##VIDEO ID:qbgZ-HOQk4M## like tonight yeah cold out 31 7:31 so good evening good evening um the January 22nd 2025 council meeting of the Long Branch city council will now come to order roll call please Mr dangler is absent Mr rasses here Mrs whis here Dr vote here Mr V is absent uh please all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all I will now read the mission statement for the city council The Long Branch mayor city council and administration are committed to cultivating an environment of M Mutual trust and respect that Val the diversity of our community we will strive to enhance the quality of 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 I now uh need a motion to approve the minutes of the the January 8th 2025 meeting so moov second roll call Mr dangler is absent Mr rasses here Mrs witus abstain Dr vote here Mr ve is absent yeah um consideration of ordinances public hearing and final consideration um 0- 0125 is an ordinance authorized ing the purchase of 209 Westwood Avenue block 198 lot one and 228 moris Avenue block 203 Lot 1 and once the city of Long Branch has obtained title to the two properties authorizing the conveyance of 209 Westward Avenue block 198 lot one and 228 moris Avenue block 203 Lot 1 to the new Jersey Transit Corporation in order to improve the Long Branch Train Station pursuant to the city of Long Branch's memor of understanding with New Jersey Transit Corporation this ordinance was introduced on January 8th 2025 and allows the city to purchase two properties near the Long Branch Train Station and once the title is obtained by the city the city shall convey the two properties to the New Jersey Transit Corporation operation as stated in r- 245 d24 anou between the city of Long Branch and New Jersey trans transit to facilitate the construction of the Long Branch station pedestrian tunnel which has been awarded a total of $21.1 million in federal and state federal uh grant funding I need a motion to uh open the public hearing on this ordinance only I move second all in favor I I I if any member of the public has comments to make on this ordinance only please come to the podium state your name and address clearly for the record you'll have 5 minutes and may only speak once on ordinance 0-1-2 and seeing none coming forward I need a motion to close so moved uh all in favor I I I this is the second reading of ordinance 0-25 I need a motion to adopt on second and final reading and advertise according to law so moved second second uh roll call Mr dangler is absent Mr Rus yes Mrs whts yes Dr vote Yes Mr is absent motion passed thank you ordinances ordinances for introduction 0- 02-2 this is the first reading of ordinance 02-2 entitled a bond ordinance providing for various uh 2025 Capital Acquisitions and improvements to the city of Long Ranch in the county of Mammoth state of New Jersey appropriating 11,421 , 68 thereof and authorizing uh the issuance of 9,821 68 uh dollar U um bonds or notes to the city to finance part of the cost thereof the summary of this ordinance is as follows this Bond ordinance provides for various Capital Acquisitions and improvements consisting of first the renovation and con construction of the health and Technology Center second the renovation and construction of the city C Center Park third the acquisition of real property located at 228 moris Avenue and fourth the acquisition of real property located at 209 Westwood Avenue this ordinance will authorize the city to borrow a maximum of 9,821 68 to build a new health and Technology facility at Center City Park I need a motion to introduce on first reading advertise and post according to law and set the public hearing for February 12th 2025 so moved second roll call Mr dangler is absent Mr rasses yes Mrs whtas yes Dr vote Yes Mr ver is absent motion passed thank you public participation for resolutions and all General comments I need a motion to open the public portion of the meeting for all comments some moved second all in favor I oppos if there's anyone in the audience that has a comment to make please step to the podium and state your name and address clearly for the record you'll have five minutes and may only speak once Vincent leapor 33 Ocean Terrace Long Branch questing one minute notification tonight we give tremendous gratitude and respect the Long Branch based clean ocean action clean ocean actions executive director Cindy zip and her staff became one of the foremost leaders in this state along with protect our Coast NJ and other groups and individuals including long branches Su ring and opposing the industrialization of our Coastal Waters with offshore wind farms Long Branch has the distinction of being noted as the epicenter of the launch of one of the most effective counter resistant protest rally against offshore wind farms on January 10th June 10th excuse me 2023 on the Great Lawn with the loudest booze and expl of delives aimed at Congressman poon's representative Congressman palone being a supporter of offshore wind many groups and citizens as well as I proudly stood up to the ever so tainted political powers that very day that protest was the turning point for our fight we cannot be ignored or silenced any attempts to do so would result in stronger protests we were told we didn't have a chance but we continued onward a Press Conference was held by Clean ocean action in Long Branch on October 18th 2023 against offshore wind farms and subsequently clean ocean action along with protect our Coast NJ and others filed lawsuits as our fight continued it became apparent that offshore Wind Farm companies were losing money and could not continue without huge government subsidies also known as taxpayer bailouts in the face of all this two New Jersey congressmen came to the fight to assist clean ocean action and others to environmentally protect the coastal Waters and marine life off Long Branch in New Jersey those two congressmen being Congressman Jeff Van Drew and Congressman Christopher Smith both foot valiantly Congressman Smith appearing with the County Commissioners in Long Branch at seven president Park announcing further steps he would be taking that he was pursuing in the fight with the government accountability office as the fight continued something significant happened along the way a determined presidential candidate joined the fight and banning offshore wind farms that presidential candidate campaigned very hard on this issue giving many in Long Branch and the rest of New Jersey the support they needed on November 5th that presidential candidate was elected president still maintaining his position this past Monday January 20th Inauguration Day president Trump signed an executive order putting a moratorium on offshore wind farm development and preventing future offshore wind farms president Trump delivered on his position to environmentally protect the Long Branch coast and marine life along with the rest of New Jersey Coastal Waters one minute notification from the offshore wind development the Fight Continues but credit is due where credit is deserved want to thank Congressman Christopher Smith thank you Congressman Jeff Van Drew thank you and as I said and I'm going to say it again giving credit where credit is due thank you president Trump thank you Mr leor anyone else is open yeah public comment okay you guys sorry I met someone in the parking lot just my name's rice hi everyone happy New Year happy new year new um hello to everyone except Charlie um I do want to come here tonight with a sense of urgency about um some of the new immigration policies that we see coming in rice can you lower the mic sure thank you I've spoken about this before um I can't find my phone right now so I don't have the actual document but in 2017 Charlie completed a document on behalf of the Long Branch Police Department under Jason robach and uh Hayes who is the acting business direct uh business administrator then and it was a under the community community policing um Department under the Department of Justice and part of that funding for 5 years required us to sign an agreement to cooperate with DHS on holding people for immigration um it was 5 years worth of funding it was a cops program under Jeff sessions uh that application was submitted to the Department of Justice completed by Charles uh signed off by acting chief of police Jason acting business administrator hay um at the time uh John you know John was on the city council at that time when I had found out about this I downloaded the completed application from the Department of Justice and presented it to everybody on the city council this is under our former mayor um no one on Council uh knew that we had completed this application that we were getting funding and that we were agreeing to cooperate with DHS on immigration including detaining people and turning over data uh the application stated youth violence as the need for this community oriented policing funding that we were in partnership with um uh Youth Services in the high school what is it called um I forget what it's called Uh the department in the High School uh uh for youth services and that we were cooperating with the Board of Education I brought applications copies of the application to every member of the Boe at that time they had no idea that this was going through that they were named Partners um in this community uh policing application and that it was promising to cooperate with DHS I'm here to ask for a promise from the city that we will not cooperate um that we will have a commitment to figuring out um what these new policies will mean for our town um we have a beautiful city full of so many different kinds of people um hardworking families the idea that departments can enter schools houses of worship libraries public spaces third places places that are supposed to be sanctuaries really disturbing um so I feel that this is very urgent and I would like an absolute commitment that under this new Department of Justice that we get whatever police funding programs are out there for Community oriented policing that we are not promising to um cooperate I want the children in our community to go to school and feel safe I want to see people continue building their families in Long Branch and feel safe people should not feel sa unsafe going to church going to school going to the hospital to get vaccinations to get care that they need they should not fear calling the police if they're the victim of domestic violence and it affect our whole community and you know I know sometimes you know I'm seeing you know I care about a lot of things um but this is something John knows the day I found out about this application I called him it was like 8:00 at night and it was very disturbing um that no one in town knew about this I want to make sure that things like this aren't done again without anyone knowing about it you know we can't hold Hayes accountable this is why I cannot take our current business administrator seriously but I thank you and I would really appreciate um some followup I do see this as something very urgent thank you Happy New Year thank you anyone else no is there anybody else who'd like to speak this evening I think that everybody should do the step now do you want to come up to the podium yeah where's the podium right over here right over here please and please state your name and address no right don't right over there standing over there so not right here right over there everybody should do the step nine everybody should do the amends everybody should do the step nine if you don't make the amends to find out what people should make you what you are you don't know what you is if anybody doesn't make you what you what you is then you don't know what you are could I ask if you could please give us your name and address my name is Shadow I'm from from 87 cyber Street Drive you know and if you don't know who you are that you don't know who you is it's straight like that you know what I'm saying I've I've been in a place where I didn't know where I was where I was straight like that and it's just genuine this is genuine like that you know and I'm grateful to be a part of a place that's where is was where is is cuz I it's been a while since I had like you know go from here look at the places come down [Music] here like okay I can say that this is where no you need to know where you are where you're going cuz that was my you know what I'm saying you know you need to know what you're doing you just need to know what you're doing you need to know where you're doing where you're going where you are to make yourself recognize and I look good my bad that was kind of like a personal thing that was kind of like a personal thing I look good I look good you know it's good to know where you are and know where you're coming from you don't got to be where you're going where you walk are you just need to know where you're coming from Max that all the way out Max it out be run towards peace and pleasure where you're going towards pain and distress if you running towards pain and distress then you wrong cuz I won that let's see how many people flin and see how many people FX I want that if you wear where you're are comfortable at I won that and then everybody else I don't know I don't know everybody else under me is just going to laugh at you and just going to be like oh okay you not where he at you know I did this by the book you know you know everywhere that's right here I still got time what hell I still got time so this is just something that I'm doing because somebody told me oh you got this turn you got to be ready for this I'm like okay okay 5 minutes five minutes that's a long time thank you thank you for saying it thank you that 5 minutes was a long time oh my God okay thank you you got to make sure okay you be y you excuse me please please take your seat now your 5 minutes are up oh my 5 minutes are up right oh okay thank you and is there anyone else who would like to speak tonight okay seeing none I need a motion to close the public uh participation portion of the meeting so moved second all in favor I by by uh I need uh I will now ask Madame clerk if there were any changes to the list of resolutions no changes have been made okay thank you we can take the the listed resolutions as a consent agenda I need a motion so moved second roll call please Mr dangler is absent Mr rasses yes Mrs whts yes Dr vot yes Mr ver is absent motion passed okay thank you applications I need a motion to approve the listed applications some of it is the renewal of oh sorry the renewal of various taxi cab owner uh licenses for the year 2025 and I think we already have a motion and uh I think we already have a second so roll call please Mr dangler is absent Mr rasses yes Mrs whtas yes vote Yes Mr R is absent motion passed okay thank you miscellaneous business for the good of the order councilman dangler is not here tonight councilman rases thank you yes I'd like to thank the Long Branch um Department of Public Works for an outstanding job making our road safe during the recent snowstorm like to thank everyone for coming out this evening please stay warm and safe thank you thank you and councilwoman Wht us I too would like to thank public works for all their hard work and um thank you for everyone for coming this evening and be safe thank you and mayor palone thank you council president thank you all for being here this evening stay safe and warm have a great week good thank you um I don't I don't think any of us could be more sincere in saying to you thank you for coming out tonight and braving the weather and joining us this evening we truly appreciate it stay safe stay warm we're glad you found us hopefully we'll see you at our next council meeting and with that I need a motion to adjourn so moved second all in favor I I thank you and good [Applause] night don't speak