##VIDEO ID:Ih8DpNCc5ZA## 7:34 um I am going to pull the workshop from our agenda tonight we have a few of our Council people that are out due to emergency situations with weather related and other situations um so I am going to hold off on the workshop for the proposed ordinance regarding 5G Towers until the next meeting um so I will call the regular meeting of the mayor and Council to order please rise for salute to the flag in a moment of Silent reflection IED Al to the flag States of America the stands na indivisible andice please remain standing for a moment of Silent reflection thank you sunshine law please one second adquate notice of this meeting has been provided by the adoption of a resolution by the mayor and Council on the 7th Day of January 2025 in which resolution the time and place of agenda and regular meetings commencing with January 7th and set 4th nor was delivered to theberry Park Press the co-star and tap and a copy of the notice posted on the B website on the Bon board in Bur Hall all meetings open to the public thank you roll call please Council membery here council member skull is not here tonight and council member Dano and deoro councilman VRI here councilwoman alado here thank you um we have no approval of minutes for reports of committee I will start with Council valo thank you mayor on behalf of the tourism commission we have not had our first meeting yet this year um but I would like to congratulate Bob FY on his appointment as the tourism commission chairman other than that all matters are in order thank you councilman ventrice thank you mayor all matters are in order thank you council president all matter is in order thank you for my report um I just have a couple things that I would like to share out to the public first we have secured a date for this year's mayor's bash it will be July 10th 2025 uh once again at Bar Anticipation um this past Saturday I did hold a coffee with the mayor we had a pretty good turnout I want thank everybody who came out um it was actually a bommy 40° out that day so we had a lot of people show up which was very nice uh we had three major topics um or we had a couple topics of conversation but the major topics for the whole group were um potholes we saw some potholes that have sprung up through this winter we have a couple areas of construction in town uh and with the weather but I've expressed the need of our um dqw super intendent or burrow administrator for the need to address those potholes once the weather uh clears and we can do so um there was some concern and some questions about the amount of litter around town uh which again uh we will talk to a couple of the businesses that were mentioned in that conversation uh and talk to DPW about uh better litter patol I would like to remind our residents that it is the responsibility of the residents and business owners to keep the property clean so please so uh and there was a couple of questions about EMS uh at this time or at this juncture our agreement with belmare is still in place for shared services of EMS um I know there are ongoing conversations between belmare and other entities which I know is reported out from the Belmar Council but at this time nothing has changed for us we are still getting shared services from Belmar EMS um I for one am very happy with the service that we get think we have an excellent uh group of people that run belmart EMS and I've not heard a complaint since they started working with lake comoo so I want to thank them for their service and their continued service to this community uh we did have a couple people uh have concerns and complaints about street lights being out uh we have been working with JP jcpnl for a couple of months now uh on getting them into town to fix the street lights at last count we had about 36 street lights in town that were out uh we will officially I believe tomorrow Thursday May Thursday jcpnl will be in town with a police escort going around to fix the lights uh all of the lights that we have listed that are not working um and I do have an update on our hotel Revenue tax as far as uh up until November of 2024 the town has has taken in $51,988 75 in hotel uh tax revenue say hotel tax revenue I'm not exactly sure if that's the the ordinance title but I think you all know it um for uh other than that all matters are in order so I will move on to public comments on new business and the consent agenda so move second all in favor I I anyone wishing to speak to anything listed on the consent agenda or under new business can come to the mic and do so now seeing none I'll take a motion to close so move all in favor um just a uh just a quick explanation of what we're going to do here um we're going to talk about the consent agenda in the first two pieces under new business after we uh talk about the executive session we are going to retire into executive session and then right back out I don't expect this to be there for more than 10 or 15 minutes and then we will do the rest of the resolutions on the agenda um so under consent agenda um we have a we can do that that's fine sure um okay we can do them all and then we'll just hold the one uh will hold 20240 until after the executive session can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so second um all in favor I I opposed exensions under new business we have a special events application a hdsa 5K do we have a representative here yes for that applications can you please come to the mic and state your name address and affiliation please I there uh yeah Jim jardino from West Long Branch New Jersey uh representing the hunting disease Society okay can you the hunting this this a 5k does these usually do a walk it's a combination of a 5K walk run and walk okay um this you've done this before in our 10 correct yes Drew do you have anything to add to this I know we were talking a little bit about five Cas we were um this uh this event itself has gone through uh several years of being here I believe they have enough volunteers to subze the police department we did have a conversation with the chief of police with this event this particular event and the number of volunteers that they've worked with in the past they're okay with um they're also okay with this route because this is the route that was was agreed upon um but there is some discussion about modifying the routes for future events in in and any any other events that would be coming forward and that's a discussion with the police department that's discussion with the police department and for uh and we would address those individually by application or is it going to be a set route ideally uh it would be a set route in the future um do a buyby so it's it's uniform and those discussions are on going there uh Amy everything's okay with insurance Sergeant I know that uh Drew spoke for the police department do you have anything to add to this questions from the council make a motion yes yes all right I appreciate you coming out I know we didn't have a lot of questions for you but thank you Cas we did thank you very much uh we have resolution 202536 offered by councilman ventri wait did you want to do this one now um you can do we can do the resolution now we'll just go into executive session thank may offer resolution 202536 resolution of the B of Lake comoo Council executive sessions whereas the B Council of the B of Lake com has to discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting whereas these subjects fall within the exceptions to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in Clos session 10 col 4-12 B these are matters involving legal advice and the attorney client privilege um the length is estimated to be less than 30 minutes after which uh Council reconvene and action may be taken second call please yes yes yes thank you uh ordinance 20251 offered by Council inventores thank you Mar so offered our ordinance 20251 and ordinance of the borrow of Lake Como setting forth the salary ranges of certain borrow of Lake Como employees beer Dame the mayor and councel of of lake comoo that ordinance these guides shall be in effect January 1 2025 and all public work salaries will receive a 3.5% increase affected January 1 2025 contract second second question what is the percentage of increase given so this is just a range increase right or not uh I don't think the range has increased has it I'm sorry in reference to what particular DPW no in general disord as it there so the ranges are adjusted based on the 3 and a half% increases that the different positions have gotten since 2022 so they've only gone up three and a half% per year okay that's it's want to know what it was thank you so the the the top of the rang has got up is that what you're saying yes yep to um certain ones have been modified since the last time we did this there's been changes in different positions in the offices um so that those changes are reflected in this ordinance but nothing out of the ordinary I have a motion a second roll callil member yes VES yes yes thank you um resolution 2025 37 offered by council president V so offer resolution 2025 d37 a resolution the May and Council the B Lake providing for the making of a temporary appropriation this is creating a temporary budget uh not to exceed 26.2 26% of the upweight of budget of 2024 this is needed to keep the barrel running until the new budget is passed thank you do I have a second second any questions rooll call please wty yes INRI yes yes thank you resolution 2025 38 offered by councilwoman of alado thank you mayor so offering resolution 202- 38 be it resolved by the mayor and Council of the world Lake Como that the proper officers be directed and authorized to make payment from the following accounts the current account $496,000 eight the general Capital fund of $43,750 46788 the tourism account for $42 is that a credit of 42 I just C that now I'm not certain um and the a wire payments of 8,177 79 for a total of $868 3216 you do a quick calculation on that and see if that is a typo no it is a credit if you look at the second page of that resolution bus thank you do I have a second second roll call please counc member Wy yes andri yes yes thank you resolution 2025 39 offered by councilman Abal thank mayor so offering resolution 202-3995 71 thank you I have a motion to have a second second roll call please yes yes yes we are going to skip over resolution 20254 at this time move to resolution 2025 d41 um Grant application by council president so off of resolution 2025 41 B Lake Como County of M state New Jersey this is a Grant application for $100,000 for improvement to bman park site Improvement will be lighting Improvement landscaping and reconstruction of the fence so just to um to clarify um Drew this would be an application for a flat Grant would not be a matching Grant correct that's correct um and the application would go to focusing in on the Park area but is the DCA right Comm Affairs um have a second second roll call please yes yes yes um at this time the mayor and Council will return to uh executive session with with our Council um to discuss legal matters and we will return afterwards uh we should not be more than 10 15 minutes and we will have uh something to to report when we return I'm sure thank you we're going to go to the next okay the time is 8:01 we are back on the record um reporting out from our executive session we received guidance from Council on resolution 20254 which is now being offered by councilman ventri thank you mayor so offer resolution 2025 40 resolution adopting the New Jersey Department of commity Community Affairs calculation of Lake Como's fourth round present and prospective need uh for affordable housing obligations on uh March 20 2024 Governor Murphy signed an act into law which established a new framework for deter determining and enforcing municipalities affordable housing obligations under the New Jersey Supreme Court Mount Laurel Doctrine and the state of New Jersey fair housing act the ACT provides that prior to the beginning of each new 10-year round of affordable housing obligations beginning with the fourth round on July 1 2025 the state of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs is tasked with determining a municipal present and prospective needs in accordance with the formula that is established by uh statute and the uh Department of Community Affairs is required to prepare and submit a report to the governor and legislature um in accordance with these requirements the Department of Community Affairs provided a report setting forth its non-binding calculations of municipality's present and prospective need for a affordable housing for the fourth round using the formulas in the statute and the report determined that the Bor of Lake Como's present need obligation is 11 units and its prospective need obligation uh is 19 units um we had a uh Zoom meeting with uh some of the experts in this field and um after meeting with them uh the our recommendation is U be resolved that the mayor and Council bake com M County state of New Jersey as follows the aention recital are incorporated herein as though fully set forth at L the burrow has determined that its present and prospective need obligations of 11 units and 19 units respectively as calculated in the report are accurate and adopts these calculations as the determination of its fourth round affordable housing obligation subject to All rights or reservation of Rights including but not limited to the right to adjust the number based on one or any of uh a number of conditions the right to revoke this resolution in the event of a successful legal challenge uh and the burrow authorizes its professionals to file a declaratory judgment action with the program no later than 48 hours following the adoption of this resolution in accordance with the requirements of the act and uh Mr Mayor perhaps you want to collaborate well I will say that this is the first time Leake Como has received any numbers from DCA uh that being the fourth round of the fair housing act um and the crash course that we've taken over the past few weeks that was probably the best explanation that I've heard Council invent so uh I want to thank you for reading that um but to sum and and I'll pass it off to Peg to if you want to add anything to uh to sum it up we've got number numbers we are accepting those numbers and U we will have our professionals work out a plan over the next few months on how we will meet those numbers correct yes the only thing I would ad May and and to what the councilman indicated is that those numbers were provided by DCA it's based on their um analysis of the regional need and the Statewide need and then they decide based on the the dis location of this community our piece of that need is and it's based on things like their calculation of vacant land their calculation of how many homes there are in town that might be lowincome um owned and and subject to Rehabilitation funding but our our um professionals our engineer and our planner have indicated that they can put together a plan that makes sense and it's not going to be it's going to be less intrusive then it would be if we don't do this a builder could come in and say I'm going to build in your town and I'm going to build these units I'm going to build four times the number of units and you have to let me do that wherever I want to do it because you don't have Unity if we pass this resolution and and move in court with a declaratory judgment and get the approval of the Court a builder can't do that and so our planner and our engineer can decide for the community in conjunction with the the mayor and counsel what our community wants to do to to have affordable housing in the community where where they want it to be and and whether or not the community can sustain it so we may change the numbers a little bit as we move forward because the resolution also has as the councilman indicated some reservation of Rights so it turns out if we don't have enough property or we can't figure out a way to to place the affordable housing in a place that is not going to encumber interfere with our our residents and our community's needs we can go back and adjust those numbers so this is the first step in the process and by passing this it gives the town protections correct any other questions from councel have second second call please yes yes yes thank you the resolution passes at this time I'll take a motion open for public comments so move second all favor all right anyone wishing to come to the mic uh for any type of public comment for the council can do so now hi everyone just need your name yeah when debut Canon 528 North Boulevard so we were here at the last meeting January 7 and there's a appointing special tax Council can someone just explain that to me what that is sure you want to explain oh I can certainly um it's just it's actually someone from my firm who taxs and it's just most communities have either either the B attorney or B attorney's firm or somebody else who who's schooled in tax appeals is is appointed by the the governing body to handle tax appeals there's nothing unusual about it it's just part of Legal Services provided by Council to the community so when when either the burrow files a an appeal to adjust a tax a tax assessment or whether an individual or files and appeal the town has to have Council defending it and so in this case I they appointed me I think so so if we were to appeal to uh Mr Fitzpatrick right and he lowered our taxes then you would be involved and that's what this special counsel is well yes you're the counsel to for him yeah I'm the counselor for the yes for well not for the assess for the for the mayor and Council but he's our expert okay so he's the essor he he puts the assessment on you appeal the assessment and you negotiate with him in conjunction with us I see and then if he if we get nowhere with him then we go to the county right the county tax right and then if you get nowhere with them you're going to be to the court when I truthfully when I saw councel I thought there was like a counil be involved and I wanted to be on that Council but I I'm not an attorney so I all right thank you appreciate it seeing no one else I'll take a motion to close so second all in favor I thank you next meeting please meeting of May council Tuesday February 4th at 730m in meeting all meetings are open I have a motion to adjourn second