, $80,000 for a person that wears many hats and does many, many jobs for Garwood, um, I just disagree with the notion that it it isn't or shouldn't

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be a priority for Garwood. Um, I've seen firsthand how much work goes into managing all of the recreation programs, the turf field, the rec complex, the camp, public information, the seniors, clean communities, the events in town for the holidays, all of that. The job

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is much deeper. I think it sometimes gets said like, "Oh, we're just scheduling WCK classes." Um, the job is much deeper than that. I I assure you. Um, and I think two things can be true at once. I think that can be important

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and so can sore management. And I think we do prioritize it. Um I'm not sure where the claim that the sore system is suffering neglect when we've been very open about the ongoing pre preventative uh repairs that we're making. Um the

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sore fee is going to everything it was set out to go to. Uh we are also engaging a study uh to look at further flood mitigation. So hopefully following the conclusion of that study, we'll have some concrete projects uh that we can

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look to try and fund. Um which of course we will likely need multiple grants for which I guess brings me to the next uh assessment that we aren't applying for grants uh or doing future planning

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which in fact I mean you mentioned the turf field. We've spoken about the grants that we've re we've received and will be using um and how actually we were waiting and planning to do the project this fall so that we could procure one more. Uh I am myself

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constantly scouring grant sites both public and private for ones that would apply to us for various items or projects. Um and in fact some of those items that I'm sure Mr. Patterson talked about in his comments about vanity projects, but um I

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don't agree with that term. Um I consider what I know he would consider vanity projects just projects that are good for the community. Um like the mural or the bike lanes. Um those are funded with grants. So I agree they

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should be um though I think they they might um be necessary, they obviously would be a cost to the taxpayers and we want to alleviate that whenever we can and so we have funded

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them with grants. Um, we've even talked about up here applying and looking for a grant for the uh proposed fire truck that the fire department has put on their capital planning. Um, even if it's necessarily necessary, obviously we know that would

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be a large cost to the taxpayer. So, we've talked about how we want to go about planning for that. Uh, so there have been grants applied for we haven't gotten, but there have been plenty of grants that we we have. Some of those that go to other towns don't apply to

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Garwood for various reasons. Um, I think it should also be noted that most towns actually employ grant writers and companies that go after these grants. We haven't wanted to go the way of spending for that, but if it's something that um you and others would like us to consider

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up here, we certainly can. Um, okay. Mr. Patterson's comments. Again, they weren't actually questions, but commentary. Uh, but to be honest, I believe most of them we've gone over

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before uh, and some many times. And I don't say that to be dismissive, but rather to just remind the public that we do talk about and answer everyone's questions, sometimes multiple times, in multiple ways up here. Um there is a tendency I think these days

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to sort of assign government an adversarial role and uh say with their motivations are sort of wrapped up with conspiracy and I get that it's like the general spirit out there not just in Garwood or aimed locally but the fact that many of these things have been

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discussed so often I hope gives the public a little bit of confidence uh that at the very least we do our best to be as open as possible. about the budget and how it's determined. Um how the council members uh are educated about the budget and how they collectively

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come to these decisions. Um so diving into um some of the comments from Mr. Patterson. Uh, yes, the numbers can be slightly adjusted after budget introduction, but it's limited um

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without forcing a reintroduction and then of course you trigger a deadline failure with the state. In terms of the cap bank, uh, I did want to mention that because year after year, Miss Bruns and M. Cari explain it. Um, I myself explain it, other council people

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explain it. Um, I did talk about it last time. I understand Mr. Patterson for some reason does not agree with the council annually signing off on the possibility of using this budget tool if we ever need to. But I I I don't understand why. It doesn't increase your

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taxes in any way and it allows a taxing entity to use unused cap bank balance to meet the cap obligations uh if it's ever necessary. And the only reason we have to do one year after year is that it's not cumulative. uh if one

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year drops off as the other year comes on. Um so the main thing though I wanted to get across is yes, it's explained year after year. Um and I'm not sure why Mr. Patterson doesn't think council members understand it. When we come on to council, we discuss it with Miss

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Bruns uh the same as he has. So I I almost want to take offense on behalf of council members each year that he thinks that we for some reason just don't have the capacity to understand it. It seems um that most people or at least I will say uh most of the elected officials

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that have come through here just disagree they disagree with Mr. Patterson on the use of this tool. Um and similarly like the cap bank the sori is one of those things we uh isn't it isn't about that we haven't

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answered it. It's just something um that I think Mr. Patterson hasn't disagreement with specifically. Uh, Miss Patterson seems to disagree with the fact that there's not a different mechanism for taking in this fee, but that is just the way municipal financing is set up. If our burough attorney felt

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the use of those fees were in any way illegal, uh, not only would he not allow it, but um, we also have an auditor, as you know, year after year, who has not found any issues with the burrow's finances. Um, which leads me to the pilot

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discussion that Mr. Patterson brought up. I think the accusations of manipulation are themselves shameful. No one is or even can manipulate a pilot. It is audited and the number is what we get.

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No one up here can do any sort of magic with it. um it adjusts itself in the first few years as the property is filled up, but then it becomes relatively stable, but it can vary as we saw this year. Uh but also to assume

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that elected officials didn't understand that when they agreed to it is kind of condescending to call it politics just also isn't true. There was a bipartisan vote for the Vermelan paperboard pilot at the time.

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But that brings me to something I really did want to talk about today anyway. So I'm glad Mr. Patterson brought it up in his comments. Um because at the board of education budget meeting there was some talk about the Vermela pilot. Uh and I think it was inaccurate and

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then those things were perpetuated online and there's commentary out there now that I think if you're just coming into this topic it it seems simple on its face and correct but I think it's very misleading. Uh, so I want I think

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we should clear things up and um give you a little bit more of my opinion into things as well. Um, but here here's the thing about pilots for me. I don't think they are one-sizefitsall. I don't think that every redevelopment should have a pilot. However, in

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Garwood, the makeup of the two big redevelopment areas are fortunately and unfortunately areas that were factories with huge contamination in the ground. Um so these are areas that the state says we have to develop and of course

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developing is better than just empty dilapitated factories. Um so then a developer comes in and they see all of this cleanup and they say we'll build but because of the excessive cleanup costs it won't be profitable for many

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years until unless we get a tax break. So we say no and then the state comes in and says why didn't you build and so we go back to the developer and they say no we're not doing it unless we get a tax break and so it becomes like a nice big

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vicious circle. Um, and so when you do have these lands that are contaminated with PCPs and all of these chemicals, uh, that can cost tens of millions of dollars to clean up, I do see a benefit that a municipality has the option of a pilot to allow for the development to

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actually happen. That doesn't mean I think that a piece of land uh, that maybe that needs to be developed, but they can just come in and knock down whatever and build right back up that you necessarily need a pilot. But when you're talking specific cases

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like Vermela and Paperboard, we all know even though we may not love pilots, we know that they were not going to be developed without them. Uh and so we can go round and round as I was talking about or we can do the best pilot deal uh that we can with those two

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properties. Now, to be clear, I also think it's imperative to bring a financial analyst in uh who's extremely well-versed in this area to help determine whether a developer is correct when they make their assessment that it won't be profitable without it. Uh and

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Garwood has done that with each of these redevelopments and it will continue to do so. It's interesting um just to note that not every town actually does this, but we do. And so yes, when you have a pilot, municipalities obviously don't

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make the same as you would a normally assessed property tax, at least for a long while. So the municipality comes in at a disadvantage, which is why these pilots are allocated the way they do. So that's about pilots in general, but

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at the last board of ed meeting, the cost to educate children that reside at Vermelo was mentioned. Now, I'm going to choose my words carefully because I don't want this to be a blame game. These are two entities with elected volunteers who are doing the best they

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can in a given situation. But what was said at the meeting, I think just misleads the public as to how a board of ed collects their taxes to educate children. We had a financial analyst and planners at the town hall who have spent decades of their career involved in pilots and they did provide

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some insight into the situation and how pilots work and why. And I I get it. Those explanations are nuanced because anything in the area in the area of of this is is complex. And so it is easier to say just you know

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it's the pilot. Let's use the pilot as the scapegoat especially when some of the other factors affect affecting budgets decades of financial decisions good and bad huge inflationary costs since co um an inadequate state funding

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formula for ski for schools they are not as easy to pin down or rectify so it it's kind of just I think easier to say it's just the pilot but it doesn't make sense totally when we look at the how we pay for educating children in a

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I am going to ignore the commentary about the cost of educating children with special needs. As I've said before, I won't entertain that. If a if I were a parent of one of those children being singled out and treated like a burden, I would be offended to say the very least.

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You can discuss the increased cost of special needs education and how the state should conquer that, but that should be a very different conversation than a bullet point just stating that the cost of individuals what the individual costs of a student are from a

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specific property. Um, I'm also going to put aside the fact that even bringing this to the forefront in this way as it has been, it it automatically others the children from Vermela and we are a community and the families living there

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are just as much a part of our community as anyone living on Third Avenue or Locust Avenue and the way we pay for our children to be educated should honestly serve as proof of that. So, let's talk about that. So, because Mr. Patterson's argument and what I heard at the meeting

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was that the pilot should pay for what is essentially called the you know the tuition amount of each of the students living in the Vermela property. However, we've talked about this before. I could build five houses that have the same number of students and those taxes

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collected from those houses still would not cover the costs of the tuition of each child. paying my particular property tax with the portion that goes to the school that doesn't even cover my daughter's tuition for her full for the

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her full tuition for the year. Each family does not pay for their own child to get covered. Similarly, a family could have five school age children. Their school portion of the property taxes does not even come close to educating uh paying for the education

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of all of their children, let alone one. It's a collective tax that does this. The board of ed taxes the burrow and we have to cover the whole. So whatever they deem in their budget as necessary, the burrow has to pay for it using taxes

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from people with children, people without children and our businesses. So the board of ed covers children in a redevelopment like Vermela or a child from Spruce Avenue in the same way. They do not assess a house individually for the children that are in there. So the

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question kind of has to be asked, why would you assess the Vermela property individually for the children that are in there? And I think when we continually have this conversation about pulling certain amounts out of a pilot to pay for a certain amount of children, that's playing the politics of it. Uh

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we're accused by Mr. Patterson in his comments of playing politics, but what he's claiming is actually the politics of it. Um and again the board of ed by all right should tax the number of children collectively that they need to educate and the bureau will pay that

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because let's say I agreed with Mr. Patterson. Let's allocate 60% of the pilot to the board of ed. That pilot, just like it would in normal property taxes, is used to, you know, by the borrow to pay for services, uh, pay bills, uh, offset the

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many yearly increases we're dealt with. Um, how would the burrow offset that amount that we no longer have? Uh, we would have to raise the taxes. Should we ask the li should we ask the

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library to allocate for us? then they'll wonder how they should pay for their services. So, I know I've said it, we've said it up here before, but in the end, it's all it is all one bucket, one hand paying to the other. The difference though with the board of education is

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it's guaranteed 100% of its levy from the burrow regardless of what's collected. And so moving away from the pilot discussion um and moving back to the bud budget in general and and I think we we can have

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disagreements on the things that are implemented versus not implemented but um everything is out there. There is is not um any conspiracy or money going in one place that you can't see. Uh we do our best to go line by line and section

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by section. Um and we do our best to to plan. I know I I missed Mr. Bartlick's uh questions about big revenue sources and yes um paperboard is a revenue that we will hopefully likely see sooner

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rather than later but yes that is one of the the bigger revenue sources that we're hoping to see. Um I do think that we do go after the department heads. Uh I know that we don't do that up here but

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uh in the committee meetings there are a lot of those conversations like that. Um and in fact our department heads are very good at uh making some of those decisions themselves. Uh for instance they'll come to us. I the chiefs came to

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me and said, "I would like to spend 6,000 on this, but I'm going to do that by getting rid of this piece of software because I don't think it's it's worth it. I don't think it's shown its value." And so we did that. We said, "Okay, that sounds great." So there are those

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conversations that go on while we have our budget meetings. Um, I I don't like I I'm saddened by the assertion of anybody, you know, that um we would be called heartless for for decisions that

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are made up here with the budget or that we don't care about children. Um, I think most people can kind of see through the commentary uh about that. Um, every every line is tight. We fight up here. you saw us fighting up here

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over $500, $1,000. I've had fights over here, up here about $50. Um, so there is no padded line or anything that is there to do anything other than what it's said to do. Uh, and so I think when you look

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at the budget and the way the budget's put together and the conversations that we have up here, um, I think if you're looking at the budget for what you're supposed to be looking for, which is whether it provides services for the best price possible, I do think you will

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see that Garwood does. So, I know that was a a lot of talking, but we we had a lot of points that that I think needed to be made and a lot of comments. So, um, I appreciate you listening and again, um, we can continue the

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conversations on some of these things at different points. As I've said, most of what was talked about up here has been talked about multiple times before, and I'm sure we will do that uh, and continue that in the future. So, moving on, I think it's time that we

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move on to our resolutions and the business at hand. Miss Kotiga, can you read resolution 2696 by title only? >> Yes, Madame Mayor. Thank you. Uh resolution authorizing the reading of

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the 2026 municipal budget by title only. >> Thank you. Um do I have a motion to adopt resolution 26-96? >> So moved. Second. >> Uh roll call, please. Councilwoman Annarelli,

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>> I. >> Councilwoman Biano, >> I. >> Councilwoman Noli, >> I. >> Councilman Sera, >> I. >> Council President Bodto, >> I. >> Okay. Um, Miss Kotiga, can you read resolution 26-97

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by title only? >> It's the resolution authorizing the adoption of the municipal budget of the Burrow of Garwood for the year 2026. Uh, do I have a motion to adopt resolution 26-97? >> Some moved.

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>> Second. >> Uh, roll call, please. >> Councilwoman Annarelli, >> I. >> Councilwoman Biano, >> I. >> Councilwoman Nolley, >> I. >> Councilman SA, >> I. >> Council President Bodto, >> I.

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Okay, that's it for the budget tonight. Thank you, Mr. Cari. Appreciate the work of everybody once again. Um we will move to regular business reports from our burough attorney. >> Uh nothing new to report.

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>> Thank you. Report of our burough administrator. >> Yes. Thank you. And thank you again to Miss Bruns, the finance committee, and everyone for the budget process. Um on tonight's agenda, you'll see ordinance number 26-14 being introduced. Uh this would allow for parking to begin at 5:00

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a.m. in JFK Plaza. It currently begins at 7 a.m. Ordinance 26-15 clarifies language for hours that municipal offices are open. Uh the code was basically just a little out of date and this just clarifies that the hours are set by the council and in some instances

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by the administrator. Resolution number 26-98 clarifies rules for attendance of PBA meetings for the PBA state delegate. Resolution number 26-100 uh reaffirms the bid threshold, quot threshold, and authority of the quality

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p qualified purchasing agent. Uh this has not changed since last year. It's just reaffirming it um that we're following the same thresholds and rules in 2026. Resolution 26-102 um not only settles grievances with the teamsters, but also clarifies language

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regarding overtime pay. Resolution 26-103 renews our contract with the Bergam Municipal Employee Benefits Fund. Um, we've continually worked with our health insurance broker to ensure Garwood is getting the best deal it can while providing insurance that meets or exceeds the standards of the state

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health benefits plan but at a lower cost. Um, we'll continue to ask those questions every year as we go through this process. Um, but as as it stands, this is proving to be the the best deal we can find for health insurance. And that's it for my report. Okay. Thank

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you. Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Arthur? Okay. Um, my report. Um, I want to congratulate Garwood resident Jill Paul for her recognation recognition by the Union

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County Human Relations Commission this week. Uh, she received the achievement in healthc care award for her work with the nonprofit. She has founded the Alber Foundation which helps purchase outdoor AED enclosures for area parks as well as provide education about sudden cardiac

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arrest. So congratulations Jill. We're very proud. It's always heartening to see Garwood residents honored for their service work in the community. I want to announce that Garwood Rocks is on Sunday, June 7th. The annual street fair is held by the Westfield Area

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Chamber of Commerce and will include multiple rock bands, vendors, food trucks, a beer garden, and a huge car show. So, I'd like to invite the general public to join us for what is always an awesome day. It will be 11 to 5:00 p.m.

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along Center Street, of course. Um, I would like to ask the council something. I'd like to ask them to once again send a resol resolution to the New Jersey legislature about the energy tax receipts. Uh we have passed this resolution for the past number of years

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and the New Jersey League of Municipalities and New Jersey Conference of Mayors are asking municipalities to weigh in once again and help with the effort to see that the money uh is put back into the state budget for release to the municipalities.

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So, we've spoken about the energy tax receipts many times over the past years and I firmly believe that this money that is collected by the state uh should rightfully come back to municipalities as it was intended. Uh and while I would

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like an actual permanent solution so we do not have to fight for this every year. Uh and there are some legislator legis legislators out there working on that. Uh right now what Garwood can do is uh join forces with other towns with this resolution. So if it's all right

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with the council, I'll have Mr. Arthur send out the sample resolution to the council. Okay. Thank you. Um and just one more thing. Um I wanted to bring up some concerns that a resident had come to me with uh and I know the public works committee and bur administrator

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and the engineer uh have been talking about as well. So, it concerns the property called Westfield Crossing, which is currently being built on South Avenue, uh, but particularly the Windsor Street portion, which is adjacent to the end of the 600 block of Willow.

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I had actually um been in contact with a resident adjacent to the property a long time ago along with um Mr. Nerstiff from the planning board. Uh, and I know they worked with uh the Westfield planning board and the developer there just to ensure that his property and driveway

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access was okay uh when the development came time to be built. Um, and he has actually let me know um that uh he's seemingly on his end they made certain adjustments to that work with his property and it is going okay. Um, but

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along the other side, the property owner who contacted me with concerns of his own, uh, and I'm sure there are other residents on the block that may or may not have, um, concerns or questions, uh, of their own as well. So, I I just wanted to address what I can tonight

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about that. Um, one of the concerns brought to me was that there was a playground being built on the property right behind the property line, and I think that is due to the misuse of that word by the developer. Uh it is not a playground. I've confirmed that it's

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not. Um it is sort of a a parkletit area with uh there will be a lot of landscaping, trees, and some benches. And I do think they're planning like a a mural over there that says Westfield, but it will not have playground equipment. Um I've reconfirmed that it

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is not that sort of use. It's really more of a courtyard with benches that is going to be landscaped to look nice. Uh so I hope that allays any fears about people coming to park on the other side of Willow to go to that sort of to go to

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you know that sort of location like a playground. Uh it's really not something the kind of you know little parklet it will be it's not something that will necessitate anybody driving to park there. Um, one of the other concerns was people actually just parking there that

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live there. Um, be on Willow on the 600 block of Willow because of the few situations I think from Vermela because Russo Development has a different model with their parking. They their model is is that the parking space is not

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included in the lease. So, I think that uh some residents at first when it opened rather than paying for parking were parking on nearby residential streets. Uh and we we did address that, but I have confirmed that this developer does not use that model and in fact the

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they do each get a parking spot included. So, I think those issues we're not going to see in a similar matter. Uh the other concern I know was about the cut through uh because they are planning it to be fenced off with a gate

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to allow pedestrian walk through. Um they are improving what was like an an asphalt sidewalk on the one side to become a a a regular you know nice sidewalk so that it matches as it goes through to the other side of the

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property. Uh they are paying for that portion which is on Garwood's right of way. Uh but in terms of the connective pathway, I personally uh fundamentally think interconnectivity through our towns is a

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good thing. We often talk about it um with other parts of our town going into Cranford. We've talked about it on Myrtle through Westfield. Uh we've talked about making bike lanes that connect from one side to the other. Uh, you know, I think I think it's a good

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thing and it's certainly in our master plan to continue building on those interconnectivities. I think it's nice to have people that can walk over to Westfield and go to their businesses and similarly those people in those residential areas can walk over to us and maybe they can go to

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NAS and grab a pizza. Uh, but I am still looking into how the gate is being is planned on being constructed. Uh I I want to make sure that everything is safe back there. So I h I do have some calls into people who can give me some further details about it. Um for

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instance, is it a gate that will be locked after a certain time? That sort of thing. So there are still a few different questions outstanding, but I will look to provide those answers for the residents. And I hope that addressing at least some of these things uh we allay any fears or

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we address some concerns. But of course, if there's still more questions or concerns, uh, please feel to ask whether at public comment later or at any other point. Um, we want to try and make things as smooth as possible for our residents.

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So, that is it for my report. So, we will move on to comments from the council. Councilwoman Annarelli. >> Thanks, Mayor. Um, I just want to thank uh Miss Bruns and u Mr. Arthur for all of their help during the budget process.

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It was uh many long hours and took a lot of patience, especially since this was my first uh goound. Um I just wanted to echo uh mayor's the mayor's comments about um how we discuss children with special needs. I I've heard it many

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times. I heard it at the forum. Um I've heard it come up in the school board. I I come from a family of educators. My mother's taught special needs children's and uh was a diagnostician before those were phased out due to budget cuts. Um and I have family members who have

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benefited from those services. And I can say as someone who doesn't have children but pays my fair share of taxes that um I could I I would never imagine thinking about special needs children in those terms. And I hope that moving forward we can talk with a little bit more compassion about members of our

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community who are among the most vulnerable children who need additional resources. And uh that's it for me. >> Thank you. Councilwoman Bianca. >> I don't have any general comments, but listening to what um Councilwoman Anna Rally just said, I completely agree with

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her. Um I think it's it's really sad that we would discuss we're even having this conversation. Okay. I don't have any children either. I contribute. It's just it's a collective pot and no children no child should be singled out. Thank you. That's it.

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>> Councilwoman Nully. >> Um so I just need to say that I think it goes well beyond sadness and indignity. I think it um actually is a violation of their rights under FURPA and IDEA uh the Individuals with Disabilities Act which

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is a federal law. So, I think that any further discussion should really um not happen. And I did have something to say. It has nothing to do with that. Um the Garwood Partnership for Arts and Culture celebrates Pride in June.

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Uh we're repeating its uh very successful community art project to celebrate Pride. We are asking artists of all ages to submit their original 9 by9 square abstract artworks using the colors of the rainbow. The tiles will be collected and assembled into one large

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artwork by GPAC artists for display at the library during June. Directions for your tile can be found on the flyer for the project posted on the burrow website and on the burough social media. Uh the last day to drop off your creation will be um the June 8th by 5:00 p.m. and you

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can submit as many tiles as you like. And that's all for my comments. >> Thank you. Uh uh Councilman Sera or does anybody have anything from Councilman Padusniaak? I thought he might he might have sent something I think from the Rev 250 just fire. Okay,

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then we'll wait on that. Yeah, I thought he might have. Did he send anything? >> I'm sorry. I apologize. He said something. >> I I know he had said to me he was gunning, but I didn't know if he got a chance. >> Okay. Um, so, um, Councilman Petusak

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asked me to say that there will be a revolutionary war reenactment troop in Unami Park on 613 with a real cannon. Um, this is for Rev 250 and he will bring it up at the next meeting as well.

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>> Nice. I know he had been working very hard to secure the uh, Yunami Park for that and so I'm glad it's it's working out. I think that'll be a really fun event to celebrate our 250th. So, good job committee. Okay, Councilman Surka.

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>> I had no general comments, but I echo the council women. >> Okay, Council President Bodto, thank you, Mayor. I don't have a lot of comments, but I will take this opportunity to thank you for your

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passion and your commitment to Garwood. Um, we're very fortunate to have a full-time mayor who, if anybody has any doubts, does not collect any money. None of us up here do. Also, to remind everyone that we also live in Garwood,

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that everything that happens in Garwood affects us. And, um, just to thank you, honestly, your your your passion and your experience is just invaluable. >> Thank you. I know I talk a lot, but All right, moving to the minutes. Um,

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Miss Kotiga. Thank you, Madame Mayor. This is the minutes of the regular and close session meetings of the mayor and council held on Thursday, April 23rd, 2026. Thank you. Do I have a motion to accept the regular meeting minutes as presented? >> So moved. >> Second.

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>> Uh, all in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay. Um, communications, please, Miss Katiga. Our first communication is uh from the Arbor Day Foundation. They are

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naming the Garwood a 2025 Tree City USA. So, congratulations Garwood. Um, and the second communication is from New Jersey American Water, uh, regarding a notice of public hearing that they are having

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on May 27th, 2026. Thank you. Okay. Um, we will move those are received and filed. Moving on to our ordinances. Uh, Miss Kotiga, we have uh one up for uh adoption and public hearing. Can you please read ordinance by title only?

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Yes. Uh, thank you, Madame Mayor. This is ordinance 26-12, uh, the salary ordinance which sets the salaries for the year. Thank you. Uh I will uh do we have any correspondence concerning this ordinance? No, mayor. Okay, I will open

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it up for public hearing. If anybody wishes to address the mayor and council about this ordinance, uh please step to the microphone. State your name and address. Okay. So, seeing none, do I have a motion to close public hearing on ordinance 26-12?

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>> So moved. >> Second. >> Um Okay. Um, >> all in favor. >> Oh, you we you know what did that? Yeah, you need an all in favor to close. Yeah. Okay. I guess we do. Yeah. All in favor? >> I

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>> I guess we've done that. Um, okay. Do we have a motion to adopt ordinance 26-12? >> So, second. >> Uh, roll call, please. >> Councilwoman Annarelli, >> I.

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>> Councilwoman Biano, >> I. Councilwoman Noli, >> I. >> Councilman Serga, >> I. >> Council President Bodto, >> I. >> We have a couple of ordinances up for introduction. Miss Kotigga, can you read ordinance uh 26-13 by title only?

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>> Yes, madame mayor. Uh this is ordinance number 26-13 bond ordinance to authorize the making of various public improvements and the acquisition of new additional or replacement equipment and machinery, new communication and signal system

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equipment, new automative sorry automotive vehicles including original apparatus and equipment in and by and for the Burrow of Garwood in the county of Union State of New Jersey to appropriate the sum of $520,000

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to pay the cost thereof to make a down payment to authorize the issuance of bonds to finance such appropriation and to provide for the issuance of bond anticipation notes in anticipation of the issuance of such bonds.

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>> Thank you. Yeah. Do I have a motion to introduce this ordinance? >> Some moved. Second. >> Roll call, please. Councilwoman Annarelli I. Councilwoman Biano I. >> Councilwoman Naldi >> I. >> Councilman Sera

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>> I. >> Council President Bodto. >> I Okay. Can you please read ordinance 26-14 by title only? >> An ordinance amending the burough code of the bureau of Garwood amending chapter 21 entitled vehicles and traffic

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article one traffic and parking section 8.6 municipal parking lots. Okay. Okay. Do I have a motion to introduce ordinance 26-14? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh, roll call, please.

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>> Councilwoman Anarelli, >> I. >> Councilwoman Biano, >> I. >> Councilwoman Noli, >> I. >> Councilman Sera, >> I. >> Council President Bodto, >> I. >> Okay, almost there. Miss Katilla, can you please read ordinance 26-15 by title

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only? An ordinance repealing and replacing the Burough Code of the Bureau of Garwood, Chapter 5, entitled Administration, Article 1, Organization of Burough Government, Section 5-2, Hours of Municipal Offices Are Open for

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Business. Do I have a motion to introduce ordinance 26-15? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Councilwoman Anarelli, >> I. Councilwoman Biano, >> I. >> Councilwoman Noli,

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>> I. >> Councilman Sura, >> I. >> Council President Bodto, >> I. >> Okay, moving to committee reports. Uh, finance. Council President Bodto. >> No further comments. No, >> I think we covered it all. Um, fire. Uh,

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we have Councilman. Okay. Thank you, Councilwoman. So for Councilman Fedniaak, the fire report is total 19 runs and the incident breakdown is nine fire alarm activations, two motor

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vehicle accidents, one gas alarm, two orders of burning, two medical calls, one public assist, and one mutual aid given. That's it for my report. Thank you for chasing. >> Okay. Commun Community Development

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Councilwoman Bianca. >> The community development committee has put forward its recommendation to update the bylaws. I want to thank everyone involved for their hard work, time and thoughtful contributions throughout the process. The collaboration dedicate and dedication shown by the committee members and all those who participated

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are really was greatly appreciated and their efforts will help ensure the organization continues to operate effectively and effectively moving forward. Thank you. That's it. >> Okay. Thank you. Public works councilman. Um, in addition to their normal duties,

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DPW has, among other activities, performed shade tree maintenance, painted the park mobile spots, um, identification numbers along the 400 block of Willow Avenue, uh, maintained all municipal owned properties and parks on a weekly basis, applied top soil to

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low spots throughout the lawn area, throughout lowlying uh, sorry. applied top soil to the low spots throughout the lawn areas of the sports complex. Uh put up the garwood rocks banners and begun

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to perform street sweeping operations in accordance with the annual public public work schedule. Uh residents are reminded to check the public work schedule and to remove their cars from the street so the department can effectively sweep the streets. That's all I have for my report. Thank you.

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>> Thank you. >> Uh police Councilwoman Nuli. Thank you, Mayor. The Garwood Police Department has recorded 2,911 calls during the month of April. These calls include 595 motor vehicle stops, 55 car parking complaints, 202 fixed

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traffic posts, 436 building and property checks, 35 medical assists, 55 community policing posts, 76 walking posts, 32 suspicious person or vehicles investigated, 45 criminal

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investigations, and 17 motor vehicle crashes. During the month of April, the Garwood Police Department participated in put the phone away or pay campaign. Throughout the campaign, officers focused on strict enforcement of distracted driving laws, specifically

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targeting motorists using cell phones and other electronic devices while operating a vehicle. Officers conducted numerous motor vehicle stops related to distracting driving violations. During the initiative, also in April, the Garwood Police Department conducted a

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pedestrian safety safety enforcement operation at a marked crosswalk equipped with a rectangular rapid flashing beacon. As part of the operation, officers activated the system and crossed the roadway as pedestrians while monitoring driver compliance with New

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New Jersey pedestrian right-of-way laws. Vehicles that failed to stop for pedestrians while more than 173 feet from the crosswalk were stopped by the officers assigned to the detail. This initiative reflects the department's continued commitment to improving

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roadway and pedestrian safety throughout the burrow. The Gar Police Department reminds motorists to remain attentive, obey all traffic signals and warning devices, and yield to pedestrians in marked crosswalks. Pedestrians are also encouraged to use the designated

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crossing areas, activate the RRFB systems when available, and remain aware of surrounding traffic conditions. Targeted traffic enforcement and public education efforts will continue as part of the department's ongoing commitment to keeping Garwood roadways safe for

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everyone. Additionally, the Garwood Police Department participated in Coffee with a Cup at Dunkin Donuts on Nor Avenue. Community members attended the event, resulting in positive conversations and meaningful interaction between residents and officers. The

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department looks forward to continuing events such as these to further strengthen relationships and foster communication between law enforcement and the community. And thank you very much. That's all for my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Uh community engagement, Councilwoman Annarelli.

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>> Thanks, Mayor. Uh the Memorial Day remembrance service and lunchon is planned to take place on Memorial Day, so Monday, May 25th at 12:00 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus. Join us as we remember the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice serving our country.

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Garwood Rec Camp will run from June 29th to August 7th. Registration is open to kids entering grades 1 through 8. This year, kids is uh the camp is also open to uh residents and non-residents. Early bird resident pricing is 135 per child

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and this ends on May 22nd which is next Friday. So make sure to register soon at garwoodre.com. Um adult open play soccer is still taking place on Friday evenings. You can that's free and registration is at garwoodre.com as well. And then open

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play adult basketball is taking place on Wednesday evenings. This is also free and registration is not required. It's all for my report. >> Thank you. Um, library Councilwoman Noldie. >> Thank you, Mayor. The library will be closed on May 25th in honor of Memorial

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Day. Um, some highlights in May. May 18th, 100 p.m. is book club. May 19th and 26, story time at 10 and 11. May 19th and 26, Code Forward, offering Lincoln School students the opportunity to learn computer programming languages

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such as Java, Python, and more. May 19th is the last day to submit the bookmarks for the summer reading bookmark contest. May 20th at 3 p.m. Lego club. May 20th, adult game day. May 20th um also at 3

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p.m. Leg Oh, she has that twice. Lego club is twice. Sorry. May 28th, the Thursday night book club. Um I love the name of this book, How to Grow Old Disgracefully by Claire Pulley. In June, uh, important information on June 2nd,

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which is election day, from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., the Garwood Library is a polling location. So, the library will be open. The children's section will be closed, and the computers and seating are not available. So, there's limited browsing and checkout permitted.

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On June 3rd, uh, 7:30 p.m., library board meeting, a meeting of the Garwood Board Board of Trustees will take place at 7:30. And this meeting is open to the public. Um June 10th and 24th at 1:00 p.m. Adult game day. June 10th at 3,

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Lego Club. June 11th at 7, the American Revolution in Union County. So this event was originally scheduled for April, but was cancelled due to lack of air conditioning in the library. So it's been now rescheduled for June 11th. Uh June 15th, 100 p.m. book club. this uh

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in June. The book is Nine Women, One Dress by Jane Rosen. June 25th at 6 PM, the Thursday night book club. And for more information, see the Garwood Library public web the excuse me, the Garwood Public Library website or for

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more information and register for programs, you can call the library directly, 908-7891670, or email the Garwood Library atgarwood.org. And that's all. Okay, thank you very much. Uh, school board leaison, council president Bodto.

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>> Thank you, mayor. Um, just a few points. Uh, the board of education held its budget meeting on April 27th. They reported eight teacher reductions due to decrease in IEPs. Six of these reductions were decided prior to their budget planning. They face rising costs

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in health insurance premiums, utilities, transportation, salaries. The district has a bank cap of $232,529 that expires uh school year 2728. The 202627 budget uses $241,000

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870. Uh the student enrollment breakdown is 407 Lincoln school, 140 high school, 30 UCBTs, 10 out of district, um three Lincoln and high school, one facility,

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one charter school. The tax increase amounts to $273. Um if you would like to view the meeting, it can be found on the boards of education Facebook's page. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I don't have a report for anything for the seniors

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right now. Small business councilwoman Biano. Good evening everyone. The Small Business Association has organized Restaurant Week, which will take place June 8th through June 14th, 2026. We are very much looking forward to this exciting event, which will highlight

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many of the outstanding restaurants and local businesses throughout our community. Restaurant Week is a great opportunity for residents and visitors alike to support our local dining establishments, experience everything our downtown has to offer and uptown because it's on both sides. Um,

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and continue strengthening our local economy. Events like this showcase the vibrancy of our business community and the strong partnership between our local businesses and the town. I want to thank everyone involved in the planning and organization of this event and I encourage everyone to come out and support local and enjoy what promises to

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be a fantastic week for our community. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Looking forward to it. Board of Health Councilman Sura. >> No update. The next meeting is next week. >> Thank you. >> Planning board councilwoman Biano. >> No report U mayor, but the next planning

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board meeting is scheduled for 527 2026. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, officer report, Miss Kotiga. >> Uh, yes, we have um the officer's report from our CFO, Sandy Bruns. Okay. Do I have a motion to accept the officer's

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report? >> Some move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay. Public comment. If there's anyone in the audience who wishes to address the mayor and council, please step to the microphone, state your full name and

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address, and please limit your comments to five minutes. Johnny Pritchard 410 First off, we must back our police officers, firefighters, and rescue squad personnel. Even though the firefighters

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and rescue squad personnel are all volunteers, and police officers are paid by the burrow, we must back them up in every way because they're out there every day for us. They're ones you can count on,

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especially when the growing gets rough, to put it uh in a a way that sounds like something out of commercial, but they're there to serve us all.

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They're the ones you can count on because they have that I'll be there and never fear kind of attitude. And that serves us well, ladies and gentlemen. That serves us well. Any talk of totally abolishing police departments, totally abolishing fire departments, and totally

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abolishing rescue squads, that is that is bad. And that that should never be considered at all. Then Mark Well wanted to say, gentlemen, they're there for us. We must back them up in every way. And we must

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back up our soldiers, sailors, marines, coast guardsmen, and airmen who are serving our country and us because of what we read in the papers today, especially in the Middle East, Iran, and a few other things. We must

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back them up in every way. We failed to do so during war in Vietnam, during which time three of Garwood's sons lost their lives fighting for us. They were the very essence of duty, honor, and country.

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They loved us so every day in a hundred ways. They told us so. In honesty, in affection, they told us so.

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They loved us so every day in a hund ways. They showed us so with loyalty and bravery. They showed us so.

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They were our defenders and they kept us free. They took an oath to guard us and fought for liberty. They loved us so and we should know for we love

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them so. And lastly, we must put pressure on the state legislature in Trenton to reopen some closed hospitals such as Muenberg and Planefield because what if another

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attack occurs? I don't like that to happen at all and neither do you all. But we must be prepared just in case. We must have those hospitals reopen. The sooner we activate Muenberg and a few

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other hospitals, the better off we all will be. Do I make myself clear? Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. >> Thank you, Mr. Percher. Is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and council? Please step forward, state your name and address, and please limit your

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comments to five minutes. >> The mic. Hi, >> Laura Thompson, 320 Pine. Um, couple questions. In the register of bills being paid, there's a bill of $7,000

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or over $7,000 to Phoenix Advisors, which apparently is some sort of budgeting um advisor and kind of winding wondering why we're paying somebody else $7,000 when we have all these people on staff that supposedly know how to do budgets.

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Um, you know, you talk about how you argue about, you know, money and how much you're going to give to the fire department, how much you're going to give to police department. We're going to get rid of this. We're going to, you know, try this one. So, we're taking this out of the budget, we're adding this to the budget. You have to

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understand, we don't see any of that. We don't see any of it. It's not an open book for us. You guys come in and you tell us exactly what you want to spend things on. We don't see any of the backside of this. We don't see any of the arguing. We don't see any of the

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compromise. We don't see that. So for us, it doesn't exist. I'm sorry. It just doesn't because you don't let us see it. You don't let us know what's going on. You don't tell us that I didn't agree with this, but after some thought, we had a discussion. None of that is ever

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disclosed. >> It really isn't. And as far as the debt, you're right. It is posted online. 5 years ago, our debt was $5 million. It is now $7 million.

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And our surplus has gone up. So, our surplus keeps going up and our debt keeps going up. I don't understand how that makes any sense at all. When it comes to Bruce's comments on the school, I've said this before. This is my second

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time up here discussing this and I'm going to say it again. The problem with the Romela pilot is that the township does not take a certain percentage of that pilot and give it to the school district. When I pay my taxes, a certain percentage of my

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tax, your tax, her tax, goes to the school district. Correct? A certain percentage of that pilot money should go directly to the school district, not what they need right off the top. They should get their percentage whether it

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was supposed to be that way or not. It's a payment in lie of taxes. Treat it as a tax. Give the school their due so that they can maintain their budgets so that they can maintain the education of our children. Every child deserves an

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education that is fit for their abilities. Some kids need more, some kids need less. There are children of all types of of intelligence, shall we say, and needs when it comes to education.

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Everybody should be educated to the best of the ability so that they can maintain their future and be the best child and adult that they can be. And we have an obligation to educate those children no matter what it costs us. Right off the

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top portion of that money should be going to the school. >> Is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and council? >> Hello everybody. My name is Ron Carter. I'm not a resident of Garwood, but I own several two family homes within Garwood. Um, I'm

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the one that owns the property behind the uh 674 Willow. Um, I'm the one where the sidewalk is now going to be built in my opinion on my property or in the easeway, whatever way you want to call it. Um, so I just want to give you all a copy of this. Do you mind hands?

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>> You can give it to Mr. Arthur. >> So, you know, you guys all bring up and first of all, I want to thank you all for volunteering and your time and I'm not here to give anyone all our time. Um, I just my concern is this is number one, you guys are creating major liabilities to me because regardless of

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what you guys say, people are going to be walking through that area. I don't know why they need to walk through there. It serves absolutely no benefit towards to Garwood. Jen, if you don't mind me saying, me and Jen spoke on the phone, which I appreciate her time. She was very, very helpful and very nice. She said that Garwood is trying to make

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a pass through to different towns. I think that's a great idea, but I don't think it's a great idea to do it through an apartment building. I think it's absolutely absurd. More importantly, if you look at my diagram, that that pass through, if you see the little yellow, that shows that's the sidewalk that's

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going to be built. You see the orange? That's where they pull in and out of the garage. This pathway is for children to get through because most of us adults drive. So now we're going to have children cutting through a pathway where where cars are going to be speeding in and out

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of a driveway. We don't even know they're going to be visible seeing them coming in or out of it. So now we have the liability where kids can get hurt. And I hate to say it, but you Garwood, if you want to put that on Garwood, that's you. But it's on recorder now that I find it as a safety issue. A

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major safety issue. More importantly, if you look on the yellow, it looks like you are giving up the street too to them. Looks like you're letting them build onto the street. Is that correct? I'm sorry. We answer all questions after they're they're done. >> Again, that's taking another parking

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spot from the residents over there because it's going to be built out. I know you said in your opening statements that you don't think it's going to create a problem. No one knows what the future holds, but I do know this. They're two and threebedroom apartments there. I don't know if you guys know what the ratio is to parking spots, but

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I've been told it's 1.4. I know my wife and I both have cars. We live in a house that's two cars. I don't see how the how the math is going to work out. More importantly, I have a dog that I love. We walk our dog all over the place. I can't see people walking their door, their dog down South Avenue. I just

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don't see it. I see them cutting through the back now and walking their dog down Willow Avenue and I hate to say it, doing what they do all over our yards. It's just not fair. There's not one benefit to Garwood for this. The gentleman told me, Tom Cooper, whatever his name is, the builder, he told me

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that the gate was going to be there because you guys discussed with him that there was going to be a playground there. And I you were 100% right that it's not going to be a playground. But the playground is not even in that lot. It's across the street on what's that road? It's

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on Windsor. So, what is this gate going to do? Has zero. Now you have to go down the sidewalk, through the driveway where the cars are entering, through the parking lot, across the street to get to this park. I just don't see the benefit.

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I see I see it more of a danger and a hazard. And more importantly, I don't live in that house, but the people that live there, it's not fair to them with parking. Parking is a nightmare. And all over Guard, I own several houses in Garwood. We have on Second Avenue, we have permit parking on uh by the

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gymnastic place. I have a house. There's uh park permit parking over there. You're just going to have another you're you're opening yourself for another problem with more permit parking. People are going to park there. It's just there's it's inevitable. You you don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen.

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>> You have one minute. >> But if there's nowhere to park, where do you go? You can't park on South Avenue. Correct. I I don't know. I just I don't see I'll just leave it to you like this. There's zero benefit for that gate. And the last question is this. Who is going to maintain that sidewalk that that

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garwood's not putting in the builder of that building is put uh is putting that sidewalk in. I think if he's putting it there, he's responsible for it. I guess you should check with your attorney. I'm going to check with my attorney, but I don't think I should be held responsible for a sidewalk 20 years

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from now that a builder put in. I don't even know if he put it in right. And the last thing is there was never a sidewalk there. There was asphalt left over from the driveway that Patty I bought the house from five years ago. She had extra asphalt. She put it there. There was never a framed out sidewalk there ever. And the tenant is here and she could

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tell you that. So I don't know where that's coming from. So anyway, I appreciate your time. Thank you. And uh that's it. >> Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Uh, I'm Anthony. Um, 687 Willow Avenue. And to Ron's

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whole discussion, if no one's ever been down that street, just take a right after 4:00, try to make the U-turn. Let me let me know how it goes. With that building there, they did take a lot of the spots. Plowing that street is

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going to be a nightmare, especially if you're down at the end. Oh, you you're not getting out of your driveway. It's going to be a nightmare. And they put a little wall up in there, too. So, trying to make I'm sure >> a couple of you actually one of you were

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actually down that street today. >> So, you know how bad it is just to make that U-turn, especially with the wall there. Now, um according to that sidewalk in that gate, that thing's on a major slant.

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I don't know if anybody's seen that or take pictures of it. I do have pictures, but it's not a major slam. You're going to get a little rain, a little ice. I'd like to see a kid or anyone, a grown-up try to walk that. I don't care what kind of sidewalk you put, unless it's heated,

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somebody's going to get hurt. It's It's going to be just a bad just that whole outlook. I mean, the windows are there. Everybody can see everything. What time I go to work, what time I come home. just give them an opportunity to walk through the gate and

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go through my car, break into my house. That's all it's going to cause. And just to say we have a walkway to a park that's not even next to that building that's across the street. I just somebody needs to address it. That's all I got to say. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.

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>> Is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and council? Hi, I'm Rachel Herillic. I live at 674 Willow. Um, so just real fast about the parking. It's hard. I get one spot because that's my side of the driveway. So if it's just me, but if anybody

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comes, there's just no parking. My son just fractured his ankle. He had to get a knee scooter just to get from the driveway cuz I couldn't park in front. If we I already have a balcony hanging over my driveway now with the new apartment and I had to put privacy screens on all my windows because if he says that having people like with access

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as he said they're going to see every time I leave my house when my son is with me when he's not when I'm alone and then now they're going to have easy access to come over and it's just really concerning. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Is there anybody else who wishes to

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address the mayor and council? >> Good evening. Moren Crawford for 15 Willow Avenue and I'd like to say even though I sit on the board of education, I do not speak for the board of education. However, since my words were misconstrued this evening, I thought it important to set the record straight in

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real time. I'd like to clarify how pilots work since, you know, we've talked a lot about it tonight. The board of education only gets land tax. That's it. We do not get any tax from the improvements that would have been there.

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So if you think about your home, what you pay in your land tax versus what you pay for your home's assessed value, your land tax is a pence of your total tax bill. That mo that larger part of the tax bill is what the board of

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education is missing out on for their taxes. What was stated at the board of education meeting was that $500,000 is being spent on students from the Burmela 1 and Burmela 2 pilot currently and that

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we received 55,000 from the municipality. All of those are actual factual statements. When Vermelo 1 pilot was first initiated, Mayor Teddiscoco gave a verbal agreement to the board of education for $150,000 annually. She

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came through on that. Then she was no longer in office and it drastically dropped, I believe, to 49,000 the first year. I want to be very clear that the only people that are politicizing the children of Garwood are on this day. The

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board of education's responsibility is to take care of all the children of Garwood. The dollars and cents of it is just very clear and that is all that was stated during that meeting. And I encourage everyone to go listen to the board of education meeting so that it's

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clear what was said rather than what's being spun here this evening. Additionally, for the taxpayers, keep in mind every penny that isn't received from the municipality to the board of education to offset the costs is covered

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by the taxpayers. It is what it is. it there's only one pot and I even said that you guys have your own issues that you've got to like you know worry about and your own budgets that you need to take care of. I was pretty fair in my statement. I was just being very clear

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about the deficit that we have and that there is a chasm and there is money from the pilot that could be shared more equally because at the end of the day it's the same taxpayers. We're all going to the same well. That's all. Thank you.

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Is there anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and council? >> John Bartel, 231 hemlock. Uh, at the last meeting, I brought up um what I perceive as a lack of a capital plan, and I sent you all some examples of two plans. One from the Burough of Madison and one from the Bureau of Garwood from

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just a few years ago, which showed a five-year capital plan. I'm not asking for, you know, an MBA project. I'm just asking for a simple capital plan. either we don't have one or we have one and we didn't bring it to the meeting where we were discussing the capital budget for

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the year which is just as bad as not having one. So, uh I hope you had a chance to look at what I consider to be two decent examples of capital plans. You don't have to wait until the the rush before a

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budget is due to build one. You can start now and it can be used as input into next year's capital plan. And that way when there's a discussion about capital there's no confusion about this vehicle or that when's this going out of service what were they thinking last time you'll have it all together and it

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can become a part of a disciplined process. That's all I'm asking for. And why I care so much about this is first of all it's $500,000 just spoken about on that one piece of paper that night of all discretionary spending. Nothing mandated there. It's

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all discretionary. There was not one shred of information provided to the public in advance. As far as I'm aware, the piece of paper with that project list was available only to the three or four people that were here that night. There's nothing on

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the website. He had the discussion and made the decision and took the vote on what to do with it before taking one syllable of input from the community. It's fine. You want to go it alone.

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I just want to make sure if you're going to go it alone, you're following sound financial planning practices. That's all. I'm not I don't think I'm asking too much in this. So, uh that's uh that's my pitch on that. I just wanted

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to make one other point. Um I didn't get an answer really on the uh uh anticipated surplus. Uh it was glossed over in the special budget meeting. It was there. We got 14.4 million onto the

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next thing. We we spoke about $5,000 line items and $10,000 line items adnauseium. It was kind of passed over here. It's if the answer is we're just going to hope that we underspend our budget and collect more funds that we anticipated and we'll keep that surplus

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up and you know next year it won't be an issue. I I guess that's the answer. But one thing I did want to say is uh when you addressed my comments, there should have been a hard stop because the at the end of that saliloquy, the next sentence was you don't appreciate being called

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heartless. Well, I'll be damned if I called anybody heartless. I don't think and I'm going to absolutely 100% disavow those uh that uh I don't want to put a quarter in the swear jar. So I'm going to say that stuff that was uh uh was

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mentioned. Um so you know I try to be careful and I may take issue with things people do the practices but I'm don't think I'm ever I'm trying not to ever be personal about it. So, please don't lump me in with that other stuff

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that that goes on here. I I may be passionate, be wrong a lot of the time, but I don't think uh I would ever in my worst moment accuse anybody of that. So, if nothing else, big hard stop in between uh you

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know some of the responses here because people may get a little uh confused and since it's now out there on the internets forever, uh I just wanted to make that point as well. Thanks, Okay. Anybody else who wishes to address the mayor and council?

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Okay. Uh, do I have a motion to close public comment? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Opposed. Okay. And Mr. Bartlick, I apologize for not putting the the hard stop in. As I said, I talk a lot. So,

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sometimes you're talking about something and something hits into your your mind and you want to, you know, just get it out there. Uh, so, no, that was not you who who called the council heartless. Uh, I just happened to remember that I

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didn't answer your question. I wanted to touch on it and then I went back to another. So, I will make sure next time to separate each and every person. So, thank you. Um, okay.

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Uh, let us talk about um, Willow first since we had a couple of people here um, talking about Willow. And again, as I said, there's still some outstanding information that I need so that I can bring back to you to answer some of your

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questions. Um, and that I have questions about myself. Obviously, um I know it's not ideal to be have purchased a home and be there and then suddenly a a development that has four

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stories comes and you know comes next to you. Um you didn't anticipate that when you purchased your home. I want I don't want to say we don't have any control over it is not our municipality. We we have our own redevelopments that we we deal with and

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they have theirs. Um as as far as them building onto the street, I mean I know we talked with Mr. Disco and he went and confirmed that everything that was being done was on Westfield property. Um so other than the easement of the um the

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sidewalk which is Burrow right of way. Um, so they are doing what they can do on their on their end. Um, I know parking is an issue down there. I've been down there. I know it. Um, I it's an it's an issue

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now before that's up. I don't though I I know we never know what's going to happen. I am not going to tell you it could never happen that there's not going to be more parking. But I will say that if we do see an issue is coming, we have addressed that in other areas of

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the town when we did see an issue happening and we can do that likewise with this block um you know make residential uh parking. So there are options for us because we can't just say no you can't build there obviously it's

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it's there. It's happening. It's done. Um, but there are things that we can do on our end that can alleviate something if we see that it's starting to happen. I hope it doesn't. I don't honestly believe it will just from seeing other

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developments and how how they've worked, but I am always open to making adjustments if we need to. If once it's filled, we see certain, you know, things happening. I know that I the playground is across this the street. I don't know

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and I know the safety concerns about what's happening in their property. Um I can only address right now what is on on your end um on Willow and you know I know you say it wasn't a sidewalk. I look at the pictures I kind

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of see a sidewalk. It was like sidewalk shaped with the asphalt. We can call it just pavement. We can call it a sidewalk. Um, if somebody wanted to walk on it before, they can walk on it before. They can walk on it now. Um, you know, I

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I I know we might just have a fundamental disagreement on interconnectivity of the towns and what's, you know, makes a good quality of life to to connect our towns. Um, but that's also why I want to have some discussions with Westfield and the

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developer and I'm I've started them about that gate and timing and security. Um, so I do intend for for those discussions to happen and I can bring those back to you. Um, I know there was talk about the slant uh

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as well and I think our uh our engineer did address it with the planner and they are not slanting in in Garwood. They um redesigned it so that it is flat in Garwood. Right, Mr. Arthur? We saw I saw those emails going back.

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>> Superintendent of Public Works and the engineer were involved in discussing the grading with the developer. >> Yes. So that it they put the slant going downwards into Westfield as opposed to um as opposed to Garwood because we did ask

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them to do that. So it won't be on a slant. Um if um I'm trying to make make sure I kind of hit points um because what we're honestly I what we're going to have to do is continue to monitor the situation

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and see what happens as it's building. before it's built. As I said, there are some more discussions that will go on that I hope can um help, you know, alleviate some of the these issues that we're talking about of possibilities.

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Um I think that's, you know, really it. I know there was just a general uh you know lack of want of an open area that I think I'm hearing but I also

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don't know and I will have to we we'd have to speak with our attorneys um our control over that too. So I that's something I can't answer now. So, but we will um and so the continue the discussion can continue past tonight and

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can always call me and we can continue it. Um but I I appreciate you coming out and and bringing it to me and you know we we up here we are open if things come up like that that we try and see what what can be done and what what we can you know work for and how we can

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possibly even compromise if there is compromises to be made. So, um I will move on to that uh from that and talk about um Miss Thompson had a few questions. Um the uh $7,000. Do you want

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to explain what Phoenix Advisors does? So, we recently had a bond sale. We took bids on April 21st and closed on May 1st. We only have a bond sale once roughly every 10 years. Um, it's a very

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extensive process and there are various professionals involved that we have to hire. Phoenix Adviserss was one of the professionals that assisted us with that process. Thank you. And I will say we don't have tons of employees back there working on this budget. It's uh Miss

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Bruns and we have a a few others that that uh I help um Amy and you know, but it's uh we have the assistant CFO, but that's it. We're really a almost a onewoman organization, oneman band over there. Um,

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Miss Thompson also talked about the pilot. Oh, well, first the debt I you, as you noticed, Miss Thompson, the debt did go up. I want to note that that was when the purchase of the ladder truck that came into play. So, that was why the debt got went up and and we've

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talked about that. That was something that the council at the time felt we knew the council who voted it on at the time knew that was going to happen. It was it's a huge project. Uh and it would certainly increase the debt, but it was something that they felt um was a worthy

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one to to take on. Um so Miss Thompson talked about the pilot and so did um Miss Crawford and I just want to um address Miss Thompson. I agree we have an obligation to educate

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everybody. Um and that is what we what I what I said and what the board of ed can do. They can uh raise their tax to educate everyone as they see fit. So I don't think

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there's a disagreement there. The disagreement I think comes and we even mentioned it is all one bucket. So when one you know it is sort of giving one hand to the other. So when the pilot was allocated this way

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because it we even the municipality is not making as much money as they would make if it was a a normally taxed improvement. So you know it's it's interesting and I also just want to say um I know Miss

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Crawford. I I wanted to mention to her that a lot of what my commentary was on was was Mr. Patterson's comments. Um so I I I think there was a little bit of

401
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mixup with that. Um but I as Miss Crawford said, there is a responsibility to take care of all the children. Miss Thompson said it, Miss Crawford said it. We've set it all up here. I think it's just

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if, as I said before, if we take out the percentage that it would be in a regular property tax, now what how does the the burrow make up that difference? We, as Miss Crawford said, we all have

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our own uh factors to worry about. What I was really commenting on was that I didn't think when things Mr. Patterson noted that they had to close the preschool,

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they had to get rid of employees. Um, and it was essentially implied that that was because of the p we were not giving enough pilot money and I do not believe that that is

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a correct assumption. there are a lot of other factors that are involved and so that was really the crux of what I wanted to say. I didn't want uh the pilot to be used as a

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scapegoat. It is a different kind of mechanism of taxing and the board of ed in the end has the ability to raise their tax levy and the burrow is has to provide it.

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It's not no matter what is collected and that's that is a different way of uh tax collection than the municipality. So, I feel like we could kind of keep going on and on about this, but um

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unless anybody else has anything that they'd like to say, I don't understand. Um there's a disconnect because as you keep saying, no matter what bill they present to the town, we are required and and we are happy to pay we pay it. So, it it

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whether we give it, you know, it's it's moving papers from here to there. That's it. It's all the same. So, and thank you for all your hard work with this and trying to make it happen. >> Thank you. Okay. >> All right. Yeah,

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>> I did want to address the uh the sidewalk. I did have a chance to drive down there. >> Um I think what we're essentially talking about on the Garwood side is like 15 to 20 feet of what used to be pavement being now replaced with a

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proper sidewalk as opposed to just pavement. Right. So, I will say it's right at the end of the street. I personally don't believe that having that 15 to 20 ft of sidewalk would change anyone's walking habits. They would simply walk on the street at that

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point. It is a relatively low traffic area, right? So, I I 100% acknowledge that I personally had trouble turning around there due to the number of parked cars and everything. And I completely empathize

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with that piece of it. But I don't believe that that cut through is that that particular stretch of sidewalk is going to change how people behave at that particular intersection between our towns, right? So I know it's a new development. I know there's new things

414
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coming, but from having seen it, I I I personally don't believe that that 15 to 20 feet of sidewalk, I think it could only make people walk a little bit safer. I don't think it'll change the behaviors in any

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way. >> Thank you. Appreciate. >> And uh I'd like to say I went there today and looked and think that that U-turn, but I but I did make it >> and uh I agree with her. Uh, Councilman Sera, uh, I just think it's just a

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sidewalk little I don't think it's really going to have that much of an impact other than to make it a little easier to walk. >> And if I could just add, if it's if there's an issue with um the parking, um, I thought that that that block was part of the residential parking zone.

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It's not >> I don't think I think it's 500 is not. >> So, we could certainly be proactive and and add that block. Um, that would not be something we could definitely talk about that in police committee because I've actually been thinking that

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we might need to expand that uh zone to some other blocks as well that I think are experiencing um high volume of parking difficult. I I mean I see people parking on my street. I'm on Locust. I know there's commuters that park on my street.

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>> That's what they go all the way down. Yeah, we might we might think about, you know, just we had talked initially about uh creating um the whole town as a um as a residential parking, but that was too big a project at the time with the

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burough administrator. He just said that's just way we just can't handle that. Um but now that we've got the parking rolled out the way it's been rolled out, I think maybe we could possibly look at expanding the um the the zone. It's certainly something I'd like to get

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um feedback on especi from residents in in some of those areas and things like that in the back part of the downtown. So, >> okay. I want to um just clarify also quickly to Miss Crawford's response that I was talking about the affordable

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housing hearing, not the board of ed hearing, which may have been a misunderstanding. I was unaware of Miss Crawford's comments, so certainly was not directed at her. Yes, I I think um look, Mr. Patterson gave a very long

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commentary about some of it and I think a lot of our reactions were in response to that. Um but I think a lot of that is kind of going around in public now um and >> being thought of as gospel and it it

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just isn't. There's also just been a normalization of talking about it in that way and an openness in talking about things that otherwise people may have had a little bit more pause. Um, and so like I said, correspondence that we've received, what I heard at the

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affordable housing hearing that was held at the school, things that have been said uh during public comment, um, it it has been more pervasive than just one comment here or there, one piece of correspondence. Okay.

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All right. We will move on to the consent agenda. Oh, we do have a I apologize. We can read it in now. We have a public comment that came in over email. >> You were on a roll. I didn't want to

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interrupt you. There's a lot tonight. >> I know. God. All right, let's do it. Uh, this comment came in through email um from Rose. Uh, dear mayor and council, I'd like to know what conversations you have had or intend to have regarding the

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AI data center being built in Kennallorth. For example, the mayor of Rosal Park is introducing an ordinance to prohibit data center development within their burrow. The next weekend, Saturday, May 23rd, there will be a

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protest held in Cranford. as a neighboring town within the same county. I imagine Garwood residents will feel an impact, although it is difficult to determine what that impact will be. It is important to our town council to address this development and if possible

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partner with other local councils to form a coalition to protect their residents and the environment. From recent readings, it seems the majority of residents in Kennallorth and surrounding towns are against this development, but their town council is

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not representing them truthfully. How might Garwood support our neighbors while also ensuring this does not happen to our town? And that is from Rose. Okay. Um, I was actually going to bring this up to the council, but at our next

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meeting, uh, because I was actually going to have some more information to share with the council at that point, uh, but I'll I'll quickly mention it now, obviously. So, um, I've seen, I'm sure everybody else has seen, uh, everything that's, uh, been going on

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online about everything with data centers. Um but interestingly enough next week at the New Jersey Conference of Mayors I'm hosting a roundt about this very topic. So there is a bill in the legislature A796 if anyone wants to

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take a look um that would basically uh assess data centers financially for their utilities to offset the burden uh that has been going to residents where these centers have been built. So other mayors and interested parties were

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going to be discussing that. Um but actually even since we started planning that roundt there's been over a dozen more bills introduced to the legislature concerning data centers. So we will uh I think the conversation will take a lot

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of turns um next week and I wanted to be able to come back uh with some of that to add to the conversation that I think we should have. Uh and obviously the building in Kennaworth has sort sort of made this pertinent to our area.

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Uh the specifics in Kennaworth obviously there was a a sharing plow facility that did R&D on that property before and it had its own electric grid. uh and so I in

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to that particular one I think it would be important to know comparables about you know energy output and cost and environmental cost from sharing plow and the new data center but I think

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that's something honestly one of the things we're probably going to be talking about next week is that there isn't a lot of data out there on data centers that have been built in terms of what they end up costing

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residents, their their output, um some of the environmental issues. There's just not a lot of data to pull from and that is a problem as well. So, I know there's bills involved trying to make that happen so that we can make so councils around New Jersey can make good

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decisions about where to place data centers. Obviously, I'm of the personal opinion that, you know, residential areas are not the best. I think I think most people would agree on that. So, it's um it's it's a very interesting

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topic that I do think we should uh continue up here. I think uh the resident was talking about ordinances that other towns have put together. Obviously, those towns have a lot more space in them that would possibly allow for a data center. So, I don't think we

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are in any jeopardy of one even wanting to be built here, though I don't ever see there's a taste for that. I I can't see that anyway, but I don't think we even have a space that that would be an issue. Um, so I don't know if we want if it would necessitate us putting together

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an ordinance, but we can certainly bring it to community development to discuss. Uh and then I also just in in general want to bring back more of that information next time so that we can uh get into a further discussion about it.

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That's okay. All right. Okay. Consent agenda. Anybody have anything they wish to remove? Okay. Can I get a motion to adopt consent

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agenda? So moved. >> Second. >> Uh, roll call, please. >> Councilwoman Annarelli, >> I. Councilwoman Biano, >> I. >> Councilwoman Noli, >> I. >> Councilman Sera, >> hi. >> Council President Bodto,

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>> I. >> Okay. In new business, we have the introduction of our bylaws. Um, and it's sort of a special thing because it does have to be uh read twice and voted on twice. So that is the reason you see it

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here uh rather than a in a consent agenda. Uh, Miss Katiga, can you read resolution the resolution by title only? >> Adoption of the bylaws of the mayor and council of the burrow of Garwood. Okay. Do I have a motion to accept the bylaws

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as amended? >> So moved. Second. >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Councilwoman Anna, >> I. >> Councilwoman Biano, >> I. >> Councilwoman Noli, >> I. >> Councilman Sera, >> I. >> Council President Bodto,

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>> I. >> Okay, we do have an executive session tonight. Um, Miss Katigga, can you read resolution 26-105? Close session resolution authorizing an executive session for the purpose of

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discussing matters under attorney client privilege anticipated litigation in accordance with NJSA 10 col4-12. Okay. Do I um have a motion to adopt this resolution? >> So moved.

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>> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Councilwoman Anarelli. >> I. >> Councilwoman Biano. Hi, >> Councilwoman Noli. >> Hi, >> Councilman Sera. >> Hi, >> Council President Bodto. >> Hi,

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>> thank you to everybody who's I'm sure not sticking around. No action will be taken. >> Yeah, go ahead. just unmute. Can I have a motion to return to regular session?

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>> Second. >> Second. Pick one. >> All in favor? >> I >> I >> opposed. Okay. The next regular meeting of the mayor and council will be held Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 7 PM in council chambers. Information for meetings is posted on the burough

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website. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. >> All in favor? Time a buzz.