Good evening and welcome to the township committee special meeting of March 4th, 2026. Miss Break, please call the role. >> Committee Bing >> here. Committee woman hand. Committ Gomez here. >> Deputy Mayor Levan present. >> Mayor Payne here. >> Administrator Ferrer here.
>> Attorney Willard >> here. CFO Please be advised that in accordance with section five of the open public meetings act chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975, notice of this meeting was made by the posting on the bulletin board at the Hillsboro Township
Municipal Complex and notifying the officially designated newspapers that this meeting would take place at the Hillsboro Township Municipal Complex at 5:00 p.m. on March 4th, 2026. Please join me in a salute to the flag. To the flag of the United States of
America and to the stands one nation indivisible. Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. I'd like to briefly explain why we called this special meeting. Our primary responsibility as a governing body is to ensure the contiguous and
effective operation of our township. To do that, we must fulfill our financial obligations ranging from payroll to our for our employees to paying the vendors who keep our infrastructure running. At our last meeting, the CFO provided an emergency temporary appropriation that he deems necessary to run our township.
Two votes were against it. This is not an authorization for new spending, nor is it a request for a loan or a tax increase. This vote is to bridge from the temporary budget appropriations to the final budget adoption, which has yet to be determined. Tonight, we vote
again, and my hope is that we can move forward with a unified voice to ensure that our township stays on track, our employees are paid, our essential services remain uninterrupted, and our bills stay paid until the full budget is finalized. This is about responsible
fiscal management, plain and simple. I would like to give a special thanks to our CFO, Christian. Thank you for the patience, clarity, and the hours he has spent on educating our deas. We only have one item on the agenda tonight. May I have a motion and a second to authorize the resolution authorizing
emergency temporary appropriations prior to adoption of the 2026 budget. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Comments from the deas.
Yes. Um good evening everyone. As you can see, committee woman Han could not be with us tonight and she regrets that. She is traveling in a different time zone for work. Um, she did request if she could join us via Zoom and although you may have seen presentations in the past where people have been able to be
on here via Zoom. We were told that was not an option for tonight. I did speak with our IT director who's going to be following up with our administrator to see if that's something we can get set up in the future for situations like this so we can have um our members be
able to join in via Zoom. Last week, Committee Hand and I voted against the adoption of the emergency temporary budget appropriations, which meant that it did not pass. This particular statute requires twothirds of the votes. Um and
in our case of a fivep person committee that means it requires four yes votes in order to pass. It requires additional votes and not just the majority because of the nature of what we are voting on and it's relation to our budget and our expenses. This is something that we
should all be taking the time to look closely at and not simply rubber stamping without having all the information needed to make an informed vote. We also believe that our taxpayers should have more opportunity to fully understand and ask questions about these temporary emergency appropriations.
Right now, our township committee agendas and the documentation that supports it is only available a few hours before our township committee meetings. Um, and you know, this is just simply not enough time to review, especially something as important and as
detailed as this last resolution. Um, in the past I have communicated with our administrative clerk about the possibility of seeing if we can get information out to people sooner and I'm hoping that's something we can work towards together. I'm thankful to uh
have our CFO here tonight. Thank you, Christian. And he's here to answer any questions and I think that's really important. I hope that in future meetings when we're having resolutions related to the budget that you can be here. I did also ask Christian if it was possible to provide any additional
documentation to the resolution in terms of why these line items are needed, how the money is being spent, just to give people the peace of mind of what is actually necessary for these appropriations. Although neither of the finance liaison
were a part of the original creation of the resolution, we were able to meet with our administrator and CFO on Monday. We made amendments reducing the appropriations by almost a quarter of a million dollars. And even today, we were still making further amendments to make
sure that we had enough funds to pay for the slope, the snow plowing payments that would be due soon. I want to thank our CFO, our administrator, and my fellow finance liaison for working with me to get this done. our residents and
taxpayers in Hillsboro have the right to full accounting and to make sure and discussion on how their taxpayer dollars are being spent. Although we do not anticipate having our budget uh being able to be presented to adopt until
April, we know that our expenses have increased in several line items and we know that 86% of our tax base is residential. The hard decisions need to happen now to ensure that we are making prudent sping choices and that will be my goal
throughout this budget process. Thank you. >> Any other comments from the DES? >> I just do have a question too. As the uh Miss uh Kun Gomez, the um as the lead liazison for finance, you mentioned about a quarter of a million dollars. Um
about 200,000 of that is for the police operating expenses. How come that was rejected in this? >> That current line item under the temporary budget had 400,000 in it. When I asked our CFO what was left in that
balance, he said there was 290,000 in it. He had put that there as a buffer, but it's not needed for anything right now. >> Did you talk to the chief about that before making that decision? >> No, this was in a meeting with our CFO, administrator, and other and deputy
mayor Leani. Got it. >> Can you do you understand what the operating expenses are for for the chief? >> No. >> Okay. Any other comments from the day?
>> Thank you, mayor. Um, and I understand that obviously we always look prudently at what the light items are here. Um, again, and I think I said this at the last meeting, you know, these are not, and I think the mayor just said, these
aren't add additional taxes. This isn't discretionary spending. This is basically keeping our line items um funded in an appropriate way that we don't have to come back and do this every other week or every three weeks.
Uh so the CFO added monies to the line items that would allow us to get through the budgeting process which is meeting with our our uh managers and then obviously the the budget committee to come up with the final budget. So, um,
though we have taken some of these light items out today, I am more than confident probably we may have to be back and revisit this in a week to two weeks uh to reappropriate some of the things that come out and and they're
very minute in some ways that that our lead asked us to remove which we said okay because the CFO said we don't need it for this week but he felt it should be added for um ease of of operation for
the for the township. One, you know, was 3,500 or $3,000 for for postage. It's a very small amount. It's postage. And I don't know why, Miss Gomez, you felt that need to be removed. Uh though there it did say
temporary budget was 3500, but we didn't have that much left in it. The other one was for purchasing paper, which was $3,000, which again was, I guess, not a lot of money in the scope of a $5 million appropriations.
Um, and the other one was for dog CAG regulation of 20,000. So, there is only is $26,000 that we're emitting from the last budgetary request from our CFO who felt it was requested. So, I just I'd like
you just since you've made your nice presentation, why you felt those really had to be removed from this vote? >> Yes. And as I mentioned, as we move forward with these temporary emergency appropriations, we want to pay for things that are due right now that we
know or are due in the immediate future. And I understand we are going to have to create more temporary emergency appropriations because we already know we're going to run out of our salary and wage line items before the budget is adopted. And as other items come up, we may need to pay bills and move money
around in that regard. Um, when it comes to something like central purchasing and the paper we're buying, that line item had $3,000 in it, and that was supposed to take us until April. That is what the temporary budget does. It's 35% of our
budget. It's meant to take us through April. We are at the beginning of March. If we are overspending in a certain line item, let's have a discussion about it. Perhaps we can ask our departments to be more mindful of what they're printing. We need to be prudent with how we're
spending our money. We know our budget is going to be larger than it was last year. We know many items have gone up, including our insurance, and we need to start making seeing where we're going to find that extra money so that we're not passing that on to our taxpayers.
>> I just want to clarify something. I already spoke today with the CFO as well. um he has not yet to begin on the 26 budget because he was taking extra week to do this and all the meetings that you had requested of him. So I just want to be clear to the public. We have not yet started on our 26th budget. We
do not foresee an increase to date and so that is not knowledge that is not fact and I just want to point that out. >> But we know certain light items have increased. We know our insurance has increased. >> It has increased but it doesn't mean that our overall budget will right. We
are very spendrift here. I've already saved $3,000 on a calendar mailing so far to date. I've also worked with the administrator to put in motion sensors to reduce our utility bills. So those are things that are in place that'll chip away at the existing budget also
and not have our expenses as high as they are. So again, we have not begun working on the 2026 budget. It is in process after we get through this tempor uh temporary appropriation. Then we are in agreement that we want to be chips seeing where we can chip away and save money as we go along.
>> We also want to be factual though. Yes. Okay. Any other comments from the DAS? >> Christian, anything you want to add? >> Nope. Okay. Anything else? Roll call?
>> Oh, I'm so sorry. Comments from the floor. >> Motion to open. Thank you. Second. >> Come. Come. >> Evening. My name is Luen While. I live
at 8 more road. I'm a long one time resident of Hillsboro. Um I'm glad to hear that we may not have another tax increase. The past year has been pretty substantial. And I'm here really to talk about transparency and documentation and
letting the taxpayers, US residents know. So I understand that often times agenda items with supporting documentation is only available to the public a few hours before the actual meeting. In my view that's inadequate and does
not give taxpayers us residents a chance to review and ask thoughtful questions. To me it's a lack of transparency and it keeps us taxpayers residents uninformed about whether the township
committee is making thoughtful and wise decisions or not because we don't have enough information early enough to ask thoughtful questions. So I would ask the committee to start issuing and releasing documentation earlier. That's it. Thank you.
>> Sure. >> Clerk break do you want to speak to that? >> I can just say that as of probably just a couple years ago the first time you would have any of the documentation would be walking into the meeting a printed copy on the back table. So we've come a long way since then. Um, and you
know, we're doing our best to get you the information we can as as soon as we can, but oftentimes edits are being made, changes are being made, and we can't put anything out to the public until it's finalized. We can't we can't put out a draft resolution. So, um, but we are, you know, we're we're we've come a long way and we continue to do our
best to improve. >> So, there is, I think, a difference, and I hear you about the draft resolution, although I've seen draft resolutions issued, too, and it's as draft and tentative, but documentation that supports it. That's something that takes time to prepare and
I would think that it should be the objective of the committee to release that earlier rather than at the last moment. I know it may not be finalized till then, but that's helpful for residents and for taxpayers. Thank you. I also just want to be clear too with
you sir that one of the um requests that I have made is that all of this documentation that we see is also listed separately on appropriate township pages. So for instance if you went to the department of finance you would be able to find all of this kind of
documentation delineated for you as well. So it is there and that you can always come back with questions and things like that. us approving a temporary budget again is not raising it's not the cause of raising your taxes and the substantial tax raise that you spoke of was actually pertaining to the
BOE the 20 the over $20 million that they did last year that was not the township just to be clear I know it hit us all but I'm just clarifying ma'am you had a question >> yeah hi my name is Lisa Dickles I at 19
Darmer Road in obviously Hillsboro. Um first I want to thank Committee um Gomez for being, you know, so thoughtful and uh looking at how Hillsboro is spending their money. Um I moved in here in 2000.
My taxes are almost double what they were back then. I understand that a vast majority of that is from board of ed, but I also know that um the budget for the ship has also gone up in other ways. Um I'm a little offended um committeeman
Leani that you're so flippant about um well this is a really small amount and that's a really small amount. Every dollar is important and it adds up. So um you know I just wanted to raise that and I also was wondering committeeman
Brittton why you felt the need to bring up the police. I know you were talking about how um committee woman hand and Gomez were trying to be political, but I feel like by you bringing up the police that um that was something that was a
choice as well. >> Yeah. Because they keep us safe and we should not be defunding the police in Hillsboro. >> You're not defending the police. >> That's actually what this is doing. This is taking away his ability for his operating expenses. >> That's not what That's the chief. >> That's not what the CFO said. Well, then maybe the chief and the CFO need to
I ask. >> Okay. Well, that that's not what the >> Sure. And I also think too that when people come up against questions, I think is regular residents >> totally. But if you're an elected member of a party, I think you should also be stating that as well too. And I know I believe you're district two for the Democratic organization. So I would like to just and so the gentleman prior was
District 15. >> So I want to make sure that this is we're being very representative to the public who are watching that you are also elected officials within your own party. >> So let's be clear. >> I've been living here since 2000 and I've only been involved for a few months. Okay. >> So, I have a right
>> Sure. Absolutely do. Absolutely. And I have a right to let people know the reality of it, too. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Come on. Sorry. You can cue. Oh, okay. Thank you. >> Jody Green, 21 Bloomingdale Drive,
obviously in Hillsboro. Um, I would just like to thank both Jill and Samantha for demanding on the public's behalf that greater transparency become the norm for approval of these temporary emergency funds. While ultimately these
appropriations may be found to be necessary, it would be impossible to know with the limited information provided at the last meeting with just two hours to review and digest their potential impact. >> Thank you, ma'am.
Sorry, my name is Filamina Sili and I've been a resident here for 44 years. I think the word transparency needs to be embellished just a little bit. In the past several years, the township has
offered open meetings, put out transparency information so that the residents would have access to that. You look here tonight, how many people take advantage of the opportunity of the transparency that you people are putting out. So I take a little bit of exception
where it becomes down to all your responsibility because you're doing the best that you can, but we're not doing our ability to possibly learn exactly what's happening. So at the last minute to do something like this, and I was on the board of adjustment for seven years. I've been active in the township. I know
most of you and I think it's important to say that. But you have to be fair and you have to look at what's happening. We're doing the best that they can, the township committee and everybody who works here. The most important thing is the health, safety, and welfare of this
township. So those people who are not getting paid there, whether it's a corporation who has people, whether it's our police who protect us, it's the snowplow people who are out 24 hours a day. Do something about it in the future.
You can't be more transparent. Encourage more people to come out. You're not coming out and you're not listening. You're complaining. And I take exception to that. I really do. To do this on a lastm minute basis where you're encompassing all of the people and our
premise is the safety, healthy, and wearful of our people. So if you feel that by doing this that that's the best way to do it. And our police, I have had them at my house, I don't know how many times, two, three o'clock, four o'clock in the morning. So, they're there when you need them. So, to uncover all of
this, I take exception to this. I think it's wrong. And we have a responsibility as citizens to do our part. John, last year we had a ma the master plan. We had a meeting here. You know how many people came to that? >> There weren't 15 or 20 people at the
master plan, but they're complaining. We don't know what's going on with the master plan. So, I would like you to think about a solution that would help us understand better why we need to have a responsibility to learn about what's going on in the township. Okay.
>> Thank you. >> So, as I me Yeah, please come up. I'm sorry. You keep trying. Come on. I I I just have one quick talking point to that. So, as I mentioned when I got sworn in um as mayor, I will be doing
budget um transparency uh different things. I'm going to be doing surveys. I'm going to be doing things that'll present that information from the budget when poor Christian actually gets a chance to work on it. That will be forward facing. It'll be
all out there. Again, one of the things I've asked for is that the documentation that we have tonight, other documentation that we get along the way, it goes up on their respective um uh departmental website. I've also um elicited a new way of showing data on a
you know weekly, monthly basis depending on the department and what um databases they use. Um and I've worked with um clerk break to make sure that that is comprehensive and easy to digest information. It'll show constant. For
instance, uh the building department had x amount of inspections, x amount of new permits selected, things like that. This all adds to the transparency. So, you can see that when we are appropriating money for the building department in this instance, why they need the money
like that they're actively working. And this is, you know, again, like just one small example of the transparency that I am trying to change. We are two months in, three almost three months in. Um, this was a kind of an unforeseen hiccup. Ma'am, please.
>> You kept trying. I'm sorry. You were very patient. >> It's all good. Should I say my name where I live? >> Yes, please. >> Yes. >> Okay. My name is Emily Benadon. I'm 169. >> Oh, you can't hear me? Okay, >> there you go. >> Okay. My name is Emily Benadon at 169
Beakman Lane. I've been resident here for a few years. Um I have a few questions. Um why was a Zoom or Teams meeting not able to happen? >> We don't have a precedent for it and we felt that it would be better off if we had some kind of like rigor around that
and ruling. We don't have any of that today. It's not been something that we've needed to do since the pandemic because of an emergency situation. Uh this was a special meeting, not an emergency situation. >> Can I can I add something to that? >> I'm sorry. I'd also like to add we don't actually have the technology in this
room to have a two-way Zoom. We we it's it's not set up to do that. >> Okay. >> It's disappointing because I I >> to be to be fair during a pandemic. >> Well, I was going to answer one of your questions why we don't have it. We never closed we never closed the building
during the pandemic. We were open so we had the meetings the entire time so we didn't have to have that technology in the building at the time. So that's why >> Okay. No, that makes sense. It just seems odd given this day and age and and the spend on it and other things
that a Zoom meeting that people can have actually right here. You can't have that type two interaction to allow somebody who has other commitments as everyone else does on the committee. >> Absolutely. And and for the presentation that the committee woman mentioned, that
was a canned presentation. It was a one-way presentation. It wasn't a Q&A. So, the person was live, but they were just presenting on their camera and mic that way. It wasn't a back and forth. Just to be clear on that, too. >> Okay. Thank you. Sure. It comes across
as dysfunctional and odd that it can happen. >> We'll look at a cost after the budget's made. >> Yeah. My second question is um in terms of the minutes, and I definitely I've done minutes so many times. I still do them for lots of different reasons. Is
there a way to use different technologies that are free such as AI to quicken the process? Because I think one of the things that I would think in master plan and I believe Mr. Bushell that you know being innovative is very
important. Um but using AI or generative AI to support the process could be a way to get the minutes out you know the day before at least or the Friday before. So, I know everyone's very busy. Um, but
it's just it's odd to see some innovation not coming in when possibly it could come in. >> Yeah, great point. >> Thank you. Anything else? >> And are you gonna address what I said or >> I mean, I don't have a comment for it. I don't have a
>> Do you guys look at innovation and gen? >> We absolutely do. When you say get the minutes out earlier, I'm not sure what you're referring to. >> Um, have you not body has used GI but there's the possibility and the ease of actually transcribing you know basically
word word to voice to word and >> yeah no I understand that but um when you say get it out earlier I mean our the meeting videos are available instantly after so if you wanted to see what was done in the meeting you could >> you could review a meeting instantly the minutes are a summary of that um so it
does take time we wouldn't rely on AI it's not we wouldn't capture every word that's said it's a summary so and they they're put out for approval um you know pretty quickly after the meetings happen. So and then they go on the agenda for approval at the next available meeting. So that's when they'll be available when that meeting
documentation is released to the public typically the day of of the meeting they're being voted on >> because there's transcription services that are free and things like that. >> Sure. >> So doesn't sound like there's any interest in that. >> Well, I wouldn't rely on AI to to transcribe our minutes at this point. I
wouldn't be comfortable doing that. It's we really need to review them and make sure they're accurate. So, um it and honestly, we have we have software that u manages our meeting documentation that makes our minutes fairly quick to it pulls them right together. So, you're
just adding public comment summarizing. It's it's not a a labor intensive process as it is. We already use some pretty high-tech, you know, services. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I did want to one more question, but I do thank you for what you said
about transparency and just the fact that people do need to get engaged instead of complaining. And so people feeling welcome is really important. And I I personally say to people when they complain, just ask somebody, reach out. And something that I personally try to
do is every year before Thanksgiving, I try to reach out to you all, the BOE administrator, um the police to say thank you because it's not easy what you're doing. It is complex. um budgets aren't as big as others. Um but it is a
genuine thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next question I have is um >> why does the budget process take so long for us to start doing it where getting into so sure there's a big reason but I just a lot of people just don't understand that.
>> So I had put out a summary on one of my comments but I'll leave it to the CFO if you want. >> Sorry. Um the budget process usually starts uh at the beginning of the year when we do the temporary budget. It allows us to actually put money into the
account to actually keep the operations moving until budget adoption. Um last year I came on board in May. Uh so it was halfway through the year. Uh we had to clean up 2025. We had to close out 2025. We basically tried to cram or the finance department tried to cram 12
months of work into like eight months. So it took us a while to close out. We worked with our auditor on a daily basis. Uh so we close out a little bit later than we thought. Um but our AFS is done. Uh so once that process gets behind us, that's when we can actually turn and pivot and move towards 2026.
That's that's where we are currently right now within the past two weeks. So normally hopefully we would start in February um as we're finishing with 2025 or the previous year. This year it just it was just a lot of you know a lot of work that we were doing. That's all.
So the anticipation is that in the coming year it will all start earlier. >> It will all start earlier but also the state actually pushed back the deadlines by about a month for budget introduction AFS the financials. Uh so even the state realizes that at the beginning of the
year it's a lot to do to close out a year to start the new year. So with them actually extending that time period an extra month that actually helps the finance department actually do it properly. >> That's where we are. >> Thank you. really appreciate it. Thank you for those who didn't interrupt
people while I was speaking. Sometimes it seems that the people that come up that they're interrupted and seems like sometimes you all interrupt each other and it's hard to hear what's going on from the outside. So appreciate that and do appreciate the work that everyone does here. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Anyone else from the floor? Uh, John Cherelli, 14 Southland Drive in Hillsboro. Um, I've changed what I wanted to write because some of the things have been addressed, but from what I understand, the budget process doesn't start until
um, you get the financial statements for 2025 done because we're we run on a cash basis. So, we can't really do that work until that statement is done. So, we're really constricted on time when it comes to budgeting. Sorry, it's not a question. I'm just looking for
assurance. Let's get back to why we're here, right? It's approving the resolution for the temporary budget. And before the last meeting on uh January 31st, Committee Hand and Gomez attended the two 2026 newly elected orientation,
which is provided by the New Jersey League of Municipalities. I attended the same session several years ago and it's about important municipal governance concepts, processes and procedures. And there's a section on newly elected primer on budgeting which goes over the
entire process for the temporary budget and uh and including the temporary emergency resolutions which are unfortunately called emergencies because all it is is a continuing resolution of the temporary budget. It's not an
emergency. It's they coined it that and municipalities are stuck with that name. So having taken those classes uh the committee women must have understood what the process was that they needed a
twothirds vote and that two voting two no votes would can it and put us in the situation we're in now. So they either willfully I'm assuming they understood and they willfully and intentionally politicized the no vote and I think it's under the guise of doing it on behalf of
the taxpayers because now this meeting tonight is costing taxpayer money. It's costing my taxpayer money for all of us to be here and run this three minutes. This set part of the session is not under the three minute constraint from
what I remember. But I wish we would do that in every meeting, by the way. >> Yeah. Right. Um, again, I I I think it's a this is a bit of a it was a bit of a charade. The township is an open book. I know there's discussion about transparency and whatnot. The township
committee is an award-winning township committee for transparency, for what we've done to for outreach and to make documents available to to residents. Um there's information available to the full township committee to resolve these issues before the public session.
Provide a unified front resolutions for the benefit of all residents instead of the divisive divisive actions and innuendos of mismanagement that have attempted to undermine the township committee and the administration and the staff who does
all the work. Mismanagement. I think this no vote is an example of misinformed and gross mismanagement of municipal leadership and they're now we're now scrambling the the um uh
it alludes that nobody else, you know, saying that that the the comments and providing comments, the comments we've heard elude that nobody else up on there is fiscally responsible or cares about where the dollars go. And that's just simply not true.
Right. So I think the no vote this there's 564 municipalities in New Jersey. 558 of them go through the same routine process. This is the way the state government runs. It's not a corporation unfortunately.
I wish it was. Um, it's it it's cost more money now to hold this special meeting with the apparent goal to undermine the historic good work that the township has done. I urge the committee to vote yes on this resolution
and get on with the good work that you all do. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other com >> Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I've been told it's one comment. >> Easy question, which is this is this a Q&A session or is this like somebody can
just state things? >> This is open comment >> on the on the on this resolution. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. >> Of course. Any other comments from the floor? >> I I know you're being timed. >> Roy Fryman in Hillsboro, New Jersey. Good evening.
>> Good evening. First of all, I I think we all are looking for similar and common outcomes. I think we all are working towards we live in the same town. We want
a very nice, safe community to live in. We want our childrens and families to feel welcome. We wanted it to be affordable. Um, we want everyone, we want our neighbors and
we when we enter these rooms, we enter as neighbors and when we leave, we leave as neighbors. So, we have all that in common, but we also have different opinions and I think that's part of the process and I think disagreement
can be healthy and can be a part of the process as well. The disappointment though is in in particular, you're going to have disagreements up here and you're going to have where
you're not going to agree on the votes. The role of mayor is an appointment. appointment by the township committee and for the most part it is the chair of this meeting overall and it's a
ceremonial representation by for the township committee and a spokesperson on general matters for the township but it doesn't include executive powers.
>> Correct. >> Doesn't include special powers. and taking to township resources to produce a video about the process seems reasonable. It seems appropriate,
educated. >> Yes. >> But condemning votes is outside the scope and inappropriate and wrong to condemn what you and
because that's opinion. and and you're allowed to have that opinion. You all and that's a disagreement, but that is outside the scope and utilizing township resources. That's
inappropriate and and that's where it's it's outside and abusing the role of what a mayor can do. it can be incredibly helpful and and I look forward to utilizing the role to
educating and engaging more people about the budget process because that can be very very helpful to get more people to show up to hear about it to learn about it. But to not use the role in township
resources to pit one another against each other that won't be helpful. Again, we we're going to leave here tonight as we came in as neighbors, but it's okay to absolutely have
different votes because we'll have different opinions. So, thank you. >> You're welcome. And you didn't get buzzed. >> No, Phil, one I already got yelled at once. Yes, one comment. Sorry. You have to come to another meeting. Any other
comments from the floor? Thank you. Uh, roll call, please. >> Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. >> Hi, my name is Harshet Thugal, 17 Cample Road, Hillsboro. Um, I actually just got married recently right here in town. Um,
and I'm starting to think about, you know, building my family and where we're going to be living. I've been here in Hillsboro. I went to the high school. I went from Autton Road all the way up to high school here. I've been here since co and even before that after college. Um not just for myself but for my
parents who live here who have been here for more than 20 years. Um and families that I am very close to. Um I just want to be very clear. Will this resolution lead to increased taxes? >> Nope.
>> Okay. So, how is the where's the money coming from for >> So, this is the I'll let the CFO answer. >> All this is is an increase to the temporary budget. That is it. At the beginning of the year, the state allows
us to basically put a certain percentage based off the appropriations from last year into the budget to keep the operation moving forward. That percentage up until last year was 26.25%. They've recently increased that to 35%. So, we're able to take last year's
appropriation exclusive um from uh debt service, capital improvements, and public assistance. That number we took 35% we put it into the accounts, mainly salary and wages. That's it. There are other account line items that we have bills or bills that we need to pay that
we didn't fund in the temporary budget. All this does is increase the temporary budget. Temporary budget was 13 million. This resolution adds 5 million, bringing it to 18 million. Our budget last year was 41 million. We're nowhere near the 41 million. All this does is bridge the
gap from the temporary budget numbers to budget adoption. That's it. >> And all this will be appropriated in the budget. >> Okay? And there's no this specific amount that's being allocated won't lead to future. It's not increasing the
deficit or the debt that we have and it's not going to lead to future. It's 18 million right now of the 41 million that Christian just described. >> Okay. And that's already within the budget you're saying. So it's >> the full budget last year was 41 million.
>> Percentages are dictated by the state of and that's what we're working within right now. We're trying to Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Come on. Robbie Lefowitz uh 21 Bloomingdale Drive. Uh I just wanted to say uh uh
committee person reading uh throwing out the term uh defunding the police feels like a divisive uh and uh unnecessary dog whistle uh in this political climate. >> I appreciate what you're saying, but I think dog whistle is also a political
term that you're throwing back at me. Um the reality is the chief should have should determine what he needs and it committee woman just stated that she didn't even talk to him before taking this out of the budget. That is irresponsible. >> So that's defunding the police. >> CFO our CFO speaks to our department
heads to get the information of what is needed. I trusted the CFO when we spoke about this. >> So I think the bigger issue is that you don't understand what an operating expense is but yet it was removed. Did you have another comment, sir?
>> Good evening, Madame Mayor. Um, my name is Crest Dominic, Cre SS, and Dominic is D M I N I, and I'm at 46 Murphy Drive. Um, I just had two comments. One is regarding the 35% you were mentioning.
Um, and um, if you take 18.3 million, which what you're getting right now, that's about 43%. Is that okay or is that >> um it's it's it's not. If you take last year's budget and you minus out all of the debt service capital improvements,
it comes down to about 37 million. 35% was of the 37 million. >> Yeah. But what is 37 35% of 37 million? Is that the 18 >> 35% of 37,155,9984 was 13,456844.
I rounded it down to 13 million to keep it even for the temporary budget. >> Yeah, but now it's 18 million, isn't it? >> Correct. >> Is 18 million 35% of the 37 million. >> No, the the 35% is only for the temporary appropriation. >> Okay. If we need to do four, five more
of these temporary emergency appropriations to do so to get to budget adoption, we can keep adding to it. >> Yeah, I you don't need to answer me, but you know, it's three months into the year, maybe two months and a bit into the year, and I'd be surprised if we need to appropriate 40% of the budget
already. U you know, with two months gone in the year, it's it doesn't add up. I don't know. Maybe you'll explain it to us later. You don't need to answer this. No, I'll be happy to if it was if I had my if I had um my way I would actually do the temporary budget and then the following meeting I would
actually fund the accounts all the way through June >> because most likely most municipalities usually adopt around May or June. >> So instead of doing this what we're doing each and every week now >> I'd rather just put the temporary budget in >> fund the accounts till June because that if we fund the accounts till June let's
say halfway through the year 40 million it would be 20 million it would do it and it wouldn't impede operations of the town. >> Excellent. That would be a good idea because I thought in Jan on Jan 6th when we got the 13 million >> um we should have put in all the statutory payments that we know were coming within the next two or three
months particularly >> well one of the reasons why we're here today is because of the the pension payments which are due April 1. >> I know but we knew that on Jan 6th as well. So >> but that that but that number is 4.3 million 4.3 million out of the 13 million. It would have left only the
eight in change which would have been hard for the departments to actually >> you're not getting what I said. Uh you could have appropriated 18 million on Jan 6th isn't it? >> I couldn't I had to stick to the 35%. >> Okay. Got it. Thank you so much. The second point I wanted to make was um in terms of taxes again you don't need to
answer but because you're doing the budgets this year I went out and looked at my taxes the taxes I paid and I know you mentioned this that you also got hit. um it was an increase of 14% in dollar terms versus what I paid the previous year. Correct. >> Of course, there it's a combination of
two things. The assessment which went up as well as the tax rate that went up went up marginally last year. >> Now, this year based on what the what I'm seeing, it might go up by another double digit number. >> Absolutely. >> That's going to be a problem for a lot
of people. It's a problem for me. Yeah, my increase in valuation uh does not put money in my pocket. >> Um but yet I'm going to be paying more and more taxes every year. So I just want you guys to keep this in mind when you make the budgets this year. Um so that we
>> we keep that in mind every year actually. >> We make it easier for people. >> Definitely bring that voice honestly truly to the board of ed also. >> Yeah. Yeah. The biggest >> Yes, of course. I agree. You know 64% of that and I I also sometimes whether we
have as a committee any influence on the board of ed to make sure >> separate for a reason. Yeah, unfortunately. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments? I'm not going to make it. >> I know. I'm sorry. Okay. Roll call.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. I will now open the meeting to comments from the floor. Please keep in mind this is for comments on matters not on the agenda. Um please miss break read the
statement regarding public comment. The township committee now opens the floor for public comment. To ensure a productive and civil environment for all, please approach the microphone, state your name and address and spell your name for the record. The township of Hillsboro maintains a strict standard of decorum. Please ensure your remarks remain respectful and focused on township business. Each speaker is
limited to a single threeinut aotment. This forum is for public comment rather than a dialogue. Please address all remarks directly to the deputy mayor. We thank you in advance for your cooperation and for treating your neighbors, township employees, and this committee with courtesy.
>> All right. Um, obviously the meeting took a little longer and we didn't want to rush any of the comment, but the mayor had a previous engagement to go read for kids at at Sunnyme School prior to this emergency meeting. So, she needs to be there. So she regretted that she had to leave, but we didn't want to cut
anybody's time short today because we felt it was important. So you're stuck with me for the open comment. So if anybody would like to make any open comment, please come to the mic and state your name and address for the record. And you allowed three minutes and it could be on anything other than was on tonight.
See, I scared right away. Really? I'm a nice guy. Um, all right. Last chance for anybody. Any comments? General comments. All right. Um, so then with that then I would have a motion and a second to adjurnn.
>> Motion. >> Second. >> Okay. Roll call. >> Committee member braing. >> Yes. >> Committee woman Gomez. >> Yes. >> Deputy Mayor Leani. >> Yes. >> Mayor >> P. Not here. All right. We are adjourned. Thank you very much. Uh, we'll be back
here next Tuesday.