good evening the February 26 2025 council meeting of the Long Branch city council we'll now come to order roll call Mr dangler here Mr rasses here Mrs wht's absent Dr vote here Mr Vieira here please stand for the
pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all I will now read the mission
statement of the city council The Long Branch mayor and the city council and administration are committed to cultivating an environment of mutual trust and respect that values the diversity of our community we will
strive to enhance the quality of our our life for who live here by making Long Branch a desire desirable place in which to live and prosper we will treat all members of the public with respect and
and expect the same in return clerk 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 presentations we're going to have a 2024 holiday home
decor contest thanks everyone for the participation in the 2024 City Long Branch holiday decorating contest we have chosen three winners and would like to present them with their 150 Ace Hardway gift cards
thanks for displaying your holiday spirit in Long Branch and congratulations and I'm going to call up this very long nii Mei Jr oh no it's good congratulations Nicole thank you
for doing this and here's your gift card enjoy it appreciate it call out Melissa and James Johnson thanks M been Mak Long Branch beautiful thank here's your gift thank you thank you thank you very much thank
you congratul m Call F Vasquez I gu she's not here we'll send it out to her are you f [Music] a come on
up sorry I'm late it's okay you're good I got something from the city and the gift C and thanks for making beautiful thank you thank you keep thank you I need a motion to approve the minutes of the February 12 2025 so move second
roll call Mr dangler yes Mr rasses yes Mrs wits is absent Dr vote Yes Mr Vieira yes motion passed consideration of ordinance public hearing and final consideration there's
none ordinance for introduction ordinance 0325 this is the first reading of ordinance 0325 entitled amendment to city ordinance designating parking prohibited at all times west side of
Third Avenue summary this ordinance was prohibit parking at all times on the west side of Third Avenue I need a motion to introduce on the first reading advertis and post according to law and set the public hearing for March 12th
2025 so move second protocol Mr dangler yes Mr rasses yes Mrs whtas is absent Dr vote Yes Mr Vieira yes motion passed thank you this is the first reading of
ordinance 04-26-18 beath houses and Cabanas of the code of the city of Long Branch summary this ordinance amends chapter 116 beaches subsection 116-118 regarding storage lockers bath
houses and Cabanas by requiring seasonal rentals of storage lockers bath houses or Cabanas to immediate IMM medify and hold the city harmless for against any claims in connection with
the personal injuries loss of life damage of property arising from their use and occupany of the storage locker bath house or Cabana the ordinance is further Amendment prohibit the sub
leasing of the Cabanas I need a motion to introduce on the first reading advertise and post accordingly to the law and set the public public hearing for March 12th 2025 motion second roll call Mr dangler yes
Mr rassis yes Mrs witus is absent Dr vote Yes Mr Vieira yes motion passed public participation for Resolutions and general comments I need a motion to open the public portion of the meeting for
all comments so moved second all in favor I oppose I if there's anyone in the audience that has a comment to make please stay to the podium and stay your name and address clearly for the record you'll have five
minutes and may only speak once vincon laor 33 Ocean turist Long Branch requesting 1 minute notification Mr Martin resolution 31 we have prepa for jcpnl of 39751 02 and 3
74259 the State Board Public Utilities announced last week that electric rates by jcpnl will increase by 177% Mr Martin how is the city going to cover the cost of this 177% increase more than likely we're going
have to increase our budget increase the budget and does that mean increasing taxes it could lead to that yes council president Vier the deadline for contesting affordable housing dispute
resolution program numbers is this Friday February 28th the state has required 317 affordable housing units for Long Branch that's required by the
Department of Community Affairs Mr Vieira will the city have a deadline of February 28th to comply or will they be adopting a plan by June 30th good evening Mr leaport we have um Council
are you going to answer the question yes or no you know my answer you have no cognitive ability Mr Martin can you answer that question repeat the question affordable housing 3177 units is the city meeting
the deadline Friday to contest it or will they they adopt the plan by June 30th I'm not aware this is a very important issue for the city because the city council and mayor completely failed on taxes and rents council president
Viera what position has Council taken on NJ D's proposed resilient environmental and Landscape rules concerning Long Branch as far as adjusting Coastal flood Hazard areas and implementing ation risk
zones Mr Vieira you want me to give you the same answer I gave you the last time or do you want me to repeat it you're apparently not capable of any cognitive abilities whatsoever anymore Mr Martin concerning the library reopening the city main library reopened
on a $6.2 million matching Grant from the New Jersey construction Bond act in the city of Long Branch Mr Martin the matching taxpayer contribution require ired in this grant by the taxpayers has that been paid in full for the
library paid in full like to the contractor or the three and a half mil from the taxpayers in the matching Grant approximately what do you mean by paid in full there was a matching Grant on the construction Bond act
5050 is has the taxpayers 50% been paid for yeah in the library it has been so much for sell a brick program I used to go to the Long Branch board director's meetings it was a damn shame we couldn't sell a brick we couldn't raise the money anyway it's just too damn easy in this
city to hit the taxpayers Mr Martin at the last council meeting you stated the total cost of the health and Technology Center would be approximately 15 mil apparently the city gets donated a building and instead of putting the
building on the tax rolls which I stated back at the time when the city was getting it donated to bring in Revenue to the city this free building given by the hospital the taxpayers are now getting Juiced for 15
million the health of the health and Technology could have been handled easily by the hospital with their programs many of them free the technology of the health and Technology one minute notification could have easily been handled by the main library
they have huddle rooms there's enough space there to do it it's just a continuation of decentralized services in the city when other municipalities are streamlining and centralizing services in one location this also
applies to the Santander building the bottom line is this is wasteful and unnecessary spending what's going on with that health and Technology Center we get donated a building from the hospital we get donated Santander Bank building and the pal pay to Plate gravy
train Ju usces the building for their professionals Architects engineers and everything which in turn go ahead and make contributions to the palone campaigns and who suffers the taxpayers whether on the local state or federal
level palone I hope Elon must get you the end of junk government is near in Long Branch five minutes thank you anyone else yes good evening Council I'm Nick deagle
yelmo 580 Patton Avenue Long Branch I'm uh on onquest to continue to reach out to all of you our elected officials it's a known fact Long Branch is a very expensive municipality to live
in as our elected representatives all of you up there you have the power to be able to do something about it by that lowering taxes it sounds like
there's expenditures that are above in Beyond uh you can only wind up spending so much as our elected representatives I urge all of you to dig deep come up with
some innovative ideas is rather than alls I'm seeing of the past several meetings I've gotten to is just rubber stamping and moving along I'd love to see some Innovative moves I've offered
to uh mayor palone I will donate my services to be able to serve to find ways that we can attempt to lower taxes I realize everyone has an issue isue everyone has a pet peeve in terms of
what can be done it's either you cut taxes and as was mentioned if there's going to be a 177% increase from jcpnl where the hell is that money going to come from it's going to come from the taxpayers so that's one way and then
budgetary Cuts as the CFO you you got to handle on those things I know we don't have a budget yet the the the attorney at the last meeting re me out for not having my facts I I I I
remain uh non-judgmental but the question is this what can all of you do come forward come forward with some ideas I would love to see that what can you wind up doing for sure there are
issues that can be addressed and you can wind up doing that this town used to be affordable it no longer is it's made affordable to the New Yorkers the New Yorkers that in their quest to
leave come to New Jersey to Long Branch because their taxes are lower but not for the mainstream people that have lived here all their lives there is a flight for all of us to go where the heck are we going to wind up going either out of state or down to
Bayville down in Ocean County all of you know it I urge all of you as our elected officials show me what measures can be implemented to lower the taxes and with
all due respect I don't want to wind up hearing that the police department wants increases the fire department wants increases we're all in this together let's do something about it I urge some
some kind of an implementation be rendered let's see those ideas starting from the CFO all of you do you or do you not have the power to do something about it that is my question do it I don't see
it and it burns me up I'm retired I was successful I had multiple offices in Mammoth and ocean counties when we were confronted with a budgetary situation we sat down
and said something's got to go and we did it I'm not suggesting what to do there are ways of of of doing this but for the love of God come up with some ideas show
me those ideas all of you are representing us we voted for you show us that that's the decency that's all we need to see I thank you and I the response thank
you see this see there's no one else I need a motion to close the public participation portion of this meeting so move second all in favor I I I want to ask Madame clerk if there's any changes to the
resolutions no changes have been made thank you we can take a list of consent the resolutions and as a consent agenda roll call I'm sorry so moved second Road call Mr dangler yes Mr
rasses yes Mrs wit is absent Dr vote Yes Mr Vieira yes motion passed Mr elanus for good of the order Council Mangler uh yes I have uh no comments just like to thank everyone for uh
coming out this evening and uh please get home safe and hopefully we'll see you in two weeks thank you councilwoman Bo thank you council president thank you everyone for coming tonight um just one comment
make sure you get to our newly renovated Library as soon as you can it's absolutely spectacular enjoy it um and we hope to see you in two weeks thank you thank you mayor palone thank you
council president there's a couple uh items I wanted events that are coming up our Hometown Heroes Banner program is up and running banners honor US military veterans we that pres uh reside in the city or formerly lived here displaying their
picture name military branch the dates of service uh please contact the mayor's office for more information next month's Art Exhibit is in honor of women's History Month at the Arts and Cultural Center we have many events and new programming planned for
this month Mon and the third annual Long Branch disability resource fair is May 3rd from 12: to 2 at the Long Branch Senior Center please join us for games resources arts and crafts music and more I want to congratulate the uh winners
this evening it really adds a nice holiday touch to the city and thank you all for coming out this evening thank you mayor palone I'm sorry M councilman rasis forgot about you I'm still here thank you thank you council president viea um I'd also like
to congratulate congratulate the winners of the holiday home decorating contest and also thank all those who participated in it uh also want to thank everyone for coming out this evening and stay safe and look forward to seeing everyone in two weeks thank you
councilman rases I also want to thank everybody for coming out this evening and uh Echo with the councilman Council woman V said about our library a beautiful took a lot of work and T's doing a beautiful job over there go visit her it's the the employees over
there are wonderful they take they take good care of you and you got a lot of new stuff going on there and I also want to congratulate the winners of the making our city beautiful for the holidays and that's about it and I want to wish everyone good night and good
evening I need a motion to adjourn move second all in favor hi hi thank you first