good evening the march 26 2025 council meeting of the long branch city council will now come to order roll call mr dangler here mr rases here mrs whittis is absent dr vote is absent mr vieira i'm here please stand for the pledge of
allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of united states of america and to which the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all
i will now read the mission statement of the city council the long branch mayor the city council and administration are committed to cultivating an environmental of mutual trust and respect of values the diversity of our community we will strive to enhance the
quality of for life for all who live here by making long branch a desirable place in which to live and prosper we will treat all members of the public with respect and expect the same in return certification please i hereby certify
that this meeting has been published in the newspaper in accordance with the open public meeting act and posted as required by law thank you reading of the approval of previous minutes i need a motion to approve the minutes of march 12th 2025 so move second roll call mr
dangler yes mr ras yes mrs whittis is absent dr vod is absent mr vera yes motion passed consideration of ordinance of public hearing and final consideration there none ordinance for introduction ordinance
05-25 this is the first reading of ordinance f 05-25 entitled an ordinance authorizing amendment of restatement on the deed of the dedication and the provincial storm damage reduction
easement for block 298 lots 4.03 and 1.02 summary the beach of long branch is subject to cons constant erosion and the irrigation the city of long branch will with the state of new jersey and the
united states army corps of the engineers are working together to contract and maintain the beach erosion control project as part of the project the city of long branch needs to grant an easement to the state of the new
jersey i need a motion to introduce on the first reading advertise and post according to law and set the public hearing for april 9th 2025th so move second roll call mr dangler yes
mr ras yes mrs whittis is absent dr vote is absent mr vieira yes motion passed public participation for resolutions and all general comments i need a motion to open the public portion of this meeting for all comments
need a motion so move second all in favor i oppose if there's anyone in the audience that has a comment to make please step to the podium and state your name
clearly for the record and you only have five minutes and may only speak once vincent laapour 33 ocean terrace long branch council president vieiraa concerning fire officials in long
branch as far as the long branch fireman's relief association governed under the new jersey state fireman's relief association why is someone who's been arrested for forging fire department
documents still involved as an officer that distributes relief money to firemen councilman vieira councilman vieiraa your lack of government knowledge and ignorance of it just
allows this corruption to continue in case you don't know it mr vieira this individual had separation of employment from long branch because of mammoth county prosecutor's office nice to see bad old long branch corruption continues your incompetence continued at the last
council meeting after the public portion you added several resolutions that were never added onto the agenda online or on the board outside and then you went and voted on them denying the public to speak on them you're incompetent mhm yeah i'm glad you agree vera i'm glad
you agree on your incompetent taxes taxes taxes i and others have stood before this council for years discussing the burdensome and extortionist taxes of the palone government the city saw 1 billion worth of redevelopment
since 2005 mostly enabled by tax abatement a redevelopment that was to eliminate a $23 million city debt in 2005 but instead the city's debt has worsened over the past 20 years
by quadrupling what's worse is that these tax abatements by getting out of the board of education contribution put an extra burden on the rest of the city tax taxpayers to support the board of ed and let's make it very clear the board of ed was never going to act to control
these tax abatements because by doing so the full tax revenue from the city's redevelopment would have forfeited the state funding to the board of ed the city taxpayers got burned both by the board of ed and the city of long branch even to this day the board of ed is
losing 1,300,000 per year in revenue due to kushner's pier village 3 and other developer tax abatements tim palone considers it a privilege for long branch homeowners to exist in their homes with everinccreasing price tags and taxes
this so the paloma pay-to-play gravy train can stuff their slush funds with the taxpayers's hard-earned money and the continued displacement of generational residents as well as low and middle inome residents long branch residents have literally been sucker
punched by the palone team in this city's continued redevelopment the county tax assessor's office is part of the problem as well allowing brutal under assessments particularly at pier village 3 it has come to the point now where long branch homeowners are
actually paying rent to the municipal government via extortionist taxes to live on their property tonight i'm urging long branch residents to rise up against the palone team's extortion racket and follow the lead of florida's
governor ronda santis and other representatives from pennsylvania idaho michigan and elsewhere throughout the country to abolish property taxes as they are known in new jersey governor desantis said it best quote "if you have
to pay annual taxes to keep your home then you don't really own it." end quote just like the 1776 tax revolt let next year 2020 notification let next year
2026 250th anniversary of this country's founding be the year of america's second tax revolt moving forward with the patriot spirit and purpose of abolishing property taxes particularly in new
jersey now is the time to act it can be done thank you governor dannis and others for your pioneering leadership in coming up with solutions in abolishing property taxes and moving this country
forward again again thank you governor desantis for ending junk government as it's known in new jersey and long branch junk government thank you good evening council members mayor
palone my name is brian thompson i am not a resident of mammoth excuse me of long branch i am next door in mammoth beach however i feel like this is my second home both my stepsons were uh bar
mitzvah at the the pier house restaurant i walk in your beautiful jackson woods and i congratulate you all on the support you gave to excuse me your green team members and others who made that jackson woods just
a gem of a park it is fantastic my dog loves it too uh and i pick up after my dog as well i might add so please uh but uh in my previous life uh many of you know may know me as a reporter for nbc new york and i covered
much here in long branch as much as i possibly could and sell it to my bosses in new york as usually usually a shining example on the jersey shore your redevelopment for example your school
system for example uh there are many things that i've done here i remember doing a a story or two on your dpw and their snow removal efforts for a snowstorm that we probably didn't get but that's a whole another story all i
can say is go green wave go that's how i feel about long branch um in my first home mammoth beach right next door uh in past years we have been and i'm proud to say this on the cutting edge of
environmental action to protect ourselves especially against toxic plastic pollution which unfortunately now is everywhere we have passed a skip the stuff ordinance i think that's a prime example of what we've done where
for example if you're not familiar with skip the stuff all you have to do as a customer is ask for it a business a restaurant uh where you go to get your takeout food would be prohibited from automatically putting it in but they
could have a sign saying "just ask for it ask for your plastic utensils." that's all they have to do it's a very simple ordinance and clean water action which is a major backer of this effort did a survey in redbank where they passed it about a year ago the survey is
just came out in the past couple of weeks that showed restaurants there have reduced their handing out of plastic utensils by 94% which makes sense in other words only about 6% of their customers
actually asked for it they're not finding a revolt from customers who say "where are my plastic spoons?" by the way if anybody wants a plastic spoon i have an extra one here um many of you probably have many extra
ones in your kitchen drawer just ask your spouses if uh they can find them and i'm sure they'll they'll do that for you so this is something that saves businesses money and i'm sure you feel the heat from time to time from some of
your businesses about taxes or something else and you can go out to them with an ordinance like this and say "we're going to save you money." red bank they save 94% of their plastic utensil purchases
it may be only a few thousand but for a restaurant a few thousand is a lot of money always has been are you aware that we already have that ordinance you do have skipped the stuff sure it's uh section uh 111-6
i was not aware and i congratulate you that's right you could only provide a single-use plastic straw one expressly requested by a customer and it applies to utensils too excellent then i applaud you for that and i apologize for my ignorance on that we'll take a look at it and see if we can we can make it
better thank you ours also includes condiments for example oh that's interesting ketchup packets soy sauce packets and by the way i frequent a lot of the restaurants for takeout here as well i i have to say i think mingying
uh yeah mingying is uh one of the if not the best chinese restaurant at least the best chinese restaurant that i've encountered on the jersey shore um speaking of plastic spoons you know that the equivalent of a
plastic spoon is in your brain that's the latest research now just like that it's inside me uh so this is something else we've done that i would encourage you to look at and matter of fact i'm going to meet with a couple of people here in long branch uh later this week
to talk about it and that is a construction containment dust ordinance when you table saw pvc piping 5 minutes or five minutes yeah five minutes that is it i would encourage you to look at that and one
other thing i would also say is look at supporting epr or packaging reduction ordinances you will save money with that from tipping fees and the the uh packaging industry having to send money
to you to haul away your trash so i would encourage you on all that thank you thank you mr thompson okay good evening council members uh my name is nick ziggler i'm a sports writer for sports illustrated covering mlb a full-time resident here in long branch
um live on 52 cu avenue east of uh ocean boulevard a section of the road that dead that dead that dead ends on the beach where seven president's park and long branch beach meet uh here to raise a concern it's been growing amongst our neighbors in a section of long branch um while we understand that the uh parking permit regulations that were introduced
a couple years ago um do not guarantee any party a parking spot the limited parking availability on our block has become a concern um currently there are 14 parking spots for 15 houses with two houses currently being in development um as you can expect um these are large
family homes four or five bedrooms each a lot of people share um and most people have you know two to four vehicles with that amount of people there um the ratio of spots to vehicles is creating a daily struggle in the months um where the parking permit regulations are in effect uh which is currently from may to
september 30th um however the issue kind of goes beyond the shortage of parking that we have um many non-residents particularly those visiting the beach frequently park illegally in these spots further making uh the problem exacerbated um uh unfortunately many uh of these
nonpart uh non-permit holding vehicles are uh not ticketed due to consistent police patrolling which is understandable um considering other priorities that we have in long branch here um for those drivers that do receive tickets um seem to just shrug it off and just keep their vehicle parked there for the rest of the day um
furthermore um you know when we're hanging out on the deck we see people rip up the tickets and just throw them on the ground uh you so uh you know this disregard for the rules not only frustrates us homeowners but also contributes to the already strained parking situation our street has increasingly become a place where people
park without consequence making it difficult for residents to find parking at any time of the day um at the time of the purchase of our home uh these parking restrictions were not in place um the regulations have really negatively impacted both me and our immediate neighbor to our left at 54 c view um we are in the unique
circumstance we share a driveway um we don't have a you know a private driveway or garage for either one of our houses um furthermore you know with the taxes being at about $25,000 a year having to pay for a parking permit is kind of a little bit of an insult i think um i
urge the board to consider some solutions that would address this issue um came up with a few here uh increased penalties for non-permit parking uh towing vehicles that don't have a permit um exploring some options for permit holders to access the other side of the road which
is currently metered parking um i think that would be really the the best solution for us to kind of you know free up more spots there's more spots on metered parking than there is on resident parking for our side of the road um we just want to ensure that our you know taxpaying residents have a fair fair access to parking spots they need
currently renters on the block are also allowed to have permits which really doesn't seem fair to full-time residents um with households being limited to two permits per household currently um also just from a safety perspective that we've noticed uh especially last year um it's been a lot more speeding and reckless driving on our block um it kind
of dead ends right at the the end with a roundabout um you know ton of people walk there bicycle riders families kids dogs um you know kids whipping their cars around isn't uh necessarily the safest thing i think everybody would welcome some sort of you know speed bumps to kind of adhere to that um i
really appreciate the time thank you for uh letting me speak and address the matter thanks thank you thanks thanks good evening mayor council members and members of the public uh my name is susan mckitus and i live in atlantic highlands but i'm here representing food
and water watch on behalf of food and water watch i'm here to ask for your support food and water watch has brought together thousands of volunteers and more than two million supporters to fight the sustainable food clean water
and a livable climate for all of us the new jersey legislature will be considering the super fund act s3545 and a4696 a bill that would force polluters to pay for the damage they caused for
our environment the bill has already been passed by the new jersey state senate environment committee and the new jersey assembly environment committee it is similar to bills that have already been passed by the states of new york and
vermont as a coastal community you know better than most that long branch is vulnerable to the effects of climate change if the super fund act is passed any municipality in need of climate change adaptation and resilience
projects would be able to apply for the funds raised by the act this is a great opportunity for long branch to support a bill that could provide funding at no cost to taxpayers will you please support this
bill by resolution at your next council meeting i have provided a summary document and a sample resolution it's either in your packet or amanda has it one or the other they have it uh many thanks in advance for your anticipated
support and i'm available to answer any questions now or at a later time thank you very much we'll definitely look into it and thank you uh by the way for sending that in advance because even just what you're saying helps us uh understand it by having by having this
so thank you terrific thank you very much for your time thank you last but not least good evening mayor council and additional members my name is nick deagle yelmo 580 patton avenue long
branch i'm here with two concerns two issues the first one is the unrelenting and i'll never give up on it and it's been voiced by a couple of uh people tonight regarding the the ongoing issue
with taxes and if this poor man is paying $25,000 a year in taxes god help him um the thing that irritates me is that i i don't see any initiative i don't see any plans anything to come forward to
show what impact what kind of what kind of provisions we might be making to try and look into reducing taxes i know everything's going up you've got to pay more for the police you've got to pay
more for education i realize that and we're waiting for the budget which hopefully will be done in the next month or two but then when that comes out it's going to be after the fact and then well we've got to pay for this we've got to
pay for 17% more electricity well can't we still make some kind of provision some kind of thought what can we wind up doing in my household we've got a budget and we know exactly what we can spend we
don't wait till april 30th to say "hey we've got that much money so we'll have to increase the payer taxes." it doesn't work so please all of you you're brand new on the council the rest of you have been around what kind of initiatives are
being taken to try and help to lower taxes and then if that's the case well then perhaps you know there may be the need for budgetary cuts bad word bad word but it's got to be done the second issue is something
that's of greatest concern it's sad that long branch has made the headlines it the thing that we're all clamoring for as we pay such high taxes are for safe streets this
month has been horrendous in this town everything from the murders to the stabbings i would like to know what is the council doing to address this let's have some some transparency i'd love to see what we can
do to make our streets safe because they're not safe and if you're going to get all these out oftowners coming to these multi-million dollar places they're not going to venture into broadway they're not going to go into the businesses and for for the the group
of you that are up on the panel that do not live in long branch i'd love to see you guys walk on broadway because with the exception of mr vieiraa none of you have the audacity or the courage to walk there so it's of great concern great
great great concern you know we put out the welcome mat to people from out of state from people from all over out of town and what do they do they buy these houses the section 8 housing and they
don't even do a criminal background in putting them up into different places i beg of all of you please address this because what's making the headlines is not attractive for long branch it's not
going to help us and it doesn't do anything to to improve the safety and as we're looking for prosperity that's not prosperity that's fear if people are living in fear mr ryan that's no way to
live you don't live in long branch sir do you excuse me you don't live in long branch do you no sir i don't i live in middletown yes i would love to have you walk with me on broadway late at night you won't do it you're afraid
i'm actually not but that's okay i beg to differ sir thank you thank you i'm not afraid either neither am i what's that i'm not i'm not afraid to walk but i i have you're an exception sir i i'm
not an exception i i grew up here how many murders were there this month two i know there were two and there were stabbings and there were other other related events that we don't have to go through the whole thing no it's just
true we don't but you and i are are are are not in the in the general in the general realm five minutes thanks nick it's frightening thank you thank you hi council um council members uh mayor
public uh i'm bangu i live in long branch on lipenot avenue uh i'm here to um uh express my support for uh food and water watches uh proposal uh of passing
a resolution about uh um the super fund bill this will really help uh new jersey to address uh the um problems that we'll be facing um with respect to the climate crisis i'm sure if even if you're paying
a fleeting attention to the news you have heard you have seen the news that 14,000 houses just burned in uh california um asheville in north carolina was just trashed totally by a
hurricane which you know one would think it's a safe place because it's inland and then after that there were all these tornadoes that killed i don't know 14 people or 27 people i'm i'm losing count of all these uh climate disasters we
really need to address this and and the the uh entities that cause these are these um fossil fuel companies like exxon shell bp um so we need to to uh get this money from them so that we can
mitigate the risks of uh this climate crisis and protect uh our town so i i would urge you to to take this uh seriously into consideration for doing this thank you thank you thank you thank you and no one else i need a motion to close
the public participation portion of this meeting so move second all in favor i oppose i will ask madame clerk if there's any changes to the list of resolutions no changes have been made thank you we can take the list of
resolutions a consent agenda need a motion so moved second roll call mr dangler yes mr rases yes mrs vod is absent i
mean mrs whittis is absent mr vieira yes motion passed thank you i need a motion to approve the list of applications approval of a transfer of taxi medallion number 27 from muhammad khan to muhammad
ashalua need a move so moved second roll call mr dangler yes mr ras yes mrs whittis is absent dr vote is absent mr vieiraa yes motion passed mr les good
to councilman dangler i just want to thank everyone for uh coming out um this evening and um please get home safely god bless you thank you councilman rases thank you president vieira i'd like to thank
everyone for coming out this evening it's always nice to hear everyone's concerns uh please stay safe and have a nice evening thank you thank you councilman rases mayor palone thank you council president i'd like to thank everybody for being here this evening thank you for your comments there's
three upcoming events i just want to mention we have um the burlap project is our next exhibit at the long branch arts and cultural center uh it's uh the exhibit takes burlap pa bags which are being donated by rook coffee uh and then they're transformed into art by many of
our local artists in the community so the reception night is uh april 8th uh please go on to our website to find out more information about that i also want to mention at their senior center a classical evening of opera songs and piano will be happening at the center on
april 22nd that's at 6 pm this is a free event and all are welcome to attend and finally please save the date the disability our third annual disability resource fair is set for may 3rd from 12 to 2 p.m also at the new senior center
uh join us for um resources music games and more thank you and have a great week thank you mayor palum also i want to say good evening and um thank you for showing up thank you for coming tonight and uh nick going back to the safety we take safety take safety seriously in
long branch we have our public safety director here uh mr brown and you can talk to him after the meeting you're welcome to talk to him safety is a big thing here and we know things happen you know a lot of times you don't have control we have plenty of
police officers out there you know you know i walk the streets a lot and you know yeah i know i know so you know so we do we do take safety seriously here and uh and mr brown can tell you that and um thanks for coming down and
supporting supporting us and we'll take a look at that and uh look into it with that i want to say good night thank you i need a motion to close second all in favor opposed
thank you we can promise